Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1904-10-08

self
Fiction pays best OF an
Don't write too much. Don't dash of
a 6,O0O.word story before breakfast
Avoid the unhappy ending the harsh,
the brutal, the tragic, the horrible-if
you care to see In print the things you
write.
Keen notebook. Travel with H. eat
with II. sleep with A. Slap into IL every
stray thought that nutters up into your
brain.
This valuable advice is appended to
the story NJ his own struggle for rec
Ognition Every one likes TO know how
the successful succeed.
AS soon as a fellow sells two or
three things to the magazines, says
Jack London, his friends an ask him
how he managed 10 do IT, and then he
/ goes on, IN his own racy way, TO ten
how it happened to him.
He had many liabilities and mo- as
sets, no income and several mouths TO
feed. lie lived In California, far from
the great publishing centers, and did
not know what an editor looked IKE.
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 minimum
rate Of $40 a thousand words was paid,
and figured on earning $500 a month,
without oyorstOckng the market
one morning the postman brought
him, instead OF the usual long, thick
manuscript envelope, a short, thin one.
lie couldn't open U right away. II
seemed "a sacred thing. II contained
A. 40 Of nf
magazine When. modest as ever he
had figured In his mind what the offer
for this i.O0O.word story would be at the
minimum $40, Of course-he OPEN
cd the ftter Five dollars
Not having died right then and there,
Mr. London ~ convinced that he may
yet qualify as am Oldest inhabitant,
Five dollars When2 The editor did
not state.
But. by and by, I'm the course Of lts
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 wovdy
Introduction and discover the go.Sen
grain--the capital story with capital
s. and-rarest quality Of all-the busl-
ness sagacity to offer an unknown writ.
er more for good story than he would
pay for commonplace one from a fam
Gus author
Here is the incident that proved the
turning point I'm Jack London's literary
career. as he so graphically tells 1t;
Nothing remained but TO get out and
shovel coal. had done II before, and
earned more money az II, resolved TO
do II again and ] certainly should nave
done It, had II not been for the Black
Cat
yes. the Black Cat The postmnn
brought me an offer from II Tor i,Qv0-
word story which was moro lengthy
than strengthy, n | would grant per-
mission? | told them they could cut
il down two-halves II they'd only send
the money along, which they did, by
return mail As for the 81 previously
mentioned / finally received Il, after
publication and great deal of embar-
rassment and trouble | forgot my coal
shoveing resolutions 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 .dollar-editor paid
Nor rs Jack London the only writer
who has been lifted from obscurlty 10
prominence by the lucky Black Cat
which. as the New York Press has truly
said has done more for short story
writers aud short story readers than
any other publication
Each Of It's famous prize competitions
has brought new writer's to the front
In IS most recent. The $500 prize was
won by young Texan who had never
before written story ana the second
1880. went to a lawyers WHO IN an OBJ
scure Missouri town,
II has Just lnaugurated another con-
test in which $4,000 Will be paid 20
writer's I'm sums OF from 500 20 Sl5oO
This will no doubt add many new
names to the list of those who have
arrived" through It's recognition,
Mr.. Mark Lee Luther's new novel OF
politics In New York state went into It's
second edition within 10 days Of puhll-
cation The critics are halling Il MS one
OF the great drlmatl2atlons ~ Ameri-
can political lifo Special interest nt-
tGches 70 the novel lust now on account
OF the impending election
Miss lillian Whiting, the author OF
The World Beautiful" and other we'll
known books, writes to the publishers
Of THE Mastery TO say that Mr. Mark
Lee Luther's new novel impresses her
as 'one Of the few greatest American
novels, As "A decentralization OF political
conditions and life II Is inimimble. That
depletion Of a political convention at
Saratoga and The character drawing OF
Senator Wentworth Boss SPEEDING
DDtw Maddox and Redfem Is simply
lie Itself" Miss Whiting sums up the
books as "a vital and vivid and wonder
ful series Of pictorial interpretations Of
American political lie"
Tho ihnnnn,An 81 rnnhnr. ,,.hn ,,.nrn