Show AMONG THE WRITER I TI r Appearance f a Ne Poet anti aNew 4f New Novelist 1 THE LITERARY OUTLOOK AUTHORS A UBLHS E PECB CHEERFUL TIS = w c Brownell and Eta Criticism Socal Evening at the Pen and BrshMr oels I the Honor Hon-or of His Yonthoseph Conds 7 Sea Plans CSptlal Correspondence New York March 8711 W C Brownels tine appreciation of Thack I eray In a recent npmber or Sbnes Magazine renews the expressions of regret re-gret common after any appearuce of his that he is hear from so rarely He has an unfailing command of distnc ton whatever he writes is worth attending at-tending to but his abstemiousness Is t almost pula1cal I suppose It Is not wholly n mater of choice with him He has the usual human deIre for himself and family of keeping soul and body conjoined and that dere perfectly just as I may beIs hardly to be accomplished in this country nt the present time by means simply of high criticism In his earlier years Mr Browne1 had recourse to journalism but DOW for a good long time he has depended on his position a chief reader and literary adviser for the Bcribne publishing house This position was once held by 1r E L Burlname naB 1r Brownel entered It when ScIbners Magazine was started and Mr Burln game became Its editor With full ge eltor hard days work to be done every day In considering the manuscrIpts of other people a man has but sal strength or spirit let for the consideration of ills own and I have no doubt that 11 Brownels finding I so Is the primary rcuon for his wrItIng s little Moreover over it Is clar that although he has served his te on a daily newspaper he Is not a man who can be content to scrape things together the only satisfactory Isfactor way with him 15 to have a subject quietly grow I Is probably beaur his criticisms usually come In this sure natural way that they are su mature and penetrating alt that can be said on the subject has had time to occur to the mind and get full consJd ee A year o two ago he published In Scribners Magazine a remarkably subtle and sympathetic story of Newport New-port The fineness of he study was due in no small measure to the fact that l himself was born and rear there He is a man of middle age 47 or 48 rather quiet and reserved but with a reervE gif of keen and humorous speech and a good scholar in everl tones with a special fondness for the French a his best known work French Traits would lead one to infer There is soon to be published n volume vol-ume of poems hy Martha Gilbert Dickinson Dick-inson I wi be her lrst look but her name is already fairly well known to readers of the magazines and It Is a sedated with work ofthe highest hunt ity Miss Dickinson lives in the same town and In much the same avoidance I of publicity as did her aunt Emily Dickinson who wrote some of the most I notable poems of her time wIth scarcely anybody knowing It until after her death when the fact was discovered and the poems were published The town Is Amherst Mass where Miss Dickinsons family have been Important Import-ant people for several eneraltons having been prominently Identified with Amherst college from its foundation While she doc not hide her poems away from osslhe readers as her aunt may almost be said to have done yet In writing them she seems to have I a little thought of publication as if she did so hide them They are clear the expression of Ideas anti emotions that press for utterance and this is the secret of the fine quality that always appears In them As they appeared in the small corner of a newspaper or magazIne they bean to attract the notice no-tice of those who have fine eyes for such things and the author has already receIved cordial testimonials from the highest judges Her book will Include a number of poems that have appeared in the Atlantic the Century Scribners and Harpers hut It will also contain many that have never been published Like thot of her aunt Miss Dickinsons poetry Is all of a serious and almost solemn character but there Is n strain of hopefulness and inspiration In i that is not so obvIous In the aunts writings That prosperous young society of women writers and artists the Pen and artsts Brush club ha been especially active In Its social enterprises this winter I think I once explained that Its primary purpose was to furnish the members a comfortable and convenient resort for intervals between the regular working hours of the day But it has all along ben hospitable a well a domestic and hitS not wholly denied Its cheer to people who had not the good fortune to I be of its membershin and a few evenings I even-ings ago i gave a avowed entertain meat with formal invitations and programme and somewhat more of re freshmet than It offers at its ordinary receptions I was a uncut ini entertainment en-tertainment the set exercises consisting consist-ing in the reading of unpublished writIng writ-Ing by certain of its members I Is an ominous phrase usually that of un published writings but the thing itself it-self as discovered this night ol the Pen and Brush was altogether pleasant pleas-ant Perhaps the fat that it was so is yet another proof of the superior tact of omen for I have sat under an unfolding un-folding of uncut leaves when the re suit was anything but enlivening and when the reason for the nrrluctons that were offered being cnpubUshed was ony too obvIous The rcaers of the Pen and Brtsh by keepllS to a certain simplicity of manner and aim were I able to escape imparting any such af fiction Simplicity indeed is an all pervading virtue of the clubIs soeclal studythe desire being to make the club meet r defnite practical need with a Ite eXPense and irksomeness to the members as possible The r rooms arc not lance and the cost of furnishing furnish-Ing them has not been great and yet they are pretty and cheerful and in all respects sufcient Justified by the cordial reception of his frt book Moran of the Lady Lptty Mr ranlt Norris is now following fol-lowing it with a second cTegue a story of San Francisco There Is no locality of which Mr Norris has fuller or deeper Impression I should ay than San Francisco although he Is well acquainted with a good many and has had experlentes in one and another I that could not fail of leaving strent effects on hIs mind He remove to California In 1889 when he was a little under 20 and although ll WaS often away for considerable periods that remained re-mained practically his home until last year when he established himself hereIn here-In New York I was In California therefore that he first began to look about him for literary material and It was there that he began to write His second novel wH be found very different dif-ferent from his first but It has the same kind of attraction It starts an interest In the very first line and holds It vltholltpause to the very last and It shows I Dower and keenness in the analysis and presentation of character that arc impossible to an ordinary man But Norris is no ordinary manyou have but to look at him with hiS tall slight refined fgure and dark brood tag facet to be sure of that At prceJt 1n < rderto iiake sure d r 1veUnoadf he divIde his orkinI day Qout evenb ly between wrIng his torles ai reading read-Ing manuscripts bra publishing house 1 fancy that he wIll not keel himself In submlsfont to the later taskvery 10nse is not constructed for work of 5cli a routine order and snore over his noels axe of the kind that are likely soon to yield him large re turns and hIs power of producngnew ones Is I fancy almost unlimited Among the new ore I for sOe somE day a story of Chicago for it was there that lr Norris was born arid vased the whole of his childhood and boyhood boy-hood Perhaps he wilt yet live us something some-thing to supplement or contrast with Mr ulers novels Authors I find pretty generally com 1laIn that the war for the time very seriously Impaired theIr royalties I is what qua would Cect of course for It was a perfectly clear case that while the war lasted and for several months after its close people read almost nolh lag but newspapers The turn has come decisively enough now however There IS stm of course a good deal Writing and pubUshl on the war but there is I think only one feeling with editors and publishers and that Is that the war il no longer a fetching subject and that they must put their dependence on other themes Meanwhile the energ and hopefulness that the successful issue is-sue of the war haS Imparted to business In general appears also in the department depart-ment of publishing and the autl05 t whom the war at first worked mat embarrassment now see openiifg to them a consIderably larger opportunity than they enjoyed before the war began be-gan What the fnal fruition will De no one can as yet safely say Everybody Every-body alows that there must tome time follow a revulsion from the resent feeling of confidence but If It does not come too soon the profit acquired in the meanwhile may exceed the losS entailed en-tailed by Its doming At any rate the present mood of both authors and publishers cheerfulness pUb-lishers Is Ic should one of Daie I1 An English frIend of Joseph Conrads whom I met here the other day told me that Conrad was thinking seriously serous ly I of returning to the sea He was a captain in the merchant service before he became an author It being from experence and observation in this of flee thqt the material of his books is I mainly drawn 1terly he has been depending solely on his writings for his I livelihood and he has found I my I understanding is by no meaps a sum i dent dependence Yet of the approval cent I that is most gratifying to a mans f naWh I heart the approval of men who are acknowledged experts in his own mat tel he has had more than almost any other of the recent comers George Meredith Kipling Barrie Henley and I others of their kind express the highest I hopes of him 10reover his books have all sold fairly well I thInk I is aim I ply another Instance In proof of the I toughness even for a gifted man of the first years of a literary career But then other professions open little more easily ten ear is no unusual term for a new lawyer or new doctor to go through neatly established In getting himself indepen Between Mr Howels reports of I TheIr Wedding Journey and Their Silver Wedding ourey something more than the due Interval fails though the journeys themselves no doubt keep their proper dates I Is almost thirty I years sInce the account of Their Wedding Wed-ding Journey was given to the public I appeared In the Atlantic Monthly I at the time when Mr Howels was the assistant editor and It was his first how out lit Ohio nOvel I remember hi I they followed it with great Interest discussing the succeeding chapter In the course of afternoon calls and eve tag companies because It was his flrt and because ll Howels was art Ohio man Quite often some one appeared in these encounters who had known the young author personally while he was yet resident at Dayton Hamilton Columbus or some other of the half dozen Ohio towns tIfi can claim a share In his youthnd he was cordially cordial-ly given his moment of just distinction for the fact I is not likely that any of just this kind of interest Is pro robed by Their Silver Wedding Journey Jour-ney as i appears month by month In Harpers When a wrier has gone gone to the point of the silver wedding in his literary career he may still be attended attend-ed as eager and admiring as ever but there cannot possibly be In this attendance anything like repetton of the mingled wonder and pleasure when we discover that the young man who lived for a time up In the next block without perhaps winnIng any predlt from us for more than the fact that he vas 3 nice quIet sort of fellow fel-low Is an authoran acknowledged author au-thor The next series In Harpers Magazine Is to be by H B Marriott Watson 11 Watsons Is not a name that can be said to be well known with us although al-though he has been publishing novels In England for full ten years He Is a native of AustraUa having been born at Melbourne in 1SG At 21 pr 22 he went to England and soon engaged in journalism His first boook At the I First Corner Iarahuna appeared In isis Half a dozen have followed it the II latest being The Adventurers published pub-lished last year He once collaborated with Barrie in writing a play and he has had writing and editorial connections connec-tions with various newspapers and periodicals pe-riodicals E C MARTIN |