The Origin of Genius

This year, I've made a resolution to finally get to all those books that have been sitting on my shelf for years. At last, I've tackled Pnin by Nabokov, Shosha by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and a whole host of other curios I've been meaning to get to for ten years.

The latest book I've knocked off is a biography of Jane Austen by Claire Tomlin. I picked it up initially for the same reason I think most of us are curious about Jane Austen. We wonder, how is it possible that someone with so little experience of life, education, and romance could write such thrilling and perceptive works that rank among the greatest in our language? What's the secret?

After finishing the book, I got a better idea of Austen's artistic journey. Her private life was fairly uneventful, even typical for a woman of her class in 18th and early 19th century England. Her first novel, an early draft of Pride and Prejudice titled First Impressions, was turned down by a publisher after less than a week than it had been submitted. It took her a little less than two decades between the time she started writing Pride and Prejudice to get it published. After years of toil in private (which contrary to myth, she did not hide under blotting paper for fear that unexpected guests might discover what she was up to), Austen managed to find a publisher through a family connection, who grudgingly took Sense and Sensibility on commission. The modest success of that book started her career. However, even Jane Austen had to switch publishers; after the disappointing sales figures of Mansfield Park, the novel Emma was not considered justification enough for her first publisher to take a chance on one more.

Lessons here? Patience and perseverance foremost. Being a writer is an act of faith in any age, but even more so for a woman in Austen's time. Second, Austen's life and work proves Flannery O'Connor's observation that any writer has gathered enough "life material" for an entire career by the age of five. You don't need to have sailed around the world or hunted big game in Africa or any of the other things people do today to write great stories. Another observation: Rejection is the norm in a writer's life, and some cases, is mighty helpful. If rejection caused Austen to turn First Impressions into the masterpiece that is Pride and Prejudice, then what a fortunate rejection!

But perhaps the greatest lesson I take from Austen's story is that genius is just genius. Austen didn't need an MFA program to bring out her talent. She simply had a knack for putting words on paper in a way that made people want to read them for centuries. On the other hand, without her commitment to getting her work done and sticking to her dream of writing in the face of some pretty daunting odds, that genius would not have flowered into her six beautiful books.