Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1899-06-29
TURNED OUT AT NIGHT.
Most Successful Writers of Fiction
Work During Unseemly
Hours.

Many authors can neither think nor
write unless they are physically COM
Portable, if not luxurious. One we'll
known writer finds his happicst inspira-
ton while smoking a cigar in a hot
bath, and at least one of our leading
novelists does his best work before he
leaves his bed in the morning, or rather
at any time between noon and the early
hours of the afternoon.
Mr.. Swinburne, the "maGician of
verse;" has been inspired by many a
happy idea while breasting the waves
in long swim or floating lazily on his
back, and many a cline of sounding
rhyme" has sprung up to bear him COM
pany on his solitary walks around Put
ney.
Miss Braddon loves to write in sum-
mer time in the 'idyllic isolation" of
her beautiful garden at Litchfield
house, Richmond, where the very air is
full of inspiration, and she has weaved
many of her plots to the music of her
horses feet.
Francois Coppee is never happy with
his pen unless he has one or more of
his beloved cats to bear him company,
and Bret Harte, when the ''writing fit"
is on him, packs up few belongings
and buries himself in the heart of the
country, where there is nothing more
disturbing than COW. Here, with
cigar in his mouth and plenty more at
hand, his pen runs fuently enough
when once it is started. He confesses,
however, that his first line has often
outlasted his first cigar.
Mr.. Hardy is, like SO many writer's,
creature of moods. For days he can
not touch pen; but when the mood
seizes him it rules him like tyrant.
From early morning until late at night
he drives his pen in race against his
fancy until he drops from sheer ex-
haustion.
1t was very different with Anthony
Trollope, who used to pooh-pooh the
idea of inspired hours, and made
point of writing a certain quantity
every day, with the regularity of a ma
chine, stopping when his days task
was done.
Sir Walter Besant, too, smiles at in
prosaic regularity of a journeyman.
Maeterlinck finds his inspiration in
| 1amplight, and works steadily through
| the dark hours until dawn breaks. In
| this love of the night he resembles
| many of our own writer's of note, who
| do their best work when the busy world
| sleeps.
1t is said that one novelist of to-day
finds daylight so uninspiring that he
resolutely shuts it out. With closed
shutters and curtains and artificial light
he can spend his days in the inspiration
of the night.
Jules Verne believes as firmly in the
virtues of early morning. He rises
some hours before the ''laggard house
maid," and, like Mr.. Watts, the artist,
often finishes his days work before the
other men begin theirs.
Authors differ as widely in their
modes as in their moods of writing
The genial "autocrat," Oliver Wendell
Holmes, wrote almost every line that
has seen print with single gold pen,
which inspired him for 40 years.
George B. Sims has weakness for
a lead pencil, which suits his rapid
moods.
Miss Braddon prefers a steel pen for
her manuscripts, although she uses a
quill for her private correspondence,
and her press hand' is entirely diff
ferent from her ''private hand.''
Guy Boothby dictates most of his
thrilling fiction to his wife, who op-
crates typewriter, while many au-
thors have schooled themselves to the
mechanical art of typewriting their
own thoughts, a process which ought
to be fatal to inspiration.
When Mr.. Barrie was asked what he
wrote with" the answer came quick
ly: Il write with my pipe and, il
Iced, to men like Barrie, kipling and
poor James Payn, the vehicle was moth
ing and Lady Nicotine everything.-
London Mail.