Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION ZOE AKINS was born in 1886 at Humansville, a small town in the Ozark Mountain region of Missouri, but her home has been at St. Louis since she was eleven. On her mother's side she is a descendant from that Earl of Pembroke who is best known to history as Shakespeare's friend. Her maternal grand- uncle was Duff Green, a Southern newspaper editor, whose appointment as Public Printer in 1829 was the first manifestation of President Jackson's new theory of office-holding — " to the victors belong the spoils." Numerous members of her mother's family have been engaged in literary pursuits of one kind or another. Her father has for many years been prominent in the affairs of the Republican party and is now Postmaster of St. Louis. She had two years of schooling at the Monticello Seminary, of Godfrey, Ill., and two more at Hosmer Hall in St. Louis. But her hopes of entering either Radcliffe or the University of Chicago were foiled by serious illness. At seventeen, while her parents were away, she joined for a time the Odeon Stock Company, then playing in St. Louis. The one immediate satisfaction she got out of this step lay in the excitement it created among her friends. But in the end she carried off valuable lessons in stagecraft and a wholesome conviction that shewould never care to become an actress. While still a mere child, she had been writing verse and trying her hands at plays, one of which was performed by her schoolmates at Hosmer Hall. After her experience on the stage, she began to write critical articles for the St. Louis Mirror and " specials " for the daily newspapers — mostly as a " means toward adventure." She was anxious to meet visiting celebrities, and her wish was frequently fulfilled. Thus, for instance, she became acquainted with Julia Marlowe, w... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.