HOW THEY CAME TO BE WRITTEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1917, 17 August 1888, Page 31

HOW THEY CAME TO BE WRITTEN.

In "The Story of Some Famous Books," by Mr Frederick Saunders, some interesting information has been gathered together concerning the origin of several well-known works. Of Poe's "Raven" we read :— We are all familiar with this remarkable rhythmic poem, but we may not be so well acquainted with its origin or its author. " When he died, in 1849, :) wrote his biographer, "literary art lost one of its most brilliant but erratic stars." He was at all times a dreamer, dwelling in ideal realms, peopled with the creatures and the accidents of his brain. The poem of "The Raven" was probably much more nearly than has been supposed a reflection and an echo of his own history. He was that bird's— . . . Unhappy nu&ter, -when unmerciful Disaster Followed fast and followed faster, till his songs one burden bore — 'Til the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore Of never— never more ! This remarkable poem was written, it is stated, under very afflictive circumstances : while the poet's wife* was rapidly wasting away with consumption at his humble cottage at Bloomingdale, New York. It was a spontaneous inspiration of the surroundings at the time. One of the healthiest and most instructive of books, says Mr Saundws, is " The Diary of John Evelyn," although ifc does not, in all respects, strictly fulfil what the term implies. Evelyn's " Diary " was found, among other papers, at his country seat at Wet ton, in Surrey. Evelyn has himself told us in what way the book originated : — "In imitation of what I had seen my father do," he remarks, when speaking of himself in his twelfth year, " T began to observe matters more punctually, which I did use to set down in a blank ahnanac." These fragmentary memoranda were, it seems, transferred from the blank almanacs to the quarto blank book in which they were afterwards found, and from which the work was printed. This quarto volume, still at Wotton, consists of 700 pages, written closely by Evelyn, in a very small hand, and comprising the continuous records of 56 years — a period the most romantic and stirring in

the English annals. Sir Walter Scott said that "he had never seen a mine so rich." And of Evelyn himself, it may be said that he was one of the noblest and most exemplary of men in an age not remarkable for purity and virtue in its high places of power. The manuscript diary of John Evelyn lay among the family papers at his country seat from the period of his death, in 1706, until their rare interest and- value were discovered in the following singular manner. Mr Upcott, of the London Institution,' was requested to arrange and catalogue the library at Wotton, and one day Lady Evelyn' remarked, a^,he had expressed his great interest in the collection of autographs, that the manuscript of "Sylva" would be interesting to him. Eeplying, as may be imagined, in the affirmative, the servant was directed to bring the papers from a loft iri the old mansion, and soon Upcott had the delight of finding among the collection the manuscript " Diary of John Evelyn "—one of the most finished specimens of autobiography in the whole realm of English literature. The work was published in 1818. Of Pope's translation of Homer, the same writer tells us that five years were devoted to- the work, and it proved a great pecuniary as well as literary success. The manuscript of his version of Homer's " Iliad," now in the British Museum, presents a curious illustration of the title once conferred upon the author, of " paper-sparing Pope," as the writing is upon the backs and corners of old letters and fragments and scraps of paper.