The Wyandotte news-herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1943-1963, 1944-12-28
Notes From
Bacon Library
COMPOSITION LESSON


produce a book from the time the
idea Is born until the volume Is
actually on paper? All these are
engroSsing questions and so far as
I know you will have about as many
answers as you have writer's. These
questions have always intrigued me
and whenever I read the story of
new writer I search for his per-
sonal answer to them. That train
of thought was refreshed last week
when I read the following para
graphs in THE New York Times
Book Review:
Catching up the other day with
Catherine Brinker Bowen, who
wrote YANKEE FROM OLYMPUS
(the biography Of Justice Holmes),
this department gathered that one
way to write the story Of somebody's
life is not to be in too much Of
hurry. Mrs. Bowen, for instance,
worked four years on what turned
out to be her best seller. When
she had finally finished thirty-two
of the forty chapters she decided
that it was as dull as could be-,
whereupon she started all over, dis
carding straight exposition and
adopting the narrative form, and
then went on to revise the whole
manuscript four times. Now she
is plunging into old diaries and
records in preparation for another
biography, this one set in Philadel-
phia in the last half Of the eight
zenith century
"On the other hand, consider
John Steinbeck. He wrote the forth
coming CANNERY ROW (Which, to
be sure, is not biography In just
four weeks"
The one fact that all writer's and
university professors teaching crea-
tive writing seem to agree on is
that if you wish to write you must
develop the habit of putting your
thoughts and ideas on paper. In
other words: if you want to write
writel And do it regularly = at
definite time each day or week, if
poSSibl. This was brought forcibly
to my mind during our years in
Iowa and our friendship with Ruth
Suckow. Every weekday found her
at her desk between the hours of
900 a. m. and 100 p. m. and none
of her friends ever ventured to
contact her during that time.
Betty Smith, whose TREE
GROWS IN BROOKLYN was a best
seller of last year and is still going
strong, says one day she suddenly
felt the urge to write a novel. So
she went out and bought some paper
and a pencil and just started to
write. AS simple as that! But
don't be deceived. Betty Smith was
by no means stranger to writing.
Her first published work was a
controversy in print with Bertrand
Russell on the topic of sex educa-
ton for children. (She took issue
with RuSsell's tell-all policy)" While
a student at the University of Mich
igan she wrote articles for the NEA
syndicate and a column for the
Detroit Free Press After VIM
ming the Avery Hopwood Award Of
fered by the University for excel
lence in dramatic writing she en-
rolled at the Yale School of the
Drama and studied playwriting un-
der several famous playwrights."
Every one-act play she has ever
written has been either published
or produced and, to date, she has
written Seventy-odd one-act plays
and edited two volumes of plays
for the amateur theater. And all
this in the same six years during
which she kept house, took care
OF her two daughters and lived a
normal social life.
When Betty Smith started her
novel "She had difficulty because
she found that she was already
using all the available hours of her
day and a novel is no little task.
But she was determined that her
tale of Brooklyn be told - and so
she created time. AS it was, her
accustomed routine did not get un-
der way until seven in the morn
ing; she therefore began writing
at six. I wrote an hour a day for
a year. Miss Smith says, Tt was
no harder to do than writing in
a diary. I put down all the things
1 remembered and had heard of i
of Brooklyn"
Charles Jackson. too, created
time for the novel he wanted to
write, THE LOST WEEKEND. one
Of the best sellers of the current
year. There seemed to be absolutely
no time left over from his two
jobs - teaching radio writing at
New York University and writing
a five-timeS-a-week daytime radio
serial. so Charles Jackson wrote
all night once week, on Thursdays
after his radio serial was finished.
And in little over year THE LOST
WEEKEND was completed and in
the hands of his enthusiastic pub
Usher.
Biography and many other kinds
OF non-fiction take longer (as stated
before). Carl Van Doren works for
many years on his biographies
SWIFT, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN |
whose excellence justifies the time
spent on them. Van Wyck, Brooks
plans to spend minimum of three |
years on the book to follow THE