He planned to go to Germany for a time; but gave this up when the idea of becoming a doctor of medicine attracted him. This was when he was doing graduate work at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. But his love of literature led him to take up writing, and in 1884 he moved to New York. He arrived there unknown and with no letters of introduction; but “he took up his abode in a garret and started out in a very humble way.” He sent letters to the New York Evening Post, poems to Harper’s and the Atlantic Monthly, and essays to the Critic and the Forum. A criticism of Henry James’ “Portrait of a Lady” first attracted attention to the young author, and soon there was a strong demand for his sketches of Kentucky life. “The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky” was the title given to the collected volume of these sketches. Mr. Allen then moved to Cincinnati; but later moved again to Washington, believing that the capital of the country would be the future home of literature and art in America. In Washington, however, he found too much social and official distraction; so he returned to New York. “The Kentucky Cardinal,” published in 1895, is one of Mr. Allen’s best books. It is a sort of pastoral poem in prose, showing the struggle between Nature and Love. “The Choir Invisible” shows the noble love of a married woman for a man who is not her husband. James Lane Allen is best known as a writer of fiction; but he has also published many critical articles and much verse. He is recognized as one of the most poetic and dramatic of American novelists. [Illustration: WINSTON CHURCHILL] Winston Churchill, a master of the historical novel, is the subject of one of the six intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “American Novelists.” WINSTON CHURCHILL Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course Although he graduated from Annapolis in 1894, Winston Churchill never served in the navy. Instead, immediately after completing his studies he began writing. He had found out that he could write when he was still at Annapolis, and decided that fiction rather than the navy was his line of work. For this the young graduate had fine equipment. Annapolis gave him self-reliance and determination. Those graduates of the Naval Academy who have not gone into the navy have usually been successful in whatever they have done. This is particularly true in the case of Churchill. Well educated, at the same time he is full of the joy of life itself, and likes all sorts of outdoor sports. He is a favorite everywhere. Winston Churchill was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 10, 1871, and spent the first sixteen years of his life there. From a school in St. Louis he went to Annapolis. There he became strongly interested in American history and problems, and made up his mind to devote his life and energies to these. In the brief intervals between studies and drills he gathered much of the material that he afterward used in his novels.