Life, 1920-08-12 · page 4 of 44
Life — August 12, 1920 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **editorial content rather than satirical cartoons**. It's a "Confidential Guide to LIFE's Contributors" — essentially a masthead introduction to the magazine's writers. The decorative header features a whimsical illustration of life-like figures emerging from gear wheels, a visual pun on the magazine's title. The page introduces **Grant M. Overton** and **Victor C. Anderson** as contributors. Overton's biography describes his journalism background and role developing LIFE's book review section, while Anderson's entry notes repeated unsuccessful attempts to reveal his identity. The small cartoon illustrations of characters running/gesturing are decorative mascots rather than political commentary. The bottom section advertises subscription offers — three months for $1 or one year for $5.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Confidential Guide to LIFE’S Contributors Grant M. Overton — Mr. Overton writes as follows: I was born on Long Island of almost exclusively Long Island an- cestry running back from eight to ten generations in the various lines, and all derived from English mi- grants to America in the seventeenth century. At the age of twenty-two I threw up a very fair job as a re- porter on a San Francisco newspaper, and shipped before the mast on a limejuicer, a full-rigged ship, the Wayfarer of Liverpool, spending one hundred and forty days in the fo'c’sle on a passage around Cape Horn fo Leith, Scotland. Within a year after my return to New York, someone drew my attention to Joseph Conrad's fiction. It is the only fiction which has kept the highest place in my mind and heart during the ten years that have elapsed since then Well, I went to school here and in New Jersey, and spent two years at Princeton, and started at nineteen on the ‘ thanks to the indulgence of Chester S. Lord. That was at the close of 1906, In the fall of 1908 I went West, working on a Denver newspaper for four months and a San Francisco sheet for five months; and going to sea—a mere taste of it. On getting home I went back on the Sun; in July, 1916, I became If you value your Lire (and mine), your name on the dotted line Grrr enero nnn nn eenn ee wee ene ewe we mew wwe te an editorial writer; in February, 1918, the Sun started a book section, and I was put in charge of that. While doing the Sun's book section I evolved a whole theory of book reviewing, reduced very imperfectly to practice, no doubt, but applied as conscientiously as I know how in writing about books for Lire. It can be compressed into a sen- tence, like many of Lir notes on new books: What you say about a book should enable any- one who reads it to determine for himself, in- stinctively and with almost unfailing accuracy, whether he wants to read that book or not. Obviously, that is an ideal, and it isn’t ¢3 and it may he accomplished as often by indirec- tion as by flat statements about the book; it may even lie in what you don't say about the book. But it’s the only thing worth trying for. It doesn’t deal with whether Dominick Jones or Harriet Apostrophe will like Lr the book, but whether the book will a interest them, whether they will want Ps to read it, . ‘ r Victor C. Anderson — Up to m the present hour repeated efforts to get Mr. Anderson to disclose his identity have been unavail- ing. Special Offer Also, when you fill out the handsome art coupon just to the left, put your address below it and indicate the umount you are enclosing as follows First. If you wish to avail yourself of our very special three months’ offer—twelve issues—(open only to new subscribers; no subscriptions renewed at this rate), then enclose $1. (Canadian $1.20, Foreign $1.40.) Second. If you wish to subscribe for one year, then enclose $3. (Canadian $3.80, Foreign $6.60.) comicbooks