Hamlin Garland: A Life

11. The Iconoclast, 1893-94

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'./)·/* In November, soon after the Dial flap, Garland returned to Boston. He intended to settle permanently in Chicago, since he was convinced the city was destined to become the cultural center of America, but first he needed to tie up loose ends. One was his involvement with the American Psychical Society, for he had arranged for a particularly noteworthy psychic in Los Angeles to come to Boston for testing by the society. For five weeks, from November 3 to December 10, in thirty-two sittings, he puzzled over the phenomena called forth by the psychic, Mrs. Mary Curryer Smith. He marveled over table rappings, moving furniture, disembodied voices, and flying objects. While not ready to “admit of supernatural origin for the phenomena,” at this point he was not able to discern the physical causes he suspected responsible and remained receptive to further exploration.1 By December 15, 1893, he had moved to New York, where he shared an apartment with Franklin at 107 West 105th Street. Herne’s Shore Acres had opened on October 30 at Miner’s Fifth Avenue Theater, destined to become a smash hit and eventually make Herne a millionaire. Franklin had an important role as the land speculator Josiah Blake, and, with faith in the play’s audience appeal, had written to ask his elder brother to help share the expense of a flat rather than live in a lodging house. With his customary laxness about chronology in his autobiography, Garland attributes the move to a sudden realization that “New York was about to become the Literary Center of America”—a surprising statement given his similar claim for Chicago in “The Literary Emancipation of the West,” published in October, and his statement to Field in July that he planned to 186 the iconoclast establish his headquarters in Chicago. And no small part of that decision was his desire to be near his beloved mother in West Salem, a trip of eight hours by train.2 What likely prompted Garland to put off his move to Chicago was his desire to be in on the theatrical action surrounding the New York run of Shore Acres, which had already had a very successful tryout in Boston during the summer. Then, too, while he wanted to establish Chicago’s potential eminence in publishing, he also realized that, for the time being, New York was the home of the editors and magazines who were publishing his work, particularly Samuel S. McClure, whose newly established McClure’s Magazine and his McClure Newspaper Syndicate would shortly replace the Arena as his most important publishing venue, and Irving Bacheller, whose newspaper syndicate similarly distributed much of the prolific author’s work. Garland settled into a cramped flat of “only twelve-and-a-half feet wide and about forty-eight feet long,” where, as was now his habit, he devoted mornings to writing.3 Much of his attention was devoted to arranging terms with his new publishers, Stone and Kimball. While still in Chicago during July, he had, through the efforts of Stone’s father, Melville E. Stone, consented to give the Harvard undergrads his next book, which he had entitled Prairie Songs, and arranged for them to reissue Main-Travelled Roads. In going over his plans with Howells, he asked whether the elder writer would allow his highly laudatory review to stand as an introduction to the volume. “A fellow who stands as strong upon his legs as you, wanting a hand from a dotard like me!” exclaimed Howells. “I think the public would say, ‘Who is this paltering fool, who introduces a book of Garland’s to us?’”4 Nonetheless, he gave his consent, and his review served as the introduction to all subsequent editions during Garland’s lifetime. Garland soon became irritated by the precocious schoolboys’ lack of business acumen. His arrangements were surprisingly loose for an author of his experience. Rather than establishing a formal contract calling for a set royalty, Garland made an agreement in which he essentially entered into partnership with the firm. In exchange for the rights to Main-Travelled Roads and the manuscript of Prairie Songs, he the iconoclast 187 would receive half of all profits above the expenses of manufacture and advertising.5 On their part, Stone and Kimball were counting on the controversial author’s name to bring attention to their firm. In October a steady...