The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-11-27
STORIES OF AUTHORS, LOVES.

fishers are Thomas Y. Crowell q Co., New
York.
STORIES OF AUTHORS LOVES.
The interest taken by readers of books in
the authors Of those books varies in char
acter exactly in accordance with the inn
preston made by respective productions: II
may be a complete Indifference, 1t may be a
warm and friendly, even an affectionate,
curiosity. Publishers Of current literature
make the mistake Of assuming that the
public desires to be informed at once as 10
the personality of the writer's OF any and
every work issued and of flooding the lit
erary periodicals with biographical matter,
the most of which few persons care to read
and no one remembers. 1t is only when a
book has in it the touch of genius that
makes ii live, the wisdom or the philosophy
that interprets life intimately, the poetry
and sentiment that appeal to the heart, that
the reader begins to consider the writer, TO
wonder what manner of person it was who
could speak thus, and to wish to know Of
his life in order, if possible, to have further
light upon his words. 1t might seem that
an authors personality should be distinct
from his work, but the world that reads his
books will not AVE 1t so. 1t wants to know
all things of him, including his love affairs.
In telling The Stories of Authors Loves"
Miss Clara Laughlin thus explains this in
terest: "In large part they (the writers)
created the traditions of romance, their
written ideals of love have set the stand
ard for the majority, have sent young blood
land ofttimes blood not so young) c%oursing
through veins in a swifter current: have
filad vnrnU HEARTS fond nfffimaQ haarfC
not so young) with beating desire to love,
to be loved, TO bear and forbear, give and
forgive in loves name. 1t is only natural
that these young hearts should, and hearts
that once were young, should wish to know
in what manner those men and women
realized their own ideals"
AS to the much-discussed question of the
propriety of inquiring into this element
in their lives, Miss Laughlin says: after
all has been said about what things in a
mans or woman's life should be sacred,
inviolate, a man no more lives to himself
alone in his sacredest relations than in his
commoner trafficking with the world of his
kind. If there is a line beyond which the
noblesse oblige of the TRANSPORTED spirit
fails to hold good, he would be a bold man
indeed who should attempt TO name it."
In writing these love stories Miss Laugh
lin has confined herself to the authors
whose works have become the literature
that makes a part of the mental fabric of
every educated person. In her list are
T~ennyson, Charlotte Bronte, John Ruskin
and Edward Fitzgerald. Poe, George Eliot,
Rossetti, Balzac, Dante and Beatrice,
Michael Angelo, Thoreau, Washington
Irving, Dickens, Charles Lamb, Haw-
thorne. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Longfellow, Keats, ~Thackeray,
Carlyle, Jane Welsh Carlyle, Edward Irv-
ing, Shelley, Byron, George Sand, De Mus
set, Chopin and Margaret Fuller. They
have all been told before, but, for the most
part, only as an incidental feature of their
lives and experiences, and thus to collect
these heart histories makes a book of many
romances and many tragedies. Some OF
these writer folk enjoyed long years Of ideal
matrimonial felicity, as Tennyson, Haw-
thorne, Browning, Longfellow; some, like
Ruskin and Dickens, had tragic disappoint-
ments in their marriage; others, like Car
lyle. found the path of married life stormy
There is the ever-strange tale of George
Eliot's experience-of the Irregular love
that came into her life and TRANSPORTED
her. Not the least interesting are the
stories concerning the sentimental expert.
ences of the bachelors-that strange char
acter. Thoreau. for example. about whose
love affairs almost nothing is known save
this paragraph from one of his own letters
II parted from my beloved because there
was one thing which / had to tell her. She
questioned me. She should have known al
by sympathy. That / had to tell her wa:
the difference between us-the misunder
standing"
Surely this was making more of a demand
upon boosted feminine intuition than any
woman would be willing to live up to- Th'
pathetic story of Charles Lamb. the tragic
history of Poe and of Keats-these anC
others almost equally sad seem to give al
overbalance of melancholy to the sum tota
of these heart records. But gathered to
gether they make a unique work and on
of a real literary value.
The sketches appeared originally in vari
Gus periodicals, Miss L~aughlin, the autho
and compiler. a young woman well known
in literary circles, not having a more per
manent form in mind. But collected to
gether in two handsome, well printed vol
umes and embellished with many excellen
illustrations, mostly portraits, they form
most attractive holiday publication. Th'
]. B.. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.