Show THE ith 1 1 LITERARY i i OUTLOOK i BY HERBERT H BREWSTER I rp fp lIE aE bacilli of authorship seems to toI I 1 I 1 be mysteriously my transmitted j v printed page liage eto to th to average reader read r Few Fen are re Immune The ink fever feyer hits has many victims S And bev bes b e 1 i cause cauS this Is so there th re will wm always be bem many m who take seriously the learned lear ed i i articles atM les which hi h appear from time to time on the subject c of 1 SoW How to be a Novelist Several English authors have recently given views on the mat matter matter ter teg and the diversity of opinion among them Indicates at least the general i ivalue value of directions to successful writ Tit j ing 1 Mr William Le Qua believes that one should write fult out ofa o wide expert experience experience ence with life which experience is to tobe tobe j be gained only by much travel tra L O 0 E Eo EW EoW BW I W Mason and E B F Benson however 1 say that there Is no need of ot travel Mr Quiller QuEller Couch also affirms that one can cannot cannot not become a novelist through follow rollow following ing lug the rules laid down by Mr Le Mr r Frankfort Moore recommends ds the writing of boys boS books as a i ifor for tor the novelist because directness dir of or j narration Is thus cultivated and an another another other writer goes On to say sa that he h j buld wb ld rather take tak a boys abos opinion pi on as to the possible success success of a new ne work than that of any publisher reader or critic crIth The former statement has the ring of or truth In it ft it but th the latter was doubtless written n hurriedly and not revised A boys heys opinion n on a boys bos book would be valuable but tot for to a boy to t judge of ot the quality of ot some books for the adult adul would be as foolish as to expect the first year Latin student to 10 appreciate the thu rj and beauty of Horace Mr lr 11 Tom Gallon who has just pub published The Man dan Before puts It down as a n qualification q that the novelist must m sl t have studied Ute lift at first hand Neil Munro says that the th novelist no is s born bora t not made The unfortunate part of ofIs this Is opinion Is that it Is too often shared by the beginners each of whom horn whom x Imagines that such was aS his happy fate tat at jt birth bl h anft aisi t that af the world orl orld has hail re refused reused used fused to see his greatness since Max Pemberton Insists on ott having a astory story to tell ten Barry Pain waggishly ad advises advise vise vises the tha aspirant to write wrIt a novel which shall shaU become becom popular Hamlin Garland Garl nd Cy Warman Stewart Edward White OWen Often Wisler and a host of ot western arid and a d southern rn writers of our own country believe that one should hould first live 11 the th life and then tell It truly Booth exclaims You must see it first but you mar mav see It In your yen Minds eye Curiously enough Mr pictures all aU ot of his stories out first on nfl p i br and then pro proceeds to the writing dUng Wasn t it Kipling who said saidi There Th re rear ar 40 ways WaS of ef in tribal Ja ays s sand and every one e of them is right t There is a young lawyer wS er r about boutto to t take tah vernor Altgeld place In a prominent prominent nent neat Chicago law firm named Mr Brand Whitlock who vho besides being a capable bl lawyer deserves also to be ranked as one of ot the best nest political fiction fic dc fiction tion writers living hiving The truth of this statement has doubtless been impressed upon tIm the minds of many who have h e read r a his short rt stories in i the magazines though the th fact escaped aped the notice of Q many No one however who reads The he Thirteenth District Di will wUl mistake the authors standing for Cor this first book books J is s a wonderful picture of ot one phase of politics and the story which runs through the book has bas all nih the elements of actuality Indeed In Mr r Whitlocks high standing st b Ing at t a political l fictionist comes from the fact tact that he writes po political utica tUcal truth His nis Characterizations hara t in inThe InThe InThe The Thirteenth District are doubtless pen portraits Once the author aut or allows himself an expression of o his appreciation apprecIation tion of Alt geld under a n thinly veiled guise guiseMe Mr MI Whitlock k t was as for kr several s eral years ears a newspaper man working In Chicago and also in Springfield as legislative correspondent In his first long story he has chosen the Thirteenth district of ot Illinois and the tale relates the rise progress and downfall of a congress congressman man The Th book has not been b n nize properly as yet bat it wilt be iIi future r work Of fit the author may I be with much expedition expectation I The only reason for mentioning CA A Girl of Virginia ini by Lucy M L Thurs Thurston Thurston ton is to call cali attention to the tendency hf bf young writers s to make a novel out of ot just enough n ugh material m for a short story Of ourse course there Is need for many writers to save 5 ve their energies to keep as a many plots ahead head as possible but the result cases is very ery bad Iii Id the present instance one feels that the author has libeled the girls of oE Virginia by byc calling her heroine one of them 2 Webster formerly ot of South Africa In the consular service and ana au later latera lateri a i d Boer Beer lecturer r In this country is said to claim that the roy TOY royalties on his Boer Bo r war wa book have tl If royalty fO r u was 10 per cent this would mean copies Perhaps however Mr Davis DaYIs received r 20 0 per cent dent on lila his Vork in which case copies of his first work were word purchased p ed Evidently remarks rem a a sympathetic ones one on there was some conspiracy cy against t Mr Davis Dal for forat at n tint time has his hla book booken been en hailed hail daS as a first seller seHer by the deal dealers dealers ers Perhaps S Mr Davis aiS was ivas merely misquoted What he probably meant was i that he h had received d in itt royal ties Apropos Ap os of the recent publication of ofa ofa a life of William imam Black Bl CIt the novelist i the British Medical Journal gives some Interesting sung comment I merit on the We writers niters habit a of consulting c specialists regarding the diseases of his charac characters tens He H had h d a horror of carelessness and work he never neer sub subjected j t d one of ot his hI characters to any abnormal conditions without satisfying himSelf that his description of ot thos thoSe conditions ns was as scientifically ally accurate Accordingly we do tot rot find in Blacks hOvel n el such s h absurdities as U the U e use ot the stomach pump puni in the treatment tr o or of poisoning by the hypodermic injection or morphine as aa described d the other day d 1 by the author 0 ot Of a It story appearing in ina ina Ina a recent cent magazine or classed with the pleura the thorax and th the clavicle as parts DartS of f the human anat anatomy amy omy Om as Is ts s done in Mr George W Ca Cables bles bler latest novel The Cavalier I Iia It Itis ia is 1 not t every novelist of ot course who kho can aU In any an difficulty appeal to one of f the shining lights of t tf medical science p But all aIl can an use reasonable rea care car not nol to togo togo togo go wildly wrong Gustave Flaubert who had himself studied medicine m took extraordinary pains to get medical de cia details d tails taUs accurate and M 31 Zola Z ln as might be expected laboriously gets up his facts Thus when he wishes to de describe d scribe the thin death de th of Nana Nah from front small email smallpox smallpox pox we find him writing to a friend fot for fotr reference ference r to detailed descriptions of the th disease But although his hia industry in hi collecting documents Is beyond praise in medical l matters he Is Iii too apt a t to rely on the light of nature for their th lt Inter Interpretation Pr Hence H nce as in LoUrdes Bis Ii craving cr big mg for realistic effect strained trained s by practical knowledge knowle ge of ot skilled advice makes him draw pic pie pictures tures of disease which have hae no coun counterpart counterpart counterpart In hi clinical or pathological fact In Itt connection with his subject may be re mentioned that not long tong ago an Ameri Amen American American can novelist thought himself exceed exceedIngly because his family doctor of o whom fee he e had bad sought sou ht counsel as to the right manner of ot disposing of one of the creatures of o his fancy afterward gent hiat a Wit bUt for Gl al serVices cervices W novelist d J any an right on t tie the part mart of 9 th to Tto ask him hint t te write a short st ty ry for nothing |