Author Description

From one of the world's greatest writers - expert counsel on the craft and career of writing. "Full of shrewd counsel to the literary novice....The writer of so many graceful and charming books and articles was peculiarly well qualified to warm the literary aspirant of the rocks and snags upon which such a number of promising careers are even being wrecked, and his lecture, humorous and even fanciful though it at times was, contained a good deal of sound and healthy advice which was calculated to point many a struggling author to methods which lead to success." -A.W. Hall, Great Thoughts from Master Minds, Vol. 1, Fourth Series, October, 1897 "Having been an editor, Mr. Lang has had abundant opportunities for learning the surest methods of failure in literature, and he points out several of them." -The Writer: A Monthly Magazine for Literary Workers, Volumes 22-24, January, 1910 "It is a book to be recommended to all literary aspirants. Especially worthy of study are the samples of machine-made poetry of three or four different types of badness." -Book News, Volume 8, September, 1889 "Some people might be inclined to remind Mr. Lang that he no authority on failure, that he has never succeeded in failing himself, and that therefore his advice to those who wish to fail can have only a theoretic value. That is a personal matter which we need not stay to discuss. The lecture was an apt illustration of his attitude towards the literary craft, of his detachment, to use a word famous by Newman, of his power to take an outside view of his own art. That power, too, explains his cheerfulness in the face of frequent disappointment, and makes him the sturdiest optimist among the critics of the day...Few will dispute the statement that the aim of the best fiction is to lift readers out of themselves." -The Publisher, Volume 7, Issue 60, January 6, 1894