idea of publishing this story as a novel. It would be a flat failure, receiving bad reviews, having no sale.
“Mr. Doubleday replied that I might be right, but that perhaps I should let some one besides myself have a chance to judge its merits and faults. Perhaps, he said, I had been too close to it. Would I let him read it before deciding against it?
“He read it. He wrote me a letter. I keep that letter to read on rainy days when I’m not feeling well.
"‘So Big’ has, for some reason I can’t explain, been a best seller since it was published in February, selling on an average of a thousand a day. I know how the ugly duckling felt who turned into a swan.”
And so, unlike Dirk de Jong, who thought he was so big and wasn’t, the novel is so very big, when the author thought it of much less importance.
It is safe to say that at least seven million people read "So Big” in its serial and book form. All these people will be looking forward hopefully to her next book. That there will be no disappointment can be confidently predicted because Edna Ferber has built upon so sure a foundation.
I believe that big work connot come of small people. Edna Ferber is a big person (not in stature nor avoirdupois) in mind, in heart, in soul, and in vision. A study of her work shows her growth and she is still growing, and will keep on growing as long as she lives. She will keep on growing because she sees so much farther than she has been able to reach. Her vision is so big.
