So I’m not complaining at all - C.S. Forester
Earlier today I went back to the Panopticon Bookshop on a mission to find a book for sharpiefan. Nae luck unfortunately, but I did pick up a copy of Mr. Midshipman Hornblower that I missed when I was there last week. It's a 1951 World Books edition and what makes it rather lovely are the fact that its dust jacket is intact and it contains the original book club news letter Broadsheet: the Bulletin of "World Books" dated May 1951. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower is May's book of choice and the Broadsheet includes a short interview with C.S. Forester. Despite the title of the interview "...So I'm not complaining at all" the interview is basically an update of his health problems, although Hornblower does get a couple of rather disparaging mentions at the beginning and end. So just in case any of you are sufficiently obsessive to be interested, here's a transcript of the interview along with some pics of the Broadsheet.
“…So I’m not Complaining at all” - C.S. FORESTER
C.S. FORESTER, like Somerset Maugham and others, graduated into literature from medicine. Born in Cairo in 1899, he came to Dulwich College and thence to Guy’s Hospital. He was a senior medical student when a passion for naval history led him to write a novel at the age of 25. He abandoned doctoring for professional authorship following the success of his Payment Deferred.
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower is C.S. Foresters third choice by WORLD BOOKS (following Captain Hornblower, R.N., and The Commodore. When the latter was sent to members in October, 1940, the current BROADSHEET contained an article by Mr. Forester on his reactions to the onset of a crippling malady. He wrote then: “Hornblower saved me from a great deal of unhappiness. I could write about him without effort, knowing all his irritating idiosyncrasies."
We have asked Mr. Forester (who has lived in California since 1940) if he would care to fill in the intervening period and to say something of his plans for the future. He writes:
“Nothing has happened at all since then, despite everything the doctors prophesied and have done. I’m glad to have the opportunity of telling al the people who made kind inquiries that this is the case. I’m just exactly the same as I was when things first hit me; I’ve never walked more than fifty yards at a stretch; I still have to sit in a wheelchair if I go to the Zoo or an exhibition, but I think I’ve made all the necessary adjustments so that I don’t think about it at all. I live in a country where motor-cars and petrol are to be had for the asking - with the trifling proviso that you have the money to pay for them - and so life is not too complicated. When the question arises of going to a party or a play, the first question to be settled is whether it is going to be practicable for me to get out of my car within fifty yards of the entrance. It is only after that question is settled that I pass on to considering whether I want to go or not.
“There are times when I find myself having to sit on the kerb in the rain while my legs recover. I still love boats and you don’t have to walk far in a boat. I can generally walk from a plane to the airfield buildings, and so it’s still possible for me to travel a good deal, and I do. So I’m not complaining at all. I’ve been unlucky in some ways, but I’ve been enormously lucky in others.
“Regarding my future plans, there is another Hornblower story, Lieutenant Horblower, which won’t be published until 1952. And there may be a very few other stories. Then I shall have filled in his professional life from 1793 to 1815 and I can forget about him. My novel Randall and the River of Time is, I hope, a precursor of others, but I’m not certain that the second of the series will be the next book I write.”
The caption of the photograph reads:
THE AUTHOR OF OUR MAY BOOK
Autographing Captain Hornblower at the London officers of Warner Bros. Pictures Ltd before the world-premiere of the film.
(Btw if for any strange reason anyone wants a decent quality scan of this interview let me know, these are just quick pics I took with my mobile.)
“…So I’m not Complaining at all” - C.S. FORESTER
C.S. FORESTER, like Somerset Maugham and others, graduated into literature from medicine. Born in Cairo in 1899, he came to Dulwich College and thence to Guy’s Hospital. He was a senior medical student when a passion for naval history led him to write a novel at the age of 25. He abandoned doctoring for professional authorship following the success of his Payment Deferred.
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower is C.S. Foresters third choice by WORLD BOOKS (following Captain Hornblower, R.N., and The Commodore. When the latter was sent to members in October, 1940, the current BROADSHEET contained an article by Mr. Forester on his reactions to the onset of a crippling malady. He wrote then: “Hornblower saved me from a great deal of unhappiness. I could write about him without effort, knowing all his irritating idiosyncrasies."
We have asked Mr. Forester (who has lived in California since 1940) if he would care to fill in the intervening period and to say something of his plans for the future. He writes:
“Nothing has happened at all since then, despite everything the doctors prophesied and have done. I’m glad to have the opportunity of telling al the people who made kind inquiries that this is the case. I’m just exactly the same as I was when things first hit me; I’ve never walked more than fifty yards at a stretch; I still have to sit in a wheelchair if I go to the Zoo or an exhibition, but I think I’ve made all the necessary adjustments so that I don’t think about it at all. I live in a country where motor-cars and petrol are to be had for the asking - with the trifling proviso that you have the money to pay for them - and so life is not too complicated. When the question arises of going to a party or a play, the first question to be settled is whether it is going to be practicable for me to get out of my car within fifty yards of the entrance. It is only after that question is settled that I pass on to considering whether I want to go or not.
“There are times when I find myself having to sit on the kerb in the rain while my legs recover. I still love boats and you don’t have to walk far in a boat. I can generally walk from a plane to the airfield buildings, and so it’s still possible for me to travel a good deal, and I do. So I’m not complaining at all. I’ve been unlucky in some ways, but I’ve been enormously lucky in others.
“Regarding my future plans, there is another Hornblower story, Lieutenant Horblower, which won’t be published until 1952. And there may be a very few other stories. Then I shall have filled in his professional life from 1793 to 1815 and I can forget about him. My novel Randall and the River of Time is, I hope, a precursor of others, but I’m not certain that the second of the series will be the next book I write.”
The caption of the photograph reads:
THE AUTHOR OF OUR MAY BOOK
Autographing Captain Hornblower at the London officers of Warner Bros. Pictures Ltd before the world-premiere of the film.
(Btw if for any strange reason anyone wants a decent quality scan of this interview let me know, these are just quick pics I took with my mobile.)