Munsey's Magazine, August 1923

# Catalog Note

"Scarlet Hours," a complete novel by Ellis Parker Butler serialized in Munsey's Magazine (August 1923), concerns Roger Haddard, a literary genius in small-town Lewisville, Iowa. Editor Randolph O. Foster discovers that "Isnoke"—the pseudonymous author of weekly stories published in his struggling newspaper, the Chat—is actually a local resident. Foster becomes convinced that Isnoke's latest submission, "Scarlet Hours," featuring themes of attempted murder, love, and blackmail, represents a masterwork that should be expanded into a full-length novel. The narrative examines the collision between literary ambition and provincial life, following Foster, the bookstore owner Ossian McElroy, and livery operator Brat Hines as they become entangled in the author's creative struggle and the manuscript's potential impact on their community.