The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-11-06

1
literary ups and downs mostly downs)
| applied to Sainte-Beuve for advice. He
got 1t, cold and unwelcome. Sainte-
| Beuve honestly told him that his
poetry was only ordinary, and that, at
his age thirty four, it was doubtful
! if his verse would ever acquire the
originality and impact which it lacked
| The thing for him 10 do was to 90 back
| to Brittany and resume his position as
/ teacher NJ. Luzel was obstinate.
| however. and continued. for time, to
cultivate literature in Paris on a little
oatmeal. saying to himself that he
would teach the critic not to consider
himself infallible. But it was not long
before he was glad to arise and go 20
his father, and in later years he could
not say enough of the wisdom and real
kindness of Sainte- Beuve's advice.
In one of the latter letters TO Luzel
Is the following passage:
ITO give you sort of preface or letter
OF Introduction, to be placed at the head
of your collection and so aid you TO find g.
publisher, is kind of thing have never
done No critic with independence and
reputation to guard ever does II. That
form Of good nature. moreover. does not
long deceive anybody"
The New York Post thinks there Is
solemn truth in this for critics, and If
we did not believe that all our Sainte-
Beuves already appreciated 1t and act
ed upon 1t, we should be tempted TO
give them word Of exhortadon. But
there is equally solemn truth in 1t foF
the thousands of young men and We
men who still GO TO Paris, as they did
in 1856, and to London and New York
also, 10 seek their literary fortune.
Out Of the heads Of too many of them
1t is impossible to get the idea that the
thing is to be done by trick or favor.
The whole secret they think, is to get
properly introduced, TO be launched
under favorable "auSpices," to secure
weighty patronage. This idea Is at
the bottem Of the numerous literary
associations that are founded, ignor-
antly or fraudulently, to persuade OBJ
scure writer's that a way has at last
been found TO give the humblest
author a powerful friend at the editor
ial court "Your manuscripts" they
say to their victims, too ready to be
convinced, "are fully as meritorious Us
any that are published, but they are
rejected because you have no one to
bring them to the editors favorable
notice. Pay us for doing it, and your
light will no longer be hid"
Now, that there is such thing as
literary boosting, or that it may be
highly successful for time, we should
not think of denying. Examples TO
confute us, If we should, would be
too ready to hand. But 1t still re-
mains true that. as Sainte- Beuve said,
such boosting cannot be long success
full Examples of this also are ready
to hand. To mention names would
be inyidious, but every reader with n
memory can recall writers boosted
high, five or ten years ago, only to
fall the harder and be the more thor
oughly forgotten. In the long run,
auspices" can do nothing for an
author, except, perhaps, TO hasten 4
little his opportunity for a hearing,
and whether that Will 10 nIm any good
depends on himself; it would have
been found by himself. sooner or later,
in any case. A great deal of confu
sion on this point has survived as
superstition from the time when liter
airy patronage was essential, because
without it there was no such thing as
publishing at all. But the MaecenaseS
and the Elizabethan mobiles are only
nuiSances, as literary go-betweens, in
an age when editors and publishers
are bidding wildly against each other
for every scrap and kind of popular
writing.
The old literary ambition will long
continue. and long may it. The Dau-
diets and the Luzels will keep on going
up TO the great capitals. and crying
with swelling hearts, as they catch the
first glimpse, "A nous deux mainten- |
ant" But they ought to understand
what a tough and remorseless anita
g0nist they are challenging, how in /
creasinsly cynical he is about literary |
and that the one |
thing which will lay him on his back |
is demonstrated merit Hence the in |
evitable emptiness and useleSsneSs of 1
the literary advice, so eagerly sought. |
so YEARLY given. The best advice, I
in fact. comes down To the form of two /
questions. The first is: Are You a |
Senius:" If this can be answered |
in the affirmative, nothing further |
need be said; no advice is possible, no |
help is needed.
But if, by any possibility. the an
swer is negative, then all that is left |
to ask is. DO you know anything:"
Do you know any one thing better
than any other one man? If you do,
can you write II out in way 10 com
mand attention. Ii so. the world IS
an open oyster before you. We lately !
saw Il letter from a well-known writer
who was speaking n good word for
the literary life He said that his first
offering 10 newspaper was accepted,
his first magazine article likewise. and
his first book also But he omitted 10
give the reason The work was that
Of 4 Specialist in each instance.
paper. magazine. nor publisher
could have got just that matter from
any other saTtrra 1'h.ra IL No NUS |