WRITING FOR MONEY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 406, 3 April 1947, Page 17

WRITING FOR MONEY

Sir,-Dennis McEldowney says that "nearly everything that is written for the sake of making money is worthless and ephemeral." The history of letters is dotted with good work that was done to make money, Whatever motives Shakespeare may have had for writing the sonnets, he wrote the plays to keep a theatre going-presumably to make a living. Scott’s desire to be a country gentleman kept his pen going, and later he wrote to the limit to pay his debts. Compelled to earn a living, Thackeray tried art, but found his true vocation in fiction. "The spur of necessity made a great writer of him," says a biographer. With a family dependent on him, Macaulay practised as a barrister, but turned to literature. Think of briefless barristers and young doctors without a practice who have done the same thing. If Conan Doyle had been comfortably off, he might not have created the best-known fictional character of our time. I don’t suggest that money is the only motive. The urge to write is there as well. But lack of money is often "the spur of necessity." It forces men and women to use their talents. On the other hand, possession of money sometimes acts as a stopper on the mind, and books remain unwritten. It has been said that the worst handicap for a young man starting" out in life is to have £500 a year of his own. This applies to latent literary ability as well as to other gifts.

A.

M.

(Wellington).