WATCH Hottest Scene of Elisha Cuthbert  CLICK HERE for Instant Access Elisha Cuthbert Photos |
Elisha Cuthbert Photos Books: Martin Eden The Pickwick Papers The Sea Wolf |
it was tacitly understood that
it was to be a long engagement. They did not ask Martin to go to work,
nor to cease writing. They did not intend to encourage him to mend
himself. And he aided and abetted them in their unfriendly designs, for
going to work was farthest from his thoughts.
"I wonder if youll like what I have done!" he said to Ruth several days
later. "Ive decided that boarding with my sister is too expensive, and
I am going to board myself. Ive rented a little room out in North
Oakland, retired neighborhood and all the rest, you know, and Ive bought
an oil-burner on which to cook."
Ruth was overjoyed. The oil-burner especially pleased her.
"That was the way Mr. Butler began his start," she said.
Martin frowned inwardly at the citation of that worthy gentleman, and
went on: "I put stamps on all my manuscripts and started them off to the
editors again. Then to-day I moved in, and to-morrow I start to work."
"A position!" she cried, betraying the gladness of her surprise in all
her body, nestling closer to him, pressing his hand, smiling. "And you
never told me! What is it?"
He shook his head.
"I meant that I was going to work at my writing." Her face fell, and he
went on hastily. "Dont misjudge me. I am not going in this time with
any iridescent ideas. It is to be a cold, prosaic, matter-of-fact
business proposition. It is better than going to sea again, and I shall
earn more money than any position in Oakland can bring an unskilled man."
"You see, this vacation I have taken has given me perspective. I havent
been working the life out of my body, and I havent been writing, at
least not for publication. All Ive done has been to love you and to
think. Ive read some, too, but it has been part of my thinking, and I
have read principally magazines. I have generalized about myself, and
the world, my place in it, and my chance to win to a place that will be
fit for you. Also, Ive been reading Spencers Philosophy of Style,
and found out a lot of what was the matter with me--or my writing,
rather; and for that matter with most of the writing that is published
every month in the magazines."
"But the upshot of it all--of my thinking and reading and loving--is that
I am going to move to Grub Street. I shall leave masterpieces alone and
do hack-work--jokes, paragraphs, feature articles, humorous verse, and
society verse--all the rot for which there seems so much demand. Then
there are the newspaper syndicates, and the newspaper short-story
syndicates, and the syndicates for the Sunday supplements. I can go
ahead and hammer out the stuff they want, and earn the equivalent of a
good salary by it. There are free-lances, you know, who earn as much as
four or five hundred a month. I dont care to become as they; but Ill
earn a good living, and have plenty of time to myself, which I wouldnt
have in any position."
"Then, Ill have my spare time for study and for real work. In between
the grind Ill try my hand at masterpieces, and Ill study and prepare
myself for the writing of masterpieces. Why, I am amazed at the distance
I have come already. When I first tried to write, I had nothing to write
about except a few paltry experiences which I neither understood nor
appreciated. But I had no thoughts. I really didnt. I didnt even
have the words with which to think. My experiences were so many
meaningless pictures. But as I began to add to my knowledge, and to my
vocabulary, I saw something more in my experiences than mere pictures. I
retained the pictures and I found their interpretation. That was when I
began to do good work, when I wrote Adventure, Joy, The Pot, The
Wine of Life, The Jostling Street, the Love-cycle, and the Sea
Lyrics. I shall write more like them, and better; but I shall do it in
my spare time. My feet are on the solid earth, now. Hack-work and
income first, masterpieces afterward. Just to show you, I wrote half a
dozen jokes last Martin Eden page 87 Martin Eden page 89 |