The Irish standard., 1886-05-15
POORLY PAID LITERARY WORK.
Why No.ed Writers Experiment with
the Drama.

The New York correspondent Of the
Boston Herald writes: s.How much Julian
Hawthorne looks like his father,'' said a
friend, in speaking of the son of the author
Of "1,he Scarlet Letter. and a hundred
other beautiful ronances. 'sHe has his
fathers head and face and something OF
the imaginative power of the famous
melancholy man. Many people think he
is the best OF many story writer's of the
present day"
l was interested in my friends talk
about young Hawthorne because l had
just spent an hour with him and his
brother-in-law, George Parsons Lathrop.
Lathrop is a good-natured looking man,
hardly medium size and as round as an
apple. He looks as though he enjoyed
life and it's pleasures and much of its re-
pose. Hawthorne is the exact opposite OF
his brother writer. He is tall, fine look
ing citizen, with rather an athletic ap-
pearance and q face and head which look
wonderfully like the pictures Of Haw-
thorne have seen. He has an easy, sub
dued way OF talking that is suggestive Of
good command of himself. But, while
he seems really well equipped man, he
impresses one as if inheriting, at least in a
degree, that solemn, even moucnful, view
of life for which his father was SO noted
He has just finished Il play. 1t is singular
what a penchant almost every writer has
for fame as dra1natist. Almost every
one I ever knew either had one or more
finished or was writing one. suppose
this is because one successful play makes
man famous and gives him money,
while ordinary literary and newspaper
work yield only O. living to the most for
tunate How clearly this fact is demon
strated in the case of the elder Hawthorne,
Longfellow, Whittier, Emerson, Walt
Whitman and score of other great
writer's whose beautiful fancies have de-
lighted the world, and made people better
and wiser. Julian Hawthorne tells me
that his father received only a few thous-
lifetime. James T. Field grew rich upon
than lectured about his victim after death,
I asked Mr. Hawthorne how many copies
of ssThe Scarlet Letter. had been issued.
ssAbout 100000 should say" was his
reply sit was the most successful of any
OF my fathers books" serhe House Of the
Seven Gables'' did not reach more than
half that number, but all Of them were
successful as compared with any books
that are written at the present day, From
Hawthorne's works, most of which have
run through many editions. the Haw-
thorne family receive today only a very
small royalty, and the children the great
writer left have been obliged TO make
their own place in life, while the man who
published the books is supposed to have
died worth millions. What q very sad
commentary the history Of these great
writer's furnishes. 1t is no wonder that
men who can put beautiful thoughts upon
paper now are casting about to write
successful play or do something that will
make them money. Whittier once told
me that if he had been forced to rely al-
together upon the production OF his pen,
he would have many times gone hungry;
Longfellow furnished me with like testi-
nony. Hawthorne's experience is well
known, and poor Walt Whitman needs
the aid of kind friends to make the last
part of his pathway in life even reasonably
comforts al hle