His _Life of Rodman_
achieved instant success, a far greater than _Rodman's Collected Works_.
The undomesticities of a poet's life naturally excite greater interest in
the cultured than his utterances on Love, Destiny and other topics on which
poets are apt to discourse. Toller, until then a struggling journalist,
became all at once a minor literary celebrity, much in demand at
conversaziones and places where they chatter. Sympathy for Rodman aroused
curiosity which only Toller could satisfy.
His memory, continually stimulated by questions, gained further in
strength. The more he was asked the more he remembered, and so on in a
virtuous circle. His Rodmaniana provided him with a comfortable income. He
removed from Earl's Court to luxurious chambers off Jermyn Street, from
which he poured out article after article on the deceased poet.
Then suddenly, without warning, probably from overstrain, his memory gave
way. Everything in the past, Rodman included, vanished from his mind. A
greater calamity one could not conceive. It was as though a violinist had
lost a hand, a popular preacher his voice. His livelihood was gone.
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