1934-05-14 — Page 7

MONDAY, MAY 14, 1934.

LITERARY NOTES

TIME IT TAKES TO

WRITE A NOVEL

'Authors Spurred On By Financial Troubles.

EDGAR WALLACE'S RECORD

Miss Loveday Prior, the young author of "A Law Unto Them- selves," the "Evening Standard" Book of the Month for March, re- quired only 40 days in which to write this, ber first novel. The book is a long one of 458 pages.

18

A year is still regarded about the average time for the writing of an important novel. Arnold Bennett, so methodical that he was able day by day to write in his journal, "Yesterday I wrote-Words," devoted be tween eight and twelve months to his best-known works writes an "Evening Standard" corres- pondent. One day Bennett cáme into the office of his agent and/ said that on a certain date he would bring in the manuscript of a story that would establish him- self for all time. Not a line of it was written then.

On the exact day he had men-Į tioned he appeared with the manuscript. It

"The Old was Wives' Tale."

600,000 Words In Three Months.

I rank Scott and Trollope as the two quickest all-round work- cre among our great novelists. Trollope would knock out two chapters of a novel in a train from London to Manchester.

THE CHINA MAIL.

Discoverers of Historical Ruins.

Captain Corniglion Molinier (left), photographed on arrival at Le Bouget flying field, Paris. fe piloted the pinne in which, accompanied by M, Andre Malraux, the French explorer and novelist, is stated to have passed over the legendary City of Sheba on the northern boundary of the Rub-El-Khali (the Great Desert of Southern Arabia) recently. Malraux set out secretly from Paris on February 22 with Capt. Corniglion-Molinier as pilot. Their object was to find the ruins of the city from which Balkis, Queen of Sheba, travelled to Palestine to see King Solomon. The search involved a flight of about 1,000 miles over an unexplored part of the desert.

Literary Slimming Of Fashion

AMERICA'S BEST A Life Without THE PHILOSOPHER OF

SELLERS Middle West Parson Heads List

RELIGIOUS NOVEL'S SUCCESS

Love

Stephen McKenna's New Cavalcade.”

The Undiscovered Country.

FLEET STREET

Lord Castlerosse's

Book Published.

Like every author, Lord Castl By rosse, whose book," "Valentinei Stephen McKenna (Hutchins Days," was published last month son, 78-6d.)

has his tricks.

The American Institute of Arts and Sciences have compiled a list of the 65 best-selling books pu- • Lady, Bedlington tells the story. There is his Celtic passion fo blished in America since 1875.

She and her three sisters had been quoting poetry. The quotation The list is headed by a religious "good match," with or without love "You remember these lines. If

brought up in the days when a generally begins with an apology: novel called "In His Stop," by between the parties, was expected make a mistake, you must forgive Charles Monroe Sheldon, a Middle to be the outcome of a taking fil-me. I haven't seen them since West clergyman. Published Inly's parade through the "season." wrote them as an imposition at 1899, It has sold more than 8,000,- Lady Bedlington herself found school.""

rank and wealth but no love. But, 1000 copies.

Then the book of quotations I when she had given birth to four brought down, the lines are mark Second, with a 2,000,000 pule, is children, and. her husband's affee-fed off, and the book is thrown "Freckles," by Mrs. Gene Strattontions had found other outlets, she his secretary to be copied out. Porter, who also occupies the discovered consolation with the fourth, fifth and eighth place. man she would have like to marry.ginal phrase and for philosophis

The only two definitely literary She determined that her chiling which to me at any rate authors in the list are Markdren should have the freedom of more interesting even than Twain, whose "Tom Sawyer" ranks choice that she had been denied; stories. him ninth, and Mr. Somerset and the irony of the book is in the l^. Maugham, who gets the last place unsatisfactory working out of with his "Of Human Bondage." It freedom for young people who did CHARACTERS-THAT had sold some 500,000 copies. It not know how to use it. A leisure. His almost as popular s "The ly, unexciting, conscientious study Shick." by E. M. Hull. and two of the pendulum swinging through thirds as well liked as Edgar (the generations.

44 ROOSEVELT'S

Out GREAT VALUE FOR Rice Burroughs's "Tarzan of the

In 1967 he published four: Stout Volumes Released

novels, three of two volumes each. In 1870 there were four books, three of them novels; in

1879 two three-volume novels.; two two-volume novels and

n

By Publishers

Life of Palmersion, a one-volume RETURN OF THE RUSSIAN NOVEL

novel, two two-volume novels and

MONEY:

Omnibus Volume Of Lawrence's Works.

Apes."

English publishers will no doubt be able to produce startling figures for popular English writer, like |Edgar Wallace, Nat Gould,

Florence Barclay,

and

BOOK

IN ENGLAND.

For Publication. This

Month.

ཀ་*

But be has a real gift for ori

SICKEN.

Subtle Writing By Godfrey Winn,

are his

Fly Away, Youth. By Godfrey Winn (Duckworth, 78, 6d) *** This novel is about the sort of people whom one lothes. Half of them do nothing but flutter round The Tales of D. H. Lawrence.

An author who for collective

in amorous inconstancy; the PICTURES MAN OF ACTION others de little but talk about (Secker, 8s. 6d)..

sales will be hard to beat, is the There are 1140 pages in this te Edward Stratemayer, an

books and pictures. filme and President Roosevelt's book, "On gramophone records. book, which contains all of Law-American of German descent, who'

The Way" is to be published in rence's shorter fiction. beginning died in 1930..

It must be counted to Mr England this month. with "The Prussian Officer" (1914)

Winn's virtue as a writer that he Stratemayer was the father of; The book, which is a complete makes Interesting in his book this and ending with "The Mon Who 50-cent American Juvenile fetion refutation of the charges that the set of people who would bore ons Died," published in 1931

after which sells more copies in the President is either a Fascist or ato tears in reality. Through hi Lawrence's own death.

States than grown-up fiction (22, Socialist, stresses his belief in the procession of bronze gods and This is great value for money. 400,000 to 19,200,000 in 1931). profit system as the mainspring of hamadryads, pickling and tanning Unequal as Lawrence was in both

Of an output which exceeded American business life. · conception and achievement he re- 800 books, his most popular sellers

on the Riviers, there - It opens dramatically. The first moves one figure with some hold mains nevertheless one of the are "Motor Boys," "Nancy Drew" paragraph describes modern novels.

The novelists continue to give us, narrative relentlessly dowing like much in this book that no one can and the "Tom Swift" series. The an hour of his completion of the woman novelist, living in her

how within on responsibility: a subtly-drawn Scott, heavily involved by the

do without who reckons tebe in collective sales amount to-day to inauguration ceremonies he bankruptcy of his publishers, detail piled on detail.

Bent tion the life that is denied Louch with things worth reading.

more than 30,000,000 copies. for his Solicitor general and told among her fellows.

Stratemayer had a host of alian-(him to supply the legal authority es-Captain Bonehill, Victor Ap-necessary for the closing of the pleton, Laura Lee Hope. May Hol- banks. lis Barton, and Roy. Rockwood The book shows Roosevelt as a among them-but he composed, ai man of action and an astute pro any rate, his first books unaided pagandist. by "ghosts," dictating daily from The appearance of the book at a The Hogarth Press publishes the of V. Sackville- eleven to five. His work is being moment when the Republicans are collective poems icarried on to-day by his daugh- trying to rally themselves for the West. This volume contains

Senate and Congress elections is large proportion of hitherto

published poems. pretty strategy.

1

novel

the

three-volume equivalent in length of nine

(By Howard Spring.)

Literary the Don itself,

of fashion; in wrote in thirteen months "Ivan-slimming is out

The fiction, as in chorus girls, we are hoe," "The Monastery." Abbot" and "Kenilworth."returning to an Edwardian ampli- "Woodstock" Look Ters then tude. three months.

months.

Fast And Slow.

Peace And War, The book is divided into four.

Poace, parte:

War, Revolution, Civil War. It opens with a detail- ed description of life in a Cossack community. There are scenes

of

MR. A. P. HERBERT PRAISES BOOKS.

Keep Their Writers Quiet.

Mr. A. P. Herbert, in an enter. Book

Two publishers recently decid- Balzac, likewise spurred by ed that unusually fat books need great beauty, and scenes of bestia financial troubles, was even not demand unusually fat prices.lity and horror. The outstanding quicker. He completed six books. There has been a tendency of date matter of this part is the lawless ench of 100,000 words, in three for a book stouter than the normal love of young Gregor the Cossack to be priced at anything between for Akainia, his neighbour's wife, eight shillings and half a guinea. What slackens the interest is that Edgar Wallace stands alone But "And Quiet Plows the Don." Akisina gradually fades out after taining speech at a recent for rapid output. He wrote one Mikhail Sholokhov (Putnam, 750 the middle of the second part; and Exhibition, sang the praises of 70,000-word novel in three days. pages), and "Child of Norman's though there is excitement enough books. Books, he said, kept their

But the dictaphone, a secre- End," by Ernest Raymond (Ca- with war, revolution, and the rest writers quiet, and saved Lary, and a typist were all sell, 521 pages) cost the same A of it to be portrayed, one feels the from taking other people's brought into use. So easily could "Parable for Lovers." by Lewis lack of a central human interest. away with furious driving. he reel off his matter that he was Gibba (Dent, 246 pages). They are Dozens of characters come and generally ahead of them..

Books did not make a noise like No; we are given the groas and re- the wireless; they were clean Just before the war there was a volting descriptions of death and about the house; and they did not great run on the Russians. Chiefly mutilation to which so many

war dig up the garden... A selection through the energy of Mr. Aylmer books have accustomed us; Maude and M. Garnett, we all had follow the dissolution of the troops just been issued in Methuen's "Li- access to Tolstoy and Turgeniev, and the slow dropping of revolubrary of Humour Tchekov and Dostolevsky; and our tionary seed into furrows made

The other extreme is Conrad. He signed a contract for "The Rescue" on March 4, 1893. Hel finished it in 1914. It was pub-

lished in 1920.

P. G. WODEHOUSE AGAIN.

Matrimonial Plot In New Novel.

78. Gd. each.

them

lives

we of Mr. Herbert's own work has

growing devotion to a dark and ripe and ready by alternations of

brooding world of insomnia, deli-ennut and anguish. And so to the

The

girl

lity, frustration and hallucination crisis, to Kornilov's abortive coun-the late Victorians. led the late Arnold Bennet. I re-ter-move; and finally to the spec-found release and nearly found member, a utter a word of warn-tacle of the baffled Cossacks who disaster-through association with ing. He pointed out the profound don't know where they are, or an artist much older than herself, cleavage between the British and whom they want to support, in a The boy frankly rebelled. Destined the Russian attitude to life, and world made difficult for simple for the Church, he broke away to questioned whether too much men.

his own career, which was that of is a remarkable a gardener.

Mr. P. G. Wodehouse is chiefly steeping in that emotional Turkish The book famous for his butlers and chinless bath (though he did not use those achievement; but I think one That was * good idea, and I young Englishmen, but he is also at words) was good for us.

would need to be nearer to the wish Mr. Raymond had left it at his best when dealing with the vir- I do not see much evidence that events depicted to extract full sa-that. We have had so many people tuous not-so-young spinster. Mise Pillenger in "A Sea of Troubles" had by young people now; and, for my-

those old Russians are read much tisfaction from the leisurely treat- who shatter the parental fetters in

ment. 1

order to become great painters or been waiting 20 years to be insulted self, I have often wondered what There is always danger, in writ-writers, lawyers or what not. by Mr. Megga, her employer. Ho the new Russia has bred to re-ing about a thing you have known Gardening is a grand and honour- on the other hand having decided place them. You can't complain intimately, of assuming that your able occupation; but, alast Mr. en suicid was merely taking what that our reading is over-Russian-readers' interest will equal your Raymond has insleted on making lic considered a tender last farewellised now. So far as fiction goos

own. It worked out all right for Leo a famous poet in his spare "Smiles excepted, there is nothing little has been done to enlighten sians necessarily are interested

Mr. Sholokhov because the Rus-time, so hard to classify as a kiss. Mrus concerning the present state of

"Parable For Lovers." Megge notion was that he kissed things under the Sovieta, Miss Pillenger much a4 some great

after all.

profoundly in events that so! "Parable for Lovers" is about a general, wounded unto death, might lation of Mr. Sholokhov's book timates our

Therefore. I welcome the tran- Ernest Raymond, I feel, over-es-in. Greece, consorted for a while changed their destinies. But Mr. young, man who fell into a vision have kissed his mother, his sister, "And Quiet Flows the Don." We End. He has, he confess, tapped gained the love of one of them. It interest in Norman's with Diana and her nymphs and] or some particularly sympathetic

learn one startling thing right his childhood's memories." aunt......"

was, when he aspired beyond her Her subsequent attack on him and away, and that is that in Russia also was of Norman's End." even to Diana herself that disas the exercise thereby involved cured today the taste for fiction-of the he. begin one chapter, and all the ter befeli bim. Mr. Meggs of his dyspepsia and ght sortis alert enough to en-way through ho obtrudes his own made him feel life was worth living sure a book a sale of a million co personality and chatters on with a an earthly tale with heavenly A parable, it has been said, 'in pics, I do not know whether that happy affectionate garrulite. One meaning; but Mr. Gibba's parable 18 unprecedented; certainly it feels that so many repfulacences is a heavenly tale, with the simple sensational. But there it is: we came to him when he began his earthly meaning that a sparrow in have the publishers' word that book that he mistakenly supposed the nest is better than some gor million copies of this book have himself to be suffering from an geous songster in the empyrean." been sold in Russia since 1929. embarrassment of riches. He At least, that's all It seems to I can understand that happening wasn't really. He was suffering me to mean; but, presented as it in Russia; but it would be surprise from the riotous overgrowth of re- is, with ornate imagery of nyníphs| "The sale of manuscripts and ing it, in this country, the book collection which, a wise gardener and goddesses," it may well have first editions in New York on met with a comparable success, A would have attacked with a pran subtler implications than I percalv April 4 and 5 was remarkable. The considerable success. I should ing knife.,

ed. But, longing as 1 414 no re collection contained many MSS, of think it will achieve (Mr. Stephen

A Simple Tale English Authors, including 12{Garry's translation carries the

duca Mr. Sholokhoy's book by The tale is essentially simple. It three or four hundred pages and poems of Browning, Stevenson'sjstory through with a beautiful la concerns a girl, and boy Towing Mr. Raymond's by two bundred, T autographed notes on "The Coven-cidity), but I believe that most up in neighbouring houses under felt of Mr. Gibb's tirat Aesop antera," ";" and " ́"Byron's "Ode to English readers will experience the dominance of relatives why would have said it all in a dozen Thomas Moore.”

Igrowing tediam as they follow thexercised the old beavy hand of or twenty pages.

Browning And Byron Mss: Sold,

ters.

He died a millionaire.

themselves

Sackville-West Poem Volume.

The cigarette that made smoking popular

Jills's

COLD FLAKE

VIRGINIA CIGARETTES

AS GOOD AS GOLD

her