| 293 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/293 | The Author, Vol. 07 Issue 03 (August 1896) | <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.+07+Issue+03+%28August+1896%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 07 Issue 03 (August 1896)</a> | | | <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049239455" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049239455</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> | 1896-08-01-The-Author-7-3 | | | | | 49–72 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=7">7</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1896-08-01">1896-08-01</a> | | | | | | | 3 | | | 18960801 | XL he Hutbor*<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. VII.—No. 3.]<br />
AUGUST i, 1896.<br />
[Price Sixpence.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
Warnings and Notices<br />
Literary Property—<br />
1. At Belfast<br />
2. After Belfast<br />
8. With the Dai!]/ C/ironicle ..<br />
4. Coat of Advertising<br />
5. Cost of the Small Fdition..<br />
6. Cost of Production<br />
7. Matters for Consideration..<br />
The Berne Congress<br />
PAOE<br />
... 49<br />
... SI<br />
.. 5i<br />
. M<br />
.. 55<br />
. .'5<br />
.. 55<br />
. 55<br />
... 56<br />
New York Letter. L June 12. II. July 13<br />
Notes and News. By the Editor<br />
The Book and the Bookseller<br />
Literature in America. By Mon^ure Conway<br />
Dinner of the Authors' Club<br />
What is Good Literature?<br />
Book Talk<br />
Correspondence—1. Delayed Publication. 2. Literary Grab-alls.<br />
3. Our Censors. 4 The Titlo<br />
Literature in Journals<br />
r\OB<br />
. 56<br />
. 60<br />
. 61<br />
. 63<br />
. 66<br />
. 66<br />
. 67<br />
70<br />
71<br />
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
1. The Annual Report. That for January 1896 can be had on application to the Secretary.<br />
2. Th.6 Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary<br />
Property. Issued to all Members. Back numbers are offered at the following prices:<br />
Vol. I., 10*. 6d. (Bound); Vols. II., III., and IV., 8s. 6d. each (Bound); Vol. V., 6s. 6d.<br />
(Unbound).<br />
3. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,<br />
95, Strand, W.C.) 3*.<br />
4. The History Of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, late Secretary to<br />
the Society, is.<br />
5. The Cost of Production. Iu tliis 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 />
6. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. 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 />
7. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parlia-<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. Lely. Eyre<br />
and Spottiswoode. i*. 6d.<br />
8. The Society of Authors. A Record of its Action from its Foundation. By Walter Besant<br />
(Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). 1*.<br />
9. The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. By Ernst<br />
Lunge, J.U.D. zs. 6d.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 48 (#72) ##############################################<br />
<br />
AD VER TISEMENTS.<br />
^fye ^ocicfp of Jluf^ors (gncotporcttefc).<br />
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.<br />
Alfred Austin.<br />
J. M. B aerie<br />
A W. a Beckett.<br />
P. E. Beddard, F.E.S.<br />
Robert Bateman.<br />
Sir Henrt Bergnx, K.C.M.G.<br />
Sir Walter Besant.<br />
Augustine BlRRELL, M.P.<br />
Bev. Prop. Bonnet, F.B.S.<br />
Bight Hon. James Bryce, M.P.<br />
Bight Hon. Lord Burghclere, P.C.<br />
Hall Caine.<br />
Egerton Castle, F.S.A.<br />
P. W. Clatden.<br />
Edward Clodd.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
Hon. John Collier.<br />
Sir W. Martin Conwat.<br />
F. Marion Crawford.<br />
A. W. A Beckett.<br />
Sir Walter Besant.<br />
Egerton Castle.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
Messrs. Field<br />
Solicitors<br />
f M<<br />
[a.<br />
PRESIDENT.<br />
GEOBQE MEKEIDITII.<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
The Earl of Desart.<br />
Austin Dobson.<br />
a. conan dotle, m.d<br />
A. W. Dubourg.<br />
Sir J. Eric Erichsen, Bart., F.B.S.<br />
Prof. Michael Foster, F.B.S.<br />
Richard Garnett, C.B., LL.D.<br />
Edmund Gosse.<br />
H. Bider Haggard.<br />
Thomas Hardy.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
Jerome K. Jerome.<br />
Budyard Kipling.<br />
Prof. E. Bay Lankester, F.B.S.<br />
W. E. H. Lkcky.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
Mrs. E. Lynn Linton.<br />
Eev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mus.D.<br />
Prof. J. M. D. Meiklejohn.<br />
Counsel — E. M. Underdown,<br />
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT<br />
Chairman—H. Bider Haggard,<br />
Hon. John Collier.<br />
Sir W. Martin Conway.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
Boscoe, and Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.<br />
Herman C. Merivale.<br />
Bev. C. H. Middleton-Wake.<br />
Sir Lewis Morris.<br />
Henry Norman.<br />
Miss E. A. Ormerod.<br />
J. C. Parkinson.<br />
Bight Hon. Lord Pirbright.<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.<br />
Walter Herries Pollock.<br />
W. Baptiste Scoones.<br />
Miss Flora L. Shaw.<br />
G. B. Sims.<br />
S. Squire Sprigge.<br />
J. J. Stevenson.<br />
Prof. Jas. Sully.<br />
William Moy Thomas.<br />
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.<br />
Mrs. Humphry Ward.<br />
Miss Charlotte M. Yonge.<br />
Hon.<br />
Q.C.<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mus.D.<br />
Henry Norman.<br />
S. Squire Sprigge.<br />
Herbert Thrino, B.A., 4, Portugal-street, W.C.<br />
Secretary—G. Herbert Thring, B.A.<br />
OFFICES: 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.<br />
IP. WATT &c S0 3ST,<br />
LITERARY AGENTS,<br />
Formerly of 2, PATERNOSTER SttUARE,<br />
Hive now removed to<br />
HASTINGS HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND.<br />
LONDON. W.C.<br />
WINDSOR HOUSE PRINTING WORKS,<br />
Offices of "The Field," "The Queen," "The Law Times," &e.<br />
Mr. HOBACE COX, Printer to the Authors' Society, takes the opportunity of informing Authors that, having a very<br />
large Office, and an extensive Plant of Type of every description, he is in a position to EXECUTE any PBINTLNG they<br />
may entrust to his care.<br />
ESTIMATES FORWARDED, AND REASONABLE CHARGES WILL BE FOUND.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 49 (#73) ##############################################<br />
<br />
XL he Eutbor,<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. VII.—No. 3.] AUGUST 1, 1896. [Pbice Sixpence.<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 />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
THE 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 />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only.<br />
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on<br />
all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub-<br />
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are<br />
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.<br />
THEBE are several methods of publishing by agree-<br />
ments. Thus (1) an author may sell his work for a<br />
sum of money down: (2) he may take a share of the<br />
profits: (3) he may accept a royalty.<br />
The first method is the readiest and, where a proper<br />
price is paid, perhaps the best. It involves a certain amount<br />
of risk or doubt as to the result on the part of the buyer,<br />
and a certain amount of hesitation on the part of the seller.<br />
The author would do well to sell through an agent. But let<br />
him beware as to his choice of agent.<br />
At a time when the production of new books involved<br />
great risks and where the possible circle of purchasers was<br />
very small, the publishers, joining together, took half the<br />
profits as a return for their risk and services. At the present<br />
time in many cases, where there are no risks, they often take<br />
two-thirds and even more of the profits, and that after setting<br />
apart a large sum for "office expenses," allowing the author<br />
nothing at all for his office expenses. In other words,<br />
it is as if a steward were to charge first for his office<br />
and desks and then to take half or two-thirds of the<br />
remainder for himself as steward's fee. Thereiore the author<br />
must in every case ascertain carefully, before signing the<br />
agreement, what proportion is appropriated nnder its clauses<br />
by the publisher for himself. If the author is in doubt, let<br />
him submit the agreement to the secretary, or to one of the<br />
VOL. VII.<br />
literary agents recommended by the secretary. Above all<br />
things he must remember that in any business transaction<br />
the one who accepts an agreement in ignorance will quite<br />
certainly get the worst of it. The folly of signing in<br />
ignorance is the main cause of half the quarrels between<br />
author and publisher.<br />
In the case of profit-sharing agreements, remember that<br />
very common form of getting the better of an author is the<br />
practice of advertising the book in the publisher's own organs,<br />
very likely magazines of small circulation. Sometimes,<br />
also, he " exchanges " advertisements with other magazines,<br />
and charges the author as if he had paid for them. In this<br />
way the publisher may put the whole profits of a book in his<br />
own pocket. One way to prevent this sharp practice is to<br />
insert a clause to the effect that advertisements shall only<br />
be charged at the actual price paid for them. A better way,<br />
however, is to agree beforehand upon the papers in whioh<br />
advertisements may be inserted.<br />
As regards the right of inspecting the books, that neoo<br />
not be claimed, because it exists as the right of every<br />
partner, or joint venturer. You have only to demand the<br />
inspection of the books by your solicitor, your accountant,<br />
or the secretary of the Society.<br />
If the book is a first book, or one that carries risk, it is fair<br />
to make an arrangement for the first edition and another for<br />
the second, and following, if any. The publisher confers so<br />
signal a service upon the young author by producing his<br />
work at all—i.e., by giving him the chance he desires above<br />
all things—that it seems fair in such a case to yield him the<br />
larger share.<br />
In a profit-sharing agreement do not let the cost of rc<br />
duction form a part of the agreement, otherwise you wi<br />
be unable to contest it afterwards.<br />
It will be wisest never to enter into relations with an<br />
publisher unless recommended by the Society.<br />
There are many other dangers to be avoided. Seria!<br />
rights: stamping the agreement: American rights: futurt<br />
work: cession of copyright—these things cannot possibly<br />
be attended to by the young author. Therefore his agree-<br />
ment should always be shown to the secretary.<br />
It has been objected that these precautions presuppose *»<br />
great succes for the book, and that very few books indeed<br />
attain to this great success. That is quite true : but there in<br />
always this uncertainty of literary property that, although<br />
the works of a great many authors carry with them no risk<br />
at all, and although of a great many it is known within a few<br />
copies what will be their minimum circulation, it is not<br />
known what will be their maximum. Therefore every<br />
author, for every book, should arrange on the chance of a<br />
Buccess which will not, probably, come at all; but which<br />
may come.<br />
The four points which the Society has always demanded<br />
from the outset are :—<br />
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
H 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 50 (#74) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
(2.) The inspection of those ocoount books which belong<br />
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br />
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br />
withheld.<br />
(3.) That there shall be no secret profits.<br />
(4.) That nothing shall be charged which has not been<br />
actually paid—for instance, that there shall be no charge for<br />
advertisements in the publisher's own organs and none for<br />
exchanged advertisements; and that all discounts shall be<br />
duly entered.<br />
If these points are carefully looked after, the author may<br />
rest pretty well assured that he is in right hands. At the<br />
fame time he wDl do well to send his agreement to the<br />
secretary before he signs it.<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
I. "T7WERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of hie<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the advice<br />
sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member<br />
has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the<br />
case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com-<br />
mittee will obtain for him Counsel's opinion. All this<br />
without any cost to the member.<br />
2. Remember that questions conneoted with copyright<br />
and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple<br />
to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually<br />
engaged upon such questions for us.<br />
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in<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 />
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 />
5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Society for examination.<br />
6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in<br />
the cose of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-<br />
ing firm in the country.<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 />
8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything<br />
important to literature that you may hear or meet with.<br />
9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of<br />
members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof<br />
safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con-<br />
fidential documents to be.read only by the Secretary, who<br />
will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1)<br />
To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To<br />
htamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon<br />
tbem. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments<br />
due according to agreements.<br />
THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE.<br />
MEMBERS are informed:<br />
1. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of<br />
the business of members of the Society. That it<br />
submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree-<br />
ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene-<br />
rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business<br />
details.<br />
2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured<br />
will be forwarded upon detailed application.<br />
3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those<br />
members of the Society whose work possesses a market<br />
value.<br />
4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations<br />
whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia-<br />
tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all<br />
communications relating thereto are referred to it.<br />
5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by<br />
appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days'<br />
notice should be given.<br />
6. That avery attempt is made to deal with all communi-<br />
cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent<br />
to defray postage.<br />
7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS.<br />
without previous correspondence; does not hold itself<br />
responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that<br />
in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray<br />
postage.<br />
8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for<br />
lectures by some of the leading members of the Society;<br />
that it has a "Transfer Department" for the sale and<br />
purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a " Register<br />
of Wants and Wanted" is open. Members are invited to<br />
communicate their requirements to the Manager.<br />
Thore iB 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 />
NOTICES.<br />
THE 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 />
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 />
Communications for the Author should reach the Editor<br />
not later than the 21st of each month.<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 />
Members and otherB who wish their MSS. read are<br />
requested not to send them to the Office without previously<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 51 (#75) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
5'<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 />
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, Ac.<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 gave him the<br />
trouble of sending out a reminder.<br />
Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the<br />
following warning. It is a most foolish and may be a<br />
most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding<br />
for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they<br />
would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five<br />
years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest<br />
or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then<br />
hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them-<br />
selves into literary bondage for three or five years?<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 meanB, 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<br />
at £g 40. The figures in our book are as near the exact<br />
truth as can be prooured; but a printer's, or a binder's,<br />
bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be<br />
arrived at.<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 thoBe<br />
who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it.<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
I.—With the Booksellers at Belfast.<br />
THE following passages are extracts from the<br />
speech made by the editor of this paper<br />
before the delegates of the Booksellers'<br />
Union at Belfast:—<br />
"He had to begin with a confession of neglect—<br />
with a confession of not understanding the whole<br />
problem. He meant this: Ten or twelve years<br />
a<,ro, when he, with some other persons, friends of<br />
his, founded a society, they did not include in<br />
their scheme that solidarity of the book interest<br />
which he perceived now they ought to have done.<br />
For twelve years past they had been working<br />
perhaps self shly and entirely for themselves, and<br />
for their relations with the publishers, which, as<br />
they knew, had been by no means satisfactory.<br />
The authors had improved their owu position to a<br />
very considerable extent, but he thought they<br />
should long ago have adopted this principle—viz.,<br />
to take a book as a unit, as a common object of<br />
interest to all who were engaged in producing it,<br />
creating it, and selling it.<br />
"Meantime, he thought they had done something<br />
for the booksellers. Some six or seven years ago<br />
they produced an important volume, entitled ' The<br />
Cost of Production.'<br />
"For the first time that volume showed every-<br />
body who thought of buying it what a book really<br />
cost to produce—he meant to print, bind, publish,<br />
and advertise it.<br />
"With the cost of production must be taken the<br />
price to the trade and the selling price. Let<br />
them take a 6*. book for consideration. It was sold<br />
for 4*. 6d. The publisher got, on an average,<br />
3«. bd. The cost on editions of 3000 and up-<br />
wards of an average book as defined in the ' Cost<br />
of Production' would be about is. On an average<br />
the author, unless he was a popular author, would<br />
receive I*., the publisher it. 6d., and the book-<br />
seller is." (Cries of " No, no.")<br />
Here many of the delegates got up and called<br />
attention to the fact that it was only by ordering<br />
a dozen books at a time that they could get them<br />
at so low a price as 3*. 6d. They mostly ordered<br />
single copies, for which they had to pay 4s. 2d.,<br />
leaving only 4</. for their profit to include office<br />
expenses and living.<br />
"Well, let these figures be taken. Suppose the<br />
bookseller to get only this miserable 4c?. and the<br />
author his is., what did the publisher get out of<br />
the transaction 'i What did they think of that?<br />
(Shame.) These facts were not believed in by<br />
half the j)eople in the world, but they were per-<br />
fectly true. (Hear, hear.) In reply to these<br />
facts the publisher put forward the question of<br />
risk. Well, he had gone into that question, and<br />
no doubt there might be serious risk when<br />
publishers started new magazines, or expensive<br />
encyclopaedias, but as regarded current litera-<br />
ture, there was, as a rule, little or no risk what-<br />
ever. What he wanted them to observe was,<br />
that as regarded every branch of literature,<br />
whether they took fiction, poetry, history, essays,<br />
or, above all things, educational books, there<br />
were hundreds of authors whose works carried no<br />
risk, and whose name on the title-page was a<br />
guarantee at least of a certain amount of success.<br />
(Applause.) Then the publishers talked of the<br />
enormous amount of advertisements, but they<br />
would be surprised to learn that the i«. he put<br />
down very often covered the cost of advertise-<br />
ments as well. Considering the course of action<br />
of authors in the past, he said the publishers<br />
would have been more than hum iu if they had. not<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 52 (#76) ##############################################<br />
<br />
5*<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
taken advantage of the opportunities that had<br />
been afforded them. Why, with absolute power<br />
in their hands, they had actually given the book-<br />
seller $d. and the author is! It might have been<br />
much worse, for they might have given the book-<br />
seller 2d. and the author nothing, and nobody<br />
could have stopped them if they had done it.<br />
"Sometimes he had been called a dreamer of<br />
dreams, of which one or two of the more impos-<br />
sible had come off; he wou'd just lay before them<br />
a little dream he had about themselves. He<br />
thought they were all gathered together, four<br />
thousand strong in that building, and there<br />
stood a man in front of them and congratulated<br />
them on their strength, and he said in his<br />
dream 'Four thousand is a large number—an<br />
army; with four thousand you should do what<br />
you bke;' and they replied in the same strain.<br />
He then asked what they proposed to do, and<br />
why didn't they act, and they replied 'How are<br />
we to act? What are we to do?' Then this<br />
impossible dreamer said, 'Why don't you begin<br />
by publishing for yourselves, by yourselves, the<br />
more popular part of the books you sell?' If<br />
they did that they would increase their profit by<br />
40 per cent, on their investments. He laid that<br />
down as a proposal for the booksellers to consider.<br />
Let them not do anything to which anyone could<br />
object. Let them just add one more to the<br />
numerous publishing houses already in existence.<br />
The proposal, he held, was perfectly feasible for<br />
them and the public, and as to how far it might<br />
be developed he would leave that to them to<br />
decide. It might be said that the question of<br />
risk came in, but when their numbers ran into<br />
thousands there was no risk—not a penny.<br />
Let them take authors, who were timid and bad<br />
business people, into their partnership in the<br />
fullest and freest manner, and if the authors<br />
saw they were carrying out the principle they had<br />
laid down in a loyal and true spirit, as he had no<br />
doubt they would, they would be attracted—yes<br />
—all the best authors in the country."<br />
II.—After Belfast.<br />
We have had, in consequence of the foregoing<br />
address, another of those periodical attacks in<br />
which our figures are assailed. Yet they remain.<br />
Nothing is more certain to me than the fact that<br />
the kind of book which we called an average<br />
book; that is, exactly defined, as a book of 320<br />
pages, with about 258 words to the page, can be<br />
produced in large quantities at less than a<br />
shilling. Nothing is more certain than the fact<br />
that the average price paid by the trade for a 6s.<br />
book is 3*. 6d. in quantities of a dozen and over;<br />
and 4.V. 2f/. in single copies. Nothing is more<br />
certain, therefore, than the fact that 2*. 6d., in one<br />
case, and 3*. 2d., in the other, remains over, which<br />
should be the author's property, out of which to<br />
pay the services of the publisher.<br />
As for the question of office expenses, I do not<br />
think any one will again advance the preposterous<br />
claim that publishers alone have any office<br />
expenses to be considered. The office expenses,<br />
if they are divided over every book issued<br />
by publisher and bookseller are estimated by<br />
some of the latter at about 16 per cent, of their<br />
receipts: by some of the former at 10 per cent,<br />
of their expenses. I do not know how much the<br />
author should reckon—in many cases, of course,<br />
his expenses can never be covered by any return<br />
that the book could yield, even if he had all. Such<br />
a case as the accumulation of a library; the work<br />
of years; the copying of MSS.; travelling; all to<br />
make a history; cannot ever be repaid: yet they<br />
are genuine office expenses: even the rent of his<br />
house, which is his workshop, should be con-<br />
sidered. Suppose, however, that all the three<br />
persons concerned were to take each 10 per cent,<br />
for office expenses. How would the matter<br />
stand? I take the price to the bookseller to be<br />
34. 6c?., and the cost of the book to be is. They<br />
all take 10 per cent., i.e., 4'2d., not quite \\d.<br />
—say ^d. —for office expenses. That reduces the<br />
said 3*. 6d. to 2s. 6d. The cost of production<br />
reduces it to i*. bd., of which a fair division would<br />
perhaps be i*. to the author and 6d. to the pub-<br />
lisher.<br />
The question of advertising is always coming<br />
up. Do we count that in the shilling? Un-<br />
doubtedly we do. I suppose it will be allowed<br />
that the advertising is spread over the whole<br />
of the editions. Now, an edition in large<br />
numbers, of such a size as we have assumed, may<br />
cost under gd. a copy. Every £ 10 spent in<br />
advertising means 2\d. for 1000, i-fad. for 2000,<br />
%d. for 3000, for 6000. In other words, a book<br />
which sells 6000 copies may have =£50 spent in<br />
advertising it for 2d. a copy. When we treat of<br />
small editions, the book itself must cost, as is care-<br />
fully shown in the "Cost of Production," a good<br />
deal more than a shilling.<br />
The question how much advertising a book<br />
may bear is often an anxious one. Here every<br />
publisher follows his own plan. That some<br />
plans are unwise—that much money is wasted<br />
in advertising — one who stands behind the<br />
scenes and compares accounts as rendered by<br />
different firms cannot but understand so much.<br />
Three or four years ago the accounts of a book<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 53 (#77) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
53<br />
costing about js. 6d. were sent in. The sum of<br />
over =£200 was set down for advertising. A<br />
detailed list of papers and dates was sent in:<br />
apparently every little journal in the country had<br />
been enriched : the list was verified here and there,<br />
and seemed to be correctly drawn up. Another<br />
case occurred the other day where a book whose<br />
sale was no more than 170x3 copies was<br />
loaded with advertisements to the tune of .£96!<br />
This charge was also verified, and was, no doubt,<br />
perfectly correct—but the wisdom of spending<br />
so much on a book impossible to make popular<br />
seems doubtful. As a general rule the money<br />
spent in advertising the great mass of books is<br />
very small, for the simple and sufficient reason<br />
that the public would not buy them if we<br />
placarded the whole west front of St. Paul's with<br />
their advertisements.<br />
Here is a new point to be considered, A corre-<br />
spondent says: " In estimating the subject of cost<br />
there is a point which seems to have escaped you.<br />
It is the advantage enjoyed by the great houses.<br />
They can keep going a whole army of printers:<br />
they can order cloth for binding by the acre:<br />
they can order paper by the square mile. There-<br />
fore they get everything cheaper than the small<br />
publisher who sends in a book here and a book<br />
there, orders his cloth for binding by the yard<br />
and the paper by the ream."<br />
The correspondence about the Belfast meeting<br />
has ended, so far, in the following letters :—<br />
To the Editor of the Westminster Gazette.<br />
Sir,—An additional fact of considerable interest, whioh<br />
has just come to my knowledge, is my only exouse for<br />
addressing you again on this subject.<br />
1. In bis letter to you of July 8 Mr. R. B. Marston made<br />
the following statement:<br />
"A 6s. novel is sold to the trade at one-third off less<br />
10 per cent., thirteen copies being reckoned as twelve; this<br />
brings the amount received by the publisher to 3s. 4<J.,<br />
leaving him lod."<br />
These, he states, are the terms " to the trade."<br />
2. This statement is quite clear and distinct.<br />
3. Very well. A few days after this statement was thus<br />
publicly made a circular was issued by the firm of Sampson<br />
Low and Co., addressed "To the Trade." This circular<br />
being marked "Private," my solicitors, Messrs. Field,<br />
Boscoe, and Co., asked Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. if<br />
they would permit me to publish it. They object to its<br />
publication.<br />
4. I can therefore only inform your readers that in this<br />
circular "the Trade" are cautioned by Messrs. Sampson<br />
Low and Co. not to expect the terms which one of their<br />
directors has assured the public are given to them.<br />
5. With this circular before me, I can repeat, even more<br />
eonfiflently than before, my assertion that the price of the<br />
6>. book to the bookseller, with all discounts and allow-<br />
ances, is js. 6d. If any people object, I shall refer them to<br />
Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. My previous assertion th»t<br />
single copies pay 4». 2d. has never been denied. The prioe .<br />
asked by publishers, therefore, varies from 4s. 2d. to 3«. 4<Z.,<br />
which is apparently the price to distributors. The average<br />
price obtained by the publisher I shall still pnt at 38. 6d.—<br />
Your obedient servant,<br />
Walter Besant.<br />
Frognal, Hampstead, July 23.<br />
To the Editor of the Westminster Gazette.<br />
Sir,—Sir Walter Besant now state.-s in your columns that<br />
"the average price obtained by the publisher I shall put at<br />
38. 6(2." This is only 2d. more than my estimate, but it is<br />
8d. less than the figures given to the meeting at Belfast.<br />
Sir Walter says that we objeot to the publication of a<br />
private circular addressed to the trade, but he does not<br />
mention the reason we gave, viz., that booksellers have<br />
written to us oomplaining of trade discounts being pub-<br />
lished at all.<br />
If this correspondence should lead towards the abolition<br />
of the present stupid system of oalling the retail prioe of a<br />
book 25 per cent, more than anyone can buy it at it will not<br />
have been in vain.—Yours faithfully,<br />
B. B. Marston.<br />
St. Dunstan's House, Fetter-lane, London, E.C.<br />
Let anyone compare my letter with this answer.<br />
In my letter I show that a definite statement of<br />
figures publicly advanced was secretly denied by<br />
the same firm. I also point out that my original<br />
statement of the 4*. 2d. remains the same. Yet<br />
Mr. Marston pretends that I have reduced my<br />
original statement as to the 4*. 2d. by 8d.<br />
The end of the thing is that I come out of it<br />
with my own figures supported by this secret<br />
document letter for letter.<br />
The history in brief of the row:<br />
1. The booksellers declare that the so-called<br />
trade price of 3*. 6d. is no use to them, because<br />
they cannot order copies by the dozen.<br />
2. They further declare that for single copies,<br />
which they have to sell at 4*. 6d., they have to<br />
pay 4j. 2d.<br />
3. Enterprising publisher, drawing a herring<br />
across the real grievance by questioning the<br />
alleged trade price of 3*. 6c?., declares that it is<br />
3«. 4rf.<br />
4. Enterprising publisher's firm send out a<br />
secret circular to the trade warning them that<br />
they must not expect to get their books at the<br />
price of 3*. $d., as publicly stated by their<br />
partner.<br />
5. Another enterprising publisher enters the<br />
arena and tries another herring, denies that the<br />
book put forward as average (i.e., a book of<br />
320 pages with 258 words to a page) can be<br />
produced at a shilling even in large editions,<br />
says that the average is 352 pages, and then<br />
shows in triumph that the Society's figures are<br />
wrong.<br />
6. The person attacked exposes the public<br />
allegations with the secret denial, and shows that<br />
he has been right throughout; that the charge<br />
of the 4»- 2d. has never been denied, and that the<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 54 (#78) ##############################################<br />
<br />
54<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
average return to the publisher is taken at<br />
3s. 6d.<br />
7. The person exposed brings along another<br />
herring and pretends that the charge of the<br />
4*. 2d. has been withdrawn in favour of the<br />
3*. 6d.<br />
This is the common course of all these con-<br />
troversies: a charge advanced: a herring: then<br />
another: then a third: at last the original charge<br />
remains.<br />
III.—The "Daily Chronicle" on the<br />
Controversy.<br />
The Daily Chronicle publishes a column of<br />
notes from publishers.<br />
I. Mr. Oswald Crawfurd made three statements,<br />
all of them in error.<br />
a. That I say there is no risk in publishing. I<br />
have never said anything of the kind. I say<br />
that the risk in producing the current literature<br />
of the day, considering the custom of making the<br />
new author pay for producing his own work, is so<br />
small as not to be worth considering; and this<br />
I maintain.<br />
/3. That I propose to abolish the publisher. It<br />
is impossible to abolish the publisher. As well<br />
try to abolish the capitalist. But there is not the<br />
least reason why booksellers should not print for<br />
themselves some of the popular books of the day.<br />
The great literary enterprises, the important works,<br />
will be left for the great merchant adventurers in<br />
literature.<br />
y. He says that I ought to practice what I<br />
preach. Well, I am willing to do so. But I am<br />
not a bookseller. If the bookseUers do what I<br />
have suggested I will offer them a story with the<br />
greatest pleasure.<br />
II. Mr. Heinemann says that my figures have<br />
been demolished by Mr. Marston. Really! This<br />
is indeed ingenuous! Mr. Marston advanced<br />
figures, truly, in the Westminster Gazette, but<br />
his own firm next day sent out a private circular<br />
to the trade telling them that they could not<br />
expect to get their books on those terms. The<br />
figures given in that circular were exactly mine,<br />
viz., 3«, 6d. when a dozen copies are ordered.<br />
III. Mr. Sonnenschein talked good sense and<br />
spoke with truth and candour. Observe, however<br />
(1) that I have never said that there are no risks<br />
in publishing (see above), and (2) that I have never<br />
talked such nonsense as that all novels cost the<br />
same. I say that in large editions of a certain<br />
work assumed to be an average work, with a given<br />
number of sheets and a certain size page a book<br />
may be produced at a shilling a copy, and in<br />
subsequent editions much less. "With regard to<br />
the cost of production, I think it is a great<br />
mistake to talk as though all novels cost the same.<br />
Many can be produced at a shilling a copy if<br />
sufficient copies are printed. Others cost a great<br />
deal more. One might just as well speak of<br />
building a house without explaining whether it is<br />
a cottage or mansion. I am sorry for the decline<br />
of the country bookseller. Formerly he was a<br />
small speculator and extremely useful to publisher<br />
and author. Now in most cases he has declined<br />
into a mere distributor of books, exercising no<br />
control over their selection, and practically keep-<br />
ing no stock."<br />
IV. Mr. Alfred Nutt thinks that 75 per cent,<br />
of the new books do not pay, and that the loss<br />
in half the cases falls on the publisher.<br />
An opinion of this kind is valuable in propor-<br />
tion to the experience and knowledge of him<br />
who holds it. Mr. Nutt occupies a very respected<br />
position as a publisher. I would accept any<br />
opinion of Mr. Nutt's which is based on personal<br />
experience so far as that can be taken, but the<br />
valuable works which Mr. Nutt issues can scarcely<br />
be called popular.<br />
V. Mr. Hutchinson says that he cannot produce<br />
a 6s. novel in an edition of 3000 copies at 1*. He<br />
does not, however, say that he cannot produce<br />
the assumed average book of twenty sheets which<br />
we have advanced. All books are not the same<br />
length. He says they frequently spend ,£75 in<br />
advertising a book. He also trots out the office<br />
expenses, saying nothing about the booksellers'<br />
or the authors' office expenses.<br />
VI. A bookseller, Mr. Collier, of Stanford,<br />
writes sensibly: "My own opinion is that the<br />
bulk of booksellers buy on the single-copy terms<br />
after the first subscription, and often then, and<br />
that they don't get more than 5 per cent, extra<br />
discount in any case, if so much. A bookseller<br />
with an open window who makes cheap fiction his<br />
leading trade, and gives it great publicity, pro-<br />
bably always gets his 6s. books for 4s. But not<br />
so the majority of the trade. He is able to buy<br />
in large quantities because he make that his<br />
business, but the average man who keeps an all-<br />
round stock of books—the average bookseller,<br />
that is to say—buys in small quantities. Argu-<br />
ments on the whole question ought fairly to be<br />
based on the terms usually in operation, and<br />
those terms are roundly 30 per cent, off the<br />
published price, which means getting a 6s. novel<br />
for 4s. 2«?. It is not a fair argument on the part<br />
of the publisher to take purchases in exceptionally<br />
large numbers as the basis. I judge that in any<br />
trade an exceptionally large buyer would com-<br />
mand an extra discount, especially if he had his<br />
money in his hand, but his case would not<br />
illustrate the general custom in his trade."<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 55 (#79) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
55<br />
VII. Lastly, if it is lastly, another bookseller<br />
says in the Daily Chronicle:<br />
"The contention between the retail booksellers<br />
and the publishers is simply this—the retail trade<br />
say that $d. a copy profit on each 6*. book they<br />
sell is not enough. The publishers, represented<br />
by Mr. Marston, say 4</. a copy is not all you get.<br />
Now it happens that when Mr. Marston's letter<br />
appeared my quarterly account was just due, and<br />
uii seeing his letter I naturally concluded that he<br />
meant what he said, and that he did supply<br />
retail booksellers on the terms he mentioned.<br />
Now his account against me contained several 6*.<br />
books, which were charged so as to allow me only<br />
4(1. a copy profit. I therefore deducted the differ-<br />
ence between the price he says publishers charge<br />
and what his firm were actually charging me, and<br />
sent him a cheque. This he promptly returned as<br />
being insufficient to settle the account, and at<br />
once confirmed Sir Walter Besant's statement.—<br />
I am, yours faithfully,<br />
"July 27. "A West End Bookseller."<br />
IV.—The Cost of Advertising.<br />
The cost of advertising is, I repeat, in-<br />
cluded in the cost of production. How is it,<br />
then, that in estimating (see " Cost of Produc-<br />
tion,'' p. 31) the cost of an edition of 3000,<br />
even when making allowance for the reduction<br />
in ■ the cost of paper, there is left so small a<br />
margin for advertising? The answer is this: A<br />
book which sells 3000 copies will certainly go on<br />
selling. The next edition of 3000 costs under<br />
lod. a copy. Now, the cost of advertising for an<br />
edition of 3000 is as follows. Every =£10 spent in<br />
advertising means four-fifths of a penny per<br />
copy. If, therefore, ,£25 be spent in advertising<br />
that means 2d. a, copy. But for a sale of 6000<br />
copies, every Jiio means two-fifths of a penny,<br />
and an expenditure of £40 means i%d. per copy.<br />
It is easy, therefore, to understand how the cost<br />
of advertising is included in the shilling. It<br />
must always be understood that this does not<br />
include the publishers' own organs, for which they<br />
has no right to charge anything, except by special<br />
agreement; nor exchanges, namely, advertisements<br />
inserted, and probably paid for, in other pub-<br />
lishers' organs on the understanding, tacit or<br />
expressed, that advertisements shall be sent in<br />
return to their organs.<br />
V.—The Cost of the Small Edition.<br />
When complaints are made that a book cannot<br />
be produced at the figures given in the "Cost of<br />
Production," it is always assumed that those<br />
figures are put forward for every kind of edition-<br />
VOL. VII.<br />
Thus it is ignored that (see page 31) the number<br />
of sheets, the size of the page, the number of<br />
words in the page, and the kind of type are all<br />
given. It is also ignored (see page 26) that the<br />
small edition is very carefully considered. Thus<br />
it is stated that a six shilling book printed in<br />
small pica, at 258 words to the page, and in<br />
seventeen sheets or 272 pp., would cost for 500<br />
copies, 2*. 8d. a copy; for 1000 copies, is. ioirf. a<br />
copy. It may also be calculated from the detailed<br />
figures that for 2000 copies about i*. "jd. a copy<br />
may be reckoned.<br />
The history of a very large number of books is<br />
this. An edition of 2000 copies is printed, and<br />
the type distributed. Whatever is said about the<br />
uncertainty of the book trade, it is pretty certain<br />
that certain books of a kind very well known will<br />
never reach the end of their second thousand. As<br />
a matter of fact, many of them never clear the first<br />
thousand, leaving a small profit of about ,£40 or<br />
X'50. If the author is to have a shilling royalty<br />
out of this, the publisher manifestly has nothing.<br />
Therefore, the author cannot have a shilling<br />
royalty. But that is no reason why the pub-<br />
lisher should cry out upon the "Cost of Produc-<br />
tion" and the figures put forward in that<br />
invaluable book.<br />
If, however, the book sells 1800 copies—a very<br />
fair measure of success with such books, and the<br />
author has his twopence in the shilling, the<br />
figures stand thus, always taking the length of<br />
the book as above:<br />
Cost of production, £132; author, i'yo; pub-<br />
lisher, =£93. So that it is quite evident that a<br />
very limited sale may produce quite substantial<br />
results.<br />
VI.—The Cost of Production.<br />
1 have in my hands the catalogue of a<br />
certain public library. It is four times the<br />
length of the average six-shilling book; it con-<br />
tains, in fact, about 300,000 words in 264 closely<br />
printed pages; it is bound in plain boards only,<br />
but it employs different kinds of type, which<br />
adds greatly to the expenses of composition. The<br />
librarian says, "You are interested in the cost of<br />
production. This book, of which 7500 were<br />
printed, cost to produce, as nearly as possible,<br />
9jrf. a copy." Yet a weekly paper was some time<br />
ago persuading its readers that nothing short of<br />
an edition of 30,000 copies would enable the<br />
average six-shilling book, which contains about<br />
80,000 words, to be produced for a shilling a<br />
copy. .,_ W. B.<br />
VII.—"Matters for Consideration."<br />
I am glad to report that, as one result of<br />
exposing certain facts in regard to agreements,<br />
1<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 56 (#80) ##############################################<br />
<br />
56<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
a publisher who was referred to in these columns<br />
has so far modified his offers concerning agency<br />
business that be now proposes to give the author<br />
90 per cent, instead of 50, his former custom. In<br />
other words, he proposes to be a literary agent in<br />
such matters in the same sense as the genuine<br />
literary agent. But the literary agent must<br />
always stand apart from the publisher.<br />
In my opinion it is a great mistake for the<br />
author to look to the publisher for agency work.<br />
G. H. Thbing.<br />
10. The relations of authors and editors, M.<br />
Eugene Pouillet.<br />
11. Registration, M. Lucien Lay us.<br />
12. Legal protection of artistic heritages, M.<br />
Maurice Bekaert.<br />
13. Public rights (after the lapse of author's<br />
rights) in artistic and literary works, M. E.<br />
Mack.<br />
14. The proprietorship of stereotype or other<br />
plates for reproduction, M. Davanne.<br />
EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE INTER-<br />
NATIONAL LITERARY AND ARTISTIC<br />
ASSOCIATION AT BERNE.<br />
Programme.<br />
THE eighteenth Congress of the International<br />
Literary and Artistic Association will take<br />
place at Berne, from the 22nd to the 29th<br />
of August. The following is the official list of<br />
subjects proposed for consideration:<br />
1. Report on the work done by the association<br />
between the Berne Convention (1886) and the<br />
Paris Conference (1896), M. Jules Lermina.<br />
2. Paper on the Paris Conference, M. Georges<br />
Maillard.<br />
3. Means of assuring the application of the<br />
Berne Convention in the countries which have<br />
joined the union:<br />
(a) Literary works, M. Paul Ollendorf.<br />
(6) Dramatic works, M. A. Beaume.<br />
(c) Musical works, M. Victor Souchon.<br />
(<7) Painting, sculpture, and engraving, M.<br />
Georges Floury.<br />
(e) Architectural works, M. Charles Lucas.<br />
(f) Photography, M. Andre Taillefer.<br />
((/) Compliance with conditions and formalities<br />
in countries belonging to the union, M. Ernest<br />
Rothlisbcrger.<br />
4. Legislation in countries belonging to the<br />
uuion.<br />
Germany, M. Albert Osterrietli.<br />
Italy, M. Tito Ricordi.<br />
5. Copyright of contributions to journals, M.<br />
Jules Lermiua.<br />
6. The means of obtaining the adhesion of new<br />
countries to the Berne Convention:<br />
Europe, M. Maurice Mauuoury.<br />
America, M. A. Darras.<br />
7. Collaboration, M. G. Harmand.<br />
8. The rights of the creditors of authors, M.<br />
A. Vaunois.<br />
9. Proposals for a law on the rights of authors,<br />
M. Georges Maillard.<br />
NEW YORK LETTER.<br />
I.<br />
New York City, N.Y., June 12.<br />
HAMLIN GARLAND, the most prominent<br />
new writer of the Western States, is now<br />
at work on a different kind of work from<br />
any he has heretofore attempted. His reputation<br />
as a short story writer has become firmly estab-<br />
lished in the last few years ; this year he made his<br />
first experiment in novel writing with " Rose of<br />
Dutehers Cooley," which showed some power,<br />
and now he has nearly finished a piece of his-<br />
torical work for S. S. McClure and Co., a Life of<br />
Grant, which is to begin in serial form very soon.<br />
He has done a great deal of study for the sub-<br />
ject. He intends to treat it graphically and to<br />
make it read as much as possible like a novel,<br />
although it is to be exact. Mr. Garland is not<br />
only the strongest of the young writers of<br />
Chicago, to which city he now belongs, but he is<br />
the one of prominence who believes most firmly<br />
in the future of that city as a literary centre.<br />
It is already the city to which the country people<br />
of the Western States look for careers, as is<br />
graphically told in "Rose of Dutehers Cooley,"<br />
which is supposed to be largely autobiographical.<br />
Mr. Garland himself has spent most of his life<br />
in the country, and, although he now lives in<br />
Chicago, spends much of his time on a farm. It<br />
is a common thing to hear it suggested that he<br />
needs to go to more cultivated places to work out<br />
a talent which is probably the most real of auy<br />
produce) within the last few years in the west,<br />
and it is said that he himself feels a certain<br />
danger in being as conspiciously the leader as he<br />
is, but his loyalty to Chicago and his belief in its<br />
future are ardent.<br />
As surely as Mr. Garland is the strongest,<br />
Henry B. Fuller is the the cleverest of the Chicago<br />
writers. The book published here by the Century<br />
Company in May and by John Lane in London,<br />
shows that Mr. Fuller's mind has taken a new turn.<br />
He first attracted attention with a story largely<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 57 (#81) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
57<br />
of fancy, "The Chevalier of Pensieri-Vani," but<br />
his reputation has been made mainly on two<br />
stories of severe realism, "The Cliff Dwellers"<br />
and "With the Procession." "The Puppet<br />
Booth" is, on the other hand, entirely symbolic<br />
and largely in the manner of Maeterlinck. A<br />
few of the little plays are obvious parodies, but<br />
most of them arc serious efforts that seem to<br />
show a new turn of his talent. He is probably,<br />
however, doomed to failure in this line, and it is<br />
the general expectation that he will return to<br />
studies of Chicago life, though probably they<br />
will be less insistently realistic than they were<br />
before. Mr. Fuller is the only one of the<br />
Western writers of importance who does not like<br />
the life in which he is placed. A few days ago<br />
he said in a letter to a newspaper: "The trouble<br />
with life in A merica is that it. is uninteresting,<br />
and it is uninteresting largely because it has<br />
been so unsuccessful in voicing itself: 70,000,000<br />
of us, mostly inarticulate ; it is a mortifying reflec-<br />
tion. I agree with you that every native peep, if<br />
authentic, should be encouraged to go on peeping;<br />
then, some day our needs in art, in literature, in<br />
music will be met not approximately, by the<br />
handiest foreign importation, but absolutely, by<br />
productions of our own people. The twitterings<br />
of the new brood of magazinelets seem to herald<br />
the coming dawn." He has never been fond of<br />
the crude and enthusiastic city, but he has a<br />
certain loyalty to it and is interested in its<br />
future.<br />
A story by a Chicago woman, which, whatever<br />
its other qualities, smells of the soil, is the last<br />
novel of Lillian Bell, called "The Under Side of<br />
Things." She is the author of " The Love Affairs<br />
of an Old Maid." No Chicago author is more<br />
like Chicago. The novel is handled in England<br />
by Sampson Low, Marston and Co.<br />
Everybody in the literary world in Chicago is<br />
rejoicing just now that the dissolution of the firm<br />
of Stone and Kimball does not mean one less<br />
publishing house in the city. Mr. Stone has<br />
organised a new firm, H. S. Stone and Co., which,<br />
besides issuing the Chap Booh, is to go on with<br />
the publication of books, beginning with the<br />
second series of Richard Le Gallienne's Prose<br />
Fancies, a translation of the novel of "Annunzio,"<br />
and two works of more local character. "Checkers,"<br />
a story by Henry M. Blossom, jun., claims little<br />
merit other than a faithful reproduction of the<br />
slang of Chicago, which has not yet found its way<br />
into books, although it has into the newspapers.<br />
The story is at least amusing. More under-<br />
standing of the city and more vividness of expres-<br />
sion will be found in "Stories of the Streets and<br />
of the Town," by Geo. Ames, a young nmn<br />
whose work on the Chicayo Record has attracted<br />
attention for a number of years. All of those<br />
books will probably be issued before fall.<br />
Rudyard Kipling's story of 50,000 words<br />
dealing with Gloucester fishermen, has been sold<br />
in its serial rights for England and American for<br />
240 dollars a thousand words to McClure. The<br />
book is not arranged for, but it is said that, the<br />
MacMillans have made an offer for it.<br />
Chas. Scribncr's Sons have just bought 'The<br />
Sense of Beauty," by George Santayana, a young<br />
man who has thus far published one book, a<br />
volume of verse brought out by Stone and<br />
Kimball. What essay work has appeared in the<br />
magazines has been brilliant. Dr. Santayana has<br />
been teaching sesthetics and philosophy at Har-<br />
vard University, to which he will return in 1897,<br />
spending this year in England. Among the other<br />
books which the Scribners expect to bring out in<br />
fall is " The Sprightly Adventures of Marsac," by<br />
Miss Eliote Sewall, which is a New York Herald<br />
prize story, and will be brought out with illustra-<br />
tions by G. Berbeck, known from his connection<br />
with Le Chat Noir, the Courrier Franrais, and<br />
other French papers. Although both the author<br />
and illustrator are Americans the study of<br />
Bohemian Life in Paris is an interesting one.<br />
"My Village," a sketch of life in a French village<br />
near Paris, where the author lived for five years,<br />
with illustrations by the author, E. Boyd Smith,<br />
has an intimate charm. The Scribners have just<br />
announced Max Beerbohm's works, which are<br />
thus far very little known in this country.<br />
The Century Company in the fall will publish<br />
a story of Quaker life by Dr. Weir Mitchell of<br />
Philadelphia. Crowell and Co. will bring out in<br />
the fall a five volume edition of Fennimorc<br />
Cooper's Leather Stocking Tales, handsomely<br />
illustrated, with an introduction by Brander<br />
Mathews.<br />
Stephen Crane's new novel "Dan Edmonds,"<br />
which was expected in June, will not be ready<br />
until the autumn. Edward Arnold has just pub-<br />
lished " George's Mother," a story which is much<br />
inferior to the "Red Badge of Courage." The<br />
first edition is 10,000. The Appletons publish<br />
"Maggie, a Girl of the Street," which Mr. Crane<br />
wrote some years ago, and which is weaker than<br />
"George's Mother." Even in these two books,<br />
however, there is some of the power which was<br />
proved by the "Red Badge of Courage," and<br />
good work in the future from Mr. Crane is<br />
looked upon as a certainty by most of the critics<br />
here.<br />
Sarah Orne Jewett is editing the two volumes<br />
of Mrs. Thaxter's poems and prose works, which<br />
will prevent her bringing out a new volume of<br />
stories this fall. She is a writer who is likely to<br />
be better known in England as time goes on.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 58 (#82) ##############################################<br />
<br />
58<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
The fact that "Madelon," Miss Wilkins' first<br />
attempt at a novel, is sold in England, and that<br />
Miss Jewett is almost unknown there, shows that<br />
the relative merits of the two writers are not<br />
understood. They occupy a field of their own,<br />
the study of New England life, and neither<br />
stands first in this country; Miss Jewett, with<br />
more delicacy, has scarcely less power than Miss<br />
Wilkins. Miss Wilkins is not at her best in<br />
"Madelon," although the story has much strength.<br />
Tt is published by Harper and Brothers. Miss<br />
Jewett's last volume of stories called " The Life<br />
of Nancy," is published by Houghton, Mifflin,<br />
and Co.<br />
H. C. Bunner, the poet, who has just died in<br />
America, is to be honoured by a Bunner memo-<br />
rial, a medal to be awarded annually at Columbia<br />
University, to the student who submits the best<br />
essay on American literature. It is in charge of<br />
Laurence Hutton, Brander Matthews, and H. G.<br />
Paine.<br />
The American branch of the Macmillan busi-<br />
ness has been changed to a corporation, and<br />
called the Macmillan Company, but the manage-<br />
ment remains the same.<br />
G. P. Putnam's Sons announce for immediate<br />
publication in book form under the name of "The<br />
United States and Great Britain " three of the<br />
best addresses that have been delivered here<br />
during the recent international troubles; "The<br />
Relations between the United States and Great<br />
Britain, by David A. Wells; "The True Monroe<br />
Doctrine," by E. S. Phelps, formerly Minister to<br />
England, and " Arbitration," by Carl Schurtz.<br />
"By Oak and Thorn," by Alice Brown, pub-<br />
lished by Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., a series of<br />
sketches of English country, is a disappointment.<br />
Her work in New England fiction has given<br />
promise that she might sometime stand next to<br />
Miss Jewett and Miss Wilkins, but this book is<br />
deplorably weak. N. H.<br />
n.<br />
New York, July 13.<br />
One of the most interesting books to be<br />
published next, fall is a temptation to say<br />
something about a distinctive feature of current,<br />
criticism in America, and especially in this<br />
city. Our most valuable contemporary critics<br />
are not those who are known in England, for an<br />
obvious reason. What Mr. George Bernard<br />
Shaw said of himself some time ago, that he<br />
wrote for the paper which would pay him most,<br />
is of course true of our literary men on the whole,<br />
and as the newspapers and the cheap periodicals<br />
pay the best prices, and pay them not for as<br />
sound work as is demanded by a number of the<br />
leading English periodicals, but for either noto-<br />
riety or a style that will appeal to the mass of<br />
half-educated readers who give to our newspapers<br />
and magazines their immense circulations, the<br />
critics most widely known are men whose best<br />
work is in other fields of literature, and who<br />
enter criticism because their prominence makes<br />
their opinions sought.<br />
Curiously enough, at first sight, some of the<br />
solidestand subtlest criticism we have in America<br />
deals with the arts which are most inchoate<br />
here. There is no literary critic, no dramatic<br />
critic, no musical critic whose style and treat-<br />
ment are more distinguished and fertile than are<br />
those of several who write mainly of the plastic<br />
arts. This is due partly to accident, partly to<br />
the fact that the public recognises its ignorance<br />
of the plastic arts, and therefore cares more for<br />
expert criticism than it does in the case of<br />
comment on literature and the drama, where it is<br />
best pleased to see its own opinions immediately<br />
reflected. The existence of a demand for expert<br />
comment on arts which are rapidly growing in<br />
general interest has led to a great amount of<br />
writing among the New York artists, and some<br />
of them are at least as skilful with the pen as<br />
■ ith the brush. The book which will support<br />
these remarks is to be publshed by the Century<br />
Company in the fall. It is a book about French<br />
artists written by American artists, to be illus-<br />
trated by the leading engravers, Cole, Wolfe, and<br />
Kingsley. The mumber of volumes is, I believe,<br />
still undecided. The idea originated with John C.<br />
Van Dyke, the author of "Art for Art's sake,"<br />
"Principles of Art," "A Textbook of the<br />
History of Painting," and other criticism, Pro-<br />
fessor of the History of Art in Rutger's College,<br />
and on the whole the critic whose point of view<br />
is most satisfactory to the painters themselves.<br />
His work all has really one object, to explain to<br />
intelligent novices the standpoint of the artist.<br />
He is eminently sane and competent, but he has<br />
no graces or powers of expression.<br />
Before passing on to the painter critics, whose<br />
work is illustrated in this collection, a word<br />
should be said for completeness of two writers<br />
who do not appear there, since it happens that<br />
the two contemporary American writers who have<br />
made the most interesting books on art are not<br />
artists. Second to no American critic of the day<br />
for the soundest literary merit is Mrs. Schuyler<br />
Van Rensselaer, the author of a work on the<br />
Eng.ish cathedrals, one on landscape gardening<br />
called "Art out of Doors," a, book on painters<br />
called " Six Portraits," other bound volumes, and<br />
a great many magazine and newspaper articles 011<br />
art, as well as some on politics, some on literature,<br />
and a little fiction. She is one among few of<br />
our writers who have cared a great deal for style<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 59 (#83) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
59<br />
in its subtler qualities. For the years that she<br />
has been writing it has always improved. Culti-<br />
vated, personal at once and reserved, at the<br />
beginning, it has steadily gained in harmony,<br />
suppleness, and finish, while keeping the earnest-<br />
ness and solidity which were its merits from the<br />
start. She lives among society people, among<br />
artists, among politicians, and among the poor<br />
of the East side, a leader in almost every branch<br />
of New York life, and it is the breadth of her<br />
personality as well as her warmth of sympathy<br />
and her thorough study of her subjects that<br />
makes her style, which has no qualities that are<br />
showy or take a superficial attention at once, one<br />
that can well stand judgment on high standards.<br />
She writes for the general public, not the specialist,<br />
but she writes her best always. She, more than<br />
any other one writer, led to the recognition among<br />
Eastern critics of the architectural merits of the<br />
buildings at Chicago in 1892-3.<br />
W. C. Brownell, for some years a literary critic,<br />
now the reader for Scribners' publishing house,<br />
has lately written much on art, part of which<br />
appears as a book " French Art." He is seen at<br />
his best in this and in " French Traits." In the<br />
kind of criticism which is purely intellectual,<br />
where critical acumen for almost everything, Mr.<br />
Brownell stands first, in spite of the small amount<br />
of his collected work. In subtlety, sharpness of dis-<br />
tinction, preciseness of statement, logical coherence,<br />
individuality of vocabulary, and brilliancy of<br />
characterisation verging on epigram, he easily<br />
leads our critics. He is too intellectual for the<br />
public and frankly writes for a few.<br />
A inong the painter critics the only one of pro-<br />
minence who does not appear in the Century<br />
collection is John La Forge, and he writes not of<br />
contemporary work, but of art principles in<br />
general. "Considerations on Painting," pub-<br />
lished this year by Macmillan, although some-<br />
what elementary in style in its long explanations,<br />
has much sound thought clearly and firmly stated.<br />
Coming to those painters who do appear as<br />
writers in the Century book, several combine the<br />
technical with the literary point of view success-<br />
fully. Kenyon Cox, who does the articles on<br />
Puvis de Chauvannes and Baudry, writes mainly<br />
of technical qualities, but treats them broadly as<br />
well as strictly, and writes with uncommon vigour,<br />
certainty, and clearness. He is very well known<br />
here as an anonymous reviewer, and he has a<br />
quality rare among the writers who have personal<br />
acquaintance with the men they write of perfect<br />
straightforwardness in the treatment of fault8-<br />
W. A. Coffin, who does Kosseau ^, ~ na,n-<br />
Bouveret, also combines literary Q ~ Da£ 1<br />
the knowledge of a practical pa in te^^ ties * "T<br />
best work was done for the Nation 3' gome #f l^8<br />
VOL. VII,<br />
\tbe?*m<br />
Exhibition of 1889. In one of his papers to the<br />
nation, by the way, Mr. Coffin speaks of Theodore<br />
Robinson as the best of the present American<br />
impressionists, and many of the New York artists<br />
agree with him. Robinson, who died last April,<br />
has two articles in the present collection, one 011<br />
Monet, which has already appeared in the<br />
Century, and one, which at his death he left<br />
practically complete, on Corot. With a few<br />
slight revisions by his intimate friend, A. P.<br />
Jaccaci, the art editor of Scribner's Magazine,<br />
the article reads smoothly, and it shows a most<br />
attractive side of the young painter, whose<br />
admiration for Coret was high, and whose love<br />
of literature was strong and made him write well.<br />
He died while his art was still changing, and<br />
hardly anyone could be more missed.<br />
Gerome and Bontet de Monvel are done by<br />
Will H. Low, popular as a writer on art, who<br />
now has a series of articles running in McClure's<br />
Magazine. Bonnat and Laurens are done by<br />
E. H. Blashfield, one of our most prominent<br />
painters, who is a ready and intelligent critic.<br />
Gh P. R. Healey, the portrait painter, writes on<br />
Conture, Beckwith on Carolus Duran, H. W.<br />
Watrons on Meissionier, Arthur Horber on<br />
Diaz, W. H. Howe on Troyon, D. W. Tryon.<br />
one of our most delicate landscape painters, on<br />
Danbigny, Wyatt Eaton on Millet, and S.<br />
Isham on Bastien Lepage.<br />
In this connection, a book just published by<br />
C. A. Ellis, by the most prominent of our musical<br />
critics, W. F. Apthorp, should be mentioned.<br />
The volume of nearly 900 pages has analytic<br />
programmes of the twenty-four concerts given in<br />
Boston last season by the symphony orchestra of<br />
that city. Mr. Apthorp has not only commented<br />
on 105 pieces by forty-six composers in an<br />
interesting and scholarly way, but has a number<br />
of entre-actes treating of various subjects in<br />
musical history. The present interest in music,<br />
shown by Paderewski's immense success and the<br />
increasing support of the orchestra in New York,<br />
Boston, and Chicago, as well as of the opera,<br />
finds a minor illustration in the publication by<br />
the Scribners of a little book called " Delivery in<br />
the Art of Pianoforte Playing."<br />
There may be a temptation later to speak of<br />
dramatic criticism, which is at a low ebb in all our<br />
cities. As an illustration of the bad effect of cheap<br />
magazines and newspapers on literary criticism<br />
a gross instance may be cited from Munsey's<br />
Magazine, which has the largest circulation of any<br />
monthly magazine in the country. The literary<br />
critic of that periodical says: « Mr-Harold Frederic<br />
, g made his debut as a novelist with a book<br />
titled ' The Damnation of -T^eron Ware.' Mr.<br />
0** jeric is favourably kno^v^ ^0 us by his foreign<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 60 (#84) ##############################################<br />
<br />
bo<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
letters to the .New York Times, and those who<br />
have followed his work closely will not be sur-<br />
prised to find in his first novel proof that he is<br />
entitled to high rank in literature." As Mr.<br />
Frederic's stories of American life have long had<br />
a very high place in general estimation the<br />
absurdity of the remark is more than ordinarily<br />
salient. Norman Hapgood.<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
THE present number of the Autlurr is almost<br />
made up of the booksellers' grievance. It<br />
is a subject which, as is argued in another<br />
place, most materially affects us all. We must<br />
have centres of distribution and exhibition.<br />
Whether we care about books being sold or not,<br />
we care greatly about their being seen and read.<br />
The circulating library cannot take the place of<br />
the book shop: that is quite certain. It is a<br />
stupid policy and a blind policy to sweat the<br />
bookseller out of existence, Meantime it must<br />
be observed that in the whole of the contro-<br />
versy my original charge, that of making the<br />
unfortunate bookseller pay 4*. 2d. for a book<br />
which he has to sell for 4*. 6d. has never been<br />
denied, or excused, or explained away. It<br />
remains. _<br />
The "New York Letter" of last month, which<br />
arrived too late, appears in this number with that<br />
of the present month. I am happv to inform<br />
our readers that Mr. Sherard, who has been<br />
much occupied with law work of a disagreeable<br />
kind, hopes to resume his letter from Paris next<br />
month. o<_<br />
Lord Bosebery's eulogy on Robert Burns, pro-<br />
nounced at the recent Centenary Celebration,<br />
deserves to be reprinted separately as an oration<br />
of the highest literary order. I doubt if there<br />
is a single man among the whole of the literary<br />
profession who could write—not to say deliver—<br />
a tribute to the memory of a poet with so much<br />
appreciation, so much grace, so much felicity of<br />
phrase, so much originality, and in language so<br />
well sustained, and in parts, so noble. The<br />
address reminds us that the literary gift, the<br />
power of expression, is not confined to those who<br />
follow the literary profession. I hope that the<br />
address will be issued in a form more durable<br />
than that of the morning paper.<br />
The following sums have been received by Miss<br />
Ellen T. Masters, of 4, Mount Avenue, Ealing, on<br />
behalf of Mrs. Eliza Warren since the publica-<br />
tion of the former list, making a total of<br />
,£46 12.5. id. :—<br />
£ t. d. £ »■ d.<br />
Anon 0 1 6 Page/Warden, Esq. 0 10 0<br />
Cooke, the Misses 0 10 0 Toplis, Miss Grace 0 5 0<br />
Hilton, E. E 1 0 0 S. B 0 5 0<br />
In the list published in our July number, for " A<br />
Poor Old Woman," is., read 1*. id.; for Mrs.<br />
F. G. Smart, 5*., read £5 ; and for Miss G. Michell,<br />
10*., read icw. 6d. gi_<br />
Mr. Moncure Conway's paper on "Literature<br />
in America" reopens the question whether, in<br />
1891, we were right in accepting without a protest<br />
the Copyright Act as it stood, with its mis-<br />
chievous clauses. We did so on the under-<br />
standing that, but for these clauses, this Act<br />
would not be passed. We accepted the pro-<br />
verbial half loaf rather than no bread. The<br />
English grievance, as advanced by Mr. Conway,<br />
is that the author invariably loses his first work<br />
in America; at the same time, he nearly always<br />
loses his first work in this country. One does<br />
not pity him very much, because to every author<br />
the first step necessary is the publication of his<br />
first book. That is, if he is a poet, a dramatist,<br />
a novelist, or an essayist; in other words, if he<br />
is embarking upon a life of literature, the first<br />
step is the most difficult; for that first step the<br />
author must be grateful, whatever terms are<br />
offered him. The American grievance is that of<br />
his current literature of the day, 60 per cent,<br />
comes from abroad, and is obtained for nothing.<br />
This is not a good thing for American litera-<br />
ture; and, in the long run, cannot be good for<br />
American publishers. It seems a matter entirely<br />
in the hands of the American authors. And it<br />
remains to be seen whether they can be powerful<br />
enough, united enough, and independent enough,<br />
to demand the abolition or the modification of<br />
the " manufacturing clauses."<br />
Stamp your agreements. This is a warning<br />
which we are always repeating. Give them to<br />
our secretary, who will get them stamped for you<br />
and keep them for you in a fireproof safe. It will<br />
cost you sixpence or thereabouts. Now on July 9<br />
a case came before the Lord Chief Justice:<br />
Author v. Publisher. After the opening of the<br />
case the judge asked to see the agreement. It<br />
was handed up to him. He gave it back. "There<br />
is no contract," he said, "this piece of paper is<br />
worthless." The plaintiff might have taken his<br />
agreement to be stamped, on payment of a penalty<br />
of £10. But he did not. The case was taken out<br />
of court and settled somehow. Of course one is<br />
not suggesting that the plaintiff was right or the<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 61 (#85) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
61<br />
defendant wrong; but the former, at any rate,<br />
failed to get his case heard because he had for-<br />
gotten to stamp his agreement.<br />
Edmund de Goncourt "uttered," according to<br />
Zola's funeral oration, "the sublime cry that the<br />
earth will one day crumble, and that his works<br />
will no longer be read." It lingers long, this<br />
ancient belief in literary immortality. The plain,<br />
broad facts stare one in the face: it seems impos-<br />
sible to ignore them: poets, dramatists, novelists,<br />
essayists, critics, historians, flourish, and achieve<br />
their name and fame in every generation: new<br />
poets, especially, and new novelists spring up<br />
every year: to this year's cinacle last year's is<br />
out of date: when they die or cease i o exist, what<br />
becomes of them? With the rarest exceptions,<br />
they are speedily forgotten, except by the student.<br />
Consider the enormous production of verse and<br />
fiction during the last hundred years: how many<br />
survive of that immense army of writers? The<br />
«arth has not crumbled. Yet they are no more<br />
read. How many works achieve a great and<br />
widespread popularity, yet are never read after<br />
the first year of their success? Think of the<br />
popular novelists who have gone on writing year<br />
after year giving good work to the world. Now,<br />
their books stand unbought, unread, not asked<br />
for in the libraries. They still retain, some of<br />
them, old disciples: these drop out, one by one:<br />
then they are remembered by one or two, at<br />
most, out of all their books. Some, less fortunate,<br />
are not remembered at all. For example, Anthony<br />
Trollope, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade—great<br />
writers all—yet, how many readers ask for them<br />
at the library? How many buy their books?<br />
For one book of each, however, if not more known<br />
than one, these writers will be remembered. So<br />
far they are raised above the common run, even<br />
of successful writers. As for living writers, one<br />
must not inquire into the possible or the probable<br />
limitations of their endurance. Yet—one may<br />
ask—is it not so great a thing to succeed in<br />
moving and holding his contemporaries that a<br />
writer should be content with having achieved so<br />
much? An actor, a singer, a preacher, a violinist,<br />
even a statesman, thinks only of pleasing, or<br />
instructing, or advancing his own generation.<br />
Why should the author expect, or ask for, more?<br />
'Ideal,' for that, and beauty, and pathos all lie in<br />
the simply natural. . . . Let your moral take<br />
care of itself, and remember that an author's<br />
writing desk is something infinitely higher than a<br />
pulpit. ... As for orthodoxy, be at ease.<br />
Whatever is well done the world finds orthodox<br />
at last. . . . Whatever creed may be true, it<br />
is not true, and never will be, that man can be<br />
saved by machinery. . . . Let yourself go<br />
without regard to this, that, or the other."<br />
The following note may perhaps be taken, like<br />
a second-hand book, with all faults. We do not<br />
find Dr. Johnson ordered to get up and ring the<br />
bell. Yet the writer was a man of some distinc-<br />
tion in his day, though he is lost and forgotten<br />
by this time. The passage occurs in a novel of<br />
the year 1786. •<br />
"As a literary man I was invited to the houses<br />
of many respectable personages, but, proud as I<br />
might be of the honour, I met with little there<br />
but mortification. I was placed at the lower end<br />
of the table; helped to an ordinary part; not<br />
attended to, perhaps, when I spoke; requested<br />
occasionally to rise and ring the bell; not suffered<br />
to cut in at the whist table; and such other<br />
slights. As I considered myself, if not of equal<br />
rank in life with the rest of the company, yet, as<br />
having more knowledge and more abilities, and of<br />
course equally entitled to respect, I must own it<br />
hurt me. But why, if I disliked it, did I go into<br />
the way of it? Because I thought to benefit<br />
by their acquaintance."<br />
In another column will be found the programme<br />
of the Eighteenth Congress of the International<br />
Literary and Artistic Association to be held at<br />
Berne from the 22nd to the 29th of this month.<br />
It is very much to be regretted that the committee<br />
have so far been unable to find a member willing<br />
to become a delegate representing this society.<br />
Walter Besant.<br />
THE BOOK AND THE BOOKSELLER.<br />
ABOOK is without question the property of<br />
the author who creates it. As he cannot<br />
administer his own literary estate without<br />
considerable personal trouble, and, in most cases,<br />
without loss, he gives it to another person to<br />
distribute, collect, &c., araong the booksellers,<br />
^rbo distribute it among the people. There<br />
The following advice to an author has been<br />
sent to me. It seems worth the attention of all<br />
young writers. It is contained in a letter from<br />
J. R. Lowell to Mrs. Beecher Stowe, dated J^b. 4,<br />
1859.<br />
"Follow your instincts. . , , .„e r—r— — —j --, u„« —<br />
nature, and avoid what people cok, • StlC* S° K0 author, as very frequently happens, sells ins<br />
ie thus, between the owuei 0f the property and<br />
the P^pk wh° buy it, ^w0 middlemen. If<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 62 (#86) ##############################################<br />
<br />
6a<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
property, then there is only one middleman<br />
between the owner and the public.<br />
That middleman is the bookseller.<br />
Let us, as men and women of letters, put before<br />
ourselves the functions discharged by the book-<br />
seller. He is a centre of exhibition and distribu-<br />
tion: on his counter should be seen the new books<br />
which are advertised and reviewed: for the honour<br />
and dignity of letters, his place cannot be too<br />
stately and too well furnished: it should be<br />
everywhere the resort of all the reading public.<br />
No free library or circulating library can take the<br />
place of the old bookseller's shop: in any con-<br />
siderable town there should always be a flourish-<br />
ing substantial bookseller, and his position should<br />
be, in a time when the production and the<br />
purchase of books are so enormous, one of profit<br />
and credit.<br />
What is it? A position precarious, pinched,<br />
and anxious. Since the recent conference at<br />
Belfast a great many letters have been published<br />
on the subject; and it is clear, indeed, that<br />
unless authors themselves make some attempt to<br />
improve the booksellers' position they will speedily<br />
cease out of the land—except in London. This<br />
destruction of a once prosperous trade will be the<br />
greatest misfortune possible for literature from<br />
any point of view. If authors desire, in the high<br />
Parnassian vein, nothing but the reading of their<br />
books they will not get it, because there will be no<br />
one to present t^em to the public. If they desire<br />
that the commercial side should be looked after<br />
as well they will fail again, because there will be<br />
no one to sell the books. It is actually said that<br />
70 per cent, of the country booksellers have gone<br />
out of the trade in the last few years.<br />
The causes of this decay may be reduced to<br />
one. Booksellers will not stock new books, and<br />
they therefore fail to attract the public eager for<br />
novelty. They will not stock their shops, because<br />
they cannot afford to do so. They cannot afford<br />
to do so because they are compelled to pay such<br />
high prices by the publishers.<br />
Take the evidence of the Edinburgh Branch<br />
of Retail Booksellers. Their Hon. Sec. writes:<br />
"There are upwards of 130 members in the<br />
Edinburgh Branch, but out of these only one can<br />
buy in thirteens."<br />
Other booksellers speak to the same effect.<br />
As for prices. Consider the 6*. book. The<br />
cost, in large editions, may be set down, approxi-<br />
mately, at is. The author may perhaps receive<br />
1*. The bookseller pays 4*. 2d. for it in single<br />
copies, and 3s. 6d. (approximately) at thirteen to<br />
twelve.<br />
Now, consider the profits of the three persons<br />
concerned in the business, taking the assumed<br />
average book in large editions. First, single-<br />
copies—<br />
Author, 1*.<br />
Publisher, 2$. 2d.<br />
Bookseller, 4c?. If he can manage to sell his<br />
book for 5*. he gets \od.<br />
Next, copies at 4*. 2d., thirteen as twelve,<br />
with discounts, meaning 3*. 6d.<br />
Author, 1*.<br />
Publisher, is. 6d. .<br />
Bookseller, is.<br />
The publisher says that he has had office<br />
expenses. He actually has had the impudence<br />
in some cases to speak as if he alone can claim<br />
office expenses. Where are the office expenses of<br />
the author? Where are those of the bookseller?<br />
The office expenses of the publisher are some-<br />
times estimated, rightly or wrongly, at 10 per<br />
cent, of the proceeds. Those of the bookseller<br />
are estimated, according to some of the letters, at<br />
16 per cent.<br />
But will anyone tell the world why the pub-<br />
lisher should get a profit of 2s. 2d., where the<br />
author gets is. and the bookseller 4<f.?<br />
As regards other prices, the following is a list<br />
sent up by a country bookseller showing the<br />
published price, the trade price, and the price<br />
paid by the public.<br />
Price published<br />
Trade price<br />
Price paid by the public<br />
Profit for bookseller...<br />
1 0<br />
1 G<br />
2 0<br />
2 fi<br />
8 «<br />
8 0<br />
8 0<br />
0 8J<br />
1 1<br />
1 5<br />
1 9<br />
2 6<br />
8 7<br />
4 2<br />
0 0<br />
1 u<br />
1 6<br />
1 10)<br />
2 71<br />
8 9<br />
4 6<br />
0 5<br />
0 J<br />
0 10 lj<br />
1<br />
0 1J<br />
0 2<br />
0 4<br />
And out of these half-pence the bookseller has<br />
to pay rent and keep up his house!<br />
One would reckon, approximately, the pub-<br />
lisher's profit compared with the bookseller's at<br />
about six to one all through."<br />
Here are more notes on prices:<br />
A law bookseller, who takes off 20 per cent, to<br />
his cash customers, divides publishers into three<br />
classes,<br />
(1) Those who charge 4*. 6d. for a 6s. book,<br />
but, if "subscribed," i.e., two or more copies<br />
taken when first issued, at 4s. 2d.<br />
(2) Those who give the above terms with 5<br />
per cent. cash.<br />
(3) Those who give the above terms with six<br />
months' credit.<br />
He instances the purchase of a single book pub-<br />
lished at 3s. 6d. He gave 2s. 6d. and if he had<br />
bought it to sell again he would have made 2d.<br />
profit.<br />
"The other day," he says, "I bought seven<br />
copies of a book published by Messrs. . They<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 63 (#87) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
63<br />
supplied us, seven copies being as six and a half,<br />
at 2.i. 6d. less 5 per cent., that means 28. 2\d.<br />
For further copies they will charge thirteen as<br />
twelve and a half, at 2s. 6d. less 5 percent., which<br />
is • half a copy ' dearer or 2s. ^d."<br />
Why, it may be asked, should there be all<br />
these complicated discounts and per centages if<br />
you buy this way or that way? Why cannot<br />
there be a fair price agreed u]>on and enforced?<br />
Why, to repeat, should the publisher get this<br />
vast slice of profit? They used to plead that it<br />
was on account of the risk. This they cm no<br />
longer do as regards current literature. Con-<br />
sidering that the really risky l>ooks are nearly<br />
always paid for by their authors: that in every<br />
branch of literature there are scores and hundred<br />
of authors whose books carry no risk at all: that<br />
every well-known firm can always place a certain<br />
number of books brought out by them: it is<br />
ridiculous to speak of the enormous risks.<br />
Let us, however, define risk more closely.<br />
The risk of a book is generally assumed to be<br />
the cost of production. This, however, is by no<br />
means the case. Every house of standing can<br />
subscribe at the outset a certain number of every<br />
book which it produces: probably an experienced<br />
publisher knows pretty well beforehand, that is,<br />
within certain limits, how many will be subscribed<br />
at the outset. The risk is therefore the difference<br />
between the actual liability for printing, &c. (most<br />
to be paid in six months), and the amount cleared<br />
by subscription. If the cost of production is<br />
wholly covered, there is no risk properly so called.<br />
But the publisher has given his services which<br />
include his establishment. There must be some<br />
m.rginto cover this: the risk therefore may be<br />
allowed to include this margin, generally reckoned<br />
at 10 per cent, of receipts. Only in the distribu-<br />
tion of the proceeds the author's office expenses<br />
and the bookseller's expenses must be equally<br />
considered. With this definition of risk we are<br />
enabled to consider the case of a book which<br />
carries no risk: that is to say, a book which is<br />
certain, unless unforeseen accidents occur, to<br />
circulate well over the margin above-named.<br />
The problem is this:<br />
Given such a book: What should the bookseller<br />
give for it? What should the author give the<br />
publisher? What would remain to him the<br />
creator and owner of the estate 'i<br />
We may be nearer a practical answer to these<br />
questions than is suspected.<br />
So far the only answer that we have received is<br />
an attack on our figures, which does not touch<br />
the principle. We have advanced the oi.fhors'<br />
siiares in their own property very larg^i , y<br />
will certainly go up still more larg0j <•'» &nd j'1 J<br />
come to understand more and more ^ ag wi'i^rS<br />
of figures. But the advance of royalties is not<br />
the main object. It is the emancipation of<br />
literature from the middleman that we want, a<br />
recognised system in which neither author nor<br />
bookseller shall have to be a suppliant, or ask the<br />
publisher for terms, but in which both author and<br />
publisher will know that they are dealing with a<br />
book on terms which are recognised as fair and<br />
shall have proper access to those books and<br />
accounts which concern their own business.<br />
And, I repeat, we may be nearer to that solution<br />
than is susj>ected by the friends who are con-<br />
tinually declaiming . against our wicked mis-<br />
representations, while taking the greatest care to<br />
keep their own figures as dark as possible.<br />
W. B.<br />
LITERATURE IN AMERICA.<br />
By Monouke U. Conway.<br />
(Reprinted by the author's perminsion from the Chicigo<br />
Open Court.)<br />
MR. LECKY, in his new work, " Democracy<br />
and Liberty,'' has a passage on Literature<br />
in America, which is all the more impor-<br />
tant, because in the same book he has strained<br />
every point, and even the facts, to place our<br />
country politically in the most favourable light.<br />
He admits, with friendly reluctance, that in the<br />
nineteenth century America has not, in literature,<br />
produced "anything comparable to what might<br />
have been expected from a rich, highly educated,<br />
and pacific nation, which now numbers more than<br />
sixty million souls, and is placed, in some respects,<br />
in more favourable circumstances than any other<br />
nation in the world." He quotes Sir Henry<br />
Maine as saying, in his work on "Popular<br />
Government," that the want of International<br />
Copyright has crushed authorship in the Ameri-<br />
can home market by the competition of the<br />
unpaid and appropriated works of British authors,<br />
and "condemned the whole American community<br />
to a literary servitude unparalleled in the history<br />
of thought." Mr. Lecky says there is much<br />
truth in this, but. adds that "Democracy is not<br />
favourable to the higher forms of intellectual<br />
life." He rightly ignores our so-called Interna-<br />
tional Copyright Act of 1891, being too polite to<br />
pronounce it the sham it is.<br />
It is very easy to answer these criticisms with<br />
the triumphant retort of the Hon. Elijah Pogram,<br />
the original jingo portrayed by Dickens, "My<br />
bright home is in the set tin' sun." But no<br />
patriotic outburst can (rive us a fair literary<br />
rl/;C>rd for the centurv no^ting its close. It<br />
pot be said that Euj>iHU,\ has neglected<br />
C*P erican authors. Irving, I^gteUow, Bancroft,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 64 (#88) ##############################################<br />
<br />
64<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Emerson, Bryant, Motley, Holmes, Hawthorne,<br />
Lowell, Thoreau, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman,<br />
Henry James, Bret Harte, Howells, to name<br />
authors that occur to me, have received full<br />
recognition and substantial royalties in England.<br />
I do r.ot underrate our list of nineteenth ceutury<br />
American authors; in some of them are signs of<br />
an original genius rarely visible in Europe; but<br />
gather up all their productions, and how small is<br />
the harvest compared with those of England,<br />
France, and Germany! Why is this 'i Is it due<br />
to "Democracy" that many of them were for<br />
years parted from the undowered hand of litera-<br />
ture and driven to seek livelihood in custom<br />
houses, clerkships, professorships, consulates,<br />
legations? Is it because their country cares<br />
nothing for literature that our great authors in<br />
the past have so few successors 'i<br />
At the close of the American Revolution,<br />
Thomas Paine wrote: "The state of literature in<br />
America must one day become a subject of<br />
legislative conside'ation. Hitherto it has been<br />
a disinterested volunteer in the service of the<br />
revolution, and no man thought of profits; but<br />
when peace shall give time and opportunity<br />
for study, the country will deprive itself of the<br />
honour and service of letters, and the improvement,<br />
of science, unless sufficient laws are made to<br />
prevent depredations on literary property." A<br />
hundred and fourteen years have passed since<br />
Paine so wrote, and the sufficient laws have not<br />
yet, been enacted.<br />
In the earlier part, of the present century there<br />
was perhaps more excuse for this national neglect,<br />
yet we cannot fail to feel some scandal at seeing<br />
early Americans of genius coming over to England<br />
for professional education, for culture, for recog-<br />
nition. Darwin was not four years old when a<br />
South Carolinian made the discovery of natural<br />
selection, which he announced in the Royal<br />
Society in London. "In this paper," savs<br />
Darwin, " he (Dr. W. C. Wells) distinctly recog-<br />
nises the principle of natural selection, and this is<br />
the first recognition which has been indicated."<br />
After being knocked about in America—now<br />
running a theatre, now a newspaper—Wells<br />
came in advanced life to find honour and<br />
resources in England. That was a long time ago,<br />
but how much better is it now, when the nation<br />
is wealthy, and can astonish the world with its<br />
exhibition of unparalleled prosperity and material<br />
progress?<br />
There is as much cultui-e and genius in America<br />
as in any other country. No one can mingle with<br />
the youth and the teachers in American colleges<br />
without knowing that there is many a Wells who,<br />
had he any fair opportunity for the play of his<br />
powers, might achieve as much as any foreign<br />
author—probably more. It is a scandal that<br />
while writers like Lecky, Morley, Bryce, Balfour,<br />
and others are summoned with enthusiasm to<br />
help direct the Government of England, the<br />
American nation should find no use for a literary<br />
man except occasionally to send him out of the<br />
country to some foreign court or consulate; but<br />
it is not only a scaudal, it is an outrage, that in<br />
pretending to make a law for the protection of<br />
Uterary property owned by foreign authors it<br />
should really enact one legalising the piracy of<br />
60 per cent, of the books annually issued in<br />
Europe. For at least 60 per cent, of European<br />
authors are unable to fulfil the monstrous condi-<br />
tions imposed by the Act of 1891 on copyright,<br />
and their works are made lawful prey.<br />
These are the first productions of new authors<br />
whose names are not marketable until the first<br />
work has reached success. Could the young<br />
English author offer his first book to an American<br />
publisher along with Press reviews of it, and<br />
proof of its success in his own country, he could<br />
command a fair price; but the American pub-<br />
lishers have provided against that fairness by a<br />
Bill making it necessary to publish his book<br />
simultaneously with its publication in Europe.<br />
The negotiation must precede any possibility of<br />
a success that might determine the real value.<br />
And this fraud the typographers and publishers<br />
together made absolute by the provision that<br />
such simultaneous publication should involve the<br />
complete manufacture of the book in America.<br />
So the young author must either pay for manu-<br />
facturing his book in America, or take any<br />
pittance a publisher may offer, or forfeit all copy-<br />
right in America. He may make something by<br />
his second work, but his first one is at the mercy<br />
of the American publisher.<br />
But, as Montesquieu said, man never puts a<br />
chain around his brother's neck without the<br />
other end coiling around his own. The wrong<br />
done by the Act of 18g 1 to the foreign author<br />
weighs equally, or even more, on the American<br />
author; for, as I have said, only 40 per cent., at<br />
most, of Eurojxjan authors can afford to fulfil the<br />
pecuniary conditions of copyright in America, and<br />
our American writers have to compete with the<br />
remaining mass, whose appropriation can no<br />
longer be even branded as "piracy," since it is<br />
now legalised. And, although I have ascribed<br />
this fraudulent measure to certain trade interests,<br />
it could not have been enacted but by the fault, of<br />
eminent American authors who allowed their<br />
names and inlluence to be used for the Act<br />
without examining it. Mr. Lowell was president<br />
of the Copyright League, and sounded the<br />
honourable watchword, "There is one thing<br />
better than a cheap book, and that is an honest<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 65 (#89) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
65<br />
book "; but unfortunately he not did say to his<br />
League, "There is one thing better than a<br />
copyright law, and that is an honest law." It<br />
was largely his influence that drew authors into a<br />
blind alliance with keen-eyed trade unions in<br />
passing a law which authorises the " dishonest"<br />
books deplored by Lowell. His voice was<br />
assumed to be that of English authors also; and<br />
his noble labour is now covering an adidterated<br />
mixture for the foreign author, and a poison for<br />
American literature. It is probable that Congress<br />
passed it, and President Harrison signed it in<br />
ignorance of its real character. The President<br />
offered its "advantages " to England on condition<br />
that she would " reciprocate," in evident ignorance<br />
that English copyright had long been as open to<br />
foreign as to British authors.<br />
If England had really "reciprocated," and<br />
passed a law requiring every book published in<br />
London to be manufactured there, and forbidding<br />
importations of sheets or plates, Americans might<br />
have been brought to their senses or to their<br />
integrity. An American may print his book at<br />
home, send a dozen copies to England, and his<br />
work is safe from all encroachment until he<br />
chooses to send over more copies. The book's<br />
success in America becomes his marketable pro-<br />
perty in England and in every European nation.<br />
This is civilisation. The American Act is un-<br />
civilised. The just principles of literary property<br />
are perfectly settled; since the Berne Congress<br />
they have become the common law of Europe. In<br />
America these laws of literary j>roperty are<br />
acknowledged in principle by every man of<br />
common sense. The Act of 1891 has never been<br />
defended in America, except by the disgraceful<br />
plea that certain selfish trades had to be com-<br />
promised with—that half a loaf is better than no<br />
bread—and so forth. This is mere surrender to<br />
a tyranny admittedly without principle. The<br />
United States has lately menaced three mon-<br />
archies in three months, and it is to be hoped<br />
that after the presidental election is over (of<br />
course!) our American government's attention<br />
may be directed to the manufacturing monarchy<br />
in our own borders, which has placed our country<br />
outside the honourable Republic of Letters. But<br />
this oppression will not end until American<br />
authors inaugurate their revolution, form their<br />
Congress, pass their Declaration of Independence,<br />
and frame their Constitution on the principles of<br />
equity acknowledged by all honest and intelligent<br />
]>eople and adopted by all civilised nations except<br />
our own, which above all other nations requires<br />
their adoption, any adequate develojmient of<br />
literature in America being iinpossifo] j tb«<br />
present conditions. Under<br />
THE AUTHORS' CLUB.<br />
TI^HE Authors' Club gave their first ladies'<br />
I dinner on Thursday, July 17th. The chair<br />
was taken by Mr. Oswald Crawford,<br />
C.M.G., the president of the club. The guest of<br />
the evening was Mrs. Hodgson Burnett. The<br />
speeches were by the Chairman, Mrs. Hodgson<br />
Burnett, Lord Crewe, and Mr. Justin McCarthy.<br />
Mrs. Hodgson Burnett spoke as follows (the<br />
report is taken from the Queen):<br />
"Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—The<br />
first pioneer who enters a new country must, I am<br />
sure, reflect with some seriousness as to how he<br />
shall approach the native holders of the laud,<br />
whether with rich offerings of gauds and orna-<br />
ments, or with useful implements — such as fire-<br />
water—or with the explosion of great guns to<br />
till them with awe. To-night 1 am a pioneer in<br />
a new country, and I have been wondering what<br />
the etiquette of an occasion like this may be—I<br />
mean what it expects of the first woman guest of<br />
a society of distinguished men. I have asked<br />
myself if such etiquette would insist that it is my<br />
duty, in thanking my hosts for their hospitality,<br />
to draw comparisons, painful or encouraging,<br />
between the two sexes. I am not quite sure that<br />
it would—I am inclined to hope it would not, as<br />
I am afraid I am not at all clever at that<br />
kind of thing. Drawing comparisons never<br />
seemed to me to advance matters much. As a<br />
method I should say it was a little obvious and<br />
inadequate.<br />
"Then there is another thing. In the course<br />
of what occasionally appears to me a somewhat<br />
protracted existence, I have never yet discovered<br />
a good quality or a bad one which seemed to have<br />
a gender. I have found, for instance, that if a<br />
man can be selfish, a woman—by paying strict<br />
attention to business—can be selfish also; that if<br />
a man can break his word, there are women who<br />
do not always keep theirs—to the letter; that if<br />
there are women who are weak and illogical, there<br />
exist men who do not exactly embody perfect<br />
strength of mind and infallibility of reason. And<br />
I have found just as many men who keep all the<br />
Commandments at once, and live simply and<br />
truly according to the teachings of the Sermon<br />
on the Mount—just as many men as women, and<br />
just as many women as men. This is as far as<br />
somewhat careful observation has been able to<br />
lead me, and decisions so limited naturally leave<br />
one rather out of the running in any discussion<br />
as to what strengths and weaknesses are pecubarly<br />
jjjjisculiue or entirely femiunie. As to one's<br />
cCess in the work one does gutelv that is not a<br />
sl1 egtion of gender either. ?j^e big world settles<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 66 (#90) ##############################################<br />
<br />
66<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
that. If a man or woman has something to say<br />
the world wants to hear it will stop to listen,<br />
and if the thing one says does not ring clear and<br />
true, aud does not concern the world or interest<br />
it, it will not pause even for a moment—for<br />
man or woman—for woman or man. It has too<br />
much to do, too much to think, too much to<br />
suffer.<br />
"Mr. Oswald Crawford has spoken most kindly<br />
of a woman for whom I care very much. Her<br />
name is Clorinda Wildairs. To me Clorinda<br />
Wildairs implies a great deal, and I am always<br />
glad when she is understood. Not long ago a<br />
lady—not an Englishwoman—reproved me for<br />
her. 'Why,' she said, 'I think she is just<br />
dreadful. She uses such bad language.' 'Yes,'<br />
I said, 'she does. They did in those days —<br />
and what is more, they did not call it bad lan-<br />
guage. They regarded it in the light of spirited<br />
colloquialism.' 'Well,' she replied. 'anyhow, I<br />
think she was real unprincipled to kill that man.'<br />
'What,' said I, 'you think it unprincipled to kill<br />
a man! I have been gathering the impression<br />
lately that societies were to be formed to make<br />
that kind of thing a sort of religious observance.'<br />
Another lady wrote to me from America, not so<br />
much to reprove as to remonstrate. She asked<br />
ine what Little Lord Fauntleroy would think,<br />
and begged me to tell her what I meant. I have<br />
not had time to reply yet, but when I have I<br />
shall respond that in my sanguine moments I had<br />
hoped that the book itself might chance to explain<br />
what I meant, but it this hope was founded on<br />
an error of judgment, I can only say that I meant<br />
by it exactly what I meant by Fauntleroy and<br />
many other things, that after all good is stronger<br />
than evil, that love is greater than hate, and that<br />
surely somewhere—somewhere there is a Power<br />
more just to the atoms it has created than those<br />
atoms have yet learned to be to each other. It<br />
is not necessary to explain here what I meant,<br />
but if I were called upon to put its mean-<br />
ing into the briefest form, I think I should<br />
say it was this, 'To err is human—to retrieve<br />
Divine.'<br />
"I wonder if I am optimistic in saying that I<br />
believe the world is a more intelligent place than<br />
i t used to be V It is not appallingly intelligent<br />
yet, but of course a world is a thing which lays<br />
itself open to criticism. When one has nothing<br />
better to do, one can always criticise the universe<br />
and particularise the improvements it requires.<br />
I have done it myself, for hours at a time, though<br />
I have never observed that it seemed to make any<br />
difference, or that any of my little hints were<br />
taken. Still, I believe people are more logical<br />
and just-minded than they used to be—in the<br />
time, for instance, when they burned each other<br />
alive for differences of opinion, religious and<br />
otherwise. They use their brains more; and the<br />
more human beings use their brains, the more<br />
just and fair they are likely to become to each<br />
other in their efforts to solve the problem of life.<br />
In thanking my hosts for the kindness of the<br />
compliment they have paid me, I will express<br />
a thought which came to me yesterday. It is<br />
this:<br />
"I think it probable that, say a hundred years<br />
from now, a woman may stand as I do, in borne<br />
such place as this, the guest of men who have<br />
doue the work all the world has known and<br />
honoured, and she will be the outcome of all the<br />
best and most logical thinking of all the most<br />
reasonable and clear-braiued men and women—<br />
women and men—of these seething years. She<br />
will know all the things I have not learned, and<br />
she will be a woman so much wiser and more<br />
stately of mind than I could ever hope to be—<br />
she will have so much more brain, so much more<br />
fine and clear a reason, that if we were compared<br />
we should scarcely seem to be creatures of the<br />
same race. And of this woman I say 'Good<br />
luck to her, great happiness, fair fortunes, and all<br />
the fullest joyousness of living; all kind fates<br />
attend her, all good things to her-—and to the<br />
men who will be her friends.'"<br />
Mrs. Burnett sat down amid a storm of<br />
cheering.<br />
WHAT IS GOOD LITERATURE?<br />
f |"\HE following is quoted from a lecture deli-<br />
I , vered at Berkeley Lyceum, New York, by<br />
Mr. Sherwin Cody. Communicated to the<br />
Author by the lecturer:—<br />
"And what is good literature? It certainly is<br />
not literature written under the tyranny of the<br />
motto, 'Art for art's sake.' In a commonplace<br />
age, when crudity and vulgarity were the rule of<br />
the day, the literary men of the country might<br />
adopt such a motto. But the motto on which<br />
true literature is produced is 'Art for the revela-<br />
tion of the secrets of the heart.' Art exists for<br />
man, not man for art. The truest art is that<br />
which disappears, which conceals itself, because<br />
the thought that is conveyed is so much more<br />
entrancing in its interest than the mere verbal<br />
expression can ever be. Literature with a pur-<br />
pose—a purpose of discussing theology, sociology,<br />
or even ait itself—is no true literature. But art<br />
must have a purpose, nevertheless, above and<br />
beyond itself, the purpose of touching and feed-<br />
ing the human heart. The intellect belongs to<br />
science and theology and philosophy. But the<br />
heart belongs to art, and art belongs to the heart,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 67 (#91) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
67<br />
and that is the truest art which makes the heart<br />
thrill most vividly. The infamous doctrine that<br />
literature should be documents in the history of<br />
the race, that fiction should be a record of the<br />
manners and dress and tendency of a time, that<br />
philosophy should chronicle the latest ism, that<br />
poetry should be shrine of local colour, must be<br />
swept clear of the boards before one line of true<br />
literature can exist for the public. Mr. Crawford<br />
says he classifies novels of local colour in his<br />
library under the head of travel, not fiction. He<br />
is right.<br />
"I do not despise art, far from it. Three men<br />
whose names I might mention as most full of<br />
promise among the younger men, and one of<br />
older fame whose work so largely accomplished<br />
already I should class with them, are eminently<br />
scholars in their art, though two of them be<br />
young scholars and two of them be old scholars.<br />
They are not ditch diggers turned poet in a day,<br />
claiming that after all the less knowledge of art<br />
a young writer has the better seem to be the<br />
practical results. They have given years to the<br />
study of language and literature, and years of<br />
enthusiasm and toil.<br />
"Instead of despising literary art, rather I am<br />
the irrevocable foe of the literary artists of the<br />
day who never learned any literary art, and the<br />
young man or young woman who may come to<br />
me with a spontaneous production of literature,<br />
out of a full heart and utter lack of training, will<br />
find no consideration. We enshrine that of<br />
which we know least. We worship what is to us<br />
a mystery. The literati of the day who worship<br />
art for art's sake bow down to an idol veiled by<br />
thick curtains, and behind the curtains there is<br />
in reality—nothing.<br />
"But art must be forgotten before it can be<br />
useful. There are two perfect artists — the<br />
innocent and unconscious child (who is but the<br />
hand of divine intelligence) and the trained man<br />
of letters to whom art has become a second<br />
nature. Art does not exist for the sake of the<br />
artist any more than for its own sake. It is but<br />
the fluid medium through which heart speaks to<br />
heart. To represent men as you see them, to<br />
draw life as it is—all that seems to me aside from<br />
the question. I would speak that which I do know<br />
from within me; I would coin my heart's blood<br />
into the universal coin of the realm of heart. I have<br />
lived and toiled and suffered—may I not say<br />
died as who of us has not ?—and I would trans-<br />
mute my pain into life for others. Literature<br />
is for the heart to live by. What matter if the<br />
heart be clothed in a jester's gaudy tj ,, t^e<br />
correct costume of the gentleman 0Y. f,> „ \raar<br />
tr—1- - >• .1 ^- • 1 lady of ~<br />
York fashionable society. One js<br />
the white shirt front and the beggar's grimy<br />
coat, and in literature why not strip off both the<br />
grimy coat of the beggar and the white shirt<br />
front of the man of society, and present hearts<br />
in whatsoever costume imagination may supply,<br />
so that the beggar, if he take the heart to hinnelf,<br />
may not be afraid of soiling the fleckless linen,<br />
or the man of society wish to change his garments<br />
when he lays down the latest novel. Howells<br />
writes for the classes, Zola for the misses. I<br />
would that one might come who wrote for your<br />
heart and my heart, whatever garments covered<br />
it—some seer who should see so clearly that<br />
his eyes would pass through the garment as<br />
through a mist, and read the letters of eternal<br />
hope and eternal despair, eternal victory, and<br />
eternal defeat, both written side by side, and<br />
needing a seer to interpret their everlasting<br />
meaning.<br />
"That I or any one of my fellows be such a seer,<br />
is not for me to say. Whether we are or not is<br />
quite away from the point. Our hope lies not in<br />
any such fortunate possibility, but in the need<br />
of the people. When the people call for a<br />
prophet one will be given them. Do they call<br />
him now? Each reader must auswer that for<br />
himself. If he answers it loud enough, and does<br />
not forget to repeat his answer at least three<br />
times, an angel from above or an angel from<br />
below, whatever the call may be, will surely<br />
appear." Sherwin Cody.<br />
BOOK TALK.<br />
one is real, but the same heart t^Om^ntic<br />
REGINALD E. SAWLEY, author of "The<br />
Finger of Scorn" and "Ventured in<br />
Vain," has placed a new novel in the<br />
hands of Hurst and Blackett for publication in<br />
September. It is entitled " The One Alternative,"<br />
and will appear in two vol. form.<br />
Some of our readers may be glad to hear that<br />
the first really scientific critical edition of Dante's<br />
"De Vulgari Eloquentia" has just appeared in<br />
Florence (Le Monnier). It is edited and anno-<br />
tated by Professor Pio Baina, whose vast learning<br />
and power of research have been already shown<br />
to the world in his monumental works: "Le<br />
Origini dell' Epopea Francese" and "Le Fonti<br />
dell' Orlando Furioso."<br />
Mr. Stanley Waterloo, the author of two much-<br />
discussed novels, " A Man and a Woman" and<br />
« An Odd Situation," is a candidate for the post<br />
f Game Warden of the fc^tate of Illinois (an<br />
mc& closely corresponding +0 that held by our<br />
°1, jjger of the New For-^8t). Mr. Waterloo<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 68 (#92) ##############################################<br />
<br />
68<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
is a famous hunter, who has fished and shot<br />
all over the Western States, from Colorado to<br />
Florida.<br />
A fountain in memory of Robert Louis<br />
Stevenson has been erected in San Francisco.<br />
One bookseller in that pleasant city of the golden<br />
gate has filled his windows with a permanent<br />
exhibition of Stevensoniana.<br />
Books about South Africa still continue to<br />
be very rife. A new one to appear shortly<br />
is by Messrs. W. P. Purvis and L. V. Biggs,<br />
and deals with the people, progress, and problems<br />
of the countries. There will also be included<br />
a bibliography of South African literature. The<br />
handbook will be dedicated to the president<br />
and members of the Anglo-African Writers'<br />
Club.<br />
The Earl of Ashburnham has commissioned<br />
Messrs. Sotheby to dispose of his celebrated<br />
library of printed books and MSS., at Ashburn-<br />
ham Place. The printed books will be sold by<br />
auction next season, unless a suitable offer for the<br />
whole collection is made to Messrs. Sotheby in<br />
the interval. The MSS. will not be submitted<br />
to auction, but the firm will treat privately for<br />
their sale en bloc.<br />
New editions of Dickens and Carlyle are being<br />
prepared by Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the<br />
former in 6s. volumes, and the latter in 3*. 6d.<br />
The collected edition, limited to 1000 copies, of<br />
Meredith, with revisions, is to consist of about<br />
thirty-four volumes at half-a-guinea each, to be<br />
issued at the rate of two per month, beginning at<br />
the end of September.<br />
An interesting announcement for musicians.<br />
It is the forthcoming publication of the autobio-<br />
graphy of Mrs. Charles Cowden Clarke, sister to<br />
the late Mr. Joseph Alfred Novello, the well-known<br />
music publisher. Mrs. Clarke is eighty-seven<br />
years of age, a fact which gives point to the<br />
title for the volume, namely, "My Long<br />
Life." She met Mendelssohn, Mahbran, Dickens,<br />
and a host more of people in artistic circles of<br />
past generations, many of whom gathered<br />
around her father — "the father of cheap<br />
music "—as writers, composers, or critics. There<br />
will be numerous portraits to surround these<br />
reminiscences.<br />
The Rev. Dr. Parker, of the City Temple, is<br />
writing a volume of recollection.*, "Miscellanea,"<br />
which will appear this autumn.<br />
Eastbourne has adopted the Public Libraries<br />
Acts. Though located in small temporary pre-<br />
mises, a good beginning has been made, the<br />
Mayor presenting the books in the reference<br />
department. The library was formally opened on<br />
the 7th inst., by Mr. Hall Caine, a preliminary<br />
meeting being held in the Town Hall, when the<br />
author of "The Manxman" made a charming<br />
speech. Mr. Le Queux was also present, and<br />
several members of the town council and other<br />
prominent local gentlemen.<br />
The Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, who<br />
takes such an active interest in the spread of<br />
Goethe literature, has been pleased to accept<br />
from Professor Buchheim copies of his editions of<br />
Goethe's and Schiller'3 works, published at the<br />
Clarendon Press. At the special desire of Her<br />
Royal Highness, the books have been deposited in<br />
the new Goetlie- und Schiller-Archiv.<br />
Mr. Arthur A. Sykes (of Punch, the Anglo-<br />
Russian Literary Society, Henry Blackburn's<br />
School of Art, &C.), will, in the course of<br />
a few days, publish a short account of the<br />
recent Coronation cruise of the Midnight Sun<br />
to Russia, containing forty-five illustrations<br />
(full page portraits, snapshots and sketches)<br />
by the author; humorous verses by Canon<br />
Rawnsley and others; two musical settings of<br />
the same by the Rev. M. F. Bell; and particulars<br />
of lectures, excursions, and other incidents of<br />
the trip.<br />
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy has written a history<br />
of Victoria, which will be on sale in the early<br />
autumn. The period of Sir Charles's connection<br />
with the government of the colony is discussed<br />
with much greater detail and intimacy than the<br />
rest.<br />
Mr. George Moore will probably take two more<br />
years for his novel "Evelyn Innes." Rather<br />
more than a third of the book is all that is yet<br />
written.<br />
Mr. Clark Russell's new tale of the sea is<br />
almost completed. "The Two Captains," as it is<br />
called, will first appear serially, and afterwards in<br />
book-form early next year.<br />
Mr. G. B. Burgin's new novel, entitled<br />
"Tomalyn's Quest," will be published in<br />
November by Messrs. Innes. This writer will<br />
also contribute the first story to a series<br />
called the New Vagabond Series, which he will<br />
edit.<br />
Mr. Kipling's new story is first to appear<br />
serially in the New Jteriew, beginning about the<br />
end of the year. It is called "Captain Coura-<br />
geous."<br />
Mr. George Somes Layard has written an<br />
account of "George Cruikshank's Portraits of<br />
Himself," which will be published by Mr. W. T.<br />
Spencer early this month. The volume will be<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 69 (#93) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
69<br />
illustrated with about forty drawings, many of<br />
which have not hitherto been published. "The<br />
complete and unbroken autographic record of the<br />
artist's personal appearance," says the prospectus,<br />
"from the early age of twelve to the time when<br />
he was preparing his never - to - be - completed<br />
autobiography, is unparalleled in the history of<br />
published art."<br />
A memorial edition of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"<br />
will be published by Messrs. Cassell in the<br />
early autumn, with upwards of 100 illustra-<br />
tions by a Scandinavian artist, Jenny Mystorm-<br />
Stoopendaal.<br />
Major Marriott, formerly of the Intelligence<br />
Department in the Admiralty, is preparing a<br />
volume on "England, Egypt, and the Sudan,"<br />
in which he discusses recent events and the<br />
problems of the future in connection with these<br />
territories. The book will in part be based upon<br />
Major Wingate's work on Mahdism and the<br />
Sudan, and the latter's name will, therefore,<br />
appear as joint author. Messrs. Macmillan are<br />
the publishers.<br />
A work entitled "Choir Stalls and their<br />
Carving: Examples of Misericords in some<br />
English Cathedrals and Churches" will shortly<br />
be published at two guineas by Mr. Batsford.<br />
The author is Miss Emma Phipson, who has<br />
already written a book on the animal lore of<br />
Shakespeare's time. Three hundred examples will<br />
be given, on one hundred plates, and some of<br />
the most remarkable have been taken from West-<br />
minster Abbey.<br />
The works of a selected number of the modern<br />
poets of Wales are about to be issued in series.<br />
The first volume will be the complete poetical<br />
works of "Islwyn," which Mr. Owen M.<br />
Edwards, of Lincoln College, Oxford, has in the<br />
press.<br />
The life of Mr. Hain Friswell is about to be<br />
written by his daughter. Miss Friswell makes<br />
an appeal for the loan of any letters, which will be<br />
received by her at Aber-Maw, Wimbledon, or by<br />
the publisher, Mr. Fisher Unwin.<br />
A record price for an English binding has,<br />
according to the Athenmum, been made in the<br />
sale of the Bunbury copy of the seventh edition<br />
of Cowley's "Works," 1681, which realised £126<br />
at Sotheby's the other day. "The work is un-<br />
doubtedly an elaborate and remarkable specimen<br />
of contemporary bibliopegy by an unknown<br />
craftsman, The old English morocco is covered<br />
with a blaze of gilt tooling in panels with<br />
designs of flowers and fruits, stars, and erpanpnts<br />
with centre and corner ornaments in „ esceB i<br />
blue." ^e"t>w and<br />
Miss May Bateman is to edit a Christinas book<br />
of stories and poems entitled "The Children's<br />
Hour," which is to appear in the autumn under<br />
the auspices of the Invalid Children's Associa-<br />
tion. Contributions to the volume have been pro-<br />
mised by Mrs. Hodgson Burnett, Lady Lindsay,<br />
Mrs. Molesworth, Mrs. Meade, Miss Alice<br />
Corkran, Mr. Justin McCarthy, Mr. Le Gallienne,<br />
and Mr. Oswald Crawfurd, C.M.G. The work<br />
is dedicated to the Duchess of York, and will be<br />
published by Messrs. Hatchard.<br />
The pensions granted under the Civil List<br />
during the past year—£1200—were apportioned<br />
as follows:—Mrs. T. H. Huxley (,£200), Mr.<br />
James Hammond (£120), Mr. Oliver Heaviside<br />
(£120), Mme. Louisa Bodda-Pyne (£70), Edith<br />
Mary Lady Barnby (£70), Mrs. Fanny Hind<br />
(£70), Miss Hannah Elizabeth Morris (£25),<br />
Miss Helen Francis Morris (£25), Miss Gertrude<br />
Morris (.£25), Mrs. Samuel Johu Varley (=£50),<br />
Miss Annie Walbank Buckland (£80), Miss<br />
Frances Elizabeth Dobson (25), Miss Mary<br />
Dobson (£25), Miss Julia Dobson (£25), Mrs.<br />
Margaret Anne Houghton (£50), Mr. J. S.<br />
Stuart Glennie (£100), and the Rev. Sir George<br />
William Cox (£120).<br />
The poor quality of paper used in American<br />
books is ascribed by Mr. George Haven Putnam<br />
to the fact that the number of Mohammedan<br />
pilgrims to Mecca has greatly decreased. He<br />
explains that everyone of the pilgrims was<br />
clothed in "flowing garments of finest white<br />
linen," and, as hundreds and thousands of them<br />
died by the wayside, it was at one time a profit-<br />
able business to strip these garments from the<br />
bodies, and send them to the large paper factories<br />
of Europe. Now, however, this source of supply<br />
is enormously diminished, and the quality of<br />
paper is accordingly inferior.<br />
The unpublished works of the historian Gibbon<br />
are to appear in the coming autumn, in three<br />
octavo volumes. In the first volume will be<br />
the six autobiographies, while the second and<br />
third will contain Gibbon's private letters to<br />
his father, his stepmother, Lord Sheffield, and<br />
others, written between the years 1753 and<br />
1794. Lord Sheffield, who will contribute a<br />
preface, has disposed of the copyright of the<br />
material to Mr. Murray, the publisher. The<br />
manuscripts have been acquired by the British<br />
Museum.<br />
The Earl of Suffolk, Mr. Headley Peek, and<br />
Mr, F. G. Afflalo have accepted the editorship<br />
of an "Encyclopaedia of SpOTt," which Messrs.<br />
LaWrence an(* Mullen w^ shortly begin to issue<br />
in iu°°tbly parts-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 70 (#94) ##############################################<br />
<br />
7o<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
This year has already been uncommonly<br />
prolific in mountaineering books, and two more<br />
will be published very soon by Mr. Murray.<br />
The author of these is the well-known climber,<br />
Mr. Edward Whymper. They will be<br />
"Chamuni and the Range of Mont Blanc,"<br />
and "Zermatt and the Matterhorn," and both<br />
will be illustrated.<br />
A volume of Lord Leighton's addresses to<br />
the students of the Royal Academy is about<br />
to be published by Messrs. Kegan, Paul,<br />
and Co.<br />
Mr. Clive Holland has written a number of<br />
short stories which will appear in a single volume<br />
shortly, entitled " A Japanese Victory, and Other<br />
Stories."<br />
Mr. William Sharp is writing a story entitled<br />
"Madge of the Pool" for a new series which<br />
Messrs. Archd. Constable and Co. have started.<br />
Mrs. Steel will follow with one called "In the<br />
Tideway "; and other contributors to the series,<br />
which is to be devoted to no one school, but will<br />
embrace examples of all, will be Miss Fiona<br />
Macleod and Mr. Charles Montague.<br />
Mr. William Archer has translated into English<br />
the biography of Dr. Nansen, by Rolfsen and<br />
Brogger. The publication will have illustrations,<br />
a.nd a poem by Bjornson.<br />
In last number, the books attributed to Mrs.<br />
Warren are not by the late " Mr. Whiteside<br />
Cooke," but by the late "Mrs. Whiteside Cook."<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
I.—Delated Publication.<br />
CAN any reader of the Author give a hint as to<br />
proving special damage by reason of de'ayed<br />
publication of a book? The work is a<br />
technical treatise which occupied me a long time;<br />
remuneration is by royalty, and the date fixed for<br />
publication, by a clause in the agreement, has long<br />
past; if not published soon the volume will be<br />
about as valuable as an old tourist guide or an<br />
out-of-date railway time table. T. C. B.<br />
[The writer should long ago have placed the<br />
matter in the hands of the secretary. What is<br />
the use of a society and a secretary who is also a<br />
solicitor if such cases as this are not submitted<br />
to him? Of course we know nothing of the<br />
■details, and the publisher may be wholly within<br />
his rights, but as this question stands it seems<br />
eminently one for the legal advisers of the<br />
society.—Ed.].<br />
II.—Literary Grab-alls.<br />
With regard to "Lunette's" letter in last<br />
month's issue of the Author. Surely his experi-<br />
ence as to payment is very unique?<br />
My own productions are not those of a genius,<br />
but I have never been offered the sums of 3*. or<br />
12$. (yd. for them! I have received as much as<br />
.£3 for a short story in Hearth and Home, while<br />
almost any paper is willing to give £z 2s. for a<br />
story of short length. The Sun pays £1 is. for<br />
their short front-page story, ranging in length<br />
from three-quarters of a column to a column.<br />
This is surely not bad for a daily paper?<br />
Honey Seabrooke.<br />
Why cannot " Lunette " give us the names of<br />
the publications whose editors offer the prices he<br />
mentions. A statement of fact would surely do<br />
him no harm, and might save some of us.<br />
Riccardo-Stephens.<br />
8, Coltbridge-terrace, Edinburgh, July 14.<br />
III.—Our Censors.<br />
Much has been said and written of late con-<br />
cerning the value of book criticisms. It is a<br />
most difficult question to tackle satisfactorily. I<br />
imagine, however, there are certain unfair methods<br />
of appraisement, as influencing success or failure,<br />
which deserve the fullest condemnation.<br />
Previously, in these appropriate columns, you<br />
were so friendly as to allow me to treat the<br />
subject of our critics' stock-in-trade of common-<br />
places. To-day, with your permission, I will<br />
enlarge my indictment against them.<br />
Foremost upon my black-list I would place the<br />
negligent, irresponsible reviewer. The pain and<br />
mischief occasioned by this individual is enormous.<br />
Surely the very pivot of honest criticism should<br />
be its thoroughness. How can aught save<br />
injustice result from cursory glances into any<br />
book? Better leave the investigation alone<br />
altogether than wrap up some hasty inaccurate<br />
judgment within the mean mantle of anonymity.<br />
Of course, there is no redress. There never<br />
is and never will be until signed opinions<br />
compel caution. As a victim to this inglo-<br />
rious plan, I feel keenly on the subject as no<br />
doubt many of those who may read these lines<br />
also do.<br />
The next delinquent is the fastidious, stand-<br />
offish censor whom nothing pleases in fiction. He<br />
has formed his own conception as to what a novel<br />
should be, resenting any attempt to upset his<br />
ideal. The effect of the proverbial red rag upon<br />
the bull is mild compared with the fury of this<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 71 (#95) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
7i<br />
tetchy mortal under the influence of some bold<br />
"three decker" which may have chanced to intrude<br />
between the wind and his own respectability.<br />
This specimen chastises, as a rule, in the literary<br />
weeklies. His style being academic, the notices<br />
command attention, and, alas for the hapless<br />
author, no doubt influence the reading public<br />
materially. They are, to my mind, condemnable<br />
by reason of that lofty assumption of superiority<br />
over others, unbecoming even in the greatest.<br />
Moreover, the leaven of forbearance is altogether<br />
absent. Could this captious gentleman, we are<br />
disposed to ask, achieve his own standard of<br />
exellence in the line he scourges thus without<br />
mercy?<br />
Example number three—the facetious slater<br />
who, from under his cloak of humour, stabs more<br />
cruelly than even the haughty one aforesaid. Or,<br />
to coin a word, should I not write slateress? For<br />
a woman's pen is too often apparent in this<br />
description of review. We all know what the<br />
unbridled fancy of the fair sex can accomplish in<br />
print. When wit combines with ridicule the<br />
result is quite withering. If we get read after<br />
a perusal of such flashes, it can only be out of<br />
pity; and that sometimes is the unkindest sting<br />
of all.<br />
I have picked out the above as the most forcible<br />
instances wherewith to uphold my contention.<br />
There are many more ready to hand. But I<br />
must stable my lance, or I may run the risk of<br />
tilting even beyond the limits of your good<br />
nature. Grant me a final thrust. We have our<br />
review of reviews. Why not our censor of<br />
censors? With every allowance for the suscepti-<br />
bility of authors, it can scarcely be denied that<br />
the licence which obtains nowadays in the matter<br />
of book judgments is deplorable. Of course, as<br />
your journal has pertinently remarked, we must<br />
take the good with the bad. It is no use to<br />
draw in our horns like an aft'ronted snail and<br />
refuse copies. But let us in return, at least,<br />
receive that meed of justice and accuracy, which<br />
should be the mainspring of all that delicate<br />
machinery governing the world of lettess.<br />
Cecil Clarke.<br />
Authors' Club, S.W., July 17.<br />
IV.—The Title.<br />
I should feel very thankful, and I fancy the<br />
feeling would be shared by many of your readers,<br />
to know the simplest and most expeditious way<br />
for an author to ascertain whether a title he<br />
contemplates using is already appropriated.<br />
Tyeo.<br />
LITERATURE AND THE PERIODICALS.<br />
THE revival of the rural Scottish novel is<br />
hailed by the Edinburgh as a welcome<br />
sign of healthy reaction. For its paternity<br />
the writer goes back to Gait, the contemporary of<br />
Scott. Yet he hesitates to say that the popularity<br />
of the new Scottish novel will endure. "There is<br />
a certain picturesqueness in weaving thrums, and<br />
there is the sublimity of Highland grandeur in<br />
Drumtochty; but, after all, a novelist must rely<br />
upon human interest for his effects, and even<br />
genius must sooner or later exhaust the materials<br />
in a back-of-tbe-world industrial townlet, or<br />
secluded Highland glen." Moreover, there is the<br />
stumbling-block of the "semi-intelligible Scot-<br />
tish dialect," a moderate amount of which must<br />
go a long way with Southron readers, "and<br />
already we see signs that even the apostles of the<br />
new dispensation cannot repeat themselves with<br />
impunity."<br />
The National Observer sees the paper-bound<br />
book coming into vogue, and discusses the pratical<br />
philosophy of it. It admits that this cover<br />
may be objected to because it becomes dog's-<br />
eared and dirty. The book might not then<br />
be worth re-binding in more solid form, and,<br />
besides, doing this would take from it its<br />
identity. Better paper-bound than strongly but<br />
vulgarly.<br />
Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton has been sayiug<br />
how satisfactory the Copyright Act is both to<br />
American and English, authors. "Before this<br />
Act passed," she says, "the prices of native<br />
American books seemed very high in com-<br />
parison with the pirated editions of English<br />
authors, for which no royalty had to be paid.<br />
The works of English and American authors<br />
are now sold at practically the same prices<br />
in the States, and in this way both have a fair<br />
chance."<br />
The casual contributor, says "An Editor,"<br />
does not understand his true position. His<br />
demands are frequently unreasonable, and he<br />
receives more consideration than he deserves.<br />
All this, and much more, is in reply to " A Con-<br />
tributor's" strictures on editors in a previous<br />
number of the National Review. Are manu-<br />
scripts tossed aside without being read? On the<br />
contrary. "An attempt, at the least, is made to<br />
read the most ill-written manuscript; sometimes<br />
it is even sent to the printers in the faint hope<br />
that after they have wrestled with it, the meaning<br />
0f the scrawl may be extracted." Besides, if a<br />
gjiuscript be rejected it ia ^variably returned<br />
the sender; but contributors " g° ^eyond a^<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 72 (#96) ##############################################<br />
<br />
72<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
limits of reason" when they demand that the<br />
question of accepting or rejecting and returning<br />
their work shall.be decided within a limited time.<br />
On one point concerning the aspirant the two<br />
sides agree—namely, the undesirability of intro-<br />
ductions to editors; he should eschew introduc-<br />
tions "as he would poison." Perhaps the writer<br />
in Chambers's may be thought to sum up this<br />
whole matter exactly. "After all," remarks the<br />
latter, "editors make their living by accepting<br />
good manuscript."<br />
Factory boys read Penny Dreadfuls, and at<br />
least one individual cannot say that they are any<br />
the worse for it. This writer regards it as the<br />
natural thing for the boy at a certain age, say<br />
fourteen. Factory people, as a whole, do not<br />
overtax their mental powers by deep reading, we<br />
are told, but the writer is hopeful of a higher<br />
standard being attained as she contemplates the<br />
enormous circulation of good and cheap books at<br />
the present time. In discussing what makes a<br />
novel successful, "Claudius Clear" says that<br />
if a novelist, otherwise thoroughly equipped, is<br />
profoundly imbued with religious faith, he has an<br />
immense advantage. He knows nothing, too,<br />
which so sets up the back of the average reader<br />
as an assumption of superiority, allusiveness, talk<br />
about the secret of Hegel, and stuff of that kind.<br />
"A direct and fearless simplicity establishes the<br />
best terms from the first between author and<br />
readers."<br />
Mr. Gladstone warns the young verse-maker<br />
to look whither he is going. His experience<br />
leads him to believe that the supply of poetry, or<br />
verse assuming to be poetry, is more egregiously<br />
in excess of the demand than any other descrip-<br />
tion of literature. "The prose-writer commonly<br />
has something to present to the world besides his<br />
literary form. Except in the case of very high<br />
poetry, the poet has not, and cannot have." Mr.<br />
Gladstone is very strict on the general question<br />
of putting forth a book. "I suppose it to be<br />
true," he says, *' that no one ought to add to the<br />
mass of printed books already born in the world,<br />
unless he honestly believes that he is about to<br />
contribute some addition to the stories of useful<br />
literature." A book is either a burden or a<br />
benefit The Pall Mall Gazette is amusing on<br />
the ingredients and compounding of modern<br />
literature. The Saturday Review takes up the<br />
question of Miss Linley's letters published in<br />
the recent biography of Sheridan, urging that<br />
they are fabrications. A writer in Temple Bar<br />
is funny at the expense of " literary ladies," who<br />
as a class, he says, have emancipated themselves<br />
at last, but "their earnestness and undue<br />
seriousness come in a great measure from their<br />
newness."<br />
Authors, Publishers, and Booksellers.<br />
Letters in the Westminster Gazette (entitled<br />
"Walter Besant and the Booksellers"):—Mr.<br />
B. B. Marston, July 8, 15, 25; Mr. E.<br />
Marston, July 20; Mr. Arthur D. Innes, July<br />
13, 20; Sir Walter Besant, July 10, 17, 24.<br />
Letters in the Daily Chronicle:—Mr. E. B.<br />
Marston, July 15; Walter Besant and Mr.<br />
E. Gowing-Scopes, July 16; "A West-end<br />
Bookseller," July 28. Interview with Walter<br />
Besant, the Daily Chronicle for July 14.<br />
Opinions of leading publishers, the Daily<br />
Chronicle for July 27.<br />
Authors and Publishers. M. Ferdinand Brunetitre's<br />
speech before the International Congress of Publishers.<br />
The Publishers' Circular for July 4.<br />
Recipes for Modern Literature. The Pall Mall<br />
Gazette for July 4.<br />
The Literature of Factory Workers. By One of<br />
Them. Good Words for August.<br />
Some Letters of Burns. H. Grey Graham. The<br />
Athenxum for July 25.<br />
The Death-Centenary of Burns. Articles in Strand<br />
Magazine for July, National Observer for July 25, Black-<br />
wood's for August. Report of Celebrations and of Lord<br />
Roseberry's Speeches, the Times for July 22. The Poet-<br />
Laureate's address at Irvine, the Glasgow Herald for<br />
July 20.<br />
Contributors. An Editor. National Review for<br />
August.<br />
The Return of the Rejected. How Editors Send<br />
Back Manuscripts. Chambers's Journal for August.<br />
Literary Ladies. Temple Bar for AuguBt.<br />
Oliver Wendell Holmes. By A. K. H. B. Longman's<br />
for August. By Leslie Stephen. Natio>ial Review for<br />
July.<br />
Man-making and Verse-making. Tho Right Hon.<br />
W. E. Gladstone. New Review for July.<br />
Talks with Tennyson. Wilfrid Ward. New Review<br />
for July.<br />
Dante Gabriel Rosse"T1. Quarterly Review for<br />
July.<br />
The New Scottish Novelists. Edinburgh Review<br />
for July.<br />
In Paper Cover. The National Observer for July 25.<br />
Notable Reviews.<br />
Of the Poems of Miss Rosetti and Mrs. Alexander. Lionel<br />
Johnson. Academy for July 25.<br />
Of Knowles's (compilation) "The Legends of King Arthur<br />
and His Knights. The Daily Chronicle for July 18.<br />
Of Mrs. Meynell's Essays. George Meredith. National<br />
Review for August.<br />
Of Dr. Wright's "Dialeot Dictionary." Tho Times for<br />
July 25.<br />
Of A. L. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad." National<br />
Observer for J uly 11.<br />
Of Mr. Fraser Rae's "Sheridan." Eduiburgh Review<br />
for July.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 72 (#97) ##############################################<br />
<br />
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London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.G.<br />
Crown 8vo., cloth boards, 3s. 6d.<br />
Crimean & other Short Stories.<br />
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M.B.C.M. Ed in., EMi.Q-.S.<br />
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"Dr. Morrison writes crisply, sensibly, humorously, and with an<br />
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The Scotsman.<br />
"By far the most interesting and entertaining narrative of travel<br />
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World.<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildlngs, E.C.<br />
Royal 8vo., price 16s. net.<br />
Sporting Days in Southern India:<br />
BEING REMINISCENCES OF TWENTY TRIPS<br />
IN PURSUIT OF BIG GAME,<br />
CHIEFLY IN THE JWADRAS PRESIDENCY.<br />
BT<br />
Lieut.-Col. A. J. 0. POLLOCK, Royal Scots Fusiliers.<br />
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY WHYMPER<br />
AND OTHERS.<br />
CONTENTS.—Chapters I., II., and HI.— The Bear. IV. and V.—The<br />
Panther. VI., VII., and VIII.—The Tiger. IX. and X.—The<br />
Indian Bison. XI. and XII.—The Elephant. XIII.—Deer<br />
(Cervlda!) and Antelopes. XIV —The Ibex. XV. and XVI.—<br />
Miscellaneous.<br />
London; Hobace Oox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildincs. E.C.<br />
Boyal 8vo., cloth, profusely illustrated, price 12s. 6d. net.<br />
TEXAN RANCH LIFE;<br />
WITH<br />
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By MARY J. JAQ.TJES<br />
j^r.don HuRacb Cox. Windsor HoU8„. BreauiVbuildings. E.O<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 72 (#98) ##############################################<br />
<br />
iv<br />
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Winners and Runners-up lor the Amateur Championship.<br />
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Crown 8vo., limp cloth, 2s. 0d. net; bevelled hoards, gilt edges, price 5s.<br />
THE<br />
PRINCIPLES OP CHESS<br />
IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.<br />
JAMES ""lIVE ASOH.<br />
CONTENTS. — 1. Elements of Chess. 2. General Principles<br />
3. Combination. 4. Exposition of Master Play Complete.<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
Published every Friday morning; price, without Reports, 9d.; with'<br />
Reports, Is.<br />
THE LAW TIMES, the Journal of the Law and the<br />
Lawyers, which has now been established for over half a century,<br />
supplies to the Profession a complete Record of the Progress of Legal<br />
Reforms, and of all matters affecting the Legal Profession. The<br />
Reports of the Law Times are now recognised aB the . most complete<br />
and efficient series published.<br />
Offices: Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
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