THE THRILLER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 17

THE THRILLER

ONE WHO WROTE FOR BOYS

A MODEL SET FOR STEVENSON.

Mr. A. St. John Adcock, writing in "John o' London's Weekly," describes the work of Mr. Charles E. Pearce, one of the most industrious penmen in Great Britain and one of the oldest of them.

¥ears and years ago, when I was a boy (writes Mr. Adcock) I used to take in a weekly paper called "Young Folks' Budget," whose chief serial writers were Alfred R. Phillips and Charles E. Pearce. Their fame was firmly established before a new and promising young author, Robert Louis Stevenson, had the proud distinction of appearing in the same journal with his first novel, "Treasure Island." The readers liked his work, but on the whole preferred Phillips's "Thundersleigh" and Pearce's "Frank the Fisherboy," and I have heard that when Stevenson's third serial, "The Black Arrow," was running ("Kidnapped" being his second) there were ungodly readers who wrote to the editor inquiring how much longer it was going to be continued.

A special feature of that paper was "The Tournament"—some' foar or five pages reserved for young writers, and under a separate editor. It was first edited by William Sharp ("Fiona Macleod"), and his successor* were Robert Leighfon, still a popular writer of books for boys, and Eric S. Robertson, who edited the "Great Writers' " series, is now living at St. Andrew's. I was a contributor to the "Tournament" section of the paper, and at a large "at home" given by the proprietor James Henderson, I first met, not without a certain awe, Mr. Charles E. Pearce.

He remains in my memory as a more elderly person than he seems to-day, when I am his contemporary and feel coeval with him, he being so youthful and energetic of manner. I can hardly believe he once sent a story, to "All the Year Round" and had it back promptly with a very; kind little note from the great "Boz," but it is true; the same story was subsequently accepted by "Pitman's Shorthand Magazine," and the five shillings he received for it went to his head and made him ambitious. After doing journalistic work on a Kentish newspaper he went to London, and was taken up by James Henderson, wholater made him editor of "Funny Folks," one of "Punch's" cleverest rivals. Meanwhile, he emerged in "Young Folks' Budget" with such serials as "Frank the Fisherbpy" and "Billy Bosun"; and this isl where Stevenson comes in..

From his own recollections and what he'learned from Mr. Robert Leighton, Mr. Pearce says that- Stevenson, introduced by Dr. Japp, proposed to contribute a serial to be called "The Sea Cook." It wag renamed "Treasure Island" by Henderson, 1 who wbb not quite taken with the opening chapters submitted to him, and ..sending for a copy of ."Billy Bosun" (which ' enjoyed a vogue and was re-issued in various forms) gave it to Stevenson and advised him to, read it, saying that wag the kind of story he wanted.: Well, you can make what you like.of.it, but the leading episodes in "Billy Bosun" concern a treasure buried on an island, and in due course Stevenson's famous tale started in "Young Folks' Budget." Dr. Japp always said that Stevenson showed him his complete MS. before he took it to Henderson, but Mr. Pearce had it from Mr., Clinton, then sub-editing "Young Eolks," that Stevenson's story arrived in weekly portions, and Clinton was kept in a state of continual worry by the tardy delivery pf the instalments. Anyhow, it is a nice though trivial point, and Mr. Pearce likes to think that to this slight extent he may have influenced that promising young author, R. L. S.

How many stories Mr. Pearce has written by now I don't "know; most likely he doesn;t know himself. Some years back he told me he had done about seventy serialß, eighty novelettes, over four hundred short stories, and a hundred and fifty narratives of celebrated crimes. Even in the last ten years or so he has written as many novels, biographies, and histories as other robust men would be contented to encompass in a lifetime.

And he is himself as interesting as any of his books. He must be quite an old gentleman; but to spend an evening with him and have him come out and walk briskly along to see you part of your way home in the small hours makeg you feel that you are a sort of uncle of his, and he an irresponsible youth.