Excerpt from The Complete Works of Laurence Sterne: With a Life of the Author Thus did sterne live, a local celebrity, till he was forty-six years Of age. This is noteworthy. Like Cowper, he was late of beginning to write for the public - that is, for fame. He wrote for fame, and found it. Before 1759, the year in which the first two volumes Of Tristram Shandy were published, sterne had printed only two sermons. He had written a. Good deal, it is true; but now, 'tired of employing his brains for other people's advantage, ' he took to his pen for his own. Accused of writing upon Iago's advice, 'put money in thy purse, ' or, as it was pedanti cally expressed, nummum in locale, he replied that he wrote, not to be fed, but to be famous. He gained what he wrote for.' He stalked into renown on his 'hobby-horse' - a compound he rendered classical in Tristram Shandy. He wanted money too - all men who write do. He mentions having taken a small house in York at the time for the education of his daughter; and this requires money. Sterne was lucky enough to encounter both praise and pudding. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.