Mr. Churchill's next book, in the series of historical romances which he began with "Richard Carvel," is entitled "The Crossing" and was published in the spring of 1904. Its title refers to the crossing of the Alleghanies by the tide of the American immigration after the Revolutionary War. No annals in the world's history are more wonderful than the story of this conquest of Kentucky and Tennessee by the pioneers. In "The Crossing" Mr. Churchill caught the wonder of that adventurous phase in our early history and made of it what many consider his most delighting romance. Meanwhile Mr. Churchill had become actively interested in politics. In the year 1903 he became a member of the New Hampshire Legislature. The direct outgrowth of Mr. Churchill's interest and experiences in politics were two important novels, "Coniston" and "Mr. Crewe's Career." In "Coniston"--that great prose epic of political corruption as it existed in New England a generation or more ago--Mr. Churchill showed his ability to write of contemporary life with a vigor and understanding which were not surpassed in any of his other work. "Coniston" has a big, vital, political issue for background and a unique and dominant character for central interest. "Jethro Bass" was a farmer by origin, taciturn, inscrutable, with his streak of sardonic humor and his slight, unforgetable stammer, was heralded as the most important figure Mr. Churchill had ever drawn. Two years later "Mr. Crewe's Career" was published, to meet with instant success. It was a further embodiment of Mr. Churchill's observations and experiences among the people of the political whirlpool, and showed his increasing power as a novelist of contemporary life. The business of politics, the sordid struggles of an election are described with a graphic pen. Rarely has an American author portrayed with such judicial calm and yet with such relentless realism, the sinister aspects of political life in a rural community or woven into this grimy fabric, in gold thread, a charming love story that goes far to make us forget the ugly and hateful features of the picture. It will be seen how, since the publication of "Richard Carvel," Mr. Churchill's themes move in orderly sequence from Colonial days until each represents the actual life and atmosphere of distinct periods in American history. It was "A Modern Chronicle" that brought Mr. Churchill's work to the heart of the present. The new novel dealt with the social problems of the marriage condition, the imperfect civilization of ultra-fashionable life, with its frequent climax of divorce. Heretofore Mr. Churchill's leading characters are men, but in "A Modern Chronicle" he gives us a woman--Honora Leffingwell-- fascinating, full of illogical moods and caprices, who, taken from start to finish, is a most consistent and convincing piece of characterization.