<table><tr><th>Omeka ID</th><th>Omeka URL</th><th>Title</th><th>Subject</th><th>Description</th><th>Creator</th><th>Source</th><th>Publisher</th><th>Date</th><th>Contributor</th><th>Rights</th><th>Relation</th><th>Format</th><th>Language</th><th>Type</th><th>Identifier</th><th>Coverage</th><th>Publisher(s)</th><th>Original Format</th><th>Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Entry</th><th>Pages</th><th>Participants</th><th>Pen Name</th><th>Physical Dimensions</th><th>Position End Date</th><th>Position Start Date</th><th>Position(s)</th><th>Publication Frequency</th><th>Occupation</th><th>Sex</th><th>Society Membership End Date</th><th>Society Membership Start Date</th><th>Start Date</th><th>Sub-Committee End Date</th><th>Sub-Committee Start Date</th><th>Text</th><th>To</th><th>URL</th><th>Volume</th><th>Death</th><th>Biography</th><th>Birth</th><th>Committee End Date</th><th>Committee of Management End Date</th><th>Committee of Management Start Date</th><th>Committee Start Date</th><th>Committee(s)</th><th>Council End Date</th><th>Council Start Date</th><th>Date</th><th>Bibliography</th><th>End Date</th><th>Event Type</th><th>From</th><th>Image Source</th><th>Interactive Timeline</th><th>Issue</th><th>Location</th><th>Members</th><th>Ngram Date</th><th>Ngram Text</th><th>Files</th><th>Tags</th></tr><tr><td>252</td><td>https://historysoa.com/items/show/252</td><td>The Author, Vol. 02 Issue 01 (June 1891)</td><td>&lt;a href=&quot;/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+02+Issue+01+%28June+1891%29&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Author&lt;/em&gt;, Vol. 02 Issue 01 (June 1891)&lt;/a&gt;</td><td></td><td></td><td>&lt;a href=&quot;https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&amp;amp;view=1up&amp;amp;seq=20&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot; rel=&quot;noopener&quot;&gt;https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&lt;/a&gt;</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>&lt;a href=&quot;/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication&quot;&gt;Publication&lt;/a&gt;</td><td>1891-06-01-The-Author-2-1</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>1&ndash;32</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>&lt;a href=&quot;/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2&quot;&gt;2&lt;/a&gt;</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>&lt;a href=&quot;/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1891-06-01&quot;&gt;1891-06-01&lt;/a&gt;</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>1</td><td></td><td></td><td>18910601</td><td>## p. 1 (#405) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Uhc Eutbot\&lt;br /&gt;
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)&lt;br /&gt;
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.&lt;br /&gt;
Vol. II.&mdash;No. i.]&lt;br /&gt;
JUNE i, 1891&lt;br /&gt;
[Pkice Sixpence.&lt;br /&gt;
CONTENTS.&lt;br /&gt;
PAGB&lt;br /&gt;
&bull; 5&lt;br /&gt;
The Author l Second Volume&lt;br /&gt;
The American Copyright Act&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
I. Directions for securing Copyright j&lt;br /&gt;
II. Rolicrt Underwood Johnson. By Edmund Gossc .. 7&lt;br /&gt;
III. The Passage ol thu Bill. By Kato Tannatt Woods 9&lt;br /&gt;
IV. Note. By C. G. I.cland 9&lt;br /&gt;
V. Note. By William Westall 10&lt;br /&gt;
VI. Mr. C. J. Longman&amp;#039;s Article in the Economic Review 11&lt;br /&gt;
VII. Note. By H. Q. Kcene 11&lt;br /&gt;
VIII. Note. By B.H. H 11&lt;br /&gt;
The Petition to the House of Lords 11&lt;br /&gt;
The Second Reading of the Copyright Bill J&lt;br /&gt;
I&amp;#039;AOK&lt;br /&gt;
The Cost of a Stamp 3&lt;br /&gt;
Notes and News. By Walter Besant 13&lt;br /&gt;
In the Days of the Merry Monarch 18&lt;br /&gt;
Reviews and Reviewers 19&lt;br /&gt;
Library Secrets&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Maurice Maeterlinck. By William Wilson 13&lt;br /&gt;
Literature in Ireland &amp;#039;4&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;A Word from you. Sir&amp;quot; &raquo;6&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. George Moore and Herr Ibsen a*1&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;At the Author&amp;#039;s Head&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
On Some Cases &amp;#039;9&lt;br /&gt;
Correspondence 3&deg;&lt;br /&gt;
EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE.&lt;br /&gt;
ACTION OF LIGHT ON WATER COLOURS&mdash;Report&lt;br /&gt;
to the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council&lt;br /&gt;
on Education. (With Diagrams and Plates.) By post, u. 1 irf.&lt;br /&gt;
PLIOCENE DEPOSITS OF BRITAIN, THE. By&lt;br /&gt;
Clbmbst Rbid, F.LS.. F.G.8. Five Plates (48 cuts), j&raquo;. M.&lt;br /&gt;
LONDON AND NEIGHBOURHOOD: Guide to the&lt;br /&gt;
Geology of. Bv William Whitakeb, B.A. it.&lt;br /&gt;
LONDON AND OF PART OF THE THAMES VALLEY,&lt;br /&gt;
The Gedogy of. By W. Whitakeb. B.A., P.R.S., F.G.8..&lt;br /&gt;
Assoc. Inst. C.E. Vol. I. DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 8vo.&lt;br /&gt;
cloth. 6&raquo;. Vol. II. APPENDICES. 8vo.. cloth, 5*.&lt;br /&gt;
ISLE OF WIGHT, Geology of. By H. W. Bristow,&lt;br /&gt;
F.R.S., F.G.S. Second Edition. Revised and enlarged bv&lt;br /&gt;
Clement Rbip. F.G.8., and Acbbet Stbahak, M.A., F.G.8.&lt;br /&gt;
8vo., cloth, 8&raquo;. W.&lt;br /&gt;
COPYRIGHT LAW REFORM: an Exposition of Lord&lt;br /&gt;
Monkswell&amp;#039;s Copyright Bill now before Parliament; with&lt;br /&gt;
Extracts from the Report of the Commis&amp;gt;ion of 1878, and an&lt;br /&gt;
Appendix containing the Berno Convention and the American&lt;br /&gt;
Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lblt, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. i&laquo;. 6d.&lt;br /&gt;
STATE TRIALS, Reports of; New Series. Published&lt;br /&gt;
under the direction nt the State Trials Committee. Edited by&lt;br /&gt;
Jonx MacDonell. M.A., of the Middle Temple. Barrister-at-&lt;br /&gt;
Law. Vols. I. and II. ready. Vol. III. in the Press. Price&lt;br /&gt;
1 os. per volume.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;It is for the most part interesting, not to say fascinating, study&lt;br /&gt;
for anyone, that is to say, who cares about history at all.&amp;quot;&mdash;Daily&lt;br /&gt;
yews.&lt;br /&gt;
FISHES&lt;br /&gt;
By&lt;br /&gt;
By G. C.&lt;br /&gt;
HANDBOOK OF NEW ZEALAND&lt;br /&gt;
R. A. A. Siiubrih. Demy 8vo.. cloth, m.&lt;br /&gt;
ORANGE CULTURE IN NEW ZEALAND.&lt;br /&gt;
Aldbbtoh. Demy 8vo., cloth, m.&lt;br /&gt;
FOREST FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. By T. Kikk,&lt;br /&gt;
F.L.S., late Chief Conservator of State Forests, N.Z.. Ac.&lt;br /&gt;
Numerous Plates. Fcp.,cloth. i&amp;gt;&laquo;. W.&lt;br /&gt;
KEW BULLETIN, 1890. Issued by the Director of Kew&lt;br /&gt;
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WEATHER, STUDY AND FORECAST OF. Aids to.&lt;br /&gt;
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ROYAL MILITARY EXHIBITION, 1890. Descriptive&lt;br /&gt;
Catalogue of Musical Instruments recently exhibited at the&lt;br /&gt;
Royal Military Exhibition. Compiled by Copt. C. R. Day,&lt;br /&gt;
Oxfordshire Light Infantry, under the orders of Col. Siiaw-&lt;br /&gt;
Wellieb, Commandant Royal Military School of Music. The&lt;br /&gt;
instruments are fully desenbed; they are arranged systemati-&lt;br /&gt;
cally under their respective families and classes, nnd n chrono-&lt;br /&gt;
logical arrangement has, as much as possible, been adhered to.&lt;br /&gt;
Each family of instrument has been prefaced by a carefully-&lt;br /&gt;
written Introductory Essay. Musical pitch has not lieen left&lt;br /&gt;
unnoticed, and a learned Essay from the pen of a well-known&lt;br /&gt;
authority upon the subject appears in the Appendix. The b&amp;quot;ok&lt;br /&gt;
will be illustrated by a series of Twelve Artistically executed&lt;br /&gt;
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The issuo will be limited to 1000 copies.&lt;br /&gt;
[Ready about the middle o/Junr.&lt;br /&gt;
Monthly Lists of Parliamentary Papers upon Application. Quarterly Lists Post Free, id.&lt;br /&gt;
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C.OVERXMEXT AXD GENERA!, publishers.&lt;br /&gt;
EYRE anil SPOTTISWOODE, ller flajesty&amp;#039;s Printers, East Harding Slrrrt, London, E.&amp;lt;\&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 3 (#407) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
ADVERTISEMENTS.&lt;br /&gt;
The Society of Authors (Incorporated).&lt;br /&gt;
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COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.&lt;br /&gt;
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1 J. M. LELY.&lt;br /&gt;
1&lt;br /&gt;
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A. W. &Aring; BECKETT.&lt;br /&gt;
W. Martin CONWAY.&lt;br /&gt;
Solicitors.&lt;br /&gt;
Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, &amp;amp; Co., Lincoln&amp;#039;s Inn Fields.&lt;br /&gt;
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.&lt;br /&gt;
OFFICES.&lt;br /&gt;
4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN&amp;#039;s Inx FIELDS, WC,&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 4 (#408) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
A D VER TISEMEN TS.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The &amp;quot; Swan&amp;quot; is a beautiful Gold Pen joined to a rubber reservoir to hold any kind of ink, which&lt;br /&gt;
it supplies to the writing point in a continuous How. It will hold enough ink for two days&amp;#039; constant&lt;br /&gt;
work, or a week&amp;#039;s ordinary writing, and can be refilled with as little trouble as to wind a watch. With&lt;br /&gt;
the cover over the gold nib it is carried in the pocket like a pencil, to be used anywhere. A purchaser&lt;br /&gt;
may try a pen a few days, and if by chance the writing point does not suit his hand, exchange it for&lt;br /&gt;
another without charge, or have his money returned if wanted.&lt;br /&gt;
There are yarions points to select from, broad, medium, aud fine, every handwriting can be suited,&lt;br /&gt;
and the price of the entire instrument, with filler complete, post free, is only 10s. 6d.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
i, 6ARO NEW YORK fcj^&lt;br /&gt;
The Gold Pens in the &amp;quot;Swan&amp;quot; are Mabie, Todd, &amp;amp; Co.&amp;#039;s famous make. They are 14-eanit&lt;br /&gt;
tempered gold, very handsome, and positively unaffected by any kind of ink. They are pointed with&lt;br /&gt;
selected polished iridium. The &amp;quot; Encyclopaedia Britannica&amp;quot; says:&mdash;&amp;quot; Iridium is a nearly white metal of&lt;br /&gt;
high specific gravity, it is almost indestructible, and a beautifully polished surface can be obtained upon&lt;br /&gt;
it.&amp;quot; They will not penetrate the paper, and writer&amp;#039;s cramp is unknown among users of Gold Pens.&lt;br /&gt;
One Will OUtwear 90 grOSS Of Steel peilS. They are a perfect revelation to those who know nothing&lt;br /&gt;
about Gold Pens.&lt;br /&gt;
I)u. Oliver Wendell Holmes has used one of Mabie, Todd, &amp;amp; Co.&amp;#039;s Gold Pens since 185;, and is using the same&lt;br /&gt;
0110 (his &amp;quot;old friend &amp;quot;) to-day.&lt;br /&gt;
Sydney Grundy, Es&amp;lt;)., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :&mdash;&amp;quot; It is a vast improvement 011 every Stylograph.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Moberly Hell, Esq., Manager, The Times, says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :&mdash;&amp;quot; One pen lasted me for six&lt;br /&gt;
years.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
S. I). Waddv, Ksq., Q.C., M.P., says (referring to the Fountain Pen) :&mdash;&amp;quot; I have used them constantly for some&lt;br /&gt;
years, and, as far as I can remember, they have never failed me.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Send Postal Card for Free Illustrated List (containing interesting Testimonials from the Best&lt;br /&gt;
People, who have used them for years) to&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
MABIE, TODD, d BARD,&lt;br /&gt;
03, CHBAPSIDE, LONDON.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 5 (#409) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
TZhe Hutbor.&lt;br /&gt;
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)&lt;br /&gt;
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.&lt;br /&gt;
Vol. II.-No. i.]&lt;br /&gt;
JUNE i, 1891.&lt;br /&gt;
[Price Sixpence.&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR&mdash;Second Volume.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;TTT ITH the Second Volume the Author makes a&lt;br /&gt;
V V few changes, but not many. It will continue&lt;br /&gt;
to advocate the material interests of litera-&lt;br /&gt;
ture, not only in order to obtain justice to authors of&lt;br /&gt;
ull kinds, but in the conviction that the highest and&lt;br /&gt;
best interests of literature are closely connected with&lt;br /&gt;
its material interests. A literature whose producers&lt;br /&gt;
are needy beggars, dependent on the caprice of the&lt;br /&gt;
man with money, servile because they are poor, un-&lt;br /&gt;
able to assert their rights, unable to act together,&lt;br /&gt;
unable to make the world understand that they have&lt;br /&gt;
any rights, must itself tend to become poor and&lt;br /&gt;
feeble. That it has shown vigour among ourselves&lt;br /&gt;
even when authors have been sunk in the lowest&lt;br /&gt;
depths, proves the strength of a plant which could&lt;br /&gt;
llourish in a soil so ungrateful.&lt;br /&gt;
In order to secure the complete independence&lt;br /&gt;
of the author, it is necessary that the methods of&lt;br /&gt;
publishing should l&amp;gt;e based upon principles of&lt;br /&gt;
justice and fairness both to the publisher and the&lt;br /&gt;
author. That is to say, the services of the former&lt;br /&gt;
must be fully recognised and remunerated, but on&lt;br /&gt;
a scale of proportion to be regulated and agreed&lt;br /&gt;
upon by both sides. In order to arrive at this end,&lt;br /&gt;
it is necessary that we understand (1) the cost of&lt;br /&gt;
printing, paper, binding, advertising, &amp;amp;c. involved&lt;br /&gt;
in the preparation of a MS. for publication; (2)&lt;br /&gt;
the trade price; and (3) the meaning of royalties&lt;br /&gt;
as applied to author and to publisher.&lt;br /&gt;
It is next necessary to understand the arrange-&lt;br /&gt;
ments commonly proposed in agreements submitted&lt;br /&gt;
to authors by publishers; what the clauses mean to&lt;br /&gt;
either side, and especially to the author.&lt;br /&gt;
These things have been carefully ascertained by&lt;br /&gt;
the Society, and the results are now published&lt;br /&gt;
in &amp;quot;The Cost of Production&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Methods of&lt;br /&gt;
Publishing.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
For the first time, authors can learn for them-&lt;br /&gt;
selves their own business.&lt;br /&gt;
It will be the duty of the Author to keep this&lt;br /&gt;
information steadily before the eyes of its readers.&lt;br /&gt;
VOL. 11.&lt;br /&gt;
The pages of the Author will also be open to&lt;br /&gt;
questions of every kind connected with literature.&lt;br /&gt;
The Editor invites correspondence on the profession&lt;br /&gt;
of letters in every branch from those who read this&lt;br /&gt;
paper or are Members of the Society.&lt;br /&gt;
The following, among others, have promised&lt;br /&gt;
literary assistance during the year:&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
Arthur a Beckett.&lt;br /&gt;
Walter Besant.&lt;br /&gt;
J. A. Blnikie.&lt;br /&gt;
J. H. McCarthy.&lt;br /&gt;
Edward Clodd.&lt;br /&gt;
W. Morris Colles.&lt;br /&gt;
Austin Dobson.&lt;br /&gt;
Edmund Gosse.&lt;br /&gt;
H. Rider Haggard.&lt;br /&gt;
H. Hermann.&lt;br /&gt;
Henry Arthur Jones.&lt;br /&gt;
Budyard Kipling.&lt;br /&gt;
Andrew Lang.&lt;br /&gt;
C. G. Leland.&lt;br /&gt;
J. M. Lelv.&lt;br /&gt;
Rev. W. J. Lottie.&lt;br /&gt;
Cosmo Monkhouse.&lt;br /&gt;
B. M. Richardson,&lt;br /&gt;
M.D.&lt;br /&gt;
F. W. Robinson.&lt;br /&gt;
Robert Ross.&lt;br /&gt;
G. R. Sims.&lt;br /&gt;
S. S. Sprigge.&lt;br /&gt;
J. Ashby Sterrv.&lt;br /&gt;
William Westell.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;William Wilson.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
The Author will in future be printed and&lt;br /&gt;
published by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode, East&lt;br /&gt;
Harding Street, on the 1st of every month, instead&lt;br /&gt;
of the 10th. Communications should be addressed&lt;br /&gt;
to the Editor, Authors&amp;#039; Society, 4, Portugal Street,&lt;br /&gt;
Lincoln&amp;#039;s Inn Fields. They should reach him&lt;br /&gt;
not later than the 22nd.&lt;br /&gt;
THE AMERICAN COPYRIGHT ACT.&lt;br /&gt;
I.&lt;br /&gt;
Directions for securing Copyrights&lt;br /&gt;
Under the Revised Acts of Congress, including the&lt;br /&gt;
Provisions for Foreign Copyright, by Act of&lt;br /&gt;
March 3rd, 1891.&lt;br /&gt;
Printed Title required.&lt;br /&gt;
1. A printed copy of the title of the book, map,&lt;br /&gt;
chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving,&lt;br /&gt;
cut, print, photograph, or chromo, or a description&lt;br /&gt;
a 3&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 6 (#410) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
6&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
of the painting, drawing, statue, .statuary, or model&lt;br /&gt;
or design for a work of the fine arts for which copy-&lt;br /&gt;
right is desired, must be delivered to the Librarian&lt;br /&gt;
of Congress or depos-ted in the mail within the&lt;br /&gt;
United States, prepaid, addressed&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
Librarian of Congress,&lt;br /&gt;
Washington, D.C.&lt;br /&gt;
This must l&amp;gt;e done on or before day of publication&lt;br /&gt;
in this or any foreign country. &amp;quot;*&lt;br /&gt;
What style of Print.&lt;br /&gt;
The printed title required may be a copy of&lt;br /&gt;
the title page of such publications as have title&lt;br /&gt;
pages. In other cases, the title must be printed&lt;br /&gt;
expressly for copyright entry, with name of&lt;br /&gt;
claimant of copyright. The style of type is&lt;br /&gt;
immaterial, and the print of a type-writer will&lt;br /&gt;
be accepted. But a separate title is required for&lt;br /&gt;
each entry, and each title must be printed on&lt;br /&gt;
paper as large as commercial note. The title of&lt;br /&gt;
a periodical must include the date and numl&amp;gt;er,&lt;br /&gt;
and each number of a periodical requires a separate&lt;br /&gt;
entry of copyright.&lt;br /&gt;
Copyright Fees.&lt;br /&gt;
2. The legal fee for recording each copyright&lt;br /&gt;
claim is 5o cents, and for a copy of this record&lt;br /&gt;
(or certificate of copyright under seal of the office)&lt;br /&gt;
an additional fee of oo cents is required, making&lt;br /&gt;
$i in case certificate is wanted, which will be&lt;br /&gt;
mailed as soon as reached in the records. In&lt;br /&gt;
the case of publications produced by other citizens&lt;br /&gt;
or residents of the United States, the fee for&lt;br /&gt;
recording title is $l, and 5o cents additional&lt;br /&gt;
for a copy of the record. Certificates covering&lt;br /&gt;
more than one entry in one certificate are not&lt;br /&gt;
issued.&lt;br /&gt;
Two Copies required.&lt;br /&gt;
3. Not later than the day of publication of each&lt;br /&gt;
book or other article, in this country or abroad,&lt;br /&gt;
two complete copies of the best edition issued&lt;br /&gt;
must be delivered to perfect the copyright, or&lt;br /&gt;
deposited in the mail within the United States,&lt;br /&gt;
addressed&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
Librarian of Congress,&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Washington, D.C.&lt;br /&gt;
Free by Mail.&lt;br /&gt;
The freight or postage must be prepaid, or the&lt;br /&gt;
publications enclosed in parcels covered by printed&lt;br /&gt;
penalty labels, furnished by the Librarian, in which&lt;br /&gt;
case they will come free by mail (not express),&lt;br /&gt;
without limit of weight, according to rulings of the&lt;br /&gt;
Post Office Department. In the case of books,&lt;br /&gt;
photographs, chromos, or lithographs, the two&lt;br /&gt;
copies deposited must lie printed from type set or&lt;br /&gt;
plates made in the United States, or from negatives&lt;br /&gt;
or drawings on stone, or transfers therefrom, made&lt;br /&gt;
within the United States.&lt;br /&gt;
Penalty.&lt;br /&gt;
Without the deposit of copies aliove required the&lt;br /&gt;
copyright is void, and a penalty of $20 is incurred.&lt;br /&gt;
No copy is required to Ik- deposited elsewhere.&lt;br /&gt;
The law requires one copy of each new edition&lt;br /&gt;
wherein any substantial changes are made to be&lt;br /&gt;
deposited with the Librarian of Congress.&lt;br /&gt;
Notice of Copyright to be given by Imprint.&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
Claimant&amp;#039;s name to be printed.&lt;br /&gt;
4. No copyright is valid unless notice is given&lt;br /&gt;
by inserting in every copy published, on the title&lt;br /&gt;
page or the page following, if it be a book; or if&lt;br /&gt;
a map, chart, musical composition, print, cut,&lt;br /&gt;
engraving, photograph, painting, drawing, chromo,&lt;br /&gt;
statue, statuary, or model or design intended to l&amp;gt;e&lt;br /&gt;
perfected as a work of the fine arts, by inscribing&lt;br /&gt;
upon some portion thereof, or on the substance on&lt;br /&gt;
which the same is mounted, the following words,&lt;br /&gt;
viz.: &amp;quot;Entered according to Act of Congress, in&lt;br /&gt;
the year , by , in the office&lt;br /&gt;
of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,&amp;quot; or,&lt;br /&gt;
at the option of the person entering the copyright,&lt;br /&gt;
the words: &amp;quot; Copyright, 18 , by .&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
The law imposes a penalty of $100 upon any&lt;br /&gt;
person who has not obtained copyright who shall&lt;br /&gt;
insert the notice &amp;quot;Entered according to Act of&lt;br /&gt;
Congress,&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;Copyright,&amp;quot; &amp;amp;c, or words of the&lt;br /&gt;
same import, in or upon any lx&amp;gt;ok or other article.&lt;br /&gt;
Translations and Dramas.&lt;br /&gt;
5. The copyright law secures to authors or their&lt;br /&gt;
assigns the exclusive right to translate or to drama-&lt;br /&gt;
tize their own works.&lt;br /&gt;
Rights reserved.&lt;br /&gt;
Since the phrase all rights reserved refers exclu-&lt;br /&gt;
sively to the right to dramatize or to translate, it&lt;br /&gt;
has no bearing upon any publications except&lt;br /&gt;
original works, and will not be entered upon the&lt;br /&gt;
record in other cases.&lt;br /&gt;
Duration of Copyright.&lt;br /&gt;
6. The original term of copyright runs for&lt;br /&gt;
twenty-eight years. Within six months liefore&lt;br /&gt;
the end of that time, the author or designer, or his&lt;br /&gt;
widow or children, may secure a renewal for the&lt;br /&gt;
further term of fourteen years, making forty-two&lt;br /&gt;
years in all.&lt;br /&gt;
Rcneicals.&lt;br /&gt;
Applications for renewal must l&amp;gt;e accomjianied&lt;br /&gt;
by explicit statement of ownership, in the case of&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 7 (#411) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
7&lt;br /&gt;
the author, or of relationship, in the case of his&lt;br /&gt;
heirs, and must state definitely the date and place&lt;br /&gt;
of entry of the original copyright. Advertisement&lt;br /&gt;
of renewal is to l&amp;gt;e made within two months of&lt;br /&gt;
date of renewal certificate in some newspaper for&lt;br /&gt;
four weeks.&lt;br /&gt;
Time of Publication.&lt;br /&gt;
7. The time within which any work entered for&lt;br /&gt;
copyright may l&amp;gt;e issued from the press is not&lt;br /&gt;
omited by any law or regulation, but the courts&lt;br /&gt;
have held that it should take place within a rea-&lt;br /&gt;
sonable time. A copyright may be secured for&lt;br /&gt;
a projected work as well as for a completed one.&lt;br /&gt;
But the law provides for no caveat, or notice of&lt;br /&gt;
interference&mdash;only for actual entry of title.&lt;br /&gt;
Assignments.&lt;br /&gt;
8. A copyright is assignable in law by any&lt;br /&gt;
instrument of writing, and such assignment is&lt;br /&gt;
to be recorded in the office of the Librarian of&lt;br /&gt;
Congress within 60 days from its date. The fee&lt;br /&gt;
for this record and certificate is $1, and for a&lt;br /&gt;
certified copy of any record of assignment $ 1.&lt;br /&gt;
Copies or Duplicate Certificates.&lt;br /&gt;
9. A copy of the record (or duplicate certificate)&lt;br /&gt;
of any copyright entry will be furnished, under&lt;br /&gt;
seal of the office, at the rate of 5o cents each.&lt;br /&gt;
Serials or separate Publications.&lt;br /&gt;
10. In the case of lx&amp;gt;oks published in more than&lt;br /&gt;
one volume, or of periodicals published in numbers,&lt;br /&gt;
or of engravings, photographs, or other articles pub-&lt;br /&gt;
lished with variations, a copyright is to be entered&lt;br /&gt;
for each volume or part of a book, or number of&lt;br /&gt;
a periodical, or variety, as to style, title, or inscrip-&lt;br /&gt;
tion, of any other article. But a book published&lt;br /&gt;
serially in a periodical, under the same general&lt;br /&gt;
title, requires only one entry. To complete the&lt;br /&gt;
copyright on such a work, two copies of each serial&lt;br /&gt;
part, as well as of the complete work (if published&lt;br /&gt;
separately), should be deposited.&lt;br /&gt;
Copyright for Works of Art.&lt;br /&gt;
11. To secure copyright for a painting, statue,&lt;br /&gt;
or model or design intended to l&amp;gt;e perfected as&lt;br /&gt;
a work of the fine arts, a definite description must&lt;br /&gt;
accompany the application for copyright, and a&lt;br /&gt;
photograph of the same as large as &amp;quot;cabinet size,&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
mailed to the Librarian of Congress not later than&lt;br /&gt;
the day of publication of the work or design.&lt;br /&gt;
The fine arts, for copyright purposes, include&lt;br /&gt;
only painting and sculpture, and articles of merely&lt;br /&gt;
ornamental and decorative art are referred to the&lt;br /&gt;
Patent Office, as subjects for Design Patents.&lt;br /&gt;
No Labels or Names Copyright.&lt;br /&gt;
12. Copyrights cannot be granted upon trade&lt;br /&gt;
marks, nor upon names of companies or articles,&lt;br /&gt;
nor upon an idea or device, nor upon prints or&lt;br /&gt;
labels intended to be used for any article of manu-&lt;br /&gt;
facture. If protection for such names or labels is&lt;br /&gt;
desired, application must be made to the Patent&lt;br /&gt;
Office, where they are registered at a fee of &sect;6 for&lt;br /&gt;
labels and ?25 for trade marks.&lt;br /&gt;
Foreign or International Copyright.&lt;br /&gt;
13. The provisions as to copyright entry in the&lt;br /&gt;
United States by foreign authors, &amp;amp;c, by Act of&lt;br /&gt;
Congress approved March 3rd, 1891 (to take effect&lt;br /&gt;
July 1st, 1891), are the same as the foregoing.&lt;br /&gt;
The right of citizens or subjects of a foreign&lt;br /&gt;
nation to copyright within the United States is not&lt;br /&gt;
to take effect unless such nation permits to United&lt;br /&gt;
States citizens the benefit of copyright on the same&lt;br /&gt;
basis as to its own citizens, or unless such nation&lt;br /&gt;
is a party to an international agreement providing&lt;br /&gt;
for reciprocity in copyright, to which the United&lt;br /&gt;
States may become a party. The Librarian of&lt;br /&gt;
Congress can enter copyright for foreigners only&lt;br /&gt;
after a proclamation of the President of the United&lt;br /&gt;
States, certifying the existence of either of the&lt;br /&gt;
foregoing conditions.&lt;br /&gt;
The right of Americans to secure copyright&lt;br /&gt;
abroad is unchanged by the new law, pending new&lt;br /&gt;
legislation in foreign countries, or international&lt;br /&gt;
agreements as to copyright between their govern-&lt;br /&gt;
ments and that of the United States.&lt;br /&gt;
Full Name of Proprietor required.&lt;br /&gt;
14. Every applicant for a copyright should&lt;br /&gt;
state distinctly the full name and residence of the&lt;br /&gt;
claimant, and whether the right is claimed as&lt;br /&gt;
author, designer, or proprietor. No affidavit or&lt;br /&gt;
witness to the application is required.&lt;br /&gt;
Office of tub Librarian of Congress,&lt;br /&gt;
Washington, 1891.&lt;br /&gt;
H.&lt;br /&gt;
Robert Underwood Johnson.&lt;br /&gt;
It is only natural and proper that English&lt;br /&gt;
authors should wish to know more about the most&lt;br /&gt;
ardent and active of those American friends to&lt;br /&gt;
whom the passing of the Copyright Bill is due.&lt;br /&gt;
It is no exaggeration, and it conveys no slight&lt;br /&gt;
to other industrious promoters of the copvriglit&lt;br /&gt;
movement, to say that, as Secretary of the American&lt;br /&gt;
Authors&amp;#039; Copyright League and of the Joint&lt;br /&gt;
Executive Committee or all the organizations&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 8 (#412) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
8&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
supporting the Bill, Mr. 11. U. Johnson had more&lt;br /&gt;
than anyone else to do with the final victory. In&lt;br /&gt;
signing the Copyright Bill, President Harrison&lt;br /&gt;
used a large quill taken from an American eagle,&lt;br /&gt;
procured for that purpose by Mr. Johnson, to&lt;br /&gt;
whom the pen was then returned with the Presi-&lt;br /&gt;
dent&amp;#039;s compliments. Not many authors possess&lt;br /&gt;
pens that so well deserve to become heirlooms.&lt;br /&gt;
Robert Underwood Johnson was born on Capitol&lt;br /&gt;
Hill, Washington, D.C., January nth, i853. He&lt;br /&gt;
was named after his great-grandfather, Robert&lt;br /&gt;
Underwood, one of the early settlers of Washing-&lt;br /&gt;
ton, and a mathematician of ability. His maternal&lt;br /&gt;
grandfather was John Underwood of that city,&lt;br /&gt;
afterward for many years a resident of Wayne&lt;br /&gt;
County, Indiana, with which Mr. Johnson&amp;#039;s paternal&lt;br /&gt;
grandfather, Dr. Nathan Johnson, was also long&lt;br /&gt;
identified, having been one of the original Aboli-&lt;br /&gt;
tionists of Eastern Indiana. On his mother&amp;#039;s side&lt;br /&gt;
the Underwoods and Ingles are of a Calvinistic&lt;br /&gt;
strain, while on his father&amp;#039;s side the Johnsons and&lt;br /&gt;
Hoges who come from Loudon County, Virginia,&lt;br /&gt;
are of Quaker stock of a liberal type, and of&lt;br /&gt;
marked literary tastes.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Johnson&amp;#039;s father, the late Honourable&lt;br /&gt;
Nimrod H. Johnson, in addition to his prominence&lt;br /&gt;
in Eastern Indiana as an able lawyer and a just&lt;br /&gt;
and discriminating jurist, was known among his&lt;br /&gt;
associates for his wide and exact knowledge of&lt;br /&gt;
history, poetry, fiction, and general literature. To&lt;br /&gt;
him Mr. Johnson owes his literary temperament&lt;br /&gt;
and predilections. After an ordinary high school&lt;br /&gt;
education at Centreville, Indiana, where his boy-&lt;br /&gt;
hood was passed, Robert matriculated at Earlham&lt;br /&gt;
College, an institution of the Society of Friends,&lt;br /&gt;
Richmond, Indiana, in 1867. In 1871, at the&lt;br /&gt;
age of 18, he was graduated from that institution&lt;br /&gt;
as Bachelor of Science, to which the college in&lt;br /&gt;
1889 added the honorary degree of Ph.D. From&lt;br /&gt;
college he went immediately into business as clerk&lt;br /&gt;
in the Western agency of the Scribner educational&lt;br /&gt;
books at Chicago. After nearly two years of this&lt;br /&gt;
work (including the year of the great fire) he&lt;br /&gt;
became connected, in 1873, with the editorial&lt;br /&gt;
staff of the Century Magazine (then Scribner&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
Monthly), a connexion which still exists.&lt;br /&gt;
On the death of the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. J. G.&lt;br /&gt;
Holland, in 1881, Mr. R. W. Gilder became the&lt;br /&gt;
Editor, and Mr. Johnson succeeded him as the&lt;br /&gt;
Associate-Editor. This position he now occupies,&lt;br /&gt;
with a large measure of responsibility, having&lt;br /&gt;
also acted virtually as Managing Editor under&lt;br /&gt;
Dr. Holland for a year in 1879-80, during Mr.&lt;br /&gt;
Gilder&amp;#039;s absence in Europe. In 18 83 Mr. Gilder&lt;br /&gt;
intrusted to Mr. Johnson and Mr. C. C. Buel,&lt;br /&gt;
the conduct of the well-known Century War&lt;br /&gt;
Series, and they had charge of it both in the&lt;br /&gt;
Magazine and in the enlarged and revised book&lt;br /&gt;
publication of four volumes &amp;quot; Battles and Leaders&lt;br /&gt;
of the Civil War,&amp;quot; which was begun in 1887 and&lt;br /&gt;
completed in 1889&mdash;Mr. Buel, however, having&lt;br /&gt;
sole charge of the Magazine papers for a year&lt;br /&gt;
during Mr. Johnson&amp;#039;s absence in Europe in 1885-6.&lt;br /&gt;
This trip was undertaken with the chief object of&lt;br /&gt;
becoming acquainted with the best examples of&lt;br /&gt;
European art and architecture, and included visits&lt;br /&gt;
to the galleries of London, Paris, Holland, and&lt;br /&gt;
Italy, and an inspection of the Greek monuments&lt;br /&gt;
of Athens and Sicily.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Johnson&amp;#039;s literary work, in addition to his&lt;br /&gt;
daily and exacting editorial duties, has been con-&lt;br /&gt;
fined to editorial and critical articles and to verse.&lt;br /&gt;
He h:is not yet collected his graceful poems into&lt;br /&gt;
a volume, but has scattered them in the pages of&lt;br /&gt;
the Century, Harper&amp;#039;s Monthly, St. Nicholas,&lt;br /&gt;
the Christian Union, the Tribune, and other&lt;br /&gt;
periodicals. He is a member of the Authors&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
Club, the Century Club, and the Aldine Club&lt;br /&gt;
of New York, and of the Civil Service Reform&lt;br /&gt;
Association, and the Free Art League. Since&lt;br /&gt;
1883 he has been actively connected with the&lt;br /&gt;
International Copyright movement, having been&lt;br /&gt;
for several years Treasurer of the American Copy-&lt;br /&gt;
right League, and a member of its executive&lt;br /&gt;
committee of five. In 1889 he exchanged the&lt;br /&gt;
treasurership for the more responsible work of&lt;br /&gt;
Secretary of the League, becoming by this office&lt;br /&gt;
also Secretary of the Joint Executive Committee&lt;br /&gt;
(of Authors and Publishers) which was in charge of&lt;br /&gt;
the campaign for the Copyright Bill. He was&lt;br /&gt;
active in urging the northward extension of the&lt;br /&gt;
East River Park, New York, and the creation of&lt;br /&gt;
the Yosemite National Park, and has recently&lt;br /&gt;
devoted much attention to the movement in favour&lt;br /&gt;
of securing a better supervision of the Yosemite&lt;br /&gt;
Valley, which he visited in June 1889, during a&lt;br /&gt;
trip of two months to California in the interest of&lt;br /&gt;
the Century.&lt;br /&gt;
In a letter just received, Mr. Johnson says:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;The problem now is to establish the foundation&lt;br /&gt;
for the President&amp;#039;s proclamation. I have written&lt;br /&gt;
officially to Mr. Blaine to see that no time is lost,&lt;br /&gt;
and taking the ground that the Bill must 1k&amp;gt; made&lt;br /&gt;
operative towards citizens of any country which is&lt;br /&gt;
a signatory of the Berne Conference, whether that&lt;br /&gt;
country gives America copyright or not. That&lt;br /&gt;
was Simonds&amp;#039; intention in drafting that clause of&lt;br /&gt;
Section XIII., but I fear our Secretary of State&lt;br /&gt;
will not take that view of reciprocity. On your&lt;br /&gt;
part, an Order in Council would, of course, put the&lt;br /&gt;
thing beyond penulventure, and be simpler and&lt;br /&gt;
easier than the Monkswell Bill, especially as Parlia-&lt;br /&gt;
ment is likely to be prorogued, and even if it&lt;br /&gt;
continue there may be a long debate on the Bill.&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, we cannot with a good grace ask for&lt;br /&gt;
more than we offer. NoImxIv could complain if we&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 9 (#413) ##############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
9&lt;br /&gt;
got just what we offer, but our step is irretrievable&lt;br /&gt;
now, and it is your move! As soon as I hear, if I&lt;br /&gt;
do, what view our State .Department will take, I&lt;br /&gt;
will let you know. Meanwhile, I should think the&lt;br /&gt;
Order in Council the proper cue, if practicable,&lt;br /&gt;
and in either case, prompt action would strengthen&lt;br /&gt;
us here for a more liberal law in the future.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
In acknowledgment of his services in the Inter-&lt;br /&gt;
national Copyright cause, the French Government&lt;br /&gt;
has just conferred upon him the Cross of the&lt;br /&gt;
Legion of Honour (Chevalier), and some of his&lt;br /&gt;
associates in the Copyright cause have presented&lt;br /&gt;
him with a handsome silver loving cup.&lt;br /&gt;
E. G.&lt;br /&gt;
III.&lt;br /&gt;
The Passing of the Bill.&lt;br /&gt;
In the midst of manifold business, I venture to&lt;br /&gt;
send you a hurried and imperfect account of the&lt;br /&gt;
passage of the Copyright Bill, and the &amp;quot;Ladies&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
Night of the Authors&amp;#039; Club &amp;quot; in New York.&lt;br /&gt;
I find by the Author, which was here awaiting&lt;br /&gt;
my arrival, that someone has kept you informed as&lt;br /&gt;
to operations in Congress.&lt;br /&gt;
While I was in Washington a friend in Congress&lt;br /&gt;
said, &amp;quot;If you people want that Bill to pass, you&lt;br /&gt;
will have to fight for it, as the printers, litho-&lt;br /&gt;
graphers, &amp;amp;c, &amp;amp;c, an; lumbering it with all sorts&lt;br /&gt;
of weights.&amp;quot; Several of us went up; and I talked&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Bill &amp;quot; most earnestly to members of Congress in&lt;br /&gt;
the same house with us. Through the kindness of&lt;br /&gt;
Senator Allen, of Washington (State), I had a&lt;br /&gt;
seat in the Diplomatic Gallery, where I could see&lt;br /&gt;
and hear all that was going on. A great many&lt;br /&gt;
Senators spoke eloquently for the authors, but&lt;br /&gt;
opposed the Bill, only on account of its clauses&lt;br /&gt;
created by trade unions, &amp;amp;c. Several senators&lt;br /&gt;
made fine pleas for us, notably, a young man from&lt;br /&gt;
Colorado, and I have the pleasure of knowing that&lt;br /&gt;
at least one vote was changed on my account.&lt;br /&gt;
Imperfect as it is, it seems to me to be a step&lt;br /&gt;
forward. We are recognised as authors, we have&lt;br /&gt;
rights; and men who were ignorant before now&lt;br /&gt;
know that publishers generally get richer and richer&lt;br /&gt;
as authors get jworer and poorer.&lt;br /&gt;
The Western Senators, (as a rule) broad-minded&lt;br /&gt;
men from broad acres, favoured the Bill or some&lt;br /&gt;
Bill tending towards justice. As one Senator said,&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;The printers, publishers, lithographers, &amp;amp;c. all&lt;br /&gt;
have their unions; they are protected, but who&lt;br /&gt;
protects the author?&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
We sat listening with beating hearts longing to&lt;br /&gt;
correct some errors, and eager to put words of truth&lt;br /&gt;
in the speakers&amp;#039; mouths. About one o&amp;#039;clock in the&lt;br /&gt;
morning the roll was called on the vote, and at 1.3o&lt;br /&gt;
Vol. II.&lt;br /&gt;
we went home to bed thankful for little, hoping for&lt;br /&gt;
more.&lt;br /&gt;
I asked one of the Senators to forward you a&lt;br /&gt;
copy of the Bill as revised and past. If you did&lt;br /&gt;
not receive it, please let me know.&lt;br /&gt;
From Washington I went to New York, to find&lt;br /&gt;
that the Authors&amp;#039; Club, for the first time in their&lt;br /&gt;
history, had issued invitations to the ladies, following&lt;br /&gt;
your good example. I was induced to remain over&lt;br /&gt;
for it, and was pleased to meet many of our noted&lt;br /&gt;
and quoted men and women.&lt;br /&gt;
Rider Haggard had left that day for England, to&lt;br /&gt;
the regret of many who wished to see him.&lt;br /&gt;
In conversation with Noah Brooks, Stedman the&lt;br /&gt;
Poet, Kiehard Henry Stoddard, and others, I spoke&lt;br /&gt;
of the English Society and its brave work for&lt;br /&gt;
authors.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Brooks, the President of the Club, did me&lt;br /&gt;
the honour to say, &amp;quot;That, in his opinion, the three&lt;br /&gt;
authors who were doing most to give clear, finished,&lt;br /&gt;
and admirable pictures of New England life and&lt;br /&gt;
philosophy were your correspondent, Sarah Ome&lt;br /&gt;
Jeroett, and Mary E. Wilkins,&amp;quot; encouraging tri-&lt;br /&gt;
bute? from a man of Mr. Brook&amp;#039;s standing and&lt;br /&gt;
truthfulness.&lt;br /&gt;
You speak of our little &amp;quot; Guild.&amp;quot; Why not both&lt;br /&gt;
men and women? Sure enough; but the men&lt;br /&gt;
have &amp;quot;flocked by themselves,&amp;quot; and we must do the&lt;br /&gt;
best we can.&lt;br /&gt;
As it is, I find some women averse to any move-&lt;br /&gt;
ment. They say, &amp;quot;Good writers get all they want&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;There is no need,&amp;quot; &amp;amp;c, &amp;amp;c. I cannot take this&lt;br /&gt;
narrow view, and therefore hope to make our&lt;br /&gt;
Guild a quiet power for good.&lt;br /&gt;
You would laugh, I am sure, could you hear the&lt;br /&gt;
comments on our Society in Loudon. One pub-&lt;br /&gt;
lisher says, &amp;quot;It is a sort of spite company gotten&lt;br /&gt;
up by growlers, who cannot sell their work.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Another remarks: &amp;quot;I observe by the papers that&lt;br /&gt;
you are a member of that London Club. I advise&lt;br /&gt;
you to keep out of it. They are an aggressive lot&lt;br /&gt;
of men who want the earth.&amp;quot; Meantime, I go&lt;br /&gt;
steadily on doing my work.&lt;br /&gt;
Kate Tannatt Woods.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Maple Nest,&amp;quot; Salem, Mass.,&lt;br /&gt;
April 8th, 1891.&lt;br /&gt;
IV.&lt;br /&gt;
The Bill enacts that not later than the day of&lt;br /&gt;
publication anywhere, there must 1m- two copies&lt;br /&gt;
of the work in question sent to the Librarian of&lt;br /&gt;
Congress, and these copies must be printed in&lt;br /&gt;
America. This is most, harrassing and unjust to&lt;br /&gt;
foreign authors. It can only 1k&amp;gt; of profit to those&lt;br /&gt;
who, having a great popular reputation, can secure&lt;br /&gt;
V.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 10 (#414) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
10&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
beforehand a publisher in America. But all Iwoks&lt;br /&gt;
which are ventures or risks, or not likely to sell&lt;br /&gt;
extensively (as, for instance, a young author&amp;#039;s first&lt;br /&gt;
book) cannot be lienefited by the Bill. Should an&lt;br /&gt;
author publish a book in England alone, and should&lt;br /&gt;
it by chance turn out to be a success, there is&lt;br /&gt;
nothing to prevent any American from taking it.&lt;br /&gt;
There are a great many books which have a great&lt;br /&gt;
success contrary to all expectations of both publisher&lt;br /&gt;
and author, as I myself have experienced.&lt;br /&gt;
There are also a great many l&amp;gt;ooks of immense&lt;br /&gt;
value to the world which do not sell well. No one&lt;br /&gt;
book ever had such influence on the American public&lt;br /&gt;
as the &amp;quot; Political Economy of Henry Carey,&amp;quot; yet it&lt;br /&gt;
was 3o years before the first edition of 1,000 copies&lt;br /&gt;
was sold; I having bought the very last one. I&lt;br /&gt;
could enumerate many such works.&lt;br /&gt;
According to this Bill, there can be no sending&lt;br /&gt;
from England to America of small amounts of&lt;br /&gt;
l&raquo;ooks&mdash;say 25o or 100&mdash;that is, if I understand&lt;br /&gt;
the expression &amp;quot;prohibition of importation&amp;quot; in&lt;br /&gt;
section 3, which seems to me to be very artfully&lt;br /&gt;
contrived so as to prevent all such importation, and&lt;br /&gt;
which certainly will be so carried out&mdash;making the&lt;br /&gt;
position of the foreign author as regards America,&lt;br /&gt;
on the whole, much worse than it now is. Thus I,&lt;br /&gt;
personally, have just published a very expensive&lt;br /&gt;
illustrated work. There is not the slightest pro-&lt;br /&gt;
bability that any American firm would ever print it,&lt;br /&gt;
but enough copies can now be sold to America to&lt;br /&gt;
materially aid the cost.&lt;br /&gt;
This Bill seems to me utterly adverse to all the&lt;br /&gt;
best interests of literature. It is founded on the&lt;br /&gt;
vulgar and ignorant opinion, too prevalent in&lt;br /&gt;
America, that a book is valuable exactly in propor-&lt;br /&gt;
tion to its sale. It will deter authors from making&lt;br /&gt;
efforts or taking risks. It is conceived entirely in a&lt;br /&gt;
mere tradesman-like spirit. It is really and solely&lt;br /&gt;
devised to favour publishers as much, and authors&lt;br /&gt;
as little, as possible. Public opinion in Europe, and&lt;br /&gt;
the complaints of American authors liave forced the&lt;br /&gt;
American publishers and public to grant something,&lt;br /&gt;
and so they give just as little as they possibly can.&lt;br /&gt;
This Bill will deeply injure the best interests of&lt;br /&gt;
culture and literature in America. But this will&lt;br /&gt;
Ih&raquo; a matter of no consequence to legislators, who&lt;br /&gt;
cannot see any difference to the public between the&lt;br /&gt;
sale of a black letter book and its equal value in&lt;br /&gt;
black tea.&lt;br /&gt;
As I said before, this Bill allows the American&lt;br /&gt;
publishers to wait and see whether books by un-&lt;br /&gt;
known authors (or idl not copyrighted on a certain&lt;br /&gt;
day) will succeed, and if they do, he can always&lt;br /&gt;
reprint them.&lt;br /&gt;
This is so peculiarly mean and contemptible, and&lt;br /&gt;
also cruel. It is discouraging to young authors&lt;br /&gt;
whose first works are always risks.&lt;br /&gt;
However artfully it may be worded, the intent&lt;br /&gt;
of this Bill is to allow no books to be sold in the&lt;br /&gt;
United States unless they shall be printed there.&lt;br /&gt;
According to section 3 an American publisher by&lt;br /&gt;
depositing a printed title of any forthcoming&lt;br /&gt;
English work can effectively stop its sale or its&lt;br /&gt;
republication in America if he be so minded.&lt;br /&gt;
That is, he can apply for a copyright, and either&lt;br /&gt;
make his own terms, having obtained it, or else&lt;br /&gt;
prevent its appearing altogether.&lt;br /&gt;
The Bill protects the author as regards printing&lt;br /&gt;
and publishing, but not against copyrighting his&lt;br /&gt;
title. And this same infamous injustice exists in&lt;br /&gt;
England. Thus, I know a publisher in Loudon,&lt;br /&gt;
who, having advertised a book by a certain title,&lt;br /&gt;
the title was copyrighted by another man who&lt;br /&gt;
legally notified the publisher that he must not use&lt;br /&gt;
his own title. I should say in conclusion, from my&lt;br /&gt;
very soul, that men who could conceive, carry out,&lt;br /&gt;
or approve of any such Bill as this, would be&lt;br /&gt;
capable of anything contemptible or disreputable.&lt;br /&gt;
It is altogether in the spirit of the great popular&lt;br /&gt;
theory that the minority or the weak have no&lt;br /&gt;
rights whatever which the majority or the strong&lt;br /&gt;
are l&amp;gt;ound to respect.&lt;br /&gt;
Chaiiles Godfrey Leland.&lt;br /&gt;
Florence.&lt;br /&gt;
V.&lt;br /&gt;
I am not concerned with the purely legal side of&lt;br /&gt;
the question. I leave that to Sir Frederick Pollock&lt;br /&gt;
and other lights of the law, by whom it has already&lt;br /&gt;
teen discussed. I would merely point out that the&lt;br /&gt;
English publisher of an American book can protect&lt;br /&gt;
it by the simple expedient of calling it a &amp;quot;copy-&lt;br /&gt;
right edition.&amp;quot; This may imply either that the&lt;br /&gt;
book was published simultaneously in England and&lt;br /&gt;
the United States, or that, at the time of its publi-&lt;br /&gt;
cation, the author was in British territory. Lord&lt;br /&gt;
Westbury and other authorities have expressed the&lt;br /&gt;
opinion that observance of the first of the conditions&lt;br /&gt;
secures the American author in his copyright; all&lt;br /&gt;
agree that observance of the second does. And&lt;br /&gt;
who can lie sure that Lord Westbury was mistaken,&lt;br /&gt;
or that the moment the book was published in&lt;br /&gt;
London the author was not on the Canadian side of&lt;br /&gt;
the Niagara or the St. Lawrence, or elsewhere in&lt;br /&gt;
the Queen&amp;#039;s dominions? The question could only&lt;br /&gt;
be conclusively tested by the production of a rival&lt;br /&gt;
edition; and where is the publisher who would&lt;br /&gt;
commit so great a folly? Though he might de-&lt;br /&gt;
stroy the copyright of the book, he could in no&lt;br /&gt;
circumstances acquire it for himself, while failure&lt;br /&gt;
in the action which would doubtless be brought&lt;br /&gt;
against him would involve payment of his adver-&lt;br /&gt;
sary&amp;#039;s legal costs as well as his own, in addition to&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 11 (#415) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
the cost of producing the rival edition, to say&lt;br /&gt;
nothing of th&laquo;! worry, and the |&amp;gt;ossibility of being&lt;br /&gt;
cast in damages. But an ounce of practice is tetter&lt;br /&gt;
than a pound of theory; and, as a matter of fact, I&lt;br /&gt;
lx-lieve that no American book described on its&lt;br /&gt;
title page as &amp;quot; copyright&amp;quot; has ever been pirated in&lt;br /&gt;
this country.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;William Westall.&lt;br /&gt;
VI.&lt;br /&gt;
Mb. C. J. Longman on the Bill.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. C. J. Longman has contributed to the April&lt;br /&gt;
number of the Economic Review (Percival &amp;amp; Co.)&lt;br /&gt;
a very cogent article on the American Copyright&lt;br /&gt;
Bill, which will be read with considerable interest.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Longman points out that those writers whose&lt;br /&gt;
published works are before the world, but have&lt;br /&gt;
hitherto, from whatever cause, failed to attract the&lt;br /&gt;
attention of pirates, will derive no advantage from&lt;br /&gt;
the Act, and it is no doubt true that the enter-&lt;br /&gt;
prising American publisher will not feel stimulated&lt;br /&gt;
to engage in undertakings of this character now&lt;br /&gt;
that the law makes him pay the authors. It is, as&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Longman puts it, impossible to make people&lt;br /&gt;
read or buy unreadable books by Act of Congress.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Longman thinks that British authors will also&lt;br /&gt;
find that they liave to compete with books of their&lt;br /&gt;
own and other authors which have been published&lt;br /&gt;
previous to the date on which the Act comes into&lt;br /&gt;
force, which will of course remain on sale at the&lt;br /&gt;
old price, as the Bill is not retrospective. But as&lt;br /&gt;
to this, it may be remarked that in the opinion of&lt;br /&gt;
at least some authorities, copyright editions of all&lt;br /&gt;
these books will appear, and if so, it is possible that&lt;br /&gt;
the American public will buy the copyright edition&lt;br /&gt;
and not the cheap one.&lt;br /&gt;
As to the effects of the Bill upon British trade,&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Longman thinks that American printers are&lt;br /&gt;
clever enough to adapt their type and methods of&lt;br /&gt;
spelling to our needs; that plates will be sent over&lt;br /&gt;
here, and, in some cases, l&amp;gt;ooks sent over in sheets.&lt;br /&gt;
The loss therefore in his view will fall upon&lt;br /&gt;
printers and subsidiary trades, as type founders,&lt;br /&gt;
ink manufacturers, while binders will not be greatly&lt;br /&gt;
affected. As for the publishing trade, Mr. Longman&lt;br /&gt;
thinks that it will not be much affected in so far as&lt;br /&gt;
publishers are concerned with the publication of&lt;br /&gt;
books. It of course follows that the l&amp;gt;est British&lt;br /&gt;
houses will open branches in New York or Boston,&lt;br /&gt;
and Mr. Longman, at any rate, thinks that American&lt;br /&gt;
publishers have quite as much to fear as British&lt;br /&gt;
linns.&lt;br /&gt;
VII.&lt;br /&gt;
Regarding this Bill solely from my own point of&lt;br /&gt;
view&mdash;that of a writer of historical l&amp;gt;ooksand works&lt;br /&gt;
of reference not likely to have a rapid or immediate&lt;br /&gt;
sale&mdash;I see no advantage to accrue from the provi-&lt;br /&gt;
sions. It is unlikely that such books should come&lt;br /&gt;
to be printed in America, as the publishers would&lt;br /&gt;
prefer to print in England. Wages, I presume,&lt;br /&gt;
are less; correction of proofs must be easier and&lt;br /&gt;
cheaper. Lastly, consideration is due to the eccentric&lt;br /&gt;
spelling of American printers, which would, in some&lt;br /&gt;
cases, be a disfigurement of some moment to l&amp;gt;ooks&lt;br /&gt;
intended to have an educational scope. But these&lt;br /&gt;
are matters to be profitably discussed in an open&lt;br /&gt;
meeting of the Society.&lt;br /&gt;
H. G. Kekne.&lt;br /&gt;
VIII.&lt;br /&gt;
The point of faithful reproduction ought to be&lt;br /&gt;
strenuously urged. If America desires to have&lt;br /&gt;
English literature, she must accept it in the&lt;br /&gt;
language in which it is written. The option of&lt;br /&gt;
acceptance or refusal being in her own hands, she&lt;br /&gt;
may better express her appreciation of an author&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
capacity in accepting him as he writes than by&lt;br /&gt;
doing this violence both to his feelings and reputa-&lt;br /&gt;
tion that unauthorised and, in many cases, un-&lt;br /&gt;
educated alterations inflict.&lt;br /&gt;
I do not know whether others consider this as&lt;br /&gt;
important a point as I do, but I speak from the&lt;br /&gt;
experience of comparing some of our standard&lt;br /&gt;
writers&amp;#039; works with their American editions ; and in&lt;br /&gt;
such perusal one cannot help recognising the&lt;br /&gt;
malignant influence a &amp;quot;good book spoilt&amp;quot; would&lt;br /&gt;
have on a future generation, whose circumstances&lt;br /&gt;
might put it out of their power to see the work in&lt;br /&gt;
its original form.&lt;br /&gt;
B. H. H.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
PETITION TO THE HOUSE OP LORDS.&lt;br /&gt;
THE following Petition, signed by Lord Tenny-&lt;br /&gt;
son, President of the Society, was presented&lt;br /&gt;
to the House of Lords by Lord Herschell on&lt;br /&gt;
Monday the 10th of May :&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
In the House of Lords, Session of 1891.&lt;br /&gt;
Copyright.&lt;br /&gt;
To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and&lt;br /&gt;
Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great&lt;br /&gt;
Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled.&lt;br /&gt;
The Humble Petition of the President, Fellows,&lt;br /&gt;
Associates, and Members of the Incorporated&lt;br /&gt;
Society of Authors&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
Sheweth as follows :&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
I. That a Bill entitled &amp;quot;An Act to amend&lt;br /&gt;
and consolidate the Law relating to Copyright&amp;quot; has&lt;br /&gt;
B if&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 12 (#416) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
12&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
been introduced into and read a first time by your&lt;br /&gt;
Right Honourable House.&lt;br /&gt;
2. That your Petitioners were incorporated on&lt;br /&gt;
the 20th June 1884 by a Board of Trade License,&lt;br /&gt;
granted to the Association in pursuance of section 23&lt;br /&gt;
of the Companies Act, 1867, under the name of the&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Incorporated Society of Authors&amp;quot; for the follow-&lt;br /&gt;
ing, amongst other, objects: &amp;quot; To represent, further,&lt;br /&gt;
aid, and assist the objects, and to protect the rights&lt;br /&gt;
and interests in their works, of authors, and every&lt;br /&gt;
kind of literary, dramatic, artistic, scientific, tech-&lt;br /&gt;
nical, educational, and musical works and publica-&lt;br /&gt;
tions, and the rights and interests in the same of&lt;br /&gt;
the assigns and representatives of such authors.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
3. That the present state of the Law of Copy-&lt;br /&gt;
right is eminently unsatisfactory and injurious to&lt;br /&gt;
the interests both of producers of, and dealers in,&lt;br /&gt;
literary, dramatic, artistic, scientific, technical,&lt;br /&gt;
educational, and musical works, and of the public&lt;br /&gt;
in general. The existing law on the subject&lt;br /&gt;
consists of no less than 18 Acts of Parliament,&lt;br /&gt;
l&amp;gt;esides Common Law principles. Owing to the&lt;br /&gt;
manner in which the Acts have been drawn, the&lt;br /&gt;
law is, in many cases, hardly intelligible, and is full&lt;br /&gt;
of arbitrary distinctions, for which it is impossible&lt;br /&gt;
to find a reason.&lt;br /&gt;
4. That the provisions of the said Bill have lieen&lt;br /&gt;
prepared with careful regard to the recommenda-&lt;br /&gt;
tions of the Copyright Commission of 1878, and&lt;br /&gt;
with the assistance not only of authors, artists, and&lt;br /&gt;
musical composers, but of persons well qualified to&lt;br /&gt;
represent the various business interests concerned&lt;br /&gt;
in the production of literary, dramatic, artistic,&lt;br /&gt;
scientific, technical, educational, and musical works.&lt;br /&gt;
Your Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that it&lt;br /&gt;
may please Your Right Honourable House to pass&lt;br /&gt;
the said Bill into Law.&lt;br /&gt;
And your Petitioners will ever humbly pray, &amp;amp;c.&lt;br /&gt;
(Signed) Tennyson,&lt;br /&gt;
President.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
COPYRIGHT.&lt;br /&gt;
The Second Reading of the Bill.&lt;br /&gt;
OUR Copyright Bill was read a second time in&lt;br /&gt;
the House of Lords on Monday the 10th of&lt;br /&gt;
May. Lord Monkswell, to whom the Bill&lt;br /&gt;
had been entrusted many months ago, but who has&lt;br /&gt;
never from the first received any encouragement&lt;br /&gt;
from the Qovernment, did his work bravely and&lt;br /&gt;
well, and our Society is under a deep obligation to&lt;br /&gt;
him. In a speech full of facts and illustrations, he&lt;br /&gt;
directed attention to the amazing confusion of the&lt;br /&gt;
present law in point of form, to its many admitted&lt;br /&gt;
defects in point of substance, and to the remarkable&lt;br /&gt;
unanimity (considering the complications of the&lt;br /&gt;
subject) with which all interested in the subject&lt;br /&gt;
have agreed in supporting the amendments of the&lt;br /&gt;
law which our draftsman had thrown into legal&lt;br /&gt;
shape. He quoted, of course, again and again&lt;br /&gt;
from the Report of the Royal Commissioners, three&lt;br /&gt;
of whom&mdash;the Duke of Rutland, Lord Herschell,&lt;br /&gt;
anil Lord Knutsford&mdash;were Members of the House&lt;br /&gt;
he was addressing, to show on what a strong&lt;br /&gt;
foundation the Bill had been built up. He duly&lt;br /&gt;
went through the much-needed amendments&mdash;the&lt;br /&gt;
substitution of &amp;quot;life and 3o years&amp;quot; for the pre-&lt;br /&gt;
sent awkward term of copyright, the levelling up&lt;br /&gt;
of artists with authors, the extinction of fraudulent,&lt;br /&gt;
dramatisation of novels, the enfranchisement of&lt;br /&gt;
newspapers, and so on. He was strong enough to&lt;br /&gt;
admit his weak points, such as his inability to find&lt;br /&gt;
a complete modus vivendi with Canada, whether&lt;br /&gt;
by a licensing system or otherwise. Finally he,&lt;br /&gt;
or rather Lord Herschell in his name, called upon&lt;br /&gt;
the Government either to help him in carrying&lt;br /&gt;
our Bill through Parliament, or forthwith to come&lt;br /&gt;
forward with a better Bill of their own. A11&lt;br /&gt;
irresistible attack!&lt;br /&gt;
And what did the Government say to all this?&lt;br /&gt;
Both Lord Balfour and the Lord Chancellor&lt;br /&gt;
admitted to the full the case for the Bill, but for&lt;br /&gt;
some inconceivable reason the Lord Chancellor&lt;br /&gt;
(who was too prudent to take the responsibility of&lt;br /&gt;
dividing the House) would consent only to a&lt;br /&gt;
second reading on condition that the Bill should&lt;br /&gt;
not be taken any further during the present Session.&lt;br /&gt;
Difficulties were darkly hinted at, but with the&lt;br /&gt;
exception of that in connexion with registration,&lt;br /&gt;
not a single one was specifically mentioned. To&lt;br /&gt;
5o clauses, it was said by Lord Balfour, certain&lt;br /&gt;
draftsmen had objected. Not one of them teas&lt;br /&gt;
named. On not a single one of the main amend-&lt;br /&gt;
ments, not even on the proposed new term of&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;life and 3o years,&amp;quot; was a word spoken. The&lt;br /&gt;
Lord Chancellor merely observed, that if the Bill&lt;br /&gt;
wont into Committee there would be much con-&lt;br /&gt;
troversy on many parts of it, and that all such&lt;br /&gt;
controversy would be renewed when the Bill&lt;br /&gt;
should come again before the House. Truly, we&lt;br /&gt;
are entitled to ask, What controversy, and on what&lt;br /&gt;
parts? Perfect, of course, the Bill is not, but if&lt;br /&gt;
this is all that can l&amp;gt;e said against it by critics so&lt;br /&gt;
highly qualified and painstaking as Lord Halsbury&lt;br /&gt;
and Lord Balfour, it is at least as perfect as any&lt;br /&gt;
Government measure of the present session.&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, the matter cannot be allowed to rest.&lt;br /&gt;
As Lord Herschell finely said in his pointed speech,&lt;br /&gt;
which will long be remembered by all interested in&lt;br /&gt;
the subject, the Legislature exists for the purpose of&lt;br /&gt;
remedying imperfect and mischievous legislation,&lt;br /&gt;
such as that o:i copyright is universally admitted&lt;br /&gt;
to be. &amp;quot;As far as indications go, the programme&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 13 (#417) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
of Hit Majesty&amp;#039;s Government,&amp;quot; observed the&lt;br /&gt;
noble and learned lord, &amp;quot;is approaching its end.&lt;br /&gt;
Why should they not take up such a subject as&lt;br /&gt;
copyright and deal with it? It is a matter of&lt;br /&gt;
interest to authors and the public alike that the&lt;br /&gt;
question should be settled, and the law amended.&lt;br /&gt;
I lielieve a great many of the supposed difficulties&lt;br /&gt;
will vanish if once a resolute and earnest endeavour&lt;br /&gt;
be made to grapple with them. What the 5o points&lt;br /&gt;
of objection to which the noble lord (Lord Balfour)&lt;br /&gt;
referred an1 I do not know, but for my part I&lt;br /&gt;
lielieve the real difficulties would be found to be&lt;br /&gt;
not more than three or four. If once these are&lt;br /&gt;
settled, there will be no difficulty about a consoli-&lt;br /&gt;
dation of the law.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE COST OF A STAMP.&lt;br /&gt;
I.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;MT^HE article in the April numl&amp;gt;erof the Author&lt;br /&gt;
I on the cost of a stamp did not make clear&lt;br /&gt;
what I think is very desirable to have known:&lt;br /&gt;
that is, what the law requires in the matter of the&lt;br /&gt;
stamping of agreements.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;I have just signed an agreement to which a&lt;br /&gt;
sixpenny stamp was affixed.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Is this mode of stamping agreements sufficient?&lt;br /&gt;
Is it legal? Would documents so stamped be held&lt;br /&gt;
valid in a court of law? Or ought they to be&lt;br /&gt;
submitted to and stamped by the authorities of&lt;br /&gt;
Somerset House?&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;I am sure that many would like a competent&lt;br /&gt;
opinion in the matter.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
A. B.&lt;br /&gt;
II.&lt;br /&gt;
Deab Sib,&lt;br /&gt;
We have received your letter of yesterday&lt;br /&gt;
and enclosures. We think there can be no doubt&lt;br /&gt;
as to the meaning of sub-section I. of section i5 of&lt;br /&gt;
the Revenue Act, 1889, to which attention is called&lt;br /&gt;
in the article in the April edition of the Author.&lt;br /&gt;
The sub-section runs: &amp;quot;any contract or agreement&lt;br /&gt;
made in England or Ireland under seal or under&lt;br /&gt;
hand only, or made in Scotland for&lt;br /&gt;
the sale of any equitable estate or interest in any&lt;br /&gt;
property, or for the pale of any estate or interest in&lt;br /&gt;
any property .... (with certain exceptions,&lt;br /&gt;
among which the sale of Copyright or any interest&lt;br /&gt;
in Copyright is not mentioned) shall 1m&amp;gt; charged&lt;br /&gt;
with the same ad valorem duty to l&amp;gt;e paid by the&lt;br /&gt;
purchaser as if it were an actual conveyance on&lt;br /&gt;
sale of the estate, interest, or property agreed or&lt;br /&gt;
contracted to be sold.&amp;quot; It follows therefore that&lt;br /&gt;
since the passing of this Act the same ad valorem&lt;br /&gt;
duty will lie charged on a contract for the sale of&lt;br /&gt;
Copyright or any interest in it as on a conveyance&lt;br /&gt;
of Copyright. If this view is right, the 6d. stamp&lt;br /&gt;
is no longer sufficient, and whether a 6d. adhesive;&lt;br /&gt;
stamp is used or the document actually stamped&lt;br /&gt;
at Somerset House, wh( re a 6d. stamp might well&lt;br /&gt;
be jmssed by inadvertence, the document will Ik?&lt;br /&gt;
insufficiently stanq&amp;gt;ed, and the excess and &pound;10&lt;br /&gt;
penalty and interest will be charged on it l&amp;gt;efore it&lt;br /&gt;
can be received as evidence in any court of law.&lt;br /&gt;
The Act, we think, applies not only to agreements&lt;br /&gt;
to sell some interest in Copyright, but also to many&lt;br /&gt;
licences to publish; but as the terms of licences&lt;br /&gt;
vary so much it would be a matter for consideration&lt;br /&gt;
on each document whether it came within 1 lit* Act.&lt;br /&gt;
We return you Mr. A.B.&amp;#039;s letter and the Author.&lt;br /&gt;
Yours truly,&lt;br /&gt;
Field, Roscoe, &amp;amp; Co.&lt;br /&gt;
&diams;-&amp;lt;&amp;gt;.&diams;&lt;br /&gt;
NOTES AND NEWS.&lt;br /&gt;
THE Right Honourable Baron Henry de&lt;br /&gt;
Worms has joined the Council of the Society.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Robert Bateman, in consequence of&lt;br /&gt;
leaving town, has been unfortunately compelled to&lt;br /&gt;
resign his post on the Committee.&lt;br /&gt;
The number of new Members elected since&lt;br /&gt;
December last&mdash;inclusive, because the elections in&lt;br /&gt;
that month were for 1891&mdash;amounts to g5. This&lt;br /&gt;
must be acknowledged to be very satisfactory. Our&lt;br /&gt;
numbers, however, ought now to increase at a&lt;br /&gt;
much more rapid rate. We look for a roll of&lt;br /&gt;
Members, before the lapse of many years, number-&lt;br /&gt;
ing thousands. Let it lie remembered that the&lt;br /&gt;
Society is concerned with every form of literature,&lt;br /&gt;
and works for Authors in every branch.&lt;br /&gt;
Let me call attention very particularly to the&lt;br /&gt;
directions for securing Copyright issued at Congress,&lt;br /&gt;
ami printed on page 5 of this number of the&lt;br /&gt;
Author.&lt;br /&gt;
In March last there was a large rise in the&lt;br /&gt;
wages of compositors, to be followed, if it has not&lt;br /&gt;
already been followed, by a rise in the wages of&lt;br /&gt;
machinists. This fact alters the figures given in&lt;br /&gt;
the &amp;quot; Cost of Production.&amp;quot; Those who can &amp;quot;do&lt;br /&gt;
sums&amp;quot; may amuse themselves by adding io per&lt;br /&gt;
cent, to the charges of &amp;quot;composing&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;print-&lt;br /&gt;
ing.&amp;quot; The other figures remain. If authors are&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 14 (#418) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&raquo;4&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
told, as they have been told, that the prices are&lt;br /&gt;
incorrect, that the work cannot he done for the&lt;br /&gt;
money, and so forth, let them understand that&lt;br /&gt;
this is said with intent. I tested the figures the&lt;br /&gt;
other day with a well-known London firm, who had&lt;br /&gt;
not previously seen them. &amp;quot;We will willingly do&lt;br /&gt;
the work,&amp;quot; said their manager, &amp;quot; under your prices.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
The American Government have sent copies of&lt;br /&gt;
the new International Copyright Law to all their&lt;br /&gt;
foreign Ministers, with instructions to bring it to&lt;br /&gt;
the attention of the respective Governments to which&lt;br /&gt;
they are accredited. The least that our Government&lt;br /&gt;
can do is to take care that our own laws satisfy the;&lt;br /&gt;
conditions on which the privileges of the Act can&lt;br /&gt;
be granted to ourselves. These conditions are&lt;br /&gt;
simply the securing to American authors of the&lt;br /&gt;
same powers of obtaining Copyright as we ourselves&lt;br /&gt;
enjoy. Practically, these powers are already&lt;br /&gt;
secured for them, but perhaps the President may&lt;br /&gt;
require the additional security of removing a certain&lt;br /&gt;
doubt which now exists. This must be done&lt;br /&gt;
without the least delay.&lt;br /&gt;
The following extract from the Times of May&lt;br /&gt;
the 20th seems very significant. Lord Monkswell&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
Bill contains no clauses such as that contemplated&lt;br /&gt;
by the writer to the Solicitor and the Attorney&lt;br /&gt;
General, but could be added without altering the&lt;br /&gt;
structure of the Bill.&lt;br /&gt;
Thk Law op Copyrioiit.&mdash;The Attorney-General has&lt;br /&gt;
replied ns follows to a correspondent with reference to the&lt;br /&gt;
law of copyright:&mdash; &amp;quot; The Attorney-General&amp;#039;s Chambers,&lt;br /&gt;
2, Pump Court, Temple, E.C., May 15, 189?.&mdash;Dear Sir,&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
The subject to which your letter refers is of great interest.&lt;br /&gt;
I have always been of opinion that protection should be&lt;br /&gt;
secured to the results of intellectual labours, whether for&lt;br /&gt;
the author or the mechanic. You are no doubt aware that&lt;br /&gt;
the question is one surrounded with difficulty, but I can&lt;br /&gt;
promise you that it shall not escape my attention in the&lt;br /&gt;
event of any opportunity arising of furthering that object.&lt;br /&gt;
&mdash;I am, yours faithfully, Richard Wkbsteb.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Writing on the same subject, the Solicitor-&lt;br /&gt;
General says :&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Royal Courts of Justice, May ij, 1891.&mdash;Dear Sir,&mdash;I&lt;br /&gt;
have a strong opinion in favour of some steps being taken&lt;br /&gt;
to protect Knglish labour against such unfair treatment as&lt;br /&gt;
it is subjected to by the new American copyright law, but&lt;br /&gt;
I do not feel at liberty to express more than a general&lt;br /&gt;
opinion on the subject.&mdash;Very faithfully yours, Kdward&lt;br /&gt;
Clarke.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. William Black has been good enough to&lt;br /&gt;
associate myself, among others, with him in the&lt;br /&gt;
formation of a new publishing firm. It will be&lt;br /&gt;
established in New York, and its object will be&lt;br /&gt;
to print and publish books bv English authors&lt;br /&gt;
in conformity with the new Law of Copyright.&lt;br /&gt;
This notable scheme has l*?en hatched in silence&lt;br /&gt;
and secrecy. So silent and secret have been the&lt;br /&gt;
preliminary steps, that neither Mr. William Black&lt;br /&gt;
himself nor any one of his associates has even heard&lt;br /&gt;
of the scheme, which is gravely announced in a New&lt;br /&gt;
York paper. Now, if such a scheme were attempted&lt;br /&gt;
it would be founded on the belief that it could do&lt;br /&gt;
for English authors what American publishers will&lt;br /&gt;
not do. Perhaps it is quite conceivable that a&lt;br /&gt;
plan of this kind, launched at. a great expense of&lt;br /&gt;
capital, could be worked&mdash;provided the manager&lt;br /&gt;
could be found. It is also quite conceivable that&lt;br /&gt;
a similar scheme could be launched and worked&lt;br /&gt;
in this country&mdash;provided a manager could be&lt;br /&gt;
found. But such a manager, possessed of abilities&lt;br /&gt;
capable of conducting such auenterprise successfully,&lt;br /&gt;
would, probably, very soon find out that he could&lt;br /&gt;
do better for himself, and would therefore proceed&lt;br /&gt;
to set up for himself. And unless success was&lt;br /&gt;
assured from the l&amp;gt;eginiiing, the plan would certainly&lt;br /&gt;
not enlist the confidence of authors. I think,&lt;br /&gt;
therefore, that Mr. William Black, like myself,&lt;br /&gt;
prefers existing arrangements, where agreements&lt;br /&gt;
are fair to both sides, and fairly carried out.&lt;br /&gt;
Unfortunately the list of publishers in the &amp;quot; London&lt;br /&gt;
Directory,&amp;quot; as readers of the Author very well know,&lt;br /&gt;
contains a great many gentry whose agreements&lt;br /&gt;
are never by any chance fair, and never by any&lt;br /&gt;
chance fairly carried out.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;The Society of Authors, I assure yon, my&lt;br /&gt;
dear, does no good, no good at all. Only last,&lt;br /&gt;
week, for instance, a dear young friend of mine, a&lt;br /&gt;
girl of 17, who had just left school, sent them, for&lt;br /&gt;
an opinion, a MS. novel which she had written for&lt;br /&gt;
her own amusement in leisure moments. She&lt;br /&gt;
spent a whole six weeks upon it, and it was&lt;br /&gt;
her first attempt. Would you l)elieve it? The&lt;br /&gt;
reader of the Society sent lmck the papers with&lt;br /&gt;
the most cruel remarks you ever saw. He said&lt;br /&gt;
that there was no possibility of considering the&lt;br /&gt;
piece seriously; he found fault with the plot,&lt;br /&gt;
and the characters, and the construction, and&lt;br /&gt;
advised the writer to study the Art of Fiction&lt;br /&gt;
seriously if she wished to succeed. Absurd!&lt;br /&gt;
And after that lovely article in the Spectator,&lt;br /&gt;
which proves that there is no study wanted&lt;br /&gt;
at all, but that story-making comes by nature,&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;like the song to the skylark.&amp;quot; It was in&lt;br /&gt;
this case doubly absurd, and it will show how&lt;br /&gt;
ridiculous the Society is, when I tell you that a&lt;br /&gt;
most respectable publisher, on receiving the MS.&lt;br /&gt;
actually offered to bring out and sell 5,ooo copies,&lt;br /&gt;
and to give her half the profits if she would only&lt;br /&gt;
advance &pound;100 to begin with. It was the same&lt;br /&gt;
publisher who once gave my husband &pound;10&mdash;a&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 15 (#419) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
whole &pound;10&mdash;for the profits on his book. Of&lt;br /&gt;
course he was most unwilling to rob the poor&lt;br /&gt;
dear man by taking it. Well, the dear child has&lt;br /&gt;
jumped at the offer. She is delighted at her&lt;br /&gt;
good fortune, and counts on making &pound;1,000 at&lt;br /&gt;
least, and means to devote herself henceforth&lt;br /&gt;
entirely to literature. Whereas, my dear, if she&lt;br /&gt;
had listened to that mischievous and meddlesome&lt;br /&gt;
Society!&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;The Society of Authors is a mischievous body,&lt;br /&gt;
Sir. It does nothing but encourage a parcel of&lt;br /&gt;
school girls to put their miserable trash into the&lt;br /&gt;
hands of scoundrels who make them pay for having&lt;br /&gt;
their books produced. The markets are flooded&lt;br /&gt;
with trash entirely through the efforts of this&lt;br /&gt;
Society. Say they do quite the contrary? I don&amp;#039;t&lt;br /&gt;
believe it. I have heard from a very good authority,&lt;br /&gt;
t he leading partner in Barabbis, Ananias, &amp;amp; Co.&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
very active new firm&mdash;that this is all they even&lt;br /&gt;
attempt to do.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;We consider the Society of Authors a meddle-&lt;br /&gt;
some body. They may have some good men&lt;br /&gt;
among their numbers. I don&amp;#039;t know. But they&lt;br /&gt;
are distinctly meddlesome. They actually want&lt;br /&gt;
authors to know the meaning of their agreements.&lt;br /&gt;
Why, that&amp;#039;s our business. We are the publishers;&lt;br /&gt;
we act entirely in the author&amp;#039;s interests ; why does he&lt;br /&gt;
want to know the meaning of his agreement? And&lt;br /&gt;
the actual Cost of Production? Can&amp;#039;t he trust us?&lt;br /&gt;
And the meaning of Royalties? Are they going&lt;br /&gt;
to destroy all confidence between man and man?&lt;br /&gt;
Trust my words, Sir, if that Society goes on,&lt;br /&gt;
Literature is doomed.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
What a dreadful thing it is to have such a&lt;br /&gt;
bad character&mdash;and to deserve it!&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. George Gissing ought to be publicly&lt;br /&gt;
thanked for introducing to the world a form of&lt;br /&gt;
literary life which has long been known to all who&lt;br /&gt;
have penetrated into the by-ways and slums of this&lt;br /&gt;
many-sided calling. He presents to us several well&lt;br /&gt;
defined and by no means uncommon types. There&lt;br /&gt;
is the young man of literary aspirations who rashly&lt;br /&gt;
attempts to make of letters his livelihood, encou-&lt;br /&gt;
raged by the success of a single first novel. He&lt;br /&gt;
has no education to speak of; he has no know-&lt;br /&gt;
ledge of society; he has no personal ex]&amp;gt;erienees;&lt;br /&gt;
he has no travel. In fact, he is absolutely&lt;br /&gt;
devoid of any equipment except a true feeling for&lt;br /&gt;
Art, and a burning desire to succeed. He cannot&lt;br /&gt;
succeed. It is not jwssible for such a man to&lt;br /&gt;
succeed. He fails dismally, and he dies. In real&lt;br /&gt;
life such a man would not die. He would sink&lt;br /&gt;
lower&mdash;lower&mdash;until he became the wretched&lt;br /&gt;
drudge and hack of a penny novelette publisher,&lt;br /&gt;
which is Malebolge itself. Next, there is the&lt;br /&gt;
young man who looks about him, sees what will&lt;br /&gt;
pay, and how men get on in the literary pro-&lt;br /&gt;
fession. He enters upon his work with the&lt;br /&gt;
intention of succeeding, and he does succeed. In&lt;br /&gt;
real life such a man might succeed in the way&lt;br /&gt;
indicated, but not quite so easily. He Incomes an&lt;br /&gt;
Editor. Now, one of the chief requisites in a&lt;br /&gt;
modern Editor is that he should know many men,&lt;br /&gt;
and belong to certain social circles. This young&lt;br /&gt;
man, with no social position, would certainly not be&lt;br /&gt;
made an Editor quite so easily. On the other&lt;br /&gt;
hand, his career illustrates the advantages to be&lt;br /&gt;
derived from accepting the existing conditions, and&lt;br /&gt;
trading upon them. But the truest, saddest figure&lt;br /&gt;
in the book is that of the old litterateur, a critic&lt;br /&gt;
of the former school, who hangs on to letters,&lt;br /&gt;
getting more and more soured every day, having&lt;br /&gt;
a paper accepted now and then, doing a stroke of&lt;br /&gt;
work here and another there, living a life of&lt;br /&gt;
absolute dependence upon publishers and Editors,&lt;br /&gt;
whose work nobody wants, whose whole history&lt;br /&gt;
has lieen one of humiliations, disgusts, and dis-&lt;br /&gt;
appointments, who waits humbly on publishers and&lt;br /&gt;
hopes for their &amp;quot;generosity.&amp;quot; Truly, as his&lt;br /&gt;
daughter says, his is a loathsome profession. It is&lt;br /&gt;
the utter degradation of letters; it is Grub Street&lt;br /&gt;
with us still. But he degrades his profession still&lt;br /&gt;
more, for he meditates constantly upon the pride of&lt;br /&gt;
being the Editor of a literary journal, and his only&lt;br /&gt;
thought, in that capacity, is how he will tear and&lt;br /&gt;
rend his brother writers. &amp;quot;I will show them,&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
he says, &amp;quot;I will show them how to scarify.&amp;quot; Yes,&lt;br /&gt;
that is still the thought of certain authors. As it&lt;br /&gt;
was in the days of Churchill, so it is now. Because&lt;br /&gt;
a man follows the calling of letters, he must,&lt;br /&gt;
by other followers of that profession, be slated,&lt;br /&gt;
scarified, torn to pieces. Every other profession&lt;br /&gt;
has its unwritten laws of decency and politeness.&lt;br /&gt;
That of literature, none. I do not supj&amp;gt;ose that&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Gissing&amp;#039;s book can become popular, but from&lt;br /&gt;
my own knowledge I can testify to its truth. I&lt;br /&gt;
know them all, personally,&mdash;two or three of&lt;br /&gt;
each&mdash;Mr. Yule&mdash;Jasper&mdash;Edwin&mdash;and the fidelity&lt;br /&gt;
of Mr. Gissing&amp;#039;s portraits makes me shudder.&lt;br /&gt;
Zola has been passed over in favour of &amp;quot;Loti.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
The choice of the French Academy is surprising&lt;br /&gt;
and disappointing. For if we grant everything&lt;br /&gt;
that has been said in favour of Pierre Loti, the fact&lt;br /&gt;
remains that he is a head and shoulders below&lt;br /&gt;
Zola. I have purposely abstained from reading&lt;br /&gt;
Germinal and one or two of Zola&amp;#039;s last. But.one&lt;br /&gt;
A&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 16 (#420) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
i6&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
can never forget L&amp;#039;Assommoir, a work of sur-&lt;br /&gt;
prising power and genius. Nor can we forget La&lt;br /&gt;
Curie, not to speak of those short tales in which&lt;br /&gt;
he has hardly an equal. When all is said and done&lt;br /&gt;
about Zola, he will take, I am convinced, a very&lt;br /&gt;
high place, far higher than the author of the&lt;br /&gt;
charming Madame Chrysantheme is likely to&lt;br /&gt;
achieve. The election is not one which can be&lt;br /&gt;
defended by those who would like to see an&lt;br /&gt;
Academy in this country. But then we want an&lt;br /&gt;
Academy of our own, not slavishly copied from the&lt;br /&gt;
French, and able to steer clear of the shoals and&lt;br /&gt;
rocks which are always bringing that august vessel&lt;br /&gt;
into danger and ridicule.&lt;br /&gt;
An American gentleman is making application&lt;br /&gt;
to various authors for the manuscript originals of&lt;br /&gt;
their works. Unpublished MSS., indeed, authors&lt;br /&gt;
have never shown any unwillingness to part with;&lt;br /&gt;
but published MSS. !&mdash;there is the difference. Very&lt;br /&gt;
few living writers now can predict with certainty the&lt;br /&gt;
value of their MSS. in ten, twenty, thirty years&amp;#039;time.&lt;br /&gt;
Surely it is best to take the chance, refuse to sell&lt;br /&gt;
the things, and keep them for the lienefit of heirs.&lt;br /&gt;
If an autograph work be worth anything now, its&lt;br /&gt;
value will be multiplied by ten in as many years&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
time, supposing the book to live. Besides, there is&lt;br /&gt;
the sentiment of the thing. One would like to&lt;br /&gt;
give to one&amp;#039;s heirs the very work in one&amp;#039;s own&lt;br /&gt;
handwriting, out of which some fame, as well as&lt;br /&gt;
some fortune, has been achieved. Let us keep our&lt;br /&gt;
MSS., brethren, and lock them up.&lt;br /&gt;
Ouida has perpetrated a long two-column small&lt;br /&gt;
print letter in the Times. She is very angry&lt;br /&gt;
because people syndicate their novels. She is very&lt;br /&gt;
angry that literary agents are allowed to exist. She&lt;br /&gt;
is very angry that so many books are published.&lt;br /&gt;
She is very angry that this Society exists. She is&lt;br /&gt;
very angry that a certain very clever young writer&lt;br /&gt;
is acknowledged to 1k&amp;gt; clever. She is very angry&lt;br /&gt;
that authors find it desirable to look after their&lt;br /&gt;
property. She is so very, very angry with every-&lt;br /&gt;
thing, that one suspects the sham indignation of&lt;br /&gt;
the satirist which compels him&mdash;poor man !&mdash;to&lt;br /&gt;
make verses.&lt;br /&gt;
The genesis of the literary agent is quite natural.&lt;br /&gt;
Owing to the chaotic condition of publishing, while&lt;br /&gt;
the publisher depends upon the author for material;&lt;br /&gt;
and while the author depends upon the publisher&lt;br /&gt;
for proceeds of his work; the publisher has no&lt;br /&gt;
recognised principles on which to lmse his proffered&lt;br /&gt;
agreement, and is therefore in the false position&lt;br /&gt;
of being taken for a screw or a cheat, when,&lt;br /&gt;
perhaps, he is only desirous of being fair ami&lt;br /&gt;
just* The author, owing to the absence of&lt;br /&gt;
recognized principles, has to go to the publisher&lt;br /&gt;
and make a targain in ignorance and dependence.&lt;br /&gt;
This dependence is loathsome and humiliating to&lt;br /&gt;
him; he hates the conduct of his own business;&lt;br /&gt;
he considers himself cheated and cajoled &mdash; as&lt;br /&gt;
very often he is. All this would be avoided if&lt;br /&gt;
authors knew what is meant by cost of pro-&lt;br /&gt;
duction, trade price, royalties; in fact, what&lt;br /&gt;
are actually meant by the clauses of the agree-&lt;br /&gt;
ments they are called upon to sign. So long as&lt;br /&gt;
secrecy on these points is maintained, there will&lt;br /&gt;
remain the humiliation of the author in l&amp;gt;cirig&lt;br /&gt;
dependent on what they call the &amp;quot;generosity&amp;quot; of&lt;br /&gt;
the publisher. Now the literary agent who takes&lt;br /&gt;
up the conduct of an author&amp;#039;s affairs is, or should&lt;br /&gt;
l&amp;gt;e, a business man as much as &amp;quot;the publisher.&lt;br /&gt;
Therefore, when he arranges an agreement, it is&lt;br /&gt;
one business man making a business agreement&lt;br /&gt;
with another, both l&amp;gt;eing entirely acquainted with&lt;br /&gt;
the nature of the transaction in all its details.&lt;br /&gt;
Such a man is invaluable. To find a good literary&lt;br /&gt;
agent, and to place all affairs in his hands is a great&lt;br /&gt;
step towards independence. The next great step&lt;br /&gt;
will 1m1 when we have at last discovered iv method&lt;br /&gt;
of publication fair to all sides, recognised and&lt;br /&gt;
adopted by all sides. Perhaps then the literary&lt;br /&gt;
agent may no lonjrer l&amp;gt;e wanted.&lt;br /&gt;
Even then there will be required someone to&lt;br /&gt;
arrange with Editors for serial rights of novelists.&lt;br /&gt;
Everybody knows that magazines vary in their&lt;br /&gt;
payments for serials: those which have but a small&lt;br /&gt;
circulation cannot pay much: those that circulate&lt;br /&gt;
largely pay more for one writer than for another.&lt;br /&gt;
It will always be the work of the literary agent to&lt;br /&gt;
arrange these things for his clients. I recommend&lt;br /&gt;
everybody who has any business arrangements of&lt;br /&gt;
importance to transact them by means of an agent.&lt;br /&gt;
But&mdash;and here the greatest care must be exercised&lt;br /&gt;
&mdash;do not go to any agent unless he is thoroughly&lt;br /&gt;
well recommended, if possible, by this Society.&lt;br /&gt;
I do not see that we need use up much space in&lt;br /&gt;
discussing the other points of this angry lady&amp;#039;s letter.&lt;br /&gt;
She calls this Society a &amp;quot; Caricature of Literature,&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
without explaining how a Society can be a cari-&lt;br /&gt;
cature. She says that its Members are &amp;quot; makers of&lt;br /&gt;
books.&amp;quot; So they are. So they are. So is Ouida her-&lt;br /&gt;
self, if she conies to that&mdash;she has made 3o l&amp;gt;ooks,&lt;br /&gt;
I am told. In the same way Mr. Watts is a maker&lt;br /&gt;
of pictures. She feels that literature must not be&lt;br /&gt;
a trade. So long as literature in its making is&lt;br /&gt;
allowed to lie an Art, I care nothing what it is called&lt;br /&gt;
in its selling. The publisher is a tradesman or&lt;br /&gt;
a professional man, just as anybody pleases, pro-&lt;br /&gt;
vided that the poet remains an artist. We will&lt;br /&gt;
think of Art while we are engaged on Art, and we&lt;br /&gt;
will think of nothing else. When our work&mdash;our&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 17 (#421) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
17&lt;br /&gt;
artistic work&mdash;is in our hands, completed and ready&lt;br /&gt;
for issue, we will think of the property that it&lt;br /&gt;
represents, and we will defend that property, after&lt;br /&gt;
the example of Dickens, Thaekeroy, George Eliot,&lt;br /&gt;
Wilkic Collins, Anthony Trollope, Charles Reade,&lt;br /&gt;
and others, now numbered with the illustrious&lt;br /&gt;
dead.&lt;br /&gt;
Evidences are daily poured into the office to&lt;br /&gt;
prove my statement that in the modern fashion&lt;br /&gt;
publishers seldom take any risks. I have lx-fore&lt;br /&gt;
me, for instance, an agreement by which the author&lt;br /&gt;
in a half profit system is made to take 100 copies at&lt;br /&gt;
a certain price, viz., the full trade price, without&lt;br /&gt;
the discount or reduction always given to the trade.&lt;br /&gt;
This was only a little book. The cost of production&lt;br /&gt;
was set down at &pound;36, including advertising. The&lt;br /&gt;
sides are said to have produced &pound;16, and the author&lt;br /&gt;
is charged &pound;18, showing a loss of &pound;2. This, as&lt;br /&gt;
everybody will understand, is no loss at all, if for&lt;br /&gt;
no other reason, because the publisher keeps all the&lt;br /&gt;
rest of the edition. This is supposed to lx&amp;#039; a good&lt;br /&gt;
house of the second rank.&lt;br /&gt;
He sent his article to a certain journal. It had&lt;br /&gt;
an attractive title; it was on a subject that he&lt;br /&gt;
thought might also seem attractive; it was signed;&lt;br /&gt;
he hoped that it would lie accepted, and that its&lt;br /&gt;
appearance would help his name. The Editor kept&lt;br /&gt;
the MS. three weeks and sent it Iwick: &amp;quot;Editor&lt;br /&gt;
very sorry, pressure too great already.&amp;quot; On looking&lt;br /&gt;
at the paper he found it was dirty, and there were&lt;br /&gt;
marks as of an inky thumb on the back of two&lt;br /&gt;
pages. &amp;quot;This,&amp;quot; he said, &amp;quot; looks as if it had been&lt;br /&gt;
in the hands of the compositor.&amp;quot; He then sent it&lt;br /&gt;
to a second paper. It came back after three weeks&lt;br /&gt;
with more marks as of an inky thumb, and with a&lt;br /&gt;
similar letter: &amp;quot;Thanks. No room.&amp;quot; Now, the&lt;br /&gt;
compositor always has an inky thumb. If it were&lt;br /&gt;
not for his inky thumb, he would not be a&lt;br /&gt;
compositor. The writer therefore grew curious,&lt;br /&gt;
and began to take in these two journals. In a&lt;br /&gt;
fortnight he was pleased to find his article in each&lt;br /&gt;
of the papers, unsigned, and under another title.&lt;br /&gt;
There may be a conclusion to this story.&lt;br /&gt;
The Automatic Book Company has been long&lt;br /&gt;
talked alxmt, and is now apparently setting to&lt;br /&gt;
work seriously. You put in a penny and you take&lt;br /&gt;
out a l)Ook; when you have read the book you&lt;br /&gt;
put it back again. This is simple, and I lndieve&lt;br /&gt;
that everybody would Ik; glad to see it, succeed, but&lt;br /&gt;
for one reason. The directors propose to till their&lt;br /&gt;
boxes with none but books published by themselves!&lt;br /&gt;
The result, therefore, if the Company gets its boxes&lt;br /&gt;
introduced on railways will be the total destruction&lt;br /&gt;
of the whole l)ook trade now carried on at the&lt;br /&gt;
railway bookstalls. This is an enormous trade; it&lt;br /&gt;
means the diminution of the side of popular liooks&lt;br /&gt;
by perhaps 3o per cent. This is a lively prospect&lt;br /&gt;
for authors and publishers alike. But one cannot&lt;br /&gt;
believe that any railway company will grant such&lt;br /&gt;
a monopoly. It means a great deal more than if&lt;br /&gt;
such a monopoly were granted to one great&lt;br /&gt;
publishing house. For every great publishing&lt;br /&gt;
house has all its old books to offer. The new&lt;br /&gt;
Company will have to create its literature, which&lt;br /&gt;
cannot be done in a year. Fancy reducing the&lt;br /&gt;
choice of readers from the thousand volumes in all&lt;br /&gt;
branches of literature that till the stall at a London&lt;br /&gt;
terminus to half-a-dozen books in so many boxes&lt;br /&gt;
in the railway carriage!&lt;br /&gt;
The Reproduction of a Fourteenth Century&lt;br /&gt;
Poem: an Account of a French Family: a volume&lt;br /&gt;
of Essays: a Manual on Boating: a Catalogue of&lt;br /&gt;
Ancient Deeds: a History of Children&amp;#039;s Books: a&lt;br /&gt;
Book on Angling: a Book on the Telescope: a&lt;br /&gt;
Dictionary of Authors: a new Novel by George&lt;br /&gt;
Meredith. Now, of all these books, which is&lt;br /&gt;
the most important? Which is most striking?&lt;br /&gt;
Which represents the greatest event in the&lt;br /&gt;
literary history of the week? There can be no&lt;br /&gt;
doubt of the reply. It is the novel. There can be&lt;br /&gt;
no doubt, further, of the respect with which&mdash;if&lt;br /&gt;
only for his previous achievements&mdash;the book&lt;br /&gt;
singled out of this list should be received by those,&lt;br /&gt;
who review as well as those who read. The&lt;br /&gt;
position of George Meredith is that of the heir&lt;br /&gt;
apparent to the crown of English Letters. There&lt;br /&gt;
is no one who can venture to dispute with him&lt;br /&gt;
that rank. Now, a certain literary paper has&lt;br /&gt;
selected the bundle of books above named with&lt;br /&gt;
half-a-dozen other novels for review in the issue&lt;br /&gt;
of May the 23rd. Of course it gives the first&lt;br /&gt;
place to George Meredith. Not at all. The first&lt;br /&gt;
place is given to the Fourteenth Century Poem.&lt;br /&gt;
Then it gives, at least, a separate notice, a place of&lt;br /&gt;
honour, to George Meredith. Not at all. It re-&lt;br /&gt;
views him a.s one of the batch. As for the review&lt;br /&gt;
itself that is not the question, though the reviewer&lt;br /&gt;
shows himself utterly out of sympathy with his&lt;br /&gt;
author from the outset. Fancy, at this time of day,&lt;br /&gt;
a reviewer of George Meredith writing &amp;quot;In his&lt;br /&gt;
former l&amp;gt;ooks Mr. Meredith did often succeed in&lt;br /&gt;
writing clever passages and smart epigrams &amp;quot;! The&lt;br /&gt;
point is, that in such a paper such a writer should&lt;br /&gt;
be classed and reviewed with Mr. Ready-to-Halt&lt;br /&gt;
and Mr. Feeble Mind, and little Miss Buttercup,&lt;br /&gt;
fresh from school! This comes of the Iwtch prin-&lt;br /&gt;
ciple. On ]&amp;gt;age 19 another beautiful example will&lt;br /&gt;
be found of the blessings of the batch method.&lt;br /&gt;
It will be seen from the communications pub-&lt;br /&gt;
lished elsewhere in this number, that complaints&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 18 (#422) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
i8&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
are rife about the reviewing of novels&mdash;perhaps,&lt;br /&gt;
also, about the reviewing of books in other branches&lt;br /&gt;
of literature, though these have not yet been con-&lt;br /&gt;
sidered. Among all the complaints that have&lt;br /&gt;
reached me&mdash;many of them only repetitions&mdash;I&lt;br /&gt;
have found none against the daily papers. On&lt;br /&gt;
looking more closely into the question, it becomes&lt;br /&gt;
apparent that the best friends of literature, as if they&lt;br /&gt;
had not enough already on their backs, are quite&lt;br /&gt;
certainly the daily papers. To have a review in the&lt;br /&gt;
Times has generally been received as a mark of&lt;br /&gt;
special honour. It is much to be hoped that this&lt;br /&gt;
old practice may be continued. Hitherto, it has&lt;br /&gt;
always l&amp;gt;een considered beneath the dignity of the&lt;br /&gt;
paper to &amp;quot; slate &amp;quot; a lx&amp;gt;ok or a writer. And it showed&lt;br /&gt;
the dignity of the paper, that it never took up a&lt;br /&gt;
book except to do it honour. The Daily News, the&lt;br /&gt;
Morning Post, the Standard, all keep literature&lt;br /&gt;
steadily to the front, and all in a spirit of appre-&lt;br /&gt;
ciation, willing to recognise good work, and fully-&lt;br /&gt;
aware that bad books die of their own accord.&lt;br /&gt;
The Telegraph has its book column every week&lt;br /&gt;
and sometimes oftener. The Daily Chronicle has&lt;br /&gt;
its literary supplement and its weekly feuilleton.&lt;br /&gt;
The evening papers seldom appear without a review&lt;br /&gt;
of some new books. Of provincial jwpers, the&lt;br /&gt;
Scotsman has long been a stalwart friend of litera-&lt;br /&gt;
ture by criticism that is for the most part kindly and&lt;br /&gt;
always sensible. The Bradford Observer contains&lt;br /&gt;
excellent papers on current literature, and there are&lt;br /&gt;
many other country papers of great help to letters.&lt;br /&gt;
In fact, the daily papers, in their readiness to&lt;br /&gt;
note the book of the clay, their general kindliness&lt;br /&gt;
and appreciation, are of very much greater im-&lt;br /&gt;
portance to us than the weeklies.&lt;br /&gt;
Walter Besant.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My name and country were&mdash;Why care to know?&lt;br /&gt;
High was my hirth&mdash;What, if it had been low?&lt;br /&gt;
Glory 1 won, and died&mdash;What, if no glory?&lt;br /&gt;
I now lie here&mdash;Who tells to whom my story?&lt;br /&gt;
Srns.&lt;br /&gt;
Oinfta jMi&mdash;T&raquo; o-f ■nvTi; vdrpis hi /*&amp;#039;,&amp;lt;&mdash;&laquo;&amp;#039;{ tt hi rmno;&lt;br /&gt;
Y.\(i*m V fifM yiwvi&mdash;d ya.p dxpavporarov;&lt;br /&gt;
ZijVa? eVWf&amp;amp;jf &amp;quot;Xiirax f$!o&raquo;&mdash;(2 yap aSofai?;&lt;br /&gt;
Kiiy.ai h&amp;#039;,h6a$t wr&mdash;ti; tiVi Tavra Xeym;&lt;br /&gt;
PAULUS SlLENTIARIlTS.&lt;br /&gt;
■ &diams; ■&raquo;■+&lt;br /&gt;
Those who are interested in literature for the&lt;br /&gt;
Blind will please take note that a new magazine&lt;br /&gt;
called Playtime will be issued by the British and&lt;br /&gt;
Foreign Blind Association. The magazine is in-&lt;br /&gt;
tended for blind children. It will be edited by&lt;br /&gt;
Miss Florence Nevill, and will appear every two&lt;br /&gt;
months. The address of the Association is&lt;br /&gt;
33, Cambridge Square, Hyde Park.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
IN THE DAYS OF THE MERRY&lt;br /&gt;
MONARCH.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;&amp;quot;Jk IfY Master having now had some expe-&lt;br /&gt;
Y/l rience in this way of printing, was&lt;br /&gt;
resolved to play above board, and get&lt;br /&gt;
some Copy or Copies to print, that he might own;&lt;br /&gt;
which in short time he did, and glad was he to see&lt;br /&gt;
his name in print, supposing himself now to be&lt;br /&gt;
somebody.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;My Master having now printed two or three&lt;br /&gt;
things, did look upon himself as somebody; and&lt;br /&gt;
though he had not such good success in his last&lt;br /&gt;
undertakings as before, yet he made a shift to get&lt;br /&gt;
what they cost him for paper and print, and had&lt;br /&gt;
many of them still by him to sell when he would,&lt;br /&gt;
or exchange; but he having but two or three sorts&lt;br /&gt;
of books, could not do much good upon that: he&lt;br /&gt;
seeing this, and observing what books sold lx&amp;#039;st, it&lt;br /&gt;
being at the beginning of the late Wars, found&lt;br /&gt;
that factious Sermons, and such like things would&lt;br /&gt;
do the business; he thereupon bestirs himself, and&lt;br /&gt;
gets acquainted with most of the factious Priests&lt;br /&gt;
about Town, by often hearing them and frequent-&lt;br /&gt;
ing their Companies, and having learned to write&lt;br /&gt;
short-hand, took notes of their Sermons, which he&lt;br /&gt;
collected together, and now and then he would get&lt;br /&gt;
them to revise one of them, and print it; by this&lt;br /&gt;
means spending much time and mony amongst&lt;br /&gt;
them, he grew very intimate, and was Ix-come the&lt;br /&gt;
general publisher of most of their Sermons and&lt;br /&gt;
Controversies. This was that which brought him&lt;br /&gt;
great gain, in a short time he could vie with the&lt;br /&gt;
best, what he sold not for mony, he exchanged for&lt;br /&gt;
books: and now he could command any book in&lt;br /&gt;
all the Company without money, upon account, as is&lt;br /&gt;
the Cnstome. His Shop ln-ing well furnished, he&lt;br /&gt;
gets a Ware-house, where he bestowed his books in&lt;br /&gt;
quires; and being thus furnished, he was first&lt;br /&gt;
spoken to by some Country lwoksellers, and then&lt;br /&gt;
writ to by them and other, for severall l&amp;gt;ooks, so&lt;br /&gt;
that any thing that he printed he coidd sell off well&lt;br /&gt;
enough; for having good hap to print some very&lt;br /&gt;
good selling books, they helped away the other&lt;br /&gt;
that were not so good, and still were thrust into&lt;br /&gt;
the parcel among the rest: and now having some&lt;br /&gt;
good Authors, he would not accept of every one;&lt;br /&gt;
and as he formerly had sought for, and courted&lt;br /&gt;
Authors to write lx&amp;gt;oks for him, now they (knowing&lt;br /&gt;
his way of preferring and selling of l&amp;gt;ooks) followed,&lt;br /&gt;
and courted him to print their l&amp;gt;ooks. If a stranger&lt;br /&gt;
came with a Copy to him, though never so good,&lt;br /&gt;
he would tell them he had books enough already;&lt;br /&gt;
but however, if they would give him so much&lt;br /&gt;
money, he would do it, and they should have two,&lt;br /&gt;
or three, or six books for themselves and friends:&lt;br /&gt;
many a one did he thus j&amp;gt;erswade out of their&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 19 (#423) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
19&lt;br /&gt;
mony, licing desirous to be in print. If he had a&lt;br /&gt;
desire to have any tiling writ in History, Poetry, or&lt;br /&gt;
any other Science or Faculty, he had his several&lt;br /&gt;
Authors, who for a glass of Wine, and now and&lt;br /&gt;
then a meals Meat and half a Crown, were his&lt;br /&gt;
humble servants; having no other hire but that,&lt;br /&gt;
and six or twelve of their books, which they pre-&lt;br /&gt;
sented to friends or persons of Quality; nay, and&lt;br /&gt;
when they have had success, if they wanted any&lt;br /&gt;
more books, they must pay for them: further I&lt;br /&gt;
have known some of our Trade, that when a poor&lt;br /&gt;
Author hath written a book, and being acquainted&lt;br /&gt;
with some Person or persons of Quality whereto he&lt;br /&gt;
Dedicates and presents it, the Book-seller will go&lt;br /&gt;
snips and have half shares of what is so given him.&lt;br /&gt;
There is no Trade that I ever heard of, that gets&lt;br /&gt;
so much by their Commodity for whatever they&lt;br /&gt;
print, if it sels, they get eight pence in the shilling:&lt;br /&gt;
and for those that deal with Country-Chapmen,&lt;br /&gt;
they put off the bad well enough at one time or&lt;br /&gt;
another; and if they are very bad, then a new&lt;br /&gt;
title is printed as if it were a new book; and what&lt;br /&gt;
with this and changing, they march off in time.&lt;br /&gt;
He would also frequent the Schools, and by drink-&lt;br /&gt;
ing with the School-masters, and discoursing of&lt;br /&gt;
l&amp;gt;ooks ftnd learned men, he would get their cus-&lt;br /&gt;
tome to serve them with School-books. There&lt;br /&gt;
was one famous Country-Parson whom he much&lt;br /&gt;
desired to be acquainted with, and to him he rid,&lt;br /&gt;
telling him he was troubled in mind, and desired&lt;br /&gt;
him to satisfie him in a case of Conscience, the&lt;br /&gt;
which he did; and then for his satisfaction, and to&lt;br /&gt;
oblige him, he prayed and courted him to see him&lt;br /&gt;
when he came to London, the which he did, and&lt;br /&gt;
all this was to get the printing of his books. My&lt;br /&gt;
Master having had a book written for him by a&lt;br /&gt;
Poet, the Author (not having the wit to make his&lt;br /&gt;
liargain, and know what he should have before-&lt;br /&gt;
hand) when he had finished it, desired payment&lt;br /&gt;
for his pains: Nay, said my master, you ought&lt;br /&gt;
rather to pay me for printing it, and making you&lt;br /&gt;
famous in print. Well then, said the Author, if&lt;br /&gt;
you will not give me money, I hope you will give&lt;br /&gt;
me some twoks. How, said my master, give you&lt;br /&gt;
liooks, what will you have me forswear my Trade,&lt;br /&gt;
and 1&amp;gt;e a lx&amp;gt;ok-givcr? I am a book-seller, and to&lt;br /&gt;
you I will sell them assoon as to another, if you&lt;br /&gt;
will give me money, paper and print costs money,&lt;br /&gt;
and this was all the Author could have for his&lt;br /&gt;
pains. My Master is now one of the Grandees of&lt;br /&gt;
the Company, and that liesides the ordinary way&lt;br /&gt;
gets hiin something. Not long since, he and&lt;br /&gt;
others went a searching, and finding an impression&lt;br /&gt;
of unlicensed l&amp;gt;ooks, seized them, but instead of&lt;br /&gt;
suppressing and turning them to wast paper, they&lt;br /&gt;
divided the greatest part of them amongst them-&lt;br /&gt;
selves, and immediately my Master sent some of&lt;br /&gt;
them away to all his Chapmen, and the rest we sell&lt;br /&gt;
in the Shop. It so fell out lately; that a book&lt;br /&gt;
lieing to lie Printed, my Master repaired to the&lt;br /&gt;
Author to get the Copy, but another of the same&lt;br /&gt;
Trade had been then; before, to whom it was in&lt;br /&gt;
part promised; but however (out of respect to my&lt;br /&gt;
Master) the other lieing sent for, it was agreed that&lt;br /&gt;
they should have the printing of it between them;&lt;br /&gt;
whereupon one printer was iniployed by them both&lt;br /&gt;
to do the work. My Master soon after sent for&lt;br /&gt;
the Printer, and tells him, You must do ine a kind-&lt;br /&gt;
ness: Yes Sir, said the printer. It is this, said my&lt;br /&gt;
Master, I am to give away to the Authour some&lt;br /&gt;
Books, wherefore I would have you to print 200&lt;br /&gt;
for me above the number, and do not tell my&lt;br /&gt;
Partner, and I will pay you: Yes, said the Printer,&lt;br /&gt;
and so he did, and was paid for them accordingly.&lt;br /&gt;
But the Printer seeing the knavery of his imployers&lt;br /&gt;
(for the other had been with him; and engaged&lt;br /&gt;
him to print the same number of 200 over, pre-&lt;br /&gt;
tending some private use he had for them) he&lt;br /&gt;
likewise printed 400 over for his own use, and&lt;br /&gt;
publiquely sold them; and neither of them could&lt;br /&gt;
or would complain of him to the other, because&lt;br /&gt;
they knew themselves guilty of the same crime.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
REVIEWS AND REVIEWERS.&lt;br /&gt;
I.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;TTTHAT a blessed thing it is that Nature,&lt;br /&gt;
Y V when she invented, manufactured, and&lt;br /&gt;
patented authors, contrived to make critics&lt;br /&gt;
out of the chips that were left! Painful as the&lt;br /&gt;
task is, they never fail to warn the author, in the&lt;br /&gt;
most impressive manner of the probabilities of&lt;br /&gt;
failure in what he has undertaken. Sad as the&lt;br /&gt;
necessity is to their delicate sensibilities, they never&lt;br /&gt;
hesitate to advertise him of the decline of his&lt;br /&gt;
powers, and to press upon him the propriety of&lt;br /&gt;
retiring before he sinks into imbecility.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
O. W. Holmes.&lt;br /&gt;
11.&lt;br /&gt;
In the year 1889 a novel was produced by an&lt;br /&gt;
unknown writer. On March 3oth of that year the&lt;br /&gt;
liook was reviewed &mdash; or noticed &mdash; in a certain&lt;br /&gt;
paper, as one of a batch. Evidently the reviewer&lt;br /&gt;
had read it with pleasure, for after telling the story&lt;br /&gt;
&mdash;which never ought to be done in reviewing a&lt;br /&gt;
novel&mdash;he added these words, &amp;quot; If this is &amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
first novel, she has done extremely well. . . .;&lt;br /&gt;
Her characters have the stamp of good breeding,&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 20 (#424) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
20&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
her situations are probable, her conversations are&lt;br /&gt;
natural and lively, and she has a good style.&amp;quot; This&lt;br /&gt;
was very satisfactory for the author, and perhaps&lt;br /&gt;
caused some readers to ask for the book.&lt;br /&gt;
This year the lady&amp;#039;s publishers brought out a&lt;br /&gt;
new edition, and on April 18th last another review&lt;br /&gt;
&mdash;or notice&mdash;of the work appeared in the same&lt;br /&gt;
paper. It was reviewed as a new book, an accident&lt;br /&gt;
which might happen to any reviewer. The review&lt;br /&gt;
again took the form of telling the story&mdash;which&lt;br /&gt;
as was said above never ought to l&amp;gt;e allowed in&lt;br /&gt;
reviewing a novel&mdash;but this time without any word&lt;br /&gt;
of comment whatever; and so telling it as, in the&lt;br /&gt;
opinion of the author and some others, to condemn&lt;br /&gt;
the book. One may be wrong, but in reading&lt;br /&gt;
the review there seemed, distinctly audible, a kind&lt;br /&gt;
of a sniffing.&lt;br /&gt;
Referring again to an article in the Saturday&lt;br /&gt;
Review which was noticed in last number of the&lt;br /&gt;
Author, one reads these lines, &amp;quot; The really curious&lt;br /&gt;
thing is that the author of this paper should fail&lt;br /&gt;
to perceive that even the briefest judgment of a&lt;br /&gt;
competent critic is based upon, and necessarily&lt;br /&gt;
implies, the study and knowledge of the art which&lt;br /&gt;
he denies to reviewers.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
No one had denied &amp;quot;the study and knowledge of&lt;br /&gt;
the art &amp;quot; to such reviewers. But never mind that.&lt;br /&gt;
The point is, which of these two opinions is by the&lt;br /&gt;
competent critic, and which by the other. Because&lt;br /&gt;
one sniffs and the other praises. Perhaps there is&lt;br /&gt;
a third way out of it. Critics of equal competency&lt;br /&gt;
may have reviewed the&amp;quot; book on both occasions,&lt;br /&gt;
and the second man did not really mean to sniff at&lt;br /&gt;
the book. He only had a cold.&lt;br /&gt;
III.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;M W is a story of incident,&lt;br /&gt;
located in Scotland, and somewhat loosely written&lt;br /&gt;
in three languages&mdash;for there is a large admixture&lt;br /&gt;
of Gaelic, and enough French to show that the&lt;br /&gt;
author is not too pedantic in his employment of a&lt;br /&gt;
foreign tongue. The Gaelic is not scrappy, like&lt;br /&gt;
the. French, but occurs in long conversations, and&lt;br /&gt;
in many successive pages. It is, moreover, suffi-&lt;br /&gt;
ciently uncompromising to puzzle a reader.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
This is taken from a leading Review. Will it&lt;br /&gt;
l&raquo;e. believed that the &amp;quot; Gaelic&amp;quot; is ordinary Lowland&lt;br /&gt;
Scotch, the language of Walter Scott and Robert&lt;br /&gt;
Burns? That good old familiar language is so&lt;br /&gt;
strange to a reviewer in this Journal that he&lt;br /&gt;
thinks it is Gaelic! As to the French, the author&lt;br /&gt;
writes that it. is simply confined to half-a-dozen&lt;br /&gt;
ordinary expressions, such as savoir faire, tout&lt;br /&gt;
ensemble, Ac.&lt;br /&gt;
But Gaelic !&mdash;Shade of Sir Walter !&mdash;Gaelic!&lt;br /&gt;
IV.&lt;br /&gt;
May ist.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;May I add my mite to the subject, under&lt;br /&gt;
discussion, i.e., Reviewers and Novels? Last year a&lt;br /&gt;
novel was published, the joint work of another&lt;br /&gt;
writer and myself. The reviews were, save for one&lt;br /&gt;
or two smaller papers, remarkably good, but this is&lt;br /&gt;
apart from the question. What I would emphasize&lt;br /&gt;
is this :&mdash;At the request of the publishers, there&lt;br /&gt;
was added a short preface. This preface is sup-&lt;br /&gt;
posed to have been written by one of the characters&lt;br /&gt;
in the book, a High Church clergyman, and this&lt;br /&gt;
is readily understood by anyone who has read either&lt;br /&gt;
the first or the last chapter, let alone the rest.&lt;br /&gt;
However, if the preface only is read, the mistake&lt;br /&gt;
is easily made of supposing him to be instead a&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;#039;real live&amp;#039; vicar, and into this innocently laid trap&lt;br /&gt;
no less than four reviewers, three of them on well-&lt;br /&gt;
known London papers, fell headlong. Now I know&lt;br /&gt;
the poor, sad-eyed reviewer is a much-to-be-pilied&lt;br /&gt;
individual, and I quite acknowledge the book in&lt;br /&gt;
question was but a little one and only light reading,&lt;br /&gt;
but editors live to boast of the correctness of their&lt;br /&gt;
paper, and surely therefore &amp;#039; The preface of&amp;#039;&mdash; only&lt;br /&gt;
three words&mdash;should have been added to the sage&lt;br /&gt;
remark, &amp;#039;This book is amusing, or dull, or clever,&lt;br /&gt;
or utterly impossible, or far-fetched, &amp;amp;c., &amp;lt;fec.&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
I should not have written this egotistical epistle,&lt;br /&gt;
however, only 1 am just a little behind the scenes&lt;br /&gt;
of the. journalistic stage, and I believe and dare&lt;br /&gt;
avow that this one proven case is only one of many,&lt;br /&gt;
and also that the preface system of reviewing is not&lt;br /&gt;
confined to the smaller fry of the sea of literature.&lt;br /&gt;
And yet not only the public but the authors them-&lt;br /&gt;
selves are dependent on such reviews for learning&lt;br /&gt;
the true value of their work&mdash;for what author can&lt;br /&gt;
judge his own writings impartially ?&mdash;and they are&lt;br /&gt;
also exacted to accept such lazy critic&amp;#039;s praise or&lt;br /&gt;
blame as the judgment of Solomon. It is well,&lt;br /&gt;
surely, to review a few books properly than many&lt;br /&gt;
carelessly. It is time, surely, there was a school&lt;br /&gt;
of novelists, if only that young writers might&lt;br /&gt;
have an opportunity of obtaining fair, truthful,&lt;br /&gt;
thoughtful, and really helpful criticism, instead&lt;br /&gt;
of a few hurried words written by guesswork from&lt;br /&gt;
a short preface. Wishing all success, therefore, to&lt;br /&gt;
the new school, for which, spite of adverse opinion,&lt;br /&gt;
I prophecy a future.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
A. E. S.&lt;br /&gt;
V.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;&amp;#039;An Obscure Novelist&amp;#039;s&amp;#039; questions open up&lt;br /&gt;
fresh ground for research. Are there half-a-dozen&lt;br /&gt;
papers which can be said to review in the real&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 21 (#425) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
21&lt;br /&gt;
sense of the word at all? In the vast majority&lt;br /&gt;
of eases it seems the correct thing to turn&lt;br /&gt;
on the latest-acquired printer&amp;#039;s devil, or some&lt;br /&gt;
half-educated hack, whose slipshod English, poverty&lt;br /&gt;
of ideas, and stark inability to grasp even the&lt;br /&gt;
most elementary points of the work lieneath his&lt;br /&gt;
dissecting pen, are things&amp;#039;to shudder at. Hence, I&lt;br /&gt;
take it, the unanimity wherewith our &amp;#039;reviewers&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
invariably set themselves to expose the whole plot,&lt;br /&gt;
or at any rate enough of it to spoil the reader&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
interest; that of the male reader at any rate, who&lt;br /&gt;
does not make a point of looking at the end of a&lt;br /&gt;
book first. Such a hashed-up resume as can be&lt;br /&gt;
gleaned from a casual glance into the beginning&lt;br /&gt;
and end of the book answers every purpose, since&lt;br /&gt;
it serves to conceal their own complete lack of the&lt;br /&gt;
critical faculty, and makes &amp;#039;copy.&amp;#039; The author is&lt;br /&gt;
credited with characters and scenes he never&lt;br /&gt;
invented; if there is scope for it, only too&lt;br /&gt;
frequently, with a geographical ignorance that&lt;br /&gt;
would disgrace a second form boy, the allotted&lt;br /&gt;
paragraph is filled up somehow, and our merry&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;#039;critic&amp;#039; (?) splashes out of his wallow and shakes&lt;br /&gt;
himself blithely preparatory to plunging into a fresh&lt;br /&gt;
one.&lt;br /&gt;
Another thing. When is fiction going to lie&lt;br /&gt;
relieved of those most idiotic and utterly unmeaning&lt;br /&gt;
terms &amp;#039;hero&amp;#039; and &amp;#039;heroine &amp;#039;? In the first place,&lt;br /&gt;
speaking with all due deference, I believe there is&lt;br /&gt;
no satisfactory definition extant as to what con-&lt;br /&gt;
stitutes a &amp;#039;hero&amp;#039; and his feminine counterpart.&lt;br /&gt;
Certainly, with considerable opportunities of&lt;br /&gt;
observing human nature, both civilised and savage,&lt;br /&gt;
in many lands, I have never fallen across any man&lt;br /&gt;
or woman who came within measurable distance of&lt;br /&gt;
the popular conception of this nondescript animal.&lt;br /&gt;
But he is a very marrow-bone to our friend the&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;#039;horse-reviewer&amp;#039; who jumps around him, falls&lt;br /&gt;
upon him, and cracks him, and from his spoils&lt;br /&gt;
extracts succulent &amp;#039;copy.&amp;#039; He objects that your&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;#039;hero&amp;#039; is not a hero at all. Well, you never&lt;br /&gt;
intended that he should lie, taking the term to&lt;br /&gt;
mean an impersonation of perfectibility. And&lt;br /&gt;
your &amp;#039;heroine&amp;#039; is faulty and given to failure at&lt;br /&gt;
the crucial moment. So she is. But you intended&lt;br /&gt;
her to 1k&amp;gt;. The reviewer, however, cannot, to save&lt;br /&gt;
his dear life, grasp the fact that the principal male&lt;br /&gt;
and female characters of the lx&amp;gt;ok need not&lt;br /&gt;
necessarily lie aspirants to heroic virtues, whatever&lt;br /&gt;
these may lie, and that if they did happen to realise&lt;br /&gt;
his idea of heroics they would lie as insipid and&lt;br /&gt;
wholly uninteresting as perfect people must&lt;br /&gt;
necessarily prove. &amp;#039;Our hero&amp;#039;!! In the name&lt;br /&gt;
of the Prophet, away with this fool of a word!&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Another Novelist.&lt;br /&gt;
VI.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;As one of the apparently hated class of reviewers,&lt;br /&gt;
may I lie allowed to state that I have the honour&lt;br /&gt;
to review for a weekly journal, which does consider&lt;br /&gt;
reviewing of some importance, and also, that I&lt;br /&gt;
take special pains to do my work in a responsible&lt;br /&gt;
manner? My editor does not wish the liooks to&lt;br /&gt;
be scamped. He gives me space for extracts, and&lt;br /&gt;
also I am allowed a free hand. I am not obliged to&lt;br /&gt;
praise; books by a popular author if I do not&lt;br /&gt;
consider them worthy of praise, or because the&lt;br /&gt;
publishers of the books sent in advertise; in the&lt;br /&gt;
journal for which I write. And I may add, that I&lt;br /&gt;
have by the letters from authors (absolutely unknown&lt;br /&gt;
to me personally) who have taken the trouble to write&lt;br /&gt;
to me through my editor, to thank me for sympa-&lt;br /&gt;
thetic notices. I always do my best to get a glimpse&lt;br /&gt;
into an author&amp;#039;s mind&mdash;if he has one&mdash;through his&lt;br /&gt;
work, and then to give as intelligent a reason as&lt;br /&gt;
my powers of expression will admit for praise or&lt;br /&gt;
blame. I should like to quote some of the letters&lt;br /&gt;
from authors, but it would lie an unjustifiable&lt;br /&gt;
outbreak of vanity on my part.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
A Member.&lt;br /&gt;
VIL&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;A letter in the Author for February on &amp;#039; Kinds&lt;br /&gt;
of Criticism&amp;#039; recalls an experience that is instruc-&lt;br /&gt;
tive, therefore I sent it to you to use or not, as you&lt;br /&gt;
please.&lt;br /&gt;
Some years ago I was in treaty with the editor&lt;br /&gt;
of a leading paper to become a reviewer on his&lt;br /&gt;
staff. I had sent some specimens of work, of&lt;br /&gt;
which he had approved, and was nsked to call at&lt;br /&gt;
his office by appointment for my instructions. He&lt;br /&gt;
received me courteously; praised my work; then&lt;br /&gt;
gave me a three-volume novel he wished me to&lt;br /&gt;
review at length. As he handed it to me, he said&lt;br /&gt;
significantly: &amp;#039;Do you know Mrs.&amp;#039;&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
(speaking of the writer) &amp;#039; I hate that woman.&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
I knew at once what he meant. I was to lie&lt;br /&gt;
Balaam to this journalistic Balak. Bless his&lt;br /&gt;
friends and curse his enemies! Unfortunately I&lt;br /&gt;
possess a conscience. I read the book carefully,&lt;br /&gt;
and said what I thought, regardless of Balak&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
hint. The review was favourable on the whole, so&lt;br /&gt;
much so, that from it the publishers extracted a&lt;br /&gt;
quotation for advertisement. With this result to&lt;br /&gt;
myself, however, that I was never again employed&lt;br /&gt;
by the editor in question, who forgot, moreover, to&lt;br /&gt;
pay me for the review.&lt;br /&gt;
He is no longer editing a paper in this world,&lt;br /&gt;
therefore I may venture to give this experience&lt;br /&gt;
without provoking him to say of me to some more&lt;br /&gt;
facile reviewer as he hands my liooks for review:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;#039;I hate that woman &amp;#039;!&amp;quot; B.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 22 (#426) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
LIBRARY SECRETS.&lt;br /&gt;
BELONGING to literary metaphysics is that&lt;br /&gt;
idea of the personality of a house or room.&lt;br /&gt;
Nathaniel Hawthorne treated this bizarre&lt;br /&gt;
notion successfully in his wonderful romance of the&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;House with the Seven Gables,&amp;quot; and Edgar Poe&lt;br /&gt;
even more so in the &amp;quot; Fall of the House of Usher,&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
and while other writers have made inanimate&lt;br /&gt;
objects breathe, these are the only two English&lt;br /&gt;
writers who have given to houses what Mr. Pater&lt;br /&gt;
would call &amp;quot;soul.&amp;quot; It is true now that some of&lt;br /&gt;
our art guilds profess to give this quality of&lt;br /&gt;
strangeness to furniture directly it leaves the&lt;br /&gt;
workshop; and nineteenth century decorators&lt;br /&gt;
claim to leave much of it in our modern&lt;br /&gt;
rooms along with the paint and ]&amp;gt;aj&amp;gt;er frieze.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. James Payn tells of a young shopman who&lt;br /&gt;
described a sideboard &amp;quot;as not Chippendale, but&lt;br /&gt;
with a Chippendale feeling,&amp;quot; and this expresses&lt;br /&gt;
the more modern phase of what originally was a&lt;br /&gt;
very pleasing conceit.&lt;br /&gt;
Human mind has been compared to a kingdom,&lt;br /&gt;
and with equal felicity a room may be comjmred&lt;br /&gt;
to a person. If rooms could talk, how much&lt;br /&gt;
they would have to tell us! What useful witnesses&lt;br /&gt;
they would be in the Divorce Court&mdash;on a Royal&lt;br /&gt;
Commission &mdash; or when politicians are differing&lt;br /&gt;
about the words used at an interview. &amp;quot;Walls&lt;br /&gt;
have ears&amp;quot; is only a metaphor at present, but&lt;br /&gt;
doubtless some future Edison will discover a&lt;br /&gt;
machine no less dangerous than the phonograph&lt;br /&gt;
by which we may recover all the conversations&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
all the secrets a room has been the involuntary&lt;br /&gt;
witness of. Philologists have never paid sufficient&lt;br /&gt;
attention to the word &amp;quot;Room.&amp;quot; No other synonym&lt;br /&gt;
of equal force has been discovered. Apartment&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
what could ever happen in an apartment?&lt;br /&gt;
Chamber&mdash;that, too, is impossible without some&lt;br /&gt;
epithet as green, or blue, or red. But Room stands&lt;br /&gt;
alone; for poets it is particularly useful, as it is&lt;br /&gt;
one of the few rhymes to gloom.&lt;br /&gt;
Of all rooms in a house the library should have&lt;br /&gt;
most to tell us. Unlike its owner it would have&lt;br /&gt;
read all the books on the shelves, those the casual&lt;br /&gt;
visitor sees and those he does not see&mdash;the books&lt;br /&gt;
behind the shelves. We are often told that a&lt;br /&gt;
man&amp;#039;s character can bo discovered by his library.&lt;br /&gt;
I do not think this is always the case. If the&lt;br /&gt;
books are very beautifully bound in Venetian and&lt;br /&gt;
Levant, and have the work of Grolier and Derome&lt;br /&gt;
on their backs, or the delicate tooling of Mr.&lt;br /&gt;
Zaehnsdorf or Mr. Cobden Sanderson, we may be&lt;br /&gt;
assured that the owner is either a bibliophile&lt;br /&gt;
(one who likes books and reads them) or a&lt;br /&gt;
bibliomaniac (one who likes books but does not&lt;br /&gt;
read them); if the library had a tongue it would&lt;br /&gt;
tell us which.&lt;br /&gt;
If one sees a library full of standard authors, as&lt;br /&gt;
Shakespeare, Johnson, Pope, Macaulay, all bound&lt;br /&gt;
in red morocco with gilt edges, one feels sure&lt;br /&gt;
they an? never read. It is almost fatal to have a&lt;br /&gt;
standard author well bound; even a large paper&lt;br /&gt;
copy (edition de luxe) is a little suspicious. But I&lt;br /&gt;
may be judging others by myself, for I never can&lt;br /&gt;
read a standard author (in red morocco and gilt&lt;br /&gt;
edges). I always suspect the owner has bought it&lt;br /&gt;
because it was the right thing to do.&lt;br /&gt;
Another sure sign of unread books is a library&lt;br /&gt;
of first editions. They have been purchased not&lt;br /&gt;
because the first edition of some author had better&lt;br /&gt;
type, or passages omitted in subsequent editions, or&lt;br /&gt;
plates of which the impressions were inferior&mdash;but&lt;br /&gt;
simply because they were first editions. Art critics&lt;br /&gt;
talk about &amp;quot;art for art&amp;#039;s sake,&amp;quot; and bibliomaniacs&lt;br /&gt;
might have a similar cant phrase of &amp;quot;first editions&lt;br /&gt;
for first editions&amp;#039; sake.&amp;quot; I myself have a library&lt;br /&gt;
skeleton in the shape of a first edition which I&lt;br /&gt;
bought some years ago, hoping that its value would&lt;br /&gt;
increase. From time to time I take it the round&lt;br /&gt;
of the booksellers&mdash;but in vain. Nay, the very&lt;br /&gt;
wretch who sold it to me (he called it a bargain, I&lt;br /&gt;
remember, and it certainly was for him) now tells&lt;br /&gt;
me he would not give two shillings for it. I will&lt;br /&gt;
not reveal the name of the book, for I still live in&lt;br /&gt;
hope, and I show it to my friends as the greatest&lt;br /&gt;
treasure in my collection, for I place it back on&lt;br /&gt;
the shelf on my return from the goblin market of&lt;br /&gt;
the book-selling trade. Booksellers are only&lt;br /&gt;
prodigal of digits when selling books.&lt;br /&gt;
But if my library has its secrets, those of my&lt;br /&gt;
friends have theirs as well. A literary acquaintance&lt;br /&gt;
of mine who has made some mark in the world,&lt;br /&gt;
and writes delicate essays (pastels, he calls them),&lt;br /&gt;
often talks in public and private about classical&lt;br /&gt;
literature. When I speak of the achievements of&lt;br /&gt;
one of our modern English poets, he tells me that&lt;br /&gt;
Theocritus or Pindar have done the same thing&lt;br /&gt;
much ln&amp;#039;tter. On his shelves are all the Leipzig&lt;br /&gt;
series of the Greek poets, and Apollonius Bhodius&lt;br /&gt;
lies open on the table, but behind the shelves, invisible&lt;br /&gt;
to vulgar gaze, are Mr. Bonn&amp;#039;s translations. I have&lt;br /&gt;
forgotten all my classics, but I reineml&amp;gt;er in Horace&lt;br /&gt;
there is a line altout rare sitting behind a horseman;&lt;br /&gt;
so it is with the library of my friend, &amp;quot;Behind&lt;br /&gt;
his classics sits blue Bohn.&amp;quot; I hold my pence,&lt;br /&gt;
however, for hare I not the first edition on my&lt;br /&gt;
conscience?&lt;br /&gt;
Zola, I am told, has a large circle of admirers in&lt;br /&gt;
England, yet how many of them are acquainted&lt;br /&gt;
with him in the original? Mr. Vizetelly&amp;#039;s versions&lt;br /&gt;
of realistic fiction have found a place in many a&lt;br /&gt;
private library, where they corrupt our educated&lt;br /&gt;
youth just as much as the bank clerk and&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 23 (#427) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
23&lt;br /&gt;
hairdresser. English people lire always attacking&lt;br /&gt;
translations, because to them they are indebted for&lt;br /&gt;
any acquaintance with foreign literature. Here&lt;br /&gt;
again I may be judging others by myself. As I&lt;br /&gt;
am for being candid, let me hasten to admit that&lt;br /&gt;
I have as large and goodly a collection of Bohns&lt;br /&gt;
and Vizetellies as any man living. Bohn has been&lt;br /&gt;
to me what Mary Stuart was to Mr. Swinburne,&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Red star of boyhood&amp;#039;s fiery thought.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Bohns have solaced, have instructed, have enter-&lt;br /&gt;
tained me as I feel sure they have many others.&lt;br /&gt;
What a splendid language our English is, to be sure!&lt;br /&gt;
There is really no necessity to learn any other. I&lt;br /&gt;
feel I am a fine example to be held up by those&lt;br /&gt;
who are for abolishing Greek from the schools and&lt;br /&gt;
Italian from the Civil Service? examinations. Many&lt;br /&gt;
a translation of Dante have I reviewed; &amp;quot;Te duce,&lt;br /&gt;
Longfellow,&amp;quot; and have not Messrs. Heinemann&lt;br /&gt;
and Walter Scott placed Scandinavian literature in&lt;br /&gt;
my reach? Petronius, Herodotus, Pausanias are no&lt;br /&gt;
longer closed books for me. Mr. Bohn and his&lt;br /&gt;
fellow workers, like the angel in Revelation, have&lt;br /&gt;
broken the seals of a dead language. When I talk&lt;br /&gt;
of such masterpieces familiar to me only in an&lt;br /&gt;
English form, that I have pricks of conscience I do&lt;br /&gt;
not deny. I am consoled, nevertheless, when I&lt;br /&gt;
think that writers greater than I have secrets no&lt;br /&gt;
less dark and base. What man of letters reveals&lt;br /&gt;
his books of reference? True, one novelist,&lt;br /&gt;
eminent for Scotch local colour, has confided to&lt;br /&gt;
me that he lias never been north of the Tweed.&lt;br /&gt;
Nor should I be surprised to learn some day that&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Haggard only edited &amp;quot;She,&amp;quot; in spite of his&lt;br /&gt;
assertion to the contrary, that the MSS. are per-&lt;br /&gt;
fectly genuine, but with the insidious art of the&lt;br /&gt;
storyteller he palmed them off as his own. In&lt;br /&gt;
his library perhaps are concealed the letters of&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Allan Quatermain. Has Mr. Besant ever&lt;br /&gt;
teen further east than the Mansion House? Does&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Hardy live in Wessex? These are questions&lt;br /&gt;
likely to raise some future literary controversy.&lt;br /&gt;
They are now library secrets. Long may they&lt;br /&gt;
remain so.&lt;br /&gt;
There are other kinds of books besides works of&lt;br /&gt;
reference and translations that a man who possesses&lt;br /&gt;
them would hesitate to show to any but an intimate&lt;br /&gt;
friend; but I trust no married men own such things.&lt;br /&gt;
Their price has placed them beyond my modest means,&lt;br /&gt;
and that original virtue in all of us would have pre-&lt;br /&gt;
vented my acquiring them had I the chance. I refer&lt;br /&gt;
to those suspicious little works published in Belgium&lt;br /&gt;
with delicate etchings on hand-made paper;&lt;br /&gt;
English volumes (privately printed, 25o copies only)&lt;br /&gt;
which have on the title-page the legend that they&lt;br /&gt;
were printed at Benares by the blameless Ethiopian.&lt;br /&gt;
And those offered at fancy prices, which all tear the&lt;br /&gt;
title of &amp;quot;Seqient Worship,&amp;quot; clothed in the modest&lt;br /&gt;
language of a scientific brochure. I trust that a&lt;br /&gt;
very small per-centage of private libraries keep such&lt;br /&gt;
books as these. Our pure and noble literature&lt;br /&gt;
has fortunately supplied few examples wherewith to&lt;br /&gt;
swell such a depraved catalogue.&lt;br /&gt;
R. R.&lt;br /&gt;
~*~^4&lt;br /&gt;
MAURICE MAETERLINCK.&lt;br /&gt;
fl^HAT amalgam of races now called Belgian&lt;br /&gt;
I has produced a dramatist of great and original&lt;br /&gt;
power. He writes in French, but his style&lt;br /&gt;
raises a suspicion even in a foreigner, that it is not&lt;br /&gt;
his native tongue. Apart from the language, the&lt;br /&gt;
treatment of his three plays, &amp;quot;La Princesse&lt;br /&gt;
Maleine,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;L&amp;#039;lntruse,&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Les Aveugles,&amp;quot; is&lt;br /&gt;
sufficient proof that he is not a Frenchman.&lt;br /&gt;
Whatever their merits or their faults, neither are&lt;br /&gt;
French. They contain, even more than the work&lt;br /&gt;
of his countrymen Van Beers, Huysmann, and&lt;br /&gt;
Knopff, an element wholly foreign to French art.&lt;br /&gt;
No doubt none of this work would liave been&lt;br /&gt;
produced without French influence, but it all bears&lt;br /&gt;
a mark of strong native individuality. The three&lt;br /&gt;
plays which Maeterlinck has already written give&lt;br /&gt;
him a claim to the highest place among contem-&lt;br /&gt;
porary dramatists. So much attention has teen&lt;br /&gt;
devoted to detecting new schools of the drama&lt;br /&gt;
elsewhere, that it is a surprise to find such a school&lt;br /&gt;
arising in Belgium. The Flemish races are,&lt;br /&gt;
however, proving that they possess a reserve of&lt;br /&gt;
force, revived, but in no sense re-constructed, by&lt;br /&gt;
foreign example.&lt;br /&gt;
A special peculiarity in Maeterlinck&amp;#039;s work is&lt;br /&gt;
the important part which he assigns to accessory&lt;br /&gt;
effects. He animates dead matter, he humanizes&lt;br /&gt;
his animals by some mysterious power of metem-&lt;br /&gt;
psychosis, and his atmospheric phenomena are real&lt;br /&gt;
Powers of the Air. He achieves even more than&lt;br /&gt;
this, for the visions of his youths, and the dreams&lt;br /&gt;
of his old men incorporate themselves in sounds&lt;br /&gt;
and shapes that am be j&amp;gt;erceived by healthier or&lt;br /&gt;
soberer senses. Out of this very peculiarity arises&lt;br /&gt;
a rare and immense dramatic merit. With him&lt;br /&gt;
accessories never usurp a more important place.&lt;br /&gt;
No one of them is necessary to the construction of&lt;br /&gt;
the story, but all assist materially to develop it.&lt;br /&gt;
They explain the situations and emphasize the&lt;br /&gt;
characterization, but they never distract the atten-&lt;br /&gt;
tion due to either. In this way Maeterlinck&amp;#039;s is&lt;br /&gt;
art of the highest order, perfectly simple and direct&lt;br /&gt;
in construction, adorned but never burdened with a&lt;br /&gt;
wealth of ornament.&lt;br /&gt;
The special sphere of Maeterlinck&amp;#039;s genius is dark-&lt;br /&gt;
ness, the darkness of hopeless destinies and sightless&lt;br /&gt;
eyes. So far, he is fatalist, and only so far, for&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 24 (#428) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
24&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
his work is wholly free from any trace of didactic&lt;br /&gt;
fatalism; if he founds a new school it will not be&lt;br /&gt;
for purposes of instruction. It is noticeable that&lt;br /&gt;
though darkness and the fears that accompany it&lt;br /&gt;
till his dramas, he never has recourse to super-&lt;br /&gt;
natural agencies. The terror which he inspires,&lt;br /&gt;
he draws, as it were, from the brains of his own&lt;br /&gt;
characters, and expresses in the forces of nature.&lt;br /&gt;
For pure concentrated fear I do not know&lt;br /&gt;
anything more powerful than the death of La&lt;br /&gt;
Princesse Maleine. You may read the play in a&lt;br /&gt;
brightly lit room full of people, and tremble over&lt;br /&gt;
it, when you have read &amp;quot;Melmoth&amp;quot; even, alone&lt;br /&gt;
and at night. The murder scene recalls and&lt;br /&gt;
surpasses the most dramatic scene in &amp;quot; Uncle Silas.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
It is, however, improbable that Maeterlinck knows&lt;br /&gt;
the too little appreciated novelist Le Fanu. The&lt;br /&gt;
comparison between them need not be pressed&lt;br /&gt;
further, for Maeterlinck is superior in almost every&lt;br /&gt;
point.&lt;br /&gt;
To attempt any detailed examination of the three&lt;br /&gt;
plays would be impossible in a short space. It will&lt;br /&gt;
be sufficient to consider how wonderful is the little&lt;br /&gt;
scene &amp;quot;L&amp;#039;Intruse.&amp;quot; It does not take more time&lt;br /&gt;
to read than a quarter of an hour, it contains no&lt;br /&gt;
episode, it is founded on no plot that can be&lt;br /&gt;
properly so allied, and yet it is absorbingly&lt;br /&gt;
interesting, full of delicate characterization, and&lt;br /&gt;
careful, skilful touches. It is not only the creations&lt;br /&gt;
of the writer&amp;#039;s brain that interest you, but the&lt;br /&gt;
creations of his creatures&amp;#039; brains. This subtle&lt;br /&gt;
compound influence upon the reader has never been&lt;br /&gt;
achieved in the same degree of intensity and&lt;br /&gt;
sustained so long. The blood that Lady Macbeth&lt;br /&gt;
sees upon her hands does not leave a deeper stain.&lt;br /&gt;
The whole of &amp;quot; L&amp;#039;Intruse&amp;quot; is full of this influence,&lt;br /&gt;
the least incident in it becomes prophetic. The old&lt;br /&gt;
Grandfathers fancies seem even to precreate inci-&lt;br /&gt;
dents in harmony with his own melancholy, incidents&lt;br /&gt;
which would not so much be noticed at the time, as&lt;br /&gt;
remembered afterwards as having accompanied an&lt;br /&gt;
evening full of very sad memories. There was the&lt;br /&gt;
wind that came out from the cypress wood, and the&lt;br /&gt;
trembling in the trees, and the scaring of the swans&lt;br /&gt;
and the fishes, and the house dog that sat silent in&lt;br /&gt;
his kennel, and the gardener who stood in the&lt;br /&gt;
shadow and whetted his scythe, and the door that&lt;br /&gt;
no one could shut, and the door that opened of&lt;br /&gt;
itself, and the carpenter to come in the morning,&lt;br /&gt;
and the dim burning of the half-spent lamp, and&lt;br /&gt;
the physician waiting until midnight, and at mid-&lt;br /&gt;
night the hurrying footsteps and the cry of the&lt;br /&gt;
dumb child, and emphasizing these trivial incidents,&lt;br /&gt;
re-creating them as omens, the blind fear of the&lt;br /&gt;
old man. All so perfectly natural and all super-&lt;br /&gt;
naturalized by his sick fancies.&lt;br /&gt;
Nor are the two similar characters of the brothers&lt;br /&gt;
without special merit for delicate distinctive touches.&lt;br /&gt;
Both are kind-hearted, matter-of-fact men. It is&lt;br /&gt;
so natural for them to regret the time when the&lt;br /&gt;
Grandfather was as &amp;quot;reasonable&amp;quot; as they were,&lt;br /&gt;
and &amp;quot;never said anything extraordinary.&amp;quot; The&lt;br /&gt;
Father is an excellent domestic man who keeps&lt;br /&gt;
everything in order in the house during his wife&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
illness. He knows all the freaks of the furniture,&lt;br /&gt;
and expects the servant to know them too. He&lt;br /&gt;
sees the lamp filled himself, and professes all the&lt;br /&gt;
faith of a true housewife in it that &amp;quot; it will burn&lt;br /&gt;
better presently.&amp;quot; We are not surprised that his&lt;br /&gt;
ultimate conclusion concerning the blind should be&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;II est certain qu&amp;#039;ils sont a plaindre.&amp;quot; The Uncle&lt;br /&gt;
is rather clever and inclined to be strict, but the gift&lt;br /&gt;
he most prides himself on is common sense. He&lt;br /&gt;
cannot endure mystery, he detects it lurking even in&lt;br /&gt;
the voice. When the Grandfather asks, &amp;quot; What is&lt;br /&gt;
that at the door?&amp;quot; he says, &amp;quot;You must not ask&lt;br /&gt;
that in such an extraordinary voice.&amp;quot; He has an&lt;br /&gt;
explanation, good or bad, ready for everything.&lt;br /&gt;
If there is a sound of mowing it is the gardener,&lt;br /&gt;
though gardeners do not mow at night. If feet&lt;br /&gt;
are heard on the stairs he recognises his sister&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
footstep at once, although she is not there. His&lt;br /&gt;
standard of appeal is the doctor. He even has a&lt;br /&gt;
certain sympathy for his sister&amp;#039;s monastic order,&lt;br /&gt;
because &amp;quot;the rule applies to all alike.&amp;quot; His worst&lt;br /&gt;
epithet is &amp;quot; useless,&amp;quot; and his sagest counsel &amp;quot;to 1 e&lt;br /&gt;
reasonable.&amp;quot; In his eyes truth and logic are&lt;br /&gt;
synonyms. No wonder that when the blind&lt;br /&gt;
Grandfather says, &amp;lt;; I can see clearly there is some-&lt;br /&gt;
thing &amp;quot;that he answers a little sharply, &amp;quot;Then&lt;br /&gt;
you can see better than we can.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
And here we come to another characteristic of&lt;br /&gt;
Maeterlinck, a hint of secret inevident forces,&lt;br /&gt;
triumphing out of obscurity. Here, the irrational&lt;br /&gt;
sight of the blind; the insight of the idiot and the&lt;br /&gt;
animal, in &amp;quot; La Princesse Maleine &amp;quot;; and the last&lt;br /&gt;
ray of hope falling on the new-born child, in&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Les Aveugles&amp;quot;; these are examples of what I&lt;br /&gt;
mean. In &amp;quot;Les Aveugles &amp;quot; indeed the climax of&lt;br /&gt;
the drama is the appeal of the utter powerlessness&lt;br /&gt;
of the blind, the deaf, the mad, and the dead to a&lt;br /&gt;
powerlessness seemingly more complete still. In&lt;br /&gt;
this scene the darkness of Maeterlinck is at its&lt;br /&gt;
deepest. Short as it is, so much might be said&lt;br /&gt;
about it, that it is too long to notice here.&lt;br /&gt;
w. w.&lt;br /&gt;
■ ■&lt;br /&gt;
LITERATURE IN IRELAND.&lt;br /&gt;
n^HE miracle performed at the request of&lt;br /&gt;
I Hezekiah may be daily observed by the traveller&lt;br /&gt;
from Holyhead to Kingstown. As the shadow&lt;br /&gt;
of old went back on the dial of the Hebrew King,&lt;br /&gt;
so apparently Time retreats as the visitor from&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 25 (#429) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
25&lt;br /&gt;
England approaches the shores of the Emerald&lt;br /&gt;
Isle, anil if he is a lover of order, he must in&lt;br /&gt;
consequenee put back bis watch five-and-twenty&lt;br /&gt;
minutes. Our relationship to tbe sun is not unlike&lt;br /&gt;
our condition in other matters. The visitor to&lt;br /&gt;
Ireland must be prepared to find the inhabitants a&lt;br /&gt;
little behind the times. It may be that Hibernia&lt;br /&gt;
has the same complaint to make of Britannia that&lt;br /&gt;
Diogenes made of Alexander, when he requested&lt;br /&gt;
that monarch, who stood at the aperture of the&lt;br /&gt;
philosopher&amp;#039;s tub with an offer of gifts, to stand&lt;br /&gt;
out of his sunshine. To fully realize how small&lt;br /&gt;
the progress made by Ireland during the centuries&lt;br /&gt;
which have elapsed since her conquest has been,&lt;br /&gt;
one has only to turn to Spenser&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;View of the&lt;br /&gt;
Present State of Ireland,&amp;quot; the greater part of&lt;br /&gt;
which description is as true to-day as it was in&lt;br /&gt;
1599. Ireland has never enjoyed the &amp;quot;Piping&lt;br /&gt;
times of peace&amp;quot; in which art flourishes. Like&lt;br /&gt;
Moloch, she has always been in favour of &amp;quot;Open&lt;br /&gt;
war.&amp;quot; She has cherished so many delusive hopes,&lt;br /&gt;
nursed so many futile rebellions, and been so much&lt;br /&gt;
occupied in endeavouring to shake off what her&lt;br /&gt;
demagogues designate the &amp;quot;yoke&amp;quot; of England,&lt;br /&gt;
that she has had no time to devote to &amp;quot;the arts of&lt;br /&gt;
peace.&amp;quot; As a natural consequenee, such of her&lt;br /&gt;
children as loved the paths of wisdom, left behind&lt;br /&gt;
them the &amp;quot;drums and trampliugs&amp;quot; of petty&lt;br /&gt;
political struggles, and found in &amp;quot;a land of settled&lt;br /&gt;
government&amp;quot; the quiet which they sought. Thus&lt;br /&gt;
it comes that Goldsmith&amp;#039;s name is associated more&lt;br /&gt;
closely with Fleet Street than with Lissoy; Burke&lt;br /&gt;
and Berkeley and Swift are English rather than&lt;br /&gt;
Irishmen of Letters; and the names of George&lt;br /&gt;
Darley and Edward Fitzgerald are almost unknown&lt;br /&gt;
in their native land; while Moore, &amp;quot;our western&lt;br /&gt;
bulbul, half Cupid and half tom-tit,&amp;quot; is still&lt;br /&gt;
considered our &amp;quot;sweetest lyrist&amp;quot; although he has&lt;br /&gt;
been succeeded in his post of Irish Laureate by at&lt;br /&gt;
least one poet, the latchet of whose shoes he would&lt;br /&gt;
be unworthy to unloose. Living Irish writers, it&lt;br /&gt;
would seem, have, like their predecessors, adopted&lt;br /&gt;
Punch&amp;#039;s recipe, and endeavoured to make home&lt;br /&gt;
happy by leaving it. Many years have elapsed&lt;br /&gt;
since Mr. Lecky was resident in Ireland. Lesser&lt;br /&gt;
lights have also departed from amongst us. Lady&lt;br /&gt;
Wilde, who as Speranza fired many hearts with&lt;br /&gt;
enthusiasm, lives in a land against which the most&lt;br /&gt;
impassioned of her lyrics were directed. The&lt;br /&gt;
author of &amp;quot;Dorian Gray,&amp;quot; like another prodigal&lt;br /&gt;
son has taken his journey into a far country. Rosa&lt;br /&gt;
Mulholland has also taken flight, and Dr. Tod-&lt;br /&gt;
hunter sings of Greece in the midst of London.&lt;br /&gt;
Justin McCarthy, father and son, perhaps live more&lt;br /&gt;
in London than among their constituents. But&lt;br /&gt;
some writers still remain with us. Professor&lt;br /&gt;
Dowden, for whom the Yankees made a bid when&lt;br /&gt;
they failed to obtain Shakespeare&amp;#039;s house, has, we&lt;br /&gt;
believe, taken out a perpetuity in the Protestant&lt;br /&gt;
burial ground, a fact which may be fairly con-&lt;br /&gt;
sidered a sign of his inclination to abide; permanently&lt;br /&gt;
with us. Dr. Mahaffy&amp;#039;s rambles in Greece have&lt;br /&gt;
evidently not proved sufficiently attractive to tempt&lt;br /&gt;
him to pitch his tent on the plains of Marathon.&lt;br /&gt;
Professor Salmon labours alternately at theology&lt;br /&gt;
and mathematics in the Provost&amp;#039;s house, Trinity&lt;br /&gt;
College. J. B. Bury, &amp;quot;the marvellous boy,&amp;quot; has&lt;br /&gt;
recently electrified scholars by his edition of &amp;quot;The&lt;br /&gt;
Nemean Odes of Pindar.&amp;quot; The author of &amp;quot;The&lt;br /&gt;
Wearing of the Green&amp;quot; writes three volume novels&lt;br /&gt;
within sound of the sea at Blackrock; and&lt;br /&gt;
Katherine Tynan, whose &amp;quot;Louise de la Valliere&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
and &amp;quot; Shamrocks&amp;quot; are creditable volumes of verse,&lt;br /&gt;
lives in quiet old Clondalkin. Sir Robert Ball,&lt;br /&gt;
whose &amp;quot; Story of the Heavens&amp;quot; might lead readers&lt;br /&gt;
to the rash conclusion that he dwells among the&lt;br /&gt;
stars, resides at Dunsink; and Edwin Hamilton,&lt;br /&gt;
the Dublin Aristophanes, lives in one of the houses&lt;br /&gt;
which overlook&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;That vast enclosure, called for brevity &amp;#039; The Green.&amp;#039;&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
We can also count among the representatives&lt;br /&gt;
of literature resident in Ireland the following&lt;br /&gt;
writers :&mdash;J. K. Ingram, best known as the author&lt;br /&gt;
of the song &amp;quot;Who fears to speak of &amp;#039;98 ?&amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
R. Percival Graves, the friend of Wordsworth,&lt;br /&gt;
and biographer of Sir W. Rowan Hamilton; A. P.&lt;br /&gt;
Graves, author of &amp;quot;The Blarney Ballads&amp;quot; and&lt;br /&gt;
other volumes of verse; T. Caufield Irwin, the&lt;br /&gt;
poet; Robert Yelverton Tyrrell, whose translations&lt;br /&gt;
include a marvellous rendering into Greek of&lt;br /&gt;
Tennyson&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Lotus Eaters &amp;quot;; G. T. Stokes, whose&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Irish Ecclesiastical History &amp;quot; is a standard work;&lt;br /&gt;
G. F. Armstrong, author of many volumes of verse,&lt;br /&gt;
of which the most popular is &amp;quot;Tales of Wick-&lt;br /&gt;
low &amp;quot; ; Mrs. Hartley, better known as May Laff&amp;#039;an;&lt;br /&gt;
the Hon. Miss Emily Lawless, author of &amp;quot;Hogan,&lt;br /&gt;
M.P. &amp;quot;; Professor Bastable; Mrs. Cashel Hoey,&lt;br /&gt;
whose novels have won her an enviable reputation;&lt;br /&gt;
and W. J. Fitzpatrick, author of &amp;quot;The Sham&lt;br /&gt;
Squire.&amp;quot; We have also Douglas Hyde, whose&lt;br /&gt;
hatred of &amp;quot; The proud Invader &amp;quot; forbids his signing&lt;br /&gt;
his name in English; the author of &amp;quot;Molly&lt;br /&gt;
Bawn&amp;quot; and many other popular novels, who&lt;br /&gt;
declines to grace the title pages of her books with&lt;br /&gt;
her name; J. T. Gilbert, the historian of Dublin,&lt;br /&gt;
and Aubrey de Vere, the veteran poet and his&lt;br /&gt;
brother, Sir Stephen de Vere, one of the few&lt;br /&gt;
successful translators of Horace; Sir Charles&lt;br /&gt;
Gavan Duffy, who was early &amp;quot;forced to roam,&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
and has continued to do so from habit; George&lt;br /&gt;
Sigerson, author of &amp;quot;Poets of Munster.&amp;quot; Hannah&lt;br /&gt;
Lynch, whose tales have attracted much attention;&lt;br /&gt;
P. W. Joyce, author of &amp;quot; Irish Names of Places &amp;quot;;&lt;br /&gt;
T. W. Lyster, translator of Dunster&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Life of&lt;br /&gt;
Goethe,&amp;quot; and J. H. Bernard, translator with&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 26 (#430) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
26&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
Dr. Mahaffy of Kant&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Critique of Pure Reason.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Mary Fitzpatrick, the novelist, and C. G. O&amp;#039;Brien,&lt;br /&gt;
author of much pleasing verse. This list of names&lt;br /&gt;
might include many others of less note, but it has&lt;br /&gt;
already become too like the catalogue of the ships&lt;br /&gt;
in the Iliad to tempt any reader to ask for more.&lt;br /&gt;
It is not to be assumed that because these writers&lt;br /&gt;
reside in Ireland that therefore their books are&lt;br /&gt;
published in Dublin or Belfast. With the sole&lt;br /&gt;
exception of T. Caufield Irwin, all the above-&lt;br /&gt;
mentioned have publishers in London. The books&lt;br /&gt;
published in Dublin are either Roman Catholic&lt;br /&gt;
Books of Devotion or school books. Dublin&lt;br /&gt;
cannot, like Edinburgh, boast of a Nimmo or a&lt;br /&gt;
David Douglas, or of such a firm as A. &amp;amp; C. Black.&lt;br /&gt;
Her chief publishers occasionally publish a &amp;quot;Jus-&lt;br /&gt;
tice of the Peace&amp;quot; or a &amp;quot;Law of Land Tenure.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
No work of art ever issues from the University&lt;br /&gt;
Press. Popular discontent and the turmoil which&lt;br /&gt;
springs from discontent have banished Art from&lt;br /&gt;
Ireland. Will Ireland ever be contented? She&lt;br /&gt;
will, when the old days return, days in which, as&lt;br /&gt;
Landor says,&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Tara rose so high&lt;br /&gt;
That her turrets split the sky,&lt;br /&gt;
And about her courts were seeu&lt;br /&gt;
Liveried Angels robed in green,&lt;br /&gt;
Wearing, by Saiut Patrick&amp;#039;s bounty,&lt;br /&gt;
Emcraldn big as half a county.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Ramsay Coixes.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;A WORD FROM YOU, SIB.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
EVERY man known to be actively engaged as&lt;br /&gt;
as a litterateur counts upon receiving half-&lt;br /&gt;
a-dozen letters every week from people,&lt;br /&gt;
generally young people, and in most cases young&lt;br /&gt;
ladies who are ardently desirous of getting their&lt;br /&gt;
works published. Sometimes they send manu-&lt;br /&gt;
scripts for perusal, assuming as a perfectly natural&lt;br /&gt;
thing that a busy man can afford to give a day to&lt;br /&gt;
everybody who asks; sometimes they ask advice:&lt;br /&gt;
most often they say that they have sent the work to&lt;br /&gt;
this person and to that, to the editor of this or that&lt;br /&gt;
magazine, and that it always comes kick rejected.&lt;br /&gt;
The reason, they an; persuaded, is not in any&lt;br /&gt;
defects or faults of the work itself (as will 1h(&lt;br /&gt;
easily understood when the manuscript has la-en&lt;br /&gt;
carefully read), but in the difficulty of getting a&lt;br /&gt;
manuscript read by any publisher or editor what-&lt;br /&gt;
ever. This being so, all that is wanted is a little&lt;br /&gt;
personal interest from one who can influence&lt;br /&gt;
publishers and editors. &amp;quot;A word from you, sir,&lt;br /&gt;
whose influence is so great, would at once remove&lt;br /&gt;
all difficulty from my path and ensure the accept-&lt;br /&gt;
ance of my work.&amp;quot; Or, as sometimes happens, the&lt;br /&gt;
work has been actually issued and has fallen&lt;br /&gt;
flat. Then the single word of influence is asked&lt;br /&gt;
to induce editors to give the book a favour-&lt;br /&gt;
able notice. Nay, if they happen to know or to&lt;br /&gt;
find out&mdash;their ingenuity in finding out these little&lt;br /&gt;
details is enormous&mdash;that a man is a personal friend&lt;br /&gt;
of any editor, they will even ask him to use his&lt;br /&gt;
influence with that editor, so that against his honour&lt;br /&gt;
and his conscience, he shall direct a critic against&lt;br /&gt;
his honour and his conscience, to write a favourable&lt;br /&gt;
review of a worthless book. Not only this, but&lt;br /&gt;
they believe tliat the thing is actually done, and&lt;br /&gt;
done every day. It is a curious sign of the times&lt;br /&gt;
that such a Ixdief is prevalent; but there is no&lt;br /&gt;
doubt about it. A large section of the world has&lt;br /&gt;
no belief in the honour of any class of mankind at&lt;br /&gt;
all. They believe that trickery rules everything,&lt;br /&gt;
from the little suburl&amp;gt;an shop to the editorial chair.&lt;br /&gt;
It is impossible to answer such people, but those&lt;br /&gt;
who honestly believe in the inaccessibility of editors&lt;br /&gt;
and publishers unless persuaded by &amp;quot; a single word&lt;br /&gt;
from you,&amp;quot; may at least be asked to consider that&lt;br /&gt;
Itooks are not published by caprice, or in order to&lt;br /&gt;
gratify anyone, or out of kindness, but wholly and&lt;br /&gt;
solely for mercantile reasons. Fortunately good&lt;br /&gt;
work of all kinds has its mercantile value. There-&lt;br /&gt;
fore the only thing to advise is that they should&lt;br /&gt;
produce good work. The tears and entreaties&lt;br /&gt;
which accompany many of these letters are most&lt;br /&gt;
grievous to hear. A girl who is struggling to keep&lt;br /&gt;
herself, to help others dependent upon her, to&lt;br /&gt;
whom even the most miserable dole of the most&lt;br /&gt;
cruel of sweating publishers would la; gratefully&lt;br /&gt;
received, can only be told the same thing. Poverty&lt;br /&gt;
will not make a writer. It is not enough to yearn&lt;br /&gt;
ardently after a little money; if the gift has lx&amp;gt;en&lt;br /&gt;
denied another way must he found. The &amp;quot;single&lt;br /&gt;
word from you,&amp;quot; even if it could l&amp;gt;e spoken, would&lt;br /&gt;
not move editor or publisher in the slightest&lt;br /&gt;
degree, except to wonder how one could l&amp;gt;e such a&lt;br /&gt;
fool as to utter that single word. The number of&lt;br /&gt;
those who l)esiege the gates of literature increases&lt;br /&gt;
daily, and will continue to increase, both here and&lt;br /&gt;
in America. Indeed, where there are hundreds of&lt;br /&gt;
pens at their futile work in Great Britain there&lt;br /&gt;
are thousands in the United States. All we can&lt;br /&gt;
do is to hope that their disappointment may come&lt;br /&gt;
speedily and while there is still time for them to&lt;br /&gt;
turn to other things.&lt;br /&gt;
■*-+&bull;+&lt;br /&gt;
MB. GEORGE MOORE AND HERR IBSEN.&lt;br /&gt;
No doubt there is much in dramatic criticism&lt;br /&gt;
to incline a man of any taste or discrimination to&lt;br /&gt;
adopt views opposed to the critic&amp;#039;s, and no doubt&lt;br /&gt;
the irrelevancies of professed Anti-ibsenites have&lt;br /&gt;
produced some able defences of the &amp;quot;master.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Perhaps Mr. George Moore&amp;#039;s appearance in the&lt;br /&gt;
Ibsenite camp may be partly explained in this way.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 27 (#431) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
27&lt;br /&gt;
It is, however, disappointing to find a really just&lt;br /&gt;
and delicate critic drawn from liis judicial attitude.&lt;br /&gt;
He would be the last to maintain that adverse&lt;br /&gt;
criticism by Mr. Clement Scott necessarily proves&lt;br /&gt;
the excellence of a play. He may remember also&lt;br /&gt;
that the school in whose company he finds himself&lt;br /&gt;
for the moment, is not wholly unrepresented in&lt;br /&gt;
bogus prophecy. It is to be hoped, however, that&lt;br /&gt;
he will yet examine Herr Ibsen&amp;#039;s prose dramas for&lt;br /&gt;
us solely on their dramatic merits, by clearing the&lt;br /&gt;
ground of moral questions and Ibsenitc controversy.&lt;br /&gt;
No English critic is more fit to do so.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. George Moore will surely allow that Art&lt;br /&gt;
is essentially absolute and dogmatic in principle,&lt;br /&gt;
having no knowledge of contradiction. Argument&lt;br /&gt;
or didacticism therefore, by acknowledging resist-&lt;br /&gt;
ance to it, violate its elementary laws. That is to&lt;br /&gt;
say, all works of art which purpose to illustrate&lt;br /&gt;
theories or drive home arguments are so far bad&lt;br /&gt;
art, or rather not works of art at all. This fault&lt;br /&gt;
is what the Ibsenitc school appear to claim as a&lt;br /&gt;
merit in Herr Ibsen. It appears to assert that Herr&lt;br /&gt;
Ibsen&amp;#039;s prose dramas enunciate a certain philosophy&lt;br /&gt;
of which it approves. With the quality of this&lt;br /&gt;
philosophy dramatic criticism has no concern at all,&lt;br /&gt;
indeed, in so far as a critic praises or blames it he&lt;br /&gt;
shows himself careless of the canons of Art. He&lt;br /&gt;
has to decide whether the author is guilty of the&lt;br /&gt;
merit of didacticism. It would be imi&amp;gt;ertinent to&lt;br /&gt;
remind Mr. George Moore, but it is necessary to&lt;br /&gt;
remind many professed Ibsenites, that anti-Christian&lt;br /&gt;
philosophy is not exempt from the rule against&lt;br /&gt;
didacticism in Art. What Art abhors is teaching&lt;br /&gt;
not the lesson, all lessons alike are beyond its&lt;br /&gt;
sphere.&lt;br /&gt;
I am not, however, prepared to accept the&lt;br /&gt;
Ibsenite claim that Ibsen is an intentional moralist,&lt;br /&gt;
and I imagine that Mr. George Moore does not&lt;br /&gt;
consider him so either. If he did he would&lt;br /&gt;
scarcely praise &amp;quot;Hedda Gabler&amp;quot; so highly. The&lt;br /&gt;
morality enunciated by the Ibsenites as a system,&lt;br /&gt;
and deduced from Herr Ibsen&amp;#039;s plavs, is as obvious,&lt;br /&gt;
and therefore as inartistic, as the morals drawn by&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Barlow for the benefit of Sandford and&lt;br /&gt;
Merton. The Ibsenite system may present to the&lt;br /&gt;
vulgar an appearance of profundity, but it is none&lt;br /&gt;
the less subject to the artistic charge of didacticism&lt;br /&gt;
on that account. Having regard, however, to the&lt;br /&gt;
acknowledged power of Herr Ibsen&amp;#039;s work, I&lt;br /&gt;
cannot imagine he would have fallen into so glaring&lt;br /&gt;
an artistic fault. Is it possible to account for the&lt;br /&gt;
opinion of his followers regarding him, in this&lt;br /&gt;
way? I l&amp;gt;elieve that inquisitiveness is the most&lt;br /&gt;
powerful quality of his mind, and has led him&lt;br /&gt;
to the perpetual setting of riddles to which he&lt;br /&gt;
would abhor to receive any answer. Certainty&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
even probability&mdash;represents to his mind a vacuum.&lt;br /&gt;
Nothing can lx- more foreign to such a mind than&lt;br /&gt;
an intention to teach, indeed the obviousness of&lt;br /&gt;
such a charge should have protected from it a&lt;br /&gt;
dramatist of such subtle effects. To harp on a few&lt;br /&gt;
strings may at last become wearisome, but it is a&lt;br /&gt;
fault against taste rather than against the canons&lt;br /&gt;
of Art. The more serious charge of deliberate&lt;br /&gt;
didacticism may fairly be shifted upon the commen-&lt;br /&gt;
taries of his followers.&lt;br /&gt;
It cannot, however, be concealed that there are&lt;br /&gt;
other considerable faults in Herr Ibsen&amp;#039;s prose&lt;br /&gt;
dramas. Perhaps the most glaring is the unreality&lt;br /&gt;
of his protagonists. They are not human; they&lt;br /&gt;
are not even capable of evoking human sympathy.&lt;br /&gt;
All they touch in humanity is the inquisitive cells&lt;br /&gt;
of the brain. They also afford illustrations of&lt;br /&gt;
theories which can now command approval. It is&lt;br /&gt;
true that all dramatis persona are but types to Ixi&lt;br /&gt;
personalized by the actor. Curiously enough, Herr&lt;br /&gt;
Ibsen leaves less to the actor in this respect than&lt;br /&gt;
perhaps any other dramatist. But, apart from this&lt;br /&gt;
necessity of the drama, Herr Ibsen&amp;#039;s heroes and&lt;br /&gt;
heroines are intrinsically unnatural, unreal, and in-&lt;br /&gt;
consistent. There are exceptions, perhaps Dr.&lt;br /&gt;
Stohmar is the most like life&mdash;but Nora, Hedda&lt;br /&gt;
Gabler, and Rebckka West are notable examples.&lt;br /&gt;
Hedda Gabler especially contains no drop of &amp;quot; the&lt;br /&gt;
milk of human kindness&amp;quot; in her composition. She&lt;br /&gt;
has no more contact with humanity than the&lt;br /&gt;
vegetable to which Mr. George Moore implicitly&lt;br /&gt;
compares her. He admires her as the product of&lt;br /&gt;
Nature, which never swerves from its own ends.&lt;br /&gt;
She was, as he says, &amp;quot;born to kill herself.&amp;quot; With&lt;br /&gt;
all deference to his judgment be it said: She is&lt;br /&gt;
therefore not a subject for dramatic art; a nettle&lt;br /&gt;
would be as suitable. Some plants indeed, the&lt;br /&gt;
pansy for instance, are said actually to possess this&lt;br /&gt;
suicidal property. They poison their own soil and&lt;br /&gt;
die. The objection to Hedda Gabler is not that&lt;br /&gt;
she is monstrous; Medea, Lady Macbeth, La&lt;br /&gt;
Cousine Bette, Melmoth, Frankenstein&amp;#039;s Monster,&lt;br /&gt;
Caliban, are all monstrous, but each has some&lt;br /&gt;
trait in touch with man; Hedda Gabler has none.&lt;br /&gt;
She is not even an animal; Brer Rabbit and the&lt;br /&gt;
pantomime lieasts &amp;quot;are men of like passions to our-&lt;br /&gt;
selves&amp;quot; compared with her. She is a vegetable fit&lt;br /&gt;
to sow in one&amp;#039;s enemy&amp;#039;s garden.&lt;br /&gt;
Surely an essence of dramatic art is contrast and&lt;br /&gt;
effort, primarily between the characters, secondarily&lt;br /&gt;
within them. By praising a mere natural force as&lt;br /&gt;
a dramatis persona, Mr. George Moore seems to&lt;br /&gt;
ignore the latter. The triumph of a suicidal&lt;br /&gt;
tendency is a splendid subject for dramatic art,&lt;br /&gt;
but there can be no triumph where there is no&lt;br /&gt;
opposition, and no opposition in &amp;quot;a product of&lt;br /&gt;
Nature&amp;quot; &amp;quot;born to kill itself,&amp;quot; for suicide then&lt;br /&gt;
Ceases to l&amp;gt;e a tendency and becomes a law. &amp;quot;Man&lt;br /&gt;
cannot yield even unto death utterly save only by&lt;br /&gt;
the weakness of the feeble Will.&amp;quot; By eliminating&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 28 (#432) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
28&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
the Will altogether, Nature is robbed of its triumphs,&lt;br /&gt;
ami dramatic art rendered almost impossible.&lt;br /&gt;
J. D.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;AT THE AUTHOR&amp;#039;S HEAD.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Meredith&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;One of our Conquerors&amp;quot; is&lt;br /&gt;
hardly a new book by this time. It is naturally&lt;br /&gt;
one of the great literary events of the year, and it&lt;br /&gt;
will be the. end of the year before we have found&lt;br /&gt;
out all its surpassing merits, its wit, and character-&lt;br /&gt;
isation hidden under that curious club-like style&lt;br /&gt;
which Mr. Meredith wields like a rapier. Intoler-&lt;br /&gt;
able in another writer, it seems the only possible&lt;br /&gt;
expression for one of our greatest living novelists.&lt;br /&gt;
We could never think of his writing in any other.&lt;br /&gt;
The critics have already had their say. Let us&lt;br /&gt;
hope he may be saved from disciples who even now&lt;br /&gt;
are conspiring.&lt;br /&gt;
The appearance of Herodotus under the auspices&lt;br /&gt;
of Sir John Lubbock recalls what many have&lt;br /&gt;
forgotton, the amusing lists in the Pall Mall&lt;br /&gt;
Gazette of the Best hundred books, chosen by&lt;br /&gt;
eminent writers. Herodotus was a very safe one&lt;br /&gt;
to commence with, as he appeared in nearly all of&lt;br /&gt;
them. I wonder if the working men, for whom&lt;br /&gt;
the selection was made, will read each best book as&lt;br /&gt;
it comes out. Sir John&amp;#039;s list was the first and the&lt;br /&gt;
best in a way. Other authors forgot the object in&lt;br /&gt;
view, and simply wrote down the books they pre-&lt;br /&gt;
ferred, with little thought, I fear, of the working man.&lt;br /&gt;
The Pall Mall Extra is before me, and among&lt;br /&gt;
books I rind recommended for these &amp;quot; factors&amp;quot; in&lt;br /&gt;
the British Constitution are the Poems of Hafiz and&lt;br /&gt;
Sadi&mdash;admirable poets let me add, but hardly&lt;br /&gt;
suitable for the British or even the Persian working&lt;br /&gt;
man, if there is such a thing.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Eric Brighteyes&amp;quot; will, I think, rank with&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Cleopatra &amp;quot; and &amp;quot;She&amp;quot; as among Mr. Haggard&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
finest works. Perhaps it will not 1m&raquo; so popular&lt;br /&gt;
among boys, who naturally prefer &amp;quot; Mr. Quatermain&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
and his adventures in Africa. But more critical or&lt;br /&gt;
older readers will appreciate not only the splendid&lt;br /&gt;
romance of &amp;quot; Eric,&amp;quot; but the really beautiful writing&lt;br /&gt;
in some of its passages, and which I do not think&lt;br /&gt;
can be entirely attributed to Icelandic originals&lt;br /&gt;
(parallel passages of course excepted). Of course&lt;br /&gt;
the Author has been plagiarizing as usual; though&lt;br /&gt;
I am the first to denounce him, I shall not be the&lt;br /&gt;
last. It is the title this time. There are two other&lt;br /&gt;
Erics I can remember, &amp;quot;Eric; or the Golden&lt;br /&gt;
Thread&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;Eric; or Little by Little &amp;quot;; flat&lt;br /&gt;
plagiarism on the title page&amp;#039; In the next century&lt;br /&gt;
we shall have &amp;quot;Little Eric Brighteyes; or the&lt;br /&gt;
Golden Thread.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Oscar Wilde&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Intentions&amp;quot; (Osgood and&lt;br /&gt;
Mellvaine) is not only one of the most amusing and&lt;br /&gt;
delightful volumes that have come out recently,&lt;br /&gt;
but is a valuable contribution to English criticism.&lt;br /&gt;
The general &amp;quot;intention&amp;quot; which Mr. Wilde is&lt;br /&gt;
anxious to enunciate is that criticism is a creative&lt;br /&gt;
art, and not a destructive art. Mr. Wilde will, no&lt;br /&gt;
doubt, learn with regret that he has converted&lt;br /&gt;
his readers. The estimate of Browning is far the&lt;br /&gt;
most tempered and critical that has appeared since&lt;br /&gt;
the poet&amp;#039;s death.&lt;br /&gt;
Certain very young men on the press are&lt;br /&gt;
naturally annoyed to find that Mr. Saintsbury knew&lt;br /&gt;
all about Flaubert, and the realists and the&lt;br /&gt;
naturalists long before they were born, so they&lt;br /&gt;
have not found his Essays on the French novelists&lt;br /&gt;
exhilarating. Even the &amp;quot;adorable&amp;quot; Verlaine is&lt;br /&gt;
not so new as they would have us think.&lt;br /&gt;
Although the French Academy has not yet&lt;br /&gt;
recognised the poet of the Decadence, a benefit has&lt;br /&gt;
l&amp;gt;een given for him at the Vaudeville in Paris. It&lt;br /&gt;
was an interesting and very miscellaneous perform-&lt;br /&gt;
ance, attended by an interesting and miscellaneous&lt;br /&gt;
audience. There is a very marvellous portrait of&lt;br /&gt;
Verlaine by Eugene Carriere in the Champs de Mars&lt;br /&gt;
this year. It should be brought to England and&lt;br /&gt;
exhibited (adults only admitted).&lt;br /&gt;
At the Academy M. Loti certainly had greater&lt;br /&gt;
claim than Henri de Bornier, who is to l&amp;gt;e condoled&lt;br /&gt;
with, however. His play of Mahomet was prohibits!&lt;br /&gt;
by the Government not long ago, and his election to&lt;br /&gt;
the Academy might have compensated him for his&lt;br /&gt;
disappointment. The French Republic is very&lt;br /&gt;
delicate about the susceptibilities of Mahomedans&lt;br /&gt;
and Atheists. M. Francois Coppee&amp;#039;s Le Pater met&lt;br /&gt;
with a like fate because it showed Christianity in&lt;br /&gt;
too favourable a light. Thermidor is the last of&lt;br /&gt;
the offending plays. Many, I hear, are anxious for&lt;br /&gt;
the suppression of the Ainmergau Passion Play, as&lt;br /&gt;
it is calculated to wound the Jewish community in&lt;br /&gt;
Europe.&lt;br /&gt;
Of recent verse, &amp;quot;Lapsus Calami,&amp;quot; by J. K. S.,&lt;br /&gt;
has already gained a deserved reputation for its&lt;br /&gt;
author, who comes from a Cambridge college already&lt;br /&gt;
distinguished for its minor poets&mdash;minor only from&lt;br /&gt;
the quantity, not the quality of their work.&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;Pearl,&amp;quot; an English poem of the Fourteenth&lt;br /&gt;
Century, edited by Israel Gollancz, is a beautiful&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 29 (#433) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
29&lt;br /&gt;
poem, which was worth resuscitating, and not&lt;br /&gt;
merely a philological conundrum. The name of Mr.&lt;br /&gt;
Crollanez is a passport for scholarship. &amp;quot;Pearl&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
is embellished with a delightful frontispiece by&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Holman Hunt.&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. James Baker&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;John Westacott&amp;quot; and also&lt;br /&gt;
his &amp;quot; By the Western Sea &amp;quot; liave both just appeared&lt;br /&gt;
in a cheap popular edition, and are again receiving&lt;br /&gt;
exceptional notice from the Press. The author has&lt;br /&gt;
just returned from a tour in Austria, where he has&lt;br /&gt;
been completing his studies for the &amp;quot; Great For-&lt;br /&gt;
gotten Englishman,&amp;quot; upon whose life he lately&lt;br /&gt;
published some articles in the Leisure Hour.&lt;br /&gt;
The Quarterly Review has been cratostratizing&lt;br /&gt;
again. Sir John Maundeville is now the victim of&lt;br /&gt;
its inateh-box. With the aid of Colonel Yule and&lt;br /&gt;
Mr. Warner it has reduced his claims to existence,&lt;br /&gt;
to dust and ashes. One of the great trio of&lt;br /&gt;
credible travellers has been banished into the&lt;br /&gt;
shades of myth. We do not know how soon&lt;br /&gt;
Herodotus and Marco Polo nmy follow his flight&lt;br /&gt;
liefore the impartial light of modern history held&lt;br /&gt;
aloft by Mr. Froude and Professor Freeman, and&lt;br /&gt;
the trusty guidance of modern travel, supplied at&lt;br /&gt;
first-elass prices by Mr. Stanley. Fortunately for&lt;br /&gt;
Marco Polo, we l&amp;gt;elieve he has a friend at court.&lt;br /&gt;
As for the Quarterly and Mr. Warner, we can&lt;br /&gt;
only wish them the success which has crowned the&lt;br /&gt;
efforts of their Ephesian antitype. Perhaps even&lt;br /&gt;
they may be contented with a reputation no longer&lt;br /&gt;
nor more brilliant than the fame of the whilom&lt;br /&gt;
father of English prose.&lt;br /&gt;
Dr. Momerie&amp;#039;s lecture on the &amp;quot; Corruption of the&lt;br /&gt;
Church,&amp;quot; was given at Prince&amp;#039;s Hall on the evening&lt;br /&gt;
of May 25th. It was the most interesting theolo-&lt;br /&gt;
gical event of the year. The Hall was well tilled&lt;br /&gt;
in anticipation of the lecturer&amp;#039;s skill in dealing with&lt;br /&gt;
questions which have to do with advanced thought,&lt;br /&gt;
already proved by the brilliant sermons delivered by&lt;br /&gt;
him at the Foundling upon &amp;quot;Church and Creed&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
and &amp;quot;Inspiration.&amp;quot; The lecture of the 20th was&lt;br /&gt;
introductory, but it will be followed, should the&lt;br /&gt;
public show interest in the subject, by others to&lt;br /&gt;
illustrate the mischievous effects of Ecclesiasticism&lt;br /&gt;
upon Art, Science, Literature, and Social Institu-&lt;br /&gt;
tions. Dr. Momerie is ready in the future to give&lt;br /&gt;
these lectures free to working men if they wish to&lt;br /&gt;
hear him.&lt;br /&gt;
Apropos to the alwve, it may interest some of&lt;br /&gt;
our readers to hear that the June number of&lt;br /&gt;
Messrs. Eglington &amp;amp; Co.&amp;#039;s popular &amp;quot;Men and&lt;br /&gt;
Women of the Day&amp;quot; contains a portrait of&lt;br /&gt;
Dr. Momerie by Barnaul, and a short biographical&lt;br /&gt;
sketch.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
ON SOME CASES.&lt;br /&gt;
EVERY case, on being sent in to the Society&lt;br /&gt;
and read, is either dealt with at once by the&lt;br /&gt;
Secretary, or, in case of any doubtful point&lt;br /&gt;
arising out of the facts, the case is sent to the&lt;br /&gt;
Society&amp;#039;s solicitors for advice. The expense&lt;br /&gt;
of obtaining such advice is, of course, the greatest&lt;br /&gt;
charge upon the Society&amp;#039;s income, but no part of&lt;br /&gt;
it is expended to greater advantage or with better&lt;br /&gt;
results. At a late meeting of the Committee, the&lt;br /&gt;
following resume of recent work was laid before&lt;br /&gt;
the Committee&mdash;it must be observed that the Com-&lt;br /&gt;
mittee are not usually informed of the names&lt;br /&gt;
concerned&mdash;never, if the author desires secrecy. In&lt;br /&gt;
that case the Chairman and Secretary only know,&lt;br /&gt;
or perhaps the Secretary alone.&lt;br /&gt;
I.&lt;br /&gt;
1. A.B., a young author, commissioned another,&lt;br /&gt;
CD., to revise his work, find a publisher, and see&lt;br /&gt;
it through the press in consideration of certain&lt;br /&gt;
payments. A.B. refused to carry out the contract.&lt;br /&gt;
CD. submitted the case to the Society. It was&lt;br /&gt;
decided that the contract had not been fairly carried&lt;br /&gt;
out, and that A.B. should not be called upon to&lt;br /&gt;
pay.&lt;br /&gt;
2. A.B. agreed with CD. (editor of a magazine)&lt;br /&gt;
to write certain papers on certain terms. The&lt;br /&gt;
proprietor, though pledged by his editor, refused to&lt;br /&gt;
pay more than about two-thirds the price agreed.&lt;br /&gt;
Result: Full payment.&lt;br /&gt;
3. A.B. was to receive a certain payment by a&lt;br /&gt;
certain date. She lived at a considerable distance&lt;br /&gt;
from London, and had to conduct her business&lt;br /&gt;
entirely by correspondence. She parted with her&lt;br /&gt;
MS. on condition of receiving a certain sum at a&lt;br /&gt;
certain date. When the time came she could get&lt;br /&gt;
neither money nor any reply to her letters. She&lt;br /&gt;
referred the case to the Society.&lt;br /&gt;
Result: Payment in full.&lt;br /&gt;
4. A.B. sent MS. to an editor who accepted it,&lt;br /&gt;
and promised payment on publication. He left it&lt;br /&gt;
with him for a year, when the editor returned it,&lt;br /&gt;
stating that the magazine was coming to an end.&lt;br /&gt;
Had he any right to compensation? Reply : None&lt;br /&gt;
whatever. He should have taken his MS. out of&lt;br /&gt;
the hands of the editor long before.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 30 (#434) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
3&deg;&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
5. A.B. (author) v. CD. (publisher).&lt;br /&gt;
The hook had been published for some time, but&lt;br /&gt;
no accounts could be obtained. A writ was issued.&lt;br /&gt;
The l&raquo;oks were audited, and the accounts cleared&lt;br /&gt;
up.&lt;br /&gt;
6. A.B. (author) v. CD. (publisher).&lt;br /&gt;
Author was induced to pay in advance for the&lt;br /&gt;
production of his book a sum of money repre-&lt;br /&gt;
sented as half the actual cost. It was in reality&lt;br /&gt;
about &pound;i5 more than the whole sum actually&lt;br /&gt;
expended. The Secretary demanded the return&lt;br /&gt;
of the &pound;i5 and all the copies. This was refused.&lt;br /&gt;
A writ was issued.&lt;br /&gt;
Result: Return of &pound;i5 and all the copies.&lt;br /&gt;
7. A.B. v. CD. (editor).&lt;br /&gt;
A disputed claim. A.B. demanded &pound;40. CD.&lt;br /&gt;
denied the indebtedness.&lt;br /&gt;
Result: CD. paid &pound;20 in settlement.&lt;br /&gt;
8. A publisher, on receiving a MS. sent it to be&lt;br /&gt;
printed, and issued it without even consulting the&lt;br /&gt;
author or submitting any agreement with him.&lt;br /&gt;
Result: An agreement very much better for the&lt;br /&gt;
author than would have been made but for the fact&lt;br /&gt;
that the author was able to procure an injunction&lt;br /&gt;
and bring an action.&lt;br /&gt;
9. A.B. (author) v. CD.&lt;br /&gt;
No accounts to be obtained by letter. Society&amp;#039;s&lt;br /&gt;
solicitor intervened.&lt;br /&gt;
Result: Accounts rendered.&lt;br /&gt;
10. Question submitted&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
In the case of a royalty system, has the publisher&lt;br /&gt;
the right to give away books to his private friends&lt;br /&gt;
(not for press puq&amp;gt;oses) without paying the&lt;br /&gt;
royalty?&lt;br /&gt;
Reply: Certainly not. All copies except those&lt;br /&gt;
sent to press and those presented to author or any-&lt;br /&gt;
one else by agreement must be regarded as sold.&lt;br /&gt;
Here is the publisher&amp;#039;s little account rendered&lt;br /&gt;
to himself in the most favourable event, viz., the&lt;br /&gt;
sale of all copies :&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
The sale of 2,000 copies at is. lod. produces&lt;br /&gt;
&pound;2 83 6s. Sd.&lt;br /&gt;
Cost of production&lt;br /&gt;
Less author&amp;#039;s share&lt;br /&gt;
Author&amp;#039;s royalty&lt;br /&gt;
Publisher&amp;#039;s profit&lt;br /&gt;
Author&amp;#039;s return :&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
By royalties -&lt;br /&gt;
Less share of expense&lt;br /&gt;
Profit&lt;br /&gt;
&pound;&lt;br /&gt;
s.&lt;br /&gt;
d.&lt;br /&gt;
160&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
55&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
io5&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
62&lt;br /&gt;
10&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
n5&lt;br /&gt;
16&lt;br /&gt;
8&lt;br /&gt;
&pound;2 83&lt;br /&gt;
6&lt;br /&gt;
8&lt;br /&gt;
&pound;&lt;br /&gt;
&laquo;.&lt;br /&gt;
d.&lt;br /&gt;
■ 62&lt;br /&gt;
10&lt;br /&gt;
8&lt;br /&gt;
- 55&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
0&lt;br /&gt;
&bull; &pound;7&lt;br /&gt;
10&lt;br /&gt;
8&lt;br /&gt;
So that the author by this beautiful arrangement&lt;br /&gt;
stands to win, under the most favourable circum-&lt;br /&gt;
stances, the enormous sum of &pound;7 1 os. Sd., while the&lt;br /&gt;
publisher stands to win &pound;115 16*. Sd.&lt;br /&gt;
Now woidd the author have signed the agree-&lt;br /&gt;
ment had he been able to do this little sum?&lt;br /&gt;
Another case. The publisher says: &amp;quot;I will&lt;br /&gt;
give you a 10 per cent, royalty unless I sell the&lt;br /&gt;
book for less than half price, and then I will give&lt;br /&gt;
you 5 per cent.&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
How does this work out? The book was of a kind&lt;br /&gt;
sometimes sold for just over half price, and often&lt;br /&gt;
sold for just under half price. The difference to&lt;br /&gt;
the publisher might mean a few pence on each&lt;br /&gt;
volume. To the author it made a difference of I*.&lt;br /&gt;
In other words, by lowering the price a few pence&lt;br /&gt;
so as to bring it under the half price, the publisher&lt;br /&gt;
actually gained money.&amp;quot; This the author did not&lt;br /&gt;
know or he would not have signed the agreement.&lt;br /&gt;
II.&lt;br /&gt;
A certain worthy publisher -wrote as follows:&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;quot;To print and produce 2,000 copies of your work&lt;br /&gt;
will cost &pound;140. If we add &pound;20 for advertising,&lt;br /&gt;
that makes &pound;160. Give me &pound;55 towards this initial&lt;br /&gt;
expenditure and I will give you 12^ per cent, on&lt;br /&gt;
the nominal price, 5s., for all copies sold.&amp;quot; There&lt;br /&gt;
was another clause about a decreased (!) royalty for&lt;br /&gt;
copies over and above the 2,000, but let us be&lt;br /&gt;
content with this.&lt;br /&gt;
The author accepted the proposal.&lt;br /&gt;
Needless to say that he did not work out the&lt;br /&gt;
little sum in multiplication and addition which this&lt;br /&gt;
proposal presented. Let us do so.&lt;br /&gt;
The trade price of a 5.?, book is about 2*, lod.&lt;br /&gt;
III.&lt;br /&gt;
From the Law Reports. &laquo;&lt;br /&gt;
On April 24th, in the Queen&amp;#039;s Bench Divi-&lt;br /&gt;
sion, before Mr. Justice Smith and Mr. Justice&lt;br /&gt;
Grantham, judgment was delivered in the case&lt;br /&gt;
of Maul and another v. Greenings. Mr. Justice&lt;br /&gt;
Smith said it was a test action to ascertain&lt;br /&gt;
the true construction of section 6 of the Inter-&lt;br /&gt;
national Copyright Act of 1886. The county&lt;br /&gt;
court judge of Brighton found for the defendant,&lt;br /&gt;
and the -question to lie decided was whether a&lt;br /&gt;
foreign composer of a piece of music, protected&lt;br /&gt;
according to the law of the composer&amp;#039;s country,&lt;br /&gt;
but not protected iti the United Kingdom, could&lt;br /&gt;
claim the protection afforded to foreign composers. *&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 31 (#435) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
THE AUTHOR.&lt;br /&gt;
3&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
by the International Copyright Act as against a&lt;br /&gt;
bandmaster who had purchased the piece and&lt;br /&gt;
performed it in public with his liand prior to&lt;br /&gt;
December 1887, when the Act came into force.&lt;br /&gt;
He came to the conclusion that although neither&lt;br /&gt;
the publisher of the piece in the country nor the&lt;br /&gt;
defendant had any &amp;quot;rights&amp;quot; under the section&lt;br /&gt;
they had &amp;quot;interests,&amp;quot; and, therefore, the learned&lt;br /&gt;
county court judge was right in entering judgment&lt;br /&gt;
for the defendant. The appeal must l)e dismissed&lt;br /&gt;
with costs.&mdash;Mr. Justice Grantham concurred.&mdash;&lt;br /&gt;
Appeal dismissed.&lt;br /&gt;
■&lt;br /&gt;
CORRESPONDENCE.&lt;br /&gt;
I.&lt;br /&gt;
IN the March numl)er of the Author, women&lt;br /&gt;
writers are accused by &amp;quot;No Pay, No Pen &amp;quot; of&lt;br /&gt;
cheapening the literary market. I wish to&lt;br /&gt;
point out that it is often difficult to know what it&lt;br /&gt;
the market price of one&amp;#039;s wares. I write a&lt;br /&gt;
good deal of verse. From one magazine I receive&lt;br /&gt;
5*. a poem, from another firm 10*., from another&lt;br /&gt;
magazine 15*., from yet another &pound;1 is. I believe&lt;br /&gt;
these all to l&amp;gt;e regular prices, which those particular&lt;br /&gt;
editors and publishers would not alter to any con-&lt;br /&gt;
tributor. But after receiving such different rates&lt;br /&gt;
of pay, when a new employer asks me for my&lt;br /&gt;
charge, is it not a little difficult to fix this? And&lt;br /&gt;
perhaps from fear of losing the employment, one&lt;br /&gt;
may fix the price too low rather than too high. I&lt;br /&gt;
wish more uniform rates were paid.&lt;br /&gt;
I like much the idea, in the April numlxr, of&lt;br /&gt;
the register for translators, verifiers, &amp;amp;c. But&lt;br /&gt;
could not fellow authors help each other some-&lt;br /&gt;
times without paving for services? I should l&amp;gt;e&lt;br /&gt;
glad (living in the country) of someone to look&lt;br /&gt;
up points in the British Museum occasionally. In&lt;br /&gt;
return I could do translations. Indeed, I would&lt;br /&gt;
l&amp;gt;e quite willing (within due bounds) to help a&lt;br /&gt;
fellow author without return of pay or help. And&lt;br /&gt;
I think such services would promote a fraternal&lt;br /&gt;
feeling in our Society. Why, in the proposed&lt;br /&gt;
register, should not an asterisk be placed against&lt;br /&gt;
certain names, which should signify, Willing to&lt;br /&gt;
help a fellow mcml&amp;gt;er gratuitously?&lt;br /&gt;
ROSSIGNOL.&lt;br /&gt;
II.&lt;br /&gt;
In the Author of March I made some remarks&lt;br /&gt;
re Advertising. I wish to state that I had no&lt;br /&gt;
intention of making any charge against the firm&lt;br /&gt;
alluded to, and if what 1 said contained anything&lt;br /&gt;
that might be supposed to do that, I hereby express&lt;br /&gt;
my regret.&lt;br /&gt;
My point was, that where advertisements appear&lt;br /&gt;
is of great importance to authors. I had and have&lt;br /&gt;
no animus in the matter. I am informed by the&lt;br /&gt;
publishers that the amount charged to the book for&lt;br /&gt;
advertising in the ]&amp;gt;aper supjwsed to lx&amp;gt; referred to&lt;br /&gt;
was 5*. 3d., therefore I admit that my remarks, so&lt;br /&gt;
far as that journal is concerned, are pointless, and&lt;br /&gt;
I hereby withdraw them.&lt;br /&gt;
Pachyderm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
BOOKS FOR SALE.&lt;br /&gt;
Oxberry&amp;#039;s Flowers of Literature, 4 vols.&lt;br /&gt;
Reflections upon the Politeness of Manners, &amp;amp;c.&lt;br /&gt;
(1710).&lt;br /&gt;
New Year&amp;#039;s Gift. Alice Watts, 1829. Illus-&lt;br /&gt;
trated by Cruikshank, &amp;amp;c.&lt;br /&gt;
Acting Charades. Brothers Mayhew. Illustrated&lt;br /&gt;
by Haine and Cruikshank.&lt;br /&gt;
The Dangers of the Deep. Published by Orlando&lt;br /&gt;
Hodgson.&lt;br /&gt;
Australian Tales and Sketches.&lt;br /&gt;
Beaumont and Fletcher. First complete edition.&lt;br /&gt;
Address&mdash;H. G. W.&lt;br /&gt;
&diams;■&raquo;■&diams;&lt;br /&gt;
MACHINE-CUT BOOKS.&lt;br /&gt;
IT is greatly to be wished that the practice, now&lt;br /&gt;
very little observed, but slightly on the increase,&lt;br /&gt;
of issuing machine-cut l&amp;gt;ooks will before long&lt;br /&gt;
Income general. We have inquired carefully into&lt;br /&gt;
this matter. The cost of machine cutting is&lt;br /&gt;
infinitesimaUy small. Where we have lieen able to&lt;br /&gt;
get the cost estimated, a shilling for every hundred&lt;br /&gt;
copies is the highest amount we have heard named.&lt;br /&gt;
The average time expended by amateurs on&lt;br /&gt;
cutting by hand we believe to be 20 minutes per&lt;br /&gt;
octavo volume of 1000 pages. If any of our&lt;br /&gt;
readers (always excepting Mr. W. H. Smith&amp;#039;s very&lt;br /&gt;
expert boys) can accomplish the task of cutting&lt;br /&gt;
more quickly, we shall be glad to hear from them.&lt;br /&gt;
Moreover, very few amateurs can cut with pro]&amp;gt;er&lt;br /&gt;
neatness, and efficient paper-cutters are often (as&lt;br /&gt;
on a railway journey) not to be had by the reader.&lt;br /&gt;
But stay! Perhaps the present foolish system is&lt;br /&gt;
kept up for the benefit of those who do not like&lt;br /&gt;
to have their lx&amp;gt;oks cut quickly for them by other&lt;br /&gt;
people, but rather cut by themselves only with&lt;br /&gt;
extreme slowness in order to lengthen out the&lt;br /&gt;
process of reading. If we hare any such amongst&lt;br /&gt;
our readers, we should like to hear from them.&lt;br /&gt;
To reviewers the machine cutting would be an&lt;br /&gt;
unmixed boon, for a reviewer never, or at least&lt;br /&gt;
hardly ever, reviews a book which he has not first&lt;br /&gt;
cut.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
## p. 32 (#436) #############################################&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
32&lt;br /&gt;
ADVERTISEMENTS.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
ELECTROTYPES OF ENGRAVINGS&lt;br /&gt;
FOR SALE&lt;br /&gt;
A THE attention of Authors, Publishers,&lt;br /&gt;
and others is directed to the large&lt;br /&gt;
and varied Collection of Engravings&lt;br /&gt;
in the possession of Cassell and Com-&lt;br /&gt;
pany, Limited, from which they offer&lt;br /&gt;
Electros for Sale. The Collection&lt;br /&gt;
embraces every class of subject--&lt;br /&gt;
History, Topography, Natural History, Scientific,&lt;br /&gt;
Figure Subjects, &amp;amp;c., &amp;amp;c. produced by the best Artists&lt;br /&gt;
and Engravers.&lt;br /&gt;
Call and examine this Collection, or apply for&lt;br /&gt;
specimens, giving &iacute;ull particulars of the subjects and&lt;br /&gt;
sizes required to-&lt;br /&gt;
CASSELL &amp;amp; COMPANY, LIMITED,&lt;br /&gt;
LA BELLE SAUVAGE, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.&lt;br /&gt;
All applications relating to Advertisements in this&lt;br /&gt;
Journal should be addressed to the Printers and&lt;br /&gt;
Publishers,&lt;br /&gt;
EYRE &amp;amp; SPOTTISWOODE,&lt;br /&gt;
East Harding Street, Fetter Lane, London, E.C.&lt;br /&gt;
LONDON: Printed by EYRE and SrottiSWOODE, Printers to the Queen&amp;#039;s most Excellent Majesty.</td><td>https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/252/1891-06-01-The-Author-2-1.pdf</td><td>publications, The Author</td></tr></table>