The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-12-09

could not have met with a kinder re-
-ception."
'Did you ever write a story that
was declined and that afterward
proved successful?"
eyes. a story that afterward proved
as successful I think as any of my
others, though the failure to accept
it was for reasons such as have ref
ferred TO-"
''Would you care to give an in
stance?'
"a story called Run to Seed,' which
I have always esteemed one of the
best things I ever wrote, was declined
by a magazine because it had in it
what the editor termed profanity. No,
7 have never had a completed novel
! declined, but my last novel; John
Marvel was written 10 or IL years
ago in the form Of a short story that
would have run through only two or
three numbers of a magazine. It was
shown to an editor who did not want
it, and afterward to another who did.
But a condition was attached to its
publication which the second editor
did not care to accept, and by this
time the story was beginning to ex-
pand in my mind in a larger way and
I was beginning to feel that if were
gong to deal with vital problems of
the present day I should use a larger
canvas. Accordingly I laid the story
by, and eventually it developed into a
novel"
"Is it your experience that real
occurrence suggests story?'
Frequently. Some one picturesque
or tragic incident will take hold of a
man and as he begins to reVolve it in
his mind it's relation to life at large
, will assume its due place, and then
> when he undertakes to present it in
its proper setting, if he would be true
to conditions, he finds a reflection of
life much broader than that he first
had in mind. T knew of a young
preacher once going and rescuing an
unfortunate girl in substantially the
? s.. no name 7 have pictured ii John
( MARVEL and I think this was really
7 the genesis of the story.
7 |'No, there is no especial literary
centre in America as there is in Eng
land, at least not in the sense that
: London is the literary centre Of that
l country or Paris IS the literary capital
/ Of France From time to time there
| have been places or sections which
I might be described as literary cen
= tres. For example, many years ago
> Boston was. Then there grew up in
| the South after the war set of writ
: ers, who though scattered dealt with
. matters with a Southern setting. Now
1 T am Informed by the Sun there is a
centre to the westward, and I have
: not mentioned New York Tom AID
Y rich used TO say that whenever lit
5 erary man died in New England the
: New York papers would assert that
= the literary centre of the country had
moved to New York. If it has not
5 already moved hither, in my opinion
} the literary centre is eventually to be
here, for one reason, if no other, that
I this is the centre of publishing. There
), are, Of course, many other obvious
{. reasons.
l "'Why New York has not more mani
5 festly become the literary centre OF
2 the country in the sense of a London
: or a Paris, in my opinion, is that ow-
: ing to natural conditions New York
t has given itself up to commerce, and
the chief activities here operate so
generally to the commercial as to
= overwhe9m other activities. One great
5 department of literary activity has
made this a centre in its great news
' papers and periodicals. For the quiet
= or and more abstract side of literature
! i seems to me the rush and roar 9nd