XX

"humanness" or some such word. Just as I am floundering now; but whatever that quality may be, it is close to genius. There is no doubt that the ability to please so many readers is a special genius of itself, although this has been denied by many adroit critics. However, this speculation will bring us squarely up against a definition of literature in a moment or two. Which is not for publishers to do.

I have asked a number of friends what they thought of RED ASHES, sending them advance copies and galleys and proofs. Practically all of them agreed that the most remarkable feature of Mrs. Pedler's work was her ability to present a situation which might well occur, peopled by characters which might well be ourselves. Then, in the direct course of the narrative, the adventures and romances of her characters might conceivably be our own. And we are left at the end satisfied with ourselves and the world.

This would seem perhaps a small point, an unenthusiastic criticism. Yet I think that if one considers, he will find this a major element in successful writing. Was it Woodrow Wilson who said that after surviving the adventures in a detective story, his own troubles seemed small when he emerged? Probably it was someone else; former Secretary Hughes is a devourer of mysteries and it may have been he. Yet the fact remains, there is a vital quality to RED ASHES; it possesses a story too good to be recast here; and it is written well.

*

MONG THE most interesting events in a publishing house is the preparation of a big campaign. This that we are getting ready for THE RED LAMP, by Mary Roberts Rinehart, is one of the most striking that we have ever done. The book is to be released on the fourteenth of August.

First, a hundred thousand copies of the book will be made. Meanwhile the sales force is out selling it from dummies - thin replicas of the binding and jacket containing a few pages. Here in the office advertisements are being prepared for newspapers and magazines the country over, and photographs of the author, news stories, interviews, material for the critics, are all being

made up and printed. Window displays, consisting of various objects involved in the mystery, are under preparation. And “The Murray Hill Gazette", the private newspaper of the house, is devoting its entire space to a RED LAMP issue, in readiness to go to its entire circulation of six thousand (unpaid).

Any novel by Mrs. Rinehart is certain to be a best-seller at once. Curiously, she is known all over the country as the writer pre-eminent of mystery novels, yet she has not written one for eleven years. THE CIRCULAR STAIRCASE, THE MAN IN LOWER TEN, THE AFTER HOUSE, all were before 1914. Of course THE BAT came after the war, but that was a play. It is running yet, somewhere.

And

The most remarkable feature of THE RED LAMP is the style in which it is written. All of it is in the words of one William A. Porter, a professor of English literature and a gentleman of considerable culture and poise. after reading a few pages one becomes immersed in this delightful personality, this man of quiet taste and whimsy who finds himself involved suddenly in an extraordinary adventure. Reading the book through, I found not one single word or phrase that would not satisfy a purist, nor any deviation from the integrity of the character. It is amazing to know that it was written by a

woman.

But with THE RED LAMP we on Murray Hill played a very tantalizing trick: a copy was sent to every member of the book trade, an advance copy complete save for the last chapter, and prizes were offered for the best solution of the mystery. Many conjectures have come in, some good, and some wild, and not a few frantic appeals for the remaining pages. But as far as I know, no one has had it exactly correct, nor will anyone, probably, unless he is clairvoyant. We have kept the secret well.

XXI

Sheppard, in a recent letter, writes an amusing account of himself. His ancestors included a prince, cousin of an Austrian Emperor of an early day, and a New England Sears. This latter was supposed to have arrived on these shores in the Mayflower, but "I don't think there was room for him in the Mayflower, which cannot have had the capacity of Noah's Ark," writes Sheppard.

He has done seven novels, among the better known of which are THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JUDAS ISCARIOT, RUNNING HORSE JIM, THE RED CRAVAT, and THE RISE OF LEDGAR DUNSTAN. The second of these was heralded widely when it appeared nineteen years ago, and the critics awaited another novel with considerable interest. But a breakdown in health forced a ten years' period of inaction; for thirteen years he worked in an insurance office "like Eden Philpotts", he says.

As to the man: "I went in for everything years ago, and all pretty badly. Smashed up a van in Regent's Park while riding and was run away with in Madeira. Mobbed by Moors while taking photographs in Tangier.

at work on the longest novel he has yet undertaken. Mrs. Jessica G. Cosgrave, famous head of the Finch School in New York, is on her way abroad after finishing MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, a brilliant study of modern girls, for autumn publication. Her book of small gardens for amateurs is already in manufacture. Cyril Hume, whose CRUEL FELLOWSHIP is now so talked of, has returned from his Italian home following the tragic death of his young wife. And the first third of what promises to be a very fine novel has come from Raymond Weaver, author of that astonishing book, HERMAN MELVILLE, MARINER AND MYSTIC. The title of the new one is probably to be THE LOST APHRODITE; its setting, Japan.

Dr. Joseph Collins is abroad while the finishing touches are being put to THE DOCTOR LOOKS AT BIOGRAPHY. Having looked at literature and taken the literary pulse, he has turned to a field even more popular, the mental peculiarities of great men and women as diagnosed from their lives.

I

QUOTE here from the biographical ar

Kent. Nearly drowned while bathing." All in all, a modest man and a brilliant writer.

*

RANK SWINNERTON, making THE

to postpone his visit to America until spring. James Montgomery Flagg, the artist, is on his way to Maine, reading proofs of his journal of a motor trip as he rides. BOULEVARDS ALL THE WAY MAYBE! is the gay title, while the story is the hilarious adventure of his bride and himself as they went to the Coast last summer. Will Crawford, another artist, came in from his lonely cabin in the wilds of New Jersey to present his illustrations for SKUNNY WUNDY AND OTHER INDIAN FOLK TALES, a book for children by an adopted Indian, Arthur C. Parker. jacket is designed on real birch-bark, which will be photographed onto paper.

The

Thomas Burke in England, author of LIMEHOUSE NIGHTS and of that exquisite autobiography, THE WIND AND THE RAIN, is

the "Rover Boys" parodies running in "Life." These articles, together with a series of literary adventures which will take the famous Boys into THE BOOKMAN, will be published in the autumn under the title THREE ROUSING CHEERS. This fragment of biography appears at the end of the article:

"Three cheers for Corey Ford!" cried the Rollo Boys, tossing the newcomer in the air and shouting lustily. Owing to the fact that Mr. Ford was writing the article, the cheers were given with a will; but the contents of that will, and how it affected the fortunes not only of Mr. Ford, but also of his publishers, will not be related until the appearance of Mr. Ford's new book in the fall, to be entitled: THREE ROUSING CHEERS FOR THE ROLLO BOYS; or, The Parody Adventure of our Boyhood Heroes.

"And here, while we still have a chance, let us say Good-By.

"Good-By."

ALAN RINEHART.

Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE. 1909.

The creator of Hashimura Togo comes from Oneida, New York, where he was born March 15, 1876. Wallace Irwin is a graduate of the Denver High School and attended Stanford University. While he was in the west he was a special writer on the San Francisco "Examiner" and editor of "The Overland Monthly". He also became a burlesque writer for the Republican Theatre in San Francisco. About 1905 he came east and contributed_topical verse to the New York "Globe". From 1906-7 he was on the staff of "Collier's". Mr. Irwin's home is in New York City, and his humorous short stories are to be found in "The Saturday Evening Post" and 'Collier's".

Going to Travel?

Then by all means refer to the travel section of Harper's Magazine-Every month you will find many alluring suggestions and vivid pictures of America and faraway places including the announcements of a large number of Tourist Agencies, Railroads, Steamship Lines, Resorts and Hotels.

Sailing Dates in Every Issue

For the convenience of our readers we will publish each month the sailing dates for Europe and other countries together with the dates of special tours and cruises. Feel perfectly free to write us-Our Travel Bureau will gladly furnish any information desired.

HARPER'S MAGAZINE

49 East 33rd Street, New York, N. Y.

ated in 1900. He is married and lives in New York City. He is a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. He is best known for his stories of college life. Much of his work appears in "The Delineator". REFERENCES:

DORAN.

The Literary Spotlight. Anonymous.
The Men Who Make Our Novels. Charles C.
Baldwin, DODD, MEAD.

PETER B. KYNE

Cappy Ricks. COSMOPOLITAN. 1922.
The Go-Getter. COSMOPOLITAN. 1921.

This Irish-American was born in San Francisco, California, October 12, 1880. He received his education in the public schools and at business college. He began his career as a clerk in a general merchandise store, and later became a lumberman and a newspaper man. He is a veteran of the Philippine Rebellion, the SpanishAmerican War, and the World War. After various failures in the business world, he turned to writing, for which he had had vague yearnings when a boy. He is now among the authors whose books sell 100,000 copies. He has contributed stories to "The Saturday Evening Post" and "Sunset Magazine", and his short stories appear now almost exclusively in “Cosmopolitan". REFERENCES:

Getting into Six Figures. Arnold Patrick. BOOKMAN, March, 1925.

The Men Who Make Our Novels. Charles C. Baldwin. DODD, MEAD.

RING W. LARDNER

How to Write Short Stories. SCRIBNER. 1924. Another newspaper man and short story writer is Ring W. Lardner, the author of the famous "You Know Me Al" stories. He was born in Niles, Michigan, March 6, 1885. He attended the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago, became a reporter on the South Bend "Times' in Indiana, and then followed a career as sporting writer on the Chicago "Tribune", editor of "Sporting News" in St. Louis, and sporting writer on the Boston "American", the Chicago "American", the Chicago "Examiner", and the Chicago "Tribune". He has since been writing for the Bell Syndicate, and is well known to the readers of "The Saturday Evening Post" for his stories about sports and the characters who participate in them. His home is in Great Neck, Long Island.

REFERENCE:

Ring W. Lardner. Gilbert Seldes. VANITY FAIR. July, 1925.

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY Parnassus on Wheels. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE. 1917. The Haunted Bookshop. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE. 1917.

Christopher Morley, born in Haverford, Pennsylvania, in 1890, is a combination of essayist, poet, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was graduated from Haverford College in 1910 and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford from 1910 to 1913. He has done editorial work for Doubleday, Page and Company, for "The Ladies'