author's unusual choices of manuscript paper

Manuscript Paper

The methods and tastes of professional authors in the choice of paper are quite as varied as is the character of their several contributions to literature. For example : The novelists, Charles Reade and Victor Hugo, preferred immense sheets of paper and the coarsest of pens ; while, on the other hand, both William Black and R. D. Blackmore cover dainty sheets of notepaper with their almost microscopic chirography. Charlotte Bronte wrote in the minutest of characters in a diminutive notebook, and Douglas Jerrold jotted down his witty inspirations on narrow, ribbon-like strips of blue paper. Charles Dickens covered every inch of his manuscript, as though paper were scarce and dear; in striking contrast to the historian Macaulay, who wrote on foolscap, and in so large a hand that six of his pages would scarcely make two pages of print. While editing Household Words, Dickens invariably wrote on blue paper with blue ink, but it is said that the remainder of the staff were somewhat unsuccessful in endeavouring to follow the bad example of their chief. George Sand wrote neatly upon nicely ruled notepaper, while Ouida covers large sheets of blue paper with an almost undecipherable chirography, written in an excessively bold and masculine hand. Some of Mark Twain’s jokes are said to have originally occupied entire sheets of cardboard; while a French author has described Balzac’s manuscript as resembling a circus poster. Lew Wallace writes his first d raft upon a slate and finishes upon large sheets of white unruled paper, in a most faultless chirography. Bartley Campbell scribbled off his famous play, “ My Partner,” on common wrapping paper, with a blunt lead pencil. Wilkie Collins wrote on very large sheets of paper, and his copy is said to abound in alterations, excisions, and scraps of pasted manuscript. Mr. Shorthouse, the author of “ John Inglesant,” is reported to have violated all the canons of the printing office by sending in the copy for that once-popular novel written on both sides of paper of various sizes. Miss Alcott did some of her best work on the back of her father’s old manuscript ; and it is a regular practice of a t least one popular writer we know of to have all his original book copy returned in order that he may utilise the reverse side for his next publication. “Some of our best things,” says the editor of a popular magazine, “ come to Us written on mere scraps.” Indeed, the manuscript of many authors is literally “ a thing of shreds and patches.” Such is Miss Braddon’s, who is stated to have penned some of her most thrilling passages on torn envelopes, or any other bits of paper that came to hand. Mrs. Lucy Stone Blackwell was accustomed to write her editorials for the Woman's Journal on the backs of circulars and similar scraps of waste paper.

Published by: The North London News and Finsbury Gazette, November 23, 1889

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