Washington telegraph., 1911-07-14
new news OF YESTERDAY
Literary Lark That Resulted in
a BEST Seller"
Charles DydIey Warmers Explanation
of How He Came to Write HIS
Famous Book, "My Summer
In a Garden"
BY e. j. EDWARDS.

ley returned to his home at Hartford,
He proposed beginning over again as
an editor, for he was the editor Of
Republican paper at the time he laid
down the pen to open the first recruit
ing office in the state of Connecticut
in response to Lincoln's call lor vol
unteers on April Is, 1861. Ard "a
hours after the call had been issued,
he had raised his states first com
pany of volunteers.
General Hawley, however was
obliged to defer that purpose, fer, in
1866, he was elected governor of Con-
necticut. A year later, when he re-
turned to private life, he brought
about him an ably body of associates.
five in all, who bought the Hartford
Courant and consolidated with 1t the
Hartford Press, of which General
Hawley had been the editor before
the outbreak of the war. One of these
associates was Charles Dudley War
ner, who was known TO circle of cul-
tivated literary men and women as
master of English style, but whose
name was not then familiar to the
public.
General Hawley's election to the
lower house of congress in 1868 and
his long service In that body followed
by four terms in the senate) made 1t
necessary for Mr.. Warner to assume
the duties of editorial chief of the
Courant. 1t was while he was serV-
ing in that capacity that Mr.. Warner
began the publication of daily series
of articles without the slightest
thought that upon this trifiing work,
as he called it, was to be based his
mastery reputation, and that by <rea-
son of it he would join the ranks of
those who in that day published what
nowadays we would call a best
seller"
While Mr.. Warner was occupied with
conducting the department entitled
THE Editors Drawer" in Harper's
| Magazine, a task which he assumed
| in 1884, | asked him If he would tell
me how he was led to write the little
series of daily essays which became
nationally famous under the book IT,
tie, My Summer in a Garden"
81 have been asked that question
many times" said Mr.. Warner, "and
| have always said that l did not
| know exactly how | came to write
those daily articles. l suppose it was
a sort OF literary lark. | lived in the
center of a colony of well-known lit
erary people. Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe was my neighbor, and so was
Mark Twain, and there was the charm
| ing literary circle which met at the
house of Francis Gillette, who had
been United States senator and was
the father of William Gillette, the
actor. We all had little plots of
| ground attached to our homes, and
some of us undertook to have kitchen
| gardens. We used to have great sport
in describing our experience with pus-
ley weed.
"One day l though would turn my
attention from the heavier sort of
editorial work to a sort of recrea-
ton, to writing a little sketch each
day that would hint at the expert
ences of the amateur gardener, espe-
cially with pusley weed. | and my
fellow colonists had had proof of the
truth that was in the saying of Hor-
ace Bushnell, our great fellowtowns-
maI who in one of his lectures spoke
of the moral perversity of inanimate
objects. If there could be anything
more perverse than pusley weed none
of US knew what it was.
We'll, there was something in the
humor, possibly something in the
light Of philosophy, that worked its
way into those little sketches which
happened to catch the pub ic fancy;
and before | realized it | discovered
that the sketches were gaining in pop
ularity far beyond the boundaries of
Hartford Then many persons urged
me to have them republished in book
form, and they were. Sometimes my
| friends tell me that, after all, My
Summer in a Garden is the best thing
'ver did. Measured by popularity,
am inclined to think it is"
Mr. Warner might have gone furth-
er and said that tho phenomenal sue
cess of this work and the type Of
humor that was in it, caused him to
be ranked among the foremost of
! American humorists.
! Copyright, 1911. by L. j Edwards All
Rights Reserved)
81 want to embroidcr this tapcstty
love story. What stitch would you
~se?"