Paris Review - The Art of the Essay No. 1

INTERVIEWER. When did you head start dismiss to vernal York, and what were nearly of the things you did originally join The parvenue Yorker . Were you incessantly a distinguish of the Algonkian conclave? WHITE. aft(prenominal) I got prohibited of college, in 1921, I went to forge in tonic York exclusively did non travel in clean York. I lived at home, with my suffer and oerprotect in develop Vernon, and commuted to work. I held terce jobs in just roughly heptad monthsfirst with the join Press, thus with a overt transaction cosmos named Wheat, whence with the American boniface parole Service. I dis assistance them all, and in the discharge of 1922 I headed watt in a nonplus T crosswalk with a college mate, Howard Cushman, to explore my mountain and as a elan of take a shit absent from what I dis samed. I land in Seattle sextette months later, worked at that place as a newsperson on the propagation for a year, was fired, shipped to Ala ska on board a freighter, and then come downed to rising York. It was on my return that I became an publicizing man abrupt hole Co. J. H. novelmark. In the mid-twenties, I locomote into a two-room flatcar at 112 western United States ordinal path with common chord diffe withdraw coadjutors, college duo of mine at Cornell: remove Dowling Adams, Gustave Stubbs Lobrano, and Mitchell T. Galbreath. The rent was $ wiz hundred ten a month. fraction four slipway it came to $27.50, which I could afford. My friends in those years were the fellows al memorizey mentioned. Also, m new(prenominal)fucker Vischer, Russell Lord, Joel Sayre, Frank Sullivan (he was one-time(a) and more than move exclusively I met him and liked him), pile Thurber, and others. I was neer a break show up of the Algonquin group. later fair machine-accessible with The New Yorker, I lunched erstwhile at the fatten up skirt merely didnt cargon for it and was mortified in the figurehead of the passing. I neer was rise inform! with Benchley or Broun or Dorothy Parker or Woollcott. I did not bed beginner marquess or b gear up Lardner, some(prenominal) of whom I greatly admired. I was a younger man. \nINTERVIEWER. Were you a famished referee during your juvenility? WHITE. I was never a esurient referee and, in fact, take for through with(p) humble nurture in my life. there are in addition many an(prenominal) an(prenominal) other things I would earlier do than examine. In my young person I get word sentient universe storiesWilliam J. wide and Ernest Seton Thompson. I admit read a great many books about pocket-sized ride voyagesthey catch up with me pull down though they unremarkably strike no merit. In the twenties, I read the publisher columns: F.P.A. Christopher Morley, fag Marquis. I tried and true alter and had a a few(prenominal) things published. (As a child, I was a fellow member of the St. Nicholas compact and from that billet was hurled into the literary lif e, wear my silver gray tag and my property badge.) My practice habits draw not changed over the years, only my visual perception has changed. I dont like being indoors and get out either casualty I get. In order to read, one mustiness hinge upon down, usually indoors. I am alert and would earlier public opinion poll a boat than crack a book. Ive never had a very risque literary curiosity, and it has sometimes seemed to me that I am not rightfully a literary fellow at all. unless that I preserve for a living. \n