On the Art of Fiction One is sometimes asked about the “obstacles” that confront young writers who are trying to do good work. I should say the greatest obstacles that writers today have to get over, are the dazzling journalistic successes of twenty years ago, stories that surprised and delighted by their sharp photographic detail and that were really nothing more than lively … [Read more...] about Essay On the Art of Fiction by Willa Cather
Classic Articles on Writing
Fenimore Cooper Sucks at Writing by Mark Twain
Fenimore Cooper Sucks at Writing by Mark Twain It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English Literature in Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and Wilkie Collins to deliver opinions on Cooper's literature without having read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent and let persons talk who have read … [Read more...] about Fenimore Cooper Sucks at Writing by Mark Twain
THE POETIC PRINCIPLE by Edgar Allan Poe
THE POETIC PRINCIPLE BY EDGAR ALLAN POE INTRODUCTORY NOTE Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) was born in Boston, the child of actors who died while he was very young. He was adopted by a Virginian gentleman, Mr. John Allan, who put him to school in England for five years, then in Richmond, and finally sent him to the University of Virginia. He remained there only a short time, and … [Read more...] about THE POETIC PRINCIPLE by Edgar Allan Poe
I Am Not An Animal Expert! by Jack London
I Am Not An Animal Expert! by Jack London This is one of our historical articles from writers that we just had to publish. Jack London, one of our most beloved American writer's seems to have shared the modern day views of the media. Apparently news people of his day mixed London up with either a Zookeeper or Veterinarian. London was not thrilled will the assumptions, so he … [Read more...] about I Am Not An Animal Expert! by Jack London
Shakespeare Sucks! by Leo Tolstoy
Shakespeare Sucks! (or Shakespeare not a Great Genius)I remember the astonishment I felt when I first read Shakespeare. I expected to receive a powerful esthetic pleasure, but having read, one after the other, works regarded as his best: "King Lear," "Romeo and Juliet," "Hamlet" and "Macbeth," not only did I feel no delight, but I felt an irresistible repulsion … [Read more...] about Shakespeare Sucks! by Leo Tolstoy
Walt Whitman on the Significance of Edgar Allan Poe
EDGAR Allan POE'S SIGNIFICANCE By Walt Whitman 1880Jan. 1, '80.—Walt Whitman on the Significance of Edgar Allan Poe: In diagnosing this disease called humanity—to assume for the nonce what seems a chief mood of the personality and writings of my subject—I have thought that poets, somewhere or other on the list, present the most mark'd indications. Comprehending … [Read more...] about Walt Whitman on the Significance of Edgar Allan Poe
Interview with Mark Twain
This interview is from Hartford Daily Courant from May 30th 1888. Twain would have been 53 years old. He had just finished a new book.SHERIDAN'S MEMOIRS. Mark Twain Has the Book in the Works - The General Completed the Story Two Weeks Ago. AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW.A reporter for THE COURANT found Mark Twain at his home in this city, and asked him about General … [Read more...] about Interview with Mark Twain
Mark Twain on First Getting Published (1906)
Mark Twain on First Getting Published (1906) My experiences as an author began early in 1867. I came to New York from San Francisco in the first month of that year and presently Charles H. Webb, whom I had known in San Francisco as a reporter on The Bulletin, and afterward editor of The Californian, suggested that I publish a volume of sketches. I had but a slender reputation … [Read more...] about Mark Twain on First Getting Published (1906)
What does it mean to be a poet? by William Wordsworth
Born in 1770; died in 1850; graduated from Cambridge in 1791; traveled on the Continent in 1790-92; settled at Grasmere in 1799; married Mary Hutchinson in 1802; settled at Rydal Mount in 1813; traveled in Scotland in 1814 and in 1832; traveled on the Continent again in 1820 and in 1837; became poet laureate in 1843; published his first volume in 1793 and his last, "The … [Read more...] about What does it mean to be a poet? by William Wordsworth
When I Met Oscar Oscar Wilde by W. B. Yeats
When I Met Oscar Oscar Wilde by W. B. Yeats My first meeting with Oscar Wilde was an astonishment. I never before heard a man talking with perfect sentences, as if he had written them all over night with labour and yet all spontaneous. There was present that night at Henley’s, by right of propinquity or of accident, a man full of the secret spite of dulness, who interrupted … [Read more...] about When I Met Oscar Oscar Wilde by W. B. Yeats
Mark Twain’s Letter to Mrs. Grover Cleveland
To Mrs. Grover Cleveland, in Washington:Hartford, Nov. 6, 1887.My Dear Madam,—I do not know how it is in the White House, but in this house of ours whenever the minor half of the administration tries to run itself without the help of the major half it gets aground. Last night when I was offered the opportunity to assist you in the throwing open the Warner brothers … [Read more...] about Mark Twain’s Letter to Mrs. Grover Cleveland
Of Ambition by Francis Bacon
Of Ambition by Francis Bacon AMBITION is like choler; which is an humor that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stirring, if it be not stopped. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venomous. So ambitious men, if they find the way open for their rising, and still get forward, they are rather busy than … [Read more...] about Of Ambition by Francis Bacon
A College Magazine by Robert Louis Stevenson
A College Magazine by Robert Louis Stevenson IAll through my boyhood and youth, I was known and pointed out for the pattern of an idler; and yet I was always busy on my own private end, which was to learn to write. I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. As I walked, my mind was busy fitting what I saw with appropriate words; when I sat by … [Read more...] about A College Magazine by Robert Louis Stevenson
France by Gertrude Stein
Likely and more than evenly, unevenly and not unlikely, very much that and anyway more, this is the left over method. There is nothing left because if it were left it would be left over. This does not make music. The time to state that is in reading. There is a beginning in a lesson in smiling.What is up is not down and what is down is not reversing and what is refused is … [Read more...] about France by Gertrude Stein
About War Poetry by George Herbert Clarke (1917)
About War Poetry by George Herbert Clarke (1917) Because man is both militant and pacific, he has expressed in literature, as indeed in the other forms of art, his pacific and militant moods. Nor are these moods, of necessity, incompatible. War may become the price of peace, and peace may so decay as inevitably to bring about war. Of the dully unresponsive pacificist and the … [Read more...] about About War Poetry by George Herbert Clarke (1917)
Of Love by Francis Bacon
THE stage is more beholding to love, than the life of man. For as to the stage, love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of tragedies; but in life it doth much mischief; sometimes like a siren, sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent) there is not one, that hath been … [Read more...] about Of Love by Francis Bacon
OLD POETS by Walt Whitman
Poetry (I am clear) is eligible of something far more ripen'd and ample, our lands and pending days, than it has yet produced from any utterance old or new. Modern or new poetry, too, (viewing or challenging it with severe criticism,) is largely a-void—while the very cognizance, or even suspicion of that void, and the need of filling it, proves a certainty of the hidden and … [Read more...] about OLD POETS by Walt Whitman
THE WRITER HIMSELF by Robert Saunders Dowst
THE WRITER HIMSELF by Robert Saunders DowstCritical Faculty—Cultivation of Genius—Observation and Information—Open-mindedness—Attitude Toward Life—Prejudice and Provincialism—The Social Question—Reading—Imagination.Accessible as are the data of the fiction writer, the facts and possibilities of life, their very accessibility places him under strict necessity to sift … [Read more...] about THE WRITER HIMSELF by Robert Saunders Dowst
Talking About Realism by Robert Louis Stevenson
Talking About Realism by Robert Louis StevensonStyle is the invariable mark of any master; and for the student who does not aspire so high as to be numbered with the giants, it is still the one quality in which he may improve himself at will. Passion, wisdom, creative force, the power of mystery or colour, are allotted in the hour of birth, and can be neither learned nor … [Read more...] about Talking About Realism by Robert Louis Stevenson
Book, Authors, and Hats by Mark Twain
BOOKS, AUTHORS, AND HATS by Mark Twain ADDRESS AT THE PILGRIMS' CLUB LUNCHEON, GIVEN IN HONOR OF Mr. CLEMENS AT THE SAVOY HOTEL, LONDON, JUNE 25, 1907. Mr. Birrell, M.P., Chief-Secretary for Ireland, in introducing Mr. Clemens said: "We all love Mark Twain, and we are here to tell him so. One more point—all the world … [Read more...] about Book, Authors, and Hats by Mark Twain