Turns about Town

In Short

Turns About Town is a collection of light, observational essays detailing urban life, literary culture, and personal misadventures across American cities in the early 1920s. Author and journalist Robert Cortes Holliday moves through courtroom jury selections, barbershops, public parks, publishing houses, and encounters with famous literary figures. Through humorous reflections and vivid street-level detail, the collection captures the charm of mundane moments, from battling seasonal colds to observing city crowds. It has endured as an engaging snapshot of American social history and a testament to the art of the casual personal essay.

The Story

The book moves through a series of loosely connected urban excursions and personal reflections rather than a single narrative line. Beginning in the bustling atmosphere of New York City, the writer immerses himself in everyday civic encounters. He takes the reader into a courtroom where a trial unfolds, observing the absurdities of jury selection as a defense attorney reacts with suspicion to the presence of a professional humorist on the panel. From there, he wanders into local shops, barbershops, and hotel lobbies, treats readers to the spectacle of winter snowstorms paralyzing city transit, and reflects on how weather briefly unites strangers in shared patience.

As his travels broaden, the writer journeys outside New York to explore other American cities, comparing the street fashions and social habits of Philadelphia—which he wryly declares to be much closer to Paris than Manhattan is—to the sunlit squares of San Francisco and the grand public avenues of Washington, D.C. In Washington, he tours the White House grounds, marvels at the endless rows of souvenir shops, and observes the colorful parade of office-seekers, veterans, and tourists crowding the Capitol.

Intertwined with these geographical strolls is an insider's view of the literary world. The writer recounts the frustrating, comical mechanics of trying to arrange an interview with the English author G. K. Chesterton through a maze of secretaries and hotel desks, eventually culminating in a warm, informal evening visit. He pulls back the curtain on publishing offices, describing the stream of hopeful young aspirants seeking editorial jobs without the slightest knowledge of the business, and reflects on the habits of established authors who can only write in isolated rooms or amid deafening noise. Toward the end of the collection, the narrative focus shifts to a brief fictional or semi-fictional arc featuring Keyes, a young man consumed by literary ambition who tracks authors' ages and dreams of fame, only to discover the toll that artistic obsession takes on his domestic life before finally returning to ordinary work.

How It Unfolds

The jury selection A humorist finds himself called for jury duty in a first-degree murder trial, where the defense lawyer reacts with deep suspicion to his literary profession. The attorney sarcastically grills him on his powers of deduction before realizing he writes humor, prompting the accused man to shake his head in alarm.

The chase for Chesterton The author attempts to arrange a press meeting with G. K. Chesterton by navigating a maze of phone calls, evasive lecture bureau managers, and polite English secretaries. The endless wild-goose chase through hotel desks ultimately ends when an unexpected evening invitation brings them together for smokes and conversation.

The snowstorm's unity A heavy snowstorm strikes the city, jamming delivery wagons into snowbanks and stalling suburban trains for hours. Rather than inciting anger, the shared delay brings out a cheerful patience and a spirit of helpfulness among stranded commuters.

The Philadelphia revelation While taking a short train ride, the author discovers through fashion journals and street observation that Philadelphia is ahead of New York in adopting Parisian style trends. He notes how hemline changes catch the public eye once older street fashions grow stale.

The office of aspirants Inside a publishing house, a editor sits through interviews with eager young people who want to become editors simply because it sounds pleasant. Most possess college degrees and artistic ambitions but lack any real comprehension of the commercial publishing trade.

The literary aspirant's fate A young clerk named Keyes obsessively compares his age to famous authors and tries his hand at fiction, temporarily straining his marriage. After achieving a brief success born of genuine personal feeling, he realizes he cannot sustain the craft and contentedly takes a job as a commercial collector.

The People

• The Author / Narrator: An observant, self-deprecating writer who wanders through cities, observing human nature. He wants to gather material and navigate daily life, though he is often hindered by bad luck, cold weather, lost eyeglasses, or convoluted administrative red tape.

• G. K. Chesterton: A famous visiting English author whom the narrator seeks to interview. Cheerful, rotund, and elusive, he remains surrounded by a protective barrier of lecture agents and secretaries until he warmly invites the narrator to his apartment for talk and tobacco.

• Keyes: A twenty-seven-year-old clerk who becomes obsessed with literary gossip, author biographies, and the desire to create great fictional characters. His ambition threatens his peace of mind until he abandons his artificial literary hopes, writes one sincere story, and settles into a routine job.

• Louise: The domestic wife of Keyes, who views art and literary fame with practical skepticism. She prefers her husband's natural, unpressured personality over his anxious artistic identity and warmly welcomes his return to regular employment.

• Mr. Widdecombe: The polite, pronouncedly English secretary to Chesterton, who carefully takes messages and promises appointments while remaining virtually impossible to pin down across various hotel lobbies.

In Its Own Voice

"A tuft of green shoots seen against canyon walls of steel and stone--one must be in the city to savor the tenderness of spring."

Context: The author reflects on the subtle beauty of small public parks tucked away inside noisy metropolitan streets.

"An embarrassing thing about most stenographers, I have found, is that they are greatly grieved if you say ''em' for 'them,' or anything like that."

Context: The writer discusses the varying conditions under which authors work and the quirks of dictating prose to office secretaries.

"He divined that no sort of ambition receives from people in general so little respect, by some curious idiosyncrasy of the human mind, as literary aspiration."

Context: Keyes hesitates to reveal his writerly ambitions to a acquaintance while walking through the city.

What It's Really About

At its heart, the collection explores the quiet mechanics of everyday urban life and the gap between romantic ambition and mundane reality. Holliday investigates how modern city dwellers navigate crowd culture, spatial routines, and social expectations, finding depth in the ordinary interactions of barbershops, streetcars, and public benches. The text continuously examines the literary profession itself, demystifying the world of authors and editors by contrasting the romantic ideal of writing with the commercial realities of publishing and the awkwardness of literary celebrity. Ultimately, the book argues for the value of keen, sympathetic observation, suggesting that taking time to wander and look closely at one's immediate surroundings yields richer rewards than chasing distant grand illusions.

Why Read It Today

Turns About Town offers a charming, unvarnished window into early 1920s American culture, perfect for readers who enjoy urban history, classic journalism, and observational humor. Holliday writes with an easy, conversational warmth that makes the century-old streets of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington feel surprisingly immediate. The prose carries the gentle pacing of a leisurely walk, punctuated by dry wit and sharp social observations.

Readers should be prepared for its episodic nature, as it is a collection of newspaper and magazine sketches rather than a continuous novel. Modern readers will easily recognize the timeless human quirks on display—such as the anxiety of matching one's accomplishments against one's age, the hassle of navigating middle-management bureaucracy, or the sudden sense of community that arises when bad weather disrupts a commute. It remains a delightfully light, nostalgic read that rewards anyone curious about the textures of everyday life in a bygone era.