The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-06-08
In THE LITERARY FIELD
SUCCESSFUL FICTION WRITERS SAID
TO SUFFER FROM BRAIN FAC.
Each Novelist Has His own Way of
Getting N PIot-Summer Litera-
ture-Notes and Gossip.

Successful novel writing is not an I'M
mixed evil, If one judges by the present Ill
luck Of Miss Mary Johnston. Mrs. Frances
Hodgson Burnett. Miss Mary Hartwel
Catherwood and Mrs. Kate Douglas Wig
gins. says a writer in the Philadelphia
Press.
Each Of these has succumbed TO brain
fatigue.
Each says she will continue to write as
soon as the sanitarium releases its firm
grip.
Each Of these except Mrs. Virgins. has
been enjoying the privileges of rest cure.
And rumor has it that Mrs. Virgins is on
the threshold of a sanitarium.
One would think that the violent struggle
to be successful might send women and
men to a rest cure. but to ride TO success
in golden chariot and then break down
from brain flag is beyond the reasoning of
those who have tried and failed.
These writer's have been successful from
the start. Why they have each yielded TO
fatigue and mental strain is probably from
trying to meet the demands of an enthusi-
astic public.
Henry James has explained IL all in re-
cent ghost story. in which he lays the
successful writer's life.
In that story he gives you such dra-
matte and terrible description of the nerv-
Gus fatigue that comes from trying to live
up to ones literary reputation that there is
reflected nervousness from simply read
ing 1t.
The youngest and newest of these sue
cessful novelists is Miss Mary Johnston.
and 1t is she who is returning to a sani-
tarium in Baltimore for the second time
since Christmas.
She has been suffering with the most in
tense headaches. She has done everything
for them except the remarkable operation
that it was rumored that she had under
gone.
This rumor said she had submitted to
the removal Of certain nerves from her
head. and that the intense pain had. there
fore, ceased.
This was absolutely denied at the sani-
tarium. But the brain flag and severe head
aches that are being treated there lend
themselves slowly to care, however skill
full.
Miss Johnston's terrible headaches did
not begin with the writing of a second
novel. She had them before writing To
Have and to Hold" after finishing 'Pris-
fearfully when writing her last novel,
Audrey"
The young Albanian has made money;
a great deal of it. 1t estimated that
ITO Have and to Hold Melted her $4,000
for the American rights alone.
Prisoners of Hope had a great sale
after the phenomenal run of the second
book.
And to these thousands of dollars is now
being added the money from Audrey,
which is already in the front ranks of the
III mo n
After Audrey was finished, Miss john
ston gave in to her acute suffering and
put herself in a famous Southern sana-
forum.
The verdict there is that the trouble is
from nervousness and that 1t will take
time to cure it. She remained there for
some time after Christmas. She left there
the middle of April, but returned In May
TO remain for several weeks.
Miss Johnston used to say as young
girl that she never needed much sleep.
She would go two or three nights with
out trying to sleep and once when one OF
her family was ill. she went week with
out more than a nap of a few moments in
the afternoon.
Her friends used to say that she must
have an extraordinary mind. When she
became a successful novelist they remem-
bered their convictions
Mrs. Townsend. or Mrs. Hodgson Bur-
nett, as the literary world still knows her.
has been completely Frustrated from writ
ing successful novels. She had TO go to the
sanatorium at Ffshkill Landing in the tall'
and has just ventured away from it.
When she succumbed to pain, she was
just beginning another novel which, it was
supposed, would follow along the same
mOney-making. praise-receiving channel
as did "Fauntleroy. "A Lady of Quality
She began also to suffer with severe
pain, and could find no rest from it, work
ing or playing. She came to America
where the good doctors are, of course
and went into the sanatOrium Her malady
was diagnosed neuritis, and she finds
herself much better.
She Will take up the threads of her book,
to weave them into the finished pattern,
and she also hopes to write a play
She will do this in America, and later in
the summer will go out TO California, where
she hopes to get entirely we'll
Intense nervousness and literary clever
ness seem TO go hand in hand.
Mrs. Browning wrote a little poem once
which told-so her friends said-of her own
severe suffering from nervous headaches.
ton that II she must have headaches or
give up writing she will take the pain
Grim choice between two evils
The late Frank Stockton suffered from
nervousness and pain produced by noises.
He was so sensitive to Earring sound that
he left Morristown n. J., where he had
charming home, because he feared the CITY
would run street car near his house.
Nearly all the successful workers in
imaginative fiction are set on edge by the
sounds and conditions which to other peo-
pie are in the days life.
Their talent or genius is surrounded by
such serious handicaps.
Great fnanciers promote colossal enter
prises requiring the greatest mental strain;
great masters of men and affairs work
ceaselessly with gigantic results; profound
makers OF government wrestle with nation
building problems. all in the glare and yell
and noise of active industry.
But the writer OF books must have dead
silence.
Even the sound OF the human voice in
terrupts the flow of the organized thought
General Lew Wallace was so sensitive TO
outside influence that he built him room
I'm the yard and omitted windows, as EN-
erson did his doorway.
Though General Wallace's act was not
Observation-Disclosures or lack of practical
knowledge.
Mr.. Emerson didn't know how he was to
get in.
General Wallace knew he couldn't look
out.
He claimed that even the sight OF moving
objects distracted his thoughts.
Mr.. Hawthorne demanded absolute ouiet
when he wrote or thought. He chose the
most secluded, remote spot 10 live In so he
would by no chance be molested
If this be their portion. it is no wonder
that these four writers of successful novels
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