The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-13
THOMAS NELSON PAGE
CHAT WITH THE VIRGINIA NOV
ELIST ABOUT HIMSELF
First Attempts at Fiction and How
He Wrote on States for Practice
Speaks of His New Novel. of
''Marse Cham and Other Stories

Washington Literary Gossip.
Copyright. 1893. by Frank G. Carpenter
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1O.-During a.
recent call upon Mr. Thomas Nelson
Page / asked him a number of cues
lions about his literary work He has
Just completed his novel, Red Rock"
the first chapters of which were pub
Ished in the January number of Serb
ners Magazine. This is Mr. Pages
hrst long story. 1t will run in the
magazine throughout the year, and
will be published in book form about
next Christmas. The story is one of
the reconstruction days and it has
throughout a strong FLAVOR of the
South The subject is a very delicate
one, and Mr. Page tells me that he re-
wrote the novel several times before
IT reached it's present shape He is,
however, very modest in reference to
all matters concc- ming himself and his
work. lie says the novel embodies the
best that is in him. but that he cannot
tell whether the book is really good
until the public have passed upon it.
A Chat with Page.
1 wish I could reproduce for you nv
conversation with Mr.. Page He is one
of the most delightful of takers. His
voice is soft and melodious and his
manners are simple and unaffected
There is nothing Of the literary egotist
about him, and it was only in response
to many questions that 1 drew from
him the story of his life. He is now
just about fOrty-five years of age. He
was born on his fathers plantation,
Oakland, Va, in 1858, and at the time
the war closed he was twelve years
Old. His father was an eminent law
yer and man of means, but. the war
impoverished him, and there were
months during that time that the fam
lily had no meat in the house. They
were, as Mr.. Page says, deadly poor
when the war closed, so poor, indeed,
that much Of his reading in those days
was done lying, before the fire or by
the light of a pine knot. His father
had good library. and among the
first of his book loves was Walter
Scott He can hardly remember when
he began to read SCOTS novels, ana
he reads them today with as much
love almost as when he was a boy.
Even at that time he liked to imagine
stories, and his boyish head was filed
with battles and sieges, with plumed
Knights and tournaments whom he
placed in quite different situations
from those presented by his great mas
ter, Walter Scott
After the war ended, times began to
grow better. and when young Page was
sixteen his father was able to send
MIN to Washington and Lee university
During our conversation as to his COL
lege days 1 asked Mr.. Page how he
ranked as a student. He replied: my
standing was not high. I don't know
that | had much ambition to be one OF
the first honor men. At any rate I
got no medals of any kind. / suppose
L was fair average student, but l
fear that devoted myself more to out
side reading than to my studies. l was
a member of the literary society and
for time was the editor of the col
lege paper. Contrary to the usual GUS
tom, l wrote short articles instead or
long essays, and from this got the
nickname of the Short Article Editor.
/ wrote, I suppose, much for the
pleasure of seeing myself in print"
-. Training of Novelist. 49,
THAT must have been very good
literary training" said l.
Il suppose it was" replied Mr.. Page.
Il did it more for the pleasure of writ
Ing than for anything else. 1 was very
bashful in those days, and 1 know that
[, trembled when L first got up to speak
in literary society. 1 had a chum at
college who is now one of the most IA
nous lawyers of the country. He eX-
GELS as q. debater. He was also bashful.
and during our college days he joined
with me in a method of improving our
oratorical powers. We would get to-
gether in re ON, ard, havi 2g closed the
doors, would debate with each other
upon some question. One would stand
on one side of the table and one on the
other, and we would deciaim away, each
having a fifteen minutes speech and a
like time for answer This practice
helped me materially in my work as
a lawyer. 1t enabled me to think upon
my feet
what did you do after leaving
SCHOOL," 1 asked.
"My first work was as a teacher. I
was employed as the tutor of a private
school in Kentucky not far from Louis
vile. I taught there for a year and
enjoyed it very much. After that I
went home. and later on went to law
school at the university of Virginia"
His Failure With Newspapers.
Did you do any writing while in
Kentucky?'
81 tried to-" replied Mr.. Page. "but
could get no one to publish what
wrote. The great paper of the region in
which I lived was the Courier-J ournal
1 had q great ambition to see some of
my articles in its columns. ] was at
this time much interested in TX. Mar