The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-11-07
nIatI,nds of Writers.

When is the best time to write? Is
there any recognized system whereby
all may obtain the very best results?
Is it not rather matter to be deter
mined by the writer himself? There
are some who can perform the highest
and freest work under the healthiest
conditions Of fresh air, early hours
and temperate habits; others who can
accomplish nothing except in the quiet
of the night Goethe was a believer in
the former method. He arose at Z and
worked till IL. After cup of choco-
late he continued working till l o'clock.
At he dined. He ate considerably
more than the average man, and sat
long time over his wine, of which he
was very fond, drinking daily two or
three bottles He had q talent for
sleeping, and was always in bed at 10.
Balzac not only worked far into the
night hours, but his slumbers were
short and broken, and his food scan
tily and irregularly taken. He would
write the whole draft of a novel at a
white heat, and then develop it on the
margins of proofs and revises.
1t is a well known fact that some re-
quire the stimulus of an uproar, or at
least the rattle and hustle of the
streets to stimulate their mental
forces. Others can only think TO good
purpose when shut up alone in their
library.
Dickens chose the hours between
breakfast and luncheon for his work,
and was almost always alone. He was
very methodical, and his daily walks
were indispensable to the stimulation
of his mind Absolute quiet was es-
sential to this prodigous writer, the
slightest interruption proving fatal to
the success of his labors.
Sir Walter Scott arose early, and
would accomplish a good days work
before half the world was out of bed.
1t is said that in less than two weeks
after his bankruptcy he wrote an en-
tire volume of Woodstock" His lit
erary labors yielded him $4,000 a year.
A remarkable fact connected with
Scott is the writing of 'Ivanhoe" and
1.-THE Bride of Lammermoor" and
1.-THE Legend of Montrose" under the
terrible stimulus of physical pain, his
audible suffering filing every pause.
1t is interesting to know that of the
two men, Scott and Balzac, who both
began a literary life at nearly the
same age, the man who lived abnorm-
ally surpassed the man who lived
healthily by fully eight years of good
work, and kept his imagination in full
vigOr to the end.
Certainly night. and not morning, is
most apprOpriatiVe to imaginative
work Charles Lamb says: mo true
poem ever owed it's birth to the suns
light. The mild, internal light that re-
yeals the fine shapings of poetry, like
fires on the domestic hearth, goes out
scribes the lamplight as giving a
gorgeousness to human pomps and
pleasures such as would be vainly
sought from the LONELINESS of day
light" The day was meant for drudg-
cry, the night for creation. The au-
thor must perform some drudgery,
what Scott calls, walking on all
fours," when the mind is relieved OF
all strain and the faculties rest. Schil-
Ter was wont to keep strong coffee or
wine chocolate or a flask Of old rhen-
ish or champagne ever at his side
when writing. In the silence of the
night he would be heard earnestly de-
claiming and he might be seen walk
ing swiftly to and fro and then sud
denly throwing himself into a chair
and write, drinking at intervals from
the glass standing near him. 1t is a
curious fact that he must have the
scent of rotten apples to keep up his
mental atmosphere. In winter he
would sit at his desk till 4 or 8 o'clock
| in the morning In summer till 2 or 8.
That this was an excess such as his
physical strength could not Withstand
| is proven by the early wreck Of his
constitution. The pernicious effects of
stimulants only served to hasten such
results. While night is the harvest
time for the imaginative powers the
mind demands a reaction, and he who
burns the taper during the small hours
after midnight must suffer the conse-
o,1,nnnae