The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-16

ndSltQELOH, ~. Sss MAI Cu 10
How a successful career of auth
orship is begun has at last been
divulged authoratatively. One hun
dred and twenty-five members Of
the Authors League of America,
writer's who have arrived, have i'm
mortalized in book form the story
of MY Maiden Effort"
Here surely is an Illuminating
document for the young geniuses
who realize that destiny calls them
to write, but who sit with reluctant
pen wondering how one should
begin. The 125 chapters out of
the past history of 125 successful
writers tell just how it has been
done successfully. The only diff
Guilty in drawing conclusions is that
different conclusion, and moral
may be drawn from every chapter.
Thus, some writer's began WELD
ing a pen at comparatively ma
ture age and struggled from there
on. Others-many of them-began
their careers young and gathered
experience all through the years of
youth.
One of the former type is Ray
Stanard Baker He began to be
an author at % when he sold his
first story to a short story maya
zine. He was informed that the
magazine paid on publication, and
therefore he eagerly watched for
his literary debut which was to be
followed by his entrance into the
plutocratic class. Every month for
two years and a half Baker has
tened to buy the new issue of the
magazine and went home anXiousiy
reading the table of contents. At
the end of that long period the
young authors name appeared on
the cover in the distinguished com
pany of Anthony Hope and Robert
Louis Stevenson.
The promised remuneration even
tually came 1t was a check for So.
Young Baker dropped to earth and
Unfortunately, the So, gain was
overshadowed by the $3.50 spent
for copies of the magazine. But,
he says, cit was real experience.
Cobb Got Early Start.
In the class of those who heard
the call of the muse early in life,
Irwin S. Cobb is a shining example
He may surely claim the record for
getting the earliest start in the
game. He says:
MY earliest known photograph
shows me, at the tender age of 20
lying flat upon my stom-
ach-I could lie flat upon my stom-
ach then-5cribbling upon sheet
Of paper with a stub of pencil"
Booth Harrington, Arthur Gutter
man, Theodosia Garrison and many
others tell of suffering in verses
in their earliest years. A love lyric
Or a tragic ode written at the age of
six is as good way as any to burst
into the profession of being an au-
thor. their experience seems to say. |
We hasten to add that few of these /
nfantile effusions are reported as
sold. They were merely maiden |
efforts, but eventually they led TO |
bigger things.
Some of the celebrities struck
gold the first time they seriously
.ried to dig anything out of an edi-
orial office. Josephine Daskam !
Bacon tells of selling her first poem
o the Atlantic Monthly while she /
was still in school. and her next ,
.hree attempts, an essay. story, and I
poem. to that magazine and the
century. !
Ellis Parker Butler describes !
Early success. His first story, writ !
en- when he was a small boy, he .
sold to a juvenile publication and |
'eceived in payment so one-cent
postal cards.
Other latent geniuses struggled.
n fact. the majority served d dis
'ouraging apprenticeship to art.
For instance, Fanny Hurst de-
;cribes how her first short story
vas refused by II publications aud
vas finally printed in college
ournal. Looking back on this first
ttempt, Miss Hurst now regards il
IS "a supreme example of Anfrac- {
uosity, banality, compact incompre-
feasibility, descipiency, effusive-
less. flaccidity, garrulity, hyper
'olism, imbecility, juvenescence,
nd so on to omega
Fanny Hurst Labels Herself.
Fanny Hurst's first published
hort story brought in S. with
which she purchased a morocco
ound note book which she largely
nd giltly inscribed, Fanny Hurst
If there is ANYTHING