The impression, quite generally entertained, that Mr. Crawford throws off one book after another as fast as he can write them down, is based upon a misapprehension of his method of working. For months, or even for several years, a subject is constantly in his mind, and he spares no study to improve his rendering of it. Travellers in Arabia, for instance, have commended the “local color” of his “Khaled,” which, however, is quite as much due to patient reading as to imagination, for he has never been there. The actual writing of his stories is done quickly, partly because few authors have had such large experience of all the mechanical work connected with literature. From early manhood he has been entirely dependent on his own resources, and during his two years’ editorship of an Indian newspaper he practically wrote it all every day, correcting the proof into the bargain. After his return to America, and before writing “Mr. Isaacs,” he supported himself by any literary work that he could get, during which time, by the way, he was a frequent contributor to _The Critic_. The man so often called “a born story-teller” is also a careful student, especially reverent of the precious inheritance of our language, and some of his works are now used as class-books for the study of modern English literature throughout this country, a fact which may easily escape the knowledge of the novel-reading public which owes him so much pleasure. Mr. Crawford has made a success at play-writing as well as at novel writing. His “In the Palace of the King,” which has been played so successfully by Miss Viola Allen, was a play before he turned it into a novel, and he has recently written a drama founded on a new version of the story of Francesca and Paola, which Madame Sarah Bernhardt has produced with great success. WILLIAM BOND. [Illustration] PAUL LEICESTER FORD PAUL LEICESTER FORD THE MAN OF AFFAIRS AND THE MAN OF LETTERS