It would require many pages to tell the separate story of the success
of each one of Joe Lincoln’s fifty odd books. However, to mention a few
beginning with “Cap’n Eri,” published in 1904, “Petticoat Pilot” was
converted for motion pictures in 1910, and “Shavings,” which appeared
in Boston as a play in 1920, will give some of the highlights of his
early success. In the beginning, the immediate and lasting success of
“Cap’n Eri,” which was a best seller, enabled him to build a colonial
house at Hackensack, New Jersey, near his friend Sewell Ford and a
summer home at Chatham, Cape Cod. As the royalties from this first book
began to pile up the money assured him release from financial worry
so that he could keep on with his writing on an uninterrupted scale.
In 1912 the Lincolns lived for a while in England, traveled on the
continent and visited Switzerland. Later Lincoln traveled about the
United States delivering lectures on his “Cape Cod Folks” or giving
readings from his own books which followed the same unerring formula
and gratified a very large public.
“It would be very hard for me to write a long story which should end
dismally,” Mr. Lincoln once said. “It is only too true that stories in
real life frequently end that way, but I don’t like my yarns to do so.
It is fair to presume that in whatever books I may hereafter write, the
hero and the heroine will be united, virtue rewarded and vice punished,
as has happened in those for which I am already responsible.”
As a comedy, “Shavings,” the book and stage play which opened in
Boston as a comedy at the Tremont Theater and later ran on Broadway,
created quite a stir among the people at his old home on Cape Cod.
The play opened in New York on February 16, 1920. Few if any Cape Cod
sons had become so famous as “Joe.” His name was on every tongue and
his book discussed throughout the length and breadth of the Cape. It
became rumored around that the Jed Winslow of “Shavings” and the chief
character in the comedy, was a real person; that the study was taken
from real life.
As a result, Mr. Lincoln was besieged by inquiries (according to a
newspaper story of the day) as to who the person really was. Each
maker of toys along Cape Cod claimed the distinction and demanded
acknowledgment. Lincoln had a problem in settling the affair. He
admitted at the time that Jed Winslow was pretty nearly alive and in
the flesh. That is, that the character was based largely on an actual
personage, but he didn’t dare tell who the man was for fear of the
storm the information would arouse. For this reason he held off telling
the name of the man. As a result the Cape was all “hetup” in expectancy
over the revelation.
But the identity of Jed Winslow was not the only angle discussed in
connection with Lincoln’s play. Because the toy windmills made by Jed
were of paramount importance as exploited in the comedy an interesting
discussion as to who originated the idea and how the first windmill
came to be made began to sweep the Cape. There were various versions
as to the beginnings of the industry which exists even today. Lincoln
received many letters from all over the United States asking about the
origin of the toys and Lincoln endeavored to ascertain the facts but
there were so many conflicting stories he was puzzled.
All traditions seemed to agree on one point, however. That was, that
the first windmill was made without any idea that the manufacture and
sale of these toys would ever become, as it did, a big and profitable
field.
According to the general report, a Cape Cod boat builder was the first
to devise the toy windmill. He made it in his leisure hours as a
plaything for his child. Other children clamored for them and he made
more. Then, summer visitors wanted them for their children, and the man
began making them and selling them. The demand for them increased to an
extent that he abandoned boat building and devoted his time exclusively
to turning out these toys and he developed a profitable business.
According to newspaper reviews of 1910 “A Petticoat Pilot,” which was
converted into a motion picture, starred Vivian Martin, who appeared
in the leading role. The picture had its first showing at the Modern
Theatre in Boston during the week of February 3 and received fine
notices in the Boston papers.