FOIBLES OF GENIUS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6551, 7 March 1928, Page 9

FOIBLES OF GENIUS

Persons of genius Sometimes poa- I sess peculiar ideas and superstitions unknown to average people. • The lives of certain famous authors testify to this fact. Dickens was fond of •wearing flashy jewellery.; Walter S. Landor threw the dishes around to relieve his mind. Edgar Allen Poe was very proud of his feet. Joaquin Miller nailed al his chairs to the wall. Keats liked red pepper on his toast. Victor Hugo spoke very ditto and his remarks were usually questions. Robert Louis Stevenson played the flute for the purpose of tuning up his ideas Robert Browning could not sit still, and by tho constant shuffling of his feet, holes were worn in the carpet. • Longfellow said his sublimcst moods came upon him when walking at sunrise or sunset. Washington Irving never mentioned the name of , his fiancee after her death, cind if anybody olse did so lie immediately left the room, Thackeray used to lift his hat whenever he passed the house in which he wrote “Vanity Fair.” Alexandre Dumas the younger bought a new painting every time he had a now book published. Sardou imagined he had a perpetual cold. Hawthorne delighted in poring over old adver- I tisements in the newspaper flies. Dis- 1 raeli wore corsets; he always wanted | to appear a young man, and had a pen stuck behind each car when he was writing. Darwin had very little respect for books; he would cut a large .volume in two for convenience in handling, and would tear out pages ho wanted for reference. For weeks at a time 'Zola believed himself to bo an idiot, i In this state of mind ho did his best work. He would never accept an invitation to dinner, Bret Hart would hire a cab for the night and drive through tho dark until his struggle for ideas w r as over, so that ho could write. H 6 enjoyhd being taken for an old Englishman. 'Oliver Wendell Holmes used to carry a horse-chestnut In one pocket and a potato in another to ward Off rheuj matism. He was fond of trees, and sat under one whenever he could. I It is said that Sir Arthur Conan (Doyle never wears an overcoat. He spends a great deal. of time oh the | golf links. F. Marion Crawford used tho same penholder in writing, every one of his novels. He never wrote with any other paper pen or ink than his own, which he carried with him. Thomas B. Macaulay was fond of embroidered waistcoats, and had quite a collection of them. Voltaire would sharpen a dozen lead pencils before beginning his day’s work. Bjornson kept his pockets filled with the seeds of trees, and would scatter them in his daily walks, often trying to persuade his friends to do tho same. Count Tolstoy used to go barefoot and hatless the year round. Ho was also very fond of French . perfume, and always had a flower placed on his desk when he wrote.