Library) but after you have finished the first one, and during
the time that we are reading it, you can go ahead with the second
detective story, "The Capture of Keno Clark," which, although we are
in no hurry for it, we may be able to use in about six weeks or two
months. You did so well with the first detective story that I have no
doubt you can make the second a satisfactory one. However, if we find
the series for the Ten-Cent Library O. K., we will want you to write
these, one after the other as rapidly as possible until we have had
enough of them.
As to our method of payment, would say that it is our custom to
pay for manuscripts on Thursday following the day of issue, but,
agreeably with your request, we mail you a check tomorrow in payment
of "Glim Peters on His Mettle," and will always be willing to
accomodate you in like manner when you find it necessary to call upon
us.
So Edwards made good with the publishing firm of Harte & Perkins,
and for eighteen years there have been the pleasantest of business
relations between them. Courteous always in their dealings, prompt in
their payments to writers, and eager always to send pages and pages of
helpful letters, Harte & Perkins have grown to be the most substantial
publishers in the country. Is it because of their interest in their
writers? Certainly not in spite of it!
For them Edwards has written upwards of five hundred five-cent
libraries, a dozen or more serials for their story paper, many serials
for their boys' weekly, novelettes for their popular magazines, and a
large number of short stories. For these, in the last eighteen years,
they have paid him more than $35,000.
Nor, during this time, was he writing for Harte & Perkins exclusively.
He had other publishers and other sources of profit.
As an instance of helpfulness that did not help, Edwards once
attempted to come to the assistance of Howard Dwight Smiley. Smiley
wrote his first story, and Edwards sent it on to _The Argosy_ with a
personal letter to Mr. White. Such letters, at best, can do no more
than secure for an unknown writer a little more consideration than
would otherwise be the case; they will not warp an editor's judgment,
no matter how warmly the new writer is recommended. The story came
back with a long letter of criticism and with an invitation for
Smiley to try again. He tried and tried, perhaps a dozen times, and
always the manuscript was returned to the patient Smiley by the no
less patient editor. At last Smiley wrote a story about a tramp
who became entangled with a cyclone. The "whirler," it seems, had
already picked up the loose odds and ends of a farm yard, along with
a churnful of butter. In order to escape from the cyclone, Smiley's
tramp greased himself with the butter from the churn and slid out
of the embrace of the twisting winds. "Chuck it," said Edwards;
"I'm surprised at you, Smiley." Smiley did "chuck it"--but into a
mail-box, addressed to Mr. White, and Mr. White "chucked" a check for
$12 right back for it! Whereupon Smiley chuckled inordinately--and
came no more to Edwards for advice.
V.
NICKEL THRILLS AND
DOLLAR SHOCKERS.
The word "sensational" as applied to fiction has been burdened with
an opprobrium which does not rightfully belong to it. Ignorance and
prejudice and hypocrisy have conspired to defame a very worthy word.
Certain good but misguided people will turn shudderingly from a nickel
novel and complacently look for thrills in a "best seller." Often
and often the "best seller" is to be had for 95 cents or $1 at the
department stores. Not infrequently it spills more blood than the
nickel thriller, but the blood is spilled on finer paper, and along
with it are idealized pictures of heroine and hero done by the best
artists.
As a matter of course the dollar dreadful is better done. The author
probably took six months or a year to do it, and if it is well
advertised and proves a success he reaps a modest fortune. On the other
hand, the nickel novel is written in three days or a week and brings
the author $50. Why shouldn't the dollar book show a higher grade of
craftmanship? But is it less vicious than the novel that sells for
five cents? To draw the matter still finer, is either form of fiction
vicious?
If we turn to Webster and seek a definition of "sensational" we find:
"Suited or intended to excite temporarily great interest or emotion;
melodramatic; emotional."
This does not mean that sensational writing is vicious writing. It is
wrong to classify as vicious or degrading the story of swift action
and clean ethics, or to compare it with that prurient product of the
slums which deals with problems of sex.
The tale that moves breathlessly but logically, that is built
incident upon incident to a telling climax with the frankly avowed
purpose to entertain, that has no questionable leanings or immoral
affiliations--such a tale speeds innocently an idle hour, diverts
pleasantly the harrassed mind, freshens our zeal for the duties of
life, and occasionally leaves us with higher ideals.
We are all dreamers. We must be dreamers before we are doers. If some
of the visions that come to us in secret reverie were flaunted in all
their conceit and inconsistency before the world, not one of us but
would be the butt of the world's ridicule. And yet, out of these highly
tinted imaginings springs the impulse that carries us to higher and
nobler things.
A difference in the price of two commodities does not necessarily
mark a moral difference in the commodities themselves. _The Century
Magazine_ sells for 35 cents, while _The Argosy_ sells for 10 cents.
You will be told that _The Century_ is "high class" and with a distinct
literary flavor, perhaps that it is more elevating. Even so; yet which
of these magazines is doing more to make the world really livable? Ask
the newsdealer in your town how many _Centuries_ he sells, and how many
_Argosies_.
Readers are not made for the popular magazines, but the popular
magazines are made for the people. Unless there was a distinct and
insistent demand for this sort of entertainment, so many all-story
magazines, priced at a dime, could not exist.
Nickel thrillers cater largely to a juvenile clientele. Taking them by
and large--there are a few exceptions, of course--they are as worthy of
readers as the dime magazines; and many a serial in a dime magazine has
been republished in cloth and made into a "best seller."[D]
Why is it that, if a lad in his teens robs a jewelry store and is
apprehended, almost invariably the newspaper report has a bundle of
nickel libraries found in his pocket? Why a nickel library and not a
"yellow" newspaper?
The standard of judgment which places a nickel novel in the
heart-side pocket of the young degenerate, harks back to a period
when "yellow-back" literature was really vicious; it is a judgment by
tradition, unsupported by present-day facts. The world moves, and as
it moves it grows constantly better. Reputable publishers of cheap
fiction have elevated the character of their output until now some of
the weekly stories they publish are really admirable; in many instances
they are classics.
A few years ago, at a convention of Sunday School teachers at Asbury
Park, N. J., a minister boldly praised the "Diamond Dick" stories. He
declared that while action rattled through the pages of these tales
like bullets from a Gatling, he had found nothing immoral in them,
nothing suggestive, nothing to deprave. The lawless received their just
reward and virtue emerged triumphant. It was his thought that a few
"Diamond Dick" stories might, with benefit, take the place, in Sunday
School libraries, of the time-honored book in which the boy goes
a-fishing on Sunday and falls into the river.
One of the "Frank Merriwell" stories tells of a sensitive, shrinking
lad at an academy who was hazed into a case of pneumonia from which he
died. The hero breaks the news of the boy's death to his widowed mother
and comforts her in her bereavement. From beginning to end the story is
told with a sympathy, and such a thorough understanding of boy-nature,
that the hold on the juvenile reader is as strong as the theme is
uplifting.
This is not "trash." It is literature sold at a price which carries it
everywhere, and the result is untold good.
The fact remains, however, that not every publisher of nickel novels
has so high a standard. The paternal eye, in overseeing the fiction of
the young, must be discriminating. Blood-and-thunder has had its day;
but, if the rising generation is not to be a race of mollycoddles, care
must be exercised in stopping short of the other extreme.
The life of today sets a pattern for the fiction of to-day. The masses
demand rapid-fire action and good red brawn in their reading matter.
Their awakened moral sense makes possible the muck-raker; and when they
weary of the day's evil and the day's toil, it is their habit to divert
themselves with pleasant and exciting reading. And it must be CLEAN.
FOOTNOTES:
[D] "Dan Quixote," for instance published in =The All-Story Magazine=,
and republished as "The Brass Bowl."
VI.
MAKING GOOD
BY HARD WORK.
With the beginning of the year 1894 Edwards was learning the knack of
the nickel novel and its ten-cent brother, and making good with his New
York publishers. During 1893 the work he turned in was of fair quality,
but he was not satisfied with that and labored to improve. Each
succeeding story came nearer and nearer the high mark. Believing that
whatever is worth doing is worth doing well, he was constantly asking
himself, "How can I make my next story better than the one I have
just finished?" The publishers helped him. Every manuscript submitted
was read personally by Mr. Perkins, and brought a letter dissecting
the story and stating which incidents were liked, and why, and which
incidents were not liked, and why. Edwards feels that he can never be
sufficiently grateful to Mr. Perkins for this coaching in the gentle
art of stalking a reader's elusive interest.
Had Edwards remained a paymaster in the employ of the contracting firm,
he would have received $1,200 for his services in 1893. He severed his
connection with his paymaster's salary in June, and at the end of the
year his Fiction Factory showed these results:
4 Five-Cent Library stories at $50 each $ 200.
1 Juvenile serial 100.
1 Juvenile serial 75.
13 Ten-Cent Library stories at $100. each 1300.
1 Serial for Saturday Night 150.
---------
Total $ 1825.
In other words, Edwards had taken out of his Fiction Factory $625 more
than his salary as paymaster would have amounted to for the year. He
felt vastly relieved, and his wife laughingly fell back on her woman's
prerogative of saying "I told you so." This was a good beginning, and
Edwards felt sure that he would be able to do even better during 1894.
He was coming along splendidly with the Ten-Cent Library work. On Jan.
30 Mr. Perkins paid this tribute to his growing powers:
"I have just finished reading your story, 'Dalton's Double,' which I
find to be as good as anything you have given us. I must compliment
you upon the varied incident which you cram into these stories, of a
nature that is well suited to them."
It was Edwards' custom to forward a Ten-Cent Library story every two
weeks, and there were months in which he wrote three stories, taking
ten days for each one. As these stories were 40,000 words in length,
three in thirty days were equivalent to 120,000 words.
During 1893 he wrote his stories twice: first a rough draft and then
the printer's copy. In 1894 he began making his first copies clean
enough for the compositor. Had he not done this he could never have
accomplished such a large amount of work.
On April 10, when everything was going swimmingly and he was taking
in $300 a month for the library work, he was brought up short in his
career of prosperity. Mr. Perkins wrote him to finish the story upon
which he was engaged and then to stop the library work until further
orders. It had been decided to use "re-prints" in the series. This
could very easily be done as the Library had been published for years
and some of the earlier stories could be brought out again without
injuring the sale. The letter, which was a profound disappointment to
Edwards, closed as follows:
"I regret the necessity of curtailing your work, for I am entirely
satisfied with it, and if we did not find it necessary to adopt the
measure referred to above, with a view to decreasing expenses during
the summer months and dull season, I should have wished to have you
continue right along. I have no doubt that you will be able to find a
place for your material in the meantime."
This fell upon Edwards like a bolt from a clear sky. He began to regret
his "paymaster crutch" and to imagine dire things. He had been giving
his time almost exclusively to Harte & Perkins, and had lost touch with
publications for which he had been writing previous to 1893. Where, he
asked himself, was he to place his material in the meantime?
There is little sentiment in business. Harte & Perkins, whenever they
find a line of work is not paying, will cut it off at an hour's notice,
by telegraph if necessary. The man receiving the telegram, of course,
can only make the best of it. This is a point which Edwards has always
disliked about the work for publishers of this class of fiction: the
writer, no matter how prosperous he may be at any given time, is always
in a state of glorious uncertainty.
But Edwards fell on his feet. It so happened that he had sent to Harte
& Perkins, some time before, copies of _Saturday Night_ containing two
of his stories. He had done this in the attempt to prove to them that
he could write for _The Weekly Guest_, their story paper. This little
incident shows how important it is for a writer to get as many anchors
to windward as possible.
Eight days after being cut off from the library work, Edwards received
a letter from Mr. Harte. Mr. Perkins had left New York on business,
but had turned over the printed work in _Saturday Night_ for Mr.
Harte's inspection before leaving. Mr. Harte wrote, in part:
"I like your work in _Saturday Night_, and think we shall be able to
give you a commission for a _Weekly Guest_ story, provided you can
lend yourself successfully to our suggestions as to style, etc., and
give us permission to publish under any of the pen names we use in
the office.
We want a story of the Stella Edwards type. We send you to-day one or
two samples of the class of work desired, so that you may be able to
see just what it is. If you can do the work, we shall be pleased to
send you a title and plot, with synopsis. You can then write us two
installments for a trial, and, if satisfactory, I have no doubt we
could arrange to give you a quantity of work in this line.
I feel, after reading the samples you submitted, that you will be
able to meet our requirements in this class of story. The two stories
we send you are the work of a masculine pen, and though not so easy
to lose one's identity in literary work, this class of story does
not seem to present the ordinary difficulties; at least, that is the
testimony of our authors who have tried it."
Edwards was booked to attempt a gushing love story, to follow a copy
and make it appear as though a woman had done the writing! Quite a jump
this, from a rapid-fire Ten-Cent Library story for young men to a bit
of sentimental fiction for young women. However, he went at it, and he
went at it with a determination to make good. It was either that or go
paymastering again.
On April 24 he received title, synopsis and plot of "Bessie, the
Beautiful Blind Girl," and began charging himself with superheated
sentiment preparatory to beginning his work. The popular young lady
authoress, "Stella Edwards," whose portrait in a decollete gown had
been so often flaunted in the eyes of "her" public, was a myth. The
"stuff" supposedly written by the charming "Stella Edwards" was
ground out by men who were versatile enough to befool women readers,
with a feminine style. Edwards, it transpired, was able to do this
successfully for a time, but ultimately he failed to round off the
rough corners of a style too decidedly masculine for "Miss Edwards."
But this is anticipating.
On May 3 he had sent the two trial installments, and from New York came
the word:
"We like the two opening installments of 'Bessie, the Beautiful Blind
Girl.' The style is good, the action brisk and sensational and of a
curiosity-arousing character.
It is our belief that you are capable of presenting a desirable
variation from the former Stella Edwards' stories, by introducing
romantic incidents of a novel and more exalted character.
In most of the other Stella Edwards' yarns there was little plot and
the action was rarely varied. The action comprised the pursuit and
capture, the recapture and loss of the heroine, she being constantly
whirled, like a shuttle-cock, from the hero to the villain, then to
the female villain, then back again to the hero for a few tantalizing
moments, and so on to the end.
You can readily improve upon this by introducing scenes a little more
fresh, and far more interesting.
It is about time for Stella to improve, and we believe you are just
the man to make her do better work.
Go on with the story and force our readers to exclaim, 'Well, that's
the best story Stella has written!'"
While Edwards was deep in the sorrows of "Bessie, the Beautiful Blind
Girl," he received from his publishers on May 10 orders which hurled
him headlong into another "Stella Edwards" yarn.
"Owing to a change in our publishing schedule of Guest stories, it
will be necessary to anticipate the issue of 'Bessie, the Beautiful
Blind Girl' by another story of the same type, sixteen installments,
same as the one you are now working on. The title of this new story
will be 'The Bicycle Belle,' and will deal with the bicycle as the
matter of central interest in the first installment or two. I send
you a synopsis of the story prepared by one of our editors. This will
simply give you an idea of one way of developing the theme. It does
not, however, suit our plans, and we will ask you to invent something
quite different."
Always and ever Harte & Perkins kept their fingers on the pulse of
their reading public. The safety bicycle was the fashion, in those
days, and Harte & Perkins were usually first to exploit a fashion
or a fad in their story columns. Whenever they had a story with a
particularly popular and striking theme, it was their habit to flood
the country with sample copies of _The Weekly Guest_, breaking off a
generous installment of the serial in such a breathless place that the
reader was forced to buy succeeding issues of the _Guest_ in order
to get the rest of the story. So that is what the change in their
publishing schedule meant. They wanted to boom the circulation of the
_Guest_ with a bicycle story.
Edwards shelved Bessie the beautiful at the 7th installment and threw
himself into the tears, fears and chivalry of "The Bicycle Belle."
This was on May 12. Three days later, on May 15, he forwarded two
installments of the bicycle story for Harte & Perkins' inspection. On
May 16, before these installments had reached the publishers, Edwards
was requested as follows:
"As we shall not be able to begin, in the Guest, your story, 'Bessie,
the Beautiful Blind Girl,' until after January the first, next, it
will be well to change the scene to a winter setting. This can be
very easily done in the two installments that we have on hand, if you
will make a note of it and keep it up for the balance of the story.
In the first installment we will show the girl leaping into the river
with a few cakes of ice floating about, and in the scene where she is
expelled from the house there will be plenty of snow. It will make a
more effective picture and be more seasonable for the story."
More trouble! Harte & Perkins had two installments, and did not seem
to know that Edwards had five more installments on hand, pending the
completion of the bicycle yarn. But he was ready to turn summer into
winter, or day into night, in order to make good. On May 18 he received
a report on the two installments of the bicycle story.
"The two installments of 'The Bicycle Belle' have been read and
approved by our editor, who says that the story opens very well, with
plenty of animated action, briefly yet graphically pictured. You seem
to have caught our idea exactly, and we would be pleased to have
you go ahead with the story, finishing it before you again take up
'Bessie, the Beautiful Blind Girl.'"
On June 3 Edwards sent installments three to sixteen of the bicycle
story, which was the complete manuscript. Ten days later he was
informed:
"'The Bicycle Belle' is crowded with dramatic action and is just
what we want. In the next it would be well to have a little more
of the female element just to demonstrate that 'Stella Edwards' is
up-to-date."
None the less pleasant was this news, contained in a letter dated June
18:
"We have placed to your credit, upon our books, the sum of three
hundred dollars in payment for 'The Bicycle Belle,' which will be the
figure for all this class of stories from your pen which are accepted
for _The Weekly Guest_."
Up to that time this was the most money Edwards had ever received for a
serial story, and very naturally he felt elated. Under date of June 20
he wrote Harte & Perkins and told them that he was planning a trip East
as soon as he had finished with "Bessie, the Beautiful Blind Girl." He
received a cordial invitation from the publishers to come on as soon as
possible as they had something which they particularly wanted him to do
for them.
The story of the blind girl was forwarded on June 30. A flaw
was discovered in it and several installments were returned for
correction--not a serious flaw, indeed, but one which necessitated
a little revision. The revision made, the story passed at once to
acceptance.
In July Edwards was in New York and called personally upon Harte &
Perkins. He found them pleasant and capable gentlemen--all that his
fancy had pictured them through months of correspondence. Inasmuch as
it was Edwards' first visit to the metropolis, he studied the city with
a view to using it in some of his fiction.
The special work which Mr. Harte wanted Edwards to do for the firm was
a story of which he gave the salient features. It was to be written in
the best Archibald Clavering Gunter style.
As Edwards had imitated successfully the mythical "Stella Edwards," he
was now confronted with the more trying task of imitating the style
of a popular living author. He read Gunter from "Barnes of New York"
down; and then, when completely saturated with him, turned off two
installments of "The Brave and Fair" and sent them on. He was visiting
in Michigan, at the time, and a letter under date of August 20, reached
him while he was still in that state.
"I have just finished reading the two installments of 'The Brave and
Fair.' I think you have made a very good opening indeed. It reads
smoothly and seems to me to be very much in Gunter's light narrative
style, which is what we are after. It remains to be seen whether you
can get as close to Gunter in what might be called his tragedy vein
as opposed to the comedy vein, which you have successfully worked up
in these two installments."
"The Brave and Fair," going forward to the publishers piece by piece,
seemed to arouse their enthusiasm. "We have read up to installment
eight. It is fine! Full of heroic action! Bristling with exciting
scenes!" When the completed manuscript was in the publishers' hands,
on October 20, there came another complimentary letter.
"'The Brave and Fair' bristled with exciting action to the close.
The best incidents in it are those descriptive of Chub Jones' heroic
self-sacrifice. In our opinion, this stands out as the gem of the
story, because it makes the reader's heart bound with admiration for
the little hero."
Hundreds of thousands of sample copies of _The Weekly Guest_, with
first chapters of this story, were scattered all over the land. Later,
the book was issued in paper covers. Harte & Perkins paid the author
$500 for the story, then ordered another of the same type for which he
was given $450.
These stories were written under a _nom de plume_ which Harte & Perkins
had copyrighted. The _nom de plume_ was their property and could not be
appropriated by any other publisher. Edwards wrote three of the yarns,
and a friend of his wrote others.