So, as truth is not to be found in history, autobiography, press reports
(nor at the bottom of an H. G. Wells), let us hope that fiction may be
the means of bringing out a few grains of it.
The "hero" of the story will be a man born and "raised" in a somnolent
little southern town. His education is about a common school one, but
he learns afterward from reading and life. I'm going to try to give him
a "style" in narrative and speech--the best I've got in the shop. I'm
going to take him through all the main phases of life--wild adventure,
city, society, something of the "under world," and among many
characteristic planes of the phases. I want him to acquire all the
sophistication that experience can give him, and always preserve his
individual honest HUMAN view, and have him tell the TRUTH about
everything.
It is time to say now, that by the "truth" I don't mean the
objectionable stuff that so often masquerades under the name. I mean
true opinions a true estimate of all things as they seem to the "hero."
If you find a word or a suggestive line or sentence in any of my copy,
you cut it out and deduct it from the royalties.
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