1937
Writers Warned Against Ill Temper By Sinclair Lewis
New London, Conn., June 1 (UP).— Sinclair Lewis thinks it's a sign of bad temper when a writer, having become dissatisfied with a paragraph, tears it off the top of his typewriter.
"When I don't like what I've started to write," said Lewis, "I unroll the entire sheet and put in a fresh one.
"I don't think it's good practice to tear a partly written sheet out of a typewriter, it's a sign of bad temper. When you write you are your own master. A display of temper means you are quarreling with yourself — quarreling with your master. It isn't good to do that."
The novelist, touring New England by motor, recalled his first writing job on a Midwestern newspaper.
"I was fired from that job," he grinned, "but not until my boss was prepared to announce that my successor was already on a train heading for town."
—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, June 1, 1937, page 19.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Sinclair Lewis Warns Writers About Bad Temper
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