St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-01-28
CHICAGO AUTHORS.

tendency or Its population is towards
the cultivation of literature and the lit
erarY arts and sciences. Men and wom-
ell of genius and cultivation flock to the
centerS OF commerce and finance, for
there they know they will find appre-
citation and the more substantial reward
of their industry and talent-money.
1t is but a few years since the people
of the literary world laughed at the idea
of Chicago ever becoming a center for
the world of letters. No such good
thing could come out of the Nazareth.
The people were too deeply engrossed
III the pursuit of money TO pay heed to
the struggling novelist, the ambitious
essayist, the impractical poet, or the
dreaming musician. The few advent
urouS spirits who first launched their
thought-freighted barks upon the sea of
humanity in the Western metropolis
were but ill-requited for their toll. But
they paved the way for the success of
those who should follow after them.
Franc Wilkie, Everett Chamberlain,
George P. Upton and few others were
among the pioneer authors of the vigor-
Gus young city. They met with but a
cool welcome, an Indifferent success,
although their productions possessed a
high order of merit.
Within the last ten years a coterie of
literary men and women residing in
Chicago have risen to a respectable
plane. If not to eminence, and are now
able to assert themselves and their
rights to recognition among the best
authors of the land. In the domain of
fiction Opie Reed has perhaps attained
the greatest reputation. He has pub
lished half a score of novels. mostly
treating OF some phases of Southern
life. His style is quaint without being
grotesque, humorous without being
Judicrous. graphic in the simplicity of
its descriptive pictuIesqueness. Prof.
Matthews is an essaylSt of acknowledged
superiority, well versed III both science
and literature, and his contributions in
the domain of the liberal arts have re-
ceived wide recognition. He has also
essayed the role of the novelist with
great literary, if not financial success.
LIE Roy Armstrong has published two
books of wide circulation-novels with
a moral-"An Indiana Mainland ''Wash-
ington Brown, Farmer" Both display
talent of high order, style somewhat
unconventional, yet attractive, the more
so as one becomes acquainted with it.
He does not moraliZe; he tells his story
i'll simple, homely phrase, but the truth
it teaches comes home to the reader
with force that is irresistible John
McGovern has achieved fame more by
the excellence of his standards chan by
his versatility; Mrs. M. E. Holden
Cranberry has become famous for her
merciless eXcoriation of all shams, as
well as for the purity of her ideals, and
touches chord of human sympathy in
her every sentence; Miss Lucy Monroe
has established an excellent reputation
as literary and musical critic; Miss
Harriet Monroe as the worlds fair ode
writer; Eugene Field. as a wit and poet;
Ernest McGaffy, as humorist and satir-
list; Sam L. Clover, as a dialect poet;
George Horton, as a sentimental versl-
fer, and score of others, excellent in
their respective fields, and all likely
under favoring conditions to attain
eminence.
There IS one commendable trait of the
Chicago literary coterie that we look for
IN vain in Eastern circles. There is an
entire lack of jealousy of each others
success. If Chicago writer makes a
palpable hit, those who are his COM
petitors are the first to congratulate
him, and are sincere in their expressions
of delight. There is community of
feeling between them that can be
likened only to the relations that exist
among members of human family.
There is also a local prIde-a belief that
whatever assists one to fame will assist
all the others in the same direction.
The prevailing sentiment was we'll ex-
pressed by one of the set recently, when
he said: I'VE may envy the gods. but
unless we help each other we can never
hope to attain to their felicity
The West feels deep interest in the
struggle of the Chicago literary colony
for proper recognition.