Authors At Work

The following article, from the pen of a former f ello w townsrnan, from the Author's Journal, is very interesting, aside from the fact that it's author is well known here : The charmingly gifted writer, Louisa M. Alcott, is said to have caredlittle for a "study" in which to write her won■ derful stories, the delight of all young people, especially girls. With most authors a "study" is a necessary convenience, but with Miss Alcott it was otherwise. A corner of a quaint room suited her quite as well as a more formal retreat. The plot of a story once conceived, she would sit down anywhere, so to speak, and weave the narrative which was to entertain and make better countless youth the world over. The kind of paper and pen to be employed in her work was of small concern to her, and all the table she cared for was an old atlas, or something of a like character, which she could place on her lap. Often she would lie awake nights, occupied in studying plots, and sketching in her mimi chapter after chapter of a story, eyen to the very language to be employed, so that, when she arose in the inorning, all she had to do w:ould be to write out the story. Only a few of Miss Alcott's stories were written at her home in Concord. She rnuch preferred going to Boston, and, hiring a quiet room at some hotel, or apartment house, there do the work which was so dear to her heart. It was no unusual thing for her to labor the better part of the day upon her manuscript, taking meanwhile scarcely a morsel of food from morniug uutil evenine. - o Hawthorne never bas any regular liours for work, and never retires to his study except when strongly impelled by a desire to take up his pen. And then, not always after he has gone t,o liis literary den and taken his pen in hand, would he be able to marshal the children of his brain ; loiagnin and again, would he discover his army but a shadowy host, as it were, unresponsive aiu cold as the snow of a winter's day. Whittier used to say that lie nevé liad any systein in liis literary work Only when an idea suddenly possessec his mind did he retire to his Rtudy, anc there atone heat, so to speak, put upon paper tlie lyric, or ballnd, born of tli spell which had fllled his soul. H was never in the habit of revising any thing - at least, to any extent- and hai no love for toiling over a given piece o work after the flrst draft was mad( usually sending his poem to the printe as originally expressed. But it wa different with Longfellow. ile usually passed the mornings in his library, workmg m a most systematic marmer; though, during the earüer portion of his career as a write, he wrote very much as the "mood" seized him. Several of his best remembered poems, such as "The Wreek of the Hésperas," "Excelsior," and "The River Charles," were composed late at night, or during the small hours succeeding inidnight. Longfellow was exceedingly painstaking in his work, and in everythiug he did the artist-touch is manifest in a very high degree. Henry James is a systematic worker, going regularly every morning to his private apartment and toiling until tlie early afternoon. He is slow and painstaking in his marmer of worklng, rewriting and retouching one day that which he has written the day previously. James is never satisfied with his work until he has applied the test of the artist to his performance. Yet, while slow as a producer, he accomplishes a vast amount of work and in a comparatively brief space of time. When sojourning at bis London quarters (he is a bachelor) he writes by the aid of two candles, as the London rnornings are usually very dark. After bis morning task, he saunters forth to bis club, where he diues. Howells writes until tlie early if ternoon. and then, laying aside liis pen, lic enjoys a lunch with his little íamily, after wliich, either alone, or in compaay -n-ifcli his wifa or Jaughter - or botüi- Ke igoes oufc íor a -luiet stroll. His evemings he devotes to social enjoyment wibh his fami'y, or to reading ; cccasi&nal'.y; he íittends ttie thoatre or listena to a concert. Mt Howells - as he is mot at all reluctant to etat - is a Blow producer, and yet hO is oble to writo acouple of novéis a year, in additiou to periorniin? a large amooint of miscellancou-s Uterary work. He revises very avefully, indeed, everytliing lie writes írequeaitly rewriting entire chaptersMany portions of "A Forc-gone Conclusiom" vrevo rewritten, more thnn twice. Mi-s. Burnett usually does lier work in lier litarary, bufe if necessary, Bhe can ■write elsewbeyei. She lias lieen bncwn, on irequent occasions, to writ in tlie Baima room Avith her family, ttueli' comversation dietuxMng lier not Ín i.lio loast, while now and' tlien, elie woiüd pause in her work to foia 'with otliers in whatever top-ic might lie undei" discussioin. Mrs. Bumett devotes ■ - fee ca-ly paart oí tlie day, as a rule o her literary tasto, aever deviating rom tliis practice, even thooigli not in tlio precise oiood íor Jier work. Sometimes síhe -rritoa the eatire rtay, but usunlly gixs the nftemoon io social untóles and outdoor recreation. Mu. iBapniett a a íast writef ; íor laetaaoe, "That Iass o' Lowries," 'Tbx-, Fire at Gramitley Mills," "Pret+y Polly Pomlertoia," and "Tlie l'ortune of Phi'ip Fairfax," wre -written Ín less tlian sixteen months. Tho editorial quarters of the Atlantic Monttoly, on P'ark ütreet, Bosfom, are m-ost uapretending, yet liere Avüien tlie editor of tliis magazine, Tilomas Bailey Aldrich did some of his finest literary ■wotfc. Bat Mr. Aldrich's study, at his homie on Mt. Veroon sEreet, ls quite tlie reverse oí th Atlantic sanctum, being richly furnished Tvith all tliat poes to make sucli a ilaeO the envy of tlie most fastidious. As any one -n-ould natural ly suppose, from thO rare mechan.ism and exquisito tlionglit and imagery monifest in his work, lotli in prose and in verse, Aldricli te always most cxacting tn his co'mposition, being unsiatisfied with aaytliin? he wrltes iijitil tlie last degree oí taste and ease lias leon exereteed in eeekins ta rende r perfect tliat cm. -n-liieh lie has leen toiling. Dr. Holmes, especially after resignSns liis pnofessorship, always did his litenary wort iu t3ie early part of the day. Wliion the ■wea.tlier was at all pleasant, lio UBTially took tx walk - wltli a rWe on thO Btreet car3 after - m alie anemoon, ana awnost every dny, even tO the last wesks of li.is life, 3ie ïnight have leein seen on the lmsy streets of Boston, -walking leisurely akng a keeoi observer of all tliat ivas takiiag pJace abo'iit hiaN ,TVhen at liiis üterary tast, upstaire in jhiB attrative etudy at his homO en Beacoa st., tliO amtocrafs thought camc readily. and iisually in a íorm to aiequire but little after ■.hangeTli( autocrat was yery methodical and fastidious in his work, and was content wibh anything he -vrote uatil h hatl made it as perieet as possible. Perliaps the quickest perfoi-mamcu over acconiplislied "by Dr. Holmei was the pom "Tlie Deacon's One wttli the narrativO, as he used often to rernark, "came ga'loping" Ilirough hls lrain. Tlie poern was composed at a single liat. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward is said to have neyer liad any real study, because she never cared for onè, unless, in snmuier time, an old barn at lier home in Andover, may be said to serve the purpose in question. Here slie is in the habit oL retiring at times for the purpose of working out some storj', or poem. Mrs. Ward is a fast worker, and accomplishes her task, as a general thing, with apparent ease, though she is willing to confess tliat everything she does "costs iminensely." Frank R. Stockton is a laborious worlipr. nsnallv devotinst the earlv ion of each day to his work. Much of the time duribg the past flfteen and more years, Mr. Stockton has suffered mucli froni weak eyes, and during these jeriods he has made it a practioe to dictate his stories to liis wife, a lady who is in tiiorough sympathy with her husband in his work asan author. George W. Cable is vet another exaniple of the laborious author ; however, ho writes on an average a thousaud words a day. He usually works from nine o'clock in the morning until four in the afternoon, pausing at noon merely to share a light lunch. There are days when his work consists simply in revising what he has written just previously. Amelie Rives-Chamber, wliose greatest reputation in the worldof letters has been irained tlironirh er novsl fintitled. "The Quick and the Dead," states that her best time for doing work is after midnight. She frank) y owns that there are periods when it is exceedingly difflcult for her to place her thoughts in proper form, though to her more intímate friends it is a veil known fat-t that ilrs. Chamber is a very fast worker. Bret Harte, whose creations read as if they had come f rom his brain witli out plan or hindrance, showing great brilliancy of thought, with graoe of the artist, is a writer who pauses lays and weeks even on a short story, it poem, before lie is ready to deliver it into the hands of the printer., a fact which speaks preat praises for the autlior of, perhaps, the most strikingly original short story creations which have yetappeared.