The San Francisco call., 1896-08-04
HAROLD FREDERIC.
A CALL CORRESPONDENT WHO WRITES AMERI-
CAN NOVELS AS WELL AS FOREIGN
NEWS


The Literary Digest of recent date pays
marked attention to Harold Frederic, the bril-
liant journalist and author who writes Tor THE
CALL such interesting letters on foreign affairs.
The article In the Literary Digest is entitled
"How the Popular Harold Frederic Works."
and is mainly descriptive of his methods of
composition.
The Digest says: Harold Frederic, the
American novelist. whose purely American
stories first won fame for him in England, has
recently told writer for the London Sketch
something about his method of work. One
striking thing about Mr.. Frederic is, that
while he writes his American stories in Eng
land he Keeps in the most intimate touch with
the life he describes. When asked about
the farm lite described in "Seth's Brothers.
Wife," he answered.:
"B1ess you, mani I was brought up on or
near farm. spent my boyhood in getting
out OF bed at D in the morning to look after
the cattle, and until was IA drove milk.
wagon as side ISSUE in my AGRICULTURAL du-
ties. For one of my stories 1 read company
law and that sort OF thing under the instruc-
tlon OF well-known lawyer of my acquaint-
ance. For In the Valley which, as you know,
deals with American life during the colonial
period, made eleven years study of the do
mestic and political history OF that time. the
RECORDS, the costumes and properties.' Be-
side was born and reared in the New York
valley that l wrote aboul. The idea of the
story and the spirit of it soaked in my mind
eleven years before wrote the first chapter"
When asked to what extent he planned his
books before he wrote them, Mr. Frederic said !:
"ln one sense, hardly at all. I seek only to
know my people through and through. They
make the story off their own bat once they
have been started. But you must really know
them first. / am now writing q novel ['The
Damnauon OF Theron Ware, since published,
recently dlgested in these columns], the people
OF wnlon have been carrying about with me,
night and day, for fully five years. After I had
got them grouped together in my mind, set
myself the tesk of knowing everything they
knew. AS iour OF them happened to be spe-
clailsts In different professions, the task has
peen tremendous. For instance one OF them
is biologist, who, among many other things,
is experimenting on Lubbock's and Darwin S
lines. Although these pursuits are merely
mentoneo, nave got up masses OF stuff on
bees ana the cross-fertilisation of plants. /
have had TO teach myself all the details of 8
Methodlst minister's work, obligations and
daily routine and all the machinery OF his
church. Another character is priest who
Is good deal more of pagan than
simple-minded Christian. He loves
luxury and learning. / have studied
the arls he loves as we'll as his theology; have
waded In Assyriology and 6chopenhauer;
pored over palimpsests and pottery, and, in
order to write understandingly about musi-
elan VINO figures in the story. l have bored q
professional friend to death getting technical
musical stuff from him. don't say this is the
right way to build novels; only it is my way"
the following dialogue then took place:
"ln the name of patience, when do you
think out your story?"
III shapes itself as go along. Then write
an elaborate sketch of what is just before me,
leading bits OF conversation, descriptions of