From The Critic Vol. 23 No. 697 (Jun 29, 1895)
In The Critic of Dec. 22 last appeared an advertisement that attracted more than usual attention, for, instead of offering something for sale, as advertisements generally do, it was an offer to buy. The offer was such a big one that hundreds of The Critic's readers rushed in with their wares, eager to sell to this generous buyer. The offer was of a first prize of $2000, for a story that must not be shorter than 2000 words nor longer than 6000, and of $500 for a second best. All stories to enter the competition were to be sent to the Bacheller Syndicate by May, 1895, but hundreds (there were 3000 in all) were sent in by April 1, and came from all quarters of the globe. The names did not accompany the MSS. but were contained in sealed envelopes. Mr. Bacheller and his staff sifted over the 3000 stories and selected a possible fifty. Then Mr. John H. Boner read these fifty and selected a possible thirteen, which were handed over to Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie of The Outlook, for final decision. Mr. Mabie read the thirteen manuscripts that fell to his share with the sensations of a Columbus and a Jack Ketch combined. He did his duty manfully, as all who know him knew that he would, and this is the letter he wrote to Messrs. Bacheller, Johnson & Bacheller: —
“June 8, 1895.
“Gentlemen:
I have read the stories submitted to me in type-written manuscript with special regard to dramatic interest, inventiveness, novelty and simplicity and directness of style. In my judgment the story which combines these qualities in the highest degree is that entitled ‘The Long Arm.’ Next in order of excellence, I should place that entitled ‘The Twinkling of an Eye.’
“Yours very truly,
“Hamilton W. Mabie.”
When the sealed envelopes were opened it was discovered that “The Long Arm,” which won the $2000, was by Mary Wilkins, and “The Twinkling of an Eye,” which won the $500, was by Prof. Brander Matthews. Miss Wilkins's story, which, being a detective story, is in quite a new vein for her, was written in collaboration with Mr. Joseph Edgar Chamberlin of the editorial staff of The Youth's Companion. The result of this contest goes to prove what publishers and editors have repeatedly said and been reviled for saying, that there is not one chance in ten hundred of an untrained writer's being the author of a story that is worth printing. The Bacheller syndicate contest was open to all, known and unknown, and the result is that the winner of the biggest prize is not only one of the most widely known American story-writers, but one whom many good judges consider the best.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 698 (Jul 6, 1895)
What with the newspapers and the newspaper syndicates offering prizes varying from $10,000 to $500, that author will be particularly unlucky who does not find his income for 1895 materially larger than it was in 1894. Miss Wilkins, for instance, will be a good many dollars richer for her prize-story. To be sure, it won $2000, but some of this goes to Mr. Chamberlin of The Youth's Companion with whom she collaborated — how much, I don't know; but there is no doubting that Miss Wilkins will be generous. Then Prof. Brander Matthews, who carried off the $500 prize, with no one to share the glory or the profit, has just that much to the good. The Chicago Record's $30,000 is still to be divided up among the literati, as is the New York Herald's $20,000. The Herald's novel competition for the $10,000 prize closed on Monday last. In this contest some fifteen hundred manuscripts were received. The decision as to their merits will be made by three persons to be chosen by the vote of the readers of the Herald from ten names that will be offered for them to select from. There still remains $10,000 to be divided for shorter stories, and second and third prizes, and so the excitement goes on among the writers, to the enrichment of the paper and ink manufacturers.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 698 (Jul 6, 1895)
It has been extensively advertised that Miss Mary Wilkins has won the $2000 prize for the best detective story submitted to the Bacheller Syndicate. It is only fair to say that this honor should be shared with Mr. J. E. Chamberlin, one of the editors of The Youth's Companion. Mr. Chamberlin is a very talented writer, and possesses an ingenious mind, so that I imagine that he is responsible for most of the plot in the detective story, although Miss Wilkins probably did more on the narrative portion of the tale. A friend of Miss Wilkins's, by the way, says that the Randolph author regards Robert Louis Stevenson's “Merry Men” as the best short story she ever read.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 702 (Aug 3, 1895)
Miss Wilkins's prize detective story, “The Long Arm,” will make its appearance in August in Chapman's Magazine, the new unillustrated monthly edited by Mr. Oswald Crawfurd and devoted exclusively to fiction.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 704 (Aug 17, 1895)
Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie is a much more astute judge of literature than I am. I should hardly have given the $2000 prize to Miss Wilkins's story, “The Long Arm.” To my mind it has not a hundredth part of the cleverness of either of her two volumes of short stories. It begins well and holds the attention as tenaciously as the most exacting editor could desire, but when it comes to the motive, it utterly fails. A woman wants a much stronger reason for committing a cold-blooded, brutal murder than Phœbe Dole had. I don't see how any one could read the story and not be disappointed in its ending. I hope for the sake of her art that Miss Wilkins will give us more “Humble Romances” and fewer “Long Arms” in the future.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 705 (Aug 24, 1895)
The Springfield Republican devotes a column and a half to an editorial analysis of Miss Wilkins's “Long Arm,” which is not bringing that unique writer as much fame as have her simple stories of New-England life. The writer of the editorial and I agree on one point, which is that “the author has sought only mystery and neglected human motives.” To write a good detective story, truly says this writer (whom I take to be Mr. Charles Whiting), it is necessary that “all the elements of the probable be given the reader; that the solution of the problem be difficult, but possible to a genius; that every step in the reasoning be seen on retrospection to be inevitable and logically faultless; and that the story be free from inconsistencies.” He then shows that “The Long Arm” fulfils none of these conditions.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 705 (Aug 24, 1895)
A good deal of interest has been aroused here by the result of the 400£ Prize Competition originated by the Bacheller Syndicate of New York, there having been a vast number of English competitors. Chapman's Magazine has arranged to publish the Prize Stories by Miss Wilkins and Prof. Brander Matthews, as well as a tale by Roy Tellett, which is reported to have run Mr. Matthews's very close for second place. Later on Messrs. Chapman & Hall will issue the three tales in a single volume, to form one of a new series projected by Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, the new managing director of the firm. Miss Wilkins's tale appears in the current Chapman.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 705 (Aug 24, 1895)
Before long Miss Wilkins's prize detective story will be put before the public in book-form, so that a word or two about the work may be interesting at the present time. I am told that the dramatic title which it bears, “The Long Arm,” was the selection of Miss Wilkins's collaborator, Mr. J. E. Chamberlin of The Youths' Companion, she having originally called it “The Story of Sarah Tompkins.” Had that original title stood, probably more people would have surmised from what source the tale had its origin, since the country has not yet forgotten the extraordinary strain felt over the trial of a Fall River woman accused of the murder of her parents. The story, however, is not built upon that murder or the trial; it was simply suggested by the sad event. The author saw in the tragedy the number of solutions that might be imagined, and, taking advantage of that fact, created the murder of an elderly man, upon whose unmarried daughter suspicion could fall. The dress, with its blood-stains, also carries a recollection of the real tragedy, but beyond that there is no actual resemblance in the course of the events and of the narrative. Miss Wilkins has told a friend that, in entering the story for a prize contest, she was actuated chiefly by curiosity. She wanted to know if she really could write a successful detective story, and probably surmised that any story from her pen would be accepted, but that such acceptance would not necessarily carry with it an endorsment. Therefore, in entering a new field, she desired to enter anonymously. The decision was certainly very complimentary, at any rate. At present the author is working upon a new novel, which, it is expected, will not appear in serial form, but will be published at the outset between covers. It has for its central figure a New England heroine in whose veins there are traces of French and Indian blood, both of which have more or less influence in shaping her career. In her usual manner Miss Wilkins is devoting her time very religiously to this work, and has refused all social invitations during the summer.
From The Critic Vol. 24 No. 708 (Sep 14, 1895)
I am told that Miss Mary E. Wilkins wrote her detective story, “The Long Arm,” in three days. It is doubtful if she would have undertaken the work at all, had not the editor of a New York paper offered her $400 outright for a detective story of any kind, so that she felt as if some one, at least, had faith in her powers for that style of literature. After writing the story she sent it to her friend, J. E. Chamberlin, and he spent six days in the use of the blue pencil and in the revision of what was left. The good people of Randolph, I may add, are becoming a little disturbed over the frequent references to their pleasant town as a quiet farming hamlet. One woman writer in a newspaper recently spoke of her progress to the home of Miss Wilkins by describing a walk of a mile or so through the quiet length of a street bordered by farm-houses, where the stillness was broken only by the occasional rumble of a farm team or the sharp sound of a scythe cutting through the meadow grass, or the merry laughter of children in the corn-fields. An old resident of Randolph, speaking for the town, declares that all this kind of scribbling was simply amusing at the beginning, but has now become wearisome, and begs that Randolphians may be allowed to own something besides corn-fields, scythes and musty parlors. Instead of the shadowy lanes and rumbling farm teams, he declares that you ride through the main street on an electric car, passing on the way landaus, victorias and drags, while the “peaceful farms” number just two and lie at a distance of four miles from each other.
From The Critic Vol. 25 No. 727 (Jan 25, 1896)
If there were any doubt that Mr. Andrew Lang is the new fiction reviewer of the London Times, it would be removed by a paragraph from that paper, which I have recently received from a clipping-bureau. In this paragraph the detective-novel is discussed. “Born with Edgar Poe,” this writer says, “the Detective Novel is always popular and often useful on a railway journey. Nothing can be simpler than the general formula; you begin with a mysterious occurrence, you tangle the ‘clues’ as a fine casting line is tangled on a windy day, and then your Dupin, or your Lecocq, or your Sherlock Holmes, disentangles them.” If this is not Mr. Andrew Lang, I am no judge of a writer's style. He is reviewing “The Long Arm and Other Detective Stories,” by Miss Mary E. Wilkins, Mr. George Ira Brett, Prof. Brander Matthews and Mr. Roy Tellet. Three of the stories were prize-winners in the Bacheller competition, “Miss Wilkins ‘romping in’ in front of the learned Prof. Matthews.” To the lady winner this unmistakable Mr. Lang would say in a respectful parody of “Empedocles on Etna” —
“Not here, oh Miss Wilkins!
Are haunts meet for thee,
But where elderly spinsters
Are pleasant at tea.”
It is unnecessary to quote any more to prove that the London Times has made no mistake in the selection of its fiction reviewer, and that it is the same hand that writes “At the Sign of the Ship.”
