The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-07-14
BY GRANT M. OVERTON.

BY GRANT M. OVERTON.
WHY do some of Grace S. Rich
w mond's books sell faster than the
books of any other American woman
writerf Because they do! And their
popularity has no relation whatever to
their size. Some of the littlest, On Christ
mas Day IN the Morning, On Christmas
Day in the Euening and The Enlis'ing
WJe, for instance, sell most rapidly. Not
the size; perhaps it has something to do
with the substance!
No perhaps about it. Mrs. Richmond
has, more perfectly than most of her con-
tcmpOraries, the gift for disclosing the
simplest and deepest feelings of men and
women everywhere in just those words
which are at the back OF our head and
hardly ever on our lips. They are the
words we ache to utter, but never quite
bring ourselves 10 say. She says them for
U.s. She makes artieuate and perfect the
full feeling that is in US. She is our emo
tional self-that part of self which is a
common possession-touched with pcnte-
costal fire When we read her we have
the delight of self-expression blended with
feeling of gratefulness to her for afford
ing it to us.
An Emotionalist' Excuse.
These are strong words. Gush, some
will call them. Well, among the people
of repressed instincts there is one instinct
seldom repressed-the instinct to sheer at
those who let themselves go. This is an
Inconsistency which will trouble them 1--WE
point it out that they may give themselves
over to their favorite delight of self-tOr-
ture), but which bothers the rest of lis not
at all. We know-the rest of us-full
well that the emotionalism of which Mrs.
Richmond is the most successful exponent
is cleansing and refreshing exercise.
We read her and come away a little surer
. of ourselves and of the world about us.
For the essence of that world is the people
in it and there is something in most people
that does not change.
Mrs. Richmond has written many books.
The only exact fact TO be stated is that i'll
19l4-and several Of her most successful
books have appeared since-she had sold
100000 copies. The total must be well
on to the million mark by now. Then
there are the cheaper editions of her
earlier stories; there are the readers of
her work IN the Ladies' Home Journal
and other publications; there are the Ii
braries where copies Of her are always
"out," and there are new circles of read
ers, each book being much like a stone
breaking the surface of pond and max
ing its own widening ripples no matter.
Millions read Mrs. Richmond. That Is
enough to know. 1t is the achievement Of
a quiet, country woman whose
publishers have q time to get her TO be
photographed.
Mrs. Richmond's Life.
She lives in Fredonia, New York, and
the sketch of her life is a bare outline.
She was born in Pawtucket, r. l., the
daughter of the Rev. Charles Edwards
Smith, d. D., and Catherine A. kim
BALI Smith. Her father was Baptist
clergyman, the author of The Baptism Of
Fire and The World Lighted. Grace
was an only child. While she was still
young girl the family moved to Syracuse,
N. Y. There the daughter was educated
in the Syracuse High School and under
,priyate tutors. following COLLEGE cOArses
Of study under their direction. She gave
some indications of the writer's gift
before her marriage in 1887 to DR.. Mel
son Guernsey Richmond of Fredonia. But
the wife of young physician with a
growing practice has not a great deal of.
leisure 1t was not until 1891 that Mrs.
Richmond, whose first work was short
stories for magazines, attracted special
attention by a story which appeared in