The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-04-30

ing the two helpless ones at home. And
there was always some reading to be
had. Reading had been the salt of my
whole life, although | have been shut
up to two books for a whole voyage
the Bible and Bleak House. both of
which L read through from beginning
to end so many times that, if L were
to state the number, l should certainly
be disbelieyed."
The need of piecing out his clerical
salary as the size and necessities of
his family increased, led him, about six
years ago, to try his hand at writing.
He met with many discouraSements at
first, and with no really substantial
success until he brought out The
Cruise of the Cachalot.n his only book
thus far, though he is to bring out an
other soon. OF the hit the book has
made, he says: When the Cachalot
appeared, men whose names had read
with awe as the august arbiters of lit
erature, wrote to me, and wrote OF me,
as if thev were all in one grand con-
spiracy to turn my head, and the only
place where my book has been totally
Snored is in the London morning
dailies.'
Mr.. Frank Norris. the young novelist,
has freed himself from routine work as
reader for a publishing house and re-
six months trial in New YoEk, and de-
cides that he finds California much
more to his liking. 1t isn't. however,
because he likes California better that
he now returns there. He goes to gather
material for a new novel, or rather
for several, for. he has in his head
scheme of such dimensions that to eX-
ecute it fully, in its several parts, he
shall have to write not less than three
To-,
as Mr. Norris such project would or
dinarily seem ambitious enough to JUS
tify a questioning smile. But l don't
think any of the few friends to whom
he has confided it has had the least
inclination in that direction. In al
most every published review of his
stories, particularly of his last one,
"McTeague," some reference is made to
his unusual capacity and power; and
those who know the man himself are
even more impressed with this than
those who simply know him through his
books. A perfectly modest and rather
silent man, he. still justifies to you in
some way tina tyou can hardly figure
out his fitness to undertake as large a
work as he will.
A return to California is still a re-
turn home for Mr.. Norris; his family
live at San Francisco. For the present,
the southern part of the state. He has
not given up New York for all and
ever: his expectation is to return here,
at least for d time, toward the end of
the year.
New York is as good market for the
sale of literary productions as man
could desire-if only his productions
are saleablei Excellent proof is af-
cd 1Arrt of
Seumas McManus. He came over to this |
country about the first of the year as
complete and "pulless" a stranger as
could be. He knew no one here, and, l
think. brought no letters of introduce !
ton. He had published a number of
stories and sketches of Irish life in a
Dublin newspaper, but not one of them, :
probably, had ever been read here. I'm (
der the pen name of Mack" he had
published two books that We're more or
less known in Ireland and England, but /
here they We're not known at all. Dur /
ing the three months of his sojourn, !
without having anybody to urge his {
claims except himself, he has sold seven ,
or eight stories to Harper's. like num- 1
Der to the Century, several TO the Sat /
urday Evening Post and a good num- |
Der to other periodicals, and he has |
brought out one book, and he has two |
others accepted for publication soon. /
He is not by any means an urgent or /
aggressive man. He presents himself I
and his matter simply and modestly, |
taking neither with undue seriousness.
But what he writes has always on OBJ !
vious charm in its genuine humor or /
pathos, and this secures its quick ac
by editors and publishers.
Mr.. McManus has as easy a way in
his production as in his selling. His
sketches and stories come direct and .
warm from the life he has led himself 7
from his birth; and he writes them
off, in a sort of schoolboy's .
copybook. and never so much as reads
them over.
Herbert E. Hamblin has lately fin
ished a railroad story for boys. 1t will
be published serially in the latter part
of the summer and the early fall, and
then appear as a book. Although Mr..
Hamblin is driving the pen with such
energy these days. he has not ceased
to do his usual days work in driving
an engine. He has lately suffered d Sc
we're bereavement in the death of his
wife
General-better known as Captain
King writes from Manila that he has
not had much time of late to devote
to literature, and one can readily be-
lieve him, but, like most writers when
the publishers are urging, he thinks he
is likely to have quite an abundance
soon. He also says, what also one can
readily believe, that he is gathering a
wealth OF good material
f. c. MARTIN.
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