Originally published in Pearson's Weekly (C. Arthur Pearson Ltd.) vol.1 #47 (13 Jun 1891).
The methods and tastes of professional authors in the choice of paper are quite as varied as is the character of their several contributions to literature.
For example, the novelists Charles Reade and Victor Hugo preferred immense sheets of paper and the coarsest of pens, while, on the other hand, both William Black and R.D. Blackmore cover dainty sheets of note-paper with almost microscopic chirography. Charlotte Brontë wrote in the minutest of characters in a diminutive note-book, and Douglas Jerrold jotted down his witty inspirations on narrow, ribbon-like strips of blue paper. Charles Dickens covered every inch of his manuscript, as though paper were scarce and dear, in striking contrast to the historian Macaulay, who wrote on foolscap in a very large leaving wide margins.
While editing Household Words Dickens invariably wrote on blue paper with blue ink. Georges Sand wrote neatly upon nicely-ruled note-paper, while Ouida covers large sheets of blue paper with an almost undecipherable chirography, written in an excessively bold and masculine hand. Some of Mark Twain's jokes are said to have originally occupied entire sheets of cardboard, while a French author has described Balzac's manuscript as resembling a circus poster.
Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur, writes his first draft upon a slate and finishes upon large sheets of white unruled paper, in a most faultless chirography. Bartley Campbell scribbled off his famous play, "My Partner," on common wrapping paper, with a blunt lead pencil. Wilkie Collins wrote on very large sheets of paper, and his copy is said to abound in alterations, excisions, and scraps of pasted manuscript. Mr. Shorthouse, the author of John Inglesant, is reported to have violated all the canons of the printing office by sending in the copy for that popular novel written on both sides of paper of various sizes.
Miss Alcott did some of her best work on the back of her father's old manuscript; and it is a regular practice of at least one popular writer we know of to have all his original book copy returned in order that he may utilize the reverse side for his next publication. "Some of our best things," says the editor of a popular magazine, "come to us written on mere scraps." Indeed the manuscript of many authors is literally "a thing of shreds and patches." Such is Miss Braddon's, who is stated to have penned some of her most thrilling passages on torn envelopes, or any other bits of paper that came to hand.