prizes, one of $1,000 and one of $500, for a symphonic work for orchestra, not to exceed eighteen minutes in length. The competition is open to all composers who are American citizens, regardless of their nativity, and will close October 1, 1920. Further details may be obtained from the secretary of the Society, 33 West Forty-second street. New York.

Milady Beautiful (Chicago) offers a prize of ten dollars for the best success story written by a woman, five dollars for the next best, and two dollars each for all others accepted.

Wohelo (New York) wants photographs of Camp Fire Girls' activities, and will pay two dollars each month for the best photograph submitted. The date when the photograph is submitted, the name of the Camp Fire and the Guardian's name, and the town in which the Camp Fire is located must be on each picture. Shiny prints should be sent when possible, and the pictures will be judged on their subject matter and artistic photography.

The Boston Post offers weekly prizes of ten dollars, five dollars, and two dollars for the best short stories, written by women, published each day in the Post. Stories should not exceed 1,000 words. Writers should indicate whether they are married or single, and should use neither their initials, nor their husbands' given names.

Prize offers still open :

Prizes in Letters offered by the Columbia University School of Journalism: For the best American novel published this year, $1,000; for the best play performed in New York, $1,000; for the best book of the year on United States history. $1,000 ; for the best American biography, $1,000. Also, Prizes in Journalism, amounting to $3.500 and a $500 medal, and three traveling scholarships having a value of $1,500 each. All offered annually under the terms of the will of Joseph Pulitzer. Particulars in April WRITER.

Prize of $3,000 offered by Physical Culture (New York) for the best novel, to be published as a serial, received before October I, 1920. Particulars August WRITER.

in

Prizes of $1,000 offered by Physical Culture in two contests (1) for the best manuscripts on "What Is

the Ideal Diet?" offered before July 1, (2) for the best letters on "What I Have Learned about Bringing up Children," offered before August 1. Particulars in April WRITER.

Second Physical Culture six-months' photo prize contest $100 for the best photograph received before November and five dollars for the best photograph each month. Particulars in April WRITER.

Prize of $500 offered by Oliver Morosco for the best play written before October 1 by a past or present member of Professor Baker's courses in play. writing at Radcliffe and Harvard. Particulars in April WRITER.

American Historical Association prize of $250 for the best essay on American military history submitted before July 1, 1920. Particulars in September WRITER.

Two prizes, each of $200. offered by the American Historical Association the Justin Winsor prize for

--

a monograph on American history, and the Herbert Baxter Adams prize for a monograph on the history of the Eastern Hemisphere. Particulars in April WRITER.

Hart, Schaffner, & Marx prizes of $2,000 for the four best studies in the economic field submitted before June 1, 1920. Particulars in July WRITER.

I'rize of $2,000 for the best essay on "The Control of the Foreign Relations of the United States : the Relative Rights, Duties, and Responsibilities of the President, of the Senate and the House, and of the Judiciary, in Theory and in Practice," offered by the American Philosophical Society. Competition to close December 31, 1920. Particulars in July WRITER.

Prize of $1,000 for a new air for the Yale song, Bright College Years," offered by the Yale class of 1899. Particulars in April WRITER.

National Municipal League prize of $250 for the best essay on a subject connected with Municipal Government, contest closing September 15, 1920. Particulars in February WRITER.

Prize of $2,000 offered by the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris for the two best essays on "Tolerance in Economics, Religion, and Politics." Particulars in February WRITER.

Prize of fifty dollars for the best list of twentyfive sentences selected from books of standard authors; and a prize of fifty dollars for the best list of twenty-five similes. selected from great prose writers or poets, offered by Grenville Kleiser. All lists must be mailed by June 1. Particulars in March WRITER.

E. A. Karlsen prizes of $1,000 and $500 for the most meritorious papers on the subject, "What Can a Man Afford," announced by the American Economic Association, to be submitted by October 31. Particulars in January WRITER.

Gratuity prize of £100 for the best reputed story published in 1920 by the London publisher, Herbert Jenkins. Particulars in October WRITER. Hawthornden prize of £100 for the best work of imaginative literature in English prose or poetry,

published during the previous twelve months. Particulars in September WRITER.

Prizes of $150 and $100 offered by the Poetry Society of America annually for the best poems read at the monthly meetings of the Society. Particulars in January WRITER.

Two prizes offered by Poetry for the best work printed in the magazine in the twelve numbers ending with that for September $200 for a poem or group of poems by a citizen of the United States, and $100 for a poem or group of poems by any author, without limitation.

Prizes of $400 and $200 offered by the Schumann Club, for the best compositions for women's voices submitted by November 1. Particulars in April WRITER.

Prize of $200 for the best original composition for four-part chorus of women's voices, with piano accompaniment, submitted by July 1, offered by the Tuesday Musical Club, of Pittsburgh. Particulars in March WRITER.

Berkshire Music Colony prize of $1,000 for the best composition for a string quartette, closing August 1. Particulars in December WRITER.

Prize of twenty-five dollars offered by Guide for the best story submitted to the magazine by July 1. Particulars in April WRITER.

Monthly prizes offered by the Photo-Era (Boston) for photographs, in an advanced competition and a beginner's competition.

Prizes of two dollars and one dollar offered monthly by Wohelo (New York) for stories, short poems, and essays, written by Camp Fire girls. Particulars in October WRITER.

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

WRITERS OF THE DAY.

Elizabeth Howard Atkins, whose serial, "The Treasure Chest of the Medranos," began in St. Nicholas for December. is Mrs. Ernest Atkins, of California, where she was born and has lived most of her life. She has had two fairy stories previously published in St. Nicholas, and Everyland has published others. The present story owes its being to a happy convalescence in Santa Barbara, the scene of the story. Mrs. Atkins is not a prolific writer, and has no ambition to write for "grown-ups." She says that she has always loved the writing which has been done for children by people who have regarded it as an art, and that she fully agrees with Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, the beloved first editor of St. Nicholas, who was quoted recently in the Bookman as asking authors

of note if they felt they could write anything "good enough for children."

Helen Ellwanger Hanford, who had a story, "Willow Pond," in the Atlantic for March, says that she has always been interested in writing, and that her first story was sold to the Youth's Companion when she was fifteen. She was graduated from the University of Rochester in 1904, and during her four years in college did a good deal of work in English, and later took a course in English at Columbia University. In 1909 she married James Holly Hanford, who is now professor of English at the University of North Carolina. Mrs. Hanford has been writing short stories since 1910, and stories, under the pen name, "Margaret Schiller," have appeared in the Mothers' Magazine, Smith's, the Christian Herald, Holland's Magazine, and the Designer, while, under her own name, stories have appeared in Smith's, the Designer, the Atlantic, and the Woman's Home Companion, this latter story, "From Domrémy to Jonesboro," having been written in collaboration with Clara Souther Lingle.

William Alexander Percy, who wrote the poem, Autumnal,” which Scribner's printed in its March issue a Spring number, by the way is a lawyer in Greenville, Mississippi, where he was born and has always lived. He is a graduate of the University of the South and of the Harvard Law School. He served in Belgium under Mr. Hoover during the six months preceding the entry of Belgium into the war. After that, he returned to America, entered a training camp, received a commission as First Lieutenant of Infantry, and was sent to France, where he joined the Thirty-seventh Division, in which outfit he was promoted to Captain. Nearly all of the work which Mr. Percy has done he has written no prose has appeared in the Bellman (defunct), the Bookman, the Boston Transcript. Contemporary Verse, Scribner's, the North American Review, and the Yale Review. In 1915 the Yale University Press published his volume of poems, entitled "Sappho in Levkas and Other Poems," and the same publishers are now

bringing out his second volume of poems, entitled "In April Once."

Alice Dyar Russell, whose story, "The Selfishness of Jessica," was printed in the Youth's Companion for March 11, has been spending the winter in Jamaica with her two little daughters. She was graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1903, and she exclaims : Who that has been fortunate enough to take courses there with Richard Burton and O. W. Firkins of the English Department does not want to write!" In those days she wrote for the college magazine, and planned great things in the writing line, but after her marriage, when she went to Washington to live, the things she did were not of the kind that lend themselves to print. About two years ago Mrs. Russell again took up her pen, and since then she has sold seven stories to the Youth's Companion, of which three are yet to appear, while the Woman's Home Companion has printed "The Track of a Teddy Bear," and the Delineator, "Plain Gingham with a Hem," "Don't Tell Dad," and "Her Birthright," and her serial, "The Adventures of Mr. House," is now running in John Martin's Book.

Margaret E. Sangster, whose novelette, "Never-Never Land," came out in the second December issue of Snappy Stories, is the granddaughter of Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster, whose poems are household words in so many homes. Miss Sangster has been associate editor of the Christian Herald since 1913, and she writes weekly for this periodical. She was born September 27, 1894, and attended the Glen Ridge School, Glen Ridge, N. J., and also Miss Townsend's school in Newark, N. J. She has had three books of verse published, the latest one being "Cross Roads."

Jim Evansleigh; hastened Evansleigh; jumped Dicky-boy's mother; she considered; prompted Rich's wife; depreciated Evansleigh; she laughed out; she glowed; cooled Dicky-boy's mother; wilted Evansleigh; rallied his mother; she smiled ; brightened Dicky-boy's mother; mother; kindled Dicky-boy; she struggled; snapped Evansleigh; panted Dicky-boy; thrilled Dickyboy; persisted Dicky-boy; jerked Evansleigh; babbled Dicky-boy; protested Dickyboy; fretted Dicky-boy; he flamed; he beamed; he wilted; puzzled Evansleigh; he grinned; giggled Dicky-boy; grimaced Drexley."

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On Literary Style. No man can be supremely eloquent in laconics. You cannot express the rising and the expanding and the sweep and the circling of eloquent feeling in a style resembling that which seamen call a chopping sea." For such thinking you must have at command a style of which an oceanic ground swell or the Gothic interweaving of forest trees is the more becoming symbol. In the construction of such a style, you must use connective words, links elaborately forged, inserted in the right joints of style, to make them flexible without loss of compactness. One word of such exact connective force in the right place, with the right surroundings before and after, may make all the difference between the disjointed and the linked style.-Austin Phelps.

Suggestions to Interviewers. A memory both phonographic and photographic and a mind receptive and composed are the primary qualifications of the interviewer, one gathers from Mr. Marcosson's book on the art of interviewing. He considers it a phase of reporting which demands much the same training as salesmanship: You must "sell" your man on the proposition of being interviewed proceed along the avenue trodden by bookagents whereon the mile-posts are Attention, Interest, Confidence, Desire, and Conviction. It is necessary to be most delicate about the use of the notebook; its appearance often paralyzes the publicity-shy, and indeed the most confident may be daunted by observing their trivial comments going down to posterity in pothooks.

Hence the need for memory. The author found that long speeches would come back to him if he could remember how the man looked at the time of speaking. In reporting technical matters "men fail because they think they know a great deal about the subject. Absolute ignorance and a willingness to listen and learn are distinct helps."

In the same way, the successful write-up of the interview should be as explicit and clear as if the assumption were that the reader knew nothing of the subject. A stumbling-block in preparing informational articles for a national audience is the interviewer's delusion that "the whole country knows all about the localities he describes," when he glibly refers to the Bowery or State Street and expects the resident of Oshkosh or San Diego to "get" the local color these names provide in the East. "In writing, as in interviewing, an iron-clad rule is Explain everything." New York Evening Post.

now

BOOK REVIEWS.

WHO'S WHO, 1920. An Annual Biographical Dictionary, with which is incorporated "Men and Women of the Time." Seventy-second Year of Issue. 2,882 pp. Cloth. London: A. & C. Black, Ltd. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1920. A monumental work, justly counted among the indispensable books of reference, is the English "Who's Who," the pioneer work of its kind, of which the portly 1920 volume is available. This year's issue contains about 30,000 biographies of eminent English and American men and women of the time, every sketch having been submitted to the subject for revision, to ensure so far as possible its being accurate. Beginning with a useful list of abbreviations, followed by a six-page obituary list and a table showing the members of the British royal family, the book includes 2,848 pages of biographies, set solid in small type that is perfectly legible, giving without eulogy or criticism just the information about celebrities, great and small, that inquirers are likely to be looking for. To writers on current topics especially the work is inconceivably useful. Besides giving biographical details, it lists the publications of the subjects of biographies, gives interesting information about their recreations, and in a great majority of cases gives the subject's address. The book is unique, and its completeness, its thoroughness, its accuracy, the broadness of its scope, and the skill with which the sketches are prepared are all in the highest degree creditable to the compilers and to the publishers. It is hard to see how the work could be improved. THE WRITERS' AND ARTISTS' YEAR-BOOK- 1920. Edited by G. E. Mitton. 205 pp. Cloth. London : A. & C. Black, Ltd. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1920.

Prepared primarily for British writers, this Year-Book" contains a great deal of information of value to writers in this country. The first eighty pages are devoted to a directory of British journals and magazines, giving their addresses and telling what they want in the way of manuscripts. Similar

lists are given of journals and magazines published in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and India, and there is a less valuable directory of American periodicals. Seventeen pages are devoted to a list of British publishers, which is followed by lists of publishers in Australia, Canada, India, and South Africa, and a list of American publishers. There are also lists of literary agents in England and America, lists of music publishers and film producers, and chapters on several literary topics.

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How ΤΟ WRITE SPECIAL FEATURE ARTICLES. A handbook for reporters, correspondents, and freelance writers who desire to contribute to popular magazines and magazine sections of newspapers. By Willard Grosvenor Bleyer, Ph.D. 373 pp. Cloth. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1919. Dr. Bleyer is director of the course of journalism in the University of Wisconsin, and this book, following his Newspaper Writing and Editing" and "Types of News Writing," is the result of twelve years' experience in teaching university students to write special feature articles for newspapers and popular magazines. As Dr. Bleyer points out, successful special feature stories and popular magazine articles may be written by those who have developed some facility in writing, but who may not have sufficient maturity or talent to undertake successful short-story writing or other distinctly literary work. The experience teaches them four things that are invaluable to any one who aspires to do literary work to observe what is going on about them, to select what will interest the average reader, to organize material_effectively, and to present it attractively. Especially valuable chapters those on the field for special articles, and preparing and selling the manuscript.

are

THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1919 AND THE YEARBOOK OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY. Edited by Edward J. O'Brien. 414 pp. Cloth. Boston: Small, Maynard, & Company. 1920.

This is the fifth volume of Mr. O'Brien's series of collections of the best short stories of the year, and, like the other volumes of the series, it appeals both to writers and to readers of short stories. Readers will find in it 350 pages of what Mr. O'Brien regards as the best work published last year by American short story writers. Writers will find, in addition, in the appended Yearbook the addresses of forty-seven American magazines that publish short stories, a roll of honor giving information about a number of the writers of especially meritorious stories, a list of volumes of short stories published from November, 1918, to September, 1919, a list of last year's articles on the short story, and a list of short stories published last year in American magazines, indexed under the names of the authors, showing the number

published by each. Every short story writer will be interested in the book. ANTHOLOGY OF MAGAZINE VERSE FOR 1919 AND YEAR Воок POETRY. OF AMERICAN by William Stanley Braithwaite. 320 pp. Cloth. Boston: Small, Maynard, & Company. 1919.

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Edited

Mr. Braithwaite's yearly. Anthology of Magazine Verse," the first volume of which covered the year 1913, has come to be looked for as a standard publication although many may disagree with Mr. Braithwaite's judgments and the seven volumes now available cover fully the recent history of the development of American poetry. This new volume gives two hundred pages of what Mr. Braithwaite regards as the best poetry of last year, together with an index of poets and poems published in American magazines in the year ending with July, 1919; a biographical index; lists of articles and reviews of poets and poetry and of volumes of poems published during 1918-1919, and a list of books about poets and poetry. In addition, there ought to be an index by authors of the poems published in the volume. Mr. Braithwaite is doing a useful work, and every lover of poetry will be interested in his book.

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. By Percy H. Boynton. 513 pp. Cloth. Boston: Ginn & Com

pany. 1919.

Professor Boynton, of the University of Chicago, has been giving courses in American literature for some years. His genera! purpose in the preparation of this book has been to eliminate negligible detail and to subordinate or to omit authors of minor importance, in order to stress the men and movements that are most significant in American literary history. His book, therefore, looks mainly at the high lights of American literature. Professor Boynton constantly urges study of representative classics and extensive reading, and as aids in this there are appended to each chapter of his book (except the last three) topics and problems for study and book lists which summarize the output of each writer, indicate available editions, and refer to critical material. As further aids there are given two maps, three chronological charts, and an appendix with a brief characterization of the American periodicals, past and present, which have been most significant in stimulating American authorship by providing a market for fiction, poetry, and the essay. One of the most interesting chapters of the book is Professor Boynton's discussion of the later poetry.

THE WINSTON SIMPLIFIED DICTIONARY. Edited by William Dodge Lewis, Ph.D., and Edgar A. Singer, Ph.D. Illustrated. 842 pp. Cloth. Philadelphia The John C. Winston Company.

This new dictionary is an original, independent work, and has many features that strongly recommend it. The most conspicuous among these is the use of large two-line