HOW THEY BEGAN TO WRITE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1639, 4 January 1913, Page 9

HOW THEY BEGAN TO WRITE.

; '.An interesting symposium l on their first V ventures, in, authorship is being contril. butcd to' ''"£'. P.'s'Weekly" by well-known ;'•■•,.'iWriters.W'-: ;.'■:,'■. :■"•;.V-;' '.'.■'■ . -"I. was in, the .'country the summer V,-'before,' my fifteenth birthday, ; and was „j reading Hallnm's 'History of Europe'dur- . . ing tho;. Middlo Ages'—also 'learing Ital- '.., ( ."' jan," writes Marjor'io: Boweu. .'■■..; 'T caught glimpses of life and colour through the learned historian's severe and classic narrative, as I caught glimpses of beauty and poetry, through the Italian .exercises; and presently, apropos of nothing at 'all,. I ..began to scribble a stroy on tho back 'of, the exercises. ' ;■ "There, .were, two episodes in.- Hallam that: attracted me.particularly;. oho. contained :the history of Gian Galeazzo Visoonti, the •■ other that ■of Imilda Lamber- . tazzi and her'lover; they were supposed to bo the originals of Borneo and Juliet. ':,' This latter theme I chose, and filled the backs of the, Italian exercises through two copy-books.; Before I- had reached the y■. climax, however, of Imilda.finding her lover's body on the osh-hjeap, I had sickf. oned at my, work andftore 'tho. whole ;, thing. vr>." ■'■.■;..';. {'; '.Miss Bowen. continued to writo at intervals for her own amusement. One of .her stork* attracted the attention of her mother, who sent it to the publishers, and . to her surprise tho author,; while an art (student in Paris, woke one raprninir to find herself famous as the writer of "The Vinerof Milan." .': . .. Stephen EeynoMq says: "My first book ,wosn't mv first. ..That is to say. though' 'A Poor Man's Honsfl' was published first, 'The Holy Mountain'wag written ■ some time before it, and to me, anyhow, is . myifirst book. ' ■' , "; ; . "Curiously, enoup-n"r"although 'The Holy ■■':■. Mountain' is a Wiltshire.'l>cok. and Was' -..■. written in Wiltshire, it rievorthelfss originated in Devon. 1 ■' My. earliest literary friend, Thomas Sccco'mbe, ,: was' down West, end wh'lf> we were strolling over the cliff.?/ at Sidmouth,'. Ic/riVine; at, the steep, bold headland called' P'irli Peak. ' .h» remarked, with a lau=th: 'Suppose a hill like . th.it were suddenly to' risa in ;.' '•• T/onidon, . what ft diVuitm? svrrnnibl" ther" wonld be for it, to make money out of it! Think of the newinniors and the finandal syndicates. '.. .' W ; 'h"ltw cus- •'■•■■ tomnry generosity in ideas, 1 ho gave me '.. th"t one. . ■-. .-■ '; pffprw(iT'd= I fell illiend left <W.J-' , month. ...I think it wib the" strain of '•e- ---.'■'/ locfc-d roannfriruV'that brn'-o Hi"' doi- .•■':...' key's bock. I wandered back finnlb- to ,'..'■ i"r old school, tho . Col'e'v at D«v)Vs .. There, mr .former'.;pehooltni«tre«s nurse' me back fo.nlny.inc about with nens-nTid ,'-'... mner: "id I>y '•'lat time < se«e"n'''v'.o id"ji"'' gathered nil sorts of details Toiind ' . "it."- • '-''■ .'.■ ••- ■ " • " . fr „ v ;i „„.,- c r,-.i n.; ~,f1,n , .. 0...l \u„ ],'• , ■'■.'■only.got it nublished by refusing to sell.

"A Poor Man's House" without the ear- , lier MS. being accepted also. "My real advent'into print," says Kate Douglas Wiggin, "was a three-part story, nccopted by tho 'St. Nicholas Magazine.' I was seventeen, and why I did not consider myself a full-fledged author, embarked upon a successful career, I can hardly tell, but a period of common sense overtook mc, with considerable severity. 'All my instincts led 'me towards work with children, so I studied educational methods for a year and a half, finishing with ' a course of kindergarten.. Then,' most unexpectedly, I found mysrtf in tho position of organising tho first frco kindergarten work in San , Francisco. "On a certain: Ootober day I wondered to myself,. could I-writo a story, .publish it in covers, and sell it,.here and, thero -„for. a • modest price,.thc/profits- tohelp .towards the establishment of: a reennd kindergarten? , v Preparations for Christmas* were already, in the. air, rind as I ; fiat down at my desk in a holiday spirit ( J™"°i oi ] l n ffi *v tl»ys my'.real first book' The,. Birds' Christmas Carol,' the,simplest of all 'possible' simple tales." " ■-.' ~'