Frank Norris, 1870-1902: An Intimate Sketch of the Man Who Was Universally Acclaimed the Greatest American Writer of His Generation (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Norris, Charles Gilman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 133212951X ISBN 13: 9781332129515

Publisher: Forgotten Books, 2018

Synopsis

Excerpt from Frank Norris, 1870-1902: An Intimate Sketch of the Man Who Was Universally Acclaimed the Greatest American Writer of His Generation

At this time we were all in Paris. When the fam ily returned to California, leaving Frank in Paris to continue his study of art, he began writing me a novel in which all our favorite characters reappeared, re volving about myself, whom he described as the nephew of the Duke of Burgundy. I wish I had space to repeat this story in detail. It was written in the second person, on closely-ruled notepaper, one sheet slipped inside another, and the whole fastened together with a small loop of red or blue string in the upper left hand corner. It came to me in chap ters, rolled up inside French newspapers to save post age. Each installment was profusely illustrated with pencil sketches, mostly of myself as an esquire, a man-at-arms, an equerry, and finally as a knight. Plots and episodes from the works of Scott, Francis Bacon, Frank Stockton and others were lifted bodily, sometimes the actual wording was borrowed. I re member a sentence, The night closed down dark as a wolf's mouth, that years later I found again in the opening of a chapter of Quentin Durward.

Frank came home before these adventures were finished. He left the heroine lashed to a railroad track, and me locked in a neighboring switchman's tower. My story was never concluded, but it was to this time in our lives that he referred in his dedication of The Fit: In memory of certain lamentable tales of the round (dining-room) table heroes; of the epic of the pewter platoons, and the romance-cycle of 'gaston le Fox', which we invented, maintained, and found marvelous at a time when we both were boys.

He was nineteen when he came home and began to prepare for the entrance examinations of the Uni versity of California. While he was studying for them he elected to write a three canto poem in the metre of Scott's verse. It was the first writing of merit that he did. While still in Paris he had written a short article on the armor of the fifteenth century, and illus trated it, but it was no such serious attempt as was the poem. Ancient Armour appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, in March 1889, and he received nine dollars, - the first money ever earned by his pen.

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Product Description:

Excerpt from Frank Norris, 1870-1902: An Intimate Sketch of the Man Who Was Universally Acclaimed the Greatest American Writer of His Generation His earliest ventures into literature were more to provide a vehicle for his illustrations than for any interest he had in writing itself. Thus it was that his first novel, "Robert d'Artois," was written, - a crude amateurish effort that bore little evidence that he was ever to become a great author. But he loved story-telling, and his imagination knew no limitations. My earliest recollections are of the endless and involved stories of love and chivalry that he wove about my lead soldiers, to my never-failing enchantment and delight. There were several thousands of these soldiers, and each captain and lieutenant had a name and history of his own. In these stories there was an utter disregard of historical accuracy and sequence. Thus the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, the Cid and Khedive, Machiavelli and Corbullo the Saxon all lived and had their being together in this miniature world of lead. There were eleven years between our ages, and it is impossible to suppose that my brother found any lasting amusement in entertaining one so much younger than himself. Rather, I fancy, it was his interest in his own mental processes, and in the fantastic situations he devised. He would spend hours fashioning wonderful cannon, out of the thick handles of his paint-brushes, and the sides of cigar-boxes. These were painted ivory black with red trimmings, and christened "The Spitfire," and "The Peacemaker." He drew maps of the two countries continually at war, "Sparta" and "Rome," dividing them into provinces, carefully marking the rivers and mountains, roads and railways. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the wor

About the Author:

Charles G. Norris was an editor of periodicals, such as Coun­try Life in America and American Magazine and author of a number of novels, including Bread (1923), Seed (1930), and Hands (1935).
 
Louis Auchincloss is a biographer and novelist, among whose works are Pioneers and Caretakers and I Came As a Thief.

About this edition

• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 133212951X
• ISBN 13: 9781332129515
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 36