I recently started rereading Gate if Ivrel, C.J. Cherryh’s first novel. The introduction is by Andre Norton, at the time a very successful author.
Cherryh, in that novel, is doing the sort of thing Norton did, but
doing it much better. And Norton, to her immense credit, realizes it and
is willing to say so. The end of the introduction:
My personal question rises:How many successful writers would have the humility to say that, in print, about a new author?
“Why can’t I write like this?”
I very much wish that I did.
3 comments:
It reminds me of the time you told people to spend their time reading Slate Star Codex instead of reading your blog!
John D. MacDonald (famous for his crime thrillers) wrote an introduction to Stephen King's first short story collection, Night Shift, in which he admitted "hating" that King wrote far better at 30 than McDonald did at the same age.
http://www.krypta-smierci.neostrada.pl/ebooks/Stephen%20King%20-%20Night%20Shift%20-%20Introduction.html
Norton was too modest. Her work was very different, and very poignant. I remember almost nothing of any of the Cherryh novels I have read, though I recall enjoying them. I have many specific memories from Norton novels, which I read in my early teens, the age group it was aimed at.
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