This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net]
by Gilbert Parker
In a Foreword to Donovan Pasha, published in 1902, I used the followingwords:
"It is now twelve years since I began giving to the public tales of lifein lands well known to me. The first of them were drawn from Australiaand the islands of the southern Pacific, where I had lived and roamed inthe middle and late eighties. . . . Those tales of the Far South weregiven out with some prodigality. They did not appear in book form,however; for at the time I was sending out these antipodean sketches Iwas also writing—far from the scenes where they were laid—a series ofCanadian tales, many of which appeared in the 'Independent' of New York,in the 'National Observer', edited by Mr. Henley, and in the 'IllustratedLondon News'. On the suggestion of my friend Mr. Henley, the Canadiantales, Pierre and His People, were published first; with the result thatthe stories of the southern hemisphere were withheld from publication,though they have been privately printed and duly copyrighted. Some day Imay send them forth, but meanwhile I am content to keep them in my care."
These stories made the collection published eventually under the title ofCumner's Son, in 1910. They were thus kept for nearly twenty yearswithout being given to the public in book form. In 1910 I decided,however, that they should go out and find their place with my readers.The first story in the book, Cumner's Son, which represents about fourtimes the length of an ordinary short story, was published in Harper'sWeekly, midway between 1890 and 1900. All the earlier stories belongedto 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1893. The first of these to be published was'A Sable Spartan', 'An Amiable Revenge', 'A Vulgar Fraction', and 'HowPango Wango Was Annexed'. They were written before the Pierre series,and were instantly accepted by Mr. Frederick Greenwood, that greatjournalistic figure of whom the British public still takes note, and forwhom it has an admiring memory, because of his rare gifts as an editorand publicist, and by a political section of the public, because Mr.Greenwood recommended to Disraeli the purchase of the Suez Canal shares.Seventeen years after publishing these stories I had occasion to write toFrederick Greenwood, and in my letter I said: "I can never forget thatyou gave me a leg up in my first struggle for recognition in the literaryworld." His reply was characteristic; it was in keeping with the modest,magnanimous nature of the man. He said: "I cannot remember that therewas any day when you required a leg up."
While still contributing to the 'Anti-Jacobin', which had a short lifeand not a very merry one, I turned my attention to a weekly called 'TheSpeaker', to which I have referred elsewhere, edited by Mr. Wemyss Reid,afterwards Sir Wemyss Reid, and in which Mr. Quiller-Couch was thenwriting a striking short story nearly every week. Up to that time I hadonly interviewed two editors. One