The New York herald., 1920-01-18
HORACE A. WADE, A CHICAGO BOY,
RIVAL OF DAISY ASHFORD FOR 4
HONOR IN CHILD AUTHOR LIST
Tn the Shadow of Great PERIL"
$4,000 Word Book, VIII Be
on the Stands Soon.
MERIcANs who are interested in

~ juvenile literary genius instead of
~ fastening to join the Daisy Ash
ford cult should read America
rirst, for America has it's own Daisy Ash
ford. He's a boy-Horace A. Wade, Of
Chicago, and I'm the Shadow OF Great
Peril is his contribution to the shelf on
which we have put THE Young visiters."
The book world is not likely to remain in
ignorance of who he is long after his IS 900
word, twenty-five cha pter volume appears
on the bookstands in February. This is
advance. stuff. to get ahead ofthe critics.
Horace A. Wade is the eleven-year-o
son of Chicago advertising man. He was
born in st. Louis, MO-, March 26, 1905 He
has run true to the form Of aE successful
authors by reading omniverously ever
since he began to read and by showing his
leanings toward literature almost as soon
AZ he showed leanings toward food. His
rather tells how, at the age OF nine-fatal
year for. Barrie's protegee also-he wrote
his first book This was lost, so "In the
Shadow Of Great Peril'' comes to US as
the fruit of tricd-and perhaps one can
say a .maturcd-genus.
'In the Shadow of Great Peril" was
written at Oak Park. ILL.,. last August
Horace completed the IS 1000 words In which
the story is told in about three weeks.
Horace writes with great rapidity." his
father. Edward Ingersoll Wade told the
HERALD correspondent. He lies flat on
his stomach when at work, using q stubby
pencil and pad. Frequently his output
would be $500 words at one seance.'
In going on to tell how "In the Shadow
Of Great Peril has achieved the dignity
Of publication Mr.. Wade said
"My attention to the book was attracted
by an ever-increasing audience of young
sters at Oak Park who would gather each
afternoon TO hear the latest chapter. Ii
occurred to me that there must be some
merit in book that appealed so to the i'm
agination of the juvenile world"
But fathers are like that and If this
story could carry only The head, Father
Finds Genius in Son, = it wouldn't recon-
mend itself anywhere except around the
comic section. So let's see what has been
the verdict of critic less liable to be
prejudiced. When 'In the Shadow oil
Great Peril had gone the rounds OF sew
efal friends OF the family whose critical
y acunen was we'll deevoped," Mr.. Wade
sent it to Irwin s. Cobb. The latter read
II ana, upon returning the IldHuScFlpJ,
wrote :
In my humble opinion this youngster
txcels any eleven-year-older / have ever
met in natural literary instinct and ability
10 my way Of thinking he has agna-
ton, he has sense of balance and pro-
portion most marvelously unusual, con-
sidering his age and he has a wider choice
OF. words than | should have believed it
possible for boy OF his age TO have.
FINALLY, he had the innate Judgment
genius would be better word-to try at
this first venture to write about things
a boy would know rather than about some
thing which somebody else had written
about before him. lot many of us have
the. sense to follow this admirable line in
our beginnings. We think romance is
something which happens to other folks
in. other lands. where, as Horace OWNED
it is something which happens to rs in
our lives.
''He starts his professional career with
a natural aptitude for words. for plot and
for sequence which most writer's lack and
must acquire by slow and very painful
processes"
All of which must have made pleasant
reading for Horace and for his first and
most loyal booster-his father. But the
young novelist had another passage with
a critic which was not quite so gratifying
and which, il 10 to be feared. will instill
in him at this early age tho traditional
hostility OF the author for the hsrdwork-
ing person whose Job it is to comment, for
publication, on the days literature. The
critic, in this case, was no other than
George Bernard Shaw. .r
Last September Horace asked his mother
who was the greatest critic in the world
For reasons which seem sufficient to Mrs
Wade, she named &c. r. s." Tbereupon
on his own initiative, Horace wrote Mr..
shaw and asked him IL he would critically