Volume 1 - Electric Scotland

A FEMALE PEN. 495
courteous and friendly than Mr Blackwood. "Your
MS./' our kind editor says consolingly, " did not con-
tain more than the usual grammatical slips which
ought to be expected from a female pen "
Quite another development of literary life and
energy comes under our observation with another
voluminous correspondent, in whose letters the back-
ground and machinery of the profession, its trade
aspect and commercial interest, are brought very
vividly before us. Curiously enough, the extremely
active and energetic figure which reveals the ways
of the " trade," and all the methods of procuring
literary reputation and success in the Twenties, is
that of one whose name suggests nothing but a
mild kind of poetry, whimsically associated with
the fiercest of cognomens, Alaric A.— generally be-
lieved to be Alaric Attila—Watts. The poetry has
faded, I fear, altogether out of human recollection,
but not the name, which owes its tenacity, probably,
rather to its alarming character than to the gentle
productions of its owner. Alaric, however, had
entered very early into the literary lists, and de-
scribes himself as having charge at twenty of the
'New Monthly Magazine,' one of several periodicals
set on foot by Mr Colburn, the London publisher,
from whose ofiice came forth almost all the array
of fashionable novels—a number which nowadays we
should consider insignificant, but which then seemed
prodigious ; and whose methods of calling attention to
the productions issued under his name were the
scandal and admiration of the literary world, de-
nounced on all sides, yet quickly developed into a
powerful system. The first letter I find of Watts
!