Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1892-03-18
Is 1T A PROFESSION?
JUNIUS HENRI BROWNE ASKS A
QUESTION ABOUT LITERATURE.
Prominent Authors who Depend Not on
orship-Erroncous Notions Preva-
lent as to Its Rewards-Constant Writ
ing May Bcgct Fame and Famine.

ing May Bcgct Fame and Famine,
Especial orrospondcncc.1
New You, March i.-Althou.sh articles
are continually published on the purely
practical side of literature, interest in the
subject seems the reverse of exhausted.
/ The more it is discussed, in fact, the wider
and deeper appears t. be the public con
Germ. The reason of this must he that in
/ the United States everybody reads the
newspapers particularly, and is Interested
in the affairs big ard little. of the hour
and the time. The Americans, Is a people
welded to work, have Il natural curiosity
! perhaps to know how much members of
| other calings than their own can earn,
| especially members of the inlty guild. The
wages of the pen have been. an are still.
so variously estimated, opinions thereon
differ to such II degree, that some of the
facts ought not to he entirely unittractive
n great many persons in town and coun-
! try think the lot of the New York scribe is
at least much alleviatcd; ANA 50 il is but
not to the extent that they imagine. Even
here he is, for the most part, engaged in
losing battle though the battle may be
less long and less hard than it is in the
minor cities. One opinion is that writers
here gain golden rewards and live sump-
tuously. Another opinion i, that, however
| gifted and in luStriOus, they can scarcely
make both ends meet: that they are likely
to die in debt and under depressing cir
cumstances The truth lies between these
extremes.
The idea of II writer becoming rich here
or anywhere in America, by mere writing
is derisively absurd. There has never been
such an instance The early authors of
the republic never dreamed of living by
letters. Letters were a luxury and were
regarded as such. Poor Ed gar Poe got al
most nothing from his Mss. only five
dollars, for instance. for the Raven" In
our own time Prescott Motley, Bancroft
/ have had private fortunes. Otherwise
they would have starved while engaged
on their histories. llildrpth. lIillard aud
Bryant depended on journalism: Haw-
thorne, who during most of his career was
wretchedly poor, ON political appointments.
Emerson, whose grandfather prayed that
none of his descendants might he wealthy,
practiced Il rigid economy, determined to
| keep within his scanty means. For years
| he did not exceed $500 IL year in household
expenses. BY thrift and self denial, by
plain living and high thinking, he man
aged in old age To acquire property worth
| some 100000.
Whittier has in the last twenty-five or
thirty years received high prices for his
poems: but before that time he wrote more
| for love than money. a bachelor of the
simplest tastes and habits, he has titled his
| Massachusetts farm and devoted himself
to principle and economy, resolved to be as
independent financially us he has been
spiritually.
Lowell was indebted to his patrmony for
modest competence, literature being his
recreation rather than his occupation He
doubtless derived far more profit from his
Harvard profeasorship than from all his
books.
Oliver Wendell Holmes inherited hand
some property, and for many years was a
medical professor. His poems, novels and
essays, brilliant as they are, have added
little to his revenue, and We're not inspired
by pecuniary considerations. The more
serious an authors work, aS Il rule, the less
his recompense. y reporter on ii New York
paper, though his salary may be small, can
earn more than Hawthorne could by his
matchless tales, or Emerson by his best
essays. The richest literature in general
yields the poorest recompense.
Hardly a prominent author of the same
or younger generation than the authors
that have been mentioned supports him
self by his profession alone. Nearly every
one has, and must have, some other source
of revenue by which to live For example.
among the elders George William Curtis,
who had private fortune and lost it by
the failure of Dix, Edwards & Co., the
first publishers of Putnam's Magazine, has
maintained his family for almost thirty
years by his connection with the Harpers
lie worked hard for sixteen years to dis
charge his entire Indebtedness to the cred
itors of his unfortunate firm, in whose
l., 4 al.
brilliant books, which had considerable
sale at the time Of their publication, yield
him next to nothing now. He has been in
great demand as "A popular lecturer, and
would be still if he would accept engage
ments, but his health will not permit this
additional drain upon it. He broke down
several years ago from overwork and he
has been compelled to be Very careful since
model man every way. literature, pure
and simple, has been no kinder to him
than to his brothers of the pen.
Parke Goodwin, just turned sevanty-six
has long been known as II brilliant litter
ateur; but his interest in The Evening
Post, disposed of some time ago. gave him
financial independence. James Parton's
biographies are perhaps the most enter
tanning of the century and have sold
largely. But they did not provide bread
which he spent twenty years, did not,
understand, yield him 5000. His main
income was derived from his regular con-
tributions to two widely circulated week
lies in Boston and New York
Richard Henry Stoldard, the poet, has
not since his youth been without some po-
sition by which he could secure a liveli-
hood, his poetry and other literary efforts
furnishing the few luxuries he could sf-
ford. For eighteen years he held place
in the New York customs; then he was
Librarian in some of the city libraries; at
present he is reviewer on The Mail and Elk
press. Without such extraneous aid he
might have been in the almshouse, to
which literature unsustaned inevitably
tends
Edmund Clarence Stedman began his
practical life in journalism and remained
in it for years. While on The Tribune he
wrote the first poem that drew general at
tention The Diamond Wedding" for
which ba rapavad NOT