"Sometime ago you kindly intimated to me that you would like to publish an article from me.At first, it seemed impossible for me to undertake anything of the kind, but I have found a little interval in which I have written something on Mexico which I hope you will think worthy of publication.If not, will you return it to me?"The President, too, acted as an intermediary in turning authors in Bok's direction, when the way opened.In a letter written not on the official White House letterhead, but on his personal "up-stairs" stationery, as it is called, he asks:
"Will you do me the favor of reading the enclosed to see if it is worthy of your acceptance for the Journal, or whether you think it indicates that the writer, with a few directions and suggestions, might be useful to you?
"It was written by --.She is a woman of great refinement, of a very unusually broad social experience, and of many exceptional gifts, who thoroughly knows what she is writing about, whether she has yet discovered the best way to set it forth or not.She is one of the most gifted and resourceful hostesses I have known, but has now fallen upon hard times.
"Among other things that she really knows, she really does thoroughly know old furniture and all kinds of china worth knowing.
"Pardon me if I have been guilty of an indiscretion in sending this direct to you.I am throwing myself upon your indulgence in my desire to help a splendid woman.
"She has a great collection of recipes which housekeepers would like to have.Does a serial cook-book sound like nonsense?"A further point in his editing which Bok always kept in view was his rule that the editor must always be given the privilege of revising or editing a manuscript.Bok's invariable rule was, of course, to submit his editing for approval, but here again the bigger the personality back of the material, the more willing the author was to have his manuscript "blue pencilled," if he were convinced that the deletions or condensations improved or at least did not detract from his arguments.
It was the small author who ever resented the touch of the editorial pencil upon his precious effusions.
As a matter of fact there are few authors who cannot be edited with advantage, and it would be infinitely better for our reading if this truth was applied to some of the literature of to-day.
Bok had once under his hand a story by Mark Twain, which he believed contained passages that should be deleted.They represented a goodly portion of the manuscript.They were, however, taken out, and the result submitted to the humorist.The answer was curious.Twain evidently saw that Bok was right, for he wrote: "Of course, I want every single line and word of it left out," and then added: "Do me the favor to call the next time you are again in Hartford.I want to say things which--well, Iwant to argue with you." Bok never knew what those "things" were, for at the next meeting they were not referred to.
It is, perhaps, a curious coincidence that all the Presidents of the United States whose work Bok had occasion to publish were uniformly liberal with regard to having their material edited.
Colonel Roosevelt was always ready to concede improvement: "Fine," he wrote; "the changes are much for the better.I never object to my work being improved, where it needs it, so long as the sense is not altered."William Howard Taft wrote, after being subjected to editorial revision:
"You have done very well by my article.You have made it much more readable by your rearrangement."Mr.Cleveland was very likely to let his interest in a subject run counter to the space exigencies of journalism; and Bok, in one instance, had to reduce one of his articles considerably.He explained the reason and enclosed the revision.
