Pulitzer turned to me and began to
question me about my reading. Had I read any recent fiction? No? Well,
what had I read within the past month?
I named several books which I had been re-reading--Macaulay's Essays,
Meredith Townsend's Asia and Europe, and Lowes Dickinson's Modern
Symposium.
"Well, tell me something about Asia and Europe" he said.
I left my dinner untasted, and for a quarter of an hour held forth on
the life of Mohammed, on the courage of the Arabians, on the charm of
Asia for Asiatics, and on other matters taken from Mr. Townsend's
fascinating book. Suddenly Mr. Pulitzer interrupted me.
"My God! You don't mean to tell me that anyone is interested in that
sort of rubbish. Everybody knows about Mohammed, and about the bravery
of the Arabs, and, for God's sake, why shouldn't Asia be attractive to
the Asiatics! Try something else. Do you remember any plays?"
Yes, I remembered several pretty well. Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra for
instance.
"Go on, then, try and tell me about that."
My prospects of getting any dinner faded away as I began my new effort.
Fortunately I knew the play very well, and remembered a number of
passages almost word for word. I soon saw that Mr. Pulitzer was
interested and pleased, not with the play as anything new to him, for he
probably knew it better than I did, but with my presentation of it,
because it showed some ability to compress narrative without destroying
its character and also gave some proof of a good memory.
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