The Irish standard., 1899-04-22
James MacManus introduced to
an American Audience
BY THE CATHOLIC AUTHORS GUILD
Contributes Stories to Leading
Monthly Magazines.

Distinctive and representative was the
gathering OF authors, writers, publish
ers, artists and scholars at the Library
OF the Catholic Club last Sunday even
ing, says Ida Rose McCabe in a letter
from New York to the Catholic Colum-
bian. The occasion was the fourth meet
ing of the Guild OF Catholic Authors
and Writers, whose privilege it was to
Introduce to his first Catholic American
audience Sucmas Mac Manus (Mac). In
England and Ireland the verse and story
OF this young Irish author has gained
much popularity. In volume OF clev-
er short stories, Through the Turf
Smoke Doubleday & Mcclure have
recently introduced him to America.
The volume is now in its second cdi-
ton
Mr. MacManus is young Donegal
peasant to the manor born. Fair haired,
brown eyed and ruddy, with a rich
brogue, his readings from his own writ
ings were as refreshing as the ocean
swept bogs Of his remote Donegal, mad
the laughter they evoked confirmed the
reputation he has won, as the Mark
Twain Of the Emerald. Isle. His story
md verse, four volumes of which have
been published in London, are in Done
gal dialect, rich veneer OF the mother
tongue, much more comprehensive and
less fatiguing than Scotch dialect. which
has had such vogue in recent litera-
turc. There is a tide in the affairs Of
men, which. taken at the flood, leads
on to fortune" and the youth from
Donegal is evidently at the flood. His
story is veritable fin de steele romance.
Visitors 10 the Worlds Fair will recall
the Irish village, in which was prac-
tically demonstrated Donegal industries,
revived through the enterprise OF Lady
Aberdeen and Mrs. DR.. Ernest Hart,
wife Of the late editor OF the London
Lancet" From Mrs. Hart l had
learned, long before the opening OF the
fair, of the poverty and distress OF the
natives of mountan-hemmed and surly
ocean bound Donegal, then almost liter
ally cut off from the outside world.
There is preserved in native simplicity
the humor legend and story of the peas
antry, who despite their struggle to
wrest a miserable living from sterile
soil, dispense royal hospitality at their
turf fire. MacManus is an unsulied
product, unspoilcd by civilization. In
Its folk lore he has All unworked field.
Until year ago he was school
teacher. At the age of sixteen he went
to a neighboring county, where for two
years he studied and taught in the nor
NAL school, AS contributor to the local
PAPER, the Donegal Vindicator," he
won his first audience. His stories soon
found their way to a Dublin paper with
a large circulation. A prize offered by
this paper, and which MacManus was
awarded, gave him his first touch with
the world beyond mountain guarded
Donegal. 1t was humorous dcscrip-
ton OF a ride he took in jaunting car
in County Cavar. The prize was a
weeks sojourn at fashionable Irish
watering place. On his return, he wrote
diligently, and a volume OF stories pub
lishcd in London at the authors cx-
pcnsc led later to his finding substan-
tial publishers for two other volumes,
from which Doubleday & Mcclure Sc
lcctcd twelve, incorporated into Tales
Through the Turf Smoke" Two hasty
trips to Dublin and Belfast were the
limit OF his travel, until last October,
when having given up school teaching,
and resolved to devote his life TO letters,
he went to Paris The genius OF Sue
cess preceded him to the gay capital.
A friend about to launch, with distin-
guislcd Partisan journalists, Paris
news agency, offered the Donegal au-
thor-pcasant trip to America TO per-
sonally bring the agency to the atten
tion OF editors Always eager to see the
new world, the proposition was prompt
ly accepted, and with half trunk full
OF manuscripts, he set sail, reaching
here in November.
His mission secured him access to the
editorial sanctums of New York, Boston
and Chicago. He lost no time in pre-
senting en- passant his own wares. When
Kipling made his first trip to our shores
Philadelphia publishers, so the story