Read Ebook: The Mentor: Makers of American Fiction Vol. 6 Num. 14 Serial No. 162 September 1 1918 by Maurice Arthur Bartlett

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Back in the nineties of the last century there was a corner of New York City known as Monkey Hill. It was in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, and crowning it, standing far back from the street, was a kind of chalet that served as a club for certain writing men. Among these men was Irving Bacheller, and to pleasant evenings in the club may be traced "Eben Holden" , the most popular of Mr. Bacheller's many popular books. As early as 1893, he had written "The Master of Silence;" "The Still House of Darrow" appeared in 1894. But it was "Eben Holden" that made the author's name for a time a household word. That book was followed by "D'ri and I," "Darrel of the Blessed Isles," and "Vergilius," a tale of ancient Rome. In his later books, such as "Keeping Up With Lizzie" and "Charge It," Mr. Bacheller plays whimsically with the problems of modern extravagance. His latest novel is "The Light in the Clearing."

If one novel can make a novelist, Ernest Poole earned the right to be considered one of the makers of modern American fiction when he wrote "The Harbor" . Although the end of the story was somewhat marred by over-insistence on sociological problems, in the first part of the book the author struck a reminiscent note as charming as that struck by Du Maurier in "Peter Ibbetson." No one had paid much attention to Mr. Poole's earlier novel, "A Man's Friends," but in the general recognition of "The Harbor," as a work of far more than ephemeral significance, there was hardly a dissenting voice. Not so widely popular, but marked by the same high quality of workmanship, is Mr. Poole's later book, "His Family."

Of the same generation at Princeton as Ernest Poole was Stephen French Whitman, and as mention of Mr. Poole's name inevitably suggests "The Harbor," so the name of Mr. Whitman calls up at once memories of "Predestined." Unlike "The Harbor," "Predestined" was not, speaking materially, a success. It was too grim, its ending was too pitiless. But very few who read the story of the degeneration of Felix Piers were able soon to forget it. In such later stories as "The Isle of Life" and "Children of Hope," Mr. Whitman has forsaken New York for Italy and Sicily.

It is now almost twenty years since Henry Kitchell Webster and Samuel Merwin began their writing careers in collaboration. Together they wrote "The Short Line War" , "Calumet K" and "Comrade John." All these were well-told tales, and the later years, when each man has been working alone, have shown that neither one carried an undue share of the burden. Mr. Webster's books include "The Whispering Man," "A King in Khaki," "The Ghost Girl," "The Butterfly" and "The Real Adventure." Mr. Merwin's work has been unusual in the variety of its themes. Washington and the Constitution of the United States were ingredients of "The Citadel." The adventures of an American girl in China were narrated in "The Charmed Life of Miss Austen." Musical theories, the segregated district of Yokohama, and incidents in Chinese hotels went to the making of "Anthony the Absolute." "The Honey Bee" is the story of a woman whose life has been in an American department store, who makes a trip to Paris, and there falls in love with one Blink Moran, of the prize-ring.

There is no questioning the force that Hamlin Garland has been in the literature of our time. He has told his story of his own life and literary activities in "A Son of the Middle Border" , a volume that was at once accepted as one of the foremost of American literary autobiographies. In no way detracting from the quality of Mr. Garland's later work is the ventured opinion that he has never surpassed some of his earlier stories. His writing career began about 1890, when the first of the tales of "Main-Traveled Roads" struck a fresh note in fiction. Between 1895 and 1898 he wrote "Rose of Dutcher's Cooley," and, in 1902, "The Captain of the Gray Horse Troop." These, with "Main-Traveled Roads" are still probably his most popular books. In 1900 "The Eagle's Heart" appeared, and later "Hesper," "The Tyranny of the Dark," "The Long Trail," "The Shadow World" and "Cavanagh, Forest Ranger."

Writing men of our generation have begun under the magic spell of Stevenson. To Lloyd Osbourne it was given to serve his apprenticeship to R. L. S., as Maupassant served his apprenticeship to Flaubert, and, while yet an apprentice, to be accepted as a collaborator. Together the stepfather and the stepson worked out "The Wrong Box" , "The Wrecker" , and "The Ebb Tide" . Then Stevenson passed on into Shadow Land, and some years later Osbourne began alone with "The Queen Versus Billy" and "Love the Fiddler." In the first decade of the present century the motor-car was still something of a novelty, and as such almost a virgin field for fiction. It was of its then baffling problems and incomprehensible moods that Lloyd Osbourne told in "The Motor-maniacs," "Three Speeds Forward," and "Baby Bullet." Later books are "Wild Justice," "The Adventurer," and "A Person of Some Importance."

A certain letter of the alphabet for a time seemed to exert a cabalistic influence on Louis Joseph Vance. "The Brass Bowl" appeared in 1907. The book of the next year was "The Black Bag." In 1909 it was "The Bronze Bell." There ended the use of the double B, but in 1912, Mr. Vance wrote "The Bandbox." In the meantime had appeared "The Pool of Flame," "The Fortune Hunter," "No Man's Land," and "Cynthia-of-the-Minute." Among the books that have followed "The Bandbox" are "The Day of Days," "Joan Thursday," showing Mr. Vance at his best, "The Lone Wolf," and very recently, "The False Faces," in which the Lone Wolf returns to play a great part in the World War.

The Law has ever had countless stories to tell. There is hardly a tale by Arthur Train that does not, in some way, lead back to one of the offices that cluster about the Criminal Courts Building facing Centre Street, on the lower end of Manhattan Island. In that neighborhood swung the shingle of the law firm of Gottlieb & Quibble, as related in "The Confessions of Artemas Quibble." Mr. Train's first book, "McAllister and His Double" , began in a Fifth Avenue club, but before a dozen pages had been finished, fate had carried McAllister to the Tombs Prison. The thrice-told tales of Pontin's Restaurant in Franklin Street, where the lawyers gather at the noon hour, went to make "The Prisoner at the Bar," "True Stories of Crime" and "Courts, Criminals and the Camorra." Like Mr. Train, William Hamilton Osborne has also achieved a place in Literature as well as Law.

Of a certain genuine importance has been the work of Robert Herrick. The author, like his heroes, has been finding the threads of life's web in a rather sorry tangle, and groping for a solution of the world's real meaning. It was of problems big and vital in our American civilization that Mr. Herrick wrote in "The Memoirs of an American Citizen," "The Common Lot," "The Web of Life," "The Real World," "The Gospel of Freedom," and "Together." In "The Master of the Inn" he has achieved an exceptional short story. Also deserving of high attention is Meredith Nicholson, who began in 1903 with "The Main Chance," and achieved unusual popular success somewhat later with "The House of a Thousand Candles" and "The Port of Missing Men." Among Mr. Nicholson's more recent books are "The Lords of High Decision," "Hoosier Chronicle," "Otherwise Phyllis" and "The Siege of the Seven Suitors." For tales breathing the spirit of the West and intricate mystery stories, Zane Grey and Burton Egbert Stevenson are known respectively. Mr. Grey's best known books are "The Heritage of the Desert," "The Light of Western Stars," "The Lone Star Ranger," "The Heart of the Desert" and "The U. P. Trail." Wherever a well-told yarn of intricate mystery is appreciated, such books as Mr. Stevenson's "The Marathon Mystery," "The Destroyer" and "The Boule Cabinet" have found generous welcome. Will Payne is the author of "Jerry the Dreamer," the striking "Story of Eva," "Mr. Salt" and "The Losing Game"; Edward W. Townsend in writing of Chimmie Fadden did not forfeit the place as a novelist to which he is entitled by reason of such books as "A Daughter of the Tenements," "Days Like These" and "Lees and Leaven"; and Harry Leon Wilson, who years ago made a definite impression with "The Seeker" and "The Spenders," and who of late has been moving a continent to laughter by the dexterity with which he confronted the very British Ruggles with the complicated problems of social life in the town of Red Gap--somewhere in America.

Besides all these there are Joseph C. Lincoln and Cyrus Townsend Brady, the first one in high favor for his breezy stories of Cape Cod life and character, redolent of the salt sea air, the latter for his many entertaining tales of plain and desert; and Sewell Ford, who created the slangy but very human "Shorty McCabe" and "Torchy"; and those two pungent writers of Western episodes, Peter Kyne and Charles E. Van Loan. Emerson Hough has given us rousing tales of the Middle and Far West, of the Kentucky mountains and Alaska. Holman Day's excellent stories breathe of the Maine woods, and Roy Norton has rendered tribute to the sea. Harris Dickson, a son of Mississippi, has woven into story form some throbbing incidents of Southern history, and has depicted numerous sunny corners of every-day existence below the Mason and Dixon line. James Branch Cabell is a spinner of charming romances; some of the best have a medieval French flavor. Harold Bell Wright is well known as the author of "Barbara Worth" and several other books whose sales have climbed into the hundreds of thousands. Richard Washburn Child is a young American who wields a vigorous pen in the portrayal of national character, and James Oppenheim, not to be confused with the Englishman, E. Phillips Oppenheim, represents vital phases of present-day city life. Joseph Hergesheimer has won a place among writers by reason of his picturesque style and original invention. A comprehensive list of American-born novelists must also include the names of Leroy Scott, Henry B. Fuller, Frank H. Spearman, Earl Derr Biggers and Arthur Reeve, all of whom have within late years produced popular successes.

The roll of the makers of modern American fiction is a long one, yet none can gainsay that the average of achievement is high.

As you finish the foregoing review of fiction writers, you may ask, "Why do you make no mention of one of the best known and most widely read of all our modern story-tellers--O. Henry?" We have reserved a special place for him on this page. O. Henry occupied a position of unique distinction among fiction makers, and it is only fitting that he should have a place of his own in this number of The Mentor. As there is in literature only one Edgar Poe and one Maupassant, so there is only one O. Henry--and the gamut of life's keynotes that his fingers swept was wider than that of Poe and Maupassant combined. Tragedy, Comedy, Mystery, Adventure, Romance and Humor--he knew them all, and it was with no uncertain, amateur touch, but with the strong, sure stroke of a master that he played in those varied keys. His Tragedy is grim, his Comedy light and skilful, his Mystery baffling, his Adventure absorbing, his Romance charming, and his Humor irresistible.

William Sydney Porter--for that was O. Henry's real name--was born at Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1867. His father was a doctor of ability, and something of an inventive genius. His mother wrote poetry, and her father was, at one time, a newspaper editor. There was nothing unusual about this family outfit--it was quite ordinary, in fact, and in no way explained the genius of O. Henry. Nor did his school days, nor his term of employment as a clerk in a drug store. His boyhood was like that of thousands. But, as we read of him: "In those days Sunday was a day of rest, and Porter and a friend would spend the long afternoons out on some sunny hillside sheltered from the wind by the thick brown broom sedge, lying on their backs gazing up into the blue sky dreaming, planning, talking or turning to their books and reading. He was an ardent lover of God's great out-of-doors, a dreamer, a thinker and a constant reader."

The Couriers of the Postal Service

On the New York Post Office, on a coping surmounting the portico, there is an inscription: "NEITHER SNOW NOR RAIN NOR HEAT NOR GLOOM OF NIGHT CAN STAY THESE COURIERS FROM THE SWIFT COMPLETION OF THEIR DUTY."

My attention was attracted to this last August, when passing through New York. I could not find out whence it came, until in January of this year, while at Headquarters of the 62nd French Division, at a small place named Rouez, about four miles from La Fere, on the Oise, my orderly found a volume in a rubbish heap, and as it had the appearance of having been a handsome library volume, he brought it to me, and asked if it were any good. He held it before me, open, as it was wet and muddy. On the open page I read of the line of couriers established by Xerxes. The book, although evidently long exposed to the weather, was in a good condition. As I read the words, referring to the couriers, "QUE NI LA NEIGE, NI LA PLUIE, NI LA CHALEUR, NI LA NUIT N'EMP?CHENT DE FOURNIR LEUR CARRIERE AVEC TOUTE LA CELERITE POSSIBLE" , I realized that in this "History of Herodotus," and in the couriers of Xerxes, some four hundred years before Christ, I had found the source of the inspiration for our postal service.

The Mentor in the Desert

It may be of interest to you to know that I came across a mutilated copy of The Mentor in a small outpost station in the Kalahari Desert, Southern Africa. How it ever got there, I can't tell, for the nearest railway station is several hundred miles away. The pages were a solace to me on a very tedious journey in a wagon drawn by oxen. On account of the mutilation I am unable to give you the full title of the issue of The Mentor, but I recollect that with it were four photogravures of famous composers. I further clearly remember that Beethoven was among the four. He was a favorite composer of mine, and, just at that time, I was trying to grasp the philosophy of his Ninth Symphony. Further, I can remember that I was greatly interested in the publication, so strangely come upon in this desert place, and I made a mental note that should I ever come across its home address, and conditions were more convenient, I would endeavor to become more clearly acquainted with The Mentor.

BERTRAM ADAMS, New York City

THE MENTOR

A NEW VOLUME

It gives us much pleasure to advise our friends that the sixth volume of The Mentor Library is now ready for delivery. It contains numbers one hundred and twenty-one to one hundred and forty-four inclusive, and is, in every particular, uniform with the volumes now owned by our members.

One of the great advantages of The Mentor Library is that it continues to grow from year to year--giving an endless supply of instructive and wonderfully illustrated material that it would be impossible to obtain elsewhere. As a new volume is added each year, this constitutes one of the most valuable educational sets that you could possibly own, and at a small cost.

The Volume will be forwarded to you all charges paid. You can remit .50 upon receipt of bill, and .00 a month for only six months; or a discount of 5% is allowed if payment in full is made within ten days from date of bill.

We urge you to act at once.

Very truly yours,

THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, 114-116 E. 16th St., New York

The Mentor Association, 114-116 East 16th St., New York.

Gentlemen:

I am anxious to have the new volume of The Mentor Library. Please send it to me all charges paid, and I will send you .50 upon receipt of bill and .00 per month for six months--.50 in all.

Very truly yours;

A discount of 5% is allowed if payment in full is made within 10 days from date of bill.

MAKE THE SPARE MOMENT COUNT.

Transcriber's Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors and unbalanced quotation marks were corrected.

The "Winston Churchill" discussed in this magazine was an American writer, not the British statesman.

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