The Young Contributor | Page 7

part, will do well to realize this, and to receive all
the editorial suggestions, which are veiled commands in most cases, as
meekly and as imaginatively as possible.
The editor cannot always give his reasons; however strongly he may
feel them, but the contributor, if sufficiently docile, can always divine
them. It behooves him to be docile at all times, for this is merely the
willingness to learn; and whether he learns that he is wrong, or that the
editor is wrong, still he gains knowledge.
A great deal of knowledge comes simply from doing, and a great deal

more from doing over, and this is what the editor generally means.
I think that every author who is honest with himself must own that his
work would be twice as good if it were done twice. I was once so
fortunately circumstanced that I was able entirely to rewrite one of my
novels, and I have always thought it the best written, or at least
indefinitely better than it would have been with a single writing. As a
matter of fact, nearly all of them have been rewritten in a certain way.
They have not actually been rewritten throughout, as in the case I speak
of, but they have been gone over so often in manuscript and in proof
that the effect has been much the same.
Unless you are sensible of some strong frame within your work,
something vertebral, it is best to renounce it, and attempt something
else in which you can feel it. If you are secure of the frame you must
observe the quality and character of everything you build about it; you
must touch, you must almost taste, you must certainly test, every
material you employ; every bit of decoration must undergo the same
scrutiny as the structure.
It will be some vague perception of the want of this vigilance in the
young contributor's work which causes the editor to return it to him for
revision, with those suggestions which he will do well to make the
most of; for when the editor once finds a contributor he can trust, he
rejoices in him with a fondness which the contributor will never
perhaps understand.
It will not do to write for the editor alone; the wise editor understands
this, and averts his countenance from the contributor who writes at him;
but if he feels that the contributor conceives the situation, and will
conform to the conditions which his periodical has invented for itself,
arid will transgress none of its unwritten laws; if he perceives that he
has put artistic conscience in every general and detail, and though he
has not done the best, has done the best that he can do, he will begin to
liberate him from every trammel except those he must wear himself,
and will be only too glad to leave him free. He understands, if he is at
all fit for his place, that a writer can do well only what he likes to do,
and his wish is to leave him to himself as soon as possible.

V.
In my own case, I noticed that the contributors who could be best left to
themselves were those who were most amenable to suggestion and
even correction, who took the blue pencil with a smile, and bowed
gladly to the rod of the proof-reader. Those who were on the alert for
offence, who resented a marginal note as a slight, and bumptiously
demanded that their work should be printed just as they had written it,
were commonly not much more desired by the reader than by the
editor.
Of course the contributor naturally feels that the public is the test of his
excellence, but he must not forget that the editor is the beginning of the
public; and I believe he is a faithfuller and kinder critic than the writer
will ever find again.
Since my time there is a new tradition of editing, which I do not think
so favorable to the young contributor as the old. Formerly the
magazines were made up of volunteer contributions in much greater
measure than they are now. At present most of the material is invited
and even engaged; it is arranged for a long while beforehand, and the
space that can be given to the aspirant, the unknown good, the potential
excellence, grows constantly less and less.
A great deal can be said for either tradition; perhaps some editor will
yet imagine a return to the earlier method. In the mean time we must
deal with the thing that is, and submit to it until it is changed. The
moral to the young contributor is to be better than ever, to leave
nothing undone that shall enhance his small chances of acceptance. If
he takes care