for several others which have a similar sound; as, "Value loamy," meaning "Will you loan me." All words used must be authentic. All Scotchograms must be sent by Western Union wire to Scotchogram Editor, Judge Publishing Company.

THE NEW MCCLURE'S AND FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY offer a prize of $7,500 for the best detective-mystery novel in 70,000 to 100,000 words submitted on or before Jan. 1. Of this amount $5,000 represents the serial rights and $2,500 advance royalties on the book form. Dramatic, moving picture, and translation rights will be retained by the author. The judges will be the editorial staff of the New McClure's and Frederick A.

Stokes Company. Manuscripts marked "Mystery Detective Competition," should be sent to Curtis, Brown, Ltd., 116 West 39th St., New York, who will handle the competition and supply a detailed circular and form of agreement on request.

PALO VERDE-The Southwestern Poetry Magazine, Holbrook, Ariz., offers $10 for the best poem in its fall issue, $15 for the best poem in the winter issue, and $5 for the best free verse in the spring issue. No closing date is mentioned for these contests. Palo Verde prefers Southwestern and Mexican material.

SALES TALES-Mount Morris, Ill., offers prizes of $10, $5, $3, $2, and ten of $1, for letters in not over 200 words, received by the Prize Opinion Letter Editor on or before Oct. 1, giving the author's opinion of the September number of Sales Tales (formerly called How to Sell).

THE ALVAN T. SIMONDS AWARDS, established by the president of the Simonds Saw & Steel Company, will be given this year for the best essays on the subject, "Reducing the Costs of Distribution." The best essay by a business executive will receive a prize of $1,000. The best essay by a senior in college, a graduate student, or an instructor of less than assistant professor grade, will be awarded

$500. Essays should be 3,000-8,000 words in length. Three typewritten copies should be submitted by Dec. 31 to the Managing Director of the American Management Association, 20 Vesey St., New York. These should be signed with an assumed name and accompanied by a sealed envelope containing the real name and address of the contestant. The prize-winning essays and their copyrights are to become the property of the donor on payment of the prizes.

PRIZE OFFERS STILL OPEN:

THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION — 1140 Woodward Building, Washington, D. C. The Justin Winsor prize ($200) in American history, offered in even years, the Herbert Baxter Adams prize ($200) in the history of the Eastern Hemisphere, offered in odd years, and the annual George Louis Beer prize ($250) for the best work upon any phase of European international history since 1895. Contests close April 1 of each year. MSS. should be sent to the Secretary of the Association. Details, Jan. WRITER.

THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE-250 Park Avenue, New York. $30, $20, and $10 monthly for letters on assigned topics. Contests close the 20th of each month. AMERICAN POETRY MAGAZINE-Wauwatosa, Wis. $25 for the best poem in each issue. Preference in publication to members of Amer. Lit. Assoc. See June WRITER.

THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS-8 Arlington St., Boston, Mass. $5,000 for the most interesting biography or autobiography, submitted before May 1, 1929. See June WRITER.

BLUE BOOK MAGAZINE - 36 So. State St., Chicago, Ill. Five monthly prizes of $100 each for true stories of real experience in 2,000 words. See June WRITER. THE BOOKMAN -452 Fifth Avenue, New York. $100 monthly for the best printed news story in the opinion of the juror for that month. Details, Jan. WRITER. BOZART - Box 67, Sta. E., Atlanta, Ga. $25 for the best rhymed lyric of 8-12 lines published in Bozart during 1928. Details, March WRITER.

CHATTANOOGA WRITERS' CLUB. $20 for the best nature poem, not over 36 lines, by any one, and $10 for the best by a Southerner. Closes Nov. 1. Address Miss Martha G. Barnett, Chairman, c/o The Chattanooga News, Chattanooga, Tenn. See July WRITER. CHATTO & WINDUS-97 & 99 St. Martin's Lane, London, W. C. 2, England. Advance royalties of £300 and £150 for prize historical novels. Closes May 31. See Aug. WRITER.

THE CHRISTIAN HERALD AND DOUBLEDAY, DORAN & CO. $2,500 plus book royalties for the best religious novel submitted before Oct. 1 to Religious Novel Contest, Christian Herald, Bible House, New York. Details, May WRITER.

COLLIER'S 250 Park Ave., New York. $5 each for Nameographs (drawings made from the letters of a word, illustrating the word) and a gold pocket-piece for 4-5 line jingles on golf. See June WRITER. CONTEMPORARY VERSE 107 So. Mansfield Ave., Margate, Atlantic City, N. J. Encouragement Prize of $5 for the best poem submitted each month by a poet who has not yet appeared in a magazine of national circulation. Details, March WRITER.

COSMOPOLITAN CAMP DEPARTMENT - 57th St. at 8th Ave., New York. $300 and $100 for the best 400word essays by parents on "How Camping Has Benefited My Boy or Girl." Closes Nov. 1. Use special blank from above address. See July WRITER.

THE FORUM - First Short Story Editor, 441 Lexing
ton Ave., New York, is featuring first short stories at
regular space rates. See April WRITER.
FRANCIS BACON AWARD Simon & Schuster, 37
West 57th St., and the Forum, 441 Lexington Ave., New
York. $7.500 and a medal for non-fiction, book-length
MS. which "humanizes knowledge." Closes April 15.
See Aug. WRITER.

GUGGENHEIM FELLOWSHIPS - Henry A. Moe, Sec.,
Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 2300 Pershing Sq.
Bldg., New York. Fellowships of $2,500 for research or
creative work abroad. Applications by Nov. 15. See
July WRITER.

HARPER & BROTHERS - 49 E. 33d St., New York. $10,000 prize novel competition, open to American authors who have not published a novel prior to Jan. 1, 1919. Closes Feb. 1, 1929. See June WRITER. HARPER & BROTHERS AND THE AMERICAN GIRL. $2,000 plus book royalties for the best book of fiction for girls. Closes Dec. 1. Address Contest Editor, Harper & Brothers, 49 E. 33d St., New York. See May Writer.

LITTLE, BROWN & CO. - 34 Beacon St., Boston, Mass. $2,500 plus royalties for the best book-length MS. on American history. Contest closes Oct. 1. Details, Feb. WRITER.

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. - Contest Editor, Children's Book Dept., 55 Fifth Ave., New York. $2,000 plus royalties of 10% for the best book MS. for boys or girls from 12 to 16. Closes Dec. 31. See July WRITER. MARK TWAIN ASSOCIATION - c/o Mrs. Ida B. Judd, 1 West 69th St., New York. $50 for ten quotations from Mark Twain, totaling not over 300 words. Closes Oct. 1. See Aug. WRITER.

MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS' FEDERATION SONG CONTEST-15 Ashburton Place, Boston, Mass. $50 each for words and music for a Mass. State song. Words by Sept. 25; music for words selected, by Jan. 25. See July WRITER.

MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW FUND - Prof. Grover C. Grismore, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. $500 and $250 for best essays on "American Institutions" submitted before Oct. 1. See June WRITER. NORMAL INSTRUCTOR AND PRIMARY PLANS Dansville, N. Y. Two series of prizes - $300, $150, $100, and $50 in each to teachers, principals, etc. for stories of travel experiences during the summer of 1928. Contest closes Oct. 15. Details, March WRITER.

THE OUTLOOK I-120 East 16th St., New York, uses the unwritten family classics, usually the invention of a parent, in its department, "Tell Me a Story." See April WRITER.

PHELAN PRIZE ESSAY CONTEST Mrs. F. H. Colburn, 757 Sutter St., Apt. 305, San Francisco, Calif. $1,000 and $500 for essays interpreting California history from 1850 to 1905. Closes Nov. 15. See June WRITER. PALMS - Aberdeen, Wash. $1,000 for best poem by a subscriber published in Palms, Oct. 1928 March, 1929.

$50 for best poem by poet who has not yet published a book in Palms, Oct. 1928-March, 1930. $25 for best poem in Palms, Nov. 1928. $25 for best poem in Palms, Feb. 1929. $100 for best poem in Palms, March, 1929. See June WRITER.

POETRY 232 East Erie St., Chicago, Ill. Levinson Prize of $200, John Reed Memorial Prize of $100, Guarantor's Prize of $100, Young Poet's Prize of $100, to be awarded for poems appearing in Poetry during the year; three prizes of $100 each, conditions not yet specified; Award of Honor of $500 to some American poet of high distinction or distinguished promise. Prizes to be awarded in November.

POETRY REVIEW - Mrs. Alice H. Bartlett, American Editor, 299 Park Ave., New York. $50, $25, $15, $10 for poem about flying achievements, by a subscriber, contest closing Oct. 1. $100 for "poems packed with thought," by any one, See contest closing Oct. 15.

June WRITER. POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY-250 Fifth Ave., New York. $10 monthly prize plus space rates for "Kinks that will Help your Car." See April WRITER. PULITZER PRIZES IN LETTERS offered by the Columbia University School of Journalism. $1,000 for the American novel published during the year which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of American life and the highest standard of American manners and manhood; $1,000 for the original American play, performed in New York, which shall best represent the educational value and power of the stage in raising the standard of good morals, good taste, and good manners; $2,000 for the best book of the year on the history of the United States: $1,000 for the best American biography teaching patriotic and unselfish service to the people, illustrated by an eminent example; $1,000 for the best volume of verse published during the year by an American author. Also, prizes in journalism, amounting to $3,000 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. Nominations of candidates must be made in writing on or before February 1 of each year, addressed to the Secretary of Columbia University, New York, on forms that may be obtained on application to the Secretary of the University.

RUGGLES & BRAINARD - Graybar Bldg., New York. $1,000 each for ideas for advertising campaigns in color for products for men. See June WRITER.

SATURDAY REVIEW OF LITERATURE — 25 West 45th St., New York. Bi-weekly prize of $15 for the best contribution on an assigned subject to the department called "The Wits' Weekly." Consult the current issue for the subject.

SCIENCE AND INVENTION - 230 Fifth Ave., New York. $10 each for "Hints for the Mechanic," and $5 each for "Phoney Inventions." See Aug. WRITER. SCOTLAND YARD PRIZE Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, N. Y. $2,500 plus book royalties for mystery or detective novel. Closes Oct. 31. See Feb. and Aug. WRITER.

STRATFORD MAGAZINE 289 Congress St., Boston, Mass. $100 for best poem in every four issues. Next contest closes Oct. 1.

SUNSHINE-P.O. Box 1439, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. $25, $10, $10, $5. $1, for best lies à la Munchausen. Closes Sept. 1. See Aug. WRITER.

WAR NOVEL COMPETITION - Houghton Mifflin Company, 2 Park St., Boston, Mass. $25,000 offered by Houghton Mifflin and the American Legion Monthly for the best novel with the World War as a background. Contest closes 5 P. M., May 1, 1929. Details April WRITER.

YALE SERIES OF YOUNGER POETS - Yale Univer sity Press, New Haven, Conn. Open to Amer. poets under thirty who have not previously published a volume of verse. Competitions close May 1 and Nov. 1. See Aug. WRITER.

HOW TO WRITE SERIAL FICTION. By Michael Joseph and Marten Cumberland. Cloth. 227 pages. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1928.

The collaborating authors of this volume include the manager of one of the largest literary agencies in the world, and the author of many serials published in London and American dailies. The title might be amplified to read, "How to write serial fiction that sells," for the main effort of the author is directed toward analyzing the technical elements that make a serial commercially successful. Young writers are advised to devote more attention to the serial as paying better than the short story in proportion to the time and creative energy expended, because of the book, second serial, and dramatic rights which may be sold in addition to first serial rights. Such writers should be warned, however, that exceptional skill and ingenuity in plotting are a prerequisite for success.

A useful chapter in the book analyzes the first instalment as of paramount importance. In an average instalment of five to six thousand words, an author must accomplish the following results; "(1) present a sufficient portion of his story to show the reader that a really dramatic tale is to follow: (2) introduce his principal characters - seldom less than three (3) portray their personalities so vividly that they are at once impressed on the reader's mind, and (4) provide at the end of his five or six thousand words a dramatic, suspense-stirring curtain which will leave the reader eager to read the next instalment."

Another valuable chapter contains comments by twelve famous serial writers on their particular form, together with a synopsis of a story by each. It is interesting to note the difference in the angle of approach to the subject by the writer and the literary agent. The latter knows just the effect he wants the writer to get, the way the literary bricks should be placed, the pattern they should make; the writer, on the other hand, is more interested in the material of which the bricks are made, the creative ideas of plot and character underlying the whole. The combined advice of the two should make this new volume very useful to the commercial serial writer. In addition, the book contains an annotated list of serial markets.

This pamphlet contains stories, plays, essays, and verse by members of the Saturday Evening Quill Club, a group of negro writers. The club hopes to issue such a collection annually. Quite fairly it asks that the work be criticized as American rather than negro. We mention the negro authorship only because it is of a higher level than that of most similar manuscript clubs of white membership. Verse of the "blues" type by Waring Cuney, stories by Dorothy West and Eugene Gordon, and an essay by Florida Ruffin Ridley on the traditions of three generations of one negro family are particularly interesting

and of definitely professional quality. The volume was not published for sale, but any one interested should address The Saturday Evening Quill Club, 32 Copley St., Cambridge, Mass.

LETTERS FROM JOSEPH CONRAD. Edited with Introduction and Notes by Edward Garnett. 313 pages. Cloth. Indianapolis: Bobbs Merrill Company. 1928.

"My dear Garnett, your letter was like the dew on parched grass. I look different today. I feel different."

Thus Conrad summed up the influence of his "father in letters." Probably few geniuses have had the blessing of such a critic as Conrad found in Edward Garnett; certainly no critic has had more moving appreciation than that which Conrad showed for his friend. Mr. Garnett, now one of England's noted critics, was an obscure reader for a London publisher when he first recommended "Almayer's Folly" in 1895. At the first meeting between author, reader, and publisher, Conrad announced that he expected to write nothing after this first book. Had not Mr. Garnett suspected that Conrad's statement hid a longing to be encouraged to write, and had the critic not offered his encouragement at once, and for many years to come, it is doubtful whether Conrad would be classed among the immortals. Conrad once described this meeting that was to mean so much:

The first time I saw Edward I dare not open my mouth. I had gone to meet him to hear what he thought of 'Almayer's Folly.' I saw a young man enter the room. That cannot be Edward so young as that, I thought. He began to talk. Oh yes! It was Edward. I had no longer doubt. But I was too frightened to speak. But this is what I want to tell you, how he made me go on writing. If he had said to me, 'Why not go on writing?' I should have been paralyzed. I could not have done it. But he said to me, 'You have written one book. It is very good. Why not write another? Do you see what a difference that made? Another? Yes, I would do that. I could do that. Many others I could not. Another I could. That is how Edward made

me go on writing. That is what made me an author.

Conrad's letters to his critic reveal a notably different personality from that displayed in other correspondence with even his intimate friends. Consequently this collection of some two hundred and twenty letters, covering Conrad's entire productive life, will be of unique interest to all writers because they reveal Conrad at the times when he was experiencing all the hot and cold fits and the exultations of literary creation. Nowhere can we realize more poignantly the heights and depths of his struggle.

Conrad once wrote Garnett that it was a great relief not to have to maintain the beauty of his script when he wrote to him. And yet, in these often hastily written letters, we find such nuggets of thought as the following:

To me, attempt is much more fascinating than the achievement, because of boundless possibilities; and in the world of ideas attempt or experiment is the dawn of evolution.

If I knew the causes of my weakness I would destroy them and then produce nothing but colossal masterpieces which "no fellow could understand." As it is, I am too lazy to change my thoughts, my words, my images, and my dreams. Laziness is a sacred thing. It's the sign of our limitations beyond which there is nothing worth having. Nobody is lazy to accomplish things without any effort and things that can only be attained by effort are not worth having.

I can be deaf and blind and an idiot if that is the road to my happiness but I'm hanged if I can be mute. I will not hold my tongue! What is life worth if one cannot jabber to one heart's content? If one cannot expose one's maimed thoughts at the gate of some cemetery or some palace; and from the disgusted compassion of the virtuous extract the precious penny? For all my talk of anxiety, of care for the future- and such like twaddle -I care very little for the course of events. The unexpected always happens.

I have seen some of Headlam's "po'try" in MS. He I fancy is not made in the image of God like other men but is fashioned after the pattern of Walter Pater, which, you cannot but admit, is a much greater distinction.

Both light and gloom are snared in your phrases. They wave before one's eyes in the stir of sentences-and one feels the greatness, the mistiness of things amongst which lives a crowd-a crowd mysterious and so