LITERARY MEN

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14601, 26 February 1921, Page 10 (Supplement)

LITERARY MEN

SOME OF THEIR PECULIARITIES. Bret Harte, when the inspiration was on him, would hire a cab for the night and drive through the darkness without stopping until tin; struggle for ideas was over, and lie grew culm enough to write. Nothing pleased him more than to be taken for an englishman.

Bjornson kept his pockets full of the seeds of trees, scattering handfuls broadcast in his daily walks. He even tried to persuade his associates to do (he same.

Robert Browning could not sit still. The constant shuffling of his feet wore holes in the carpet. Zola would never accept an invitation to dinner.

Sir A. Conan Doyle, even in the coldest weather, never wear's an overcoat. When he givos an afternoon lecture he removes his vest, and buttons his Prince Albert coat close to his body, lie is a gulf enthusiast, and spends as much time as possible on the links.

F. Marion Crawford carried his own stationery, pen and ink, and never wrote with any other. He wrote every word of every novel with the same penholder. Edmund Clarence Sfedman had his favourite cat sit on a high chair at the table every day at dinner. Ernest, Rennn wore lii.s • linger nails absolutely long. Count Tolstoy went barefooted and hatless the year round, lie was fund nf French perfumes, and kept his linen scented with sachet powder. There was always a flower on his, desk as he wrote. Although very rich, lie wore the cheapest clothes he could buy.

Alexandre Dumns, the younger, bought a new painting every time he had a new book published. Edgar Allen Poe slept with his eat. He was inordinately proud of his feet. Of Disraeli, it is said, the older he grew the greater became his desire to dress like a young man. He had a pen behind each ear when writing. Thomas Wcntworth Higginson possessed a singular power over wild birds, and could easily tame them. Dickens was fond of wearing flashy jewellery. (diver Wendell Holmes used to carry a horse chestnut in one pocket and a potato in another- to ward off rheumatism, lie had a great fondness for trees, and always sat under one when he could.

Hawthorne always washed bis hand.-, before reading a letter from his wife. He delighted in poring over old advertisements in the newspaper files. Thackeray used to lift his hat whenever lie passed the house in which he wrote "Vanity Fair." Fardou imagined he had a perpetual Cold. Darwin had no resoect for books as books, and would cut a big volume in Iwo for convenience of handling, or he would tear out the leaves he required for reference. Washington Irving never mentioned Mo- name of his fiancee after her death, and if anybody else did so he immediately left the room. Victor Hugo spoke little; his remarks usually were made in the form of imestiotlS. Keats liked red penper on his toast, Longfellow enjoyed walking only at sunrise, and lo- said his sublimes! moods came over him at these limes. Itnberl Louis Stevenson's favourite recreation was playing Ihe flute, in order, as he said, lo tune up his ideas.