Editor, THE WRITER:

Evidently a first-rate discovery has been made in the gradual proof that manuscript clubs are effective nurseries of writing talent.

The discovery seems to have come about in the same way that long-sought solutions of industrial and even scientific questions occur: slow elimination, by trial, of all other possible solutions.

One pleasing fact emerges that the organized way of doing most things in our modern life is not the right way to cultivate literary talent. The "expert," the high-hat teacher, the "bureau," and other imitations of business organizations, fail. The thing that succeeds is the natural, informal, unpaid laborof-love of congenial people getting together and just talking about something they all take interest in.

I don't believe the success of these friendly groups comes more than one-third from actual advice back and forth about details of a story under discussion. I think two-thirds comes from the joy and stimulation of mingling with people who think and talk as does the budding author himself. A thousand thoughts arise, find expression and develop from the expression into more thoughts, in such an atmosphere, that would die on the

lips and wither in the borning in the company of commonplace people.

Until success and publishers' checks come along to dignify a writer's fancies, he must inevitably feel that his ways of thinking and the dreams that haunt him are childish. He hardly dare pursue them. His family in most cases will assist this mood! In the rare cases when they don't, he is blessed! I knew the venerable mother of Bill Nye in her nineties long after her son was dead. In her old age she was still a dreamer, passionately interested in intellectual themes. She had always been so. She told me how in the early days in Wisconsin, with her little brood of boys going to the local school not without some danger from the Indians still around at that time, she would welcome them home every afternoon and go over their lessons with them, then listen sympathetically to all their wild boyish imaginings, sharing stories with them partly invented by herself and partly by them. It was no wonder that two of the boys grew up and chose professions, while the third became in his time the greatest and most distinctly American of humorists.

This kind of sympathy is exactly what a manuscript club offers. It is like sunshine to a struggling plant, and far more valuable than

specific counsel as to plot, character, and treatment of a story. All through literary history we find clever people as parts of congenial groups. The Shakspere-Marlow-Ben Jonson group, the Lake School of poets, the Dickens-Thackeray group, the Addison-Pope group, the Emerson-Thoreau group, each with its brilliant satellites, are pretty good examples of, in effect, manuscript clubs, though they may not have thought of themselves so and may not have wholly realized it.

Just the other day, an editorial in the New York Times discussed the influence of mind on mind:

"Faraday paid his tribute to the effect that Sir Humphry Davy had on him. Auer von Welsbach was so stirred by Bunsen that he studied the rare earths and later devised the Welsbach gas-mantle. Righi's lectures had much to do with bending Marconi's mind to the study of electro-magnetic waves. It was the stimulating Ostwald who inspired Svante Arrhenius to the electrolytic dissociation theory."

But the social method of writing, as used in a manuscript club, can be just exactly the wrong one under some circumstances. In the field of advertising copy (to which you have referred more than once in connection with this topic) what little fire and talent there may be in any writer of advertising originally is stamped out by "too many cooks." I ought to know, as I have been mixed up with what we elegantly call "copy" for fifteen years. By the time everybody from the president of the company doing the advertising to the sales manager and others have criticized the effusion, the writer of the first draft is reduced to stupefaction, even if not discouraged at the outset by the wish to put a little glamour around soap, shaving-cream, cash-carriers, steel desks or what not. The worst examples of cooperative composition are to be found in the advertising field, which, far from being an incubator of literary skill, is more like a lethal

TORY.

RUST CRAFT PUBLISHERS-1000 Washington street, Boston, Mass., have a constant demand for good Greeting Card material, and report that they cannot get enough of general friendship verses, of from four to eight lines, or of general verses for Sweetheart and for Mother, for which, of course, more sentiment is needed. The company can now use material for Easter, Mothers' Day, and Christmas.

THE HERALD TRIBUNE SUNDAY MAGAZINE

New York, is trying, first of all, to present articles which give its readers a clear-cut summary of events they have been reading about in the daily press, written by people who can speak with a certain amount of authority. Its aim is to do the same thing with personalities which are figuring at the moment in local, national, or international affairs. In addition to the element of timeliness, the material should be presented in a graphic way, with considerable attention to episode and written with some attention to literary style. Mrs. William Brown Meloney, the editor, says

that the Magazine would like to have available to its readers each week one humorous article satirizing some phase of modern life and one serious article in modern essay form dealing with an educational or religious subject. The Magazine is now read widely in colleges, and any subject dealing in a broad way with modern subjects of interest to faculties and students will be carefully considered. Articles dealing with the upbringing and training of children and other matters of general interest to women are wanted. Occasional articles dealing with matters of interest to society will be considered. Material dealing with current sporting events and the outdoors in general is in demand, as are articles describing various adventurous phases of modern life, such as exploration, small boat cruising, the army, the navy, etc. Poetry of a distinctly high order will be published, as well as a small amount of humorous verse. No fiction is wanted. Articles should contain from 1,500 to 3,500 words.

FLASHLIGHTS-Room 570, 55 West Forty

second street, New York, the first issue of which will be on sale February 15, is in the market for short clean love stories, or stories of real sentiment.

THE NOMAD-150 Lafayette street, New York, is the new name of Journeys Beautiful, beginning with the January issue. In addition to travel articles, the magazine will now use such adventure stories as may go well in a travel magazine. Mr. Barnitz, the editor, says that what the magazine wants more than anything else is a human document, a manuscript which gives an insight into the manners and customs of the people through the human vein. He prefers first-person narratives, containing from 1,500 to 2,500 words, and adds that while description is, of course, the necessary element in any travel article, it should not be overdone. Good photographs are desirable, and a manuscript is much more likely to be accepted if it is accompanied by pictures combining both scenic and human interest elements.

THE BRIDLE AND GOLFER 330 Penobscot Building, Detroit, Michigan, wants short humorous articles, not exceeding 1,000 words; also feature articles, poetry, short skits, and fiction concerning golf, riding, tennis, or other sports.

THE BLACK MASK-45 West Forty-fifth street, New York, is in the market for well written stories of crime detection, filled with clean virile action, and plausible, but without the gruesome or horrible, the ultra-weird, or the supernatural; also stories of adventure and Western stories with something of the same elements in them. Stories should contain from 4,000 to 20,000 words.

THE BROADCASTING MAGAZINE 1182 Broadway, New York, wants inspirational articles, short biographies, articles on the home, and non-technical radio material.

SUCCESS-251 Fourth avenue, New York, especially needs just now some high class, wholesome, short stories and serials.

THE B. F. KEITH-ALBEE VAUDEVILLE Ex

CHANGE Palace Theatre Building, 1564 Broadway, New York, is always in the market for vaudeville material, such as short skits of a comedy vein. W. Dayton Wegefarth, the editor, advises readers and writers to study vaudeville acts before they attempt to write such sketches themselves.

THE THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY-393 Fourth avenue, New York, publishes long fiction, juveniles, works of reference, textbooks, biographies, and other works of a specialized nature, but does not care especially for collections of short stories or poetry. Just at the present time the Company has no specific needs, but is always glad to consider books of a general nature, as well as fiction, and gives every manuscript a careful and prompt reading, without regard to the name of the author. Care should be taken not to confuse this firm with the Crowell Publishing Company, 250 Park avenue, New York, publishers of the American Magazine, Farm and Fireside, the Mentor, and the Woman's Home Companion. BOYS' LIFE 200 Fifth avenue, New York, is always specially in need of exceptionally good stories, with a special emphasis on the exceptionally good.

THE FUN SHOP-1475 Broadway, New York, is a department of humor syndicated to newspapers, and offers an inexhaustible market for dialogue jokes and anecdotes that are crisp, fresh, "peppy," and cleverly humorous. Humorous verse, of from four to twentyfour lines, and other humor conceits-epigrams (or humorous mottoes), burlesques, satires, and bright sayings of children are always welcome. Contributions will not be returned unless they are accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. Maxson Foxhall Judell is the editor of the Fun Shop. NORTH-WEST STORIES-461 Eighth avenue, New York, wants immediately short Western stories, not exceeding 6,000 words, with good woman interest, dashing young heroes, and a real outdoor twang.

THE KEYSTONE FEATURE SERVICE

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