The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-01-28
ny MARY n. MULLETT.


Miss Leona Dalrymple woke up one
morning a few weeks ago and found her
self suddenly famous. She had won
the $1,000 prize offered by Chicago
publishing house for the best novel sub
mitted before August 81. 1t was rather
late when Miss Dalrymple saw a notice
of the competition; but she plunged
into work, finished her manuscript In
six weeks, and sent it in ten days be-
fore the time expired.
She is only In her twenties: as pretty
and as girlish as IL she had never mad
a thought beyond dancing and do
mesticity. She has a horror. indeed. OF
seeming to be blue-stocking and Is as
free from Alterations of genius as II
she had never written anything OF
higher literary interest than recipe
for lobster salad
When Miss Dalrymple read of the prize
contest she was already working on
novel which was almost completed Ana
she liked 1t pretty well. too! But the
competition called for book Of the best
seller type, which some one has described
as having "a punch In every chapter.
Afraid that the book she had under
way might be lacking in the matter OF
punches" she first finished this manu-
script, then made haste to begin her SIX
weeks hard work on the other. In the
end. she sent both books to the publisher
And the astonishing part of the whole
affair is that when the judges came TO
their final decision. the two manuscripts
between which they hesitated were those
sent in by Miss Dalrymple.
Been Writing for Years.
People now regard her enviously and
plaintively remark that it must be
great thing to dash of a noval and get
$4,000 for it. They don't know that the
young prize-winner has been writing
seriously and steadily for more than four
years. They don't dream what careful.
contentious, systematic worker she Is.
II once read William Dean Howelrs
advice about writing regularly" she
says. and I made up my mind it was
wise counsel AS a rule / work a GER
tain number of hours every day.
don't wait for an inspiration or a
mood. ! go at 1t as business man
goes at his business.
Il have my study. with my desk
and my typewriter, where / am free
from interruption. I'm often tempted
to break over my schedule. especially
about working at nights. 1t seems
as IL / could write SO much. better
then. But l know II would be bad for
me III Ine long run. SO L StlCh 10 NY
regular hours.
Last summer when I was writing
'Diano Of the Green VAN the story
that won the prize had TO break my
rule about night work because I was
so pressed for time. I was at my
desk at in the morning and some
times worked until long past mid
night. People who talk to me about
my dashing of a novel would be sur
prised to see how I go over and over
What I write. correcting and polish
ing il as carefully as ] possibly can.
But although I worked so hard
during those six weeks. l wasn't very
tired sfterward. am so perfectly
wen. And I'm like my mother in not
being afflicted with nerves. Father
was a great deal more excited over my
winning the prize than mother and I
were. I don't pose as being tempera-
mental After the news of the award
got out. somebody said I was just
pleased me more than thanything that
could have been said about me-"
Lives in New Jersey.
Miss Dalrymple lives in Passaic. n. J.,
where her father is a successful lawyer.
She has always been an omnivorous
reader of good books. She has never
read trash. She went through high
school and took a year of post graduate
work When she was a freshman she
won a prize of s. offered by the school
for the best imaginary account OF the
bcyhood of Dickens "Scroogc." Her
teachers were always urging her to
write. but after her graduation she did
not begin at once.
After while, by mere chance. she
wrote a little play for amateur use. She
sold it so promptly that she wrote an
other; and she has now about six OF
these little plays to her credit. Next she
die some short stories and newspaper
articles: and then a book which has been
quite successful. BY this time she was
writing quite seriously and regularly.
and the prize winning was therefore,
legitimate reward of honest work. not
a mere lucky chance.
She, has decided convictions about her
work. has this young girl. Just because
one is writing fiction" she says, "one
has no right to be careless about fact.
II would be inexcusablc. think, to make
such mistakes as to say that the golden
rod was blooming in April, or that the
air was perfumed with lilacs in Septem-
Der. So I keep careful records in my
notebooks of a thousand things about
which otherwise I might be little hazy.
When I write of things outside my own
I study them up as carefully
as IL ! were preparing a thesis
By all of which it is evident that the