AS A WRITER
His Rapid Method of Working. A Popular Biographical Writer. The Books
He Has Written.
Still the minutes are not full. The man who learned five languages
while going to and from his business on the street cars of Boston
finds time always to crowd in one thing more. Despite his multitude of
other cares, Dr. Conwell's pen is not idle. It started to write in his
boyhood days and it has been writing ever since.
His best known works are his biographies. Charles A. Dana, the famous
editor and publisher of the New York "Sun," just before his death,
wrote to Harper Brothers recommending that Mr. Conwell be secured to
write a series of books for an "American Biographical Library," and in
his letter said:
"I write the above of my own notion, as I have seldom met Mr. Conwell;
but as a writer of biographies he has no superior. Indeed, I can say
considerately, that he is one of America's greatest men. He never
advertises himself, never saves a newspaper clipping concerning
himself, never keeps a sermon of his own, and will not seek applause.
You must go after him if you want him. He will not apply to you. His
personal history is as fascinating as it is exceptional. He took
himself as a poor back country lad, created out of the crude material
the orator which often combines a Webster with Gough, and made himself
a scholar of the first rank. He created from nothing a powerful
university of high rank in Philadelphia, especially for the common
people. He created a great and influential church out of a small
unknown parish. He has assisted more men in securing an education than
any other American. He has created a hospital of the first order and
extent. He has fed the poor and housed large numbers of orphans. He
has written many books and has addressed more people than any other
living man. To do this without writing or dictating a line to
advertise himself is nothing else than the victory of a great genius.
He is a gem worth your seeking, valuable anywhere. I say again that I
regard Russell H. Conwell, of Philadelphia, as America's greatest man
in the best form. I cannot do your work; he can."
His most successful biography, his "Life of Charles H. Spurgeon," was
written in a little more than two weeks. In fact, it was not written
at all, it was dictated while on a lecturing trip. When Spurgeon died,
a publisher telegraphed Dr. Conwell if he would write a biography of
the great London preacher. Dr. Conwell was traveling at the time in
the West, lecturing. He wired an affirmative, and sent for his private
secretary. It was during the building of the College when great
financial responsibilities were resting on him, and he was lecturing
every night to raise money for the college building fund. His
secretary accompanied him on the lecture trip. Dr. Conwell dictated
the book on the train during the day, the secretary copied it from his
notes at night while Dr. Conwell lectured. At the end of two weeks
the book of six hundred pages was nearly completed. It had a sale of
125,000 copies in four months. And all the royalties were given to a
struggling mission of Grace Baptist Church.
[Illustration: TEMPLE COLLEGE]
His biography of Elaine was written almost as rapidly. In a few hours
after Blaine was nominated as candidate of the Republican party for
the presidency. Dr. and Mrs. Conwell boarded a train and started for
Augusta, Maine. In three weeks the book was completed.
He has worked at times from four o'clock in the morning until twelve
at night when work pressed and time was short.
His life of Bayard Taylor was also written quickly. He had traveled
with Taylor through Europe and long been an intimate friend, so that
he was particularly well fitted for the work. The book was begun after
Taylor's death, December 19, 1878, in Germany, and completed before
the body arrived in America. Five thousand copies were sold before the
funeral.
Dr. Conwell presided at the memorial service held in Tremont Temple,
Boston. Many years after, in a sermon preached at The Temple, he thus
described the occasion:
"When Bayard Taylor, the traveler and poet, died, great sorrow was
felt and exhibited by the people of this nation. I remember well the
sadness which was noticed in the city of Boston. The spontaneous
desire to give some expression to the respect in which Hr. Taylor's
name was held, pressed the literary people of Boston, both writers and
readers, forward to a public memorial in the great hall of Tremont
Temple. As a friend of Mr. Taylor's I was called upon to preside at
that memorial gathering. That audience of the scholarly classes was a
wonderful tribute to a remarkable man, and one for which. I feel still
a keen sense of gratitude. I remember asking Mr. Longfellow to write
a poem, and to read it, and standing on the broad step at his front
door, in Cambridge, he replied to my suggestion with the sweet
expression: 'The universal sorrow is almost too sacred to touch with a
pen.'
"But when the evening came, although Professor Longfellow was too ill
to be present, his poem was there. The great hall was crowded with
the most cultivated people of Boston. On the platform sat many of
the poets, orators and philosophers, who have since passed into
the Beyond. When, after several speeches had been made, I arose to
introduce Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the pressure of the crowd was too
great for me to reach my chair again, and I took for a time the seat
which Dr. Holmes had just left, and next to Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Never were words of poet listened to with a silence more respectfully
profound than were the words of Professor Longfellow's poem as they
were so touchingly and beautifully read by Dr. Holmes:
"'Dead he lay among his books,
The peace of God was in his looks!
* * * * *
Let the lifeless body rest,
He is gone who was its guest.--
Gone as travelers haste to leave
An inn, nor tarry until eve!
Traveler, in what realms afar,
In what planet, in what star,
In what vast, aerial space,
Shines the light upon thy face?
In what gardens of delight
Rest thy weary feet to-night--'
* * * * *
"Before Dr. Holmes resumed his seat, Mr. Emerson whispered in my ear,
in his epigrammatic style, 'This is holy Sabbath time.'"
Among the books which Dr. Conwell has written are:
"Lessons of Travel."
"Why and How Chinese Emigrate."
"Nature's Aristocracy."
"History of the Great Fire in Boston."
"The Life of Gen. U.S. Grant."
"Woman and the Law."
"The life of Rutherford B. Hayes."
"History of the Great Fire in St. Johns."
"The Life of Bayard Taylor."
"The Life, Speeches, and Public Service of James A. Garfield."
"Little Bo."
"Joshua Gianavello."
"The Life of James G. Blaine."
"Acres of Diamonds."
"Gleams of Grace."
"The Life of Charles H. Spurgeon."
"The New Day."
The manuscript which he prepared most carefully was the "Life of
Daniel Manin," which was destroyed by fire when his home at Newton
Centre was burned. He had spent much time and labor collecting data on
Italian history for it, and the loss was irreparable.
"Joshua Gianavello" is a biographical story of the great Waldensian
chieftain who loved religions liberty and feared neither inquisition
nor death. It is dedicated to "the many believers in the divine
principle that every person should have the right to worship God
according to the dictates of his own conscience; and to the heroic
warriors who are still contending for religious freedom in the yet
unfinished battle."
The same powerful imagination that pictures so realistically to his
lecture and church audiences the scenes and people he is describing,
makes them live in his books. His style holds the reader by its
vividness of description, its powerful delineation of character and
emotion.
His latest book, "The New Day," is an amplification of his great
lecture, "Acres of Diamonds." It is not only delightful reading but
it is full of practical help for the affairs of everyday life. For
no matter in what field Dr. Conwell works, this great desire of his
life--to help his brother man--shines out.