134 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



December, 1915 



THE- TALK- OF- THE - OFFICE 





THE GRAYSONIAN CLUB SPREADS 



MRS. NEAL WYATT CHAPLINE 

 started a Graysonian Club in the 

 little town of Sarasota, Florida. The 

 club reads and enjoys David Grayson's books. 

 The members have caught the spirit of the 

 "Adventures in Contentment," "Adventures 

 in Friendship," "The Friendly Road" and 

 "Hempfield." 



The Graysonian Club of Sarasota was so 

 successful that its fame spread abroad. People 

 began to write to Mrs. Chapline asking her 

 advice about starting similar clubs elsewhere. 

 So far there have been letters from seven dif- 

 ferent states. 



David Grayson also gets letters asking him 

 to attend meetings of the Graysonian Clubs, 

 but so far he has found it impossible to ap- 

 pear in public as an anonymous author, which 

 after all, is a rather difficult thing to do. 



"hempfield" 



The critic of the New York Times suggested 

 that the sub-title of David Grayson's new 

 book, "Hempfield," be changed from "A 

 Novel" to "An American Novel," "for this 

 newest adventure by the author of 'The 

 Friendly Road' will take its place among the 

 group of novels that . . . are . 

 really American through and through." 



This critical analysis is interestingly cor- 

 roborated by David Grayson's mail. The 

 recent letters of appreciation which the 

 author was kind enough to let us see 

 showed that readers enjoyed "Hempfield" 

 so deeply because "Hempfield" was such a 

 sympathetic picture of American life. There 

 is even a letter from one young woman who 

 says that three years ago she put a portion 

 of her inheritance into a country news- 

 paper, and who was attracted by "Hemp- 

 field" because of the similarity of the story 

 to her own life. 



"FRANCE AT WAR " 



In June 1913, shortly after Germany had 

 sent the gunboat Panther to the African port 

 of Agadir as a threat to the French dominance 

 of Morocco and more particularly to find out 

 whether the entente between England and 

 France would stand the threat of war — in these 

 circumstances Kipling wrote his great poem 



"To business that we love we rise betime 

 And go to 't with delight." — Antony and Cleopatra 



"France," a message from England to France 

 which contains the prophetic lines: 



"We were schooled for dear life sake to know each 



other's blade: 

 What can blood and iron make more than we have 



made? 

 We have learned by keenest use to know each other's 



mind: 

 What shall blood and iron loose that we can not bind?" 



For the first time now this poem appears in 

 book form in the volume, "France at War," 

 the first book from Mr. Kipling in three years. 

 It is a picture of the French soldiers facing 

 the Germans "on the'frontier of civilization" 

 — a picture with that virility and understand- 

 ing that made Mulvaney everlasting. 



THE SPANISH WORLD'S WORK 



A civil engineer wrote to the World's Work 

 from Idaho recently: 



"Your South American campaign in my estimation 

 is putting your publication on an elevation far above 

 any other magazine in the country. And I wish you all 

 the success your epoch-making undertaking so richly 

 deserves." 



The regular edition of the World's Work has 

 for the year past paid particular attention to 

 South American subjects, and during that 

 time we have started an edition for South 

 America in Spanish. This Spanish edition is a 

 quarterly, and two numbers have already ap- 

 peared. The first edition was 20,000 copies, 

 and of the 20,000 people whom it reached more 

 than 4,000 wrote to the magazine immediately. 

 Since that time there has been a most gratifying 

 continuation of that correspondence. 



" THE STORY OF JULIA PAGE " 



The other day one of our salesmen let his 

 eye run carelessly over a paper that was lying 

 on the seat beside him in the Garden City train. 

 The sentence that first caught his eye was, 

 "An inspiration for every girl that has to 

 work." It was the keynote of a review of "Julia 

 Page." The path from the little red school- 

 house to the White House has been painted 

 many times for boys. What is the corresponding 

 picture for girls? What is the goal of their 

 ambition, and how are they to reach it? " The 

 Story of Julia Page," by Kathleen Norris, is at 

 least a partial answer. It points toward a 

 definite goal and shows how one girl climbed 

 the ladder from the bottom up. 



LIMP LEATHER EDITIONS 



We have expressed more than once our 

 satisfaction in the reception given to the limp 

 leather pocket editions in which a number of 

 our books have appeared, such as the sets of 

 Rudyard Kipling, O. Henry, Joseph Conrad, 

 and David Grayson. 



Booth Tarkington's "Penrod" and Walter 

 Prichard Eaton's "The Idyl of Twin Fires" 

 have been added to the series. 



A NEW RECORD 



The Country Life Press made a record for 

 itself the other day. It bound and delivered 

 16,000 books between sun up and sun down. 

 This does not count pamphlets or magazines. 

 The average production of magazines is be- 

 tween 15,000 and 20,000 copies a day, and 

 the number of pamphlets varies so greatly 

 that it is hard to make any statement of 

 averages. 



We take pride in these numbers because we 

 hope that the demand which occasioned them 

 was due to the quality of the books them- 

 selves. We like to believe that our activity 

 in the Press is the result of offering to 

 the public good books well printed and 

 well bound. 



JOHN MARTIN'S HOUSE 



Three or four times a week now automobiles 

 come to the Country Life Press bringing ex- 

 pectant children. They are a few of the many 

 thousand children who read John Martin's 

 Book, and they have come to see John Martin, 

 whose office now looks out upon the north 

 fountain in the court, and whose book is 

 printed on the color press nearby. 



John Martin's Book is a monthly magazine 

 for children, printed on heavy paper that will 

 not tear, and made attractive by lots of red 

 and black pictures and designs. 



John Martin himself is particularly inter- 

 ested in pleasing young people between three 

 and twelve years of age ; but, as a matter of fact, 

 he is at least as helpful to grown-ups, parti- 

 cularly men, for he makes a magazine that is 

 an ideal Christmas present for children; and 

 finding satisfying children's Christmas pres- 

 ents is one of the hardest jobs a grown-up 

 has. 



