Front matter
Reading edition
WHEN WINTER COMES
TO MAIN STREET
BY
GRANT OVERTON
AUTHOR OF “THE WOMEN WHO MAKE OUR NOVELS”
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
COPYRIGHT, 1922,
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN STREET.
Press of
J. J. Little & Ives Company
New York, U. S. A.
FOR
GEORGE H. DORAN
WHO HAD THE IDEA
PREFACE
I have borrowed my title from two remarkable novels.
If Winter Comes, by A. S. M. Hutchinson, was published in the autumn of 1921 by Messrs. Little, Brown & Company of Boston.
Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis, was published in the autumn of 1920 by Messrs. Harcourt, Brace & Company of New York.
I have not before me the precise figures of the amazing sales of these two books—each passed 350,000—but I make my bow to their authors and to their publishers and to the American public. I bow to the authors for the quality of their work and to the publishers and the public for their recognition of that quality.
These two substantial successes confirm my belief that the American public in hundreds of thousands relishes good reading. Without that belief, this book would not have been prepared; but I have prepared it with some confidence that those who relish good reading will be interested in the chapters that follow.
As a former book reviewer and literary editor, as an author and, now, as one vitally concerned in book publishing, my interest in books has been fundamentally unchanging—a wish to see more books read and better books to read.
From one standpoint, When Winter Comes to Main Street is frankly an advertisement; it deals with Doran books and authors. This is a fact of some relevance, however, if, as I believe, the reader shall find well-spent the time given to these pages.
Grant Overton.
19 July 1922.
CONTENTS
I THE COURAGE OF HUGH WALPOLE 15
II HALF-SMILES AND GESTURES 33
III STEWART EDWARD WHITE AND ADVENTURE 55
IV WHERE THE PLOT THICKENS 68
V REBECCA WEST: AN ARTIST 78
VI SHAMELESS FUN 88
VII THE VITALITY OF MARY ROBERTS RINEHART 102
VIII THEY HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME 118
IX AUDACIOUS MR. BENNETT 133
X A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN 152
XI COBB’S FOURTH DIMENSION 166
XII PLACES TO GO 187
XIII ALIAS RICHARD DEHAN 196
XIV WITH FULL DIRECTIONS 212
XV FRANK SWINNERTON: ANALYST OF LOVERS 225
XVI AN ARMFUL OF NOVELS, WITH NOTES ON THE NOVELISTS 244
XVII THE HETEROGENEOUS MAGIC OF MAUGHAM 270
XVIII BOOKS WE LIVE BY 293
XIX ROBERT W. CHAMBERS AND THE WHOLE TRUTH 308
XX UNIQUITIES 321
XXI THE CONFESSIONS OF A WELL-MEANING YOUNG MAN, STEPHEN MCKENNA 334
XXII POETS AND PLAYWRIGHTS 347
XXIII THE BOOKMAN FOUNDATION AND THE BOOKMAN 366
EPILOGUE 372
INDEX 373
PORTRAITS
PAGE
HUGH WALPOLE 17
STEWART EDWARD WHITE 57
REBECCA WEST 79
MARY ROBERTS RINEHART 103
ARNOLD BENNETT 135
IRVIN S. COBB 167
FRANK SWINNERTON 227
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM 271
STEPHEN McKENNA 335
WHEN WINTER COMES
TO MAIN STREET