LITERARY HUSBANDS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3597, 22 January 1883, Page 4

LITERARY HUSBANDS.

In an amusing article on this subject the Saturday RevicAv has the folloAving remarks :—"One of the most trying periods to Avives of literary husbands is that during which the bundles of manuscripts are travelling about from publisher to publisher. The husband can scarcely sleep at night, so anxious is he about the contents of the morning's post-bag. Of course, many days, and even Aveeks elapse before the first" publisher gives his verdict. At last a polite note describing his regret at being unable to undertake the publication renders the unhappy Avriter a savage in his family for a fortnight. Or perhaps a broAvn-paper parcel arrives, containing tho precious manuscript safe and sound, and also a slip of paper inscribed Avith the magic Avords, ' declined with thanks,' after the receipt of which the disappointed aspirant Avill be quite unapproachable for some hours, and "will be unendurable for many Aveeks. AVhen the well-travelled manuscript has been at last accepted, the Avriter falls into a state of eestaeyfor a time, but he assumes a bumptiousness that is not altogether agreeable to near relations. AVhen the proof's arrive the horrors seem to begin all over again. The husband shuts himself up for hours at a time as of old, and everything has to give way to the great undertaking. The entertainment of the oA'eniugs is to haA'c the book read aloud from ' real print,' this proceeding being rendered more attractive by the author's constantly stopping the reader by " AVait a moment! If you Avill give me the proof, I think I Avill alter a word there." There are also frequent pauses to ask the audience whether there are not ' too many whichesin that sentence,' or Avhether there ought to be ' a comma or a semicolon after the Avord "reliable," and the reader is ofter requested to begin again from the top of the page. The apparently interminable interval betAveen the return of the corrected proof and the publication of the book has no tendency to make the author lighthearted. He alternately wonders Avben it will appear, and Avhether he Avas wise in writing it at all. He has almost reduced himself to forgetfulness of the Avhole matter when the book actually appears. His wife's cares and troubles then become very similar to those of a nurse who has the charge .'of 'an invalid gentleman.' He is put into a fever by the absence of and reA'icAVs of his Avork in the first Avcek after publication ; and when no criticism of it appears in the principal journals for a fortnight, or perhaps a month, ho becomes infuriated with the publisher, avlio cannot, he says, be taking the slightest trouble about his book. He will also be much irritated if he docs not receive prompt and Aery favourable criticisms from the friends to whom he presented copies. He Avill not be able to understand why they have not throAvn all other engagements and occupations on one side, and spent their time in greedily reading lus book tuitil it was finished. He VA-ill be secretly angry, again, if any of his friends avlio profess to have read it Avith pleasure are found by no means to know it by heart Avhen put through a virti voce examination. It may be readily imagined that under these conditions the author is scarcely the most amiable and light-hearted of men in his own family circle.