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tor, written by Camp Fire girls. Particulars in November WRITER.

Weekly prizes offered by the Boston Post for original short stories by women, published each day. Particulars in January WRITER.

The Boston Evening Record is paying one dollar each week day for a poem written by a Record reader.

WRITERS OF THE DAY.

A. Lincoln Bender, who wrote the story, "A One-Man Concern," in Munsey's for March, lives in Brooklyn, and says that when he is not writing he is selling advertising space by mail for the world's largest export periodical, and that this story is a direct consequence of his observations in the business world. Mr. Bender is not a college man, as he had to support a mother, three brothers, and a sister. He has been writing now for the past four years, and most of his work has gone to the Munsey periodicals and Street & Smith's publications, so that he has had stories in the People's, Top-Notch, All-Story, Detective Story Magazine, the Argosy, and Munsey's Magazine. The Chicago Ledger published a serial of his last August while he was in the army, and Short Stories, the Ten-Story Book, and one or two others have bought stories from him. Mr. Bender says that his advice to writers is to be persistent, and adds that he wrote for seven years before one little check was the result.

Frances Hathaway, whose first story, "They Called Her Annie Laurie," was published in Scribner's Magazine for March, says that the story was originally written in competition for a prize offered by the Detroit News Tribune in 1916, but, owing to a change of residence, she found she could not compete. She laid the manuscript away for a time, and then sent it to Scribner's, where it found acceptance. Mrs. Hathaway says it was natural for her to write such a story, as her father was a lighthouse keeper, and she was born and raised in a lighthouse similar to the one described in the story. Her father was also at one time one of the keepers of the isolated light referred to which is really Stannard Rock Light, rising sheer out of the water forty-five miles from land with Stannard Rock transformed into Marl Island

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to suit the purpose of the story. Mrs. Hathaway lives now on a ranch in the state of Washington.

BOOK REVIEWS.

THE WORLDS AND I. By Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Illustrated. 452 pp. Cloth, $3.50, net. New York : George H. Doran Company. 1918.

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This intimate autobiography of Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox is particularly interesting to writers, because it tells with simple frankness the details of her literary career, showing how her mother prophesied before her birth: "My child will be a girl, and she will be a writer ;. she will follow literature as a profession; she will begin young, and she will travel extensively and do all the things I have wanted to do and missed doing"; how the girl at the age of seven began writing a story on scraps of paper; how when she was nine years old she had finished a novel of ten chapters, "bound" in paper torn off the kitchen wall; how during her 'teens her literary proclivities and mental powers were influenced by reading the New York Mercury, the New York Ledger, the Waverley Magazine, Peterson's, Godey's, and Demorest's Magazine, and novels of Ouida, Mary Jane Holmes, and Mrs. Southworth; how she secured a subscription for the New York Mercury by writing some essays for the paper, and received her first check for three short poems sent to the Frank Leslie Publishing House, and from that time on earned money and gained reputation by literary work. Oft-times," she says, "I wrote four or five bits of verse (I called them poems' then) in a day. Once I wrote eight. Unless I wrote two in twenty-four hours, I felt the day was lost. I received from three to five dollars for each poem accepted, and those that failed to bring me money served to supply me with weekly or monthly periodicals, and also with more material things." Mrs. Wilcox tells how she came to publish a book of love poems, called 'Poems of Passion "I possessed more activity than caution in those days," she says. and through it became widely known, while the first proceeds from the sale of the book enabled her to rebuild and improve the old home, which was fast going to ruin. In the midst of a storm of condemnation, the people of Milwaukee gave her a reception, with a purse of five hundred dollars. This is only the beginning of a most interesting life. story, entertainingly and brightly told. Mrs. Wilcox has always been a believer in spiritual communication, and in the closing chapters of her book she tells of ouija-board messages that she says she has received from her husband in the other world. The illustrationsof the book are printed together on a coated'

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for essays on 'Spiritual Regeneration" four students' prizes of £25 each, four workers' prizes of £25 each, and one open prize of £200. Full particulars may be obtained from the Secretary, the Walker Trust, Rothes Markinch, Fife, Scotland.

Physical Culture (New York) offers each month a prize of five dollars for the best photograph published in each of the departments, the "Physique Pictorial" and the "Outdoor Pictorial," as well as payment of two dollars each for other photographs used. In addition, the editors now offer additional prizes of $100 each for the best physique photograph and the best outdoor photograph published each six months, beginning with the May number. Photographs to be eligible for the $100 prizes in the first six months must be received by August 1. To avoid copyright complications, full permission to publish must be given by the owner of negative, inscribed on the back of each photograph with name and address. Photographs should be addressed to Photograph Contest Editor, Physical Culture Magazine, 119 West Fortieth street, New York.

The management of the Copley Repertory Theatre, Boston, regrets to announce that none of the plays submitted in its prize contest has been found practical for production by the Henry Jewett Players. Several hundred manuscripts were received by the management and carefully read and considered by the judges. Many of them revealed exceptional skill at construction and the effective telling of a dramatic narrative, but it was impossible to select any one of them that fully met the requirements of the competition.

An award of one thousand dollars is offered by Mrs. Coolidge, of Pittsfield, Mass., for the best sonata or suite for piano and viola. The prize composition will be performed at the Berkshire Festival of Chamber Music next year. The contest will close July 15, 1919. There are no restrictions as to nationality any one may enter the contest, but no composition will be accepted that has previously been published or performed in public. Manuscripts must be marked with a

pen name, and accompanied with an envelope, sealed, and containing the pen name and the composer's name and address. No composition which has already won a prize in any contest will be received. Music will be returned at the composer's expense.

Prize offers still open :

Prize of $500 to be awarded by the Society of Arts & Sciences (New York) to the author of the best short story published in America during 1919. Par ticulars in April WRITER.

Prizes of $1,000, $6co, and $400 offered by the American Sunday-School Union (Philadelphia) for the best book manuscripts on specified subjects offered before December 1, 1919. Particulars in April WRITER.

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Prize of $100 offered by the Engineering Company of America (35 West Thirty-ninth street, New York) for the best story on the subject, America in War and Peace," using all the 6,221 different words used by President Wilson in the delivery of his seventy-five addresses, 1913-1918. The words are given in the " Victory White House Vocabulary," a copy of which the Engineering Company will send on request.

Prize of $1,000 offered by the National Industrial Conference Bureau for the best essay or monograph on any one of eight different economic subjects submitted before July 1, 1919. Particulars in March WRITER.

Seven prizes, ranging from $500 to $50, offered by Physical Culture, for the best Personal Efficiency stories submitted before June I. Particulars in March WRITER.

Prize of $100 offered by the Manuscript Society of Philadelphia for a cantata on the subject of Peace. Particulars in March WRITER.

Prizes of $15, $10, and $5 offered by the American Sunday School Union for the best, the second-best, and the third-best article, stimulating smaller Sunday schools to become bigger and better, offered by June 1. Particulars in February WRITER.

Prizes offered by Poetry (Chicago) for the best work printed in the magazine during the year October, 1918 September, 1919. Particulars in December WRITER.

Prize of $100 offered by Poetry (Chicago), as a mark of distinction, like a scholarship, to be awarded in November to the unknown poet among its contributors who most deserves and needs the stimulus of such a reward. Particulars in March WRITER. Prizes offered by American Ambition (Philadel phia) in comedy-drama, short story, song, and other

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tor, written by Camp Fire girls. Particulars in November WRITER.

Weekly prizes offered by the Boston Post for original short stories by women, published each day. Particulars in January WRITER.

The Boston Evening Record is paying one dollar each week day for a poem written by a Record reader.

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WRITERS OF THE DAY.

A. Lincoln Bender, who wrote the story, A One-Man Concern," in Munsey's for March, lives in Brooklyn, and says that when he is not writing he is selling advertising space by mail for the world's largest export periodical, and that this story is a direct consequence of his observations in the business world. Mr. Bender is not a college man, as he had to support a mother, three brothers, and a sister. He has been writing now for the past four years, and most of his work has gone to the Munsey periodicals and Street & Smith's publications, so that he has had stories in the People's, Top-Notch, All-Story, Detective Story Magazine, the Argosy, and Munsey's Magazine. The Chicago Ledger published a serial of his last August while he was in the army, and Short Stories, the Ten-Story Book, and one or two others have bought stories from him. Mr. Bender says that his advice to writers is to be persistent, and adds that he wrote for seven years before one little check was the result.

Frances Hathaway, whose first story, "They Called Her Annie Laurie," was published in Scribner's Magazine for March, says that the story was originally written in competition for a prize offered by the Detroit News Tribune in 1916, but, owing to a change of residence, she found she could not compete. She laid the manuscript away for a time, and then sent it to Scribner's, where it found acceptance. Mrs. Hathaway says it natural for her to write such a story, as her father was a lighthouse keeper, and she was born and raised in a lighthouse similar to the one described in the story. Her father was also at one time one of the keepers of the isolated light referred to which is really Stannard Rock Light, rising sheer out of the water forty-five miles from land with Stannard Rock transformed into Marl Island

-

was

77

to suit the purpose of the story. Mrs. Hathaway lives now on a ranch in the state of Washington.

BOOK REVIEWS.

11

THE WORLDS AND I. By Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
lustrated.
452 pp. Cloth, $3.50, net. New York:
George H. Doran Company. 1918.

This intimate autobiography of Mrs. Ella
Wheeler Wilcox is particularly interesting to
writers, because it tells with simple frankness.
the details of her literary career, showing how
her mother prophesied before her birth: "My
child will be a girl, and she will be a writer ;
she will follow literature as a profession;
she will begin young, and she will travel ex-
tensively and do all the things I have wanted
to do and missed doing"; how the girl at
the age of seven began writing a story on
scraps of paper; how when she was nine
years old she had finished a novel of ten chap-
ters, "bound" in paper torn off the kitchen
wall; how during her 'teens her literary pro-
clivities and mental powers were influenced
by reading the New York Mercury, the New
York Ledger, the Waverley Magazine, Peter-
son's, Godey's, and Demorest's Magazine, and
novels of Ouida, Mary Jane Holmes, and Mrs.
Southworth; how she secured a subscription
for the New York Mercury by writing some
essays for the paper, and received her first
check for three short poems sent to the Frank
Leslie Publishing House, and from that time-
on earned money and gained reputation by
literary work. Oft-times," she says, "I
wrote four or five bits of verse (I called
them poems' then) in a day. Once I wrote
eight. Unless I wrote two in twenty-four
hours, I felt the day was lost. I received
from three to five dollars for each poem ac-
cepted, and those that failed to bring me
money served to supply me with weekly or
monthly periodicals, and also with more mate-
rial things." Mrs. Wilcox tells how she came
to publish a book of love poems, called
"Poems of Passion - "I possessed more
activity than caution in those days," she says.
and through it became widely known,
while the first proceeds from the sale of the
book enabled her to rebuild and improve the
old home, which was fast going to ruin. In
the midst of a storm of condemnation, the
people of Milwaukee gave her a reception,
with a purse of five hundred dollars. This is
only the beginning of a most interesting life-
story, entertainingly and brightly told.
Wilcox has always been a believer in spiritual
communication, and in the closing chapters
of her book she tells of ouija-board mes-
sages that she says she has received from her
husband in the other world. The illustrations.
of the book are printed together on a coated'

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Mrs.

paper at the end of the volume, instead of being scattered through it, and thus, by making comparison easy, are much more effective.

THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1918, AND THE YEARBOOK OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY. Edited by Edward J. O'Brien. 441 pp. Cloth, $1.60, net. Boston Small, Maynard, & Co. 1919.

Mr. O'Brien's year-book of the American short story has come to be regarded as a standard publication, and the appearance of the annual volume is greeted with a general welcome. The latest issue reprints the twenty magazine stories published in 1918 that Mr. O'Brien regards as the best, making of themselves a book of 332 pages that is sure to be attractive to the general reader. Writers may study these stories to advantage, and they will be especially interested also in the remainder of the volume, devoted to the yearbook of American short stories for 1918, the features of which are a list of the addresses of fifty-six American magazines publishing short stories; a roll of honor for American short stories for 1918, giving brief biographies of nearly one hundred American short story writers, and an honor list of about thirty foreign writers; a bibliography and critical summary of the best books of short stories published in 1918; a critical summary of the best sixty American short stories of the year; a list of about one hundred and fifty articles on the short story published last year; tables of magazine articles, showing the number of stories published in 1918 in various publications; and indexes of short stories published last year, in books and periodicals, covering the work of something like eleven hundred authors.

poets and poetry; criticisms of some important volumes of poems published in 1918; and a biographical index of more than seventy leading poets.

AMERICAN AUTHORSHIP OF THE PRESENT-DAY. By T. E. Rankin. 121 pp. Cloth. Ann Arbor, Mich. : George Wahr. 1918.

Mr. Rankin's little book, written primarily for his students at the University of Michigan, to whose "eager spirit in search of good reading" he acknowledges indebtedness in the preface of the volume, discusses American writers who have been active in the last thirty years, and nearly two hundred names are listed in the index. Some information is given about the writers mentioned, and in each case there is a brief characterization of the author's work. A chapter is devoted to the literature of Canada, and a table of about a hundred American authors gives dates of birth and of death, if the authors are no longer living and in each case the title and date of a representative work.

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WITH OLD GLORY IN BERLIN. By Josephine
Therese. Illustrated. 319 pp. Cloth, $2.00. net.
Boston The Page Company. 1918.

"With Old Glory in Berlin" is the story of a young American girl who went to Germany as a music student in the fall of 1916, lived in Berlin for thirteen months, and made her escape eight months after America entered the world war. She went to Germany not as an observer, simply to study music, a girl of nineteen with no prejudice against the German people, and accustomed to hearing her mother of American birth and her father, who was born in Poland, speak German occasionally in her American home. The story of her experiences, in an atmosphere of Chauvinism, militarism, and ṣuspicion, is one of thrilling interest, and gives the reader valuable information about the real nature of the German people. Mr.

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AN ANTHOLOGY OF MAGAZINE VERSE FOR 1918, AND YEAR BOOK OF AMERICAN POETRY. Edited by Wil liam Stanley Braithwaite. 285 pp. Cloth, $2.00, net. Boston: Small, Maynard, & Co. 1918. to A worthy companion volume O'Brien's annual book of the best American short stories is the "Anthology of Magazine Verse, and Year-Book of American Poetry" brought out annually by William Stanley Braithwaite. The whole series of these annual volumes, beginning with that for 1913, is now published by Small, Maynard, & Co. The 1918 volume devotes 160 pages to printing the best poems of the year, and lovers of poetry will find in it a very interesting collection. The main feature of the remainder of the volume, devoted to the "Year-Book of American Poetry," is an index of poets and of poems published last year in American magazines, covering more than fifty pages and listing about 1,000 poets. Other features are a list of articles and reviews of poets and poetry published last year a bibliography of volumes of poetry published in 1918; a select list of books about

"To

eliminate the Hohenzollerns," Miss Therese says, "is not enough. Something terrible has to be torn from the people's very nature, for the cancerous growth of militarism is not on the surface, but has infiltrated through the whole body of the German empire." For a young woman Miss Therese shows remarkable clear-sightedness, and her involuntary observations, begun with an inclination to see the best there was in Germany, gave her an intimate knowledge of the mind and heart of the German people. She has written an illuminating book.

HOW TO LIVE. Rules for healthful living, based on modern science. By Professor Irving Fisher and Eugene Lyman Fisk, M.D. 461 pp. Fifteenth edition, completely revised and considerably enlarged. Cloth, $1.50, net. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. 1919.

So great has been the success of this popular health book, written in collaboration by

Professor Fisher, chairman of the Hygiene Reference Board of the Life Extension Institute, and Dr. Fisk, the medical director of the Institute, that fourteen editions have been exhausted, and the publishers have brought out this wholly new edition. The book embodies the central idea of the Institute, which is to analyze, criticise, and correct current habits of living, and its value is such that it is not strange that within three years more than 100,000 copies have been sold. In this new edition the authors have added one hundred pages that bring the book right up to the minute. Recent improvements in medicine and hygiene are covered and problems brought up by the war are discussed. Many illustrations and diagrams have been added and a number of helpful exercises are included. The whole subject of hygiene, personal and general, is exhaustively treated. Writers will find in the book many helpful suggestions. Under the heading "Food," for instance, the authors say: "It is physical, not mental, work which uses up the greater part of our food. The common impression

that brain-work or expenditure of mental energy creates a special need for food is er

roneous.

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JOHN MCCRAE, Author of "In Flanders Field." With portrait. American Review of Reviews for April.

INTERNATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE Lowell CenTENARY. Current Opinion for April.

WAR AND

THE FUTURE OF WORLD LITERATURE.

Current Opinion for April. CLEMENCEAU AND HIS LITERARY WILD OATS. With portrait. Current Opinion for April.

JAMES BRANCH CABELL. With portrait. Current Opinion for April.

AMERICA'S MOST RETICENT WRITER (Arthur Cosslett Smith ). Vincent Starrett. Current Opinion for April.

THE DESPISED ART OF FICTION. "K. M. D." Author (London) for April.

FLETCHER. With portrait. John R. Coryell. Health Culture for March. AMELIA E. BARR. With portrait. Bookseller, Newsdealer, and Stationer for March 15.

HORACE The sedentary brain-worker often gains weight without eating very much. What he really needs is exercise to use up the food, but if he will not take exercise, then he should reduce his food, even below the small amount on which he gains weight."

BOOKS RECEIVED:

[THE WRITER is pleased to receive for review any books about authors, authorship, language, or literary topics or any books that would be of real value in a writer's library, such as works of reference, history, biography, or travel. There is no space in the magazine for the review of fiction. poetry, etc. All books received will be acknowledged under this heading. Selections will be made for review in the interest of THE WRITER's readers.] LITERATURE. THE EROTIC MOTIVE IN By Albert Mordell. 250 pp. Cloth, $1.75, net. New York: Boni & Liveright. 1919. THE ART OF PHOTOPLAY WRITING. By E. F. Barker. 100 pp. Paper, $1.00. St. Louis Colossus Publishing Company. 1917.

PROBLEMS OF ADVERTISING. Addresses by George W. Eads. N. A. Huse, and M. T. Linn. 20 pp. Paper. Columbia. Mo.: University of Missouri School of Journalism. 1918. BY RIGHT OF SWORD. A defence of capital punishment, based on a searching examination of history, theology, and philosophy. Bv Leigh H. Irvine. 164 pp. New York: The Baker & Taylor Company. 1915.

LITERARY ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS.

[ Readers who send to the publishers of the periodicals indexed for copies of the periodicals containing the articles mentioned in the following reference list will confer a favor if they will mention THE WRITER.]

LITERATURE AND MORALS. An imaginary conversa. tion. George Moore. Century for May.

THE PLAYWRIGHT AND THE PLAYER. Brander Matthews. Scribner's for April.

THE TIDE IN THE WAR-POETS' INSPIRATION. Literary Digest for March 22.

ITALY'S SOLDIER POETS. Literary Digest for March 22.

ALABAMA'S NEGLECTED LITERATURE. gest for March 22.

Literary Di

GERMAN LITERATURE SINCE 1914. for March 29.

Literary Digest

HOLIDAYS ΤΟ RELIEVE "INTELLECTUAL INDIGESTION." Reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association in the Literary Digest for March 29. LOWELL'S ENGLISH ACCENTS. Literary Digest for April 5.

MARSHAL FOCH SCHOLARSHIP FOR THE STUDY OF FRENCH LITERATURE. Literary Digest for April 5. WALT MASON, FAMOUS PROSE POET, MISFIT UNTIL MIDDLE AGE. Reprinted in part from the American Magazine in the Literary Digest for April 12. ROSTAND'S CHICAGO RIVAL ( Samuel Eberly Gross). Jerome A. Hart. Bellman for April 5.

WHAT IS AN EDITOR? Bellman for April 19. MAETERLINCK'S "BURGOMASTER OF STILEMONDE." Montrose J. Moses. Bellman for April 19.

USE AND MISUSE OF WORDS. A. H. Lockwood. Fourth Estate for April 19.

NEWS AND NOTES.

The Canadian parliament is considering a new Canadian copyright bill, the text of which was published in full in the Publishers' Weekly (New York) for April 5.

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