The sun., 1919-09-14
Mary Johnston Talks
nv HARRIoT T. COOKE.

0IUST> thinking aloud" is Mary
j Johnston's Characterization of
her new book, Michael Forth, which is be-
inc brought out by Harper & Brothers.
On these days of world upheaval it is
htile 10 attempt to cling to the old meth
dds of the novelist. Writers and thinkers
must break away from worn out conven-
TONS and try to salvage broken ideals, or
10 evolve new ones, from the wreckage
The war has left us.
"No, my new book is not war novel;"
Miss Johnston sat in huge armchair in
the study of her Virginia home, gowned
IN soft helotrope silk which lent charm to
her small, rounded figure. She was push
Ing back tendrils of her hair, just touched
with white "No, hate war. 1 am a
pacifst There has never been a war that
was not useless waste of blood and
treasure and that could not have easily
been prevented"
"But your books The Long Roll and
Cease FHihg were war novels"
"Yes have written about war; when
was younger / even believed in the TO-
nance Of war, but will never write of it
again. All how hate everything COLI
pected with war;" she shuddered. 'Tn fu-
ture my books will be sociological, philo-
sophical, perhaps hardly connected nara
tives just thinking aloud" she said, re-
peating the phrase, "like my book just
finished, Michael Forth, which has little
plot or incident.
"How can describe scenes and people
] have never scent Look around this
room and you will see." Book shelves ex-
tended from floor to ceiling. On the carved
mahogany writing table lay the latest
works on philosophy, history, sociology
! and spiritualism.
81 am not a genius, but have talent and
Imagination and l know how to absorb.
When one has browsed through about a
hundred volumes about a particular pc
rod it is as easy to write of that time as
of ones own. When l wrote To Haze and
To Hold | felt myself as much a part of
those Colonial days as do of the present
perhaps more. When l wrote my nov
els of the civil war 1 lived the. war; per-
haps that is the reason i have visualized
the horrors of the last war so much; per-
haps that is why l am a paciist."
Politics came up.
\ a must admit that I rarely read
the Presidents speeches any more. l
always think when one has read a
certain amount about people one learns
their types of mind and can tel,
pretty well what they are likely to
say on any given subject. 1 think I know
what Mr.. Wilson will probably say about
most things-also what Lodge and Boreh
and TIE others will say. 1t takes no very
clever person to do that. As for politics,
| am not a partisan. l am neither a Re-
. publican nor a Democrat There are
things about both parties 1 like and dis
like. | admire the President, but I am
not hero worshipper. could wish that
he did things differently sometimes that
be were more radical. But when / look
around among the men we have to choose
from | see no man so well fitted to be at
the helm. l am inclined to agree with a
4 popular magazine writer who has recently
characterized him as a great man with
great faults
"No, do not believe Virginia will rat
ify the woman suffrage amendment. 1t
will be hard to bring the Southern con-
servative element into line on suffrage, but
believe the Federal amendment will pass
without the Southern States. Woman
suffrage must come, and soon, and the re-