LVIIADVICE TO WRITERS By Robert Benchley

Two books have emerged from the hundreds that are being published on the art of writing. One of them is "The Lure of the Pen," by Flora Kli kmann, and the other is "Learning to !rite," a olle tion of "tevenson#s meditations on the sub$e t, issued by " ribners. %t first glan e one might say that the betting would be at least eight to one on "tevenson. &ut for real, solid, sensible advi e in the matter of writing and selling stories in the modern market, 'iss Kli kmann romps in an easy winner. (t must be admitted that )ohn !illiam *ogers )r., who olle ted the "tevenson material, warns the reader in his introdu tion that the book is not intended to serve as "a ma adami+ed, mile,posted road to the se ret of writing," but simply as a help to those who want to write and who are interested to know how "tevenson did it. "o we mustn#t ompare it too losely with 'iss Kli kmann#s book, whi h is -uite frankly a mile,posted road, with little sub,headings along the side of the page su h .pg /012as we used to have in Fiske#s 3lementary %meri an 4istory. &ut 'iss Kli kmann will save the editors of the ountry a great deal more trouble than "tevenson#s advi e ever will. "he is the editor of an 3nglish maga+ine herself, and has suffered. !here 'iss Kli kmann enumerates the pitfalls whi h the andidate must avoid and points out -ualities whi h every good pie e of writing should have, "tevenson writes a delightful essay on "The Profession of Letters" or "% 5ossip on *oman e." These essays are very inspiring. They are too inspiring. They make the reader feel that he an go out and write like "tevenson. %nd then a lot of two, ent stamps are wasted and a lot more editors are ross when they get home at night. On the other hand, the result of 'iss Kli kmann#s book is to make the reader who feels a writing spell oming on stop and give pause. 4e finds enumerated among the horrors of manus ript,reading several items whi h he was on the point of in$e ting into his own manus ript with onsiderable pride. 4e may de ide that the old $ob in the shipping,room isn#t so bad after all, with its little envelope oming in regularly every week. %s a former member of the lo al manus ript,readers# union, ( will give one of three rousing heers .pg /062for any good work that 'iss Kli kmann may do in this field. One writer kept very busy at work in the shipping,room every day is a vi tory for literature. ( used to have a $ob in a shipping,room myself, so ( know. (f, for instan e, the sub$e t under dis ussion were that of learning to skate, 'iss Kli kmann might advise as follows7 8. 9on#t try to skate if your ankles are weak. /. 5et skates that fit you. % skate whi h an#t be put on when you get to the pond, or one whi h drags behind your foot by the strap, is worse than no skate at all. 1. (f you are sure that you are ready, get on your feet and skate. On the same sub$e t, " ribners might bring to light something that "tevenson had written to a young friend about to take his first lesson in skating, reading as follows7 "To know the se ret of skating is, indeed, ( have always thought, the beginning of winter,long pleasan e. (t omes as sweet deliveran e from the tedium of indoor isolation and brings e:hilaration, now with a swift glide to the right, now with a deft swerve to the left, now with a deep breath of healthy air, now with a long e:halation of o+one, .pg /0;2whi h the lungs, like greedy misers, have ast aside after draining it of its treasure. &ut it is not health that we love nor e:hilaration that we seek, though we may think so< our design and our suffi ient reward is to verify our own e:isten e, say what you will. "%nd so, my dear young friend, ( would say to you7 Open up your heart< sing as you skate< sing inharmoniously if you will, but sing= % man may skate with all the skill in the world< he may glide forward with in redible deftness and urve ba kward with divine gra e, and yet if he be not master of his emotions as well as of his feet, ( would say>and here Fate steps in>that he has failed." There is, of ourse, plenty of good advi e in the "tevenson book. &ut it is mu h better as pure reading matter than as advi e to the young idea or even the middle,aged idea. (t may have been all right for "tevenson to "play the sedulous ape" and ons iously imitate the style of 4a+litt, Lamb, 'ontaigne and the rest, but if the rest of us were to try it there would result a terrible plague of insufferably artifi ial and affe ted authors, all playing the sedulous ape and all looking the part. On the whole, the "tevenson book makes good reading and 'iss Kli kmann gives good advi e.