The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-10-23
IL 81 80, a. <xS@< -
{ When Genius
Goes Begging
1r Observation-Disclosures

The rejected manuscript is often tn
foundation of a writer's fame, whe
the author perseveres in the face O
Encouragement until he finds an edito
TO accept his contribution There ar
many to testify to this assertion.
Dickens never had a manuscript re
turned, and the same good fortune i
claimed for Bret Harte, but Anthem,
:. Trollope has frankly confessed the dis
appointments which confronted him a
zine editors rejected his manuscripts
others accepted and published, but die
not pay tor them, and some publishers
remunerated him with a pittance. sc
that his gross income from literary &C.
equations in one year was little more
, than $780, and in another year a trif1e
over S100.
Robert Barr, the popular novelist,
! tried every paper in Canada with his
| first article before he submitted it to
| the Detroit Free Press. He spent an
| entire year in quest of an acceptance
| in his own country. His first book, I'm
a Steamer Chair" was offered to every
| publisher in New York and declined.
Then it was taken to London and ac-
cepted by the first firm to which it
was submitted. Four New York houses
then entered into competition for the
American rights of the volume.
''Marse Chan" Thomas Nelson
Pages delightful story, rested several
years in the safe at the Century Office
before it was published.
Edward Noyes Westcott offered
David Harum' to half a dozen pub
fishers before his last days were light
ened by the pathetic thought of pos
thumous publication for his book.
Rejection and delay are net confined
to the young literary aspifants. Vet
Grams of distinction like James and
William Dean Howells have been
obliged to experience that humiliation
in these days when the quasi-historical
novel of action and brute force has
almost driven the novels of subtle art
and literary realism from the markets.
Carlyle encountered numerous diff
culties before obtaining a hearing. In
trying to escape from his drudgery
as a tutor and Translator he sent an
it was never acknowledged or noticed.
1t was only when Jeffrey discovered
his own relationship to Carlyle's young
wife, and became attached to her, that
he accepted her husbands articles, but
even then, they were slashed and al
tered and mended to suit the editors
head.
No publisher of books would accept |
he
thor finally succeeded in getting it |
printed in Frazier's Magazine, the
work was paid for at less than the
regular rate per sheet for contribu-
tions. Even then, the editor was con-
WINGED he had made a bad bargain,
because the life and opinions of Herr
Teufelsdroeckh excited the most un-
qualified Misrepresentation Following
that experience, Carlyle, notwithstand-
ing his growing reputation, became as
familiar with editorial messages of
declined with thanks as he had been
in the beginning of his career.
Thackerary, too, had his period of
struggles and humiliation. His manu-
scripts were sent back to him fire.
quently, and when he wrote an article
for the Edinburgh Review in the style
i
tor revised it with a thoroughness
which made the author vince.
Thomas Hoods experience with the
Song of the Shirt should be remem-
bered. A poem that by its pathos stir
red the whole English speaking world
was declined with thanks again and
again, until the weary and discouraged
author, in sending it to Punch, re-
1uested that if it should be rejected
the verses should be thrown into the
waste basket, as he was tired of them.
And the monument over his tomb,
erected by public subscription, is in
scribed with no other record of his
achievement than He Sang the Song
IF the Shirt" To return to Thackeray,
t is known that Dickens CURLY refus-
ID his application for employment to
Illustrate "Pickwick" Then, after the
allure of his ambition to become an
trtist, and after the loss of his fortune
n an ill-advised newspaper venture,
lie wrote VANITY Fair This novel
vas hawked among London publishers
or months before it's merits were rec
,gnized.
Rudyard Kipling was CURLY dismiss
d when he offered plain Tales from
he Hills" to a firm of publishers in
lew York, before it's appearance in
England.
Going farther back, we find John La =
hrop Motley mortified by the rejec-
ion of his brilliant Rise of the Dutch
Republic" the manuscript being re-
urned with thanks. The first volume
f Carlyle's French Revolution had
lready been declined by the same
minent publishers before Betty, the
lighted the parlor of
ohm Stuart Mills home with the
Manuscript, land up the chimney with
sparkle and a roar" went the
French Revolution thus ending in
moke and SCOT, as the great transac-
ion itself did more than fifty years
efore.
Francis Jeffrey. the omniscient critic
nd despotic editor, contributed six ar /
cles to the first number of the Edin-
urgh Review, and some of them are l
elieved to have belonged to the cate
DRY of declined with thanks