The Washington times., 1923-11-22
XIV.


of other successful authors, hal
recently bought a house. 1t was
in East Thirty-fifth street, not far
from the one at present occupied
by Madame Zattiany, but nearer
Lexington avenue. It was one of
the old, monotonous brownstone
houses, but with southern ex-
posure," and the former owner had
removed the front steps and re.
modelled the lower floor. ~
The dining room, on the left Of
the entrance, was long admir-
ably proportioned room, and the
large room above, which embraced
the entire floor, Miss Dwight had
converted into library both
sumptuous and stately. She had
bought her furniture at auction
that it might not look too new,
and on the longer walls were book
cases seven feet high. She had
collected a small library before the
war, and for the many other
books, some of them rare and all
highly valued by their present pos.
SCISSOR, she had haunted second
hand book shops.
The prevailing tone of the room
was brown and gold, enlivened
discreetly with red, and the chairs
and lounges were deep and COM
Portable. A large davenport stood
before the fireplace, which had
been rebuilt for logs. There was
victrola in one corner, for Miss
Dwight was amenab1e If her guests
were seized with the desire for
jazz, and a grand piano stood nea.
the lower windows. The only evil
dence of sheer femininity was a
tea table furnished with old pieces
of silver she had picked up in
France. The dining room below
was a trifle gayer in effect; the
walls and curtains were a deep
yellow and there were always flow
ers on the table.
New York knew so much about
this new literary planet that it
took for granted there was moth
ing further to be discovered. There
are always San Franciscans in the
great city, and when She became
famous they were obliging with
their biographical data. Life had
+ been hard on, her at first, for al
though she came of old Revolu-
tionary stock, she grew up in pow
erty and obscuritiy. Her father
had been a failure, and after the
death Of her parents she had kept
q lodging house for business wom-
en-, taking courses at the University
of California meanwhile; later she
had studied nursing and made her
mark with physicians and sur
geons. Her brother, a good-looK-
ing chap with fine manners, but
a sort of super-moron, had unex-
rectedly married into the old arts.
tocracy of San Francisco, AMI
Cora, through her ster-ih-law,
the lovely Alexina Groome (see the
authors "Sisters-in-Law'0, had
seen something of the lighter side
of life. During this period she
had written a number Of short
stories that had been published in
the best magazines, and one novel
of distinction that had made
"howling success" I'm San Fran
cisco, owing to the unprecedentel
efforts of the fashionable people,
led by Mrs. Mortimer Dwight, but
had fallen flat in the East, in
spite of the reviews. Then had
come a long intermission when
fictionists were of small account in
a world of awful facts. She was
quite forgotten, for she made not
even a casual contribution to the
magazines; shortly after the war
broke out she offered her services
to England and for long and
weary years was one of the most
valued nurses in the British arm
les. At the close of the war she
had returned to California, intend
ing to write her new novel at Lake
Tahoe, but finding the season in
full swing she had gone to some
small interior town and written it
there. When it was finished she
had brought it on to New York
and had remained here ever since.
So ended the brief biography,
which was elaborated in many ar
ticles and interviews.
Quick Success.
AS for the novel it won her in
slant fame and a small fortune.
1t was gloomy. pessimistic, excori-
ating, merciless, drab, sordid and
hideously realistic. Its people hail
ed from that plebeian end of the
vegetable garden devoted to tur-
nips and cabbages. They possess
ed all the mean vices and weak
OAasoa that datoEtabIa humanity