465 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/465 | The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 03 (August 1899) | <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.+10+Issue+03+%28August+1899%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 03 (August 1899)</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> | 1899-08-01-The-Author-10-3 | | | | | 57–76 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=10">10</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1899-08-01">1899-08-01</a> | | | | | | | 3 | | | 18990801 | The Hutbor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
Monthly.)<br />
<br />
COMOCUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. X.—No. 3.]<br />
<br />
AUGUST 1, 1899.<br />
<br />
[Prick SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
collective opinions of the Committee unless<br />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
<br />
Sos<br />
<br />
hee Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
<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 />
<br />
<br />
<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 />
<br />
Po<br />
<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br />
agreement. There are three methods of dealing<br />
with literary property :—<br />
<br />
I. THAT OF SELLING IT OUTRIGHT.<br />
This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper<br />
<br />
price can be obtained. But the transaction should be<br />
managed by a competent agent.<br />
<br />
Il. A PROFIT-SHARING AGREEMENT.<br />
<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to :<br />
<br />
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part.<br />
<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
ments.<br />
<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
<br />
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br />
<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
<br />
VOL. X.<br />
<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor !<br />
(7.) To stamp the agreement.<br />
<br />
Ill. THE ROYALTY SYSTEM.<br />
<br />
It is above all things necessary to know what the<br />
proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible<br />
for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly<br />
the truth. From time to time the very important figures<br />
connected with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br />
“Cost of Production.”<br />
<br />
The four main points which the Society has always<br />
demanded from the outset are :—<br />
<br />
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
<br />
(2.) The inspection of those account 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 />
<br />
(3.) That there shall be no secret profits.<br />
<br />
(4.) That there shall be no charge for advertisements<br />
in the publisher’s own organs and none for exchanged<br />
advertisements.<br />
<br />
eK<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ie By wa member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the<br />
advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor,<br />
the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s<br />
solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is<br />
desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel’s<br />
opinion. All this without any cost to the member.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple<br />
to use the Society.<br />
<br />
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. The<br />
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br />
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br />
obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
<br />
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Society for examination.<br />
<br />
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br />
<br />
F 2<br />
58 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<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. 2<br />
<br />
6. 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 />
stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon<br />
them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments<br />
due according to agreements.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
A EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
branch of their work by informing young writers of<br />
Their MSS. can be read and treated<br />
The Readers are<br />
The fee is one<br />
<br />
its existence.<br />
as a composition is treated by a coach.<br />
writers of competence and experience.<br />
<br />
guinea.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
HE 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 />
<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
<br />
Communications for The Author should be addressed to<br />
the Offices of the Society, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn<br />
Fields, W.C., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br />
21st of each month.<br />
<br />
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br />
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br />
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br />
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br />
publish.<br />
<br />
The present location of the Authors’ Club is at 3, White-<br />
hall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for<br />
information, rules of admission, &c.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I.—In TERNATIONAL LITERARY AND ARTISTIC<br />
ConGREss.<br />
<br />
“ E DROIT D’AUTEUR” publishes the<br />
folowing programme for the twenty-<br />
first congress of the “ Association Litté-<br />
<br />
raire et Artistique,’ which is to take place at<br />
<br />
Heidelburg in September next, commencing on<br />
<br />
the 23rd, and concluding on the 30th.<br />
<br />
1. The author’s moral right in his production :<br />
<br />
MM. Lermina, Mack, Maillard, Vaunois.<br />
<br />
(a) The right of any author of an intellectual<br />
work to establish his prerogative of author, and<br />
<br />
to take legal proceedings against any persons<br />
appropriating the credit of the work.<br />
<br />
(6) His right to interdict reproduction of his<br />
work in any form except by his consent. Can an<br />
author’s creditors offer the right of reproduction<br />
for sale P<br />
<br />
(c) Right of the author who has assigned his<br />
work to compel regard for his right as author to<br />
oppose the assignee’s reproducing or exhibiting<br />
the work in any modified or altered form, or his<br />
making any use of the work not stipulated in the<br />
contract.<br />
<br />
(d) Right of the executors or heirs of the<br />
author to compel regard for the author’s moral<br />
rights. Power of the tribunal to compel respect<br />
for the work, even against the heirs, and after the<br />
work has become public property.<br />
<br />
2. Protection of inlaid work: M. Soleau.<br />
<br />
3. Reports on jurisprudence, state of public<br />
opinion, and legislative proceedings in different<br />
countries.<br />
<br />
(a) Report on the new German law. Examina-<br />
tion of the principal reforms to be desired: M-<br />
Osterrieth.<br />
<br />
(6) Condition of the preparatory labours of the<br />
English law: M. Iselin.<br />
<br />
(c) Proposed reform of Italian law: M.<br />
Armar.<br />
<br />
(d) Projected Russian law: M. Halpérine-<br />
Karminsky.<br />
<br />
(e) Literary property in Roumania: M.<br />
Djuvara.<br />
<br />
(f) Literary property in the United States:<br />
M. Paul Ocker.<br />
<br />
Persons desiring to join in the conference<br />
should forward their names to M. Jules Lermina,<br />
perpetual secretary of the Association, Hétel des<br />
Sociétés Savantes, 28, Rue Serpents, a Paris.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Il.—TxHE Burne ConveENTION.<br />
<br />
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Princi-<br />
pality of Montenegro has, by a memorandum of<br />
April 1, 1899, informed the Swiss Federal<br />
Council, in the name of his Government, that the<br />
Principality, for reasons of economy, withdraws<br />
from the International Union for the Protection<br />
of Literary and Artistic Works created by the<br />
Convention of Sept. 9, 1886.<br />
<br />
According to the terms of the 2oth article of<br />
the Convention, the Convention will remain in<br />
force in the Principality of Montenegro until the<br />
expiration of one year from the date of the<br />
denunciation, that is to say, until April 1, 1900.<br />
<br />
The Swiss Federal Council has communicated<br />
this denunciation to the contracting countries by<br />
a circular dated May 15, 1899.—From Le Droit.<br />
d@ Auteur.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
TII.—Copyrieut 1n Russta.<br />
<br />
Our Italian contemporary in J Diritti D’ Autore<br />
mentions that the Russian Imperial Commission<br />
for the revision of the copyright law is thinking<br />
of giving foreign authors a ten years’ copyright<br />
in translations of their works on condition that<br />
the translation into Russian is made within three<br />
years of the publication of the original work.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TV.—Tue Srxpenny Nove.<br />
<br />
With reference to the able note on the six-<br />
penny novel in the May number of The Author,<br />
will you allow me, as cne who has seen something<br />
of the matter from the trade side, to suggest<br />
that the price at which new novels shall be<br />
issued could be promptly settled by united action<br />
on the part of the heads of the literary profes-<br />
sion? A publisher who makes fiction a feature<br />
of his lists cannot make o/d standard works his<br />
staple. By old standard works, I mean novels<br />
which still have life in them, as non-copyright<br />
works, after an existence of forty years or more<br />
as copyright works. If he wants to issue new<br />
copyright novels at sixpence, he can only do so<br />
(1) by purchasing the copyright outright, or (2)<br />
by getting the author to accept a royalty on<br />
the sixpenny form. As to purchasing the copy-<br />
right outright, it is notorious that, except in very<br />
rare instances, a novel, the copyright of which<br />
can be purchased for £20 or so, has not a poten-<br />
tial sale behind it of sufficient copies to make a<br />
sixpenny edition pay; and if a publisher pur-<br />
chases outright the copyright of new novels by<br />
prominent writers for payments of £750 to £2000,<br />
say, he will have made the sixpenny edition so<br />
expensive to himself that only fabulous sales will<br />
secure him a profit. No advertisement revenue<br />
that is likely to accrue on the large majority of<br />
new novels would set the balance right.<br />
<br />
But a publisher who makes fiction a staple<br />
must come to the prominent writers, the writers<br />
whose books he can sell for certain, whose novels<br />
the public wants to read, As he cannot afford<br />
to purchase the copyright, he must try to get the<br />
author to take a royalty, if the sixpenny form is<br />
to be floated. This must mean a heavy loss<br />
to the author, as compared with the six-shilling<br />
system. To take a rough diagram of the situa-<br />
tion—Suppose that an author can sell 50,000<br />
copies of a novel in six-shilling form, and that he<br />
gets only a shilling a copy on the published<br />
price (practically, of course, he gets much more) ;<br />
he will receive on sales £2500. If the novel<br />
were issued at sixpence, and the author got a<br />
penny a copy royalty, then—supposing that the<br />
cheaper price doubled his sales—he would on the<br />
sale of 100,000 copies receive £416 odd, and be a<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
59<br />
<br />
loser of over £2000 as compared with the six-<br />
shilling edition. Even if the lowered price<br />
trebled his sales—a big supposition—he would<br />
be a loser of well over £1500. Let us suppose<br />
an author commands a sale of 10,000 copies ;<br />
under the six-shilling arrangement (same figures<br />
as above) he gets £500—on a corresponding<br />
sixpenny arrangement (as above) he would only<br />
get £410dd. As for the author who sells 10,000<br />
copies, not being so widely known or so widely<br />
popular as the author who sells 50,000 copies, the<br />
lowered price would not quicken or increase his<br />
sales so much. ‘Then there is a considerable<br />
number of writers, holding an excellent place in<br />
literature, whose novels sell 5000 to 6000. They<br />
would probably find their incomes gone and their<br />
MSS. unsaleable under the sixpenny régime.<br />
This will mean a real and severe loss to English<br />
art and letters if it is allowed to take place.<br />
<br />
If prominent authors, after carefully consider-<br />
ing their interests, determine that they do not<br />
intend to have their novels issued at 6d. (first<br />
edition), and so instruct their agents, the matter<br />
will soon settle itself.<br />
<br />
But one may safely take it for granted that<br />
the heads of the literary profession would not<br />
only consider their own financial interests in such<br />
a case but the interests of literature. Who is to<br />
publish the Walter Paters and Emily Brontés of<br />
the future? Unless such writers are able and<br />
willing to publish at their own expense, and<br />
go without remuneration, they will have silence<br />
enforced on them under the sixpenny régime.<br />
Their MSS. will be met with the fatal objec-<br />
tion that there is not probable sale enough<br />
in them to make a sixpenny edition profitable to<br />
any publisher, and thus a chain of writers of<br />
whom English people are justly proud will be<br />
broken, and one may reasonably fear that the<br />
man of the sixpenny shocker will arise in their<br />
stead.<br />
<br />
Of course, there are many educated men and.<br />
women who would like to buy new novels but<br />
cannot afford the six-shilling form. But these<br />
readers would buy the book because of its<br />
intrinsic worth, not because it was the newest<br />
thing published. Would not publication in<br />
sixpenny form two years after first publication<br />
meet their requirements in a satisfactory way ?<br />
Only a few novels continue to bear fruit in the<br />
shape of royalty on the six-shilling edition<br />
twenty-four months after first publication. If<br />
the cost of composition, &c., had. been met by a<br />
more expensive edition at first, perhaps a<br />
sixpenny edition might be issued after that lapse<br />
of time with satisfaction to everybody. Those<br />
who can and do afford to keep up a library<br />
subscription or to buy books in six-shilling form<br />
60<br />
<br />
would not wait two years in order to get them in<br />
sixpenny form; so the first and more expensive<br />
edition would not be interfered with by the<br />
later and cheaper edition. The book would get a<br />
revival, the intelligent reader with a small purse<br />
would have a chance of acquiring it, and the<br />
publisher would be able to work the potential<br />
profit of the book out in each form.<br />
<br />
Mo.LeEcvtLe.<br />
2 ee<br />
PUBLISHERS’ DRAFT AGREEMENT.<br />
<br />
HE following draft form of royalty agree-<br />
ment is one of the forms issued by the<br />
Council of the Publishers’ Association,<br />
<br />
and submitted to and approved by Mr. Joseph<br />
Walton, Q.C., and Mr. Arthur Ingpen.<br />
<br />
It was published in The Author of July, 1898,<br />
but it has been thought necessary to re-issue it,<br />
together with the comments of the Secretary<br />
of the Society of Authors, as agreements con-<br />
taining some of the clauses have been placed<br />
on one or two occasions recently before the<br />
Secretary.<br />
<br />
There is Very little to add to the comments which<br />
then accompanied the agreement except to state<br />
that where the blanks have been left im the dratt<br />
form they have been generally filled up to the<br />
advantage of the publisher and to the disadvantage<br />
of the author. It is needless to state the amount<br />
of royalty inserted in sections a, b, c, of clause 4.<br />
Tn one case, however, where the royalty was only<br />
to be paid after a certain number of copies were<br />
sold, 10 per cent. was offered on all copies after<br />
the sale of 1500 copies. The sales never reached<br />
1500. The author never received a royalty.<br />
If they reached 1400 the publisher made<br />
£100 to £120. If they went over 1500 he<br />
made only about £60. An agreement should<br />
always be drawn so that both parties should<br />
be equally interested in promotion of the sales.<br />
In section d the blank has been filled up by<br />
the word “ fifty per cent.,” thus showing, as often<br />
repeated, that for ordinary agency transactions<br />
the publisher takes 50 per cent. where the agent<br />
would take ten or fifteen! In clause 8 the<br />
copyright has generally been vested in the<br />
name of the publisher. A warning against this<br />
is given in the comments. In clause g the<br />
blanks have been filled up to the great dis-<br />
advantage of the author, giving the publisher,<br />
as put forward in the comments, a chance of<br />
retaining the author’s money for nearly eighteen<br />
months.<br />
<br />
There is no need to make other new comment<br />
onthe agreement. It is put forward again for the<br />
sake of a warning to authors.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Drarr Form or suacEsteD Royatty AGREE-<br />
MENT BETWEEN AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER,<br />
DRAWN UP BY THE COUNCIL oF THE PuB-<br />
LISHERS’ ASSOCIATION AND SUBMITTED TO AND<br />
APPROVED BY Mr. JosepH Watton, Q.C.,<br />
anp Mr. Artuur R. Ineren.<br />
<br />
Royalty Agreement.<br />
Memoranpum or AGREEMENT made this<br />
day of between<br />
(hereinafter termed the Author) of the one part,<br />
and<br />
(hereinafter termed the Publisher) of the other<br />
part, whereby it is mutually agreed between the<br />
parties hereto for themselves and their respective<br />
executors, administrators, and assigns (or succes-<br />
sors, as the case may be), as follows :—<br />
<br />
1. The Publisher shall at his own risk and<br />
expense, and with due diligence, produce and<br />
publish the work at present intituled<br />
b<br />
and use his best endeavours to sell the same.<br />
<br />
2. The Author guarantees to the Publisher that<br />
the said work is in no way whatever a violation<br />
of any existing copyright, and that it contains<br />
nothing of a libellous or scandalous character, and<br />
that he will indemnify the Publisher from all<br />
suits, claims and proceedings, damages, and costs<br />
which may be made, taken, or incurred by or<br />
against him on the ground that the work is an<br />
infringement of copyright, or contains anything<br />
libellous or scandalous.<br />
<br />
3. The Publisher shall during the legal term<br />
of copyright have the exclusive right of producing<br />
and publishing the work in the English language<br />
throughout the world. The Publisher shall have<br />
the entire control of the publication and sale<br />
and terms of sale of the book, and the Author<br />
shall not during the continuance of this agree-<br />
ment (without the consent of the Publisher)<br />
publish any abridgment, translation, or dramatised<br />
version of the work.<br />
<br />
4. The Publisher agrees to pay the Author the<br />
following royalties, that is to say :—<br />
<br />
(a) A royalty of on the published<br />
<br />
price of all copies (13 being reckoned as<br />
12 or 25 as 24, as the case may be) of<br />
the British edition sold beyond<br />
<br />
copies.<br />
<br />
(6) In the event of a cheaper edition bemg<br />
issued, a royalty of per cent. on the<br />
published price.<br />
<br />
(c) In the event of the Publisher disposing of<br />
copies or editions at a reduced rate for<br />
sale in the United States, or elsewhere,<br />
<br />
(d) In the event of the Publisher realising<br />
profits from the sale, with consent of the<br />
Author, of early sheets, serial or other<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 61<br />
<br />
rights, or plates for production of the<br />
work in the United States, or elsewhere,<br />
or as remainders, a royalty of<br />
<br />
per cent. of the amount realised by such<br />
sale.<br />
<br />
or from claims for infringement of copy-<br />
right, a royalty of per cent. of the<br />
net amount of such protits remaining<br />
after deducting all expenses relating<br />
thereto.<br />
<br />
No royalties shall be paid on any copies given<br />
away for review or other purposes.<br />
<br />
5. The Author agrees to revise the first, and.<br />
if necessary, to edit and revise every subsequent<br />
edition of the work, and from time to time to<br />
supply any new matter that may be needful to<br />
keep the work up to date.<br />
<br />
6. The Author agrees that all costs of correc-<br />
tions and alterations in the proof sheets exceeding<br />
25 per cent. of the cost of composition shall be<br />
deducted from the royalties payable to him.<br />
<br />
7, In the event of the Author neglecting to<br />
revise an edition after due notice shall have been<br />
given to him, or in the event of the Author being<br />
unable to do so by reason of death or otherwise,<br />
the expense of revising and preparing each such<br />
future edition for press shall be borne by the<br />
Author, and shall be deducted from the royalties<br />
payable to him.<br />
<br />
8. During the continuance of this agreement,<br />
the copyright of the work shall be vested in the<br />
<br />
who may be registered as the proprietor<br />
thereof accordingly.<br />
<br />
9. The publisher shall make up the account<br />
annually to<br />
and deliver the same to the Author within<br />
months thereafter, and pay the balance due to the<br />
author on<br />
<br />
10. If the publisher shall at the end of three<br />
years from the date of publication, or at any<br />
time thereafter, give notice to the author taat in<br />
his opinion the demand for the work has eased,<br />
or if the Publisher shall for six months after the<br />
work is out of print decline, or, after due notice,<br />
neglect to publish a new edition, then and in<br />
either of such cases, this agreement shall termi-<br />
nate, and, on the determination of this agreement<br />
in the above or any other manner, the right to<br />
print and publish the work shall revert to the<br />
Author, and the Author, if not then registered,<br />
shall be entitled to be registered as the proprietor<br />
thereof, and to purchase from the Publisher forth-<br />
with the plates or moulds and engravings (if any)<br />
produced specially for the work, at half-cost of<br />
production, and whatever copies the Publisher<br />
may have on hand at cost of production, and if<br />
the Author does not within three months pur-<br />
chase and pay for the said plates or moulds,<br />
<br />
engravings, and copies, the Publisher may at any<br />
time thereafter dispose of such plates or moulds,<br />
engravings, and copies, or melt the plates, paying<br />
to the author in lieu of royalties per cent.<br />
of the net proceeds of such sale.<br />
<br />
11. If any difference shall arise between the<br />
Author and the Publisher touching the meaning<br />
of this agreement, or the rights or liabilities of<br />
the parties thereunder, the same shall be referred<br />
to the arbitration of two persons (one to be named<br />
by each party) or their umpire, in accordance<br />
with the provisions of the Arbitration Act,<br />
1889.<br />
<br />
12. The term “Publisher” throughout this<br />
agreement shall be deemed to include the person<br />
or persons or company for the time being carrying<br />
on the business of the said<br />
under as well its present as any future style, and<br />
the benefit of this agreement shall be transmissible<br />
accordingly.<br />
<br />
As witness the hands of the parties.<br />
<br />
CoMMENTS BY THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
Firstly, then, the parties to the agreement.<br />
“It is agreed for themselves, their respective<br />
administrators, executors, and assigns, or suc-<br />
cessors, as the case may be.”<br />
<br />
It is the greatest mistake for an author to<br />
contract with the executors, administrators, and<br />
assigns, or successors of a publisher. The con-<br />
tract is between principal and agent, and is a<br />
personal contract, and should be maintained as a<br />
personal contract. Supposing an author were<br />
dealing with one of the best publishing houses in<br />
England, and the partners of that publishing<br />
house, for some reason or other, desired to retire<br />
from the business; to clear up matters they<br />
might put up the contracts for sale by auction or<br />
otherwise. Under these circumstances an author<br />
might find the right to publish his work pur-<br />
chased by some enterprising tradesman, who<br />
would bring it out in a manner and form which<br />
would be utterly repulsive to the author, and he<br />
would have no means of stopping him; and the<br />
same thing might occur should a firm go bank-<br />
rupt. It is, therefore, a most dangerous thing to<br />
allow the agent who is dealing with the property<br />
to have a right to assign his agency.<br />
<br />
In Clause 1 the publisher undertakes to pro-<br />
duce the work with due diligence. These words,<br />
as far as they go, are satisfactory, but the clause<br />
is not nearly comprehensive enough. The follow-<br />
ing points are suggested for consideration: that<br />
a date ought to be fixed on or before which the<br />
book should be produced ; that the form in which<br />
the edition is to appear should also be stated,<br />
and the price at which it is to be sold to the<br />
public.<br />
62 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Clause 2 may, on the whole, be passed, with<br />
the single exception of the words “incurred<br />
by.” Itis fair as between the parties that the<br />
publisher should be protected from all suits<br />
against him, but there is no reason why the<br />
author should indemnify him from all expenses<br />
incurred by him, as he might incur unnecessary<br />
expenses without the sanction of the author.<br />
There ought, therefore, to be some words of<br />
limitation by which the author has a voice in any<br />
action taken by the publisher.<br />
<br />
Clause 3.—It is difficult to deal with Clause 3<br />
without, in fact, re-drafting the whole of the<br />
agreement, but it should be pointed out that the<br />
rights which the author is expected to transfer by<br />
this agreement include the rights of production in<br />
Tauchnitz formand in America. Such rights are<br />
generally left in the hands of an agent, and much<br />
better so than in the hands of publishers, for this<br />
reason—that a publisher does not,as a general rule,<br />
undertake the work of the literary agent; that his<br />
office is not to place literary work in other hands,<br />
but to produce literary work for the author; that<br />
work of this kind left in the hands of publishers is<br />
not likely to receive anything like the same atten-<br />
tion as it is if left in the hands of a literary agent ;<br />
that the publisher is the only person who gains<br />
by having control of this work, and that the<br />
author loses by leaving it in his hands. It should<br />
be further pointed out that the publisher does not<br />
anywhere in the agreement undertake to secure<br />
the American copyright for the author, nor even<br />
to do his best to obtain it. It may pay an English<br />
publisher better to sell sheets or stereos to<br />
America, and pay the author a royalty, as per<br />
Clause 4 (d), ‘of per cent. of the net amount<br />
of the profits remaining after deducting all ex-<br />
penses relating thereto.”<br />
<br />
It should be added, although no prices are<br />
stated in this agreement, that for this agency work,<br />
while the literary agent charges 10 per cent.,<br />
the publisher actually asks from 30 to 50 per cent. ;<br />
out of a large series of agreements in my hands<br />
from all sorts and conditions of publishers the<br />
lowest charge for this literary agency business<br />
has been 25 per cent., and this only in one case.<br />
<br />
The last part of the clause is extraordinary.<br />
It seems astounding that the author should not be<br />
allowed to deal with the translation and dramati-<br />
sation of his own work without the consent of the<br />
publisher. An author must be mad to part with<br />
his dramatic rights, perhaps more important than<br />
all the rest put together. With regard to the<br />
question of abridgment even, it is not fair that<br />
the author should be bound not to abridge the<br />
work unless the publisher is reciprocally bound<br />
not to obtain an abridgment or to run any other<br />
technical work which is likely to conflict with the<br />
<br />
author’s. So far, this clause has been considered<br />
from the general point of view, but from the<br />
point of view of the writer of technical works,<br />
educational, medical, theological, &¢., &c., the<br />
clause is still more disastrous.<br />
<br />
Under no circumstances should a writer of<br />
technical books hand over to his publisher so large<br />
a right of publication. It should be limited,<br />
especially as to the number of the edition, giving,<br />
if the author thinks fit, an equitable right to<br />
produce further editions.<br />
<br />
A technical writer must keep the command of<br />
his work, must be able, if necessary, to alter,<br />
amend, amplify. He cannot do this with a free<br />
hand if he does not keep undivided control.<br />
<br />
The publishers’ answer will be: “ But this is<br />
provided for by Clauses 5 and 7.”<br />
<br />
But it is submitted that it is one thing for the<br />
author to have unfettered judgment, and another<br />
thing to be forced to revise at request of his<br />
publisher or see his work arbitrarily revised by<br />
another. Whilst considering this question, it<br />
should be mentioned that one of the peculiarities<br />
of publishers’ contracts is that in the case of<br />
technical works a clause is nearly always intro-<br />
duced conveying the copyright to the publisher.<br />
<br />
An agreement containing such a clause should<br />
never be signed by an author.<br />
<br />
Clause 4.—In Section (a) the royalty is to be<br />
paid thirteen copies as twelve or twenty-five as<br />
twenty-four. The alternative appears to be left<br />
wholly to the discretion of the publisher, who<br />
naturally will prefer to pay on thirteen as twelve.<br />
Royalties should never be calculated on this basis.<br />
All the royalty accounts put forward by the<br />
Authors’ Society have been (wrongly) reckoned<br />
on the basis that the royalty is paid on every copy<br />
sold, it having been previously taken into account<br />
in the Cost of Production that the publisher had<br />
to sell thirteen for twelve to the booksellers. This<br />
they do not really do, except they sell in quantities<br />
and a great many booksellers are unable to afford<br />
to buy in quantities; therefore, in taking the<br />
royalty to be paid as in Section (a), the publisher<br />
is not only profiting by the liberal estimates of<br />
the Society with regard to royalties, but is also<br />
endeavouring to take in an extra 8 per cent., and<br />
the extra amount on those copies, of which there<br />
are many, sold in less numbers than twelve.<br />
<br />
This fact should also be made clear, that some<br />
of the older and more reliable firms have never<br />
put forward in their agreement a clause on this<br />
basis, but have always paid on every copy.<br />
<br />
The clause is also drafted that the royalty<br />
should be paid on all copies sold beyond a certain<br />
number. This seems to imply that no book can<br />
afford to have a royalty paid on it from the<br />
beginning. Of course, this is not the case, but<br />
<br />
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<br />
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THE<br />
<br />
when such an agreement is placed before an<br />
author as an equitable agreement, these points of<br />
equity should be clearly explained.<br />
<br />
If the royalty is to be paid after the sale of a<br />
certain number (generally such a number whose<br />
sale will cover the cost of production), then the<br />
author must take care (1) that a number beyond<br />
the number specified is printed ; (2) that he gets a<br />
proportionately higher royalty for foregoing it so<br />
long—e.g., he must then get 50 per cent. of the<br />
trade price.<br />
<br />
All royalty agreements should further have the<br />
royalty increasing with the sale if they cannot<br />
bear a high royalty from the beginning. A<br />
royalty increasing with the sale is certainly a fair<br />
arrangement as between author and publisher.<br />
<br />
Section (6.)—The issue of a cheap edition<br />
appears under this section, as, indeed, under the<br />
drafting of the whole agreement, to lie entirely<br />
with the publisher. This is by no means a<br />
satisfactory arrangement. Here, again, there is<br />
no proposed increasing royalty according to the<br />
number of the cheap edition sold.<br />
<br />
Section (c).—It is a common thing for the<br />
author to receive a share of the nett amount<br />
realised by the sale of remainders, but royalties<br />
as a general rule are paid on the published price<br />
of the sale of the book in the United States.<br />
An author should not allow such a loose clause<br />
to be in any agreement with the words “ copies or<br />
editions sold at a reduced rate should be subject<br />
to — per cent. of the amount realised on such<br />
sale.” Who is to decide what is a reduced rate?<br />
There are many different methods of selling<br />
books to the trade; many of these might be called<br />
books sold at a reduced rate. Under these cir-<br />
cumstances it is unfair to the author to obtain a<br />
share merely of the amount realised. Royalties<br />
must be paid always on the published price,<br />
except in the case of a remainder.<br />
<br />
Section (c) therefore should allow a share of<br />
the amount realised on bond fide remainder sales.<br />
The rest should be altered. The case of re-<br />
mainder sales should be distinguished with great<br />
care from the sale of books at reduced prices ;<br />
this clause cannot but tend to confuse the two<br />
issues.<br />
<br />
Section (d).—If the publisher is successful in<br />
doing the agency work stated in that section, it<br />
is fair that he should have 10 per cent. commis-<br />
sion on the returns, in accordance with the charges<br />
of all ordinary agents. He might also perhaps<br />
be fairly entitled to a 10 per cent. commission if<br />
he was mainly instrumental in recovering money<br />
for infringement of copyright. The balance would<br />
be paid to the author.<br />
<br />
The final section of clause 4 is a little vague.<br />
Of course, no royalty ought to be paid to the<br />
<br />
VOL. x,<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
63<br />
<br />
author on copies given away by him or sent for<br />
review, but the words “other purposes” might<br />
cover a good deal more than this, and are insuffi-<br />
ciently precise.<br />
<br />
Clause 5.—The wording of the fifth clause is<br />
not very satisfactory. In the case of technical<br />
works, to which a clause like this specially refers,<br />
the publishers should in the first instance be only<br />
given a right to publish a limited number of<br />
copies, and the author might in equity give him<br />
the option of producing further editions, subject<br />
to certain limitations. Under those circumstances<br />
the right to revise would lie within the author’s<br />
hands, as it should do with the creator of any<br />
work, who ought alone to have power to add or<br />
subtract from what he has already put before the<br />
world. This has all been explained when com-<br />
menting on Clause 3, but the principle is of such<br />
importance that it is worth while to repeat it.<br />
<br />
Clause 6.—The author is not safeguarded here.<br />
Could it not be provided that periodically (say<br />
weekly) during the printing the author be<br />
informed of the cost of corrections. He must in<br />
any case be informed what is the cost of com-<br />
position, and what is the connection between<br />
corrections and shillings.<br />
<br />
Clause 7 might, under certain circumstances—<br />
that is if the publisher has purchased the copy-<br />
right—be inserted in an agreement, but in the<br />
present form of royalty agreement it should be<br />
struck out. There is no need for it. Its imprac-<br />
ticability with regard to technical writers during<br />
their lifetime has been explained.<br />
<br />
Clause 8.—There is no need either for the<br />
insertion of clause 8. The copyright is the<br />
author’s, and must remain so. The clause is<br />
inserted evidently with the idea of the copyright<br />
being vested in the name of the publisher. This<br />
would be a mistake. :<br />
<br />
Clause 9, the account clause, is so beautifnlly<br />
vague that it is hardly worth while to comment<br />
upon it, except to point out that it is a mistake<br />
to have accounts made up annually delivered<br />
three months after they are made up, with the<br />
amounts due payable three months after this,<br />
making it possible for the publisher to retain the<br />
author’s money for nearly eighteen months. That<br />
is a common account clause amongst publishers,<br />
and no doubt they find it exceedingly useful to<br />
have the control of the author’s money for so long<br />
a period. The mere interest on such money would<br />
go a long way to pay the office expenses in a big<br />
office. But the inconvenience to the author, not<br />
to mention the danger of bankruptcy or similar<br />
contingencies to the firm, is very considerable.<br />
<br />
Clause 10. — The first part of clause 10 is<br />
certainly necessary for the protection of the<br />
author, as it would be very awkward supposing<br />
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64<br />
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the publisher refused to produce the book when<br />
the author had a certain market for it. If, how-<br />
ever, as in the case of some educational works,<br />
the publisher desired still to maintain the control<br />
of the market, so as not to allow the author to<br />
republish a book in competition with one which<br />
the publisher had already before the public, it<br />
would be easy to evade the clause by having a<br />
few copies ready on hand. The latter part of the<br />
clause, however, could not possibly be equitable<br />
as between author and publisher. It is quite<br />
possible that the moulds and engravings might<br />
be so worn that they would not be worth half the<br />
cost of production, and the copies of the book that<br />
the publisher had on hand might not be worth<br />
the whole cost of production, as itis quite possible<br />
that they might have been damaged or otherwise<br />
defaced. If, therefore, the author refused to pur-<br />
chase the books at the cost of production on<br />
account of some damage that they had received, it<br />
would be possible for the author in reproducing<br />
the work with some other publisher to be under-<br />
sold. The author saould have the o.tion of<br />
taking over the stock and plates at a valuation.<br />
The danger, however, is not a very large one, as<br />
if the book was in such a condition that the<br />
author desired to bring out a new edition and<br />
the publisher did not, it would most probably<br />
argue that the book had very nearly reached the<br />
end of its sale, in which case there would most<br />
probably be only a few copies on hand. The<br />
danger, however, is one that should be guarded<br />
against.<br />
<br />
Clause 11 ought to be struck out, as, until<br />
a dispute arises, it is impossible to say whether<br />
it is a fit subject for arbitration ; besides,<br />
arbitration is more expensive than an action at<br />
law.<br />
<br />
Clause 12 should on no account stand. It is<br />
most important, as explained when discussing the<br />
parties to this agreement, that the contract should<br />
be a personal contract, and this point should<br />
always be before authors when signing agree-<br />
ments. They should under no circumstances<br />
allow such a clause to pass.<br />
<br />
This is a fair comment on the royalty agree-<br />
ment as it stands. Many suggestions might be<br />
made as to the insertion of various clauses, and<br />
the protection of the author on other points.<br />
But these are faults of omission, and the agree-<br />
ment has only been dealt with as regards the<br />
drafted clauses. It might be well to mention<br />
that some definite time should be fixed on, before<br />
which a publisher should not be allowed to make<br />
remainder sales.<br />
<br />
i i<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
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<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
5, Rue Chomel, Paris.<br />
<br />
NHE matinée Alfred de Musset, recently given<br />
7 by the Bodiniére, was a great success.<br />
The poet par excellence of “l’amour, les<br />
femmes, et les fleurs” is still a living voice to the<br />
present generation. For over forty years the<br />
annual pilgrimage of his disciples to his tomb at<br />
Pére-Lachaise in the beginning of “le joli mois<br />
de mai” has been piously continued, and this<br />
year the tomb of the great Hugo is reported to<br />
have been honoured with less than half the<br />
number of the floral tributes deposited on that of<br />
Alfred de Musset. But Hugo died more than a<br />
quarter of a century later, so his admirers are<br />
content to read his works and temporarily forget<br />
his anniversary until Time’s mellow aureole has<br />
gilded his fame. Though Alfred de Musset’s last<br />
days were troubled by pecuniary cares (including<br />
the expenses of his own interment), the only<br />
thing he asked of his friends was “ a light shade”<br />
over his grave; and the willow which now casts<br />
over his last resting-place the “light shade” so<br />
pathetically requested was brought from Parana<br />
by a South American poet—Hilarip Escasubi by<br />
name—who cheerfully undertook the long voyage<br />
in order personally to fulfil the desire of the poet<br />
whose works he revered. Apropos of this fact<br />
may be mentioned the assertion that the poems<br />
of de Musset and the memoirs recently published<br />
by his old housekeeper, Adéle Colin, are reported<br />
to have had almost as wide a circulation among<br />
foreigners as among the poet’s own compatriots.<br />
M. Paul Deschanel, President of the Chamber<br />
of Deputies, has been elected to fill the vacant<br />
fautewl of M. Edouard Hervé. This is not<br />
the first time that the newly fledged Academi-<br />
cian has obtained the suffrages of the august<br />
body of which he is now a member. Eleven<br />
years ago a clever volume from his pen, entitled<br />
“Orateurs et Hommes d’Etat” (containing a<br />
series of studies on Frédéric II. and Bismarck, Fox<br />
and Pitt, Lord Grey, Talleyrand, Berryer and Glad-<br />
stone), was recompensed by the French Academy ;<br />
and the following year his interesting ‘“‘ Figures<br />
de Femmes,” containing appreciations of Mmes.<br />
d’Epinay, Necker, Récamier, &c., obtained the<br />
same honour. Despite the exigencies of his<br />
political career, M. Deschanel has found time<br />
since then to sign other valuable social and<br />
political works, including numerous _ historical,<br />
literary, and political articles which have prin-<br />
cipally appeared in the Journal des Deébats<br />
andthe Temps. Only two literary members of<br />
the Academy were absent on the occasion of his<br />
election, viz—M. Anatole France, who sent his<br />
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g<br />
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i<br />
f<br />
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ae<br />
Sa<br />
1f<br />
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ti?<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
excuses, and M. Henri Lavedan, who was elected<br />
a short time ago, but has not yet been officially<br />
received. The latter is reported to be writing a new<br />
play on irreproachably moral lines, as a sort of<br />
amende honorable for that exceedingly un-<br />
academical and successful comedy ‘Le Vieux<br />
Marcheur,” which was M. Lavedan’s first produc-<br />
tion after his accession to the dignity of an<br />
Immortal. Worst of all, the offending play was<br />
advertised on the theatrical posters with his new<br />
title of Academician appended to the author’s<br />
name. Whereupon it was decided in conclave<br />
that though any Immortal who desired was free<br />
to produce plays ad libitum, he was strictly for-<br />
bidden to parade his Olympian connection on the<br />
public hoardings.<br />
<br />
The death of M. Victor Cherbuliez places<br />
another fauteuil at the disposal of the Academy.<br />
The deceased writer was of the same creed as M.<br />
Pierre Loti, being one of the few Protestants who<br />
are members of the above assembly. The titles of<br />
his works are too numerous and well-known to<br />
require recapitulation here; and the numerous<br />
tributes paid to his memory by his most eminent<br />
contemporaries bear evidence of the high esteem<br />
in which he was held and which he so worthily<br />
merited. ‘‘ He was the originator of what is<br />
called the cosmopolitan novel,’ wrote de Meur-<br />
ville on the morrow of his death. ‘He was<br />
also an art critic in his esthetical studies, which<br />
revealed something more than a _ philosophy<br />
—a religion of the Beautiful after Ruskin’s<br />
pattern.” At the funeral ceremony M. Brunetieére<br />
declared that the name of Victor Cherbuliez<br />
would undoubtedly survive, since his place was<br />
already marked in the history of French litera-<br />
ture; while M. Marcel Prévost depicted Cher-<br />
buliez as the representative of the imaginative<br />
novel, and M. Emile Ollivier rendered eloquent<br />
testimony to the merits of the dead man, both in<br />
his private and public capacity.<br />
<br />
But though Cherbuliez was a writer of the first<br />
water, he was entirely lacking in the art of<br />
producing scenic effects. His theatrical début<br />
was most unfortunate, though his collaborator<br />
was no less a personage than the celebrated Henri<br />
Meilhac. His first play—‘ Samuel Brohl” by<br />
name—dramatised from one of his most successful<br />
novels, was unlucky from commencement to finish.<br />
Accepted by the manager of the Odéon towards<br />
the close of the year 1877, it was twice delayed on<br />
account of unpropitious outside events, only to be<br />
produced finally on the historical thirtieth of<br />
January which witnessed the election of M.<br />
Jules Grévy to the Presidency. A worse<br />
moment could scarcely have been chosen. The<br />
public, more interested in actual than fictitious<br />
events, passed the latest evening papers from<br />
<br />
65<br />
<br />
hand to hand, jeering at the tragic and remaining<br />
obstinately mute during the ludicrous incidents in<br />
the performance. Meanwhile the attitude of the<br />
two unhappy collaborators was characteristic.<br />
Henri Meilhac sat in a corner of the managerial<br />
sanctum, fixedly regarding an evening paper<br />
which he held upside down. At the conclusion<br />
of the first act he uttered a hollow moan; at the<br />
conclusion of the second he gave vent to despair-<br />
ing groans and extended himself full length on<br />
the ground, like a patient in an ambulance<br />
waggon; at the conclusion of the third—which<br />
was greeted by the public with the cries of a<br />
menagerie of wild animals—Meilhac was com-<br />
pletely overwhelmed, closed his eyes, clenched his<br />
hands, while drops of agonised perspiration<br />
beaded his brow; and at the conclusion of the<br />
fifth and last act he was picked up—inert, motion-<br />
less—and despatched home in a cab. Cherbuliez,<br />
on the contrary, supported the disaster with<br />
equanimity. Ensconced in a corner box, he had<br />
followed every movement of the recalcitrant<br />
public with a curious, almost an indifferent, eye.<br />
He bravely waited until the stormy finale, utter-<br />
ing no complaint, giving vent to no bitter word ;<br />
only, when the moment of withdrawal arrived,<br />
he politely accosted the disconsolate manager,<br />
requesting a renseignement. ‘“ Faites,” said<br />
Duquesnel, briefly. “ Dites-moi,” responded Cher-<br />
buliez, with imperturbable naiveté ; “est bien<br />
cela qu’on appelle une chute, n’est-ce pas ?”<br />
<br />
The editors of the Revue Blanche have under-<br />
taken a herculean task, being no less a work<br />
than the re-edition—as far as possible literally—<br />
of the world famous ‘“ Arabian Nights’ Tales,”<br />
the French “ Mille et une Nuits.” This publica-<br />
tion will extend over a period of five years,<br />
three volumes per year being given the public.<br />
Seven editions exist at the present time in the<br />
Arabic, of which the best and most correct is<br />
reported to be the Egyptian version of Boulak,<br />
which is the one adopted by Dr. Mardrus, the<br />
translator chosen by the Revue Blanche. The<br />
latter is an intelligent and highly educated young<br />
man, who is now following the profession of a<br />
doctor at Marseilles. His training for the task<br />
he has voluntarily undertaken commenced with<br />
his earliest years. “Iam no Syrian,” he recently<br />
wrote, in rectification of a journalistic error, “I<br />
am a true son of the city of Cairo, where my<br />
father and grandfather were born. And even for<br />
nourrice (beginning of the ‘Arabian Nights’<br />
Tales’ in my childish eye!) I had a pure-blooded<br />
amber-hued Egyptian, whose finger tips were<br />
darkened with henna, and who wore a collar of<br />
turquoises round her neck to avert the evil eye,<br />
and silver bracelets on her ankles to conjure the<br />
witcherafts of the terrible Zar.” This auspicious<br />
66<br />
<br />
commencement of the future translator’s vocation<br />
was augmented by a liberal French education<br />
intermingled with prolonged sojournings in<br />
Arabia, and these two influences combined have<br />
rendered Dr. Mardrus the fittest man in Europe<br />
for satisfactorily concluding the arduous task he<br />
has already commenced. The first volume of the<br />
“ Mille et Une Nuits” has just been issued, and<br />
is (as all the succeeding volumes are intended to<br />
be) complete in itself, containing the narrative of<br />
the first twenty-four nights.<br />
<br />
“ Paris Intime ” (chez Flammarion) is the title<br />
of M. Adolphe Brisson’s new book. It deals<br />
with the ‘“dessous”’ of the political, dramatic,<br />
artistic, and literary life of Paris, and is<br />
written in the easy “causerie” style with<br />
which all who know M. Brisson’s works are<br />
familiar. The headings of the seven parts into<br />
which the book in question is divided give a<br />
fair idea of its contents; they are as follows,<br />
viz.: (1) Vieux Murs, Vielles Maisons; (2)<br />
Plein Air (Le Bois 4 cing heures du matin, Une<br />
Journée aux Courses) ; (3) Quelques Originaux ;<br />
(4) L’Académie et l’Ecole (Les Habits Verts,<br />
Bacheliers d’hier et d’aujourd’ hui, Souvenirs de<br />
Polytechnique) ; (5) Les Bienfaiteurs (Charité<br />
mondaine, Pour les inondés) ; (6) Paris en joie<br />
(Une nuit 4]Opéra, Soupeurs et soupeuses, Les<br />
Confetti) ; (7) L’Art et le Bibelot (Les Mystéres<br />
du Louvre, Les Petits Secrets du Salon, Les<br />
Coulisses de l’Hétel des Ventes). Each of the<br />
seven divisions are subdivided into chapters,<br />
several of whose titles are given in the above<br />
parenthesis. In short, this is a clever, entertain-<br />
ing book, well worthy the perusal of all interested<br />
in the varied phases of Parisian life.<br />
<br />
The Trades and the Muses have evidently<br />
renewed their medieval pact. The legend of<br />
Hans Sachs, the cobbler-bard of Nuremberg, has<br />
found its counterpart in our own days in the<br />
person of Jacques Lorrain, the cobbler-poet of<br />
Paris, who recently bade adieu to his humble<br />
booth in the Rue Du Sommerard to enter the<br />
College of Sainte Barbe as a substitute, in order<br />
to continue his literary studies unimpeded. Nor<br />
is this a solitary instance. Only a week or two<br />
ago the editorial sanctum of M. Brisson was<br />
invaded by a young man of resolute mien<br />
who brusquely announced himself as “ Hugéne<br />
Granger, déménageur.” The editor of the Annales<br />
was about to disavow any intention of changing<br />
his residence, when the young man promptly<br />
<br />
interposed : “I am not only a déménageur,” said.<br />
<br />
he; “I am also a poet,” and drawing a small,<br />
yellow volume from his pocket, he placed it in the<br />
editor’s hands and fled precipitately. The little<br />
volume was entitled “ Les Mis¢éreux,’” and several<br />
of the verses it contained were so rhythmically and<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
magisterially ¢roussés that M. Brisson gave it the<br />
foremost place in his weekly review, even while<br />
expressing his misgivings lest M. Hugene Granger<br />
had deceived him respecting his habitual occupa-<br />
tion. Meanwhile the publication of the “ Jeu de<br />
Massacre ” of M. André Barde, the talented young<br />
poet of the Tréteau de Tabarin, is attracting a<br />
good deal of attention. The critics emphatically<br />
declare him to be a poet with a future. For the<br />
benefit of the uninitiated we may mention that<br />
the Tréteau de Tabarin is scarcely a suitable place<br />
of recreation for a newly-married couple or the<br />
ubiquitous young person; and for the benefit of<br />
the curious we would further state that the young<br />
poet is a tall youth with a finely-cut mouth, pene-<br />
trating eyes, moustache “en pétarade,” beard “ en<br />
broussaille,” and hair in revolt. Serenely con-<br />
scious of his brilliant endowments, M. Barde<br />
disdains the idea of pleasing his readers; on the<br />
contrary, he flatly assures them that his is no<br />
book to flatter the fossil, or “le bourgeois<br />
solennel, le mufle, ou Jlimbécile,’’—which is<br />
certainly rather hard on the majority.<br />
<br />
In addition to the above noteworthy publica-<br />
tions of the month, we have a translation of the<br />
new novel of Mathilde Serao, the George Sand of<br />
Italy, entitled “ Sentinels, prenez garde a vous!”’<br />
(chez Calmann Levy) ; ‘‘ Passage de Bédouins,”’<br />
a stirring romance by Myriam Harry; “ Le<br />
Journal de Marguerite Plantin,”’ by Jean Berthe-<br />
roy (chez Armand Colin et Cie., Bibliothéque des<br />
romans pour les jeunes filles), of which we hope<br />
to say more anon; “La Bombarde,’ by Jean<br />
Richepin (chez Fasquelle, Bibliotheque Charpen-<br />
tier), containing over sixty exquisite tales in<br />
apparently impromptu verse; “Les Fleurs<br />
Amoureuses,” by Armand Silvestre (chez Ollen-<br />
dorf); ‘Notre Masque,’ by Michel Corday,<br />
which novel recently appeared as a serial in the<br />
columns of the Figaro; the seventh volume of<br />
the “Contemporains” series by Jules Lemaitre<br />
(chez Lecéne et Oudin) ‘“ L’Affaire Blaireau,”<br />
by Alphonse Allais; ‘Mensonges,” by Paul<br />
Bourget; ‘Les Sans-Galette,’” by Henry de-<br />
Fleurigny; “George Sand,’ by W. Karénine ;<br />
“ Bétes roses,” by Catulle Mendés; ‘“ La Renais-<br />
sance Catholique en Angleterre,’ by Thureau-<br />
Dangin ; “ Thomas Carlyle,” by E. Barthélemy;<br />
“Paysages et Paysans,” by M. Charlot; and a<br />
score of fictional efforts by minor authors.<br />
<br />
Darracorre Scorv.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
me Re ae.<br />
<br />
sy<br />
ft<br />
&<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
MR. MURRAY AND THE SOCIETY OF<br />
AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
CALLED attention in the last number of<br />
The Author to certain remarks and state-<br />
ments made by Mr. John Murray, Presi-<br />
<br />
dent of the Congress of Publishers.<br />
<br />
It will be remembered that he alleged that the<br />
Society had treated publishers as if they were one<br />
and all dishonest.<br />
<br />
I referred last month to a very simple refuta-<br />
tion of that assertion, viz., that contaimed in one<br />
of the warnings issued month by month for a<br />
long time in this paper. It seems, however,<br />
necessary to return to this unpleasant subject, in<br />
order to show more clearly what has been the<br />
position of the Society from the beginning in this<br />
respect.<br />
<br />
There are, in fact, a great many express and<br />
open denials of this charge to be found in all<br />
the publications of the Society.<br />
<br />
I would refer, first, to my own History of the<br />
Society from 1888-1892. I there say (p. 20) :<br />
<br />
“This being so, we were not at all surprised to<br />
find that frauds were being carried on very<br />
extensively. Not universally. We have always<br />
most carefully made that necessary reservation.<br />
We have been constantly accused—I shall be<br />
accused to-morrow most probably—of charging<br />
all publishers as a body with dishonesty. I say<br />
again, that five or six years ago, when we had<br />
acquired some knowledge of what was going on,<br />
we found—with this reservation carefully insisted<br />
upon —a wide-spread practice of fraudulent<br />
accounts.”<br />
<br />
This is surely clear enough. Can anyone want<br />
amore explicit statement that the Society does<br />
not lump all publishers up together in one<br />
charge of dishonesty ?<br />
<br />
T find, also, on looking back into the pages<br />
of The Author, that over and over again, aad<br />
year after year, either a protest has been recorded<br />
against the charge, or that a simple assertion of<br />
reservation or a separation of the dishonest pub-<br />
lisher from others has been openly and plainly<br />
stated. Most of these protests or disclaimers<br />
were made in reply to such allegations as that of<br />
Mr. Murray — allegations repeated again and<br />
again in the face of these protests.<br />
<br />
Thus in vol. I. I find no fewer than twelve such<br />
passages. In vol. II. thereare seven; in vol. III.,<br />
eight; in yol. IV., two; in vol. V., four; in vol.<br />
VL, three; in vol. VIL, two; and in vol. VIII,<br />
two. Of all these reservations or disclaimers, I<br />
have in my hands a list which can be quoted in<br />
case of necessity, i.e., in case of having to take<br />
action in a court of law. There has not been<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 6<br />
<br />
a single year, therefore, since 1891 inclusive,<br />
when we have not been called upon to protest,<br />
over and over again, against this sweeping<br />
charge.<br />
<br />
What does it mean?<br />
so persistently repeated ?<br />
<br />
It may mean several thinzs: the reckless repe-<br />
tition of a mere rumour: the snatching up of the<br />
first stone to throw at a Society which exposes<br />
the facts of the case: the excuse to cover the fact<br />
that the speaker or writer has not offered the<br />
slightest assistance to the Society in bringing the<br />
truth to light.<br />
<br />
There may be other reasons. I do not ask for<br />
Mr. Murray’s motives. I merely state that he<br />
repeats a charge which has been over and over<br />
again met and denied in the publications of the<br />
Society.<br />
<br />
Now, the three main charges that we have mad<br />
against certain publishers are briefly these :—<br />
<br />
1. The practice of taking secret profits.<br />
<br />
2. The practice of charging advertisements not<br />
paid for.<br />
<br />
3. The absence of any guarantee against dis-<br />
honesty, such as the right of audit.<br />
<br />
These charges are not made against the whole<br />
body of publishers, but always, as stated over and<br />
over again, with reservations of what we called<br />
“ honourable” houses.<br />
<br />
The Publishers’ Association have produced<br />
“model”? agreements, and they have held a<br />
congress with discussions on many points.<br />
<br />
We find in those “ models,’ which have been<br />
dissected by our Secretary, and in the discussions<br />
at their Congress, silence absolute upon these<br />
three points :<br />
<br />
(1) There is no word against secret profits<br />
On the other hand, the publishers claim the right<br />
in their agreements to make profit, in certain<br />
forms of agreement, on every single item. The per-<br />
centage is actually left blank, and not one word<br />
is said against secrecy or to denounce secret<br />
profits.<br />
<br />
(2) Not one word has been said against the<br />
charging of advertisements not paidfor. Yet the<br />
right of doing so simply confers upon the pub-<br />
lishers the power of putting everything in their<br />
own pockets! This cannot be denied. Yet, not<br />
one word !<br />
<br />
(3) Not one word has been said about any<br />
guarantee against dishonesty: such as the right<br />
of audit.<br />
<br />
All these things, therefore, are passed over in<br />
silence by the committee of the Association, whose<br />
President is Mr. John Murray.<br />
<br />
Why is this statement<br />
<br />
reas<br />
68<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Y correspondent ‘“X.,’’ whose letter may<br />
M be read on p. 70, speaks of one thing<br />
while I speak of another. By “ litera-<br />
ture” he means good work, work of literary<br />
worth. Now, in these columns we are not critics :<br />
we take the low line—it may be very low, but it<br />
is useful—of considering literary property alone,<br />
apart from literary worth. Now, literary pro-<br />
perty may exist quite independently of literary<br />
worth. The two things, as I have insisted upon<br />
over and over again, are not commensurable.<br />
You cannot estimate a poem by money: nor can<br />
you estimate the literary worth of a work by its<br />
commercial value. What I say is, that so many<br />
people—so many thousands, if you please—live<br />
by the Pen: and for the most part manage to<br />
live in comfort. My correspondent “ X.” speaks<br />
of “journalistic hack-work’’ with contempt. I<br />
do not despise journalism: no one despises<br />
journalism: I see nothing degrading in a man<br />
writing in newspapers.<br />
<br />
It is, on the other hand, a pride and a privilege<br />
to instruct the world on any subject on which one<br />
is qualified to speak by means of the daily, or<br />
weekly, or monthly Press. This is by no means<br />
always “the multiplying of flimsies ” ; or this and<br />
that in a “rag-bag”’ journal.<br />
<br />
I do not thik that any good is gained by con-<br />
cealing facts: Let the truth be known—al) the<br />
truth—about the Profession of the Pen. Part of<br />
the truth, at least, is the fact that a great many<br />
people do actually live by it. “X.” says that a<br />
great many do not. Well, that is another fact<br />
which must be taken into account. But in<br />
every profession there are a great many who<br />
fail. Great prizes will always attract competi-<br />
tion, and will always make success more difficult.<br />
But there are great prizes in the Profession of<br />
the Pen.<br />
<br />
Those who would live by the Pen must adapt<br />
themselves to circumstances, and take such work<br />
as offers. If they do this, as others do, they will<br />
probably find time enough to bring out the best<br />
that isin them. It may not prove to be popular<br />
work, yet it may be very good indeed. To be<br />
very good and yet not to be popular seems a hard<br />
fate. Perhaps, however, it may be but a passing<br />
phase. How long did George Meredith have to<br />
wait before he was fully recognised? Nay, we<br />
may well ask—how wide—how deep—is the<br />
recognition of this great writer to-day? Again,<br />
Walter Pater produced very fine work indeed,<br />
but he could not live by it. On the other hand<br />
there is the case of Louis Stevenson. It will not<br />
be denied that his work is good—very good. Yet<br />
he did succeed in gaining popularity: he did live<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
by his work: he did achieve the proof of popu-<br />
larity in a large and substantial income.<br />
<br />
<=<br />
<br />
The concluding remarks of “X.” about the<br />
failures of certain publishers do not concern the<br />
question, because if all publishers failed the<br />
great commerce of Literature would go on in<br />
other hands.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
But is Literature a profession? It is always<br />
said that anyone may come in without previous<br />
training or apprenticeship. Every year a new<br />
novelist arises: sometimes he stays: sometimes<br />
he goes up like a rocket, and so down again in<br />
obscurity. But who knows by what preliminary<br />
studies, reading, practice, he has qualified for the<br />
work? Poetry requires an enormous amount<br />
of practice and of study. No man suddenly<br />
becomes a poet, or a dramatist, or an essayist,<br />
or anything that is good. Literature, proper,<br />
is the work of industry and patience working<br />
with natural aptitude. It is true that a new<br />
writer does sometimes appear unexpectedly in<br />
special branches of experience and study. A<br />
man who has travelled widely and observed much:<br />
a man who knows Courts: a man who is a<br />
scholar in out-of-the-way subjects: a man who<br />
explains science in a popular manner, may come<br />
in at any time, and become at one step a literary<br />
man of good standing. But, you see, there has been<br />
preparation with experience. The average man of<br />
the street, with his average knowledge and his<br />
views of the world taken from the morning<br />
leaders, has no more chance of being received<br />
into the ranks of Literature than of being received<br />
into an orchestra at the opera. For which<br />
reasons, and others, [I call Literature a Pro-<br />
fession: I say that the Profession of the Pen<br />
maintains many thousands: that it may be pre-<br />
carious, but is no more precarious than other pro-<br />
fessions, that a young man would be wise not to<br />
try living by his Pen while he is feeling his way<br />
to such perfection as he is capable of attaining:<br />
and that with these broad facts before one it is no<br />
answer to say, “ Literature is precarious, because<br />
—look at mz!” I have had two or three other<br />
letters on the same subject, but none so impor-<br />
tant or so strong as that of “ X.,’”’ with whom I<br />
am most sorry not to be able to agree.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I should like to call attention to a common<br />
practice, becoming daily more common, of<br />
inviting a company of literary men and women<br />
to give their opinion on certain subjects. These<br />
opinions, published all together, are supposed to<br />
carry weight. But they have to be put very<br />
briefly: the reasons and arguments cannot be<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
f<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 69<br />
<br />
marshalled: the opinion of an expert may be<br />
placed between those of two persons who know<br />
nothing about the subject: their opinions follow<br />
each other, sandwich fashion—Aye—no—Aye—<br />
no—the Ayes have it. Last week I received two<br />
such invitations. One was a request that ina<br />
brief paragraph I would give my opinion on the<br />
Christian religion. The second, that I would give<br />
my opinion on the Transvaal question. These<br />
invitations, of course, reduce the method to an<br />
absurdity. Should not men and women of letters<br />
hesitate before they plunge needlessly into any<br />
such controversy ? There are many things that<br />
even a poet may be supposed incapable of con-<br />
sidering—e.g., the Boer Question, on which we<br />
hear so many contradictory statements. Then,<br />
even if he does seem entitled to an opinion, what<br />
is it worth among a dozen others ?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
About once a quarter or so a suggestion is<br />
made by a correspondent that the Society might<br />
help contributors to magazines by publishing a<br />
table of the tariff or prices current paid for<br />
articles by the various magazines. The sugges-<br />
tion is based on the assumption that there is<br />
such a tariff for every magazine. If so, it is<br />
never allowed to appear. And there are the<br />
widest differences in payment for articles. Some<br />
time ago the contributor of a most important<br />
paper to what is supposed to be a leading<br />
monthly received for his paper, which was fifteen<br />
very full pages in length, the magnificent sum of<br />
£7 10s. He asked the Secretary’s advice. ‘“ You<br />
have no contract,” he said. “You might sue<br />
them for such a sum as you consider adequate.<br />
You would at least expose their meanness. But<br />
it would give you a great deal of trouble. Why<br />
not send back the cheque with the intimation<br />
that a mistake has been made?” He did so.<br />
By return of post there arrived a cheque for<br />
double the amount and an apology. I have<br />
known an article in a monthly rewarded with a<br />
single guinea. I have heard of articles in weekly<br />
penny papers paid for by shillings. But I have<br />
never known of any fixed tariff, or rate, or<br />
custom, or practice of a magazine or weekly.<br />
The best way—the only safe way—would be to<br />
state plainly that the MS. is offered for so much<br />
and can be left with the editor so long only, with<br />
stamps for return. Of course, if the editor does<br />
not like this method of transacting business, he<br />
will return the MS. I think that most editors<br />
would prefer conducting business in a practical<br />
and straightforward manner. He can make a<br />
proposal: if that is accepted the author cannot<br />
grumble: he can send back the MS.: the author<br />
cannot complain. Water Besant.<br />
<br />
A FABLE FOR AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
GOOSE owed money to the Fox, and at his<br />
solicitation insured her life in his favour<br />
with the Secretary Bird. Now, it chanced<br />
<br />
that besides doing her duty in the ordinary<br />
way, about once a year the Goose laid a<br />
golden egg. The Fox knew this, and so<br />
agreed that if she would give him the golden<br />
eggs one after another until his debt was<br />
satisfied he would not annoy her in any manner.<br />
All the other eggs the goose laid she ate, for only<br />
by so doing could she lay the precious golden<br />
eges once a year.<br />
<br />
But no sooner was the Fox secure in his assign-<br />
ment of the golden eggs than he laid claim to all<br />
the Goose’s other eggs, and threatened her direly<br />
with ferrets and weasels and vermin if she did<br />
not release them to him. For the Fox said to<br />
himself: ‘It will be a long time before the<br />
golden eggs amount to the sum of my claim, but<br />
whenever the silly goose dies—by starvation or<br />
otherwise—the Secretary Bird must discharge it<br />
in full.” Now, when the Goose saw the design of<br />
the Fox to do her to death, notwithstanding she<br />
was weak and exhausted through trying to lay for<br />
him golden eggs as large and as often as possible,<br />
she said to herself: “Bird, you deserve your<br />
name. Do you not see that you have insured<br />
your creditor so well that your death is more<br />
profitable to him than your life?” And taking<br />
advice of her misfortune, she flew up into the<br />
air and sailed away across the Tropic of Capri-<br />
corn.<br />
<br />
The Secretary Bird watched her flight, and,<br />
when she had disappeared, informed the Fox,<br />
saying, “My agreement with you is void, for<br />
behold your Goose has gone to parts unknown<br />
beyond the equator. I can take no more risks on<br />
her life.”<br />
<br />
“Oh, well,” said the Fox with a wry face,<br />
“if you won’t, you won’t. But no doubt I shall<br />
come out about even, after all, for the Goose<br />
comes of a long-lived breed, and is just such<br />
a poor, simple, honest creature that she will<br />
continue to lay me golden eggs, even in the sweet<br />
Hesperides.”<br />
<br />
But time passed, and one day the Fox confessed<br />
in vexation to the Secretary Bird: “I am indeed<br />
a victim of my own folly. Had I not been so<br />
pressing, the silly Goose would have striven to<br />
pay me, and, likely, died of the effort. Then you<br />
would have discharged my debt in full. But<br />
now, I have nothing, and cannot even sue my<br />
Goose.”<br />
<br />
And the Secretary Bird nodded.<br />
<br />
ALBION WineGAR TOURGEE.<br />
THE<br />
<br />
MR. BRYCE ON AUTHORSHIP.<br />
<br />
N | R. BRYCE, M.P., was the principal guest<br />
at a dinner given on July ro at the<br />
Authors’ Club.<br />
<br />
Lord Monkswell presided, and in proposing his<br />
health, said that of all men Mr. Bryce would be<br />
one of the best to send to South Africa at the<br />
present moment, on account of his well-known<br />
calmness. As an historian, Mr. Bryce’s peculiar<br />
excellence lay in his thoroughness and impar-<br />
tiality.<br />
<br />
Mr. Bryce, in reply, said he considered that<br />
literature was divided into three branches—<br />
journalism, poetry, and fiction. He could not<br />
claim to be a journalist, although he was once<br />
offered the editorship of a morning paper, and<br />
in the same way he could not pose as a poet,<br />
though he had a connection with it. No doubt<br />
the best thing was to write really good poetry,<br />
but the next best thing was not to publish it—<br />
(laughter)—and that distinction he was able to<br />
claim. As regarded fiction, he would own to<br />
having begun to write a novel, but he was waiting<br />
until the particular phase of public taste suited<br />
his particular novel, and then he would publish it<br />
—anonymously. No doubt he was expected to<br />
say something on the preseut state of English<br />
literature, but he thought that question was not<br />
worth discussing, because if people considered<br />
their own literature was in a bad way they<br />
certainly ought not to say so. At the present<br />
moment there was an immense demand for good<br />
and brilliant literature, but this did not have the<br />
slightest effect on the supply. He considered<br />
that it would be far better for publishers to issue<br />
cheaper books. Critics had completely changed.<br />
They were all authors themselves, and nearly all<br />
authors were critics, and their morality had risen<br />
considerably, for there was probably nut one who<br />
did not cut the leaves of a book before reviewing<br />
it. If there was a real danger in the future it<br />
was from the publishers and the public, and that<br />
was owing to the enormous public to be addressed.<br />
It was quite conceivable that the time would<br />
come when the public would be so impatient to<br />
have new works from an author who was appre-<br />
ciated that it would encourage him to produce<br />
hasty work and so lose his reputation. It would<br />
be a great pity if the blandishments of publishers<br />
should draw authors to come down from the high<br />
standard they had set themselves. Those who<br />
used the English tongue addressed a public twice<br />
or three times as large as those who wrote in any<br />
other language, and that public was always grow-<br />
ing.— Daily Chronicle.<br />
<br />
7O<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
pecs<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
LITERATURE AS A PROFESSION.<br />
<br />
YIR WALTER BESANT may be certain that<br />
no man of letters will ever attack him, least<br />
of all myself, and what I said about his<br />
<br />
optimism leading amateur authors astray as to the<br />
golden sands of the literary Pactolus had no tinge<br />
of bitterness in it. But I cannot help thinking he<br />
is wrong-in many points. And, first of all, Litera-<br />
ture (with a big L) ¢s a beggarly profession. Who<br />
with any tinge of the real stuff in him can make<br />
a living out of writing which is literature? It is<br />
idle to give as examples such an one as Tennyson,<br />
the bourgeois Chrysostom, who succeeded in<br />
touching the public by spoiling Sir Thomas<br />
Malory and not by his best work. What of our<br />
greatest, indeed our only real literary, novelist F<br />
Did he not have to eke out a living by reading<br />
for a publisher? No, very few can make a living<br />
out of good work. Even according to Sir Walter<br />
Besant, the best must scrape odd guineas by<br />
journalistic hack-work. The few who make four<br />
figures (mostly out of inferior novels) only<br />
accent the poverty of the rest. There is no pro-<br />
fession of literature. It is an abuse of the term<br />
to call it a profession. Hvery waiting barrister,<br />
every idle doctor, every half-pay captain, can<br />
come in and make a little out of writing. It<br />
would be rather rough on the barrister if every<br />
outsider with a tongue could cut into his work.<br />
Even if fifty writers make over a thousand a<br />
year, how mapy are writing for a living? I<br />
should like an estimate. The Royal Literary<br />
Fund may not have assisted many this year or<br />
last, but that is no gauge of the number who<br />
needed help. I remember a man whose name<br />
is known very well indeed having a column to<br />
himself in the Times the very morning he bought<br />
a red herring and cooked it over a scanty fire in<br />
his bedroom. One of our best writers half-<br />
starved himself for twelve years. I know this,<br />
as I was a great friend of his. Even now his<br />
income is a very precarious four hundred a year.<br />
All that Sir Walter Besant says about the<br />
number who live by the pen is beside the point.<br />
No one denies that many live by it. So do many<br />
live by the pick and shovel, and by the jemmy,<br />
for that matter. But is the writing of para-<br />
graphs, the multiplying of flimsies, the odd job<br />
in reviewing, the turnover in a weekly, the loathly<br />
interview in a rag-bag journal, Literature ?<br />
Why, then, Mr. Harmsworth is a Jupiter of<br />
Literature, and round the Sunday Sun are many<br />
awful planets. Publishers enter the trade, even<br />
more of them! That is not a proof that litera-<br />
ture is a paying profession surely. It proves<br />
nothing more than that out of the struggles<br />
of innumerable writers a living can be obtained by —<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
fag<br />
<br />
esl<br />
<br />
y q<br />
| Ot<br />
rit<br />
<br />
aw<br />
<br />
a8<br />
OF<br />
3<br />
‘ihe<br />
CHE<br />
<br />
ie<br />
<br />
ag<br />
1<br />
<br />
ot<br />
<br />
oh<br />
9a<br />
rise<br />
| OE<br />
i: 48<br />
i Ga<br />
Soe<br />
a Of<br />
age<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
= good writer can make a fairly good income.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
yet another publisher. It suggests that other<br />
publishers once did very well. But we know that<br />
the new publishers have cut terribly into the<br />
profits of the older firms. And if few go bank-<br />
rupt many get absorbed. How many publishing<br />
firms have disappeared lately? How many are<br />
known to be making nothing ?<br />
<br />
But all this is beside the point. In every club,<br />
says Sir Walter Besant, there are more yearly<br />
who attempt the-profession. Exactly so, and they<br />
attempt it mostly on the basis of an income of<br />
their own. Again, the gentleman with a little<br />
money, the captain on half pay, the out-o’-work<br />
barrister cut in to make their tailor’s bill. They<br />
do it, perhaps, but the professional writer suffers.<br />
In saying all this I do not mean to infer that<br />
these men should not write. But their doing so<br />
does not make writing a better business, but a<br />
worse one, for those who rely on it; and any-<br />
thing that encourages men and women to go into<br />
the literary ‘‘ scrimmage ” (for it is nothing but a<br />
fight) is harmful to them and us. It is idle for<br />
Sir Walter Besant to say he does not encourage<br />
the outsider. This paper of his in the June<br />
number of The Author is nothing but an<br />
encouragement through and through to any poor<br />
fool who fancies he has the gift of the pen.<br />
Certainly, as Sir Walter says, nothing has been<br />
said in The Author about any one person’s<br />
income, but that is nothing when the whole argu-<br />
ment has been again and again that any fairly<br />
For<br />
that is not true, and never has been true, and it<br />
looks as if it never would be true. In saying this<br />
I by no means rely only on my own experience.<br />
We all probably think we are better writers than<br />
we are, but even if I were the feeblest failure in<br />
English letters, I know where to put my hand on<br />
men of real literary eminence, some of whom do<br />
very little better and some very much worse. I<br />
did not say, nor did I mean, that Sir Walter<br />
Besant helped to draw those who had no literary<br />
aptitude into the “ Profession.” What I ventured<br />
to criticise him for was his encouragement to that<br />
really large body of clever people who can learn<br />
to write well, and after learning must only sap dis-<br />
appointment in a literary workhouse.<br />
<br />
ec<br />
<br />
AGE-END IDEAS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
N misfortune Man is his own providence.<br />
Misfortune is the unlovely daughter of mis-<br />
understanding.<br />
<br />
: The highest fortune is founded on the deepest<br />
<br />
and widest understanding.<br />
<br />
) One great enemy of understanding lies in vanity.<br />
<br />
72<br />
<br />
Vanity dies in shame of its own self-under<br />
standing.<br />
<br />
The very vainest fancy they have no vanity.<br />
<br />
Genius, love, or religion never made men mad ;<br />
but shams sometimes will.<br />
<br />
Genius is the saner element in any mind: love,<br />
the sanest essence of every soul.<br />
<br />
Religion and science may be reconciled by poetry.<br />
<br />
Sentiment without science has no body.<br />
<br />
Science without sentiment lias no soul.<br />
<br />
To satisfy most people is less a personal duty<br />
than a social expediency.<br />
<br />
The ideal sect consists of only one member—<br />
oneself.<br />
<br />
None ever reached the haven of Truth by making<br />
a head-pilot of Wish.<br />
<br />
Divine justice can have no victims, but human<br />
law must have many.<br />
<br />
Some Untruth may be of temporary use to dilute<br />
the oxygen of Truth.<br />
<br />
To The Perfect Being, Untruth and Wrong do<br />
not exist.<br />
<br />
Inner Nature may echo God: outer Nature must<br />
mirror Man.<br />
<br />
Man may favour uniformity: Nature must foster<br />
variety.<br />
<br />
Without variety, no vitality: without vitality, no<br />
Universe.<br />
<br />
There need be no more mystery in sex than in<br />
variety.<br />
<br />
The full interests of both sexes are indissolvably<br />
wedded.<br />
<br />
All human interests<br />
question.<br />
<br />
Lawyers cannot justify, nor priests sanctify, what<br />
Love has not made divine.<br />
<br />
here is no sex in slavery or in tyranny.<br />
<br />
The slave is the passive tyrant: the tyrant, the<br />
active slave.<br />
<br />
Whoso loves best ministers most.<br />
<br />
There is no inferior sex, and there are no equal<br />
souls.<br />
<br />
Marriage is the focus of all social reform—for<br />
good or for ill.<br />
<br />
Anarchism generally wants too<br />
Socialism usually wishes too much.<br />
<br />
Art helps mankind to feel, Science to think,<br />
Religion to will—wisely.<br />
<br />
The coming science is the Science of the Soul.<br />
<br />
Blessed are the practical, for they may regenerate<br />
the Earth.<br />
<br />
Thrice blessed are the poetical, for they must<br />
recreate the Universe.<br />
<br />
centre in the marriage<br />
<br />
little law:<br />
<br />
Finuay GLENELG.<br />
<br />
<br />
72 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I.—A Recanrarion.<br />
<br />
N “Be One and Nothing Else” I advised a<br />
I young author to stick to literature in spite<br />
of failure if he felt inspired thereto, and I<br />
added, of course in a vein of boastful anticipation,<br />
“it remains to be seen whether I shall turn the<br />
corner this time myself.” Well, see how the<br />
circumstance alters the case! I have very<br />
decidedly not turned the corner ; in fact, I have<br />
received stronger evidence than ever before that<br />
I am no author in the publisher’s estimation ; and<br />
now the whole duty of the man who failed<br />
appears in my disillusioned eyes to be, earnestly<br />
to warn young authors not to stick to literature,<br />
but, after a few failures, to jump out of its decep-<br />
tive quagmire as quickly as possible and turn<br />
their hand to something more lucrative, such as<br />
bricklaying. I, for instance, have hugged myself<br />
in my blind hopes once more up to the brink of<br />
ruin, and am now working eleven hours a day<br />
carrying planks in a sawmill for £3 10s. a month<br />
and feeling myself, with my hands cut to pieces<br />
and my limbs as stiff as wood, to be for the first<br />
time in many years almost a man. It appears to<br />
me that a highly educated man who has spent<br />
his youth in vain dreams of literary fame is men-<br />
tally competent for nothing but the lowest<br />
form of manual labour, for which also he is<br />
manually least competent. It is therefore a<br />
dangerous flame to play with, this authorship ;<br />
nevertheless, by all means give it three years<br />
<br />
during the twenties, if unmarried.<br />
<br />
JULIAN CROSKEY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ii.—Tue PusiisHers’ CONFERENCE.<br />
<br />
[ The third International Congress of Publishers<br />
was held at Stationers’ Hall on June 7, 8,<br />
and 9.|<br />
It has been amusing to hear these gentlemen<br />
<br />
talk! How one would delight to hear what they<br />
think. And if one could get the corporate con-<br />
science of some old firm to speak out, what rules<br />
of conduct should we hear! Iam reminded (by<br />
the fine upstanding virtue and nobility of some of<br />
these*publishers) that I had dealings with one of<br />
the best of them years ago, and I have some<br />
bitterness in me yet at the firm’s methods. Was<br />
it his method, or his firm’s corporate conscience-<br />
less method? You shall judge, you who sit in<br />
the judgment seat!<br />
<br />
But first, who that knows business does not<br />
know how the man and his body of servants may<br />
differ? Tradition rules the office; the careful<br />
manager and the cashier combine ; they are faith-<br />
ful to the name outside, and to the little god<br />
<br />
above, or in the big room at the back. They<br />
know (as many suspect) that most businesses —<br />
<br />
succeed in paying by the little bit they cheat or ..<br />
This means<br />
money in the aggregate; it means a fine success. _<br />
<br />
overreach in every little transaction.<br />
<br />
ful business, and perhaps a yearly increment in<br />
salaries, a better holiday, an easier master. And —<br />
so to an example.<br />
the way the financial trading corporate conscience<br />
blows.<br />
, belonging to this firm, for so much copy at<br />
so mucha page. The copy was satisfactory, and<br />
was printed, and each month I got a cheque less<br />
by a guinea, or half a guinea, or ten shillings, —<br />
than my agreement called for. Had this<br />
happened once or twice only I might have<br />
thought it an error. But it happened over a<br />
series of eight articles, and I perceived a method<br />
init. “ Give him just a little less than his due<br />
and the poor devil won’t dare grumble, and on<br />
eight transactions we (our firm with its noble<br />
traditions) shall make about five pounds. And<br />
just imagine, brother, that we have five hundred<br />
other lots of cheques to draw out and pass and<br />
get signed! We (our noble firm of impeccable,<br />
unimpeachable honesty) shall net about £2500in<br />
the year. We have, indeed, done well, and are<br />
faithful servants.”<br />
<br />
Noble Publisher de te Fabula! But this is no<br />
mere fable.% x<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TII.—Contremporary HstTIMarEs.<br />
<br />
The last edition of “ Who’s Who” contains<br />
an enormous mass of information in a handy<br />
form, and at a most moderate price; but it may<br />
be questioned whether the selection of subjects<br />
has been altogether well inspired. The inclusion<br />
of the most obscure peers and baronets occupies<br />
valuable space and to no useful purpose. Some<br />
of these gentlemen are, of course, distinguished<br />
on other grounds than those of inherited title;<br />
but the great majority have no special claim to<br />
mention, and all that needs to be known of them<br />
can be found in easily accessible books of refer-<br />
ence—Whitaker’s “ Titled Persons” or Walford’s<br />
“Shilling Peerage.” But not only is this the<br />
case; the remaining space is most capriciously<br />
filled, writers of real importance and distinction<br />
being omitted, while Grub-street swarms as in &<br />
modern “ Dunciad.’”’ Some, at least, of our modern<br />
Concanens and Oldmixons have contributed their<br />
own records. K. H.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IV.—“ Tue Exrravacant Dinner.”<br />
<br />
I quite agree with your other correspondents<br />
that the charge for a ticket at the Society’s dinner<br />
is far too high; at least, it effectually keeps away<br />
young writers who, like myself, are anxious to see<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
It is nothing, only it shows a ie<br />
<br />
I made an agreement with the editor of<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 73<br />
<br />
. «heir fellow members in the flesh, and to feel<br />
_»s:aemselves distantly akin to them in craft. Why<br />
«i a guinea charged? Is it that the Society<br />
~sjaakes a profit on the dinner? Or is it to suit<br />
_ ol ae lordly tastes of the few “big men” who can<br />
f= fford the sum? The cost per head could not<br />
| vlourely be more than 3s. 6d. or 5s., if the dinner<br />
vere given at cost price. H. A. S.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.—Tue CasuaL ConrRIBUTOR.<br />
<br />
-. | I am glad that my letter has been noticed, as<br />
+ he matter may, after all, be taken up seriously.<br />
-..9 For the information of those readers who do<br />
“= jot remember my words, I will explain that the<br />
<br />
» »art of my letter not quoted contained the gist of<br />
“. iy suggestion, ¢e., that an isolated unknown<br />
4-,ontributor using business-like terms when ad-<br />
“ecressing an editor might give offence. By<br />
“seusiness-like terms I, of course, meant plain<br />
1s peaking concerning pounds, shillings, and pence.<br />
»bul Judging from the courteous letters I receive<br />
6 sorom editors, they possess a good deal of deli-<br />
~/s'atesse, and I repeat that printed forms would<br />
Jnake things more satisfactory all round. Editors<br />
fould not object to anything so general, and<br />
‘a¢ontributors would avoid the risk of future<br />
+“ mpleasantness. Jack IN-THE-Box.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
po<br />
BOOK TALK.<br />
Ly R. J. M. BARRIE has finished his new<br />
( story, which is a sequel to “Sentimental<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
x Tommy.” It will be called “ Tommy<br />
<br />
) Ond Grizel.”<br />
<br />
if Mr. George Macaulay Trevelyan and Mr.<br />
. "glidgar Powell have almost completed a history<br />
ourolume, which will form an appendix to the<br />
_emryormer’s recent work entitled ‘England in the<br />
to Sige of Wycliffe.” This will consist of a collec-<br />
‘© sion of unpublished documents, and will be called<br />
<br />
“1 The Peasants’ Rising and the Lollards.”<br />
te lessrs. Longmans, who will publish the work in<br />
elo} detober, have also in preparation “The History<br />
‘J £ Lord Lytton’s Indian Administration, 1876-<br />
"28 880,” compiled by Lady Betty Balfour from<br />
' @@yetters and official papers.<br />
» A development in providing cheap novels is<br />
| beaade by Mr. Grant Richards. This publisher is<br />
e-issuing at reduced prices a number of the<br />
0oks published by him during the last two<br />
ears. Among these are “True Heart.” by Mr.<br />
‘rederic Breton; “ The Cattleman,” by Mr. G. B.<br />
Surgin ; “The Actor-Manager,” by Mr. Leonard<br />
lerrick; “Wives in Exile,’ by Mr. William<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Sharp; and “An African Millionaire,” by Mr.<br />
Grant Allen.<br />
<br />
Mr. H. Rider Haggard’s commonplace book for<br />
1898, entitled “The Farmer's Year,” will be pub-<br />
lished in October by Messrs. Longmans.<br />
<br />
Mr. Egerton Castle’s Temple Bar serial,<br />
“Young April,” will be published in October by<br />
Messrs. Macmillan.<br />
<br />
Mr. Guy Boothby’s new novel, “ Love Made<br />
Manifest,” will be published immediately by<br />
Messrs. Ward, Lock and Co. This firm also<br />
will publish in the autumn a volume of short<br />
stories by Mrs. Clement Shorter.<br />
<br />
Mr. Edward A. FitzGerald has finished the<br />
record of his climbing and exploring expedition<br />
to South America, and the book will be published<br />
next month by Messrs. Methuen under the title<br />
“The Highest Andes.”<br />
<br />
Sir Edward Russell’s volume of Reminiscences<br />
will be published in the autumn by Mr. T. Fisher<br />
Unwin entitled “That Reminds Me.” Sir Edward<br />
Russell’s literary career began about 1860, and he<br />
has been the editor of the Liverpool Daily Post<br />
since 1869.<br />
<br />
Mr. Bolton King has completed the political<br />
history of Modern Italy which has been his<br />
principal occupation for ten years. In his pre-<br />
face he remarks that the eagerness of the Italians<br />
to publish everything, however trivial, that bears<br />
on the Revolution, reaches almost to a literary<br />
mania, but that Italian historians have not been<br />
successful in weaving the material into any very<br />
well-proportioned or readable whole. One of Mr.<br />
King’s aims is to make the re-birth of a noble<br />
and friendly nation better understood to English-<br />
men. His work, in two volumes, called “ A<br />
History of Italian Unity, 1814-1871,” will be<br />
published in September by Messrs. James Nisbet<br />
and Co.<br />
<br />
“The Tragedy of Parnell” is the title of Mr.<br />
T. P. O’Gonnor’s forthcoming volume which<br />
Messrs. Pearson will publish. It will be remem-<br />
bered that Mr. O’Connor strongly dissented from<br />
certain statements about himself which appeared<br />
in Mr. Barry O’Brien’s biography of the late Trish<br />
leader.<br />
<br />
A series of letters written from Spain by<br />
Lowell, while he was Minister there, to friends in<br />
America, has been edited by Mr. Joseph B.<br />
Gilder for publication shortly by Messrs. Putnam<br />
in a volume called “ Impressions of Spain.”<br />
<br />
A volume of letters to the Right Hon. John<br />
Hookham Frere, translator of Aristophanes, and<br />
one of the best known society men in London in<br />
the early years of the century, will be published<br />
<br />
<br />
"4 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
by Messrs. Nisbet. Canning, Pitt, Nelson, Cole-<br />
ridge, Southey, and Rossetti are some of the<br />
writers or subjects. Most of the letters were<br />
found in an old chest in a library. They are now<br />
edited by G. Festing.<br />
<br />
Mr. Henry James has been making a long stay<br />
in Italy this spring, but he will, according to<br />
present arrangements, leave Rome early this<br />
month for his house at Rye, from which the<br />
traces of the fire are being obliterated in his<br />
absence.<br />
<br />
Mr. Stephen Crane has just finished the novel<br />
on which he has been engaged since his return<br />
from Cuba. The book will probably not appear<br />
until next year, as the novel isto be published<br />
serially in the first instance.<br />
<br />
Messrs. George Bell and Sons are offering a<br />
set of fifty or of 100 volumes from Bohn’s<br />
Library at a reduced price, with a copy of<br />
““Webster’s Dictionary ” to the bargain. Pur-<br />
chasers are allowed to make their own selection<br />
from among 800 volumes, and the books are<br />
delivered as soon as the first instalment of the<br />
price is paid.<br />
<br />
Mr. James Bowden is about to dispose of his<br />
publishing business, having aecepted the post of<br />
general manager of the Religious Tract Society.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Gertrude Atherton’s book of adventure<br />
for boys entitled ‘‘ The Valiant Runaways,” will<br />
be published in the autumn by Messrs. James<br />
Nisbet and Co., who also will publish Mrs.<br />
Meade’s new novel, ‘‘ All Sorts.”<br />
<br />
Mr. A. L. Baldry has written a book called<br />
“Sir John Everett Millais: His Art and Influ-<br />
ence,” in which he aims at supplying an account<br />
of the artist’s varied life as it may be read from<br />
his pictures. Some of these will be reproduced<br />
for the first time in the volume, which is to be in<br />
a style uniform with Mr. Malcolm Bell’s “ Sir HE.<br />
Burne-Jones.”<br />
<br />
Messrs. Greening and Co. will shortly publish<br />
a volume of humorous verse called ‘“ Bachelor<br />
Ballads,” by Harry A. Spurr, the author of “A<br />
Cockney in Arcadia.” Mr. Hassall, whose draw-<br />
ings were such a feature of the latter book, will<br />
supply fifty illustrations to the new one.<br />
<br />
Mr. H. G. Wells’s new book ‘ When the<br />
Sleeper Wakes,’ has three of the remarkable<br />
illustrations which accompanied its production in<br />
the Graphic. These are by M. Lanos, for whose<br />
benefit the work was translated into French.<br />
<br />
We are glad to hear that the first edition of Mr.<br />
W. B. Yeats’ new book, “The Wind in the<br />
Reeds,” is nearly exhausted, and a second edition<br />
is in active preparation.<br />
<br />
. only a few months ago retired from the positio<br />
<br />
OBITUARY.<br />
<br />
IR WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER, K.C.<br />
the Director of the Natural History Depart.<br />
ment of the British Museum, died<br />
<br />
London on July 1, aged sixty-seven years. Aft<br />
serving as assistant-surgeon to the 63rd<br />
ment in the Crimean War, he was appoin’<br />
Demonstrator of Anatomy to Middlesex Hospit<br />
and in 1861 accepted the post of Curator of #<br />
Hunterian Museum of the Royal College<br />
Surgeons. In 1869 he became Hunterian Pi<br />
fessor of Comparative Anatomy, and in 1884<br />
was appointed to the position he held at dea<br />
An authority on the horse, upon which<br />
wrote a book, he wrote several articles for ¢<br />
“Encyclopedia Britannica,’ and among oth<br />
literary labours were his notable introductions<br />
“The Osteology of Mammalia” and ‘“ The St<br />
of Mammals, Living and Extinct.’ For twen<br />
years he was president of the Zoological Sociei<br />
and he presided at the 1889 meeting of the Briti<br />
Association.<br />
<br />
Dr. Richard Congreve, the well-known Pos<br />
vist, died at Hampstead, on July 5, at the age<br />
80. Educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold, a<br />
at Wadham College, Oxford, he afterwa<br />
embraced the tenets of Comte, and founded t<br />
first “Church of Humanity” in England.<br />
edited, in 1866, the work called ‘“ Internatio:<br />
Policy: Essays on the Foreign Relations<br />
England,” by himself, Messrs. Beesly, Bridg<br />
Harrison, and others; and in 1874 published<br />
volume of ‘Essays: Political, Social, and<br />
gious.” His literary works also included<br />
edition of “ Aristotle’s Politics,” ‘“‘ Human Ca’<br />
licism,” and “The Worship of Humanity.”<br />
<br />
The deaths have also to be recorded of I<br />
Arthur Tennyson (born in 1814), a youn<br />
brother of the late Poet Laureate; Mr.<br />
Thackray Bunce, who edited the Birmingh<br />
Daily Post for over thirty-five years, and h<br />
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the Bishop of Limerick (Dr. Charles Graves)<br />
well-known writer on antiquarian subjects; La<br />
Shelley ; Sir Alexander Armstrong, the explo<br />
Director-General of the Medical Department<br />
the Navy from 1869 to 1880, author of °<br />
Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the Nor<br />
West Passage” and “ Observations on Na<br />
Hygiene”; and Professor Banister Fletch<br />
author of several works on architecture, ¢<br />
struction, and sanitation.<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
BOOKS AND REVIEWS.<br />
<br />
.\: In these columns notes on books are given from reviews<br />
sich carry weight, and are not, so far as can be learned,<br />
s\irollers.)<br />
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« 4) «He History or YippIsH LITERATURE IN THE NINE-<br />
- santo CunturRY, by Leo Wiener (Nimmo, gs. net), is ‘a<br />
sfs/aplete account of the whole curious literary movement<br />
“) cong the Russian Jews during the present century”<br />
fm teterature), with “a sufficient number of examples to<br />
sy ac? = ble the reader to judge the character and merits of this<br />
= [esnarkable phenomenon.” “Probably a majority of Mr.<br />
_ »seener’s readers,” says the Daily Chronicle, “ will find in<br />
» loo book an unexpected gratification, such as in these days<br />
te-seslose-gleaning literary industry one has little reason to<br />
Jeqiicipate from any author —nothing less than a new litera-<br />
) ‘s) 9, full of life and beauty, and glowing with the fire of<br />
‘latenistakable genius.”<br />
@.1FE AND LETTERS OF SIR JosEPH PRESTWICH, written<br />
| Gatibl edited by his wife (Blackwood, 21s.), is a work that will,<br />
Lod} s the Literary World, “at once command and long<br />
‘a(sq@ Sain public attention and interest.” The chapters deal-<br />
o> dif with the antiquity of man, especially the visits to<br />
lie beville, and the famous ‘human jaw’ of the p'ace, the<br />
‘ley .0t value of which as evidence has never been deter-<br />
usr Saed, will be read with keen interest by all who are<br />
efe-dents of science.” “This volume,’ says Literature,<br />
‘efjontains an immense amount of matter interesting to<br />
sreologists, and is amiong the best biographies of a scientific<br />
® 9yn we have seen for some time.”<br />
191, JLIVER CROMWELL, by Samuel Rawson Gardiner (Goupil,<br />
> ot :.), from an artistic point of view “leaves nothing to<br />
' soils desired,” says Literature. It makes accessible to the<br />
4 lic a number of most interesting portraits, the majority<br />
®* deinwhich are rarely seen. ‘“ From a literary point of view,<br />
“ibvet). Gardiner has never done anything so good,’ and “it<br />
id sthe highest merit of his enthusiastic eulogy that it has<br />
‘2 Belvbled us to realise more clearly than ever” that Cromwell<br />
ov) 8 great in spite of his inconsistency. ‘‘ Except that it<br />
¥6)"7 ora no index and no analysis of the ckapters, this book,”<br />
i (l sdi+a the Daily Chronicle, “is a model of what sucha man’s<br />
. ({deography ought to be.”<br />
\J074 SKETCHES AND Srupius in SourH Arrica, by W. J.<br />
= 111 sox Little (Isbister, 10s. 6d.) is “a bright and picturesque<br />
“i qiseription of a brief tour,” says the Guardian, adding<br />
ai os” vt “so far as Canon Knox Little describes his own experi-<br />
+ 948 se and impressions he is pleasant, useful, and readable.”<br />
«#9 Times describes the author’s view as being “ that all<br />
si od in South Africa flows from Mr. Rhodes and all evil<br />
“| em President Kruger.”<br />
00% eas Encuish Soutn Arrican’s Vinw oF THE SITUA-<br />
" . won, by Olive Schreiner (Hodder, 1s.), is described by the<br />
-2 mes as containing the view “that Kruger and all things<br />
Seeanating from Kruger are good, and that Rhodes and all<br />
‘") Sengs emanating from Rhodes are bad.’ Considering the<br />
ook as an appeal for peace between Great Britain and the<br />
f8veansvaal, the Daily Chronicle says: “never has a writer<br />
euime genius spoken a more timely word, or with a better<br />
©? @ase to serve.”<br />
“MGREMINISCENCES OF THE Kina or Rovmanta, edited<br />
_ 288 Sidney Whitman (Harpers, tos. 6d.), “apart from the<br />
a & that it puts before us an authentic account of a<br />
e rae, furesque and noble personality, with which we, in Eng-<br />
t +d at any rate, are all too unfamiliar,” forms, says the<br />
i itly Telegraph, ‘“‘ a most instructive record of the fortunes<br />
96 the Balkan States in general, and of Roumania in parti-<br />
‘iar, during a very critical period of their history.”<br />
‘esterature describes the work as “excellently rendered<br />
1) om the original German,” and adds that it ‘will prove a<br />
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AUTHOR.<br />
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13<br />
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valuable contribution to the literature of European politics<br />
during the past generation.”<br />
<br />
Tur Heart or Astra, by F. H. Skrine and E. D. Ross,<br />
(Methuen, ros. 6d.) “ may be strongly recommended,” says<br />
the Daily News, “ to every student of Central Asian history<br />
and politics.” Beginning with a rapid sketch of the Greek<br />
period, it carries the reader through the successive eras of<br />
Abbasides, Samanides, Ghaznavides, Seljuks, Mongols, and<br />
the rest, to Russia’s first invasion, and her steady expansion<br />
to the year 1895.<br />
<br />
INDUSTRIAL CUBA, by Robert P. Porter (Putnam, 15s.),<br />
Mr. Porter was sent as Special Commissioner of the<br />
United States to report upon the commercial and indus-<br />
trial conditions of Cuba, and his book, says the Daily News,<br />
‘“‘ will be a most valuable book of reference to all who study<br />
the Cuban question.” ‘‘ Mr. Porter takes a hopeful view of<br />
the prospects of the island,’ says the Spectator, and the<br />
volume is “ full of interesting descriptions and narratives.”<br />
<br />
JAPAN IN TRANSITION, by J. Stafford Ransome (Harpers,<br />
16s.) summarises the impressions received by the author<br />
during his residence in Japan, and is, says the Daily News,<br />
“a readable, instructive, and thoroughly impartial study of<br />
the policy and progress of the Japanese since the war.” The<br />
Spectator commends the book for the many useful hints it<br />
gives to the traveller in Japan.<br />
<br />
THE Quest oF FaitH, by Thomas Bailey Saunders<br />
(Black, 7s. 6d.) consists of essays dealing in the main with<br />
the question of religious belief—with such aspects of it as<br />
have lately attracted notice. While they bring us to no<br />
positive result, says the Guardian, all the essays are<br />
vigorous and lucid, and “ they clear the ground and leave<br />
us in a better position for a healthy, unprejudiced study of<br />
the Christian religion.” ‘It is full of thought on every<br />
page,” says the Daily Telegraph, ‘and ought to be of the<br />
greatest service to those who wish to make a fresh start<br />
for themselves from the points of view reached by some of<br />
the latest workers in the fields of speculative thought.”<br />
<br />
Tae MeEssaAGE AND PosITION OF THE CHURCH OF ENG-<br />
LAND, by Arthur Galton (Paul, 3s. 6d.) “argues the case of<br />
the Anglican Church against Rome and Puritanism with<br />
considerable force,’ says the Spectator, and the author’s<br />
“ indictment of Roman practice is formidably vigorous.”<br />
<br />
WoRDSWORTH AND THE COLERIDGES, by Ellis Yarnall<br />
(Macmillan, 10s.) consists of the author’s reminiscences—<br />
covering seventy years—of Wordsworth, Macaulay, Charles<br />
Kingsley, Matthew Arnold, John Stuart Mill, and others,<br />
and is cordially recommended by Literature “to every<br />
reader who is interested in what alone is worthy to interest<br />
him in famous men of the past.”<br />
<br />
Napo.ron’s INVASION oF Russta, by Hereford B.<br />
George (Unwin, 12s. 6d.), is ‘a very clear and interesting<br />
narrative of the great campaign of 1812,” which, says<br />
Literature, “should be useful to all students of history,<br />
and not merely to the military specialist.’ ‘‘ With the<br />
minutest possible detail gathered laboriously from all<br />
possible sources at home, in France, in Russia, and in<br />
Germany,” says the Daily Telegraph, Mr. George “follows<br />
every movement of the army to Moscow.” The Daily<br />
Chronicle describes Mr. George as a writer “with a true<br />
historical method and a sense of proportion, as well as a<br />
knack of interesting the reader, and a style sufficiently<br />
picturesque.” ‘ He blows to atoms the last shred of the<br />
absurdity Napoleon so assiduously propagated, that the<br />
failure of the Russian campaign was due to the cold.”<br />
<br />
Tus Earty Mountvarnesrs, by Francis Gribble (Unwin,<br />
21s.), is “ executed in a scholarly fashion,” says Literature,<br />
the survey beginning, in effect, with the date of the Deluge,<br />
and ending about 1834. ‘The book is, from its nature, to<br />
<br />
some extent addressed mainly to specialists, but Mr.<br />
Gribble has managed to flavour his mediwval stories with a<br />
<br />
<br />
a6<br />
<br />
sufficient spice of modern epigram to make it palatable to a<br />
wider public.” The Daily Telegraph says Mr. Gribble<br />
“ has limited himself in this excellent volume to recording<br />
explorations of the Alps, Pyrenees, and Apennines,” “ and<br />
the result is a volume which every one can read with<br />
pleasure and profit.”<br />
<br />
Wiup Lirr 1n THE HAmpsHIRE HiaHLANDs, by George<br />
B. Dewar (Dent, 7s. 6d. net). ‘Although the author,”<br />
says the Daily News, “not seldom calls upon us to<br />
admire with him some far-reaching view, he has less<br />
to say of broad effects than of the too often unconsidered<br />
details—the birds, the flowers, the insects—that, to every<br />
follower of old Gilbert White, add so very much to the<br />
pleasure of a country walk.” ‘The book is a very good<br />
specimen of its class,” says Literature, “as Mr. Dewar is<br />
not only a sportsman but loves Nature for its own sake, and<br />
is a scholar to boot.”<br />
<br />
HigHLAND Dress, ARMS, AND ORNAMENT, by Lord<br />
Archibald Campbell (Constable, 21s.), ‘contains much<br />
useful information for amateurs of Highland antiquities,”<br />
says the Times. “The author is thoroughly versed in his<br />
subjects, and notably he is a connoisseur in sword blades.”’<br />
<br />
TwrELVvE Montus 1n KionprKe, by Robert C. Kirk<br />
(Heinemann, 6s.) is described by the Daily Chronicle as a<br />
plain matter-of-fact narrative by a most careful observer,<br />
whose “residence in the Yukon during the most eventful<br />
year of its history has supplied him with excellent material<br />
for a really useful and interesting volume.” Literature<br />
says it is “ written in an entertaining style, and interspersed<br />
with lively anecdotes concerning the vicissitudes of the<br />
miners’ fortunes.”<br />
<br />
Wits Zoua In ENGLAND, by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly<br />
(Chatto, 3s. 6d) isan “ amusing book” (Daily Chronicle)<br />
giving a rapid sketch of M. Zola’s adventures in England,<br />
and some hints of his observations on our manners and<br />
customs. It reads “like a very much up-to-date detective<br />
story,” says the Daily Telegraph.<br />
<br />
’PosTLE Farm, by George Ford (Blackwood, 6s.) is “a<br />
clever, entertaining, and in some ways a beautiful story,”<br />
says the Daily Chronicle. ‘The characters, for the most<br />
part humble Devonshire peasants, are all individualised and<br />
all interesting.”<br />
<br />
Tan Hoonigan Nieuts, by Clarence Rook (Richards,<br />
6s.) is the life and opinions of an impenitent London boy-<br />
criminal, whose character, says the Daily News, ‘as shown<br />
by his biographer, has, with all its drawbacks, a certain<br />
brutal frankness that is almost engaging. Mr. Rook has<br />
done his task skilfully and sympathetically —and his<br />
cockneyisms have a charming air of truth.” ‘“ The accounts<br />
of Young Alf’s crimes and exploits must, of course,’’ says the<br />
Daily Telegraph, “ bear a certain resemblance to each other,<br />
but the uniqueness of the point of view and the position of<br />
the raconteur render them unfailingly entertaining.”<br />
<br />
Tue ARCADIANS, by H. C. Minchin (Oxford: Blackwell,<br />
3s. 6d.), “is not a novel,” says the Guardian, ‘nor an<br />
essay, nor is it a biography; yet it is something of all<br />
three, and leaves a peculiar and pleasant flavour on the<br />
mind.” Humour is kept in the same low key as the<br />
melancholy, and ‘there is in the book a suggestion of<br />
deeper thought than appears on the surface.” “The book<br />
is extremely slight,” observes the Daily Chronicle; “it is<br />
even ‘ frothy,’ if you will—but it is amusing.”<br />
<br />
Gintzs IncruBy, by W.E. Norris (Methuen, 6s.), says<br />
the Spectator, introduces readers to the usual polished<br />
circle in which Mr. Norris’s characters live and move. His<br />
hero is for a short time a City clerk. who in a few chapters<br />
is turned “into a poet and man of letters, whose future<br />
income is prophesied by a competent editor to be about<br />
to exceed £6000 a year.” “It is a pleasant, wholesome<br />
tale,” says the Daily Telegraph, with much sound sense,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
-and in the same volume is a story which also gives “<br />
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and there is ‘a complete absence of those impossible people<br />
and incidents which some authors delight in creating.” :<br />
Tue Magic or THE Dxsert, by W. Smith-Williams<br />
(Blackwood, 6s.) has “charm and readability,” says the<br />
Spectator. The first half isa society novel of England, and<br />
afterwards of South-West Australia. This is “very well<br />
done,” but the second half, which is purely a novel of -<br />
adventure, is perhaps the more amusing; the fights,<br />
escapes and the adventures of every sort during the revola.<br />
tion in a little republic are what a schoolboy would<br />
“ripping.”’<br />
At A WINTER’s FrRE, by Bernard Capes (Pearson, 6s,),<br />
is a volume of stories by “a conscious craftsman” (D.<br />
Chronicle), nearly every one of which “deals with<br />
portentous side of nature, with strange sights and so<br />
and physical cataclysms, and the culmination of many ig<br />
ghastly spectacle.” ‘To those who like ‘a grue’ in theip<br />
fiction, and who can appreciate felicity of phrase and disti<br />
tion of style,” the Daily News can recommend Mr. Capes’s<br />
new volame. i<br />
AN OBsTINATE ParisH, by M. L. Lord (Sidney Christian)<br />
(Unwin, 6s.), as a timely “novel with a purpose” will 4<br />
thoroughly enjoyed, says the Spectator, by readers who —<br />
happen to be of Mr. Kensit’s way of thinking. “The book<br />
gives an account of the devastation created in a q<br />
country parish by a handsome young High Church vicar.’<br />
Tur GREATER INCLINATION, by Edith Wharton<br />
(Lane, 6s.) is “a collection of stories,’ says Interature.<br />
“each one of which has to do with a crisis, a turning point,<br />
the entering of a door or the turning away from it.” “The<br />
book abounds in meditation upon the problems of life; :<br />
humour ; in dialogue which has the effect of spoken words;<br />
in knowledge both of the world and of books; in a knows<br />
ledge of women which, from a woman, might be expected<br />
and a knowledge of men to which a woman does not always<br />
attain.”<br />
RosaLBa, THE Story oF Hur DEVELOPMENT, by Oliv<br />
Pratt Rayner (Pearson, 6s.), “is a really clever and spirite<br />
bit of pseudo-autobiography, and one as daring and original<br />
as it is clever,” says the Literary World. “Certainly —<br />
Rosalba is the most genuine flesh and blood heroine we ha:<br />
encountered for a long while.”<br />
RicHaRD CaRvEL, by Winston Churchill (Macmillan, 68.), —<br />
a romance of the War of Independence, set partly in the ©<br />
province of Maryland, partly in the London of the latter<br />
half of the eighteenth century, “is to be recommended,’<br />
says the Daily News, “as an animated if not exciting<br />
record of a time pregnant with momentous issues. It is<br />
savoured with quiet humour, and it has the interest o<br />
character.” ‘ Worthiness and solidity,” says the Spectator,<br />
are the epithets by which it would be best described. :<br />
Mrs. Jim Barxer, by V. Fetherstonhaugh (Chap<br />
6s.), is ‘ a pleasant little story of Canadian life ” (Spectator,<br />
<br />
amusing and vivid account of ranch life in Canada.” 1<br />
author is congratulated on possessing “a decided gift<br />
interesting and lifelike character-drawing.” The Dai<br />
News says that the author’s knowledge of his subject, al<br />
his freshness and vigour of narrative, render the<br />
eminently readable.<br />
<br />
Mr. J. Eveleigh Nash,<br />
<br />
LITERARY AGENT,<br />
AMBERLEY HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET,<br />
<br />
STRAND, W.C. | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/465/1899-08-01-The-Author-10-3.pdf | publications, The Author |