Word: flandrau
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When the late Charles Flandrau (Viva Mexico!) was a star Saturday Evening Post contributor 40 years ago, one thing mightily depressed him. That was the changes that took place in his stories when they appeared in print. If he gave one of his characters a highball, the drink became a glass of lemonade. In those days a Post character might kill Indians, but he could not smoke a cigaret. Last week a collection of 22 stories chosen from the 234 published in last year's Saturday Evening Post revealed how greatly they had changed since that genteel period. Post...
Young Author Flandrau nevertheless found conforming difficult. Editors lured him with attractive offers. The best of Author Flandrau's anecdotes deal with Satevepost's George Horace Lorimer, "the most insidiously seductive Lorelei of them all ... perched on a rock known as the Curtis Publishing Company overlooking the human tide that ebbs and flows along Independence Square in Philadelphia." Author Flandrau had written pure, sexless, nonalcoholic short stories, a good clean serial called The Diary of a Freshman, when Editor Lorimer wanted him to write the diary of a professor. Author Flandrau fled to Europe. The editor, using "diplomatic...
SOPHOMORES ABROAD-Charles Macomb Flandrau-Appleton-Century...
Almost 40 years ago Charles Macomb Flandrau published a book of college stories called Harvard Episodes, in which undergraduates were described realistically for the first time in U. S. fiction. The book created a minor sensation, even brought its young author a friendly six-page letter from Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. Promptly taken up by Saturday Evening Post, Author Flandrau continued to write, less frankly, a series of sketches dealing with college life in general, with two amiable, intelligent, irresponsible Harvard boys in particular. Last week Author Flandrau prefaced a slim collection of these sketches with...
Although the sketches themselves, dealing with wide-eyed impressions of London hotels, ancient transatlantic steamers, travelers' affectations and disappointments, hold up remarkably well across the years, the chief distinction of Sophomores Abroad is Author Flandrau's wryly amusing apology for having written it. When he began his literary career, certain topics, including religion, college education, youth and the possessors of great wealth, were sacred in popular magazines, while other topics, like sex, cigarets and alcohol, were absolutely taboo. A character in the thick of battle might slay Indians, but he could not smoke. When Author Flandrau gave...