The Washington herald., 1917-04-02
SEES FICTION PARADISE
when GREAT WAR ENDS
Imaginative Writers to Have Saturna-
liza, Author Thinks.

That the increase In the reading of
fiction will be many fold after the close
of the present world war is the belief
OF Mr.. Basil King. the prominent author,
who is stopping at the shoreham with
Mrs. King and their daughter. e..
"The reading Of fiction" says Mr.. King.
"is the stimulus Of lima gination, which is
largely the reason why SO many women
turn to reading novels. There is little
imaginative stimulus in the ordinary life
Of woman. especially IL her life be
domestic one. and as the mind must have
Imaginative relief after routine thoughts.
the obvious action of women Is reading
the imaginative works of others.
''The same rule is true of men engaged
in unimaginative occupations. The rou-
tine life Of a tradesman, bookkeeper. or
office worker does not give the imagina-
ton the opportunity to exercise that
comes to the actor, the writer, the in
ventor or the architect-consequenly they
Of the simpler occupations must feed
upon the imagination Of others.
War Party Meets Demand
AT the present time when the imagina-
ton Of everyone Is being fred daily by
the stories emanating from the battle
front, the use of fiction has decreased to
a certain extent because the imaginative
demand is already met The stirring
events of the world history during the
past two years have read very much like
fiction indeed. But at the close of the
war there will be Q gradual return to this
light reading.
1T is a remarkable fact that previous
to the war the people of America as
whole were ignorant of the geography Of
the rest of the world. It Ia a question
whether the average American knew the
difference between Lisbon and Bucharest,
nor did he care! But the struggles of the
war constantly bringing information of
the smaller countries before them, there
was search for knowledge along the
lines OF the happenings in Europe and
Asia. Their own imaginations having
free rein the geople in their reading nat
urally turned toward something more in
formative. and which would deal with
countries affected by the world struggle
Consequently the writer's OF this class of
works have benefited by the war while
the fiction writer has seen his sales de-
crease.
Sales Have DwindIed.
The fact that the foreign writer's
are practically dormant during the war
has not benefited American writer's of
fiction because OF the fact that the sales
have dwindled to offset the fancied ad-
vantage. And. too. the fact that the
European writer has been right In the
heat OF the most stirring events in his
tory has given to him the power to write
the more gripping stories which at this
time are in demand
"On the stage the American play.
wright seems to be rapidly forging ahead
because Of the fact that his English
cousin does not seem able to shake off
the shackles which bound him to the
drawing-room comedy. The war has to
some extent cut on the supply of foreign
plays. but I believe the tendency Of the
times is to forsake the quiet English COM
edy and turn to the more varied produc-
tons given US by American writer's
The close OF the war will bring an
enormous demand for fiction. The people
have been fed on the war and it's at
tendant horrors for years, to say nothing
of the daily suspense OF waiting for our
own participation in the conflict, and
they will turn to fiction for relief"