for after such a good novel
as _Half Loaves_.

Mrs. Banning, who was married in 1914, lives in Duluth. A graduate of
Vassar, her first novel was written in one of Margaret Mayo's cottages at
Harmon, New York. She is of purely Irish ancestry, related to the Plunkett
family which bred both statesmen and revolutionaries for Ireland. On the
other side there was a Colonel Culkin, who, Mrs. Banning says, "came over
at the time of the Revolution but unfortunately fought on the wrong side,
so we forget him and begin our Culkin lineage in this country with the
Culkin who came over at the famous time of the 'potato-rot.'" That would
be the Irish famine of 1846, no doubt.

_Sunny-San_, Onoto Watanna's first novel in six years, has been the signal
for her re-entrance not only into the world of fiction, but the world of
motion pictures and plays. Even before _Sunny-San_ was ready as a book,
the motion picture producers were on the author's track. A large sum was
paid cash down for the picture rights to the novel and then the prospect
of a picture was laid aside while the possibilities of a play were
estimated. These were seen to be exceptionally good. Here was a story of
young American boys travelling in Japan and coming upon a still younger
Japanese girl, threatened with cruelty and unhappiness. The young men
endowed Sunny-San, so to speak, planking down enough money to secure her
protection and education. Thereupon they continued blithely on their
travels and forgot all about her.

Some years later a well-educated, dainty and exceedingly attractive
Japanese girl presents herself on the doorstep of a house in New York
where one of the young men resides. Situation! What shall the young man do
with his charming and unexpected protegee! In view of the prolonged
success of Fay Bainter in the play, _East Is West_, it was obviously the
thing to make a play out of _Sunny-San_. And this, I believe, is being
done as I write. In the meantime Onoto Watanna, who is really Mrs.
Winnifred Reeve, and who lives on a ranch near Calgary, Canada, is very
busy with her Canadian stories which have excited the enthusiasm of
magazine editors. I am confident that she will do a Canadian novel; the
more so because she tells me that, despite the success of _Sunny-San_ and
the enormous success of her earlier Japanese stories, like _A Japanese
Nightingale_, her interest is really centred at present in Canada, its
people and backgrounds.

=v=

Pending Dor