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Re: An early interview

From: Zvi Har'El <rl~at~math.technion.ac.il>
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:41:40 +0200
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Thanks, I'll do it. Of course It would be benefitial if we have the
original publication data, if it appeared previously in the "Mail and
Express".

Christian Sánchez wrote, On 05/02/07 08:10:

> I typed it from
> http://archive.quincylibrary.org/Repository/ml.asp?Issue=QDW/1887/08/13&ID=Ar00700&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom
> <http://archive.quincylibrary.org/Repository/ml.asp?Issue=QDW/1887/08/13&ID=Ar00700&Mode=Gif&Locale=english-skin-custom>.
>
> If the interview deserves it, perhaps Zvi could include it in his site.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Christian Sánchez
> chvsanchez~at~arnet.com.ar <mailto:chvsanchez~at~arnet.com.ar>
> Rosario, Argentina
>
> ----- Mensaje original -----
> *De:* BGYKrauth <mailto:BGYKrauth~at~t-online.de>
> *Para:* Jules Verne Forum <mailto:jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
> *Enviado:* domingo, 4 de febrero de 2007 6:22
> *Asunto:* Re: An early interview
>
> Interesting. Can you give more detail about the publication as
> where did this Quincy Daily Whig appeared, what page of the paper
> and maybe - if you found it online - where? Or does anybody else
> knows about this text? On a fast look I couldn't find any text
> like that in this period.
>
> Brgds
>
> Bernhard
>
>
>
> mail from:
>
> Bernhard Krauth
>
> have a look at:
>
> www.jules-verne.eu <http://www.jules-verne.eu>
>
> www.jules-verne-club.de <http://www.jules-verne-club.de>
>
> www.bernhard-krauth.de <http://www.bernhard-krauth.de>
>
> www.bremerhavenpilot.de <http://www.bremerhavenpilot.de>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Christian Sánchez <mailto:chvsanchez~at~arnet.com.ar>
> *To:* Jules Verne Forum <mailto:jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
> *Sent:* Sunday, February 04, 2007 6:27 AM
> *Subject:* An early interview
>
> This interview appeared in /The Quincy Daily Whig/ (Date: Aug
> 13, 1887).
>
> Highlights:
>
> "Ah! the dates! they give more trouble than you can imagine."
>
> "I regret my ignorance of the English language."
>
> "I always give the Americans my best parts."
>
> ...a planisphere upon which M. Verne has traced in lines of
> different colors the voyages of his heroes.
>
> ------
>
> JULES VERNE AT HOME
>
> THE BEGINNING OF HIS CAREER AS A WRITER OF ADVENTURE
>
> He Owes a Great Deal to Poe and to Cooper - How He Writes a
> Story - A Terror to the Proof Reader - His New Novel.
>
> Jules Verne was born at Nantes, in 1828; to be precise, Feb.
> 8. He wears lightly his 59 years of life. His hair and beard
> are white, but his face is young, unfurrowed, and there is an
> expression of frankness in it, and in his clear, calm blue
> eyes, that always won a heart. Being a Breton, he was born
> with a profound admiration for the sea; at 12 he had read
> "Robinson Crusoe", and had begun to think of writing stories
> of shipwrecks.
>
> He studied law, was graduated at the law school, went into the
> stock exchange, not as one of the venerable institution
> created by an ordinance of Philippe le Bel, but behind the
> scenes, in it but not of it, like the gulf stream in the ocean.
>
> It had flashed his mind that he might go to California and
> seek a gold mine and find it, and then devote himself to
> literature; but as he was writing constantly, the Gymnase
> playhouse found something to accept in his mass of
> manuscripts. It was a comedy in verse, in one act, "Les
> Pailles Rompues", and it had been written with Alexandre Dumas
> fils as a co-laborer. Dumas is his friend. Mark this, for
> Dumas is not a prodigal of his friendship, and is a perfect
> miser at praising the work of others. I have heard him say of
> Jules Verne that if he were a foreigner there would be nothing
> too good for him in France. Jules Verne says that he has been
> fortunate in the friendship of Dumas and of an editor, Hetzel,
> who coached him, kept him in line, prevented him from making
> excursions in the domain of Balzac, ever since the day of his
> first novel, "Five Weeks in a Balloon", made him able to live
> by his pen. That was in 1862. Since then he has written fifty
> volumes, two every year.
>
> SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
>
> Had he caught his inspiration from Edgar Poe, whose influence,
> in the vivid translations of Baudelaire, has been great on
> French men of letters? Were the impressions of the brothers de
> Goncourt in 1856 similar to his own? M. Verne said yes, that
> he owed much to Edgar Poe and much to Fenimore Cooper, of whom
> he is an ardent admirer.
>
> His object was to write books that the young could read with
> profit. He had no pretensions to being a savant, a man of
> science. He read incessantly. Whenever he was in doubt he went
> to town to one he knew. Joseph Bertrand, of the institute, had
> been his adviser on many occasions. He would make errors,
> perhaps, but not very grave ones. I asked him if his stories
> were not worked backward, like Gobelin tapestry. He said that
> he never commenced to write a story without knowing how it was
> going to end. He writes the plot, then studies the details.
> The results of his studies are in notes of one word in
> columns, on sheets of paper, letter size. These words refer to
> books on his library or to other notes of ideas or facts. When
> he has become familiar with his notes, he writes the story.
> His manuscript is remarkably neat, on the left of a letter
> page, leaving a wide margin at the right for the dates. "Ah!
> the dates! they give more trouble than you can imagine." And
> the names? His proof reading costs a good deal of money to the
> editor, he says. He sends the original manuscript to the
> printer without an erasure, and there are eight successive
> proofs to be corrected by him. He is fastidious in the extreme
> with regard to style; that has to be absolutely faultless.
>
> HIS NEW NOVEL
>
> He goes to bed at 8 o'clock, gets up early and is at work
> until midday in his cozy workshop on the second floor, from
> which we saw a parade and review by the division general of
> the whole garrison. The men march with a swing of the arm that
> gives them dash and light airiness, something that makes you
> feel that their heart is in it or that they would throw it
> over an obstacle as a rider does to make the horse leap.
>
> "What made you write 'North and South'" I asked.
>
> "Fifty lines out of a few pages of the Comte de Paris' history
> of the civil war in America. The Comte de Paris and I have
> always entertained pleasant, friendly relations, and I was in
> sympathy with the north at the time of the war.
>
> "What material did I use? Everything and anything that I could
> find. I regret my ignorance of the English language. I have to
> use translations and translators. The story is interesting
> because it rests upon alibis and the key is at the end of the
> story. I have another work under way. I have thought that
> there was room for another Robinson. There is 'Robinson
> Crusoe', 'Swiss Family Robinson', the 'Mysterious Island'. The
> first Robinson is alone, the second has a family, the third is
> a company of engineers, men of learning. I am writing the
> story of a boarding school for boys. There are eighteen of
> them; fifteen of them are English, two French and one
> American. I shall place them upon a well fitted yacht, that
> shall be shipwrecked upon an island that is not well known,
> but exists. The eldest boy 14 years of age, the youngest 8.
> They shall have all the necessary tools to take care of
> themselves."
>
> "I trust you will make the American boy a fine fellow."
>
> "I always give the Americans my best parts. I have a profound
> veneration for the American people. I wanted to see it landed
> as it deserves to be. The American is to be the practical,
> progressive boy of the party."
>
> In the hall that leads from the stairway to the work room is a
> large chart of the world, a planisphere upon which M. Verne
> has traced in lines of different colors the voyages of his heroes.
>
> His entire work, when completed, is to be the amusing
> description of the earth's geography. - Paris Cor. New York
> Mail and Express.
>

-- 
Dr. Zvi Har'El      mailto:rl~at~math.technion.ac.il    Department of Mathematics
tel:+972-54-4227607 icq:179294841    Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
fax:+972-4-8293388  http://www.math.technion.ac.il/~rl/    Haifa 32000, ISRAEL
"If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all." -- Thumper (1942)

Received on Mon 05 Feb 2007 - 10:41:44 IST

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