The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-08-29
My Career
By ESTHER VANDEVEER

page. am of two kinds, printed mat
ter and girl The girl part is heroin
and the paper part is book. But sine
the heroine part is the living half
consider myself Arietta Hope.
My maker is a woman of thirty-five
an age at which one may be expected
to have attained to correct knowl
edge of her sex. Yet since she did no
issue me under her own name, but tn
assumed name of man, Edgar Har
ding, she is not only unknown to thos,
who have read me, but unless she II
betrayed by certain feminine trait'
displayed in me she Is supposed to b.
Marceline. When my maker had fin
ished me she sent me the round o.
publishers through the express com
panies, so that she did not make her
self known to them. However, she re
quested as an especial favor that they
would send her the criticisms of theil
readers" these persons being employ
ed to read manuscripts and report tt
the publisher whether each in theiI
opinion would be profitable book fol
them to publish. The publishers usu
ally paid very little attention to my
makers request, though a few did
These criticisms were almost always
where the reader" had made some
facetious remark about the story. The
first one my maker received was as
follows:
.Mr. Harding has written a long
story purporting to portray woman.
The author must have written the
book with mirror before him. Wheth-
or he has portrayed himself or not is
not apparent. but certain it Is that
he has painted man in petticoats.
Arietta Hope gives every evidence of
having been constructed by one Of the
male sex. I would decline II"
Long after the receipt of the criti-
cism my maker made the acquaintance
of this critic and found him to be a
young man still in his teens.
My maker, having spent two years
upon me, at the same time studying
different women from whom she drew
certain feminine traits which she in
stilled into me. was much discouraged.
If the representative of prominent
publishing house had mistaken her
heroine for q petticoated man. what a
dreadful failure she must have made'
She put me In closet and looked me
up with the intention of never taking
me out again. But some one told her
that Dodson & Co. were looking for
les of character-and she decided to
submit me to them. So l was sent by
express. letter going by mail beg
ging the firm to give her some idea Of
the merits and demerits-especially the
latter-of the story. The manuscript
was returned TO her. accompanied by a
letter, In which the writer courteously
explained to her that more than 90 per
cent Of the novels published were read
by women. Women required stories
that showed the feminine touch. Mr..
Harding had shown high literary ex-
cellence. but he had not succeeded in
portraying a woman.
Ny maker determined that when she
sent me out again she would adopt
feminine nom de plume. She made a
new title page. with Edith Granger on
1t instead Of Edgar Harding. and dis
patched me to the Darlington Publish
ing company. She was again success
full in eliciting a courteous reply, which
the readers report. 1t was as
follows:
The author has given a picture of
woman who is sure to antagonize her
own sex. Arietta Hope is altogether
too feminine for heroine. In reading
about her we would surmise, did we
not know to the contrary, that she had
been drawn by man. so many of
those volatile traits common to wom-
en are found In her-traits that men
ove to ridicule."
Good gracious!' exclaimed my max
er when she read this. Then I've
Jumped from the frying pan into the
ire7"
My maker determined upon one more
Effort, and II that failed she was re-
solved to burn me. She sent me to
L&ttieton Brothers. Within few days
she received letter from the firm
stating bluntly that they would not |
ARE to publish me at their own risk. |
put If she would pay the cost of pub
ication they would put their imprint |
IN the title page Of the book, publish
ng it as their own
My maker having all a woman's Gu I
'iosity, desiring to discover who was /
light about the book, accepted the con-
litions. She sent the publishers a
heck, and they published me.
was long while getting before the |
,ubiic. but i succeeded in the end.
yertain men recommended me because
hey said / was mans woman, and |
ertain women spoke well of me be-
ause they said was a woman's wo-
nan. This at last gave me start.
nd as l pleased both men and wo
men took In all there was except the
hildren. Anyway, kept growing and
rowing In popular favor till / was
'ronounced what publishers call ''phe
Littleton Brothers were very angry
ecause they must pay larger royalty
nan usual, having published me for
ny author instead of themselves. New.
they made fortune out Of
ne. and when congratulated on their
oresight they look wise and say moth