Chapter I: 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

XVIII BOOKS WE LIVE BY 293

XIX ROBERT W. CHAMBERS AND THE WHOLE TRUTH 308

XX UNIQUITIES 321

XXI THE CONFESSIONS OF A WELL-MEANING YOUNG MAN,
STEPHEN MCKENNA 334

XXII POETS AND PLAYWRIGHTS 347

XXIII THE BOOKMAN FOUNDATION AND THE BOOKMAN 366

EPILOGUE 372

INDEX 373

PORTRAITS

PAGE HUGH WALPOLE 17 STEWART EDWARD WHITE 57 REBECCA WEST 79 MARY ROBERTS RINEHART 103 ARNOLD BENNETT 135 IRVIN S. COBB 167 FRANK SWINNERTON 227 W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM 271 STEPHEN McKENNA 335

WHEN WINTER COMES TO MAIN STREET