The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-06-25


often, after all, remorselessly destroying
what he has written. Wilkie Collins
produces slowly and revises constantly,
inventing his plots as rapidly. He will
go over passage again and again, be-
slowing equal care on the sound and
meaning, and reduces his incidents mer-
cilessly.
Victor Hugo is never interrupted when
writing, and will sit completely absorbed
for hours, keeping steadily on,
while he is In the humor. Miss brad
don writes only for few hours daily,
but devotes her life to acquiring the
technical knowledge necessary for SO
voluminous writer, and her subject is
clearly thought out before pen is put to
paper. She writes with her blotting-
pad on her knee, comfortably ensconced
in the chair she loves, her copy very
clear and free from corrections, and has
always good store of skeleton plots on
band. Miss Edgeworth's plan was to
write a rough sketch, which she placed
before her father, aud then wrote and
re-wrote it till both We're satisfied. Mrs.
Opie wrote slowly, but with great men,
tai effort, and invariably rea2 her con,
positions to friends before committing
them to print.
Charlotte Bronte's manuscripts were
first written in a small book and then
carefully copied, according to the poet
Rogers plan, who advised to write little
and seldom, re-reading it from time to
time and re-copying often. French writ
ers, as rule, devote each morning to
their labors, and take holiday the rest
OF the day, sometimes resuming work in
the evening. and many of our English
writers have a strong prediction for the
midnight oil. Jowett recommends daily
labors of short duration; and attention
to diet and rules OF health have, there is
little doubt, controlling power even
over the inspiration of the pen.
Jules Simon, Carlyle, Gladstone, Rus
kin, and hosts of others, are early risers
and show by practice their belief that
the morning hours, in which they are
freshest and strongest, both in mind and
body, should be devoted to work. But
the conditions under which writer's can
produce their work most largely depend
on constitution and personal feeling.
While Victor Hugo could not be dis
turbed, Paul de Cassagnac will send
forth sheet after sheet in the midst of the
chattering of friends with the same pow
er of mental concentration as Sir Walter
Scott, who appears to have written some
of the most vivid scenes in his novels,
not only in the mids. of overburdening
anxieties, but amid distracting Interrupt
tions.
While Gambetta writes with only
sheet of paper before him, no litter of
pamphlets, and no apparent work of
reference, Theirs used to sit surrounded
by books; and Dumas keeps about him
on writing table, with many pigeon
holes, a store of all kinds of tempting
paper, deeming nothing so appetizing as
fine paper. Sardou sits at large flat
table, as does Carlyle, with reading
easel near at hand; and Wilkie Collins
uses the same massive table whence
Dickens sent 50 many of his works into
the world. Literary women of the Jel-
laby class are rare; and literary men no
longer think that personal eccentricity
must distinguish them from the rest of
the world.
The most successful and the busiest
writers are of orderly habits, for to sue
ceed in prolonged course OF literary
labor requires not only constant hard
work, but method. Commonplace books
filled with extracts, annotated works
carefully perused, codified and indexed
for reference; current history under
stood and studied-these are only part of
their stock-in-trade. Nothing is of more
value to literary man than a good
memory. Sir George Airey and Carlyle
are among the few who possess the envi-
able power of making what they read
their own. The pen Of ready writer is
the next best gift, and wonderful feats
are recorded of rapid authorship. Har-
rison Ainsworth is said to have written
off the fourth book Of "Rockwood" at
sitting, beginning in the morning and
writing on and on, carried away by the
subject.