dramatic works of Clara Gazul" (Merimee), for Brissot-Thivars. He was
also the printer for two periodicals, the Gymnase, for Carnot and
Hippolyte Auger, the editors of that review of social tendencies, and
the Annales Romantiques, for Urbain Canel. The latter was the publisher
of the younger literary school, and brought out in his magazine the
works of Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Benjamin Constant,
Chateaubriand, Delavigne, etc. Are we to suppose that business cares
had turned Balzac aside from all his literary projects? And what must
his feelings have been when he read on pages still smelling of fresh
ink names already familiar, and some of them long since famous, while
he himself was still only a simple printer? There is reason for
thinking that his business venture, with all its cares and anxieties,
never interrupted the silent but fabulous labour that was shaping
itself inside his brain, and that when he saw new authors becoming
famous he merely said, "My day will come." Meanwhile, he yielded to an
influence absolutely opposed to his natural bent, and contributed to
the Annales two poems perfectly romantic in tone: an Ode to a Young
Girl and Verses Written in an Album.

But in reality Balzac never had the gift of versification, even in his
youth; and later on, when he had need of poems for his Human Comedy, he
applied to his friends, Theophile Gautier, Mme. de Girardin, or
Lassailly, merely indicating the general tone of the verses he wanted
them to write.

In addition to the above-mentioned periodicals, Honore de Balzac
printed the Album of History and Anecdote, from January to April, 1827,
and he seems also to have been its editor. For, as a matter of fact,
subscriptions to it were received at the printing house, No. 17, Rue
des Marais-Saint-Germain, and there are anecdotes to be found in it