Excerpt from Geber: A Tale of the Reign of Harun Al Raschid, Khalif of Baghdad
Mrs. Samuel H. Benton, the author of Geber, died on the 23rd of September, 1899. In July last, shortly after the book had been accepted by the publishers, Mrs. Benton was attacked by pneumonia, from which she rallied, only to be seized by acute tuberculosis. She was taken to Saranac Lake, in the Adirondacks, where she improved to an extent which led her to hope that she might be removed to her dearly loved California.
In September we were watching for her coming, and a letter came to me from her, saying, that she was "coming back, if I am well enough(!), to that home in your sunshine country," the home where we had made her so welcome on her marriage, - when the telegram came, that all was ended.
Amidst sorrow over her untimely death, for she was only fairly entered on life, one recollection fills me with comfort - it is that she was supremely happy in her married life - her letters to me well over with the joy of perfect trust and content.
Mrs. Benton was not able to read the proofs of her work, but it has not been edited or revised, and is published as it was written.
It may be of interest to the reader to learn that the story grew out of a poem which Mrs. Benton had planned to write. But as her researches brought forth a wealth of material, and developed the possibilities of a novel, embodying the story of this time of romance; and she found that no one, apparently, had preceded her in the field; she took the character of Geber and, around it as a central figure, constructed her plot.
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