Evening journal., 1912-07-27
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Sudden Inspiration That
Resulted in q Famous
American Classic
By Holland

told yesterday how Maria Su-
ssnna Cummins. inspired in large
part by her reading OF Susan War.
ners famous novel. The Wide Wide
World, came to write one of the
best sellers" of the last century.
the book called The Lampliehter'
which is still read, and which within
six monts after publication sold one
hundred thousand copies
Miss Cummins. who gained fame
and fortune with "1he Lampishtor."
was, like Miss Warner. the daugh-
ter of a lawyer. and there ,ras a re.
semblance between the early careers
of these two women in tie fact tnat
the father of each discovered early in
his child her talent for reading and
/ devoted much time to the Develop
ment of it.
About lS47 Miss Warner was OBJ
served by her family TO be busily
occupied in her little chamber day
after day She did not at first ex-
plain TO her family what the nature
of her vocation was After a while,
| however. she told them that Of a suds
! den one evening she had seen inn
! printed mon her mind, SO to speak,
the pages of a story which she
| believed would be worth transferring
from her mind to paper and that
/ with this task she had been busy for
sometime past
The manuscript was finished in tho
early part of 1S49. n was sent to
George II Putnam. the New York
! publisher, who turned it over to the
readers he employed to pass iudg-
ment upon manuscripts submitted ia
him. These readers reported that the
story was of little value. they could
not recommend its publication They
did not believe that enough copies OF
IT could be sold to pay the expenses
Of publication
Mr. Putnam however. with his
customary caution and in obedience
| 10 a disposition which alawys char
acterized him as publisher-namely
the desire 10 give announcement to
every new and aspiring author-ask-
ing his mother If she would read ths
manuscript A day or two after the
manuscript was placed in the
mothers hands. Mr. Putnam observ-
ed that she was obsorbed in the
story He. however. made no inqur-
les until his brother had read the
manuscript through Then he said to
her,
"well. mother what do you think
of that story?"
MY son, l think it Is one of the
most beautiful stories ever written
I could gladly read it over a second
time"
That was critical Judgment sum
cient for Mr.. Putnam He ignored
his professional readers and publish
ed the story A week passed after
publication and there we're practical
~ no sales. A month passed and still
the book was ignored Yet Mr. Putt
nam had faith in il because he had
faith in his mothers judgment
Suddenly at the end of four months
there came a demand from a book
seller in New England for 2 thousand
copies. Within two or three weeks
the presses were set to work again
and within six months forty thousand
copies of the book had been sold.
Within a year a hundred and twenty
thousand copies we're sold, and in
England the book had been published
and IT was being translated into
French and German
A girl of twenty-nine years of age
who had lived quietly at her fathers
home on Constitution Island, in the
Hudson River opposite West Point,
and had seen little Of real life, had
written her name in letters which
never fade, for today The Wide,
Wide World" next to Uncle Toms
Cabin is the most widely circulated
book Of American authorship
world classic And it is curious ia
note that the three best sellers Of
the nlid--years Of the past century
were written by women, to all Of
whom the inspiration TO write fiction
came suddenly. One was Harriet
Beecher Stowe. with her Uncle
Toms Cabin" another was Maria
Cummins, with her "Lamplighter,
and another was Susan Warner with
'rThe Wide Wide World.
! Copyright. 1912. by E, J. Edwards,
All rights reservedl