"My first literary tinklings were in verse; you will note two volumes of
poems in my list. Finding at fifteen that the schools within my reach
did not meet my requirements, I went to work and began educating myself
along lines of least resistance. My occupations were various: worked in
printing offices, learned shorthand, became stenographer in a law
office; was in newspaper work for twelve years; at thirty was auditor
and treasurer of a coal-mining corporation in Colorado; after three
years of business became a writer of books. When I was eighteen I wrote
three short stories which were published, and after that wrote no
fiction till I was thirty-two. I haven't thought of it before, but it
was odd that I wrote no short stories and had no interest in that form
until about five years ago. Since then I have done a number every year.
Without being a politician, I have dabbled somewhat in political
matters, making speeches at times, and abusing my fellow partisans (I am
a Democrat) when they needed chastisement. I have been defeated for
nominations and have declined nominations, and I once refused a foreign
appointment of considerable dignity that was very kindly offered me by a
President. When it comes to 'interests' I have, I suppose, a
journalistic mind. Anything that is of contemporaneous human interest
interests me--even free verse, which I despise, but read." Mr. Nicholson
lives in Indianapolis.

*Heart of Life, The.

NORTON, ROY. Born at Kewanee, Ill., 1869. High school education. Studied
law, mining, and languages. Married, 1894. Practiced law at Ogden, 1892.
In newspaper work for some years. Democrat. Roman Catholic. Mason.
Author of "Guilty" (with William Hallowell), "The Vanishing Fleets,"
"The Toll of the Sea," "Mary Jane's Pa," "The Garden of Fate," "The
Plunderer," "Captains Three," "The Mediator," "The Moccasins of Gold,"
"The Boomers," and "The Man of Peace." Lives in New Jersey.

Aunt Seliny.

(2) O'BRIEN, SEUMAS. Born at Glenbrook, County Cork, Ireland, April 26,
1880,--three days and three hundred and sixteen years (?) after Mr.
William Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon. Education: none or very
little, and less German than French. Profession: pessimist. Chief
interests: Russian Jewesses and American dollars. In more sober truth,
education: Presentation Brothers Schools, Cork School of Art, Cork
School of Music, Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin, and Royal College
of Art, London. Profession: sculp