THE LITERARY LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 8

THE LITERARY LIFE.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, responding to the.toast of "The Guests" at the New Vagabond Club dinner on January 29, gave some interesting advice to seekers after literary fame. Hβ often had letters, lie said, from young aspirants of both sexes asking for advice as to literature and the literary life, how to approach it. What was difficult to explain was that thoro was something which was inborn, and not made; it was not by taking thought alone that a man could writo even a humble kind of story, and he had to disabuse the minds of the inquirers of the delusion that .there was any backdoor to literature, or that in some extraordinary way letters to .publishers could help the man who .had not the root of the matter in him. Even for the simplest result the author must have, had some fairy godmother who had dipped him in the holy well of romance. Why, oven a friend, who said, "I am going to give up literature and write Sherlock Holmes stories"—(laughter)—subsequently admitted, "I sat down to write them, but'l could not get the beginning for the iurst. (Laughter and cheers.) People talked of schools of literature, and he often wondered what they'made of the unpromising material they got to work upon. At his school they had- a school ot poetry, where every wretched youth had to write poetry, whether he had it in him or not. (Laughter.) But suppose the young aspirant had the instinct, what was the next stage? lhat was the time of struggle. What must a man do to try to win clear of tho ruck? .He must . take his work

uviiuujij , £iuulcu Lllal> HO Had. UQ6 IHQOrH faculty, ho must improve it at every turn.. Xnere were many things that went to make a great writers' The first was style. No man had an inborn style; all was moulded on preceding style, and the hrst step was for the aspirant to impregnate himself with the stylo of the best writers, avoiding those who had peculiar styles. Borrow and Stevenson had helped many a lame dog over stiles. (Laughter.) Ihen ho must cultivate a vocabulary, for words were the bricks with which he built, and the man with a wonderful vocabulary was one who had taken trouble. It was almost a pity that there was not a society for the resuscitation ot dying words and the resurrection of which had passed away. An old Scottish minister, referring to the dancin» of Queen Elizabeth when she was old" wrote, "She danced high and disposedly." That was one of tho good words which shonld not be forgotten. Then among the weapons of the armoury of the young writer was omnivorous reading, and with it the taking of notes, for reading and forgetting what was read was a sinfnl waste of time. What ho needed most was never-ending patience when ho began to play the game of pmg-pong, with numerous editors on tho other sido of tho table, and his*manuscripts as the ball. Last of all, ho must raise no obstacle to the publication of his wntings,_ but at all costs get his name and his work out. ■ Compared with other professions, concluded Sir Arthur, tho writer was not well paid, but ho would rather earn a hundred pounds in literature than a thousand in any other profession.