My Story That I Like Best

Copyright 1925, by International Magazine Company New York
FIFTH EDITION Printed November, 1925
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO THAT GREAT NUMBER OF INTELLIGENT AMERICANS WHO ARE CONSTANT READERS OF COSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE IT IS SENT TO YOU WITH THE CORDIAL GOOD WISHES OF THE WRITERS AND THE EDITOR
RAY LONG
In presenting this volume to you I am imagining that I am host for an evening. I have invited six of the distinguished writers of our time and asked them to relax over their coffee and in a mood of friendliness to discuss their own work. They have permitted me to have you sit with me and listen.
An interesting group, surely. Miss Ferber, black-haired, dark-eyed, vivid, animation itself; Irvin Cobb, tall, heavy-set, with, as his daughter says, two chins in front and a spare in the rear; Peter B. Kyne, about five foot six, with the face and figure of a well-fed priest; Jim Curwood, tall, wiry, outdoorsy in every line and movement; Nicholson, my idea of an ambassador to the Court of St. James; Harry Witwer, with the poise and quickness that one learns in the ring. (He did fight as a youngster; that's why he can make you see a prize ring when he describes it.)
Yes, an interesting group. Just as interesting to me today, after years of friendship, as to you, who may meet them for the first time. The sort of folks that wear well. The sort that haven't been spoiled by success. For each of them realizes the simplicity of the recipe that won his success. It can be told in few words: Think better and work harder than your competitor.
If you get to know these authors well, you will see that is all there has been to it: they have thought better and worked harder than the other fellow. And they are still doing it—thinking better and working harder: that's why their success endures. That's why their names are trade-marks for interesting, satisfying reading matter. As the manufacturer who establishes a trade-mark must not let his product deteriorate, lest he lose his customers, just so the successful writer must keep his product to high standard lest he lose his readers.