The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-22
JULES VERNE PROGRESSES.
Doom of the NovcI-Why He Wrote
His BoOks-Letters From Boys.

From the New York Sun.
London. July 5.-An interesting in
tervlew with Jules Verne is printed in
the Daily Mail. The famous author of
Round the World in Eighty Days" is
now at work on his hundredth volume
and eighty-four of his books have so
far been published.
With such a record 1t seems strange
that Jules Verne should declare it to
be his belief that in fifty or one hun
dred years from now there will be no
more novels written.
They will all disappear" said Mr..
Verne. '"1'hey are not necessary, and
even now their merit and their interest
are fast declining AS historic records,
the world will file it's newspapers.
Newspaper writer's have learned to
color everyday events so wen, that to
read them will give posterity a truer
picture than the historic or descriptive
novel could do. and as for the novel
psychological. that will soon cease to
be, and will die of inanition in your
own lifetime.
II am second to no living man In my
admiration of the greatest psychologist
the world has ever known-Guy de
Maupassant-and he, like all true
geniuses, foresaw the trend OF human
ideas and needs, and wrote his stories
in the smallest possible compass
Each one of De Maupassant's soul
studies is a concentrated lozenge of
psychology.
The De Maupassants who will de-
light the world in years to come will
do so in the newspapers of the day.
and not in volumes, and they will
crystalize the psychology of the world
in which they live by writing up the
day-to-day events.
THE real psychology of life is in it's
news, ana more truth--truth with a big
Team be gathered from the police
court story the railway accident, from
the everyday doings of the crowd and
from the battles of the future, than
can be obtained If an attempt is made
to clothe the psychological moral in a
garb of fiction"
And in your own line, M. Verne
Where Will the imaginative fantassts
of the future go for their plots?"
Il do not think there will be many
of them, said Jules Verne. Il believe
that the fantastic novel is on its last
If he peoples Mars. the moon and other
planets, can only do so, upon human
data.
"One day, perhaps, communication
with the other planets will be possible,
and then you will have, not novels
about Mars and the moon, but your
lunar and your Marian newspaper
correspondents. Their work will be
more interesting reading than either
Mr.. Wells or my own.
You might tell your readers went
on M. Verne, that the books in which
have published prophecies based
upon the latterday discoveries of
science have really only been means
to an end. 1t will perhaps surprise
you to hear that I do not take especial
pride In having written of the motor
car. the submarine boat, and the navi-
gable airship before they became
actual realities.
When / wrote about them as reali-
ties, these things were alf-discoverles
already. I simply made fiction cut Of
what became Interior fact, and my OBJ
ject in so doing was not to phophesy
but to spread a knowledge of geo.
graphy anepng the young in as inter-
esting a dress as ! could compass.
Every single geographical fact and
every scientific one in every book that
l have ever written had been looked
up with care and is scrupulously cor
rect. II, for instance, / had not wish
ed TO point the fact that q journey
round the world entailed the apparent
loss of whole day, my Round the
World in Eighty Days would never
have been written"
Jules Verne spoke with great appre-
cha ton Of the recent present of a gold
headed cane he had received from the
boys Of the Imperialist League Of Eng
land
That" he said, land the 40 900 letters
from my young readers which have
received from time to time. and still
continue to receive in patches of three
ana four every day. and in every Ian
guage of the world, are among my
most cherished possessions.
Some of the letters I get are de-
lightful Only this morning two young
Russians wrote to me demanding the
story of the boyhood of Capt. Memo
They want to know why he chose his
solitary life and what had happened In
his youth to make him so avoid his
fellow creatures. I'm afraid they
never will know, for / do not know
myself"