The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-27

According to a writer in Success. Mrs.
Amelia L. Barr draws an income of $4,000
a year from her writings.
Augusta Evans Wilson'S work as an au-
thoress ceased with the death of her hus-
band She says that she will never resume
writing.
William Dean Howells, Charles Dudley
Warner, Horace Howard Furness. Richard
Henry Stoddard and Thomas Wentworth
HigginSon compose the advisory board OF
York. 20 - no >'~' :
Miss Dixon, formerly of Girton College,
Cambridge, has been engaged for more
than year past upon a translation OF Sc
lected letters from the voluminous corre-
Spondence of Petrarch, never before trans
lated into English.
The Critic learns that the unpublished
verses by Mr.. Rudyard Kipling on the i'm
mortality of the soul will shortly appear in
print They were quoted by a Passonist
father in church in Rome, much fire.
quented by English visitors few weeks
ago.
Gabriel DAnnunzio is a married man with
two sons. His tastes are distinctly aristo-
cratic. He belongs to an old noble family
of Chieti, in the Marches of Ancona, and,
being married to a daughter. of the Due
Gallese, is allied 10 most Of the great Ro-
man houses.
dialect stories have brought her fame and
fortune, is said TO be one of the best cooks
in America When wearied by the pen she
seeks relief III the connection of soups,
salads and sauces. She is also noted for
her generous hospitality.
DR.. Conan Doyle is engaged on dramatic
version of Sherlock Holmes which is
destined for production at the Lyceum
Theater, London, with Sir Henry Irving in
the part of the detective The play will not
adhere rigidly to the lines familiar to read
ers of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes,
but Will show that character in new en-
vironment
j. f. Willard, a young American, better
known in literature as Josiah Flynt," who
has made a reputation by his studies from
life of tramp life, vagabondage and GRIM
inal characteristics in several countries has
started from Berlin (where his mother re-
sides) on an interesting expedition. He
studies, by residing among them, the life
and views and vices of the classes before
mentioned in Russia both European and
Asiatic, and means to penetrate as far as
Samarkand.
Literature, by the way, speaks of miss
M. Elliott Seawell. who has attained con-
siderable reputation in America as a writer
upon naval subjects" The name Molly"
which Miss Seawell puts on her title pages
was evidently too frivolous for Literature's
British gravity. The Boston Literary
World thinks Literature is not alone in
wondering why an author who produces
such admirable stories has the curious
fancy for using nickname in print.
Mr.. George Meredith was born Feb -,
1928. He received lately the following letter
of congratulation: Some comrades in let
tiers who have long valued your work send
you a cordial greeting upon your seven
tieth birthday. You have attained the first
rank in literature after many years of in
adequate recognition. From first to last
you have been true to yourself and have
always aimed at the highest mark We are
rejoiced to know that merits once perceived
by only q few are now appreciated by
wide and steadily growing circle. We wish
you many years of life, during which you
may continue to do good work, cheered by
the consciousness of good work already
achieved and encouraged by the certainty
of a hearty welcome from many sympa-
thetic readers This was signed by TWEEN
ty prominent literary people.
Mr.. Edwin Oviatt who spent summer
with George w. Gable at his Northampton
home, says of that author: 'He has
quired the habit, got from long experience,
of writing on every available and unavai-
able place except a table. Mr.. Cables fa-
vorite posture is in his rocking chair, with
the pad on the arm or else with one leg
thrown over the other, writing on his knee.
He writes with u pencil on the backs of
envelopes with which his pockets are
crammed, or on edges of newspapers.
Through nothing but habit, he always
saves odd scraps of paper, and at the end
of day many Of these fieeting papers will
bear upon them some of his wonderful SEN
fences The author of Old Creole Days has
never owned a desk, a curious fact in
life so remarkable as his has been The
Critic, commenting on this, says: Perhaps
the reason why Mr.. Gable has never cared
to own q desk is that Il desk for many
years of his life meant uncongenial drudg
cry to him. for at the time he wrote old
Creole Days he was keeping books in a
New Orleans commercial house. Mr. Cables
.unliterary, copperplate handwriting is the
result of his commercial training. That he
dislikes a desk after all those years of
slavery to one, who shall wonder?'