The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-01-20
IT WAS ALL IN A NAME
YET MARK TWAIN AND HARDY WRITE
STORIES THAT ARE DECLINED.

Names Arc Better When Attached to
Manuscripts Than Feminipc-Isut tho
Assumption Is Probably Erroneous.
Especial Corres2ondcnccl
NEW YORK, Jan. %.-Nfiss Mary Mather,
who has been spending some time in Eu-
rope with the artist Hennessy and his wife,
who is Miss Mather's sister, has had Il very
interesting experience recently, which goes
to disprove somewhat the recent comments
of some of those who have been associated
in the management of magazines that every
manuscript offered is Judged on it's merits
and the value of name is incidental rather
than of first Importance.
Miss Mather had, before she went to Eu-
rope, written more or less, her work being
highly esteemed by competent critics, but
not of the popular nature which appeals to
great reading public. During her sojourn
abroad Miss Mather wrote with great pains
the manuscript of longer work than any
she has hitherto composed, and it was of
Tered to numerous magazine editors and
publishers, her own name being attached to
the manuscript. 1t was as persistently and
regularly rejected as was the manuscript of
Charlotte Bronte's story, Jane Eyre"
rend the work in manuscript, a friend of
Miss Mather's, advised her to send it
again, this time with q nom de plume and
TO take Tor such nom de plume the name of
man. She did so. The manuscript was
instantly accepted, and the book is about
ready to leave the printers hands Miss
Mathcr's friends in this country do not
know whether this work is Il story Il ro-
nance or what, but the inference from her
n Inn. x-,.tf -
siderable length
Her sister, who is now II guest of Mary
Hallock Foote, whom many believe to be
the most brilliant of American women
who write fiction, and who is almost rs ar
tlstlc painter in oils and water colors as
she Is with the pen, has the literary in
stlnct, but has yet contributed nothing
which will suggest to the world that prom
Use which her friends believe that her abi-
ity really suggests.
1t was with n masculine nom de plume
that two of the greatest writers of fiction
the world has ever seen sent their works
forth to the public. George Sands identity
was known, and it was also known that
she had taken that nom de plume because
she had first worked in collaboration with
Jules Sandou. When George Eliot's earlier
and best stories were published, there was
great excitement in Great Britain over
them, the ablest men there with one ey-
ception, never doubling that the writer
was man. Charles Dickens, however, in
I. letter published in the biography of Dick
ems written by his friend Forster, declared
1T to be his opinion that the writer of ''Silas
Mariner and the clerical sketches was II
woman notwithstanding the nom dc plume.
Some Years aCothc editor of The Atlantic
| Monthly received some manuscripts from Il
| writer who signed Il very masculine name
| These were accepted, and when printed
proved that Mr.. Howells' Judgment was
accurate. For several years the magazine
| published stories by this writer, the checks
| In payment therefor being sent to the adj
| dress appended to the masculine name One
| day Mr.. Howells was asked if he would not
like to meet this author, and he went to The
house of n friend expecting to see u vigorous,
active young man. But, to his astonish-
ment, when he was presented to Charles
| Egbert Craddock he found himself in the
presence of slight, girish looking and
| delicate featured woman, and for some
time he could not be persuaded that an in
nocent jest was not concealed behind this
ceremony. 1t has always been Il question
| whether, had the manuscript been first sent
signed by Miss Murfree's own name, Mir.
| Howells would have doubted whether any
| woman could have written those stories
enough and without modification such IL,
| befcll another editor of that magazine some
| years before.
The question whether names carried
! weight with articles was raised at Il dinner
| i'll Boston attended by literary men, and !,
was decided to make a practical test. a
poem written by james Russell Lowell
was copied by person who had the hand.
writing of IL schooboy. That poem WAS
Loo, 1 IL
iantic and by him was rejected, and it was
| with something of modification that he
discovered that lie had been the victim OF
that experiment. 1t WAS ut IL time when =;
| poem of Russell I.owell's would have been
accepted with delight by any magazine ed
| tor in the United States
| 1t is said of Bret llarte that before he won
his great fang he had sent the manuscript
| of several short stories 10 editors of differ
ent magazines only to find them promptly
| rejected. Aftcrwartl these same editors be-
sought him TO send sketches at his own
| terms, and he did so, furnishing these c,li-
| tors the identical manuscripts which they
| had before rejected.
Mr.. IIowells has recently written that it
IS mistake TO suppose that editors are
| primarily influenced by common names
| and yet recent issues Of magazines dsprove
| that statement One Of the greatest of
American reviews i'll marking H. announce
ments prints the names of its contributors
| III its public advertisements in large letters
| and the subjects of which they treat in i'll
| conspicuous type, and one of the greatest
publishing houses in the world has adopted
| the practice of publishing he names of ,hc
| authors conspicuously and the titles OF
| their works inconspicuously II is for
that reason perhaps that one of the wiscst
| OF American literary men, when recently
| appealed to by an ambitious young author
to know what he should do in order to win