The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-11
BOOKS M

In the biographical and critical study
Of Alphonse Daudet, by Robert Marlborough
Sherard, is found the description of the
novelist's methods Of working as they
we're related Nby himself to the writer:
write slowly. very slowly. and revise and re-
wise. | am never satlsned with my work. My
novels I always write myself. I never could die
tai. a novel, rs to my plays, I nsed formerly to
dictate them. had a certain talent In my legs.
Just as Naroleon had a certain genius In the legs
Of his soldiers. My books go through many proc
essns. To begin with. | MI my notebooks. Each
note as II Is used Is scratched out In blue or rcd
pencil. From these written notes and the tablets
OF my memory-the 4 tot OF my memory | write
out In copybooks the nrst cory OF my novel. I
write this FIRST copy on alternate pages OF my copy
books and leave the opposite sheet blank. When
the book Is finished In Its rough state ! rewnte II
page by page on the blank sheets. The page on
the right Is amended copy OF the page on the left
Then my wife looks at this second copy and sug-
gestS TO me what Improvements might be made.
| note these down. Then I rewritc the whole book
again. with the Joy Of a schoolboy who feels that
q wearisome task Is ended. Sometimes | work for
eighteen hours a day and day after day. At other
times 1 pass months without touching . pen.
The authorized biography of Mr.. Walter
Crane will soon appear with the title Fifty
Years Of an Artists Life with reproduce
tons Of a number Of dra wings by Mr.. Crane
which have not heretofore been published.
or the famous trio, Walter Crane, Kate
G~reenaway and Randolph Caldecott, who did
so much to increase the beauty Of children's
books, Caldecott is dead, Miss Greenaway
is dead and Crane Is the only survivor.
Mrs. John Lane has an article in the cur
rent Critic written in her usual viva cious
sty!a and dealing with The Minor Crimes
From the man with the umbrella or cane
under his arm as a menace to public safety,
the dangerous instrument, the fruit peel on
the pavement, the woman bristling with
hatpins, she leads up to the minor crime of
music, which she describes as the o~ruellest
of fine arts, If the 1nquisition had only
known what a frightful instrument of tort
ure a piano Is, history might have been
written differently. THE most hardened
hereto" Mrs. Lane says, after having the
c major scale with variations and other
five finger exercises decorated with false
notes drummed into his ears by an innocent
child next door for days and nights will be
glad and happy to confess to anything if
only to escape with a emnant Of reason
These minor crimes Mrs. Lane finally con-
cludes are really major crimes-in dis
guise.
Charles Wagner's talk" on AThe Des-
tiny of Woman" in the July number of
Horpcr's BdFdr is devoted to the con-
sideration Of the rights of woman in the
free development Of her individuality
and the best preparation for either mar
riage or single blessedness. His conclusions
are that she has lost rather than gained
in individuality and dignity by cit her
cowardly submission to mans tyranny
or initiative copying of or rivalry in mas
culine pursuits, sports and occupations.
The more a woman shall have learned to
live by herself the better she will occupy
her position in welded life should she
marry" the writer argues. Trained to
direct herself, to earn her own living.
capable of energy and decision, a woman
II she marries brings a precious cooperation
to her husband. II she never marries
she will know how to be all sufficient to
herself. Finally, the first duty Of woman,
a free creature, a sou complete in her
self, is to cultivate her individuality, to
conquer 1t and to sustain it."