Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-05-12
WOMEN TO FORE
IN FICTION FIELD
Surprising Number of New
Novels Come From the Pens
of Feminine Writers
(By Maxwell Alcy)

] NDs MdAWCif AICsJ
New York, May 12-"I believe that
no one thing shows better what mod
ern education and increased oppor-
tunity for women are doing than
| the number of worthwhile book
manuscripts by women which come
to American publishing houses.
said well-known publisher to me
the other day. THAT is particularly
true in the field of fiction, as may
be seen by a glance at this springs $
| book lists. America, which gives
women wider opportunities than any
other country, appears to be develop
ring more women writer's than all the
other countries put SoSether."
And certainly the new books out
within the last few weeks, and those
soon to appear, bear out this asser-
tion. Among women already known
who are represented are Honore
Willsie, Baroness Won Hutten. Laura
E. Richards. Isabel Paterson, Edith
/ Wherry, Gertrude Hall, Eleanor II.
Abbott and NJ. f. +. Irwin. New
names include Marie Conway Oemler
and Katharine Haviland Taylor. Two
or three authors hide behind the
screen of anonymity, or use nom de
plumes. Outside the field of fiction
we have Mary MacLane's new vol
ume of confessions, which gives
promise of being the literary dyna-
mite of the spring season.
\ Romance of China
At a time whe nthe taste for
Chinese things in art and decoration
is so very marked, the appearance
of a novel dealing with Chinese life
is appropriate and opportune. The
book bears the poetic title of The
Wanderer on Thousand Hills" and
its author is Edith Wherry, who
knows Chine. from the inside instead
of from guide books and encyclo-
paedias. The story is a tale of how
East is East and West is West, and
the twain meet in the person of an
American lad. He is lost in a storm,
and found by a Chinese mother be-
reaved of her own child, who brings
him up and educates him as native.
He becomes a great scholar, then
learns of his identity and discovers
his real parents. What happens is
interesting and unexpected.
\ South Carolina Tale
When one speaks of a novel as
Southern, most of us get n picture
of one of those banally conventional
tales such as the lady" novelists of
the benishted Eighties penned after
spending few days in some South
ern town absorbing atmosphere"
When / speak of Marie Conway
Oemler's "Slippy McGee," as South
ern novel, l do not mean to class it
along with those. This story of the
expert cracksman who fell off a
train in a South Carolina town. lost
a leg, landed in the house of the
parish priest, and ended by becom-
/ ing a butterfly man. might have hap
pened anywhere. though we are glad
it happened in South Carolina be-
cause of the delightful people that
lie enables us to meet "Slippy" shares
. honors with the parish priest, who
is a spiritual first cousin to the
Bishop in Les Miserables." The
novel is a remarkable first book from
a woman whose work deserves
watching.
Three Anonymous Books
The author of Children of Fate"
a novel of warning France, hides be-
hind the name of Marice Rutledge,
for the reason that this book is so
different from the other things that
have come from her pen that she
does not want it associated with
them. Her real name is we'll known,
and is whispered about among the
literary set here, but her wishes are
respected in keeping it out of print
The book is one to help YOU decide
what the worlds course will be
NHtH we get pdCh 10 peace. NO more
terrible indictment of war has been
penned than this story of an Ameri-
can girl, her French lover, and the
terror and tragedy and grim sacrifice
which war brings to them. The au-
thor lived through many of the
scenes she describes, and her per-
sonal experience has given to the
novel a passionate intensity seldom
found in fiction.
THE Straight Road
The second of these anonymous
books, an account of the temptation
that beset the woman who is forced
to desert her husband as a means of
escape from the bonds of a hopeless
ly degrading marriage, is called
The Straight Road" The problems
of an attractive woman separated
from her husband but not divorced
from him are set forth in the guise
of fiction, but bear the stamp of
actual experience. 1t was because the
sources of the story were so largely
factuai that its author, a trained
novelist with success to her credit,
published il anonymously.
Better Meals For Less Money"
1t may be out of place to notice a
cook book in discussion of spring
fiction, but among the new books is
that unexpected thing, an anonymous
cook book, further distinguished by
number OF unique features. Usually
the woman clever enough to write
cook book wants the honor due
the achievement paid to her name on
the title page. but the author of
Better Meals for Less Money" had
reasons for keeping her identity
dark.
She is the wife of professor in a
small college where everybody tries
to know everybody else's business
after the fashion of college commun-
tiles. She felt that if she wanted to
write an economical cook book that
was her business, and the outside
publics, but not a fit subject for COM
munity scandal. The book is the out
growth of the problem which con-
fronts the wife of every salaried