The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-12

available SOURCE Ol 6NlueQc6; ne must Collect 10
gether all the undisputed facts; he must digest
them and draw his own conclusions; he must
spare no pains in working out the problem for
himself, so far as the data will allow, and with
no bias"
"Can you not give me an illustration of this
by your own works, Mr.. Reade"
Yes. There is no trouble, although you have
very nicely got into the interview l found in
the trades unions and the strikes with all the
tyrannical cruelties and contempt of law and
justice manifested in bringing into the
unions, an excellent subject for my pen.
went to work for the facts. l got them.
boxes in this house. as large as
those tables, filled with the reports history and
proceedings of the unions and the way strikes
are conducted. l took them from journals, blue
books and from every trade in the world. |
made voluminous notes 1 visited Sheffield and
lived with the workingmen and the bosses. So
much for the facts, Then 1 began to weave in
invention and l invented the characters. The
story lends itself to the facts but they will not
adapt themselves to the story. The result is,
that, having knowledge, I gave strength; hav-
ing facts, gave truth; and having these gave
it animation And there is an actual present
ment of the workings of trades union, living
chapter of nineteenth century life"
such preparation as this, Mr. Reade, must
take a vast deal of time"
Time" yelled the novelist ''what is time to
naturef 1t took years and years for nature to
produce one man. l was ripe critic before l
became an artist l studied the art of fiction
for fifteen years before / presumed to write
line. You will find that statement in the appen-
dix to my Wandering Heir BAIL There are
many imbeelles in this world, and have heard
their criticism the Wandering Heir with
less patience than have any that have been
made on any of my writings. They have taken
up one after another, my presentation of facts,
and they have denied them. Why, 1 built upon
facts. Ferriss Original History of the Colony
OF Delaware, and Bankers Primitive History of
the Settlements only two of the
frOn I pnt
of the white slave trade of the
| colony. l read every thing that could be had on
| the subject. l studied with careful precision
| the various charters and acts of Assembly.
There is no use in citing instances; but 1 never
| move in the production of story until l have
facts facts, facts"
when have my facts my story is there, but
! the mere detail of writing it. l proceed to tell
it. So faithful is human nature, that the art of
| blending what you know to be true and what
you invent, subordinating the latter to the
| former comes itself as naturally and readily
is matter of an authors habit l said that at
| times spend hours one point This is true,
| but at such times deal with some touch of
nature upon which desire the strongest light.
It is when 1 wish to make him or
| her a human being, bringing the sub
ject into prominence for mo-
ment only that he may figure with the strength
| of previous acquaintance in the future. Those,
however are the mere details of art, and for the
| purposes you want are not good. The fact is,
| believe that every days happenings are furnish
ing under our very shouts dramatic incidents be-
| yond the range of human ideas. Who does it2
| From whence do they spring! Nature does it.
Do we want beauty Let us take it from nature,
for nature, when she is in earnest builds beauty
on the ideas of the ancient sculptors and poets,
not of modern poetasters who, with air-like
sylphs and their smoke like verses fight for want
of flesh in woman and want of fact in poetry
parallel beauties"
Then you would prefer to be of the school of
realismp
Rot want no classification. 1 want what
is truthful and natural, be it what it may Zola
| is realist His L'Assommoir' and Mana, are
| the gathered strong features of lowly, vicious
life, in which the strength of what is honest and
| good only makes the lower channels appear
| deeper To be real, to be truthful, to give the
voice of fact, is to be writer to adorn and pre-
sent facts with the faithful color of the situations
which surround them, is to be an artist. Every
newspaper reporter who introduces few lines
of descriptive, to lead up to his article, is real
ist, according to his light His light is a candle
Genius has electricity With electricity we dis
cover the artist"
f'Mr Reade, if were to ask you what, In
your opinion, is your greatest story
Il wouldn't answer you, because 1 don't know.
have an affection for all my characters love
| Tom Robinson, for he was the exponent of
wrong so infamous that his aid in rlghting it en-
dears him to me- He presented the dishonest
man as one not thoroughly bad, but with the
heaven of a naturally magnificent character al
most blighted, but not dead. Christie John
stone, one of my first productions, although not
my first effort. is another character to whom 1
turn for a sweet and delightful philosophy grow
ing out of her marriage and peace. To me my
characters have an eXistence-not always pleas
ant it is true, but always established, fully in
diyidualized. thoroughly human. aud with pos
sibllities of an intimacy and an acquaintance.
Margaret in the 'Cloister and Hearth is
character L love dearly She
woman, thoroughly womanl y-never any
thing else than woman-always woman; and
Gerard to her priest and husband; Denis, the
Burgundian, are characters whose strength Of
humanity can never more strongly present
They were the result of long study. Denis
woven into another story which l sacrificed to
bring out the contrasts of his character with
those of Gerard David Dodd, too is another of
my real favorites. You have probably discover
ed that if you have read my writings at all. At
the same time it has never been my intention,
however much l may have yielded to the in
sonal bias Which of my steries do you like
best2
"'White Lies, I should say"
'The weakest of all The misuse through an
error of judgment of the vast opportunities it
afforded. could have improved it in hundred
ways. could have made it symmetrical by
word or two. 1t is splendid conception spoiled;
only l did not arrive at my final conclusions
until it was too late to change it. The book had
become established as to character in the minds
of the people and there was way to change
Have you read the Woman Haterr"
ooh yes, and with disappointment"
every likely. And whyl 1 will tell you
Because you had come to know my work as
something apart from that which you are
acquainted yourself, and you know seine of the
characters so well that you couldn't get far
enough away from them to understand or COM
prehend their natures. 1 tell you, what we do is
too much walking up and down without meeting
We let other people-if there are any who think
form our ideas and we accept them 1t occurs
to mon that nobody we know come in contact
with can be great Surely if our own insignif-
canoe could dwarf the Importance of those we
are sometimes thrown with, the reduction would
be horrible. But the trouble is this-the great
story-teler goes too much out of the wealth of
his facts The poor one, in his poverty, cannot
tell anything. l knew that when l completed
Never Too Late to Mend, had the material
for more than half a dozen novels, and yet, in
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