Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-06-26
Especial Correspondence

Especial corrcspondence)
oNDON, June 0.--After a while,
one thinks. aspirants to jobs in
the civil services of England
and France will have to state
whether or no they possess literary
tendencies. And if the answer is in the
affirmative they will be advised TO pur-
sue them and let department work
alone, for, of a surety, If they enter
the government service it will be only
to forsake it, SO soon as opportunity Of
fers, in favor of the cult of letters.
The rule scarcely ever fails. Austin
Dobson. w. w. Jacobs, the late Henry
Seton Merr;iman. Barry Pain and ever
SO many other British writer's started
out as civil servants only to resig.t
as soon as they had found Il profitable
market for their literary wares, and
the same holds true across the chan
mel. One of the most illustrious of the
French writer's who began by working
for the state Is Marcel Provost. the lat
est addition to the French academy or
immortals. Provost who is best known
III America and England for his Mon
sieur and Madame Malvet," originally
studied tobacco making, which, of
course Is Il government monopoly III
France. The victor over NJ. Dumont i'll
the recent academy election graduated
IRON the Ecole Polytechnique and 50
was given a position in one of the
state tobacco factories at ChateaurouN
at the lordly salary of $4 a week.
lola HIS SPONSOR.
In the evening he wrote. No publish
cr could be found for the first three
novels which he thus composed out
of hours, = but their young author final
~ managed to place" them as serials
with two of the leading French daily
newspapers--the Figaro and Gil Elias.
One of their readers was the late Emilio
lola, who promptly became Prcvost's
literary sponsor and the road u, fame
was easy thenccforth. Provost ar
rived" definitely with his Letters to
Francois and entered into a lengthy
agreement with the Figaro which is
said to pay a humping sum for It's
weekly article from his pen.
Technically. NJ. Provost is on pro-
longed vacation. Some time after the
appearance of his first serials. the
government promoted him to berth
in the ministry OF finance, but his lit
crazy work had grown so heavy that
leave CT absence. IT was granted and
still is running, for the writer never
formally resigned his appointment nor
has he been given the sack" though
his salary has been suspended.
Provost lives iii a queer cornor OF
Paris, close to the Trocadero. An Eng
lish interviewer who called on him on
the day following his election as an
Immortal got some interesting opin-
ions from the author regarding French
and English literature of today.
PREvosT's OPINIONS.
AT the outset, Provost testified to u
profound admiration for the lase
George Meredith. II have him all in
my library he said. He was the
greatest of contemporary writer's. Our
own Paul Hervieu reminds me Of him.
HerNieu is especially Meredithian i'll
"L'Armature:' yet he had certainly not
read Meredith when he wrote that.
There is the same irony and harsh
ness of style; but of course, 1t Is Il
little difficult for foreigner To APP
preciate the exact shades OF meaning
in anothers tongue
English novels are becoming wide
~ read in France just now" Provost
continued lowing largely to the prac-
tise of the Temps and other journals
to publish them in feuilleton form To
such an extent is this done that the
publication is often simultaneous inthe
two languages. This is so in the case of
Mrs. Humphrey Wards new novel,
which is to he published in LII Revue
DIES DeuN Mondes at the moment of its
appearance in London
CONTRASTS DRAWN.
Contrasting English and American
writer's with their French brethren,
NJ. Provost asserted that the former
were too much bound by convention
and that their work suffered in conse-
quence.