For reasons that
I won’t go into now, I’ve recently taken up with the work of Nathaniel
Hawthorne (1804-1864). It’s curious to think in these hyper-political days during
the run-up to next year’s presidential election that are ninety parts promotion
and 10 parts substance (I’m not looking at you, Bernie Sanders!) of an American
great who, according to Malcom Cowley’s introduction of the 1948 Penguin edition
of “The Portable Hawthorne,” “was
reserved to the point of being secretive about his private life, and yet he
spoke more about himself, with greater honesty, than any other American of his
generation.”
More important to
me – and I would imagine to all writers and would-be writers – is this quality,
as described by Cowley:
“If Hawthorne in
his later years had a better, more flexible style than any other American
author of his time, the fact was easy to explain: he had learned to write,
first by reading, then by talking to himself, and most of all by writing a
great deal.”
Here is a
national treasure who talked about himself with greater honesty at the service
of art as he sought a deep understanding of the American condition. Hawthorne strived
to write his books so that ever sentence “may be understood and felt,” so he
said.
“There is nothing
too trifling to write down,” he said in a letter to his friend Horatio Bridge.
So put down your
smartphone and read a little Hawthorne. From a book. And then go ahead, talk to
yourself. Could be, before long, you’ll be writing a great deal.
Next: Running for Your Life: Roman Mood
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