The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-19
Especial Correspondence

J2meS-ESO608 Th0TnSs
Especial Correspondence
BOSTON, Feb. lathe wages of lit
erature are virtually starvation. This is
not always true or generally true per-
haps, but it is the tendency of the trade,
and most men who follow it starve in
one sense of the word-that is, are de-
prived of something they need. The
pursuit of literature is opposed to any
thing like prosperity in this country,
and every country. and has been at all
periods. Literature well deserves to be
called a starving trade.
Tt cannot be said of literature, as is
said of so many things, that it is not
what it has been; that its present will
not compare with its past. The present
is its prime. More money is made by it
today and made by more persons than
ever before. And yet how small is the
result? Any number of men and women
live by their pen, though far from lux
uriously. But living by the pen is not
living by literature, which is something
very different from ordinary writing.
journalism and literature are constant
~ COMPOUNDED, but they are in them
selves wide apart, much as they are en-
croaohing on one another. Many jour-
nalists are literary, those Of the higher
sort, though few pure litterateurs are
journalists or have an understanding Of
or sympathy with journalism. Journal
ism steadily becomes more and more
power in the republic. Literature grows,
too, but makes no such advances.
Irving and Cooper.
What Iouo orr 1oadipcr a17tbovc oohiov.
ed in money by their works? Washing
ton Irving, with all his love of and ap-
titude for literature, had no thought Of
adopting it as a profession until the
mercantile house of his two brothers,
in which he was a silent partner, be-
came bankrupt, compelling him when
nearly 80 to rely on his pen. It's profits
were considerable, though not large,
but large enough to support him-a
bachelor-with simple tastes and quiet
habits, in common comfort Fenimore
Cooper inherited a large estate and
wrote "Precaution, rural story, as
| an experiment. to show that he could
improve On the popular novels of the
time 1t miscarried, but 1.-THE Spy"
awoke an echo abroad, made him cele-
brated, turned him to authorship: de-
ClOSU MS O0SGluJs Ills DOOhS AdO 1d0
charm of newness and set their mark
on the time, and it is not yet effaced.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, the great ro-
mancer, one of the rarest geniuses Of
the century, what returns did his writ
ings make to him? Barely enough to
live on in his most frugal way in
New England town. But for his salary
as government official in Salem and
Boston and his appointment as consul
to Liverpool he might have come to
| want. The latter position furnished him
with more money than he had ever
dreamed Of possessing Still he was very
poor during the entire 60 years of his
i'll recompensed life. His books are
classics now and sell well, but while he
was alive they were hardly appreciated
barely yielded him bread. His repu-
tation came too late to benefit him.
Two Famous Poets.
Longfellow's poetry produced consid-
cradle income after he had reached mid
die age. Before that period he might
have suffered but for his wife's snug for
tune. Emerson. with all his wisdom,
poetry and insight only managed to SUBJ
sist by the closest economy and the most
careful and repeated use of his striking
essays. Whittier, who was never mar
ried and lived, as became a Quaker,
with severe simplicity most of the time
at Haverhill, acquired after 20 consid-
cradle property by extraordinary prices
paid for his poems for special occasions,
as high sometimes as $1,000 apiece
Having written his antislavery verse
without compensation, solely to help the
cause, this munifcence must have sur
prised him. Lowell inherited a pecu-
mary independence and never dreamed
of living by his pen. In truth, he never
attempted it. Holmes was voluminous
author in prose, not less than verse,
which his patrimony permitted him to
be. The majority of the makers OF
sound books who have passed away, such
as Prescott, Motley, Bancroft, Park.
man, have regarded literature as lux
ury, which they could indulge in be-
cause they had means of their own.
, Otherwise they would not have been sc
rash as to enter the lists.
James and Howe1Is.
Some men pursue literature uneeas.
ingly-at least have no other calling.
The inference is natural, therefore, that
|, it maintains them. Henry James is one
of these. He resides in England princi
pally and earns what the English cal
. big money by his brilliant criticisms
and very clever stories. It is forgotten
: that his father left him comfortable
? property and that he himself is bach
elor, which has many pecuniary advan
tages. William D. Howells is another.
He resides at home and has family
grown up, 1 think. He does novels
very good ones-and the public like
them and read them eagerly. He write!
: other things, too, and they are in de
mand. There is a market, ready ant
quick, for all his manuscripts, and ht
supplies it, as a prudent man should, fol
he may not always be the fashion. Th'
, / GREATEST merit Is not sI1ra of being the