Autobiography of Sir Walter Besant

Prefatory Note .. .I tis hard to speak of him within measure when we consider his devotion to the cause of authors, and the constant good service rendered hy him to their material interests. In this he was a valorous, alert, persistent advocate, and it will not be denied by his opponents that he was always urbane, his object being simply to establish a system of fair dealing between the sagacious publishers of books and the inexperienced, often heedless, producers. How unselfishly, with how pure a generosity he gave his valuable time to the previously neglected ofR ce of adviser to the more youthful of his profession, may be estimated by a review of his memorable labours in other fields. They were vast and toilsome, yet he never missed an occasion for acting as the young authors voluntary friend In the least sentimental and most sensible manner. He had no thought of trouble or personal loss where the welfare of his fellow-workers was concerned. .. .M r. George Meredith, writing of Sir Walter Besant in the Author of July, 1901. 4N autobiography should be its own justifica- tion and its own interpretation. There -should be no room for a preface and no need for any intermediary between the writer and the pubH cto whom he has designed to appeal. If it is necessary to add much to an autobiography, the author is made to appear to have suppressed things that he should have said ;if any passages are deleted, the portrait of himself which he proposed to draw is rendered incomplete.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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