The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1882-01-06
HOW SOME AUTHORS WORK.
Entertainin3 Facts About Famous Literary
People of the Past.
Chambers, journal.

Chambers Journal
Intelligent people are generally curious
about authors and authorship. They long
TO know how certain ideas originated in the
minds Of the writers. Was such-and such a
book composed under the influence Of sud-
den Inspiration, or was 1t the slow product
Of laborious thought? Was It written of
at once, without step or stay, or was 1t cor
rected and revised with years Of anxious
carep There are, indeed, few things more
interesting, though few more difficult, than
To trace the growth of book from its first
conception ILL it develops into full life and
vigor. For the growth is different in differ
ent minds; and authors are peculiarly chary
Of lifting the veil and letting outsiders pene-
trate behind the scenes.
IL Is only comparatively recently that we
knew TO certainty how the idea Of "Adam
Bede began to arise In George Eliot's mind.
The usual report was that the Quakeress,
Dinah Morris, was literally "copied" from
Elizabeth Evans, George Eliot's aunt, who
had been female preacher at Wirksworth,
in Derbyshire. But from George Eliot's own
account, given I'm her letter to Miss Sara
Hennell, we find what the facts of the case
really were. She only saw her aunt for u
short time. Elizabeth Evans was then a
"tiny little woman about sixty, with bright,
small, dark eyes, and hair that had been
black but was now gray" Of totally differ
ent physical type from Dinah Morris. For
fortnight Elizabeth Evans left her home
and visited her niece in Warwickshire. One
sunny afternoon she happened casually to
mention that in her youth she had, with an
other pious woman, visited an unhappy girl
in prison, stayed with her all night, and gone
with her to execution. "This incident"
adds George Eliot, :" lay on my mind forsev-
eral years as a dead germ apparently, till
time had made indus in which it could
fructify. 1t then turned out be the germ of
Adam Bede.'"
James Payn, the novelist, tells us that
when he was very young man, and had
very little experience, he was reading on q
stage box an account of some gigantic trees.
One of them was described as sound outside,
but within, for many feet mass of rotten
ness and decay. "If boy should climb up,
bird-nesting, into the fork of it, thought /,
he might 90 down feet first, and never be
heard of again." "Then," he adds, I" It
struck me what an appropriate end it would
be for q bad character of novel Before
had left the coach-box had thought out
Lost Sir Massingberd.' Such a process
lasted for shorter time with Mr.. Payn than
with the majority of the noyelists; with
many the little seed might have germinated
for years before It brought forth fruit. Yet
Mr.. Payn is remarkable for the clearness and
coherency of his plots; they always hang
well together, and have substantial back
bone.
or all the literary workers Balzae was GER
tainly the most extraordinary In his modus
operandi. At first he would write his novel
in few pages-hardiy moie than the plot.
These would be sent TO the printer, who
would return the few columns in print, past
ed in the middle of half a dozen blank
sheets, in such a way that there was an i'm
mense margin left all around. On this mar
gin Balzac would begin to work, sketching
the personages Of the story, interpolatng
the dialogue, perhaps even completely
altering the original design of the book.
Horizontal, diagonal, and vertical lines
would run everywhere; the paper would be
scrawled over with asterisks, crosses, and
every kind of mark. The dreams Of the un-
lucky printers must surely have been haunt
ed by those terrible sheets, besprinkled with
all the signs of the zodiac, and interspersed
with long feelers like spiders. To decipher
such heroglyphics must indeed have been no
enviable task. Four or five times this pro-
cess was repeated, until, at last, tt few col
umns had swelled into book; and the book
In its turn never went through q fresh edi-
tion without being revised by its over-scru-
pulous creator, "who sacrificed considera-
BILE portion of his profits by this eccentric
plan of building up book"
Harriet Martineau at first believed copying
to be absolutely necessary. She had read
Miss Edgeworth's account Of her method Of
writing-submitting her rough sketch to her
father,then copying and altering many times
till no one page of her "Leonora" stood at
last as 1t did at first. But such tedious
process did not suit Miss Martineau's habits
of thought and her haste to appear In print.
She found that there was no use copying III
she did not alter, and that even If she did
alter she had TO change back again, SO she
adopted Abbot's maxim: ITO know first
what you want TO say, and then say it in the
first words that come to YOU" ra