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ME
ME
A BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1915
Copyright, 1915, by
The Century Co.
——
Published, August, 1915
To
"LOLLY" my friend who was
and to JEAN my friend who is
INTRODUCTION
The writing of this book seems to me one of the most astoundingliterary feats I have ever known. It is one hundred thousand wordslong; it was started on Thanksgiving day and finished before NewYear's. The actual writing occupied two weeks, the revision anothertwo. The reason for this amazing celerity lies in the fact that it ispure reporting; the author has not branched out into any byways ofstyle, but has merely told in the simplest language possible what sheactually remembered. The circumstances in which the book was writtenare interesting.
The author had been wrenched from her feverishly busy life to undergoan operation in a hospital; four days later she began the writing ofthis book. I will quote her own words:
"It seems to me as though these two weeks I have just passed in thehospital have been the first time in which I have had a chance to thinkin thirteen years. As I lay on my back and looked at the ceiling,the events of my girlhood came before me, rushed back with suchoverwhelming vividness that I picked up a pencil and began to write."
I cannot imagine just what the general reader's attitude toward thiswork will be. I myself, reading it in the light of the knowledgeI possess of the life of the author, look upon it not only as anintensely interesting human document, but as a suggestive sociologicalstudy. It is an illuminative picture of what may befall a working-girlwho, at the age of seventeen, gaily ventures forth to conquer life withten dollars in her pocket. You may object that many of her difficultieswere brought about through her own initiative; that she ran to meetthem open armed. This is, no doubt, true, but you must consider herignorance and her temperament. It was her naïveté and generosityand kindly impulses that left her unarmed. She was unique in manyrespects—in her peculiar heredity, her extreme ability, and her totalunacquaintedness with the world.
I have known the author for a number of years, and I know that themain outline of everything she says is true, though the names ofpeople and places have necessarily been changed in order to hide theiridentity. The author has written a number of books that have had a widecirculation. The aspirations of the little girl