SETTING. The locale is New York City; the most important scene, in the
Scudder Theater. The time is the present.
One of Irvin Cobb’s most remarkable powers is that of picturing so
vividly a setting that the reader cannot but read and cannot but
remember. What is the explanation of this astonishing success? First
of all, Mr. Cobb is a keen observer. When he is out with his wife,
according to her he sees ten times more than she does, yet she thinks
she is seeing all there is to see. “When he was writing ‘The County
Trot’ Mrs. Cobb marveled at his life-like pictures of the Kentucky
characters, all of whom he had really known. She asked him how it was
possible for him to remember their faces and mannerisms after the
lapse of so many years. He said: ‘Why, I can close my eyes and see
the knotholes that were in the fence around that fairground.’” This
quotation indicates a second requisite--accurate memory. The third
requisite is hard work, a condition through which Mr. Cobb believes
all success must come. “When writing a story his object is to draw
sharp pictures that will never leave the reader. To do this, he thinks
out the minutest details of that picture, not that he will use those
details, but that he himself may really see the picture as he writes.”
The fact that he will not “use all those details” which observation
and memory have supplied means that he has the ability to select. And,
finally, he knows how to handle an ample vocabulary.