The San Francisco call., 1910-04-24
WRITER REMAINSAT
WORK FOR 80 YEARS
Miss Braddon Continues to En-
trance Readers as She Did
Their Grandparents

To have delighted the world for half
a century with an unceasing stream of
fiction; to have published a novel for
every year of her long life; and to be
able to entrance the readers of today
as she entranced their grandparents in
the middle of last century is the record
of Miss Braddon, who at 72 seems, says
Bits, still to possess the secret of
perennial youth.
Much water has run under the bridges
of her beloved Thames since Mary Eliz-
abetn Braddon laboriously wrote her
first story by its banks at Chiswick in
chfld's round hand and between pen
ciled lines. The love of the pen was in
the little ones blood, for her father.
London solicitor, had made Rough
Robin" famous in the world of sports
men, and her mother was saturated
with a passion for literature. And so
Mary Elizabeth took to writing as nat
urally as duck to the water.
AS schoolgirl, with her home still
by the Thames at Barnes, she was al
ways scribbling in her exercise books
and, under the eyes of her teachers, she
furtively penciled quite a long story,
THE Old Armchair" which made her
famous among her school fellows. But
alas! for years she could not thaw the
hard hearts of the editors. All the lit
erary doves she sent out to them came
back to her ark with the exasperating
regularity of clockwork.
FIFTY DOLLARS FOR FIRST BOOK
One day, however, when she was
emancipated from the schoolroom, she
awoke to find a letter awaiting her
which revolutionized the world. 1t was
from Beverley printer, who had seen
a sketch by her in a Yorkshire paper
and who offered her the sum of $50 to
write story for him, which would
combine the humor of Dickens with
the plot construction of G.. W. NJ. Rey-
nolds." 1t was a large order and
small guerdon. but the girl was trans
ported with delight.
Before she was many days older she
had transported herself and her mother
to Beverley farmhouse, and was reel
ing off the masterpieces of Dickens cum
Reynolds at a thousand words an hour,
weaving her plot as she rode about the
Yorkshire lanes. She boldly christened
her story Three Times Dead; or the
Secret of the Heath: and it was a very
proud moment in her life when she
handed the last sheets of the manu-
script to the printers boy. The book
certainly did not make the printers
fortune, but, renamed The Trail of the
Serpent" it had a new and vigorous
lease of life.
Still fame refused to knock at her
Mr.. Maxwell, a publisher, projected
new magazine, the great feature of
which was to be a serial by famous
writer To his dismay, however, the
serial, which had been extensively ad-
vertised, was not forthcoming at the
proper time.
Maxwell was in despair until letter
came signed M. E. Braddon," offering
to write a serial. TOO late" was his
answer to the young authoress when
she called on him. But what is the
latest day you can give me?" she per-
sisted Well" said Maxwell, IF the
manuscript of the opening chapters is
on my breakfast table tomorrow morn
ing that would be in time
Next morning Maxwell found the first
chapters of Lady Audley's Secret"
among his correspondence; his venture
was saved, and Miss Braddon was on
the high road to fame and fortune. Such
was the romantic genesis of one of the
most popular books ever written.
Then followed in quick succession
Aurora Floyd" "Eleanor's Victory
and Henry Dunbar" all eagerly well
coined by thousands of admiring read
ers, and Miss Braddon took her place,
which she has ever since retained in
the foremost rank of the writer's of fic-
ton. Since these early triumphs there
has been scarcely a year when she has
not given the world at least one of her
fascinating novels; in some years she
has published two and in others three,
until her fiction children now number
more than her own years.
And Miss Braddon's life has been as
happy as 1t has been busy. For nearly
40 years her home has been in fine old
Georgian house, once the abode OF the
bishop of Lchfield. at Richmond-for
nothing can wean her from the river
she loves SO well.
SONS KNOWN AS WRITER'S
Surrounded by her birds and dogs,
and her wonderful collection of china
and books, she has led an ideal life,
writing her books in the peace of her
beautiful garden or in her study, enter
tanning her friends with a charming
hospitality and devoted to her home and
her three sons, all of whom have made
name in the world of letters.
In her younger days she might be
seen almost every morning cantering
in Richmond park on Kaiser her white
footed bay, her eyes sparkling and face
flushed with health and exercise; and
even today there are few horsewomen
In England more graceful or expert.
For the rest, she spends her leisure in
gardening, music and study, of all of
which she is passionately fond. A
simple, gracious life, spent in womanly
ways remote from the glare or the
limelight-this is what Miss Braddon
loves, and 1t is this that has preserved
her youth and powers unimpaired into
the seventies.
AS for her methods of work, she care
fully maps out her books to the small
est details before putting pen to paper;
then, with her writing pad on her
knees, she fills sheet after sheet with
her small handwriting. never pausing
for a word and rarely making a
rection. From thousand to fifteen
hundred words an hour is her normal
rate of production; and when the lunch
con gong sounds paper, pad and pen are
all put away, and the rest of the day
is her own-and that of her family and
friends.