The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-12-04
Authors of New York Not Inclined
to SOciality.
ONE CLUB A BIG SUCCESS
REASONS WHY THIS oRGANIzA.
=, /TIcN Is LIKED.
Unsigned Novels Bring Meagre Re
turns to Those Who Make Them
Kipling and Conan Doyle.

club has lately entered upon its six
teenth year. There has been no par
ticular note taken Of the fact, so Tar
as 1 have seen; but there well might
have been, for under the conditions
that prevail here, it is no ordinary
achievement TO nave maintained such
an organization for so long. At an ear
lier day, say just before the war; there
seems to have been a kind of instinct
i've drifting together on the part of
writers in and about New York. But
since then the disposition has seemed
to run just the other way; so much so
that doubt has often been expressed
whether New York, IN spite of the mag
nitude OF its publishing interests and
the large number of people here who
are deVoting themselves, in one way
and another, TO the literary calling,
was in any true sense a literary CEN
ter. Yet the Authors club has lived;
and what is more, it has prospered.
From the day of its organization, Oct.
q, 1882, it has had money in its treas
ury; and it now has a surplus Of about
s., 600, in addition to a handsome be-
nevolent fund.
Meanwhile the club has been able to
provide itself with a commOdious suite
of rooms, furnished rather richly and
to perfection for the special purposes
4ldd III view. anu mere IL AAS lJGAAoNo q
hospitality marked by anything but
the scanunessa Of the proyerbial au
thor's fare. 1t has collected a consider
able library, partly by donations from
Z members. but largely by purchases
with money from the treasury. As it
can, it is getting together especially
books in literary biography. 1t al
ready has ABOUT 400 volumes of this
kind, some of them extremely rare, and
the design is finally to get a collection
that shall include everything at all
worth having in this department. of
whatever tongue or time. Then, in
order to have the club fully equipped
for the service Of members who desire
to do work there, an excellent collec-
ton of books of reference has been
provided.
From the first, it has been the study
of the Authors club to avoid an eX-
cess OF government. 1t has no preSi-
dent, and, if by any inadvertence, you
asked who the president was, you
would give offenSe. It's affairs are
managed by a board of nine trustees,
and these at present are Rossiter John
son, secretary; George Cary Eggieston,
George Haven Putnam, ]. D. Champlin,
Henry Marquand, treasurer; 7. R.
Stockton, chairman; Albert Mathews,
James H. Morse and Duffield Osborne
Three of the nine retire each January,
when the annual election is held. Mr.
Eggleston and Mr.. Putnam, however,
have been elected lately; Mr.. Eggleston
TO ill a vacancy caused by the resiS-
nation of Oscar S. Strauss, who is alb
sent from the country at United States
minister to Turkey and Mr.. Putnam to
fill vacancy caused by the death of
Colonel George z. Waring.
It has sometimes happened that au-
thors' organizations were distinguished
81, Of yhor SC
the case with the Authors club, it is
genuine, and in looking over its list of
members, ycu don't often need to ask
who the people are. Among the found
ers were George William Curtis, Ed
mund Clarence Stednan. Richard
Grant White, Edward Eggleston, Henry
An Alden, Richard Watson Glider,
>&Parke Goodwin, e L. Godkin, Noah
? Brooke, Laurence Hutton and Brander
Matthews, and the present membership,
which comprises about 100 persons. is
of the same quality. Not all of the
members, however, live in, or even near
New York. For instance, Henry James
lives in London; James Whitcomb Riley
in Indianapolis, and Hamlln Garland
anywhere from Alaska to Boston.
But while it confines its membership
rather vigorously to authors, requiring
that one shall have published at least
one book in order to be eligible, the
Authors club does not fence itself off
from the rest of the world. II opens
its doors to visitors with rather more
liberality than most clubs DO. 1t is not
a dining or lodging club; and it is
mainly resorted to on the evenings Of
the fortnightly meetings, when a gem
erous spread is served and particular
efforts are made to render the rooms
attractive. At some of these meetings
visitors are especially invited; from
% i'll harr
cluded, If properly introduced by men,
Ders. In the winter. the club gives i
series Of afternoon teas. and then ladies
are admitted.
Mr.. Ernest Seton Thompson, whose
new book, some Animals l Have
Known is just ROW giving a special
familiarity to his name, Is primarily an
artist, and q visit to his apartment, in
the lower part OF Fifth Avenue, is a
delight to the lover OF old and delicate
draDeries and choice cuTios. 1t is not
a particularly spacious piace-few New
York apartments are; but the interest
ing things that Mr.. and Mrs. ThOmD-
son have succeeded in susoending ana
dropping and trailing and piling away
in il are beyond number. /, perhaps,
aS0ght TO say that l write from u visit
IVY last spring; for We are much-moV-
Z 51iE people here the artists especially,
and the apartment 1 am outlining may
now have ceased to exist, and the house
that held il have gone TO the dump.
OF one fact, however, L am still sure,
down to this very instant; and that is
that Mr.. Thompson is a most interest
ing man, and that there is ample jus
LITIGATION in nature for the fact that his
new book is found good. Let the
reader beware of concluding that the
sophisticated apartment have referred
TO disC-'editS the claim made by MT.
Thompson in his book that he has per-
sonaliy known the animals he writes
about. City agreements hold him only
for a small, inclement fraction OF the
year. He IS an outdoor man, and lives
for months at a time out among the
Indians, beyond the edge Of civilization.
He has studied the Indian and his mode
of life in the same Intimate, loving
way that Edward Kemeys and Hamlin
Garland have: and it is not a little in
this special department that he works
as an artist One of the interesting
features OF his collection of curios is a
lot Of pictures painted by Indians. He
exhibits these with great enthusiasm.
and tells you many an interesting story
Of the way ID which he came by them,
of the artists who did them. and of the
circumstances under which they We're
done lie has the good fortune TO have
in Mrs. Thompson q complete sharer In
his tastes and enthusiasms. and even
OF the udIQAHlpS u MS 1dT journeys ana
his life in frontier huts and tents. She
also is a writer.
A literary industry that is pursued
with great energy by a number Of peo-
Aple. and that yields, where it is skill
fully followed. a very fair livelihood,
is the writing of unsigned stories and
novels. The productions Of this indus
try are sold to various newspapers and
weekly and minor monthly journals,
and aDoear either without a name on.