Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-03-23
METHODS OF FRENCH WRITER'S
Amusing stories Of Noted Men I'm the
Throcs OF Literary Creation.
TErnrrn the PhiIah-lr,hia naIlr Erarinrr TaIa-

Amusing Stories Of Noted Men I'm the
Throcs OF Literary Creation.
[From the Philadelphia Daily Evening TeIe.
grsph.l
We have recently been treated to some
amusing information concerning the way
in which the great French authors do, OF
have done, their work. Victor Hugo, for
instance, always wrote standing at q high
desk, especially constructed for him,
throwing off sheet after sheet as fast as
he filled it, till he would be quite showed
up in leaves of foolscap. He often rose
in the middle of the night to note down
an idea or a verse. He got up for the
day usually at six O'Clock, aud would
devote from six to eight hours per diem
to his work. He made but few correc-
tions, his poems being thought out com
plete in his brain before he put pen TO
paper. 1t is q well-known fact that he
INDUCED in the arduous task of compo-
sition while trayersing the streets of Paris
on the top of an omnibus. When work
ing out some great conception he would
spend hours in this way.
The elder Dumas used to begin work
by taking off his coat. He would then
roll his shirt sleeves up TO the elbows
and would seat himself at his writing
table, covering with dizzy velocity sheet
after sheet of blue Office paper with the
delicate caligraphy, legible as copper
plate and fine as that of q fashionable
lady, which had proved his FIRST bread
winner in hi. early days. His son also
uses blue glazed psper of the largest size,
and always writes with a quill pen, sew
ersl dozens of which are prepared and
placed in neat bundles ON the desk In
his library. He likes, he says, 10 hear
the Quill pen scream" on the paper
His comedies are executed in the silence
and seclusiOn of the country. Alphonse
Daudet spends whole days at his desk,
trying, in the ardor OF composition, to
distract his thoughts from the tortures
inflicted upon him by the chronic rheu-
matism that has bAffied him for long
years past. He is so very nesr-sighted
that he writes with his head bent down
close to the paper, almost touching il with
his nose.
Emile Zpla'- habits are extremely regu-
lar. He takes walk every morning, usu-
ally leaving his house, whether at Medan
or at Paris, about nine o'clock. he lunch
es at midday, and writes from one o'clock
till siI. receiving no visitors and transact
ing no business in the afternoon He ha.
particular liking for large and massive
pieces of furniture, so his writing table
and his library chairs are Of colossal pro-
portions, as is also his inksiand, which is
in bronze and represents lion.
De Musset always wrote at night, in q
room brilliantly lighted up with lamps
and candles. Sardou receives callers be-
fore luncheon, and is invisible from one
o'clock to dinner time, being absorbed in
writing. He writes a very minute hand,
corrects, changes and alters his work con
tinually, ana is far from being satisfied
with what he has done, even when Il
finally leaves liis hand. He Is an in
comparable stage director for his own
plays, and often makes on the margin of
his manuscripts rough sketches Of the
scenery aud of the attitudes of the per-
sonages that he considers necessary for
certain important situations.
George Sand always wrote at night,
and when the fever Of composition was
upon her she was wont to work all night.
There is a story told of her finishing q
novel at one O'Clock in the morning, and
Immediately taking up a fresh quire of
paper and writing the first chapter of O
new one before she retired to rest. Like
Victor Hugo, FRANCOIS Coppee has need of
motion when composing his poetry, and
works out his ideas while taking long walks
through the streets of Paris. Guy de Mau-
PEASANT planned out his novels and stories
while on his yacht, and once returned to
land, he put his mstured ideas upon paper
with great rspidity. Henri Rochefori Is
an excitable writer. He begin his work
always in very correct costume. Then
as he proceeds, he will first tear off his
coat, next his wsistcoat, and then his coll
lar and crsvst. 1t is fortunate if he does
not runi his shirt front by pulling it open,
regardless of buttonnoles and studs.