Evening star., 1946-09-15
Manuscript Saved
Because Soldier
Author Was Lost
By w. 6. ROGERS

NEW YORK, Sept. IA tP).-Here
is the unique story of a manuscript
which was saved because it was lost
II Morrison Wood had not mex
plicably let the 1899 typed pages of
his novel slip out of his hands, it
almost certainly never would have
reached this country. Wood himself
never returned; he died of dysentery
in a japanese prison camp July 81,
1912.
Arthur w. Wang, editor for
Thomas Y. Crowell Co., pub
Usher, tells the story. even while he
keeps looking for information about
the last months of Woods life.
Crowell will publish Woods book,
The Devil Is a Lonely Man." on
September II.
Wood volunteered in the fall of
1910 and year later sailed to the
Philippines with Army Air Corps
ground forces. With him went the
manuscript, begun in 1898. In jan
uary, 1912, he wrote to his parents,
DR.. and Mrs. Neal N. Wood, that his
luggage, including the manuscript
in his foot locker, had been shipped
home by mistake on the transport
Hugh Scott.
Unanswered Questions.
Other known facts are: Wood was
private, first class; his colonel had
recommended him for a commission;
both field and coast artillery officers
censored his last letters; the War
Department reported him missing in
the summer of 1912, and, a year
later, dead.
Woods family and his publisher
action on Bataan, as is supposed,
and also on Corregidor; what outfit
or outfits he served with up to the
time of his capture; whether any
comrade has a snapshot of him, or
managed to preserve his diary.
Inquiry in Washington shows. says
the publisher, that American forces
in the Philippines destroyed all rec
ords when they surrendered. The
only person who can answer these
questions are the unidentified SOL
diers who were with Wood in his
last months.
The manuscript reached Crowell
because Editor Wang knew some
body who knew somebody else who
had heard of it after it was sent to
an agent, on the advice of WASH
ington newspaperman, by Woods
brother Neal, then in England.
Strange Condolences.
Wang lists some condolences:
Woods family named two persons
who might have information about
the writer, one of them Woods for
mer wife and the other a student
writer. BY pure chance Wang had
known the wife in connection with
other publishing business, and again
by pure chance he ran across tha
student writer during a Midwestern
trip.
If proof Is still needed, Wang adds,
that the stars have a hand in our
fates, there is a second Morrison
Wood, Chicago radio producer. The
second Wood happened to drop into
the Chicago Tribune Office just at
the moment when he could see,
lying on desk, an early review
copy of THE Devil Is Lonely Man"
He was interested not only because
it was signed with his name, but
also because two Of Soldier Woods
letters had been delivered to him
and he had hunted six months in
vain for the right Wood.
The novel, from which the pub
Usher cut about 10000 words, is
still long enough to try the patience
OF many readers. The plot involves
an extended list Of characters, drags
in most Of the commoner acts of
violence and some less common. The
central figure is a Southerner who
winds up checkered career as
Governor of California.