454 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/454 | The Author, Vol. 04 Issue 04 (September 1893) | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+04+Issue+04+%28September+1893%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 04 Issue 04 (September 1893)</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a> | 1893-09-01-The-Author-4-4 | | | | | 109–148 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=4">4</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1893-09-01">1893-09-01</a> | | | | | | | 4 | | | 18930901 | Che HMuthor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. IV.—No. 4.] SEPTEMBER 1, 1893. [PRICE SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
PAGE PAGE<br />
Warnings ae wee aoe Feuilleton—<br />
<br />
; . 1.—Confessions of a Critic ... aes see ose oe wee 134<br />
How to use =o pomey : ae! R= - Modern Comedy () 2.6 ee ola ks 86<br />
The Authors Syndicate ... ime ase ee woe con se me So-So Sociology = a ee ae ee oe - ... 136<br />
Notices ... eee + 112 | Ugolino’s Love. By N. Chester... ... 0 ns tos SLB<br />
Literary Property— Literature in Oxford ... sea fee a. soe oe ss ce Lod<br />
<br />
1.—Authors’ Rights in Germany ... ae as see pieclie Correspondence— :<br />
<br />
2.—Cost of Production a ile 1.—A Novel Experience wee toe sas one tee 5 kao<br />
Omni Gath POR RCaInh 15 2.—A Dread Tribunal ... oes cS ses a8 ees nen koe<br />
<br />
mum Gatherum for september eee vee see nee eee 2 3.—George Eliot... as oe ey eee fe cs —g8<br />
The Literary Conference at Chicago... a one oe seen ba. 4.—The Sweating of Authors... me as Be rea auc bee<br />
The Relati Z 8 isher. A P: Read at the 5.—Reviewing ... ae bbe aps are ea ae ose a0<br />
<br />
os a f Whe bebo Uae 6 agp<br />
ey ee ere ee Pi -Autiorama diel. ce Pe al on, TAO<br />
The Sinner’s Comedy See ae ed owe eee at LT 8 “Thoetranster of BOOKS... i a ee 1<br />
An American Statement. By Grace Greenwood ... eee +» 128 | ‘At the Sign of the Author’s Head” ... is ce wee oe UAL<br />
Notes and News oe oS ee See coe ace see ac aed New Books and New Editions ... ees is eS ce ... 143<br />
<br />
1. The<br />
9. The<br />
<br />
3. The<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Annual Report. That for January 1892 can be had on application to the Secretary.<br />
Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary<br />
Property. Issued to all Members.<br />
<br />
Grievances of Authors. (The Leadenhall Press.) 1s. The Report of three Meetings on<br />
the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis’s Rooms, March, 1887.<br />
<br />
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Cotes, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,<br />
<br />
ou<br />
<br />
. The<br />
6, The<br />
<br />
7. The<br />
<br />
g5, Strand, W.C.) 3s.<br />
<br />
History of the Société des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squrrm Spricen, late Secretary to<br />
the Society. 1s.<br />
<br />
Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,<br />
size of page, &c., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of<br />
books. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squrrz Spriaex. In this work, compiled from the<br />
papers in the Society’s offices, the various forms of agreements proposed by Publishers to<br />
Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various<br />
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements.<br />
Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 3s.<br />
<br />
8. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell’s Copyright Bill now before Parlia-<br />
<br />
9. The<br />
<br />
ment. With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix<br />
containing the Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Leny. Eyre<br />
and Spottiswoode. 1s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Society of Authors, A Record of its Action from its Foundation. By Water Besant<br />
(Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). 1s.<br />
IIo<br />
<br />
ADVERTISEMENTS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The Society of Authors (Sncorporated).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
PRESIDENT.<br />
<br />
GHORGH MEREDITH.<br />
<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
<br />
Sir Epwin ARnoxp, K.C.LE., 0.8.1.<br />
ALFRED AUSTIN.<br />
<br />
J. M. Barrie.<br />
<br />
A. W. A Beckert.<br />
<br />
Ropert BATEMAN.<br />
<br />
Sir Henry Berane, K.C.M.G.<br />
WALTER BESANT. :<br />
AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, M.P.<br />
<br />
R. D. BuacKMORE.<br />
<br />
Rev. Pror. Bonney, F.R.S.<br />
Ricut Hon. James Bryce, M.P.<br />
Hawt Caine.<br />
<br />
EGERTON CASTLE.<br />
<br />
P. W. CLAYDEN.<br />
<br />
EDWARD CLODD.<br />
<br />
W. Morris Couzs.<br />
<br />
Hon. JoHN COLLIER.<br />
<br />
W. Martin Conway.<br />
<br />
F. Marion CRAWFORD.<br />
<br />
Austin Dosson.<br />
A. W. Dusoura.<br />
<br />
EpmunD Gossk.<br />
<br />
Tuomas Harpy.<br />
<br />
J. M. Lety.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
OswaLD CRAWFURD, C.M.G.<br />
Tue Haru or DEsaRrt.<br />
<br />
J. Eric Exicousen, F.R.S.<br />
<br />
Pror. MicHaEt Foster, F.R.S.<br />
Ricut Hon. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.<br />
Ricuarp Garnett, LL.D.<br />
<br />
H. Riper Haeearp.<br />
<br />
Jerome K. JEROME.<br />
RuDYARD KIpPuine.<br />
Pror. E. Ray LAnKESTER, F.R.S.<br />
<br />
Ruv. W. J. Lorrie, F.S.A.<br />
Pror. J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN.<br />
Herman C. MERIVALE.<br />
<br />
Rev. C. H. MippLEToN-WAKE.<br />
<br />
Lewis Morzis.<br />
<br />
Pror. Max MULLER.<br />
<br />
J. C. PARKINSON.<br />
<br />
Tue EARL OF PEMBROKE AND Mont-<br />
GOMERY.<br />
<br />
Sir FreprricKk Pouiock, Bart., LL.D.<br />
<br />
Water Herrizs PoLLock.<br />
<br />
A. G. Ross.<br />
<br />
GrorGEe AUGUSTUS SALA.<br />
<br />
W. Baptiste Scoonses.<br />
<br />
G. R. Sus.<br />
<br />
S. SqurrE SPRIGGE.<br />
<br />
J. J. STEVENSON.<br />
<br />
Jas. SULLY.<br />
<br />
Witiiam Moy THomas.<br />
<br />
H. D. Trait, D.C.L.<br />
<br />
Baron HENRY DE WoBRMs,<br />
E.B.S.<br />
<br />
EpMunD YATES.<br />
<br />
MP.,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Hon. Counsel—E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.<br />
Solicitors—Messrs Fretp, Roscoz, and Co., Lincoln’s Inn Fields.<br />
Accountants—Oscar BERRY and CARR, Monument-yard, E.C.<br />
Secretary—G. HERBERT THRING, B.A.<br />
<br />
OFFICES.<br />
<br />
4, PortuagaL STREET, Lincoun’s Inn Frenps, W.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Third Edition, with Additions throughout, in demy 8vo., 700 pages, price 15s.<br />
<br />
AN ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT,<br />
<br />
From the Earliest Periods to the Present Time.<br />
WITH NOTICES OF EMINENT PARLIAMENTARY MEN, AND EXAMPLES OF THEIR ORATORY.<br />
<br />
ComPpiLED FROM AUTHENTIC SouRCcES BY<br />
<br />
GHORGE HHNERY JENNINGS.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
<br />
Parr I—Riseand Progress of Parliamentary Institutions.<br />
<br />
Part Il.—Personal Anecdotes: Sir Thomas More to John<br />
Morley.<br />
<br />
Part Ill.—Miscellaneous. 1. Elections. 2. Privilege; Ex-<br />
clusion of Strangers; Publication of Debates.<br />
3. Parliamentary Usages, &c. 4. Varieties.<br />
<br />
Apprnpix.—(A) Lists of the Parliaments of England and<br />
of the United Kingdom.<br />
(B) Speakers of the House of Commons.<br />
(C) Prime Ministers, Lord Chancellors, and<br />
Secretaries of State from 1715 to<br />
{ 1892.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Opinions of the Press<br />
<br />
‘“« The work, which has long been held in high repute as a repertory<br />
of good things, is more than ever rich in doth instruction and amuse-<br />
ment. ’—Scotsman.<br />
<br />
(Tt is a treasury of useful fact and amusing anecdote, and in its<br />
latest form should have increased popularity.” —Globe.<br />
<br />
‘Its advantage to those who are seeking seats in Parliament, or<br />
who may have occasion to assist as speakers during the electoral<br />
eampaign, is incomparable.”—Sala’s Journal.<br />
<br />
of the Present Edition.<br />
<br />
“Tt is a work that possesses both a practical and an historical<br />
value, and is altogether unique in character.”—Kentish Observer.<br />
<br />
“We can heartily recommend this work to the politician, whatever<br />
may be his party leanings.”—WNorthern Echo.<br />
<br />
‘Here we have the whole company of Parliamentary celebrities,<br />
past and present, reduced to puppets, so to speak, and made to<br />
repeat their best and most approved rhetorical performances for our<br />
leisurely entertainment, which is not less enjoyable from being allied<br />
with edification.”—iverpool Courter.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
KS Orders may now be sent to HORACE cox,<br />
<br />
“Law Times Office,” Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, E.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
‘ERTS SN<br />
<br />
1<br />
<br />
4<br />
3.8<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Che #Huthbor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. IV.—No. 4.]<br />
<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
collective opinions of the committee unless<br />
<br />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, sec.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
a Nees Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br />
important communications within two days will write to him<br />
without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br />
<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
res<br />
<br />
AGREEMENTS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[ is not generally understood that the author, as the<br />
vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agree-<br />
ment upon whatever terms the transaction is to be<br />
carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that<br />
right. Inevery other form of business, the right of drawing<br />
the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the<br />
control of the property.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ec.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
WARNINGS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
EADERS of the Author and members of the Society<br />
R are earnestly desired to make the following warnings<br />
as widely known as possible. They are based on the<br />
experience of nine years’ work by which the dangers<br />
to which literary property is especially exposed have been<br />
discovered :—<br />
<br />
1. SeR1AL Riauts.—In selling Serial Rights stipulate<br />
that you are selling the Serial Right for one paper at a<br />
certain time only, otherwise you may find your work serialized<br />
for years, to the detriment of your volume form.<br />
<br />
VOL. Iv.<br />
<br />
SEPTEMBER 1, 1893.<br />
<br />
[Price SIxPence.<br />
<br />
2. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTS. — Readers are most<br />
URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements<br />
immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected<br />
for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree-<br />
ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every<br />
case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter<br />
which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The<br />
author may be assured that the other party to the agree-<br />
ment never neglects this simple precaution. The Society,<br />
to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of<br />
members stamped for them at no expense to themselves<br />
except the cost of the stamp.<br />
<br />
3. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO<br />
BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.—Remember that an<br />
arrangement as toa joint venturein any other kind of busi-<br />
ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party<br />
refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he<br />
reserved for himself.<br />
<br />
4. LirrrARy AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be<br />
too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your<br />
agent. Remember that you place your property almost un-<br />
reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting<br />
the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience<br />
of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone.<br />
<br />
5. Cost or Propuction.-—Never sign any agreement of<br />
which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part,<br />
until you have proved the figures.<br />
<br />
6. CHOICE oF PuBLIsHERS.—Never enter into any cor-<br />
respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad-<br />
vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced<br />
friends or by this Society.<br />
<br />
7. Futurr Worx.—Never, on any account whatever,<br />
bind yourself down for future work to anyone.<br />
<br />
8. Royaury.—Never accept any proposal of royalty until<br />
you have ascertained what the agreement, worked out on<br />
both a small and a large sale, will give to the author and<br />
what to the publisher.<br />
<br />
9g. PERSONAL RisK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or<br />
responsibility whatever without advice.<br />
<br />
10. RusecteD MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re-<br />
fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises<br />
they may put forward, for the production of the work.<br />
<br />
11. AMERICAN Riaurs.—Never sign away American<br />
rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any<br />
agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the<br />
publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. If the<br />
publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it to<br />
another.<br />
<br />
K 2<br />
112<br />
<br />
12. Cesston or CopyrigHt.—Never sign any paper,<br />
either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright,<br />
without advice.<br />
<br />
13. ADVERTISEMENTS.—Keep control over the advertise-<br />
ments, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agree-<br />
ment. Reserve a veto. If you are yourself ignorant of the<br />
<br />
_ subject, make the Society your adviser.<br />
<br />
14. NevER forget that publishing is a business, like any<br />
other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy,<br />
charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with<br />
business men. Be yourself a business man.<br />
<br />
Society's Offices :-—<br />
<br />
4, PORTUGAL STREET, Lincoun’s Inn FIELDs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Secs<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1. Every member has a right to advice upon his agree-<br />
ments, his choice of a publisher, orany dispute arising inthe<br />
conduct of his business or the administration of his pro-<br />
perty. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by<br />
a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from<br />
the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s<br />
opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for him<br />
Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not seruple<br />
to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually<br />
engaged upon such questions for us.<br />
<br />
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. This isin<br />
order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree-<br />
ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively<br />
so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any<br />
agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor-<br />
mation thus obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
<br />
4. If the examination of your previous business trans-<br />
actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should<br />
take advice as to a change of publishers.<br />
<br />
5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Society for examination.<br />
<br />
6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in<br />
the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-<br />
ing firm in the country. Remember that there are certain<br />
houses which live entirely by trickery.<br />
<br />
7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br />
reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing<br />
the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-<br />
dence of the writer.<br />
<br />
8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything<br />
important to literature that you may hear or meet with.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
EMBERS are informed :<br />
<br />
1. That the Authors’ Syndicate takes charge of<br />
<br />
the business of members of the Society. With, when<br />
<br />
necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi-<br />
<br />
cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines<br />
<br />
and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the<br />
trouble of managing business details.<br />
<br />
2. That the expenses of the Authors’ Syndicate are<br />
defrayed mainly out of the commission charged on rights<br />
placed through its intervention. This charge is reduced to<br />
the lowest possible amount compatible with efficiency.<br />
In consequence of the immense number of MSS. received, it<br />
has become necessary to charge a small booking fee to<br />
cover postage and porterage expenses, in all cases where<br />
there is no current account.<br />
<br />
3. That the Authors’ Syndicate works for none but those<br />
members of the Society whose work possesses a market<br />
value.<br />
<br />
4. That the business of the Syndicate is not to advise<br />
members of the Society, but to manage their affairs for<br />
them.<br />
<br />
5. That the Syndicate can only undertake arrangements<br />
of any character on the distinct understanding that those<br />
arrangements are placed exclusively in its hands, and that<br />
all negotiations relating thereto are referred to it.<br />
<br />
6. That clients can only be seen personally by appoint-<br />
ment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice<br />
should be given. The work of the Syndicate is now s0<br />
heavy, that only a limited number of interviews can be<br />
arranged.<br />
<br />
7. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre-<br />
spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number<br />
of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps<br />
should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage.<br />
<br />
8. That the Authors’ Syndicate does not invite MSS.<br />
without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself<br />
responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice.<br />
<br />
9. The Editor will be glad to receive the titles of pub-<br />
lished novels available for second right serial use.<br />
<br />
Tt is announced that, by way of a new departure, the<br />
Syndicate has undertaken arrangements for lectures by<br />
some of the leading members of the Society; that a<br />
“Transfer Department,” for the sale and purchase of<br />
journals and periodicals, has been opened ; and that a<br />
“ Register of Wants and Wanted” has been opened. Terms<br />
on application to the Manager.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services<br />
will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It<br />
is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the<br />
Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in<br />
the Syndicate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
—_—— rs<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
hae Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the<br />
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br />
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and<br />
communications on all subjects connected with literature<br />
from members and others. Nothing can do more good to<br />
the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive,<br />
and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this<br />
work send their names and the special subjects on which<br />
they are willing to write?<br />
<br />
Communications for the Author should reach the Editor<br />
not later than the 21st of each month.<br />
<br />
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether<br />
members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate<br />
to the Editor any points connected with their work which<br />
it would be advisable in the general interest to publish.<br />
<br />
Members and others who wish their MSS. read are<br />
requested not to send them to the Office without previously<br />
communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable<br />
despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in<br />
which they are received. It must also be distinctly under-<br />
stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances,<br />
undertake the publication of MSS.<br />
<br />
The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at<br />
3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary<br />
for information, rules of admission, &c.<br />
<br />
Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they<br />
have paid their subscriptions for the year? If they will do<br />
this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s<br />
order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the<br />
trouble of sending out a reminder.<br />
<br />
Members aré most earnestly entreated to attend to the<br />
warning numbered (7). It is a most foolish and a most<br />
disastrous thing to bind yourself to anyone for a term of<br />
years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a<br />
solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come,<br />
whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest?<br />
Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment<br />
when they are asked to sign themselves into literary bondage<br />
for three or five years ?<br />
<br />
Those who possess the “Cost of Production” are<br />
requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15<br />
per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble<br />
of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the<br />
pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding<br />
is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be<br />
added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at<br />
£9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth<br />
as can be procured; but a printer’s, or a binder’s, bill is so<br />
elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at.<br />
<br />
Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged<br />
in the “ Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we<br />
have not included any sums which may be charged for<br />
inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines,<br />
or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too<br />
often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from<br />
sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket,<br />
by inserting any number of advertisements in his own<br />
magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are<br />
who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those<br />
<br />
who practise this method of swelling their own profits<br />
call it.<br />
<br />
113<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
L<br />
<br />
Tue Protection or AutHors’ Ricuts IN<br />
GERMANY.<br />
<br />
HE Congress of German Journalists and<br />
Authors, which met at Munich in the<br />
second week of July, dealt, among other<br />
<br />
things, with the question of the protection of the<br />
rights of authors and “ mental property” (Das<br />
Urheberrecht and Das geistige Eigenthum). The<br />
result of the deliberations on this subject was<br />
embodied in the form of a projet de lot, or bill,<br />
which has been addressed to the Legislatures of<br />
all the States in the German Empire, with a<br />
recommendation from the Congress that it should<br />
be passed into law. The following is a transla-<br />
tion of the proposed measure:<br />
<br />
Sect. 1. The rights of authors comprise (a)<br />
the protection of every author in his personal<br />
relations to the intellectual work produced by<br />
him, and (6) mental property.<br />
<br />
Sect. 2. As mental property within the<br />
meaning of the present law is to be regarded<br />
every intellectual creation (getstige Schipfung)<br />
which has been put forth in external form. Any<br />
part, too, of a mental work is to be treated as<br />
such, if, when taken by itself, it represents a<br />
mental creation. Productions which result<br />
from working up or remodelling (existing<br />
works), and which are not new creations, are<br />
only to be treated as mental works in so far as<br />
the original creation does not come into con-<br />
sideration.<br />
<br />
Sect. 3. Every author is protected, according<br />
to the provisions of the present law, against<br />
unauthorised dealings with the mental work<br />
produced by him.<br />
<br />
Sect. 4. The following proceedings, when<br />
entered upon without the assent of the author,<br />
are to be regarded as unlawful dealings with a<br />
mental work: (1) the publication of any mental<br />
work not yet published; (2) enlarging the com-<br />
pass of a publication or changing the mode of<br />
publication ; (3) making any change whatever in<br />
a mental work.<br />
<br />
Sect. 5. In the absence of any special reserva-<br />
tion, the assent of an author is deemed to have<br />
been tacitly given for the reproduction of political<br />
articles and political speeches in newspapers, and<br />
likewise for quoting any special portion of a<br />
mental work in independent works devoted to a<br />
particular scientific or pedagogic object.<br />
<br />
Sect. 6. The reproduction of public transactions,<br />
as well as the publication of any State docu-<br />
ments and of any announcements made by the<br />
public authorities, is free.<br />
<br />
<br />
114 THE<br />
<br />
Sect. 7. The author of a mental work, or his<br />
successors according to law, possess a mental pro-<br />
perty in such work. Mental property is the right<br />
of the exclusive and unrestricted economic owner-<br />
ship and disposal of a mental work.<br />
<br />
Sect. 8. Mental property is divisible in so<br />
far as various methods of deriving economic<br />
advantage from a mental work, can be pursued<br />
at the same time and independently of each<br />
other.<br />
<br />
Sect. 9. Mental property may be transferred,<br />
wholly or in part, from one living person to<br />
another, or on account of death. The use of<br />
mental property may also be granted for a pecu-<br />
niary consideration (usufruct) or it may be<br />
pledged (or mortgaged).<br />
<br />
Sect. 10. Those illegal dealings with 4 mental<br />
work which are designed to make a profit out of<br />
it, or which are detrimental to the mental owner’s<br />
interest in the property, or which injure the<br />
economic value of a mental work, are to be<br />
regarded as encroachments upon such mental<br />
property.<br />
<br />
Sect. 11. Mental property of which no use has<br />
been made tor thirty years 1s to be held to have<br />
been renounced. This assumption may, however,<br />
be invalidated at any time by a declaration on the<br />
part of the mental owner (claiming his former<br />
property) but without prejudice to the rights<br />
that any third person may have acquired in the<br />
meantime. Mental property expires after having<br />
been actually utilised for thirty years.<br />
<br />
Sect. 12. In contracts, the purpose of which<br />
is to transfer, utilise, or otherwise make money<br />
on mental property, the following regulations will<br />
have force in the absence of other arrangements<br />
between the contracting parties—first, during<br />
the life of the author, the rights derived from<br />
a contract, to deal with a mental work are<br />
only to be exercised in accordance with the<br />
consent given by the author (sects. 3 to 6 of<br />
this draft); second, after the death of the<br />
author, third parties, in dealing with a mental<br />
work, are only restricted in reference to the<br />
mental property.<br />
<br />
Sect. 13. Unlawful dealings with a mental<br />
work as contemplated in- paragraphs 3 to 6 of<br />
this statute are punished with a money fine up<br />
to 15,000 marks (£750), or by arrest or imprison-<br />
ment up to six months. A criminal prosecution<br />
<br />
is only to be undertaken when proposed by the<br />
author.<br />
<br />
Sect. 14. If the author proposes it, any person<br />
who is guilty of a transgression against the 13th<br />
paragraph of this statute, may be condemned by<br />
the Court to pay to the author such compensa-<br />
tion as it may think fit to impose.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Sect. 15. If the author should propose it, the<br />
publication of a sentence may be ordered in<br />
accordance with the provisions of paragraph 200<br />
of the (German) Criminal Law Book.<br />
<br />
Sect. 16. Whoever, for the purpose of secur-<br />
ing to himself or to any other person a pecuniary<br />
advantage in violation of the law, encroaches on<br />
the mental property of another (paragraphs 7,<br />
et seq. of this statute) shall be punished with<br />
imprisonment. The attempt to do this is also ~<br />
punishable.<br />
<br />
Sect. 17. The provisions of this statute are<br />
also applicable to mental works by foreign<br />
authors.<br />
<br />
Sect. 18. In case this statute clashes with the<br />
legal prescriptions of any foreign country, the<br />
provisions concerned in the Convention of Berne<br />
are to be applied as a constituent part of this<br />
law.<br />
<br />
Sect. 19. The penal prescriptions of this law<br />
have no retrospective effect.<br />
<br />
Sect. 20. Impressions of a mental work pro-<br />
duced before the official publication of this law,<br />
and which, according to its provisions, are unlaw-<br />
ful, may, if bearing an official stamp prior to<br />
this statute coming into force, be circulated<br />
afterwards in case the mental proprietor does not<br />
prefer to acquire them by payment of the cost of<br />
their production.<br />
<br />
Sect. 21. The benefit derived from an amplifi-<br />
cation of a piece of mental property belongs to<br />
the mental proprietor. The person who is to be<br />
regarded as such proprietor is determined in<br />
accordance with the contracts that have been<br />
entered into.<br />
<br />
II.<br />
Cost or PropuctTion.<br />
<br />
An account received only recently for a book<br />
published a short time ago is instructive in com-<br />
parison with the prices given in the “Cost of<br />
Production.”<br />
<br />
The book contained twenty-four sheets, printed<br />
in small pica, 272 words to the page (see “ Cost.<br />
of Production,” p. 27). The following are the<br />
accounts (1) as furnished by the publisher, whose<br />
figures there is no intention of questioning ; (2)<br />
as given in our estimate. The edition was of<br />
L000 copies.<br />
<br />
(1.) Publisher’s account : £ s. da.<br />
Composition and printing... ... ... 62 4 9<br />
Paper a a<br />
Moulding 6. 4. ee<br />
Binding 700 at 83d. i 24 IS fo<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 11s<br />
<br />
(2.) As by the “Cost of Production,” altered<br />
for the number of words in the page.<br />
<br />
& s. ad<br />
Composition and printing ... 53.120<br />
apene 68 2t 12 0<br />
Woutdmo 6 ©: ©<br />
Binding 700 at 4d. a vol. ... Tr 134<br />
<br />
The binding actually used was much superior<br />
to that contemplated in the estimate, which was<br />
a perfectly plam boarding. Moreover, since our<br />
estimate, binding, as we have elsewhere stated,<br />
has gone up some 15 per cent.<br />
<br />
It will be seen, therefore, that our estimate was<br />
very nearly that charged for printing and paper ;<br />
and that the moulding was much lower than in<br />
our estimate.<br />
<br />
eo<br />
<br />
OMNIUM GATHERUM FOR SEPTEMBER.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Subjects for Treatment. — The Red-legged<br />
Partridge ; the Local Guide Book; the Compara-<br />
tive Value of Sea, Lake, and River Bathing;<br />
Facilities for Riding Lessons in public schools;<br />
the Abolition of Second Class Railway Carriages ;<br />
the Printers’ Reader; a Bray September; ‘“ Not<br />
to be forwarded ” ; a Short Way with the Game,<br />
or Single-barrelled Guns for New Beginners.<br />
<br />
V’s for U’s.—In many inscriptions the curious<br />
habit of carving a “v’’ where a “u” is needed<br />
(e.g., Publicvm for Putlicum) has been, and is<br />
still (see, e.g., the new Shaftesbury fountain in<br />
Piceadilly-arcus) in vogue. The cause of this<br />
is believed to be either the ease of the lapidary<br />
or an unreasoning fondness for the art of ancient<br />
Rome, but surely the habit is an abnormally<br />
foolish one. And for that matter, why have<br />
Latin inscriptions at all?<br />
<br />
Lady Burton’s Book.—An entrancing bio-<br />
graphy, but sadly marred, as pointed out in the<br />
Athenzum review, by interpolations of letters to<br />
newspapers and other superfluous matter of<br />
every kind. Could not all this (except the one<br />
letter from Lady Burton to her mother in<br />
defence of her engagement) be swept out, and<br />
the reader swept along through Lady Burton’s<br />
picturesque pages without a check ?<br />
<br />
The Bill of Fare.—‘ French,” it is observed in<br />
the preface to Liddell and Scott’s Greek Lexicon,<br />
“is confessedly the language of mathematics,”<br />
and, it may be added, that it is also the language<br />
of light comedy. But it is only historically the<br />
language of cookery, and I submit that the time<br />
is come, for us in England at all events, to re-<br />
place “ menu” (a hard word for English lips) by<br />
<br />
“bill of fare,” and for the dishes served to substi-<br />
tute English titles for French. Few, indeed, are<br />
the cases where, as with ennui (by which we “ let<br />
the French translate the awful yawn which sleep<br />
cannot abate”), a title other than English for a<br />
dish or set of dishes is necessary or desirable. Hors<br />
d’ceuvres might perhaps be rendered by “ uncooked<br />
morsels.” At any rate, every kind of fish or<br />
bird should be Englished. Fairly good render-<br />
ings can be found in Mrs. Matthew Clarke’s<br />
translation of the 366 menus of the Baron Brisse ;<br />
but the whole work of producing English bills of<br />
fare (which I respectfully commend to the atten-<br />
tion of the cooks of English speakingdom) is one<br />
requiring a rare combination of culinary know-<br />
ledge and linguistic skill.<br />
<br />
Spooks.—Beyond all doubt these are greatly on<br />
the increase. Hven Miss Yonge and Miss Cole-<br />
ridge in the Monthly Packet must needs have<br />
their ghost story. I myself have seen three appa-<br />
ritions of persons well known to me during the<br />
last fortnight, and have carefully noted the<br />
hour (2.45 a.m. in one case, 3.15 a.m. in another,<br />
and 3.47 a.m. in the third), but the persons them-<br />
selves were and are alive. This strange expe-<br />
rience ought to be chronicled ;* if only to depart<br />
from “ the method” (I quote from Bacon’s Novum<br />
Organom, par. 46, Kitchin’s translation) “of<br />
almost every superstition, as in astrology. in<br />
dreams, omens, judgments, and the like, in which<br />
men who take pleasure in such vanities as these<br />
attend to the event when it is a fulfilment, but<br />
where they fail (though it be much the more fre-<br />
quent case) there they neglect the instance, and<br />
pass it by.”<br />
<br />
The Authors’ Club.—The library of this club<br />
is not quite up to the mark of its dinners.<br />
<br />
J. M. Lety.<br />
<br />
Ce<br />
<br />
THE LITERARY CONFERENCE OF<br />
CHICAGO,<br />
<br />
(Reprinted from the Times.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HE Literary Congress held at Chicago from<br />
July 10 to July 15 was divided into five<br />
departments or sections, named respectively<br />
<br />
after the Authors, the Librarians, History, Philo-<br />
logy, and Folk Lore. All these separate confer-<br />
ences were held simultaneously at the Art Insti-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* By the way, are they rhymed with “snooks” or with<br />
“books,” &c.? The author of the cruelly clever lines in<br />
Punch, or the London Charivari for Aug. 5 has boldly<br />
rhymed them with ‘“ Cooks;’’ but he may have been a<br />
Lincolnshire man.<br />
<br />
<br />
116<br />
<br />
tute, a large and convenient pbuilding in the city<br />
itself, and not in the buildings of the Exhibition<br />
itself, which, as everybody knows, is seven miles<br />
distant from the city. There were many advantages<br />
in this arrangement. The congress, although an<br />
integral part of the programme of the World’s<br />
Fair, belonged to the city rather than to the<br />
Exhibition ; it could hardly be expected that the<br />
general run of visitors at the latter—as yet<br />
mainly Americans from the Mississippi Valley<br />
and the west—would care to assist at discussions<br />
on copyright, on realism in Art, or on the rela-<br />
tions of literature and journalism. Moreover, a<br />
congress must have its social side, and in 4 mere<br />
summer camp. such as_ that created by the<br />
temporary hotels round the Worlds Fair, there<br />
can be no social side at all. Therefore the<br />
librarians and authors and folk-lorists met quietly<br />
and peacefully in the halls of the Art Institute ;<br />
their papers were read before an audience largely<br />
composed of Chicago ladies, and their proceedings<br />
were only interrupted by the bells of the tram and<br />
the electric trolly and by the horn of the railway<br />
train—noises which in an American city must<br />
not be considered as any interruption, because<br />
they are part and parcel of the city itself, just as<br />
in medieval times London boasted its mingled<br />
roar of many industries, church bells and rum-<br />
bling wheels, which could be heard as far off as<br />
the slopes of Highgate.<br />
<br />
The project of a Literary Conference was first<br />
formed in the autumn of last year, when a rough<br />
draft of the proceedings was drawn up and sent<br />
about tentatively to literary men and women of<br />
America and Great Britam. At first the re-<br />
sponse was extremely disappointing. Very few<br />
writers took up the scheme at all; still fewer<br />
offered to send papers; none, at first, proposed<br />
to be present in person, It seemed as if the pro-<br />
posed Conference must fall through because there<br />
would be no authors to confer. Two fortunate<br />
accidents saved it. In London, the Society of<br />
Authors thought that good might come out of<br />
such a public Conference and offered to send<br />
papers on some of the more practical subjects<br />
proposed, leaving the ornamental part to the<br />
Americans themselves. Two members of the<br />
Society also offered to attend the Conference as<br />
delegates, if possible. At the same moment it<br />
occurred to a few literary men in New York,<br />
for much the same reasons, that the Congress<br />
ought to meet with the support of American<br />
authors. They therefore formed themselves into<br />
a committee, of which Oliver Wendell Holmes,<br />
in order to emphasize the importance of the<br />
occasion, was invited to become nominal chair-<br />
man, On the list of the committee are the well-<br />
known names of Aldrich, Cable, Furness, Gilder,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOK.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Howells, Higginson, Stedman, and Dudley<br />
Warner, while Professor Woodbury, of Columbia<br />
College, acted as secretary. The result of their<br />
labours, together with those of the English<br />
society, was that the Congress became a truly<br />
representative meeting, and that most of the<br />
papers produced were written by men whose<br />
experience in the subjects treated and whose<br />
position in the world of letters entitled them at<br />
least to a respectful hearing. The editor of the<br />
Dial, a literary and critical paper of Chicago—<br />
Mr. Francis F. Browne—was the chairman of the<br />
local organising committee, and there was ap-<br />
pointed a women’s auxiliary committee, on which,<br />
among others, was Miss Harriet Monroe, the<br />
author of the ode spoken on the opening of the<br />
Exhibition.<br />
<br />
What is the good of holding such a Conference ?<br />
A certain English man of letters has asked this<br />
question, adding, as his answer, that an author<br />
has notuing to do but to sell his wares and have<br />
done with it. But suppose he will not sell his<br />
wares and so have done with it. Suppose he<br />
understands—what many men of letters seem<br />
totally unable to understand—that his wares may<br />
represent a considerable, even a great, property,<br />
which is going to yield a steady return for many<br />
years; that he ought no more to sell this property<br />
“and have done with it” than he would sell a<br />
rich mine, or a mill, or a row of houses, and have<br />
done with it, unless for a consideration based on<br />
business principles. To such as understand this<br />
axiom—i.e., to all who are concerned in the<br />
material interests of literature—such a Conference<br />
may prove of the greatest possible use. _<br />
<br />
For instance, among the questions to be con-<br />
sidered were (1) all those relating to copyright,<br />
international and domestic; (2) all those which<br />
relate to the administration of literary property ;<br />
(3) all those which are concerned with literature<br />
itself{—its past, its present, its tendency. In<br />
this paper 1 purposely keep the third branch in<br />
the background, because, unless a Congress is to<br />
attempt the function of an Academy, this must<br />
be either an ornamental section or the battle-<br />
ground of opinions and fashions of the day.<br />
<br />
Tt is manifest that the first two branches may<br />
be most important to those concerned with<br />
literary property—too. often any one but the<br />
producer and creator of it. There is, however,<br />
another point. It is greatly to be desired that<br />
those who belong to the literary profession should<br />
from time to time gather together and recognise<br />
the fact that they do belong to a common calling.<br />
Hitherto the author, though he calls himself a<br />
man of letters, has been too apt to refuse the<br />
recognition of a profession or calling of letters.<br />
He has sat apart—alone ; nay, in many cases his<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
fv<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
only recognition of his brethren has been a cheap<br />
sneer or a savage gibe. To this day there remain<br />
a few of those of whom Churchill wrote, who<br />
can never speak of their brethren but with bitter-<br />
ness or derision. Sucha man at such a Conference<br />
is out of place; much more important. his very<br />
existence comes to be recognised as an anachro-<br />
nism: he will no longer be tolerated.<br />
<br />
Another kind of literary man is he who is con-<br />
tinually inveighing against the baseness of con-<br />
necting literature with lucre. He appears in this<br />
country, on an average, once a year, with his<br />
stale and conventional rubbish. Where this<br />
kind of talk is sincere, if ever it is sincere—<br />
mostly it comes from those who have hitherto<br />
failed to connect literature with lucre—it rests<br />
upon a confusion of ideas. That is to say, it<br />
confuses the intellectual, artistic, literary worth<br />
of a book with its commercial value. But the<br />
former is one thing, the latter is another. They<br />
are not commensurable. The former has no<br />
value which can be expressed in guineas, any<br />
more than the beauty of a sunset or the colours<br />
of a rainbow. The latter may be taken as a<br />
measure of the popular taste, which should, but<br />
does not always, demand the best books. No one,<br />
therefore, must consider that a book necessarily<br />
fails because the demand for it is small; nor, on<br />
the other hand, is it always just or useful to<br />
deride the author of a successful book because it<br />
is successful. In the latter case the author has<br />
perhaps done his best; it is the popular judg-<br />
ment that should be reproved and the popular<br />
taste which should be led into a truer way.<br />
<br />
A book, rightly or wrongly, then, may bea<br />
thing worth money—a property, an estate. It is<br />
the author’s property unless he signs it away;<br />
and since any book, in the uncertainty of the<br />
popular judgment, may become a valuable pro-<br />
perty, it is the author’s part to safeguard his<br />
property, and not to part with it without due<br />
consideration and consultation with those who<br />
have considered the problem. And it is the<br />
special function of such a Conference to lay down<br />
the data of the problem, and so to help in pro-<br />
ducing, if possible, a solution. But as for the<br />
question—is it sordid, is it base, for an author—<br />
a genius—to look after money? Well, a popular<br />
author is not always a genius. But even those<br />
who are admitted to have some claim to the<br />
possession of genius have generally been very<br />
careful indeed with regard to the money pro-<br />
duced by their writings. Scott, Byron, Moore,<br />
Dickens, George Eliot, Thackeray, Trollope,<br />
Tennyson, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade—almost<br />
every man, or woman, of real distinction in<br />
letters can be shown to have been most careful<br />
about the money side of his books. It is left for<br />
<br />
VOL. IV.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 1T]<br />
<br />
the unsuccessful, for the shallow pretenders, or<br />
for some shady publisher’s hack, to ery out upon<br />
the degradation of letters when an author is<br />
advised to look after his property. Let us<br />
simply reply that what has not degraded the<br />
illustrious men who have gone before will not<br />
degrade those smaller men, their successors.<br />
<br />
The Conference called together in order to<br />
throw the light of publicity upon these and<br />
similar questions held its first meeting, its open-<br />
ing meeting, on the evening of Monday, July to.<br />
The speeches were complimentary; the English<br />
delegates, Dr. Sprigge, formerly secretary of our<br />
Authors’ Society, and myself, were duly welcomed,<br />
and we separated till the next morning. The<br />
subject of the first day’s conference was literary<br />
copyright, under the presidency of the Hon.<br />
George H. Adams. This meeting was from the<br />
practical point of view the most useful of any.<br />
The chairman asked for a fair trial of the present<br />
International Copyright Bill; he admitted, how-<br />
ever, that the tendency was growing more and<br />
more in favour of giving the author larger and<br />
fuller rights over his own book. Then one of the<br />
papers brought over by the English delegates was<br />
read—that by Sir Henry Bergne on the Berne<br />
Convention of 1887, in which the author, after<br />
explaining what was meant by that convention,<br />
earnestly invited America to send a delegate to<br />
the Convention of 1894. Mr. George Cable, the<br />
novelist, of Louisiana, read a paper in which,<br />
among other points, he contended that authors<br />
have a right to demand nothing more than “ what<br />
will be best for the whole people.” As it is<br />
certainly best for the whole people that every man<br />
should enjoy what is his own, we may cordially<br />
agree with Mr. Cable.<br />
<br />
Mr. Gilder, the editor of the Century, made a<br />
forcible appeal in his paper for an extension of<br />
the term of copyright. The important paper of<br />
the day followed, one which was for the most<br />
part quite new to the audience—that, namely, by<br />
Dr. Sprigge on the copyright question in Great<br />
Britain. No one had suspected or realised the<br />
present condition of muddle and mess in which<br />
this important subject now stands in our country.<br />
The speaker analysed and explained the new Bill<br />
already read by Lord Monkswell in the House of<br />
Lords and drafted by the Copyright Committee<br />
of the Society of Authors. He pointed out that<br />
it is intended in this Bill to reduce eighteen<br />
separate Acts, all confused and contradictory,<br />
which now contain the law of copyright, such as<br />
it is, into one comprehensive and intelligible Act.<br />
The principal clauses of that Act are (1) the<br />
adoption of a uniform term of copyright—the<br />
author’s life and thirty years beyond—for every<br />
class of work; (2) the right of abridgment to<br />
<br />
L<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
118<br />
<br />
remain with the author—this is the so-called<br />
“ mutilation ” clause, not intended to trespass at<br />
all on the fair right of fair quotation, but to pro-<br />
tect the author from such mutilation of his work<br />
as in his opinion is calculated to injure the book<br />
or himself; (3) the right of a novelist to<br />
dramatise a story, and the converse; (4) the<br />
period for which the proprietor of a magazine<br />
may keep an article locked up to be reduced<br />
from twenty-eight years to three ; (5) registration<br />
to be compulsory; this provision, for instance,<br />
would enable officials to enforce the law of piracy<br />
by giving them a list of books which must not be<br />
pirated; at present there is no such list ; (6)<br />
provision for the seizure of piratical books.<br />
<br />
Mr. R. R. Bowker, whose paper was read on<br />
the following day, advocated, among other things,<br />
the protection of the author by making it illegal<br />
to sell a copyright for more than a limited period,<br />
so that the author should not be allowed by law<br />
to give away for a song a work which in after<br />
years may perhaps become a property of great<br />
value to himself or to his heirs.<br />
<br />
The following day, under my own presidency, a<br />
paper was read by myself—(1) on the history of<br />
the relations between author and publisher ; and<br />
(2) on the recent investigations of the British<br />
Society into the meaning, the extent, and the<br />
value of literary property. In this paper I ven-<br />
tured to offer a solution of the difficulties now<br />
existing in the administration of literary property<br />
—a solution advanced solely as a personal sug-<br />
gestion, and in no way pretending to represent<br />
the official opinion of our Society. Papers on the<br />
same questions were read by Mr. Maurice Thomp-<br />
son, a Western poet, and Mr. Stanley Waterloo,<br />
a Western novelist. Papers by Sir Frederick Pol-<br />
lock (a paper which had already appeared in the<br />
Pall Mall Gazette), by Mr. J. M. Lely,<br />
barrister-at-law, by Mr. W. Morris Colles on<br />
“ Syndicating,” and by Mr. J. Stuart Glennie on<br />
“The Necessity of a Trades Union,” were read<br />
for the writers, in their absence. The absence<br />
of all the American publishers from this day’s<br />
Conference was marked, with ominous consent<br />
they stayed away from the discussion. It may<br />
be noted, however, that the position of the<br />
American author is not so independent of the<br />
publisher as with us. In the States most literary<br />
men either have some interest in a publishing<br />
house, or they are the salaried servants of pub-<br />
lishers; with us in England it is, of course,<br />
exceptional, though not unknown, to find a suc-<br />
cessful man of letters taking a salary from a<br />
publisher.<br />
<br />
These were the two meetings of the chief import-<br />
ance. Then followed other meetings at which<br />
papers were read upon purely literary points.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Charles Dudley Warner (president of the Critical<br />
Section), John Burroughs, Professor Moses Coit<br />
Tyler, Miss Marian Harland, Miss Molly Seawell,<br />
“Margaret Sidney,” Eugene Field, George Cable,<br />
“Octave Thanet,” Mrs. Catherwood, Mrs. Anna<br />
Rohlfs, and Thomas Nelson Page among the<br />
Americans read papers. Among English authors<br />
papers were read from Mr. Henry Arthur Jones,<br />
on the future of the drama; from Mr. H. D.<br />
Traill, on the relations of literature to journalism ;<br />
and from Mr. Douglas Sladen, on realism. If it<br />
is the intention of the promoters of this Congress<br />
that the papers should be edited, condensed, pub-<br />
lished, and sent to all the libraries of the United<br />
States and Great Britain, the Conference cannot<br />
fail to do great good by calling attention to the<br />
various points for which the English Society of<br />
Authors is responsible for bringing them to<br />
light.<br />
<br />
The Congress of Literature was held at<br />
Chicago ata fitting moment. It may be taken<br />
as the inauguration of a new Literature which<br />
has just begun to spring up in the West; a<br />
Literature of which I for one was profoundly<br />
ignorant until I learned about it on the spot.<br />
At present it exists chiefly in promise; but if it<br />
is a bantling, it is a vigorous bantling. In what<br />
direction this new Literature of the West will<br />
develop it would be quite impossible, even for<br />
one who knows the conditions of Western life,<br />
to predict. Enough to place on record for the<br />
moment, the fact that there has sprung. into<br />
existence during the last year or two a company<br />
of new writers wholly belonging to the West.<br />
All over the broad valley of the Mississippi and<br />
on the Western prairies there are farmers im vast<br />
numbers living for the most part in solitary<br />
homesteads; their chief recreation is reading ;<br />
there are also small towns and villages by the<br />
thousand; places whose population is between<br />
one and two thousand, in every one of which will<br />
be found a ladies’ literary society and a library.<br />
The former holds meetings, receives papers, and<br />
is, generally, a centre of a certain intellectual<br />
activity; for the latter, the ladies who manage<br />
it endeavour to procure as many new books as<br />
possible. The whole of this enormous district,<br />
together with the North-West country—Alberta,<br />
British Columbia, and Manitoba — contains as<br />
many readers as there are people. Hitherto<br />
they have read the literature of England and<br />
the Eastern States. They are now beginning to<br />
create their own. To meet this newly-born<br />
literature, there has been established in Chicago<br />
a large number of publishing houses—more than<br />
fifty. If we remember that the Directory shows<br />
for London, the centre of the book trade for the<br />
whole British Empire, no more than 400 pub-<br />
<br />
e<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Se<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
lishers, speaking from memory, and not more<br />
than twenty-five or so who may be considered by<br />
literary men as serious and responsible pub-<br />
lishers, the fifty of Chicago may be taken to<br />
represent a very considerable bulk of business.<br />
They are publishers of various kinds, as we<br />
find in London—good and bad; those who sail<br />
near the wind and those who sail at large. One<br />
of them, for instance, has done me the honour to<br />
put my name to a work which I never saw, and<br />
to advertise it as a new book by myself. Others<br />
of them, owing to the trouble and expense<br />
of bringing the long arm of the law upon<br />
them, too often ignore the law of international<br />
copyright, and “chance it.” There are, how-<br />
ever, honourable firms, as is reported by those<br />
who ought to know, among the Chicago<br />
publishers. Meantime, what concerns us is that<br />
there has arisen, quite unknown to ourselves<br />
and not yet reported, so far as I know, by any<br />
literary paper, a new centre of publishing,<br />
and a new company of literary men and women.<br />
How great this new branch of Letters has<br />
already become may be inferred from the fact<br />
that some of the recent books issued by Chicago<br />
houses have arrived at sales numbering nearly<br />
100,000—comparing favourably with the greatest<br />
successes of English books—and that I learned<br />
from one writer of standing and reputation that a<br />
work of his, beginning with one edition of 4000,<br />
has now gone, within a short period of three<br />
months, and apparently with a local success<br />
alone, to 18,000. Again, when the writing of<br />
books was first attempted in the West by the<br />
sons of the original settlers, it was with self-<br />
distrust and trepidation. They published their<br />
books by subscription; the men who managed<br />
their business for them have mostly retired with<br />
handsome fortunes. As I have heard no com-<br />
plaints from the authors, it may be supposed<br />
that they, too, have retired with handsome<br />
fortunes. But this I doubt.<br />
<br />
Some of the names of these western writers<br />
have gone eastward and have even reached<br />
English shores. Most of them, however, are as<br />
yet unknown. There are already about a hun-<br />
dred, or perhaps more, who are known in the<br />
West as writers. Whitcombe Ryley, Maurice<br />
Thompson, Eugene Field, Harriet Munroe—who<br />
wrote the Ode on the opening of the Exhibition<br />
—and W. V. Byers are among the poets. From<br />
the rest I learn the names of Sladen Thompson,<br />
Hamlin Garland, Opie Reid, and Stanley Water-<br />
loo. The most popular author is Opie Reid,<br />
novelist and writer of short stories of Western<br />
life. His best book is a highly successful work<br />
called “The Kentucky Colonel.” Mr Stanley<br />
Waterloo has also written a novel which is now,<br />
<br />
VOL. Iv.<br />
<br />
119<br />
<br />
deservedly, I believe, enjoying a very considerable<br />
success, called ‘“‘ An Odd Situation.”<br />
<br />
The works of these writers are said to be<br />
characterised, as one would expect, by vigour<br />
rather than by style. I have not yet read any<br />
of their books, because I do not desire in this<br />
place to criticise the works, but only to note the<br />
point that a new literature is beginning, free<br />
from the old English traditions and the continuity<br />
which makes Holmes and Longfellow direct suc-<br />
cessors of Goldsmith and Pope. It will also be<br />
quite free from the old traditions of publishing,<br />
and may make a departure of its own on condi-<br />
tions to be laid down by an association of their<br />
own. I have talked, further, with one of the<br />
leading Chicago publishers, and I found him<br />
ready to discuss the whole question openly and<br />
fairly; and, above all, ready at the outset to<br />
concede the principles for which our own Society<br />
has always contended—the right of audit; the<br />
right of open dealing, so that both parties to the<br />
agreement may know what it means to both<br />
sides; the absolute abolition of secret profits ;<br />
and the recognition of the simple moral law that<br />
he who secretly falsifies his partner’s accounts to<br />
his own advantage is—whatever you please to<br />
call him. On these points my Chicago friend had<br />
no doubts whatever. Wauter Besant.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Fao eet —____. ___<br />
<br />
THE BRITISH AUTHORS SOCIETY AND<br />
THE RELATIONS OF AUTHOR AND PUB-<br />
LISHER.<br />
<br />
(A Paper read before the Literary Congress of Chicago by<br />
WALTER BESANT.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
EFORE I proceed to the main subject of<br />
this paper, which is the actual relation<br />
existing in Great Britain between authors<br />
<br />
and publishers, [ beg permission to read a brief<br />
apology for considering the material side of<br />
literature at all. I do so because one of the<br />
greatest difficulties with which our Society of<br />
Authors has had to contend is the charge of<br />
sordidness in considering money in connection<br />
with literature. I do not know whether that<br />
prejudice exists here. I hope not. In my own<br />
country it vanishes from the mind of a man of<br />
letters the moment that he finds his work to<br />
possess a marketable value. I venture, however,<br />
in case there may be any here to-day who think<br />
that a man of letters must not take thought for<br />
the commercial side of his work, must not inquire<br />
who is to enjoy the property created by his brain,<br />
to read a few words from an address delivered by<br />
myself to the English Society of Authors in<br />
L2<br />
120<br />
<br />
December last. What I then said was as<br />
follows :—<br />
<br />
«There has existed for 150 years at least, and<br />
there still lingers among us, a feeling that it is<br />
unworthy the dignity of letters to take any<br />
account at all of the commercial or pecuniary<br />
side. No one, you will please to remark, has<br />
ever thought of reproaching the barrister, the<br />
solicitor, the physician, the surgeon, the painter,<br />
the sculptor, the actor, the singer, the musician,<br />
the composer, the architect, the chemist, the<br />
physicist, the engineer, the professor, the teacher,<br />
the clergyman, or any other kind of brain worker<br />
that one can mention, with taking fees or salaries<br />
or money for his work; nor does anyone reproach<br />
these men with looking after their fees and<br />
getting rich if they can. Nor does anyone suggest<br />
that to consider the subject of payment very<br />
carefully—to take ordinary precautions against<br />
dishonesty—brings discredit on anyone who does<br />
so; nor does anyone call that barrister unworthy<br />
of the Bar who expects large fees in proportion<br />
to his name and his ability ; nor does anyone call<br />
that painter a mere tradesman whose price<br />
advances with his reputation. I beg you to<br />
consider this point very carefully. For the<br />
moment any author begins to make a practical<br />
investigation into the value—the monetary value<br />
—of the work which he puts upon the market—a<br />
hundred voices arise from those of his own craft<br />
as well as from those who live by administering<br />
his property—voices which cry out upon the<br />
sordidness, the meanness, the degradation of<br />
turning literature into a trade. We hear, I say,<br />
this kind of talk from our own ranks—though,<br />
one must own, chiefly from those who have never<br />
had an opportunity of discovering what literary<br />
property means, Does, I ask, this cry mean any-<br />
thing at all? Should it be considered ? Should we<br />
pay any attention at all to it? Well, first of<br />
all, it manifestly means a confusion of ideas.<br />
There are two values of literary work—distinct,<br />
separate ; not commensurable—they cannot be<br />
measured—they cannot be considered together.<br />
The one is the literary value of a work—its<br />
artistic, poetic, dramatic value; its value of<br />
accuracy, of construction, of presentation, of<br />
novelty, of style, of magnetism. On that value<br />
is based the real position of every writer in his<br />
own generation, and the estimate of him, should<br />
he survive, for generations to follow. I do not<br />
greatly blame those who cry out upon the connec-<br />
tion of literature with trade; they are jealous,<br />
and rightly jealous, for the honour of letters.<br />
We will acknowledge so much. But the confu-<br />
sion lies in not understanding that every man<br />
who takes money for whatever he makes or does<br />
may be regarded, in a way, and not offensively, as<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
a tradesman; but that the artistic worth of a<br />
thing need have nothing whatever to do with the<br />
the price it will command; and that the com-<br />
mercial value in the case of a book cannot be<br />
measured by the literary or artistic value.<br />
<br />
“ Tn other words, while an artist is at work upon<br />
a poem, a drama, or a romance, this aspect of his<br />
work, and this alone, is in his mind, otherwise his<br />
work would be naught.<br />
<br />
“But, once finished and ready for production,<br />
then comes in the other value—the commercial<br />
value, which is a distinct thing. Here the artist<br />
ceases and the man of business begins. Either<br />
the man of business begins at this point or the<br />
next steps of that artist infallibly bring him to<br />
disaster, or at least the partial loss of that com-<br />
mercial value. Remember that any man who has<br />
to sell a thing must make himself acquainted<br />
with its value, or he will be—what? Call<br />
what you please—over-reached, deluded, cheated.<br />
That is a recognised rule in every other kind of<br />
business. Let us do our best to make it recog-<br />
nised in our own.<br />
<br />
« Apart from this confusion of ideas between<br />
literary and commercial value, there is another<br />
anda secondary reason for this feeling. For 200<br />
years, at least, contempt of every kind has been<br />
poured upon the literary hack, who is, poor<br />
wretch, the unsuccessful author. Why? We<br />
do not pour contempt upon the unsuccessful<br />
painter who has to make the pot boil with<br />
pictures at 15s. each. Clive Newcome came<br />
down to that, and a very pitiful, tearful<br />
scene in the story it is—full of pity and<br />
of tears. If he had been a literary hack,<br />
where would have been the pity and the<br />
tears? In my experience at the Society, 1<br />
have come across many most pitiful cases, where<br />
the man who has failed is doomed to lead a life<br />
which is one long tragedy of grinding, miserable,<br />
underpaid work, with no hope and no relief<br />
possible. One long tragedy of endurance and<br />
hardship. I am not accusing anyone ; I call no<br />
names; very likely such a man gets all he<br />
deserves ; his are the poor wages of incompetence ;<br />
his is the servitude of the lowest work ; his is the<br />
contumely of hopeless poverty ; his is the derision<br />
of the critic. But we laugh at such a wretch,<br />
and call him a literary hack. Why, I ask, when<br />
we pity the unsuccessful in every other line, do<br />
we laugh at and despise the unsuccessful author ?<br />
<br />
“Onee more, this contempt—real or pretended<br />
—for money. What does it mean? Sir Walter<br />
Scott did not despise the income which he made<br />
by his books; nor did Byron, nor did Dickens,<br />
Thackeray, George Eliot, Charles Reade, Wilkie<br />
Collins, Macaulay—nor, in fact, any single man<br />
or woman in the history of letters who has ever<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
succeeded. This pretended contempt, then, only<br />
belongs to those who have not succeeded. It is<br />
sometimes assumed by them; more often one<br />
finds it in articles written for certain papers by<br />
sentimental ladies who are not authors. Where-<br />
ever it is found, it is always lingering somewhere<br />
—always we come upon this feeling, ridiculous,<br />
senseless, and baseless—that it is beneath the<br />
dignity of an author to manage his business<br />
matters as a man of business should, with the<br />
same regard for equity in his agreement, the<br />
same resolution to know what is meant by both<br />
sides of an agreement, and the same jealousy as<br />
to assigning the administration of his property.<br />
“Again, how did the contempt arise?<br />
It came to us as a heritage of the last<br />
century. In the course of our investigations<br />
into the history of literary property — the<br />
result of which will, I hope, appear some day<br />
in a volume form—TI recently caused a research<br />
to be made into the business side of literature in<br />
the last century. Publishers were not then men<br />
of education and knowledge, as many of them are<br />
at the present moment; they were not advised<br />
by scholars, men of taste and intuition; the<br />
market, compared with that of the present day,<br />
was inconceivably small; there were great risks<br />
due to all these causes. The practice, therefore,<br />
was, in view of these risks, to pay the author so<br />
much for his book right out, and to expect a suc-<br />
cessful book to balance, and more than balance,<br />
one that was unsuccessful. Therefore they<br />
bought the books they published at the lowest<br />
price they could persuade the author to accept.<br />
Therefore—the consequence follows like the next<br />
line in Euclid—the author began to appear to<br />
the popular imagination as a suppliant standing<br />
hat in hand beseeching the generosity of the<br />
bookseller. Physician and barrister stood up-<br />
right taking the recognised fee. The author<br />
bent a humble back, holding his hat in one<br />
humble hand, while he held out the other humble<br />
hand for as many guineas as he could get. That,<br />
J say, was the popular view of the author. And<br />
it still lingers among us. There are, in other<br />
callings, if we think of it, other professional con-<br />
tempts. Everybody acknowledges that teaching<br />
is a noble work, but everybody formerly despised<br />
the schoolmaster because he was always flogging<br />
boys—no imagination can regard with honour<br />
and envy the man who is all day long caning and<br />
flogging. The law is a noble study, but every-<br />
body formerly despised the attorney, with whom<br />
the barrister would neither shake hands nor sit<br />
at table. . Medicine is a noble study, but the<br />
surgeon was formerly despised because in former<br />
days he was closely connected with the barber.<br />
Do not let us be surprised, therefore, if the author,<br />
<br />
12]<br />
<br />
who had to take whatever was given him, came to<br />
be regarded as a poor helpless suppliant.”<br />
<br />
These words, I repeat, were addressed to our<br />
members as an apology for our very existence.<br />
If they are not sufficient, if any other apology<br />
be needed, I would submit this consideration.<br />
Some branches of the literary calling — say,<br />
rather, some literary men—demand for their<br />
work absolute freedom from every other kind of<br />
work. Whether their work is successful or not,<br />
good or bad, popular or unpopular, it must<br />
absorb all their day, all their thoughts, all their<br />
strength. They must live by their work, whether<br />
they live poorly or richly. They must live upon<br />
it. Now, the whole history of letters shows<br />
that the best work has been always produced<br />
under the influence of a certain material well-<br />
bemg. The most illustrious writers in our lan-<br />
guage—whether Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dry-<br />
den, Pope, Fielding, Smollett, Johnson, Words-<br />
worth, Coleridge, Lamb, Scott, Washington<br />
Irving, Longfellow, Emerson, Lowell, Tennyson,<br />
Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Browning—<br />
have written from their own studies, in physical<br />
ease, with little thought about the morrow’s<br />
dinner ; yet all witha certain driving of necessity.<br />
Thackeray could never sit down and say, “I<br />
will only write when I feel disposed to write.”<br />
Had he been able to say it, the world would have<br />
been the poorer by the ‘‘ Newcomes ”’ at least.<br />
Genius starving; genius mendicant; genius<br />
holding out his hand for another guinea from<br />
the publisher; genius in rags—genius under<br />
these conditions has produced very little work<br />
which the world cares to preserve. Who are<br />
they—the starving poets—the Budgells and<br />
Savages of the last century? They area ragged,<br />
drunken company, whose names are already—<br />
as well as their work—things of the dead and<br />
forgotten past. Like the flowers of the field and<br />
hedge, the flowers of literature want sunshine<br />
and warm showers, and the soft breezes of<br />
summer.<br />
<br />
We are, then, I hope, agreed to discuss, in<br />
the highest interests of literature, its material<br />
side.<br />
<br />
The main facts in the history of publishing<br />
are these :<br />
<br />
a. Publishers, who were also booksellers, began<br />
by buying their works of authors for a<br />
certain sum. In order to protect them-<br />
selves, several joined in the—then real—<br />
risk.<br />
<br />
b. Authors sometimes issued their books by<br />
subscription—a very good plan, which<br />
seems still capable of wide application.<br />
<br />
ce. The plan of sharing profits was introduced<br />
towards the end of the last century.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
122<br />
<br />
Profits meant the simple difference be-<br />
tween proceeds and cost of production.<br />
<br />
d. The general rule was to share profits equally.<br />
There were, however, some authors—e.g.,<br />
Gibbon—who received two-thirds of the<br />
profits.<br />
<br />
e. This system, which still seems to many<br />
the most equitable, fell into disfavour<br />
entirely through the practice, secretly<br />
introduced about sixty years ago, of secret<br />
and fraudulent profits. Publishers began<br />
to falsify their accounts.<br />
<br />
f. Then some form of royalties was invented ;<br />
and authors jumped eagerly at this<br />
method, being now sure of getting some-<br />
thing.<br />
<br />
g. Observe that no British publisher, even in<br />
the most risky venture, has ever dared to<br />
claim, as his share, more than half of the<br />
profits. But the royalty system now<br />
enables him to pocket, unknown to the<br />
author, a very much larger share, amount-<br />
ing to three and four times the author’s<br />
share.<br />
<br />
h. In purchasing books, some houses withhold<br />
from the author the actual value of his<br />
work, and pay hima tenth of what they<br />
know the book will bring in.<br />
<br />
Here we come upon another and a wholly<br />
<br />
unexpected difficulty.<br />
<br />
This is the difficulty of persuading people,<br />
especially our own people, those most interested<br />
in it, that there is any such thing as Literary<br />
Property. They can’t see it; houses, lands,<br />
warehouses full of things, they can see that is<br />
property, but—a book or a thousand books—<br />
they cannot understand that they mean real,<br />
tangible, marketable property; nay, in some<br />
cases, like Mr. Thrale’s Brewery, the potentiality<br />
of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, the<br />
average person cannot understand. You think,<br />
perhaps, that such blindness is impossible. In<br />
America you are credited with a keener vision<br />
and a stronger common sense than our people<br />
possess. Doubtless you can all understand that<br />
Literary Property is a very real thing; but I<br />
assure you that very many of our literary people<br />
cannot. It is in vain that we point out to them<br />
publishers who live in great houses ; publishers<br />
who die worth great fortunes; publishers, now<br />
rich, who, thirty years ago, had nothing at all.<br />
They think it is successful gambling that has<br />
made them prosperous. They cannot believe in<br />
literary property at all. Actually our own<br />
<br />
brothers—the men who create the property—are<br />
rising up against us, saying that it is all very<br />
well to talk, but there is no such thing as literary<br />
property.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
If you tell them that certain men by writing<br />
history, novels, scientific works, educational works,<br />
religious works, have made great fortunes, and<br />
are making great incomes, they still cannot<br />
understand —they cannot understand that the<br />
literary man should be anything but a starving<br />
and dependent hack. That view, indeed, was.<br />
never wholly true, and is now absolutely futile.<br />
I will give you an illustration. The man con-<br />
cerned is a very distinguished writer; you all<br />
know his name. He was told some time ago<br />
that, for his share in a certain work he would<br />
receive a certain royalty. “I would rather,” he<br />
said, “have a ten pound note down.’ That was<br />
his view of literary property.<br />
<br />
In plain words we have against us certain<br />
rooted prejudices.<br />
<br />
1. That’ it is beneath the dignity of Literature<br />
to consider the question of money. Of<br />
course, this opinion has been carefully<br />
nursed by those who want to have all the<br />
money.<br />
<br />
2. That publishing is a great gambling game,<br />
and that the production of every book<br />
means the risk of an enormous sum of<br />
money.<br />
<br />
3. That there is no such thing as literary<br />
property.<br />
<br />
4, That authorship is a beggarly and contemp-<br />
tible trade.<br />
<br />
These prejudices we have found rooted in the<br />
minds not only of the outside world at large, but<br />
also of the journalists who move the world, and<br />
even, in many cases, of those who follow the lite-<br />
rary profession.<br />
<br />
Tt has been the work of the Society of Authors<br />
to uproot and destroy these prejudices. So far<br />
we have, I think, quite succeeded with the<br />
younger generation of writers, but only partially<br />
with the old. One writer with a great name—a<br />
name that you all respect—has always held aloof<br />
fromus. I hayeonly recently discovered the reason.<br />
Tt is that he has never succeeded in making any<br />
money at all by his own books, and therefore he<br />
cannot be persuaded that anybody else can.<br />
<br />
‘As for our friends the journalists, they follow<br />
the younger men and the newer ideas, and so may<br />
be left, and little by little I think that we shall<br />
destroy the Grub-street ghost. Grub-street itself<br />
is now transformed into a street of warehouses.<br />
The denizens of Grub-street shall be transformed<br />
into an orderly and clean living race of men who<br />
occupy the lower paths of literature.<br />
<br />
The task which the Society of Authors pro-<br />
<br />
posed to itself was threefold. First, it desired -<br />
<br />
to remove these prejudices and ignorances con-<br />
cerning the literary calling; next to expose and<br />
to present to men and women of letters the mean-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
ing and condition of literary property and the<br />
actual share possessed by those who create that<br />
property ; thirdly, to maintain the rights of lite-<br />
rary men over their own property; and, lastly, to<br />
establish the material side of literature upon an<br />
equitable basis, or, at least, on a basis recognised<br />
and accepted by authors and publishers alike as<br />
satisfying the claims of both.<br />
<br />
The Society has been in existence for eight<br />
years. What it has done so far I will tell you<br />
immediately. What it is in point of members<br />
and of numbers you ought first to know.<br />
<br />
It contains, to begin with, over a thousand<br />
members. We have not, of late, published a list<br />
of members and, for many reasons, we shall not<br />
publish a list.<br />
<br />
A very common charge is made against us by<br />
our enemies, who are the fraudulent members of<br />
the publishing trade, that wedo not contain in<br />
our body the leading men and women of the day.<br />
Very well! I will suppose this charge to have<br />
been made in this place. Who, let me ask, are<br />
the leading men of the day ?<br />
<br />
[Here followed a list of the principal members<br />
of the Society, which can here be omitted. ]<br />
<br />
In short, the Society has attracted to itself by<br />
far the greater number of the better kind of<br />
living English writers, and the fact that at every<br />
meeting we elect more members proves, not only<br />
that we are trying to do work that was wanted,<br />
but that we are trying in a way that recommends<br />
itself to these leaders. There are our leaders and<br />
our officers. In the rank and file of our regiment<br />
are many menand women that you have never heard<br />
of, many that you will never hear of. In the same<br />
way there are hundreds called to the Bar who<br />
never achieve distinction, and hundreds ordained<br />
to the Church who do not become leaders and<br />
prophets. There must be everywhere rank and<br />
file. We admit all those who call themselves<br />
literary mean and women without question. In<br />
our profession more than any other, out of the<br />
ranks will step forth the officers of the future.<br />
We should not be a representative body did we<br />
not number those who only carvy a rifle as well as<br />
those who carry a sword. I want you, this day,<br />
to accept the British Society of Authors as, in<br />
fact, it is—the only existing representative body<br />
of modern British literature.<br />
<br />
The first difficulty which met us was our own<br />
ignorance of the meaning of things. What did a<br />
book cost to produce? What should be spent in<br />
advertising it? What is the price of it to the<br />
retail trade? Until we had learned these things<br />
—-apparently quite simple things—it was useless<br />
attempting anything. We therefore attacked the<br />
printer, and after, considerable difficulty and<br />
labour and getting estimates from many people,<br />
<br />
128<br />
<br />
we succeeded at arriving ata fair. average esti-<br />
mate of the cost of almost every kind of book,<br />
with the average amounts actually expended in<br />
advertising them and the actual price to the<br />
retail trade. This knowledge we did not keep to<br />
ourselyes—we printed it and published it, greatly<br />
to the benefit and advantage of authors.<br />
<br />
This so-called ‘‘ Cost of Production”—a copy<br />
of which I lay before you—is a little book, the<br />
figures of which, though only approximate, are<br />
closely approximate. A printer’s bill is an elastic<br />
thing. But the figures given in our book have<br />
never been seriously attacked ; one publisher who<br />
ventured to dispute them was silenced by the offer<br />
to conduct the whole of his printing on these<br />
terms.<br />
<br />
We are thus able to consider the question from<br />
the same point of view as the other side. We<br />
know what any book of any form is going to<br />
cost. :<br />
<br />
The next thing was the application of this<br />
knowledge. Our-secretary, Mr. Sprigge, began<br />
and conducted exhaustively an examination into<br />
all the methods of publication in use. There are,<br />
as perhaps you know, a great many. There are<br />
the various forms of sharing profits ; there are the<br />
various forms of royalty ; there is the purchase of<br />
copyright; there is the commission business ; and<br />
there are the agreements framed to meet all these<br />
forms. In our book called “Methods of Pub-<br />
lishing” all these are considered, and the tricks<br />
and frauds practised in connection with each are<br />
exposed.<br />
<br />
I have used the words “tricks and frauds.”<br />
They are not pretty words. I use them, however,<br />
deliberately. I say, “tricks and frauds.” This<br />
is not an occasion on which we should disguise<br />
the truth, and the melancholy truth is that<br />
among British publishers we find, on investiga-<br />
tion, that tricks and frauds were widespread.<br />
Every kind of trick, every kind of fraud, was<br />
carried on with impunity upon the helpless and<br />
ignorant author. The accounts were systemati-<br />
cally falsified, the cost of everything was over-<br />
stated, the profits were swamped by advertising<br />
in the publisher’s own magazine, which cost him<br />
nothing, or. in other magazines by exchange,<br />
which cost him nothing; very large discounts<br />
were swept into his own pocket, the sales were<br />
understated—in fact, whatever you can imagine<br />
in the way of robbery was carried on with<br />
impunity, because the author did not know, and<br />
there was no one to tell him or to help him,<br />
<br />
We have stated these facts openly ; we have<br />
never tried to conceal them; they have never<br />
been denied. All that the sharks have done in<br />
reply is to raise the cry that we call all publishers<br />
thieves, which is false, because we have never<br />
<br />
<br />
124<br />
<br />
brought any such sweeping charge. We have<br />
said, and we shall repeat it, that we have found a<br />
widespread system of fraud among publishers.<br />
It is still going on, but in a greatly mitigated<br />
form.<br />
<br />
These facts, I say, never have been denied. We<br />
did expect, however, that the better-class pub-<br />
lishers would, for their own credit, and for the<br />
honour of their calling, and out of self-respect<br />
and having regard for their own honour, join with<br />
us in our attempt to enforce openness and honesty<br />
of dealing. They have not done s0. Messrs.<br />
Longmans, it is true, most honourably justified<br />
the traditions of their house by publicly accepting<br />
our claim that all accounts between author and<br />
publisher should be open to audit. They now<br />
send out vouchers with every account, thereby<br />
setting an example to honourable houses which<br />
should become a law to all others. With most<br />
publishers, however, I am sorry to say that hosti-<br />
lity and misrepresentation have met our labours.<br />
We are none the worse, collectively or individually,<br />
because, as you may also remember to your own<br />
advantage, modern literature may be bought,<br />
modern authors may be tricked, by publishers—<br />
but modern literature is neither created nor con-<br />
trolled by them. For the most part they consti-<br />
tute a machinery of distribution only, and a<br />
machinery which may be changed or placed in<br />
other hands at the will of the creators. Should<br />
there be any doubt in your minds as to the<br />
truth of these statements, you may consider the<br />
position. Hitherto a game of blind confidence<br />
has been carried on and demanded: the pub-<br />
lisher rendered accounts which he refused to have<br />
audited: no one must question his word: he<br />
alone among living mortals, must hide his books<br />
from his partner. That was the position. Next<br />
consider the subject of human weakness under<br />
such conditions. Is it possible that such a power<br />
should be deposited in any man, or body of men,<br />
without its abuse? Who among us could resist<br />
this temptation in a time of difficulty, when to<br />
falsify a few accounts would smooth over every-<br />
thing, and could never be found out? Ever<br />
since I began to understand the situation I have<br />
been inclined to think that there is a certain<br />
clause in the Lord’s Prayer which must be uttered<br />
by publishers with more than common fervency.<br />
Other thieves are sure of being found out—he<br />
who falsified an author’s accounts was sure never<br />
to be found out. Therefore the temptation to<br />
this unfortunate class of persons was far stronger<br />
than to other men, and the backslidings have<br />
been more frequent.<br />
<br />
We have, then, therefore taught the world of<br />
letters exactly what is meant by the agreements<br />
which authors have hitherto signed in ignorance.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
We have shown them what it costs to produce<br />
any kind of book; we have shown what books<br />
are sold for to the retail trade; we have shown<br />
the profits made by publishers, where agreements<br />
are honestly carried out, and what are made by<br />
dishonest persons. We have therefore prepared<br />
the ground in the minds of authors for the<br />
question to be argued on fair grounds, and the<br />
data known to both sides—what should be the<br />
equitable relations between authors and pub-<br />
lishers ?<br />
<br />
At present, and while this question awaits<br />
debate and settlement, we limit our demands to<br />
three points— :<br />
<br />
1. The right of audit.<br />
<br />
2, That in any agreement based on royalties<br />
we must know what this agreement gives<br />
to either side<br />
<br />
3. That there must be no secret profits, 7.e.,<br />
no falsification of accounts.<br />
<br />
What else has the Society done during its eight<br />
years of existence ?<br />
<br />
We have investigated and published an account<br />
of the administration of the Civil List from its<br />
beginning. The Civil List is an anoual grant of<br />
£1200 made to literature, science, and art. It is<br />
annually diverted from its purpose by successive<br />
First Lords of the Treasury, and given to widows<br />
of men in the army and navy and civil service.<br />
We opened up a correspondence on the subject<br />
with the late W. H. Smith, then First Lord of the<br />
Treasury. It began with a letter from his private<br />
secretary, in. which that gentleman made the<br />
astonishing statement that the “ regulations ’ did<br />
notallow of any novelists, except historical novelists,<br />
being placed upon the List. We pointed out that<br />
this rule was not followed in former lists, which we<br />
copied for Mr. Smith’s information. This did no<br />
good. We then asked Mr. Gladstone if he knew<br />
of these regulations. He replied that he did not.<br />
We then respectfully invited the First Lord of<br />
the Treasury to let us see those regulations. He<br />
refused, We then caused certain questions to be<br />
asked in the House, when Mr. Smith had to<br />
state publicly that, in spite of his private secre-<br />
tary’s statement, there were no such regulations.<br />
An attempt, therefore, probably made by some<br />
subordinate, without Mr. Smith’s knowledge at<br />
<br />
‘all, to exclude novelists from the Civil List, was<br />
<br />
happily defeated.<br />
<br />
We have made a careful and prolonged inquiry<br />
into the very difficult subject of the present<br />
nature and extent of literary property. By the<br />
passing of the American International Copyright<br />
Act a writer of importance in our language<br />
may address an audience drawn from a<br />
hundred million of English-speaking people.<br />
Remember that never before in the history of the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
world has there been such an audience. There<br />
were doubtless more than a hundred millions<br />
under the Roman rule round the shores of the<br />
Mediterranean, but they spoke many different<br />
languages. We have now this enormous multitude,<br />
all, with very few exceptions, able to read, and all<br />
reading. Twenty years ago they read the weekly<br />
paper; there are many who still read nothing<br />
more. Now that no longer satisfies the majority.<br />
Every day makes it plainer and clearer that we<br />
have arrived at a time when the whole of this<br />
multitude, which in fifty years time will be two<br />
hundred million, will very soon be reading books.<br />
What kind of books? All kinds, good and bad,<br />
but mostly good; we may be very sure that they<br />
will prefer good books to bad. Even now the<br />
direct road to popularity is by dramatic strength,<br />
clear vision, clear dialogue, whether a man write<br />
a play, a poem, a history, or a novel. We see<br />
magazines suddenly achieving a_ circulation<br />
reckoned by hundreds of thousands while our old<br />
magazines creep along with their old circulation<br />
of from two to ten thousand? Hundreds of<br />
thousands? How is this popularity achieved?<br />
Is it by pandering to the low, gross, coarse taste<br />
commonly attributed to the multitude? Not at<br />
all. It is accomplished by giving them dramatic<br />
work—stories which hold and interest them—<br />
essays which speak clearly—work that somehow<br />
seems to have a message. If we want a formula<br />
or golden rule for arriving at popularity, I should<br />
propose this. Let the work have a message.<br />
Let it have a thing to say, a story to tell, a living<br />
man or woman to present, a lesson to deliver,<br />
clear, strong, unmistakable.<br />
<br />
The demand for reading, then, is enormous,<br />
and it increases every day. I see plainly—as<br />
plainly as eyes can see—a time—it is even now<br />
already upon us—when the popular writer—the<br />
novelist, the poet, the dramatist, the historian,<br />
the physicist, the essayist—will command such<br />
an audience—so vast an audience—as he has<br />
never yet even conceived as possible. Such a<br />
writer as Dickens, if he were living now, would<br />
command an audience—all of whom would buy<br />
his works—of twenty millions at least. The<br />
world has never yet witnessed such a popularity<br />
—so wide-spread —as awaits the successor of<br />
Dickens in the affections of the English-speaking<br />
races. This consideration must surely en-<br />
courage us to persevere in our endeavours<br />
after the independence of our calling. For<br />
you must not think that this enormous demand<br />
is for fiction alone. One of the things charged<br />
upon our society is that we exist for novelists<br />
alone. That is because literary property is not<br />
understood at all. Asa fact educational litera-<br />
ture isa much larger branch than fiction. But<br />
<br />
VOL. Iv.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 125<br />
<br />
for science, history—everything—except, perhaps<br />
poetry — the demand is leaping forward year<br />
after year in a most surprising manner. Now,<br />
in order to meet this enormous demand, which<br />
has actually begun and will increase more and<br />
more—a demand which we alone can meet and<br />
satisfy—I say that we must claim and that we<br />
must have a readjustment of the old machinery<br />
—a reconsideration of the old methods—a new<br />
appeal to principles of equity and fair play.<br />
<br />
Well: we have taken another step to assist us<br />
in this new appeal. We have founded for our own<br />
purposes a paper which is devoted entirely to the<br />
accumulation of facts and the dissemination of<br />
teaching in our own business relations. This<br />
paper has now been running for two years and a<br />
half. I have just been turning over the leaves<br />
of the paper, and I am amazed at the mass of<br />
material that has been brought together and the<br />
number of contributors who have assisted in<br />
bringing together that mass of material. Expo-<br />
sures of swindlers who advertise for MSS.:<br />
exposures of iniquitous agreements: discussions<br />
on reviews and reviewers: the discovery of tricks :<br />
the meanings of royalties: the law as to diffi-<br />
cult points which turn up day by day: warnings :<br />
advice: controversies—there has never been pub-<br />
lished anywhere any paper like our own, so<br />
entirely devoted to things which four or five<br />
years ago were carefully concealed from us or<br />
supposed to be beyond our own province.<br />
<br />
Add to the books we have published, and the<br />
paper we issue, the great fact that our Office has<br />
become the recognised Refuge for all who are in<br />
trouble or doubt. People come to us for advice<br />
on all subjects connected with literary property.<br />
The cases always in the Secretary’s hands average<br />
at any moment about a dozen. As fast as one is<br />
cleared off, another one comes in. The corre-<br />
spondence increases daily; from all parts of the<br />
country, and from the Colonies, the letters<br />
pour in.<br />
<br />
Our secretary, Mr. Thring, told me, a short<br />
time ago, that he dealt with sixty-two cases in<br />
six months, all of them being disputes between<br />
author and publisher, or author and editor.<br />
<br />
Of these, thirty were cases in which editors of<br />
third-rate journals refused to pay for published<br />
contributions, refused to return MSS. offered, or<br />
refused to answer letters.<br />
<br />
Of these thirty, he succeeded in twenty cases ;<br />
and in the other ten he failed, either because the<br />
paper could not pay, or the author declined to<br />
give evidence in court.<br />
<br />
Of the other thirty-two cases, between auth r<br />
and publisher, all, with one or two exceptions,<br />
were settled satisfactorily.<br />
<br />
He had also in his hands the claims of certain<br />
<br />
ra<br />
<br />
<br />
126<br />
<br />
authors against a bankrupt. These debts he<br />
proved, and the dividends which they would<br />
otherwise only have obtained by every man<br />
employing a solicitor for himself at heavy cost,<br />
had been secured for the claimants at no cost to<br />
themselves at all, and no trouble.<br />
<br />
This, then, is something of what we have done<br />
for the members of the Society, and for the cause<br />
of literature generally, during the nine years of<br />
our existence.<br />
<br />
What has still to be done? First of all, to<br />
maintain an attitude of vigilance; and next, to<br />
persevere in our attitude of aggression until we<br />
succeed in placing the relations of author and<br />
publisher on a footing which will be accepted<br />
and recognised by honourable men on either<br />
side. This done, it will only remain for us to<br />
maintain, as I said before, that attitude of vigi-<br />
lance, because property cannot be defended once<br />
for all. Where riches are stored up thieves will<br />
break in and steal. Property of every kind must<br />
be always under watch and guard; the Society of<br />
Authors has, therefore, come to stay.<br />
<br />
Next, we have, if possible, to procure this<br />
adjustment of the relations between author and<br />
publisher. Remember that we have never ques-<br />
tioned the right of the latter to a substantial<br />
share in the work. The question is, what he<br />
does for a book, and what should be his share.<br />
So far we have only arrived at vague statements<br />
totally unconnected with practical claims. We<br />
have been told of enormous risks and frightful<br />
losses. We have ascertained that the risk, as a<br />
rule, does not exist, and that when it does exist,<br />
it is generally very small, and that neither risk<br />
nor loss need be encountered by a cautious house.<br />
To say that risks are never run would be ridicu-<br />
lous, though we are constantly charged with<br />
saying so. To say that there are no losses would<br />
be ridiculous, but it is certain that with the great<br />
majority of publishers the only loss is the failure<br />
of expectation, z.e., that the big success fondly<br />
anticipated did not arrive.<br />
<br />
But some answer to these questions must be<br />
given. Here is a great body of men and women<br />
always producing property of a most valuable<br />
character. Very rightly, as we have shown, and<br />
for very good cause they are profoundly dissatis-<br />
fied with the machinery that distributes their pro-<br />
perty, and the persons who run that machinery<br />
have hitherto turned a contemptuous ear to<br />
their complaints. It is, however, always com-<br />
petent for the dissatisfied to set up new machi-<br />
nery for themselves.<br />
<br />
This is the first occasion on which English-<br />
speaking writers have ever met in congress. It<br />
will not, I am sure, be the last. I hope that<br />
something very practical, something very definite,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
may come out of this congress. I do not expect<br />
from an American Conference the solution of<br />
difficulties which are distinctly English. Your<br />
problems are not always ours, yet some of them<br />
are the same. I hear complaints of false returns<br />
in royalties. I hear of suspicions; there are,<br />
doubtless, hard cases with you as well as with<br />
us. It will help if you accord to us your<br />
sympathy and your advice. On our part, since<br />
the works of those who write in our language<br />
are now published with equal popularity on<br />
both sides of the Atlantic, I venture to offer<br />
you the practical assistance of the Society in<br />
advising you how and when to publish. I<br />
venture to promise you the agency of the<br />
Society’s syndicate in order to place your works,<br />
and I am instructed by my committee to lay<br />
before you all our papers and the results of our<br />
investigations.<br />
<br />
But suffer me to submit my own proposal for<br />
the solution of the problem. It is a very simple<br />
proposal; it is based upon a long consideration of<br />
present and past usage, and of the figures<br />
involved. It is not, again, a new thing. I pro-<br />
pose, therefore, that, in the case of books by<br />
authors whose names alone is a guarantee of the<br />
demand exceeding the actual cost of production,<br />
the principle to be adopted should be that the<br />
publisher be allowed one-third of the actual profits<br />
—meaning by profits the excess of proceeds over<br />
actual cost of production—the author taking two-<br />
thirds. I may explain that in two or three of the<br />
foremost houses in London this method is already<br />
practised. The plan in honest hands seems to<br />
me one that is as just and fair as could be<br />
desired, and one that should work well. Of<br />
course, one cannot by any plan on paper provide<br />
altogether against the robber. There must be a<br />
few simple safeguards. The return of accounts<br />
must be accompanied by an audit in the interests<br />
of the author. There must be absolutely no<br />
secret profits. No advertisements must be<br />
charged except those actually paid for, 1.€.,<br />
neither advertisements in the publishers’ own<br />
magazines nor in exchanges.<br />
<br />
Next, as regards books which carry risk.<br />
English publishers, as we have said—in fact, all<br />
publishers—naturally avoid risk as much as<br />
possible. But there are many books—a very<br />
large proportion of them published—which,<br />
though they are certain to pay their bare<br />
expenses, are not certain to give the publisher<br />
such a return as will make it worth his while to<br />
take them up on such terms as those proposed<br />
above. The great mass of new books belong, in<br />
fact, to this class. For instance, I take at<br />
<br />
random, and without choice of any particular day,<br />
those columns of the London Times, which are<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 127<br />
<br />
devoted, on one day, to advertising new publica-<br />
tions. I find forty-one new books advertised.<br />
Among these there are four books of biography,<br />
which are certain to prove a valuable success.<br />
There are three religious books, which will also<br />
be successful, but not greatly. There are sixteen<br />
books of essays, history, and general literature,<br />
which certainly cannot be expected to pay either<br />
author or publisher anything worth consideration.<br />
There are eighteen novels, of which four are new<br />
editions of a very popular writer; three more<br />
are certain to run into cheap editions; and the<br />
rest (eleven in number) are published just to fill<br />
the boxes of Mudie’s circulating library or at the<br />
cost of the writers. It is quite certain that there<br />
will never be second editions of any, and it is<br />
also evident, to those who know, that, by the<br />
circulating library system, they are issued in<br />
order to give the publishers about £100 apiece<br />
and the author about half that sum.<br />
<br />
We must, therefore, meet this case, because the<br />
publisher, like the solicitor, must be paid first.<br />
1 would propose, therefore, that a first charge be<br />
made on the proceeds, a first charge to be agreed<br />
upon ; that this sum be taken out of the proceeds<br />
by the publisher ix advance of his profits; that<br />
is to say, to take simple figures, the first charge<br />
agreed upon being £20, and the actual profits<br />
proving no more than £30, the author’s profits<br />
bemg under the agreement, two-thirds the<br />
whole, less this sum agreed upon, he must pay<br />
over to the publishers first this £20. If, on<br />
the other hand, the profit should amount to<br />
£60, the share of the author would be £40 and<br />
of the-publisher £20. But the publisher would<br />
draw that £20 out of the proceeds as a first<br />
charge.<br />
<br />
I advance the plan, not as a new thing, but<br />
as a method already tried. It is better than a<br />
royalty, because it leaves the publisher’s hand<br />
free to deal with the book as he wishes, i.e.,<br />
to make bargains with it at special prices to<br />
meet special conditions of sale. It is not so con-<br />
venient as a royalty because it necessitates, for<br />
the sake of the audit, greater care in accounts than<br />
has hitherto been customary. If a royalty is<br />
preferred it should be based on this principle of<br />
proportion in accordance with the actual cost of<br />
production.<br />
<br />
T advance this method as my own solution. I<br />
have submitted it as yet to none of my friends<br />
on the council of our Society. I lay it before<br />
you as my personal contribution only—as a pro-<br />
posal which, I submit, is worthy of serious con-<br />
sideration and argument as a proposal not alto-<br />
gether new, because it is already practised to a<br />
sale extent by at least three leading English<br />
<br />
rms,<br />
<br />
THE SINNER’S COMEDY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HE appearance of a new book by the lady<br />
who calls herself John Oliver Hobbes is one<br />
of those minor literary events the noting of<br />
<br />
which assigns to the writer a certain place on the<br />
literary ladder. The author of “Some Emotions<br />
and a Moral” has, in fact, seized upon the place<br />
which belongs to one who can write epigrams.<br />
Therefore one took up the “Sinner’s Comedy,”<br />
which is her latest work, with the pleasurable<br />
anticipation of things clever and things sparkling.<br />
That there was going to be a story, in the ordinary<br />
sense of the word, one did not expect. Therefore<br />
there was no disappointment. In about a hundred<br />
and sixty small pages of large type the author<br />
introduces some seventeen characters. They are<br />
all quite distinct, all carefully drawn in a very<br />
few lines, and, with perhaps one exception, all<br />
seem to come out exactly as the artist intended.<br />
The characters include a noble lord who is<br />
ambitious of being accepted as an authority,<br />
and therefore starts a daily paper, which is<br />
very funny, and only anticipates what will happen<br />
in the future by ten years or so; a woman,<br />
his sister, who is very carefully drawn, but yet,<br />
somehow—it may be the fault of the reader—<br />
remains blurred; a truly admirable baronet—<br />
“ his views on Woman were perhaps more remark-<br />
able for their chivalry than their reverence ; that<br />
she lost her youth was a blot on creation; that she<br />
could lose her virtue made life worth living ;”<br />
one Anne Christian, a wife separated from her<br />
husband—* an actor; a gentleman with strong<br />
feelings and a limp backbone. He was an un-<br />
speakable man ; and, having endured all things,<br />
she left him. It was a bad beginning, but two<br />
years’ companionship with the Impossible had<br />
taught her to bear the Necessary with patience ” ;<br />
an artistic couple. As for the man, “the ends of<br />
his pale yellow necktie were hid with artistic<br />
abandon, his short serge coat was of the finest<br />
texture, and his loose trousers, of the same mate-<br />
rial, hung with an idea of drapery about his<br />
elegant legs. Mr. Digby Vallance was<br />
a gentleman of some fame, who had translated<br />
Theocritus out of honesty into English, and in<br />
his leisure bred canaries. His celebrated paradox,<br />
‘There is nothing so natural as Art,’ was perhaps<br />
even more famous than he.” There is, again, a<br />
dean; and there is the sister of a dean; there is<br />
a literary hack of some genius; so that in real<br />
life he would have ceased to be a literary hack<br />
and commanded righteous royalties in a cheap<br />
issue.<br />
<br />
As for the story, the Baronet loves the sepa-<br />
rated wife innocently (¢) for four years. Then he<br />
<br />
<br />
128<br />
<br />
marries. The separated wife consoles herself by<br />
falling in love, innocently, (?) with the Dean, who<br />
becomes a Bishop. The literary hack dies ; so<br />
does the separated wife. That seems to be all<br />
the story.<br />
<br />
The book, nevertheless, carries the reader along<br />
by its wealth of epigram and its clear sketches<br />
of persons and character, who have nothing what-<br />
ever to do with the thin thread of a story. The<br />
principal character is the separated wife. But,<br />
in fact, nobody has much to do with the story.<br />
<br />
Now, seeing that the author is distinctly very<br />
clever—seeing, besides, that she deliberately<br />
chooses fiction as her medium of expression, and,<br />
moreover, that she possesses, apparently, most of<br />
the qualities required to make a writer of the<br />
first class, would it not be well for her to treat<br />
her fiction seriously? The kind of thing that<br />
she has on three separate occasions put before us,<br />
is very pleasant reading ; it is pleasant because<br />
it is clever, but as fiction it is naught. The<br />
Art in it is the delineation of character by<br />
description without necessary incident, or by<br />
dialogue which does not forward or advance any<br />
kind of story. One would not propose seriously<br />
to such a writer that she should imitate anyone ;<br />
but there are a few simple rules in every work of<br />
Art; as that there should be a central thought,<br />
intention, or motif in the work; that characters<br />
should only be introduced which belong to that<br />
central intention; and that dialogue, description,<br />
incident, and everything should belong to that<br />
central intention. At present itis truly deli ehtful,<br />
and a man may read it twice through in an evening,<br />
and bubble and simmer gently over it like a<br />
kettle on the old-fashioned hob. Yet it isn’t<br />
Fiction. The writer, since she is so clever, has,<br />
perhaps, the right to do exactly what she pleases.<br />
‘And whatever she does she is sure to please.<br />
Yet—one cannot help thinking—there is such a<br />
thing as Art in Fiction, and these little books are<br />
not Art in Fiction.<br />
<br />
e———_——<br />
<br />
AN AMERICAN STATEMENT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TRCUMSTANCES are terrible tyrants ; and,<br />
they having forbidden me to take my<br />
humble place in the most noble Columbian<br />
<br />
Congress of representative women, and even from<br />
that session of it accorded to our gallant little<br />
band of recalcitrant authors, I have resolved<br />
nevertheless to have my say, though in writing—<br />
to tell my experience by proxy.<br />
<br />
I would like to take more time than can well<br />
be allowed ‘me. I would willingly preach a<br />
double-headed sermon—or one based on two<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
distinct texts, yet not without spiritual con-<br />
nection—namely, “ Put not your trust in pub-<br />
lishers!’”” ‘Train up your daughters in the way<br />
they should go, as—not for—business men.”<br />
<br />
Tn treating both texts, I should be compelled<br />
to stand forth as the “awful example.” I shrink<br />
with actual shame from revealing, as I must in a<br />
truthful statement, my own weakness, ignorance,<br />
and eternal verdancy in matters of business. I<br />
have been almost from the beginning of my book-<br />
making experience a meek sheared sheep —a<br />
bewildered, plucked goose, subject to all the<br />
inclemencies of the book markets and trade sales<br />
—Jost in “the ways that are dark ”—done for<br />
by “the tricks that are vain” of the masters of<br />
the Guild.<br />
<br />
Still, for the truth’s sake, and the good of<br />
younger writers, I have made up my mind to “a<br />
yound unvarnished tale deliver,” wherein I shall<br />
“naught extenuate, and naught set down in<br />
malice.”<br />
<br />
My first publishers, a distinguished Boston<br />
house, who took me up in 1850, perhaps spoiled<br />
me a little by their kindness. They were my<br />
personal friends, and fair and considerate, as<br />
publishers go. I was really very popular in those<br />
days, when clever young women, ambitious for<br />
literary honours, did not beset publishers in such<br />
ravenous hosts as office-seekers beset Congress-<br />
men now, and I don’t think that Messrs. Ticknor<br />
and Fields, who continued to publish for me some<br />
twenty-five years, lost by me at any time. But<br />
the house changed hands, and durmg my absence<br />
of a year in Europe, their successor, without con-<br />
sulting with me (a lordly way these potentates<br />
have), sold the plates of all my books, some fourteen<br />
volumes, to a certain New York publisher also<br />
distinguished, who, I was assured, would continue<br />
for me, keeping the books in the market, as far<br />
as possible, and paying me my royalty on all<br />
copies sold.<br />
<br />
T never received from this New York house<br />
one penny, nor was any account ever rendered,<br />
even of the copies printed, which were, I was told,<br />
sold with the plates. Had I not been crippled<br />
by some pecuniary losses, and discouraged by<br />
more serious illness, I should myself have bought<br />
the plates, and resumed the publication of at<br />
least the juvenile story-books, which were and<br />
are the most popular of my writings — my<br />
readers as they grew beyond them, kindly handed<br />
them down to children of a smaller growth. As<br />
it was, I had to let them remain in the hands of<br />
that very respectable concern, hoping always that<br />
they had “a good holt” on them, and would see<br />
their way to resume their publication and do<br />
justly by me. For generosity, I was not quite<br />
<br />
simple enough to look,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
“Tt never rains but it pours” disasters on the<br />
poor, unprotected female orphan-author.<br />
<br />
On my return from that visit abroad I ascer-<br />
tained that another New York house, which had<br />
published my two last volumes, bringing them<br />
out handsomely, and reporting good sales, had,<br />
in a stress of adverse fortune, sold, not only the<br />
plates of both books, but the copyrights. My<br />
copyrights! Still I did nothing. I did not see<br />
that I could do anything but harm others without<br />
benefiting myself. If before sailing for Europe,<br />
Thad intrusted my modest store of family plate<br />
to the care, left it in the hands of certain Boston<br />
and New York friends, and if on my return I<br />
had found that one party had pawned my paternal<br />
teapot, and the other party had sold my grand-<br />
mother’s spoons, I should have roundly declared<br />
that such conduct was mean, unjustifiable, abso-<br />
lutely dishonest, and ought to be looked into!<br />
But these gentlemen were publishers, respectable<br />
citizens, honourable men — “all honourable<br />
men.”<br />
<br />
During another, and prolonged visit to Europe,<br />
I was informed that a certain book-concern had<br />
exhumed the long-buried plates of my juvenile<br />
books, and were publishing them, in a cheap,<br />
much mixed up edition. I winced a little at the<br />
inelegant new dress of the Boston-born volumes,<br />
but was comforted somewhat by a modest<br />
royalty, which was regularly paid me, for two or<br />
three years, till that company failed, owing me<br />
several hundred dollars! This time, a court<br />
awarded me judgment for the amount due, but<br />
the sheriff reported that he could only collect<br />
sufficient from the wreck to pay his own fees!<br />
Still I believe the company soon revived, and<br />
went on as before—even better, lightened of its<br />
tiresome obligations.<br />
<br />
Then the big scoop-net of another big Book<br />
Company gathered up my poor little floating<br />
volumes. ‘T'o pacify me, who tearfully demanded<br />
my rights, they brought out a new edition, on<br />
which I bestowed a great amount of new work,<br />
and was beginning to receive something in the<br />
way of royalty when that stupendous publishing<br />
concern was suddenly wound-up or tied-up,<br />
leaving me again in the lurch. It was in debt to<br />
me, though not to such an extent as to have pre-<br />
cipitated the grand catastrophe.<br />
<br />
One or two of my volumes are in the hands of<br />
Tait, Sons, and Co. They are also New York<br />
publishers, and yet I have hope in their justice<br />
and fair dealings.<br />
<br />
“ Hope springs eternal in the human breast.”<br />
<br />
Since the failure of that gigantic book company,<br />
the Juggernaut of smaller publishing concerns,<br />
I have ascertained that they are publishing two<br />
additional volumes, bearing my name, one of<br />
<br />
129<br />
<br />
which I had heard of, and denounced to them as<br />
“a, piracy ’’—an early book, reprinted with a new<br />
title, the other was one on which I had received<br />
no royalty since the first year, when the payments<br />
were quite satisfactory.<br />
<br />
The other volume, wherein it is held I have no<br />
rights which a publisher is bound to respect, is a<br />
“ Life of Queen Victoria,” published by a certain,<br />
or uncertain, transitory firm. This firm dissolved<br />
partnership in 1884, since which time the remain-<br />
ing partner has given me no returns, vouchsafed<br />
me no account, though he did make to me, some<br />
four years after the dissolution of partnership,<br />
the astonishing statement (which I have in<br />
writing, as a curiosity in a business way) that<br />
he had destroyed his old account books so that<br />
he knew nothing of what was due to me, if any-<br />
thing, and had no way of finding out. He has,<br />
however, offered to sell me at a third of their<br />
cost (a considerable sum at that) the plates of<br />
the biography—a book which was certainly very<br />
well received by the public, both here and in<br />
England, and approved by the Royal Family, but<br />
the sale of which was injured by a gaudy style of<br />
binding and by exceptionally bad management.<br />
<br />
During the Jubilee year, however, it revived,<br />
and did well, as the party most concerned him-<br />
self admitted ; but not then, nor in any year since<br />
1884, has the value of one of the Queen’s own<br />
penny postage stamps been poured into my<br />
coffers by a grateful publisher. Still I doubt<br />
not but that in the eyes of his kind, he is an<br />
honourable man.<br />
<br />
“So are they all, all honourable men.”<br />
<br />
Grace GREENWOOD.<br />
<br />
Washington, May 16th, 1893.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HF following paragraph is taken from the<br />
Times :-—<br />
<br />
The seventieth birthday of Miss Yonge has been marked<br />
by a presentation to her from admirers in all parts of the<br />
world. An album containing 5000 autographs and criticisms<br />
of her writings was left on her birthday at her dwelling in<br />
the village of Otterbourne. On the front page is the fol-<br />
lowing inscription in an illuminated border :—‘ Charlotte<br />
Mary Yonge.—We offer our hearty congratulations on your<br />
seventieth birthday, and desire to express to you the great<br />
enjoyment that we have received from your writings, and<br />
our belief that they have done much good in this genera-<br />
tion. August 11, 1893.” Amongst the signatures are<br />
those of the Archbishop of York, the Earl of Selborne, the<br />
Marquis of Salisbury, Viscount Wolmer, the Bishops of<br />
London, Manchester, Salisbury, Chester, Bath and Wells,<br />
Chichester, Leicester, Reading, Southwell, Cape Town, Con-<br />
necticut, and St. Helena, Bishops Selwyn, Jenner, and Hob-<br />
<br />
<br />
130<br />
<br />
house, the Deans of Winchester, Windsor, and Salisbury,<br />
Canon Scott Holland, the Warden of Keble College, Mr.<br />
Balfour, and several members of Mr. Gladsdone’s family,<br />
besides the local clergy and gentry. The Queen of Italy<br />
sent a large photograph of herself, bearing her autograph and<br />
accompanied by a congratulatory note. Local presentations<br />
were made to Miss Yonge on the eve of her birthday.<br />
<br />
May we, too, members of an association<br />
honoured by the membership of Miss Charlotte<br />
Yonge, venture to add our congratulations and<br />
our best wishes for a long continuance of work<br />
from this accomplished hand? Great as have<br />
been the achievements of women in the world of<br />
fiction, it will be admitted by all that no one has<br />
surpassed Miss Charlotte Yonge in the lifelike<br />
reality of her characters, nor in the interest with<br />
which she can surround a group, a family, a<br />
little company of girls in whose lives there occurs<br />
no incident except, perhaps, the disturbing<br />
element of love. And certainly no one man or<br />
woman has done more than Miss Yonge for the<br />
Church of England, and for that part of the<br />
Church represented by the teachers of Miss<br />
Yonge’s youth, Keble and _ his friends. We<br />
may add that the type of gentlewoman, high-<br />
minded, pure, religious, charitable, artistic,<br />
delicate in speech and thought and manner,<br />
created by Miss Yonge, has done more to<br />
elevate the women of our middle class than<br />
anything else ever invented or taught Girls by<br />
the thousand have tried to reach that standard ;<br />
they have not, perhaps, quite succeeded, but the<br />
endeavour has transformed them. It is forty<br />
years since the “ Heir of Redclyffe ” captured the<br />
world. The author has held her own ever since<br />
that first success without a note of weariness or<br />
of “ writing out.” The world has nothing but<br />
praise and gratitude for this novelist. She has<br />
written nothing that she can herself regret or<br />
that the world would wish had never been written.<br />
Of what other living writer can so much be said ?<br />
And since her work is still so young and strong,<br />
we may hope for more and still for more.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Sir Edward Hamley is dead. Soldier, poli-<br />
tician, and novelist, had he been one instead of<br />
three, he might have made a greater mark. His<br />
“Lady Lee’s Widowhood”’ was the most success-<br />
ful thing he wrote. The “Story of the Cam-<br />
paign of Sebastopol,” ‘ Wellington’s Career,”<br />
the “ Operation of War,” ‘‘ Our Poor Relations,”<br />
and an Essay on Thomas Carlyle exhaust his<br />
literary baggage, unless we include work lying<br />
concealed in back numbers of Blackwood, which,<br />
for some reason, he was contented to leave there.<br />
Perhaps, now that he is dead, these papers of his<br />
will be collected.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
I see that a writer in the Sketch cannot agree<br />
with me as to the magnitude of the audience<br />
commanded by a popular author now compared<br />
with that enjoyed by Dickens. He says he will<br />
give figures. He then says that Dickens went<br />
into 30,000 copies, after which the copies could<br />
not be counted. Where are his figures, then?<br />
That is not reasoning by figures; therefore, now<br />
I will give my figures.<br />
<br />
The population of Great Britain and Ireland in<br />
1835 was 24,000,000. In 1893 it is 37,000,000.<br />
<br />
The population of the United States in 1835<br />
was 15,000,000. It is now 60,000,000, @.e., four<br />
times as great.<br />
<br />
The population of Australia was in 1835 nothing<br />
to speak of ; it is now 4,000,000.<br />
<br />
The white population of New Zealand in 1835<br />
was nothing at all; it is now nearly a million.<br />
<br />
The population of Canada in 1835 was about a<br />
million ; it is now six millions.<br />
<br />
The population of South Africa in 1835 was<br />
about 200,000; it has now reached a million.<br />
<br />
The population of India is about 250,000,000.<br />
In 1835 none of these people could read English,<br />
At the present moment there are hundreds of<br />
thousands who read English literature new and<br />
old.<br />
<br />
In other words, there were in 1835 about<br />
40,000,000 of English-speaking people. There are<br />
now, without counting the scattered islands and<br />
small settlements, about a hundred and ten<br />
millions, and will soon be a hundred and twenty<br />
millions. The number of possible readers has<br />
therefore trebled.<br />
<br />
But the proportion of readers to population has<br />
also enormously increased. The whole of England<br />
and Scotland now reads; the whole of the United<br />
States, except the negroes of the south ; the whole<br />
of Australia and New Zealand; the whole of<br />
Canada.<br />
<br />
Again, there were no free libraries at all in<br />
1835; there are now in Great Britain and<br />
America and the colonies about 4000. How<br />
many readers must be reckoned for one popular<br />
book before it falls to pieces? A thousand ?<br />
Thena single popular writer gets 4,000,000 readers<br />
for 4000 copies of his books.<br />
<br />
These are my figures ; and with them before me<br />
I have no hesitation whatever in saying that<br />
Dickens could not command a quarter—perhaps<br />
not an eighth—of the audience that one who<br />
successfully appeals to the popular imagination<br />
already commands—and that is nothing com-<br />
pared with the audience which he will command<br />
in a future by no means distant.<br />
<br />
——<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
I find that during my absence in America I<br />
have been the object of some delicate and<br />
appreciative courtesies from the delicate and<br />
courteous pen of Mr. Robert Buchanan in the<br />
Daily Chronicle, and, by an interesting coinci-<br />
cidence, at the same time, the subject of certain<br />
pages in Longman’s Magazine from the pen of<br />
Mr. Andrew Lang. It is not often that one can<br />
enjoy the privilege of coupling these two writers<br />
together. Indeed I never remember any instance<br />
before in which the opinions of Mr. Lang or his<br />
methods coincided with those of Mr. Buchanan.<br />
It would be interesting to discover, if one could,<br />
the mental process which could lead these two<br />
poets to this simultaneous attack—surely, a<br />
coincidence—upon the Society which does its best<br />
to maintain the interests of those who follow, as<br />
they themselves follow, literature as a profession.<br />
What Mr. Buchanan says, however, is what one<br />
expects from Mr. Buchanan. What Mr. Lang<br />
says is not what one expects from Mr. Lang. That<br />
is the main difference. For instance, one does<br />
not expect from Mr. Lang the perversion of words.<br />
“The writer in the Author,” says Mr. Lang,<br />
“ decides that there is a prejudice against literary<br />
men as against needy mendicants.”’ The writer<br />
in the Author did not decide anything of the<br />
kind: he lamented the fact of a prejudice. Mr.<br />
Lang then proceeds to alter his position. “We<br />
are,” he first said, “to sell our wares and there’s<br />
an end.” He now says “ we are to dispose of our<br />
wares toan advantage.” Very good. Thealtera-<br />
tion makes a considerable difference. Mr. Lang<br />
next points out, very justly, that a mendicant does<br />
not sell, but begs. He also pretends that in the<br />
Author begging and selling are confused. Of<br />
course they are not. But, unhappily, the history<br />
of our literature is full of begging. I have seen<br />
the most astonishing begging letters, borrowing<br />
letters, letters entreating for more money—an<br />
advance—a further advance—stiil more money.<br />
We do not wish the practice of mendicancy to<br />
continue; we desire that those who write shall<br />
learn that their material interests are not<br />
dependent on the caprice of a publisher, but on<br />
the demand of the public. We do say—what is<br />
perfectly true—that some writers in the past and<br />
in the present have been mendicants and are<br />
mendicants; that the thing degrades literature ;<br />
and that it can only be stopped when writers<br />
cease to think, or to speak, or to appeal to the<br />
“ generosity’ of the publisher.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lang says, further, “ we are dependent on<br />
the public, dependent for the commercial profits,<br />
but we are dependent on no other thing under<br />
Heaven.” Is it possible that any man who has<br />
ever written books could deliberately write such<br />
a sentence and believe it to be true? Dependent<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
131<br />
<br />
on the public? Why, if so, there would be<br />
nothing to be said. Authors would be indepen-<br />
dent. Observe that I say independent, not rich,<br />
or prosperous. They would be independent—poor,<br />
perhaps, which does not so much matter—but<br />
independent, which is the main thing. At<br />
present authors are dependent, all but a very<br />
few, on the publisher. There is no independence<br />
of authors save for this very small number. They<br />
are dependent on the publisher. They have got<br />
to go to the publisher and ask him on what terms<br />
he will consent to administrate their property.<br />
Why, if authors were only dependent on the<br />
public they would no longer—any of them—have<br />
to stand in the attitude of the needy mendicant<br />
with bending knees and bowing back, entreating<br />
the “ generosity ” of the men with the bag. The<br />
change from dependence upon the publisher to<br />
dependence upon the public is the one great end<br />
and aim of all our efforts—the end and aim which<br />
have aroused the indignation of these two poets.<br />
Mind—not the abolition of the publisher at all,<br />
but the establishment of systematic and recog-<br />
nised methods of publishing. Consider. A man<br />
has a book. He now takes it to a publisher, or a<br />
publishing company, or a religious society. He<br />
endeavours, as Mr. Lang advises, to “ dispose of<br />
his wares to an advantage.’’ He wants, perhaps,<br />
to sell. He is offered a sum of money ; he knows<br />
not why this sum, or that sum, or any other sum<br />
should be offered ; he has to take that sum because,<br />
you see, a man cannot go hawking literary wares<br />
about; he cannot; he is ashamed ; he takes that<br />
sum. Or, if he tries to get better terms—on<br />
what grounds is he to base his objection?<br />
Because the book will fetch much more in the<br />
market? No; because this he does not under-<br />
stand, and it is not explained to him; he must<br />
depend upon the “ generosity ” of the publisher.<br />
According to the old ideas—which are still<br />
struggling for existence—what a publisher gave<br />
for a book was prompted by his mood of the<br />
moment, without the least reference to the com-<br />
mercial value of the book! And this is what<br />
Mr. Lang calls being dependent on the public!<br />
Or, say that he does not wish to “ sell his wares.”<br />
Then he is offered some kind of royalty, and<br />
an agreement is placed before him which he is<br />
called upon to sign blindly, without the least<br />
inquiry into the meaning of the royalty or the<br />
proportion of his own estate which he gives up<br />
to his partner or his agent, as the case may be.<br />
Nor is he ever told what proportion he is<br />
receiving for this concession of the sole per-<br />
manent administration of his estate.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lang says that he does not dispute the<br />
existence of literary property. He assumes, how-<br />
ever, that the average author knows what it<br />
<br />
<br />
130<br />
<br />
house, the Deans of Winchester, Windsor, and Salisbury,<br />
Canon Scott Holland, the Warden of Keble College, Mr.<br />
Balfour, and several members of Mr. Gladsdone’s family,<br />
besides the local clergy and gentry. The Queen of Italy<br />
sent a large photograph of herself, bearing her autograph and<br />
accompanied by a congratulatory note. Local presentations<br />
were made to Miss Yonge on the eve of her birthday.<br />
<br />
May we, too, members of an association<br />
honoured by the membership of Miss Charlotte<br />
Yonge, venture to add our congratulations and<br />
our best wishes for a long continuance of work<br />
from this accomplished hand? Great as have<br />
been the achievements of women in the world of<br />
fiction, it will be admitted by all that no one has<br />
surpassed Miss Charlotte Yonge in the lifelike<br />
reality of her characters, nor in the interest with<br />
which she can surround a group, a family, a<br />
little company of girls in whose lives there occurs<br />
no incident except, perhaps, the disturbing<br />
element of love. And certainly no one man or<br />
woman has done more than Miss Yonge for the<br />
Church of England, and for that part of the<br />
Church represented by the teachers of Miss<br />
Yonge’s youth, Keble and _ his friends. We<br />
may add that the type of gentlewoman, hirgh-<br />
minded, pure, religious, charitable, artistic,<br />
delicate in speech and thought and manner,<br />
created by Miss Yonge, has done more to<br />
elevate the women of our middle class than<br />
anything else ever invented or taught Girls by<br />
the thousand have tried to reach that standard ;<br />
they have not, perhaps, quite succeeded, but the<br />
endeavour has transformed them. It is forty<br />
years since the “ Heir of Redclyffe”’ captured. the<br />
world. The author has held her own ever since<br />
that first success without a note of weariness or<br />
of “ writing out.” The world has nothing but<br />
praise and gratitude for this novelist. She has<br />
written nothing that she can herself regret or<br />
that the world would wish had never been written.<br />
Of what other living writer can so much be said ?<br />
And since her work is still so young and strong,<br />
we may hope for more and still for more.<br />
<br />
——<br />
<br />
Sir Edward Hamley is dead. Soldier, poli-<br />
tician, and novelist, had he been one instead of<br />
three, he might have made a greater mark. His<br />
“Lady Lee’s Widowhood”’ was the most success-<br />
ful thing he wrote. The “Story of the Cam-<br />
paign of Sebastopol,” ‘“ Wellington’s Career,”<br />
the “ Operation of War,” ‘‘ Our Poor Relations,”<br />
and an Essay on Thomas Carlyle exhaust his<br />
literary baggage, unless we include work lying<br />
concealed in back numbers of Blackwood, which,<br />
for some reason, he was contented to leave there.<br />
Perhaps, now that he is dead, these papers of his<br />
will be collected.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
I see that a writer in the Sketch cannot agree<br />
with me as to the magnitude of the audience<br />
commanded by a popular author now compared<br />
with that enjoyed by Dickens. He says he will<br />
give figures. He then says that Dickens went<br />
into 30,000 copies, after which the copies could<br />
not be counted. Where are his figures, then?<br />
That is not reasoning by figures; therefore, now<br />
I will give my figures.<br />
<br />
The population of Great Britain and Ireland in<br />
1835 was 24,000,000. In 1893 it is 37,000,000.<br />
<br />
The population of the United States in 1835<br />
was 15,000,000. It is now 60,000,000, z.e., four<br />
times as great.<br />
<br />
The population of Australia was in 1835 nothing<br />
to speak of ; it is now 4,000,000,<br />
<br />
The white population of New Zealand in 1835<br />
was nothing at all; it is now nearly a million.<br />
<br />
The population of Canada in 1835 was about a<br />
million ; it is now six millions.<br />
<br />
The population of South Africa in 1835 was<br />
about 200,000; it has now reached a million.<br />
<br />
The population of India is about 250,000,000.<br />
In 1835 none of these people could read English.<br />
At the present moment there are hundreds of<br />
thousands who read English literature new and<br />
old.<br />
<br />
In other words, there were in 1835 about<br />
40,000,000 of English-speaking people. There are<br />
now, without counting the scattered islands and<br />
small settlements, about a hundred and ten<br />
millions, and will soon be a hundred and twenty<br />
millions. The number of possible readers has<br />
therefore trebled.<br />
<br />
But the proportion of readers to population has<br />
also enormously increased. The whole of England<br />
and Scotland now reads; the whole of the United<br />
States, except the negroes of the south ; the whole<br />
of Australia and New Zealand; the whole of<br />
Canada.<br />
<br />
Again, there were no free libraries at all in<br />
1835; there are now in Great Britain and<br />
America and the colonies about 4000. How<br />
many readers must be reckoned for one popular<br />
book before it falls to pieces? A thousand ?<br />
Thena single popular writer gets 4,000,000 readers<br />
for 4000 copies of his books.<br />
<br />
These are my figures ; and with them before me<br />
I have no hesitation whatever in saying that<br />
Dickens could not command a quarter—perhaps<br />
not an eighth—of the audience that one who<br />
successfully appeals to the popular imagination<br />
already commands—and that is nothing com-<br />
pared with the audience which he will command<br />
in a future by no means distant,<br />
<br />
=e<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
fied Ef<br />
<br />
Poy 52<br />
<br />
i<br />
<br />
Ge. ce<br />
<br />
bo<br />
<br />
=o<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
I find that during my absence in America I<br />
have been the object of some delicate and<br />
appreciative courtesies from the delicate and<br />
courteous pen of Mr. Robert Buchanan in the<br />
Daily Chronicle, and, by an interesting coinci-<br />
cidence, at the same time, the subject of certain<br />
pages in Longman’s Magazine from the pen of<br />
Mr. Andrew Lang. It is not often that one can<br />
enjoy the privilege of coupling these two writers<br />
together. Indeed I never remember any instance<br />
before in which the opinions of Mr. Lang or his<br />
methods coincided with those of Mr. Buchanan.<br />
It would be interesting to discover, if one could,<br />
the mental process which could lead these two<br />
poets to this simultaneous attack—surely, a<br />
coincidence—upon the Society which does its best<br />
to maintain the interests of those who follow, as<br />
they themselves follow, literature as a profession.<br />
What Mr. Buchanan says, however, is what one<br />
expects from Mr. Buchanan. What Mr. Lang<br />
says is not what one expects from Mr. Lang. That<br />
is the main difference. For instance, one does<br />
not expect from Mr. Lang the perversion of words.<br />
“The writer in the Author,” says Mr. Lang,<br />
“ decides that there is a prejudice against literary<br />
men as against needy mendicants.” The writer<br />
in the Author did not decide anything of the<br />
kind: he lamented the fact of a prejudice. Mr.<br />
Lang then proceeds to alter his position. ‘“ We<br />
are,” he first said, “to sell our wares and there’s<br />
an end.” He now says “ we are to dispose of our<br />
wares toan advantage.” Very good. Thealtera-<br />
tion makes a considerable difference. Mr. Lang<br />
next points out, very justly, that a mendicant does<br />
not sell, but begs. He also pretends that in the<br />
Author begging and selling are confused. Of<br />
course they are not. But, unhappily, the history<br />
of our literature is full of begging. I have seen<br />
the most astonishing begging letters, borrowing<br />
letters, letters entreating for more money—an<br />
advance—a further advance—stiil more money.<br />
We do not wish the practice of mendicancy to<br />
continue; we desire that those who write shall<br />
learn that their material interests are not<br />
dependent on the caprice of a publisher, but on<br />
the demand of the public. We do say—what is<br />
perfectly true—that some writers in the past and<br />
im the present have been mendicants and are<br />
mendicants; that the thing degrades literature ;<br />
and that it can only be stopped when writers<br />
cease to think, or to speak, or to appeal to the<br />
“ generosity ’ of the publisher.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lang says, further, “we are dependent on<br />
the public, dependent for the commercial profits,<br />
but we are dependent on no other thing under<br />
Heaven.” Is it possible that any man who has<br />
ever written books could deliberately write such<br />
a sentence and believe it to be true? Dependent<br />
<br />
131<br />
<br />
on the public? Why, if so, there would be<br />
nothing to be said. Authors would be indepen-<br />
dent. Observe that I say independent, not rich,<br />
or prosperous. They would be independent—poor,<br />
perhaps, which does not so much matter—but<br />
independent, which is the main thing. At<br />
present authors are dependent, all but a very<br />
few, on the publisher. There is no independence<br />
of authors save for this very small number. They<br />
are dependent on the publisher. They have got<br />
to go to the publisher and ask him on what terms<br />
he will consent to administrate their property.<br />
Why, if authors were only dependent on the<br />
public they would no longer—any of them—have<br />
to stand in the attitude of the needy mendicant<br />
with bending knees and bowing back, entreating<br />
the “ generosity ” of the men with the bag. The<br />
change from dependence upon the publisher to<br />
dependence upon the public is the one great end<br />
and aim of all our efforts—the end and aim which<br />
have aroused the indignation of these two poets.<br />
Mind—not the abolition of the publisher at all,<br />
but the establishment of systematic and recog-<br />
nised methods of publishing. Consider. A man<br />
has a book. He now takes it to a publisher, or a<br />
publishing company, or a religious society. He<br />
endeavours, as Mr. Lang advises, to “ dispose of<br />
his wares to an advantage.’ He wants, perhaps,<br />
to sell, He is offered a sum of money ; he knows<br />
not why this sum, or that sum, or any other sum<br />
should be offered ; he has to take that sum because,<br />
you see, a man cannot go hawking literary wares<br />
about; he cannot; he is ashamed; he takes that<br />
sum. Or, if he tries to get better terms—on<br />
what grounds is he to base his objection?<br />
Because the book will fetch much more in the<br />
market? No; because this he does not under-<br />
stand, and it is not explained to him; he must<br />
depend upon the “ generosity ” of the publisher.<br />
According to the old ideas—which are still<br />
struggling for existence—what a publisher gave<br />
for a book was prompted by his mood of the<br />
moment, without the least reference to the com-<br />
mercial value of the book! And this is what<br />
Mr. Lang calls being dependent on the public!<br />
Or, say that he does not wish to “ sell his wares.”<br />
Then he is offered some kind of royalty, and<br />
an agreement is placed before him which he is<br />
called upon to sign blindly, without the least<br />
inquiry into the meaning of the royalty or the<br />
proportion of his own estate which he gives up<br />
to his partner or his agent, as the case may be.<br />
Nor is he ever told what proportion he is<br />
receiving for this concession of the sole per-<br />
manent administration of his estate.<br />
<br />
Mr, Lang says that he does not dispute the<br />
existence of literary property. He assumes, how-<br />
ever, that the average author knows what it<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
132<br />
<br />
means. For he depicts the author saying airily,<br />
as one strong in the possession of full and<br />
accurate knowledge. ‘‘ You offer me too much<br />
or too little”? But the author must know<br />
what literary property means, else how should he<br />
be able to say “too much” or “too little P”<br />
Before he can say this, the author must know<br />
(1) the cost of printing, paper, binding, cor-<br />
rections, advertisements—all the details which<br />
o to the manufacture of a book; (2) the price<br />
of the book to the trade; (3) the probable<br />
circulation of the book; (4) the fair proportion<br />
of the proceeds between publisher and author.<br />
With this knowledge the author is certainly able<br />
to say “too much” or “too little.” Without<br />
that knowledge he cannot, as a wise man, say<br />
anything at all.<br />
<br />
The working man, with whom Mr. Lang<br />
compares the literary man, sells his wares for<br />
what he can—but with a difference. For the<br />
working man, dependent on the master trades-<br />
man, has his Union, which, in a rough and ready<br />
way, does regulate prices. We have no such<br />
union; we are like the working man as he was ; we<br />
are dependent upon the publisher. Our depen-<br />
dence is mitigated, it is true, by the competition<br />
between publishers, and that 1s doubtless a very<br />
great thing, but. still the author is dependent<br />
upon the publisher.<br />
<br />
The position we have always maintained cannot<br />
be too often repeated :<br />
<br />
1, A book may be a very considerable property.<br />
<br />
2. An author should recognise this possibility,<br />
and should be as careful in the disposition of<br />
this kind of property, as he is in the disposition<br />
of any other kind of property.<br />
<br />
_ ‘He must ascertain for himself, or learn from<br />
others, what the administration of such property<br />
means, namely, what are the expenses incurred,<br />
and what are, or may be, the returns realised.<br />
<br />
4. He must not sign away any rights unless he<br />
knows exactly what these rights mean.<br />
<br />
“How,” asks Mr. Lang, “can a hundred<br />
Congresses at Chicago secure these conditions ”—<br />
i.e., of independence for the author ?<br />
<br />
The author’s independence will be secured for<br />
him from the moment that his pay—the com-<br />
mercial side of his work—is put, once for all, on<br />
such a footing of recognised terms and propor-<br />
tions as will make him absolutely independent of<br />
the publisher and dependent solely on the public,<br />
as a physician, or a barrister, or an architect, or<br />
a solicitor, is independent. This can be done,<br />
and will be done, by the arrival at an understand-<br />
ing between honourable publishers and leading<br />
writers. Whatever understanding this may be, it<br />
must rest upon the basis of the demand for a<br />
book by the public. Our efforts have been all<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
along directed to showing the literary profession<br />
the meaning of their property so that they may<br />
see the necessity of coming to such an under-<br />
standing.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lang does his best—Mr. Buchanan does<br />
his best—to retard this most desirable condition<br />
of things ; the former by representing the author as<br />
already, and actually, dependent upon the public<br />
alone; and by supposing him already possessed<br />
of so much technical knowledge as to enable him<br />
to know what he should receive for an unpublished<br />
book, The latter does his little best to darken<br />
counsel by prating foolishness about Literature<br />
and Luere. When we do come to that attempt,<br />
however, I have hopes that we may find Mr.<br />
Andrew Lang in the conference—or congress— OF<br />
committee—or meeting. Mr. Buchanan, I am sure<br />
—that is, I hope and trust—will not be present.<br />
Meantime we are not dependent on the public<br />
—no—no—a thousand times No—we are depen-<br />
dent on the publishers, which is the reason why<br />
some of us dispose of our wares through the<br />
agency of a third person.<br />
<br />
And as to those material interests which are<br />
so sordid .to the Scottish bard —I mean Mr.<br />
Buchanan—let us take courage and go on safe-<br />
guarding them and so degrading Literature with<br />
Lucre, in the company of Scott, Byron, Dickens,<br />
Thackeray, Reade, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot,<br />
Tennyson, and a goodly number of living men<br />
and women into whose company it is an honour<br />
and a distinction to be received.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I cut the following from an American paper,<br />
I wonder how many of our readers know anything<br />
about Mr. FitzJames O’Brien :—<br />
<br />
That reminds me of a story told about FitzJames<br />
O’Brien and Fletcher Harper, then the head of the Harper<br />
publishing house. O’Brien had a habit of always finding<br />
his way down to the Harper office when he was unsteady,<br />
as you call it, and borrowing money. One day the poet<br />
went down to Franklin-square and begged Fletcher Harper<br />
to let him have 25 dollars. Harper refused, and this made<br />
O’Brien mad. He swore around, and finally seeing a large<br />
placard with “ Livingstone’s Africa ”’ printed on one side,<br />
he took it, turned it over, and on the blank side drew in<br />
large black letters the words :<br />
<br />
“ One of Harper’s Authors.<br />
T am starving.”<br />
<br />
Before any one was aware of his intention, O’Brien had<br />
attached a string to the cardboard, hung it about his neck,<br />
walked down to the street, and was parading up and down<br />
before the publishing-house. Of course, a large crowd<br />
<br />
gathered, but O’Brien was obdurate against all entreaties.<br />
“Won't stop till I get some money from Harper,” said he,<br />
and he didn’t.<br />
A compromise was effected through the medium of a<br />
5-dollar bill, and O’Brien went on his way for that day.<br />
<br />
FitzJames O’Brien, poet, journalist, story-<br />
teller, and politician, was an Trishman by birth.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
emai<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Pte ee<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
He was born in 1828, and in 1852, after a brief<br />
career in London, he went to America, where he<br />
lived and wrote till the outbreak of the Civil<br />
War. He joined the Army of the North, and<br />
was killed in action in the year 1862. This is<br />
the brief record of a man possessed of a rare<br />
genius. Some of his short stories have been<br />
collected and published in this country (Ward<br />
and Downey, 1887), but none of his verses, so far<br />
as I know. The collection of stories is called<br />
“The Diamond Lens.” I do not know whether<br />
they have become popular, but they deserve a<br />
very wide popularity.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
There is a magazine in the United States—L<br />
believe it is newly started—which is founded for<br />
the purpose of publishing MSS. “rejected by<br />
publishers” —or editors—which? This invaluable<br />
journal will be called Happenchance.<br />
<br />
It will probably be followed by the foundation<br />
of another magazine to contain articles rejected<br />
by Happenchance. This will be called Happen-<br />
chance-by-luck. Then a third magazine will be<br />
founded for articles rejected by Happen-chance-<br />
by-luck. This will be called Happenchance-by-<br />
luck-and-lottery. Others will follow, and there<br />
is no limit possible to the series, each an advance<br />
upon its predecessor in literary excellence.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
After the iron has entered your soul, try it on your<br />
manuscript. In other words, when an unappreciative<br />
editor has returned your contribution with the paper<br />
creased by folding, so that it has a worn and weary look,<br />
take it to the kitchen, get Mary to give you a hot flat-iron,<br />
and iron the offending creases out. Then send the manu-<br />
script out again.<br />
<br />
The preceding is from the Writer, an American<br />
paper. Everybody who remembers the Days of<br />
Rejection—who does not ?—must acknowledge the<br />
appropriateness of the adjectives, the ‘‘ worn and<br />
weary ” look of the unlucky MS. returning once<br />
more unsuccessful. It has a guilty look as well<br />
—an ashamed and guilty look. Perhaps the hot<br />
iron may restore its self-respect as well as its<br />
early freshness.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The bogus publisher is with the Americans as<br />
wellas with us. His methods are apparently the<br />
same there as here. His reader returns a highly-<br />
flattering opinion of the MS., and the publisher,<br />
wholly influenced, of course, by this disinterested<br />
reader, who is a noble Patron of Literature,<br />
makes what he calls a ‘“ highly advantageous ”<br />
offer : ‘You to pay us the sum of so much—one-<br />
half the cost of publishing—we to produce the<br />
book, &¢., and the proceeds to be divided equally<br />
between us.” And there never are any pro-<br />
ceeds, and the unlucky author finds at the end<br />
<br />
133<br />
<br />
that he has paid the whole, instead of the half of<br />
the cost, with something over. The following is<br />
from the Writer :<br />
<br />
While reading in the Writer for April, 1892, the article<br />
entitled ‘Shall Writers Combine,’ by John Bancroft, I<br />
determined to tell you my ‘tale of woe.” In November,<br />
1890, seeing the advertisement of the Welch-Fracker Com-<br />
pany, I determined to put a book manuscript of humorous<br />
sketches, entitled ‘‘ Mirandy and Dan’el,” into their hands.<br />
If they thought it worth publication, I would see what<br />
arrangements could be made. I had written quitea number<br />
of these sketches for the Burlington Hawkeye. After the<br />
very flattering comments of the Welch-Fracker reader, I<br />
decided to allow publication. J. L. Waite, of the Hawkeye,<br />
wrote an able introduction for the forthcoming book. The<br />
proof was sent to me for correction, and the contract be-<br />
tween us was that the book was tobe sent out May 6, 1891,<br />
I to send check for the 300 dollars—one-half of the expense<br />
of publishing—that day. I fulfilled my part of the agree-<br />
ment, but, alas for the honour of that firm ! the firm, money,<br />
manuscript—all have disappeared, and I am left, without<br />
either. I took every precaution, and was referred to Hon.<br />
Francis Sessions, of Ohio, and he wrote me that he had<br />
found the Welch-Fracker Company all right. But since<br />
his decease, I have been informed that before his death, he,<br />
too, found them unreliable. Yes, it is quite time there was<br />
some plan by which an author may save his money and<br />
manuscripts from such misfortune.<br />
<br />
Maria M. Van DERVEER.<br />
<br />
Long Branch City, N.J.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
All the American magazines do not come over<br />
here; there is for instance, Godey’s, which has<br />
been running for sixty-three years, as long as<br />
any of the English monthlies except the Gentle-<br />
man and Blackwood. Ifound it in America, and<br />
looked at a number, and was rewarded with a<br />
pleasant and well written story, called “ Judy<br />
Robinson-Milliner,” by Lee C. Harby. It is a<br />
story of American life— quite through and<br />
through American—and therefore, perhaps, the<br />
more interesting to me after seeing something—a<br />
little—of American ways. There was also in the<br />
number a paper on Francis Saltus, musician,<br />
composer, dramatist, linguist, traveller, and poet.<br />
He wrote ten complete operas, and over a<br />
thousand pieces of music. Whether he was a<br />
great musician or not I know not. That he<br />
was not a great poet is obvious from the<br />
specimens given; but that he was a real, though<br />
a minor, poet seems certain. The paper conveys<br />
the impression of a richly gifted nature and of<br />
wide and singular abilities and activities. He<br />
died at the age of forty.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The verses of the minor singers are sometimes<br />
pleasant to read. Here and there among the<br />
rhymes and the thoughts, and the lines dragged<br />
in for the rhyme, are phrases that strike the eye.<br />
“DPD. M. B.” sends me a small volume of verse<br />
called ‘‘ London Sketches,” published at Maid-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
134<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
stone—the bard must be very modest who does<br />
not publish in London, where the writer, like so<br />
many others, finds his inspiration. There is<br />
sometimes—not always—the real ring about<br />
“TD. M. B’s” verses. For instance:<br />
The light is low ;<br />
The sea to night is like a silver lake ;<br />
The weary reapers harvest fields forsake,<br />
And homeward go—<br />
Till I alone<br />
Am left with the young moon and the still sea ;<br />
The green bents shimmering along the lea<br />
In one grey tone.<br />
No burning glow<br />
Of sunset glory changing grey to gold,<br />
But cloudless opal—clear and crystal cold<br />
The shadows grow.<br />
Alone I stand<br />
Within the magic of the northern light,<br />
While all my senses seek a southern night<br />
When shining sand<br />
And deep blue wave<br />
Are whispering to another soft and sweet ;<br />
Our spirits in the twilight stillness meet,<br />
And meeting—save<br />
For this brief hour<br />
All heartache and all yearning of the day,<br />
Soothing and tender—soon to pass away<br />
In night’s dark power.<br />
The light is gone:<br />
The sea is toneless and as quiet as fate.<br />
The moon and I, we are not desolate,<br />
Though all alone.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
There was anarticle in the Speaker a week or<br />
two ago with which there was little to disagree,<br />
pleading, as it did, that the reason why books do<br />
not succeed lies with the public and not with the<br />
publisher. But who ever said otherwise ? What<br />
man in his senses could possibly suppose that a<br />
publisher would not “boom” everyone of his<br />
books if he could? What was the good of<br />
advancing such a self evident proposition? I<br />
only notice the paper here because of the use<br />
made of my name. I am told that I “ will not<br />
see it”—see, that is, that a certain amount of<br />
work is produced which is “too delicate, too<br />
imaginative, or too bizarre” to please the public.<br />
I do see it, and I also know under what circum-<br />
stances and conditions this kind of work is<br />
produced. I know, in fact, what the writer of<br />
this article advances as a new thing, that pub-<br />
lishing is a business. The writer then pretends<br />
that I “dream of the time when thousands<br />
of royalty-paid writers will be reeling off<br />
high-class works of fiction for the millions<br />
of English speaking readers.” Where did he<br />
find that dream? My dream is of a much simpler<br />
and more practical kind. It is of a time, not far<br />
off, when a popular writer of English—there can<br />
never be more than two or three at a time—will<br />
command an audience of as many millions as<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Dickens had thousands, or Fielding hundreds.<br />
Having thus made me say what I have never said,<br />
this truthful person adds, “ Yet Mr. Besant paints<br />
the public with a halo round its great stupid head,<br />
and puts a lily in its horny hand.” Where have<br />
T executed this remarkable work of art? From<br />
what words, metaphorically, can the writer justify<br />
this statement? He cannot. But of course it is<br />
“all ofa piece.” The Society can only be attacked<br />
by misrepresentation, Therefore those who<br />
attack it must misrepresent.<br />
<br />
A circular has been sent me stating the in-<br />
tention of erecting a bust of Lord Tennyson in<br />
the Abbey, for which permission has been granted<br />
by the Dean. It is believed that the bust will<br />
cost £300. The circular is signed by the Duke<br />
of Argyll. Subscriptions will be received by Mr.<br />
G. L. Craik, at Messrs. Macmillan’s, Bedford.<br />
Street.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The books of the month are the new edition<br />
after more than twenty years, of Mrs. Webster's<br />
“ Portraits”; “ Selections” from the same poet’s<br />
verse; and Forrest’s ‘‘ History of the Indian<br />
Mutiny.” One notes also Mr. Le Gallienne’s<br />
“Poems of Arthur Hallam,” It seems as if this<br />
book had been wanting all along to supplement<br />
the works of Tennyson.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
There is a field for the novelist, almost new, in<br />
the West Indian Islands. A young writer, Mr.<br />
W.R. H. Trowbridge, is attempting this field.<br />
He sends me a book of sketches and stories called<br />
‘Gossip of the Caribbees,” published in New<br />
York; Ihave read it with considerable interest<br />
and pleasure. I mention it here because he tells<br />
me that itis about to appear in this country. I<br />
hope it will meet with a kindly reception. The<br />
workmanship is good for a beginner—promising<br />
for the future—and the people and the scenes are<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
novel. Water Besant. ©<br />
sec<br />
FEUILLETON.<br />
L<br />
<br />
CoNFESSIONS OF A CRITIC.<br />
<br />
BEGIN with a letter. A letter written ina<br />
bold round hand, full of character, and<br />
evidently connected with a firm wrist.<br />
<br />
Nothing has ever amazed me so much as that<br />
letter. It came from an unknown lady, who told<br />
me that she was the secretary of a women’s<br />
literary society. The members, she said, num-<br />
bered twenty-four damsels, whose ages began at<br />
<br />
ea reread<br />
oe SS :<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
me<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
nineteen and left off at twenty-five. They were<br />
pledged, by the rules of this society, to submit<br />
twelve manuscript stories each month—that is,<br />
one manuscript per member per two months—to<br />
a critic, whose business it was to point out defects,<br />
encourage good qualities, reprimand eccentricities<br />
of style, grammar, and composition, and endea-<br />
vour to make himself generally useful. The<br />
honorarium for these benefits was represented by<br />
the symbol zero. It was all for love—naturally<br />
love—and nothing for reward.<br />
<br />
Now, the presiding critic had come to the con-<br />
clusion that he had bestowed sufficient largess<br />
upon this club by the simple method of unpaid<br />
services. He therefore retired. Some kind friend<br />
advised the secretary to invite me to try on the<br />
empty shoes. He said I was a benevolent, com-<br />
passionate, genial soul, and ready at all times to<br />
succour the friendless. Hence the secretary’s<br />
letter, setting forth the foregome facts. The<br />
letter ended by saying that the burning hearts of<br />
the society were quivering for my answer. If I<br />
should comply with their secretary’s request, how<br />
grateful—and so on. If I should decline—but<br />
then it was not possible for so kindly a heart as<br />
mine to think of declining.<br />
<br />
I looked this communication squarely in the<br />
face. It asked me to instruct a school of ladies<br />
in the art of letters. It meant that I must teach<br />
them composition, scheme, technique, develop-<br />
ment, plot, counterplot, the difference between<br />
marionettes and human beings, conversation,<br />
repartee, a general insight into the ways and<br />
manners of all grades of society, geography<br />
(including the use of the globes), history (omit-<br />
ting, perhaps, the times of the Jacobites), and—<br />
but that would be sufficient for the present.<br />
Whether or not I could claim to be sufficient for<br />
these things was a question which passed me by,<br />
because of the dazzling halo around the title of<br />
critic. Oh, to be a critic! To possess the un-<br />
limited power of slanging—even as one’s self had<br />
been slanged. To know the luxury of ripping<br />
things to pieces. To be the happy owner of a<br />
thick blue pencil, warranted to obliterate choice<br />
bits with such a mark as should defy the attack<br />
of any yet known ink-eraser. Then to be able to<br />
write a critique, with a pen of pity and a hand of<br />
scorn. To realise the joy of gibbetting slips of<br />
the memory, venial errors, little flights of fancy<br />
betokening the first faint flutter of unfledged<br />
wings—yet giving promise of a bolder and more<br />
successful power. ‘ Revenge, revenge! ” Timo-<br />
theus cried; and so did I. I accepted the post<br />
of critic, and lay in wait for manuscripts. I was<br />
not asked to review—only to criticise. And<br />
there was no pay attached to my office, eh?<br />
Very well!<br />
<br />
135<br />
<br />
The manuseripts came ; twelve maiden stories<br />
told upon sheets of virgin white ; no erasures, no<br />
blots; fair as an unblemished snowdrift recently<br />
liberated from a glass case. Well, two or three<br />
were very bad. Some of them, with a little<br />
dressing, might have found a home in this or<br />
that magazine. All of them smacked of remi-<br />
niscences: of Dickens, of Victor Hugo, of Zola,<br />
Ouida, Girton, Newnham, Somerville Hall. But<br />
I missed some old friends. Not a single hero was<br />
described as a Greek god; neither were his ivory<br />
limbs—indistinctly observable through the lining<br />
of his pantaloons—tinged with the roseate hues<br />
of conscious integrity. It grieved me to see that<br />
there was nothing of this sort of thing. More-<br />
over, I was disgusted to find that no heroine<br />
hurled herself into the arms of her lover before<br />
she had known him for at least a week. In fact<br />
there was nothing for a critic to lay hold of<br />
which could afford him any real delight. True,<br />
there were errors of judgment, style, motive,<br />
and the happy-go-lucky deviation into reverie so<br />
dear to the unmasculine mind. But whatever<br />
there was of fault only required a little snipping<br />
and trimming; and of what use is a critic with-<br />
out his steam hammer ?<br />
<br />
This question vexed me, until Madam Con-<br />
science paid me a visit. Said she, “ You were<br />
once an ignorant fool. I have not observed that<br />
any other title rightly belongs to you now.<br />
When you were prevailed upon to submit your<br />
manuscript to a really qualified opinion—because<br />
I asked you to deduct 75 per cent. from the<br />
opinion of your friends—you approached to<br />
reason and sanity as nearly as I ever remember.<br />
The Authors’ Society helped you and sent your<br />
trash to a reader who knew things. When it<br />
came back, with a criticism pinned to the corner,<br />
you called the reader a dolt, a booby, a fraud, a<br />
know-nothing, a make-believe, a _ blind-eyed<br />
ignoramus, a fellow, a person who could not<br />
recognise a good thing when he sawit. Oh, yes,<br />
you did. I heard you. But why? Because he<br />
was a wise andtalented man. You raved against<br />
a student and a scholar, because you were<br />
neither. I, who know you better than you know<br />
yourself, recognise in the hard names you called<br />
him a-splendid description of yourself. But for<br />
the gentle nature of that reader, he might easily<br />
have chopped you into little bits. And now---<br />
what are you going to do with these manu-<br />
scripts P”’<br />
<br />
If anybody has ever studied the gingerly,<br />
leisurely, daintily-fluffy, don’t-ye-mind-me-dear<br />
kind of fashion in which an old hen lets herself<br />
down upon a newly-hatched brood of chickens,<br />
he will understand the qualities which charac-<br />
terised me as the critic of this Ladies’ Literary<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
136<br />
<br />
Society. I even went so far as to offer the secre-<br />
tary —after I had despatched the first lot of<br />
criticisms—the few scattered locks of hair still<br />
left to me for submission to the vengeance of the<br />
members. Further, and as a lover of fair play,<br />
I wrote a story, and invited the members to<br />
criticise it. The result was to enlarge my<br />
vocabulary of phrases ; because all the criticisms<br />
were tentative. Asthus: “Don’t you think the<br />
story—very good as a whole—would run better<br />
if,” &¢e; “How would it be if you made the<br />
story run upon this sort of line,” &c.; “I ques-<br />
tion if a girl, under similar circumstances, would,’<br />
&e.; “The whole thing might be improved,<br />
perhaps, if,” &c.<br />
<br />
So that the sweet solicitude of Woman taught<br />
me how to stand in the position of other people.<br />
T understood the Power of Sympathy. It is<br />
better to tickle than to thump in a case of this<br />
kind, A critic may bang an author back into<br />
his shell; but he may, with a little trouble,<br />
wheedle him out of it, and cause him to exhibit<br />
his proportions. Evena peacock will expand his<br />
beautiful tail if you but whistle softly to him.<br />
And I take no merit to myself in the last<br />
confession that I am still the critic of a Ladies’<br />
Literary Society, whose members have taught me<br />
how to see with their own eyes.<br />
<br />
Bennett Coue.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I.<br />
A Moprrn Comepy (?).<br />
(Enacted Daily.)<br />
<br />
Scene: Fleet-street. A large shop, bearing on<br />
the signboard the announcement “ Furniture<br />
pought and sold.”<br />
<br />
Enter Mr. Young Author. (Reads announce-<br />
ment.) “Ha! the very thing for me. I have<br />
some nice chairs at home I should like to dispose<br />
of. I'll bring them here.”<br />
<br />
(Goes home, gets a chair, and brings it to the<br />
shop.)<br />
<br />
Mr. Y. A.: “Good morning, sir; I see you<br />
deal in furniture. I have just brought you a<br />
nice chair of a new pattern which I am making a<br />
<br />
number of at present. I’ll be very glad to sell .<br />
<br />
you this one. What’ll you give me for it?<br />
<br />
Mr. Cute Editor (proprietor of the business) :<br />
“No time to discuss matter with you at present.<br />
You can leave the chair though.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Y. A.: “Oh thanks! I'll leave it, and<br />
take the liberty of calling again.” (EHxit.)<br />
<br />
(Six months elapse.)<br />
<br />
_Mr. Y. A. (timidly): “I have taken the<br />
liberty, Mr. Editor, of calling to know whether<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
you have agreed to purchase my chair. I sent<br />
it you six months ago, you will perhaps re-<br />
member.<br />
<br />
Mr. C. E. (surprised): “ Your chair! Why,<br />
my dear sir, it was of no earthly use to me, and I<br />
sent it off with my rubbish to be made into fire-<br />
wood.<br />
<br />
Mr. Y. A. (groaning): But, surely you might<br />
have returned it to me; I would willingly have<br />
paid the cost of carriage, or come for it myself if<br />
you had let me know.”<br />
<br />
Mr. C. E. (offended) : You ought to have kept<br />
a copy. You can surely easily make another of<br />
the same pattern, just a little more wood, and a<br />
few hours’ labour ; and yet you come and annoy<br />
me and take up my precious minutes about a<br />
paltry chair!”<br />
<br />
Mr. Y. A.: “Allow me to reason out the<br />
matter with you calmly, sir. The chair was my<br />
property, not yours. It may have been a poor<br />
thing, but it was my own—my own idea and my<br />
own labour, to say nothing of the wood. If it<br />
was of no value to you, it might have been of<br />
value to some other dealer; it was at least of<br />
value to me; and I shall thank you to pay me<br />
that value, or produce the chair.”<br />
<br />
Mr. C. B.: “As L already said, I have no time<br />
to waste discussing matters with you; but before<br />
you take any legal action you had better direct<br />
your attention to this notice. Perhaps you didn’t<br />
see it, but that wasn’t my fault. Underneath<br />
my name on the signboard you will see, if you<br />
look carefully, the words ‘ We cannot undertake<br />
to return any furniture sent us for approval;<br />
makers send at their own risk.’ And now, sir,<br />
you will please remember that I have the law on<br />
<br />
my side. Good morning.”<br />
Evit Mr. Y. A., aghast and threatening<br />
vengeance.<br />
<br />
— re<br />
<br />
$0-S0 SOCIOLOGY.<br />
<br />
(Continued from page 97-)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
25. Melancholy is oftener due to poverty of<br />
body than to piety of soul.<br />
<br />
26. The morbid soul would rather cherish a<br />
grievance than welcome a benefit.<br />
<br />
27. The saner the soul, the sounder the<br />
sympathy.<br />
<br />
28. Marriages are angel-made, man-made, or<br />
devil-made: of heaven, earth, or hell.<br />
<br />
29. Hell often apes heaven to please earth.<br />
<br />
30. It is generally far easier to disapprove<br />
than to disprove.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
3k<br />
<br />
VG<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
31. Proof is less a matter of accuracy than of<br />
acceptance.<br />
<br />
32. All truth is not beautiful, all beauty good,<br />
nor all goodness true, to an imperfect race.<br />
<br />
33. Happiness, like beauty, is less a duty than<br />
a harmony.<br />
<br />
34. Fashion may be only a matter of tense;<br />
taste is more a manner of temperament.<br />
<br />
35. Constancy is no more a matter of sex than<br />
charity is of sect.<br />
<br />
36. It is far easier to forget conduct than to<br />
forgive character.<br />
<br />
37. Inconsistency of character is a mere myth.<br />
<br />
38. Nature never fully forgives where she has<br />
once injured.<br />
<br />
39. Fancies of the present are popularly<br />
credited to facts of the other tenses.<br />
<br />
40. Credulity is not always a reliable gauge of<br />
veracity.<br />
<br />
41. But for extremes, the mean would never<br />
rise.<br />
<br />
fz. The value of a civilization is estimable by<br />
the due culture of its children.<br />
<br />
43. Misuse the rod—damn the child.<br />
<br />
44. The main difference between saint and<br />
sinner is self.<br />
<br />
45. Even personal experience fails to teach<br />
hopeless fools.<br />
<br />
46. Relative truth is less a matter of reflection<br />
than a manner of refraction.<br />
<br />
47. "Tis but a feeble fiction that cannot outbid<br />
fact, in fancy and in flattery.<br />
<br />
48. The past is always greater than the<br />
present: there was ever so much more of it.<br />
<br />
49. The weak vainly try to recover by<br />
obstinacy what they have lost by credulity.<br />
<br />
50. When health goes, hell grows.<br />
<br />
51. Who physics himself poisons a fool.<br />
<br />
52. Bigotry is the devilry of temporary<br />
theology.<br />
<br />
53. Charity is the archangel of right religion.<br />
<br />
54. There is one vice—selfishness: and one<br />
virtue—sacrifice.<br />
<br />
55. There is no sex in courage, devotion,<br />
wisdom, or wickedness.<br />
<br />
56. Personal purity is essential to perfect<br />
poetry.<br />
<br />
57. A minim of sympathy is worth a tun of<br />
theology.<br />
<br />
58. Nature admits no claim to compensation ;<br />
she punishes—as she rewards—with compound<br />
interest.<br />
<br />
59. Living nature shows neither equality nor<br />
identity.<br />
<br />
60 The majority is usually more concerned<br />
with consistency than with accuracy.<br />
<br />
137<br />
<br />
61. The insane soul reveres power more than<br />
virtue.<br />
PHINLAY GLENELG,<br />
<br />
Erratum on p. 96: Delete “or proof.”<br />
<br />
(To be continued.)<br />
<br />
UGOLINO’S LOVE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
‘* Poscia piu che ’l dolor pote il digiuno.”<br />
Inf., XX XTIL., 75.<br />
Thrice cruel grief since thou refus’dst to stay,<br />
<br />
When Ugolino’s sons lay on the ground,<br />
<br />
Mute chilly corpses, whence no more should sound<br />
The voices welcome as the dawn of day ;<br />
<br />
Shall even famine rob thee of thy prey,<br />
<br />
And in her heart more tenderness abound,<br />
<br />
By her shall freedom for the soul be found,<br />
Whom thou wouldst keep in tenement of clay !<br />
Alas! the groping o’er those dear dead sons,<br />
<br />
Alas! the horror of the midnight tomb !<br />
<br />
Why e’en in traitors, fathers’ hearts blood runs,<br />
<br />
And Ugolino from thy awful doom,<br />
<br />
Which with dismay the hardest spirit stuns,<br />
<br />
Thy human love still shines above the gloom.<br />
<br />
NoRLEY CHESTER.<br />
<br />
LITERATURE IN OXFORD.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
URING the summer term the following<br />
D lectures were held at Oxford—the Taylor<br />
Institute: —One by the Professor of<br />
Poetry on the influence of the Renaissance in<br />
English Poetry, which included the reading of<br />
many poems of that period; one on Russian and<br />
Old Russian Ballads, by the Reader in Slavonic<br />
Languages; one on Molitre, by Mr. Markham, of<br />
Queen’s College ; one on the importance of Lan-<br />
guage Teaching in Education, by Professor<br />
Blackie, of Edinburgh; two on Scandinavian<br />
Literature, by Dr. Lentzner—the first treated of<br />
Danish Language and Literature, the second of<br />
Bjérnstjerne Bjornson. Dr. Lentzner will also<br />
deliver two more lectures next term—one on the<br />
Danish poet, Paludan Miiller, and the second on<br />
Henrik Ibsen.<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I.<br />
A Novet EXPERIENCE.<br />
<br />
We have had here far more failures than<br />
successes, but I am content to put the failures<br />
down to bitter bad luck, or to lack of under-<br />
standing in regard to the artfulness and mysteri-<br />
ousness of the craft of publishing. But this is<br />
not quite what I sat down to write about. This<br />
morning’s post brings an unasked-for and most<br />
acceptable cheque towards recouping publishers’<br />
losses from one whose book—a really good book<br />
that was much praised—failed to ‘catch on.” I<br />
want to place on record that this is our first and<br />
only experience of the kind. Gladly would I<br />
help in placing the effigy of so generous hearted<br />
a man on a pedestal in the sanctum sanctorum of<br />
the Society of Authors. Anprew W. Turr.<br />
<br />
The Leadenhall Press Limited.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TI.<br />
Toe Reat “ Dreap TRIBUNAL.”<br />
<br />
Among all the utterances about the trials of<br />
authors, their most real and most formidable<br />
adversaries are rarely alluded to. These I con-<br />
ceive to be those familiars of the inquisition<br />
who, while keeping out of sight themselves,<br />
superintend and direct the tortures that are in-<br />
flicted on the uphappy aspirants to literary fame.<br />
I mean the readers employed by the publishers<br />
to judge the manuscripts. These are “the gods<br />
who kill and make alive ”—for is it not often a<br />
matter of life and death to a poor author, whether<br />
his work is accepted or rejected P—and the blow<br />
is struck in secret, we never see the hand by<br />
which it is dealt. An author seeks an interview<br />
with a publisher, and is somewhat reassured in<br />
his trepidation by the kindness of the suave<br />
gentleman who, in spite of a preoccupied look<br />
which he cannot quite suppress, receives him<br />
politely, and listens to him with attention, taking<br />
the MS. from his hand, and laying it carefully<br />
on his own particular table, before he graciously<br />
bows his visitor out. The author, if he or she be<br />
young, goes away more happily, fondly cherishing<br />
the idea that Mr. A. or B.—the publisher—is<br />
going to make an exception in his favour, and<br />
look at this author’s work himself. Alas! how<br />
different is the fate of the unhappy MS.! It<br />
goes we know not whither, to be tried we know<br />
not by whom. The unseen foe that we have to<br />
encounter is omnipotent, from his tribunal there<br />
is no appeal. The reader may be a prejudiced<br />
man, an ignorant man, an interested man,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
even a dishonest man, but there is none to<br />
call him to account. Surely authors have<br />
some ground of righteous complaint here;<br />
surely the readers, in whose hands all the power<br />
really is, ought to be, like other experts, known<br />
to the public, so that those who refer to them<br />
may feel sure that they will be honestly dealt<br />
with. They should be formed into a separate<br />
association, admitted only after an examination,<br />
so that authors may no longer feel that their<br />
works—which, perhaps, is the only property they<br />
possess, and which means often their very life-<br />
blood itself—is not being judged by incompetent _<br />
or prejudiced persons who are acting only in the<br />
interests of the one publisher whom they serve.<br />
Surely, considering the fact that authorship is<br />
a calling involving great responsibility and<br />
great anxiety, with but small reward, except in<br />
few cases, those who are treading its thorny<br />
path ought to feel assured that their work<br />
will be honourably and justly dealt with by<br />
persons fully qualified and competent to form a<br />
right judgment as to its merits and its value.<br />
L. C. Sry.<br />
<br />
[The writer must remember that a reader who<br />
passed. by or rejected good work would very soon<br />
cease to be a reader. ‘That is to say, a reader—<br />
even the best reader—may make a mistake, but<br />
such incompetence, or neglect, or malignity as<br />
our writer imagines, is not conducive to the<br />
interests of a publishing house and would not be<br />
endured.—Ep. |<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IT.<br />
Grorce Evior AND RESPECTABILITY.<br />
<br />
In his interesting paper on “ The Profession of<br />
Letters,” in the July number of the Author, does<br />
not Mr. Besant somewhat exceed the mark when<br />
he says that George Eliot’s “ whole life was a<br />
protest against respectability ?”<br />
<br />
There are some female writers—notably Georges<br />
Sand—whose life and writings amply justify such<br />
a description. But, notwithstanding her connec-<br />
tion with Mr. Lewes, I have never regarded<br />
George Eliot as one who delighted to outrage<br />
public opinion ; nor do I think that she wished<br />
her example to be regarded by others as a prece-<br />
dent. Her connection with Mr. Lewes seems to<br />
to have been the result of exceptional circum-<br />
stances in her environment, rather than the pro-<br />
duct of natural character.<br />
<br />
Georges Sand held peculiar views upon mar-<br />
riage, deliberately acted upon them, and sought<br />
to justify them through the medium of her<br />
novels.<br />
<br />
George Eliot, I think, wished so far as possible<br />
to ignore her anomalous position. She desired<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I a Sag ce<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
in all respects to be treated ag Mr. Lewes’s wife,<br />
and nothing distressed her more than being<br />
addressed as Miss Evans instead of Mrs. Lewes.<br />
It even seems to me that the almost startling and<br />
painful suddenness, with which she entered into<br />
marriage after Mr. Lewes’s death may be traced<br />
to her keen susceptibility concerning the position<br />
in which she had been placed by that death.<br />
<br />
Again, with her religious opinions; though<br />
she held views upon religion that, when held by<br />
a woman, were considered a few years ago to be<br />
less “‘ respectable ” than they are rapidly growing<br />
to be now, yet in no sense can she be described<br />
as openly inculcating them. They were studiously<br />
ignored in her novels—somewhat too much SO, as<br />
I venture to think.<br />
<br />
I have often regretted that one who could<br />
draw so sympathetically and finely the characters<br />
of the Methodist Dinah Morris and the Catholic<br />
Savanarola should not have devoted time to the<br />
delineation of a character holding views similar<br />
to her own. It seems to me that her susceptibi-<br />
lity about her position may have made her<br />
anxious to do nothing further to outrage public<br />
opinion, and thus rendered her less courageous in<br />
her convictions than she would otherwise have<br />
been. So far from holding revolutionary views<br />
upon marriage, I agree with Mr. Hutton that<br />
“in story after story, she attempted to impress<br />
upon others the absolute sacredness of the rela-<br />
tions to which her own action had apparently<br />
shown her to be indifferent.”<br />
<br />
Would one whose “whole life was a protest<br />
against respectability ” have thought it necessary<br />
to do this?<br />
<br />
Aug. 7. C. E. Puumerre.<br />
<br />
[I should be sorry, indeed, to say one word in<br />
disrespect of George Eliot. But I have always<br />
understood her open, unconcealed connection<br />
with G. H. Lewes to mean a defiance of the laws<br />
and conventions which govern the world in the<br />
matter of marriage. In that sense, if I am right,<br />
it was a long “protest against respectability.”<br />
But, if I am wrong, Iam most willing to be put<br />
right, and therefore I publish Mr. Plumptre’s<br />
remonstrance without hesitation.—W. B.]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IV.<br />
Tue Sweating or AvtHors.<br />
<br />
Mr. R. H. Sherard complains, with reason, of<br />
the sweating to which translators are subjected ;<br />
but, as a writer of original matter, my case—and<br />
that of hundreds of others no doubt—is little<br />
better. For short stories, of between three and<br />
four thousand words, I receive one guinea (less<br />
percentage), my remuneration being thus about a<br />
<br />
139<br />
<br />
halfpenny a line. On the whole, I think the<br />
translator is the better paid of the two, for he<br />
has not to wear out his brains trying to hit on<br />
novel subjects. His work is more or less<br />
mechanical, and demands little thought. Truly<br />
it is no wonder we should all have periodical fits<br />
of discouragement. The wonder is that the<br />
periodicity does not merge in continuity.<br />
<br />
H. R. G.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.<br />
Reviewine.<br />
<br />
In the current number of the Author Mr.<br />
Sherard concludes an article with some remarks<br />
on the inappropriateness (I will not use a word of<br />
a different shade—impropriety) of one author<br />
reviewing the work of another.<br />
<br />
Now, if an author should be forbidden to eriti-<br />
cise the book of his brother, how much more is<br />
he falsely and meretriciously employed in acting<br />
as a publishers’ reader, standing at the very<br />
fountain head, and either letting pass, or im-<br />
peding, work that should flow to the public for<br />
them to taste. How entirely wrong is it that<br />
an author—who must of nature (he must be<br />
greatly ignorant of the history of literature<br />
who does not know this) be a creature of the<br />
strongest prejudices—should be arbiter as to<br />
what order of, or predilection in, literature shall<br />
reach the public, and be in a position to colour,<br />
to a vast extent, the work set before us.<br />
<br />
I believe we have sufficient record that the<br />
very greatest and most illustrious of English<br />
writers have left behind them abundant instances<br />
of such prejudices. I would ask, what would<br />
have resulted had Johnson been a publisher’s<br />
reader? I do not think he would have let us<br />
have Sterne or Fielding. I do not think Sterne<br />
would have let us have Johnson. I do not think<br />
Byron would have permitted Wordsworth. I<br />
think Scott would have allowed a flood of rather<br />
mawkish stuff. We have seen how Milman tried<br />
to squelch Keats, as a critic—what would he<br />
have done as a publisher’s reader of his work ?<br />
<br />
The fact is, the author is, and must be, ever-<br />
more particularly narrow in his vein of ideas—<br />
he cannot have the insight into, the genuine<br />
toleration for, other work that a perfectly im-<br />
partial publisher’s reader should have.<br />
<br />
INGENUE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VI.<br />
Tue Pousuic Taste.<br />
<br />
I wonder if it is true (as we are constantly<br />
assured) that there is always a remunerative<br />
market for good literary work, no matter what its<br />
genre may be.<br />
<br />
<br />
140 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
About two years ago I wrote a “ study,” which<br />
the publishers were kind enough to tell me was<br />
extremely clever, and which they would have been<br />
only too delighted to bring out had they been in<br />
Paris, but that the book (which I must hasten to<br />
add was not the least improper) would not do for<br />
England. It hadn’t swing enough. It was with-<br />
out the elements of popularity.<br />
<br />
I, therefore, entirely rewrote it; trying<br />
to work it up (I daren’t say down) to the<br />
public taste. And now they write again as<br />
follows :<br />
<br />
“T have carefully reread (your MS.) and have<br />
reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is stilla<br />
work which the English novel reader would fail<br />
altogether to appreciate. You have certainly<br />
improved the story by making it less diffuse and<br />
giving it more plot; but it is still much too<br />
delicate and much too subtle for English tastes. I<br />
should have-greatly liked to accept the book if I<br />
had been able to anticipate any success for it ; but<br />
there is really no place in this country for work of<br />
this kind.”<br />
<br />
T don’t in the least complain of the publishers,<br />
andif the book would have no sale they are only<br />
acting rightly in refusing it. I am writing this<br />
merely to ask if it be true that the English public<br />
are so narrow as to neglect work because it is<br />
“ delicate and subtle,’ and whether there is, there-<br />
fore, really “no place in this country for work of<br />
thiskind” ? If this be so (and I, myself, cer-<br />
tainly think it is), howand what must I write in<br />
future ? If it be not so; what shall I do with my<br />
MS.?<br />
<br />
An INEXPERIENCED AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vil.<br />
AvtHOoR AND EpITorR.<br />
<br />
“M. B.” writes: “An author forwards a MS.<br />
accompanied by an envelope directed and stamped<br />
to the tune of 2d. or 3d. He receives back the<br />
MS. torn and dirty, perforated with pins and<br />
tacks, not in the envelope sent for the protection<br />
of his property, but in a rolled wrapper of skimpy<br />
dimensions, and stamped to half the amount sent<br />
by him for postage.” He goes on to say that, if<br />
this is the general practice, somebody must make<br />
aw nice little addition to his salary by the differ-<br />
ence in the postage.<br />
<br />
He points out further that, so long as the MS.<br />
is the author’s property, no one has the right to<br />
make marks or remarks on the pages.<br />
<br />
Perhaps there are editors and editors, those<br />
who treat the contributor with courtesy and those<br />
who treat him as if he were a mendicant. The<br />
latter, let us hope, are the exceptions.<br />
<br />
VIII.<br />
TRANSFER OF Books,<br />
<br />
Tt often happens that a publisher—more<br />
especially one who has not a very large business<br />
—sells the whole or part of his stock to another<br />
publisher without giving any notice of the<br />
transaction to the authors of their publications.<br />
In certain cases this unmannerly proceeding may<br />
not be productive of any harm to the respective<br />
authors, but frequently it may inflict material<br />
loss—when the author has to expect a “ royalty ”<br />
—or cause moral injury or personal annoyance.<br />
It is a well-known fact in the publishing trade<br />
that publishers sometimes purchase the copyright<br />
of books merely with the view of suppressing<br />
them, so that they should not compete with their<br />
older and perhaps more profitable publications.<br />
This is in particular the case with works relating<br />
to special subjects, such as scientific and educa-<br />
tional books, works on art, &c. Now most authors<br />
are not satisfied with the remuneration alone<br />
which they receive, however liberal it may be,<br />
but they want their books to live, as it were, and<br />
to effect some good—which, of course, they<br />
cannot do if silently suppressed.<br />
<br />
It may also be that a publisher disposes of his<br />
stock to a person between whom and the author<br />
of some of the books unfriendly or downright<br />
hostile relations prevail, and the thought that the<br />
productions of his labours should enrich an enemy<br />
of his must be painful to him, however humanely<br />
disposed he may be.<br />
<br />
I beg, therefore, to suggest that the attention<br />
of authors should be called to the advisability of<br />
stipulating in certain cases “that, whenever the<br />
publisher of their books should sell, during their<br />
lifetime, his copyright stock to someone else, they<br />
should be consulted on the matter, and if they<br />
can produce any valid objection, the publisher<br />
should not be allowed to sell the copyright of the<br />
respective books to the person in question.”<br />
<br />
I think that when an author has to expect a<br />
“royalty ” on his works he has, of course, a legal<br />
claim to be consulted about the disposal of his<br />
works, and when he has unfortunately sold the<br />
copyright once for all, he ought at least to retain<br />
a moral veto in the transaction.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
——<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
“AT THE SIGN OF THE AUTHOR'S HEAD.”<br />
<br />
eat ee<br />
<br />
[We propose for the convenience of members who do<br />
not see all the papers containing literary intelligence, to<br />
compile as complete a list as possible every month. We<br />
shall endeavour to acknowledge the source of our news in<br />
every case; and we must beg our readers to bear in mind<br />
that when no acknowledgment is set down they must credit<br />
us with having received it independently. ]<br />
<br />
NEW novel is about to be produced by<br />
Cecil Cole. It will be called “A Norse-<br />
man’s Wooing.”<br />
<br />
The second edition of Mr. Theodore Bent’s<br />
“Ruined Cities of Mashonaland ” will shortly be<br />
ready. It is chiefly remarkable for additional<br />
notes in the Preface by Professor D. H. Miiller,<br />
of Vienna, and Mr. A. St. Chad Boscawen.<br />
There is also an appendix on the present state of<br />
Mashonalind and the progress it has recently<br />
made, by the secretary of the Chartered Company.<br />
<br />
The Newcastle Daily Journal now devotes<br />
several columns a week to current literature, and<br />
signed articles are written by a member of the<br />
Society of Authors. Books intended for review<br />
or literary notices from authors or publishers<br />
will receive attention if addressed “ Hirondelle,”<br />
Daily Journal Office, Newcastle-on-Tyne.<br />
<br />
With the July number of the Art Amateur<br />
the English supplement will be increased to<br />
eight pages, and, in addition to giving brief<br />
accounts of the chief doings of the Art world in<br />
England, it will contain the first instalment of a<br />
serial story, entitled “A Cruel Dilemma,” by<br />
Mary H. Tennyson. This story describes the<br />
struggles of an art amateur who is suddenty<br />
thrown entirely on her own resources. Her art<br />
difficulties are great, and her ignorance of the<br />
world leads her into many perilous positions.<br />
<br />
Messrs. J. EH. Nixon and E. H. C. Smith, of<br />
King’s College, Cambridge, are about to produce<br />
a Book of Parallel Verse Extracts (Latin), being<br />
extracts for Verse Composition for Higher Forms,<br />
with Prefaces on Idioms and Metres. Macmillan<br />
(pp. Ixxxvilit152). 5s. 6d.<br />
<br />
The poem addressed by Mowbray Marras to<br />
Arrigo Boito, which appeared in our July number,<br />
is quoted in the Gazzetta Musicale of Milan otf<br />
the 6th August, together with an Italian trans-<br />
lation and a eulvgistic paragraph, referring in<br />
flattering terms to the English author.<br />
<br />
The Rey. Professor Momerie sailed for Canada<br />
from Liverpool on Aug. 24, en route for Chicago,<br />
to attend the great International Church<br />
Congress which is to be held in September. Dr,<br />
Momerie has been appointed a member of the<br />
Council. He will read a paper on Theism,<br />
<br />
141<br />
<br />
Mr. H. Johnson, editor of “On Sledge and<br />
Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers,” which<br />
has already reached a fifth edition, and a popular<br />
edition being now in the press, is preparing a<br />
short “ Life of Miss Kate Marsden.” The volume<br />
will be published simultaneously in England and<br />
America, the Record Press, Limited, 376, Strand,<br />
London, WC., being the publishers in this<br />
country.<br />
<br />
The second edition of a Treatise on *‘ Dynamics,”<br />
by W. H. Besant, Se.D., F.R.S., has just been<br />
published by Messrs. Bell and Sons. Many<br />
improvements on the first edition have been<br />
effected by careful re-arrangements and con-<br />
siderable additions.<br />
<br />
A play from the pen of Mr. F. H. Cliffe is in<br />
the press, and will shortly be published by Messrs.<br />
Remington and Co.<br />
<br />
“ Four Centuries After; or, How I Discovered<br />
Europe,” by Ben Holt, published in New York,<br />
is a fairly amusing book of modern travel in<br />
Europe. It is, however, lacking in sustained<br />
interest, and the humour does not flow with suffi-<br />
cient strength to carry the reader to the end.<br />
“The Discovery of Europe” does not throw any<br />
new light either on the aborigines of that conti-<br />
nent or their manners and customs.<br />
<br />
A four-act play of serious interest, by Charles<br />
Thomas and Walter Ellis, entitled “Troubled<br />
Waters,” has been purchased by the American<br />
actress Miss Frances Drake, who preposes to<br />
make it the leading feature of her coming season<br />
in the United States. The play will probably be<br />
presented in London next year. Miss Drake has<br />
for the past few seasons played all the leading<br />
parts in one of Daniel Frohman’s companies, and<br />
is said to be an actress possessed of unusual<br />
emotional powers.<br />
<br />
“The Transgression of Terence Clancy ” is the<br />
title of the new novel, in 3 vols., by Harold<br />
Vallings, author of ‘The Quality of Mercy,” &c.<br />
The publishers will be Bentley and Son.<br />
<br />
Mr. F. Bayford Harvcison is taking a new de-<br />
parture in the shape of a novel, which will be<br />
published early in the autumn by Messrs. Hurst<br />
and Blackett.<br />
<br />
“ Who Wants Home Rule?” The question is<br />
answered in blank verse in six pages. There is<br />
no author’s name ; but as the brochure advertises<br />
other works by William Alfred Gibbs, it is rea-<br />
sonable to suppose Mr. Gibbs is also the author<br />
of these lines, which are at least vigorous,<br />
<br />
The title of Mr. J. HE. Muddock’s forthcoming<br />
novel, to be published by George Newnes<br />
Limited in the autumn, is “Only a Woman’s<br />
Heart.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
i<br />
i<br />
1<br />
tt<br />
|<br />
4<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
{<br />
<br />
|<br />
i<br />
|<br />
|<br />
|<br />
<br />
142<br />
<br />
A few days ago, Mr. J. E. Muddock, the nove-<br />
list, who is also known as “ Dick Donovan,” was<br />
presented with a handsome and valuable diamond<br />
ring, by a numerous circle of friends, on the<br />
oceasion of his fiftieth birthday, and as a token<br />
of his many excellent qualities as a man, and his<br />
ability as a writer.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Chatto and Windus have the thir-<br />
teenth volume of the Dick Donovan series of<br />
detective stories in the press, and will issue it<br />
shortly under the title of “Suspicion Aroused.”<br />
Thirteen volumes in something like four years is<br />
not a bad record even for the exhaustless Dick<br />
Donovan.<br />
<br />
A new novel by Annabel Gray, called “A<br />
Spanish Singer,” will appear in Theatricals of<br />
October next.<br />
<br />
“ Verses Grave and Gay,’ is the title of a new<br />
volume of verse, which Mr. F. B. Doveton has<br />
compiled, and which will be published by Mr.<br />
Horave Cox. Many of the pieces included in<br />
this collection are old friends. The dexterity<br />
and effectiveness of Mr. Doveton’s work is well-<br />
known to the readers of the Author. The verses<br />
entitled “The Outcast,’ “Why not Women<br />
Solicitors ?” “Flee the Flask,” “A Melody of<br />
Mars,” and “A Modern Fatima ” (in part), are<br />
reprinted by permission from the P. M. G., and<br />
“Mag on the Moor” and “The Old Fisherman,”<br />
from Bailey’s Magazine.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lawson Johnstone has completed a new<br />
story of adventure entitled “In the Land of the<br />
Golden Plume.” It will be published in October<br />
by W. and R. Chambers.<br />
<br />
Mr. Charles Ashton, of Dinas Mawddy, North<br />
Wales, is performing a useful but laborious task<br />
for his compatriots. This is nothing less than a<br />
complete bibliography of Welsh books, pamph-<br />
lets, periodicals, and newspapers, including books<br />
about Wales in other languages. He intends to<br />
give the title-page in full, with an added note<br />
stating the size, number of pages, and biographi-<br />
cal details. Mr. Ashton is appealing to all who<br />
own Welsh books to send him a list of short<br />
titles, in order that he may mark those about<br />
which he desires fuller information. Nine<br />
thousand entries have already been made.—<br />
Literary World.<br />
<br />
Miss Annie Swan, the novelist, has been<br />
appointed editor of a new magazine for women,<br />
entitled Woman at Home, the first number of<br />
which will appear on September 20th. Illustrated<br />
interviews with women will form a great feature<br />
of the periodical, which will also devote a portion<br />
of its space to the interests of children.—Sé.<br />
James’s Gazette.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Mr. John Southward, author of various books<br />
on printing, has in preparation an entirely new<br />
work for the use of students and practitioners,<br />
entitled “ Typography : a Synopsis of the History<br />
and an Account of the Processes of Letterpress<br />
Printing,” with many original illustrations. The<br />
author has devoted many years to the subject of<br />
printing, and has had considerable experience in<br />
conducting and contributing to trade journals.<br />
Mr. Southward will endeavour to describe the art<br />
in its multitudinous modern developments, as<br />
practised by the best printers of the present day.<br />
—Literary World.<br />
<br />
Miss Hannah Lynch is engaged upon a new<br />
novel dealing with modern French provincial<br />
life. An interesting article from her pen, dealing<br />
with the Spanish dramatist Echegaray—who<br />
may be called the Ibsen of Spain—will appear in<br />
the October number of the Contemporary<br />
Review.<br />
<br />
Mr. Hare’s new book, “The Story of Two<br />
Noble Lives: Charlotte, Countess Canning, and<br />
Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford,” will be<br />
issued in three volumes shortly by Mr. George<br />
Allen. The first volume will shed fresh light on<br />
some obscure points of French history, particu-<br />
larly about the period of the accession of Louis<br />
Philippe. The second volume will contain some<br />
interesting particulars of the Indian Mutiny, and<br />
of Lord Canning’s experiences and trials as<br />
Governor-General of India; while the last volume<br />
will deal chiefly with matters of personal interest<br />
connected with the life of Lady Waterford.—St.<br />
James’s Gazette.<br />
<br />
A new book of travel, entitled “In Search of<br />
a Climate,’ by Charles G. Nottage, LL.B.,<br />
F.R.G.S., will be published in the early autumn<br />
by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. It<br />
will deal chiefly with the Sandwich Islands and<br />
Southern California; and will give various data<br />
relating to the different health resorts of the<br />
world. The author was in Honolulu during the<br />
Revolution, and the true state of affairs as<br />
between Queen Liliuokalani and the American<br />
Minister will be given. Ina chapter on Ancient<br />
Hawaii, the author will show that the native idea<br />
of the creation is very similar to that set forth in<br />
Genesis. The book, which should appeal both to<br />
the invalid and traveller, will be illustrated by<br />
over thirty pictures done by the photomezzotype<br />
process.— Westminster Gazette.<br />
<br />
Miss Annie E. Holdsworth, better known by<br />
her pseudonym ‘Max Beresford,’ has written a<br />
serial .story for the, Woman’s Herald, under the<br />
name of “Johanna Traill, spinster.” It is a tale<br />
of modern London life, and deals with the<br />
problem of female work and independence.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 143<br />
<br />
Mrs. Steel, the writer of a number of admirable<br />
sketches of Indian life which have lately appeared<br />
in’ Macmillan’s Magazine, has written a new<br />
volume of stories dealing with phases of Indian<br />
life hitherto undepicted. The book is called<br />
“From the Five Rivers,” and is published by<br />
Mr. Heinemann.<br />
<br />
A collection of biographical, critical, and<br />
topographical sketches entitled “In the Foot-<br />
steps of the Poets,’ to which Professor Masson,<br />
Mr. R. H. Hutton, the Bishop of Ripon, and<br />
others have contributed, will be published next<br />
month by Messrs. Isbister. The same publishers<br />
will also bring out a volume dealing with the<br />
English cathedrals, to which Archdeacon Farrar,<br />
Canon Fremantle, and others have contributed.<br />
Mr. Herbert Railton has illustrated the book.<br />
<br />
Dr. J. Woodward, says the Daily Chronicle,<br />
has just completed a book on “ Ecclesiastical<br />
Heraldry,” with numerous emblazoned and other<br />
plates, which will shortly be published by Messrs.<br />
W.and A. K. Johnstone.<br />
<br />
We are glad to observe that Mr. Walter Low’s<br />
admirably written and accurate little book on the<br />
“ English Language ” has just gone into a second<br />
and larger edition. Though primarily intended<br />
for London University students, its scholarship<br />
makes it something more than a text-book, and<br />
it will be found of use by every literary man who<br />
knows less about the English language than he<br />
should. The book is published by Messrs. Cave<br />
and Co.<br />
<br />
“Bay Ronald,” a novel by Miss May Crom-<br />
melin, has just been published by Messrs. Hurst<br />
and Blackett. The scene is laid in Kent; time,<br />
the end of the last century up to the date of<br />
Waterloo. All the scenery is copied from a well-<br />
known moated house in Kent.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
es<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Theology.<br />
<br />
Hicxiz, W. J. Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testa-<br />
ment, after the latest and best authorities. Macmillan.<br />
<br />
THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BIBLE AND THE Koran.<br />
Watts and Co.<br />
<br />
History and Biography.<br />
<br />
Apkins, W. Rytanp. Our County. Sketches in Pen and<br />
Ink of Representative Men of Northamptonshire,<br />
Illustrations by W. B. Shoosmith. Elliot Stock.<br />
<br />
Beacu’s Historica, READER. Standard 5-6. W. H.<br />
Allen. 1s. 3d.<br />
<br />
CHUNDER BHOLANAUTH. Raja Digambar Mitra, his Life<br />
and Career. Hare Press, Calcutta.<br />
<br />
Forrest, G. W., B.A. Selections from the Letters,<br />
Despatches, and other State Papers preserved in the<br />
Military Department of the Government of India,<br />
1857-58. Hdited by. With a map and plans. Vol. 1.<br />
Calentta, Military Department Press, 1893.<br />
<br />
Gasquet, F. Arpan, D.D. Henry VIII. and the English<br />
Monasteries. Parts xv. and xvi. John Hodges, Agar-<br />
street, W.C. 2s.<br />
<br />
Ty Memoriam: Georce HERBERT. A collection of papers<br />
relating to the parish of Bemerton. Salisbury.<br />
Edward Roe and Co.<br />
<br />
Macxintuay, Rev. J. B. Saint Edmund: King and Martyr.<br />
A history of his life and times; with an account of<br />
the translations of his incorrupt body, &c., from<br />
original MSS. London and Leamington Art and Book<br />
Company. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago.<br />
Benziger Bros. tos. 6d.<br />
<br />
Mauuxson, Coronet G. B. Lord Clive, and the Establish-<br />
ment of the English in India. (Rulers of India Series,<br />
edited by Sir W. W. Hunter.) Oxford, at the Claren-<br />
don Press. London: Henry Frowde. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Marsuam, J. C. Abridgment of the History of India.<br />
Third edition, with map. Blackwood, 6s.<br />
<br />
Moserty, G. Hersert. Life of William of Wykeham.<br />
Second and enlarged edition, published for the quin-<br />
gentenary celebration. Winchester: Warren and Son.<br />
London: Simpkin and Co. Limited.<br />
<br />
SANDoRN, F. B., anp Harris, W. T. A. Bronson Alcott:<br />
His Life and Philosophy. 2 vols. T. Fisher Unwin.<br />
<br />
TopuuntTeER, Isaac. A History of the Theory of Elasti-<br />
city and of the Strength of Materials from Galilei to<br />
the Present Time, by the late Isaac Todhunter, D.Sc.,<br />
F.R.S., edited and completed for the Syndics of the<br />
University Press by Karl Pearson,.M.A. Vol. II.<br />
Parts I. and II. Cambridge, at the University Press.<br />
<br />
Weir, Preston. The Invaders of Britain. An Intro-<br />
duction to the Study of British History. J. Baker<br />
and Son, Clifton. Simpkin, Marshall.<br />
<br />
WeLcH, CHARLES, F.S.A. History of the Monument.<br />
Published under the authority of the City Lands Com-<br />
mittee of the Corporation of the City of London.<br />
Is. 6d.<br />
<br />
General Literature,<br />
<br />
ABERDEEN, THE CouNTESs or. Through Canada with a<br />
Kodak. Edinburgh: W. H. White and Co.<br />
<br />
AnnUAL REpoRT oF THE SANITARY COMMISSIONER<br />
WITH THE GOVERNMENT oF INDIA, 1891. Calcutta,<br />
office of the Superintendent of Government Printing.<br />
5 rupees.<br />
<br />
BarDEKuR’s SWITZERLAND, and the adjacent portions of<br />
Italy, Savoy, and the Tyrol, with thirty-nine maps,<br />
twelve plans, and twelve panoramas. 15th edition.<br />
London: Dulau. 8 marks.<br />
<br />
BaRTHOLOMEW, J. Plan of Bournemouth, with Environs.<br />
New and revised edition, on cloth. W.H. Smith and<br />
Son, ts.<br />
<br />
Bent, J. THeoporn, F.S.A. The Ruined Cities of Mashona-<br />
land, being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in<br />
1891, with a chapter on the Orientation and Mensura-<br />
tion of the Temples, by R. M. W. Swan, new edition.<br />
Longmans. 7s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Brrp, Rey. A. Ryper. Boating in Bavaria, Austria, and<br />
Bohemia, Down the Danube, Moldau, and Elbe.<br />
Simpkin, Marshall. 6s.<br />
<br />
Boot’s District GuipEr To Lonpon, 6d.; issued with the<br />
authority of the District Railway Company; A B C<br />
Holiday Guide and Hotel, Boarding-house, and Apart-<br />
ment Directory, 3d.; The Thames from Hampton<br />
Court to Clacton, Harwich, Margate, and Ramsgate,<br />
SS ES ET Se<br />
<br />
Si SSS PSL RLS ENA OER ne<br />
<br />
144 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
official guide of the Victoria Steamboat Association<br />
Limited. Boot and Co., 24, Old Baily, E.C. 2d.<br />
<br />
Bramston, A.R., AND Leroy, A.C. A City of Memories,<br />
With a preface by the Lord Bishop of Winchester.<br />
Etchings and illustrations by W. B. Roberts, S.P.E.<br />
Winchester, P. and G. Wells; London, David Nutt.<br />
5s. net.<br />
<br />
BusHevy, Rev. W. Dons. Harrow Octocentenary Tracts,<br />
II. Wulfred and Cwoenthryth. Camb.: Macmillan<br />
and Bowes. Is.<br />
<br />
Catutius. Edited by Elmer Truesdell Merrill, Rich<br />
Professor of Latin in Wesleyan University. (College<br />
Series of Latin Authors). Boston, U.S.A., and London :<br />
Ginn and Co.<br />
<br />
CurLp, Jacop 8. The Pearl of Asia: Reminiscences of the<br />
Court of a Supreme Monarch; or, Five Years in Siam.<br />
Kegan Paul. os. 6d.<br />
<br />
Cooke, C. W. Rapcurrre, M.P. Four Years in Parliament<br />
with Hard Labour. Third edition. Cassells. Is.<br />
<br />
“ Drvia Hrpernis.” The Road and Route Guide for Ireland<br />
of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Compiled and<br />
edited by George A. de M. Edwin Dagg, D.I., of the<br />
Royal Irish Constabulary. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis,<br />
and Co. Limited.<br />
<br />
Durr, E.Gorpon. Early Printed Books. Kegan Paul. 6s.net.<br />
<br />
Exsersoup, F. Illustrated Europe Series, Nos. 155, 156,<br />
157, and 158; Through the Bernese Oberland. With<br />
seventy-six illustrations and a map. Zurich: Art.<br />
Institut Orell Fussli. 52s.<br />
<br />
EHRENBERG, Fritz. Illustrated Europe: Hohwald and<br />
its Environs in the Vosges Mountains. With twenty-<br />
three illustrations by J. Weber, a map, and “ Hohwald<br />
Indicator.” Published by the Art. Institut Orell,<br />
Fussli, Zurich. 6d.<br />
<br />
Fow ier, G. Hersert. The Conditions for successful<br />
Oyster Culture. Dulau and Co. 4d.<br />
<br />
GARDNER, Pror. Percy, Litt. D. Catalogue of Greek<br />
Vases in the Ashmolean Museum. Frowde. £3 33.<br />
<br />
Grsps, Henry H. A Colloquy on Currency. ts. London:<br />
Effingham Wilson. Manchester: J. EH. Cornish.<br />
<br />
Gipson, Herspert. The History and Present State of the<br />
Sheep-breeding Industry in the Argentine Republic.<br />
Ravenscroft and Mills.<br />
<br />
Griec, JonHn. Scots Minstrelsie: A National Monument<br />
of Scottish Song. Edited and arranged by. Vol. 3.<br />
Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack.<br />
<br />
GuipE To Ben Nevis, with an account of the foundation<br />
and work of the Metrological Observatory. 1s. John<br />
Menzies and Co., Edinburgh and Glasgow.<br />
<br />
GwyNnepp, Mapoc Owen. Madoc; an essay on the dis-<br />
covery of America in the 12th century. By Thomas<br />
Stephena. Edited by Llywarch Reynolds, B.A. (Oxon).<br />
Longmans. 7s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Hacearp, F.T. Strikes versus Supply and Demand, and<br />
Live and Learn. Tunbridge-wells, Courier Printing<br />
and Publishing Company.<br />
<br />
Here, Hernricu. The Works of Heinrich Heine. Vol. 4.<br />
The Salon ; or Letters on Art, Music, Popular Life, and<br />
Politics. Translated by Chas. Godfrey Leland (Hans<br />
Breitmann). Heinemann. 5s.<br />
<br />
Hougarr, CLuirroRD W. Winchester Commoners, 1800-<br />
1835. An index of the surnames of commoners given<br />
in the “Lacy Rolls” of Winchester College for the<br />
years 1800 to 1835 inclusive. With introduction and<br />
notes. ts. net. Salisbury, Brown and Co. ; Winchester,<br />
P. and G. Wells; London, Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.<br />
<br />
Hupson, W. H. Birds in a Village. 7s. 6d. Chapman<br />
and Hall.<br />
<br />
InLustRATED OrFiciAL HANDBOOK OF THE CAPE AND<br />
SoutH Arrica: A Resumé of the History, Conditions,<br />
<br />
,<br />
<br />
Populations, Productions, and Resources of the several<br />
Colonies, States, and Territories. Edited by John<br />
Noble. Cape Town and Johannesburg, J. C. Juta<br />
and Co.<br />
<br />
INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND<br />
TRELAND. ReG@uLATIONS FoR ADMISSION TO MeEm-<br />
BERSHIP AND ReGisTeR. Issued by order of the<br />
Council. Is.<br />
<br />
JENKINSON’S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE ENGLIsH LAKES,<br />
9th edition, revised and edited by the Rev. H. D.<br />
Rawnsley, M.A., and Thos. Bakewell, with maps and<br />
views. Stanford. 6s.<br />
<br />
Jorpan, W. L. The Standard of Value. Fifth edition.<br />
Longmans.<br />
<br />
Kina, Cuarurs. Love in the Woods: a Rustic Idyll, con-<br />
taining 100 hidden names of trees and woods. King. 2d.<br />
<br />
Kina, Cuaries. Riding, the Use and Misuse of Reins and<br />
Stirrups. Fifteen illustrations. Fourth edition. King.<br />
2d.<br />
<br />
Lane, ANDREW, M.A. Custom and Myth. Longmans.<br />
38. Od.<br />
<br />
Lester, EpwarD. The Story of Abibal, the Tsourian. Trans-<br />
lated from the Pheenician by. Preceded by an account<br />
of the finding of the manuscript by Emily Watson.<br />
Edited by Val. C. Prinsep, A.R.A. Smith Elder.<br />
<br />
Low’s HANDBOOK TO THE CHARITIES OF LONDON, giving<br />
the objects, date of formation, office, &c., of over a<br />
thousand Charitable Institutions, revised according to<br />
the latest reports. Sampson Low, Marston. 1s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Narurauist’s Map or Scornanp. By J. A. Harvie-<br />
Brown and J. G. Bartholomew. J. Bartholomew and<br />
Co. 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
NeEILson, GeorGE. Peel: Its Meaning and Derivation. Re-<br />
printed from the Transactions of the Glasgow Archzxo-<br />
logical Society. Glasgow, Strathern and Freeman.<br />
<br />
Norman, J. H. A Ready Reckoner of the World’s<br />
‘xchanges. Sampson Low.<br />
<br />
OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE SCARBOROUGH AND WHITBY<br />
Raitway Coast Rovutsr. Scarborough, Alexander<br />
Wilson, 29, Falsgrave-road.<br />
<br />
OrricrAL HanpBookK oF THE NATIONAL ARTILLERY<br />
ASSOCIATION, 1893. Issued by order of the Council.<br />
J. J. Keliher and Co., 33, King William-street.<br />
<br />
On THE DisTRIBUTION OF RAIN OVER THE BRITISH<br />
IsLES DURING THE YEAR 1892, as observed at nearly<br />
3000 stations in Great Britain and Ireland, with<br />
articles upon various branches of rainfall work, com-<br />
piled by G. J. Symons, F.R.S., and H. Sowerby Wallis,<br />
F.R.Met.Soc.<br />
<br />
Pamety, Cates. The Colliery Manager's Handbook.<br />
Containing nearly 500 plans, diagrams, and other illus-<br />
trations. Second edition, revised, with additions.<br />
Crosby Lockwood.<br />
<br />
PHotograpHy ANNUAL FoR 1893. A compendium of<br />
information and statistics of the year. Edited by Hy.<br />
Sturmey. Iliffe and Son, 3, St. Bride-street. H.C.<br />
<br />
Rozortom, ArTHuR. Travels in Search of New Trade<br />
Products. Jarrold and Sons. Paper covers. Is. net.<br />
<br />
Roya CononraL InstituTE: REPORT OF PROCREDINGS.<br />
Edited by the Secretary. Vol. xxiv., 1892-93. Pub-<br />
lished by the Institute.<br />
<br />
Roya UNIVERSITY oF IRELAND EXAMINATION PAPERS,<br />
1892. A Supplement to the University Calendar for<br />
the year 1893. Dublin, Alex. Thom and Co.<br />
<br />
Speru, G. W. Whatis Freemasonry? George Kenning,<br />
16 and 16a, Great Queen-street, W.C.<br />
<br />
Tus Bapminton Lisrary—Swimmine. By Archibald<br />
Sinclair and William Henry, with illustrations by S. T.<br />
Dadd and from photographs by G. Mitchell. Large<br />
paper copy. Longmans.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
“Tue Bookman” Directory or BooxksELLEeRs, Pus-<br />
LISHERS, AND AuTHoRS. Hodder and Stoughton. 1s.<br />
<br />
THE CHAMBERLAIN OF LONDON (TREASURER) IN ACCOUNT<br />
WITH THE CORPORATION OF LONDON IN RESPECT OF<br />
THE Ciry’s EsTATE FOR THE YEAR 18092, ALSO IN<br />
RESPECT OF VARIOUS PUBLIC AND Trust FUNDS IN<br />
THE CHAMBER OF LoNDoN. Printed by Charles<br />
Skipper and East, St. Dunstan’s-hill, B.C.<br />
<br />
THe County Council FoR THE CounTY PALATINE OF<br />
Lancaster. Report of the Director of Technical<br />
Instruction, J. A. Bennion, M.A., Cambridge, of the Inner<br />
Temple, barrister-at-law, for the year ending September,<br />
1892. With appendices, tables, and twenty-eight maps.<br />
Printed by C. W. Whitehead, 125, Fisher-gate, Preston.<br />
<br />
THE CURRENCY QUESTION: REPORT OF THE HERSCHELL<br />
CommirTrE. Proceedings in the Imperial Legislative<br />
Council. Speeches by the Viceroy, Sir David Barbour,<br />
<br />
and the Hon. J. L. Mackay. Verbatim Report.<br />
Allahabad, the Pioneer Press. One rupee.<br />
THE ‘“GENTLEWomMAN’s” Royan REcoRD OF THE<br />
<br />
WEDDING OF THE Princess Mary or TECK AND THE<br />
DvuKE oF YorEK. Gentlewoman Office. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Tue Letters oF “ VeTUS” ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF<br />
THE WAR OrFice. Reprinted, by permission, from the<br />
Times. With a preface by Gen. Sir George Chesney,<br />
K.C.B., M.P. Cassell’s. 15.<br />
<br />
Tue Lrsrary Assocration Series, No. 2, Pusuic<br />
Liprary LeGisnation. By H. W. Fovargue and J. J.<br />
Ogle. Simpkin, Marshall. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (AUTHORISED EDITION.)<br />
Fourth series, Vol. XII. Fifth volume of Session 1893,<br />
containing the Debates in both Houses from May 4 to<br />
June 1, 1893. Eyre and Spottiswoode.<br />
<br />
THe TWENtTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CO-OPERATIVE CoNGRESS,<br />
1893, held in the hall of the Y.M.C.A., St. James’s-<br />
square, Bristol, on May 22, 23,and 24. Edited by J. G.<br />
Gray, general secretary. Manchester, the Co-operative<br />
Union Limited, City-buildings, Corporation-street.<br />
<br />
Topp, Grorcr Eyre. Byways of the Scottish Border: A<br />
Pedestrian Pilgrimage. With illustrations by Tom<br />
Scott, A.R.S.A. Selkirk: James Lewis, 13, High-<br />
street. 4s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Tompkins, Norton. Bread, Meat, and Cheese: The great<br />
Agribultural Depression, its causes, and how to meet it.<br />
Vinton and Co. Limited, 9, New Bridge-street, E.C. 1s.<br />
<br />
Watsu, Most Rey. Dr. Bimetallism and Monometallism :<br />
What they are and how they bear upon the Irish Land<br />
Question. Second edition. 6d. Dublin, Brown and<br />
Nolan.<br />
<br />
Watters, H. B. Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan<br />
Vases in the British Museum. Vol. 2. Black-figured<br />
vases. Printed by order of the Trustees. Sold at the<br />
British Museum, and by Messrs. Longmans, Quaritch,<br />
Asher, Kegan Paul, and Henry Frowde.<br />
<br />
WELLSMAN, W.H. Provincial Press, with Offices in Lon-<br />
don. 100, Fleet-street. H.C. 1s.<br />
<br />
W.H.Smiru anv Son’s Serius or RepucED ORDNANCE<br />
Mars ror Tourists. By J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.<br />
Plan of Nottingham. 1s. Lake District. Scale, three<br />
miles toaninch. 1s. W.H. Smith and Son.<br />
<br />
W. H. Smiru anp Son’s Serizs or ReDUCED ORDNANCE<br />
Mars ror Tourists. By J. Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.<br />
Map of Keswick, Ulleswater, &c. Scale, one mile to<br />
an inch. London, W. H. Smith and Son.<br />
<br />
Wiaston, W. F. C. Discoveries of the Bacon Problem.<br />
Turnbull and Spears, Edinburgh.<br />
<br />
Wiuiiams, James L. The Home and Haunts of Shake-<br />
speare. Illustrated by fifteen plates in water-colour,<br />
forty-five full-page photogravures, and more than 1 50<br />
illustrations. Sampson Low.<br />
<br />
-STELLIER, KiLsyTH.<br />
<br />
145<br />
<br />
Fiction.<br />
<br />
A SHILLING’s-worTH or ALL Sorts. Cassells.<br />
<br />
Buackmore, R. D. Lorna Doone, Sampson Low.<br />
<br />
Buack Witt1am. White Heather. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Briscor, Margaret S. Perchance to Dream, and other<br />
stories. Heinemann.<br />
<br />
Currs BY AN OLD Cuum, or Australia in the Fifties.<br />
Cassell. 1s.<br />
<br />
CLERKE, ELLEN M. The Planet Venus. Knowledge office. rs.<br />
<br />
Conan Dorin, A. The Refugees: a Tale of Two Conti-<br />
nents. New Edition. Longmans. 6s.<br />
<br />
CouprER, J. R. Mixed Humanity. Allen and Co. 2s.<br />
<br />
CRAWFORD, F. Marion. The Witch of Prague. A fantastic<br />
tale. Macmillan. 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Croker, B. M. To Let, &. Chatto and Windus.<br />
<br />
CRoMMELIN, May. Midge. Hutchinson. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Donovan, Dick. From Clue to Capture; a Series of<br />
Thrilling Detective Stories. With Illustrations by<br />
Paul Hardy and others. Hutchinson. 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Eastwoop, MarK. When a Woman’s Single, the humours<br />
of a sedate profession. Ward and Downey. 1s.<br />
<br />
Euis, T. Mutuntr. Reveries of World History from<br />
Earth’s Nebulous Origin to its Final Ruin ; or, the<br />
Romance of a Star. Swan Sonnenschein. 1s.<br />
<br />
Farsreon, B. L. The Last Tenant. Hutchinson. 5s.<br />
<br />
Fereuson, R.M. My Village. Digby and Long. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
FULLER, EDWARD. The Complaining Millions of Men.<br />
Osgood, M‘Ilvaine. 6s.<br />
<br />
GRAIL, STEPHEN. The Nameless City: a Rom many<br />
Romance. Osgood, M‘Ilvaine, ank Co. 2s.<br />
<br />
GRAND, Mapam Saran. Ideala. W. Heinemann.<br />
<br />
Harcourt-Roz, Mrs. A Man of Mystery. Blackwood.<br />
<br />
Harpy, THomas. The Return of the Native. New edi-<br />
tion. Sampson Low, Marston. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Hay, Hunter, F. Sonsofthe Croft. Oliphant, Anderson,<br />
and Ferrier, Edinburgh and London.<br />
<br />
Hospes, JOHN OLiveR. The Sinner’s Comedy. Fourth<br />
edition, Pseudonym Library. TT. Fisher Unwin. 1s. 6d.<br />
<br />
JEROME, JEROME K. Novel Notes. Leadenhall Press<br />
<br />
2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Limited. 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Jewett, SARAH O. Tales of New England. Osgood,<br />
M‘Ilvaine.<br />
<br />
Jocetyn, Mrs. R. For One Season Only. 3 vols. F. V.<br />
<br />
White and Co.<br />
<br />
Kearny, C.F. The Two Lancrofts.<br />
vaine. 31s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Kraszewski, Ianattus. The Jew. A novel.<br />
Polish. W. Heinemann. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Lucas, KarHiemn. Whispered by the Leaves. Written<br />
and illustrated. Day and Son and Simpkin, Marshall.<br />
38. 6d.<br />
<br />
3 vols. Osgood, M‘T-<br />
<br />
From the<br />
<br />
Mann, Mary E. Perdita. A novel. 2 vols. Bentley.<br />
<br />
Matuers, Heten. What the Glass Told. F.V. White.<br />
<br />
Mippueron, Cour. Innes of Blairavon. 3 vols. Hurst<br />
and Blackett.<br />
<br />
Mocarra, Percy G. A Legend of Florence. E. Howell,<br />
Liverpool. Simpkin, Marshall.<br />
<br />
Morris, Cocorane. An Unco Stravaig. Ilustrated.<br />
Ward and Downey.<br />
<br />
Norris, W. E. The Countess Radna. A novel. 3 vols.<br />
<br />
W. Heinemann.<br />
<br />
Reavg, Cuaruus. It is Never too Late to Mend. New<br />
<br />
edition. Chatto and Windus. 6d.<br />
Rirrer, Quittim. The Martyrdom of Society. Horace<br />
Cox. 38: 6d.<br />
<br />
Seron, Henry. From Wisdom Court.<br />
Stephen G. Tallentyre. 3s. 6d.<br />
Taken by Force.<br />
<br />
Merriman and<br />
<br />
Gale and Polden<br />
Limited. 1s.<br />
Se AR a aetna<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
146 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Sropart, M.A. Won at the Last Hole. A Golfing<br />
Romance. Illustrated. Cassell. Paper covers, 1s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Srronsuy; or, Hanxs oF Hi@HLAND YARN. By the<br />
author of “ Tobersnorey.” Edinburgh, Macniven, and<br />
Wallace. 2s.<br />
<br />
Srrona, Rev. Jostan, D.D. The New Era. Hodder and<br />
Stoughton. 5s.<br />
<br />
Sturges, JoNATHAN. The First Supper and other Episodes,<br />
The Moonlighter of County Clare, The Brother,<br />
Three Forms, Koznuishef. Osgood, M‘Ilvaine, and Co.<br />
38. 6d.<br />
<br />
Tasma. A Knight of the White Feather. Heinemann.<br />
38. Od.<br />
<br />
THompson, Maurice. The King of Honey Island: An<br />
Historical Romance of the Creole Coast. James<br />
Henderson. 1s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Tuun, Carrer. The Summer Tenant: An Idyll of the<br />
Three Brothers. Third edition. Simpkin, Marshall. 1s.<br />
<br />
TowNSEND, DororHEA. Strange Adventures of a Young<br />
Lady of Quality, MDCCV. Digby, Long. ts.<br />
<br />
TRELAWNEY, DAYRELL. The Bishop’s Wife. Bentley.<br />
<br />
Ver@a, GIOVANNI. Cavalleria Rusticana and other Tales<br />
of Sicilian Peasant Life. Translated by Alma Strettell.<br />
Pseudonym Library. ts. 6d.<br />
<br />
WarveEN, Frorencre. A Terrible Family. Wm. Stevens<br />
Limited. 1s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Wavertey Novets, Tue Assot. Two vols. Border<br />
edition, with introductory essays and notes by Andrew<br />
Lang supplementing those of the author. John C.<br />
Nimmo. 6s. per vol.<br />
<br />
Wicxs, FREDERICK. Stories of the Broadmoor Patient and<br />
the Poor Clerk. Illustrated by A. Morrow. Remington.<br />
2s. cloth, Is. paper.<br />
<br />
ZANGWILL, I. Ghetto Tragedies. M‘Clure. ts. net.<br />
<br />
Zota, Emrue. Doctor Pascal; or, Life and Heredity.<br />
Translated by Ernest A. Vizetelly. With a portrait of<br />
the author. Chatto and Windus. 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Poetry and the Drama.<br />
<br />
Barrow, Sir J. Croker. The Seven Cities of the Dead,<br />
and other poems, lyrics, and sonnets. Longmans. 5s.<br />
<br />
Bucunem, ©. A., Po.D. Balladen und MRomanzen.<br />
Selected and arranged with notes and literary intro-<br />
duction. Golden Treasury Series. Macmillan. 2s. 6d.<br />
net.<br />
<br />
Musarave, GEor@E. Dante’s Divine Comedy, consisting<br />
of the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. A version in<br />
the nine-line metre of Spenser. The Inferno or Hell.<br />
Swan Sonnenschein.<br />
<br />
WorpswortH, CHarues, D.C.L. Shakspeare’s Historical<br />
Plays, Roman and English; with revised text, intro-<br />
ductions, and notes glossarial, critical, and historical.<br />
3 vols. Remington.<br />
<br />
Science and Art.<br />
<br />
ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND<br />
Socran Scrence. Vol. 4., No. 1. 1 dol. England:<br />
P. S. King and Son, 5, King-street, Westminster,<br />
London.<br />
<br />
ARTILLERY: ITS PROGRESS AND PRESENT PosrTion. By<br />
E. W. Lloyd, late Commander R.N., and A. G. Badcock,<br />
late R.A. Portsmouth, J. Griffin and Co., 2, The Hard.<br />
31s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Buuuer, Ernest W. Semi-Azimuths, a New Method of<br />
Navigation. Part 1.<br />
<br />
Caruistn, E.M.F. A Practical Method of Dress Cutting,<br />
for technical classes, schools, and self-teaching. Part 1.<br />
Griffith, Farran. 1s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Dunn, Sinciarr. Ninety-six Auld Scotch Sangs. Arranged<br />
and harmonised. Glasgow, Morison, Brothers. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Durton, THomas. Indigestion, Corpulency, Gout, Clearly<br />
Explained, Treated, and Dieted. Third edition, enlarged<br />
and revised. Kimpton, 82, High Holborn; Hirschfeld<br />
Brothers, Bream’s-buildings, Fetter-lane.<br />
<br />
GARDINER, ALFonzo. Rudiment of the Theory of Music.<br />
J. Heywood.<br />
<br />
GILLEsPin, JamEs. The Triumph of Philosophy ; or, The<br />
True System of the Universe. Being an earnest<br />
endeavour to correct several fallacies of the accepted<br />
theory of astronomy. London, R. Sutton and Co., 11,<br />
Ludgate-hill. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Harrison, J. Park. Archeologia Oxoniensis : Supplement<br />
to Part 2., English Architectur before the Conquest.<br />
Illustrated. Frowde. 1s.<br />
<br />
Heywoop, Joun. The Art of Chanting. History—<br />
principles—practice. William Clowes.<br />
<br />
Houston, ALEXANDER C. Report upon the Scott Mon-<br />
crieff System for the Bacteriological Purification of<br />
Sewage. Waterlow. 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Praaort, F. T. The Music and Musical Instruments of<br />
Japan. With notes by T. L. Southgate. B. T.<br />
Batsford.<br />
<br />
Prout, EBENEZER. Musical Form. Lond., Augener.<br />
<br />
THORNE THORNE, R. Cholera Prospects and Prevention.<br />
A Lecture delivered to the Technical Teachers of the<br />
National Health Society. Allman and Son.<br />
<br />
Law.<br />
<br />
Anson, Str WiLu1aAm. Principles of the English Law of<br />
Contract and of Agency in its relation to Contract.<br />
Seventh edition. 10s. 6d. Oxford, the Clarendon<br />
Press ; London, Frowde.<br />
<br />
AUSTEN-CARTMELL, James. Abstract of Reported Cases<br />
relating to Trade Marks (between the years 1876 and<br />
1892 inclusive). With the statutes and rules. Sweet<br />
and Maxwell Limited.<br />
<br />
Bztiot, Hue H. lL. Ireland and Canada: Studies in<br />
Comparative Constitutional Law. Reeves and Turner.<br />
Is.<br />
<br />
Reicuet, Oswatp J. Short Manuals of Canon Law.<br />
Part I.—The Canon Law of the Sacraments. Edited<br />
by. John Hodges. Is.<br />
<br />
Suite, James WALTER. Legal Forms for Common Use.<br />
Effingham Wilson and Co. 5s.<br />
<br />
Educational.<br />
<br />
A Practicat ARABIC GRAMMAR. ParTII. Compiled by<br />
Major A. O. Green, R.E., p.s.c. Third edition. En-<br />
larged and revised. Oxford, Clarendon Press; Lon-<br />
don, Henry Frowde.<br />
<br />
Brent, Danten. Euclid, Books I. to VI., with notes and<br />
exercises. Rivington, Percival. 4s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Heatiey, H. R. Junior Students’ Classical Series, St.<br />
Luke, the Greek Text, Notes,and Vocabulary. Edited<br />
by. Rivington, Percival. 2s.<br />
<br />
Lecuner, A. R. Easy Readings in German, with parallel<br />
pieces for retranslation and vocabularies. New edition,<br />
revised. Rivington, Percival. 2s.<br />
<br />
Mopern Frencu Series, InreRMEDIATE Texts, Le Cou<br />
pD’ANTERNE ET LE LAC DE Gers, from R. Topffer,<br />
“Nouvelles Genevoises,’ edited by R. J. Morich.<br />
Rivington, Percival. tod.<br />
<br />
Taytor, W. W. Solutions of Exercises in Taylor's<br />
Euclid. Book I.—IV. Cambridge, at the University<br />
Press.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
respec<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ADVERTISEMENTS.<br />
<br />
147<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NEW NOVEL BY JAMES PAYN.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AT ALL THE LIBRARIES, BOOKSELLERS’,<br />
AND BOOKSTALLS.<br />
<br />
In 2 vols., crown 8vo., cloth extra, price 21s.<br />
<br />
A STUMBLE ON<br />
<br />
sy<br />
<br />
THE THRESHOLD,<br />
<br />
TAT es PFPAY WN.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.<br />
<br />
THE TIMES:<br />
<br />
‘‘Mr. James Payn’s pleasant story contains a startling<br />
novelty. - The leading actors are a group of<br />
undergraduates of Cambridge University. Mr. Payn’s<br />
picture of University society is frankly exceptional.<br />
Exceptional, if not unique, is the ‘nice little college’ of<br />
St. Neot’s. Cambridge men will have little difficulty in<br />
recognising this snug refuge of the ‘ploughed.’ . . .<br />
An ingenious plot, clever characters, and, above all, a<br />
plentiful seasoning of genial wit. The uxorious<br />
master of St. Neot’s is charmingly conceived. If only for<br />
his reminiscences of his deceased wives, ‘A Stumble on<br />
the Threshold’ deserves to be treasured. . . . We<br />
turn over Mr. Payn’s delightful pages, so full of surprises<br />
and whimsical dialogue. Bae<br />
<br />
DaILy NEws:<br />
<br />
“The dramatic story is told with an excellent wit. It<br />
abounds in lively presentation of character and in shrewd<br />
Sayings concerning life and manners. That study of<br />
mankind which is ‘man’ has furnished a liberal educa-<br />
tion to this genial humorist. The men and women he<br />
pourtrays move before us, as do our friends and<br />
acquaintances, distinct individualities, yet each possessed<br />
of that reserve of mystery a touch of which in the<br />
delineation of human nature, is more convincing than<br />
pages of analysis. Needham, Fellow of St.<br />
Neot’s, Cambridge—simple, loyal, gently independent—is<br />
a beautiful study. The story alternates in its setting<br />
between Bournemouth, Cambridge, and some charming<br />
spots near the Thames. The description of life in the<br />
Alma Mater on the banks of the Cam gives Mr. Payn<br />
opportunities for humorous sketches of professors and<br />
students, and he shows himself in the light of an excellent<br />
raconteur. This part of the narrative furnishes some<br />
delightful reading; we seem to be listening to the best<br />
talk, incisive, racy, and to the point. Space will not<br />
allow us to quote some of the wise and witty sayings,<br />
tinged it may be with cynicism, which are the outcome of<br />
Mr, Payn’s philosophy of life, and which are not the least<br />
entertaining part of this attractive novel.”<br />
<br />
DAILY CHRONICLE:<br />
<br />
‘*Mr. James Payn is here quite at his usual level all<br />
through, and that level is quite high enough to please<br />
most people. The character drawing is good.<br />
The story of the master sounds strangely like truth.<br />
<br />
A book to read distinctly.”<br />
<br />
DAILY GRAPHIO,<br />
<br />
‘ . . . The dramatic unity of time, place, and cir-<br />
‘cumstance has never had a more novel setting. »<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
SATURDAY REVIEW:<br />
‘*A very interesting story, and one that excels in clever<br />
contrast of character and close study of individualism.<br />
: The characters make the impression of reality on<br />
the reader. : Extremely pleasant are the sketches<br />
of University life.”<br />
<br />
THE WORLD:<br />
“The most.sensational story which the author has<br />
written since his capital novel, ‘By Proxy.’<br />
Never flags for a moment.”<br />
<br />
BIACK AND WHITE.<br />
<br />
“ . . . Ingenious and Original. Mr. Payn knows<br />
how to invent and lead up to a mystery.”<br />
<br />
LEEDS MERCURY:<br />
<br />
‘“Three more distinctive characters have, perhaps,<br />
never been drawn by Mr. James Payn than in Walter<br />
Blythe, Robert Grey, and George Needham, Cambridge<br />
undergraduates, who figure prominently in ‘A Stumble<br />
on the Threshold.’”<br />
<br />
GLASGOW HERALD:<br />
<br />
“. , . . Mr. Payn’s latest invention in sensational<br />
episode; but wild horses will not drag from us a<br />
statement of the mystery. It is new and thoroughly<br />
original, and worthy of the ingenuity of the loser of Sir<br />
Massingberd.”<br />
<br />
BATLEY REPORTER:<br />
<br />
“. . . . Is most attractive reading.”<br />
<br />
HAMPSHIRE TELEGRAPH AND CHRONICLE:<br />
<br />
‘*Mr, James Payn’s latest story, ‘A Stumble on the<br />
Threshold,’ which has been the chief attraction in the<br />
‘ Queen’ during the last few months—where, by the way,<br />
it was most admirably illustrated—has just been issued<br />
in two handsome vols. by Mr. Horace Cox. The story is<br />
written in Mr. Payn’s happiest vein; it sparkles with wit,<br />
the characters are most unconventional, and the old, old<br />
theme is worked out on quite novel lines.”<br />
<br />
HEREFORD TIMES<br />
‘‘ With all their sparkle and gaiety, Mr. Payn’s novels<br />
would not be complete without the dread Nemesis,<br />
mysterious in operation, and casting suspicion for a<br />
time on every side but the right one. The novel is<br />
thoroughly attractive, and a credit to the practised hand<br />
which penned it.”<br />
THE OBSERVER:<br />
<br />
“6... 6s a characteristic story, remarkably<br />
quietly told, always pleasing and satisfying, and pro-<br />
viding a startling incident at a moment when everything<br />
seems serene.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
London: HORACE COX, Windsor House, Bream’s Buildings, E.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
148<br />
<br />
ADVERTISEMENTS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MESDAMES BRETT & BOWSER,<br />
<br />
TYPISTS,<br />
SELBORNE CHAMBERS, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR.<br />
<br />
Authors’ MSS. carefully and expeditiously copied, from<br />
1s. per 1000 words. Extra carbon copies half price. Refer-<br />
ences kindly permitted to Augustine Birrell, Esq., M.P.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR’S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD.<br />
<br />
(Tue Leapennatt Press Lrp., E.C.)<br />
pe<br />
Contains hairless paper, over which the pen<br />
<br />
slips with perfect freedom.<br />
Siwpence each: 58. per dozen, ruled or plain.<br />
<br />
Miss RR. V. GILT,<br />
<br />
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,<br />
<br />
6, Adam-street, Strand, W.C.<br />
0<br />
<br />
Authors’ and dramatists’ Work a Speciality. All kinds<br />
of MSS. copied with care. Extra attention given to difficult<br />
hand-writing and to papers or lectures on scientific subjects.<br />
Type-writing from dictation. Shorthand Notes taken<br />
and transcribed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
FURTHER PARTICULARS ON APPLICATION.<br />
<br />
MISS E. ALLEN & CO.,<br />
TYPE AND SHORTHAND WRITERS,<br />
<br />
Scientific Work and Translations a<br />
Special Feature.<br />
39g, LOMBARD ST-., £5.C.<br />
References to Authors. Office No. 59 (close to Lift).<br />
<br />
Nearly ready.<br />
<br />
VERSES GRAVE AND GAY.<br />
<br />
By F. B. DOVETON,<br />
<br />
Author of ‘‘Snatches of Song,” ‘ Sketches in Prose and Verse,”<br />
“« Maggie in Mythica,” &c.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, E.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MRS. GILL,<br />
TYPH-WRITING OFFICE,<br />
<br />
35, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.<br />
(ESTABLISHED 1883.)<br />
<br />
Authors’ MSS. carefully copied from 1s. per 1000 words. Plays,<br />
&c., 1s. 8d. per 1000 words. Extra copies (carbon) supplied at the<br />
rate of 4d. and 3d. per 1000 words. Type-writing from dictation<br />
2s. 6d. per hour. Reference kindly permitted to Walter Besant, Esq,<br />
<br />
Miss PATTEN,<br />
TYPIST.<br />
<br />
44, Oakley Street Flats, Chelsea, S.W.<br />
<br />
Authors’ MSS. carefully transcribed. References kindly permitted<br />
to George Augustus Sala, Esq., Justin Huntly McCarthy, Esq., and<br />
many other well-known Authors.<br />
<br />
Fire - Proof Safe for MSS.<br />
<br />
Particulars on Application.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
BUY, BEG,<br />
BORROW, or STEAL. 3<br />
<br />
TICKPHAST-<br />
PASTE. 6d. and 1s.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
LITERARY PRODUCTIONS<br />
<br />
OF EVERY DESCRIPTION<br />
<br />
AREFULLY REVISED and CORRECTED on Mode-<br />
rate Terms by the Author of ‘“ The Queen’s English<br />
up to Date” (see Press Opinions), price 2s.<br />
Address “ Anglophil,’” Literary Revision Office, 342,<br />
Strand, W.C.<br />
<br />
NEW NOVEL BY QUILLIM RITTER.<br />
<br />
Now ready, crown 8vo., with Illustrations, price 3s. 6d.,<br />
<br />
THE MARTYRDOM OF SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
QUILLIM RITTER.<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, E.C.<br />
<br />
Just published, cloth lettered, price 5s.<br />
<br />
rL.YyYRIics.<br />
<br />
BY<br />
Dr. J. A. GOODCHILD.<br />
<br />
pe a<br />
London; Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, E.C.<br />
<br />
COX’S<br />
<br />
ARTS OF READING, WRITING, AND SPEAKING.<br />
<br />
LETTERS TO A LAW STUDENT.<br />
By THE DATES MR. SHRIBANT CoO.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
RE-ISSUE (SIXTH THOUSAND).<br />
<br />
PRICE 7s. 6d.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
LONDON: HORACE COX,<br />
<br />
“LAW TIMES” OFFICE, WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM’S BUILDINGS, E.O.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Printed and Published by Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, London, E.C, | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/454/1893-09-01-The-Author-4-4.pdf | publications, The Author |