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Contents
Fiction Makers of Modern American Fiction Booth Tarkington Robert W. Chambers Richard Harding Davis Jack London Rex Beach Stewart Edward White Makers of Modern American Fiction Norris’ Realism and McCutcheon’s Romanticism John Fox and Harold McGrath A Group of Popular Story-Tellers Dreiser and Dixon Harrison and Bacheller Fiction Notes in Varied Keys Fiction of Adventure Each Holds a Place of His Own Supplementary Reading The Open Letter The Couriers of the Postal Service The Mentor in the Desert Transcriber’s Notes
LEARN ONE THING EVERY DAY
SEPTEMBER 1 1918 SERIAL NO. 162
THE MENTOR
MAKERS OF MODERN AMERICAN FICTION (MEN)
By ARTHUR B. MAURICE
DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE
VOLUME 6 NUMBER 14
TWENTY CENTS A COPY]
FICTION
There is a popular notion that anyone can write a story. A good novelis easy reading, and it seems, on that account, to be easy writing.Many a reader, in the comfortable enjoyment of good fiction, misses thegenius of it altogether. He is like the skeptical young man who couldsee nothing difficult in the art of sculpture. “All you need to do,”he said, “is to get a block of marble, then take a hammer and chisel,and knock off the parts you don’t want.” So stated, sculpture does seemvery simple. But, after all, there is some importance in knowing whatparts of the marble to knock off.
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Many of us feel, at times, an inward stir that prompts us to expressourselves in the written word. We are quite sure that we could writea novel or a play. That we don’t do so is simply because we are sobusy--or something else. “I could write plays as well as Shakespeareif I’d a mind to,” said someone years ago to Charles Lamb. “Yes,”answered the gentle humorist, “anyone could write plays as well asShakespeare--if he had the mind to.”
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Some take their pen in hand to prove to themselves how easy it all is.When they have tried out several of the productions that they havedashed off so readily, they sometimes discover that what was easywriting for them was hard reading for others, and the wise ones thencome to realize that the good fiction that makes such easy reading isoften the finished and refined product of double and re-doubled labor.
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For those that are determined to win their way in fiction, the meansfor study and observation are ample. There are many books on the artof writing to inform and guide the aspiring author, and there is awealth of fiction literature ever at hand to supply him with examplesof good story writing. In a helpful, informing book on the techniqueof fiction, Professor Charles F. Horne makes clear the essentialelements of the novel--which he finds to be six in number: (1) Plot,(2) Motive or Verisimilitude, truth to life, (3) Character Portrayal,(4) Emotional Quality--Sentiment, Passion, (5) Background, (6) Style.“A novel,” Professor Horne writes, “cannot consist simply of a fixedpicture, a description of a man in repose. It must show him actingand acted upon. In other words, it deals with man in his relationto his environment. Hence it must have two essentials: the man andhis movements; that is, the characters and the story. The causes andeffects of these two essentials give us two more. The man can only moveas he is swayed internally by his emotions; and the movement can onlybe seen externally in its effect on his surroundings, his background.These four form the positive elements or content of the novel, and theymust be presented under the limitations set by man’s experience of lifeor verisimilitude, and by his modes of conveying ideas, his style ofspeech.”
W. D. M.
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THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL
THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH
BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION. INC., AT 114-116 EAST 16TH STREET, NEW YORK,N Y. SUBSCRIPTION, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 76 CENTS EXTRA.CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE COPIES TWENTY CENTS. PRESIDENT,THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; SECRETARY, W. D.MOFFAT; TREASURER, J. S. CAMPBELL; ASSISTANT TREASURER AND ASSISTANTSECRETARY, H. A. CROWE.
SEPTEMBER 1, 1918 VOLUME 6 NUMBER 14
Entered as second-class matter, March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1918, by The Mentor Association, Inc.
The Mentor: Makers of American Fiction, Vol. 6, Num. 14, Serial No. 162, September 1, 1918 Page 1