THE TRUTH ABOUT
AN AUTHOR
NEW EDITION WITH PREFACE
BY
ARNOLD BENNETT
Author of "How to Live on 24 Hours a Day,"
"The Old Wives' Tale," etc.
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1911
By George H. Doran Company
CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER X
CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XVI
PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
Sometime in the last century I was for several years one of the mostregular contributors to "The Academy," under the editorship of Mr. LewisHind and the ownership of Mr. Morgan Richards. The work was constant;but the pay was bad, as it too often is where a paper has ideals. I wellremember the day when, by dint of amicable menaces, I got the rateraised in my favor from ten to fifteen shillings a column, with aminimum of two guineas an article for exposing the fatuity of popularidols. One evening I met Mr. Lewis Hind at the first performance of somevery important play, whose name I forget, in the stalls of some theatrewhose name I forget. (However, the theatre has since been demolished.)We began to talk about the "Academy", and as I was an editor myself, Ifelt justified in offering a little advice to a fellow-creature. "Whatyou want in the 'Academy,'" I said, "is a sensational serial." "Yes, Iknow," he replied, with that careful laziness of tone which used to markhis more profound utterances, "and I should like you to write yourliterary autobiography for us!" In this singular manner was the notionof the following book first presented to me. It was not in the least myown notion.
I began to write the opening chapters immediately, for I was fascinatedby this opportunity to tell the truth about the literary life, and myimpatience would not wait. I had been earning a living by my pen for anumber of years, and my experience of the business did not at allcorrespond with anything that I had ever read in print about theliterary life, whether optimistic or pessimistic. I took a malicious andfrigid pleasure, as I always do, in setting down facts which are opposedto accepted sentimental falsities; and certainly I did not spare myself.It did not occur to me, even in the midst of my immense conceit, tospare myself. But even had I been tempted to spare myself I should nothave done so, because there is no surer way of damping the reader'sinterest than to spare oneself in a recital which concerns oneself.
The sensational serial ran in "The Academy" for about three months, butI had written it all in the spare hours of a very much shorter periodthan that. It was issued anonymously, partly from discretion,