W

WALTER HINES PAGE

ALTER HINES PAGE was born in Cary, North Carolina, August 15, 1855. He is the son of A. F. Page, to whom he dedicated "The Rebuilding of old Commonwealths" in the felicitous words: "To the Honored Memory of My Father, whose work was work that built up the Commonwealth." These words aptly describe the work of the Page family in North Carolina. Mr. A. F. Page built the railroad from Aberdeen to Asheboro, which has done much to develop the resources of that section. The railroad is still the property of the Pages, the president being Mr. Henry A. Page.

Walter H. Page early in life made up his mind to an editorial career rather than a business career; but he has shown in all his work as an editor and publisher the energetic and independent spirit characteristic of his family. From the time when he began as a reporter on the St. Joseph (Missouri) Gazette to the time when he has become one of the most distinguished editors and publishers of the country, his success has been one of the most inspiring in the annals of North Carolina.

He was prepared for college at Bingham School, then situated at Mebane. For a few months he was a student at Trinity College, and then for four years at Randolph-Macon College, where he graduated in 1876. The influence of Professor Thomas R. Price on him in the direction of reading the best literature was

strong. After leaving Randolph-Macon College, he went to Johns Hopkins University, where he held a fellowship in Greek during the first two years of the University under Professor Basil L. Gildersleeve. The spirit of the University in those early days, when Johns Hopkins was the first to give the opportunity for graduate work, and when the brightest men came from the leading Universities of America, was especially stimulating.

After a vacation in Europe, a year of teaching in Louisville and some lectures at the summer school at Chapel Hill, he decided to go into journalism. He could find no place in North Carolina, so by advertising he got a position as reporter at a very small salary in St. Joseph, Missouri. He became in a year the editor of the paper on which he began work as a reporter. He frequently went to Kansas City and St. Louis, where he had the chance to see Western life, which has always had a fascination for him. He began, in addition to his work as reporter and as editor, to write for the magazines-first for the Atlantic Monthly, of which he became editor many years later-articles dealing especially with the South. He made a tour of the South, and sent articles to the great dailies. With wide open eyes he had seen from his youth some of the limitations of the Southern life of that time, especially when contrasted with the West, and he wrote frankly about them in a simple and direct style that attracted

attention.

In 1881 Mr. Page went to the Atlanta Exposition as special correspondent for the New York World, then under the editorship of W. H. Hurlbut. While in Atlanta he received one day a telegram from the World summoning him to New York. He wrote reviews, literary notes and editorials. Best of all, however, he was sent to Washington, where he was thrown in contact with many distinguished men. He followed with keen interest a long debate on the tariff.

A change came in the editorship of the World, and Mr. Page, along with other members of the staff, resigned. While on a visit. to his father in North Carolina he was persuaded to start the Raleigh Chronicle, of which he was editor for a year or more.

The files of this paper make very interesting reading-never was there such a stirring of dry bones in the old State. With courage and insight the young editor wrote what he thought about everything that took place; he advocated policies that were revolutionary in his day, but are now accepted as fundamental. He stood for industrial education and for the development of public schools. But the paper did not pay; the editor lost all the money he put into it, and he went back to New York "without a dollar or a job." Without any regular position, for a year or more he wrote for the magazines and newspapers. He could make a living with his pen. A wider association with authors and newspaper men then came. His work found recognition from the New York Evening Post, of whose staff he was a member for a year or two. He was then offered first the management, then the editorship, of the Forum, a position which he held until 1895. A reading of that magazine for those years shows that it was then far better than it ever was before or has been since. As editor, Mr. Page displayed those qualities that have characterized all his later work. He knew what people wanted to read and he knew the men who would give it to them.

In 1895 he was called to Boston as literary adviser to Houghton, Mifflin & Company, and in the following year was given the additional position of editor of the Atlantic Monthly. At forty years of age, then, he had won his way to a position that had been held by James Russell Lowell, James W. Fries, William D. Howells, Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Horace E. Scudder. The Atlantic, which had been identified in a special way with the group of New England authors, was much broadened under Mr. Page's editorship. He put it into more vital connection with the life of the country. A typical incident was his putting the old flag on the cover at the time of the Spanish War.

Although Mr. Page was now living an almost ideal life in Cambridge, under the shadow of Harvard University, and although he was connected with one of the two great publishing houses of America, he found a salaried editorship too narrow. He wanted a magazine that would be his own, and consequently a publishing