The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-19

wishes when the British withdrew from
the Soudan.
There have been remarkable feats of
production among the writer's of roman
tic stories; but given certain facility Of
Invention. and not too much care for form
and expression, and one can always see in
a way how the thing is done There is no
occasion TO stop and gather information;
once YOU have got your start, your
slant" as Stevenson used to cali it, the
thing runs on, and 1t becomes merely
question Of how fast you can drive your
pen, or, If you dictate, how fast your
amanuensis can take you. Much more
amazing than any of these is the achieve
ment OF the man who produces descrip-
tive biographical and historical works,
and even dictionaries, at The rate of
volume Of 100000 words in the course of
few weeks. Naturally. the learned master
OF this miraculous swiftness is a Chicago
man. In the last six or seven years he has
produced twenty-seven volumes-four or
five OF them dictionaries. a number OF
them histories, none Of them books that
could be written straightaway without
stopping to gather materlal-and in addl-
tpn, has made numerous translations. end
has written numerous short stories, special
articles, editorials and reviews. The pane
OF the wonder Is c. NJ. Stevans. one that
must by now be very we'll known to quite
a large body OF readers, as il Is well
known to various publishers and editors
here and in Chicago.
MIR Stevans was for number of years
a teacher; then he became an editor and
literary manager, and compiled number
Of miscellaneous works moi included In the
count given above. An intimate friend of
his gave me the other day. a very in
,f Of hn
traordinary of his performances.
Ills first piece of rapid writing" said
this friend was Uncle jeremiah at the
Words FAIR 10000 Words He did the
fair during the day-or part of it--and
wrote al night. He was three weeks get
ting &c up. handing his copy to the print
ers each day. Half a million copies OF
this book have been sold; but It was not
at all in Mr.. Stevans' general line, and he
did not publish it over his own name, but
over the pen name 'Quondam. It's Sc
oueI Uncle jeremiah in the South he
wrote IN conjunction with his wife, q
newspaper woman, when they were on
their wedding journey. They Travelled
down the Mississippi TO New Orleans and
up the coast to New York, visiting all the
large towns, and writing the 5000 words
which the book contains in about five
weeks During the last presidential cam
T.
books inside of two months. working from
z O'Clock every morning until or O'Clock
at night lie hasn't slept since i'm conse-
ouence however. His History of Spain
in America $4,000 words. he wrote In six
weeks-no Clipping nor copying. HIS
Buccaneers $1,000 WOODSTOCK seven
weeks of research and writing-this, too,
being entirely originak and covering ell
that has been recorded about these holy
laaeH .tr-f
feats have been done on the work which
he has in hand at the present moment
History Of the World In this work he
frequently dictates 1900 words in a day,
keeping two expert stenographers busy
II is scarcely a surprise TO learn that
Mr. Watts Dunton, haYing got so favora-
BILE a reception for his novel, "Aylwin,"
is now bringing into shape for publication
another ancient tale of his. Authors may
not be very keen business men, but It must
be a very simple minded author, indeed,
who has not learned by now that the first
tide of a distinct literary success is a
perfectly reliable element--so long as it
Is in full how-for floating early construc-
tons of imperfect buoyancy. A we'll
known American novelist once said to a
literary youth. who was striving hard,
but had still TO positively arrive: Yes;
save your old manuscripts; one can never
tell when they Will come III Ana THIS, /
should guess, had come TO be the general
working rule with authors, at least with
the authors of fiction. But the authors
haven't discovered the value of it wholly
by their own cleverness. 1t Is not infre-
uuent 10 hear publishers speak dsparag-
ingly. and even with Kind of high moral
disdain. of novelist who having put
out a good and highly popular work, fol
lows Il with one not good and almost be-
yond the strength of his newly-won pop
ularity to sustain. But it is, after ALL the
publishers themselves who provoke and
encourage this sort of proceeding. They
bid against each other so iercely for the
sake of getting on their list what seems
to be a telling name, that the author in
competition has to be very extra ordinary
man not to empty his desk of about every
old thing 1t contains. SO, as l say, it Is
IN nowise surprising that, under the quick
ening influence of the success of "Aylwin."
Mr.. Watts Dunton has discovered that he
has by him another fine novel, and has
resolved that the public shall be kept out
of Il no longer. f. c. Martin