First the chief points were considered, then the details of the story
were gone over carefully and minutely. As the reading went on, he made
notes, first of essential and then of non-essential. After this he welded
everything together, made the narrative completely his own, infused into
it his own fire, quickened it by his own imagination, and made it as it
were a living experience, so that his books read like personal
reminiscences." [Footnote: "Memoirs of Francis Parkman," in "Proceedings
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1892-4," series 2, 8:555.]
In a book of Parkman memorabilia of various kinds which I found in the
Harvard Library, I happened one day upon a few scraps of paper which
furnish illustration of the first steps of the process--paper on which
were notes made in Parkman's own hand:
"Deserts covered with bones of buffalo and elk"; "No sign of man from Fort
Union to Fort Mackenzie"; "White clay, cactus dried up, grasshoppers";
"Poplars,--wild roses,--gooseberries"; "prairie dogs,--heat,--aridity";
"extraordinary castellated mountains, stone walls,--etc.
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