The Washington herald., 1921-08-07
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Intreducing Arthur Somers Roche.
NEW YORK, Aug. "a faded
gray sweater, battered eyeshade
and comfortable old pipe! with
out them Arthur somers Roche at
work enriching American literature
is lost. They were his companions
in the lean years when hunger
lierally paved and writhed at his
feet and now when critics declare
him to be one of the worlds famous
novelists cannot give them up.
Seven years ago Roche left Park
Row for Castine Maine, almost
literary failure. 1t is true he had
been bang-up reporter. fftting
from one journal to another but the
fiction that he wrote between as
signments was quickly rejected. He
knew the self-immuring ache of the
unattainable.
And then come Loot" a mystery
story SO enthralling that 1t swept.
the country and made place in,
American letters over night. 1t was
a cleaverly conceived idea Of rob-
bing one of the biggest institutions
in New York by daylight. 1t was
SO plausible that big banks and
jewelry establishments held con-
ferences and devised means to
Illustrate what they never dreamed
might happen.
Editors besiged him. And with
his tongue in his cheek he sent
them stories. musty with age. from
the depths of an old trunk. and they
published them with gleeful blurbs.
In one months time he had orders
for more novels and short stories
that he could write in three years.
He has not forgot those strug-
Cling years. He has done more to
aid the struggling writer than any
other man writing today. He, knows
the rock road. Success could not
befog his supreme fellowship for
those fevering for that which he
was so long denied.
Arthur Somers Roche is the son
of James Jeffrey Roche, Boston poet
and essayist. He studied with the
hope of becoming a lawyer and he
was graduated. but he quickly
turned to journalism. running a
column first on the Morning Tele-
gram, then on the Globe and was
later hired and fired as a reporter
on nearly every New York news
paper. Many city editors boast to-
day of firing him.
He was a pal of o. Henry and
they spent many hours in the old
Preevort discussing their ambitions
and wondering just how the next
Apl n..l In ohA
used to go to newspaper shops and
write poetry, wait for the editor to
read it and issue the voucher for
the cash.
Life was not very kind % either
in those days, yet Roche was al
ways the idealist. Perhaps this is
best shown in his novel now rum
ming serially in a weekly magazine
called The Day OF Faith!" Known
as writer of mystery stories, he
suddenly took a theme that very
few writer's have dared to touch and
he has compounded a mixture Of
thrills and philosophy that has in
spired a half dozen sermons and
hundreds of editorials in New York
State alone.
When one meets Roche there are
mingling impressions of culture.
shyness and Irish deviltry. He has
a merry twinkle, a firm jaw ana
an aloofness that is mystifying and
yet at heart he Is a Peter Pan. He
lives on his fine estate at Darien.
Conn.,. and IL he goes to the village
postoffice and a gardener compli-
ments him upon some bit of writing
he fairly bubbles with happiness.
His wife was Miss Ethel Petit.
a former prima donna in light
opera. They spend their winters in
France and England and their sum-
mers at Darien. but wherever they
go the first things that are packed
are the faded gray sweater. the old
green eyeshade and the pipe. They
symbolic Roche's loyalty to old
friends.