ELEVEN HUNDRED NOVELS.

Western Star, Issue 1292, 27 February 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

ELEVEN HUNDRED NOVELS.

The “ New York Herald ” recently offered a .prize of two thousand pounds for the best novel of between fifty thousand and seventy-five thousand words by an American writer. The competition closed on July Ist, and the “ Herald ” states that over eleven hundred manuscripts were received. The plan of award provides for the nomination by the “ Herald ” of ten well-known literary men, from among whom the readers of the “ Herald ” will be invited to choose three, who will pass Judgment upon the merits of the books and award the prize. The result of this munificent offer to American writers has been to bring out an astounding number of contestants. The magnitude of the manuscripts submitted in the contest is really enormous. The story is required to comprise not less than fifty thousand words nor more than seventy-five thousand. Allowing an average of sixty thousand to each story offered, we have an aggregate of sixty-six million words. The volume of the manuscripts, the mere size of the collection, is something striking. Allowing only four inches of thickness, which would be small, the novels which have reached the “ Horald ” make a stack over throe hundred and sixty feet high.