Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-03-10
FRANK DANDY" BIDS =
HER PUBLIC GOODBYE
Mrs. Julia Frankau Writes
From Her Sickbed to the
Readers of America

tsNNHSAO Va EAillCl lSc
Mrs. Julia Frankau Drank Danby)
whose Twilight" has just been published
by Messrs. Dodd, Mead & Co., has die
tated from her sick bed the following
message to the American public:
Twilight is my swan song. I shall
never write another novel. A year ago
/ fell into, consumption chiefly treated
by morphia. I know my DeQuincey pretty
well, perhaps this gave me this idea of
writing my dreams. Twilight was writ
ten between eleven and one at night after
the second and before the third half-grain
injection of morpha. Perhaps it is morbid,
perhaps. being genuine personal expert
ence it is only interesting. All my life
has been happy, successful. the end has
come hard and unexpected. Night and
day wish 1t were over, but it lags.
"The only thing that vexes me in dying
is the thought that my book was not
brought out in time for me to read the
notices. The extraordinary fluctuations of
the effects of the drug seem to absorb
my conscienceness I cannot write them.
though 1 had projected an essay called
Drug Dreams ] have twitchings in my
hands which prohibit holding pen or
peucil. / am told these are entirely due
to morphia and omnipom. I have never
been able to dictate essays or stories,
Thought mas always seeneu 10 HOW
through the pen.
ITO my dear American public-good-
by"
Mrs. Frankau's daughter writes her
mothers publishers as follows:
THE few lines that my m ,ther has
dictated are, alas too true, and it is
heartbreaking to write you more detail.
That brave, fine spirit is going out as
might have been expected. She has not
said word that could prevent her three
sons from serving their country. The
eldest has a commission in the Royal Field
Artillery, the second in the London Rifles
and the third in the army of Cyclist Corps.
Two of them are writer's who might have
achieved fame by now but for the war. |
think she would have bade me commend
them to you. America holds so much of
her heart. With me- her only daughter,
she is almost unvaryingly cheerful and
accomplishing, speaking principally of her
happy years."
The recent announcement in "'The Book
man" that the mysterious David Grayson,
author of "Hempfield" and "The Friendly
Road" is in reality Ray Stannard Baker,
established once for all the fact that he
is not Walter Alden Dyer, author Of
early American Craftsmen" and "The
Lure of the Antique"
The misconceptiOn came about in this
way WHICH IltlilDlltlu WAS DuDllSIleu,
it was widely supposed that the author
had in mind the town of Hampstead, Long
Island, and the people Of Hampstead at
once began to notice the resemblance be-
tween the fiction they read and the fact
they knew. Recognizing in their neigh
bors the characters of the book, and noting
the intimate knowledge of their affairs
by the author, they naturally
concluded that David Grayson must him
IL - So Il 20
1t was logical TO suppose
that he must also be Mr.. Dyer, the chief
luminary of Hampstead literary circles.
Mr.. Dyer, considerably weighed down by
the responsibility of being the supposed
of so many of his neighbors'
is said to be greatly relieved to
learn. that he is not, after all. the author
of "Hempfield," and that Hempfeld is not
anyway.
Eleanor II. Porter considers characters
the most important element In fiction writ
ing If the characters are true. the story
almost writes itself. Mrs Porter says In
her new story, Just David" TO be pub
lished in March by Houghton Mifhin Com
pany Mrs. Porter has imagined a little
boy brought up to know only what is har-
monious and beautiful. At the age of ten
he encounters. for the first time, the ir-
ritations and trivialities of worlSaday
life in a small village. Mrs. Porter re-
lates his way of meeting them with con-
yincing sympathy and not little humor.
Among the spring fiction of the Apple
tons are Robert w. Chambers's ''The Bet
ter Man" collection of 10 stories of out
door life in the Adirondacks and Florida
a prophetic tale of what is in store for
us, with Sicilian Vespers sort OF ending
"The Cruise OF the Jasper b, a cheerful
by Don Marquis; MARY 'Gusta,"
by Joseph C. Lincoln. and THE Winged
by Sarah Grand.
After Dark in the War Capitals" by
Karl X. Kitchen, of the New York
World is i'm press for issue about March
is by the Broadway Publishing Company.
There viii be 80 original drawings by
Herb Roth.
Palmer Cox, whose Brownie" books !
are perennial favorites with children, !
recently celebrated his 10Th birthday.
Though a naturalized American citizen, |
Mr. Cox Is a Canadian by birth and
spends the greater part of each year in
Que, the village where he was
born and whence, from his home, |
Brownie Castle, he can see the Adiron- |
lacks and the Green Mountains. In a |
recent interview Mr.. Cox commented on |
he tendency of many comic artists TO |
show childhood at its worst, amusing |
children by making jokes, which turn /
lpon some exhibition OF youthful de-
lravity The Brownies. he said, never /
,ause pain, just as they never suffer 1
pain. Mr. Cox believes that stories and /
poems for children should always leave /
! pleasant impression In the readers
mind. constantly preaching without |
ieeming to preach. II there had ever |
leen a German translation OF the
Brownie books, he observed, humorous
y, and II the Kaiser and the other im-
lerlal leaders had been brought up on A
.nd had really absorbed its message /