The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-11-09
MANY HEARD MR.. HOWELLs
Distinguished Novelist Pleases a
Large Audience.

Large AuQ49uCGa
An audience large enough to apprO-
pirate all the available seating space
in the high school auditorium saw VIII
liam Dean HOWeIls. the distinguished
novelist, last night. and heard his lee
ture on Novels and Novel Writing
1t was a delighted audience through
out the evening, and the novelist was
given the closest attention His lecture
proved TO be both Interesting and in
struCtiVe, so instructive in fact, that
Mr. HOwells admitted at its close he
had given away the secret of how to
write novel But he jOCularly asked
the audience TO respect his gray hairs
and not take advantage of the infOrma-
ton he had impaired
The lecture was sprinkled here and
there with humorous incidents, and
these served TO put the novelist and his
audience on the most friendly terms At
one time he told of receiving a bill for
a suit Of clothes from a Chicago tailor,
made out to q man name Ferris The
tailor explained that he had a short
time before read one OF Mr. Howells
stories in which the principal character
bore the same name. and as he was I'M
able to locate his particular Ferris he
sent the bill to the novelist on the sup
position that as he knew one OF the
members OF the Ferris family 50 init
mately ne would know where the other
members could be found.
At another time. Mr. HOWells related.
he received a scathing criticism Of one
of his latest EFFORTS from an unknown
party The criticism closed in the mid
die of a sentence, but a postscript was
added stating that the writer would
gladly continue were il not for the fact
that he felt it incumbent upon himself
to go out and take a drink before do
ing further work
The novelist was introduced by EU-
gene F. Ware. the Topeka poet whose
productions Mr. HOwells greatly ad-
Tnires. In his Introduction Mr.. Ware
spoke of the distinguished writer as
man who had at one time represented
this country in one of the great consul
lar cities OF Europe. and is now repre-
sentiug the United States in every
country where the English language is
spoken or read.
In the course Of lecture Mr.. HowelIs
said,
when the solid men Of the beIea-
CURED city met to consider the best
means Of defense, you remember that
the tanner maintained there was moth
ing like leather; and perhaps you will
not be surprised TO near from a nov
elist that in the great as well as the
little battles OF life, OF any of its sore
stresses, there is nothing like fiction
Whether you like the fact as well as I
like it in my quality Of novelist, think
you cannot deny that fiction is the
main intellectual influence of our time
I should go farther and say novel in
duence, but / have often observed that
&c is often a moral interest without be-
ing a moral influence; it reaches the
mind and stops short at the conduct.
As a writer of fiction however,
am rather ashamed to think of the in
dueuce some novels have had
4 call this paper I am reading.an i'm
personal confidence because / assume
as a working hypothesis. that 1 am
very like other nOvelists in my expert
ence if not in my ideals; and I viii ven
ture TO speak for the whole body in
saying that there are no such devoted
readers OF novels as the authors of
them. For my own part. there is moth
ing like so much. when I Ct a day of
from a novel of mine. as TO lose myself
in the novel of some one else Rather
than read no novels. 1 would read my
own over and over again The reader
who Is not an author considers what
the book is; the author who is a reader
considers how the book has been done.
1t is so in every art. of course, the
painter, sculptor. architect and must
clan intimately feels the beauty of the
picture, statue. edifce and symphony;
but he feels stin more Intimately the
skill which manifests that beauty.
I do not expect a novel TO be wholly
true; I have never read any that seem
ed me so, except TolstOy's novels. but
] expect it to be q constant endeavOr
for the truth I am quite willing to
recognize whatever measure OF truth
find in a novel that is partly or mainly
false. but if 1 come upon the faIsehOOd
at the start, am apt not to read that
novel.
1T is a we'll ascertafned fact con-
corning the ina gination that it can
work only with the stuff Of experience
It can absolutely invent no form which
does not somewhere exist in nature it
can only compose forms already exist
ing in nature, as any one may realize
by thinking Of the monsters which
painters and scuptOrs invented, or the