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METHODS OF AUTHORS

ERICHSEN

WP Co




    COPYRIGHT, 1894,
    BY WILLIAM H. HILLS.

    _All Rights Reserved._




    _To

    R. E. FRANCILLON,

    who is admired and loved by novel-readers on
    both sides of the Atlantic,

    THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED,

    by his permission, with sincere regard, by
    the Author._




PREFACE.


When I began to gather the material for this volume I was quite doubtful
as to whether the public would be interested in a work of this kind or
not. As my labor progressed, however, it became evident that not only
the body of the people, but authors themselves, were deeply interested
in the subject, and would welcome a book treating of it. Not only M.
Jules Claretie, the celebrated Parisian literarian, but the late Dr.
Meissner and many others assured me of this fact.

Nor is this very surprising. Who, after reading a brilliant novel, or
some excellent treatise, would not like to know how it was written?

So far as I know, this volume is a novelty, and Ben Akiba is outwitted
for once. Books about authors have been published by the thousands, but
to my knowledge, up to date, none have been issued describing their
methods of work.

In the preparation of this book I have been greatly aided by the works
of Rev. Francis Jacox, an anonymous article in _All the Year Round_, and
R. E. Francillon's essay on "The Physiology of Authorship," which
appeared first in the _Gentleman's Magazine_.

I was also assisted in my labor by numerous newspaper clippings and many
letters from writers, whose names appear in this volume, and to all of
whom I return my sincere thanks.

    H. E.
    DETROIT, Mich.




CONTENTS.


       I. Eccentricities in Composition.

      II. Care in Literary Production.

     III. Speed in Writing.

      IV. Influence upon Writers of Time and Place.

       V. Writing under Difficulties.

      VI. Aids to Inspiration--Favorite Habits of Work.

     VII. Goethe, Dickens, Schiller, and Scott.

    VIII. Burning Midnight Oil.

      IX. Literary Partnership.

       X. Anonymity in Authorship.

      XI. System in Novel Writing.

     XII. Traits of Musical Composers.

    XIII. The Hygiene of Writing.

     XIV. A Humorist's Regimen.




METHODS OF AUTHORS.


I.

Eccentricities in Composition.


The public--that is, the reading world made up of those who love the
products of authorship--always takes an interest in the methods of work
adopted by literary men, and is fond of gaining information about
authorship in the act, and of getting a glimpse of its favorite, the
author, at work in that "sanctum sanctorum"--the study. The modes in
which men write are so various that it would take at least a dozen
volumes to relate them, were they all known, for:--

    "Some wits are only in the mind
      When beaux and belles are 'round them prating;
    Some, when they dress for dinner, find
      Their muse and valet both in waiting;
    And manage, at the self-same time,
    To adjust a neckcloth and a rhyme.

    "Some bards there are who cannot scribble
    Without a glove to tear or nibble;
    Or a small twig to whisk about--
      As if the hidden founts of fancy,
    Like wells of old, were thus found out
      By mystic tricks of rhabdomancy.

    "Such was the little feathery wand,
    That, held forever in the hand
    Of her who won and wore the crown
      Of female genius in this age,
    Seemed the conductor that drew down
      Those words of lightning to her page."

This refers to Madame de Stael, who, when writing, wielded a "little
feathery wand," made of paper, shaped like a fan or feather, in the
manner and to the effect above described.

Well may the vivacious penman of "Rhymes on the Road" exclaim:--

    "What various attitudes, and ways,
      And tricks we authors have in writing!
    While some write sitting, some, like Bayes,
      Usually stand while they're inditing.
    Poets there are who wear the floor out,
      Measuring a line at every stride;
    While some, like Henry Stephens, pour out
      Rhymes by the dozen while they ride.
    Herodotus wrote most in bed;
      And Richerand, a French physician,
    Declares the clockwork of the head
      Goes best in that reclined position.
    If you consult Montaigne and Pliny on
    The subject, 'tis their joint opinion
    That thought its richest harvest yields
    Abroad, among the woods and fields."

M. de Valois alleges that Plato produced, like Herodotus, "his glorious
visions all in bed"; while

    "'Twas in his carriage the sublime
    Sir Richard Blackmore used to rhyme."

But little is known of the habits of the earliest writers. The great
Plato, whose thoughts seemed to come so easy, we are told, toiled over
his manuscripts, working with slow and tiresome elaboration. The opening
sentence of "The Republic" on the author's tablets was found to be
written in thirteen different versions. When death called him from his
labor the great philosopher was busy at his desk, "combing, and curling,
and weaving, and unweaving his writings after a variety of fashions."
Virgil was wont to pour forth a quantity of verses in the morning, which
he decreased to a very small number by incessant correction and
elimination. He subjected the products of his composition to a process
of continual polishing and filing, much after the manner, as he said
himself, of a bear licking her cubs into shape. Cicero's chief pleasure
was literary work. He declared that he would willingly forego all the
wealth and glory of the world to spend his time in meditation or study.

The diversity in the methods adopted by authors is as great as the
difference in their choice of subjects. A story is often cited in
illustration of the different characteristics of three great
nationalities which equally illustrates the different paths which may be
followed in any intellectual undertaking.

An Englishman, a Frenchman, and a German, competing for a prize offered
for the best essay on the natural history of the camel, adopted each his
own method of research upon the subject. The German, providing himself
with a stock of tobacco, sought the quiet solitude of his study in order
to evolve from the depths of his philosophic consciousness the primitive
notion of a camel. The Frenchman repaired to the nearest library, and
overhauled its contents in order to collect all that other men had
written upon the subject. The Englishman packed his carpet-bag and set
sail for the East, that he might study the habits of the animal in its
original haunts.

The combination of these three methods is the perfection of study; but
the Frenchman's method is not unknown even among Americans. Nor does it
deserve the condemnation it usually receives. The man who peruses a
hundred books on a subject for the purpose of writing one bestows a real
benefit upon society, in case he does his work well. But some excellent
work has been composed without the necessity either of research or
original investigation. Anthony Trollope described his famous
archdeacon without ever having met a live archdeacon. He never lived in
any cathedral city except London; Archdeacon Grantly was the child of
"moral consciousness" alone; Trollope had no knowledge, except
indirectly, about bishops and deans. In fact, "The Warden" was not
intended originally to be a novel of clerical life, but a novel which
should work out a dramatic situation--that of a trustworthy, amiable man
who was the holder, by no fault of his own, of an endowment which was in
itself an abuse, and on whose devoted head should fall the thunders of
those who assailed the abuse.

Bryan Waller Proctor, the poet (who, I believe, is better known under
the name of "Barry Cornwall"), had never viewed the ocean when he
committed to paper that beautiful poem, "The Sea." Many of his finest
lyrics and songs were composed mentally while he was riding daily to
London in an omnibus. Schiller had never been in Switzerland, and had
only heard and read about the country, when he wrote his "William Tell."
Harrison Ainsworth, the Lancashire novelist, when he composed "Rookwood"
and "Jack Sheppard," depended entirely on his ability to read up and on
his facility of assimilation, for during his lifetime he never came in
personal contact with thieves at all. It is said that when he wrote the
really admirable ride of Turpin to York he only went at a great pace
over the paper, with a road-map and description of the country in front
of him. It was only when he heard all the world say how faithfully the
region was pictured, and how