Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1904-06-29
Aow .Aok LoNDoN .AnnvEp..
Popular Author Struggled Hard for
High Pouitlon He Holds.

9pOndent, now at the mont, 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
Of 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, tho New
York magazine for literary workers.
incidentally giving the latter class
some excellent advice. Here are q
few OF his terse, pregnant sentences:
Work. Don't walt 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
of a 6O00-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
thlngs you write ---
Keep notebook. Travel with it,
eat with 1t, sleep with It. Slap Into
it every stray thought that flutters
up into your brain.
"As soon as fellow sells two or
three things to the magazines" says
Jack London, his friends all ask him
how he managed e do IT. and then
he goes on, In his own facy way, to
tell how It happened to him.
hoh v,o,,xv Ito 1,41tAsap a,,d
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 manu-
scripts mounted up He had vague
ideas. obtained from Sunday supple
ment that a minimum rate of $40 a
thousand words was paid, and figured
on earning $500 month, without
overstoclting the market.
One morning the postman brought
him, instead Of the usual long, thick
manuscript envelope, short, thin
one. He couldn't open II right away.
II seemed sacred thing, 1t con.
tained the written words Of an editor
OF big magazine. When, modest as
ever, he had figured in his mind what
the offer for this 4O00.word story
would be at the minimum rate $40.
Of course--he opened the letter Five
dollarsl
Not having died right then and
there, Mr.. London is convinced that
he may yet qualify as an Oldest in.
-uepIrEIiF Five nuIarsl When7 Tie
editor did not state.
But BY and by, in the course Of It's
wanderinss one Is his stories reached
an editor who could ses che gSniIS 81
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 | had done It be-
fore, and earned more money at It.
resolved to do it again, and GER
tainIy 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 400O-word story which was more
lengthy than strengthy, il would
grant permission to cut It down half.
Grant permission? l told them they
could cut It down two-halyes II they'd
only send the money alons, which
they did, BY return mail, AS for the
gB previously mentioned, finally re
celved it, after publication and great
deal Of embarrassment and trouble"
And the rate he received for his first
Black Cat story was nearly 20 times
what the fiy e-dollar editor paid
Nor is jack London the only writer
who has been lifted from obseurity 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 its famous prize competi-
lions has brought new writer's to the
front In its most recent, the {2,1O0
prize was won by young Texan who
had never before written story, and
the second, $1,000. went to q lawyers
wife In an obscure Missouri town
1t has Just inaugurated another con
test In which $4,000 win be paid to
writer's In sums OF from 500 to 81 500.
This will mo doubt, add many new
Names to the list OF those who have