The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-06
WRITERS OF FICTION.
What the Great Leaders Are Doing During
the Hot Season.
[Special Correspondence.l


the Hot Season.
Especial Correspondence
New YORK, July 1.-The writers of f1c-
ton who are popular in thiAcountry and
in Europe are taking advantage of the
summer vacation TO revise some of their
old works and to touch up some new
stories which are to be issued in the fall.
1t is an interesting fact that some of the
best writers of fiction are of the opinion
that they work better in the summer than
they Go in the winter, provided they are
in quiet country places.
Mark Twain for years has done the
greater part of his original work in the hot
months It was his custom to go TO a
beautiful country place in western New
York state and there spend the summer in
working out his conceptions, the line of his
stories and the development of his charac-
tiers. AfterTard, when he returned TO his
delightful Tome in Hartford, he elaborated,
worked over, polished up and finished
what he had in the summer conceived.
No writer is more painstaking and none
sends forth 70 the world the fruit of so
great toll and patience as Mark Twain
does.
Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward finds
the hot weather conducive to literary COM
position, although ii is doubtful if she
could write if she We're penned up in the
city. She likes a room the windows of
which open upon the sea, and the breezes
from the ocean seem to furnish her inspi-
ration.
When Bret Harte was living in the
United States, he was accustomed TO spend
the summer months in some one of the
cool suburban resorts within easy access
of New York, and being thus favorably
situated he found that the summer sun
never caused him to become intellectually
weary. One of the most perfect pictures
ever painted by Bret Harte in its realism
and vivid suggestion of atmospheric con-
ditiOns was chapter in one of his stories
in which the hero suffers from the enervat-
ing heat of the city of Washington on "A
midsummer day, and Mr.. Harte, being
once asked how he got that perfect climatic
condition and atmospheric suggestion, said
that he looked forth from his window and
saw it as he wrote.
lola, in a beautiful country retreat some
miles from Paris, pursues his literary work
during the hot months without cessation,
and De Blowitz, the famous Paris CORE
spondent of the London Times, has beau
tiful chateau upon the northern coast of
France connected by telegraph and tsle-
phone with his Paris office and his assist
ants and there writes the dispatches for
which all Europe waits the next morning.
Mr.. Crockett, that Scotchman who is
known as the favored scholar of Robert
Louis Stevenson, and who when past mid
die age wrote a novel, THE Raiders"
which gained popularity and is said to be
worthy of Stevenson himself, is preparing
a new novel, which will also be a tale of
adventure, which he calls The Lilac Sun
bonnet" Those who have recently been
in England and have been brought into
close touch with literary circles there say
that it is believed that Mr. Crockett will
pass Barrie in popularity, who seems to
have written himself out and perhaps to
have been sourcd somewhat by his sue
cesseS.
Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, who won
fame 20 years ago when least expecting it
by his My Summer In Garden" has
finished another novel To be called 1.-The
Golden House. - Mr. Warner began to
publish if not to write fiction when past
the age at which Thackeray is said 10 have
declared a man should cease TO write
stories. Yet Mr.. Warner, like the histo-
rlan FrOude, who wrote an Irish romance
of adventure when he was past 90 years of
age, seems TO have disproved the sound
ness of Thackeray' view
Robert Louis Stevenson continues. how
ever. 10 remain easily first in the list of
writers of romantic adventure. His "Ebb
Tide, for which he received So 600 for
the serial publication, is now ready in
book form, and his royalties from its sale
promise To be very large. While The
kbb Tide was running serially Steven
son IN farotf Samoa was busy with anoth-
or novel, the manuscript of which was
sent 20 his Scotch solicitor, who is his
agent for the negotiation OF all his works.
The negotiations for the sale of the serial
rights may be somewhat p-otracted, 50
that II Is qUite likely that if it Is publish
ed serially at all it may not appear for
some time The later novel, which Is to be
called st. Ives. Is n historical romance.
and Stevenson is already at work upon
another romance Of thrilling incidents in
Scotch history which will probably be fin
lShed in the winter. Reports from Mr..
Stevenson say that while he still remains
Of an invalid nevertheless he is
doing perhaps mOre work than he has ever
done Composition seems not % affect his
health at all L. J. EDWARDS.