Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-06-14


the Woman's Home Companion for
June Albert Bigelow Paine gives a
glimpse of one OF an authors many
discouragements.
"Even Joe Matthewson, who had
himself been writing for ten years or
more, and connected editorilly with the
big newspapers, even Joe did not real
iZe that magazine may carry unpub-
lished manuscripts in its safe for a
period of a quarter of a century. He
had read jokes about such things, but
these he had considered eXaggerations.
In a great safe he found bundles
upon bundles of dusty MSS, some of
them very old. The oldest one had
been there since the first month of the
magazines publications. misfit from
the start, and bought probably in the
fear that enough good fits would not
be easily obtained. These things made
Joe sad, for he had tender heart, and
being a writer himself he knew that
the mere money return is only q small
part of the writer's reward. He could
close his eyes and imagine the ambi-
tious young authors waiting month af-
ter month for the appearance of their
work, finally giving up in despair and
perhaps undertaking some trade or
profession in which the rewards were
either purely material or at least not so
long deferred.
Fat the managing editor. who had
grown hardened with time, forced in
difference. SO much the better" he
laughed. The fellows that wrote some
of those things, and quit, are most
likely presidents of railroads or life
insurance companies by this time with
nj yia Of
they'd kept on writing they'd have
been poorer now than when they start
ed
Concerning Marion Crawford's con-
scientious way of looking at his own
work, it is said that he recently de-
stroyed two-thirds of a novel rather
than publish what he did not think
good. Would that all novelists were as
wise
George Douglas, the author of "The
House with Green Shutters tells sew
eral stories at his own expense as to
his personal appearance. Thus he
says:
Returning to my native village after
long absence, | was met by an aged
crone. who remembered my early days:
mercy upon us. she cfltC, WIN
the engaging familiarity of the Scots
peasant; can this be Geordie" L
Grinned an assent, with my usual mod
esty.
"'Eh me- she said in sad r..minis-
cence; eh me, you were Draw wee
boy. but Cad kens you're anything but
thot now
That's not the only gag that has
hDpn .p1 off AT
pearance. / happened to meet Froude
the historian, once in the house of an
oxford don. It's astonishing he said
to me; it's astonishing! You're the
living image of my dear friend the late
John Conington.'
Il said | was glad to hear | was so
like the great authority on Virgil. For
a moment the old mans thoughts
seemed to be busy with the sacred
past. 'ConnGton' he said dreamily.
was the uglest man 1 ever clapped an
eye on
Graham Travers Or. Margaret
Todd. author of Mona Maclean" and
"WinGyhaueh," has written another
novel, THE Way of Escape an
nounced by the Appletons. DR.. Todd
was born in Scotland in 1859, and was
educated in Edinburgh and Glasgow
University classes for women, and in
Berlin. She engaged in teaching for
sCme time, and afterward studied at
the Edinburgh School for Medicine for
Women. From this she became a
Hcentiate of the Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Edinburgh,
and received her degree of NJ. d. from
Erux in 1894. DR.. Todd became we'll
brown as assistant physician to the
Edinburgh Hospital for Women and
Children and in regular practise. Her
entrance INTO the literary field in 1892
when her Mona Maclean, Medical
Student" was published. marked her
at once as writer of unusual ability
Her Fellow Travellers in 1896. and
"Windyhaugh'' in 1898. materially
strengthened her reputation. Her writ
ing is done only in odd times stolen
from busy practise, which accounts
for the long periods intervening be-
tween her books. In THE Way of Es
cape" as in her earlier works, DR..
Todd $ tendency is toward the solution
of psychological problems.
"OIdtield'' is Mrs. Nancy Huston
Bankss first book, but she has for
number of years been a prominent con-
tributor to magazines, and to many
Journals in the larger cities. chiefly of
literary reviews and articles. Mrs
Banks is a native of Kentucky, and
was born in Morganfield, little town
in the far western part of the state.
near the Ohio river. the county seat OF
Union county. 1t does not take very
bold conjecture to imagine that with
the slight change of name Mrs. Banks
has been describing the town of her
birth and the remote life in ii in her
novel.
Publishers in London are holding
hack many of their new books until
after the coronation, and, in all
probability. will bring out few. if any,
Of them until the fall. Publishers on
this side of the water. though some
what more active, have also reached a
period of comparative quiet; but, on the
other hand, they can look with pride
upon a mass of spring publications
quite large enough and good enough to
keep every one well supplied with read
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