Evening star., 1949-04-24
Kenneth Roberts Diary Is Grim Record
Stern Self.Portraii of
an Author in
a Rage

I WANTED TO WRITE
BY Kenneth Roberts. fDoze's-
day d Co. So So
Reviewed by
MARY MrGRORY.
An aspiring writer expecting 10
pack up few sUreare tips On how
to become rich and famous from
this professional autobiography OF
Americas oest-known historical
noyeliSt-vho will. by the way.
thank you not 10 call him 2 his
torical norelist-wil SINK away
like q whipped puppy after q
chapter or two. Mr.. Roberts is not
content with dispelling the glaEn-
our OF authorship. He tears II up
in little pieces and stamps on II
His work diary is sown deep With
disgust. agony. frenzy, nausea.
desperation and gloom Never
again" resoundS like q refrain
through these entries that show
that he struggled onward like a
man yading through clinsing
mud" And the reward for all
this? He glumly complains in his
journal that his iirst four books.
Arundel. "Rabble in Arms,
Lively Lady" and Captain Cau-
ton. have reduced us 70 penury
and brought lis nothing but de-
preston. grief. alterations with
publishers and endlessly grueling
toll without any letup." He doesn I
say why he kept on.
Mania for Revision.
Mr.. Roberts mad passion foi
accuracy. his houndlike pursua Of
such minute historical facts as
the exact color OF Benedict Ar
nolds hair and trapping and trad
ing practices In 1860 are famous,
Less widely publicized is his mania
for revision.
Not content with revising man
uscript. typescript. galley proof
and page proof. he even rewrote
two published books. Arundel
and Lively Lady" In all this he
had the gentle. knowledgeable
counsel of his great friend Booth
Harrington. and the tireless. en-
spiriting help OF his wife Anna
| One of the few pieces Of advice he
grudgingly gives the starry-eyed
aspirant is marry the right wom-
an"
In this record OF his own trials,
Mr.. Roberts has implicitly painted
a self-portrait Of man In a rage
His displeasure Is by no means
confined to his own work. which
in progress he considers sinking, -
dreary. hopeless" etc. He lashes
out at historians. who. according
to him, can't find out a damned
thing: at other novelists who
write books he considers inferior
to his and thereby snag prizes and
best-sellerdom. at golfers, politi-
clans, telephones, cocktail parties
critics. visitors and Hollywood
Thus 1t would seem he Is not con-
! tent with soaring would-be writers
from writing. He wants to scare
them from writer's. too.
Fount Of Fatheadedness.
The narrative Of his own refusal
to be discouraged began at Cornell
continued his cub days on The
Boston Post, his Army career ir
/ Siberia (Which he describes ir
over-much detaiD and his nine
years as a Saturday Evening Pos'
correspondent, spent partly ir
Washington, which he calls with
characteristic choler. "a fount o'
fatheadedness." He finally settlec
down to years OF effort during
which he gained little facility ane
scarcely any profit. at a Tuscan
villa. All this gradually changed
however, until "Oliver Wiswell'
had an advance sale OF 100000
copies.
| Mr.. Roberts half irascible. hall
facetious record. which constitutes
a 45l one-page Keep Out" sigr
to the young who want TO write
makes thoroughly stimulating anc
absorbing reading. All the guste
and meticulous documenting which