Arizona republican., 1908-09-17

"Of the other kind of success-that
 which comes from a steady growth in
 popularity founded on a series of nov
 els-Robert W. Chambers is perhaps
 the best example that can be given
 among contemporary Americans.
 What he received from some of his
 first literary work scarcely paid him
 the salary of an enterprising clerk for
 the time and effcrt it cost him. but
 the first edition of his latest book.
 The Firing Line was over Q hundred thousand copies. In the past few years
 more than million of his books have
 been sold. Personally l don't consider
 him a great novelist Tn the same sense
 as the masters of literature whose
 books endure for a century or more
 after their deaths, although no doubt
 plenty of his admirers would be will
 ing to dispute that point with me. His
 great hold on the public. it seems to
 me, comes from the fact that he is a
 charming story teller. whether he is
 writing about the most impossible be-
 ings in the most impossible situa-
 tions or the kind of men and women
 you meet in everyday intercourse. Any
 way he is successful and that is the
 point We are discussing just now. A
 man who can make between a quarter
 million and a half million dollars in
 ten years would be regarded as a
 success in almost any line of business.
 That is what Mir. Chambers has done
 and he is still young man. only a
 little past forty. with the prospect
 that his best work still lies before him
 There are many things about Cham
 bers writings in the way that they are regarded by the public that are unusual For example. he is writer of love stories. The love interest is strong in everything thta he turns out. A writer who deals in these materials usually finds his largest audience among women readers. Chambers, however. apparently writes the kind of love stories men like. So well rec ognized is this in the trade that sev- eral Of his recent stories have been published serially in a magazine which is distinctively a mans publication, and each of these stories can be relied upon to add from 25,000 to 50,000 to the circulation as soon as its publica tion is begun. Furthermore. he is one of the two or three writers of high 1 class fiction whose books sell on ] trains If you travel much you may | have noticed that train literature is confined almost entirely to magazines | and a few paper-covered novels, but | when a new book by Chambers comes 1 out it is good for a sale of 20,000 or | more within week through the news l agencies that handle matter sold on | the railways. This possibly is explain | ed by the fact that his stories are read 1 SO largely by men. Chambers himself ! would laugh if anybody called him a | literary genius, but for the people who | are living here and now. he seems to strike the chord of universal interest in everything that he writes.
 Most people thing that there is nothing easier than writing popular novels, once an author has established his reputation. No greater mistake most remarkable example of a finan- could be made. Aside from the labor of collecting material and evolving the ideas that are to form in the story. the physical and mental strain of compost ton, as it is practiced by the men whose work takes hold of the public, Is terrific
 Take Chambers as an example, since he happens to be a voluminOus writer and one who has dealt with a wide range of themes. Most of his work is done at his home near Broad llbin. New York( in the foothills of the Adirondacks. Disregarding such modern aids to authorship as the type writer. he does all his writing with a pencil upon a pad of paper which he rests upon his knee or on the arm of ! chair. or a rock, or whatever Ob- feet is most convenient in the place where he happens to be. Often he vanders out into the woods that cover | large part of his Adirondack acres, sits down in a comfortable spot and md writes there for hours. At other times he will carry on his writing in , room where half a dozen persons nay be talking. When engaged on a ;orption He begins his writ ngs at : o'clock in the morning and continues steadily for almost twen- y-four hours, scarcely stopping even O eat As the work grows under his