特征标识版块
参考代码
ALL/11/210
标题
Draft letter from Herbert Allingham to Mr Blackwood
日期
- 19-Apr-22 (创建)
描述层级
Item
尺寸和媒介
4 pieces, Manuscript
背景版块
创建者名称
(1867-1936)
文献历史
入藏或转移的直接来源
内容和结构版块
范围和内容
From: The Granville Studio, 61 Chancery Lane WC.
'After reading your letter of yesterday's date I of course accept your assurance that you did not consciously annex my plot.
What happened is pretty clear - you read my story & the main theme of it sank into your mind & was forgotten. Later when you wanted a new notion for a story you fished it out not knowing whence it came.
The facts are quite simple & no far-fetched theory of coincidence can explain them away.
Some time last year I submitted you the opening instalment of a story called 'Account Rendered'. Briefly this is the theme - A young man down & out is forced more by circumstances than by any inherent wickedness to become an imposter and impersonate the heir to a great estate who had been drowned at sea. When he arrives at the big house he is confronted by the most lovely girl he has ever seen. She is the sister of the drowned heir & at once accepts the imposter as her brother. '... She came towards him like a radiant vision with both arms outstretched and her face aglow with happiness.' That was my 'curtain'. Mr Goodwin's curtain is the same; the theme of the story is the same.
The fact that you solicitors keep your minds in a state of habitual receptiveness. You absorb any good ideas that come your way. That is why you are editors.
the idea of a man being desperately in love with a girl who all the time thinks he is her brother while he cannot reveal the true facts without bringing ruin upon himself is a highly dramatic one.
Your sub-conscious mind realised this at once & promptly poached the idea for future use.
As an illustration of how the editorial mind works let me recal [sic] to you a trifling incident not otherwise worth mentioning. At our last interview when you returned my M.S. to me you went over the story point by point explaining very kindly where it failed to meet your requirements. One objection you named was this ; 'That old rascal Tricksey, You make a lot of him but you won't want him any more in the story'. 'Oh' yes' I replied, 'he is the man who knows!' Instantly your eyes lit up - 'Oh' I see, Yes, then that's good. That's good!'.
A few weeks later you brought out a rascal in Answers. & you placarded all London with a picture of one of the characters - just the head of a man - & underneath 'The Man who Knew'. It is nothing in itself but it bears out my point. Like Moliere you 'take your own wherever you find it'.
Please understand that I am saying nothing against Mr Goodwin's story. I have read the first instalment with interest & I think it much more suited to Answers than my story upon which it is based.'
'After reading your letter of yesterday's date I of course accept your assurance that you did not consciously annex my plot.
What happened is pretty clear - you read my story & the main theme of it sank into your mind & was forgotten. Later when you wanted a new notion for a story you fished it out not knowing whence it came.
The facts are quite simple & no far-fetched theory of coincidence can explain them away.
Some time last year I submitted you the opening instalment of a story called 'Account Rendered'. Briefly this is the theme - A young man down & out is forced more by circumstances than by any inherent wickedness to become an imposter and impersonate the heir to a great estate who had been drowned at sea. When he arrives at the big house he is confronted by the most lovely girl he has ever seen. She is the sister of the drowned heir & at once accepts the imposter as her brother. '... She came towards him like a radiant vision with both arms outstretched and her face aglow with happiness.' That was my 'curtain'. Mr Goodwin's curtain is the same; the theme of the story is the same.
The fact that you solicitors keep your minds in a state of habitual receptiveness. You absorb any good ideas that come your way. That is why you are editors.
the idea of a man being desperately in love with a girl who all the time thinks he is her brother while he cannot reveal the true facts without bringing ruin upon himself is a highly dramatic one.
Your sub-conscious mind realised this at once & promptly poached the idea for future use.
As an illustration of how the editorial mind works let me recal [sic] to you a trifling incident not otherwise worth mentioning. At our last interview when you returned my M.S. to me you went over the story point by point explaining very kindly where it failed to meet your requirements. One objection you named was this ; 'That old rascal Tricksey, You make a lot of him but you won't want him any more in the story'. 'Oh' yes' I replied, 'he is the man who knows!' Instantly your eyes lit up - 'Oh' I see, Yes, then that's good. That's good!'.
A few weeks later you brought out a rascal in Answers. & you placarded all London with a picture of one of the characters - just the head of a man - & underneath 'The Man who Knew'. It is nothing in itself but it bears out my point. Like Moliere you 'take your own wherever you find it'.
Please understand that I am saying nothing against Mr Goodwin's story. I have read the first instalment with interest & I think it much more suited to Answers than my story upon which it is based.'
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