Argosy, Vol. 118, No. 2 — page 168: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ai he I Lio ) g-Book ONTINUING soi our biographies of Tur Arcosy authors, I present herewith some facts about Francis Stevens, whose ‘“ Citadel of Fear ” awoke such enthu- silastic comments when it ran its course in this magazine a few months ago. This time I'll give them in the contributor’s own words, sent in response to a request of mine, tendered in its turn as a result of eager inquiries concerning a writer who has made so pronounced a hit with THr Arcosy clientele. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Parents both of literary tastes, and I was brought up in the midst of books, though | had to leave school at the end of the grammar grades and go to work. I had a little talent for drawing, and wished to become an illustrator. Studied nights for some years, but finally gave it up. [ wrote my first story when I was seventeen and working in the office of a department store. It had just one merit, as | remember it, and that was a rather grotesque originality. Of course, in the writer’s estimation it was a very wonderful story, but, nevertheless, [ was more than sur- prised when THe Arcosy, the first magazine to which it was submitted, accepted it. Within a week or so of that the Youth’s Companion accepted a couple of verses, also a.first offering, and naturally, being seventeen and optimistic, I believed my literary career established. But they were both “ beginner’s luck ”—flukes—and though I persisted, for a while my success did not. So I dropped the “ literary career,’ and several years intervened before I even attempted anything save desultory scribbling for my own amusement. Then I spent a year in newspaper work, which I detested; but it reawoke the ambition to write. Again I was fortunate with a first story, and since then have not deserted the field. ‘‘ Psychometry ” may explain a part of it, for “‘ there are more things in heaven and earth ” that one may dream of, perchance to find them real. Not since Benson’s ‘The Image in the Sand,” that terrifically convincing story of the supernormal, has there been published anything to equal “CLAIMED” BY FRANCIS STEVENS Author of ‘‘ Avalon,’’ ‘‘ Citadel of Fear,’’ etc. which begins as a three-part serial in THE Arcosy for March 6. And that this is a conservative statement you’ll agree when you first behold the green box, read, or try to read the sinking inscription, see for yourself the ruin of the red cities, wait, with Vanaman, for that last, tremendous, silent cataclysm—and when you have come to those two words: ‘“‘ The End,” if, as it may well be, the hour is two in the morning, you'll find yourself looking over your shoulder for that dread visitant, the Lord of the Red Dolphin, the one whose name must not be spoken lest he hear it, and answer the call. s s s Even as En-ro, Carver of Tusks, tamed the Red God to the uses of his people, so Ken-o-san, Hunter of Beasts, loosed the Winged Death in the hour of the Ta-an’s greatest need. 318 Gomichooks