HOW "LITERARY FELLOWS" GET RICH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 38, 8 July 1892, Page 11

HOW "LITERARY FELLOWS" GET RICH.

E. P. Powell tells how, in the Bt Louis Globe-Democrat. No book went from press 200 years ago, he says, without at onje bringing its writer into notoriety, It was sure to be read, whether witty or worthless, scurrilous or honourable. But a book now is not likely to be read. New York City alone has probably 1,000 authors in its population that could not be named as such by 100 readers. There are many who do not care to be read ; only to be known as having written a book. Wealthy fellows publish at their own expense a richly-bound, richly-printed, purchased manuscript, with their names on the title pages. Ambitious fathers pay for editions de luxe to secure their boys a position in literary circles. Those who publish for money are a multitude, those who get it are a small minority. The most successful rarely receive beyond 2,000 dols a year. Even th« story writers do not reap ready fortunes. Henry James is one of the most prosperous, but he is said to economise—and is a bachelor. Howells' salary is one of the largeßt, and he is an exception to the scrubbers. But Bayard Taylor did a large amount of scrub work, because he must in order to carry out any of his ideals. He despised it, but submitted. I believe when be died he held no one of his literary works to be really his best possibility, except Deukalion and a few of his minor poems. Whittier set an example, which many are now following, of working at the hub, but living at the end of one of the spokes. It is possible for a literary man to live in the country in these days of sure mails and reach the public freely. In this way a moderate income does not cramp his intellectual labour. Whittier is a farmer as well as a poet. E. P. Roe made large sums, but he followed tbe work of a nurseryman. His first zeal was for cross-breeding plants and originating a new berry. But he died bankrupt. John Burroughs cannot get enough for his books to keep him in clover, bo he has gone up tbe Hudson to plant vineß and grow grapes. He is an enthusiast in horticulture. Emerson was Buburban in taste, and in that way managed to live on less than a thousand a year. He died worth about 30,000 dola. Lowell, also, like most of the Boston literati, was suburban in taata

and did not depend on hia pen for an income. Holmes was fairly rich by inheritance, and has lived on his profession. James Parton never took in more than 6,000 for any of his literary ventures, which is small pay for the outlay of work ; his " Voltaire " occupied him the better part of twenty years. Stedman is not only poet and edi'or, but a stockbroker. Higginson, earns about 2,000 dols a year, and is one of the ablest and most successful of our journalistic writers. The list might be enlarged in every direction ; and it would be fotfnd that the best workers are not to be envied from a merely financial standpoint. It would be criminal to advise a young person who had not had exceptional advantages and a special gift of expression to undertake to win fortune with a pen. The real charm of authorship must lie in securiog a moderate safe income to warrant devotion to favonrite studies. If a man can feel that he is really doing that which is worth the while for others and himself he has compensation. But let no one imagine that be can secure any footing in journalism if he fails to do his best in whatever direction he turns. .Of course his daily or weekly article cannot be a masterpiece, but it must at least be sincere, strong, vital. That literature is to be a payiug profession is true only for those who give it a life of preparation and service. Too much emphasis cannot be laid on this point, for the most woe-begone failure is the literature han-ger-on — the seedy creature — who has half starved in order to astonish the world ; who believes he has got it in him, if some one else would only believe the same ; whose returned articles he believes are never justly considered ; devitalised and yet ambitious to the dregs ; falling back at last on stimulants and narcotics, trying to prove himself a genius. The trouble is not that be lacks talent, in all probability, but he lacks drill, tact, cultnre, art. It is as foolish to advise young men in a general way to undertake authorship, as it would be to advise them to undertake music. — Pilot.