...comes by inspiration should note that Stevenson, referring to style rather than to matter, said : " I imagine nobody had ever such pains to learn a trade...gifts than almost any man of letters in the world." Often his best work was rewritten ten times. Here, in a somewhat abbreviated form, is the often-told...

...recent " Memories and Portraits," and in letters to friends, from which I am permitted to quote-. 1 Nobody had ever such pains to learn a trade as I had,...gifts than almost any man of letters in the world.' He does his writing under much physical difficulty, sometimes walking about his study in the whirl...

...(Scribner), does not disappoint us. For the secret of his art, we have his own confession made years ago : " Nobody had ever such pains to learn a trade as I had....gifts than almost any man of letters in the world." Admitting this view of the case, we have to congratulate ourselves on this devotion to the "trade"...

...undried along my field of noon." —Songs of Travel. CHAPTER VIII Learning to Write " TVTO one ever had such pains to learn a trade .*- ' as I had, but I slogged at it day in day out, and I frankly believe (thanks to my dire industry) I have done more with smaller gifts than...

...faddling hedonist," and its injustice has been shown by Mr. Colvin ; l so far as it ap1 Letters, L 18. plies to himself, it must be met by a contradiction....reckoned that his final copy involved ten times the 1 Mtmorits and Portraits, pm actual quantity of writing; in 1888 the articles for Scrfrner's Magazine...

...hedonist," and its injustice has been shown by Mr. Colvin ; 1 so far as it ap» Littirs, L 18. ,98 plies to himself, it must be met by a contradiction....reckoned that his final copy involved ten times the 1 Mimoria and Portraits, p. 121. 199 RLS actual quantity of writing; in 1888 the articles for Scribnet's...

...was playing truant." At his chosen pursuit of literature, however, he toiled incessantly. He says : " I imagine nobody had ever such pains to learn a trade...gifts than almost any man of letters in the world." As a schoolboy he edited magazines and wrote essays, stories and plays ; his first novel was turned...

...learning to write, " playing the sedulous ape " to many masters. In a letter to a friend he wrote, " I imagine nobody had ever such pains to learn a trade...gifts than almost any man of letters in the world. ' ' Genius cannot be explained as an infinite capacity to take pains, for without that something we...

...hedonist," and its injustice has been shown by Mr. Colvin ; 1 so far as it ap1 Letters, i. 18. 198 I plies to himself, it must be met by a contradiction....reckoned that his final copy involved ten times the 1 Memorisf and Portraits, p. 121. i99 RLS actual quantity of writing; in 1888 the articles for Scribner's...

...friend in America in 1887 he says that the latter took him nearly three months to write, and adds, " I imagine nobody had ever such pains to learn a trade...gifts than almost any man of letters in the world." All will agree, at least, that he "learnt his trade," 1 Reprinted in Virginitus Puerisque* and the...