dipped their pens in the magic flow of inspiration's fountain and songs like the songs of Keats sparkled forth. With what love and care should these immortal scraps be cherished!

that is attracting wide attention and which has called forth a twenty-one page review in "The Nineteenth Century," from the pen of Mr. John Morley.

American Novel by

Mr. Harland's successes in fiction have owed much to his love for Italy and his knowledge of the country, Italy lending itself admirably Mr. Harland to his exquisite diction and the picturesque qualities of his imagination. But now Mr. Harland is about to enter a new field and his next novel will portray American life. The curiosity of his admirers will be awakened, no doubt, by this announcement, and many will wonder as to the outcome of the venture.

Mr. Harland has been summering on the continent. During the Spring he was seriously ill.

Interesting facts about the personalities of authors are now much in demand. Readers of books wish to know An Author's intimately concerning the writTribulations ers of books, and magazines and newspapers vie with one another in getting fresh facts and new photographs. Much of this matter comes naturally from the publishers, and the publishers have to go back to the author to secure it. Nobody save the author realizes the annoying features of the business or takes into account the essential trouble. Elinor MacCartney Lane, who wrote "Nancy Stair," was one day asked what was the most tiresome part of writing a book. Her reply, somewhat to the astonishment of her auditors, was

A Novel With a Purpose

By profession Evelyn Underhill, author of "The Gray World," is a book-binder, and so skilfully and artistically does she do her work that the Hungarian Government bought one of her books for the National Museum at Budapest. "The Gray World" was written with a purpose, or, as the author says:

In a sense, it is a "novel with a purpose," the purpose being to vindicate the point of view of the mystic and idealist-a point of view which has hitherto been much ridiculed but little defended in fiction. The "common-sense view of the world" is quite as absurd as that

Mrs. Pryor

MRS. ROGER PRYOR Reminiscences of Peace and War."

Mrs. Roger A. Pryor has lived a life of unique experiences. Reared in Virginia, she married a young Congressman from the South, lived in the Capital during one of the brightest of its social epochs, then went South with her husband who joined the Confederate Army. During the whole of the war she lived, practically speaking, within the Confederate Camp. In the year 1864-5 her house was in clear sight of Lee's headquarters, and the Confederate line was broken, just before Appomattox, in her back garden.

literature and the past masters. Such corners of the globe as Stratford, Newstead and the hallowed places of the Lake region should be changed as little as possible, they are places rendered sacred by the habitation of genius. Shakespeare may have committed youthful indiscretions by the gently-flowing Avon's side, and Byron may have, at times, made the old Abbey resound and reverberate with the vulgar noises of a midnight orgy,-notwithstanding these things, the homes of our poets are and should be wrapped around and about with loving memories and reverence.

So early is made the impression that poetry, long hair, paper rolls and eccentric mannerisms like and are fitted to each other's company.

Norman Duncan

MYRTLE REED

Author of The Master's Violin."

By birth Mr. Norman Duncan is a Canadian. He was born at Brantford, Ontario, thirty-two years ago and was educated at the University of Toronto, where he erred in taking a scientific course, the repugnance of which led him to go, in 1895, to Auburn, N. Y., in which town he found a place on the reportorial staff of the "Auburn Bulletin." From here he went to New York and joined the staff of the New York "Post," with which he remained for four years, rising in that time to the editorship of the Saturday supplement and gaining a reputation for unusual descriptive powers and ability in character delineation.

His first literary effort, aside from his regular newspaper work, was a story which appeared in "The Atlantic Monthly' and was the result of a patient study of the Syrian Quarter in New York City. Later stories, born of the same study, appeared in the "Atlantic" and "McClure's" and later still a collection was printed in book-form under the title, "The Soul of the Street."

But the Syrian atmosphere grew oppres sive, and Mr. Duncan suddenly turned to

the sea for inspiration. He had never seen the ocean until he was twenty-six years old, and his impression then was dreary

NORMAN DUNCAN Author of 'Dr. Luke of the Labrador," Etc.

and clouded with the more terrible aspects of the great deep. But he determined none the less to write about the sea, and began looking about for a region wherein. to gather the required material, and of how he has used the Labrador Coast and Newfoundland for his purpose, he tells

thus,

I entered into an arrangement with "McClure's Magazine" to go to Newfoundland and set out in the summer of 1900. I had never spent a night at sea; had never been on a sailing vessel under sail; I had formed an impression of what life in Newfoundland would be like, and had deliberately refrained from creating a prejudice by reading anything about the place. I spent that summer and the next and the next in the fishing harbors of Newfoundland and the next on the Labrador coast. I learned most in the first summer-everything, in fact, so far as my impression of the sea is concerned. Subsequent visits had very little effect upon my conception; they helped me with incidents, local color, character and things technical, of course, but that is all. My method was simply to live (in so far as I could) as the folk lived, to take interest in the things that interested them, to listen to them while they talked among themselves, to watch them at their work, to be of them for the time, in interests, point of view, etc. Then I let the stories grow. They forced themselves; I didn't

force them. When I got the conception I wanted to present, I waited until, as I went about, the plot occurred, appearing naturally from the events that went forward or from the conversations I heard.

When he left the New York "Post" Mr. Duncan went to Washington, Pa., where he became assistant Professor of English in the Washington and Jefferson University. Last spring he was elected Wallace Professor of Rhetoric, but his duties are light and his time is largely occupied in literary work.

Each summer as soon as college closes he hurries to the sea and one important result of these sojourns has been "Dr. Luke of the Labrador," a novel, exceptionally well-written, and full of vital interest.