The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-05
Mary MacLane's New PrOduc-
tiOn Is Disappointing.
It Falls to Reach Standard of
First Book.
HAS FAILED IN EFFORT
Evident She Has Tried to Profit
by Experience.
Work Won't Be as Popular as
the " Confession

Doomed by all the arts ana DEVICES
known to the book boomers. the Story
OF Mary MacLane. an unusual and IN
conventional, although withal unorig-
inal book Of last year, attained consid-
cradle nOtoriety and the right to be
published in the list of best sellers
for several months. There was nothing
about the Mary MacLane book to cause
a furore-there very seldom does seem
any adequate excuse for the popularity
of popular books-but it was exploited
In manner to arouse the curiosity OF
lovers of sensational literature, and
people who had never read any Of the
celebrated confessions of literature
upon which it was undoubtedly modelled
found it oddly interesting or amusing.
Also Hamlin Garland and Professor
oscar Triggs. or some other member
of the freak faculty Of the Standard
Oil seat of learning in Chicago, read It
and pronounced it good. Mr.. Garland
said its young author had a quite IN
comparable style and that she was
above all things never to change it or
suffer il to be changed by her further
studies and efforts in a literary way.
There Is evidence in Miss MacLans's
new book NV Friend Annabel Lee, that
she hes taken Mr.. Garland's advice very
seriously, for it is mainly characterized
BY an exaggeration Of the affectations
of her first production
It is hard to tell whether Miss Mac
Lane is a conscious or an unconscious
humorist. but II she is the former she
Is certainly a mistress OF the fine art
Of enjoying joke on oneself. for II
ever there was a rich joke on any one
Mary MacLane's books are a great joke
on Mary MacLane. Ny Friend Anna
bel Lee is really only Another Story of
Mary MacLane, and one wonders why
the author, whose frank egotism might
81 "a ms q = rlf f.
ing quality II she had the genius's gift
of making the most of her limitations,
did not so entitle it. 'Annabel Lee" is
a terra Gotta statuette of a Japanese
maiden, which Miss MacLane picked
UPS that the expression?- a shop
in BOylstOn street, and the book is
record Of the dialogues in which Anna
bel Lee plays Hennessey to Mary Mac
Lanes Dooley.
There is nothing so good in AnnabeI
Lee as the toothbrush chapter in the
first book. although the story of the
Kaatenstein children is not so bad. The
rest OF the look. however, might be
said to be very SLOW going" If Mary
MacLane has any excuse at all for
breaking into print it is on the score Of
naturalness, truth telling and a disre-
+ gard for the convenances as such
These supposed qualities gave her first
4 book its vogue. although il required
very little discernment to discover the
inslnCerities and affectattOns in that
doubt that Mary MacLane is only
foolish little Doseur. very young. very
crude and very vain Either that or
mistress of burlescue.
My Friend Annabel Lee is dedicated
to Miss Lucy Gray, a reader for Her
bert S Stone & Co. Chicago. Miss Mac
Lanes publishers, and upon whose rec
concentration the Story of Mary Mac
Lane was accepted. The dedication is a
fair sample of the sort of affected ma
terial with which the book abounds: TO
Lucy Gray, in Chicago" it reads. This
Book and One Pale Lavender Flower OF
Amaranth."
Now you know that anyone who could
tell what that means is entitled to the
beautiful wax doll and the quarter saw
ed oak bedroom set. But Mary Mac
Lane has the Munsey stOriette idea that
the more vague and obscure and impos-
sible you can make a thing the nearer
do you approach fine writing and
True Art.
Annabel Lee it seems likely won't go
the way Mary MacLane did. For one
and for another there is no reference to
the Devil. 1t was undoubtedly her chum-
my association with the Devil-or her
professed eagerness to be chummy with
him-that made people read Mary Mac
Lane hopefully to the last chapter look
ing for something worse. Annabel Lee
Is quite respectable 1t is AL about the
Flat Surfaces Of Things and the Half
Conscious Souls and Measures of Sor-
row. and Lutes Without Strings and a
Message From Tender Soul with now
and then a drop to earth and references
to beefsteak and onions. Stuff and nom
sense Of course but no harm in it, IL
Miss MacLane has met the Devil and
she is his. since she left Butte for Bos-
ton. she says nothing about it and alto
gether her latest outburst is so very
proper that her publishers are likely to
lose money on il. Even the reputati1