The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-31
AMERICANS WRITE
THE BEST SELLERS
Ministers Book on rs There Hell?"
Is Attracting Wide Attention.
Nearly Forty Million Copies
Distributed
BY HAYDEN CHURCH

ment was Andrew Melrose. who is rapidly
becoming one of the best known of Brit
ish publishers. For several years past
Melrose has offered prize of $3.50 for
the best novel submitted to him, an award
which, for the fourth time in success
sion, has just been won by woman.
had been discussing literary tenden-
cies generally with Melrose. as evidenced
by the manuscripts submitted to him, and
had demanded IL love, romantic and other
wise, continued to be the main theme
of them
quite the contrary the publisher re-
piled, Comparatively few of our writer's
take love as their main theme. The love
novel which is love novel and moth
ing more appears to be going out of
fashion. A love interest still charac-
terises the majority of novels, but 1t takes
a secondary place.
Slump in Suffragette Fiction
An interesting point in connection with
our latest competition" Melrose added,
is that whereas fully 50 per cent of the
novels submitted last year dealt. more
or less sympathetically, with the suf-
frage question, this year none of the
novels dealt with that subject do not
know whether this indicates decline
in the popularity of the suffrage move-
ment or not
Despite the fact that an American pub
fishing firm has arranged to issue the
latest novel by woman writer to win
Melrose's s1250, 1 doubt If anything has
been published in the United States vet
about "The Lure of the Little Drum. >
saw Mr.. Melrose on the day following
the announcement of the result of the
competition. The adjudicators, by the
way We're Miss Mary Cholmondeley, Jo-
seph Conrad and w. j. Locke.
The authoress of THE Lure of the Lit
tie Drum is Margaret Peterson, and 1t
is her first attempt at novel writing. Miss
Peterson, who Is still in her POS. and
whose Photograph shows her to be ex-
ceedingly good looking, proves to be a
daughter of a former professor of San
scrit at the Elphinstone college, Bonn
bay, so it is not surprising to hear that
her novel Is a story of psychical in
terest dealing with an Indian prince $
hypnotic influence over a woman. the
scene being laid in India. where Miss
Peterson has lived almost all her life.
iiei pooh was CHOSEN Tor Its extraordi-
nary concentrated interest, and Joseph
Conrad and w. j. Locke both were struck
1t seems by its fine dramatic qualities
and its harmonious march to a satisfy
ing finale.
,, Good Style Is Rare
Five readers Independently chose The
Lure of the Little Drum as being the
best out of the 80 novels submitted ;,
said Mr.. Melrose. But it is astonishing,
in, xriAu nf tl,1
write nowadays. how few novels are real
ly distinguished. A good literary style
is exceedingly rare and SO is a book
that grips the imagination and fingers In
the memory"
They are not quite so alert over here
in keeping track of the ''best sellersp as
we are in the United States, but now
and then list is made public and it
is highly gratifying that of the three nov
els that top the latest of these. two
are American. At the head of the list
comes Happy -Go-Lucky." the latest pro-
duction of that genuinely entertaining
writer, Ian Hay, and next to it in popu-
larity with Britons comes Winston
Churchills Inside of the Cup" and then
II. s. Harrson's ". VS. Eyes" or gem
eral literature the most read books are
The works of Francis Thompson, the life
of John Bright by G. M. Trevelyan and
the poems of Robert Bridges, In the
order named.
Discussion of Silly Season
This is the SILLY season. wherein most
of the London newspapers deliberately
start and thereafter foster discussion of
some more or less momentous topic with
the object of filling their columns in the
dull season. The readers of the nightly
serious Daily Telegraph, for instance, are
busy canvassing the virtues and short
com1ngs Of the athletic girl, whom some
body declared the other day to be with
out manners. while those of the Stand
ard are deciding whether the smash
service with which Maurice Mclaughlin
recently pulverized most of his opponents
over here, shall heneeforth be barred
the consensus of opinion, by the way,
Is IN the negative-while those of an
evening Journal are settling whether a
husband should forgive an erring wife.
ia point that has been raised by John
golfers now famous problem-picture,
1.-The Fallen IDOL,
Meanwhile the readers of the Daily
News which Charles Dickens once edit
ed, are occupied with the literally ..burn-
ing question of hell, stimulated thereto
by the recent publication OF a book en-
titled rs There a Help by Is clergy
men of different faiths which was dulv
referred to in this correspondence The
Doiiy views HAS interviewed lot OF prom
inent folk as to their belief in the exist
ence of a place of future punishment
and 1t Is agreeable to discover that few
If any, Of them agree with the self made
merchants Methodist parson, with whom
you remember, 1t wasn't Hades or Ge-
henna; but just plain hell and mighty
hot. too, you bet
The latest celebrity to be interviewed
on the subject is Arthur Christopher BEN
son. the elder of the three famous sons
OF the late Archbishop of Canterbury.
another of whom is the author Of ''Dodo. !"
and the third of whom. Father Benson.
is one of the 16 collaborators in rs There
a Hell?" Like his reverend brother, Ar
thur Christopher Benson evidently does
not believe in future punishment.
Some Distribution
One thing Is certain, II one may say
1t without irreverence, namely, that If
lot of us are fated to spend the here
after in disagreeable fashion, 1t is not
for want Of deterrents from our evil
courses Before me az / write, for ex-
ample, Is tine Hath annual report of that
tireless opponent Of his Satanic Majes-
ty. the Religious Tract society, which
things, that the society has printed books
and tracts in 275 languages, dialects and
characters. It's annual circulation is over
March, 1913, IL estimated 1T the stagger-
ing figure of over $500, 100000 copies Of
it, publications. That is some distribu-
tion, Is 1t not?"