THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2179, 28 November 1895, Page 49

THE SKETCHER.

MISS LOUISE MACK, By Mrs Ohahles Bhight, in Cosmos. So many letters have reachad me from literary people in Sydney and the other colonies, asking for information concerning tho writer of the sketches and poems that have appeared in Cosmos from tbe pan of Mias Louise Muck, that a portrait and sketch of this promising young writer's career seems tha most satisfactory way of answering the diverse questionu addresaad to me. It is all the moie appropriate, as in this issue of Cosmos appears the first instalment of a serial frcm her pen, written expressly for tbe magczine, entitled, "In An Australian City." The short sketches 11 Oompenßatlon," " To-morrow and To-mor-row and To-morrow," "AS udy in Invitations," acd "A Lyric Evening' are mere fragments, but the widespread interest they bave aroused have lad to the more speedy development of the young writer's artistic lilerary gift* ; and several finished works are now in the publisher's bands. Experienced writers have remarked on tho artistic touches and " insight " displayed in Miss M<tok's verse and prose alike, and it is to the encouragement of on<j of the soundest, if most austoro, critics in the oelonim?, the editor of the Bulletin, that Miss Mock delights to attribute her firet succe3S. Noihirgoftbe Brummagem order passes that lynx-eyed censor, but anytMug good is euro of quick and hearty recognition, as many a prominent writer in Australia can testify. It was not until about three years ago that Miss Mack had any serious intention of devoting herself exclusively to literature. Sha had written verses almost from the time she conl 1 romember, and when a pupil at the Sidney Gilrn' High School had edited a paper*, the Girls' High School Gazette. Miss Ethel Turner was a pnpil at the High School at the same time, and became editor of a rival paper, The Irin, the schoolgirls dividicg their favours betweea the two. This was clear evidence of the beat of mind of the two budding writers.* Australia, however, has an exclusive claim to Miss Mack, as she, unlike the author of '• Seven Little Australians," wbo is of English birth, was born at Hobart over 20 years ago, where her father, the late Rev. Hans Mack, was then stationed as Weslejan minister. Miss Mack is, therefore, a native-born genius, and Cosmo?, being exclusively Australian, is glad to welcome this young literary aspirant. " I have always loved the feel of a pen in my hand," says Mies Mack, when telling me her brief experience, "but it had not occurred to me that I might write, exoept to gratify or relieve a passing mood, until a critical friend advised me,- about three years ago, to send two sets of verses I had jasfc written to the Bulletin. Everyone has redletter days in his or her experience, and one of mine is a memorable morning when the postman brought a letter addressed' Mr L. Mack, asking that gentleman to call on the editor of the Bulletin." Miss Mack had signed her verses "Soul Flight," " M. L. Mack," and as the first line runs : I am a man long imil'd upon by Fate, and the poem has a certain virile strength about it, Mr Archibald may be excused for thinking a man was the author. Business is not Miss Mack's forte, and six times the young author went in search of tbe Bulletin office and mißsed it, but the lucky seventh time, she says, " I found myself walking up the stairs with a most violently beating heart, that nearly suffocated me. At last I was in the presence of the editor, and announced myself to him." He seemed slightly surprised to Bee a blue-eyed girl before him, and told the trembling poetess that "he thought it was a man wbo had written ' Soul Flight.' In the kindest manner imaginable," Miss Mack continues, " be discussed the verses with me, and advised me about my writing, and shortly afterwards ' Soul Flight,' my first paid-for poem, appeared in the columns of the Bulletin, under the signature of M.L.M. Stimulated by this success I wrote a short story, • The Curse of Smith, Senior,' and sent this after ' Soul Flight,' and it was the encouraging manner in which this story was editorially accepted that determined me finally to adopt literature as a profession. Short stories and verses seemed to be the form of literature in which my pen waß most at home, and I wrote these for Oassell's Magazine and nearly all the Sydney papers, including the Bulletin, Mail, Town and Country Journal, Illustrated Sydney News, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, and others. One day, as I was in tbe train, there came into my head in a most irrelevant way the title of a atory, 'The World is Round,' and at the same time the outlines of a plot seemed to come raady made from my brain. I did not begin to write it for some months, and then worked very slowly ; it was, In fact, a year from the time it was commenced until I had finished ifc. About four months ago I Bent it to Fisher Onwin and Co., the London publishers, who had alrea.<friS«eiYe& ft volume, of collected, stories

and verao, and one longer story, and by return of post received news of its prompt acceptance, and proposals for all my future work. The letter droppad from mj hands with incredulous delight. Here, at last, was the fulfilment of my waking dream?, and for j days I walked as on enchanted ground." Thia London crltio wrote : " Your etory is a brilliant little study of two men and two women, sparkling and witty, and told in a graphic style." The other story, " GocVs Girl," is in the same publisher's hands. Besides these completed works, Mi«s Mack is collaborating with Miss Ethel Turner, in writing "An Australian Fairy Book"— the first of its kind — in which aboriginal myths and stories, founded on Australian natural objec ta.will form an attractive volume. Bat the last written, "The World is R^und," may be described as Miss Mack's " frst book." It is always a wonder to outsiders how writers, some of world-wide fame, manage to produce their chef d'*uvre in the midst of unpromising surroundings. Charlotte Bronte is a perpetual illustration of the fact. A prominent Amerioan wrote of tbe author of " Jane Eyre " some years aeco : — " The world bends with infinite tenderness over the story of that woman, who had no beauty and no blessing, out on tbe Yorkshire moors. We pity her for tbe dismal, scranny school of her childhood, where food for the outer and inner life was alike hardy and cruaty and mouldy. . . . We catch her a woman while yet a. child — a woman, because other little children; ■ still more helpless, are motherless, and can find no other nature large enough to take them in and understand and adopt them' . . . and then, at last, a woman grown, walking over great stretches of wild country to go back and bear her burden of a bare, rugged life." Although Miss Mack's life and genius may bear no comparison with that of the gifted Charlotte Bronte, it is wonderful how — the central figure of a family of 13— she has found time and opportunity to develop her literary bent. She is the seventh child, the first daughter to gladden the oyes of her parents after six little boys had come to share the frugal life of a Wealeyan parsonage. Now there are eight brothers and five sisters, and a family tradition tell 3of the delight of the six little brothers who stood beside the mother's bed waiting to be shown tbe little sister who had at last put in an appearance. Family life is an ever-presont teacher to receptive minds, and Miss Mack owes much of her development to her mother's literary tastes, and the varied training that an intellectual father can bestow- upon his children. In these early days it is not possible to predict the place that Mus Mack is dostined to fill in Australian literature. At present she shines chiefly in dialogue, and a quaint, satirical styl^, peculiarly noticeable in sketches liko " A Study in Invitations." In time she may develop a faculty for descriptive writing, which will supply the only quality now lacking to ensure her high rank among tho popular novelists of the day.