10-15-84 PREFACE. LL lovers of books like to know something about the ALL writers of books. We cannot help feeling an interest in those whose works have delighted and instructed us, and we value even the smallest details that throw a light upon their character and mode of living. In the series of booklets of which this is the first it is the aim of the compiler to cater to this harmless appetite for personal information, in so far as it is harmless and does not degenerate into prurient curiosity; to present the reader to the man that underlies the author, as he appears in the social circle, in the privacy of his domestic hearth, or in public; to let him peep into his literary workshop in the moment of inspiration, or listen to his pleasant prattle about his books, his profession, or his fellow-authors; to make him play valet-de-chambre, as it were, with, I trust, no diminution of respect for the literary hero. It is the general subject of authorship that is considered in this initial volume, and a number of opinions are here collected in regard to its trials, its temptations, its draw backs, its advantages, which may not only be found of interest to the lay reader, but may prove suggestive and useful, it is hoped, to the literary beginner. And as the value of these opinions depends largely upon the fact that they are the views of men who have in their different degrees achieved some measure of success in their profession, they have, as far as possible, been given in their integrity with very little editorial interference. The compiler has furnished not much more than the string which binds the various extracts together. In conclusion it only remains to express the thanks that are due to authors and publishers (and among the latter to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., in particular) for permission to make the selections from their copyrighted works, without which this book could not have had a being. Some acknowledgment also ought to be made of the fact that in the preparation of at least two of these chapters, the compiler has found the books of the Rev. Francis Jacox a mine of information to which the present condition of the copyright laws has given him free access. |