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While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate them by his best.
Samuel Johnson
An anonymous wit once claimed: “Genius is the talent of dead men.” Johnson's statement, quoted above, points in the same direction, although it lays more specific stress on the technique of devaluation in use during an author's lifetime. These statements call attention to the fact that two different yardsticks determine the judgment of a writer, but make no attempt to provide an explanation.
There have, however, been many attempts to explain this truism. The simplest explanations ascribe the difference in attitude to the envy of the environment, or to the peculiarities of the genius. The former explanation is typified in Oscar Wilde's dictum: “The public is wonderfully tolerant; it forgives everything except genius.” The latter has a host of sponsors:
“There are some bad qualities which make great talent.” (La Rochefoucauld)
“Talent is commonly developed at the expense of character, and the greater it grows, the more is the mischief and misleading.” (Emerson)
“The truth is, as everyone knows, that the great artists of the world are never Puritans, and seldom if ever ordinarily
Page 335respectable. No virtuous man, that is, virtuous in the Y.M.C.A. sense, has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading, and it is highly improbable that the thing has ever been done by a virtuous woman.” (Mencken)
While a writer of talent is living, he is viewed with suspicion: “The world has a standing pique against genius,” complained Oscar Wilde. His peculiarities are emphasized: “If we are to have a genius we must put up with the inconveniences of genius, a thing the world will never do; it wants geniuses, but would like them just like other people,” said George Moore. Because of his inner structure, the genius does not oblige: “Every man of genius sees the world at a different angle from his fello