The Mentor: Makers of American Fiction, Vol. 6, Num. 14, Serial No. 162, September 1, 1918
Page 6
REX BEACH]
_Rex Beach_
FIVE
It was in Alaska--the field of “The Forerunner,” the Kipling poem thatwas for so many years lost and entirely forgotten by its author, thefield of Robert W. Service’s “Songs of a Sourdough,” the field of somany of the tales of Jack London and Stewart Edward White, that RexBeach first found literary expression. He did not set out in life to bea literary man. He was a husky youth, full of vitality and, even in histeens, a giant in strength. He was born in Atwood, Michigan, September1, 1877, and he left his native place for the city of Chicago when hewas eighteen years of age. He meant to study law, but, as he said, he“had no money--therefore had to find a place to eat.” In those daysthe athletic associations of several of the large cities maintainedfootball teams of giant gladiators to entertain the multitude. YoungBeach had seen just one game of football, but when he presentedhimself, his physical architecture was so imposing that he was engagedwithout hesitation, as tackle, by the athletic association footballmanager. The college teams used to play an annual series with thesehuge professionals. Later they gave it up, because the “truck-horseprofessionals” hired by the athletic associations could not be hurtby anything short of an ax, while the college players, as Beach said,were apt to “tear under the wing.” Beach played through the season,taking part in the games by which his team won the championship ofAmerica. Then, being desirous of eating regularly, he attached himselfto the athletic association’s swimming team and broke an indoor recordat water polo. That was in 1897, when the Klondike excitement brokeout. He stampeded with the rest. It was the spirit of adventure and nothought of finding material for fiction that took him to the Yukon.
With two partners from Chicago, Beach was dumped off the boat atRampart, on the Yukon, one rainy night. The three hadn’t a dollaramongst them, but they had plenty of goods. Then things began tohappen. “We prepared to become exorbitantly rich,” in the words ofBeach, “but it was a bad winter. There were fifteen hundred rough-necksin town, very little food and plenty of scurvy. I soon found that mystrength was my legs. I could stampede with anybody. So I stampededfaithfully whenever I heard of a gold strike, all that winter.” Hebecame dissatisfied with his two Chicago partners, because theypreferred to sit around the cabin cooking tasty messes to tearingthrough blizzards at the tail of a dog team. They wanted to wait fortheir million dollars until spring, but Beach wanted his by Christmasat the latest. And so he set off, and quickly fell under the spellof the Yukon. The glare of the white Arctic night, the toil of thelong trail, the complicated struggle for existence, the reversion toprimitive passions inevitable in a new civilization in process offormation, made an imperative call to him, and held him fascinated.The life about him moved him to write, and before long he was embarkedon a literary career. “Pardners,” his first story, appeared in 1904,and this was followed by the novel that gave him reputation--“TheSpoilers,” which appeared in 1906. Then came “The Barrier” in 1907,and “The Silver Horde” in 1909. They are all virile stories of Alaskanlife that have stirred many thousands of readers. Some have gone intodramatic form, “The Barrier” having attained a new and distinguishedsuccess as a film picture. In “The Ne’er Do Well” and in “The Net”Beach sought Southern scenes, the former novel having Panama as itsbackground, and “The Net” New Orleans during the Mafia days. “TheAuction Block,” published in 1914, deals with the favorite activitiesof modern Metropolitan life, and the sale of young girls into themarriage tie.
Mr. Beach was christened “Rex E. Beach,” and he retained the middleinitial for some time, but when correspondents who had read his bookssent letters to him in which they addressed him as “_Rev._ E. Beach,”he dropped the middle initial. He lives in New York City and has asummer residence at Landing, Lake Hopatcong, N. J.