SAYINGS OF WRITERS

Evening Star, Issue 22721, 7 August 1937, Page 28

SAYINGS OF WRITERS

ELINOR MORDAUNT TOO THIN FOR CANNIBALS Sometimes we are inclined to think of successful writers ns superior beings, far above the peculiarities of ordinary folk—-but they have their human moments. as wo may learn from the things they have been credited with saying, says the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald.’ For instance, Lord Tennyson, to the chagrin of his worshippers, once declared at dinner: “One of the advantages of being Poet Laureate is that you get the best parts of the chicken.” Elinor Mordant was once, asked if she was afraid while travelling in the New Guinea wilds. lk No,” she answered. “ I’m altogether too thin to be suitable for any cannibal pot.” Winifred Holtby, when first beginning to taste the society of the literary world, wrote to a friend: “ Wouldn’t you think I were a real swell, moving in the high society? To tell the truth, 1 only run up and down, grinning like a dog, and come hack in between to wash the dishes and make myself a new dress for 11 shillings.” Fanny Hurst once admitted that she was nearly expelled from school for writing other pupils’ essays in exchange for the solutions to geometry puzzles; and J. C. Powers told an interviewer. “ I loathe society and have never heard a talking picture. I love using a broom and boiling eggs.” James Hilton, when complimented on the hardships ho must have undergone to obtain local colour for his novel, ‘ Lost Horizon,’ declared, “ But I have never boon near Tibet! What I did was get every book about the country that I could sot hands on. Then I just read them.” When in Sydney, Stevenson was asked by a hero-worshipper to explain a rather obscure passage in a poem by Browning. “ I’m darned if I know what it means,” said B. L. S., after a pause. 11 It reads like cat’s meat to me,”