,the ,fiction ,factory ,by ,john ,milton ,edwards ,being the ,experience of a ,writer who1 for ,twenty-two ,years1 has kept a ,story-mill ,grinding ,successfully4444 ,the ,editor ,company ,,ridgewood1 ,,new ,,jersey ,,copyright #aiab ,,by ,,the ,,editor ,,company4 ,,the ,,fiction ,,factory ,contents of ,chapters4 ,,page4 ,i4 ,,aut ,,fiction1 ,,aut ,,nullus #aa ,,ii4 ,,as ,,the ,,twig ,,is ,,bent #af ,,iii4 ,,methods ,,that ,,make ,,or ,,mar #be ,,iv4 ,,getting ,,hooked ,,up ,,with ,a ,,big ,,house #ca ,v4 ,,nickel ,,thrills ,,and ,,dollar ,,shockers #ch ,,vi4 ,,making ,,good ,,by ,,hard ,,work #db ,,vii4 ,,inspiration ,,alias ,,industry #eb ,,viii4 ,,the ,,wolf ,,on ,,the ,,sky ,,line #ef ,,ix4 ,,raw ,,material #fc ,x4 ,,the ,,wolf ,,at ,,the ,,door #fh ,,xi4 ,,when ,,fiction ,,is ,,stranger ,,than ,,truth #gf ,,xii4 ,,fortune ,,begins ,,to ,,smile #hj ,,xiii4 ,,our ,,friend ,,the ,t4 ,w4 #hh ,,xiv4 ,,fresh ,,fields ,,and ,,pastures ,,new #id ,,xv4 ,,from ,,the ,,factory',s ,,files #ajd ,,xvi4 ,,growing ,,prosperity #aaj ,,xvii4 ,,ethics ,,of ,,the ,,nickel ,,novel #aag ,,xviii4 ,,keeping ,,everlastingly ,,at ,,it #abb ,,xix4 ,,love ,,your ,,work ,,for ,,the ,,work',s ,,sake #abi ,,xx4 ,,the ,,lengthening ,,list ,,of ,,patrons #acc ,,xxi4 ,a ,,writer',s ,,reading #adb ,,xxii4 ,,new ,,sources ,,of ,,profit #adf ,,xxiii4 ,,the ,,injustice ,,of ,,it #aeh ,,xxiv4 ,,what ,,shall ,,we ,,do ,,with ,,it #afc ,,xxv4 ,,extracts ,,grave1 ,,gay1 ,,wise ,,and ,,otherwise #aga ,,xxvi4 ,,patrons ,,and ,,profits ,,for ,,twenty-,,two ,,years #age ,,the ,,writer ,,to ,,the ,,reader ,it was in #ahic that ,john ,milton ,edwards 7who sets his hand to this book of experiences and prefers using the third person to overworking the egotistical pronoun7 turned wholly to his pen as a means of livelihood4 ,in this connection1 of course1 the word pen is figurative4 ,what he really turned to was his good friend1 the ,typewriter4 ,for two years previous to this 7to him7 momentous event he had hearkened earnestly to the counsel that literature is a good stick but a poor crutch1 and had cleaved to a position as paymaster for a firm of contractors solely because of the pay envelope that insured food and raiment4 ,spare hours alone were spent in his ,fiction ,factory4 ,in the summer of #ahic1 however1 when his evening and ,sunday work brought returns that dwarfed his salary as paymaster1 he had a heart to heart talk with ,mrs4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 and1 as a result1 the paymaster-crutch was dropped by the wayside4 ,this came to pass not without many fears and anxieties1 and later there arrived gray days when the literary pace became unsteady and ,john ,milton turned wistful eyes backward in the direction of his discarded crutch4 ,but he never returned to pick it up4 ,from then till now ,john ,milton ,edwards has worked early and late in his ,factory1 and his output has supported himself and wife and enabled him to bear a number of other financial responsibilities4 ,there have been fat years and lean--years when plenty invited foolish extravagance and years when poverty compelled painful sacrifices--yet ,john ,milton ,edwards can truly say that the work has been its own exceeding great reward4 ,with never a best seller nor a successful play to run up his income1 ,john ,milton has1 in a score and two years of work1 wrested more than #ajj1jjj from the tills of the publishers4 ,short stories1 novelettes1 serials1 books1 a few moving picture scenarios and a little verse have all contributed to the sum total4 ,industry was rowelled by necessity1 and when a short story must fill the flour barrel1 a poem buy a pair of shoes or a serial take up a note at the bank1 the muse is provided with an atmosphere at which genius balks4 ,true1 ,genius has emerged triumphant from many a ,grub street attic1 but that was in another day when conditions were different from what they are now4 ,in these twentieth century times the writer must give the public what the publisher thinks the public wants4 ,although the element of quality is a sine qua non1 it seems not to be incompatible with the element of quantity4 ,it is hoped that this book will be found of interest to writers1 not alone to those who have arrived but also to those who are on the way4 ,writers with name and fame secure may perhaps be entertained1 while writers who are struggling for recognition may discover something helpful here and there throughout ,john ,milton ,edwards' twenty-two years of literary endeavor4 ,and is it too fair a hope that the reader of fiction will here find something to his taste8 ,he has an acquaintance with the finished article1 and it may chance that he has the curiosity to discover how the raw material was taken1 beaten into shape and finally laid before his eyes in his favorite periodical4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 in the pages that follow1 will spin the slender thread of a story recounting his successes and failures4 ,extracts of correspondence between him and his publishers will be introduced1 and other personal matters will be conjured with1 by way of illustrating the theme and giving the text a helpful value4 ,this slender thread of narrative will be broken at intervals to permit of sandwiching in a few chapters not germane to the story but en rapport with the work which made the story possible4 ,in other words1 while life goes forward within the ,factory-walls it will not be amiss to give some attention to the ,factory itself1 to its equipment and methods1 and to anything of possible interest that has to do with its output4 ,and finally1 of course ,john ,milton ,edwards is not the author's real name4 ,shielded by a nom de plume1 the author's experiences here chronicled may be of the most intimate nature4 ,in point of fact1 they will be helpful and entertaining in a direct ratio with their sincerity and frankness4 ,a ,,little ,,gift ,a little gift ,i have of words1 ,a little talent1 ,lord1 is all1 ,and yet be mine the faith that girds ,an humble heart for duty's call4 ,where ,genius soars to distant skies1 ,and plumes herself in proud acclaim1 ,o ,thou1 let plodding talent prize ,the modest goal1 the lesser fame4 ,let this suffice1 make this my code1 ,as ,i go forward day by day1 ,to cheer one heart upon life's road1 ,to ease one burden by the way4 ,i would not scale the mountain-peak1 ,but ,i would have the strength of ten ,to labor for the poor and weak1 ,and win my way to hearts of men4 ,a little gift ,thou gavest me1 ,a little talent1 ,lord1 is all1 ,yet humble as my art may be ,i hold it waiting for ,thy call4 ,september #bj1 #aiaa4 ,john ,milton ,edwards4 ,,the ,,fiction ,,factory ,i4 ,,aut ,,fiction1 ,,aut ,,nullus4 ,well1 my dear1 said ,john ,milton ,edwards1 miserably uncertain and turning to appeal to his wife1 which shall it be--to write or not to write8 ,to write1 was the answer1 promptly and boldly1 to do nothing else but write4 ,john ,milton wanted her to say that1 and yet he did not4 ,her conviction1 orally expressed1 had all the ring of true metal2 yet her husband1 reflecting his own inner perplexities1 heard a false note suggesting the base alloy of uncertainty4 ,hadn't we better think it over8 he quibbled4 ,you've been thinking it over for two years1 ,john1 and this month is the first time your returns from your writing have ever been more than your salary at the office4 ,if you can be so successful when you are obliged to work nights and ,sundays--and most of the time with your wits befogged by office routine--what could you not do if you spent ,,all your time in your ,fiction ,factory8 ,it may be1 ventured ,john ,milton1 that ,i could do better work1 snatching a few precious moments from those everlasting pay-rolls1 than by giving all my time and attention to my private ,factory4 ,is that logical8 inquired ,mrs4 ,john ,milton4 ,i don't know1 my dear1 whether it's logical or not4 ,we're dealing with a psychological mystery that has never been broken to harness4 ,suppose ,i have the whole day before me and sit down at my typewriter to write a story4 ,well and good4 ,but getting squared away with a fresh sheet over the platen isn't the whole of it4 ,the ,happy ,idea must be evolved4 ,what if the ,happy ,idea does not come when ,i am ready for it8 ,happy ,ideas1 you know1 have a disagreeable habit of hiding out4 ,there's no hard and fast rule1 that ,i am aware1 for capturing a ,happy ,idea at just the moment it may be most in demand4 ,there's lightning in a change of work1 the sort of lightning that clears the air with a tonic of inspiration4 ,when ,i'm paymastering the hardest ,i seem to be almost swamped with ideas for the story mill4 ,query3 ,will the mill grind out as good a grist if it grinds continuously8 ,if ,i were sure-- ,it stands to reason1 ,mrs4 ,edwards maintained stoutly1 that if you can make #abe a month running the mill nights and ,sundays1 you ought to be able to make a good deal more than that with all the week days added4 ,provided1 ,john ,milton qualified1 my fountain of inspiration will flow as freely when there is nothing to hinder it as it does now when ,i have it turned off for twelve hours out of the twenty-four4 ,why shouldn't it8 ,i don't know1 my dear1 ,john ,milton admitted1 unless it transpires that my inspiration isn't strong enough to be drawn on steadily4 ,fudge1 exclaimed ,mrs4 ,edwards4 ,and then1 her husband proceeded1 let us consider another phase of the question4 ,the demand may fall off4 ,the chances are that it ,,will fall off the moment the gods become aware of the fact that ,i am depending on the demand for our bread and butter4 ,whenever a thing becomes absolutely essential to you1 ,fate immediately obliterates every trail that leads to it1 and you go wandering desperately back and forth1 getting more and more discouraged until-- ,until you drop in your tracks1 broke in ,mrs4 ,edwards1 and give up--a quitter4 ,quitter is a mean word4 ,there's something about it that jostles you1 and treads on your toes4 ,i don't think ,i'd prove a quitter1 said ,john ,milton1 even if ,i did get lost in a labyrinth of hard luck4 ,it's the idea of losing you along with me that hurts4 ,i'll risk that4 ,this is a panic year1 ,john ,milton went on1 and money is hard to get4 ,it is hardly an auspicious time for tearing loose from a regular pay-day4 ,john ,milton and his wife lived in ,chicago1 and the firm for which ,john ,milton worked had managed to keep afloat by having an account in two banks4 ,when a note fell due at one bank1 the firm borrowed from the other to pay it4 ,thus1 by borrowing from ,peter to pay ,paul1 and from ,paul to pay ,peter1 the contractors juggled with their credit and kept it good4 ,times were hard enough in all truth1 yet they were not so hard in ,chicago as in other parts of the country4 ,the ,world's ,columbian ,exposition brought a flood of visitors to the city1 and a flood of cash4 ,bother the panic6 jeered ,mrs4 ,edwards4 ,it won't interfere with your work4 ,pleasant fiction is more soothing than hard facts4 ,people will read all the more just to forget their troubles4 ,i'm pretty solid with the firm1 said ,john ,milton1 veering to another tack4 ,i'm getting twelve hundred a year1 now1 with an extra hundred for taking care of the ,colonel's books4 ,is there any future to it8 ,there is4 ,i can buy stock in the company1 identify myself with it more and more1 and in twenty or thirty years1 perhaps1 move into a brownstone front on ,easy street4 ,no1 you couldn't6 declared ,mrs4 ,edwards4 ,why not8 ,why1 because your heart wouldn't be in your work4 ,ever since you were old enough to know your own mind you have wanted to be a writer4 ,when you were twelve years old you were publishing a little paper for boys-- ,it was a four-page paper about the size of lady's handkerchief1 laughed ,john ,milton1 and it lasted for two issues4 ,well1 insisted his wife1 you've been writing stories more or less all your life1 and if you are ever a success at anything it will be in the fiction line4 ,you are now twenty-six years old1 and if you make your mark as an author it's high time you were about it4 ,don't you think so8 ,if ,i'm willing to chance it1 ,john1 you surely ought to be4 ,all right1 was the answer1 it's a 'go4' ,and thus it was that ,john ,milton ,edwards reached his momentous decision4 ,perhaps you1 who read these words1 have been wrestling soulfully with the same question--vacillating between authorship as a vocation or as an avocation4 ,edwards made his decision eighteen years ago4 ,at that time conditions were different2 and it is doubtful whether1 had he faced conditions as they are now1 he would have decided to run his ,fiction ,factory on full time4 ,an eye for an eye4 ,a writer whose stories have been used in the ,munsey publications1 ,pearson's and other magazines1 writes3 ,how is this as an illustration of timeliness1 or the personal element in writing8--,i went in to see ,mr4 ,matthew ,white1 ,jr41 one day with a story and he said he couldn't read it because he had a sore eye4 ,i had an eye for that eye as fiction1 so ,i sat down and wrote a story in two hours' time about an editor who couldn't read any stories on account of his bum lamp1 whereby he nearly missed the best story for the year4 ,mr4 ,white was interested in the story mainly because he had a sore eye himself and was in full sympathy with the hero4 ,i took the story down and read it aloud to him1 selling it1 of course4 ,the story was called1 ',when the ,editor's ,eye ,struck4' 7,talk about making the most of your opportunities67 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,bookman1 somewhere1 tells of a lady in the ,middle ,west who caught the fiction fever and wrote in asking what price was paid for stories4 ,to the reply that #aj a thousand was paid for good stories she made written response3 ,why1 it takes me a week to write one story1 and #aj for a thousand weeks' work looks so discouraging that ,i guess ,i'd better try something else4 99 99 99 99 99 ,poeta nascitur2 non fit4 ,this has been somewhat freely translated by one who should know1 as ,the poet is born2 not paid4 ,,ii4 ,,as ,,the ,,twig ,,is ,,bent ,edwards' earliest attempt at fiction was a dramatic effort4 ,the play was in three acts1 was entitled ,roderigo1 the ,pirate ,chief1 and was written at the age of #ab4 ,the young playwright was ,roderigo1 the play was given in the loft of the ,edwards barn1 and twenty-five pins was the price of admission 7thirty if the pins were crooked74 ,the neighborhood suffered a famine in pins for a week after the production of the play4 ,the juvenile element clamored to have the performance repeated1 but the patrons' parents blocked the move by bribing the company with a silver dollar4 ,it was cheaper to pay over the dollar than to buy back several thousand pins at monopoly prices4 ,in #ahha ,simon ,girty2 or1 ,the ,border ,boys of the ,west was offered4 ,the first performance 7which was also the last7 was given in ,ottawa1 ,kansas1 and the modest fee of admission was #e cents4 ,the play was very favorably received and might have had an extended run had not the mothers of the border boys discovered that they were killing ,indians with blank cartridges4 ,gathering in force1 the mothers stormed the barn and added a realistic climax to the fourth act by spanking ,simon ,girty and disarming his trusty pards4 ,shortly after this1 the musty records show that ,edwards turned from the drama to narrative fiction1 and endeavored successfully to get into print4 ,the following1 copied from an engraved certificate1 offers evidence of his budding aspirations3 ,frank ,leslie's ,,boys' ,,and ,,girls' ,,weekly4 ,award of ,merit4 ,this is to certify that ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,ottawa1 ,kansas1 has been awarded ,honorable ,mention for excellence in literary composition4 ,new ,york1 ,oct4 #cj1 #ahhb4 ,,frank ,,leslie4 ,this honorable mention from the publisher of a paper1 which young ,edwards looked forward to from week to week and read and re-read with fascination and delight1 must have inoculated him for all time with the fiction virus4 ,forthwith he began publishing a story paper on a hektograph4 ,saturday was the day of publication1 and the office of publication was the loft of the ,edwards' barn4 ,even at that early day the author understood the advantage of holding leave-offs,a in serial work4 ,he was altogether too successful with his leave-offs1 for his readers1 gasping for the rest of the story and unable to wait for the next issue of the paper1 mobbed the office and forced him1 with a threat of dire things1 to tell them the rest of the yarn in advance of publication4 ,after that1 of course1 publication was unnecessary4 ,it was a problem with young ,edwards1 about this time1 to secure enough blank paper for his scribbling needs4 ,two old ledgers1 only partly filled with accounts fell into his hands1 and he used them for his callow essays at authorship4 ,he has those ledgers now1 and derives considerable amusement in looking through them4 ,they prove that he was far from being a prodigy1 and reflect credit on him for whipping his slender talents into shape for at least a commercial success in later life4 ,consider this3 ,scene ,,iii4 ,j4 ,b4--,we made a pretty good haul that time1 ,jim4 ,b4 ,j4--,yes1 ,i'd like to make a haul like that every night4 ,we must have got about #ej1jjj4 ,j4 ,b4--,now we will go and get our boots blacked1 then go and get us a suit of clothes1 and then skip to the ,west ,indies4 ,here a #ej1jjj robbery had been committed and the thieves were calmly discussing getting their boots blacked and replenishing their wardrobe 7one suit of clothes between them seems to have been enough7 before taking to flight4 ,shades of ,sherlock1 how easily a boy of #ab makes business for the police department6 ,or consider this gem from ,act ,,ii4 ,the aforesaid ,j4 ,b4 and ,b4 ,j4 have evidently been pinched while getting their boots blacked or while buying their suit of clothes3 ,j4 ,b4--,we're in the jug at last1 ,jim1 and ,i'm afraid we'll be sentenced to be shot4 ,b4 ,j4--,don't be discouraged1 ,bill4 ,enter ,sleek1 the detective4 ,sleek4--,we've got you at last1 eh8 ,j4 ,b4--,you'll never get the money1 just the same4 ,sleek4--,we'll shoot you if you don't tell where it is like a dog4 ,then here's something else which seems to prove that young ,edwards occasionally fell into rhyme3 ,oh1 why cut down those forests1 ,our forests old and grand8 ,and oh1 why cheat the ,indians ,out of all their land8 ,enclosed by civilization1 ,surrounded they by towns1 ,calmly when this life is done ,they seek their hunting-grounds6 ,john ,milton ,edwards has always had a place in his heart for the red man1 and another for his country's vanishing timber4 ,he is to be congratulated on his youthful sentiments if not on the way they were expressed4 ,in #ahhb the ,edwards family removed to ,chicago4 ,there were but three in the family--the father1 the mother1 and ,john ,milton4 ,the boy was taken from the ,ottawa high school and1 as soon as they were all comfortably settled in the ,windy ,city1 ,john ,milton made what he has since believed to be the mistake of his career4 ,his father offered him his choice of either a university or a business education4 ,he chose to spend two years in ,bryant ,stratton's ,business ,college4 ,his literary career would have been vastly helped had he taken the other road and matriculated at either ,harvard or ,yale4 ,he had the opportunity and turned his back on it4 ,he was writing1 more or less1 all the time he was a student at ,bryant ,stratton's4 ,the school grounded him in double-entry bookkeeping1 in commercial law1 and in shorthand and typewriting4 ,when he left the business college he found employment with a firm of subscription book publishers1 as stenographer4 ,there came a disagreement between the two partners of the firm1 and the young stenographer was offered for #a1ejj the retiring partner's interest4 ,the elder ,edwards1 who would have had to furnish the #a1ejj1 could not see anything alluring in the sale of books through agents1 and the deal fell through4 ,two years later1 while ,john ,milton was working for a railroad company as ticket agent at #fj a month1 his old friend of the subscription book business dropped in on him and showed him a sworn statement prepared for ,dun and ,bradstreet4 ,he had cleared #fj1jjj in two years6 ,had ,john ,milton bought the retiring partner's interest he would have been worth half a million before he had turned thirty4 ,the fiction bee1 however1 was continually buzzing in ,john ,milton's brain4 ,he had no desire to succeed at anything except authorship4 ,leaving the railroad company1 he went to work for a boot and shoe house as bill clerk1 at #ab a week4 ,the death of his father1 at this time1 came as a heavy blow to young ,edwards2 not only that1 but it brought him heavy responsibilities and led him seriously to question the advisibility of ever making authorship--as he had secretly hoped--a vocation4 ,his term as bill clerk was a sort of probation1 allowing the young man time1 in leisure hours1 further to try out his talent for fiction4 ,he was anxious to determine if he could make it a commercial success1 and so justify himself in looking forward to it as a life work4 ,the elder ,edwards had been a rugged1 self-made man with no patience for anything that was not strictly business4 ,he measured success by an honorable standard of dollars and cents4 ,for years previous to his death he had been accustomed to see his son industriously scribbling1 with not so much as a copper cent realized from all that expenditure of energy4 ,naturally out of sympathy with what he conceived to be a waste of time and effort1 ,edwards1 ,sr41 did not hesitate to express himself forcibly4 ,on one occasion he looked into his son's room1 saw him feverishly busy at his desk and exclaimed1 irascibly1 ,damn the verses6 ,young ,edwards' mother1 on the other hand1 was well educated and widely read2 indeed1 in a limited way1 she had been a writer herself1 and had contributed in earlier life to ,harper's ,magazine4 ,she could see that perhaps a pre-natal influence was shaping her son's career1 and understood how he might be working out his apprenticeship4 ,thus she became the gentle apologist1 excusing the boy's unrewarded labors1 on the one hand1 and the father's cui bono ideas1 on the other4 ,the ,chicago ,times1 in its ,sunday edition1 used a story by young ,edwards4 ,it was not paid for but it was published1 and the elder ,edwards surreptitiously secured many copies of the paper and sent them to distant friends4 ,thus1 although he would not admit it1 he showed his pride in his son's small achievement4 ,from the boot and shoe house young ,edwards went back to the railroad company again2 from there1 when the railroad company closed its ,chicago office1 he went to a firm of wholesalers in coke and sewer-pipe2 and1 later1 he engaged as paymaster with the firm of contractors4 ,between the coke and sewer-pipe and the pay-rolls he wedged in a few days of reporting for ,the ,chicago ,morning ,news2 and on a certain ,friday1 the last of ,february1 he got married1 and was back at his office desk on the following ,monday morning4 ,the first story for which ,edwards received payment was published in ,the ,detroit ,free ,press1 ,sept4 #ai1 #ahhi4 ,the payment was #h4 ,in ,april1 the same year1 the ,free ,press inaugurated a serial story contest4 ,edwards entered two stories1 one under a nom de plume4 ,neither won a prize1 but both were bought and published4 ,for the first1 published in #ahia1 he was paid #ge on ,feb4 #b1 #ahij2 and for the second1 published a year later1 he was paid #ajj4 ,with the opening installment of the first serial the ,free ,press published a photograph of the author over a stickful of biography4 ,on another page appeared a paragraph in boldface type announcing the discovery of a new star in the literary heavens4 ,the spirit of ,john ,milton ,edwards swelled within him4 ,he feasted his eyes on his printed picture 7the rapid newspaper presses had made a smudge of it71 he read and re-read his lean biography 7lean because not much had happened to him at that time7 and he gloried over the boldface type with its message regarding the new star 7he was to learn later that many similar stars are born to blush unseen7 and he felt himself a growing power in the world of letters4 ,verily1 a pat on the back is a thing to conjure with4 ,it is more ennobling1 sometimes1 than a kingly tap with a swordpoint accompanied by the words1 ,i dub thee knight4 ,to the fine glow of youthful enthusiasm it opens broad vistas and offers a glimpse of glittering heights4 ,even though that hand-pat inspires dreams never to be realized1 who shall say that a little encouragement1 bringing out the best in us1 does not result in much good8 ,and in this place ,john ,milton ,edwards would make a request of the reader of fiction4 ,if you are pleased with a story1 kindly look twice at the author's name so you may recall it pleasantly if it chances to come again under your eye4 ,if you are a great soul1 given to the scattering of benefactions1 you might even go a little farther3 ,at the expense of a postage stamp and a little time1 address a few words of appreciation to the author in care of his publisher4 ,you wist not1 my beloved1 what weight of gold your words may carry6 ,from the summer of '#hi to the summer of '#ic ,edwards wrote many stories and sketches for ,the ,detroit ,free ,press1 ,puck1 ,truth1 ,the ,ladies' ,world1 ,yankee ,blade1 ,frank ,leslie's ,popular ,monthly1 ,chatter1 ,saturday ,night1 and other periodicals4 ,in #ahij he was receiving #aj a month for contributions to a little ,chicago weekly called ,figaro2 and1 during the same year1 he found a market which was to influence profoundly a decade of work and his monetary returns2 ,james ,elverson paid him #ge for a serial to be used in ,saturday ,night4 ,undoubtedly it was this serial that pointed ,edwards toward the sensational story papers4 ,a second serial1 sold to ,saturday ,night1 ,oct4 #ba1 #ahia1 brought #aej2 while a third1 paid for ,july #bj1 #ahic1 netted a like amount4 ,these transactions carried the true ring of commercial success4 ,apart from myth and fable1 there is no more compelling siren song in history than the chink of silver4 ,edwards1 burdened with responsibilities1 gave ear to it4 ,the serial story1 published in the ,free ,press in #ahia1 had made friends for ,edwards4 ,among these friends was ,alfred ,b4 ,tozer1 editor of ,the ,chicago ,ledger4 ,through ,mr4 ,tozer1 ,edwards received commissions for stories covering a period of years4 ,the payment was #a4ej a thousand words--modest1 indeed1 but regular and dependable4,b ,from #ahhi to #ahic ,edwards was laboring hard--all day long at his clerical duties and then until midnight in his ,fiction ,factory4 ,the pay derived from his fiction output was small1 7the ,ladies' ,world gave him #e for a #e1jjj-word story published ,march #ah1 #ahij1 and ,the ,yankee ,blade sent him #ac on ,jan4 #aj1 #ahia1 for a story of #h1ejj words71 but ,edwards was prolific1 and often two or three sketches a day came through his typewriter4 ,early in #ahic1 however1 he saw that he was at the parting of the ways4 ,he could no longer serve two masters1 for the office work was suffering4 ,he realized that he was not giving the contracting firm that faithful service and undivided energy which they had the right to expect1 and it was up to him to do one line of work and one only4 ,slips and ,tips ,one of ,mr4 ,white's authors who had never been in ,europe set out to write a story of a traveller who determined to get along without tipping4 ,the author described his traveller's horrible plight while being shown around the ,paris ,bastille--which historic edifice had been razed to the ground some two centuries before the story was written6 ,the author received a tip from ,mr4 ,white on his tipping story1 a tip never to do it again4 ,,footnotes3 ,a ,leave-off--the place where a serial is broken1 and the words ,to be continued in our next appear4 ,mr4 ,matthew ,white1 ,jr41 ,editor of the ,argosy1 is supposed to have coined the expression4 ,at any rate1 ,mr4 ,white has a great deal to do with leave-offs and ought to know what to call them4 ,b ,in these later times1 with other hands than those of ,mr4 ,tozer at the helm1 ,the ,chicago ,ledger seems to have become the ,sargasso ,sea of the popular fictionist--a final refuge for story derelicts4 ,the craft that grows leaky and water-logged through much straining and wearisome beating about from port to port1 has often and often come to anchor in the columns of the ,ledger4 ,,iii4 ,,methods ,,that ,,make ,,or ,,mar4 ,edwards has no patience with those writers who think they are of a finer or different clay from the rest of mankind4 ,genius1 however1 may be forgiven many things1 and the artistic temperament may be pardoned an occasional lapse from the conventional4 ,this is advertising1 albeit of a very indifferent sort1 and advertising is a stepping-stone to success4 ,the fact remains that ,true ,genius does not brand with eccentricity the intelligence through which it expresses itself4 ,the time has passed when long hair and a ,windsor tie proclaim a man a favorite of the muses4 ,edwards knows a young writer who believes himself a genius and who has1 indeed1 met with some wonderful successes1 but he spoils an otherwise fine character by slovenliness of dress and by straining for a so-called ,bohemian effect4 ,bohemia1 of course1 is merely a state of mind2 its superficial area is fanciful and contracted2 it is wildly unconventional1 not to say immoral2 and no right-thinking1 right-feeling artist will drink at its sloppy tables or associate with its ribald-tongued habitues4 ,the young writer here mentioned has been doped and shanghaied4 ,as soon as he comes to himself he will escape to more creditable surroundings4 ,there is another writer of ,edwards' acquaintance who1 by profane and blasphemous utterance1 seeks to convince the public that he has the divine fire4 ,his language1 it is true1 shows character1 but not of the sort that he imagines4 ,a writer1 to be successful1 must humble himself with the lowly or walk pridefully with the great4 ,for purposes of study he may be all things to all men1 but let him see to it that he is not warped in his own self-appraisal4 ,never1 unless he wishes to make himself ridiculous1 should he build a pedestal1 climb to its crest and pose4 ,if he is worthy of a pedestal the public will see that it is properly constructed4 ,a writer is neither better nor worse than any other man who happens to be in trade4 ,he is a manufacturer4 ,after gathering his raw product1 he puts it through the mill of his imagination1 retorts from the mass the personal equation1 refines it with a sufficient amount of commonsense and runs it into bars--of bullion1 let us say4 ,if the product is good it passes at face value and becomes a medium of exchange4 ,any merchant or professional man who conducts his business with industry1 taste and skill is the honorable and worthy peer of the man who writes and writes well4 ,every clean1 conscientious calling has its artistic side and profits through the application of business principles4 ,nowadays1 for a writer to scribble his effusions in pale ink with a scratchy pen on both sides of a letter-sheet is not to show genius but ignorance4 ,if he is a good manufacturer he should be proud of his product2 and a good idea is doubly good if carefully clothed4 ,edwards counts it a high honor that1 in half a dozen editorial offices1 his copy has been called copperplate4 ,i always like to see one of your manuscripts come in1 said ,mr4 ,white1 of ,the ,argosy4 ,here's another of ,edwards' stories1 said ,mr4 ,harriman of ,the ,red ,book1,c send it to the composing room just as it is4 ,such a condition of affairs certainly is worth striving for4 ,as a rule the young writer does not give this matter of neatness of manuscript the proper attention4 ,is he careful to count the letters and spaces in his story title and figure to place the title in the exact middle of the page8 ,it is not difficult4 ,when a line is drawn between title1 writer's name and the body of the story1 it is easy to set the carriage pointer on #ce and touch hyphens until you reach #de4 ,it is easy to number the pages of a manuscript in red with a bichrome ribbon1 and to put the number in the middle of the sheet4 ,nor is it very difficult to turn out clean copy--merely a little more industry with a rubber eraser1 or perhaps the re-writing of an occasional sheet4 ,after a manuscript is written1 the number of words computed1 and a publication selected wherewith to try its fortunes1 a record should be made4 ,very early in his literary career ,edwards devised a scheme for keeping track of his manuscripts4 ,he had a thousand slips printed and bound strongly into two books of #ejj slips each4 ,each slip consisted of a stub for the record and a form letter1 with perforations so that they could easily be torn apart4 ,record of ,ms41 ,no4 444444 ,title44444444444444444444444444 ,class44444444444444444444444444 ,no4 ,words4444444444444444444444 ,sent to44444444,date444444444444 ,returned444444,condition44444444 ,sent to44444444,date444444444444 ,returned444444,condition44444444 ,sent to44444444,date444444444444 ,returned444444,condition44444444 ,sent to44444444,date444444444444 ,returned444444,condition44444444 ,accepted44444444444444444444444 ,am't paid444444,date444444444444 ,remarks444444444444444444444444 4444444444444444444444444444444 #daa ,blank ,street1 ,chicago1 ,ill4144444444#ahi44 ,editor4444444444444 44444444444444444 444444444444444444 ,dear ,sir3 ,the inclosed ,ms41 entitled44 4444444444444444444444444444444 containing about444444444words1 and signed444444444444444444444 is offered at your usual rates4 ,if not available please return4 ,stamped and addressed envelope inclosed4 ,very truly yours1 ,john ,milton ,edwards4 ,every manuscript was numbered and the numbers1 running consecutively1 were placed in the upper right-hand corners of the stubs4 ,this made it easy to refer to the particular stub which held the record of a returned story4 ,edwards used this form of record keeping for years4 ,even after he came to look upon a form letter with a manuscript as a waste of effort1 he continued to use the stubs4 ,about the year #aijj card indexes came into vogue1 and now a box of cards is sufficient for keeping track of a thousand manuscripts4 ,it is far and away more convenient than the stub system4 ,each story has its card1 and each card gives the manuscript's life history2 title1 when written1 number of words1 amount of postage required for its going and coming through the mail1 when and where sent1 when returned1 when accepted and when paid for1 together with brief notes regarding the story's vicissitudes or final good fortune4 ,after a story is sold the card serves as a memorandum1 and all these memoranda1 totalled at the end of the year1 form an accurate report of the writer's income4 ,in submitting his stories ,edwards always sends the serials flat1 between neatly-cut covers of tarboard girded with a pair of stout rubber bands4 ,this makes a handy package and brings the long story to the editor's attention in a most convenient form for reading4 ,with double-spacing ,edwards' typewriter will place #djj words on the ordinary #h-a_/b by #aa sheet4 ,serials of #fj1jjj words1 covering #aej sheets1 and even novelettes of half that length1 travel more safely and more comfortably by express4 ,short stories1 running up to #ae--or in rare instances1 to #bj--pages are folded twice1 inclosed in a stamped and self-addressed ,no4 #i1 cloth-lined envelope and this in turn slipped into a ,no4 #aj cloth-lined envelope4 ,both these envelopes open at the end1 which does not interfere with the typed superscription4 ,by always using typewriter paper and envelopes of the same weight1 ,edwards knows exactly how much postage a story of so many sheets will require4 ,in wrapping his serial stories for transportation by express1 ,edwards is equally careful to make them into neat bundles4 ,for #aj cents he can secure enough light1 strong wrapping paper for a dozen packages1 and #be cents will procure a ball of upholsterer's twine that will last a year4 ,another helpful wrinkle1 and one that makes for neatness1 is an address label printed on gummed paper4 ,edwards' name and address appear at the top1 following the word ,from4 ,below are blank lines for name and address of the consignee4 ,in his twenty-two years of work in the fiction field ,edwards has made certain of this1 that there is not a detail in the preparation or recording or forwarding of a manuscript that can be neglected4 ,competition is keen4 ,big names1 without big ideas back of them1 are not so prone to carry weight4 ,it's the stuff1 itself1 that counts2 yet a business-like way of doing things carries a mute appeal to an editor before even a line of the manuscript has been read4 ,it is a powerful appeal1 and all on the writer's side4 ,is it necessary to dwell upon the importance of a carbon copy of every story offered through the mails1 or entrusted to the express companies8 ,edwards lost the sale of a #cjj serial when an installment of the story went into a railroad wreck at ,shoemaker1 ,kansas1 and1 blurred and illegible1 was delivered in ,new ,york one week after another writer had written another installment to take its place4 ,in this case the carbon copy served only as an aid in collecting #ej from the express company4 ,at another time1 when ,the ,woman's ,home ,companion was publishing a short serial by ,edwards1 one complete chapter was lost through some accident in the composing room4 ,upon receipt of a telegram1 ,edwards dug the carbon copy of the missing chapter out of his files1 sent it on to ,new ,york1 and presently received an extra #e with the editor's compliments4 ,my brow shall be garnished with bays4 ,,america ,editorial ,rooms1 ,chicago4 ,aug4 #af1 #ahhi4 ,dear ,mr4 ,edwards3-- ,in regard to the enclosed verse1 we would take pleasure in publishing it1 but before doing so we beg to call your attention to the use of the word garnish in the last line of the first verse1 and the second line of the second4 ,the general idea of garnish is to decorate1 or embellish4 ,we say that a beefsteak is garnished with mushrooms1 and so it would hardly be right to use the word in the sense of crowning a poet with a wreath of bays4 ,you will pardon us for calling attention to this1 but you know that the most serious verse can be spoiled by just such a slip1 which of course is made without its character occurring to the mind of the writer4 ,yours respectfully1 ,slason ,thompson ,co4 ,,footnotes3 ,c ,mr4 ,harriman is now with ,the ,ladies' ,home ,journal4 ,,iv4 ,,getting ,,hooked ,,up ,,with ,a ,,big ,,house4 ,it was during the winter of #ahib-c that ,edwards happened to step into the editorial office of a ,chicago story paper for which he had been writing4 ,his lucky stars were most auspiciously grouped that morning4 ,we shall call the editor ,amos ,jones4 ,that was not his name1 but it will serve4 ,edwards found ,jones in a very exalted frame of mind4 ,before him1 on his desk1 lay an open letter and a bundle of newspaper clippings4 ,after greeting ,edwards1 ,jones turned and struck the letter triumphantly with the flat of his hand4 ,this1 he exclaimed1 means ten thousand a year to ,yours ,truly6 ,he was getting #ej a week as editor of the story paper1 and a sudden jump from #b1fjj to #aj1jjj a year was sufficiently unsettling to make his mood excusable4 ,edwards extended congratulations and was allowed to read the letter4 ,it was from a firm of publishers in ,new ,york ,city1 rated up in the hundreds of thousands by the commercial agencies4 ,these publishers1 who are to figure extensively in the pages that follow1 will be referred to as ,harte ,perkins4 ,they had sent the clippings to ,jones1 inclosed in the letter1 and had requested him to use them in writing stories for a five-cent library4 ,jones' enthusiasm communicated itself to ,edwards4 ,for four years the latter had been digging away1 in his humble ,fiction ,factory1 and his literary labors had brought a return averaging #be a month4 ,this was excellent for piecing out the office salary1 but in the glow of ,jones' exultation ,edwards began to dream dreams4 ,when he left the editor's office ,edwards was cogitating deeply4 ,he had attained a little success in writing and believed that if ,jones could make ten thousand a year grinding out copy for ,harte ,perkins he could4 ,edwards did not ask ,jones to recommend him to ,harte ,perkins4 ,jones was a good fellow1 but writers are notoriously jealous of their prerogatives4 ,after staking out a claim1 the writer-man guards warily against having it jumped4 ,edwards went about introducing himself to the ,new ,york firm in his own way4 ,at that time he had on hand a fairly well-written1 but somewhat peculiar long story entitled1 ,the ,mystery of ,martha4 ,he had tried it out again and again with various publishers only to have it returned as well done but unavailable because of the theme4 ,this story was submitted to ,harte ,perkins4 ,it was returned1 in due course1 with the following letter3 ,new ,york1 ,march #bc1 #ahic4 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,chicago1 ,ills4 ,dear ,sir3-- ,we have your favor of ,march the #aith together with manuscript of ,the ,mystery of ,martha1 which as it is unavailable we return to you to-day by express as you request4 ,we are overcrowded with material for our story paper1 for which we presume you submitted this manuscript1 and1 indeed1 we think ,the ,mystery of ,martha is more suitable for book publication than in any other shape4 ,the only field that is open with us is that of our various five and ten cent libraries4 ,you are perhaps familiar with these1 and if you have ever done anything in this line of work1 we should be pleased to have you submit the printed copy of same for our examination1 and if we find it suitable we think we could use some of your material in this line4 ,mr4 ,jones1 whom you refer to in your letter1 is one of our regular contributors4 ,yours truly1 ,harte ,perkins4 ,here was the opening6 ,edwards lost no time in taking advantage of it and sent the following letter3 ,chicago1 ,march #be1 '#ic4 ,messrs4 ,harte ,perkins1 ,publishers1 ,new ,york ,city4 ,gentlemen3-- ,i have your letter of the #bc;d inst4 ,in reply would state that ,i have done some writing for ,beadle ,adams 7,banner ,weekly7 although ,i have none of it at hand1 at present1 to send you4 ,i also am a contributor to ,saturday ,night1 7,james ,elverson's paper7 and have sold them a number of serial stories1 receiving from them as much as #aej for #ej1jjj words4 ,it is probable that material suitable to the latter periodical would be out of the question with you2 still1 ,i can write the kind of stories you desire1 all ,i ask being the opportunity4 ,inclosed please find ,chapter ,i of ,jack o' ,diamonds2 or1 ,the ,cache in the ,coteaux4 ,perhaps ,western stories are bugbears with you 7they are1 ,i know1 with most publishers7 but there are no ,indians in this one4 ,i should like to go ahead1 write this story1 submit it1 and let you see what ,i can do4 ,i am able to turn out work in short order1 if you should desire it1 and feel that ,i can satisfy you4 ,all ,i wish to know is how long you want the stories1 what price is paid for them and whether there is any particular kind that you need4 ,i have an idea that the ,thrun case would afford material for a good story4 ,at least1 ,i think ,i can write you a good one with that as a foundation4 ,please let me hear from you4 ,yours very truly1 ,john ,milton ,edwards4 ,to this ,edwards received the following reply1 under date of ,march #cj3 ,we have your favor of ,march #beth together with small installment of story entitled ,jack o' ,diamonds4 ,our careful reading of the installment leads us to believe that you write easily1 and can probably do suitable work for our ,ten-,cent ,library1 though the particular scene described in this installment is one that can be found in almost any of the old time libraries4 ,it is a chestnut4 ,a decided back number4 ,what we require for our libraries is something written up-to-date1 with incidents new and original1 with which the daily press is teeming4 ,i inclose herewith a clipping headed1 ,thrun ,tells it ,all1 which1 used without proper names1 might suggest a good plot for a story1 and you could work in suitable action and incident to make a good tale4 ,if you will submit us such a story we shall be pleased to examine same1 and if found suitable we will have a place for it at once4 ,we pay for stories in this library #ajj2 they should contain #dj1jjj words1 and when issued appear under our own nom de plume4 ,installment ,jack o' ,diamonds returned herewith4 ,thus it was up to ,edwards to go ahead and make good4 ,such a climax has a weird effect on some authors4 ,they put forth all their energy securing an order to go ahead and then1 at the critical moment1 experience an attack of stage fright1 lose confidence and bolt1 leaving the order unfilled4 ,years later1 in ,new ,york1 such a case came under ,edwards' observation4 ,a young woman had besieged a certain editor for two years for a commission4 ,when the coveted commission arrived1 the young woman took to her bed1 so self-conscious that she was under a doctor's care for a month4 ,the story was never turned in4 ,edwards1 in his own case1 did not intend to put all his eggs in one basket4 ,he not only set to work writing a ten-cent library story 7which he called ,glim ,peters on ,his ,mettle7 but he also wrote and forwarded a five-cent library story entitled1 ,fearless ,frank4 ,fearless ,frank--galloped home again bearing a request that ,edwards make him over into a detective4 ,on ,april #ae ,edwards received the following3 ,we have your favor of ,april #ac1 and note that the insurance story1 relating to ,thrun1 is nearly completed1 and will be forwarded on ,monday next4 ,i hope you have not made the hero too juvenile1 as this would be a serious fault4 ,the stories in the ,ten-,cent ,library are not read by boys alone but usually by young men1 and in no case should the hero be a kid1 such as we fear would be your idea of a ,chicago newsboy4 ,we note that you have considered our suggestions1 and also that you will fix up the ,fearless ,frank manuscript with a view of making it a detective story4 ,for your information1 therefore1 we mail you under separate cover ,nos4 #b1 #aa1 #ae and #bj of the ,five-,cent ,library1 which will give you an idea of the character of this detective4 ,we hope you will give us what we want in both these stories4 ,on ,april #be ,edwards received a long letter that delighted him4 ,he was making good4 ,i have carefully read your story1 ,glim ,peters on ,his ,mettle1 and1 as ,i feared1 find the same entirely too juvenile for the ,ten-,cent ,library1 though quite suitable for the ,five-,cent ,library1 had it not been double the length required4 ,i first considered the question of asking you to make two stories of it for this library1 but finally decided that this would be somewhat difficult and unnecessary1 as we shall find a place for it later in the columns of our ,boy's ,story ,paper1 to be issued under nom de plume1 and will pay you #ge for same4 ,the chief point of merit in the story is the excellent and taking dialogue between ,glim ,peters1 his chum and the detectives4 ,this boy is a strong character1 well delineated and natural4 ,the incident covered by clairvoyant visits1 the scene at the ,world's ,fair and the ,chinese joint experience were all excellent2 but the ghost in the old ,willett house1 and indeed the whole plot1 is poor4 ,judging from this story and the previous one submitted1 the plot is your weak point4 ,in future stories make no special effort to produce an unusual plot1 but stick closer to the action and incident1 taken as much as possible from newspapers1 which are teeming with material of this character4 ,we shall now expect to receive from you at an early date1 the detective story1 and to follow this we will forward you material1 in a few days1 for a ,ten-,cent ,library story4 ,we forward you to-day1 under separate cover1 several numbers to give you an idea of the class of story that is suitable for the ,ten-,cent ,library4 ,such scenes in your last story as where ,glim ,peters succeeded in buying a mustang and defeated the deacon in so doing1 are just the thing for the ,ten-,cent ,library2 the same can also be said of the scene in which ,meg1 the girl in the bar1 stands off the detectives in a vain attempt to save the villains4 ,that is the sort of thing1 and we feel that you will be able to do it when you know what we want4 ,i forward you1 also1 a copy of ,ten-,cent ,library ,no4 #ahe1 which ,i would like you to read1 and let me know whether you could write us a number of stories for this particular series1 with the same hero and the same class of incidents4 ,if so1 about how long would it take you to write #dj1jjj words8 ,it is possible ,i may be able to start you on this series1 of which we have already issued a number4 ,about ,may #a ,edwards sent the first detective story4 ,on ,may #aj he received a letter1 of which the following is an extract3 ,we are in a hurry for this series 7the series for the ,ten-,cent ,library7 but after you have finished the first one1 and during the time that we are reading it1 you can go ahead with the second detective story1 ,the ,capture of ,keno ,clark1 which1 although we are in no hurry for it1 we may be able to use in about six weeks or two months4 ,you did so well with the first detective story that ,i have no doubt you can make the second a satisfactory one4 ,however1 if we find the series for the ,ten-,cent ,library ,o4 ,k41 we will want you to write these1 one after the other as rapidly as possible until we have had enough of them4 ,as to our method of payment1 would say that it is our custom to pay for manuscripts on ,thursday following the day of issue1 but1 agreeably with your request1 we mail you a check tomorrow in payment of ,glim ,peters on ,his ,mettle1 and will always be willing to accomodate you in like manner when you find it necessary to call upon us4 ,so ,edwards made good with the publishing firm of ,harte ,perkins1 and for eighteen years there have been the pleasantest of business relations between them4 ,courteous always in their dealings1 prompt in their payments to writers1 and eager always to send pages and pages of helpful letters1 ,harte ,perkins have grown to be the most substantial publishers in the country4 ,is it because of their interest in their writers8 ,certainly not in spite of it6 ,for them ,edwards has written upwards of five hundred five-cent libraries1 a dozen or more serials for their story paper1 many serials for their boys' weekly1 novelettes for their popular magazines1 and a large number of short stories4 ,for these1 in the last eighteen years1 they have paid him more than #ce1jjj4 ,nor1 during this time1 was he writing for ,harte ,perkins exclusively4 ,he had other publishers and other sources of profit4 ,as an instance of helpfulness that did not help1 ,edwards once attempted to come to the assistance of ,howard ,dwight ,smiley4 ,smiley wrote his first story1 and ,edwards sent it on to ,the ,argosy with a personal letter to ,mr4 ,white4 ,such letters1 at best1 can do no more than secure for an unknown writer a little more consideration than would otherwise be the case2 they will not warp an editor's judgment1 no matter how warmly the new writer is recommended4 ,the story came back with a long letter of criticism and with an invitation for ,smiley to try again4 ,he tried and tried1 perhaps a dozen times1 and always the manuscript was returned to the patient ,smiley by the no less patient editor4 ,at last ,smiley wrote a story about a tramp who became entangled with a cyclone4 ,the whirler1 it seems1 had already picked up the loose odds and ends of a farm yard1 along with a churnful of butter4 ,in order to escape from the cyclone1 ,smiley's tramp greased himself with the butter from the churn and slid out of the embrace of the twisting winds4 ,chuck it1 said ,edwards2 ,i'm surprised at you1 ,smiley4 ,smiley did chuck it--but into a mail-box1 addressed to ,mr4 ,white1 and ,mr4 ,white chucked a check for #ab right back for it6 ,whereupon ,smiley chuckled inordinately--and came no more to ,edwards for advice4 ,v4 ,,nickel ,,thrills ,,and ,,dollar ,,shockers4 ,the word sensational as applied to fiction has been burdened with an opprobrium which does not rightfully belong to it4 ,ignorance and prejudice and hypocrisy have conspired to defame a very worthy word4 ,certain good but misguided people will turn shudderingly from a nickel novel and complacently look for thrills in a best seller4 ,often and often the best seller is to be had for #ie cents or #a at the department stores4 ,not infrequently it spills more blood than the nickel thriller1 but the blood is spilled on finer paper1 and along with it are idealized pictures of heroine and hero done by the best artists4 ,as a matter of course the dollar dreadful is better done4 ,the author probably took six months or a year to do it1 and if it is well advertised and proves a success he reaps a modest fortune4 ,on the other hand1 the nickel novel is written in three days or a week and brings the author #ej4 ,why shouldn't the dollar book show a higher grade of craftmanship8 ,but is it less vicious than the novel that sells for five cents8 ,to draw the matter still finer1 is either form of fiction vicious8 ,if we turn to ,webster and seek a definition of sensational we find3 ,suited or intended to excite temporarily great interest or emotion2 melodramatic2 emotional4 ,this does not mean that sensational writing is vicious writing4 ,it is wrong to classify as vicious or degrading the story of swift action and clean ethics1 or to compare it with that prurient product of the slums which deals with problems of sex4 ,the tale that moves breathlessly but logically1 that is built incident upon incident to a telling climax with the frankly avowed purpose to entertain1 that has no questionable leanings or immoral affiliations--such a tale speeds innocently an idle hour1 diverts pleasantly the harrassed mind1 freshens our zeal for the duties of life1 and occasionally leaves us with higher ideals4 ,we are all dreamers4 ,we must be dreamers before we are doers4 ,if some of the visions that come to us in secret reverie were flaunted in all their conceit and inconsistency before the world1 not one of us but would be the butt of the world's ridicule4 ,and yet1 out of these highly tinted imaginings springs the impulse that carries us to higher and nobler things4 ,a difference in the price of two commodities does not necessarily mark a moral difference in the commodities themselves4 ,the ,century ,magazine sells for #ce cents1 while ,the ,argosy sells for #aj cents4 ,you will be told that ,the ,century is high class and with a distinct literary flavor1 perhaps that it is more elevating4 ,even so2 yet which of these magazines is doing more to make the world really livable8 ,ask the newsdealer in your town how many ,centuries he sells1 and how many ,argosies4 ,readers are not made for the popular magazines1 but the popular magazines are made for the people4 ,unless there was a distinct and insistent demand for this sort of entertainment1 so many all-story magazines1 priced at a dime1 could not exist4 ,nickel thrillers cater largely to a juvenile clientele4 ,taking them by and large--there are a few exceptions1 of course--they are as worthy of readers as the dime magazines2 and many a serial in a dime magazine has been republished in cloth and made into a best seller4,d ,why is it that1 if a lad in his teens robs a jewelry store and is apprehended1 almost invariably the newspaper report has a bundle of nickel libraries found in his pocket8 ,why a nickel library and not a yellow newspaper8 ,the standard of judgment which places a nickel novel in the heart-side pocket of the young degenerate1 harks back to a period when yellow-back literature was really vicious2 it is a judgment by tradition1 unsupported by present-day facts4 ,the world moves1 and as it moves it grows constantly better4 ,reputable publishers of cheap fiction have elevated the character of their output until now some of the weekly stories they publish are really admirable2 in many instances they are classics4 ,a few years ago1 at a convention of ,sunday ,school teachers at ,asbury ,park1 ,n4 ,j41 a minister boldly praised the ,diamond ,dick stories4 ,he declared that while action rattled through the pages of these tales like bullets from a ,gatling1 he had found nothing immoral in them1 nothing suggestive1 nothing to deprave4 ,the lawless received their just reward and virtue emerged triumphant4 ,it was his thought that a few ,diamond ,dick stories might1 with benefit1 take the place1 in ,sunday ,school libraries1 of the time-honored book in which the boy goes a-fishing on ,sunday and falls into the river4 ,one of the ,frank ,merriwell stories tells of a sensitive1 shrinking lad at an academy who was hazed into a case of pneumonia from which he died4 ,the hero breaks the news of the boy's death to his widowed mother and comforts her in her bereavement4 ,from beginning to end the story is told with a sympathy1 and such a thorough understanding of boy-nature1 that the hold on the juvenile reader is as strong as the theme is uplifting4 ,this is not trash4 ,it is literature sold at a price which carries it everywhere1 and the result is untold good4 ,the fact remains1 however1 that not every publisher of nickel novels has so high a standard4 ,the paternal eye1 in overseeing the fiction of the young1 must be discriminating4 ,blood-and-thunder has had its day2 but1 if the rising generation is not to be a race of mollycoddles1 care must be exercised in stopping short of the other extreme4 ,the life of today sets a pattern for the fiction of to-day4 ,the masses demand rapid-fire action and good red brawn in their reading matter4 ,their awakened moral sense makes possible the muck-raker2 and when they weary of the day's evil and the day's toil1 it is their habit to divert themselves with pleasant and exciting reading4 ,and it must be ,,clean4 ,,footnotes3 ,d ,dan ,quixote1 for instance published in ,the ,all-,story ,magazine1 and republished as ,the ,brass ,bowl4 ,,vi4 ,,making ,,good ,,by ,,hard ,,work4 ,with the beginning of the year #ahid ,edwards was learning the knack of the nickel novel and its ten-cent brother1 and making good with his ,new ,york publishers4 ,during #ahic the work he turned in was of fair quality1 but he was not satisfied with that and labored to improve4 ,each succeeding story came nearer and nearer the high mark4 ,believing that whatever is worth doing is worth doing well1 he was constantly asking himself1 ,how can ,i make my next story better than the one ,i have just finished8 ,the publishers helped him4 ,every manuscript submitted was read personally by ,mr4 ,perkins1 and brought a letter dissecting the story and stating which incidents were liked1 and why1 and which incidents were not liked1 and why4 ,edwards feels that he can never be sufficiently grateful to ,mr4 ,perkins for this coaching in the gentle art of stalking a reader's elusive interest4 ,had ,edwards remained a paymaster in the employ of the contracting firm1 he would have received #a1bjj for his services in #ahic4 ,he severed his connection with his paymaster's salary in ,june1 and at the end of the year his ,fiction ,factory showed these results3 #d ,five-,cent ,library stories at #ej each #bjj4 #a ,juvenile serial #ajj4 #a ,juvenile serial #ge4 #ac ,ten-,cent ,library stories at #ajj4 each #acjj4 #a ,serial for ,saturday ,night #aej4 --------- ,total #ahbe4 ,in other words1 ,edwards had taken out of his ,fiction ,factory #fbe more than his salary as paymaster would have amounted to for the year4 ,he felt vastly relieved1 and his wife laughingly fell back on her woman's prerogative of saying ,i told you so4 ,this was a good beginning1 and ,edwards felt sure that he would be able to do even better during #ahid4 ,he was coming along splendidly with the ,ten-,cent ,library work4 ,on ,jan4 #cj ,mr4 ,perkins paid this tribute to his growing powers3 ,i have just finished reading your story1 ',dalton's ,double1' which ,i find to be as good as anything you have given us4 ,i must compliment you upon the varied incident which you cram into these stories1 of a nature that is well suited to them4 ,it was ,edwards' custom to forward a ,ten-,cent ,library story every two weeks1 and there were months in which he wrote three stories1 taking ten days for each one4 ,as these stories were #dj1jjj words in length1 three in thirty days were equivalent to #abj1jjj words4 ,during #ahic he wrote his stories twice3 first a rough draft and then the printer's copy4 ,in #ahid he began making his first copies clean enough for the compositor4 ,had he not done this he could never have accomplished such a large amount of work4 ,on ,april #aj1 when everything was going swimmingly and he was taking in #cjj a month for the library work1 he was brought up short in his career of prosperity4 ,mr4 ,perkins wrote him to finish the story upon which he was engaged and then to stop the library work until further orders4 ,it had been decided to use re-prints in the series4 ,this could very easily be done as the ,library had been published for years and some of the earlier stories could be brought out again without injuring the sale4 ,the letter1 which was a profound disappointment to ,edwards1 closed as follows3 ,i regret the necessity of curtailing your work1 for ,i am entirely satisfied with it1 and if we did not find it necessary to adopt the measure referred to above1 with a view to decreasing expenses during the summer months and dull season1 ,i should have wished to have you continue right along4 ,i have no doubt that you will be able to find a place for your material in the meantime4 ,this fell upon ,edwards like a bolt from a clear sky4 ,he began to regret his paymaster crutch and to imagine dire things4 ,he had been giving his time almost exclusively to ,harte ,perkins1 and had lost touch with publications for which he had been writing previous to #ahic4 ,where1 he asked himself1 was he to place his material in the meantime8 ,there is little sentiment in business4 ,harte ,perkins1 whenever they find a line of work is not paying1 will cut it off at an hour's notice1 by telegraph if necessary4 ,the man receiving the telegram1 of course1 can only make the best of it4 ,this is a point which ,edwards has always disliked about the work for publishers of this class of fiction3 the writer1 no matter how prosperous he may be at any given time1 is always in a state of glorious uncertainty4 ,but ,edwards fell on his feet4 ,it so happened that he had sent to ,harte ,perkins1 some time before1 copies of ,saturday ,night containing two of his stories4 ,he had done this in the attempt to prove to them that he could write for ,the ,weekly ,guest1 their story paper4 ,this little incident shows how important it is for a writer to get as many anchors to windward as possible4 ,eight days after being cut off from the library work1 ,edwards received a letter from ,mr4 ,harte4 ,mr4 ,perkins had left ,new ,york on business1 but had turned over the printed work in ,saturday ,night for ,mr4 ,harte's inspection before leaving4 ,mr4 ,harte wrote1 in part3 ,i like your work in ,saturday ,night1 and think we shall be able to give you a commission for a ,weekly ,guest story1 provided you can lend yourself successfully to our suggestions as to style1 etc41 and give us permission to publish under any of the pen names we use in the office4 ,we want a story of the ,stella ,edwards type4 ,we send you to-day one or two samples of the class of work desired1 so that you may be able to see just what it is4 ,if you can do the work1 we shall be pleased to send you a title and plot1 with synopsis4 ,you can then write us two installments for a trial1 and1 if satisfactory1 ,i have no doubt we could arrange to give you a quantity of work in this line4 ,i feel1 after reading the samples you submitted1 that you will be able to meet our requirements in this class of story4 ,the two stories we send you are the work of a masculine pen1 and though not so easy to lose one's identity in literary work1 this class of story does not seem to present the ordinary difficulties2 at least1 that is the testimony of our authors who have tried it4 ,edwards was booked to attempt a gushing love story1 to follow a copy and make it appear as though a woman had done the writing6 ,quite a jump this1 from a rapid-fire ,ten-,cent ,library story for young men to a bit of sentimental fiction for young women4 ,however1 he went at it1 and he went at it with a determination to make good4 ,it was either that or go paymastering again4 ,on ,april #bd he received title1 synopsis and plot of ,bessie1 the ,beautiful ,blind ,girl1 and began charging himself with superheated sentiment preparatory to beginning his work4 ,the popular young lady authoress1 ,stella ,edwards1 whose portrait in a decollete gown had been so often flaunted in the eyes of her public1 was a myth4 ,the stuff supposedly written by the charming ,stella ,edwards was ground out by men who were versatile enough to befool women readers1 with a feminine style4 ,edwards1 it transpired1 was able to do this successfully for a time1 but ultimately he failed to round off the rough corners of a style too decidedly masculine for ,miss ,edwards4 ,but this is anticipating4 ,on ,may #c he had sent the two trial installments1 and from ,new ,york came the word3 ,we like the two opening installments of ',bessie1 the ,beautiful ,blind ,girl4' ,the style is good1 the action brisk and sensational and of a curiosity-arousing character4 ,it is our belief that you are capable of presenting a desirable variation from the former ,stella ,edwards' stories1 by introducing romantic incidents of a novel and more exalted character4 ,in most of the other ,stella ,edwards' yarns there was little plot and the action was rarely varied4 ,the action comprised the pursuit and capture1 the recapture and loss of the heroine1 she being constantly whirled1 like a shuttle-cock1 from the hero to the villain1 then to the female villain1 then back again to the hero for a few tantalizing moments1 and so on to the end4 ,you can readily improve upon this by introducing scenes a little more fresh1 and far more interesting4 ,it is about time for ,stella to improve1 and we believe you are just the man to make her do better work4 ,go on with the story and force our readers to exclaim1 ',well1 that's the best story ,stella has written6' ,while ,edwards was deep in the sorrows of ,bessie1 the ,beautiful ,blind ,girl1 he received from his publishers on ,may #aj orders which hurled him headlong into another ,stella ,edwards yarn4 ,owing to a change in our publishing schedule of ,guest stories1 it will be necessary to anticipate the issue of ',bessie1 the ,beautiful ,blind ,girl' by another story of the same type1 sixteen installments1 same as the one you are now working on4 ,the title of this new story will be ',the ,bicycle ,belle1' and will deal with the bicycle as the matter of central interest in the first installment or two4 ,i send you a synopsis of the story prepared by one of our editors4 ,this will simply give you an idea of one way of developing the theme4 ,it does not1 however1 suit our plans1 and we will ask you to invent something quite different4 ,always and ever ,harte ,perkins kept their fingers on the pulse of their reading public4 ,the safety bicycle was the fashion1 in those days1 and ,harte ,perkins were usually first to exploit a fashion or a fad in their story columns4 ,whenever they had a story with a particularly popular and striking theme1 it was their habit to flood the country with sample copies of ,the ,weekly ,guest1 breaking off a generous installment of the serial in such a breathless place that the reader was forced to buy succeeding issues of the ,guest in order to get the rest of the story4 ,so that is what the change in their publishing schedule meant4 ,they wanted to boom the circulation of the ,guest with a bicycle story4 ,edwards shelved ,bessie the beautiful at the #gth installment and threw himself into the tears1 fears and chivalry of ,the ,bicycle ,belle4 ,this was on ,may #ab4 ,three days later1 on ,may #ae1 he forwarded two installments of the bicycle story for ,harte ,perkins' inspection4 ,on ,may #af1 before these installments had reached the publishers1 ,edwards was requested as follows3 ,as we shall not be able to begin1 in the ,guest1 your story1 ',bessie1 the ,beautiful ,blind ,girl1' until after ,january the first1 next1 it will be well to change the scene to a winter setting4 ,this can be very easily done in the two installments that we have on hand1 if you will make a note of it and keep it up for the balance of the story4 ,in the first installment we will show the girl leaping into the river with a few cakes of ice floating about1 and in the scene where she is expelled from the house there will be plenty of snow4 ,it will make a more effective picture and be more seasonable for the story4 ,more trouble6 ,harte ,perkins had two installments1 and did not seem to know that ,edwards had five more installments on hand1 pending the completion of the bicycle yarn4 ,but he was ready to turn summer into winter1 or day into night1 in order to make good4 ,on ,may #ah he received a report on the two installments of the bicycle story4 ,the two installments of ',the ,bicycle ,belle' have been read and approved by our editor1 who says that the story opens very well1 with plenty of animated action1 briefly yet graphically pictured4 ,you seem to have caught our idea exactly1 and we would be pleased to have you go ahead with the story1 finishing it before you again take up ',bessie1 the ,beautiful ,blind ,girl4' ,on ,june #c ,edwards sent installments three to sixteen of the bicycle story1 which was the complete manuscript4 ,ten days later he was informed3 ',the ,bicycle ,belle' is crowded with dramatic action and is just what we want4 ,in the next it would be well to have a little more of the female element just to demonstrate that ',stella ,edwards' is up-to-date4 ,none the less pleasant was this news1 contained in a letter dated ,june #ah3 ,we have placed to your credit1 upon our books1 the sum of three hundred dollars in payment for ',the ,bicycle ,belle1' which will be the figure for all this class of stories from your pen which are accepted for ,the ,weekly ,guest4 ,up to that time this was the most money ,edwards had ever received for a serial story1 and very naturally he felt elated4 ,under date of ,june #bj he wrote ,harte ,perkins and told them that he was planning a trip ,east as soon as he had finished with ,bessie1 the ,beautiful ,blind ,girl4 ,he received a cordial invitation from the publishers to come on as soon as possible as they had something which they particularly wanted him to do for them4 ,the story of the blind girl was forwarded on ,june #cj4 ,a flaw was discovered in it and several installments were returned for correction--not a serious flaw1 indeed1 but one which necessitated a little revision4 ,the revision made1 the story passed at once to acceptance4 ,in ,july ,edwards was in ,new ,york and called personally upon ,harte ,perkins4 ,he found them pleasant and capable gentlemen--all that his fancy had pictured them through months of correspondence4 ,inasmuch as it was ,edwards' first visit to the metropolis1 he studied the city with a view to using it in some of his fiction4 ,the special work which ,mr4 ,harte wanted ,edwards to do for the firm was a story of which he gave the salient features4 ,it was to be written in the best ,archibald ,clavering ,gunter style4 ,as ,edwards had imitated successfully the mythical ,stella ,edwards1 he was now confronted with the more trying task of imitating the style of a popular living author4 ,he read ,gunter from ,barnes of ,new ,york down2 and then1 when completely saturated with him1 turned off two installments of ,the ,brave and ,fair and sent them on4 ,he was visiting in ,michigan1 at the time1 and a letter under date of ,august #bj1 reached him while he was still in that state4 ,i have just finished reading the two installments of ',the ,brave and ,fair4' ,i think you have made a very good opening indeed4 ,it reads smoothly and seems to me to be very much in ,gunter's light narrative style1 which is what we are after4 ,it remains to be seen whether you can get as close to ,gunter in what might be called his tragedy vein as opposed to the comedy vein1 which you have successfully worked up in these two installments4 ,the ,brave and ,fair1 going forward to the publishers piece by piece1 seemed to arouse their enthusiasm4 ,we have read up to installment eight4 ,it is fine6 ,full of heroic action6 ,bristling with exciting scenes6 ,when the completed manuscript was in the publishers' hands1 on ,october #bj1 there came another complimentary letter4 ',the ,brave and ,fair' bristled with exciting action to the close4 ,the best incidents in it are those descriptive of ,chub ,jones' heroic self-sacrifice4 ,in our opinion1 this stands out as the gem of the story1 because it makes the reader's heart bound with admiration for the little hero4 ,hundreds of thousands of sample copies of ,the ,weekly ,guest1 with first chapters of this story1 were scattered all over the land4 ,later1 the book was issued in paper covers4 ,harte ,perkins paid the author #ejj for the story1 then ordered another of the same type for which he was given #dej4 ,these stories were written under a nom de plume which ,harte ,perkins had copyrighted4 ,the nom de plume was their property and could not be appropriated by any other publisher4 ,edwards wrote three of the yarns1 and a friend of his wrote others4 ,all the year ,edwards had been patted on the back4 ,on ,dec4 #ad came a blow between the eyes4 ,he had been commissioned to write another ,stella ,edwards rhapsody1 but was overconfident and did not take time to surround himself with the proper ,stella ,edwards atmosphere4 ,two installments went forward1 and this letter came back3 ,i have just finished reading ',two ,hearts ,against the ,world4' ,i regret to say that the story will not do1 and it would be as well for you not to attempt to remodel it4 ,in other words1 the way you are handling the subject is not satisfactory to us and is not a question of minor detail4 ,we shall be obliged to give this work into other hands to do4 ,the story1 as far as it goes1 is wildly improbable and has a lack of cohesion in the incident4 ,i think you wrote it hurriedly1 and without mature thought4 ,these stories have to seem probable even if they deal with unusual events4 ,there was bitterness in that1 not so much because ,edwards had lost #cjj but because he had failed to make good4 ,his pride suffered more than his pocket4 ,later1 however1 he wrote some more ,stella ,edwards stories for ,harte ,perkins and they were highly praised2 but that type of fiction was not his forte4 ,the year #ahid closed with ,harte ,perkins giving ,edwards a chance at a new five-cent weekly they were starting4 ,it was merely a shift from ,the ,weekly ,guest back to the libraries again4 ,his work for ,harte ,perkins1 during the year1 showed as follows3 #aj ,ten-,cent ,libraries at #ajj each #ajjj4 ,two ,stella ,edwards stories at #cjj each #fjj4 ,the ,brave and ,fair #ejj4 ,the ,man from ,montana #dej4 #b ,five-,cent ,libraries at #ej each #ajj4 #a ,juvenile serial #ajj4 --------- ,total #b1gej4 ,the work tabulated above approximates #hej1jjj words1 and takes no account of work sold to other publishers4 ,by industry alone ,edwards had secured a fair income4 ,w4 ,bert ,foster1 a friend of ,edwards'1 who for twenty-five years has kept a story-mill of his own busily grinding with splendid success1 has this to say about a slip he once made in his early years3 ,when ,i was a young writer ,i sold a story to a juvenile paper4 ,it was published4 ,and not until the boys began to write in about it did either the editor or ,i discover that ,i had my hero dying of thirst on a raft in ,lake ,michigan6 ,,vii4 ,,inspiration ,,alias ,,industry4 ,jack ,london advises authors not to wait for inspiration but to go after it with a club4 ,bravo6 ,it is not intended1 of course1 to lay violent hands on the ,happy ,idea or to knock it over with a bludgeon4 ,mr4 ,london realizes that1 nine times out of ten1 ,happy ,ideas are drawn toward industry as iron filings toward a magnet4 ,the real secret lies in making a start1 even though it promises to get you nowhere1 and inspiration will take care of itself4 ,there's a lot of fiddle-faddle wrapped up in that word inspiration4 ,it is the last resort of the lazy writer1 of the man who would rather sit and dream than be up and doing4 ,if the majority of writers who depend upon fiction for a livelihood were to wait for the spirit of inspiration to move them1 the sheriff would happen along and tack a notice on the front door--while the writers were still waiting4 ,more and more ,edwards' experience1 and the experience of others which has come under his observation1 convinces him that inspiration is only another name for industry4 ,when he was paymaster for the firm of contractors1 he went to the office at #h o'clock in the morning1 took half an hour for luncheon at noon1 and left for home at half-past #e4 ,when he broke away from office routine1 he promised himself that he would give as much1 or more1 of his time to his ,fiction ,factory4 ,what he feared was that ideas would fail to come1 and that he would pass the time sitting idly at his typewriter4 ,in actual practice1 he found it almost uncanny how the blank white sheet he had run into his machine invited ideas to cover it4 ,after five1 ten or fifteen minutes of following false leads1 he at last hit upon the right scent and was off at a run4 ,with every leap his enthusiasm grew upon him4 ,a bright bit of dialogue would evoke a chuckle1 a touch of pathos would bring a tear1 an unexpected incident shooting suddenly out of the tangled threads would fill him with rapture1 and for the logical but unexpected climax he reserved a mood like ,caesar's1 returning from the wars and celebrating a triumph4 ,in the ardor of his work he forgot the flight of time4 ,he balked at leaving his typewriter for a meal and went to bed only when drowsiness interfered with his flow of thought4 ,whether he was writing a ,five-,cent ,library1 a serial story or a novel which he hoped would bring him fame and fortune1 the same delight filled him whenever he achieved a point which he knew to be worth while4 ,and whenever such a point is achieved1 my writer friend1 there is something that rises in your soul and tells you of it in words that never lie4 ,no matter what you are writing1 unless you can thrill to every detail of excellence in what you do1 unless you can worry about the obscure sentence or the unworthy incident until they are sponged out and recast1 it is not too much to say that you will never succeed at the writing game4 ,love the work for its own sake and it will bring its inspiration and its reward2 look upon it as a grind and melancholy failure stalks in your wake4 ,there can be no inspiration without industry1 and no industry without inspiration4 ,start your car on the batteries of industry and it will soon be running on the magneto of inspiration4 ,drive yourself to your work1 and presently interest will be aroused and your eager energies will need a curb instead of a spur4 ,edwards has written two #cj1jjj-word stories a week for months at a time2 he has written one #cj1jjj-word story and one #dj1jjj-word serial in one week2 he has begun a ,five ,cent ,library story at #g o'clock in the morning and worked the clock around1 completing the manuscript at #g the next morning2 and he has done other things that were possible only because industry brought inspiration1 and inspiration takes no account of time4 ,edwards knows a writer of short stories who is like a crazy man for days while he is frantically groping for an idea4 ,when the idea comes1 he figuratively sweats blood for a week in pulling it through his typewriter2 and then1 when the story is in the mails1 he takes to his bed for a week from physical exhaustion4 ,result3 ,three weeks1 one story1 and anywhere from #ej to #ge4 ,he is conscientious1 but his method is wrong4 ,instead of storming through the house and tearing his hair while the idea eludes him1 he should roll in a fresh sheet1 sit calmly down in front of the keys1 look out of the window or around the room and start off with the first object that appeals to him4 ,there are writers who will have a ,billikin for inspiration1 or some other fetich that takes the place of a ,billikin4 ,edwards has an elephant tobacco-jar that has occasionally helped him4 ,sometimes it is a pipeful of the elephant's contents1 and sometimes it is merely a long look at the elephant that starts the psychology to working4 ,of course it isn't really the ,billikin1 or the elephant1 or the tobacco that does the trick4 ,they merely enable us to concentrate upon the work in hand3 from them we gather hope that work will produce results1 so we get busy and results come4 ,the main thing is to break the shackles of laziness and begin our labors2 then1 after that1 to forget that we are laboring in the sheer joy of creation with which our labor inspires us4 ,new ,york1 ,sept4 #b1 #aiaa4 ,my dear ,mr4 ,edwards3 ,you fairly have me stumped4 ,with the greatest pleasure in the world ,i would give you what you ask for your book1 but ,i am not certain that ,i can recall any humorous anecdotes2 and as for quips1 ,i look the word up and discover that it means3 ,a sneering or mocking remark2 gibe2 taunt4 ,and ,i am afraid ,i am not equal to evolving any of these4444 ,all ,i can recall now is that in my early days an editor of the ,new ,york ,herald wanted to kick me down the editorial stairs because ,i asked pay for amusement notes they had been printing for nothing4 ,i fled1 leaving my last ,ms4 behind me--which they also printed gratis4 ,now this wasn't humorous to anybody at the time1 and if there was any 'quip1' that editor uttered it1 and ,i don't remember now just the language he used4 ,very truly yours1 ,matthew ,white1 ,jr41 ,editor ,the ,argosy4 ,,viii4 ,,the ,,wolf ,,on ,,the ,,sky-,,line4 ,for ,edwards1 the year #ahie dawned in a blaze of prosperity and went out in the gathering shadows of impending disaster4 ,spring found him literally swamped with orders1 and he tried the experiment of hiring a young man stenographer and typist to assist him4 ,the young man was an expert in his line and proved so efficient an aide that ,edwards hired another who was equally proficient4 ,two stenographers failing to help him catch up with his flood of orders1 he secured a third4 ,one assistant put in his time copying manuscripts and cataloguing clippings1 to another the library work was dictated1 and the third was employed on ,stella ,edwards material4 ,edwards was versatile1 and he experienced no difficulty in passing from one class of work to another4 ,he was able to chronicle the breathless adventures of the hero of the ,five-,cent ,library to one stenographer1 then turn to the other and dictate two or three chapters of a serial of the class written by ,laura ,jean ,libby1 and then fill in the gaps between dictation with altogether different work on his own machine4 ,although ,edwards kept these three stenographers for several months1 and although he has since frequently availed himself of the services of an amanuensis1 yet he is free to confess that he doubts the expediency of such help4 ,successful dialect cannot be wrapped up in a stenographer's pothooks1 and so much dialect was used in the library stories that the young man at work on them had to familiarize himself with the contorted forms and write them down from memory4 ,it took him so long to do this1 and required so much of ,edwards' time making corrections1 that the profit on his work was disappointing4 ,with such an office force grinding out copy1 during the early months of #ahie the ,fiction ,factory was a very busy place4 ,during ,january and ,february the cash returns amounted to #a1ejj4 ,this1 ,edwards discovered later1 was no argument in favor of stenographer assistance1 for he has since1 working alone1 earned upward of #a1jjj in a month4 ,in ,february ,edwards was requested by ,harte ,perkins to submit a story for a new detective library which they were starting1 and of which they were very choice4 ,the work was as different as possible from the two or three detective yarns ,edwards had written in #ahic4 ,he wrote and submitted the story1 and ,mr4 ,perkins' criticisms are given below by way of showing how carefully the stories were examined4 ,the letter from which the excerpt is taken was written ,feb4 #ac1 #ahie4 ,the mythical detective1 who has become known throughout the length and breadth of the land1 shall here be referred to as ,joe ,blake4 ,there is one point to which ,i would call your attention4 ,on page #e1 ,chapter ,,ii opens in this way3 ',a young man to see ,dr4 ,reynolds2 no card4' ,joe ,blake1 otherwise ',dr4 ,reynolds1' told the boy to show the visitor in4 ,the place was ,chicago4 ,scene in room in prominent hotel the second day after ,joe ,blake had had an interview with ,abner ,larkin1 #i o'clock in the evening4 ,this is too trite and not easily expressed4 ,such references to time1 place1 etc41 impress the reader with the fact that he is reading a romance and not a real story of ,joe ,blake's experiences4 ,this particular point should be kept in mind4 ,we want these stories to appear as natural as possible4 ,in the opening of the installment1 where ,mr4 ,larkin presents himself to ,joe1 you have duplicated the common-place method of most writers4 ,there should be more originality in the way ,joe ,blake's attention is called to various cases and not a continual repetition of calls at his office1 which1 though natural enough1 become tiresome to the reader4 ,in this same opening there is not enough detective flavor1 and here1 as well as in other places1 ,joe does not appear to be the man of authority1 which he is usually found to be4 ,these are little things1 but ,i believe if you will take care of them they will help the story greatly4 ,this will illustrate the care with which ,harte ,perkins looked over the manuscripts submitted to them1 to the end that they might be made to reflect their ideas of what good manuscripts should be4 ,if a writer could not do their work the way they wanted it done he was not long in getting his conge4 ,in the case of the story mentioned above1 it was returned1 rewritten1 and made to conform to ,mr4 ,perkins' ideas4 ,on ,jan4 #i ,harte ,perkins had written ,edwards3 ,it is more than apparent that the library business is not very flourishing1 and hereafter we shall only be able to pay #dj for these stories4 ,i think this will be satisfactory to you1 for ,i know you can do this class of work very rapidly4 ,this meant a loss of #aj a week1 and ,edwards endeavored to make up for it by increasing his output4 ,particularly he wanted a chance to write another ,stella ,edwards story1 just to show the firm that he could do the work4 ,mr4 ,harte gave him an order for the serial1 stating that the new story was to follow ,the ,bicycle ,belle1 then running in ,the ,weekly ,guest4 ,the story was to be in twelve installments of #e1bej words each1 totalling some #fc1jjj words4 ,for this ,edwards was to receive #bjj4 ,this hint was given him3 ,have plenty of romance1 without too great extravagance1 and make sure of at least one wedding and that in the beginning of the story4 ,with the order came a picture which it was desired to use in illustrating the opening installment4 ,edwards was to write the installment around the picture4 ,he completed the story1 called it ,little ,bluebell1 and received the following commendation after two installments had been received and read3 ,i have just finished reading the first two installments of your story1 ',little ,bluebell1' and ,i have to say that the same is entirely satisfactory1 unquestionably the best thing you have given us in this line of work4 ,although he was turning out ,five-,cent ,libraries1 ,stella ,edwards serials1 short sketches for ,puck and stories for other publishers than ,harte ,perkins1 ,edwards was constantly on the alert for more work in order to keep his stenographers busy4 ,he asked ,mr4 ,perkins for orders for the ,ten-,cent ,library1 and for juvenile serials for the boys' paper4 ,he was allowed to send in some ,gentlemen ,jim stories for the dime publication4 ,the pay was not munificent1 however1 being only #ej for #cg1jjj words4 ,the ,little ,bluebell story was followed by another ,stella ,edwards serial entitled ,a ,weird ,marriage4 ,this yarn hit the bull's-eye with a bang4 ,in fact1 it was said to be the best thing ever done by ,stella ,edwards4 ,and then1 after scoring these two successive hits1 ,edwards tripped on a third story called ,beryl's ,lovers1 and he fell so hard that it was ten years before the firm ever asked him to do any more writing in that line4 ,in the ,fall of #ahie ,edwards discovered that he had been working too hard4 ,a doctor examined his lungs1 declared that he was threatened with tuberculosis and ordered him to the ,southwest4 ,in ,november he and his wife left ,chicago1 ,edwards carrying with him his typewriter and a plentiful supply of typewriter paper4 ,he transformed a stateroom in the compartment sleeper into his ,fiction ,factory1 finishing two installments of the ill-fated ,beryl's ,lovers while enroute4 ,these installments1 forwarded from ,phoenix1 ,arizona1 by express1 went into a wreck at ,shoemaker1 ,kansas1 and were delivered to ,harte ,perkins1 torn and illegible1 two weeks after the story had been taken over by another writer4 ,edwards filed a claim against the express company for #cjj1 and then compromised for #ej--;all the express people were liable for by the terms of their receipt4 ,from ,november1 #ahie1 until ,april1 #ahif1 ,edwards was located on a ranch near ,phoenix1 ,arizona1 writing ,five-,cent ,libraries for ,harte ,perkins and sketches and short stories for other publishers4 ,his health was steadily declining1 and he could bring himself to his work only by a supreme effort of the will and at the expense of much physical torture4 ,in ,may1 #ahif1 he was told that he must get farther away from the irrigated districts around ,phoenix and into the arid hills4 ,to this end he interested himself in a gold mine1 and went ,east to form a company and secure the necessary capital to purchase and develop it4 ,about the middle of ,july he returned to ,phoenix1 still writing but hoping for golden rewards from the mining venture which would ultimately make his writing less of a business and more of a pastime4 ,his health continued to decline and he was ordered to give up writing entirely and exercise constantly in the open4 ,he at once telegraphed ,harte ,perkins to this effect4 ,on ,oct4 #ac they wrote3 ,we have heard nothing from you since receipt of your telegram to take all work out of your hands4 ,this1 of course1 we attended to at once1 but on your account1 as well as our own1 we were very sorry to learn that you found it necessary to give up the work1 and trust that the illness from which you are suffering will not be lasting4444 ,if1 in future1 you should be able to write again1 we shall try to find a place for your work4 ,so the old firm and ,edwards parted for a time4 ,a few weeks proved the mining venture a failure1 and #aj1jjj which ,edwards had put away out of the profits of his writing had vanished--gone to make the failure memorable4 ,nor had his health returned4 ,in some desperation1 just before ,new ,year's of '#ig1 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,edwards entrained for ,new ,york1 ,edwards pinning his hopes to ,harte ,perkins4 ,he had less than #ajj to his name when he and his wife reached the metropolis4 ,one hundred dollars will not carry a man and his wife very far in ,new ,york1 even when both are in good health and the man can work4 ,ambition alone kept ,edwards alive and gave him hope for the future4 ,the ,factory out-put for #ahie3 #c ,five-,cent ,libraries at #ej each #aej4 #bi ,five-,cent ,libraries at #dj each #aafj4 #b ,detective stories at #dj each #hj4 #b ,ten-,cent ,library stories at #ej each #ajj4 ,little ,bluebell1 serial #bjj4 ,a ,weird ,marriage1 #cjj4 --------- #aiij4 ,detroit ,free ,press1 ,contributions #bb4 --------- ,total #bjab4 ,for #ahif3 #bd ,five-,cent ,libraries at #dj each #ifj4 ,short fiction #ga4ej -------- ,total #ajca4ej ,for cold brutality perhaps the rejection slip worded as below is unequalled3 ,we are sorry to return your paper1 but you have 4 ,respectfully yours1 ,the ,editor4 99 99 99 99 99 ,before ,mr4 ,karl ,edwin ,harriman1 of ,the ,red ,book1 had ventured into the editorial end of the writing trade1 he wrote an article on an order from a certain ,eastern magazine4 ,later1 that magazine decided that it could not use the article1 although it had been paid for1 and1 with ,mr4 ,harriman's permission1 turned it over to an agent to market elsewhere4 ,the agent1 not knowing ,mr4 ,harriman had associated himself with a certain magazine1 sent the manuscript to that publication1 in the ordinary way4 ,it was up to ,mr4 ,harriman1 then1 to consider it in an editorial capacity4 ,he was unable to purchase the manuscript1 and returned it to the agent with a reproof for having submitted such an article1 and indicating that the author had a great deal to learn before he could feel justified in seeking a market among the best known magazines4 ,,ix4 ,,raw ,,material ,where does the writer get his plot-germs1 the raw material which he puts through the mill of his fancy and finally draws forth as a finished and salable product8 ,life is a thing of infinite variety1 and the plot-germ is a thing of ,life or it is nothing4 ,being a mere basic suggestion of the story1 the germs must come from the author's experience1 or from the experiences of others which have been brought to his attention4 ,unconsciously the germ lodges in his mind1 and his ingenuity1 handling other phases of existence1 works out the completed plot4 ,it follows that the richer an author's experience and the more ardent his imagination the better will be the plot evolved1 providing his fine sense of values has been adequately cultivated4 ,but no matter how adventurous and varied a personal experience1 or how warm the fancy1 or how highly cultivated the mind in its adaptation of fact to fiction1 the experience of others compels attention if a writer's work is to be anything more than self-centered4 ,newspapers1 chronicling the everyday events of human existence1 have not only suggested countless successful plot-germs but have likewise helped in the rounding out of the plot4 ,an editor wrote ,edwards1 as long ago as ,march #cj1 #ahic3 ,what we require in our stories is something written up to date1 with incidents new and original4 ,the daily press is teeming with this raw material4 ,this fact is universally recognized1 so that very few authors neglect to avail themselves of this source of inspiration4 ,as a case in point1 a few years ago one noted author was accused of appropriating the work of another noted author4 ,plagiarism was seemingly proved by evoking the aid of the deadly parallel4 ,nevertheless the evidence was far from being conclusive4 ,each author had done no more than build a similar story upon the same newspaper clipping6 ,neither was in the wrong4 ,no one writer has a monopoly of the facts of life1 or of the right to use those facts as they filter through columns of the daily press4 ,fortunately for ,edwards1 he realized the value of newspaper clippings very early in his writing career4 ,twenty-five years ago he began to scissor and to put away those clippings which most impressed him4 ,until late in the year #ahic his clipping collection was either pasted in scrap-books or thrown loosely into a large box4 ,during the winter of #ahic-d he felt the necessity of having the raw material of his ,factory stored more systematically4 ,the services of an assistant were secured and the work was begun4 ,large manila envelopes were used4 ,the envelopes were lettered alphabetically1 and each clipping was filed by title4 ,on the back of each envelope was typed the title of its contents4 ,this method was found to be wholly unsatisfactory4 ,frequent examination had given ,edwards a fair working knowledge of his thousands of clippings1 but he was often obliged to go through a dozen or more envelopes before finding the particular article whose title had escaped him4 ,in #aije he bought a loose-leaf book and tried out a new system on an accumulation of several thousand magazines4 ,this indexing was done in such a way as to suggest the character of the clipping 7written in red71 and the title of the article1 the page number and number of the magazine 7written in black74 ,all the magazines had been numbered consecutively and placed on convenient shelves4 ,the first page of ,w1 for instance1 appeared as shown below3 ,washington ,a ,job in the ,senate #gga-c ,wild ,animal ,story ,the ,rebellion of a ,millionaire #dgg-d ,washington1 ,booker ,t4 ,riddle of the ,negro #eai-d ,white ,cross ,work of the ,american ,w4 ,c4 #abi-e ,waitress ,diary of an ,amateur ,w4 #edc-f ,wall ,street ,the ,shadow of ,high ,finance #ccf-h ,woman ,suffrage ,worlds ,half-,citizens #daa-h ,woman ,how to ,make ,money #die-i ,the above is only part of one of many pages of ,w's1 and will serve to exemplify the advantages and disadvantages of the system in practical use4 ,for instance1 if it was desired to find out something about ,booker ,t4 ,washington1 all that was necessary was to take down old magazine ,no4 #d and turn to page #eai4 ,this manifestly was an improvement over the old envelope method of indexing1 but still left much to be desired4 ,to illustrate1 if ,edwards wished to exhaust his material on ,booker ,t4 ,washington it was necessary for him to hunt through all the pages under ,w1 and then examine all the magazines containing the articles in which he was mentioned4 ,it is patent that if the indexing were properly done1 every reference having to do with ,booker ,t4 ,washington should follow a single reference to him in the index2 and1 further1 the various articles should be grouped together4 ,two years later1 ,edwards discarded the loose-leaf for the card system4 ,this1 he found1 was as near perfection as could be hoped for4 ,his first step was to buy a number of strong box letter-files4 ,these he numbered consecutively1 just as he had numbered the manila envelopes4 ,articles are cut from magazines1 the leaves secured together with brass fasteners1 and on the first page margin at the top are marked the file number and letter of compartment where the article belongs4 ,thus1 if the article is kept out of the file for any length of time it can be readily returned to its proper place4 ,newspaper clippings are handled in precisely the same way4 ,the card index has its divisions and sub-divisions4 ,cards indexing articles on various countries have a place under the general letter1 and another place in the geographical section under the same letter4 ,so with articles concerning ,noted ,personages1 ,astronomy1 ,antiquities1 etc4 ,below1 for the benefit of any one who may wish to use the system1 is reproduced a card from the file3 ,,army1 ,u4 ,s4 ,hand ,bill used to secure enlistments ,a #a ,army ,story ,knew ,it ,k #a ,army ,story ,a ,philippine ,romance ,p #a ,army ,story ,he is ,crazy ,jack ,c #a ,army ,story ,their ,very ,costly ,meal ,t #a ,army ,story ,siege of ,bigbag ,s #a ,fighting ,life in the ,philippines ,f #a ,pay of ,soldiers ,young ,man-- ,y #b ,in this system the character of the material is first indicated1 as ,pay of ,soldiers4 ,if there is a title it follows in quotation marks4 ,where the title suggests the character of the material sufficiently1 the title comes first1 in quotes4 ,then follows the letter under which the article is filed1 and the number of the file4 ,suppose it is desired to find out what soldiers of the ,united ,states' ,army are paid for their services3 ,file ,no4 #b is removed from the shelf1 opened at letter ,y and the information secured under title beginning1 ,young ,man--4 ,as a saver of time1 and a guard against annoyance when fancies are running free1 ,edwards has found his card-index system for clippings almost ideal4 ,a friend of ,edwards' is what the comic papers call a jokesmith4 ,recently he concocted the following3 ,you must be doing well1 said ,jones the merchant to ,quill the writer1 meeting him in front of his house4 ,you seem to be always busy1 and you look prosperous4 ,so ,i am1 ,jones1 answered ,quill1 busy and prosperous4 ,come into the basement with me and ,i'll show you the secret of my prosperity4 ,they descended into the basement and ,quill rang up the curtain on a ragman weighing three big bags of rejection slips4 ,my stories all come back1 confessed ,quill1 triumphantly1 and ,i get three cents a pound for the rejection slips that come with them4 ,this1 of course1 was not much of a joke1 but the perpetrator sent it to ,judge4 ,judge sent it back with about twenty blank rejection slips inclosed by a rubber band4 ,on the top slip was written3 ,here are some more4--,ed4 ,judge4 ,x4 ,,the ,,wolf ,,at ,,the ,,door ,perhaps very few men in this life escape a period as black and dispiriting as was the year #ahig for ,edwards4 ,if not in one way1 then in another1 it is the fate of a man to be chastened and subdued so thoroughly1 at least once in his career1 that a livid remembrance of it remains always with him4 ,edwards has always been an optimist1 but those blows of circumstance of the year #ahig found many weak places in the armor of his philosophy4 ,in tangling and untangling the threads of a story plot ,edwards had become tolerably proficient1 but in straightening out the snarls ,fate had made in his own life he was crushed with a feeling of abject helplessness4 ,there is a vast difference1 it seems1 in dealing with the complications of others and those that beset ourselves4 ,the impersonal attitude makes for keener analysis and wiser judgment4 ,in a story1 the poverty stricken hero and his wife may exist for a week on a loaf of bread1 ten cents' worth of potatoes and a twenty-cent soup-bone2 but let the man who creates such a hero attempt to emulate his fictional fancies and stark realism plays havoc with the equation4 ,the wolf at our own door is one sort of animal1 and the wolf at our neighbor's is of an altogether different breed4 ,the thermometer in ,southern ,arizona was eighty in the shade when ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,edwards1 during the ,christmas holidays1 set their faces eastward4 ,new ,york ,city1 the shrine of so many pilgrims seeking prosperity1 was their goal2 and the metropolis1 on that bleak ,new ,year's ,day that witnessed their arrival1 was shivering in the grip of real1 old-fashioned winter4 ,the change from a balmy climate to blizzards and ice and a below-zero temperature brought ,edwards to his bed with a vicious attack of rheumatism4 ,for days while the little fund of #ajj melted steadily away1 he lay helpless4 ,the great city1 in its dealings with impecunious strangers1 has been painted in cruel colors4 ,edwards found this to be a mistake4 ,on the occasion of their first visit to ,new ,york he and his wife had found quarters in a boarding house in ,forty-fourth street4 ,a pleasant landlady was in charge and the ,edwards had won her friendship4 ,here1 forming one happy family1 were actors and actresses1 a salesman in a down-town department store1 a stenographer1 a travelling man for a bicycle house1 and others4 ,all were cheerful and kindly1 and took occasion to drop in at the ,edwards' third floor front and beguile the tedious hours for the invalid4 ,fourteen years have brought many changes to ,forty-fourth street between ,broadway and ,sixth avenue4 ,the row of high-stoop brownstone fronts has that air of neglect which precedes demolition and the giving way of the old order to the new4 ,the basement1 where the pleasant landlady sat at her long table and smiled at the raillery and wit of ,beaney1 and ,sam1 and ,smithy1 and ,ruth1 and ,ina and the rest1 has fallen sadly from its high estate4 ,a laundry has taken possession of the place4 ,and ,beaney1 the light-hearted one who laughed at his own misfortunes and sympathized with the misfortunes of others1 ,beaney has gone to his long account4 ,a veil as impenetrable has fallen over the pleasant landlady1 ,sam1 ,smithy1 ,ruth and ,ina2 and where-ever they may be1 ,edwards1 remembering their kindness to him in his darkest days1 murmurs for each and all of them a fervent ,god bless you64444 ,before he was compelled to take to his bed ,edwards had called at the offices of ,harte ,perkins4 ,his interview with ,mr4 ,perkins impressed upon him the fact that1 once a place upon the contributors' staff of a big publishing house is relinquished it is difficult to regain4 ,others had been given the work which ,edwards had had for three years4 ,these others were turning in acceptable manuscripts and1 in justice to them1 ,harte ,perkins could not take the work out of their hands4 ,mr4 ,perkins1 however1 did give ,edwards an order for four ,five-,cent ,libraries--stories to be held in reserve in case manuscripts from regular contributors failed to arrive in time4 ,on ,feb4 #aa he received a letter from the firm to the following effect3 ,when we wrote you day before yesterday asking you to turn in four ,five-,cent ,libraries before doing anything else in the ,library line for us1 we were under the impression that the gentleman who has been engaged upon this work for some time would not be able to turn the material in with usual regularity on account of illness1 but we hear from him today that he is now in better health1 and will be able to keep up with the work1 which he is very anxious to do1 and somewhat jealous of having any other material in the series so long as he can fill the bill4 ,on this account it will be well for you to stop work on the ,library4 ,when you have completed the story on which you are now engaged1 turn your attention to the ,ten-,cent ,library work1 which we think you will be able to do to our satisfaction4 ,this will illustrate the attitude which some authors assume toward the butter-in4 ,all of a certain grist that comes to a publisher's mill must be their grist4 ,if the mill ground for another1 and found the product better than ordinary1 the other might secure a stand-in that would threaten the prestige of the regular contributor4 ,in seeking to keep his head above water financially1 ,edwards attempted to sell book rights of ,the ,astrologer1 the serial published in #ahia in ,the ,detroit ,free ,press4 ,he had written1 also1 #ff pages of a present-tense ,gunteresque story which he hoped would win favor as had his other stories in that style4 ,this yarn he called ,croesus1 ,jr4 ,both manuscripts were submitted to ,harte ,perkins4 ,on ,jan4 #bh1 when the ,edwards' exchequer was nearly depleted1 ,croesus1 ,jr41 was returned with this written message3 ,it might be said of the story in a way that it is readable1 but it does not promise as good a story as we desire for this series4 ',most decidedly1' says the reader1 'it lacks originality1 novelty and strength4' ,this criticism1 which we consider entirely competent1 must deter us from considering the story favorably4 ,this was blow number one4 ,blow number two was delivered ,feb4 #c3 ,we have had your manuscript1 ',the ,astrologer1' examined1 and the verdict is that it would not be suitable for any of our regular publications1 and it is not in our line for book publication4 ,the reader states that it very humorous in parts but rather long drawn out4444 ,we return manuscript4 ,two ,five-,cent ,libraries at #dj each were accepted and paid for2 also four sketches written for a small magazine which ,harte ,perkins were starting4,e ,although he grew better of his rheumatism1 ,edwards failed to improve materially in health1 and late in ,march he and his wife returned to ,chicago4 ,they rented a modest flat on the ,north ,side1 got their household effects out of storage1 and faced the problem of existence with a courage scarcely warranted by their circumstances4 ,edwards was able to work only half a day4 ,the remainder of the day he spent in bed with an alternation of chills and fever and a grevious malady growing upon him4 ,during this period he tried syndicating articles in the newspapers but without success4 ,he also wrote for ,harte ,perkins a ,guest serial1 the order for which he had brought back with him from ,new ,york4 ,he made one try for this by submitting the first few chapters and synopsis of story which he called ,a ,vassar ,girl4 ,these were returned to him as unsuitable4 ,he then wrote seven chapters of a serial entitled1 ,a ,girl from the ,backwoods1 and--with much fear and trembling be it confessed--sent them on for examination4 ,under date of ,july #h this word was returned3 ,the seven chapters of ',a ,girl from the ,backwoods' read very good1 and we should like to have you finish the story1 and should it prove satisfactory in its entirety1 we should consider it an acceptable story4 ,here was encouragement at a time when encouragement was sorely needed4 ,but how to keep the ,factory going while the story was being finished was a difficult question4 ,there were times when twenty-five cents had to procure a ,sunday dinner for two2 and there was a time when two country cousins arrived for a visit1 and ,edwards had not the half-dollar to pay an expressman for bringing their trunks from the station6 ,pride1 be it understood1 was one of ,edwards' chief assets4 ,he had always been a regal spender1 and his country cousins knew it4 ,how the lack of that fifty-cent piece grilled his sensitive soul6 ,it was during these trying times that the genius of ,mrs4 ,edwards showed like a star in the heavy gloom4 ,on next to nothing she contrived to supply the table1 and the conjuring she could do with a silver dollar was a source of never-failing wonder to her husband4 ,edwards remembers that1 at a time when there was not even car-fare in the family treasury1 a check for #a4ej arrived in payment for a #a1ejj-word story that had been out for several years4 ,during the latter part of ,july the demand for money pending the completion of ,a ,girl from the ,backwoods became so insistent1 that ,edwards wrote and submitted to ,harte ,perkins a sketch for their magazine4 ,it contained #a1bcb words and was purchased on ,aug4 #c for #f4af4 ,a ,girl from the ,backwoods was submitted late in ,september1 and was returned on ,oct4 #ac for a small correction4 ,the following letter1 dated ,oct4 #bg1 was received from the editor of the ,guest3 ,the manuscript of ',a ,girl from the ,backwoods'1 also the correction which you have made1 have been duly received4 ,the correction is very satisfactory4 ,in regard to your suggestion about the heroine's name being that of a well known writer1 we would say that inasmuch as the name is rather appropriate and suits the character we do not see that the lady who already bears it would in any way find fault with your use of it1 and at present we think it may be allowed to stand4 ,as showing ,edwards' pecuniary distress1 the following paragraph from a letter from ,harte ,perkins1 dated ,oct4 #bh1 may be given3 ,in response to your favor of the #aith and your telegram of yesterday1,f we enclose you herewith our check for #bjj in full for your story ',a ,girl from the ,backwoods4' ,this is the best price we can make you for this and other stories of this class from your pen1 and it is a somewhat better one than we are now paying for similar material from other writers4 ,we believe this will be satisfactory to you4 ,the price was not satisfactory4 ,edwards and his wife had counted upon receiving at least #cjj for the story1 and they needed that amount sorely4 ,a respectful letter at once went forward to ,harte ,perkins1 appealing to their sense of justice and fairness1 which ,edwards had never yet known to fail him4 ,on ,nov4 #c came an additional check for #ajj1 and these words3 ,replying to your favor of ,nov4 #ast1 at hand today1 we beg to state that we shall1 agreeably with your request and especially as you put it in such strong terms1 make the payment on ',a ,girl from the ,backwoods' #cjj4 ,the story is much liked by our reader and we do think it is worth as much if not more than the ,stella ,edwards material which1 however1 in the writer's judgement was much overpaid4 ,we shall take this into account when considering the acceptance of other stories from your pen1 and while we do not say positively that we will not pay #cjj for the next one1 as we wrote you in our last letter this is a high price for this class of material and we will expect to pay you according to our views as to the value of the manuscript4 ,the year closed with an order from ,harte ,perkins for another story of the ,stella ,edwards sort2 a very dismal year indeed1 and showing ,factory returns as follows3 ,two ,five-,cent ,libraries at #dj #hj4jj ,four magazine sketches at #aj #dj4jj ,one magazine sketch #f4af ,a ,girl from the ,backwoods1 #cjj4 --------- ,total #dbf4af ,perhaps1 after all1 this was not doing so badly2 for during this year1 and the year immediately following1 ,edwards was to discover that he had had one foot in the grave4 ,but his fortunes were at their lowest ebb4 ,with #ahih they were to begin taking an upward turn4 ,some one said that some one else1 by using ,ignatius ,donnelly's cryptogram1 proved that the late ,bill ,nye wrote the ,shakespeare plays4 ,this1 of course1 is merely a reflection on the cryptogram2 ,,but if ,shakespeare's publishers had not been so slovenly with that folio edition of his plays1 there would never have been any hunt for a cipher1 nor any of this ,bacon talk4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the early days1 when ,i lived on the plains of ,western ,kansas on a homestead1 says ,john ,h4 ,whitson1 well and favorably known to dozens of editors1 ,i was nosed out by a correspondent for a ,kansas ,city paper1 who thought there was something bizarre in the fact that an author was living the simple life of a ,western ,settler4 ,the purported interview he published was wonderful concoction6 ,he gave a descriptive picture of the dug-out in which ,i lived1 and filled in the gaps with other matter drawn from his imagination1 making me out a sort of literary troglodyte2 whereas1 as a matter of fact1 ,i had never lived in a dug-out4 ,on top of it1 one of my homesteading friends asked me in all seriousness how much ,i had paid to get that write-up and picture in the ,kansas ,city paper1 and seemed to think ,i was doing some tall lying when ,i said ,i had paid nothing4 ,,footnotes3 ,e ,this magazine1 by the way1 which had an humble beginning1 has grown into one of the high class populars and has a wide circulation4 ,f ,telegram sent on same day letter was received saying story was satisfactory4 ,,xi ,,when ,,fiction ,,is ,,stranger ,,than ,,truth4 ,we are told that fiction hath in it a higher end than fact1 which we may readily believe2 and we may also concede that truth is stranger than fiction1 at least in its occasional application4 ,nevertheless1 in the course of his career as a writer ,edwards has created two fictional fancies which so closely approximated truth as to make fiction stranger than truth2 and1 in one case1 the net result of imagination was to coincide exactly with real facts of which the imagination could take no account4 ,perhaps each of these two instances is unique in its particular field2 they are1 in any event1 so odd as to be worthy of note4 ,in the early #ij's1 when a great deal of ,edwards' work was appearing1 unsigned1 in ,the ,detroit ,free ,press1 he wrote for that paper a brief sketch entitled1 ,the ,fatal ,hand4 ,the sketch was substantially as follows3 ,the ,northern ,pacific ,railroad had just been built into ,helena1 ,montana1 and ,i happened to be in the town one evening and stepped into a gambling hall4 ,burton1 a friend of mine1 was playing poker with a miner and two professional gamblers4 ,i stopped beside the table and watched the game4 ,cards had just been drawn4 ,burton1 as soon as he had looked at his hand1 calmly shoved the cards together1 laid them face-downward in front of him1 removed a notebook from his pocket and scribbled something on a blank leaf4 ',read that1' said he1 'when you get back to your hotel tonight4' ,the play proceeded4 ,presently the miner detected one of the professional gamblers in the act of cheating4 ,words were passed1 the lie given4 ,all the players leaped to their feet4 ,burton1 in attempting to keep the miner from shooting1 received the gambler's bullet and fell dead upon the scattered cards4 ,an hour later1 when ,i reached my hotel1 ,i thought of the note ,burton had handed me4 ,it read3 ',i have drawn two red sevens4 ,i now hold jacks full on red sevens4 ,it is a fatal hand and ,i shall never leave this table alive4 ,i have #f1jjj in the ,first ,national ,bank at ,bismarck4 ,notify my mother1 ,mrs4 ,ezra ,j4 ,burton1 ,louisville1 ,kentucky4' ,this small product of the ,fiction ,factory was pure fiction from beginning to end4 ,in the original it had the tang of point and counterpoint which caused it to be seized upon by other papers and widely copied4 ,this gave extensive publicity to the fatal hand--the three jacks and two red sevens contrived by ,edwards out of a small knowledge of poker and the cabala of cards4 ,yet1 what was the result8 ,a month later the ,chicago papers published an account of a police raid on a gambling room4 ,as the officers rushed into the place a man at one of the tables fell forward and breathed his last4 ,heart disease1 was the verdict4 ,but note3 ,a police officer looked at the cards the dead man had held and found them to be three jacks and two red sevens4 ,a week later ,the ,new ,york ,recorder gave space to a news story in which a man was slain at a gaming table in ,texas4 ,when the smoke of the shooting had blown away some one made the discovery that he had held the fatal hand4 ,from that time on for several months the fatal hand left a trail of superstition and gore all over the ,west4 ,how many murders and hopeless attacks of heart failure it was responsible for ,edwards had no means of knowing1 but he could scarcely pick up a paper without finding an account of some of the ravages caused by his jacks full on red sevens4 ,query3 ,were the reporters of the country romancing8 ,if not1 will some psychologist kindly rise and explain how a bit of fiction could be responsible for so much real tragedy8 ,in this instance1 fancy established a precedent for fact2 in the case that follows1 the frankly fictitious paralleled the unknown truth in terms so exact that the story was recognized and appropriated by the son of the story's hero4 ,while ,edwards was in ,arizona he was continually on the alert for story material4 ,the sun1 sand and solitude of the country ,god forgot produce types to be found nowhere else4 ,he ran out many a trail that led from adobe-walled towns into waterless deserts and bleak1 cacti-covered hills to end finally at some mine or cattle camp4 ,it was on one of these excursions that he was told how a company of men had built a dam at a place called ,walnut ,grove4 ,this dam backed up the waters of a river and formed a huge lake4 ,mining for gold by the hydraulic method was carried on profitably in the river below the dam4 ,one night the dam went out and a number of laborers were drowned4 ,with this as the germ of the plot ,edwards worked out a story4 ,he called it ,a ,study in ,red1 and it purported to show how a lazy ,maricopa ,indian1 loping along on his pony in the gulch below ,walnut ,grove1 gave up his mount to a white girl1 daughter of the superintendent of the mining company1 and while she raced on to safety he remained to die in the flood from the broken dam4 ,the story was published in ,munsey's ,magazine4 ,six years later the author received a letter from the ,maricopa ,indian ,reservation1 sent to ,new ,york in care of the ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,company4 ,the letter was from a young ,maricopa4 ,i have often read the account of my father's bravery1 and how he saved the life of the beautiful white girl when the ,walnut ,grove dam gave way4 ,i have kept the magazine1 and whenever ,i feel blue1 or life does not go to please me1 ,i get the story and read it and take heart to make the best of my lot and try to pattern after my father4 ,i have long wanted to write you1 and now ,i have done so4 ,i am back from the ,indian ,school at ,carlisle1 on a visit to my people1 and am impelled to send you this letter of appreciation and thanks for the story about my father4 ,now1 pray1 what is one to think of this8 ,the letter bears all the earmarks of a bona fide performance and was written and mailed on the ,reservation4 ,edwards' fiction1 it seems1 had become sober fact for this young ,maricopa ,indian4 ,or did his father really die by giving up his pony to the beautiful young white girl8 ,and was ,edwards' prescience doing subliminal stunts when he wrote the story8 ,john ,peter1 should this ever meet your eyes will you please communicate further with the author of ,a ,study in ,red8 ,it has been some years now since a letter1 sent to you at the ,reservation1 failed of a reply4 ,and the letter has not been returned4 ,,xii ,,fortune ,,begins ,,to ,,smile ,edwards' literary fortunes all but reached financial zero in #ahig2 with #ahih they began to mount1 although the tendency upward was not very pronounced until the month of ,april4 ,during the first quarter of the year he wrote and sold one ,stella ,edwards serial entitled ,lovers ,en ,masque4 ,his poor health continued1 and he was able to work only a few hours each day1 but the fact that he could drive himself to the typewriter and lash his wits into evolving acceptable work gave him encouragement to keep at it4 ,early in ,april1 with part of the proceeds from the serial story for expenses1 he made a trip to ,new ,york4 ,prospecting trips is the name ,edwards gives to his frequent journeys to the publishing center of the country4 ,he prospected for orders1 prospected for better prices1 prospected for new markets4 ,no fiction factory can be run successfully on a haphazard system for disposing of its product4 ,there must be some market in prospect1 and on the wheel of this demand the output must be shaped as the potter shapes his clay4 ,edwards made it a rule to meet his publishers once a year1 secure their personal views as he could not secure them through correspondence1 and keep himself prominently before them4 ,in this way he secured commissions which1 undoubtedly1 would otherwise have been placed elsewhere4 ,with each succeeding journey ,edwards has made to ,new ,york1 his prospecting trips have profited him more and more4 ,this is as it should be4 ,there is no marking time for a writer in the fierce competition for editorial favor2 for one merely to hold his own is equivalent to losing ground4 ,the writer must grow in his work4 ,when he ceases to do that he will find himself slipping steadily backward toward oblivion4 ,edwards found that in reaching ,new ,york in early ,april #ahih1 he had arrived at the psychological moment4 ,harte ,perkins1 already described as keeping tense fingers on the pulse of their reading public1 had discovered a feverish quickening of interest for which the ,klondike gold rush was responsible4 ,the prognosis was good for a new five-cent library2 so the ,golden ,star ,library was given to the presses4 ,edwards1 because he was on the spot and urging his claims for recognition1 was chosen to furnish the copy4 ,during the year he wrote sixteen of these stories4 ,for half of ,april and all of ,may and ,june1 ,edwards and his wife were at their old boarding place in ,forty-fourth street4 ,during this time1 along with the writing of the ,golden ,star stories1 a juvenile serial and a ,stella ,edwards serial were prepared4 ,the title of the ,stella ,edwards rhapsody was ,a ,blighted ,heart4 ,on ,july #b1 owing to the excessive heat in the city and a belief on ,edwards' part that the country would benefit him1 the ,fiction ,factory was temporarily removed to the ,catskill ,mountains4 ,comfortable quarters were secured in a hotel near ,cairo1 and the work of producing copy went faithfully on4 ,edwards' health improved somewhat1 although he was still unable to keep at his machine for a union day of eight hours4 ,under date of ,aug4 #a1 ,harte ,perkins wrote ,edwards that on account of the poor success of the ,golden ,star ,library they would have to stop its weekly publication and issue it as a monthly4 ,mr4 ,perkins write3 ,i do not think that the quality of the manuscript is so much at fault as the character of the library itself1 though it is very difficult always to know just what the boys want4 ,edwards was depending upon this library to support himself and wife1 and the weekly check was a sine qua non4 ,summer-resorting is expensive1 and he had not yet had his fill of the historic old ,catskills4 ,he wrote the firm and requested them to send on a check for ,a ,blighted ,heart4 ,the blight did not confine itself to the story but was visited upon ,edwards' hopes1 as well4 ,harte ,perkins did not respond favorably4 ,the serial was not to begin in ,the ,weekly ,guest until the latter part of ,september1 and upon beginning publication was to be paid for in weekly installments of #be4 ,wrote ,mr4 ,perkins3 ,this is a season when1 with depressed business and the many accounts we have to look after1 it is difficult for us to make advanced payments on manuscripts4 ,you may rest assured that1 if conditions were otherwise1 ,i should have been glad to meet your wishes4 ,this meant an immediate farewell to the stamping grounds of good old ,rip ,van ,winkle4 ,forthwith the ,edwards struck their tent and boarded a night boat at ,catskill ,landing for down river4 ,in their stateroom that night1 with a fountain pen and using the wash-stand for a table1 ,edwards completed ,no4 #af of the ill-fated ,golden ,star ,library4 ,he had begun this manuscript before the notification to stop work on the series had reached him4 ,in such cases1 ,harte ,perkins never refused to accept the complete story4 ,december found ,edwards again settled on the ,north ,side1 in ,chicago4 ,he had consulted a physician regarding his health1 and after a thorough examination had been told that it would require at least a year1 and perhaps a year and a half1 to cure him4 ,the physician was a young man of splendid ability1 and as he had just put out his shingle and patients were slow in rallying round the standard1 he threw himself heart and soul into the task of making a whole man out of ,edwards4 ,the writer helped by leasing a flat within half a block of his medical adviser and faced the twelve or eighteen months to come with more or less equanimity4 ,edwards1 of course1 could not recline at his ease while the work of rehabilitation was going forward4 ,the family must be supported and the doctor paid4 ,forty dollars a month from the ,golden ,star ,library would not do this4 ,it was necessary to run up the returns somehow and another ,stella ,edwards story was undertaken4 ,the title of this story was ,won by ,love1 and ,harte ,perkins acknowledged receipt of the first two installments on ,dec4 #f4 ,inasmuch as ,won by ,love came very near being the death of its author1 it may be interesting to consider the story a little further4 ,the letter of the #fth ran3 ,we have received the first two installments of ',won by ,love' and like them very much indeed1 but before giving you a definite answer we would like to have four more instalments on approval1 making six in all4 ,kindly send these at your earliest convenience and oblige4 ,the four installments were sent and nothing more was heard from them until a telegram1 dated ,jan4 #ai1 #ahii1 was received3 ,please send more of ',won by ,love' as soon as possible4 ,must have it ,monday4 ,owing to the fact that the writer of the old ,five-,cent ,library1 for which ,edwards had furnished copy some years before1 had been taken seriously ill1 this work had been turned over to ,edwards on ,dec4 #bg1 #ahih4 ,at this time ,edwards was confined to his bed1 and there he worked1 his typewriter in front of him on an improvised table4 ,he had just finished several hours' work on a library story when the telegram regarding ,won by ,love was received4 ,this was ,saturday4 ,edwards wired at once that he would send two more installments on the following ,monday4 ,these #ab1jjj words went forward according to schedule1 and on the night they were sent the doctor called and found his patient in a state of collapse4 ,cause1 too much ,won by ,love4 ,the young physician took it more to heart than ,edwards did4 ,i'm afraid1 said he gloomily1 that you have ended your writing for all time4 ,you're wrong1 doctor1 declared ,edwards2 ,i'm not going to be removed until ,i've done something better than pot-boilers4 ,i want to call a specialist into consultation1 was the reply4 ,the specialist was called and ,edwards was stripped and his body marked off into sections--mapped out with one medical eye on the undiscovered country and the other on this lowly but altogether lovely vale of tears4 ,when the examination was finished1 the preponderance of testimony was all in favor of the ,promised ,land4 ,i should say1 ,mr4 ,edwards1 said the specialist1 in a tone professionally sympathetic1 that you have one chance in three to get well4 ,your other chance is for possibly seven or eight years of life4 ,the third chance allows you barely time to settle your affairs4 ,settle his affairs6 ,what affairs had ,edwards to settle8 ,there was the next library to be written and ,won by ,love to finish1 but these would have netted ,mrs4 ,edwards no more than #cdj4 ,and the smallest chance would not suffer ,edwards to leave his wife even this pittance4 ,since his disastrous ,arizona experience ,edwards had not been able to save any money4 ,he was only just beginning to look ahead to a little garnering when the doctors pronounced their verdict4 ,he had not a dollar of property1 real or personal1 if his library was not taken into account1 and not a cent of life insurance4 ,after turning this deplorable situation over in his mind1 he decided that it was impossible for him to die4 ,i'm going to take the first chance1 said he1 and make the most of it4 ,he did4 ,the young physician gave up more of his time and worked like a galley slave to see his patient through4 ,now1 thirteen years after the specialist spoke the last word1 ,edwards is in robust health--the monument of his own determination and the young doctor's skill4 ,nothing succeeds--sometimes--like the logic of nil desperandum4 ,to regain a foothold with his publishers1 following the disastrous year of #ahig1 had cost ,edwards so much persistent work that he would not cancel a single order4 ,he hired a stenographer and for two weeks dictated his stories1 then again resumed the writing of them himself1 in bed and with the use of the improvised table4 ,success awaited all his fiction1 even when turned out in such adverse circumstances4 ,this1 perhaps1 was the best tonic he could have4 ,he improved slowly but surely and was able1 in addition to his regular work1 to write a hundred-thousand word novel embracing his ,arizona experiences4 ,this novel he called ,he ,was a ,stranger4 ,the title was awkward1 but it had been clipped from the quotation1 he was a stranger1 and they took him in4 ,the story was submitted to ,harte ,perkins1 but they were not in the mood for taking in strangers of that sort4 ,but the year following the novel secured the friendly consideration of ,mr4 ,matthew ,white1 ,jr41 and introduced ,edwards into the ,munsey publications4 ,another novel1 ,the ,man from ,dakota1 was returned by ,harte ,perkins after they had had it on hand for a year4 ,it was declined in the face of a favorable report by one of their readers because1 ,we have so many books on hand that must be brought out during the next year that we cannot consider this story4 ,the year #ahii closed with ,fortune's smile brightening delightfully for ,edwards1 and the new century beckoning him pleasantly onward with the hope of better things to come4 ,the returns for the two years1 standing to the credit of ,the ,fiction ,factory1 are summarized thus3 #ahih3 ,lovers ,en ,masque1 #cjj4 ,golden ,star ,library1 #af at #dj each1 #fdj4 ,boys ,serial1 #ajj4 ,a ,blighted ,heart1 #cjj4 -------- ,total #acdj4 #ahii3 ,won by ,love1 #cjj4 #c ,golden ,stars at #dj each1 #abj4 #ce ,five-,cent ,libraries at #dj each1 #adjj4 -------- ,total #ahbj4 ,edwards lives in the outskirts of a small town1 on a road much travelled by farmers4 ,two honest tillers of the soil were passing his home1 one day1 and one of them was heard to remark to the other3 ,a man by the name of ,edwards lives there1 ,jake4 ,he's one of those fictitious writers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,edwards has few friends whom he prizes more highly than he does ,col4 ,w4 ,f4 ,cody1 ,buffalo ,bill1 and ,major ,gordon ,w4 ,lillie1 ,pawnee ,bill4 ,while the ,wild ,west and ,far ,east ,show1 of which ,cody and ,lillie are the proprietors was making its farewell tour with the ,last of the ,scouts1 ,major ,lillie had this to tell about ,colonel ,cody3 ,you'd be surprised at the number of people who try to beat their way into the show by stringing the ,colonel4 ,the favorite way is by claiming acquaintance with him4 ,a stranger will approach ,buffalo ,bill with a bland smile and an outstretched hand4 ',hello1 ,colonel6' he'll say1 'guess who ,i am6 ,i'll bet you can't guess who ,i am6' ,cody will give it up4 ',why1' bubbles the stranger1 'don't you remember when you were in ,ogden1 ,utah1 in nineteen-two8 ,remember the crowd at the depot to see you get off the train8 ,why1 ,i was the man in the white hat6' ,just this afternoon1 laughed the ,major1 ,cody came up to where ,i was standing4 ,he was wiping the sweat from his forehead and his face was red and full of disgust4 ',what's the matter8' ,i inquired4 ',oh1' he answered1 'another one of those d-- guessing contests6 ,why in blazes can't people think up something new8' ,,xiii4 ,,our ,,friend1 ,,the ,t4 ,w4 ,in some localities of this progressive country the pen may still be mightier than the sword2 but if1 afar from railroad and telegraph1 holed away in barbaric seclusion1 there really exists a community that writes with a quill and uses elderberry ink and a sandbox1 it is safe to say that this community has never been heard of--and the cause is not far to seek4 ,just possibly1 however1 it is from such a backwoods township that the busy editor receives those rare manuscripts whose chirography covers both sides of the sheet4 ,in this case the pen is really mightier than the sword as an instrument for cutting the ground out from under the feet of aspiring genius4 ,just possibly1 too1 it was from such a place that a typewritten letter was returned to the sender with the indignant scrawl3 ,you needn't bother to print my letters--,i can read writin'4 ,nowadays penwork is confined largely to signing letters and other documents and indorsing checks2 to use it for anything else should be named a misdemeanor in the statutes with a sliding scale of punishments to fit the gravity of the offense4 ,it is not to be inferred1 of course1 that a man will dictate his love letters to a stenographer4 ,here1 indeed1 two's company and three's a crowd4 ,every man should master the ,t4 ,w41 and when he confides his tender sentiments to paper for the eyes of the ,one ,girl1 his own fingers should manipulate the keys and the ,t4 ,w41 should be equipped with a tri-chrome ribbon--red and black record and purple copying4 ,black will answer for the more subdued expressions1 red should be switched on for the warmer terms of endearment1 and purple should be used for whatever might be construed as evidence in a court of law4 ,even billets-doux have been known to develop a commercial value4 ,when a serviceable typewriter may be bought for #be what excuse has anyone for side-stepping the inventive ingenuity of the day which makes for clearness and speed8 ,how much does ,progress owe the typewriter8 ,who can measure the debt8 ,how much does civilization owe the telephone1 the night-letter1 the fast mail and two-cent postage8 ,even more than to these does ,progress owe to that mechanism of springs1 keys and type-bars which makes plain and rapid the written thought4 ,in the ,edwards ,fiction ,factory the ,t4 ,w41 comprises the entire plant4 ,the hands employed for the skilled labor are his own1 and fairly proficient4 ,his own1 too1 is the administrative ability1 modest enough in all truth yet able to guide the ,factory's destiny with a fair meed of success4 ,since the ,t4 ,w41 is so important1 ,edwards believes in always keeping abreast of improvements4 ,the best is none too good4 ,a typed script1 no less than a stereotyped idea1 is damned by mediocrity4 ,if a typewriter appears this year which is a distinct advance over last year's machine1 ,edwards has it4 ,keeping up-to-date is usually a little expensive1 but it pays4 ,in the early days of his writing ,edwards used the old ,caligraph4 ,it was a small machine and confined itself to capital letters4 ,whenever he wished to indicate the proper place for a capital he did it thus3 ,,his ,,name ,,was ,,caesar1 ,,and ,,he ,,lived ,,in ,,rome4 ,if he lost a letter--and letters in those days were not easily replaced--he allowed the unknown quantity ,x to piece out3 ,,hix ,,name ,,wax ,,caexar--4 ,in due time he came to realize the importance of neatness and traded his first ,caligraph for a later model equipped with letters from both cases4 ,during twenty-two years he has purchased at least twenty-five typewriters1 each the last word in typewriter construction at the time it was bought4 ,at present he has two machines1 one a shift-key and the other with every letter and character separately represented on the key-board4 ,there are many makes of typewriters1 and operators are of many minds regarding the best makes4 ,edwards has favored the full key-board as being less of a drain upon the attention than the shift-key machine4 ,for the writer who composes upon his machine the operating must become a habit1 otherwise an elusive idea may take wings for good while the one who evolved it is searching out the letters necessary to nail it hard and fast to the white sheet4 ,edwards has recently discovered that he can change from his full key-board to a shift-key and back again without materially interrupting his flow of ideas4 ,the characters of the key-board used for ordinary business purposes and those in demand by the writer are somewhat different4 ,not always1 on the key-board designed for commercial use1 will the exclamation point be found4 ,this1 if wanted1 must be built up out of a period and a half-ditto mark1--4 plus ' equals 6 ,such makeshifts should be tabooed by the careful writer4 ,whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well1 and once4 ,three motions1 two at the key-board and one at the back-spacer1 are two too many4 ,by all means have the real thing in exclamation points--6 ,another makeshift with which ,edwards has little patience is the custom of using ditto marks for quotation marks1 and semi-dittos for semi-quotes4 ,these1 and other characters1 may be added to most machines by eliminating the fractions1 the oblique mark or the per cent4 sign4 ,it seems poor policy1 also1 to use a hyphen1 or two hyphens1 to indicate a dash4 ,why not have the underscore raised to the position of a hyphen and so have a dash that is a dash8 ,the asterisk1 991 is a character valuable for indicating footnotes1 and the caret is often useful in making typewritten interlineations4 ,all these characters ,edwards has on his full key-board machine4 ,on the shift-key machine he must still struggle with the built-up exclamation point1 the ditto quotes and the hyphen dash4 ,no wonder he prefers a ,smith ,premier6 ,even the best and most up-to-date typewriter cannot answer all the demands made upon it by writers1 however4 ,some day the growing army of authors will receive due attention in this matter1 and the manuscript submitted to editors will compare favorably with the printed story4 ,in ,habits that ,help1 a very instructive article by ,walter ,d4 ,scott1 professor of psychology at ,northwestern ,university1 published in ,everybody's ,magazine for ,september1 #aiaa1 appears this paragraph3 ,some time ago ,i could pick out the letters on a typewriter at a rate of about one per second4 ,writing is now becoming reduced to a habit1 and ,i can write perhaps three letters a second4 ,when the act has been reduced to the pure habit form1 ,i shall be writing at the rate of not less than five letters per second4 ,the pure habit form is one for those who compose on the typewriter to acquire4 ,it not only means ease of composition1 but speed in the performance and perfect legibility4 ,until a few years ago1 ,edwards always carried his typewriter with him on his travels4 ,the machine was large and heavy and had to be handled with care1 so its transportation was no easy matter4 ,in course of time1 and pending the invention of a practical typewriter to fit the pocket1 he became content to leave his machine at home and rent one wherever he happened to be4 ,during one of his eastern prospecting trips1 ,edwards and his wife left ,new ,york for a few summer weeks in the ,berkshire ,hills4 ,the ,t4 ,w41 remained temporarily in the city to be overhauled and forwarded4 ,for a fortnight ,edwards slaved with a pen1 writing four manuscripts of #be1jjj words each4 ,he appreciated then1 as he had never done before1 the value of the typewriter in his work4 ,late in the first week he began writing and telegraphing for his machine to be sent on4 ,about the hotel it was known that ,edwards expected a typewriter by every stage from ,great ,barrington4 ,he had fretted about the non-arrival of the typewriter1 and in some manner had let fall the information that his typewriter weighed sixty pounds4 ,speculation was rife as to whether the ,t4 ,w41 had blue eyes or gray1 and as to what manner of dwarf or living skeleton could fulfill the requirements at sixty pounds4 ,when the machine finally arrived and the square packing case was unloaded1 a host of curious ladies received the surprise of their lives4 ,typewriter1 commonly used as a generic name for the machine that prints1 as well as for the person who operates it1 should have its double meaning curtailed4 ,the young lady of pleasing face and amiable deportment1 whose deft fingers hover over the keys of a senseless machine1 is entitled to something more appropriate in the way of a professional title4 ,let it be typist1 after the ,english fashion2 and instead of saying the typist typewrote the letter1 why not say she typed it8 ,an editor once returned a manuscript with a note like this3 ,dear ,sir3--,put it into narrative form4 ,yours truly1 ,the ,editor4 ,i did so4 ,a week later came this3 ,dear ,sir3--,a little mystery would help4 ,we like your style very much4 ,yours truly1 ,the ,editor4 ,i put in the mystery4 ,a week later1-- ,dear ,sir3--,you send us good verse4 ,why not turn the marked paragraphs into verse1 with strong influence on story8 ,well written4 ,yours truly1 etc4 ,it was a good idea4 ,the verse was acceptable4 ,it was so acceptable that the editor sent back the story and a check for #e in payment for the verse--which was all he kept6 ,,xiv ,,fresh ,,fields ,,and ,,pastures ,,new ,so far in his writing career ,harte ,perkins had been the heaviest purchasers of ,edwards' fiction4 ,they had given him about all he could do of a certain class of work1 and he had not tried to find other markets for the ,factory's product4 ,pinning his hopes to one firm1 even though it was the best firm in the business1 was unsatisfactory in many respects4 ,for various reasons1 any one of which is good and sufficient1 a writer should have more than one string to his bow4 ,harte ,perkins1 jealously watching the tastes of their reading public1 were compelled to make many and sudden changes in the material they put out4 ,this directly affected the writers of the material1 and ,edwards was often left with no prospects at all1 and perhaps at just the time when he flattered himself that his prospects were brightest4 ,in preceding chapters mention has been made of two serial stories in which ,edwards had vainly endeavored to interest ,harte ,perkins4 ,one of these was ,the ,man from ,dakota1 and the other1 ,he ,was ,a ,stranger4 ,these1 and another entitled ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns1 written late in #aijj1 were ultimately to open new markets4 ,in a diary for the year #aijj1 ,edwards has this under date of ,tuesday1 ,jan4 #b3 ,mr4 ,paisley called to see me this morning on a business matter4 ,it appears that the proprietor of ,the ,western ,world had ordered a serial from ,opie ,read and was not satisfied with it4,g ,as ,the ,western ,world goes to press in a few days they must have another story at once4 ,later in the day ,i talked with ,mr4 ,underwood the 7as ,i suppose7 proprietor1 and he asked me to get ',the ,man from ,dakota' from ,mr4 ,kerr1 of ,the ,chicago ,ledger4 ,i did so and took the manuscript over to ,mr4 ,paisley4 ,if it is acceptable they are to pay me #bjj for it4 ,mr4 ,paisley was a gentleman with whom ,mrs4 ,edwards had become acquainted while attending ,frank ,holme's ,school for ,illustration1 in ,chicago4 ,he was a man of much ability4 ,under ,thursday1 ,jan4 #d1 the diary has a memorandum to this effect3 ,mr4 ,paisley came out to see me at noon4 ,they like ',the ,man from ,dakota' and will pay me #bjj for it1 divided into three payments of #ej1 #ej and #ajj4 ,so1 finally1 ,the ,man from ,dakota got into print4 ,while it was still appearing in ,the ,western ,world2 ,mr4 ,underwood conceived the idea of booming the circulation of his paper by publishing a mystery story--one of those stories in which the mystery is not revealed until the last chapter1 and for the solution of which prizes are offered4 ,he asked ,edwards if he would write such a story4 ,why should ,edwards write one when he already had on hand the mystery story unsuccessfully entered in the old ,chicago ,daily ,news contest8 ,he offered this to ,mr4 ,underwood4 ,he read it and liked it4 ,mr4 ,paisley read it and liked it4 ,what was the very lowest figure ,edwards would take for it8 ,mr4 ,underwood1 in getting around to this point1 told how he had sent for ,stanley ,waterloo and asked him to write the mystery story4 ,what will you pay8 inquired ,mr4 ,waterloo4 ,i'll give you #ajj1 said ,mr4 ,underwood4 ,whereupon ,mr4 ,waterloo arose in awful majesty and strode from the office4 ,he did not even linger to say good-by4 ,now1 said ,mr4 ,underwood to ,edwards1 with a genial smile1 don't you do that if ,i offer you seventy-five dollars for ',what ,happened to the ,colonel4' ,cash8 asked ,edwards4 ,on the nail4 ,give me the money1 said ,edwards2 ,i need it4 ,now that the diary has been quoted with a reference to ,opie ,read1 perhaps another reference to the same genial and talented gentleman may be pardoned3 ,jan4 #ai1 #aijj4--,opie ,read made his 'first appearance in vaudeville' this week1 and ,gertie 7,mrs4 ,edwards7 and ,i went to the ,chicago ,opera ,house this afternoon to hear him4 ,he was very good1 but ,i would rather read one of his stories than hear him tell it4 ,later in the year ,edwards broke into the papers served by the ,mc,clure ,syndicate with ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns4 ,after using this serial in metropolitan papers1 the ,mc,clure people sold it to ,the ,kellogg ,newspaper ,union to be used in the patents sent out to country newspapers4 ,the story was later brought out in cloth by the ,g4 ,w4 ,dillingham ,co41 ,new ,york4 ,the third novel1 ,he ,was ,a ,stranger1 had already been refused by ,harte ,perkins4 ,late in ,may1 #aijj1 ,edwards again went prospecting to ,new ,york4 ,feeling positive that ,harte ,perkins had missed some of the good points in the story1 he carried the manuscript with him and once more submitted it4 ,again it was refused1 but ,mr4 ,hall1 editor of the ,guest1 informed ,edwards that he had an excellent story but that it was impossible for ,harte ,perkins to consider its purchase4 ,edwards asked if he knew of a possible market4 ,mr4 ,munsey1 was the reply1 is looking for stories for ,the ,argosy1 and ,i'd suggest that you take the story over there and show it to ,mr4 ,white1 ,the ,argosy's editor4 ,edwards tucked the novel under his arm and strolled up ,fifth ,avenue to the offices of the ,frank ,a4 ,munsey ,company4 ,there1 and for the first time1 he met ,mr4 ,matthew ,white1 ,jr4 ,the impression of power1 tremendous ability and a big1 two-handed grasp of ,argosy affairs which the editor made upon ,edwards1 at this time1 has deepened with the passing years4 ,an author1 as well as a keen dramatic critic1 ,mr4 ,white brings to bear on his editorial duties an intuition that closely approximates genius4 ,he has proved his remarkable fitness for the post he occupies by making ,the ,argosy1 since ,mr4 ,munsey divested it of its knickerbockers1 the most widely read of all the purely fiction magazines4 ,and withal he is one of the most pleasant editors whom a writer will ever have the good fortune to meet4 ,mr4 ,white was glad to consider ,he ,was ,a ,stranger4 ,he thumbed over the pages1 noted the length1 and asked what price ,edwards would put upon the manuscript in case it was acceptable4 ,edwards named #ejj1 and told of ,the ,brave and ,fair which ,harte ,perkins1 a few years before1 had bought at that figure4 ,mr4 ,white replied that ,the ,argosy1 as yet1 was unable to pay such prices1 but that he would read the story and1 if he liked it1 make an offer4 ,a few days later he offered #bej for serial rights4 ,edwards took into consideration the fact that the story would establish him in the columns of a growing magazine and1 with an eye to the future1 accepted the offer4 ,he has never had occasion to regret his decision4 ,from the beginning of the year ,edwards had been doing a large amount of five-cent library work for ,harte ,perkins4 ,a new weekly had been started1 the writer who furnished the copy failed to get his manuscript in on time1 and ,edwards was given a story to finish and1 a few days afterward1 the entire series to take care of4 ,at the time he sold the serial to ,mr4 ,white1 he was supplying weekly copy for two libraries--the old ,five-,cent ,library and the new weekly1 which shall here be referred to as the ,circus ,series4 ,on the proceeds from the sale of ,he ,was ,a ,stranger ,edwards and his wife had a little outing at ,atlantic ,city4 ,they returned to ,new ,york for a few days1 and then went on to ,boston4 ,here1 comfortably quartered in a hotel1 ,edwards devoted his mornings to work and his afternoons to seeing the sights with ,mrs4 ,edwards4 ,they haunted ,old ,cambridge1 they made pilgrimages to ,salem1 to ,plymouth and to other places1 and they enjoyed themselves as they had never done before on an eastern trip4 ,later they finished out the summer near ,monterey1 in the ,berkshire ,hills4 ,during all these travels the ,fiction ,factory was regularly grinding out its grist of copy--so many pages a day1 so many stories a week4 ,two libraries1 together with a sketch each month for a trade paper published by ,harte ,perkins1 kept ,edwards too busy to prepare any manuscripts for ,the ,argosy4 ,much of his work1 while in the ,berkshires1 was done in longhand4 ,on this point ,mr4 ,perkins wrote1 ,july #be3 ,i should think you would miss your typewriter4 ,i fear that ,i shall miss it1 too1 when ,i read your manuscript1 although ,i find your writing easier to read than that of any of our other writers4 ,in ,august the ,edwards went ,west1 visited for a time in ,michigan and then in ,wisconsin1 finally returned to the former state and1 in the little country town where ,edwards was born1 bought an old place and settled down4 ,as with the ,golden ,star ,library1 misfortune finally overtook the ,circus ,series4 ,a telegram was received telling ,edwards to hold ,no4 #dg of the ,circus ,series pending instructions by letter4 ,the letter instructed him to close up finally the adventures of the hero and his friends and bring their various activities to an appropriate end4 ,the series was continued1 for a while longer1 with a brand-new hero in each story2 but ,edwards was requested to write but three of the stories in the new form4 ,the year1 which opened auspiciously and proved a banner year financially1 closed with a discontinuance of all orders from ,harte ,perkins4 ,re-prints were being used in the old ,five-,cent ,library--stories that had been issued years before and could now be republished for another generation of boy readers4 ,under date of ,dec4 #a1 #aiaa1 ,mr4 ,perkins wrote3 ,i know of nothing1 just at present1 which you can do for us1 but should anything develop ,i shall be very glad to inform you4 ,this left ,edwards with a sketch a month for the trade paper1 for which he was paid #aj each4 ,that misfortunes never come singly is an old saying1 and one which ,edwards has found particularly true in the writing profession4 ,a letter of ,dec4 #bg1 informed him3 ,we have decided to dispense with the sketches in our trade paper for the present1 at least2 therefore the ,february sketch we have in hand will be the last we will want unless we give you further notice4 ,in a good many cases the tendency of a writer1 when fate deals hardly with him in the matter of a demand for his work1 is to take his rebuffs too seriously4 ,often he will lock up his ,factory1 leaving a placard on the door3 ,closed4 ,proprietor gone to ,halifax4 ,nothing in the fiction game anyhow4 ,edwards used to feel in this way4 ,as he grew older he learned to take his disappointments with more or less equanimity1 and to keep the ,factory running4 ,he thought1 now1 of ,mr4 ,white and ,the ,argosy4 ,here was a good time to prepare an ,argosy serial4 ,he wrote it1 sent it1 and on ,feb4 #ae1 #aija1 received this terse letter3 ,my dear ,mr4 ,edwards3 ,we can use your story1 ',the ,tangle in ,butte1' in ,the ,argosy at #bjj4 ,very truly yours1 ,matthew ,white1 ,jr4 ,this was less than the price paid for ,he ,was ,a ,stranger1 but the story ran only #fj1jjj words1 while the other serial had gone to #ajj1jjj4 ,the acceptance went to ,mr4 ,white by return mail4 ,on the day following there came a letter from ,harte ,perkins ordering work in the old ,five-,cent ,library--work that would keep ,edwards busy for the rest of the year4 ,ten of the old stories which ,edwards had written were to be revised and lengthened by #aj1jjj words4 ,for this work he was to be paid #cj for each story4 ,when the ten numbers had been revised and lengthened1 he was to go on with the stories1 writing a new one each week4 ,fifty dollars apiece was to be paid for the new stories4 ,there was an order1 too1 for more sketches for the trade paper1 to be done in another vein4 ,on ,aug4 #e the length of the ,five-,cent ,library stories was cut from #cj1jjj words to #bj1jjj1 and the remuneration was cut from #ej to #dj4 ,another juvenile paper was started and ,edwards was asked to submit serials for it4 ,in fact1 #aija might be called a boom year for the ,fiction ,factory1 although the returns1 while satisfactory1 were not of the boom variety4 ,perhaps the reader may remember the serial1 ,a ,vassar ,girl1 referred to in a previous chapter as having been submitted to ,harte ,perkins and rejected4 ,edwards had faith in this story and offered it to ,mr4 ,white4 ,mr4 ,white's judgment1 however1 tallied with that of ,harte ,perkins4 ,under date of ,june #ac ,mr4 ,white wrote3 ,i am sorry that ',a ,vassar ,girl' has not borne out the promise of the opening chapters4 ,the interest in it is not sufficiently sustained for serial use4 ,the story might be divided into several incidents1 which do not grow inevitably the one out of the other4 ,for this reason it has1 as a whole1 proved disappointing and ,i am returning the manuscript by express4 ,we should be glad1 however1 to have you continue to submit work to us4 ,with faith undiminished1 ,edwards forwarded the story to ,mc,clure's ,newspaper ,syndicate4 ,it was returned without an explanation of any kind4 ,again he prevailed upon ,harte ,perkins to consider it4 ,it came back from them on ,sept4 #ac1 with this message3 ,i am sorry to say that we do not feel inclined to revise our judgement with reference to your manuscript story1 ',a ,vassar ,girl4' ,i am inclined to think from looking over the review of the story that it would be well for you to sell it just as it is1 and we hope you will be able to find a market for it somewhere4 ,it would not pay us to publish4 ,edwards knew that the story1 wrought out of his ,arizona experiences1 was true in local color and good of its kind1 and he failed to understand why it was not appreciated4 ,then1 on ,sep4 #ad1 came this from the ,s4 ,s4 ,mc,clure ,company3 ,during ,july we had under consideration a story of yours entitled1 ',a ,vassar ,girl4' ,on ,july #ca we wrote you from the ,syndicate1 informing you that we hoped to be able to use the story as a serial in the very near future4 ,the serial was taken back for consideration in the book department by one of the readers who wished again to examine it1 and from there it was erroneously returned to you4 ,now if you have not disposed of the serial rights of ',a ,vassar ,girl' we should like you again to forward the story to us1 and we will submit it to some of our papers as we had always intended to do4 ,we will then give you a prompt decision4 ,the story was purchased1 and ,edwards' faith in it was confirmed4 ,it was during this year of #aija that ,edwards had a fleeting glimpse of fortune as a playwright4 ,his story1 ,the ,tangle in ,butte1 had been read by an actor1 a leading man in a ,kansas ,city stock company1 who wanted dramatic rights so that he might have a play taken from it and written around him4 ,edwards proposed to write the play himself4 ,he did so1 and was promptly offered #e1jjj for the play1 payable in installments after production4 ,following a good deal of correspondence it was decided to put on the piece for a week's try-out in ,kansas ,city4 ,edwards waived his right to royalties for the week1 models of the scenery were made1 rehearsals began--and then the actor was suddenly stricken with a serious illness and the deal was off4 ,when he had recovered sufficiently to travel he went ,east1 taking the play with him4 ,for several months he tried to interest various managers in it1 but without effect4 ,the year #aija closed for ,edwards with the sketches for the trade paper no longer in demand2 but1 otherwise1 he faced a steadily brightening prospect for the ,fiction ,factory4 #aijj3 ,circus ,series1 #bh #dj each #aabj4jj ,circus ,series1 ,completing unfinished story #bj4jj ,five-,cent ,library1 #bc #dj each #ibj4jj ,trade ,paper ,sketches1 #aj #aj each #ajj4jj ,he ,was ,a ,stranger1 #bej4jj ,the ,man ,from ,dakota1 #bjj4jj ,what ,happened to the ,colonel1 #ge4jj --------- ,total #bfhe4jj #aija3 ,five-,cent ,library1 #aj rewritten #cj each #cjj4jj ,five-,cent ,library1 #h #ej each #djj4jj ,five-,cent ,library1 #af #dj each #fdj4jj ,four ,boys' ,serials #ajj each #djj4jj ,the ,tangle in ,butte1 #bjj4jj ,tale of ,two ,towns1 #aej4jj ,a ,vassar ,girl1 #ajj4jj ,trade ,paper ,sketches1 #i #aj each #ij4jj --------- ,total #bbhj4jj ,very ,often4 ,poeta nascitur2 non fit4 ,this has been somewhat freely translated by one who should know1 as ,the poet is born2 not paid4 ,,footnotes3 ,g ,what do you think of that6 ,,xv4 ,,from ,,the ,,factory',s ,,files ,a letter of commendation from the reader of a story to the writer is not only a pleasant thing in itself but it proves the reader a person of noble soul and high motives4 ,noblesse oblige6 ,the writer who loves his work is not of a sordid nature4 ,the check an editor sends him for his story is the smallest part of his reward4 ,his has been the joy to create1 to see a thought take form and amplify under the spell of his inspiration4 ,a joy which is scarcely less is to know that his work has been appreciated by others4 ,a letter like the one below1 for instance1 not only gives pleasure to the recipient but at the same time fires a writer with determination never to let his work fall short of a previous performance4 ,this reader's good will he must keep1 at all hazards4 ,wayland1 ,n4 ,y41 ,march #bbnd1 #aije4 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,care ,the ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 ,new ,york4 ,my dear ,sir3 ,i read the story in this last ,argosy1 entitled ',fate and the ,figure ,seven1' and was in a way considering if it were possible that a man could act in the subconscious state you picture4 ,deem my surprise1 last night1 when ,i read of a similar case in the report of the ,brockton accident4 ,in case you should have failed to notice this item1 ,i send you a clipping from a ,buffalo paper4 ,i ,,wish ,,incidentally ,,to ,,thank ,,you ,,for ,,your ,,share ,,in ,,making ,,life ,,pleasant ,,for ,,me4 ,i have enjoyed your works immensely from time to time on account of their decidedly original ideas4 ,they are always refreshingly out of the ordinary rut4 ,yours truly1 ,a4 ,f4 ,v----4 ,there is one sentence in this letter which ,edwards has put in capitals4 ,if possible1 he would have written it in letters of gold4 ,in this little world1 so crowded with sorrow and tragedy1 what is it worth to have had a share in making life pleasant for a stranger8 ,to ,edwards it has been worth infinitely more than he received for ,fate and the ,figure ,seven4 ,another letter carries an equally pleasant message3 ,livingstone1 ,montana1 ,sep4 #af1 #aijc4 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,care ,the ,argosy1 ,new ,york ,city4 ,dear ,sir3 ,having read your former stories in ,the ,argosy on ,arizona1 and last night having commenced ',the ,grains of ,gold1' ,i trust you will pardon my expression of appreciation of said stories4 ,i lived ten years in ,arizona as private secretary to several of the ,federal ,judges1 and also lived in ,mexico1 and am still familiar with conditions in that section4 ,i have enjoyed most keenly your handling of thrilling scenes on ,arizona soil4 ,it is an exasperation that they appear in serial form1 as ,i dislike the month's interval4 ,my only purpose in writing is to express my admiration of your plots and local color1 and ,i remain1 ,sincerely yours1 ,richard ,s4 ,s----4 ,edwards has always prided himself on keeping true to the actual conditions of the country which forms the screen against which his plot and characters are thrown4 ,this is a gratifying tribute1 therefore1 from one who knows4 ,a letter which rather startled ,edwards1 suggesting as it did the ,maricopa ,indian incident which trailed upon the heels of ,a ,study in ,red1 is this3 ,colorado ,springs1 ,colo41 #b-be-'ji4 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,dear ,sir3 ,through the kindness of the editor of the ,blue ,book ,i received your address4 ,i am very much interested in your story entitled1 ',country ,rock at ,kish-,kish1' and know the greater part of it to be true to life1 but would like to know if it is ,,all true4 ,did ,sager have a daughter8 ,and where did ,sager go when he left ,arizona8 ,or is that just a part of the story8 ,i am very much interested in that character1 ,sager4 ,can you tell me if he is still living1 and where8 ,any information that you may be able to give me will be more than appreciated4 ,thanking you in advance for the favor1 ,i am1 ,yours respectfully1 ,mrs4 ,james ,r4 ,s----4 ,edwards answered this letter--he answers promptly all such letters that come to him and esteems it a privilege--and received a reply4 ,it appeared that ,mrs4 ,s-- was the grand-daughter of a man whom ,sager had robbed of a large amount of money4 ,country ,rock at ,kish-,kish was built on a newspaper clipping twenty years old4 ,this clipping ,edwards forwarded to ,mrs4 ,s-- in the hope that it might help her in her quest for ,sager4 ,the letter was returned as uncalled for4 ,should this ever fall under the eye of ,mrs4 ,s-- she will understand that ,edwards did everything in his power to be of assistance to her4 ,now and again a letter1 which compliments an author indirectly1 will chasten his mounting spirit with the reminder of a slip3 ,rochester1 ,n4 ,y41 ,nov4 #ag1 #aije4 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,edwards3 ,dear ,sir3--,will you please tell me where ,i can get more of your stories than in the ,argosy2 and also1 in reference to your story which concludes in ,december ,argosy1 how many large autos were in use in ,new ,york in #ahib8 ,yours respectfully1 ,howard ,z----4 ,carelessness in a writer is inexcusable4 ,it is the one thing which a reader will not forgive1 for it is very apt to spoil his pleasure in what would otherwise have been a good story4 ,this is a sublimated form of the gold-brick game1 inasmuch as the reader pays his money for a magazine only to find that he has been buncoed by the table of contents4 ,if there is a flaw in the factory's product1 rest assured that it will be discovered and react to the disadvantage of everything else that comes from the same mill4 ,many readers will be found whose interest in a writer's work is so keen that they are tempted to offer suggestions4 ,such suggestions are not to be lightly considered4 ,magazines are published to please their readers1 and they are successful in a direct ratio with their ability to accomplish this end4 ,naturally1 the old doggerel concerning many men of many minds will apply here1 and a single suggestion that has not a wide appeal1 or that fails to conform to the policy of the magazine1 must be handled with great care4 ,cincinnati1 ,ohio1 ,oct4 #ca1 #aije4 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,care ,frank ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 ,new ,york4 ,dear ,sir3 ,because of the increasing interest in ,socialism1 would it not be a good idea to write a story showing under what conditions we should live in1 say1 the year #b1jjj1 if the ,socialists should come into power8 ,you might begin your story with the ,united ,states under a ,socialistic form of government1 and later on ,socialize the rest of the world4 ,your imaginative stories are the ones most eagerly sought in the pages of ,the ,argosy1 and ,i think that a story such as ,i have suggested would serve to increase your popularity among the readers of fiction4 ,sincerely yours1 ,j4 ,h4 ,s----4 ,it frequently happens that a comedian will get after a writer with a stuffed club or a slapstick4 ,some anonymous humorist1 upon reading a story of ,edwards' in ,the ,argosy1 labored and brought forth the following3 ,november #ai1 #aijd4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,care ,frank ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 ,new ,york4 ,my dear ,john3-- ,i have read with much pleasure and delight the first six chapters of your latest story1 ',at ,large in ,terra ,incognita1' as published in the ,december number of ,the ,argosy4 ,i cannot understand why you failed to send me the proof-sheets of this story for correction1 as you did with ',there and ,back4' ,it is evident so far as ,i have read the person who corrected your proof-sheets was as ignorant as yourself4 ,where you got the material for this story is not within my memory1 retrospective though it is1 and ,i am sure you must have been on one of your periodical drunks1 otherwise the flights of fancy you have taken would have been more rational and not so far removed beyond the pale of the human intellect4 ,now1 my dear ,john1 ,i beg of you to give up going on these habitual tears1 because you are not only ruining your constitution but your reputation as a writer is having reflections cast upon it4 ,i trust you will not take this letter as a sermon but rather in a spirit of friendly counsel4 ,i hope you will send me at once the remaining chapters of this great ',at ,large in ,terra ,incognita4' ,your ,nemesis1 ,theo4 ,roosenfeldt1 ,pres't ,trust-,busters' ,asso4 ,readers have usually the courage of their convictions and not many anonymous letters find their way into the office of the ,fiction ,factory4 ,edwards remembers one other letter which was signed ,biff ,a4 ,hiram4 ,at that time ,edwards did not know ,mr4 ,biff ,a4 ,hiram from ,adam1 but he has since made the gentleman's acquaintance1 and discovered how wide is his circle of friends4 ,if praise from a reader has a tendency to exalt1 then how much more of the flattering unction may a writer lay to his soul when approval comes from a brother or sister of the pen8 ,with such a letter1 this brief symposium from the ,factory files may be brought to a close4 ,mr4 ,john ,milton ,edwards1 ,dear ,sir3-- ,allow me to congratulate you upon your success with the novelette in a recent issue of the ,blue ,book4 ,it is to my mind the ,,best short story of its kind ,i have ,,ever read4 ,as ,i try to write short stories ,i see its merits doubly4 ,the modelling is splendid4 ,will you pardon my display of interest8 ,very truly yours1 ,k4 ,b----4 ,rules for ,authors4 ,dr4 ,edward ,everett ,hale1 author of ,the ,man without a ,country1 and other notable books1 gives a few rules which are of interest to the author and the journalist4 ,dr4 ,hale's success in the literary world makes these rules1 gleaned from the field of experience1 especially valuable to young writers3 #a4 ,know what you want to say4 #b4 ,say it4 #c4 ,use your own language4 #d4 ,leave out all fine phrases4 #e4 ,a short word is better than a long one4 #f4 ,the fewer words1 other things being equal1 the better4 #g4 ,cut it to pieces--which means revise1 revise1 revise4 ,,xvi4 ,,growing ,,prosperity ,the years #aijb and #aijc were busier years than ever for the ,fiction ,factory4 ,nineteen-two is to be remembered particularly for opening a new departure in the story line in ,the ,argosy1 and for placing the first book with the ,g4 ,w4 ,dillingham ,company4 ,nineteen-three claims distinction for seeing the book brought out and for boosting the ,factory returns beyond the three-thousand-dollar mark4 ,but it must not be inferred that the book had very much to do with this4 ,edwards' royalties for the year were less than #ajj4 ,in ,september1 #aijb1 ,edwards made one of his customary prospecting trips to ,new ,york4 ,if there was anything in omens his stay in the city promised dire things4 ,on the second day after his arrival he went to ,coney ,island with a friend4 ,together they called on the seventh son of a seventh son and had their palms read4 ,the dispenser of occult knowledge assured ,edwards that the future was very bright1 that ,tuesday was his lucky day and that ,spring was the best time for him to consummate his business undertakings4 ,that day1 as it happened1 was ,tuesday4 ,in the teeth of this promising augury1 and within ten minutes after leaving the palmist's booth1 some ,coney ,island dip shattered ,edwards' confidence in ,tuesday by annexing his wallet4 ,the wallet1 as it happened1 contained all the money ,edwards had brought from home1 with the exception of a little loose change4 ,this was the second time ,edwards had been all but stranded in the ,metropolis1 and this time the stranding was more complete4 ,when he cast up accounts that evening he found himself with a cash balance of #a4fc4 ,fortunately ,mrs4 ,edwards was not along4 ,he had left her at home with the understanding that she was to come on later4 ,when a writer has come within hailing distance of the bread line there remains but one thing to do1 and that is to start the ,factory going with day and night shifts4 ,edwards called on ,mr4 ,white1 of ,the ,argosy1 and outlined a serial story4 ,he was told to go ahead with it4 ,for five days ,edwards hardly stirred from his room4 ,at the end of that time he had completed ,the ,desperado's ,understudy1 and had sold it to ,mr4 ,white for #bej1 spot cash4 ,after completing this serial1 ,edwards outlined to ,mr4 ,white a novelette which would furnish ,the ,argosy with something new in the fiction line4 ,the plot was based on a musical extravaganza which he had written1 several years before1 in collaboration with ,mr4 ,eugene ,kaeuffer1 at one time connected with ,the ,bostonians4 ,nothing had ever come of this ambitious effort1 although book and musical score were completed and offered to ,mr4 ,mc,donald of ,the ,bostonians and to ,mr4 ,thomas ,q4 ,seabrooke4 ,mr4 ,white liked the idea of the story immensely and gave ,edwards carte blanche to go ahead with it4 ,this story1 ,ninety1 ,north1 paved the way for other fantastic yarns which made a decided hit in ,the ,argosy and so pointed ,edwards along a fresh line of endeavor which proved as congenial as it was profitable4 ,several months before he visited ,new ,york ,edwards had sold to ,the ,mc,clure ,syndicate1 a juvenile serial which may be referred to here as ,the ,campaign at ,topeka4 ,for this he had been offered #bjj1 which offer he promptly accepted4 ,he had not received a check1 however1 and was at a loss to understand the reason4 ,to this day the reason remains obscure1 although later events pointed to a misunderstanding of some kind regarding the story between the ,syndicate and one of its readers4 ,before ,edwards left ,new ,york he was paid the #bjj4 ,more than a year afterward he was informed that the serial had been sold to the ,century ,company for ,st4 ,nicholas1 and that after publication in that magazine it was to be brought out in book form4 ,it was ,mr4 ,t4 ,c4 ,mc,clure who put ,edwards in touch with the ,dillingham ,company and referred him to them as prospective publishers1 in cloth1 of the successful ,syndicate story1 ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns4 ,edwards submitted galley proofs of the serial to ,mr4 ,cook of the ,dillingham ,company1 and ultimately signed a contract to have the book published on the usual royalty basis of ten per cent4 ,for ,harte ,perkins1 during the year1 the ,factory ground out nickel novels1 juvenile serials1 one sketch for the trade paper and a few detective stories4 ,on ,nov4 #bh1 after he had returned home from ,new ,york1 he was notified3 ,much as ,i regret to inform you of it1 by a recent purchase of copyright stories we are placed in a position where we will not require any further material for any of our five-cent libraries for some time to come1 so we must discontinue orders to you for all this material4 ,edwards1 in a way1 had become hardened to messages of this kind4 ,the ,argosy was an anchor to windward1 and he resolved to give his attention to serials for ,mr4 ,white4 ,in ,december1 #aijb1 and ,january and ,february1 #aijc1 he wrote and forwarded ,ninety1 ,north1 a second fantastic story called ,there and ,back1 and the ,arizona serial ,grains of ,gold4 ,all three of these stories were sold at once1 bringing in #gjj4 ,in a letter dated ,oct4 #ad1 #aijc1 ,mr4 ,white had this to say about ,there and ,back3 ,thanks for letting me see the enclosed letter regarding ',ninety1 ,north4' ,i am equally pleased with yourself at its significance4 ,i am wondering whether you have heard much about your story ',there and ,back8' ,my impression is that that has been one of the most popular stories you have ever written for ,the ,argosy4 ,when ,i see you ,i will tell you an odd little circumstance that occurred in connection with its run in the magazine4 ,the circumstances referred to by ,mr4 ,white took place in ,paris4 ,one of ,the ,argosy's readers happened to be in a caf1 looking over proofs of a forthcoming installment of ,there and ,back while at her luncheon1 when she heard the story being discussed1 in complimentary terms1 by a number of ,frenchmen at an adjoining table4 ,strange indeed that ,frenchmen should be interested in an ,american story1 and stranger still that ,the ,argosy's reader should be reading an installment of the very same story while men in that foreign caf were discussing it6 ,the first installment of ,there and ,back1 ,mr4 ,white informed ,edwards1 had increased ,the ,argosy's circulation seven thousand copies4,h ,on ,march #b ,harte ,perkins requested ,edwards to continue work on the old ,five-,cent ,library4 ,by taking up this work again he would be diminishing the ,factory's serial output1 but he reflected that his fertility in the matter of serials would soon have ,mr4 ,white over-supplied4 ,therefore ,edwards decided to go on with the nickel weeklies4 ,in ,march1 as ,mr4 ,mac,lean of ,the ,popular ,magazine once put it1 ,edwards came out in cloth1 the ,dillingham ,company issuing ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns on ,st4 ,patrick's ,day4 ,what are the feelings of an author when he opens his first book for the first time8 ,if you1 dear reader1 are yet to get out in cloth for the first time1 then some day you will know4 ,but1 if you value your peace of mind1 do not build too gorgeous an air castle on the foundation of this printed thing4 ,printed things are at the mercy of the reviewers and1 in a larger sense1 of the great reading public4 ,the reviewers1 in nearly every instance1 were kind with ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns4 ,in many quarters it was praised fulsomely1 but the book did not strike that fickle sentiment called popular fancy4 ,in six months1 ,mr4 ,cook1 of the ,dillingham ,company1 wrote ,edwards that ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns was a dead duck4 ,in the ,december settlement1 however1 the remains yielded royalties of #if4fj4 ,for two or three years the royalties trailed along1 and finally the edition was wound up with a payment of #a4ej4 ,sic transit gloria6 ,during ,january1 #aijc1 a theatrical gentleman requested ,edwards to dramatize a book which ,messrs4 ,street ,smith had issued in paper covers4 ,you can change the title1 the gentleman suggested1 and slightly change the incidents4 ,in that way it won't be necessary to write ,street ,smith for permission or1 indeed1 to let them know anything about it4 ,edwards knew1 however1 that nothing will so surely wreck a writer's prospects as playing fast and loose with editors and publishers4 ,he refused to consider the theatrical gentleman's proposition4 ,instead1 he forwarded his ,argosy story1 ,the ,desperado's ,understudy1 upon which ,mr4 ,white had given him dramatic rights1 and offered to make a stage version of it4 ,the offer was accepted and a play was built up from the story4 ,the theatrical gentleman was pleased and said he would give #a1ejj for the dramatization4 ,then1 alas6 the theatrical gentleman's company went on the rocks at the ,alhambra ,theatre1 in ,chicago1 and ,edwards had repeated his former playwriting experience4 ,the two years' work figured out in this wise3 #aijb3 #bc ,five-,cent ,libraries #dj each #ibj4jj #h detective stories #dj each #cbj4jj #d juvenile serials #ajj each #djj4jj #a sketch for trade paper #aj4jj ,the ,desperado's ,understudy1 #bej4jj ,the ,campaign at ,topeka1 #bjj4jj ,short stories #fg4jj -------- ,total #bafg4jj #aijc3 #db ,five-,cent ,libraries #dj each #afhj4jj #b detective stories #dj each #hj4jj ,ninety1 ,north1 #aej4jj ,there and ,back1 #bej4jj ,a ,sensational ,affair1 short story1 #ae4jj ,grains of ,gold1 #cjj4jj ,fate's ,gamblers1,i #ajj4jj ,the ,morning ,star ,race1 short story1 #ae4jj ,a ,game for ,two1 #bjj4jj ,royalties on book1 ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns1 #if4fj ,the ,point of ,honor1 #aej4jj -------- ,total #cjcf4fj ,as several gentlemen in these times1 by the wonderful force of genius only1 without the least assistance of learning1 perhaps without being able to read1 have made a considerable figure in the republic of letters2 the modern critics1 ,i am told1 have lately begun to assert1 that all kind of learning is entirely useless to a writer1 and indeed1 no other than a kind of fetters on the natural sprightliness and activity of the imagination1 which is thus weighed down1 and prevented from soaring to those high flights which otherwise it would be able to reach4 ,this doctrine1 ,i am afraid1 is at present carried much too far2 for why should writing differ so much from other arts8 ,the nimbleness of a dancing-master is not at all prejudiced by being taught to move2 nor doth any mechanic1 ,i believe1 excercise his tools the worse by having learnt to use them4--,fielding1 ,tom ,jones4 ,,footnotes3 ,h ,there and ,back went through the ,fiction ,factory in twelve days4 ,i ,this story sold through ,kellogg ,newspaper ,company1 ,chicago4 ,the two short stories sold to the late lamented ,wayside ,tales1 ,detroit1 ,mich4 ,,xvii4 ,,ethics ,,of ,,the ,,nickel ,,novel ,is the nickel novel easy to write8 ,the writer who has never attempted one is quite apt to think that it is4 ,there are hundreds of writers1 the ,would-be-,goods1 making less than a thousand a year1 who would throw up their hands in horror at the very thought of debasing their art by contriving at sensational five-cent fiction4 ,so far from debasing their art1 as a matter of fact they could not lift it to the high plane of the nickel novel if they tried4 ,of these ,would-be-,goods more anon--to use an expression of the ante-bellum romancers4 ,suffice to state1 in this place1 writers of recognized standing1 and even ministers1 have written--and some now are writing--these quick-moving stories4 ,there's a knack about it1 and the knack is not easy to acquire4 ,no less a person than ,mr4 ,richard ,duffy1 formerly editor of ,ainslee's and later of the ,cavalier1 a man of rare gifts as a writer1 once told ,edwards that the nickel novel was beyond his powers4 ,so far as ,edwards is concerned1 he gave the best that was in him to the half-dime dreadfuls1 and he made nothing dreadful of them after all4 ,he has written hundreds1 and there is not a line in any one of them which he would not gladly have his own son read4 ,in fact1 his ethical standard1 to which every story must measure up1 was expressed in this mental question as he worked3 ,if ,i had a boy would ,i willingly put this before him8 ,if the answer was ,no1 the incident1 the paragraph1 the sentence or the word was eliminated4 ,in #aiaj ,edwards wrote his last nickel novel1 turning his back deliberately on three thousand dollars a year 7they were paying him #fj each for them then71 not because they were debasing his art but because he could make more money at other writing--for when one is forty-four he must get on as fast as he can4 ,the libraries1 as they were written by ,edwards1 were typed on paper #h-a_/b by #ac1 the marginal stops so placed that a typewritten line approximated the same line when printed4 ,eighty of these sheets completed a story1 and five pages were regularly allowed to each chapter4 ,thus there were always sixteen chapters in every story4 ,first it is necessary to submit titles1 and scenes for illustration4 ,selecting an appropriate title is an art in itself4 ,alliteration is all right1 if used sparingly1 and novel effects that do not defy the canons of good taste should be sought after4 ,the title1 too1 should go hand in hand with the picture that illustrates the story4 ,this picture1 by the way1 has demands of its own4 ,in the better class of nickel novels firearms and other deadly weapons are tabooed4 ,the picture must be unusual and it must be exciting1 but its suggested morality must be high4 ,the ideas for illustrations all go to the artist days or even weeks in advance of the stories themselves4 ,it is the writer's business to lay out this prospective work intelligently1 so that he may weave around it a group of logical stories4 ,usually the novels are written in sets of three2 that is1 throughout such a series the same principal characters are used1 and three different groups of incidents are covered4 ,in this way1 while each story is complete in itself1 it is possible to combine the series and preserve the effect of a single story from beginning to end4 ,these sets are so combined1 as a matter of fact1 and sold for ten cents4 ,each chapter closes with a curtain4 ,in other words1 the chapter works the action up to an interesting point1 similar to a serial leave-off1 and drops a quick curtain4 ,skill is important here4 ,the publishers of this class of fiction will not endure inconsistency for a moment4 ,the stories appeal to a clientele keen to detect the improbable and to treat it with contempt4 ,good1 snappy dialogue is favored1 but it must be dialogue that moves the story along4 ,an apt retort has no excuse in the yarn unless it really belongs there4 ,a multitude of incidents--none of them hackneyed--is a prime requisite4 ,complexity of plot invites censure--and usually secures it4 ,the plot must be simple1 but it must be striking4 ,one author failed because he had his hero-detective strain his massive intellect through #bj1jjj words merely to recover #ajj that had been purloined from an old lady's handbag4 ,if the author had made it a million dollars stolen from a lady like ,mrs4 ,hetty ,green1 probably his labor would have been crowned with success4 ,these five-cent heroes are in no sense small potatoes4 ,they may court perils galore and rub elbows with death1 now and then1 for nothing at all1 but certainly never for the mere bagatelle of #ajj4 ,the hero does not drink4 ,he does not swear4 ,very often he will not smoke4 ,he is a chivalrous gentleman1 ever a friend of the weak and deserving4 ,he accomplishes all this with a ready good nature that has nothing of the goody-good in its make-up4 ,the hero does not smoke because1 being an athlete1 he must keep in constant training in order to master his many difficulties4 ,for the same reason he will not drink4 ,as for swearing1 it is a useless pastime and very common2 besides1 it betrays excitement1 and the hero is never excited4 ,the old-style yellow-back hero was given to massacres4 ,he slew his enemies valiantly by brigades4 ,not so the modern hero of the five-cent novel4 ,rarely1 in the stories1 does any one cross the divide4 ,and whenever the villain is hurt1 he is quite apt to recover1 thank the hero for hurting him--and become his sworn friend4 ,the story must be clean1 and while it must necessarily be exciting1 it must yet leave the reader's mind with a net profit in all the manly virtues4 ,is this easy8 ,please note this extract from a letter written by ,harte ,perkins ,dec4 #be1 #aijb--;it covers a point whose humor1 ,edwards thought1 drew the sting of dishonesty3 ,your last story1 ,no4 #bhe1 opened well1 had plenty of good incidents and was interesting1 but there are several points in which it might have been improved4 ,your description of ,two ,spot's scheme of posing ,dutchy as a petrified boy is amusing1 but the plan was dishonest and a piece of trickery4 ,it was all right1 perhaps1 to let the boys go ahead without the knowledge of the ,hero1 but when he learned of it he should have put a stop to the plan immediately4 ,it was all right to have him laugh at it1 but at the same time he should have spoken severely to the boys about it and ordered them to return the money they had received through their trick4 ,he did not do this in your story and it was necessary for me to alter it considerably in the first part on that account4 ,the ,hero is supposed to be the soul of honor1 and in your story he is posed as a party to a deception practised on the citizens of ,ouray1 by which they were defrauded of the money they paid for admission to see the supposed petrified boy4 ,such conduct on his part would soon lose for him the admiration of the readers of the weekly1 as it places him on a moral level1 almost1 with the robbers whom he is bringing to justice4 ,consider that1 you ,would-be-,goods1 who are not above putting worse things in your high-class work4 ,and can you say ,i am holier than thou to the conscientious writer who turns out his #bj1jjj or #be1jjj words a week along these ethical lines8 ,handsome is as handsome does6 ,somebody is going to write these stories4 ,there is a demand for them4 ,the writer who can set hand to such fiction1 who meets his moral responsibilities unflinchingly1 is doing a splendid work for ,young ,america4 ,and yet1 as stated in a previous chapter1 there are nickel novels and nickel novels--some to read and some to put in the stove unread4 ,high-minded publishers1 however1 are not furnishing the careful head of the family with material for his kitchen fire4 ,it costs you nothing to think1 but it costs infinitely to write4 ,i therefore preach to you eternally that art of writing which ,boileau has so well known and so well taught1 that respect for the language1 that connection and sequence of ideas1 that air of ease with which he conducts his readers1 that naturalness which is the true fruit of art1 and that appearance of facility which is due to toil alone4 ,a word out of place spoils the most beautiful thought4--,voltaire to ,helvetius1 a young author4 ,,xviii ,,keeping ,,everlastingly ,,at ,,it ,edwards had not visited ,new ,york in #aijc1 but he landed there on ,friday1 ,jan4 #a1 #aijd1--literally storming in on a train that was seven hours late on account of the weather4 ,a cab hurried him and his wife to the place in ,forty-fourth street where the pleasant landlady used to hold forth1 but they found1 alas6 that the old stamping ground was in the hands of strangers4 ,it was like being turned away from home4 ,where should they go8 ,edwards remembered that1 on one of his previous visits to ,new ,york1 ,mr4 ,perkins had recommended the ,st4 ,george ,hotel1 over in ,brooklyn4 ,the ,st4 ,george was within a few blocks of the south end of the bridge and the offices of ,harte ,perkins were in ,william street1 close to the north end4 ,so ,edwards and his wife went to the ,brooklyn hotel and there established their headquarters4 ,on ,jan4 #b ,edwards called on the patrons of his ,factory4 ,the result was not particularly encouraging4 ,harte ,perkins instructed him to stop work on the ,five-,cent ,library1 but said that in about two months they would have a new library for him to take care of4 ,edwards had brought with him to the city his dramatic version of ,the ,tangle in ,butte1 the play which had come so near turning #e1jjj into the ,factory's strong-box4 ,it was ,edwards' hope that he might be able to dispose of the play1 but the hope went glimmering when he learned that there were #aj1jjj actors stranded in ,new ,york1 and that things theatrical were generally in a bad way4 ,during #aijc ,edwards had corresponded with ,mr4 ,h4 ,h4 ,lewis1 editor of ,the ,popular ,magazine1 a recent venture of ,messrs4 ,street ,smith's4 ,he had submitted manuscripts to ,mr4 ,lewis but they had not proved to be in line with ,the ,popular's requirements4 ,it is difficult1 through correspondence1 to discover just what an editor wants4 ,the only way to get at such a thing properly is by personal interview4 ,if the would-be contributor does not then get the editor's needs clearly in mind it is his own fault4 ,edwards called on ,mr4 ,lewis and had a pleasant chat with him4 ,the assistant editor was ,mr4 ,a4 ,d4 ,hall1 a capable gentleman who had been with ,messrs4 ,street ,smith for many years1 and with whom ,edwards was well acquainted4 ,at that time ,louis ,joseph ,vance was writing for ,the ,popular ,magazine1 among others1 and ,edwards met him in ,mr4 ,lewis' office4 ,as ,edwards was leaving1 after outlining a novelette and receiving a commission to write it1 he paused with one hand on the door-knob4 ,i'll turn in the story1 ,mr4 ,lewis1 said he1 and ,i hope you'll like it and buy it4 ,of course he'll like it and buy it1 called out ,vance4 ,you're going to write it for him1 aren't you8 ,why1 yes1 returned ,edwards1 but-- ,you're not a peddler1 interrupted ,vance1 to write stuff and go hawking it about from office to office4 ,we're writers1 and when we know what a man wants we deliver the goods4 ,this was before the days of ,the ,brass ,bowl and ,terence ,o',rourke1 but already ,vance had found himself and was striking the key-note of confidence4 ,confidence--that's the word4 ,back it up with fair ability and the writer will go far4 ,from ,the ,popular's editorial rooms ,edwards went up ,fifth avenue for a call on the editor of ,the ,argosy4 ,much to his disappointment ,mr4 ,white was out of town for ,new ,year's and would not return until the following week4 ,the story which ,edwards had presented to ,mr4 ,lewis in its oral and tabloid form was one that had been written in #aijc and turned down by ,mr4 ,white4 ,before offering the manuscript to ,the ,popular1 ,edwards intended to rewrite it and strengthen it4 ,a typewriter was ordered sent over to the ,st4 ,george ,hotel1 and on ,jan4 #c the rewriting of the novelette was begun4 ,the story was called ,the ,highwayman's ,waterloo1 or something to that effect4 ,on the following day twenty-four pages of the manuscript were submitted to ,mr4 ,lewis1 won his approval1 and the rewriting proceeded4 ,two chapters of a serial were also offered to ,mr4 ,white for examination4 ,the story was called ,the ,skirts of ,chance1 and had been begun before ,edwards left home4 ,during #aijb and '#jc ,edwards had worked1 at odd times1 on what he designed to be a high-class juvenile story4 ,it was #fj1jjj words in length1 when completed in the ,summer of #aijc1 and in ,september he had submitted it to ,dodd1 ,mead ,company4 ,not having heard from the story1 on this ,january day that saw him passing out fragments of manuscripts to ,the ,popular and ,the ,argosy he went on farther up ,fifth avenue and dropped in to ask ,d41 ,m4 ,co41 how ,danny ,w41 was fareing at the hands of their readers4 ,he was told that five readers had examined the story and that it was then in the hands of the sixth6 ,some of the readers--and this came to him privately--had turned in a favorable report4 ,because of this1 the author of ,danny ,w41 went back to ,brooklyn considerably elated4 ,it would be an honor indeed to have the book break through such a formidable brigade of readers and get into the catalogue of the good old house of ,dodd1 ,mead ,company4 ,the highwayman novelette was finished and submitted in its complete form on ,jan4 #f4 ,on the same day ,mr4 ,white informed ,edwards that he was well pleased with the two chapters of ,the ,skirts of ,chance and told him to proceed with it4 ,fortune was on the upward trend for ,edwards1 and he was sent for by ,dodd1 ,mead ,company1 on ,jan4 #ae1 and informed that they would either bring out ,danny ,w41 on a royalty or pay a cash price for the book rights4 ,edwards1 remembering his disastrous publishing experience with ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns1 accepted #bjj in cash4 ,mr4 ,lewis bought the novelette for #abe1 and ,harte ,perkins1 on the same day1 gave ,edwards a new library to do--#ce1jjj words in each story at #ej4 ,complete manuscript of ,the ,skirts of ,chance was submitted to ,mr4 ,white on ,jan4 #bb1 and on ,jan4 #bg ,edwards received #cjj for it4 ,by ,feb4 #h ,edwards had written and sold to ,mr4 ,lewis another novelette entitled1 ,the ,duke's ,understudy1 for which he received #adj4 ,on ,feb4 #i he and his wife returned to ,michigan4 ,edwards had been in ,new ,york forty days and had gathered in #ife4 ,he left ,new ,york with orders for ,argosy serials and with the new library1 ,sea and ,shore1 to be turned in at the rate of one story every two months4 ,in ,may he was requested to go on with the ,old ,five-,cent ,library4 ,these stories were forwarded regularly one each week1 until ,november1 when orders were again discontinued4 ,in ,september1 ,danny ,w41 appeared4 ,as with ,a ,tale of ,two ,towns1 the reviewers were more than kind to ,danny ,w41 and there is just a possibility that they killed him with kindness4 ,the idea obtains1 in supposedly well-informed circles1 that the only way for reviewers to help a book is to damn it utterly4 ,be this as it may1 although illustrated in color and put out in the best style of the book-maker's art1 ,danny ,w41 did not prove much of a success4 ,a ,california paper bought serial rights on the story for #ej1 and thus the book netted the author1 all told1 the modest sum of #bej4 ,during this year1 also1 ,the ,a4 ,n4 ,kellogg ,newspaper ,company sold serial rights on ,fate's ,gamblers for #cj1 took #ej per cent4 as a commission and presented ,edwards with what was left4 ,a short story1 ,the ,camp ,coyote1 was sold to ,mr4 ,titherington1 for ,munsey's2 and ,edwards had opened a new market in ,street ,smith's magazines4 ,thus was brought to a close a fairly prosperous year4 ,in #aije the returns slid backward a little4 ,during this year1 and the year preceding1 some stories which had failed with ,mr4 ,white were received with favor by ,mr4 ,kerr1 of ,the ,chicago ,ledger--at the ,ledger price1 ranging from #cj upward to #ge4 ,the ,woman's ,home ,companion1 to which ,edwards had vainly tried to sell serial rights on ,danny ,w41 accepted a two-part story entitled1 ,the ,redskin and the ,paper-,talk1 and paid #bjj for it4 ,this is the story of which a chapter was lost in the composing room1 and ,edwards received an honorarium of #e for having a carbon duplicate of the few missing pages4 ,in #aije1 also1 ,the ,american ,press ,association did business with ,edwards to the amount of #cj4 ,another market for the ,edwards' product--worth mentioning even though the amount of business done was not large4 ,the returns for the two years were as follows3 #aijd3 ,the ,highwayman's ,waterloo1 #abe4jj ,danny ,w41 #bjj4jj ,danny ,w41 serial rights #ej4jj ,the ,skirts of ,chance1 #cjj4jj ,the ,duke's ,understudy1 #adj4jj ,at ,large in ,terra ,incognita1 #age4jj ,the ,man from the ,stone ,age1 short story #be4jj ,the ,honorable ,jim1 #bej4jj ,fate's ,gamblers1 serial rights #ae4jj ,a ,deal with ,destiny1 #aej4jj ,the ,enchanted ,ranch1 #ge4jj ,the ,camp ,coyote1 #dj4jj ,under the ,ban1 #ge4jj ,a ,master of ,graft1 #bbe4jj #bf ,five-,cent ,libraries #dj each #ajdj4jj #d ,sea and ,shore ,libraries #ej each #bjj4jj -------- ,total #cjhe4jj #aije3 ,cornering ,boreas1 short story #cj4jj ,the ,redskin and the ,paper-talk1 #bjj4jj ,the ,redskin and the ,paper-talk1 additional pay't #e4jj ,mountebank's ,dilemma1 short story #be4jj ,helping ,columbus1 #cej4jj ,the ,edge of the ,sword1 #bjj4jj ,yellow ,clique1 #ajj4jj ,a ,mississippi ,snarl1 #bjj4jj ,the ,black ,box1 #bjj4jj ,a ,wireless ,wooing1 short story #ae4jj ,the ,freelance1 #ej4jj ,the ,luck of ,bill ,lattimer1 #cj4jj ,machine-made ,road-agent1 short story #ae4jj ,the ,man from ,mars1 #bge4jj #aj ,sea and ,shore stories #ej each #ejj4jj -------- ,total #baie4jj ,good1 philosophical ,ras ,wilson once said to a new reporter1 ,young man1 write as you feel1 but try to feel right4 ,be good humored toward every one and everything4 ,believe that other folks are just as good as you are1 for they are4 ,give 'em your best and bear in mind that ,god has sent them1 in his wisdom1 all the trouble they need1 and it is for you to scatter gladness and decent1 helpful things as you go4 ,don't be particular about how the stuff will look in print1 but let'er go4 ,some one will understand4 ,that is better than to write so dash bing high1 or so tarnashun deep1 that no one understands4 ,let'er go4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there was once a poor man hounded to death by creditors4 ,ruin and suicide vied for his surrender4 ,but he was a man of the twentieth century1 and flippantly but with unbounded faith he collected a few odd pennies and hied him to a newspaper office4 ,stopping scarcely to frame his sentence he inserted a want advertisement1 stating his circumstances and declaring he would commit suicide unless aid was proffered4 ,within twenty-four hours he had #bej2 before another sun his employer advanced as much more4 ,carefully advising the newspaper to discontinue the advertisement1 he paid off his creditors--and lived happily ever afterward6 ,no1 this is not a fairy tale4 ,the time was a few weeks ago1 the city ,chicago and the newspaper1 ,the ,tribune4 ,the moral is1 that originality in writing1 coupled with a fresh idea1 brings a check4 ,,xix4 ,,love ,,your ,,work ,,for ,,the ,,work',s ,,sake ,the sentiment which ,edwards has tried to carry through every paragraph and line of this book is this1 that ,writing is its own reward4 ,his meaning is1 that to the writer the joy of the work is something infinitely higher1 finer and more satisfying than its pecuniary value to the editor who buys it4 ,material success1 of course1 is a necessity1 unless--happy condition6--the writer has a private income on which to draw for meeting the sordid demands of life4 ,but this also is true3 ,a writer even of modest talent will have material success in a direct ratio with the joy he finds in his work6--,because1 brother of the pen1 when one takes pleasure in an effort1 then that effort attracts merit inevitably4 ,if any writing is a merciless grind the result will show it--and the editor will see it1 and reject4 ,there are times1 however1 when doubt shakes the firmest confidence4 ,a writer will have moods into which will creep a distrust of the work upon which he is at that moment engaged4 ,if necessity spurs him on and he cannot rise above his misgivings1 the story will testify to the lack of faith1 doubts will increase as defects multiply and the story will be ruined4 ,,the ,,writer ,,must ,,have ,,faith ,,in ,,his ,,work ,,quite ,,apart ,,from ,,the ,,money ,,he ,,expects ,,to ,,receive ,,for ,,it4 ,if he has this faith he reaches toward a spiritual success beside which the highest material success is paltry indeed4 ,when a writer sits down to a story let him blind his eyes to the financial returns1 even though they may be sorely needed4 ,let him forget that his wares are to be offered for sale1 and consider them as being wrought for his own diversion4 ,let him say to himself1 ,i shall make this the best story ,i have ever written2 ,i shall weave my soul into its warp and whether it sells or not ,i shall be satisfied to know that ,i have put upon paper the ,,best that is in me4 ,if he will do this1 he will achieve a spiritual success and--as surely as day follows night--a material success beyond his fondest dreams4 ,,but he must keep his eye single to the ,,true success and must have no commerce in thought with what may come to him materially4 ,to some1 all this may appear too idealistic1 too transcendental4 ,there are natures so worldly1 perhaps even among writers1 as to scoff at the idea of spiritual success4 ,they are overshadowed by the ,material1 and when the ,spiritual1 which is the true source of their power1 is no longer the still1 small voice of their inspiration1 they will be bankrupt materially as well4 ,a writer cannot hide himself in his work4 ,his individuality is written into it1 and he may be read between the lines for what he is4 ,a creation reflects the creator1 and that the work may be good the writer should have spiritual ideals and do his utmost to live up to them4 ,let him have a purpose1 be it never so humble1 to benefit in some way his fellow-man1 and let him hew steadily to the line4 ,love your work for the work's sake and material benefits will be added unto you4 ,years ago ,edwards found an article in a newspaper that appealed to him powerfully4 ,he clipped it out1 preserved it and has made it of great help in his writing4 ,it is a wonderful ,doubt-destroyer4 ,in the hope that it may be an inspiration to others1 he reproduces it here3 ,,standards ,,of ,,success4 ,at a time when material success is so generally regarded as the chief goal of human effort it is interesting to find a man in ,professor ,hadley's position presenting arguments for a broader view of the question4 ,in his baccalaureate sermon the president of ,yale offered the graduates some advice which at least they should find stimulating4 ,he does not discredit or discourage the ambition for practical success but he makes it plain that in his view there is danger in measuring success in life by the concrete results with which men can credit themselves4 ,we should value life1 he declares1 as a field of action4 ,we should care for the doing of things quite as much as for the results4 ,tried by this standard1 aspiration and effort are to be more highly prized than achievement itself4 ,the man who sincerely strives for a great object has succeeded1 whether or not the object is attained or its attainment brings any tangible reward4 ,it is no novelty1 of course1 to hear a college president upholding ideal standards and rejecting utilitarian views of success1 but few of the educators have cared to follow their theories1 as ,president ,hadley does1 to their logical conclusion4 ,probably a majority of them would applaud ,nansen's courage in attempting to reach the north pole but would question the utility of the attempt4 ,president ,hadley admires ,nansen simply because he succeeded in getting so much nearer the pole than anybody before him ever did1 and thinks it is one of the most discouraging testimonies to the false standards of the nineteenth century that ,nansen feels compelled to justify himself on the basis of the scientific results of his expedition4 ,furthermore1 a man who tries to get to the pole is engaged in a glorious play1 which justifies more risk and more expenditure of life than would be warranted for a few miserable entomological specimens1 however remote from the place where they had previously been found4 ,the young man of to-day has no lack of exhortations to lead the life of strenuous effort4 ,it is as well that he should be taught also that the reward for this effort will be barren if the whole object sought be material benefit to himself4 ,life is something to be used4 ,whether or not it has been successfully used depends not on the results so much as on the object sought and the earnestness of the seeking4 ,it is somewhat novel to find an ,american college president expounding this philosophy to his students1 but the philosophy is1 on the whole1 helpful4 ,it will spur to effort in crises where the desire for more material success fails to provide a sufficient incentive4 ,a certain ,new ,york author is fond of his own work1 and ,robert ,w4 ,chambers is responsible for the story that he called at one of the libraries to find out how his latest book was going4 ,he hoped to have his vanity tickled a little4 ,is ---- in8 he said to the librarian1 naming his book4 ,it never was out1 was the reply4 99 99 99 99 99 ,what is a great love of books8 ,it is something like a personal introduction to the great and good men of all past times4 ,books1 it is true1 are silent as you see them on your shelves2 but1 silent as they are1 when ,i enter a library ,i feel almost as if the dead were present1 and ,i know if ,i put questions to these books they will answer me with all the faithfulness and fullness which has been left in them by the great men who have left the books with us4--,john ,bright4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the spring poet has been much exploited in the comic papers4 ,the would-be novelist has been plastered with signs and tokens until one could not fail to recognize him in the dark4 ,but the ordinary1 commonplace1 experienced writer has been so shamefully neglected that few realize his virtues4 ,the editor recognizes his manuscript as far off as he can see it1 and seizes upon it with joy4 ,the manuscript is typewritten and punctuated4 ,it bears the author's name and address at the top of the first page4 ,it is signed with the author's name at the end4 ,it is ,,not tied with a blue ribbon4 ,no1 the blue ribbon habit is not a myth4 ,it really exists in every form from pale baby to navy ,no4 #d and in every shape from a hard knot to an elaborate rosette--,munsey's4 ,,xx4 ,,the ,,lengthening ,,list ,,of ,,patrons ,during the year #aijf the patrons of the ,fiction ,factory steadily increased in number4 ,the ,blue ,book1 ,the ,red ,book1 ,the ,railroad ,man's1 ,the ,all-,story1 ,the ,people's--all these magazines bought of the ,factory's products1 some of them very liberally4 ,the old patrons1 also1 were retained1 ,harte ,perkins taking a supply of nickel novels and a ,stella ,edwards' serial for ,the ,guest4 ,edwards' introduction to ,the ,blue ,book came so late in the year that the business falls properly within the affairs of #aijg4 ,the first step1 however1 was taken on ,aug4 #ac1 #aijf1 and was in the form of the following letter3 ,my dear ,mr4 ,edwards3 ,why don't you send me1 with a view to publication in ,the ,blue ,book1 as we have renamed our old ,monthly ,story ,magazine1 one or more of those weird and fantastic novelettes of yours8 ,if you have anything ready1 let me see it4 ,i can at least assure you of a prompt decision and equally prompt payment if the story goes4 ,anything you may have up to #f1jjj words ,i shall be very glad to see for ,the ,red ,book4 ,yours very truly1 ,karl ,edwin ,harriman4 ,here was a pleasant surprise for ,edwards4 ,he had met ,mr4 ,harriman the year before in ,battle ,creek1 ,michigan4 ,at that time ,mr4 ,harriman was busily engaged hiding his talents under a bushel known as ,the ,pilgrim ,magazine4 ,when the ,red ,book ,corporation of ,chicago1 kicked the basket to one side1 grabbed ,mr4 ,harriman out from under it and made off with him1 the aspect of the heavens promised great things for literature in the ,middle ,west4 ,and this promise1 by the way1 is being splendidly fulfilled4 ,when you take down your ,who's ,who to look up some personage sufficiently notorious to have a place between its red covers1 if you find at the end of his name the words1 editor1 author1 you may be sure that there is no cloud on the title that gives him a place in the book4 ,you will know at once that he must have been a good author or he would never have been promoted from the ranks2 and having been a good author he is certainly a better editor than if the case were otherwise1 for he knows both ends of the publishing trade4 ,having been through the mill himself1 ,mr ,harriman has a fellow-feeling for his contributors4 ,he knows what it is to take a lay figure for a plot1 clothe it in suitable language1 cap it with a climax and put it on exhibition with a card3 ,here's a ,peach6 ,grab me quick for #i4ii4 ,harriman's peaches never came back4 ,the author of ,ann ,arbor ,tales1 ,the ,girl and the ,deal1 and others has been successful right from the start4 ,no request for material received at the ,edwards' ,factory ever fails of a prompt and hearty response4 ,a short story and a novelette were at once put on the stocks4 ,they were constructed slowly1 for ,edwards could give them attention only during odd moments taken from his regular work4 ,the short story was finished and submitted long in advance of the novelette4 ,this letter1 dated ,sept4 #ah1 will show its success3 ,my ,dear ,old ,man3 ,why don't you run on here and see me1 now and again4 ,oh1 yes1 ,new ,york's a lot better1 but we're doing things here1 too4 ,about ',cast ,away by ,contract1' it's very funny--such a ridiculously absurd idea that it's quite irresistible4 ,how will #ge be for it8 ,o4 ,k48 ,it's really all ,i can afford to pay for a story of its sort1 and ,i do want you in the book4 ,let me hear as soon as possible and ,i will give it out to the artist4 ,very truly yours1 ,k4 ,h4 ,and so began the business with ,mr4 ,harriman4 ,he still1 at this writing 7#aiaa71 has a running account on the ,factory's books and is held in highest esteem by the proprietor4 ,a letter1 written ,may #ac1 #aije1 7a year dealt with in a previous chapter71 is reproduced here as having a weighty bearing on the events of #aijf4 ,it was ,edwards' first letter from a gentleman who had recently allied himself with the ,munsey publications4 ,as a publisher ,mr4 ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey is conceded to be a star of the first magnitude1 but this genius is manifest in nothing so much as in his ability to surround himself with men capable of pushing his ideas to their highest achievement4 ,such a man had been added to his editorial staff in the person of ,mr4 ,r4 ,h4 ,davis4 ,mr4 ,davis1 like ,mr4 ,bryan1 hails originally from ,nebraska4 ,although he differs somewhat from ,mr4 ,bryan in political views1 he has the same powers as a spellbinder4 ,he's ,western1 all through1 is ,bob ,davis1 bluff1 hearty and equally endowed with stories1 snap and sincerity4 ,dear ,sir3 ,we would like to have a few pictures of those writers who have contributed considerably to our various magazines4 ,it is obvious that this refers to you4 ,therefore1 if you will send us a portrait it will be greatly appreciated4 ,very truly yours1 ,r4 ,h4 ,davis4 ,mr4 ,davis got the picture2 also a serial or two and some short stories for new publications issued by the ,munsey ,company of which he was editor4 ,late in #aije he called for a railroad serial1 and he wanted a particularly good one4 ,edwards had never tried his hand at such a story4 ,he knew1 in a general way1 that the pilot was on the front end of a locomotive1 and that the tender was somewhere in the rear1 but his technical knowledge was hazy and unreliable4 ,the story1 if accepted1 was to appear in ,the ,railroad ,man's ,magazine1 would be read by railroaders the country over1 and would be damned and laughed at if it contained any technical breaks4 ,here was just the sort of a nut ,edwards liked to crack4 ,the perils of the undertaking lent it a zest1 and were a distinct aid to industry and inspiration4 ,he resolved that he would give ,mr4 ,davis a story that would bear the closest scrutiny of railroad men and win their interest and applause4 ,to this end he studied railroads1 up and down and across4 ,he absorbed what he could from books1 and the rest he secured through personal investigation4 ,when the story was done1 he submitted the manuscript to a veteran of the rails--one who had been both a telegraph operator and engineer--and this gentleman had not a change to suggest6 ,mr4 ,davis took the story aboard4 ,while it was running in the magazine a reader wrote in to declare that it must have been written by an old hand at the railroad game3 the author of the letter had been railroading for thirty-five years himself1 and felt positive that he ought to know6 ,the ,red ,light at ,rawlines scored a triumph1 proving the value of study1 and the ability to adjust one's self to an untried situation4 ,edwards had imbibed too much technical knowledge to exhaust it all on one story1 so he wrote another and sent it to ,mr4 ,white4 ,the latter informed him3 ,i turned ',special ,one-,five-,three' over to ,the ,railroad ,man's ,magazine at once1 without reading it1 and they are sending you a check for it this week1 ,i understand4 ,this does not mean that ,i did not care to consider it for ,the ,argosy4 ,i certainly have an opening for more of your stories1 but when you took the railroad for your theme and treated it so intelligently1 ,i think it better that you give ,the ,argosy some other subject matter4 ,another story1 written this year to order1 also serves to show that facility in handling strange themes or environments does not always depend upon personal acquaintance with the subject in hand4 ,intelligent study and investigation can many times1 if not always1 piece out a lack of personal experience4 ,blazing a course through terra incognita in such a manner1 however1 is not without its dangers4 ,harte ,perkins wished to begin the yearly volume of ,the ,guest with a ,stella ,edwards serial4 ,this story was to have1 for its background1 the ,san ,francisco earthquake4 ,nearly the whole action of the yarn was to take place in the city itself4 ,edwards had never been there4 ,he had vague ideas regarding the ,golden ,gate1 ,oakland and other places1 but for accurate knowledge he was as much at sea as in the case of the railroad story4 ,he set the wheels of industry to revolving1 however1 and familiarized himself so thoroughly with the city from books1 newspapers and magazines that the editor of ,the ,guest1 an old ,san ,francisco newspaper man1 had this to say about the story3 ,it will please you to learn that we think ',a ,romance of the ,earthquake' a very interesting story1 with plenty of brisk action1 picturesque in description1 and ,,displaying ,a ,,thorough ,,knowledge ,,of ,,california',s ,,metropolis ,,and ,,vicinity4 ,although these are interesting problems to solve1 yet ,edwards1 as a rule1 prefers dealing with material that has formed a part of his own personal experiences4 ,his prospecting trip for the year brought him into ,new ,york on ,monday1 ,nov4 #ab4 ,on ,tuesday 7his lucky day1 according to the ,coney ,island seer of fateful memory71 he called on ,mr4 ,white1 and ,mr4 ,white took him across the hall and introduced him to ,mr4 ,davis4 ,the latter gentleman ordered four serials and1 for stories of a certain length1 agreed to pay #ejj each4 ,next day ,edwards dropped in at the offices of ,street ,smith and submitted a novelette--,the ,billionaire's ,dilemma--to ,mr4 ,mac,lean1 editor of ,the ,popular ,magazine 7,mr4 ,lewis having retired from that publication some time before74 ,mr4 ,mac,lean carried the manuscript in to ,mr4 ,vivian ,m4 ,moses1 editor of ,people's and the latter bought it4 ,this story made a hit in the ,people's and won from ,mr4 ,george ,c4 ,smith1 of the firm1 a personal letter of commendation4 ,result3 ,more work for ,the ,people's ,magazine4 ,about the middle of ,december1 ,edwards and his wife left for their home in ,michigan4 ,they had been in the city a month1 and during that time ,edwards had received #aaej for his ,factory's products4 ,the year1 financially1 was the best ,edwards had so far experienced2 but it was to be outdone by the year that followed4 ,during #aijg a great deal of writing was done for ,mr4 ,davis4 ,among other stories submitted to him was one which ,edwards called1 ,on the ,stroke of ,four4 ,regarding it ,mr4 ,davis had expressed himself1 ,may #f1 in characteristic vein3 ,my dear ,colonel3 ,send it along4 ,the title is not a bad one4 ,i suppose it will arrive at a quarter past five1 as you are generally late4444 ,now that spring is here1 go out and chop a few kindlings against the canning of the fruit4 ,this season we are going to preserve every dam thing on the farm4 ,in the meantime1 put up a few bartletts for little ,willie4 ,we may drop in provided the nest contains room4 ,he received an urgent invitation to drop in4 ,but he didn't4 ,he backed out4 ,possibly he was afraid he would have to pioneer it in the country1 after years of metropolitan luxury in the effete ,east4 ,or perhaps he was afraid that ,edwards might read some manuscripts to him4 ,whatever the cause1 he never appeared to claim the bartletts1 made ready for him with so much painstaking care by ,mrs4 ,edwards4 ,but this was not the only count in the indictment4 ,he sent back ,on the ,stroke of ,four6 ,and this was his message3 ,up to page #ajf this story is a peach4 ,after that it is a peach1 but a rotten peach1 and ,i'd be glad to have you fix it up and return it4 ,after ,edwards has finished a story he has an ingrained dislike for tampering with it any further4 ,however1 had he not been head over ears in other work1 he would probably have fixed up the manuscript for ,mr4 ,davis4 ,in the circumstances1 he decided to try its fortunes elsewhere4 ,mr4 ,moses took it in1 paid #djj for it1 and pronounced it better than ,the ,billionaire's ,dilemma4 ,at a later date1 ,mr4 ,davis wanted another sea story for ,ocean which1 at that time1 was surging considerably4 ,on the ,stroke of ,four had been designed to fill such an order4 ,inasmuch as it had failed1 ,edwards wrote a second yarn which was accepted at #dej4 ,the sea1 and the people who go down to it in ships1 to say nothing of the ships themselves1 were all out of ,edwards' usual line4 ,he prepared himself by reading every sea story he could lay hands on1 long or short4 ,he bought text-books on seamanship and navigation1 and whenever there were manoeuvers connected with working ship in a story1 ,edwards puzzled them out with the help of the text-books4 ,with both deep-water serials he succeeded tolerably well4 ,he is sure1 at least1 that he didn't get the spanker-boom on the foremast1 nor the jib too far aft4 ,harte ,perkins again favored the ,factory with an order for a ,stella ,edwards to begin another volume of ,the ,guest4 ,this was an automobile story1 ,the ,hero of the ,car1 and was accepted and highly praised4 ,another novelette1 ,an ,aerial ,romance1 was bought by ,mr4 ,moses for ,the ,people's ,magazine4 ,beginning in ,march1 ,edwards had written some more nickel novels for ,harte ,perkins--not the old ,five-,cent ,weekly1 for that he was never to do again--but various stories1 in odd lots1 to help out with a particular series4 ,on ,july #ad he was switched to another line of half-dime fiction1 and this work he kept throughout the remainder of the year4 ,for the two years the ,factory's showing stands as follows3 #aijf3 #ah nickel novels #ej each #ijj4jj ,royalties on book1 ,dillingham #aj4bj ,the ,world's ,wonder1 #cjj4jj ,a ,romance of the ,earthquake1 #bej4jj ,the ,sheriff ,who ,lost and ,won1 #cjj4jj ,the ,reporter's ,scoop1 #fj4jj ,the ,deputy ,sheriff1 #dj4jj ,the ,red ,light at ,rawlin's1 #cej4jj ,cast ,away by ,contract14 #ge4jj ,special ,one-,five-,three1 #cej4jj ,the ,disputed ,claim1 #ejj4jj ,fencing with ,foes1 #dej4jj ,the ,billionaire's ,dilemma14 #bjj4jj -------- ,total #cghe4bj #aijg3 ,under ,sealed ,orders1 #bej4jj ,the ,pacific ,pearlers1 #dej4jj ,call of the ,west1 #bjj4jj ,wilderness ,gold-,hunter1 #ejj4jj ,dupes of ,destiny1 #ge4jj ,on the ,stroke of ,four1 #djj4jj ,the ,hero of the ,car1 #cjj4jj ,an ,aerial ,romance1 #bjj4jj ,west-,indies ,mix-,up1 #fj4jj #cc nickel novels #ej each #afej4jj -------- ,total #djhe4jj ,in that remarkable group of authors who made the dime novel famous1 the late ,col4 ,prentiss ,ingraham was one of the giants4 ,these ready writers thought nothing of turning out a thousand words of original matter in an hour1 in the days when the click of the typewriter was unknown1 and of keeping it up until a novel of #gj1jjj words was easily finished in a week4 ,but to ,col4 ,ingraham belongs the unique distinction of having composed and written out a complete story of #ce1jjj words with a fountain pen1 between breakfast and breakfast4 ,his equipment as a writer of stories for boys was most varied and valuable1 garnered from his experience as an officer in the ,confederate army1 his service both on shore and sea in the ,cuban war for independence1 and in travels in ,mexico1 ,austria1 ,greece and ,africa4 ,but he is best known and will be most loyally remembered for his ,buffalo ,bill tales1 the number of which he himself scarcely knew1 and which possessed peculiar value from his intimate personal friendship with ,col4 ,cody4 ,,xxi4 ,a ,,writer',s ,,reading ,that old ,egyptian who put above the door of his library these words1 ,books are the ,medicines of the ,soul1 was wise indeed4 ,but the ,wise1 ever since books have been made1 have harped on the advantage of good literature1 and have said all there is to be said on the subject a thousand times over4 ,if one has any doubts on this point let him consult a dictionary of quotations4 ,no intelligent person disputes the value of books2 and it should be self-evident that no writer1 whose business is the making of books1 will do so4 ,to the writer books are not only medicines for the soul but tonics for his technique1 febrifuges for his rhetorical fevers and prophylactics for the thousand and one ills that beset his calling4 ,a wide course of general reading--the wider the better--is part of the fictionist's necessary equipment2 and of even more importance is a specializing along the lines of his craft4 ,omniverous reader is an overworked term1 but it is perfect in its application to ,edwards4 ,from his youth up he has devoured everything in the way of books he could lay his hands on4 ,the volumes came hap-hazard1 and the reading has been desultory and1 for the most part1 without system4 ,if engaged on a railroad story1 he reads railroad stories2 if a tale of the sea claims his attention1 then his pabulum consists of sea-facts and fiction1 and so on4 ,the latest novel is a passion with him1 and he would rather read a story by ,jack ,london1 or ,rex ,beach1 or ,w4 ,j4 ,locke than eat or sleep--or write something more humble although his very own4 ,he is fond of history1 too1 and among the essayists he loves his ,emerson4 ,nothing so puts his modest talents in a glow as to bring them near the beacon lights of ,genius4 ,edwards has a library of goodly proportions1 but it is a hodge-podge of everything under the sun4 ,thomas ,carlyle keeps company with ,mary ,johnston on his bookshelves1 ,marcus ,aurelius rubs elbows with ,frank ,spearman1 ,france in the ,nineteenth ,century nestles close to ,the ,mystery from the firm of ,white ,adams1 and four volumes of ,thackeray are cheek by jowl with ,harland's ,the ,cardinal's ,snuff-,box4 ,a most reprehensible method of book keeping1 of course1 but to ,edwards it is a delightful confusion4 ,to him the method is reprehensible only when he wants a certain book and has to spend half a day looking for it4 ,some time1 some blessed time--he has promised himself for years and years1--he will catalogue his books just as he has catalogued his clippings4 ,books that concern themselves with the writer's trade are many1 so many that they may be termed literally an embarrassment of riches4 ,if a writer had them all he would have more than he needed or could use4 ,books on the short story by ,j4 ,berg ,eisenwein and ,james ,knapp ,reeve1 ,edwards considers indispensable4 ,they are to be read many times and thoroughly mastered4 ,roget's ,thesaurus is a work which ,edwards consulted until it was dogeared and coverless2 he then presented it to an impecunious friend with a well-defined case of writeritis and has since contented himself with the large ,thesaurus ,dictionary of the ,english ,language1 by ,f4 ,a4 ,march1 ,,ll4 ,d4 ,this flanks him on the left1 as he sits at his typewriter1 while ,webster's ,unabridged closes him in on the right4 ,the ,standard ,dictionary is also within reach4 ,dozens and dozens of books about writers and writing have been read and are now gathering dust4 ,after a writer has once charged himself to the brim with technique1 he should cease to bother about it4 ,if he has read to some purpose his work will be as near technical perfection as is necessary1 for unconsciously he will follow the canons of the art2 while if he loads and fires these canons too often1 they will be quite apt to burst and blow him into that innocuous desuetude best described as mechanical4 ,he should exercise all the freedom possible within legitimate bounds1 and so acquire individuality and style--whatever that is4 ,no sane man in any line of trade or manufacturing will attempt to do business without subscribing to one or more papers or magazines covering his particular field4 ,he wants the newest labor-saving wrinkle1 the latest discoveries1 tips on new markets1 facts as to what others in the same business are doing1 and countless other fresh and pertinent items which a good trade paper will furnish4 ,a writer is such a man1 and he needs tabulated facts as much as any other tradesman or manufacturer4 ,periodicals dealing with the trade of authorship are few1 but they are helpful to a degree which it is difficult to estimate4 ,from the beginning of his work ,edwards has made it a point to acquire every publication that dealt with the business of his ,fiction ,factory4 ,in early years he had ,the ,writer1 and then ,the ,author4 ,when these went the way of good but unprofitable things1 ,,the ,,editor fortunately happened along1 and proved incomparably better in every detail4 ,from its initial number ,,the ,,editor has been a monthly guest at the ,factory1 always cordially welcomed and given a place of honor4 ,guide1 counsellor and friend--it has proved to be all these4 ,edwards subscribes heartily to that benevolent policy known as the helping hand4 ,furthermore1 he tries to live up to it4 ,what little success he has had with his ,fiction ,factory he has won by his own unaided efforts2 but there were times1 along at the beginning1 when he could have avoided disappointment and useless labor if some one who knew had advised him4 ,realizing what the helping hand might have done in his own case1 he has always felt the call to extend it to others4 ,assistance is useless1 however1 if a would-be writer hasn't something to say and doesn't know how to say it4 ,another who has had some success may secure the novice a considerate hearing1 but from that on the matter lies wholly with the novice himself4 ,if he has it in him1 he will win2 if he hasn't1 he will fail4 ,edwards' first advice to those who have sought his help has invariably been this3 ,subscribe to ,,the ,,editor4 ,in nearly every instance the advice has been taken1 and with profitable results4 ,this same advice is given here1 should the reader stand in need of a proper start along the thorny path of authorship4 ,nor is it to be construed in any manner as an advertisement4 ,it is merely rendering justice where justice is due1 and is an honest tribute to a publication for writers1 drawn from an experience of twenty-two years in the ranks4 ,,xxii4 ,,new ,,sources ,,of ,,profit ,the out-put of the ,fiction ,factory brought excellent returns during the years #aijh and #aiji4 ,industry followed close on the heels of opportunity and the result was more than gratifying4 ,the #aijh product consisted of forty-four nickel novels for ,harte ,perkins1 two novelettes for ,the ,blue ,book1 four serials for the ,munsey publications1 and one novelette for ,the ,people's ,magazine4 ,this work alone would have carried the receipts well above those of the preceding year1 but new and unexpected sources of profit helped to enlarge the showing on the ,factory's books4 ,the rapidity with which ,edwards wrote his serial stories--sometimes under the spur of an immediate demand from his publishers1 and sometimes under the less relentless spur of personal necessity--seemed to preclude the possibility of profit on a later publication in cloth4 ,only a finished performance is worthy of a durable binding4 ,realizing this1 ,edwards had never made a determined effort to interest book-publishers in the stories4 ,in the ordinary course of affairs1 and with scarcely any attention on his part1 two serials found their way into cloth4 ,danny ,w41 accepted and brought out by ,dodd1 ,mead ,co41 was written for book publication1 and serialized after it had appeared in that form4 ,it fell as far short of a best seller as did the two republished serials4 ,nevertheless1 in spite of the fact that additional profit through publication in cloth seemed out of the question1 ,edwards wondered if there were not something else to be gained from the stories besides the serial rights4 ,his stories were dramatic and1 in several instances1 had appealed to play-writers4 ,for a time he had hopes that dramatic rights might prove a source of additional income4 ,his hopes1 in this respect1 have not been completely dashed1 inasmuch as competent hands are at this date 7,september1 #aiaa7 fitting some of his stories for the stage4 ,something may come of it1 but his experience has made him wary and he is not at all sanguine4 ,eliminating book and dramatic rights from the equation1 and what remained8 ,a letter from ,waltham1 ,mass41 dated ,april #bc1 #aijh1 uncovered possibilities of which ,edwards had never dreamed4 ,most of these possibilities1 as it transpired1 were a dream1 but1 as in the matter of dramatic rights1 some day the dream may come true in a large and substantial manner4 ,here is the letter3 ,dear ,sir3 ,if you have not yet disposed of the sole and unrestricted rights of translation into the ,,german language of your books3 ',the ,billionaire's ,dilemma' and ',the ,shadow of the ,unknown1' will you permit me to submit them to my ,,german correspondents--some of the best known ,,german ,,publishers--with the idea of effecting a sale8 ,i shall require a single copy of ',the ,billionaire's ,dilemma1' but not of ',the ,shadow of the ,unknown' having preserved the story as it appeared first in the ,,popular1,j to send abroad1 with a statement of the best terms you will make for the cash out-right purchase of both book and serial rights4 ,if the serial rights of translation in ,,german belong to the ,,popular1 you will have to come to a satisfactory understanding with them1 in order to legally assign to me the ,,serial1 as well as your own individual1 book-rights1 because all ,,german publishers insist on serial rights1 although they seldom or never use them1 as ,,magazines are not good and little used there4 ,my experience has been1 that the ,,magazine ,,companies are very broad in their treatment of their writers1 and usually willing to re-transfer their ,,serial rights of translation1 in order to facilitate a sale1 and make them universally known4 ,of course less is paid for translation rights of stories that have only appeared in ,,serial form in the ,,states4 ,if any of the publishers ,i represent purchases your stories1 you have the best possible guarantee of perfect translation and speedy publication4 ,awaiting the courtesy of an early reply and the necessary copy of ',the ,billionaire's ,dilemma1' ,i have the honor to be1 dear ,sir1 ,yours very truly1 ,eugene ,niemann4,k ,several guns were fired during this invasion of ,germany1 but only one shell went home4 ,this was not the fault of ,mr4 ,niemann4 ,in ,edwards' brief experience with him he found him always a scholar and a gentleman4 ,sincerity and courtesy were his never-failing traits4 ,the pleasant little twists he gave his ,english1 and the occasional naive expression that struggled through his typewriter1 along with the prodigal use of caps1 will perhaps excuse a further offering from the correspondence4 ,here is the shot that hit the mark3 ,may #ab1 #aijh4 ,dear ,sir3-- ,before ,i have even had time to forward ',the ,billionaire's ,dilemma' and ',on the ,stroke of ,four'1 and to await your other announced stories1 a letter comes from one of my ,german correspondents1 saying he had run through your short story3 ',the ,shadow of the ,unknown' and would purchase the rights of translation if you will accept an offer of ,,forty ,,dollars4 ,perhaps you will say1 such an offer is absurd1 but first let me state to you1 that the best books placed in ,,germany bring at the most ,,one ,,hundred ,,dollars1 and oftener anywhere from ,,fifty to ,,one ,,hundred1 that the chief profit1 is not a monetary one1 rather the spreading of the writer's name and fame4 ',the ,shadow of the ,unknown1' writes the publisher1 is a very short story1 and if you will be guided by my long experience1 dear ,sir1 you will accept the offer1 in order to make our name popular and facilitate a better sale of your following stories1 which ,i shall take double pleasure in forwarding1 feeling surer of a good offer4 ,were ,i guilty of business indiscretion1 you would be surprised to know the names of the already published ',,books' ,i have sold and am daily selling the ,,german rights of1 for hardly a monetary consideration at all1 and yet the literary satisfaction quite out-balances all other considerations1 does it not8 ,i enclose the customary form of assignment1 which you can sign and have duly witnessed by a ,,notary ,,public1 if you see fit to accept the offer1 and which you will please then send me per ,,american ,,express ,c4 ,o4 ,d4 subject to examination to avoid every possible chance of error4 ,the personal receipt need not be signed before the ,,notary ,,public1 your signature without witness suffices4 ,hoping to do much better for you with your other fine stories and appreciating your confidence1 ,i remain1 dear ,sir1 ,very truly yours1 ,,eugene ,,niemann4 ,after the dust had settled1 and the invasion was finally completed1 #dj had been added to the year's receipts of the ,fiction ,factory2 but ,edwards clings to the hope that some day more of his fine stories may be greedily bought by the ,german publishers4 ,these ,german publishers are honorable enough to buy1 where they might pirate1 and there are a few ,american publishers who might take lessons from them in business probity4 ,with a small tidbit from a letter of ,may #ah1 the pleasant ,mr4 ,niemann will be dismissed3 ,later1 with your permission1 ,i will take up the stories ,i sell in ,,germany for sale in ,,france1 ,,denmark1 ,,norway and ,,sweden8 ,the monetary remuneration in the ,,scandinavian countries is yet smaller than in ,,germany1 but the people are fine readers1 and that for all1 who truly ,,love their ,,art is the chief standpoint ,i take it86 ,during the latter part of ,july and the earlier part of ,august ,edwards was in ,new ,york for a couple of weeks4 ,as usual when in the city he worked even harder than he did at home4 ,two nickel novels were written1 a serial was put through the ,factory for ,mr4 ,davis1 and he collected #bjj for a novelette which he sold to ,people's4 ,there was an interesting1 almost a humorous1 circumstance connected with the serial4 ,edwards called the story ,the ,man ,who ,left4 ,when the manuscript was completed he took it in to ,mr4 ,davis1 and two or three days later called again to learn its fate4 ,the ,munsey offices are up close to the roof in the ,flatiron building4 ,the lair of the editor who presides over the destinies of ,the ,all-,story ,magazine1 ,the ,railroad ,man's ,magazine and ,the ,scrap ,book,l is flanked on one side by a prospect of space that causes the occasional caller to hang on to his chair4 ,across from this dizzy void is a partition hung with framed photographs of contributors--a rogues' gallery in which ,edwards1 when he last saw the collection1 had a prominent place4 ,north of an imaginary line drawn between the window and the partition sits the editor1 grimly prominent against a motto-covered wall4 ,as the caller faces the editor he is1 of course1 confronted by placards reminding him that ,this is ,my ,busy ,day--,cut it ,short1 and ,find ,a ,man for the ,job not ,a ,job for the ,man1 and others cunningly calculated to put him on tenterhooks4 ,to this place1 therefore1 came ,edwards1 proffering inquiries about ,the ,man ,who ,left4 ,he read fateful things in the august countenance1 and he was not surprised when ,mr4 ,davis handed him a lemon1 but he was surprised when he took the lemon back4 ,rotten1 said ,mr4 ,davis1 r-r-rotten6 ,when ,i'm out for peaches1 ,edwards1 ,i side-step the under-ripe persimmons4 ',the ,man ,who ,left' ought to have made his get-away along about line one1 paragraph one1 chapter one2 and then if he had staid out plumb to the place where you have written ',finis' this gorgeous but unconvincing tale would have been vastly improved4 ,am ,i a ,jasper that you seek thus to inveigle me into purchasing a gold-brick8 ,here1 take it away6 ,now let me have it again4 ,i am going to give you three hundred for it and tuck it away in the strong-box4 ,later you are to evolve1 write and otherwise put upon paper a fictional prize for which ',the ,man ,who ,left' will be returned to you in even exchange4 ,do you get me8 ',nuff said4 ,i think you're out of mazuma1 and that's why ,i'm doing this4 ,my friends'll ruin me yet6 ,now the humor1 if there is any1 fits in about here3 ,edwards went back to ,michigan and wrote a serial which he sent on to replace ,the ,man ,who ,left4 ,here is the letter in reply3 ,my dear ,edwards3 ,while ,i was away on my vacation1 some one spilled a pitcher of milk4 ,in other words1 they put ,the ,man ,who ,left to press for ,the ,all-,story ,magazine1 and it is now too late to yank it back4 ,that's the trouble of leaving anything in the safe that should not be there4 ,you and ,i1 however1 being practical men1 can understand the facility with which the yarn was nabbed up4 ,now1 the point is1 ,i can use the ,mydus yarn and get a check off to you next week1 provided ,i have some basis on which to operate4 ,what's the lowest price for which you will give me ',mydus1' call all previous arrangements equal1 and let things stand as they are4 ,the way to trim me and square accounts is to come back with a quick1 short1 sharp1 cheap reply1 and let it go at that4 ,hurry up this ',mydus' business and we'll see what we can do4 ,sincerely yours1 ,r4 ,h4 ,,davis4 ,the spilling of that pitcher of milk while ,mr4 ,davis was away on his vacation had netted ,edwards just an even #cjj4 ,another source of profit from the serial stories which the ,fiction ,factory had been turning out for years was revealed to ,edwards in a letter dated ,nov4 #ai1 #aijh4 ,this1 like the matter of translation rights1 came to ,edwards as a pleasant surprise2 but1 unlike the ,german invasion1 it was to prove vastly more profitable4 ,here is the letter3 ,dear ,sir3 ,upon looking over the files of ,the ,argosy we find that you have written the following serial stories4 ,are the book rights of these your property8 ,if not1 can you get ,mr4 ,munsey to give them to you8 ,if you can1 and will lengthen the stories to about #ge1jjj words1 we will pay you #ajj each for the paper book rights of same4 ,we cannot offer you more1 as we would put these out in cheap paper edition1 but this publication would do a great deal toward popularizing your name and work with the class of readers who buy ,the ,argosy and other fiction magazines4 ,the stories are as follows3 7,here were listed the titles of seven ,argosy serials47 ,very truly yours1 ,,street ,,smith4 ,edwards caught at this opportunity4 ,he failed to realize1 at the time1 just how much work was involved in lengthening the stories for paper-book publication4 ,in his reply to ,street ,smith he offered a list of forty-five serials1 and promised others if they could use so many4 ,he was requested1 on ,dec4 #d1 to forward copies of all the stories for reading4 ,the same letter contained this paragraph3 ,i note that your letter is dated ,december #bnd and that you state you expect to be in ,new ,york inside of three weeks4 ,i think it might be to our mutual advantage if you could come on in a week or ten days1 for there is a new line of work which ,i think you could do for us about which ,i would like to talk with you4 ,just before ,christmas ,edwards and his wife arrived in ,new ,york4 ,on some of the serials which had appeared in the ,munsey magazines ,edwards owned all but serial rights1 but there were many more wherein all rights were held by the publishers4 ,the folly of a writer's selling all rights when disposing of a story for serial publication dawned upon ,edwards very strongly1 at this time4 ,the conviction was driven home at a little dinner which ,edwards tendered to several editors and readers4 ,during the course of the dinner one of the guests--an editor in charge of a prominent and popular magazine--averred bluntly that any writer who sells all rights to a story to a magazine using the story serially1 is a fool4 ,with ,edwards this sale of all rights had resulted from carelessness more than anything else1 and had he not been dealing with friends like ,mr4 ,white and ,mr4 ,davis he might have suffered financial loss because of his folly4 ,two or three interviews with ,mr4 ,davis secured the paper-book rights1 but with the understanding that if any of the lengthened stories were brought out in cloth1 one-half of the royalties were to go to ,the ,munsey ,company4 ,in the whole list there were only seven stories long enough for immediate issue in paper-book form4 ,these were paid for1 at once4 ,the other stories fell short of the required number of words all the way from #e1jjj to #cj1jjj words4 ,there was no profit to ,edwards in lengthening the stories at the price of #ajj each4 ,what benefit he derived--and is now deriving1 for the work continues--was in the advertising which the wide circulation of the paper-covered books afforded him4 ,also1 ,edwards considered the value of cementing his friendship with the old-established publishing house of ,street ,smith1 a house noted for the fairness of its dealings with contributors and for the prompt payment for all material upon acceptance4 ,making good with publishers of such high standing is always of inestimable value to a writer4 ,one of ,street ,smith's editors1 at this time1 was ,st4 ,george ,rathborne1 author of ,dr4 ,jack and dozens of other popular stories that have appeared in paper covers4 ,here was another author who had become an editor1 bringing to his duties an experience and ability that made for the highest success4 ,mr4 ,c4 ,a4 ,mac,lean1 another member of the ,street ,smith editorial staff1 was also a gentleman with whom ,edwards had occasional dealings4 ,mr4 ,mac,lean1 beginning at the lowest rung of the ladder1 had mounted steadily to the post of editor of ,the ,popular ,magazine and ,smith's ,magazine1 by sheer force of his own merit pushing those publications to the forefront of magazines of their class4 ,to these gentlemen1 and particularly to ,mr4 ,rathborne1,m ,edwards is indebted for unfailing kindness and courtesy1 and takes this means to acknowledge it4 ,the special work which was mentioned in ,street ,smith's letter of ,nov4 #ai consisted of a new weekly publication for which ,edwards was to furnish the copy4 ,seventy-five dollars each was to be paid for these stories4 ,with all this work ahead of the ,fiction ,factory1 the year #aiji dawned in a blaze of prosperity4 ,during #aiji ,edwards found himself so busy with the paper-books and the other publication that he had no time for serial stories4 ,after thirty-four issues the new publication was discontinued1 and ,edwards went back to writing novels for ,harte ,perkins1 at #fj each4 ,during #aiji ,edwards tried his hand at moving pictures4 ,the alluring advertisements under the scare-head1 ,we ,pay #aj to #ajj for ,picture ,plays1 caught his eye and fired his ambition4 ,he wrote a scenario1 sent it in1 and waited expectantly for his #ajj4 ,he had been only two hours preparing the photoplay and it looked like easy money4 ,when the check arrived it was for #aj6 ,he wrote in to ask what had become of the remaining #ij8 ,thus answered ,the ,vitagraph ,company of ,america1 ,oct4 #bg1 '#ji3 ,in regard to the payment for a manuscript of this character1 we never give more than ten dollars1 for two or three reasons4 ,in the first place1 we only use the idea4 ,the manuscript has to be revised in almost every instance in order to put it in practical shape for the directors4 ,again1 they contain an idea which is more or less stereotyped or conventional and cannot be claimed as entirely original only as applied to the action of the play4 ,regarding your own idea1 ,i will frankly say that the same idea has often been embodied in other plays1 but the general suggestion of it gives a new phase to the action of the idea4 ,,the ,,editor merely surmises1 or so we think1 that a thoroughly original manuscript in practical shape would be worth at least #be1 but we seldom get one of that kind4 ,we would welcome one at any time and would pay its full value4 ,the members of our staff1 who are obliged to write practical working scenarios1 appreciate the above facts because they know what it means to perfect a scenario with the synopsis of the story1 the properties1 settings1 c41 c4 ,we merely state these things so you will understand that we are thoroughly fair in your case and will certainly be so in every instance4 ,ideas1 if they are entirely original1 would be worth more than ten dollars1 but they are scarcer than hen's teeth at any price4 ,we find most of the ideas which we receive1 and we receive hundreds of them1 are nothing but repetition or old ones in new guises4 ,again we will say1 if we can get original ideas we will pay their full value4 ,another case of sic transit--this time1 sic transit mazuma4 ,here follows a transcript from the ,factory's books for the two years with which this chapter has dealt3 #aijh3 ,dillingham1 last royalties on ,tales of ,two ,towns #a4ej #de nickel novels #ej each #bbej4 ,the ,shadow of the ,unknown #bjj4 ,the ,shadow of the ,unknown1 translation rights #dj4 ,parker ,o',fallon #cjj4 ,in the ,valley's ,shadow #bjj4 ,the ,man ,who ,left1 #cjj4 ,trail of the ,mydus1 #cej4 ,just ,a ,dollar1 #cej4 ,frisbie's ,folly1 #cej4 ,the ,man ,called ,dare1 #cjj4 ,the ,streak of ,yellow1 #bjj4 #g paper-book rights at #ajj each1 #gjj4 -------- ,total1 #eeda4ej #aiji3 #cd issues ,motor ,boys #ge each #beej4 #ba paper-book rights #ajj each #bajj4 #i nickel novels #fj each1 #edj4 ,the ,stop on the ',scutcheon1 short story #ce4 ,moving-picture1 #aj4 ,breaking ,even1 short story #dj4 ,divided by ,eight1 short story #ce4 ------- ,total #ecaj4 ,the following advertisement from an ,english paper1 which is vouched for1 once more illustrates the truth of the statement that fact is stranger than fiction4 ,the owner of the houses1 it may be mentioned1 was ill in bed1 far away1 and the neighbors evidently did not question the right of the men to do as they did4 ,the advertisement is as follows3 ,,lost4--,three fine cottages have mysteriously disappeared from the property ,nos4 #bif1 #bih and #cjj ,high road1 ,willesden ,green1 ,london4 ,please communicate with ,j4 ,m4 ,godwin1 #ga ,bank ,street1 ,london1 ,w4 ,c4 99 99 99 99 99 ,o4 ,henry told a whimsical tale of what he considered unfair competition in the short story field4 ,he was in the office of a big magazine1 when he witnessed the return to a dejected looking young fellow of a couple of manuscripts4 ,i am sorry for that fellow1 said the editor4 ,he came to ,new ,york from ,new ,orleans a year ago1 and regularly brings some stories to our office4 ,we can never use them4 ,he doesn't make a dollar by his pen1 and he is getting shabby and pale4 ,a month or so later ,o4 ,henry saw the same writer in the same office1 and the editor was talking to him earnestly4 ,you had better go back to ,new ,orleans1 said that gentleman4 ,why8 said the young man4 ,some day ,i may write a story you may want4 ,but you can do that just as well in ,new ,orleans1 said the editor1 and you can save board bills4 ,board bills1 ejaculated the young man4 ,what do ,i care about board bills6 ,i have an income of twenty thousand a year from my father's estate4 ,,footnotes3 ,j ,a mistake1 the story appeared in ,the ,blue ,book4 ,k ,edwards uses a fictitious name for this correspondent4 ,l ,now no more as ,the ,cavalier1 the former monthly1 now a weekly has absorbed ,the ,scrap ,book4 ,m ,mr4 ,rathborne has recently given up his editorial duties and has retired to what seems to be the ultimate goal of writers and editors--a farm4 ,he is somewhere in ,new ,jersey4 ,,xxiii4 ,,the ,,injustice ,,of ,,it ,the commercial world may hearken sentimentally to that plaintive ballad1 ,silver ,threads ,among the ,gold1 as it floats into the ,emporium from a street organ1 but the commercial world never allows sentiment to interfere with business4 ,when a man presents himself and asks for a job1 he is examined for symptoms of decrepitude before his mental abilities are canvassed4 ,the wise seeker for place1 before making the rounds of the ,want ,column1 will see to it that his hair is of a youthful color1 for there is nothing so damned by the octopus of trade as hoary locks4 ,a bottle of walnut juice1 carefully administered1 may bridge the gap and lead from failure to success4 ,new blood6 that's the cry4 ,age is too conservative1 too partial to the old and outworn standards1 too apt to keep in a rut4 ,give us the mop of black hair and the bright1 snappy eye6 ,give us energy and brilliant daring and a fresh view-point6 ,we'll be taking a few chances1 but what of that8 ,we must follow the fashion4 ,some of the publishers have gone to the extreme of the prevailing mode4 ,the yearling from the football field1 if he happens to have been sporting editor of the college journal1 is brought to the sanctum1 shoved into the chair of authority1 and given #ej a week and the power to go ahead and be ruthless4 ,he rarely disappoints his employer4 ,whenever he does1 his employer is to be congratulated4 ,usually1 however1 he sticks to his schedule4 ,he thinks he is ,somebody1 and attempts to prove it by kicking all the old contributors out of the office and forwarding invitations for manuscripts to every member of the ,class of '#aj4 ,there is no writer of experience who has failed to meet this sort of editor4 ,for years a publishing house may have steadily increased in power and prestige through the loyalty and labor of the old contributor1 only to give some darling of the campus a desk and the authority to begin oslerizing faithfulness and ability4 ,this injustice would be humorous were some of its aspects not so tragic4 ,the smug publishers themselves may have something to answer for4 ,they have wrung their ratings in ,dun and ,bradstreet from the old contributor1 and when they abandon a policy that has brought success they are steering through troubled waters and into unknown seas4 ,for anything short of incompetence this casting aside of the old in order to try out the new is reprehensible4 ,to weather a decade or two of storm and stress a writer must have been versatile4 ,versatility increases with his years1 and he is as capable of brilliant daring and a fresh viewpoint as any youth in the twenties4 ,times out of number this has been made manifest4 ,stories disguised with a pen-name and a strange typewriter have won welcome and success where the old name and the old typewriter would have insured rejection4 ,note this from one who has been twenty-five years at the game3 ,in the near-humorous line ,i may mention the fact that ,i once tried to get the editor of a certain paper to let me furnish him a serial1 but he didn't think ,i could write it4 ,soon afterward a friend who had been contributing serials to that particular paper was asked by the editor to furnish a serial4 ,as it chanced1 the writer happened to be engaged in other work4 ,so he came to me and wanted to know if ,i could not write the desired serial4 ,when ,i informed him that the editor had turned my offer down1 he then suggested that ,i write the serial and let him send it in under his own name4 ,it was a chance to try the sagacity of that particular editor4 ,i salved my conscience1 wrote the serial1 and my typewritten copy was submitted to the editor under the name of my friend4 ,the serial was accepted1 with medals thrown all over it--my literary friend being informed that it was just the thing the editor wanted1 and that he had hard work to get authors who could suit his view as to what was available for his particular publication4 ,my friend got the honor1 if there was any1 of seeing the serial run under his name2 and ,i got the money for doing the work4 ,if an author ever suffers an editor's contempt1 what must the editor suffer on being caught red-handed in such a way as this8 ,it is the worm's prerogative to turn whenever it finds the opportunity4 ,illustrating this point1 and several other points with which this chapter is concerned1 the following letter from another writer1 who has been turning out successful manuscripts for upward of twenty years1 is reproduced3 ,dear ,bro4 ,edwards3 ,you certainly ,,do put a poser to me4 ,at the present time ,i have difficulty in seeing anything that has happened to me in the twenty-odd years of my following the literary game in anything but a tragic light4 ,i believe my success1 such as it was1 was tragic4 ,at least1 it has rivetted my reputation to a certain class of literature--heaven save the mark6--and makes it almost impossible for me to sell anything of a better quality4 ,i might tell you of plenty of cruel things that have been done to me by publishers and editors when they knew or suspected that ,i was hard up2 and plenty of silly things done to me by the same folk when they thought ,i didn't particularly ,,need their money4 ,but funny things----8 ,it's the point of view makes the thing funny4 ,the child pulling the wings off a fly to see the insect crawl over the window pane is amused2 but ,i don't suppose the fly sees the humor of the situation4 ,i could tell you tales of submitting the same manuscript three times to an editor whom we both know well1 having it shot through with criticism the first two times and then having it accepted and paid for at extra rates within two years of the first submission1 and without even a word of the title changed6 ,is ,,that the kind of an incident you want8 ,one of the funniest things that ever happened to me was that an editor of a popular magazine used to say that my stuff resembled ,dickens1 and when ,i wrote half-dime novels the readers used to write in and say the same4 ,the quality of mind possessed by the scholarly editor and the street boys who read ',bowery ,billy' must be somewhat the same--eh8 ,there was once a magazine that bore as its title the name of a publisher as famous as any ,american ever saw1 and the editor bought a story of me at the rate of half a cent a word1 and owed me two years for it4 ,finally1 one time when ,i was very hard up ,i went to the office and hung around until ,i could see the 'boss' and put it up to him to pay me4 ,he did4 ,he knocked off #cc #a-c per cent for 'cash4' ,pretty good1 eh8 ,i tell you1 ,edwards1 there's nothing funny in the game that ,i can see--not for the so-called literary worker4 ,the gods may laugh when they see a man with that brand of insanity on him that actually forces him to write4 ,but ,i doubt if the writer laughs--not even if he writes a 'best seller4' ,for success entails turning out other successes1 and that is hard work4 ,excuse me6 ,i am going back to the farm4 ,i will write only when ,i have to1 and only as long as my farm will not support me4 ,i've got hold of a pretty good place cheap1 down here with the outlook of making a good living on it in time4 ,no more the ,great ,white ,way1 with the ,dirty ,black ,alley behind it1 in mine6 ,i am not going to carry my hat in my hand around to editors' offices and take up collections for long4 ,besides1 most of the editors blooming now are just out of college and are not dry behind the ears yet4 ,they think that ,johnny ,go-bang1 who edited the sporting page in the ,podunk ,university ,screamer1 knows more about writing fiction than the old fellows who have been at it a couple of decades4 ,and ,i reckon they are right4 ,they are looking for 'fresh' material2 some of it is pretty 'raw' as well as fresh4 ,i fooled an editor the other day by sending a manuscript on strange paper1 written on a new typewriter1 and with an assumed name attached4 ,sold the story and got a long letter of encouragement from the editor4 ,great game--encouraging 'new' writers6 ,about on a par with the scheme some rum sellers have of washing their sidewalks with the dregs of beer kegs4 ,the spider and fly game4 ,now1 if ,i told that editor what an ass he had made of himself1 would he ever buy another manuscript of me again8 ,i fear not6 ,perhaps ,i am pessimistic1 ,brother ,edwards4 ,there's no real fun in the writing game--not for the writer1 at least4 ,not when he is forty years old and knows that already he is a 'has-been4' ,good luck to you4 ,hope your book is a success1 and if ,i really knew just what you wanted ,i'd try to whip something into shape for you4 ,for you very well know that1 if other fiction writers give you incidents for your book1 they'll mostly be fiction6 ,that is the devil of it4 ,if a fiction writer cuts a sliver off his thumb while paring the corned beef for dinner1 he will make out of the story a gory combat between his hero and a horde of enemies1 and give details of the carnage fit to make his own soul shudder4 ,i hope to meet up with you again some time4 ,but pretty soon when ,i go to ,new ,york ,i'll wear my chin-whiskers long and carry a carpet-bag2 and you bet ,i'll fight shy of editors' offices4 ,another example of injustice to writers which1 however1 happened to turn out well for the writer3 ,i offered a short serial to a certain newspaper syndicate4 ,soon ,i received a letter saying they could pay me #bjj for the serial rights4 ,before my letter accepting the offer reached them1 ,i had another letter from the syndicate withdrawing the offer4 ,the editor stated pathetically that the proprietor had returned and had asked him to withdraw it4 ,i then sent the serial to a ,chicago newspaper1 which paid me #bjj for serial rights--,,but ,,never ,,published ,,the ,,story4 ,finally ,i rewrote the story1 had it published as a book by a leading ,eastern publishing house1 and it sold well4 ,here1 again1 is injustice of another kind3 ,once a certain ,eastern magazine authorized me to go to ,santa ,fe1 ,new ,mexico1 and write a description of a ,pueblo dance and of ,pueblo life1 and send the manuscript on with photographs for illustration4 ,i did the work4 ,and ,i was rewarded by the generous editor with a check for #bj6 ,you can imagine how profitable that particular stunt was1 for ,i took a week's time and paid my own expenses4 ,but not out of that twenty4 ,there wasn't enough of it to go 'round4 ,,xxiv4 ,,what ,,shall ,,we ,,do ,,with ,,it8 ,edwards wrote only one serial story during #aiaj1 and turned his hand to that merely to bring up the financial returns and leave a safe margin for expenses4 ,nickel novels1 a few short stories1 a novelette for ,the ,blue ,book and the lengthening of two stories for paper-book publication comprised the year's work4 ,he soldiered a little1 but when a writer soldiers he is not necessarily idle4 ,edwards' thoughts were busy1 and the burden of his reflections was this3 ,heaven had endowed him with a small gift of plot and counter-plot1 and a little art for getting it into commercial form2 but were his meager talents producing for him all that they should8 ,was the purely commercial aim1 although held to with a strong sense of moral responsibility1 the correct aim8 ,after a score of years of hard work did he find himself progressing in any but a financial direction8 ,forgetting the past and facing the future with eyes fixed at a higher angle1 how was he to proceed with his little gift of words8 ,what should he do with it8 ,in the bright summer afternoons ,edwards would walk out of his ,fiction ,factory and make a survey of it from various points4 ,he was always so close to his work that he lost the true perspective4 ,he was familiar with the minutiae1 the thousand and one little details that went to make up the whole1 but how did it look in the all-together1 stripped of sentiment and beheld in its three dimensions8 ,paradoxically1 the work appeared too commercial in some of its aspects1 and not commercial enough in others4 ,the sordid values were due to the demand which came to ,edwards constantly and unsolicited1 and which it was his unvarying policy always to meet4 ,all's fish that comes to the writer's net was a saying of ,edwards' that had cozzened his judgment4 ,he was giving his best to work whose very nature kept him to a dead level of mediocrity4 ,and within the last few years he had become unpleasantly aware that at least one editor believed him incapable of better things4 ,this was largely ,edwards' fault4 ,orders for material along the same old lines poured in upon him and he hesitated to break away from them and try out his literary wings4 ,years before he had faced a similar question4 ,the same principal of breaking away from something that was reasonably sure and regular for something else not so sure but which glowed with brighter possibilities1 was involved4 ,vaguely he felt the call4 ,he was forty-four1 and had left behind him twenty-odd years of hard and conscientious effort4 ,as he was getting on in years so should he be getting on with some of his dreams1 before the light failed and the ,fiction ,factory grew dark and all dreaming and doing were at an end4 ,one evening in ,christmas week1 #aiaj1 he mentioned his aspirations to a noted editor with whom he happened to be at dinner4 ,the book that was to bring fame and fortune1 the book ,edwards had always been going to write but had never been able to find the time1 was under discussion4 ,write it1 advised the noted one1 but not under your own name4 ,edwards fell silent4 ,what was there in the work he had done which made it impossible to put ,john ,milton ,edwards on the title page of his most ambitious effort8 ,were the nickel novels and the popular paper-backs to rise in judgment against him8 ,he could not think so then1 and he does not think so now4 ,why don't you write up your experiences as an author8 inquired the editor a few moments later4 ,you want to be helpful1 eh8 ,well1 there's your chance4 ,writers would not be the only ones to welcome such a book1 and if you did it fairly well it ought to make a hit4 ,this suggestion ,edwards adopted4 ,having the courage of convictions directly opposed to the noted editor's1 the other one he will not accept4 ,the reflections of #aiaj began to bear fruit in #aiaa4 ,with the beginning of the present year ,edwards gave up the five-cent fiction1 not because--as already stated in a previous chapter--he considered it debasing to his art1 but because he needed time for the working out of a few of his dreams4 ,presently1 as though to confirm him in his determination1 two publishing houses of high standing requested novels to be issued with their imprint4 ,he accepted both commissions1 and at this writing the work is well advanced4 ,if he fails of material success in either or both these undertakings1 by the standards elsewhere quoted and in which he thoroughly believes1 the higher success that cannot be separated from faithful effort will yet be his4 ,and it will suffice4 ,even in #aiaj ,edwards had been swayed by his growing convictions4 ,almost unconsciously he had begun shaping his work along the line of higher achievement4 ,during #aiaa he has been hewing to the same line1 but more consistently4 ,edwards has demonstrated his ability to write moving picture scenarios that will sell4 ,but is the game worth the candle8 ,is it pleasant for an author to see his cherished ,western idea worked out with painted white men for ,indians and painted buttes for a background8 ,of course1 there are photoplays enacted on the ,southwestern deserts1 with real cowboys and red men for supers1 but somewhere in most of these performances a false note is struck4 ,one who knows the ,west has little trouble in detecting it4 ,this1 however1 is a matter of sentiment1 alone4 ,the nebulous ideas most scenario editors seem to have as to rates of payment1 and the usually long delay in passing upon a script1 are important details of quite another sort4 ,and1 furthermore1 it is unjust to throw a creditable production upon the screen without placing the author's name under the title4 ,of right1 this advertising belongs to the author and should not be denied him4 ,in #aiaj a moving picture concern secured a concession for taking pictures with ,buffalo ,bill's ,wild ,west and ,pawnee ,bill's ,far ,east ,show1 and ,edwards was hired to furnish scenarios at #ce each4 ,he furnished a good many1 and of one of them ,major ,lillie 7,pawnee ,bill7 wrote from ,butte1 ,montana1 on ,sep4 #b2 ,friend ,edwards3 ,i saw one of the films run off at a picture house a few days ago and ,i think they are the greatest ,western scenes that ,i have ever witnesed--that is1 they are the truest to life4 ,i had a letter from ,mr4 ,c---- yesterday1 and he thinks they are fine4 ,your friend1 ,g4 ,w4 ,lillie4 ,for a time ,edwards thought his faith in the moving picture makers was about to be justified4 ,but he was mistaken4 ,he received a check for just #be1 which probably escaped from the film men in an unguarded moment1 and no further check1 letter or word has since come from the company4 ,the proprietors of the ,show had nothing to do with the picture people1 and regretted1 though they could not help the loss ,edwards had suffered4 ,when the moving picture writers are assured of better prices for their scenarios1 of having them passed upon more promptly and of getting their names on the films with their pictures1 the business will have been shaken down to a more commendable basis4 ,possibly the film manufacturers borrow their ideas of equitable treatment for the writer from some of the publishing houses4 ,the hack writer1 in many editorial offices1 is looked down upon with something like contempt by the august personage who condescends to buy his stuff and to pay him good money for it4 ,perhaps the hack is at fault and has placed himself in an unfavorable light4 ,writers are many and competition is keen4 ,among these humble ones there are those who have suffered rebuff after rebuff until the spirit is broken and pride is killed1 and they go cringing to an editor and supplicate him for an assignment4 ,or they write him3 ,for ,god's sake do not turn down this story6 ,it is the bread-line for me1 if you do4 ,did you ever walk through the ante-room of a big publishing house on the day checks are signed and given out8 ,men with pinched faces and ragged clothes sit in the mahogany chairs4 ,they have missed the high mark in their calling4 ,they had high ambitions once--but ambitions are always high when hope is young4 ,they are writing now1 not because they love their work but because it is the only work they know1 and they must keep at it or starve 7perhaps and starve74 ,a taxicab flings madly up to the door in front1 and a stylishly clad gentleman floats in at the hall door and across the ante-room to the girl at the desk4 ,they exchange pleasant greetings and the girl punches a button that communicates with the private office of the powers that be4 ,mr4 ,oswald ,hamilton ,brezee to see ,mr4 ,skinner4 ,delighted mumblings by ,mr4 ,skinner come faintly to the ears of the lowly ones4 ,the girl turns away from the 'phone4 ,go right in1 ,mr4 ,brezee4 she says4 ,mr4 ,skinner will see you at once4 ,mr4 ,brezee's stuff has caught on4 ,dozens of magazines are clamoring for it4 ,mr4 ,brezee vanishes and presently reappears1 tucking away his check with the careless manner of one to whom checks are more or less of a bore4 ,he passes into the hall1 and in a moment the taxi is heard bearing him away4 ,the lowly ones twist in their chairs and bitterness floods their hearts4 ,like the author of ,childe ,harold1 ,brezee awoke one morning to find himself famous4 ,these others1 with the dingy ,windsor ties and the long hair and pinched faces never awake to anything but a doubt as to where the morning meal is to come from4 ,after hours of waiting in the ante-room1 checks are finally produced and passed around to the lowly ones and they fade away into the haunts that know them best4 ,next pay-day they will be back again1 if they are alive and have been given anything to do in the meantime4 ,is this game worth the candle8 ,what shall these men do with their little gift but keep it grinding1 merciless though the grind may be8 ,they cannot all be ,oswald ,hamilton ,brezees4 ,before a young man throws himself into the ranks of this vast army of writers1 let him ponder the situation well4 ,if1 under the iron heel of adversity1 he is sure he can still love his work for the work's sake and be true to himself1 there is one chance in ten that he will make a fair living1 and one chance in a hundred that he may become one of the generals4 ,the ,factory returns for #aiaj and for part of #aiaa are given below4 ,edwards believes that1 in its last analysis1 #aiaa will offer figures close to the ten-thousand dollar mark--but it is a guess hedged around with many contingencies4 #aiaj3 #ed nickel novels #fj each1 #cbdj4jj ,short story for ,munsey's1 #ge4jj ,short story for ,the ,blue ,book1 #dj4jj ,novelette for ,the ,blue ,book1 #bjj4jj ,moving picture1 ,essanay ,co1 #be4jj ,short story for ,gunter's1 #dj4jj ,short story for ,columbian1 #ae4jj ,paper-book rights1 #bjj4jj ,serial story for ,scrap ,book1 #djj4jj ,moving picture1 #be4jj -------- ,total #dbfj4jj ,part of #aiaa3 #e paper-book rights1 #ejj4jj ,serial for ,all-,story1 #djj4jj ,novelette for ,adventure1 #bej4jj ,serial for ,the ,argosy1 #bej4jj ,novelette for ,the ,blue ,book1 #bjj4jj ,short stories for ,the ,blue ,book1 #aej4jj ,short story for ,harper's ,weekly1 #ge4jj ,serial for ,top-,notch1 #aej4jj -------- ,total1 #aige4jj ,george ,ade asked an actress1 who was one of the original cast of ,the ,county ,chairman1 to whom he had just been introduced1 ,which would you rather be--a literary man or a burglar8 ,it is related that the actress1 who was probably as excited as ,ade1 answered1 ,what's the difference8 ,and this is supposed to be a humorous anecdote6 99 99 99 99 99 ,the man who tells stories1 sometimes fiction and sometimes stories1 about the ,harper publications1 evolves the following realistic story about ,the ,masquerader1 originally published in ,the ,bazaar4 ,well1 it seems that one morning1 the editor sat her down and found the following letter1 which is truly pathetic and possibly pathetically true3 ,you may1 and ,i hope you have1 some little remembrance of my name4 ,but this will be the very oddest letter you have ever received4 ,i am reading that most clever and wonderfully well-written novel1 ',the ,masquerader4' ,i have very serious heart trouble and may live years and may die any minute4 ,i should deeply regret going without knowing the general end of that story4 ,may ,i know it8 ,will be as close as the grave itself if ,i may4 ,i really feel that ,i may not live to know the unravelling of that net4 ,if ,i may know for reason good and sufficient to yourself and by no means necessary to explain1 may ,i please have the numbers as they come to you1 and in advance of general delivery8 ,the editor sent on the balance of the story1 but it was never revealed whether it made the person well again or not4 ,edwards imagines that the whirl of action in books would not be good for the heart--or1 for the matter of that1 the soul4 ,,xxv4 ,,extracts ,,grave ,,and ,,gay1 ,,wise ,,and ,,otherwise ,cigars on the ,editor3 ,the berth check came to me this morning4 ,i suppose the cigars are on me4 ,at the same time1 there is another kind of check which you get when you buy your ,pullman accomodation at the ,pullman office in the station4 ,it was that which ,i had in mind4 ,i suppose the one you enclosed is the conductor's check4 ,i don't believe ,i ever saw one before4 ,how ,bob ,davis hands you a ,lemon3 ,the first six or seven chapters of ',hammerton's ,vase' are very lively and readable--after which it falls off the shelf and is badly shattered4 ,everybody in the yarn is pretty much of a sucker1 and the situations are more or less of a class4 ,i think1 ,john1 that there is too much talk in this story4 ,your last thirty pages are nothing but4 ,what struck me most was the ease with which you might have wound the story up in any one of several places without in anyway injuring it4 ,that is not like the old ,john ,milton of yore4 ,you used to pile surprise upon surprise1 and tie knot after knot in your complications4 ,but you didn't do it in ',hammerton's ,vase'--for which reason ,i shed tears and return the manuscript by express4 ,how ,mr4 ,white does it3 ,i am very sorry to be obliged to make an adverse report on ',the ,gods of ,tlaloc4' ,for one thing the story is too wildly improbable1 for another the hero is too stupid1 and worse than all the interest is of too scrappy a nature--not cumulative4 ,you have done too good work for ,the ,argosy in the past for me to content myself with this4444 ,when ,i return ,aug4 #i1 ,i shall hope to find a corking fine story from your pen awaiting my perusal4 ,i am sure you know how to turn out such a yarn4 ,a tip regarding ,dual-identity3 ,the story opens well1 and that is the best ,i can say for it4 ,i put up the scheme to ,mr4 ,davis and he expressed a strong disinclination for any kind of a dual-identity story4--,matthew ,white1 ,jr4 ,how ,mr4 ,davis takes over the ,right ,stuff3 ,we are taking the sea story4 ,will report on the other stuff you have here in a day or two4 ,in the meantime1 remember that you owe me an #hj1jjj-word story and that you are getting the maximum rate and handing me the minimum amount of words4 ,you raised the tariff and ,i stood for it and it is up to you to make good some of your threats to play ball according to ,hoyle4 ,it is your turn to get in the box and bat 'em over the club-house4 ,and remember1 ,i am always on the bleachers1 waiting to cheer at the right time4 ,how ,mr4 ,white lands on it3 ',helping ,columbus' pleases me very much1 and on our principle of paying for quality ,i am sending you for it our check for #cej4 ,during the earlier years of his writing ,edwards made use of an automatic word-counter which he attached to his ,caligraph--the machine he was using at that time4 ,he discovered that if a story called for #cj1jjj words1 and he allowed the counter to register that number1 the copy would over-run about #e1jjj words4 ,at a much later period he discovered by actual comparisons of typewritten with printed matter just the number of words each page of manuscript would average in the composing-room4 ,from his publishers1 however1 he once received the following instructions3 ,to enable you to calculate the number of words to write each week1 we make the following suggestions3 ,type off a ,,long paragraph from a page of one of the weeklies that has been set solid1 so that the number of words in each line will correspond with the same line in print4 ,when you have finished the paragraph you can get the average length of the typed line as written on your machine1 and by setting your bell guard at this average length you will be able to fairly approximate1 line for line1 manuscript and printed story4 ,a complete story should contain #c1jjj lines4 ,calculating in this way1 you will be able to turn in each week a story of about the right length4 ,our experience shows us that the calculated length of a story based on a roughly estimated number of words usually falls short of our requirements1 and although to proceed in the manner suggested above may involve a little extra work--not above half an hour at the outside and on one occasion only--by it alone are we convinced that you will strike the right number of words for each issue4 ,along the ,highway of ,explanations3 ,i cannot see ',the ,yellow ,streak' quite clear enough4 ,you whoop it up pretty well for about three-quarters of the story1 and then it begins to go to pieces along the highway of explanations4--,mr4 ,davis4 ,concerning the ,rights of a ,story3 ,unless it is otherwise stipulated1 ,,we ,,buy ,,all ,,manuscripts ,,with ,,full ,,copyright4--,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,co4 ,and again3 ,the signing of the receipt places all rights in the hands of the ,frank ,a4 ,munsey ,company1 but they will be glad to permit you to make a stage version of your story1 only stipulating that in case you succeed in getting it produced1 they should receive a reasonable share of the royalties4 ,the ,last ,word on the ,subject3 ,mr4 ,white has turned over to me your letter of ,october #ab1 as ,i usually answer letters relating to questions of copyright4 ,i think1 under the circumstances1 if you want to dramatize the story we ought to permit you to do so without payment to us4 ,the only condition we would make would be that if you get the play produced1 you should print a line on the program saying1--',dramatized from a story published in ,the ,argosy1' or words to that effect4--,mr4 ,titherington1 of ,munsey's4 ,paragraphing1 ,politics and ,puns3 ,your paragraphs are pretty good1 so far4 ,but ,,shun ,,politics ,,and ,,religion in any form1 direct or indirect1 as you would shun the devil4 ,and please don't pun--it is so cheap4--,mr4 ,a4 ,a4 ,mosley1 of ,the ,detroit ,free ,press4 ,climaxes1 ,snap and ,spontaneity3 ,we don't like to let this go back to you1 and only do so in the hope that you can let us have it again4 ,the sketch is capitally considered1 the character is excellent1 the way in which it is written admirable1 the whole story is very funny1 and yet somehow it does not quite come off4 ,the climax--the denouement--seems somewhat labored and lacks snaps and spontaneity4 ,can't you devise some other termination--something with more 'go8' ,this is so good we want it to be better4--,editor ,puck4 ,novelty and ,exhilarating ,effect3 ,we have no special subject to suggest for a serial1 but would cheerfully read any you think desirable for our needs4 ,the better plan always is to submit the first two installments of about four columns each4 ,novelty and exhilarating effect are desirable4--,editor ,saturday ,night4 ,saddling and ,bridling ,pegasus3 ,we are very much in need of a short ,xmas poem--from #af to #bj lines--to be used at once4 ,knowing your ability and willingness to accomodate at short notice1 ,i write you to ask if you can get one to us by ,saturday of this week1 or ,monday at latest4 ,i know it is a very short time in which to saddle and bridle ,pegasus1 but ,i am sure you can do it with celerity if any one can4--,editor ,the ,ladies' ,world4 ,carrying the ,thing too ,far3 ,we regret that we cannot make use of ',the ,brand of ,cain1' after your prompt response to our call1 but the title and story are ,,just ,a ,,little ,,bit too sensational for our paper1 and we think it best to return it to you4 ,it is a good story and well written1 but we get ,,so ,,much condemnation from our subscribers1 often for a trifle1 that we are obliged to be very careful4 ,only a week or two ago we were severely censured because a recipe in ,household ,dep't called for a tablespoonful of wine in a pudding sauce1 and the influence of the writer against the paper promised if the offense were repeated4--,from the editor of a woman's journal4 ,and1 finally1 this from ,mr4 ,davis3 ,we are of the non-complaining species1 ourself1 and aim only to please the mob4 ,rush the sea story4 ,if it isn't right1 ,i'll rush it back1 by express4444 ,believe1 sir1 that ,i am personally disposed to regard you as a better white man than the average white man because you a larger white man1 and1 damnitsir1 ,i wish you good luck4 ,,xxvi4 ,,patrons ,,and ,,profits ,,for ,,twenty-,,two ,,years ,on the #bjth of this month 7,september1 #aiaa7 it will be just twenty-two years since ,edwards received payment for his first story4 ,on ,sept4 #bj1 #ahhi1 ,the ,detroit ,free ,press sent him a check for #h4 ,on that #h the ,fiction ,factory was started4 ,who have been the patrons of the ,factory for these twenty-two years1 and what have been the returns8 ,a vast amount of work has been necessary in order to formulate exact answers to these questions4 ,papers and other memoranda bearing upon the subject were widely scattered4 ,during ,edwards' travels about the country many letters and records were lost4 ,the list that follows1 therefore1 is incomplete1 but exact as far as it goes4 ,more work was realized upon1 by several thousands of dollars1 than is here shown4 ,for every item in the record ,edwards has a letter1 or a printed slip that accompanied the check1 as his authority4 ,the errors are merely those of omission4 ,titles of the material sold will not be given1 but following the name of the publication that purchased the material will be found the year in which it was either published or paid for4 ,adventure1 ,the ,ridgway ,company1 ,spring ,macdougal ,streets1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aiaa--a novelette4 #bej4 ,all-,story ,magazine1 ,the ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 #age ,fifth ,ave41 ,new ,york ,city1 #aijd--a serial4 #bbe4 #aije--b short stories1 #a serial4 #bee4 #aijf--b serials4 #iej4 #aijh--c serials4 #a1jjj4 ,american ,press ,association1 #de #dg ,park ,place1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aije--b short stories4 #cj4 ,the ,argosy1 ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 #age ,fifth ,ave41 ,new ,york ,city1 #aijj--a serial4 #bej4 #aija--a serial4 #bjj4 #aijb--a serial4 #bej4 #aijc--a novelette1 #d serials4 #a1jej4 #aijd--a short story1 #a novelette1 #d serials4 #ige4 #aije--c serials1 #a novelette4 #ibe4 #aijf--b serials4 #fjj4 #aiaa--a serial4 #bej4 ,boston ,globe1 ,boston1 ,mass41 #ahig--a short story4 #d4 ,boyce's ,monthly1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #aija--a short story4 #aj4 ,banner ,weekly1 ,the1 ,beadle ,adams1 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahhi--a short story4 #d4 ,blue ,book1 ,the1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #aijg--a novelette4 #bbj4 #aijh--b novelettes4 #djj4 #aiaj--a short story1 #a novelette4 #bdj4 #aiaa--a novelette1 #c short stories4 #cej4 ,chips1 ,frank ,tousey's ,publishing ,house1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aija--a short story4 #d4 ,chatter1 #ab ,beekman ,st41 ,new ,york1 #ahij--a short story4 #e4 --#a short story4 #e4 ,chicago ,inter-,ocean1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #ahih--a article1 space rates4 #b4ej ,chicago ,record1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #ahig--a short story4 #e4 #ahih--a short story4 #g4 --#a short story4 #d4 #aija--a short story4 #f4 ,chicago ,daily ,news1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #ahih--a short story4 #c4 #ahii--a short story4 #c4ej #ahii--d short stories4 #ad4ej #aija--a short story4 #e4 ,chicago ,blade1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #ahia--b articles1 space rates1 #a short story4 #aj4 ,chicago ,ledger1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #ahia--c serials4 #abj4 #ahib--b serials4 #ee4 #ahif--a serial4 #ej4 #aijd--a serial4 #ge4 #aije--b serials4 #hj4 #aijf--b serials4 #ajj4 #aijg--a serial4 #ge4 ,columbian ,magazine1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aiaj--a short story4 #ae4 ,demorest's ,monthly1 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahii--a article4 #e4 ,dillingham ,co41 ,g4 ,w41 ,new ,york ,city1 #aijc--royalties4 #if4fj #aijf--royalties4 #aj4bj #aijh--royalties4 #a4ej #aiji--;,cloth book rights4 #ajj4 ,detroit ,free ,press1 ,the1 ,detroit1 ,michigan4 #ahhi--a short story4 #h4 --#a short story4 #g4 #ahij--b serials4 #bjc4 #ahhi--b short stories4 #bc4 #ahia--a short story1 space rates4 #ie4 #ahib--f short stories4 #dh4ej #ahic--a short story4 #aj4 #ahid--a space rate4 #bj4 #ahie--a space rate4 #bb4 #ahif--a short story4 #a4ej #ahii--b short stories4 #g4 #aijj--a short story4 #c4 ,essanay ,film ,manufacturing ,company1 ,chicago1 ,illinois4 #aiaj--,m4 ,p4 scenario4 #be4 ,figaro1 #agj ,madison ,st41 ,chicago1 #ahij--a space rate4 #cj4 #ahia--a space rate4 #ij4 #ahib--a space rate4 #aj4 ,frank ,leslie's ,popular ,monthly1 #aaj ,fifth ,ave41 ,new ,york ,city4 #ahig--a short story4 #h4 ,gunter's ,magazine1 ,street ,smith1 ,new ,york ,city4 #aiaj--a short story4 #dj4 ,harper's ,weekly1 ,new ,york ,city4 #aiaa--a short story4 #ge4 ,illustrated ,american1 #aabc ,broadway1 ,new ,york ,city4 #ahif--b verses4 #aj4 ,kellogg ,newspaper ,co41 ,the ,a4 ,n41 #ga-gc ,w4 ,adams ,st41 ,chicago4 #aijc--a serial4 #aae4 ,life1 ,new ,york ,city4 #ahig--a short story4 #c4 ,ledger ,monthly1 ,ledger ,building1 ,n4 ,y4 #ahii--a short story4 #aj4 ,lubin ,mfg4 ,co41 ,philadelphia1 ,pa4 #aiaj--,m4 ,p4 scenario #cj4 ,ladies' ,world1 ,the1 ,new ,york ,city4 #ahij--b short stories4 #h4 #ahia--a verse4 #b4 --#a verse4 #b4 #ahib--b verses4 #d4 #ahid--a verse4 #b4 #ahih--a short story4 #b4 ,mc,clure's ,newspaper ,syndicate1 ,the1 #aaf ,nassau ,st41 ,new ,york ,city4 #aija--b short stories1 #b serials4 #bie4 --#a serial4 #bjj4 ,mc,c's ,monthly1 ,detroit1 ,michigan1 #ahih--b short stories4 #aj4 ,munsey's ,magazine1 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahif--a short story4 #aj4 #aijd--a short story4 #dj4 #aiaj--a short story4 #ge4 ,new ,york ,world1 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahid--a short story4 #e4fd #ahig--b short stories4 #ae4jb #ahih--a short story4 #d4fh #ahii--a short story4 #e4ej ,overland ,monthly1 #ejh ,montgomery ,st41 ,san ,francisco1 #ahig--a short story4 #aj4 ,ocean1 ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 ,new ,york ,city1 #aijg--a serial4 #dej4 ,people's ,magazine1 ,the1 ,street ,smith1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aijf--a serial4 #bjj4 #aijg--a serial4 #bej4 #aijh--b serials4 #fjj4 ,popular ,magazine1 ,the1 ,street ,smith1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aijd--b novelettes4 #bfe4 #aiji--a serial4 #bjj4 ,puck1 ,keppler ,schwartzmann1 ,puck ,building1 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahia--b short stories4 #bj4 #ahib--a short story4 #e4 #ahic--b short stories1 #a verse4 #ad4 #ahif--a short story4 #f4 #ahig--b short stories1 #a verse4 #bb4 #ahii--b short stories4 #ag4 ,railroad ,man's ,magazine1 ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 ,new ,york1 #aijf--b serials4 #gjj4 #aijg--a serial4 #ejj4 #aijh--b serials4 #fej4 #aiji--b short stories4 #gj4 ,red ,book1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #aijf--a short story4 #ge4 #aiji--a short story4 #dj4 ,scrap ,book1 ,f4 ,a4 ,munsey ,co41 ,n4 ,y4 ,c41 #aije--a serial4 #bjj4 #aijh--a serial4 #cjj4 #aiaj--a serial4 #djj4 #aiaa--a serial4 #djj4 ,saturday ,times1 ,the1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #aijg--a serial4 #fj4 ,southern ,tobacco ,journal1 ,winston1 ,n4 ,c41 #ahig--a verse4 #b4 ,short ,stories1 ,current ,literature ,pub4 ,co41 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahia--a short story4 #e4 #ahih--b short stories4 #aj4 #aijj--b short stories4 #cj4 ,san ,francisco ,chronicle1 ,san ,fran41 #ahif--a short story4 #f4 ,saturday ,night1 ,james ,elverson ,pub4 ,philadelphia1 ,pa41 #ahij--a serial4 #ge4 #ahia--a serial1 #h short stories4 #aff4 #ahib--e short stories4 #aj4 #ahic--a serial1 #e short stories4 #afj4 ,truth1 #bjc ,broadway1 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahic--a short story4 #c4ej #ahig--g short stories4 #eg4 ,top-,notch ,magazine1 ,street ,smith1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aiaa--a serial4 #aej4 ,translation ,rights1 #aijh4 #dj4 ,vitagraph ,company of ,america1 ,the1 ,brooklyn1 ,n4 ,y41 #aiji--,m4 ,p4 #aj4 ,wayside ,tales1 ,detroit ,monthly ,publishing ,co41 ,detroit1 ,mich41 #aija--c short stories4 #bc4 #aijb--b short stories4 #ce4 #aijc--a short story4 #ae4 ,white ,elephant1 ,frank ,tousey's ,pub4 ,house1 ,new ,york ,city1 #ahig--b short stories4 #cj4 ,western ,world1 ,chicago1 ,ills41 #aijj--b serials1 #g short stories1 #a space rates4 #cjh4hj ,woman's ,home ,companion1 ,new ,york1 #aije--a serial1 space rate4 #bje4 ,yankee ,blade1 ,boston1 ,mass41 #ahij--b short stories4 #bj4 #ahia--c short stories1 #b verses4 #ac4 #ahic--a short story4 #f4ej --#a short story4 #d4 ,powers ,company1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aiaj--,m4 ,p4 #be4 ,street ,smith1 ,new ,york ,city1 #aiji--cd issues ,motor ,boys #b1eej4 #aijh-- #g paper-book rights4 #gjj4 #aiji--ba paper-book rights4 #b1ajj4 #aiaj-- #b paper-book rights4 #bjj4 #aiaa-- #e paper-book rights4 #ejj4 ,dodd4 ,mead ,co41 ,new ,york ,city1 #aijd--;,cloth book rights4 #bjj4 ,harte ,perkins1 ,new ,york1 ,nickel ,novels3 #bc1ifd4dd #ahic-- #d #ej each14 #bjj4 #ahid-- #c #ej each14 #aej4 --#ca #dj each14 #ifj4 #ahif--bd #dj each14 #ifj4 #ahig-- #b #dj each14 #hj4 #ahih--af #dj each14 #fdj4 #ahii--ch #dj each14 #a1djj4 #aijj--ea #dj each14 #b1jdj4 ,completing story4 #bj4 #aija--aj #cj each14 #cjj4 -- #h #ej each14 #djj4 --#af #dj each14 #fdj4 #aijb--ca #dj each14 #a1bdj4 #aijc--dd #dj each14 #a1gfj4 #aijd--bf #dj each14 #a1jdj4 -- #d #ej each14 #bjj4 #aije--aj #ej each14 #ejj4 #aijf--ah #ej each14 #ijj4 #aijg--cc #ej each14 #a1fej4 #aijh--de #ej each14 #b1bej4 #aiji-- #i #fj each14 #edj4 #aiaj--ed #fj each14 #c1bdj4 ,ten-,cent ,novels3 #ahic--ac #ajj each14 #a1cjj4 #ahid--aj #ajj each14 #a1jjj4 #ahie-- #b #dj each14 #ajj4 ,serials for ,guest3 #ahid-- #b #cjj each14 #fjj4 -- #b #ejj #djj #ijj4 #ahig-- #a4 #cjj4 #ahie-- #b #cjj #bjj4 #ejj4 #ahih-- #b #cjj4 #fjj4 #ahii-- #a4 #cjj4 #aijf-- #a4 #bej4 #aijg-- #a4 #cjj4 ,juvenile ,serials3 #ahic-- #b #ajj #ge4 #age4 #ahid-- #a4 #age4 #ahid-- #a4 #ajj4 #aija-- #d #ajj each14 #djj4 #aijb-- #d #ajj each14 #djj4 ,miscellaneous3 #ahig-- #d magazine sketches4 #dj4 -- #a magazine sketches4 #f4af #aijj--aj trade-paper sketches4 #ajj4 #aija-- #i trade-paper sketches4 #ij4 #aijb-- #a trade-paper sketch4 #aj4 ----------- ,total #fe1hei4fj ,the finest music in the room is that which streams out to the ear of the spirit in many an exquisite strain from the hanging shelf of books on the opposite wall4 ,every volume there is an instrument which some melodist of the mind created and set vibrating with music1 as a flower shakes out its perfume or a star shakes out its light4 ,only listen1 and they soothe all care1 as though the silken-soft leaves of poppies had been made vocal and poured into the ear4--,james ,lane ,allen4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when ,william ,dean ,howells occupied an editorial chair in ,harper's office1 a young man of humble and rough exterior one day submitted personally to him a poem4 ,mr4 ,howells asked3 ,did you write this poem yourself8 ,yes1 sir4 ,do you like it8 the youth asked4 ,i think it is magnificent1 said ,mr4 ,howells4 ,did you compose it unaided8 ,i certainly did1 said the young man firmly4 ,i wrote every line of it out of my head4 ,mr4 ,howells rose and said3 ,then1 ,lord ,byron1 ,i am very glad to meet you4 ,i was under the impression that you died a good many years ago4 ,,advertisements ,announcement ,in addition to ,the ,fiction ,factory1 ,the ,editor ,company are publishers at ,ridgewood1 ,new ,jersey1 of ,,the ,,editor1 7,the ,journal of ,information for ,literary ,workers71 which has been published solely in the interests of writers for eighteen years1 and of the following books3 ,,the ,,writer',s ,,book #b4ej ,compiled by ,william ,r4 ,kane4 ,,practical ,,authorship #a4ej ,by ,james ,knapp ,reeve4 #ajja ,,places ,,to ,,sell ,,mms #a4jj 7,the ,american ,writer's1 ,artist's and ,photographer's ,year ,book7 in its ninth edition4 ,,points ,,about ,,poetry 4#fj ,by ,donald ,g4 ,french4 ,,rhymes ,,and ,,meters 4#ej ,by ,horatio ,winslow4 ,,the ,,fiction ,,writer',s ,,workshop 4#ej ,by ,duncan ,francis ,young4 ,,how ,,to ,,write ,a ,,short ,,story 4#ej ,,the ,,editor ,,manuscript ,,record 7loose leaf7 4#ej ,,essays ,,on ,,authorship 4#be ,,the ,,way ,,into ,,print 4#be ,,the ,,editor ,,company ,,ridgewood1 ,,new ,,jersey ,,the ,,editor ,if you write1 or if you have an itching to write1 we want to talk to you4 ,,the ,,editor1 we may explain1 is ,the ,journal ,of ,information ,for ,literary ,workers4 ,it is not at all pretentious1 and not at all dull4 ,it is a matter-of-fact little magazine1 always filled with good1 readable articles on the technique of writing4 ,sometimes they are contributed by authors and sometimes by editors4 ,we aim to show our patrons1 so far as such things may be taught1 how to write fiction1 poetry1 articles and the like1 and then how to sell them1 provided they are up to the standard demanded by editors4 ,we have been assured so many times that it wearies us1 that our magazine has been the lever that pried open the editorial doors of pretty nearly every publication in the country4 ,in addition to our articles we present our ,literary ,market department in which we list monthly the complete report of editorial needs1 announcements1 policies1 changes1 prize-contests1 etc4 ,this enables the writer to keep his finger on the magazine pulse2 he knows what to write1 when to write it1 how to write it1 when to submit it1 what payment will be made1 and countless other points4 ,authors such as ,george ,allan ,england1 who is selling regularly to ,mc,clure's1 ,red ,book1 ,bohemian1 etc41 have been good enough to say that this department alone is worth the subscription price4 ,now add to the foregoing a spice of good verse1 bright editorial comment1 and you'll know why every editor and very nearly every author of note sends his writer-friends to us4 ,why you can't write and do without the authors' trade-journal6 ,you will always find something between the covers of the magazine that drives you to work1 that spurs you to greater efforts1 that puts you on the high road to success4 ,we pride ourselves on the fact that ,,the ,,editor is a good1 live text-book4 ,it is a pretty sort of a teacher1 you know1 who never sees an educational journal2 new methods and systems are cropping out constantly4 ,and no writer--we leave this to you--likes to send a manuscript to a magazine that suspended a few months ago2 nor allow an article to go unread that may cover just the point on which his or her rejections cling4 ,the writer wants hints1 helps1 and as many of them as possible2 everybody does4 ,there is no magazine that better meets this want than ,,the ,,editor4 ,we've succeeded in pleasing and making famous the promising writer-folk of this country since #ahid4 ,mayn't we have you8 #ae cents a copy #a4jj a year ,,the ,,editor ,,company ,,ridgewood1 ,,new ,,jersey ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,italics are represented with underscores1 bold with equal signs4 ,inconsistent and occasionally inaccurate capitalization_/italicization of publication titles are retained from the original4 ,retained some archaic_/unusual spellings from the original 7e4g4 grevious1 ,omniverous74 ,retained inconsistent spellings from the original where different writers used different word variations 7e4g4 installment in the main text vs4 instalment in a quoted letter74 ,inconsistent spellings within the same context have been normalized as noted in detail below4 ,retained some inconsistent hyphenation from the original 7e4g4 viewpoint vs4 view-point74 ,the original text contained several instances of he _/ be confusion4 ,these have been corrected and are noted below4 ,they are not the result of ,,ocr errors2 they are present in the original typography4 ,page #aj1 normalized indentation before ,the modest goal1 the lesser fame4 ,page #ae1 changed double to single quotes around ,when the ,editor's ,eye ,struck and added missing end double quote4 ,page #ba1 changed ocassion to occasion4 ,normalized second appearance of sewer-pipe to include hyphen4 ,changed ,ewards to ,edwards 7first story for which ,edwards74 ,page #cj1 removed duplicate by from spoiled by just such a slip4 ,page #ce1 italicized nom de plume 7in sentence about ,boy's ,story ,paper7 for consistency with all other appearances in the text4 ,page #cf1 added missing colon to paragraph above ,we are in a hurry for this series4 ,page #dc1 changed double to single quotes around ,dalton's ,double4 ,page #df1 changed two instances of villian to villain for consistency with the rest of the text 7in sentence including female villain74 ,page #dg1 changed pubilc to public 7their reading public7 and succeding to succeeding 7succeeding issues74 ,page #dh1 changed be felt elated to he felt elated4 ,page #eh1 removed stray single quote after #i o'clock in the evening4 ,page #fg1 changed decended to descended and prepetrator to perpetrator4 ,page #fh1 changed rememberance to remembrance for consistency 7livid remembrance74 ,page #fi1 changed ,for day's while to ,for days while4 ,page #ga1 there appears to be a missing word in that it very humorous but this error comes from the original4 ,page #gb1 changed entirely to entirety 7satisfactory in its entirety7 and word was deturned to word was returned4 ,page #gd1 changed saticfactory to satisfactory 7price was not satisfactory74 ,page #gg1 changed responisble to responsible 7it was responsible for74 ,page #hb1 ,mr4 ,perkins write3 appears to be an error1 but it comes from the original4 ,changed manusccript to manuscript 7quality of the manuscript74 ,page #hc1 changed installemnts to installments 7first two installments74 ,page #ij1 if there is supposed to be special formatting in the example following he did it thus1 it is not present in the original book2 nothing unusual has been lost in translation to digital format here4 ,page #ia1 changed ,is seems poor policy to ,it seems poor policy4 ,page #ib1 changed lettters to letters 7letters on a typewriter74 ,page #ig1 changed double to single quotes around ,the ,man from ,dakota4 ,page #ajj1 added missing open quote before misfortunes never come singly4 ,page #ajc1 ,changed be to he in he faced a steadily brightening prospect4 ,page #ajh1 added missing space after comma in ,november #ai1 #aijd4 ,page #aah1 moved comma from before to after in #ac4 ,changed must he high to must be high4 ,page #abj1 added missing open quote before ,your last story1 ,no4 #bhe4 ,page #abb1 changed particluarly to particularly in not particularly encouraging4 ,changed ,edward's hope to ,edwards' hope4 ,page #abf1 changed damm to damn in damn it utterly4 ,page #abg1 changed ,edward's product to ,edwards' product4 ,page #ada1 removed unnecessary apostrophe after ,edwards in to ,edwards it is a delightful confusion4 ,page #adc1 added missing apostrophe to ,edwards' first advice and removed unnecessary apostrophe from which ,edwards consulted4 ,page #adg1 changed ,dilema to ,dilemma in ,i shall require a single copy of ',the ,billionaire's ,dilemma4' ,page #adh1 changed open double quote to single quote in your short story3 ',the ,shadow of the ,unknown4' ,changed ficticious to fictitious in footnote4 ,page #adi1 changed open double quote to single quote in ',the ,shadow of the ,unknown1' writes the publisher4 ,page #aef1 changed royalities to royalties 7,dillingham1 last royalties74 ,page #afj1 changed bettter to better 7anything of a bettter quality74 ,page #afb1 changed lettter to letter 7letter saying they could pay74 ,page #afi1 added some commas to #aiaj table for consistency4 ,page #agj1 changed sometmes to sometimes 7sometimes stories1 about the ,harper74 ,changed double to single quotes around ,the ,masquerader4 ,page #aga1 added missing colon after ,how ,bob ,davis hands you a ,lemon3 ,page #agc1 added missing close quote after reasonable share of the royalties4 ,page #age1 corrected chapter number from ,,xxii to ,,xxvi and corrected double comma after ,sept4 #bj1 #ahhi4 ,pages #agf-ahj1 normalized some punctuation within the table of publications 7but still retained some inconsistencies74 ,deleted partial totals and brought forward entries at page boundaries4 ,did not attempt to correct some apparent mathematical errors4 ,changed ,philadeljhia to ,philadelphia and corrected senario to scenario in entry for ,lubin ,mfg4 ,co4 ,advertisements1 changed ,,auhorship to ,,authorship in ,,essays ,,on ,,authorship4