The Writer's Book

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1918. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... waiting for some other thing to present itself, need cherish hopes of success, brilliant or otherwise. He has no right to expect anything, who only gives a part of himself to it. It was Goethe who defined genius to be "the ability to do hard work." < To choose literature for a profession he should be sure, first of all, he has the literary temperament and some ideas of business methods to base his hopes upon; going into it as though one expected to keep at it through good and ill re port, married or single, richer or poorer, male or female, because one has an inward impulse for expression that will not be denied its birthright. It is thus, only, one has a proper reason for hoping something may come of it eventually. Without this consecration of intent nothing ever comes of aspiration. The world is strewn with the wrecks of men and women who did not go into literature with any seriousness. They over-estimated, or under-estimated their powers, or were discouraged before the race was fairly on. But do not waste precious time learning an art so high as this unless you intend to make a life-work of it. Literature is a high or a low vocation, just as those pursue it elevate their work to artistic standards or cater to the sensational. Genius Must Use Tools Education covers a wide field. Some who never attanded school or entered a college hall are better equipped than those who have had every advantage; but such is not.the rule of life. Somewhere, somehow, a successful writer must have found a way to furnish his mind with intellectual culture. The shortest way is through the schools and established institutions, but some few minds are so constituted that they can not arrive that way. Such are not the audience we are supposedly addressing. One must have educ...