The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-28
Literary Lights and Shadohs
BY S. MAYS BALL.

character ana backbone 10 ms Work. ll
 less experienced hands some of MT. de
 Morgan's startling situations Ca fire,
 shipwreck, street fights, killings, rescues.
 a strange accident In the underground
 electric railway and even ghosts) would
 become pure melodrama, but his genius always makes them convincing.
 In Joseph Vance" he tells a touching
 story. It is called Ian ill-written auto-
 biography" full of humor, of lifelong
 love and heroic sacrifice. While the scene is mostly in and near London of the ffties, there are some telling descrip-
 tions of Italy, where the author now
 lives much of his time Did you care
 for and enthuse as most people do over
 David Copperfield?" Then please don't miss Joseph Vancev'
 The scheme of "Alice-for-Short" which
 might paradoxically be called a genial
 ghost and murder story. is utterly dif- ferent from Joseph Vance," yet its hu- nor and humanity again dominate and the most striking element is the touch ing love story of an unsuccessful man. The reappearance in the nineteenth cen- tury London of long buried past and remarkable case of suspended memory, give the dramatic background of the story dealing with a little London waif, "Alicia (called Alice for shorD Kav- ] anaugh."
 MT. McMorgan's latest novel, Some
 how Good" is in line with the other two just as strong, just as interesting In every way. It's purpose and feeling are intense, yet it is also mellowed by hu- nor. and 1t contains perhaps the authors i freshest and most sympathetic story of young love. Through its pages the God be praised evil has turned to good,' of the old major rings like a trumpet call of hope. This story of today tells of
 triumph of courage and devotion. Tn it's pages the story deals with man In In- l dia who, casting off his wife, soon after 1 their marriage, she returns to England. | while the husband seeks fortune In the Klondyke. On the wifes return to Eng land there is born a daughter, who was not her fathers child-paradoxically speaking. The man makes fortune and l returns to England. On the day of his arrival, by accident in the under ground railway, where he has met uncon> sciously the cause of all his. trouble namely the daughter of his wife-this
 man, struck by electric current from the car, loses his memory. He is taken care of in his wifes new home-she knows hin-he with his memory gone. does not of course recognize his good Samaritan. Thus begins the story and the daughter Is made to (so does the wife) before the
 book gets far along under the genius of the author, appear somehow good' in
  book. evidently, with its attractive title, so caught the attention of a certain bevy of charming young ladies over in Att lanta who surely must not have read the | book, or known of its theme, that they I have called their club "The Somehow | Good club"-certainly not a very good name, in view of everything, for club of | young maidens.
 At GA years of age MT. DeMorgan wrote 1 the first chapter of Joseph Vance, i year later in 1905, at his wife's solicita- | tion. he finished the novel and sent 1t | to publisher. It was rejected; the long | hand manuscript of some 280,00o words l must have seemed appalling, and some l one suggested that 1t would have a better | chance if typewriter. The typing was 1 put into the hands of an intelligent wom- | an, who was soon complaining because 1 her girls were reading the manuscript l and crying over it instead of copying It. l She told this unusual experience to 1 publisher and "Joseph Vance" T'rs G0en between covers. "Alce-for-Short," writ ten mainly in 1906. was nublished
 May, 19O7 and Somehow Good" writ l ten in 1907, appeared In February. 1908. l MT DeMorgan is of an artistic and 1 inventive turn of mind. He said: "I 1 plead guilty to 30 years of Ceramics" He l is something of an inventor, having per l fected the best duplex bicycle and the 1 most effective sieve in existence, as well as a smoke-consuming fire grate Until he reached the age of GA MT. DeMorgan was in the business of tile-making, and l LID to that time he had never thought l of writing a novel.
 l In addition, then, 1t would be only | fair to say that not to have read all 1 three of MT. DeMorgan's books, argues l one certainly not very well read in this l day and time. Nothing better, nothing l (,-k kI,n o1ar | has appeared in this country or abroad | for 40 years. If one hasn't read Joseph l Vance," "Alice-for- Short" Somehow | Good" in the order named, would be l preferable-any order Is good-then do 1t | now!
 "A Man of Genius" by M. P. willcocks. 1 (The John Lane Company)
 l Miss Willcocks last year published
 book '"The wingless Victory" which. while not going into the list of the best | sellers" should have done so. However, l 1t has gotten so now that the "best sell | ers," consisting of such effusons as "Graustark," "The Husbands of Edith"
 "Jane, Lucy and Ann," etc., are really the books one should be careful about | reading; that Is, if one is particular. If
 not. any old thing will or ought to do, l as 1t evidently does. See 'The Book mans" latest list of 'best sellers"
 The scene of "The Man of Genius'' is | laid in a wild corner of Devon, England. l Ambrose velly" is the "man of genius,"
 one of undoubted talent, living. when l the book opens, on farm in the coun-
 .rv of Devon. In the same house of
 Velly lives a charming, bright fascinat- | ing creature, such as Miss Wfllcocks de- lights and succeeds in picturing-one | "Thyrza Braund' In love with Thyrza is a strong noble fisherman, whom
 she does not love- Near the farm lives l the Rev. Mr. Westaway. with his lovely 1 dnrohter "Damars," who loves Ambrose | velly and believes in his genius, induc-
 ,-n'sh the money with
 which Ambrose may complete his course l u..s,ic. Of course Ambrose falls | ir love with and marries Thyrza. whom | he should not have married, and it is | around this judgment of Paris that the l story of "The Man of Genius runs. l It is great big book; in 1t we read of l things and situations which we are not l accustomed to view in the average book, | but it is not disagreeable, on the con trary. The descriptions of tn, country l of Devon seem splendid. Of course, after 1 --' r7 - '7 -ln rricS TIv-ya who 1 was much below him in mind and ambi- | sulle.4 for his future then in l sight. in comes Damaris to assist the 1 ill-joined man and wife. A lesser writer l than Miss Wllcocks when things be- ]! came very burdensome for Ambrose and l his two-candle power wife, would have 1 removed" Thyrza, but not so in this | really credltable book. The author sini-