Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1904-07-14
HOW JACK LONDON ARRIVED
Story Of Early Struggles Toward Sue
cess Of Brilliant War Cor
respondent.

Jack London, the fascinating short
story writer and brilliant war CORE.
spondent. now at the front, Is but q
years old, says the Boston Globe
Three years ago he was unheard Of
by the reading world. To-day he is
read everywhere, is sought by pub
fishers, and the pages Of the maya
zines, from the Century down, are
open to him.
The story Of his early privations and
hardships-his boyhood on Califor-
mia ranch, his years before the mast
in the waters of the Golden Gate, his
struggle for learning, and the daring
trip to the Klondike, from which he
returned with more knowledge than
nuggets--is known to most Of his
readers now. The story Of how he
arrived" how he first set foot upon
the stepping stone to success, he tells
in the Editor, the New York magazine
for literary workers, incidentally CIV
ing the latter class some excellent ad-
vice. Here are few Of his terse,
pregnant sentences:
Work! Don't walt for some good
Samaritan to tell you. but dig 1t out
yourself.
Fiction pays best of all.
Don't write too much. Don't dash OF
q 6,000-word story before breakfast.
Avoid the unhappy ending, the
harsh. the brutal, the tragic, the hor-
rible--if you care to see in print the
things you write.
Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat
with 1t, sleep with 1t. Slap into 1t
every stray thought that flutters up
into your brain.
This valuable advice is appended to
the story Of his own struggle for
recognition. Every one likes to know
how the successful succeed.
He had many liabilities and no as
sets. no income and several mouths to
feed. He lived in California, far from
the great publishing centers, and did
not know what an editor looked like.
But he sat down and wrote. Day by
day his pile Of manuscripts mounted
up. He had vague ideas, obtained
from Sunday supplement, that a
minimum rate Of ten dollars thou
sand words was paid, and figured on
earning $500 month, without over
stocking the market.
One morning the postman brought
him. instead Of the usual long. thick
manuscript envelope, short, thin one
He couldn't open 1t right away. 1t
seemed a sacred thing. 1t contained
the written words of an editor Of big
magazine. When, modest as ever. he
had figured in his mind what the offer
for this 4,0O0-word story would be at
the minimum rate-$40, Of course-he
opened the letter. Five dollars!
Not having died right then and
there, Mr.. London is convinced that he
may yet qualify as an oldest inhab-
liant.
But, by and by, in the course of its
wanderings. one Of his stories reached
an editor who could see the genius of
Jack London, and had the patience to
penetrate beneath the husk OF wordy
introduction and discover the golden
grain-the capital Story, with a capital
S, and-rarest quality OF ali-the bust
ness sagacity to offer an unknown
writer more for good story than he
would pay for a commonplace one from
famous author.
Here is the incident that proved the
turning point in Jack London's liter
airy career, as he so graphically
tells It:
Nothing remained but to get out
and shovel coal I had done 1t before,
and earned more money at 1t. re-
solved to do II again, and l certainly
should have done II, had II not been
for The Black Cat.
Eyes. The Black Cat. The postman
brought me an offer from 1t for a
4,000-word story which was more
lengthy and strengthy. II would
grant permission to cut It down half.
Grant permission? l told them they
could cut It down two-halves II they'd
only send the money along, which they
did. by return mail. AS for the five
dollars previously mentioned, l finally
received 1t. after publication and
great deal Of embarrassment and
trouble. forgot my coal-shoveling
resolution. and continued to whang
away at the typewriter"
And the rate he received for his
first Black Cat story was nearly 20
times what the five-dollar editor paid.
Nor is Jack London the only writer
who has been lifted from obscurity to
prominence by the lucky Black Cat,
which, as the New York Press has
truly said, has done more for short
story writer's and short-story readers
taan any other publication.
Each Of its famous prize COMPETE
lions has brought new writer's to the
front. In its most recent, the $500
prize was won by young Texan who
had never before written q story, and
the second, $1,000, went to a lawyers
wife in an obscure Missouri town.