Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-26
RECORDS IN WRITING
oLDEN FICTION MAKERS SLOW IN
PRODUCING NOVELS.
Authors of Present Generation Much
More Prolific Than Their
Predecessors.
From London Tit Bits.

From London Tit Bits
II the fiction writer's of past generations
could revisit the glimpses of the moon"
few things would surprise them more than
to see the rate at which :heir SUCCESSORS OF
today produce their novels.
Jane Austens life work is represented by
half dozen stories and a few verses: Char
lotte Bronte's great fame is built on the
slight foundation of four novels. and her
two sisters, Anne and Emily, only claim
three volumes between them: while all
George Eliots novels. twelve in number. are
comfortably contained in six volumes. But
nowadays IL is quite a common thing to
find writer of any length of standing with
more than half hundred books to his or
her credit. and adding To them at the rate
of from two to four volumes year.
To the reader who is bit of sports
man" ii is interesting to review the feats
of our modern penmen and women. and to
see who are holders of the different records
in the arena of letters-who is the long
distance champion" who has the best short
distance record to his credit. and so on. II
we confine ourselves to fiction writers we
find that i'm fertility of production two lady
novelists are easily first. with more than a
century of books to their names. Mrs l..
T. Meade heads the list with the astonisli-
ing record of 107 stories. but many OF
them have been written in collaboraii ton
with others. perhaps her claim To suprem-
acy is open to question.
Mrs Marshall's Industry.
Mrs Emma Marshall is an excellent sec
ond to Mrs. Meade with los books as evil
dence of her marvellous industry. and the
third place is probably occupied by Mr..
Manville Fem, the favorite OF boys, whose
volumes number only three short of 100. II
Is DIFFICULT to form any conception of such
a feat as this of writing a hundred vol
umes, but we get little near to the under
standing of it when reflect that il means
the writing of probably more than 10.0D.HpO
words, and that it would take quick
writer, working six days week at the
rate of six hours day, as nearly pos
sible three years merely to copy the manu-
scripts.
IT, late Mr. Henry. who for very many
years produced three new volumes year.
comes fourth with the very creditable score
of eghty-four books. John Strange Winter
is fifth. with seventy seven, all written
within thirty years, and Miss Braddon, who
ranks next, is credited with sixty-three
books, spread over a little more than forty
years. If, is only fair. We take into ac-
count the length of the novels, 1t is moro
than probable that Miss Braddon Is euti-
tied to the first place among living writers
for il is long since she wrote her ten mil
lionth word for her readers. Thus
that of the first six long distance writers.
to use a sporting term, no fewer than four
are women.
Long Distance writers.
1t may be interesting to add few more
records Of this description, and again We
must start with the ladies. Miss Sarah
Tytler has published fifty-seven books Miss
Florence Warden fifty-two and Miss Evelyn
Everett-Green fifty-one. Miss Tytler must
be almost the doyenne among women novel
lists, for her first story, "Nut-Brown Maids
appeared forty-three years ago. two years
before Lady Audley's Secret made Miss
Braddon famous. "Ouida' has forty-two
novels to her credit Miss Adeline Sergeant
forty-four. Rita" forty-one. and Annie S.
Swan thirty-nine. Among men writers AIR
Fergus Hume is responsible for fifty-two
stories. Mr. Clark Russell for forty-one.
Mr. Baring-Gould thirty-nine, Mr.. Norris
thirtyfour. and Mr.. Marion Crawford
thirty-three.
Almost more wonderful than the writing
of so many books is the rate at which some
of our novelists, especially a few of tho
more recent among them. produce their sto-
ries. One might think that one complete
novel in year was good work. Mr.. Mere
dith, indeed has only averaged one foc
cry two years of his writing life and Mr..
Thomas Hardy took thirty years to BRO
duce nineteen novels; but Mr.. Crockett and
Mr.. Guy Boothhy think nothing of turning
out three, four or even five within twelve
months. 1t is only nine years since Mr..
Guy Boothby'S first book. ON the Wd'ln-
by" appeared, and since then he has writ
ten no fewer than thrty-one novels. His
second year of writing yielded three Vol
umes of fiction and 1899 saw no fewer than
five new stories in the hands of his read
ers.
Mr.. Crockett is little less prOlfic-posSIbiy
more So for his books are. rule long
than Mr. Boothby's-for he Is credited
with twcnty-seven novels in ten years. HIS
first effort, THE Stickit Minister which
appeared in 1898 was such an encoura SIuG
success that its author sent forth no fewer
than four successors in the following yca-
and he considers himself at any time.
thanks to his splendid constitution and rapid
working. good for half million words in
twelve months.