The herald., 1895-04-05
THE LITERARY CENTERs
PASADENA NEWS.


the Herald asks ii the literary center,
now according to that journal, stationary
oil the Golden Gate, will ever move down
this way. A recent novel styles San
Francisco an absurd city. This would be
true if it applied to its literary aspira-
tions. No city in the universe of any
size claims so much as San Francisco,
and no city has its intellectual wheels
clogged by so many mediocre writers,
men and women, who pose as 'littera-
teurs and who, if the test of earning q
hvlng by their pens, independent OF the
press. was applied, would starve to death
The claims that are made for the coast in
literature are eXtravagant.
Commonplace writers are made much
OF by the home papers, until every man
who writes comes to believe himself a
genius. 1t is the custom every year for
some OF the San Francisco papers to write
up their WRITERS and make much of
them but how few ever obtain recogni-
tion from Eastern publishers is shown
by the fact that few years ago some
San Francisco writers got up a publish
ing company to issue their books and
those of their friends. There are scores
of writers in San Francisco, but the real
litterateurs are SO modest that one rarely
hears of them. We should say they were
Ambrose Bierce, George Hamlin Fitch,
John Bonner, Lieutenant Fletcher. Ger
aldine Bonner and joaquin Miller. Ot
these Fitch, Bierce and Bonner easily
carry the palm for literary style and
finish. OF course this does not include
scientific and philosophical writers as lie
Conte OF Berkeley, who is delightful
and brilliant writer, JORDAN and many
others. But the three mentioned may be
considered the only ones who can COM
mand recognition in the East BY
recognition we mean the imprint OF such
houses as the Scrbners, Putnams,
Harpers, Appletons and Houghton,
Mitilin & Co. Oh their books.
The great body OF lurid story writers of
San Francisco will deny that this is 4 test.
Perhaps it is not, but it is safe to say that
the readers of these houses do not let
much slip by them that is good, and a
be altogether bad. The Herald very
naturally considers San Francisco the lit
erary center of the Pacific coast, but with
out any particular knowledge, we would
stake our reputation for guessing on the
statement that more writers j, r the liter
ary press OF the east, more auliors with
books published by the great firms men
toned, more contri butors to the great
magazines of the day, more writers of
national reputation, can be found i'll Los
Angeles county III week than can be
found in the whole state north of Mojave
in six months. We have in Pasadena two
or three story writers better known in
the east than any in San Francisco.
We have a writer on political econ
omy famous i'll two continents
with no rival in the north. We have q
writer for young people whose many
books circulate widely in Europe and this
country. We have writer's on the drama,
distinguished authors on medicine and
various branches of science, who are well
known in the East and wherever the Eng
lish tongue is spoken.
In brief the News believes that in Los
Angeles county it could find material for
an authors club that would make the
country west of New York green with
envy. True genius is modest; the South
ern California litterateurs are not gregari-
Gus and are not usually found at the
meetings of literary societies. You will
find them scattered all over the land. and
if our friend, The Herald, could by hook
or crook get them all together learn their
names and what they have done in the
book making line, we believe it would be
convinced that there is depression near
the Golden Gate, and that the literary
center is moving down this way.