Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-27
SOME OF OUR CRITICS.
William Black, the Novelist, Talks
About Amateur Reviewers Who
GIVE GOOD ADVICE TO AUTHORS.
Unknown Correspondents Who Write to
Successful Authors.
AN AUNT WHO SOUGHT HER NEPHEW
WRITTEN FOR THR DISPATCH,

There is almost pathetic touch in the in.
genuous fashion in which the reader of
book, when he has finished the last page
will forthwith draw in his chair to the table
and proceed to write to the author, though
the latter may be quite unknown to him.
He seems to think that someone has been
talking to him, and that in common courtesy
he must answer Sometimes it is merely q
friendly "Thank you; good bye; hope we
may meet again." occasionally he feels
called upon to enter into artless con-
fidences and will prattle cheerfully,
through several sheets, about him.
self and his views of life; not un-
frequently he will warn you, more in sor-
row than in anger, of the perils he sees in
store for you. 1t is, however, when he
thinks he has detected some small blunder
that he suddenly changes his tone; and then
he becomes seornful or sarcastic or indig-
nsnt, according to the mood of the moment.
"How would you like writes An Outraged
American. 'if one of our authors on this side
were to mangle one of your best known Scotch
songs, and speak OF 'Wha'll be King but
Edward?' How, sir, would you like that?
And yet in your last book you talk of
Garry Me Back to Tennessee Why, any
child in an American nursery knows that
the proper title is Garry Me Back to Old
Kentucky" Whereupon the author, If he
be meek and humble, as authors ought to
be. will write back. Dear Sir-You surely
ought to be sware that Ellie Rhee, or Carry
Me Back to Tennessee, is one of the most
familiar banjo songs of your native coun-
try" while, on the other hand, if he is
proud and naughty, as some authors un-
dOubtedlv and unfortunately are, he
will thrust the letter into the waste
paper basket, and the outraged Ameri-
can will bear him a grudge to his dying
day. Indeed, correspondents should pause
and reflect before rashly assuming that they
have caught an author tripping. The bet
ting is all in favor of his being right and
their being wrong. In like manner with a
picture: when critic thinks he sees some
thing amiss in a landscape, the chances are
that it is he who is mistaken and not the
artist-for the simple reason that the artist
is trained observer, who has been all his
life teaching himself to keep his eyes open.
For my own part, nowadays find it safer
to accept, without question or demur, any
thing l meet with in book.
THE AUTHOR KNEW BEST.
Once upon a time, in a novel by my
friend Mr.. Pawn, l came upon a striking
passage in which the heroine was described
as being buffeted about by a terrible gale.
insomuch that her raven-black hair streamed
out to windward. With the light heart of
an amateur reviewer 1 wrote to Mr.. Pawn
and drew his attention to the fact that, as a
general rule, anything blown by a gale
would stream out not to windward, but to
leeward. But the answer came sharp and
prompt; the description was perfectly cor
rect; the heroine (Said the author of her
being) had been taking a great deal of
iron tonic, her hair had become
electrically charged, and had hoated out to-
ward the north, irrespective of the wind
currents of the storm. So 1 object no more
When 1 find at the conclusion of a tragic
tale that the hero fells the heroine senseless,
carries her into rowing-boat, shoves out to
sea, and withdraws the plug-so that pres
emily there is not a trace of either the boat
or its cargo on the wide and empty waste of
waters, have nothing to say. Ordinarily
one would expect such'a a boat to fill, capsize
and then float bottom upward; but boats in
novels do strange things, and SO (astrono-
mers tell me) do moons.
The communications addressed to an
author by unknown correspondents are not
toned; they have not always his guidance
or instruction as their sole and simple aim.
1t is easy, for example, to discern why the
following letter was written:
SRI am so great an admirer of your works
that wish out of gratitude, to present you
with q character which would prove an ex-
cellent subject for your brilliant and caustic
pen. l am sure you could make the whole
country roar with laughter over the airs and
affectations Of the person / mean. Imagine a
woman Of 5O-a spinster-just mad about Young
mer, and making herself so ridiculous YOU
never saw the like, grinning and simpering in
the most disgusting way, and YOU wouldn't
think butter would melt in her
mouth - unless you had the cruel
misfortune to live in the same
house with her-and see her temper when
there were no young men about Just cat she
is-sly, suspicious, vindictive, penurious to the
last farthing, and breaking into RACES all for
nothing, except to crush and wound the feel.
ings of those unhappily dependent on her.
Dear sir, should be delighted to send Won Ali
particulars-for book might be written about
her meanness and jealousy; and I think a
clever artist might be got to make picture of
her, with her false plait not the same color,
and her two false teeth. Oh, you should
see her putting on her airs and graces
when she can get a good-looking Young
man 70 sit and talk to her; and then. the minute
he is gone, the dust she raises with her wicked
tongue and nasty temper! am sure you would
make the whole country laugh; and should
like TO see the look on her face when the book
came from the hbrary-as should take care II
did. II you Will undertake il, / will furnish
you with all information; and am certain tnat
1t VIII add TO your great fame, which is the sole
reason why write to you. / am, sir, your de-
voted admireT, - -. P. S.-The old cat
would grudge you cup of tea if you were lying
on your deathbed.
THE AMATEUR CRITIC.
When again the unknown correspondent
eondescends to criticism it is to be observed
that be invariably assumes that the author
has written but one kind of book, and that
the one before him. In the davs when /
used to read reviews, noticed that this was
o familiar trick of the professional critic.
and q very handy trick, too, for it enables
him to ticket off the characteristics of an
author in a mere sentence or two. Indeed.
there was an article in a London morning
paper few years ago in which the writer
laboriously and ponderously tried to prove
that the great defect of cotemporary fiction
was the Limited and monotonous wav in
which each novelist dealt with only one
small section of human life or human inter
est;H and OF course each author, no matter
how diversified his work might have
been, had to be labelled off with one
characteristic, until the writer in question
came to Mrs. Oliphant Mrs. Ofiphant, |
with her brilliantly versatile genius and un-
ceasing novelty of achievement was
altogether too much for him. The leaden-
headed duIlard had been numbering along
for a time, but when he came to Mrs. |
Oliphant he had to double back, hesitate, |
apologize, and finally shuttle of. However,
the unknown correspondent rarely deals |
with groups of writer's; it is his own par
ticulsr author rwhom he has to encourage, or |
with whom he has to gravely remonstrate; |
and, as I say, he invariably assumes that |
he hnnE hafnra him ms M oil itr ,rritnrIr |