'Perfect, unspoiled time awaits you'

 

“The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life.  You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose. “ – Arnold Bennett

 

Bennett, born in Britain on this date in 1867, was a journalist, editor and filmmaker who  devoted the last half of his life to creative writing.  He also wrote several non-fiction books tht have stood the test of time, including the bestselling self-help book How to Live on 24 Hours a Day from which the above quote comes.    

 

But, it was his creative writing around which he focused most of his career.  He wrote 30 novels, led by The Old Wives' Tale, considered one of the great works of 20th Century English literature.  It gives us an in-depth look at 70 years in the lives of two sisters, following their stories from youth through old age.

 

Bennett also was acclaimed as a “discoverer” of other great writers and his reviews were highly sought after.   Reviewing a constant stream of new books, he unerringly picked out the important writers of the next generation—James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway—and praised them discerningly.  He said, in his mind, everyone has “artistic” moments.   

 

"At moments," he said, "we are all artists."