The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-03-24
THE LITERARY HACK
ANDREW LANG EXPLAINS HOW HE
UNDERSTANDS THE TERM.

As One Who Should BE an Authority on
tho Subject His Defense OF tho Trado
and Some of Its Followers Is Entitled to
Respectful Consideration.
In some literary journal shack" was
defined lately rs u man who writes politics
on either or any sido indiffercntly. A
hack might do this, and Dr. Maginn, q
famous huok of old days, is said to have
done 1t. Whother tho charge is truo OF
not 1 have no means OF nsccrtaining, but
tho definition, in any case, is not good. 1t
Is too narrow in ono sense and too wido in
another. A hack is IL hired person of all
work. a political hack Is wire pullcr
and intriguer, busy writer and speaker
and whisperer, who, in ono shape or an
other, is paid for his services. Ho may
serve only ono side and serve it steadily,
but no is hack for all that. Ho works
for pay, not, like tho noblcr kind of poll
tician, for love, ambition, patriotism or
what you please.
Now, by parity of reasoning, q literary
hack is n writer of oil work who writes for
pay, nnd, II no were not paid, could not
write. AS distinguished from Chester
field or Walpolo or Gray, no accepts jobs,
not, in the first place, because he likes
them, but because no must. A banker
ANU All. oictcf q pcuE IhD mhHOD, u
poet like Wordsworth or Keats, or almost
any poet, is not hack, because he only
works rs no chooses. Ho is paid If no is
lucky, but no does not primarily write for
pay. DR.. johnson, DIR. Goldsmith,
Southey, Scott lin his last years., Defoo
(always), Collins (unsuocessfully), were
all hacks and we of the profession need
not be ashamed Of them. They wrote ar
ticles, reports Of speeches, TRANSACTIONS, es-
says, and so forth, because they needed
money, not because they We're fascinated
disinterestedly by their themes. The
Life of Napoleon" was hack work; so
was the dictionary; so were Goldsmith's
histories; SO were Southcy's articles in The
Quarterly Review. But Macaulay's ESSAYS
in the Edinburgh Review could not be
called hack work. They wcro spontaneous.
n great man of letters, now dead-one
who held n high literary post-described
himself sadly AS "a dependent on litcra.
ture." He was not his own master, but
he defined or described hack as ono who
wrote the same thing over and ovor again
in several places, rs hacks are very apt to
do. Nobody can have more than n certain
stock OF ideals, and any one who writes in
several serials is pretty certain 10 conform
TO this definition OF n hack. An author
who merely repeats himself in his books,
90 SoAthb uO, IS In n ullfcrGnt
Kind of position He has no master In tho
form of an editor to whom he owes origi-
nality which he cannot pay l do not
mean that roiterating certain ideas, philo.
sophical, political, religious, is hack work.
They need to be driven into the public
head by repeated hanmcrings. But the
hack repeats not only his ideas, but his Il.
Illustrations. Hazlitt was a hack, and his
favorite illustrations, quotations and so
forth betray him by their rcappearances.
In this matter we all sin, but tho sin is
one OF which We ought to DO watchful.
Tho hack has commonly been spoken of
contemptuOusly, because we have not
shaken off the old opinion that literature
cannot DO honestly or honorably piled ms n
profession. Our ancestors allowed ONLY to
disinterested genius right to ply the pen.
Mercenary talent, however honest, was
frowned upon and laughed at.
The notions Of Major Pendennis, who
had hack for nephew, still exist To be
"a hack, people think, is to be destitute of
genius and mechanical, yet we could easily
add TO our list men of genius who were
hacks, like Thackeray in his early career.
like Hood, like a hundred others of honor.
able names. Tho notion is thnt the artist
takes pleasure in his work. while tho hack
does not. But the hack can elevate his
function by doing 1t with pleasure, with
zest, whatever tho work may be. A
man may delight, If he be happily tenn
percu, even in making an index. To
make an index is really rather ENJOYABLE.
and good index even will not DO compiled
without enjoyment. \ man may subtlv
enforce his own ideas or cunningly in.
dulge his huInor even in this apparently
mechanical labor. a dictionary offers
him still better openings. No doubt DIR.
johnson enjoyed his own dictionary
can conceive man writing with zcst
even sermons at half crown. They will
scarcely bo worth tho half crown II no does
not. The lowly estate is also elevated by
It's motive, which may be tho support of
family or may be the desire to find means
Tor living and writing spontaneously.
Southey wrote his articles and biogra.
phies, which were well paid, that he might
be able to afford to write his poems and
histories which were probably very III
paid. The hack who would keen his self
respect must ever have on hand some
spontaneous work. 1t may be and prob.
ably will BIO unremuneratiye. The world
does not want mans best thoughts.
Stlll less does it want his learning. Very
likely his best thoughts are not. in fact
nearly SO good or taking ms his second or
third best. But he does not easily resign
himself to believe this, and it Is we'll for
MN TO put what no thinks the cream of
himself into cpics and treatises which no
body buys, while his skimmilk finds q
ready market. 1t keeps up "a mans heart
ana self respect and makes him, If hack
stlll not oil q hack, but u soul which has
It's hours of freedom. And then there is al
ways tho mirage of posterity. Andrew