When Winter Comes to Main Street

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Chapter I THE COURAGE OF HUGH WALPOLE

Chapter II HALF-SMILES AND GESTURES

Chapter III STEWART EDWARD WHITE AND ADVENTURE

Chapter IV WHERE THE PLOT THICKENS

Chapter V REBECCA WEST: AN ARTIST

Chapter VI SHAMELESS FUN

Chapter VII THE VITALITY OF MARY ROBERTS RINEHART

Chapter VIII THEY HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME

Chapter IX AUDACIOUS MR. BENNETT

Chapter X A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN

Chapter XI COBB'S FOURTH DIMENSION

Chapter XII PLACES TO GO

Chapter XIII ALIAS RICHARD DEHAN

Chapter XIV WITH FULL DIRECTIONS

Chapter XV FRANK SWINNERTON: ANALYST OF LOVERS

Chapter XVI AN ARMFUL OF NOVELS, WITH NOTES ON THE NOVELISTS

Chapter XVII THE HETEROGENEOUS MAGIC OF MAUGHAM

Chapter XVIII BOOKS WE LIVE BY

Chapter XIX ROBERT W. CHAMBERS AND THE WHOLE TRUTH

Chapter XX UNIQUITIES

Chapter XXI THE CONFESSIONS OF A WELL-MEANING YOUNG MAN, STEPHEN MCKENNA

Chapter XXII POETS AND PLAYWRIGHTS

Chapter XXIII THE BOOKMAN FOUNDATION AND THE BOOKMAN

Title: When Winter Comes to Main Street

Author: Grant Martin Overton

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1




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


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