The Tupelo journal., 1904-07-15
HOW JACK LONDON ARRIVED
Story of Early Struggles Toward Sue
cess of Brilliant War Cor
respondent.

story writer and brilliant wal CORE
spondent, now at the front, is but 20
years old, say 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 a 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 a few of his terse,
pregnant sentences:
Work! Don't wait for some good
Samaritan to tell you. but dig it out
yourself.
Fiction pays best of all.
Don't write too much. Don't dash off
a 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 it, sleep with it. Slap into it
every stray thought that futters 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 c%enters, 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 a Sunday supplement, that a
minimum rate of ten dollars a thou
sand words was paid, and figured on
earning $500 a month, without over
stocking the market.
One morning the postman brought
him, instead of the usual long, thick
manuscript envelope, a short, thin one.
He couldn't open it right away. 1t
seemed a sacred thing. 1t contained
the written words of an editor of a big
magazine. When, modest as ever, he
had figured in his mind what the offer
for this 4,0OO-word story would be at
the minimum rate-$40, of course-he
opened the letter. Five dollars.
Not having died right then and
there, MI. London is convinced that he
may yet qualify as an Oldest inhab-
liant.
But, by and by, in the course of it's
wanderings, n 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 all-the bust
ness sagacity to offer ar unknown
writer more for a good story than he
would pay for a commonplace one from
a 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. l had done it before,
and earned more money at it. l re-
solved to do it again. and certainly
should have done it, had it not been
for The Black Cat.
Eyes, The Black Cat. The postman
brought me an offer from it for a
4,0OO-word story which was more
lengthy and %strengthy, if would
grant permission to cut it down half.
Grant permission? l told them they
could cut it down two-halves if they'd
only send the money along, which they
did, by return mail. AS for the five
dollars previously mentioned, l finally
received it, after publication and a
great deal of embarrassment and
trouble. l 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 ive-dollar editor paid.
Nor is Jack London the only writer
who has been lifted from o~bscurity 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
tnan In other publication.
Each of its famous prize competi-
tons has brought new writer's to the
front. In it's most recent, the 81, 100
prize was won by a young Texan who
had never before written a story, and
the second, 81, 300, went to a lawyers
wife in an obscure Missouri town.
1t has just ~inaugurated another on
test in which $4,000 will be paid to
writer's in sums of from 500 to 81, 500.
This will, no doubt, add many new
names to the list of those who have
arrived through its recognition.
The conditions are announced in the
current issue of The Black Cat, and
will also be mailed free to any one by
The Shortstory Publishing company,
Boston, Mass. Even those who can
not write a winning story themselves
may earn ten dollars by giving a time
ly tip to some friend who can.
But all should bear in mind that it