First Appearance in New York City

Authors
(Mrs. Winnifred Reeve)
Publisher
Date
19 November 1921
Page Range
25
Genre
Exhibit
Document Type

First Appearance in New York City

First Appearance In New York City

Author of “A Japanese Nightingale.”
I was eighteen years old. I had received a letter from Mr. Ellery Sedgwick, then editor of Frank Leslie’s (now editor of the Atlantic Monthly). Instead of the usual rejection slip, he wrote expressing an interest in me, and suggested that I should let him see “anything else you have written.”
Upon my arrival in New York, I did not wait to secure lodgings. I went straight from the train, bag in hand, to Mr. Sedgwick’s office. Having explained to him who I was—he appeared to have forgotten that letter he had written me—I said: “And you wrote me to let you see anything else I had written, and so…”
I opened my bag. He leaped to his feet, threw up his hands, and shouted:
“Help! Help!”
In rushed half a dozen editors and clerks, and the wild-looking Mr. Sedgwick pointed dramatically to that bag of mine, which was brim full to the top with manuscripts. With a vague idea that I was about to be arrested, I burst into tears. I bawled as hard and heartily as only a husky youngster can, with the result that outrageous mirth was checked, and Mr. Sedgwick alternately wringing his hands and running them through his hair implored me to stop weeping. He said:
“Don’t cry! Don’t cry! Don’t cry like that! Stop it! I’ll buy a story from you if you will. I’ll buy all your stories if you do. There, there, no one’s going to hurt you. Shut up, do!”
In later years, when Mr. Sedgwick and I would meet at intervals, he liked to recall the several amusing episodes he recalled in my past, and he told our friends that I had blackmailed him with tears into buying my first story.

Onoto Watanna

Montreal can claim to be the birthplace of no more interesting author than Winnifred Reeve, nee Winnifred Eaton, who under the pen-name of Onoto Watanna, has written sixteen novels, dealing chiefly with Japanese life, one of which, “A Japanese Nightingale,” has had an immense circulation and was dramatized by Cosmo Gordon Lennox for Marie Tempest, while Klaw and Erlanger produced it in New York with an all-star cast, headed by Margaret Illington. The play was also published and produced in France and Germany. Mrs. Reeve won the $10,000 prize offered by the Chicago Tribune for a serial motion play, and has had several of her books transferred to the screen. Montreal is introduced in two of her novels, “Me,” which was run anonymously as a serial in the Century Magazine, and “Marion Sister of Me,” which was run anonymously in Hearst’s Magazine.
During the last five years Mrs. Reeve has been ranching in Alberta, half way between Calgary and Banff, where she is secretary and one of the three owners of Pleasant Range Stock Farm. She has just completed a new novel, “Sunny-San,” which will be published shortly by the George W. Doran Company, of New York, and is being dramatized for play production by Willard Mack, author of “Tiger Rose,” “Kick In,” etc.
Mrs. Reeve’s sister, Ruth Eaton, wrote a book of short stories interpreting the life of the Chinese in America, entitled “Miss Spring Fragrance,” which is a classic in this particular field, and was so much appreciated by the Chinese on this continent that they erected a monument in her memory when she died. It was published by A. C. Maclurg, of Chicago, and is now extremely rare.
List of novels published: “An Old Jinrikisha,” serial in Conkey’s Magazine; “Miss Nume of Japan,” Rand McNally; “A Japanese Nightingale,” Harper & Bros. and serial in Woman’s Home Companion; “Wooing of Wistaria,” Harper & Bros.; “Heart of Hyacinth,” Harper & Bros. and serial, Harper’s Weekly; “Love of Azalea,” Dodd, Meade & Co. and serial in Bookman; “Daughters of Nijo,” Macmillan Company; “Tama,” Harpers; “Japanese Blossom,” Harpers; “Honorable Miss Moonlight,” Harpers; “Diara of Delia,” Saturday Evening Post and Doubleday Page; “Me,” Anonymous—serial in Century Magazine and book; “Marion,” Anonymous—serial in Hearst’s Magazine and book; “Miss Spring Morning,” serial in Red Book; “Lend Me Your Title,” serial in MacLean’s; “Other People’s Troubles,” serial in Farm and Ranch.

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People Mentioned

Leean Wu

Leean is an Honours English language and literature student at the University of British Columbia and a research assistant for The Winnifred Eaton Archive. She was an undergraduate teaching assistant for the UBC Coordinated Arts Program for two years and a research assistant for the UBC Public Humanities Hub.

Winnifred Eaton

  • Born: August 21, 1875
  • Died: April 08, 1954
See the Biographical Timeline for biographical information on Winnifred Eaton.

Pseudonym used in this text

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is the Technical Director of The Winnifred Eaton Archive and a Developer at Simon Fraser University’s Digital Humanities Innovation Lab (DHIL). He is a graduate of the M.A. program in English at the University of British Columbia where he specialized in Indigenous and diasporic literature, science and technology studies, and the digital humanities.

Organizations Mentioned

Montreal Gazette

Founded in 1778; one of the oldest newspapers in North America. Still in print today.
Written by Samantha Bowen

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