The morning call., 1894-07-20
INSTANCES OF LITERARY TRANS
PLANTING.

Julian Hawthorne, who some years ago
settled in one of the sleepy old towns on
the eastern end of Long Island and pro-
fessed to enjoy the quiet ana isolation, has
secretly made a radical change of location.
A few months ago he went with his wife
and seven children to Jamaica. Now
comes the word that he has settled on a
plantation near Kingston and will grow
orange and citrus trees and coffee and
hopes to write something that will in ter
est our own great-grandchildren." AS a
general rule the literary man does not
gain much by transplanting. especially
when be goes away from literary centers
or settles down in foreign country. The
oranges and citrus may be all right and
the coffee rank as good commercial arti-
Gle. But there is no stimulus in foreign
climate. The best thought of the world
has never originated In low ATTITUDES.
Stevenson, some years ago, hired yacht
and crused among the islands of the
South Pacific. He had syndicate press
engagements enough to pay all his ex-
penses up to $4,000 year. After the
cruise Stevenson settled down in Samoa
Plan tation life in the tropics was very
fascinating. There were fertile acres on
which all tropical fruits matured to per-
lection. There was an ideal climate and
the picturesque representatives of an ideal
world. 1t suited the great story-writer 10
a dot. The happy man had got as far
away from the crags of Scotland, its ice.
snow and blasting winds as possible. He
had entered a new and heavenly world.
The local color was very rich. There
were possibilities of new ideal creations
surprising all that the famous novelist
had ever done. But the syndicate cor
respondence did not indicate any new in
spiration.
It was curious circumstance that amid
all that tropical color the novelist turned to
far-aWay scenes and associations Scot
land was richer than Samoa. No novel
of any striking character has been the
product OF Samoan scenes and associa-
tions. Does tropical life fail of any great
inspiration?
Bret Harte began his literary life in
California. When he left the State he
declared that he had burned his bridges so
that there could be no retreat. But his
first and last inspiration has been drawn
from California. Years of foreign resi-
dence may have ripened the man. Nearly
every story he has written has been
founded upon scenes and incidents, real OF
imaginary. associated with the early his
tory of this State. The last story that
Harte has written. aud one of the best, is
as thoroughly Californian as the first. It
may be that the transplanting gives the
writer better perspective. Yet Ii is one
of the curiosities of literature that one
should go to Samoa to write about scenes
in Scotland, and another should go to
England to make the most graphic pictures
of early Californian life.
There are suDdry authors who have
settled in Southern California, or suppose
they have. Some Of them are enjoying
life in orange orchards. or near the shores
of the Pacific. Occasionally there is a
ehirp in minor key, but none OF them
have written any story, book or essay that
can be traced to this change of location.
1t is possible that the environment is too
attractive. The song OF mockngbirds and
nightingales and the perfume of orange
blossoms. with snow-capped mountains in
the distance, ought to tell in favor of good
story writing. There has been one excep-
ton at least. "H. H." spent few months
in California and then went home and
wrote the story of Ramona" two-thirds
of which was pure fiction, and as to the
reality Of the other third it is to he taken
with many grains of allowance. How
ever, 81. H." was not fairly transplanted.
The Indian woman was genuine enough,
but the sen timent was wholly foreign.
Hawthorne sought the hills of Berk-
shire to write his "Moss From an Old
Manse" But the scenes were not laid
there, nor was any local color drawn from
his immediate environments. He did not
like that temporary tTaDsplanting and was
only too glad TO get back TO the east winds
of Boston. Melville cruised about among
the islands Of the South Seas for years.
Yet he could not write one of his famous
stories in the latitude where he found most
of his scenes and incidents.
1t is a curious circumstance that no one
of that brilliant company who were drawn
into the Brook Farm" experiment ever
wrote anything of importance while living
there, although it was, in theory, one of
the best places in the world for plain living
and high thinking. Hawthorne did find
one of his characters there for a future
story, provided that "Zenobia" was sus-
gested by Margaret Fuller. When Lowell