WORK " FARMED OUT " BY AUTHORS. Fresh Pacts About " Ghosts " in Literature.

Otago Witness, Issue 2317, 28 July 1898, Page 56

WORK " FARMED OUT " BY AUTHORS. Fresh Pacts About " Ghosts " in Literature.

Lord Byron, as we all know, was accused by some of his contemporaries of keeping a poet chained up in Ins cellar, and ot appropriating aa Ills own the poetical work produced by liis captive. Of the elder Dumas, too, it was said tliafc lie kept a number of poor authors at work to provide him with incidents and situations for his romances, while, to come nearer to the present day, many will remember that in a celebrated case some years ago a well known sculptor was accused of keeping a "ghost" (i.e., a secret assistant), who produced surreptitiously much of the work which he (the sculptor) represented as his own.

Are there any "ghosts" employed to-day? According to a contributor who has furnished us with chapter and verso for his statements, a good deal of this subterranean work is undoubtedly done in connection with certain hmds of literature. I recently (he writes) met. a journalistic acquaintance whom 1 nad not seen for some years. Finding his circumstances considerably changed for the better in the, interval (he had formerly been in v f-tato. ot chronic penury), [ ventured to inquire, how he was occupied. He, informed me that, in addition to ianly regular employment in a publishing house, lie obtained v large number of commissions for the. writing of short stories, verses, comic recitations, and so forth.

" For what papers?" 1 inquired. "For no papers in particular," he replied, with a smile and a 11 utter of tho eyelid. "To be candid with you, 1 am doing them for a man who was formerly a well-known writer himself. Of late, years he has drifted into commercial life arid is making his pile. But he is stiU a good deal bothered for contributions by his old friends on tho press, and while hu does not' like to reluse, he is mucii too busy to produce anything himself. " When, therefore, he happened to come into contact with me, it occuiTed to him that we might be mutually helpful So being a man of ideas, he furnishes me with a sketch of Avhat. he wants in tho way ot verse or prose. I write it for him, and he then trims it up, infuses sonic of his own individuality into it, so to speak, and then the piece- is published as his, which if practically is.

" Ho pays me. very decently for it, and I have nothing to complain of, fov his name to it gives i lie production at least half its value."

On another occasion (continues our contributor) a friend, whose principal occupa tion is the writing of songs and sketches for the music hall stage, mentioned that, he was at work on a certain drama which was to be produced on the boards of a well-known West End theatre.

"But surely,' 3 exclaimed, "Mr , the playwright, is writing the piece?"

" Of course he is," replied my friend, with a chuckle, " but he is not, doing all of it. He lias given mo a ' front scene ' to do for him, for he has so much on hand just now that he wouldn't be finished in time if he didn't give a little of the work out."

A " front, scene," it should be explained, is the (generally) brief action or dialogue carried on in a play frequently in a " street " or

" country lane," in order to give an opportunity for a " set scene " to be prepared by the stage carpenters behind. As a mere connecting link between fAvo important scenes or passages in the. drama, a " front scene " could be produced by an alien hand without greatly impairing the title of the ostensible author to have written the, phiy.

Less innocent were, the tactics adopted by a dramatic writer of much smaller calibre, who, being engaged simultaneously on a " curtain raiser " for a West End theatre and a pantomime for a suburban playhouse, and finding it impossible to get both pieces finished in time, " farmed out " nearly the whole of the panlomimo to two poorer writers, paying them less than half of what he himself was to receive for his work.

But as one of the " ghosts " remarked," the publio was quite sati&fied with the piece, and that, after all, was the chief thing !"