登陆注册
5696800000008

第8章

Just here the other day, when I was preparing the material for this little book, I happened upon an advertisement in a New York paper of an auction sale of a collection of so-called dime novels, dating back to the old Beadle's Boy's Library in the early eighties and coming on down through the years into the generation when Nick and Old Cap were succeeding some of the earlier favorites.I read off a few of the leading titles upon the list:

Bronze Jack, the California Thoroughbred; or, The Lost City of the Basaltic Buttes.A strange story of a desperate adventure after fortune in the weird, wild Apache land.By Albert W. Aiken.

Tombstone Dick, the Train Pilot; or, The Traitor's Trail.A story of the Arizona Wilds.By Ned Buntline.

The Tarantula of Taos; or, Giant George's Revenge.A tale of Sardine-box City, Arizona.By Major Sam S. (Buckskin Sam) Hall.

Redtop Rube, the Vigilante Prince; or, The Black Regulators of Arizona.By Major E. L. St. Vrain.

Old Grizzly Adams, the Bear Tamer; or, The Monarch of the Mountains.

Deadly Eye and the Prairie Rover.

Arizona Joe, the Boy Pard of Texas Jack.

Pacific Pete, the Prince of the Revolver.

Kit Carson, King of the Guides.

Leadville Nick, the Boy Sport; or, The Mad Miner's Revenge.

Lighthouse Lige; or, The Firebrand of the Everglades.

The Desperate Dozen; or, The Fair Fiend.

Nighthawk Kit; or, The Daughter of the Ranch.

Joaquin, the Saddle King.

Mustang Sam, the Wild Rider of the Plains.

Adventures of Wild Bill, the Pistol Prince, from Youth to his Death by Assassination.Deeds of Daring, Adventure and Thrilling Incidents in the Life of J. B. Hickok, known to the World as Wild Bill.

These titles and many another did I read, and reading them my mind slid back along a groove in my brain to a certain stable loft in a certain Kentucky town, and I said to myself that if I had a boy--say, about twelve or fourteen years old--I would go to this auction and bid in these books and I would back them up and reenforce them with some of the best of the collected works of Nick Carter and Cap Collier and Nick Carter, Jr., and Frank Reade, and I would buy, if I could find it anywhere, a certain paper-backed volume dealing with the life of the James boys--not Henry and William, but Jesse and Frank--which I read ever so long ago; and I would confer the whole lot of them upon that offspring of mine and I would say to him:

"Here, my son, is something for you; a rare and precious gift.

Read these volumes openly.Never mind the crude style in which most of them are written.It can't be any worse than the stilted and artificial style in which your school reader is written; and, anyhow, if you are ever going to be a writer, style is a thing which you laboriously must learn, and then having acquired added wisdom you will forget part of it and chuck the rest of it out of the window and acquire a style of your own, which merely is another way of saying that if you have good taste to start with you will have what is called style in writing, and if you haven't that sense of good taste you won't have a style and nothing can give it to you.

"Read them for the thrills that are in them.Read them, remembering that if this country had not had a pioneer breed of Buckskin Sams and Deadwood Dicks we should have had no native school of dime novelists.Read them for their brisk and stirring movement; for the spirit of outdoor adventure and life which crowds them; for their swift but logical processions of sequences; for the phases of pioneer Americanism they rawly but graphically portray, and for their moral values.Read them along with your Coopers and your Ivanhoe and your Mayne Reids.Read them through, and perhaps some day, if fortune is kinder to you than ever it was to your father, with a background behind you and a vision before you, you may be inspired to sit down and write a dime novel of your own almost good enough to be worthy of mention in the same breath with the two greatest adventure stories--dollar-sized dime novels is what they really are--that ever were written; written, both of them, by sure-enough writing men, who, I'm sure, must have based their moods and their modes upon the memories of the dime novels which they, they in their turn, read when they were boys of your age.

"I refer, my son, to a book called Huckleberry Finn, and to a book called Treasure Island."

同类推荐
  • 海忠介公全集

    海忠介公全集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 秋日题窦员外崇德里

    秋日题窦员外崇德里

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大乘四斋日

    大乘四斋日

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 吴江雪

    吴江雪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 苻坚论上

    苻坚论上

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 快穿之媳妇快到碗里来

    快穿之媳妇快到碗里来

    没做任务前:祁烨:“啧,死了还要被虐,劳资愿意用一个亿换一个对象!”“祁爷,你看我怎么样?”一个身材火辣的女人围了上来,祁烨一掌将围上来的女人拍飞。“莫挨老子!”做了任务后:祁烨:“我觉得这个媳妇儿很熟悉!”系统:“你想多了。”某女子有些委屈的看了系统一眼。后来,系统变成了一个只听祁烨话的傀儡。“难道没有人告诉过你,劳资最受不了的就是媳妇儿受委屈?”“……”“欺负了我媳妇儿,你觉得后果是什么?”“祁爷求放过!”这是一个没(心)心(思)没(缜)肺(密)大少爷爱上一个天(误)孤(入)煞(异)星(世)的妹子的故事。
  • 毒败

    毒败

    她死了。三秒钟前还跳动着的心脏,此刻静止。大家犹如一尊尊冰冷的雕像,视线交汇于尸体。目瞪口呆,时间也仿佛凝住不动。陈天瑜鼻尖上细细的汗珠,是寂静里唯一的活跃。她悄然扫了一遍众人。叹息,轻声、隐蔽。身边的李笑薇把头埋进她的背后,好深,生怕抬起头,又见这恐怖的画面。屋子里唯一的男生面无血色,男子汉的样子半点无存。鑫蕾垂着头,手里的纸牌随同她的手指一起哆嗦,“咔咔”作响。四下无声,天旋地暗。
  • 晚唱

    晚唱

    本书为杨虎先生的中短篇小说集,内容上以乡村题材为主,在农耕生活背景下,抒写了乡村中存在的问题,特殊人物的传奇事迹,以及农人热烈而又纯真的感情,读之令人感喟。
  • 皇家女配

    皇家女配

    一朝穿越成定国公府的二姑娘,人人道她心狠手辣,五行缺德,口是心非,坏事做尽的毒莲花!亲娘爱打扮,整日不着调。亲爹太懦弱,带着妾室儿子躲清闲。大伯母自私狡诈难对付,堂姐貌美如花心机深。前边是狼,后边是虎,董徽瑜扶额叹息,穿成小说中的恶毒炮灰女配,实在是伤不起。女配,永远是男主真爱下的炮灰!女配,永远是女主光环下的陪衬!女配,永远是歹毒阴狠的代名词!女配,永远是手段用尽却一场空!董徽瑜握拳,谁要让我成炮灰,我就把谁炮灰掉!女主?您一边歇歇去吧,整日演戏累不累啊?男主?出门右拐阳关道,大路朝天各走一边!哎哎哎,别拉我,你的真爱不是我,男主大人擦亮眼啊!喂喂喂,快站住,男配美男你别跑,咱俩才是一家亲啊!
  • 狐狸的潇洒日子

    狐狸的潇洒日子

    她是一只流浪的小狐狸,被他捡到,看她精灵乖巧的样子,便施法让她生出人形,“原来这就是爹爹啊,原来是这个样子。”小狐狸看着面前的人,一个劲儿的叫着爹爹,“爹爹,这是什么,为什么我没有?”小狐狸看着丫鬟眼睛掉下的大颗眼泪,摸了摸自己的,却没有,于是用那种无辜的眼神看着他爹,“爹爹,我想和张家的公子一起玩儿。”小狐狸扯了扯敕晏的衣袖,“不行,乖乖在家呆着。”爹爹大人无视小狐狸的请求。
  • 陆先生的第N次求婚

    陆先生的第N次求婚

    在深城。他们的婚姻是场闹剧,她却心甘命抵,独角戏也能入戏太深。连他抽过的烟蒂,她都细细亲吻。她也曾狠决一时,逞口舌之快,“要离婚,你休想。”然十里春风,花一开满的好时节,她留下一纸离婚书,从此销声匿迹。豪门秘事传入坊间,有人说,她是一颗肾才换来这场婚事,也有人说,她是丢了孩子才放弃这桩婚事。也有人好心,说她只是误入妻途,爱到偏执罢了。后来,深城出了一号人物。她只打离婚官司。只赢不输。深城里想离婚的官太太和富太太,都找她伸张正义。有一回他醉了酒,深夜敲她的门:“你打赢再多离婚官司,打不赢自己的离婚官司,还是结不了婚的。你想结婚,只能嫁给我。”--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 学最好的别人,做最好的自己

    学最好的别人,做最好的自己

    如果你想变得聪明,那你就要和聪明的人在一起,这样,你才会更加睿智;如果你想变得优秀,那你就要和优秀的人在一起,这样,你才会出类拔萃。本书诠释了“借他人之智,完善自己”这一美好主题,通过讲述和冷静的、智慧的、明智的、坚韧的等14类拥有积极心态的人在一起,学习其生活处世中积极闪光的一面,告诉你如何成为理想中最好的自己。
  • 绝地求生最强职业吃鸡

    绝地求生最强职业吃鸡

    吃鸡?喝水一样的。单局三十杀?家常便饭而已。职业选手?都是我的徒弟。被蓝洞封号?怪我操作太风骚喽?king,绝地求生世界联赛的巅峰王者,被无数职业选手视为终生的目标,但却惨遭禁赛,剥夺其职业选手的身份。今后,他会何去何从?
  • 腹黑大神赖上伪小白

    腹黑大神赖上伪小白

    她不过是采药的时候顺便救了个尸体,谁知尸体起来后竟然要求她负责。一口一个“夫人”叫着她的大神却是腹黑无下限,毒舌的功力每每都让她抓狂。网游里纵横的大神只专宠她一人。腹黑大神与伪小白的故事。谁说她是伪小白了,其实她是女神————经!
  • 冤有头债有主0a

    冤有头债有主0a

    一个从小就害怕到大的男人,却为了自己差点丢了命,感动吗?还是心痛?