My First Book: / the experiences of Walter Besant, James Payn, W. Clark Russell, Grant Allen, Hall Caine, George R. Sims, Rudyard Kipling, A. Conan Doyle, M.E. Braddon, F.W. Robinson, H. Rider Haggard, R.M. Ballantyne, I. Zangwill, Morley Roberts, David Christie Murray, Marie Corelli, Jerome K. Jerome, John Strange Winter, Bret Harte, "Q.", Robert Buchanan, Robert Louis Stevenson, with an introduction by Jerome K. Jerome.

by Various

	PAGE
Jerome K. Jerome	[Frontispiece]
Walter Besant	[2]
James Rice	[5]
Julia	[7]
Mr. Besant's Study	[9]
The Oyster Shop	[12]
A Book Plate	[13]
A Wicked Sister	[16]
James Payn	[17]
It 'took off' from his Shoulder	[18]
Mr. Payn's Study	[19]
Count Gotsuchakoff	[21]
'Would you mind just Reading a Bit of it?'	[22]
The Servant came to put Coals on the Fire	[23]
Mr. Payn's Office at Waterloo Place	[24]
Killed by Lions	[25]
Clark Russell	[28]
Clark Russell as a Midshipman of Seventeen	[29]
I was a Child of Thirteen	[30]
Neatby	[31]
Anchored in the Downs	[32]
Some of the Crew	[33]
The Magistrates	[34]
The Wreck of the 'Grosvenor'	[35]
Mrs. Clark Russell	[37]
The Boatswain of the 'Grosvenor'	[38]
The 'Hougoumont'	[39]
Poor Jack!	[40]
Grant Allen	[42]
Fiction	[44]
Science	[45]
Andrew Chatto	[49]
A Shelf in the Study	[50]
'Thank you, sir'	[51]
I left it	[54]
Hall Caine	[55]
My MS. went Sprawling over the Table	[56]
Derwentwater	[57]
Sty Head Pass	[58]
Wastwater from Sty Head Pass	[59]
The Horse broke away	[60]
Something strapped on its Back	[61]
The Castle Rock, St. John's Vale	[62]
Thirlmere	[63]
Rossetti walking to and fro	[64]
Dante Gabriel Rossetti	[65]
Mr. Hall Caine in his Study	[68]
Mrs. Hall Caine	[69]
Coming up in the Train	[71]
12 Clarence Terrace	[75]
The Hall	[76]
George R. Sims	[77]
George R. Sims	[78]
The 'Social Kaleidoscope'	[79]
The Snuggery	[80]
Mr. Sims's 'Little Dawg'	[81]
The Dining-room	[82]
The Library	[83]
'Sir Hugo'	[84]
The Balcony	[85]
'Beauty,' an old Favourite, Twenty Years old	[86]
The Drawing-room	[87]
'Faust up to Date'	[88]
Mr. Sims's Dinner Party	[89]
The Newspaper Files	[91]
'Your Potery very good, sir; just coming proper Length to-day.'	[92]
Rudyard Kipling	[93]
Sung to the Banjoes round Camp Fires	[96]
Departmental Ditties	[97]
A. Conan Doyle	[98]
I was Six	[99]
On the Prairies and the Oceans	[100]
My Début as a Story-teller	[101]
'With the Editor's Compliments'	[102]
'Have you seen what they say about you?'	[103]
'Mrs. Thurston's little Boy Wants To See You, Doctor'	[105]
Mr. Andrew Lang	[107]
Lichfield House, Richmond	[110]
The Hall	[111]
The Dining-room	[112]
The Drawing-room	[113]
The Evening-room	[115]
The Smoking-room	[116]
The Library	[117]
Miss Braddon's favourite Mare	[119]
The Orangery	[120]
Miss Braddon's Cottage at Lyndhurst	[121]
Miss Braddon's Inkstand	[122]
At Twenty	[124]
F. W. Robinson	[125]
Elmore House	[126]
At Thirty	[127]
Mr. Robinson's Library	[128]
The Garden	[129]
The Drawing-room	[130]
At Forty	[131]
Mr. Robinson at Work	[132]
H. Rider Haggard	[134]
The Front Garden	[135]
Mr. Rider Haggard and his Daughters	[137]
The Hall	[139]
Mr. Rider Haggard's Study	[141]
Some Curios	[143]
A Study Corner	[145]
Mr. Rider Haggard	[147]
The Farm	[149]
Where I wrote my First Book	[151]
R. M. Ballantyne	[153]
Mr. Ballantyne's House at Harrow	[155]
Trophies from Mr. Ballantyne's Travels	[157]
The Study	[159]
Mr. R. M. Ballantyne	[161]
Looking for Toole	[164]
I. Zangwill	[165]
I sat down and wrote something	[166]
Arthur Goddard	[167]
It was hawked about the Streets	[168]
A Policeman told him to get down	[169]
Such Stuff as Little Boys scribble upon Walls	[171]
Life in Bethnal Green	[173]
We sent it round	[175]
Mr. Zangwill at Work	[177]
Editing a Comic Paper	[178]
A Fame less widespread than a Prizefighter's	[179]
Mr. Morley Roberts	[180]
Before the Mast	[181]
I Married them all off at the End	[182]
An American Saw-mill where Mr. Roberts worked	[183]
Defying the Universe	[185]
Cowboy Roberts	[186]
The very Prairie Dogs taught me	[187]
The California Coast Range	[189]
By the Camp Fire	[190]
D. Christie Murray	[192]
I handed him Two Chapters	[194]
I sent all my People into a Coal-mine	[195]
They invested him with the Medal	[197]
Consulting old Almanacs	[199]
She drew from it a Brown-paper Parcel	[201]
If there had been no 'David Copperfield'	[202]
The Stock was transferred	[203]
Some Novels	[204]
The Drawing-room	[209]
The Library	[211]
The Study	[213]
Facsimile of Marie Corelli's MS. as prepared for the Press	[217]
My First-born	[222]
Jerome K. Jerome	[223]
'He and you had to carry Lisa Weber across the Stage'	[226]
That Brilliant Idea	[227]
I hated the dismal little 'slavey'	[230]
The Study	[231]
I am remembering	[234]
Mr. Jerome K. Jerome	[237]
Three Soldiers and a Pig	[239]
John Strange Winter	[241]
Mr. Arthur Stannard	[243]
'The Firm' considering	[246]
He Squinted!	[247]
Miss Stannard	[248]
'The Twins'—Bootles and Betty	[249]
Long-legged Soldiers	[251]
Cavalry Life	[253]
I took up the 'Saturday Review'	[255]
Bret Harte	[256]
We settled to our Work	[258]
A Circulation it had never known before	[259]
'Consider them at your Service'	[261]
I was inwardly relieved	[263]
The Book sold tremendously	[265]
A. T. Quiller Couch	[268]
'Q.' Junior	[269]
'The Haven,' Fowey	[273]
Mr. and Mrs. Quiller Couch	[275]
Fowey Grammar School Crew and Mr. Quiller Couch	[277]
The old Study	[279]
Mr. and Mrs. Quiller Couch in a Canadian Canoe	[281]
Robert Buchanan	[285]
Mr. Buchanan's House	[287]
The Study	[291]
Mr. Robert Buchanan and his favourite Dog	[295]
Robert Louis Stevenson	[299]
Mr. Stevenson's House in Samoa	[301]
Mrs. R. L. Stevenson	[305]
Stevenson telling 'Yarns'	[307]

MY FIRST BOOK

'READY MONEY MORTIBOY'

BY WALTER BESANT

My first MS., therefore, was destined to get burned or somehow destroyed. For some years it lay in a corner—say, sprawled in a corner—occupying much space. At dusk I used to see a strange, wobbling, amorphous creature in that corner among those papers. His body seemed not made for his limbs, nor did these agree with each other, and his head was out of proportion to the rest of him. He sat upon the pile of papers, and he wept, wringing his hands. 'Alas!' he said: 'Not another like me. Don't make another like me. I could not endure another like myself.' Finally, the creature's reproaches grew intolerable; so I threw the bundle of papers behind the fire, and he vanished. One had discovered by this time that for the making even of a tolerable novel it is necessary to leave off copying other people, to observe on your own account, to study realities, to get out of the conventional groove, to rely upon one or other of the great emotions of human nature, and to try to hold the reader by dramatic presentation rather than by talk. I do not say that this discovery came all at once, but it came gradually, and it proved valuable.