The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1904-07-16
HOW JACK LONDON ARRIVED
Story Of Early Struggles Toward Sue
cess Of Brilliant War Cor
respondent.

open TO MIN.
The story of his early privations an
hardships-his boyhood on a Califor
MA ranch, his years before the mas
In the waters of the Golden Gate, hi
struggle for learning, and the darin
trip to the Klondike, from which h
returned with more knowledge thai
nuggets-is known to most of hi
readers now. The story of how h
arrived" how he first set foot upol
the stepping stone to success, he tell
In the Editor, the New York magazin,
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 walt for some goot
samaritan to tell you, but dig it Out
yourself
Fiction pays best of all.
Don't write too much. Don't dash of
q 6,OO0-word story before breakfast.
Avoid the unhappy ending, the
harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the hor-
rlble-f you care to see In print the
| IAlASS 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 centers, 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 thou
sand words was paid, and figured on
earning 5000 month, without over
stocking 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. 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 4,000-word story would be at
the minimum rate-$40, of course-he
opened the letter. Five dollars!
Not having died right then and
there, Mr.. London is convinced that he
may yet qualify as an Oldest inhab-
liant.
But, by and by, in the course of its
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-the capital Story with capital
s. and-rarest quality of all--the bust
ness sagacity to offer an unknown
writer more for good story than he
would pay for 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. re-
solved to do it again, and l 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
!, 000-word story which was more
engthy and strengthy, If would
rant permission to cut it down half.
Grant permission? l told them they
'ould cut it down two-halves if they'd
'nly send the money along, which they
lid, by return mail. AS for the five
dollars previously mentioned, | finally
eceived it, after publication and
,reat deal of embarrassment and
rouble. | forgot my coal-shoveling
esolution, and continued to whang
way at the typewriter"
And the rate he received for his
rst Black Cat story was nearly 20
lines what the five-dollar editor paid.
Nor is Jack London the only writer i
Tho has been lifted from obscurity to
by the lucky Black Cat,
hitch, as the New York Press has
ruly said, has done more for short j.;
tory writers and short-story readers !
Ian any other publication. 4
Each of its famous prize COMPETE I
ons has brought new writer's to the !
ont. In its most recent, the S2,10O {
rize was won by young Texan who
ad never before written a story, and
lie second, $1,000, went to a lawyers 6
life in an obscure Missouri town.
1t has just inaugurated another con- I
st in which $4,000 will be paid to
riters in sums of from $100 to $1,000.
his will, no doubt, add many new t,
lines to the list of those who have I
Irrived" through its recognition. .
The conditions are announced in the
TRENT issue of The Black Cat, and 4
III also be mailed free to any one by
ne Shortstory Publishing company,
'ston, Mass. Even those who can
It write a winning story themselves
ay earn ten dollars by giving a time
tip to some friend who can.
But all should bear in mind that IL
IL be entirely useless for any one to
nd story to The Black Cat without
st reading and complying with
the published conditions. Here
a chance for the reader 10 dig dol.