Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-18
Notes Of Books and Authors.

Onoto Watanna, the author of the new
Japanese novel. Daughters of MILO" wrote
recently to friend who inquired about
her methods of work: Il have no particular
study, or even desk. When / write l pick
up pad and go into any room where I
can be alone. I sometimes think there Is
trail of papers all over the house. from
the parlor to the baby's nursery-for / have
even written there when he was asleep and
the nurse had her day off. 1 am always
making up my mind to find new rules.
whereby l will write only in one place and
Keep all my papers there. And 1 start out
well. with the tidiest looking desk. and
then in week or so II gets so piled up
that move somewhere else. When there
are half a dozen desks or tables covered
with pads. typewriter sheets, letters. en-
Velopes. papers, ETC., then 1 resort to a
chair.
Sometimes when I am particularly in
terested in a plot 1 keep at 1t feverishly,
until l get 1t all completed in few days
L usually think out the plots-or they come
10 me at night-after l have retired; and
know the insomnia from which l have
sometimes suffered is due to my restless
brain at that time. l want to start at the
story right away the next day-and I do.
l! l hough write 1t very quickly-sometimes
io'ooo words in day-yet 1 work over il
so much after 1t Is first written that IL IS
really the work of months before I call
II finished. 1t goes back and forth to the
yPe"rler 81 change pages here and
out" " Aei
Madame Albanesi. the author of Susan
nan ana One Other (McClure-Phillips).
USED her own charming Kent home as a
packground for part of her story She calls
her place Frognall Farm. 1t lies about six
miles from the picturesque town of Canter-
n T ana is but short drive from the Eng
N n pnin
about 300 years old. standing In typical
kentlsh surroundings wide-eayed barns
and sheep-fold5. bowery orchards and broad
meadows. 1t was these meadows indeed
that inspired the opening chapters of SUI
sannah; for, having risen at dawn one
midsummer morning, just as her heroine
does to gather mushrooms. Madame Alba
nesi says that. as she stood watching the
sun rise, she developed the whole scheme of
her story, which she outlined on paper after
breakfast that same day
Messrs. Henry Holt & Co. admit that the
sales of The Lightning Conductor" which
they are just printing for the seventeenth
time, have surpassed their most sanguine
expectations. II has proved so excellent
romance of travel that the publishers are
credibly Informed that numerous book read
ers are making automobile tours with it as
a sort of guide book. over the Riviera route
so tellingly sketched in 1t. The publishers
have contracted with the authors, Mr.. and
Mrs. c. n. Williamson. for their next auto
mobile romance. which they expect to pub
lish early in 1905.
Mr.. Maurice Hewlett was born at Shaw
Hill, Kent, in 1861; was educated at the
London international College. and became
a barrister in 1891. 'Earthwork Out of
Tuscany" made his fame on its publication
in 1895, and this was followed by THE
Masque of Dead Florentines, Songs and
Meditations.' The Forest Lovers which
established him in the first rank of living
rrry-tfn on ttn Nl,Ar.1
Little Novels of Italy" Richard Yea and
Nay and New Canterbury Tales His
new novel, The Queens QUAR-" is the first
work to appear from his pen since 1901. He
is spending the summer in Italy finishing
The Tuscan Crown which the Macmillan
Company will publish in the fall with many
Illustrations by Joseph Pennell.
Messrs. Houghton. Miffiin & Co an
nounce that the life of Walt Whitman. in
their American Men of Letters series.
will be written by Bliss Perry. editor of the
Atlantic Monthly. The life of Holmes. in
the same series will be written by Samuel
NJ Crothers. author of THE Gentle Read
err" and the life of Lowell will be written
by Ferris Greenslet associate editor of the
Atlantic.
The Macmillan Company will soon publish
Mr.. Weale's timely book on 'Manchuria."
1t is the work of man who has lived long
in that country and who has explored dill
gently the conditions and the problems for
which Manchuria is the name. as those
conditions-social. economic. political. his
toric, racial-exist today. This octave of
about three hundred pages will contain
thirty plates from specially good photo
graphs of Port Arthur Dalny and places in
the neighborhood.
Japan by the Japanese edited by AL
fred Stead. is book announced by Dodd,
Mead & Co. for publication in the early fall
This is work of 200.0OO words. with many
chapters by the most eminent Japanese au-
thorities on various phases of Japanese life.
Such eminent. writers as Marquis Ito have
contributed to the work. 1t will be the
most authoritative book of its kind and
will prove of great value to any one study
ing Japan or the Japanese.
In all the long list of college graduates
this year the name which easily attracts
the greatest attention is that of Helen
Keller. Miss Keller graduates from Rad
cliffe College, Harvard on June %. and
the event will be given especial signif-
canoe. Many distinguished people have
been invited to be present, and newspa pers
and periodicals are displaying close inter-
est in the subject Miss Keller has already
proved her ability in one field of life