Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1904-06-30
HOW JACK LONDON ARRIVED.
Popular Author Struggled Hard for
High Position He Holds.

spondent, now at the front, is but
twenty-eight years old. Three years
ago he was unheard of by the reading
world. To-day he is read everywhere,
is sought by publishers. and the pages
or the magazines, from The Century
down, are open to him.
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 giving the latter class
some excellent advice. 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 60o0-word story before breakfast.
Avoid the unhappy ending, the
harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrI-
ble-if you care to see in print the
things you write.
Keep a notebook Travel with 1t,
eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into
t every stray thought that futters
up into your brain.
AS soon as fellow sells two or
:hree things to the magazines" says
lack London, his friends all ask him
now he managed to do It," and then
ne goes on, in his own racy way, to
tell how 1t happened to him.
He had many liabilities and no as
sets. no ircome and several mouths
20 feed. He lived in California, far
from the great publishing centers,
and did rot know what an editor
looked like. But he sat down and
wrote. Day by day his pile of manu-
scripts mounted up. He had vague
IDEAS, obtained from Sunday supple
ment, that minimum rate of $40 a.
thousand words was paid, and figured
on earning $500 month, without
overstocking the market.
One morning the postmen brought
him, instead of the usual long, thick
manuscript envelope, a short, thin
one. He couldn't open 1t right away.
It seemed sacred thing. 1t con-
aimed the written words of an editor
IF big magazine. When, modest as
ever he had figured in his mind what
he offer for this 4000-word story
would be at the minimum rate-$40,
If course-,he opened the letter. Five
dollars!
Not having died right then and
here, Mr. London is convinced that
le may yet qualify as an oldest in
1abitant. Five dollars! When? The
editor did not state.
But, by and by, in the course of it's
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.
Here Is the incident that proved
he turning point in Jack London
literary career, as he SO graphically
ellis Sc: 4e."
Nothing remained but to get out
and shovel coal. / had done it be-
ore, and earned more money at It.
resolved to do it again, and ! GER
.ainly should have done 1t, had it not
oeen for The Black Cat.
Eyes, The Black Cat. The post
man brought me an offer from it for
4000-word story which was more
lengthy than strengthy, if l would
grant permission to cut it down half.
Grant permission? told them they
could cut it down twohalves il they'd
only send the money along, which
they did, by return mail. AS for the
IS previously mentioned, I finally re-
ceived it, after publication and great
deal of embarrassment and trouble. I"
And the rate he received for his first
Black Cat story was nearly 20 times
what the f, e-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
than any other publication.
Each of it's famous prize competi-
tons has brought new writer's to the
front In it's most recent, the S2,100
prize was won by young Texan who
had never before written a story, and
the second, $1,000, went to lawyers
wife in an obscure Missouri town.
1t has just inaugurated another con-
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 Com
pany, Boston, Mass. Even those who
cannot write winning story them
selves may earn $40 by giving time
ly tip to some friend who can.
But all should bear in mind that
will be entirely useless for any one
to send story to The Black Cat
without first reading and complying
with all the published conditions.
Here is chance for the reader to dig
dollars out of his brain. for what life
does not at least contain one tale
worth telling?
A Chicago girl wrote the beauty de
partment of local paper, and asked:
What is good for big feet?" Prompt
ly the reply appeared, big shoes. -
Houston Post.
de man OATS so 'fraid of maxim
mistakes dat he won do muffin said
Uncle Eben, lis sure, sooner or lat
er, to cum under de s'picion of bein'
lazy" Washington Star.
George r. Peck, the railway attor-