Not George Washington — an Autobiographical NovelWodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)
General
Not George Washington — an Autobiographical Novel
Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)
Humorous stories
But at the end of the sixth month there happened to me what, looking
back, I consider to be the greatest piece of good fortune of my life. I
received a literary introduction. Some authorities scoff at literary
introductions. They say that editors read everything, whether they know
the author or not. So they do; and, if the work is not good, a letter
to the editor from a man who once met his cousin at a garden-party is
not likely to induce him to print it. There is no journalistic “ring”
in the sense in which the word is generally used; but there are
undoubtedly a certain number of men who know the ropes, and can act as
pilots in a strange sea; and an introduction brings one into touch with
them. There is a world of difference between contributing blindly work
which seems suitable to the style of a paper and sending in matter
designed to attract the editor personally.
Mr. Macrae, whose pupil I had been at Cambridge, was the author of my
letter of introduction. At St. Gabriel’s, Mr. Macrae had been a man for
whom I entertained awe and respect. Likes and dislikes in connection
with one’s tutor seemed outside the question. Only a chance episode had
shown me that my tutor was a mortal with a mortal’s limitations. We
were bicycling together one day along the Trumpington Road, when a form
appeared, coming to meet us. My tutor’s speech grew more and more
halting as the form came nearer. At last he stopped talking altogether,
and wobbled in his saddle. The man bowed to him, and, as if he had won
through some fiery ordeal, he shot ahead like a gay professional rider.
When I drew level with him, he said, “That, Mr. Cloyster, is my
tailor.”
Mr. Macrae was typical of the University don who is Scotch. He had
married the senior historian of Newnham. He lived (and still lives) by
proxy. His publishers order his existence. His honeymoon had been
placed at the disposal of these gentlemen, and they had allotted to
that period an edition of Aristotle’s Ethics. Aristotle, accordingly,
received the most scholarly attention from the recently united couple
somewhere on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. All the reviews were
satisfactory.
In my third year at St. Gabriel’s it was popularly supposed that Master
Pericles Aeschylus, Mr. Macrae’s infant son, was turned to correct my
Latin prose, though my Iambics were withheld from him at the request of
the family doctor.
The letter which Pericles Aeschylus’s father had addressed to me was
one of the pleasantest surprises I have ever had. It ran as follows:
_St. Gabriel’s College,
Cambridge._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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