Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson), 1854-1930 / 2008-06-11 00:00:00
EBOOK BOOKS FATAL TO THEIR AUTHORS ***
Produced by Anne Soulard, Eric Eldred
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
BOOKS FATAL TO THEIR AUTHORS
BY
P. H. DITCHFIELD
TO THE MEMORY OF
JOHN WALTER, ESQ., M.A., J.P.,
OF BEARWOOD, BERKS,
THIS VOLUME
IS
RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
TO THE BOOK-LOVER.
_To record the woes of authors and to discourse_ de libris fatalibus
_seems deliberately to court the displeasure of that fickle mistress who
presides over the destinies of writers and their works. Fortune awaits the
aspiring scribe with many wiles, and oft treats him sorely. If she enrich
any, it is but to make them subject of her sport. If she raise others, it
is but to pleasure herself with their ruins. What she adorned but
yesterday is to-day her pastime, and if we now permit her to adorn and
crown us, we must to-morrow suffer her to crush and tear us to pieces.
To-day her sovereign power is limited: she can but let loose a host of
angry critics upon us; she can but scoff at us, take away our literary
reputation, and turn away the eyes of a public as fickle as herself from
our pages. Surely that were hard enough! Can Fortune pluck a more galling
dart from her quiver, and dip the point in more envenomed bitterness? Yes,
those whose hard lot is here recorded have suffered more terrible wounds
than these.
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