WAVERLEY NOVELS
A WELL-KEPT SECRET Mr., S. H. Ellis, in an article in the London Bookman, apropos tho Scott centenary, tells of the intimacy that sprang up between the author, of the Waverley novels and one of his imitators, the prolific G. P. R. James. On one occasion James asked Scott why he had chosen to preserve for a long period the mystery of the anonymous authorship of the Waverley novels. Sir Walter replied that the idea of secrecy arose partly from caprice, partly from policy: "I didna like, my friend, to spoil a tolerable reputation for writing bad poetry by gaining another for writing worse prose, and I took all the precaution imaginable to guard against the discovery." He added that eleven persons knew his secret, and not one betrayed him. " I restricted it to that number," he said, " for I was sure if I had mads it twelve there would have been a Judas among them."
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19320730.2.160.67.4
Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)
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158WAVERLEY NOVELS New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 9 (Supplement)
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