The Affable Stranger

The Affable Stranger

To make clear the purpose of this book and to suggest possibilities to the reader the author offers the following article which was published in the Toronto Globe. Most of the chapters first appeared in the same journal. Ekfrid, July 28.This morning I got up feeling singularly cheerful and care-free. And no wonder. Yesterday I got even with the worldsaid everything I wanted to say about it right down to the last word. This morning I feel that I am making a fresh start with all scores paid, and I don't care whether school keeps or not. The explanation of this unusual state of mind is quite simple. Yesterday I finished writing a book, in which I said just what I wanted to saysaid what I have been aching to say for yearsabout the world and things in general. No matter what happens to the book, it has already served its purpose. It has rid my mind of "the perilous stuff, etc.," that accumulated during the war and since. And the result has been so refreshing that I have no hesitation in recommending the book cure to every one. Nowadays any one can write a book, and most every one does. The mistake is in regarding the book as a literary venture. What you should do is to make a pad of paper and a lead pencil your father confessor and ease your mind of its worries. When the book is done, you can send it out into the wilderness as the Israelites sent the scapegoatbearing your sins with it. Then you can make a fresh start. If you don't want to publish itthough publication seems necessary to complete absolutionyou can tie a stone to it and throw it into the lake, or do it up in a parcel and leave it for some one to find, just as boys used to do with neat parcels in which they placed pebbles on which they had rubbed their wartshoping in that way to rid themselves of warts. I know there are some old-fashioned people who will be shocked at this levity in speaking of books, but they should waken up to the fact that since the coming of the wood-pulp era no particular merit attaches to writing a book. And if books can be given a medicinal value to take the place of their old-time literary value, why shouldn't we recognize the fact? Anyway, the writing of a book put me in the frame of mind to parody Sir Sidney Smith and exclaim: ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 48128
Author: McArthur, Peter
Release Date: Feb 1, 2015
Format: eBook
Language: English