[BNP/E3, 20 – 10]

The earliest literary[1] food of my childhood was in the numerous novels of mystery and of horrible adventure. Those books, which are called boys’ books and deal with exciting experiences I cared little[2] for. With a healthy and natural life I was out of sympathy. My craving was not for the probable, but for the incredible, not even for the impossible by the degree, but for the impossible by nature.

nature

Alexander Search

Alexander Search

Alexander Search.

nature

[10^v]

My childhood was quiet {…}; my education was good. But since I have consciousness of myself, I have perceived in myself an inborn tendency to mystification, to artistic lying. Add to this a great love of the spiritual, of the mysterious, of the obscure, which, after all, was but a form and a variation of that other characteristic of mine, and my personality is, to intuition, complete.

[1] earliest literary ^{/earliest literary\}

[2] little ^/little\