SOURCE: A review of Achievement in American Poetry, 1900–1950, in American Literature, Vol. XXV, No. 1, March, 1953, pp. 117-18.

An Excerpt from Journey Around My Room

What makes a writer? Is it the love of, and devotion to, the actual act of writing that makes a writer? I should say, from my own experience, No. Some of the most untalented people adore writing: some have elaborate setups for the ritual: enormous desks, boxes of various kinds of paper; paper clips; pencil-sharpeners; several sorts of pen; erasers, ink, and what-not. In the midst of all this they sit and write interminably. I suppose they could be called writers; but they should not be.

Is it intellectual power? Yes, I suppose so: of a kind. But it is sometimes the kind of intellect that is not fitted to pass examinations. It need not include, for example, the kind of photographic memory that...