Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-06-02
Youth in Literature.

Mr.. Andrew Lang has been led by
the number Of young persons who are
| winning what is at least temporary
| fame in literature. to suggest that
| there will soon be a dead line for
| authors, as there is now supposed TO
| be for clergymen, and that at fifty
| those who would write books will find
| themselves superannuated. So far as
| the novelists are conccrned-and they
sometimes talk as if there We're no
| literature outside of fictiOn-thcre
seems to be a melancholy measure of
| truth in the prediction. Mr.. kipling
has remarked that while short stories
may be written in youth. the novel
must be the work Of maturity" Rut
| although he has demonstrated that his
meter at present is the short story,
ana that his great novel is still t.
| come all the facts 20 to qualify his
| assertion. Aside from the classic *
ample Of Jane Austen, wh1 died before
| she was forty, and wrote Pride ana
Prejudicc' at the age Of twenty, youth
| made its appearance in fiction long be
| fore the end of the nineteenth century.
| Fanny Burney published "Evelina"
! when she was only twenty-five. and
| she must have begun il several years
before that. if not al the age of seven
| teen. as some of her admirers after
ward believed. and as she herself.
when she was eighty. was willing they
should believe. Mrs. OIiphant wrote
Margaret Maitland" at twenty-one.
ana between that time and the publi
cation Of "Chronicles Of Carlingfnrd"
kept on writing. though certainly in
m immature fashion for a time. The
publication Of the "'Pickwick Papers"
at twcnty-four puts Dickens among
the young persons in literature; and III
that class DsraeIi and Buwer also
belong.
Despite these and other instances. ii
is true enough that the young person
has not hitherto made such n serious
incurSion into literature as he is maxi
ing now. Among the popular novels
Of the moment the production Of youth
are eminent. Mr.. Churchill certainly
| is young: so is Miss Mary Johnston.
/ ana Mr.. Ford has not passed middle
| life. Tho portraits Of the new "cclebri-
ties" in the literary journals show for
| the most part beardless boys and
young girls. on the other hand. the
the background by their vigorous
rivals. There is Mr.. Howells-does
he hold the center of the stage today
as he did ten years ago? We do not
hear. at any rate. that one of his
| novels has reached sale of a hun
| bred and fifty thousand copies in six
| weeks. Has he. then, reached the
dead line drawn by Mr.. Lang? Hitler
| h., :
| free from the limitations of age. He
has not had to come before the public
in person. A dead line in the pulpit
or on the stage is easily accounted for
but why is it to exist when the
medium Of communication is the
printed page? Perhaps the curiosity
regarding the private lives IF authors
which the literary journals attempt to
Satiate works in the end against the
| objects of il. Readers become weary
| of Mr.. Crockett and his two type
| writer's and Mr.. Caine and his ten bar
rels of notes, and so wish to have done
with them, though their fullest powers
| are yet to be attained. 1t might be
| argued that the young writer's drive
out the old ones because they do better
work; such a reversal of all precedent.
| however. would be no real eXplana-
ton. but. on the contrary. something
itself needing to be explained. In any
case the victors of one decade may be
the victims Of the next
But who knows how many older
novelists there may be still hiding
their time? 1t is never too late TO
write a successful novel, as the expert
cnce of Du Maurier showed. And
writer's with a much longer list of
novels to their credit than he began
in middle life. Trollope began his
I'archester series at forty. after sew
eral earlier efforts had fallen fiat
Blackmore was fortyfour when he
wrote Lorna Dome" Even Thack-
cray had long years of apprenticeship
before he found publisher to accept
Vanity Fair" What may be called
the first English novel Pamela" was
written by Richardson when he was
fifty: and Fielding was forty when he
made immortal fun Of Richardson's
heroine in his Joseph Andrews" But
the greatest example of all is Sir
Walter himself. who found the neg
lected manuscript of "Waverly"
among his fishing tackle when he was
-three-thus becoming by acct
fdent. as it We're, the greatest romancer
of his or any age. Indeed, that cpl
sode is one of the most curious in all
literary history. Is it possible to sup
pose that if Scott had not wanted t.
find a particular hook that day the
Waverly Novels would never have
been written? Could that glowing
creative energy have been confined
forever? Could ever his stirring poems
: have satisfied its demands? 1t is hard
to believe this. Yet certainly the