The profusion of books produced by some popular novelists is occasionally a subject of comment and conjecture. It would be enlightening to know how far mechanical aids - I do not mean the common typewriter, but such engines as the Dictaphone - are brought into use by the writers of "best sellers." Is the term "writer" sometimes a misnomer?
One of the first authors to foresee the advantages and possibilities of "talking machines", at the time when they had just passed the experimental stage, was G. A. Henty, the war correspondent and boys' story writer.
Whilst making preparations for a trip to the Mediterranean, Henty conceived the idea of taking one of the new phonographs with him. With that intention in mind, he hired a machine - they were costly at that time - dictated into it a five-thousand word tale, and then, delighted at the ease with which he had done his work, went off for a walk, leaving to his secretary the task of writing down the phonograph's dictation.
On his return, alas! he found the secretary in despair. Not a word could the machine repeat. Something had gone wrong with the recording mechanism, and the story was lost for the time being. That was, I believe, Henty's only attempt at mechanical production.
The Irish Times, January 22nd, 1931.