The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-15

so far prepared so fully and graphically presents the southern situation immedi- ately after the war. It is a sort of reve- lation and is not without humor. Dixie After the War" will contain, among other things, hitherto unpublished portrait of ' Jefferson Davis Mrs. Avary, by the way | Is the accomplished author of "A Vir- ginia Girl in the Civil War" and the as- sociate editor of "A Diary from Dixie. which embodied the story of Mrs Mary 1 Boykln Chestnut wife of zthe senator from South Carolina. These books. to-
 gether with Mrs Pryor's "reminiscences
 have given the whole country a new view Of thessouthern people-a history at once l unprejudiced and valuable.
 The Letters of. Lee.
 But it remained for "The Reeollections
 and Letters of General Robert E. Lee"
 10 give the nation a lesson in southern | hoplity. To the publication of this book easily the most distinguished event of l thls kind in American publishing was | attached genuine historic importance. Ii was the intimate revelation of the knight nest figure in the military lfe,. told in | the letters to his wife and with a hack
 ground of "reminiscences by his son. Can
 tam R E. Lee, of West Point. Va. This DOCK mas gone in seven editions and there IS constant demand for it in all sec tons of the country More Lee letters should be published. Such. volumes as | the Lee book and General J. B. Gordons %Reminiscences of the Civil War, have done more to wipe out the sectional line ! than anything else. M
 Ellen GIaseow's Work. The most interesting literary figure in the American public eye just now is u pflInant southern woman; Miss Ellen Glas- gow, whose new novel. The Wheel of LiIe' Is not only the best selling book. put IS causing widespread discussion. .The Wheel of Life has proved that Miss Glasgows literary horizon is not restrict ca pyI the boundaries of her native state or virginia; the scene of her former great bok successes. It will be Interesting
 to note the locale of her next novel
 Miss Glasgow, who has been visiting Tn New York and Boston, has returned
 to her home in Richmond There is some
 thlhg n the figure of this modest Virginia | laoy Who has lived q sequestered life
 that brings Jane Austen to mind. Yet
 the robustness of her work, the power
 ana sweep of The Deliverances and "The
 Dattiesrouhd for example, denote a
 temperament and an art like George ' EliotS ee
 someone asked Miss Glasgow the other uay why she laid the scene of .@rhe i wheel or Life" in New York, and she Saiu' nave made human nature not Virginia, my field. Art is universal" MISS Glasgow is very careful worker ohe Writes her books in what may be called three processes. The first is tha rough draft, written rapidly to catch rho spirit or the scenes and situations. This IS done sometimes in SIX months Tha second draft occupies a much loneer tlne for it is here that the story begins to develop The third writing is very nluch the same as the second. Miss Glas- goW works in the morning and at night. She devotes the afternoon for recreation She insists upon absolute privacy and has often said that she can write better when she has locked herself in her study. She usually devotes two years to each book. She wrote the opening chapter of
 The battle-ground" fourteen times; the first chapter of 'The Voice of the Peo- pie twelve times, while the introduc- tion to "The Delivefance" four times
 "1he Wheel of Life" shows the same careful workmanship and at the same time a deeper philosophy than any of the previous books. Many of her characters are pictures from real life. The hero of ''The Wheel of Life" Roger Adams, is case in point.
 Miss Glasgow's clever fellow-towns- man, James Branch Cabell, whose first novel, "The Eagles Shadow" was a sue cess, is at work on another novel which will probably be brought out in the au- tumn.
 A Constructive Southerner. A significant figure in the making of southern literature today is Mir. Walter H. Page As a member of the firm of Doubleday, Page & Company. as editor of The Worlds Work and as active CO., workers in the large cause of southern education his work has always been con structive and uplifting With tongue and pen he has labored for the emancipation of southern communities from the rut where the civil war, poverty. and loss of ambition left them. His book. "The Re- building of Old Commonwealths, pub lished several years ago, was a plea that the salvation of a democracy is in the right training of all the children. When asked the other day for an opn- ion on the future of southern literature, MT. Page said: 'T look for a very large number of southern books-a steadily in- creasing number-for many years to come. No one can make predictions about novels. They are produced wherever and whenever novelists arrive; and surely the south now has good share. both in num- Der and in quality. But, about historical, political, economic, reminiscent, and bi- ographical work, it Is easier to make pre- dictions The south is a great unworked mine for books of these kinds. And, ev- cry year, there are more and more men or gOO0 lrd11lDB. N NDeneNeT lO BOOu Ills torical and economic training there can be added good style. then you have man at once who can produce books. The awakened interest in southern his tory, in southern industry, in southern problems, not only in the south, but throughout the whole country. has made the reading public ready and eager for such books
 A Group of Southern Books.
 Among other southern books or books by southern writers published by Double day, Page X Company are all the works of Booker T. Washington Anne Hobson's In Old Alabama" Howard Weedon's ''Old Voices,'' "Bandana Ballads" and Songs of the old south;' Joel Chandler Harris "On the Wings of Occasion" Thomas Dixon's novels; Elliott Crayton McCants's stories, three of Joseph Alt sheler's books: "The Writing; of Colonel William Byrd of Westover. Va; and Sidney Lanier's "Shakspere and his Forerunners. Attention has been direct ed to this noteworthy work by the re- cent publication of Professor Mms' ad- mirable sidney Lanier." which is an adequate measure of one of the most brilliant of American poets.
 The Worlds Work has always taken a deep and instructive interest in southern affairs and it's opinons on those topics f<Jny,r od