New-York tribune., 1900-05-12
BOOKS AND AUTHORS.
CURRENT TALK OF THINGS PRESENT
AND TO COME

Langdon Mitchell, who is reported to have
earned $4,000 during the just finished
from his stage version of Vanity Fair has
made play from his fathers book, The Ad-
ventures of FRANCOIS" Before writing Becky
Sharp" Mr.. Mitchell had completed twenty-five
dramas. fact which shows him to be a young
man of determination.
do you realize" said the publisher to the
critic, that next winter promises to be the most
extraordinary season for the sale Of novels ever
known in the history Of American publishng?"
He leaned back in his chair and surveyed the
critic with his left eye half closed.
The critic shook his head. "Why?" he asked.
Simply because the theatre is going to be
flooded with plays made from novels. We shall
have dramatizations of David Harum,' TO Have
and to Hold, When Knighthood Was in Flower
Richard Carvel,' Janice Meredith and many
other successes. The interest in the plays will
be great stimulus to the sale of the books"
What is the effect going to be?" the critic
asked.
We'll one effect will be to add very substan-
TALLY to our receipts" the publisher 1ippantly
replied.
The critic betrayed cold impatience. "On
literature he said softly: ION the writer"
why. it will encourage novelists
| they've never been encouraged BEFORE" the pub
Usher answered, in voice that sounded
sentful. LAS matter of fact. novelists
have never made as much they do now" he
went "on. There's Winston Churchill. for ex-
ample. He must have made already nearly
$4,000 out of Richard Carvel' Mary Johnson
will get much, if not more, from To Have
and to Hold and then they'll have their royal
ties from the plays. Oh, this is a great time
for novelists," he concluded
Il meant what will be the effect on the work
of the novelsts?" the critic weakly remarked.
| THE effect of what?" the publisher asked,
with the air of who estimates things by
| figures.
"Of the popularity of plays drawn from novels.
Won't it make our novelists write with an eye
| to the stage?"
We'll, what Of it if they do?" said the publish
er. if making a challenge.
| 1T will hurt the artistic'-
"Oh, nonsense. If the public
Il going to say" the critic went on de-
! termined not to be put down that he was
his ground L going to say that it
| will hurt both the novels novels and the plays
| as plays. No novelist write good novel if
he's thinking of the stage all the time; and nc
really important play be made from a
| novel. The two forms of art are essentially
opposed to each other. What really good plays
|
has been tried again and again. in France in
| England. and in''-
oh there You with your theories" cried
| the publisher The trouble with you critics is.
you aren't practical enough you'-
| But by this time the critic had had his little
| say. He rose hastily. Just you wait and see'
he cried, in his excitement falling into the YER
| nacular This craze for novel plays can't last
| If it did it would ruin novel writing In an
/ |prI
! sick of the novel-drama."
BY that time he was at the door The pub
| Usher, with an air of martyred innocence had
returned to his correspondence
| Now that In His Steps" has had phenom-
email success, likely TO hear of other
! novels on religious themes inspired by it. Per
| haps If 1t had not been written Mr. Richard
! Marsh would still have produced his new novel.
"A Second Coming" lately sent cut by John
Lane. One cannot help comparing the two
| books however Mr.. Marsh has taken the theme
! of the second coming Of Christ at a time when
the world was not ready to receive Him.
Mrs Flora Annie Steele has written new
| novel, which the Macmillan Company will short
ly issue. 1t bears the poetic title of Voices in
the Night
few months ago it reported that Mr. s
| 5. Mcclure was about to publish a new maya
zine It's appearance, however. has been in
definitely postponed. Mr.. Mcclure is at present
in Europe building up his shattered health. He
will not return to His desk in New-York till next
year Meanwhile Mr. Robert H. Russell is maxi
ing preparations to bring out in the interim
| the periodical called The New Magazine"
which has been talked Of for some time
Last spring the Macmillan Company published
a novel of railroad life in the West called "Tbe
! Snort Line War" by two Young writer's who
| signed themselves Merwin- Webster To readers
| Of The Youths Companion" and other period
lcals one of these writer's was known as Samuel
MerW1n The other Mr.. Henry X Webster.
mad published very little work. Both came from
Evanston ILL., Mr.. Merwin was educated at
| Northwestern University and MI Webster at
Hamilton College. Mr.. Webster has since COM
pleted a novel called The Banker and the
Bear. dealing with the Chicago Stock Exchange
and the Macmillan Company now have il in
press Mr.. Merwin has also finished new
BOOK, consisting Of four stories. each written
around typical figure in the life Of the Great
Lakes, "Hunch Badeau." These will nrohs
| bly, make their first appearance In serial
form, and will be brought out between covers
! by Mcclure. Phillips & Co
Mrs Amelia E. Barr has written a new novel
called The Maid of Maiden Lane" which
Messrs Dodd, Mead & Co. will bring out in the
autumn 1t will introduce again some of the
characters used in The Bow of Orange Rth
ben"
1t is an odd coincidence that Just as two Of tho
leading magazines are publishing bioeranbias -.
| Oliver Cromwell a third bographv should oo,,o
| from the press OF G.. Prtnano,s Gov. i,