WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN STREET by GRANT OVERTON Author of "The Women Who Make Our Novels" New York George H. Doran Company Printed in the United States of America Copyright, 1922, by George H. Doran Company WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN STREET. Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U. S. A. FOR GEORGE H. DORAN WHO HAD THE IDEA PREFACE I have borrowed my title from two remarkable novels. _If Winter Comes_, by A. S. M. Hutchinson, was published in the autumn of 1921 by Messrs. Little, Brown & Company of Boston. _Main Street_, by Sinclair Lewis, was published in the autumn of 1920 by Messrs. Harcourt, Brace & Company of New York. I have not before me the precise figures of the amazing sales of these two books--each passed 350,000--but I make my bow to their authors and to their publishers and to the American public. I bow to the authors for the quality of their work and to the publishers and the public for their recognition of that quality. These two substantial successes confirm my belief that the American public in hundreds of thousands relishes good reading. Without that belief, this book would not have been prepared; but I have prepared it with some confidence that those who relish good reading will be interested in the chapters that follow. As a former book reviewer and literary editor, as an author and, now, as one vitally concerned in book publishing, my interest in books has been fundamentally unchanging--a wish to see more books read and better books to read. From one standpoint, _When Winter Comes to Main Street_ is frankly an advertisement; it deals with Doran books and authors. This is a fact of some relevance, however, if, as I believe, the reader shall find well-spent the time given to these pages. Grant Overton. 19 July 1922. CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE COURAGE OF HUGH WALPOLE 15 II HALF-SMILES AND GESTURES 33 III STEWART EDWARD WHITE AND ADVENTURE 55 IV WHERE THE PLOT THICKENS 68 V REBECCA WEST: AN ARTIST 78 VI SHAMELESS FUN 88 VII THE VITALITY OF MARY ROBERTS RINEHART 102 VIII THEY HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME 118 IX AUDACIOUS MR. BENNETT 133 X A CHAPTER FOR CHILDREN 152 XI COBB'S FOURTH DIMENSION 166 XII PLACES TO GO 187 XIII ALIAS RICHARD DEHAN 196 XIV WITH FULL DIRECTIONS 212 XV FRANK SWINNERTON: ANALYST OF LOVERS 225 XVI AN ARMFUL OF NOVELS, WITH NOTES ON THE NOVELISTS 244 XVII THE HETEROGENEOUS MAGIC OF MAUGHAM 270