The Havre herald. [volume] (Havre, Mont.) 1904-1908, 1907-07-26
LITERARY LOG ROLLING.
How Some Famous Authors Sought to
Advertise Themselves.

How Some Famous Authors Sought to
Advertise Themselves.
The examples cited by Francis Crib
BILE in his article on THE Comedy Of
Literary Log Rolling" in the Strand
Magazine arouse some suspicion as to
their absolute authenticity, but are
amusing enough whether true or not.
Sainte-Beuve increased the circulation
Of his books by insisting upon fighting
a duel In the rain with an umbrella
over his head. Gerard de Nerval used
to be seen in the streets of Paris lead
ing lobster by string. Nine. Kru-
dener the author Of ''Valerie" and the
friend of Alexander I. Of Russia, made
the fortune of her novel by calling at
all the Paris shops and asking for va
rious articles of dress "a la Valerie"
Of Victor Hugo and of Alexandra Du-
mas the elder the following stories are
told:
Nor was the great poet ashamed to
roll his log even at q funeral. He seized
the opportunity at the obsequies Of
one of his own sons. It happened that
on the way to the cemetery the pro-
cession passed a travelling menagerie,
and the lions, for whatever reason,
stopped roaring just as Victor Hugo
was in front of their cage. His COM
panion, a minor poet named Pelleport,
drew his attention to the fact. MAS
ter,' he whispered, 'the lions recognize
you and hush their voices. The king
| of beasts is silent in the presence of the
W go, RI
turned the matter over in his mind.
Then, after meditation, he said: "Pelle-
port, that was a happy thought Of
yours. Couldn't you write something
about it?" And Pelleport wrote a SON
net about it, and the fame Of the mas
ter stood on higher pinnacle than
ever.
And finally there was the case Of Du-
mas, Of whom it may almost be said
tTlat his whole life was an advertise
ment Some one once said of him tn
his vanity was such that he was capa-
Bile Of getting up behind his own car
riage in order to demonstrate that he
had a negro footman in his service.
He certainly did many things almost
as absurd as that In his restless pur-
suit Of reclame One Of his delights
was to clothe his noble proportions in
a uniform and to embellish the uni
form with decorations to which be was
not entitled. He even went 50 far as
himself to design the uniform in which
he fought-or, rather, did not fight, for
he arrived after the fighting was all
over-in Garibaldrs army, and he
achieved a tremendous advertisement
by conducting we'll known actress to
a court ball to which she had not been
invited He got another advertise
ment by allowing himself to be sued
for nondelivery of a feuilleton. He
was utterly in the wrong, and he lost
his case, but he kept the court in roars
Of laughter while he explained his lit
erary methods and the nature of the
distractions which had intePfersd with
the fulfillment Of his contract. But
the best Of all his advertisement was
attained when the announcement ap-
peared that NJ. Alexandra Dumas
would write the last chapter of a forth
coming romance sitting in a shop win.
dow, for all the world to see how 1t
was done One can understand that
that sort Of advertisement would suit
the authors who are also interested in
the sale of hair restorers. They al.
most owe it to the public to exhibit
themselves in this way, killing tive
birds with a single stone. But for the
author Of "Monte Cristo'' to do it was
surely the ne plus ultra Of the comedy
Of log rolling.