New Britain herald., 1916-05-10
WHAT OTHERS SAY
Views on all sides of timely questions as discussed in ex- changes that come to tho Herald Office.
Authors Who Do Not Grow.
Springfield Republican,)

Springfield Republican,
 In many of the well-deserved tributes to the late Richard Harding Davis there was a certain note of disappointment that career which had promised so much had not led to more. Something of the same feel ing was apparent in much of the comment on the fiftieth birthday of Rudyard kipling, whose literary though he is at an age when many though heis at an age when many great writers have been but getting their stride. Disappointment of this sort is natural. when much has been expected of promising young author, but it's expression is likely to be unjust. There are precocious tal- ents as well as those which mature slowly and late, and to blame a writer of one kind for not continu- ing to grow is as unreasonable as to blame one of the other sort for being so slow to develop his powers.
 On the whole late, slow and diff cult success seems to be best for an authors art, while prompt recog- milton of early talent gives pleas anter life. The clever young writer who hits a popular vein is enviable
 
 before his ideals are well established and his life work found and mapped out, he may become the slave of his public and find his most dangerous rival in his own early work.
 This danger is perhaps greatest when early success comes not so much from solid artistic skill as from novelty of theme and a fresh way of looking at things. The writer who draws from within is usually slow in shaping his thoughts and forcing them on the public. On the other hand, a quick and observant eye and facile style may at once strike a lucky vein which is none the less valuable for being superficial. It was placer mining, in Davis's case os in Kipling's, and to find fault with either of them for not finding the deeper lode is not quite reasonable.
 R. l.. Stevenson, the idol and friend of young writers, once wrote to Davis a kindly note with apprecia- tion of his early writings and some wise words in regards to the neces- sity of hard "slogging' if one would convert a promising talent into sub stantial achievem ent. But it is prob ably more difficult for one whose efforts have won applause and com mercia1 success than for the tardily appreciated writer like Stevenson to make the necessary sacrifices I'm prOvement involves experiment. and and experiment risks failure it is easier to go on giving the public what it has come to expect
 In the case of Kipling the matter is more complicated. Tn addition to his precocious gift for reporting, he had a real if thin and intermittent Streak of genius, and his critical sense, at first inactive, grew with his knowledge fife and of books till it may have outstripped and inter- fered with his power to create. Though he has frequently in later years published things unworthy of his pen, they have for the most part heen occasional It is possible that he may yet develop a new style and new meter but for the present his genius appears to have exhausted itself.
 It was suite otherwise with Davs who made no pretense to genius, but mad facility in Writing and active tastes which took him in the way of interesting things and gave him an unfailing supply of fresh impressions and of material that made good "copy.'' These conditions were the most favorable possible for inn mediate success, but immediate success was perhaps the least favor able condition for the show rpening of though and style needed for sus- tained growth. But to deplore his failure to develop, and many other young American writers are in the same case, is hardly worth while. The disappointment, felt by some of his warmest admirers, is due in no small part to Overestimate of the significance of the early work which he did so well, and to a failure to appreciate the enormous gap between clever light writing of that sort and the serious literary work to which he probably never aspired. He should rather be praised for keeping on the whole so well to his own level when there were so many temptations to