Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-05-12
Life. Great Throbbing Life.
Only School for Authors
MANY WRITE FOR THE PUBLIC, AND THEIR BOOKS PERISH
WITH THE FALLING LEAVES-BOOKS WRITTEN IN FRAG.
= MENIS OF LIFE ONLY ONES THAT LIVE. s

master work Is a mirror Of life itself,
Of all its hues and strifes,g it's JOY and
pathos-a mirror Of life dimmed only
with the glowing gold of dreams,5and
placed beneath the starlit canopy of
superior imagination. 1t does not
give a photographically exact picture
Of life. but of life as the writer him
self has see and understood it.
The modern book, on the other
hand, too often resembles those
freakish onvex or concave mirrors
tesquely enlarged. They scintillate
with the brightness born of artistic
discipline and training, but they are
limitations rather than refexes.
X X X f.
Our age seems to be beset with the
"furor scribendi" of which the an
clients derisively spoke; the rage for
writing goes on undated ignoring the
fundamental fact hat art builds upon
life itself. Frequently an author is
experienced in art, but inexperienced
in the deepest emotions of the human
heart. g
1t happens ten thousand times a
year that a dreamer sits down to
write like the masters and finds that
he cannot; he is lucky il he makes
that discovery before rejection slips
from publishers make him ache with
sore disappointment. He may have
real all the more or less useless books
extant on the subject of How to
write a Novel" How to Write a
story and so IN, may feel
ina he is deeply familiar with all the
mechanical tricks Of the literary
trade He will draw freely upon
his imagination-forced to do so. as
ne is because of the pathetic paucity
OF his experience. and he will soon
n that even though he thinks him
self finely attuned for the work in
hand. there is a deciding element
missing.
1t is n thing to be able to write
well and to coin polished phrase
which captures the inner a Of the
But 1t is quite another thing
TO write in such a way that the heart
OF n reader may be reached.
There are books which 70, t.k.
down from the shelf time and again
look for we'll remembered passaees
that ft the mood in which you hap-
pen to find yourself. Such books are
IKE true friends among the living
rare as true-and better than fhev
because you may conade ali that
you dream, suffer or think. to the
oead leaves which cannot telr tales
afterward. wi Eases
The books that give surcease ia,
and that carry a message
a,oan one neart to another are the
which should form the
ais oi writers as we'll as of read
They are written in the form NJ
fragments of life itself and comnrise
truths which are recognized an Iaste
ing and edifying. Entertainment :.
not what the master work %nrinnar,iv
anoros-indeed, it looks miles and
miles beyond that simple coal.
NO author can write snch hnnL.
uniess ne has tasted the perfect lows
81 paradis itself and writhed in
.eliea torture moro piercing than
my pictured in a Dantesuue Inferno.
wnen ne la been upon the nesks
,ise at the bottom of the abysses Of
aht, mas a story to tell; IL he has
ao'iity to tell it. he is q genius.
vooS. tne Is getting rare in the
Pan has concealed hin..,r -..~
me reeds. and whenever he does cnrns
~. Tor but . little while. No ma
;s i : TO listen to his weird music. He
q among men who csre
.or n music Of words onlv =. innS
u Kills time" and affords I srast
ior faded nerves.
.IAiie plays havoc with mi,,tor. ~
aaeaIts; " modern writer's are AIM.
tSn. ABOUT telling the story. psrhsn.
y, cannot Tor sheer lack 81 abiiity.
.,r;ts can concoct clever sketchss.
thav IL kinds OF thrilling tales. but
which nD. s'v US that supfemes art