The Red Room - August Strindberg (best summer reads TXT) 📗

Quite sober now, he lighted a cigar, drank a brandy, and went upstairs, quietly, gently, so as not to disturb his sleeping wife.

Arvid Falk decided to try Smith first, the almighty Smith⁠—a name adopted by the publisher in his youth during a short trip to the great continent, from exaggerated admiration of everything American⁠—the redoubtable Smith with his thousand arms who could make a writer in twelve months, however bad the original material. His method was well known, though none but he dared to make use of it, for it required an unparalleled amount of impudence. The writer whom he took up could be sure of making a name; hence Smith was overrun with nameless writers.

The following story is told as an instance of his irresistible power and capacity for starting an author on the road to fame. A young, inexperienced writer submitted his first novel, a bad one, to Smith. For some reason the latter happened to like the first chapter⁠—he never read more⁠—and decided to bless the world with a new author. The book was published bearing on the back of the cover the words: “Blood and Sword. A novel by Gustav Sjöholm. This work of the young and promising author whose highly respected name has for a long time been familiar to the widest circles, etc. etc. It is a book which we can strongly recommend to the novel-reading public.” The book was published on April 3. On April 4, a review appeared in the widely read metropolitan paper the Grey Bonnet, in which Smith held fifty shares. It concluded by saying: “Gustav Sjöholm’s name is already well known; the spreading of his fame does not lie with us; and we recommend this book not only to the novel-reading, but also to the novel-writing public.” On April 5 an advertisement appeared in every paper of the capital with the following quotation: “Gustav Sjöholm’s name is already well known; the spreading of his fame does not lie with us. (Grey Bonnet).” On the same evening a notice appeared in the Incorruptible, a paper read by nobody. It represented the book as a model of bad literature, and the reviewer swore that Gustav Sjöblom (reviewer’s intentional slip), had no name at all. But as nobody read the Incorruptible, the opposition remained unheard. The other papers, unwilling to disagree with the venerable leading Grey Bonnet, and afraid of offending Smith, were mild in their criticisms, but no more. They held the view that with hard work Gustav Sjöholm might make a name for himself in the future. A few days of silence followed, but in every paper⁠—in the Incorruptible in bold type⁠—appeared the advertisement, shouting: “Gustav Sjöholm’s name is already well known.” Then a correspondence was started in the X-köpings Miscellaneous, reproaching the metropolitan papers with being hard on young authors. “Gustav Sjöholm is simply a genius,” affirmed the hotheaded correspondent, “in spite of all that dogmatic blockheads might say to the contrary.” On the next day the advertisement again appeared in all the papers, bawling: “Gustav Sjöholm’s name is already well known, etc. (Grey Bonnet).” “Gustav Sjöholm is a genius, etc. (X-köpings Miscellaneous).” The cover of the next number of the magazine Our Land, one of Smith’s publications, bore the notice: “We are pleased to be in a position to inform our numerous subscribers that the brilliant young author Gustav Sjöholm has promised us an original novel for our next number, etc.” And then again the advertisement in the papers. Finally, when at Christmas the almanac Our People appeared, the authors mentioned on the title page were: Orvar Odd, Talis Qualis, Gustav Sjöholm, and others. It was a fact. In the eighth month Gustav Sjöholm was made. And the public was powerless. It had to swallow him. It was impossible to go into a bookseller’s and look at a book without reading his name; impossible to take up a newspaper without coming across it. In all circumstances and conditions of life that name obtruded itself, printed on a slip of paper; it was put into the housewives’ market baskets on Saturdays; the servants carried it home from the tradespeople; the crossing-sweeper swept it off the street, and the man of leisure went about with it in the pockets of his dressing-gown.

Being well aware of Smith’s great power, the young man climbed the dark stairs of the publisher’s house close to the Great Church, not without misgivings. He had to wait for a long time in an outer office, a prey to the most unpleasant meditations, until suddenly the door was burst open and a young man rushed out of an inner office, despair on his face and a roll of paper under his arm. Shaking in every limb, Falk entered the sanctum, where the despot received his visitors, seated on a low sofa, calm and serene as a god; he kindly nodded his grey head, covered by a blue cap, and went on smoking, peacefully, as if he had never shattered a man’s hopes or turned an unhappy wretch from his door.

“Good morning, sir, good morning!”

His divinely flashing eyes glanced at the newcomer’s clothes and approved; nevertheless he did not ask him to sit down.

“My name is⁠—Falk.”

“Unknown to me! What is your father?”

“My father is dead.”

“Is he? Good! What can I do for you, sir?”

Falk produced a manuscript from his breast pocket and handed it to Smith; the latter sat on it without looking at it.

“You want me to publish it? Verse? I might have guessed it! Do you know the cost of printing a single page, sir? No, you don’t.”

And he playfully poked the ignoramus with the stem of his pipe.

“Have you made a name, sir? No! Have you distinguished yourself in any way? No!”

“The Academy has praised these verses.”

“Which Academy? The Academy of Sciences? The one which publishes all that stuff about