If all the novels written or being written about Alberta attain publication, we
are in the way of becoming an extremely well known part of this old earth of ours.
Midnapore alone boasts no less than two authors, living within a few miles of each
other. John Lloyd, native born son of this province, has done an excellent story
in “The Stranger.” I do not recall the title of Miss Evans’ novel, but I do
recall that it was over 150,000 words in length, - the size of about two ordinary
novels. The author is a girl in her early 20’s, and it is a credible and clever
performance, in spite of loose technique, crudities and faults of digression, etc.
If I were a fortune-teller, I would say this girl has a natural gift.
If I read the signs aright, some Calgary writers are due to make their mark, large
or small, in the literary firmament. Especially notable, since her novel, “The
Judgment of Solomon,” took the second prize in the recent national prize
novel contest, is Mrs. Floe Jewel Williams of this city. She is analytical, witty
and daring. Mrs. Williams has been at the coast all of this summer, engaged upon
her second novel.
Mrs. Charlotte Gordon has already a considerable reputation as a prolific writer
of special articles. Recently stories from her pen have been appearing in the
London Sphere and the London Graphic. Her story of last winter’s carnival at Banff
occupied two pages and was the main feature of a recent issue of the Graphic. She
now steps into the limelight with a first novel. It is a beautifully written story
concerning the gentlefolk in the ranching country of the Okanagan Valley, and will
be published in the coming year.
Recently The Maple Leaf, official organ of the Canadian clubs, in a prize contest
for the best essay upon the subject of Canadian magazines, awarded the first prize
to Prof. Austin Bothwell of Regina, and the second to Mrs. Gordon. There were over
700 manuscripts turned in for this contest.
Book-keeping and accounting may not seem to be especially inspirational
employment. However, they failed to extinguish the natural living spark of real
literary talent possessed by Mr. Eric Davies, credit man for the Pat Burns
company. He has written a thrilling, exciting, romantic, passionate love story of
this country. He has an unusual plot and a smooth, quiet style, the very
repression of which serves to grip the reader the tighter he climbs from climax to
climax. Whether the story will get by the censors—(it has Sheik
characteristics!)—remains to be seen. It might very well attain unusual success
if published.
John Main, teacher of mathematics at the East Calgary high school, has written an
interesting story concerning the grain game. Its title is “The Golden
Stream,” and it is likely to have serial publication this year in a well known
farm magazine. It is not hard to discover in Mr. Main’s hero our own Mr. Wood, of
U.F.A. fame.
Geneva Lent is still in her teens, but Geneva’s talent and ambitions are not
“teeny.” She has written scores of poems and lyrics and songs and short
stories. Also she has dished off lightly a couple of full sized novels—mere
60,000 or 100,000 word manuscripts. Watch Geneva! If she can rise above the
mountains of impediments that are rolled in the path of the young literary
aspirant, she has it in her to go far.
Clever John Williams, though better known in Calgary for his music and as the
author of several books on music, published by Schirmer of New York, has also
written several stories. A novel and play are also in process of writing. I had
the pleasure of reading one of the wittiest and funniest of comedy scenarios by
Mr. Williams, and I expect to see it before long upon the silversheet.
On a ranch at De Winton, Mrs. Eva Jacobs, the wife of a farmer and mother of
several small children, adds to her thousand and one household duties the task—
or, as I think she considers it,-- the diversion of writing a novel concerning
Alberta ranch life. Mrs. Jacobs is already quite well known as a writer of short
stories and articles. She was the first president of the Calgary Press club.
Mrs. Waagen, of the Red Cross, has written a novel of old Quebec.
A boy of fifteen years, whose name I am not at liberty to mention, has written a
50,000-word yarn about a prize fighter, his battles and his loves.
We look for a new story from Dr. Kerby. In spite of his many duties as principal
of Mount Royal College, and a strenuous summer of Chautauqua, the doctor can
always be depended upon for a poem or a rattling good story. He is as fresh and
ambitious today as, when a zealous and impetuous young “parson,” he came down
the aisle of the Central Methodist church and paused to speak a kind word to the
young lady from faraway Sweden, whose lonely state had touched the susceptible
heart of the doctor, who had noted and pitied. The lady’s reply to his fatherly
request for her address, that he might call upon her, is, in its way, a classic.
She replied: “No, tank you; I got man.” From such material, and other
experiences equally interesting, might not Dr. Kerby produce a book of memoirs
concerned with this country that would prove a treasure? He has had the experience
and he knows how to write.
And speaking of memoirs. Friends are urging the popular American consul, Mr. S. C.
Reat to write a book concerned with his life and adventure in this and other
lands. If Mr. Reat should write as he speaks—and I believe that he can and
does—one of the wittiest and cleverest of books would be the result.
