The sun., 1912-08-10
HAS NEVER BEEN IN
PERSIA SHE TELLS Of
But Rachel Capen Schaufflcr
Had a Profound knOwl-
edge of Country.
AN INSPIRATION HERS
In Life Of Her BrOthcr-in-1.aw
She Saw the Figure Of
Her Hero.

1t is far cry from Lakew ood. y. j., TO
Muramna. Persia. hut Rachel Capen
Scliauffler lives peacefully in the Jersey
winter resort though .he is the author
Of the stirring story OF the Orient. -The
Goodlv Fellowship" which has been one
Of the Macmillan fiction SUCCESSES of the
spring. Moreover the author herself.
rs quiet voiced. gentle hammered young
woman as one could see. has never been
in Persia nor witnessed any such riot ous
scenes as she portrays.
Put she has had close Oriental affilia-
t'ns. Her father was born in Constan-
tin,ple and she visited hat city oven while
writing The Goodly Fellow ship" And
the book had for its direct inspirai ion
the career and tragic death of her sister s
husband. whom she has portrayed i'm
Dan Lawrence the novels central char
acter.
IL don't mind saying" Miss Schau,'er
said the other dav, that tn" character
Of Dan Lawrence is true to fact. rs has
been intimated and limited. Indeed. it
was because thought that those who live
and die as my brother in-law lived and
died should have some sort of memorial
that tho book came to be OF course
at first ! didn't think Of Il novel I
thought rather that il should be- in the
nature of n biographical record of his
achievements and his murder n, the
end. Ono hears so much of the few
heroic missionaries whom startling events
have made conspicuous. but one hears
so little of the few who are heroic in that
they live their lives to the end in those
alien surroundings.
But when | came m writing the biog-
rsphy found myself up against many
difficulties. My brother-in- laws career
was made up Of SO many little dis iointcd
episodes. each of which seemed in itself
insignificant because il was but an Incl
dent in daily life. II was difficult to
get hold of the real, big significance which
realized was there.
Il gave up the biographical idea in dis
couragement. Some one suggested that
my sister was really the one TO write such
book anyway. and I offered her all
the material ! had collected toget her.
But she refused it. Then some one sug-
gestcd that write novel. for in that wav.
by giving "A picture Of the life there az it is
actually lived with the living back ground,
only could tho character I wished to
portray stand out with its true signifi-
canoe.
$50 | decided to write the novel
Strangely enough. had never been to
Persia. though my sister had lived there
eleven years and I had been as near to n
as ConstaNinoplc. But had read every
book on Persia. its people its customs.
its geography and Its history. and my sis
ter said that | knew IT mucn better than
she did. know that when was wri,in 2
the hook | felt that | was living right in
have told my publishers that the book
clearly shows intimate experience with
tn" country described.
But ! went stale before hal finished
the novel. ] think that the fact that
had first attempted She biography was a
hindrance. At any rate. | got 10 The point
where could not go on. and. in revising,
couldn't keep myself from falling back
into old phrases and speeches. thought
the book was dead. Then. as a last re-
sort. tried dicta,ion. Beginning at the
very first, retold the whole story and
told it to stenograpner. That is my
experience with dictation. ] have heard
a lot about it. for it and against it. but it
saved my book for could have told my
story freshly through no other med iiim
And what my publishers liked about it
primarily was its spontaneiiv. So
know the method was the most efficacious
one: for know too we'll that there was no
actual spontaneitv in the writing OF it,
Miss Schaulflsr is most happy over the
fact that tho strong personality Of DaN
Lawrence has been generally recognized
as coming through his con'nua! self
eNacemcnt. For such. she says. was the
secret of the personality Of the man who
inspired the writing Of the book and the
recognition Of it in the character por-
travail means much more TO her than
praises Of ability to impart a vivid Ori-
entail atmosphere.
She makes one confession interesting
in comparison to similar confessions that
have been made bv other authors, that
she wrote the initial chapter after the rest
of the book was all finished. Many writ
ers have said that the first chapter OF 4
book was the hardest TO write. in that the
personal relation was there hard to ge,
rid Of and detached consideration of the
book hard to achieve until it was well
under way. Later. when it is achieved
the first chapter can be rewritten in har-
monious preface to the whole
The success Of Miss SchaufYler $ move
in lortraving character and atmosphere
is unusual for first novel; for it is a ,irsl
novel, her previous literary experience
having been confined TO few serious
magazine articles and a few poems.