The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1904-08-09
HOW JACK LONDON ARRIVED,
Popular Author Struggled Hard -.
High Position He Holds.

t"euty-Slenl years Olu. Ihree Years
ago he was unheard of by the readin.
world. To-day he is read everywbers
is sought by publishers, and the pages
Of the magazines, from The Cepturv
down, are open to him.
The story of how he arrived.
how he first set foot upon tba
stepping-stone to success. ba
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 6000-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 n
eat with 1t, sleep with it, Slap into
1t every stray thought that hutters
up into your brain.
GAS 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 own racy way, to
tell how it happened to him.
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 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 a Sunday supple.
ment, that a minimum rate of $40 a
thousand words was paid, and figured
on earning 5000 a month, without
overstocking 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 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 4OOO-word story
would be at the minimum rate-s4O,
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 in.
habitant. Five dollarsl When? The
editor did not state.
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.
Here is the incident that proved
the turning point in Jack London's
literary career, as he so graphically
tells it:
Nothing remained but to get out
and shovel coal. l had done it be
fore. and earned more money at it
L resolved to do it again, and Ger
tainly should have done it, had it not
been for The Black Cat.
yes, The Black Cat The post
man brought me an offer from it for
a 4000-word story which was more
lengthy than strengthy, if I would
grant permission to cut it down half
Grant permission? / 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
SIS previously mentioned, I finally re
eeived it, after publication and great
deal Of embarrassment and trouble
And the rate he received for his irs
Black Cat story was nearly 20 times
what the fiye-doIlar editor paidl
Nor is Jack London the only writei
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 readen
than any other publication.
Each of it's famous prize Compel
lions has brought new writer's to tn
front. In its most recent, the $2,1G
prize was won by young Texan VIII
had never before written a story, and
the second, $1,000, went to a lawyers
wife in an obscure Missouri town.
1t has Just inaugurated another cor
test in which $4,000 will be paid Il
writer's in sums of from 500 to 81, 500
This will. no doubt, add many ne'
names to the list of those who haU
arrived" through its recognition.
The conditions are announced in tn
current issue of The Black Cat. AM
win also be mailed free to any onI
by the Shortstory Publishing Con
pany, Boston, Mass. Even those VIII
cannot write winning story then
selves may earn $40 by giving a time
ly tip to some friend who can.
But all should bear in mind that
will be entirely useless 70: any on
to send story to The Black ca
without first reading and compyiri
with all the published condition.
Here is a chance for the reader TO dli
dollars out of his brain, for what In
does not at Ieaaf noptofn opa tall