Show A YANKEE COLONY The List of American Authors in the British Capital WHY THEY LIKE LONDON Chats With Eugene Field and Harold Frederic What the Well Known Lltcra teurs are Doine LONDON Nov y 1590Special correspondence cor-respondence of THE HEKALDJ No other actor at least of this day has ever enjoyed so many graceful and unique conditions of life as Henry Irving He seems to be the sponsor of all that is good and the careful critic of all that is offered in theatrical life The personality of this actor reaches far beyond his theatre and its audiences and touches a great deal that is worthy of thought Only the other day the Queen of Roumania came all the way to London to read him a play She was the guest of Victoria at Balmoral and came direct from the royal household to sit in judgment before an actor and a few friends This was a privilege accorded to but few sovereigns for the play was a long one and to listen to the reading of the best of dramas is a task Carmen Sylvia from the Queens pen was applauded for its literal lit-eral y merit and dramatic strength but it will probably never be produced even though it comes from the royal hands because be-cause it lacks that essential element which pleases the actor and the actress and gives them a chance for a display of their powers A photograph of the scene while the Queen was reading her manuscript to Mr Irving Miss Terry and a number of others would be an interesting souvenir of that new condition of the drama which has taken it away from the realm of vagaoond ism and made it one of the high professions of the day But it is not of dramatists asa as-a class that this event recalls itself to my mind It is of writers abroad in particular that this incident is valuable to me as illustrating illus-trating how wide a range literary ambition is now taking in the old world It reaches all the way from the struggling pennya liner to the royal household where plenty gives time and comfort to those who work with the pen No place that I have ever visited shows such restful conditions for literary effort as London and its vicinitv and I doubt if there is any one where there Is a better market for what is accomplished with the pen and certainly there is none where the compensations of association are greater or more delightful These thoughts are suggested by finding to many American writers in and about the British capital There are a number of them of greater or less note who are workIng work-Ing away here and accomplishing considerable consider-able They find so much to write about find life runs along on such an even keel hat it is easy to do three times the work here as in the new world where everybody Is on the hustle and everyone anxious to become a millionaire in a day Unless you Btrike some occasion of great moment it is rery difficult to find any number of the American colony of writers together Each i pno hides himself or herself away in some kuiet locality where they are as secluded is though they were in the woods and only each the great centres of action now and hen The topical American writer now here I a is Isaac Henderson whose H Agatha Page and The Prelate are so well remembered 1 believe he comes from down in New England Eng-land somewhere but has spent a great deal of time in New York His father was once the publisher of the Evening Post but Mr Henderson has always devoted himself to literary labor and has traveled abroad a great deal He is rich able to entertain handsomely and his doors are open to every reputable American who knows anything or does anything in the realm of letters I He is very popular with his countrymen who come here and Eugene Field voiced tome to-me the general sentiment when he said Dont fail to see Isaac Henderson He knows everybody and a great many things Mr Henderson is just in the prime of life being just forty I believe and works just enough on his new books to keep him close to his profession Henry James is the oldest in actual commission com-mission of any of the American writers now in this metropolis of the world But flo has been so many years on this side of the water and mingled so little with Americans Amer-icans that he has almost lost his identity among them Hr Howells and himself are I very fond of each other and every now and then keep the communion alive by each declaring de-claring the other to be the greatest of American Amer-ican novelists Mr James is the son of a clergyman and came from up about Albany New York He leads an exceedingly quiet Life and is rarely seen in the haunts of men His income is ample to permit him to do as he pleases and his position so well fixed asa as-a high literary character that he need care very little about what his countrymen mayor may-or may not think of him In fact that is exactly the position most American writsrs obtain before they have been hero very lone loneEugene Field that wonderfully bright poet story teller philosopher wit and journalist of the breezy wosthas been here for more than a year and expects to stay sometime longer The conditions of this life seem to fit him quite as well as they do the more aesthetic of our tribe who paddle I over here Meeting him the other day I I asked him what he was doing His reply was characteristic I came to Europe to get rid of a malignant malig-nant attack of nervous dyspepsia I have been here a year and am practically well think I shall be here about six months longer Since coming I have written eighty seven letters to my paper and have written writ-ten seventy pieces of verse I have also published two short tales about eighty thousand words each I am now writing a short story of mountain life and I shall write one Christmas story I have three more pretentious tales on the docks I have collected about one hundred and fifty subjects sub-jects for lyrics and shall treat them as I feel like doing so for I write verse only when in the mood for it Meanwhile I intend in-tend to send my paper at least two letters a week As I do not particularly like letter let-ter writing I have been surprised to see my letters so generally quotedat Home I have rather a good knowledge of London and have done Germany and Holland pretty thoroughly I have become interested in German poetry somewhat and have made a number of versified translations Before returning home I shall visit Paris and Ireland Ire-land Scribners Sons have just published two books for me one entitled A Little Book of Western verse and the other A Little Book of Profitable Tales I have material for three other volumes of average aver-age size Wilson Barrett urging me to collaborate with him in the production of two American plays and he guarantees mea me-a considerable sum of money But I have little ambition either for money or for dramatic dra-matic success Contented with this exhibition of years labor Mr Field sits himself quietly down out in Kensington and is doing some of the best work of his life In fact of all the men doing business from here with newspapers news-papers in the United States Mr Field is by far the most successful and yet he is the same singular character in thought and action as he was before he rubbed up against the lions of a foreign life He lives very quietly and mingles very little with = bu the great outside world that is so largely represented Notwithstanding his denial de-nial that he is going to write two plays with Wilson Barrett I believe he will and I doubt if he returns to the United States for many many months to come Isnt it singular that with mos all of the Americans working in London few if any of them sell their products here Many of them could readily find a market but their demands from the United States are such that they have about all they can do to sit here and write American subjects for an American market Productions of the pen I seem to be worth more money from here than as if done at home and it is so much easier to gather material and write it that every year a number of Americans who earn money with their pen will increase Think of Bronsan Howard living here in his own home and at work on a now Amer can drama which he will have ready in the spring and which Charles Frohman has secured se-cured the American rights for He came here to see about producing Shenandoah took a new notion and set down to work He has traveled much sincehe reached this side of the water and is said to have gathered gath-ered some material for a play based on European life and scenes Harold Frederick has been here for seven years and more and besides doing his newspaper news-paper work has turned out a new book almost al-most every year He is about the only one of the regular newspaper representatives who do much work outside of their weekly work His local market here is very considerable con-siderable but his books are printed in New York The Lawton Girl is his latest novel but the greatest piece of work from his pen is the life of the present German Emperor which is just out He has a desire de-sire to write other works of a similar character char-acter about other P nntpnfrntpc Rut T doubt if he ever gets his heart quite as much in anything of like character as he has done in his estimate of the life and character of the present ruler of Germany I asked him why it was that so many people preferred to do their work in London His answer wasBecause it is the best atmosphere in the world for literary endeavor More men of like thoughts and desires can be reached here in less time than in any other place in the world Everything is agreeable Everyone is polite All ones surroundings tend to make him happy and contented Living is cheap and there is less friction here than in any other centre I have ever known You can keep in the swim or out of it just as you please without losing your place in any given sphere When one has made a place in the world it is worth something some-thing and money is not the only god that everyone worships Then there are greater opportunities for those who want to do literary lit-erary work than at home because there is a wide market that is never filled Bret Harte has been here a number of years and will probably never return to the United States He leads a rather secluded se-cluded life and Americans see very little of him I met nim down at Brighton and the veteran seemed to be enjoying himself better bet-ter than in the Roaring Camp of out far west He does not pretend to do very much work any more Years of success have brought him contentment and he seems willing to enjoy the remaining days as a compensation for the struggles of his early life Like most other writers from the new world his stories are sold at home but his books are more widely read here than in the United States In fact this is a bookbuying country and that is the reason why so many people of all classes are trying to write something that will strike the popular taste Poetry doesnt have anything like the chance in England that it has in the United States and there are less poets but the people who are ambitious to write good stories and descriptive matter are as numerous as the sands of the sea Harry Harland who hides his real name under the nom de plume of Sidney Luska is a popular representative of American literary life His publisher told me the other day that his book As It Was Written had a greater sale than any first work from the pen of an American author I His MrsPoixada has also been a success and Mr Harland is fully within a strong literary career He has so far dwelt upon the Jewish life of New York but is branching branch-ing out into other themes He is the youngest of the American colony of writers being less than 301 believe I Moncuree D Conway still divides his time between writing and preaching His latest effort in the literary line is a Life of Hawthorne which has been well spoken of It is not so many years ago i since I remember Mr Conway as a newspaper news-paper writer but ho seems to have dropped out of journalism and to have gone into what may be called the contented sphere of writing He is another example of the wellknown fact that as soon as a man gets to writing books or essays he dislikes journalistic work That is because the last is exacting and the first easy In weaving stories one can put off until tomorrow to-morrow what ought to bo done to day Newspaper work has its exactions every hour The Virginia writer Thomas Nelson Page was discovered along Pall Mall attending at-tending to a little business and gathering some material for future use Mr Page does not get away from his home in the Old Dominion very often even to reach New York and a trip to London is unusual un-usual That is why he enjoyed himself and met many of the literary characters here of whom he had so often read and many of whom had read of him In fact this mutual recognition of each others work is ono of the charms either to a journalist or a man of letters Wo are all of us more or less vain and to be recognized recog-nized as having done somethingthat is remembered re-membered is great comfort Mrs Frances Hodgson Burnett was here a art nf the summer but vent t n the nnn L U VO v w UJ UUV uu tinent with her dying boy She is doing nothing whatever in a literary way her home sorrows destroying all her abilities to use her pen Louise Imogene Gurney is anew Amer iian poetess who has been s3eing considerable consider-able of London life this summer She is here like tharest of them to get new subjects sub-jects for lyrics A Oakey Hall who used to be mayor of New York in the old Tweed days can be seen along the Strand almost every day still looking well and hearty He has a quiet home and seems to be very well contented con-tented with life declaring that a man can buy a great deal in England for what he earns and does not seem to want as much as in the United States There are other American writers doing more or less work of different kinds among whom I recall Blanche Roosevelt who was once stage struck tried to make a success as an opera singer and then wrote a popular popu-lar book called StageStruck to illustrate the disappointments and curiosities of the boards She is married now but is doing more or less literary work for amusement or pin money doubtless the latter as she married a baron with a queer title It is becoming really a popular custom with busy men with the pen to run over here gather a lot of material and then go home and write but it is a fact that no American writer who has come here and stayed any length of time ever want so return re-turn Their testimony is that living is so cheap and all the requisites of literary life so numerous that it is easy to stay here and be contented FRANK A BUKR |