Magazine for November, is on the editorial staff of one of New York's big publishing houses, and finds that she has not a great deal of leisure for original work, but she is an occasional contributor of verse and short stories and translations to different periodicals. Her verses have appeared in Harper's Magazine, the Century, Harper's Bazar, and other magazines. Miss Watson is also the author of a book for boys, entitled "Midshipman Days, published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. The pen name on the title page is "Roger West.

Elizabeth Young, whose serial, "Rob's Ranch," is now running in the Youth's Companion, is Elizabeth Young Hoffman, and her first published story appeared in the Companion long ago. At about the same time she had stories published in Munsey's, the Cosmopolitan, the Criterion (now deceased), Street & Smith's publications, and various newspaper syndicates. She also worked for a year on the New York Evening Journal. A. S. Barnes published her novel, "The Circle in the Square," but she says it brought her neither fame nor money, but, in fact, put her in debt. Soon afterward she left the family home in Connecticut and went West, where she has since been too busy ranching to write. She has just taken up her pen again, and "Rob's Ranch" is the first results of homesteading. Miss Hoffman, who has had a number of stories in the Youth's Companion, says she has found the Companion a “mighty fine" magazine to work for, the editors being quick to give encouragement and helpful criticism, and she thinks that the writer who gets a start with them is to be congratulated.

which he was at work) made me ill; I knew so well what I wanted to write-it was like copying something that one knows by heart." From London he wrote in 1902: "I have also just finished today Act I of Mrs. Bloodgood's play. Of course, it seems as if I were doing an awful lot of work. And I suppose it would be better if I did n't do so much, but I can't help it. I limit my writing to three hours a day. However, the point about these plays is that I know them almost by heart. I've been planning the Mannering piece since a year ago last winter. I know it all; it only wanted to be written down, and the same with the Bloodgood piece. It is n't as if I had to think up plot and situations. I've had them for a long time."

That effect of no effort was produced by the greatest of effort - by careful workmanship that builds and rebuilds and struggles and strives. My method may sound very unromantic to those who imagine novels are dashed off from the tip of a fluent pen; but on the other hand, it may carry a message of cheer to those who have to "try, try again" for what they get.

--

First I make notes. About these I build a. story, which I dictate to my secretary. Next comes my work with pins, paper and mucilage. I cut my text to pieces and paste it together again with sentences written in and about and around. My hard-worked secretary makes a readable manuscript of my "scrapbook" and then again I apply pins and paper and mucilage and thought and marginal notes. That process may be repeated to the half dozenth time!

When I wrote "Jerry, Jr.," my publishers thought I had slighted the love interest and ought to introduce a kiss slightly before the

last page. I rewrote and labored and struggled to bring about the change that was wanted and to produce it naturally. Never was there more fuss over a kiss - but I had to keep the balance of my book, and that little change was three months in the making.

I suppose it was natural for me to write -editors and authors flourished in my family; but any inherited tendency was well nurtured in my preparatory school. The work of our course included such things as writing a new last chapter for "Trilby". a happy ending, but one in Du Maurier's own style. So, too, we had to make a new last chapter for "Edwin Drood." Then the class composed a novel in which each girl wrote one chapter and the book had to be a unit of style; and add to this that we had competitive news writing for our school paper and you will see that we were taught to mold word combinations into various forms!

Then came college. I was too busy with Latin prose the first year to do any conscious training in prose of my own composition; but during my second year I was one of the girls appointed to act as newspaper correspondent from our college to the press, which seemed inclined to print news that we did not feel --representative! I sent a column a week to the Poughkeepsie Chronicle, and I had editorial orders to send in snappy bits." I learned to study my public then, and to try to tell it what it wanted to hear in the way it wanted it put.

"

And then my first year out of college 1 wrote "When Patty Went to College, which had the honor of being refused by six magazines before the Century accepted it. So I knew rejection slips.

Whatever you know about is the thing to write about. It is possible to read up on the Italian lakes from guide books and write a fairly plausible book. But whatever you know from the inside is the thing of which you may tell convincingly and without fear of experts! The girl who has been a stenographer in the Chicago stock yards and who has keenly observed and who tells of what she saw simply may write a far more convincing human document than could a keen student of statistics.

My idea of finding yourself is to study and

work and express what you know. -Jean Webster, in the Boston American.

CURRENT LITERARY TOPICS.

Authors Who Do Not Cash Their Checks. - Authors may not now spurn the offer of money for their work, but they really do sometimes fail to cash checks, according to the cashier of the Century Company. "I don't know what they do with the checks," he said in complaint to a friend the other day, "unless they frame them. Though acknowledgments have proved the receipt of the checks, I am always carrying on the books corresponding accounts that I can't close up for months, sometimes years. I remember especially one check issued to a famous actor and author. He died a number of years ago. The check was made out anew to the estate. Still it is uncashed. There is more than one author I'd bless if he - it is usually he would only go and get his money.

-

Where Should Authors Live ? The novel is doomed. If the automobile, the aeroplane, and the moving picture continue to develop during the next ten years as they have developed during the last ten, people will cease almost entirely to take interest in fiction.

"I think that the authors have changed," said Mr. Harben reflectively. The authors do not live as they used to live. The authors no longer live with the people about whom they write. Instead, they live with other authors. Nowadays, an author achieves success by writing, we will say, about the people of his home in the Far West. Then he comes to New York. And instead of living with the sort of people about whom he writes, he lives with artists. That must have its effect upon his work."

"But is not that what you yourself did?" I asked. "A New York apartment house is cer

tainly the last place in the world in which to look for the historian of 'Pole Baker'!"

Mr. Harben smiled. But I don't live with artists," he said. "I try to live with the kind of people I write about. I resolved a long time ago to try to avoid living with literary people and to live with all sorts of human beings with people who did n't know or care whether or not I was a writer. So I have for my friends and acquaintances sailors, merchants people of all sorts of professions and trade. And people of that sort — people who make no pretensions to be artists are the best company for a writer, for they open their hearts to him. A writer can learn how to write about humanity by living with humanity, instead of with other people who are trying to write about humanity.".

"But at any rate you have left the part of the country about which you write," I said. And was n't that one of the things for which you condemned our hypothetical writer of Western tales ?"

"Not necessarily," said Mr. Harben. "It sometimes happens that an author can write about the scenes he knows best only after he has gone away from them. I know that this is true of myself. It's in line with the old saws about distance lends enchantment' and 'emotion remembered in tranquillity,' you know. I believe that Du Maurier was able to write his vivid descriptions of life in the Latin Quarter of Paris because he went to London to do it. You see, I absorbed life in Georgia for many years. And in New York I can remember it and get a perspective on it and write about it." - Joyce Kilmer, in the New York Times.

BOOK REVIEWS.

CARLYLE How TO KNOW HIM.

in Carlyle's own words, the working of his mind. Emphasis is placed, as might be expected, upon the personality of the man and the revelation of his personality made in his. writings. Between the ages of thirty and thirty-five Carlyle perfected his theory of biography and history, and his epoch-making histories are the endeavors of an extraordinary literary artist to adjust this theory to the facts of a vanished European society. Especially interesting chapters of the book are those headed " "How Carlyle's Literary Theory, He Wrote," and "His Theory Tested." Professor Phelps, in his book about Browning, has undertaken to give an account of the poet's life and an estimation of his character; to set forth with sufficient illustration from his poems his theory of poetry, his aim and method; to make clear some of the leading ideas in his work; to show his fondness for paradox; and to exhibit the nature and basis of his optimism. The book is one that no reader or student of Browning can afford to miss. In the series thus well begun will follow similar books about Hawthorne, Emerson, Wordsworth, Byron, Dickens, Whitman, Defoe, Lowell, and other authors.

THE LIFE OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. By Graham Balfour. 364 PP: Cloth, $2.00, net. New York:

Charles Scribner's Sons.

This is an abridged one-volume edition of Balfour's life of Stevenson, first published in 1911, and in its new form, revised and illustrated and with many important additions, it will make a new appeal to readers. The abridgment of the book, the author says, has had the effect of lightening it and making it more readable. Part of the matter omitted, such as the Vailima Prayers, has now been published elsewhere; the chief part of the remainder related either to Samoan politics, or contained details concerning some of Stevenson's minor works which were of interest only to the special student, who can still find what he needs in the unabridged edition. The general effect of the picture of Stevenson's life remains unaltered, and it is a very interesting picture.

These two books, intended to give readers and students a better understanding of Browning and Carlyle, are admirably done. Of Professor Perry's book a critic has said: "How I wish I might have had this book when I began to read Carlyle !" Professor Perry has aimed, not to present one more biography of Carlyle, but to exhibit, so far as possible

1914.

Advertising has come to be a science, a most important factor in the conduct of business, which in its modern development has also come to be regarded as a science, and, like advertising, now has a large and rapidly growing literature, written by experts. These two books, published by Doubleday, Page, & Co., for the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, are excellent examples of the

practical value of the new literature written for the business man. Mr. Mahin, as the head of a large advertising agency, is thoroughly familiar with the art, science, or business of advertising, and in his book he discusses every phase of it in a practical, suggestive way. As every one is affected by advertising, so every one would do well to read his book, and particularly it should be read by every one who is connected with the publishing business, whether as a writer or on the business end. Mr. Tipper's book has a wider scope, and presents clearly all the principles of business, showing how it has developed and what present conditions are. The author is president of the Advertising Men's League, of New York, and the subject of advertising gets due attention in the book, which is one that should be read by every one who is interested in any way in advertising, and by every business

man.

SITY

DESKBOOK OF THE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, UNIVERFifth OF MISSOURI. By Charles G. Ross. edition, revised and enlarged. 84 PP. Paper. Columbia, Mo. University of Missouri. 1915. This new University of Missouri Bulletin gives the "style" used in the school of journalism at the university, and in addition gives directions for the preparation of copy, miscellaneous rules and suggestions for the right use of English, chapters on Engraving, Advertising, and Headline Writing, and miscellaneous information of value to writers for the press.

Compiled by New York:

WHERE TO SELL YOUR MANUSCRIPTS. E. F. Barker. 62 pp. Boards, $1.00. Frye Publishing Company. 1915. "Where to Sell Your Manuscripts" is a thin oblong book, not too large for the breast pocket of a coat, which gives classified lists of publications under the headings Agriculture and Poultry, Army and Navy, Educational and Journalistic, Garden and Sports, Humorous, Juvenile, Literary and Fiction, Medical, Moving Picture, Music, Newspapers, Religious, Theatrical, Trade Journals, Advertising, Architecture, etc., and lists of book publishers, hymn publishers, music publishers, syndicates, photo-play buyers, play-producers, and postcard and novelty makers. In the matters of accuracy and completeness it leaves much to be desired, and its rather vague information about the rates of payment for manuscripts is not always trustworthy, but it suggests many possible markets for manuscripts, and may be used, with discretion, for a guide.

VERMONT THE UNSPOILED LAND. By_Mortimer R. Proctor and Roderic M. Olzendam. Rutland, Vt. : The Tuttle Company. 1915.

An enthusiastic lover of Vermont, Mr. Proctor son of Fletcher D. Proctor and grandson of Redfield Proctor and his co

author, Mr. Olzendam, have made this booklet a glowing tribute to the beauties and attractions of the state. Before writing it Mr. Proctor personally visited every town and village in Vermont. With four thousand miles of state roads, in addition to eleven thousand miles of ordinary roads, Vermont, with its wonderful mountain scenery, offers unusual attractions for automobilists, and this booklet lays out and describes an eight-day tour, designed to show the state's attractions to the best advantage and covering about eight hundred miles. Copies of the booklet, which is finely illustrated, may be had from the Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont.

SPANISH-ENGLISH AND ENGLISH-SPANISH COMMERCIAL DICTIONARY. By G. R. Macdonald. 644 pp. Cloth, 7s., 6d., net. New York: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd. 1915.

The special merit of this Dictionary is that it aims to include all the words and expressions which are generally used in commerce, and so is especially adapted for the use of business men. Not only does it give the established commercial words and terms many of which are not given in other dictionaries but it gives also words used in commerce, particularly with the Spanish Americans, which are not yet recognized by the Spanish Academy, although to business men they are important. In cases where such words are purely local, or South American, the fact is noted. As the Dictionary is intended primarily for business men, special attention is given to terms used in commerce, and the omission or subordination of matter not of practical use makes the work particularly well adapted for the purpose for which it is designed. The type is clear, and the arrangement is such that a desired term can be found in the shortest possible time. That the work is thoroughly up-to-date can be seen by reference to such terms as wireless telegraphy, marconigram, aeroplane, taxicab, and underground railway, which are not to be found in most Spanish-English dictionaries. Every business man who has dealings with Spanishspeaking countries and every one interested in Spanish commercial correspondence should have a copy of this book.

HOW TO MAKE AND HOW TO MEND. By an Amateur Mechanic. 294 pp. Cloth, $1.00. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1915.

This new revised edition of a book so practical and useful that it has had to be reprinted six times since it first appeared in 1900 gives plain and simple directions for making innumerable articles convenient around the home, together with recipes for restoring, cleaning, and repairing almost everything in household use. Useful in emergencies, the book is full of suggestions also for those who

have a knack with tools, and in many cases it I will save its possessor more than its cost by showing how to make desirable and useful articles at small expense.

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. ]

A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE SINCE 1870.
By Fred Lewis Pattee. 449 PP. Cloth, $2.00, net.
New York: The Century Company. 1915.
WRITTEN ENGLISH. By Edwin C. Woolley, Ph.D.
321 pp. Cloth. $1.00. Boston: D. C. Heath & Co.