Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

PRIZE OFFERS STILL OPEN:

Prizes in Letters offered by the Columbia University School of Journalism: 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, $1,000; for the best book of the year on the history of the United States, $2,000; 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, $1,000. 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.

Two prizes of $25,000 each offered by the Woman's Home Companion and the John Day Company, Inc., for the two most interesting novels best adapted to serial and book publication, one by a man and one by a woman, competition closing July 1, 1927. Particulars in September WRITER, or from the John Day Company, Inc., 25 West Forty-fifth street, New York.

Prize of $25,000 offered by McClure's, the Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, and the Cosmopolitan Productions, for serial rights, book rights, and motion-picture rights for a novel, containing from 80,000 to 110,000 words, contest closing March 31, 1927. Open to any writer who has not had more than three novels published in book form. Particulars in June WRITER.

Hart, Schaffner, and Marx prizes of $1,000, $500, $300, and $200 for the four best studies in the economic field submitted by June 1, 1927. Particulars in October WRITER.

Prizes of $1,000, $500, $250, $150, and $100, offered by the Penn Publishing Company, for original play manuscripts suitable for amateurs, contest closing April 1. Particulars in December WRITER.

Four national contests in play-writing conducted by the Drama League of America and Longmans, Green, & Company, closing May 1. Particulars in December WRITER.

Two prizes of $25,000 each offered by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to the young man and young woman submitting the best articles in "What Woodrow Wilson Means to Me," contest closing October 1. Particulars in February WRITER.

Prizes of $500, $200, and $100 offered by the Youth's Companion for the best original short stories written by boys or girls between the ages of fifteen and twenty, contest closing April 15. Particulars in February WRITER.

Prize of $1,000 for the best novel of negro life written by a man or woman of negro descent, offered by Albert & Charles Boni, contest extended to July 1. Particulars in April WRITER.

Prizes of $350, $100, and $50 offered by Small, Maynard & Co. for the best summaries of Thames Williamson's current story, "The Man Who Cannot Die," contest closing April 20. Particulars in February WRITER.

Prize of $1,000 offered by the World's Work for the best article based on theories advanced by William T. Foster and Waddill Catchings in the series of economic articles now running in the magazine, contest closing March 31. Particulars in December WRITER.

Prizes of $100, $50, and $25 offered by the Atlantic Monthly to students using the Atlantic Monthly in courses during the 1926-1927 terms, contest closing March 31. Particulars in December WRITER.

Annual prizes offered by the Scholastic to students in junior and senior high schools for the best work in poetry, essays, short stories, drama, and art, contest closing March 20. Particulars in December WRITER.

Prize of $25 offered by the Tanager for the best poem submitted by April 1. Particulars in December WRITER.

Monthly definition contests conducted by the Forum, payment being made at the rate of five dollars each for all printed. Particulars in June WRITER.

Prize of $1,000, offered by the Chamber of Commerce, Hot Springs, Arkansas, for the best scenario for a historical pageant depicting the history of Hot Springs. Particulars in October WRITER.

Prize of $1,000 offered by C. C. Birchard through the Chautauqua Institution for a choral work — a religious cantata contest closing April 1, 1927. Particulars in November WRITER.

-

Witter Bynner Undergraduate poetry prize of $150 for the best poems printed in Palms during 1927, open to undergraduates in any American university or college. Particulars in November WRITER.

Prizes of the Poetry Society of South Carolina: Southern prize of $100; Caroline Sinkler prize of $50; Society's prize of $25; Harmon prize of $25; Skylark prize of $10; and the Ellen M. Carroll prize of $15 all offered annually. Particulars from the Poetry Society of South Carolina, 62 Broad street, Charleston, S. C., or in July WRITER.

Annual prizes awarded by Poetry (232 East Erie street, Chicago, Ill.) in November of each year: Helen Haire Levinson prize of $200, John Reed Memorial prize of $100, and the Young Poets' prize

1

of $100, for poems published in the magazine during the current year.

Mrs. Simon Baruch University prize of $1,000, to be awarded biennially by the United Daughters of the Confederacy for the best unpublished monograph or essay in the field of Southern history, first competition closing September 1, 1927. Particulars in October WRITER.

Walker prizes for the best memoirs on National History, offered annually by the Boston Society of

Natural History, closing March 1 of each calendar year. Particulars in June WRITER.

Annual poetry prize of $100 offered by the Nation, poems to be submitted between Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day of each year. Particulars in February, 1923, WRITER.

Monthly prizes offered by the Photo-Era Magazine (Wolfeboro, N. H.) for photographs, in an advanced competition and a beginners' competition.

News and Notes

The O. Henry memorial prize award of the Society of Arts and Sciences for the "best short stories" published by American authors in American magazines during 1926 has been made as follows: First prize of $500 to Wilbur Daniel Steele, for "Bubbles," in the August issue of Harper's Magazine; second prize of $250 to Sherwood Anderson, for "Death in the Woods," in the September issue of the American Mercury; and a special prize of $100 for the best short sport story to Albert Richard Wetjen, for "Command," in the April issue of Sea Stories.

Harvey Deuell has resigned as editor of Liberty, and has been succeeded by Ronald Miller.

George Bernard Shaw has sued Will A. Page, a New York theatrical publicity agent, for inserting in his book, "Behind the Curtain of Broadway's Beauty Trust," four letters written to him by Mr. Shaw more than twenty-four years ago. Mr. Shaw contends that the letters were private communications, not intended for publication.

The George H. Doran Company has created a new editorial department, to be called the Robust Rhetoric Department, the sole function of which is to reinsert profanity in magazine stories which are to be published in book form.

A collection of nearly four hundred of Lewis Carroll's books, pamphlets, and letters, containing many original drawings by John Tenniel, has been given to Harvard College Library by the widow and sons of the late Harcourt Amory. The most valuable item is a copy bound in vellum of the first edition of "Alice in Wonderland," dated "London, 1865." This edition was recalled by the author, and the publishers sold the sheets to D. Appleton & Co., who issued the book with a new title page dated 1866. For a long time the edition published in London in 1866 was considered the first.

The original manuscript of Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native," in the possession of the late Clement Shorter, has been bequeathed to the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Literary Articles in Periodicals

GOOD MANNERS IN LITERATURE. Richard Burton. Forum for February.

KIPLING, PIONEER. "The Pedestrian" in the Forum for February.

WRITING AS A CAREER. Mary Roberts Rinehart. Bookman for February.

HUGH WALPOLE: NOVELIST. J. B. Priestley. Bookman for February.

[blocks in formation]

NEWSPAPER NOMENCLATURE. Dorothy Colburn. American Speech for February.

THREE HARD-WORKED SUFFIXES. Josephine M. Burnham. American Speech for February.

SHAKSPERE MISQUOTED. H. T. Baker. Modern Language Notes for February.

POE AND LONGFELLOW. Harriet Monroe. Poetry for February.

THE GENIUS OF POE. Rt. Hon. J. M. S. Robertson. Modern Quarterly for January-April.

EUGENE O'NEILL. Walter Long. Modern Quarterly for January.

THE ART OF AUTHORSHIP AMONG THE ANCIENTS. Professor Clarence Eugene Boyd. Methodist Quarterly Review for January.

EDWARD PAGE MITCHELL. With portrait. Fourth Estate for January 29.

THIS

BY THE EDITOR

HIS afternoon our editorial offices were struck by a giant projectile, plainly marked with our initials, and bearing the trade-mark of the United States Army. The havoc it wrought was indescribable.

It struck our linotype machine just above the Andante Cantabile stop and glanced off into the waste-basket, completely upsetting us, the editor. Fortunately we happened to be down on our knees, begging the operator for more speed, or it might have killed us. It came in the form of the January issue of the Infantry Journal. The explosive was in the nose of the projectile, a leading article by Major William Addleman Ganoe, of the Army War College:

In the most recent issue of THE WRITER Was announced the award for the best description in less than 200 words of an American town or city. Singularly, the first prize went to a woman who failed to describe any town or city at all. Instead, she gave voice in very indifferent verse to a conceit of her own-a conceit evidently so very dear to the hearts of the judges that they just could not help yielding her the high vote in spite of injustice to other competitors, who had been imprudent enough to live up to the rules of the competition. In outline, her "poetry" told how her home town had been a peaceful place until the horrid burgesses had set upon the Common a captured German cannon. That deed was the awful turning point. The small boys looked upon this steel mechanism of terror and destruction, inquired about its workings, found out that it had killed fathers of other little boys, and the ruinous seed was sown. War forthwith blossomed in the minds of all the village, which hitherto had worn a face of New England serenity and comfort.

Beyond the fact that the merit of the writing was not high, there comes insistently the wonder that literary men in the vicinity of Back Bay should be able to sponsor ideas so rickety in their logic, so out of gear with the facts of our present and past national life. That this particular weapon had been captured in 1918 to gain a peace, that the same burgesses had been placing live automatics in the hands of their town policemen long before

the arrival of the dead German gun and that American soldiers, heartlessly bearing weapons and hardships in march and wilderness, have consistently been the most prominent gentlemen to ward off war, were a few of the factors discarded in accepting the young lady's rare lines.

This episode is introduced merely as one instance of the red sophistry and sentimental flatulence which seem from press indications to be taking hold of our college and intellectual world. Against forces so insidiously destructive to our nation's life, strength and future, may it not be well to compress some of the present-day activities of our modern Army of the United States into a rejoinder?

Can you imagine it — he meant us! At first we were stunned. We scuttled into the files and brought out the issue of our magazine which contained the offending poem. It looked the same as it did the last time we saw it. Here it is:

[blocks in formation]

monthly for the best humorous description of the author's home town or native city. It is not our intention to defend our sense of humor, which moved us to award to the author of this verse one of the prizes, nor the impulse which tempts us to give a special prize to Major Ganoe for his even more humorous retort. No man can analyze humor and remain sane. Yet we can't help remarking that, in the first place, we think the howitzer is the most comic gun ever invented except possibly the trench mortar. Of the four field guns we have fired the American 3 Inch, the French 75, the French 155 G. P. F., and the French 155 Howitzer - the latter was the most amusing. It was the natural comedian among guns, short, fat, and with its snub nose always stuck up in the air. And the German Howitzer is funnier than a French one even fatter, squatter, and more ludicrously dignified.

[ocr errors]

Moreover the thought of a German Howitzer on the village green of a quiet New England town is to us delicious. It is a superb

inconsistency. And, knowing something of the frank prejudices and independent peculiarities of New England townspeople, we liked this poem. If anyone but an Infantry officer can see in it a serious attempt at "peace-at-anyprice" propaganda we will cheerfully resign our commission in the Artillery Reserves.

Major Ganoe's article strikes us as even funnier than the poem. The only explanation that we can give for his passionate outburst is that he really thinks that a German Howitzer on a New England village green is good propaganda for the peculiar type of "professional" patriotism which he represents.

It all just goes to prove that an Infantryman always puts his foot into it when he talks about anything bigger than a pop-gun. The Major evidently expected we would be mad with him for he sent us a marked copy of the Infantry Journal containing his article. But we were n't. No Infantryman can make us mad. We of the Artillery are just superior to that sort of thing.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][merged small]

THESAURUS DICTIONARY. By Francis Andrew March and Francis A. March, Jr. Fourth Edition. 1462 pages. Buckram. Philadelphia: Historical Publishing Company. Human communication implies a speaker or writer, a hearer or reader, an idea to be conveyed, and adequate words as a medium of communication. Frequently a speaker or writer has an idea for which he has no word at his command. A laborious search through an unabridged dictionary proves futile. Perusal of a thesaurus or a book of synonyms and antonyms likewise fails to provide the right word to express the idea. In weariness he gives up the search, and decides to "muddle through" the expression of his idea, hoping that the hearer or reader may be able to guess what he means.

"March's Thesaurus Dictionary" makes "muddling through" inexcusable in any speaker or writer, for it enables him to find instantly, not only the words that he already knows, but the words for which he has need but which he does not know. Therein consists its great superiority to the ordinary unabridged dictionary. Better than a thesaurus, it defines all words, and lists and explains all phrases, both English and foreign. The system of reference is a marvel of perfection and simplicity. There is hardly a question as to the choice of the correct word, the exact word, and the most effective word, that cannot

be answered quickly and authoritatively by the use of the Thesaurus Dictionary.

To the large number of persons who, during almost a quarter of a century, have found the Thesaurus Dictionary an invaluable source of information about words and their ways, it may seem inconceivable that such an admirable reference work could be improved. The present fourth edition contains, however, more than two hundred pages of supplementary material that adds appreciably to the usefulness of the book to all classes of speakers and writers. In Appendix I will be found a history of the English language, a full and helpful treatment of composition and grammar, a guide to correct usage regarding a large number of words, and the rules for punctuation. Other new material includes Biblical word references, words from arts and sciences, and geographic words, with associated facts of interest.

To speakers, writers, and editors who have not yet formed the time-saving habit of using the Thesaurus Dictionary it is impossible to recommend the work adequately in a brief review. Whoever examines it thoroughly will find it, as one user states, "the most definite dictionary ever printed." It covers the whole living English language. The information given about words and other topics is modern and reliable. With the exception of a few details that are of concern primarily to the student of language, it is a complete unabridged

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »