Then again Rimbaud wrote his entire canon as a teenager and I for one would vouch for its quality. I think that juvenilia should not be automatically discounted - if nothing else it often indicates in quite an eerie way the direction the future writer's work will take - Emily Bronte wrote her best poems as part of a saga she had been writing with her siblings since she was a small child. P.S. For interest's sake I dug out that old MS of mine and found it surprisingly good. I did a lot of things better by sheer instinct than I do now by following - or even consciously breaking - the rules. Camille verona_beach@geocities.com @ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442 @ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest > >Just for the record I guess I was a Seymourish seven year old myself and, > >as one who attempted my first novel at nine and succeeded at twelve (with > >wildly uneven success - I haven't looked at that old manuscript for so many > >years I have no idea whether it's an unsung work of genius or utter > >rubbish) - > > Probably the latter. While it is true that Mozart wrote his first operas > and concertos at 7 & 8, these somehow are never the ones that the Royal > Philharmonic records. Hmmm... > > Thor > > > _______________________________________________________________ > Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com