This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1919. Not illustrated. Excerpt: … CHAPTER XVI POPULARITY AND LONGEVITY Culture of reader a factor in author’s popularity; extremes of reading types; their common ground of interest; publishers of fiction satisfy certain demands; striking incident, sentiment, exploitation of sex, humour; reality of the present and romance of the remote; Russian realism; Hamlin Garland; trench realism versus trench romance; demand for rapid action, strong passions, substance rather than form marks the popular audience; qualities of originality and style with reference to popularity and to longevity; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s testimony; student’s answer representative; originality, emotional appeal, and simplicity of style make for longevity; greatness. Let us assume that the story writer intends to make his appeal to the public of to-day in the foremost centres of civilisation. It is clear that the comparative culture of the reader will enter as a factor into the sum of an author’s popularity. What Mr. William Dean Howells terms the boudoir audience will represent one extreme; the vulgar crowd, the other. Choosing Henry James and O. Henry as thoroughly representative and well-known writers, we shall have no difficulty in answering the questions, Which of the two will appeal to the boudoir audience? Which to the crowd? Which will number more readers from one extreme of the scale to the other? Nor will the obvious answer discriminate against either of the authors: it is fair to say that Henry James is popular with thousands of readers, O. Henry with hundreds of thousands. The tastes of the reading extremes meet in their common interest in humanity; both desire pictures of life and a compelling narrative. Individual pictures will not serve for both alike; nor will the same narrative compel, alike; nevertheless, in …
