Life, 1902-11-27 · page 10 of 26
Life — November 27, 1902 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a biographical entry for **Hall Caine**, a prolific Victorian/Edwardian writer, from Life's Dictionary of International Biography. The text is satirical, mocking Caine's self-promotion and productivity. The satire focuses on: - Caine's **relentless self-advertising** (birth announcement printed in "ordinary type" disappointingly him) - His **prolific output** across multiple genres and media - His **shameless self-promotion** through various publishing channels - Critical dismissals from literary figures like Frank A. Munsey and Victor Hugo (quoted dismissively) The portrait shows Caine as a bearded, intense figure clutching papers—visually emphasizing his obsessive writing habits. The humor lies in presenting Caine as simultaneously ambitious yet artistically overlooked, despite his commercial success. This reflects Life magazine's tendency to deflate the pretensions of celebrities through irreverent biographical sketches.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
460 -LIFE- Life's Dictionary of International Biography. HALL CAINE. Ts genial gentleman was born, all unsuspected by the general public, some forty years ago, and when he saw that his birth notice was printed in only the most ordinary type, he howled steadily for a week. At the age of fourteen, armed only with a currycomb and a trusty razor, he made his way to London, and, carefully avoiding all the freak museums, registered at tho 1. C. A., where he had unusual facilities for studying the Bible, thus giving him the opportunity to introduce some of its justly celebrated plots into modern literature. One morning he received cablegrams from two American chewing-gum manufacturers and a shoe man, offering to lease his face for a long term of years, and realizing then his possibilities, he refused henceforth all offers for privacy, and plunged into his first novel. How that novel was taken up by every Y. M.C. A. branch in the universe, how the world of literature quivered to its base, is now history. Marie Corelli blushed with envy when she realized that she would have to depend upon other tricks to get there. Laura Jean Libby sent her congratulations, Frank A. Munsey wrote : “My own personality is dearer to me than life, but yours is a peach. I realize now that your genius for being stuck on yourself will be more profitable than my own graft, and it makes me heart-sick.”” Soon after this, Mr. Caine moved to the Isle of Man, taking with him a ship-load of assorted typewriters {and a press agent, Every literary centre, from Maine to Cali- fornia, waited with breath- less interest. Shakespeare admitted his infegiority. “I cannot hope,’’ he said, ‘ to compete with such a master mind.” The Greeks gave up all hope of further recogni- tion. Thackeray sighed, “All is lost. A new era has dawned.”” And Victor Hugo, ex- piring, exclaimed: ‘I feel like thirty cents.” Thus the Hall Caine epoch started, and the reli- gious melodrama was ushered in. Thethonght has recently been expressed that there was a possibility of this person exhausting his ma- terial. Even tho Bible hasits limitations, But Mr. Caine himself has reassured us upon that point. “ Wheit every other means fails,’’ he has said, “T shall continue totalk and write about myself.” Tom Masson, HALL CAINE. “comicbooks.com