Rock Island Argus., 1899-12-07
DRIFTED INTO STORY
THE BEGINNINGS OF SOME FAMOUS
LITERARY CAREERS.

the Domain of Fiction.
There is an unfaiIing fascination in
the story of the beginnings of brilliant
careers, and especially of the careers
of men and women who have con-
quered the world of readers, and have
won fame and fortune in the difficult
path of letters.
One of the most successful of literary
partnerships had its origin is a casual
supper conversation at n Bohemian
club. Walter Besant and James Rice,
both young men of literary ambitions,
were discussing one of Dickens novels,
when Rice said, casually: IF 1 give
You the plot of a story, Besant, will
you write it," Il don't mind trying"
Besant answered; and within a few
weeks the first of a brilliant series
of novels was under way.
Rider Haggard was reading for the
bar in the early eighties with an eye
On the woolsack, and no dream of the
career in fiction that awaited him,
when it occurred to him, as a recrea-
tion from the dry bones of the law, to
weave a story out of his South African
experiences. To his surprise and de-
light the story flowed huently under
his pen, and finally assumed ample
shape as ''The Witchs Head" That
it was not a success mattered little;
for it had shown him his true meter,
and paved the way for king Solo
mons Mines and all the gold they
yielded.
1t was only when briefs resolutely
declined to drift to his chambers that
Anthony Hope Hawkins, a young bar
rister, in all the modified glory of an
untarnished wig, turned his thoughts
TO the pen to while away the hours of
waiting for solicitors who never came.
1t was thus that he wrote "A Man of
Mark" which was rather suggestive of
future distinction than productive of
present profit. But fame came quicker
than briefs after all, and his Prisoner
of Zenda," four years later, gave him
all the start he desired.
Grant Allen had wooed science to lit
tie pecuniary purpose for many years
before he was tempted to stray into fic
ton, for which he never had much
respect. Perhaps no one was as sur
prised as himself to find that he could
write a story quite as cleverly as sci
entific treatise, and while "Physio-
logical Aesthetics brought him repute
as a man of science. "Philistia" point
ed the way to gold, which i'll these days
of stress is so much better. The science
which he designed for staff became a
recreation, but his heart was in it rath-
er than in his novels.
NJ. Zola was tying up parcels in
Hachette's publishing house when. he
was tempted to read one of Flaubert's
novels. Much as the young packer was
impressed with it's cleverness, he
thought he could write novel quite as
good, and he Immediately set to work
with the results known equally to the
world and his bankers.
1t was the memory of his long tramps
through the Australian bush that turn
ed Guy Boothby's thought to fiction.
He had new material full of interest to
the reading world. Why not present it
in the marketable form of a novel?
The suggestion took shape in .On the
Wallaby," and the world knows what
that led to.
With Morley Roberts it was the
same. He had for many years led a
life of adventure, which was stranger
than fiction, in every part of the world,
and in all characters from cowboy to
common seaman. 1t was easy from
such rich material TO weave the West
ern Avernus," the first of his long Sc
ries of thrilling romances.
Jerome II. Jerome's Bohemian life
and stage experiences suggested to
him the idea of his first venture i'll let
ters, ION the Stage and on" as at
least a variant from teaching, clerks
work and acting, which had made up
his precarious existence for some
years: and when Mr.. Zangwill grew
sick of teaching the three RS to young
Jews, what more natural than, with
his skill with the pen, he should weave
story of the Children of the
Ghetto" although this was not his first
venture in literature?
Marie Corelli had no thought of fic-
ton when she was training for the
career of a musician and composer;
and it was n strange psychical ex-
perience that turned her thoughts to
the pen and inspired her Romance of
Two Worlds" which took novel read
ers by storm.
1t was loneliness and weird inspira-
ton of the South African veldt that
impelled Olive Schreiner, dreamy girl
in her teens, to speak her thoughts on
paper in ''The Story of an African
Farm"
Mrs. Hodgson Burnett was only a
schoolgirl. busy with her books, when
a group of factory girls streamed past
the window through which she was
gazing. One of them, unlike the rest,
tall, striking girl, arrested her at
tention; and it was around this single
figure, seen for n moment. that she
wrote her beautiful story, -That Lass
o. Lowrie's."
Professor Green, the lovable Oxford
tutor and author, was the inspiration
Of Mrs. Humphry Wards Robert Els
mere" in which he figures as the hero,
Grey But Mrs. Wards first book,
"Milly and Oily" was written for her