'I Am Jonathan Scrivener'

[Steve Paradis]

Part of the real fascination of Kane for me is that it's one of the few pictures ever made which constructs the portrait of a character. I've always thought that Orson was influenced by a popular novel of the time called “I Am Jonathan Scrivener”. All its characters talk about a man they know. In the last sentence, the doorbell rings and the butler announces Mr. Jonathan Scrivener. You never see him. It's famous and Orson was very fond of it. But there are always various influences when a work of art is developing.
--Bernard Herrmann, in “Interview with George Coulouris and Bernard Herrmann on “The Citizen Kane Book” by Ted Gilling. Sight and Sound 41, no 2 (Spring 1972: 71-73

In the forward to the new edition, Michael Dirda wrote "I Am Jonathan Scrivener remains a tantalizing, highly diverting philosophical novel of rare elegance and wit." I admit that I found it a little too elegant. Everyone speaks in complete, and completely diagrammed, sentences. It may have influenced Eric Ambler's A Coffin For Demetrios, another suggested stylistic influence on Citizen Kane. Ambler's narrators and their stories are more varied and interesting than Houghton's upper middle class Londoners. But Herrmann cites Welles' fondness for it.
Anyone else had a look?
https://www.amazon.com/Am-Jonathan-Scri ... 1939140080

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks for the info, Steve. I'm not familiar with that book, but if Bernard Hermann thought it was an influence, that's worth noting, although the idea of a character being seen mainly through other people is something Welles had been thinking about since 1932, when he wrote MARCHING SONG. As Wiki says, "Marching Song is a play about the legend of abolitionist John Brown, written in 1932 by Orson Welles and Roger Hill. It is most notable for its narrative device of a journalist piecing together a man's life through multiple, contradictory recollections—a framework that Welles would famously employ in his 1941 film, Citizen Kane." Offhand, I can't think of any other novels before 1932 that use the multiple narrators device although I'm sure there must be some.

EDIT: Just found one in an online list that fits well: DRACULA, by Bram Stoker which Welles used as the basis for his first radio program for "The Mercury Theater on the Air." As Herman said in your quote, "there are always various influences when a work of art is developing." Two other novels I've seen referred to in Welles books as having influenced Kane, although neither is multiple narrator, are AFTER MANY A SUMMER DIES THE SWAN by Aldous Huxley, and FANTAZIUS MALLARE by Ben Hecht.

[Wich2]

EDIT: Just found one in an online list that fits well: DRACULA, by Bram Stoker which Welles used as the basis for his first radio program for "The Mercury Theater on the Air."

You betchum, Red Ryder!

- Craig

(Aka next week, "Dr. Abraham Van Helsing")

[Colmena]

Steve and anyone else,

Is here any place I can find this
"Interview with George Coulouris and Bernard Herrmann on “The Citizen Kane Book” by Ted Gilling"?

Is it oniine anywhere?

Otherwise, it would be challenge for me to locate Sight and Sound 41, no 2 (Spring 1972).

-- thanks!