The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-11-30
| Deus and
| Views Of
| tbe Book
| WorId.
Ry Herhert Brewster.l


THE NEWS that a rich man in Cali
fornia proposes to set aside 1900
acres for what he calls a literary
reservation" has excited considerable
interest among those whom n land
grant is supposed to benefit The Cali
fernia philanthropist believes that if
he provides homes near to natures
heart" for struggling Young authors
that he win be doing a great service
20 literature. It is doubtful if a single
publisher viii agree with him. There
is too much stuff written now. If one
book is published out of ten written,
there are produced in this country now
nearly 100000 book manuscripts. 1t
is not at all unlikely that the proper
ton is much smaller and consequently
the results of writing much larger.
Projects OF this kind for the m
prOvement of literature get little SYM
pathy from the men who are response
bic for the books now issued, but this
is not at all because they think the
present standard is good enough. The
publishers, above all others, are really
most anxious to issue better books, but
they do not believe better books are
TO be had by making the task easier
for the ambitious writers than at pres
emit.
AS a matter of fact, few take the
plan of the Californian seriously, any
more than they took seriously the re-
port that Booth Harrington viii pro-
pose a bill in the Indiana legislature
whereby prizes will be offered for lit
erary efforts of I~ndianians.
Frank Norris, in the few years Of
his life in New York, advanced from a
clerkship in a publishing house to the
-
novelist, and his health a few days ago
cut off a most promising career as a
most pronounced realistic novelist. AS
a newspaper man in San Francisco,
Mr.. Norris did very creditable work,
and the short stories which preceded
him eastward made possible his con-
nection with a New York house. 1t
was just at the outbreak of the Span
ish-American war that Norris reached
New York, and his enthusiasm for the
real activities of life led him to the
scenes of the skirmish line and camp.
When he returned to New York he
divided his time between proofreading
and he handling of submitted manu-
scripts and the labor of writing. I
think it was "McTeague'' that came
out of this arrangement. Then came a
fairly sufficient degree of prosperity,
and the author went back west to claim
his heroine, pix" whose love story
uS ndu previously written. The
Tr1logy of Wheat" was MI. Nor
ris' next work. The Octopus" made a
success as a book a year ago., and THE
Pit is now appearing as serial. The
book is promised shortly, and those
who have read it say hat it is, by
all odds, the best thing he wrote. Not
more h a a month he completed
his hnal revision of the proofs.
Mr. Norris death came at a most
nfnrTrrDo 70 NfD0z u IL - -
up his plans to sail on a wheat steamer
out of San Francisco in order 10 col
lect material for the last book of the
trilogy-"The Wolf'-because of his
failing health, and had bought a ranch
close by the place of Mrs Robert Lewis
Stevenson. As soon as it was learned
that he had appendicitis, he was AXE
to a San Francisco hospital. He died
two days after the operation. He left
a wife and n daughter.