One of the best-known makers of magazine literature is Hamlin Garland, who was born in West Salem, Wisconsin, September 16, 1860, of English-Dutch parentage. In 1881 his studies were completed in Cedar Valley seminary, Wisconsin, and he next spent some years in traveling and teaching in the east. Later he took the lecture platform, was an occasional writer of sketches and short stories, and spent some time in Boston studying and teaching. He is an ardent advocate of the single tax doctrine and several of his works have to do with the struggles of the poor against existing conditions. He has also written a number of books of fiction.
David G. Phillips.
David G. Phillips, one of the latest of American authors to achieve a measurable success and to give promises of a literary future, was born in Indianapolis in 1866, his father being a banker in that city. After a season spent in the local public schools and a preparatory collegiate course, Mr. Phillips went to Yale, and while there determined to become either a journalist or an author. On graduating he decided to go into newspaper work and so became a member of the reportorial staff of the New York World. It was not long before he attracted the attention of Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, the proprietor of the World. Mr. Phillips was in consequence given an editorial position. After some time spent in the service of the World, Mr. Phillips resigned in order to turn his attention to novel writing. Of his books A Golden Fleece and The Great God Success have been fairly well received, but his last work, The Confessions of a Crœsus, is distinctly the best thing that he has done in the way of pure literature.
Charles George Douglas Roberts.
C. G. D. Roberts inherited his literary instinct. His father was the Rev. G. Goodrich Roberts, and he is a cousin of Bliss Carman, the poet, while several of his ancestors were professors in English universities. He was born in Canada in 1860. Graduating from the university of Brunswick, in 1879, he afterward and for several years taught in educational establishments in Canada, but in 1895 devoted himself exclusively to literary work. In 1897 he became associate editor of the Illustrated American, but is best known as a writer of nature stories, several of which have passed through two or three editions.
William Thomas Stead.
William T. Stead, the founder of the Review of Reviews, and a constant contributor to a number of American newspapers, was born on July 3, 1849, at Embleton, England, being the son of the Rev. W. Stead, a Congregational minister. When fourteen years of age he was apprenticed to a merchant at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, and began to contribute to local newspapers. His journalistic promptings at length became so imperative that he deserted the commercial world, and after a preliminary struggle became assistant editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. Later he founded the Review of Reviews, and subsequently the American Review of Reviews. He takes an active interest in the larger questions of the day, such as international arbitration, psychological problems, etc. Mr. Stead has a place in his generation and fills it admirably.
Vance Thompson.
Vance Thompson, a well known journalist, author and playwright, was born on April 17, 1863. He graduated from Princeton in 1883, and was subsequently a student of the University of Jena in Germany. He is well known in metropolitan journalism, having held the position of dramatic critic for more than one New York newspaper, and he has also contributed liberally to leading magazines and daily publications in general. He is also known as a musical critic. Mr. Thompson founded a fortnightly publication entitled Madamoiselle New York, which was characteristic of both him and his, and is the author of several plays, pantomimes and books. In 1890 he married Lillian Spencer, of New York.