The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-12-21
Housewife
Wins Prize
With Book
Pulitzer Winner Wrote
Books While Working
for Family.
BY HELEN WELSHIMER
MA Service stan Writer

VXTHEN Caroline Miller got of
w the train in New York carry
ing her hat in her hand so the re-
ception committee could identify
the woman whose first novel, Lamb
in His Bosom" won the Pulitzer
prize. a belief in something lovely
and lost came back again. Mrs.
Miller didn't have a certain place
and definite hours in which to write.
She ha a husband and children.
She ha to hunt for collar buttons,
bandaga skinned knees, bake birth
day ca .es, learn about cookies and
dogs But she won the highest
award of the year.
over and over people who want
10 write, sing, or paint say that if
working conditions were perfect they
would do it. Oh, yes, certainly And
if you were the King Of Siam you
would sit on a thronel No. it would
seem that if one wants to do any
thing badly enough, and has the
innate ability, one will do it. If
not, then there are always gardens
to plant and other peoples books to
read.
Genius Will Out
As the fog crept in from the East
River in New York the other night,
an old man stood on a corner weav-
ing a tapestry of sound from an old.
old violin while a music box played
an accompaniment. once upon a
time, perhaps, the musician had
played second violin in a little mu-
sic hall somewhere. NOW he played
a sidewalk song. There were dis
cords and breaks. He had never
perfected his art. Maybe he thought
that he knew enough when his
teachers had told him to study
harder, practice longer. Maybe the
practice hours came late when he
was sleepy or the neighbOrS had
cat whose reverberatiOns on the
night air Jared his melodies. So
he gave up. Never the time, the
place or the opportunity!
But the genius doesn't grow that
way. As Caroline Miller said she
had a book she wanted to do so
she wrote it while fruit juices bub-
bled on the stove getting ready
for jelly, and the butcher. the
baker and the gas man came and
talked about short cuts, whole
wheat bread and the meter.
Impotence. wise men say, is the
besetting sin of the age. We want
an Aladdin's lamp which will bring
greatness at a single touch. But
unfOrtunately-Or no, fortunately
the Arabian Nights Tales were
finished long, long ago. Centuries
pass while an elm tree grows. Roses
don't bloom over night. It requires
the richness and fullnesS Of growth
ard experience to achieve anything
that Will be great and lasting. Weeds
spring up. But we dig them out.
Hard Work Essential
1t sounds like preaChment, of
course. but those who want to at
tain their heights will keep climb
ing and will use the very things
which apparently retard them as
a laboratory of development. They
will realize that if they had per-
feet working conditions perhaps
they would be so remotely removed
from the general symphony of liv-
ing they wouldn't pitch their songs
as they should They'll work-and
when they have served their APP
premiership there Will be a desk
and lamp and a typewriter whose
keys don't stick!
Anyway. the fact that Caroline
Miller wrote a prize-Winning novel
NAV make us all look around our
own backwards for material for the
pattern we want to perfect. As an
artist painted a picture one day
a friend of his looked over his
shoulder.
I'm sorry. but don't see any
thing beautiful in that!' he ex-
planned, obliviouS of the fact that
nobody had asked him whether he
did or didn't.
The artist smiled a little: Don't
you wish that you could?' he
asked.
Maybe there is a reason why an
unknown young woman in Georgia
wrote a great book.