Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1893 — He Found the Title. [ARTICLE]

He Found the Title.

Wilkie Collins had written the last chapter of his “Woman in White,” and no title for the book had been decided upon. The day of publication approached, but the title still eluded him. One morning he took himself off to Broadstalrs, determined not to return until It had been found. He walked for hours along the cliff; he smoked a case of cigars, and all to no purpose; then, vexed and much worn out by the racking of his brains, he threw himself on the grass as the sun went down. He was lying facing the North Foreland lighthouse, aDd, half in bitter jest, half unconsciously, he began to apostrophize it thus: “You are ugly and stiff and awkward, and you know you are—as stiff and awkward, and you know you are—as stiff and as weird as my white woman —white woman—woman in white—the title, by Jove!” A title had been hit upon, and the author went back to London delighted.