CALL TO AUTHORS

Grey River Argus, 5 August 1925, Page 8

CALL TO AUTHORS

“Talent will out” is one of tho few proverbs that have proved themselves consistently true. It is really wonderful, indeed, what obstacles it will somtimes overcome and by what strange paths it comes to compel recognition (says “Answers"). This is particularly true of great writers, most of whom started life in walks that were far enough removed from writing books. The world of literature sustained a great loss recently in the death of that great author, Joseph Conrad, but that loss might have been greater if Conrad had remained a seaman. Another extraordinary example ot this kind is Mr H. G. Wells. He had been a shop assistant and a school teacher before his first novel made its appearance. Among the ultra-modern authors one could cite Gilbert Frankau, once a cigar merchant, while further back we have Dickens, who started life as a boy at a few shillings a week in a bootblacking factory, and later was a lawyer’s clerk. Thackeray thought his forte was the brush rather than the pen, and the same applies to William Black. A story is told of Rossetti. One day he showed Whistler a sketch and asked his opinion of it. Whistler, thought it was excellent, and said sd. A little later Whistler sew the same sketch framed, and asked Rossetti if lie had done anything to it since he It st saw it. “Np,” said Rossetti. “But I have written a sonnet on the subject whieE I will read to you.”

“Take the picture out.” said Whistler, when the poet had finished, “and frame the sonnet.” Others, however, prefer Rossetti s paintings to his poems while a grea! many of us admire both.