Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-01-01
MRS. CRAIGIE A LONDON IDOL.

An American girl is the rage in Lon
don not Edna May in the Belle of
New York, but John oliver Hobbies"
Mrs. Craigie, author of the successful
play, 'The Ambassador" and the
writer of many other dramas.
Mrs. Craigie began play writing
some years ago and won success from
the start. The last two years she has
devoted herself to it entirely, and has
now reached that delightful stage of a
writer's career when everything she
writes is engaged before it leaves her
pen.
Thirty-two years ago there played
in Boston a little girl Pearl Mary
Theresa Richards, tall, progressive
little girl, who could be very serious at
the slightest appeal to her imagination.
Her pastimes were dolls and stage,
also whole lot of writing materials.
AS the girl grew up she was taken
abroad for education, and on one of her
visits she married Reginald Walpole
Craigie. She was then only 10 years
old; and in the next four years she
suffered much unhappiness, out of
which grew the Hover of genius.
Mrs. Craigie, at "a, secured divorce
and the custody of her boy and with
her child went to live with her father,
DR.. Richards, editor of the Athenaeum.
who resides in a splendid mansion in
Lancaster Gate near Hyde PARK, Lon
don.
One day Mrs. Craigie sat down to
think. She had written a little and
had an audience who admired her un-
der the name of John Oliver Hobbies.
Why not go on writing. She came of
literary stock. Her great-grandfathe
was the founder of Auburn Theological
seminary, her grandfather was a noted
New York clergyman, her father a we'll
known man of letters today. Yes, she
would follow in their footsteps For a
while her mind turned toward religion,
during which she became converted to
the Roman Catholic faith; but her love
for the drama asserted itself, and she
began play writing as a profession
Within two years she had written three
plays, all of which were successes.
Mrs Craigie is a Slender woman, not
very tall but very we'll built Her face,
eyes and hair are dark and she has a
wonderful sort of personal magnetism
which her friends believe would have
served her well had she gone on the
stage.
Mrs. Craigie has the singular habit
of concentration, a rare gift today
When she is about to write she sits
long hours and thinks about her plot
It's characters become human beings to
her, the scenes real places. To Sc
cure perfect quiet she goes into a con-
vent, where she engages a room for
meditation and remains there as long
as it pleases her to do so. She cannot
work where is noise and liability to in
terruption and for that reason she goes
to the convent to think and write, if
only for day at time. Her best
scenes, the most worldly, sharpest lines
in her plays are written from the walls
of the convent.
Mrs. Craigie has only just begun
her work, she believes She wants to
write a comedy, a tragedy another
society play and several curtain raisers
in the near future. She has contract
ed for each one Of these. She writes
when once she puts pen to paper, very
rapidly and without erasure. She does
her thinking from beginning to end be-
fore she begins, and when her thoughts
are completed she writes.
Her library is a magnificent thing,
on the first floor of the great mansion
Her fathers book shelves line the
room, and there are exquisite pieces
of statuary, wonderful first editions on
the shelves, rarest objects of bric-a-
brac from India and rare rugs from
Beloochistan. It is the ideal writing
spot. Mrs. Craigie's boy is an active
little lad of years, whose instruction
is left to governess and a tutor. He
has a nurse and a maid who care for
him when his mother is busy. Mrs
Craigie does not like to leave her boy
too much to hirelings, and in spite of
her work she manages to be with him
a great deal. When putting on a new
play her hours are very irregular. The
begin at IL o'clock midnight
and last until in the morning.