The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1904-07-01
HOW JACK LONDON "ARRlVEp.'
Popular Author Struggled Hard fol
HIGH Position He Holds.

world. To-day he is read everywhere
is sought by publishers, and the page,
Of the magazines, from The Century
down, are open TO him.
The story Of how he arrived"
how he first set foot upon the
steppnG-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 mUrh. Don't dash
off CU0O-word story before breakfast.
Avoid the unhappy ending, the
harsh, the brutal, the tragic the hort.
ble-jf yen care to see in print the
things yOu write.
Keep a notebook. Travel with if,
eat with it, sleep with it, Slap into
it every stray Thought that flute. :
up into your brain.
AS soon as a fellow sells two or
three things to the magazines" says
Jack London, his friends all ask him
how he managed to do it. and then
he goes on. in his OWE racy way, to
tell how it happened to him.
He had many liabilities and no as
sets. no income and several mouths
10 feed. He lived in California, far
from the great publishing ccnterS,
and Cid 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
meut. that a minimum rate Of $40 q
thousand words was paid, and figured
on earning $500 month, without
! 0verstocKing the market.
! One morning the postman brought
him, instead Of the usual long, thick
manuscript envelope, short, thin
one. He couldn't open it right away
It seemed sacred thing 1t con
tanned the written words of an editor
Of big magazine When, modest as
ever, he had figured in his mind what
the offer for this 40O0-word story
would be at the minimum rate-$40
of course-he opened the letter. Five
dollars.
Not having died right then ant
there, Mr.. London is convinced tha
he may yet qualify as an oldest in
habitant. Five dollars! When? The
editor did not state.
But, by and by, in the course Of it,
WanderineS. one Of his stories reached
an editor who could see the genius O.
Jack London. and had the patience t
penetrate beneath the husk of wOrdN
introduction and discover the colder
grain.
Here is the incident that PROVED
the turning point in Jack London
literary career, as he SO graphical!
tells it:
Nothing remained but to get on
and shovel coal. ! had done it be
fore, and earned more money at II
] resolved to do it again, and | Ger
tainIy should have dom it, had it no
been for The Black Cat.
Yes, The Black Cat The post
man brought me an offer from it TO
a 40O0-word story which was NOR,
lengthy than strengthy. if | wouIt
grant permission to cut it down hall
Grant permission? | told them the,
could cut it down two-halves if they't
only send the money along, whicl
they did, by return mail AS for tn
S. previously mentioned, I finally re
Ceived it, after publication and grea
deal of embarrassment and trouble.
And the rate he received for his frs
Black Cat story was nearly 20 time
what the fiye-6Ollar editor paid!
Nor is Jack London the only write
who has been lifted from obscurity t
prominence by the lucky Black Cat
which, as the New York Press ha
truly said, has done more for short
story writer's and shOrt-stOry reader
than any other publication.
Each Of its famous prize compel
tons has brought new writer's to tn
front. In its most recent, the $40
prize was won by young Texan VIII
had never before written a story, an
the second, $1,000, went to a lawyer
wife in an obscure Missouri town.
1t has Just inaugurated another COZ
test in which $4,000 will be paid
writer's in sums of from 500 to 81, 5OO
This will, no doubt, add many me-
nar1es to the list of those who haY
"arrived' through its recognition.
The conditions are announced in tb
current issue Of The Black Cat, an
will also be mailed free to any on
by the Shortstory Publishing Con
pany, Boston. Mass. Even those VIII
= cannot write winning story then
: selves may earn $40 by giving a tim
, ly tip to some friend who can.
, Puf all chnul6 hear in mind that
= will be entirely useless for any or