BURNT AS THEY WERE WRITTEN.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume X, Issue 186, 22 July 1920, Page 7

BURNT AS THEY WERE WRITTEN.

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF , FAM OUS M ANUSCRI PTS. The adventures of some manuscripts, while passing from anxious author to prosfiective, publisher, have been so romantic that it is a wonder the literary world has not more often been robbed of its masterpieces. George Gissing used to relate the story of how <-m* of his MSS. while “going the rouml” wa« nearly lost at sea. The author h.-ul dispatched it to an American publisher. and was anxiously awaiting the verdict, when he received a cable intimating, that the MS. ha<l not yet “made port.” In spite of all attempts tq. trace it. no light was shell on its mysterious disappearance, then, just as hope was being abandoned, the MS. was unearthed in the hold of the ill-fated “Paris” lying on the Manacles. On-* of Bulwer Lytton’s MSS. also had a r-miantie career, notwithstanding that the author was personally conveying it to Lis publisher, but. lor some nmircountablo •reason, l- tt ii lying in the cab. Though the strictest investigation was made, m-t a single due could he formed as to its whereabouts. Some time al’tdr. just as the weany author arrived downstairs to breakfast, a cabby, with a brown paper parcel under his arm. was ushered into the room. Two hearts wen* lighter that tnorninji: Lytton's Idealise his coveted MS. hail come to hand, and the cabby’s because the rowan! received amounted to more tluiN be had ever possessed at any one jteriod of his life, not to mention the promise of a comfortable situation.

QUICK DESTRUCTION OF LABORIOUS WORK. Alphonse Daiidet more than onee lit his pipe with pages of) his MSS. At ooi. period of his- career, he had the tires-.me habit of scribbling his MSS. on any old strap of paper. Thus if happened that a servant finding some scripts on the floor, and thinking they wi-re worthless. rolled them into ■•spills.’’ Leisurely lighting his pipe one day, Dandct chanced to notice the familiar hieroglyphics jm a half-used “spill.” whereupon discovering that he was actually using up his MS. as lie wrote it. a’mistake causing him endless trouble. Carlyle, too: it is supixised, suffered the bitter experience of having his original AIS. of “The, Trench Revolution” used to kindle his fire, the handiwork' of a careless housemaid. Undaunted, however, he set to work' ana wrote it again. Diekens once lost a portion ol one of his novels. For almost- two months it defied the diligent search of everyone, eventually being unearthed from some rubbish in the cellar. One of Rossetti’s MSS. even had a term of burial in a vault. The author was so overcome by the death of his wife that he resol veil to bu ry with her the piece of work on which he was engaged at the time. Years afterwards the vault was re-opened, and the t\IS. extracted and published. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all ' in this respect was that which befell Sir Isaac Newton, when the fruits of ; twenty years’ incessant toil were deI stroyed in almost as many seconds, i His researches and formula* concerning ‘ a certain scientific discovery were nearing completion, and the papers marking the entire progress made, lay on his study table, when suddenly his pet dog, Diamond-, leapt up. overturning one of the candles. Before Newton ; could rescue the precious MS. the whole was an undecipherable mass of ashesi . .