Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1908-01-18
LITERARY LOG ROLLING.
How Some Famous Authors Sought to
Advertise Themselves.

t1oW SOWS Famous Authors sought TO
Advertise Themselves.
The examples cited by Francis Crib
bic in his article on 1.-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 a lobster by string. Nine. Kru-
dener, the author of valerie" and the
friend of Alexander l. 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 Il funeral. He seized
the opportunity at the obsequies of
one of his own sons. 1t 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, n 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
king of men" Victor Hugo bowed and
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 n SON
net about il, and the fame of the mas
ter stood on a higher pinnacle than
ever
And finally there was the case of Du-
mas, of whom 1t may almost be said
that his whole life was an advertise
ment Some one once said of him that
his vanity was such that he was capa-
BILE of getting up behind his own car
riagc 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
q uniform and to embellish the uni
form with decorations to which he was
not entitled. He even went so 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 Garibaldi's army, and he
achieved a tremendous advertisement
by conducting a 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 interfered with
the fulfllment of his contract But
the best of all his advertisement was
attained when the announcement APP
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 it
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 two
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.