Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-28
UNIV RITTEN NOVELS

'tThe best novels are the novels which
haven't yet been written. and which prob
ably never viii be written" was the some
what puzzling remark Of the representa-
tive Of a famous New York publishing
house. who came down to Washington the
other day on business visit to a noted
writer Of fiction, who makes his home in
Washington during the winters. II mean
to say" he went on to elucidate, that the
fellows who are really capable Of writing
flrst-class noveis-not merely sellers a.
we call them. but top-notch works OF no
tion-are, In perhaps nineteen cases out OF
twenty. too busy to write novels
During the past three years, for e1-
ample. the firm with which I am connected
has made liberal advance-money and roy
atty propositions to more than two dozen
men connected with the New York, Chicago,
Philadelphia and Baltimore press. as wen
as to newspaper men In some OF the smaller
cities, who have clearly shown by their oc-
casional contributions to fiction publishing
magazines, as well as by their style Of writ
ing for their own papers, that they could,
If they tried, or If, as they say, they had
the time to try, write admirable novels.
We are constantly on the lookout for good
writer's. with the idea Of suggesting to them
that they try their hands at novels. The
profits of a successful novel have come to
be SO enormous that 1t is worth while to
publish dozens OF them with little or no
profit, not to say with actual loss on
each book, for the sake Of eventually max
Ing good with successful one.
We'll, every last one of the men to whom
we made propositions as to novels fatty
said that they didn't have the time to I'M
dertake the task They were, for the most
part. night workers, and most of them had
wives and children to look after. They
nearly all stated that they had been longing
Tor years to find the time to write novels.
the scenarios of which they had in mind,
but that to do newspaper work and at the
same time to attempt novel writing would
be utterly out of the question. I have no
doubt that they were right, at that, but,
nevertheless, 1t Is a pity that it should be
so. There is SO much complete baider-
dash In the way of novels coming out of the
presses nowadays, and, extraordinary to
say, succeeding immensely, for the lack OF
better stuff, that 1t is a genuine source Of
regret that the men who are really capable
of doing something excellent in the way OF
fiction writing shouldn't have the chance
to undertake the work. The men whom we
approached said that they had, first Of all,
to cultivate the certainty, the cinch, name
ly, their Jobs that brought them in regular
stated incomes, and that 1t would be quite
out OF the question for them to pass up
their regular bread-winning occupations for
the sake of essaying novels, that, according
to the figures, have only about one chance
IN thousand Of succeeding well enough to
repay them for the risk they would neces-
sarily have to take in sacrificing their posi-
tons.
"'Some Of these days. have heard some
OF these capable men Of the press say in
a vague sort of way, TN pick up couple
OF thousand-make winning, or something
OF that sort. you know-and then I'll feel
safe In getting q six months furlough, or
even In restgning my newspaper billet and
go OF In the country somewhere and write
that emendously powerful realistic novel
that's been humping around in my head
for so many years-but until get into that
position of safety, what would be the sense
or the use Of trying?
They are unanimous in stating that 1t
would be simply impossible for an active
newspaper man in harness to write any
sort of g. novel while sticking to his jour
nalistic labors. The newspaper work would,
OF course, have to come first with these
men. and when the average American
newspaper man gets through with his DAVIS
or nights work he has been pretty well
dra1ned-there isn't much enthusiasm left
IN him, and he can't, of course, approach
any other sort Of work with anything like
a fresh mind, such as the writing of fiction
absolutely requires. 1t Is all right for
man like Sir Edwin Arnold to write, as a
preface to his Light Of Asia that that
poetical work was composed while he was
engaged in 'exacting journalistic labors.'
but his journalistic labors consisted of the
writing of one-column editorial leader a
day for his London newspaper little
stunt which would be looked upon as
simple pie by the generally overworked
and overweight hustling American news
paper man.
There are extremely busy m en- and wo-
men In other professions than that Of jour-
naltsm. of course, whose time is so claimed
that they could not undertake the work OF
writing novels that they are finely equipped
to write, but our dealings have been mainly
with the overbusy newspaper men capab
OF doing that sort OF work. hope they'll
adj make their winnings some day and get
down to novel writing and send their man.
themselves would be big winners"