501 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/501 | The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 04 (January 1905) | <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.+15+Issue+04+%28January+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 04 (January 1905)</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> | 1905-01-01-The-Author-15-4 | | | | | 93–120 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1905-01-01">1905-01-01</a> | | | | | | | 4 | | | 19050101 | Che Huthor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
<br />
FOUNDED BY SIR<br />
<br />
WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
Vou. XV.—No. 4.<br />
<br />
TELEPHONE NuMBER :<br />
374 VICTORIA.<br />
<br />
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br />
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br />
<br />
——S—_ -—>—_2 —_____<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
——>—<br />
<br />
signed or initialled the authors alone are<br />
<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br />
of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br />
to be the case.<br />
<br />
: ee the opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
<br />
Tux Editor begs to inform members of the<br />
Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br />
that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br />
in The Author are cases that have come before the<br />
notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br />
Society, and that those members of the Society<br />
who desire to have the names of the publishers<br />
concerned can obtain them on application.<br />
<br />
——>—+—__<br />
<br />
List of Members.<br />
<br />
THE List of Members of the Society of Authors<br />
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br />
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br />
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br />
obtained at the offices of the Society.<br />
<br />
They will be sold to members or associates of<br />
the Society only.<br />
<br />
—_*+—>—+—_<br />
<br />
The Pension Fund of the Society.<br />
<br />
Tux Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br />
Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and<br />
having gone carefully into the accounts of the<br />
<br />
fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North<br />
<br />
Vou, XV.<br />
<br />
JANUARY IsT, 1905.<br />
<br />
——e ee<br />
<br />
[Prick SIxpEncr.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br />
investments of the Pension Fund at present<br />
standing in the names of the Trustees are ag<br />
follows.<br />
<br />
This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br />
money value can be easily worked out at the current<br />
price of the market :—<br />
<br />
ee £1000 0 0<br />
FaCn) COANE 200 500 0 0<br />
Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br />
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11<br />
Wea ie 201 9 8<br />
London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br />
EEG DUOC es 250 0 0<br />
Wotal 22... £2,243 9 2<br />
ee<br />
<br />
Subscriptions from April, 1904.<br />
<br />
ooo<br />
<br />
£8. a:<br />
April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . : 7 0. 5 0<br />
April18, Bashford, Harry H. ; » O10 6<br />
April19, Bosanquet, Eustace F. . O10 6<br />
April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain 0 b 0<br />
May 6, Shepherd, G. H. .. : 0 3 0<br />
June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br />
G.C.B. : . ol A<br />
July 27, Barnett, P. A. : : - 0:10<br />
Nov. 9, Hollingsworth, Charles . 0 10<br />
Donations from April, 1904.<br />
May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth 5 0. 0<br />
June 28, Kirmse, R. . : : : :<br />
<br />
June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R.<br />
<br />
July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br />
<br />
Committee é 20 0 0<br />
Aug. 5, Walker, William 8, 200<br />
Oct. 6, Hare, F. W. E., M.D. 1 1.0<br />
Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold 010 0<br />
Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett 010 0<br />
Noy. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida. 1 1 0<br />
Nov. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig : 2 ,<br />
<br />
5<br />
<br />
Noy. 24, Egbert, Henry :<br />
<br />
<br />
94<br />
FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br />
<br />
———+ —<br />
<br />
rTVHE last Committee meeting of the year was<br />
held on Monday, the 5th of December, when<br />
Mr. Douglas Freshfield was in the chair.<br />
<br />
There was a further election of members, bringing<br />
the total for the past year up to 233. This is the<br />
largest election which the Society has had in any<br />
one year during the past ten years. It is satisfac-<br />
tory to the Managing Committee to obtain this<br />
evidence of the appreciation of the advantages<br />
obtained from the Society’s work by writers<br />
engaged in the various branches of literature.<br />
<br />
One or two matters of importance were con-<br />
sidered by the Committee, concerning which it<br />
would be impolitic at the present stage to give<br />
detailed information. One matter, unfortunately,<br />
is likely to involve from twenty to thirty members<br />
of the Society. It is desirable to state only that<br />
the Committee, with the help of the secretary and<br />
the Society’s solicitors, are watching the issues with<br />
great care on behalf of the members...<br />
<br />
Some time ago, it may be remembered, the<br />
Committee decided to take counsel’s opinion on<br />
the question of the payment of Income Tax by<br />
authors. The opinion has now been obtained and<br />
was laid before the Committee. It is printed in<br />
this number of The Author.<br />
<br />
During the month of November the Chairman<br />
sanctioned the placing in the hands of the<br />
Society’s solicitors three County Court cases and<br />
two High Court cases. This was reported to<br />
and confirmed by the Committee. In the three<br />
County Court cases the amounts due have heen<br />
paid and the costs recovered. In one case, how-<br />
ever, there is a question of account which may need<br />
some further settlement. In the two High Court<br />
cases writs have been issued, and in one judgment<br />
under Order 14 has been obtained. It is hoped<br />
that the Society’s solicitors will be able to obtain<br />
judgment in the other by the same process.<br />
<br />
The negotiations carried on by the Committee for<br />
the purpose of obtaining a fresh agent in the<br />
United States are being pushed forward. The<br />
recommendation of Mr. James Bryce, who has just<br />
returned from the United States, was laid before<br />
the Committee, and the secretary was instructed to<br />
write to the gentleman, whose name was submitted,<br />
and enquire whether he would be willing to take up<br />
the duties involved.<br />
<br />
—— + —<br />
<br />
Cases.<br />
<br />
Since the last publication of The Author only<br />
six matters have been placed in the Seerctary’s<br />
hands for settlement, three for money due to<br />
members and three for the return of MSS. Intwo<br />
of the cases in which the Secretary has applied for<br />
the return of MSS. he has obtained the return for<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
the authors concerned. Sufficient time has not yet<br />
passed to enable the third case to be settled.<br />
<br />
The cases for money due are still in course<br />
of negotiation, but the editor of one of the papers<br />
has promised to send a cheque on the next pay<br />
day. In another case against a foreign publisher,<br />
the author had been unable to obtain any reply for<br />
overayear. ‘The Secretary, however, has obtained<br />
an answer and a promise to look into the matter,<br />
and there is every reason to hope that the Society<br />
will be able to bring the matter to an issue. 2<br />
<br />
It may be necessary to take number three into<br />
Court, as the principal from whom the money is<br />
due denies liability, although from the letters and<br />
information in the Secretary’s hands his indebted-<br />
ness seems to be quite clear.<br />
<br />
— oa<br />
<br />
December Elections.<br />
<br />
37, Egerton ‘Terrace,<br />
Knightsbridge, 8.W.<br />
8, Fairholm Road, West.<br />
<br />
Kensington, W.<br />
<br />
10, Gilston Road, S.W.<br />
10, Idmiston Gardens,<br />
West Norwood, 8.E.<br />
17, Kensington Gore,<br />
<br />
Coffin, Mrs.<br />
Frere, Latham<br />
<br />
Irving, Laurence .<br />
Kentish - Rankin,<br />
<br />
M.A. ; F.R.G.S.<br />
Knowles, Miss Margaret<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
S.W.<br />
MacLiesh, Mrs. Wiston Lodge, Leaming-<br />
ton, N.B.<br />
Martin, Miss Eva M. St. Kilda, Carrington,<br />
(“Sydney Hessel- Nottingham.<br />
rigge ”)<br />
Miller, Mrs. Mary . 11, Woburn Place, W.C.<br />
Roberts, Miss Ethel Oak Hill Lodge, Frog-<br />
Adair . nal, N.W.<br />
<br />
Robinson, Major Gen.<br />
C. W., C.B.<br />
Scouller, John<br />
<br />
Snushall, Miss E. .<br />
Turton, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Williams, Archibald<br />
<br />
Beverley House, Katon<br />
Rise, Ealing, W.<br />
<br />
774, Grove Lane, Den-<br />
mark Hill, S.E. ~<br />
<br />
Emneth, Wisbech, Cambs.<br />
<br />
The Nook, 138, Bruns-<br />
wick Hill, Reading.<br />
<br />
Uplands, Stoke Poges,<br />
Bucks.<br />
<br />
$$$ —__—<br />
<br />
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br />
THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
——_-—— +<br />
<br />
(In the following list we do not propose to give more<br />
than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br />
enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br />
serve to explain the scope ‘<br />
Members are requested to forward information which will<br />
enable the Editor to supply such particulars.) \<br />
<br />
ART.<br />
THE RATIONALE OF ART.<br />
<br />
Published by the Author at Kames-<br />
5s. n. .<br />
<br />
7k x 5, 148 pp.<br />
burgh, Beckenham, Kent.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
and purpose of the work.<br />
<br />
By NorRMAN ALLISTON<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 95<br />
<br />
THE HIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN ENGLISH CARICATURE,<br />
By SELWYN BRINTON. 63 x 5, 96 pp. Siegle.<br />
Is. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
BIOGRAPHY.<br />
<br />
MEMOIRS OF THE MARTYR KING. Beinga Detailed Record<br />
of the Last Two Years of the Reign of His Most Sacred<br />
Majesty King CharlesI, 1646-48-49, By ALLAN Fra.<br />
<br />
134 X 104, 278 pp. Lane. £5 5s. n.<br />
<br />
RUPERT, PRINCE PALATINE. By Eva Scort, 8} x 54,<br />
384 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d. n.<br />
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MEMORIES. By Constancy F. GorDoN CumMMING. 83<br />
X 53, 487 pp. Blackwoods. 20s. n.<br />
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tHE LIFE OF EDWARD LorD HAWKE. By MonTaGur<br />
<br />
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BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br />
NEW TREASURE SEEKERS. By E. NESBIT. 8 x 43.<br />
<br />
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THE DESIRE OF THE NATIONS. By M. A. Mocarra,<br />
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A FAMILY GRIEVANCE. By RAYMOND JACBERNS. 14X65,<br />
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ELSIE’s MAGICIAN. By FRED WHISHAW. 7} xX 5,191 pp.<br />
Chambers. 1s. 6d.<br />
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<br />
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TOMLINSON. With 65 pictures of some Sussex Children.<br />
82 X 6%, 87 pp. Dent, 10s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
THE DREAM GARDEN. A CHILDREN’S ANNUAL, 1905.<br />
Edited by Nerra SyrerT. 10} x 7}, 237 pp. Baillie.<br />
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<br />
Fairy STORIES FROM THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN. By JOHN<br />
FINNEMORE. 74 X 5,111 pp. Sunday School Union.<br />
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<br />
THe TALE oF SQuEAKY Mouvsz,<br />
54 X 43,135 pp.<br />
<br />
3y A. 8S. GIBSON,<br />
Grant Richards. 2s.<br />
CHRONOLOGY.<br />
<br />
A PRACTICAL DAILY CALENDAR FOR ALL YEARS—Past,<br />
PRESENT, AND FUTURE—FRoM SATURDAY, JANUARY<br />
<br />
Ist, A.D. 1, By Rev. J. J. GRaTrex. 33 x 24,<br />
(celluloid card), The Author, Brandiscorner, R.S.O%<br />
6d.<br />
<br />
DRAMA.<br />
<br />
Wm. SHAKESPEARE. PEDAGOGUE AND POACHER. By<br />
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A LEsson IN Harmony. By ALFRED AUSTIN, Poet<br />
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<br />
S4EEHAN, D.D,<br />
<br />
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<br />
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<br />
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A FALLEN IDoL, By F. ANSTEY,<br />
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A PRINCE OF THE PEOPLE, A Romance of modern<br />
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HISTORY.<br />
THE VicERoy’s Post Bac. Correspondence hitherto un-<br />
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THE Hoty RomMAN Empire. By JAMES BRYCE. 7? x 54,<br />
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HisToricaL Mysterizs. By ANDREW LANG. 8 x 53,<br />
304 pp. Smith Elder. 9s. n.<br />
<br />
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<br />
LITERARY,<br />
<br />
THE ENCHANTED WooD AND OTHER ESSAYS ON THE<br />
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321 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d. n,<br />
<br />
MEDICAL.<br />
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<br />
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<br />
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A PLEA FOR THE HISTORICAL TEACHING orf HIsToRy,<br />
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POETRY.<br />
<br />
Musa VERTICORDIA. By FRANcIS Courts. 72 X 5<br />
<br />
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Porms. By Giacomo LEopaRpI. Translated by SIR<br />
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<br />
SOUNDS AND SWEET AIRS. By JOHN ToODHUNTER.<br />
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THE GEORGICS OF VIRGIL. Translated into English Verse<br />
<br />
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195 pp. Murray. 10s. 6d. n.<br />
REPRINTS.<br />
<br />
THE PRiogESS’s TALE AND OTHER TALES. By GEOFFREY<br />
<br />
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158 pp. (Introductory matter and notes at the end).<br />
<br />
Morinvg. 1s. 6d, n. each,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
96<br />
<br />
SOCIOLOGY.<br />
Tian PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED. An Enquiry and<br />
Economic Policy. By J. A. HoBson. 2nd Edition<br />
Methuen. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
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TECHNOLOGY.<br />
Printing. A Practical Handbook on the Art of Typo-<br />
graphy. Third (revised and enlarged) Edition. By<br />
C.F. Jacosi. 74 x 44, 409 pp. Bell. 7s. 6d,<br />
<br />
THEOLOGY.<br />
<br />
How To USE THE PRAYER BOOK.<br />
<br />
(Guides to Religious Knowledge Series).<br />
Longmans. 2s.<br />
<br />
CHRISTUS IN ECCLESIA.<br />
<br />
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<br />
SERMONS ON THE CHURCH<br />
By Hastines RAsHALL,<br />
<br />
AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.<br />
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<br />
Tue CHRIst HAS Come. THE SECOND ADVENT OF THE<br />
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Simpkin, Marshall. 2s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
‘HE CANONS OF ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. The<br />
‘Arabic and Coptic Versions Edited and Translated by<br />
W. RiepeL and W. E. Crum. 9 X 5%, 153 pp. (issued<br />
by the Text and ‘Translation Society). Williams and<br />
Norgate.<br />
<br />
TOPOGRAPHY.<br />
<br />
SECRET CHAMBERS AND HIDING PLACES.<br />
Fea. 82 x 53,317 pp. Bousfield. 5s, n.<br />
<br />
TRAVEL.<br />
<br />
Op FLORENCE AND MoperN Tuscany, By JANET Ross.<br />
7k x 5,229 pp. Dent. 4s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
THe ALPS FRoM END To END. By Sir W. MARTIN<br />
Conway. 84 X 53,300 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d,<br />
<br />
CITIES AND SIGHTS OF SPAIN. A Handbook for Tourists.<br />
<br />
By ALLAN<br />
<br />
By Mrs. AUBREY LE Buonp. 7 x 5, 214 pp. Bell.<br />
Sunny SrciILy. Irs RusTICS AND ITS RUINS. By<br />
Mrs. ALEC TWEEDIE. 9 X 54, 392 pp. Hutchinson.<br />
<br />
18s, n.<br />
—_—_——_+—__+—___—__<br />
<br />
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br />
NOTES.<br />
<br />
oo<br />
at HE Incorrigible Twins,” is a story of two<br />
children. The scene is laid in South<br />
Africa and in England. The subject is<br />
dealt with sympathetically by D’Esterre, author<br />
of “Gerald and Dolly.” The book is published<br />
by Messrs. H. G. Skinner & Co., of Camberwell.<br />
“The Compact,” by May Evans (“A Welsh<br />
Spinster”’) is issned by the Walter Scott Publishing<br />
Co., Ltd., with five illustrations, at the price of 6s.<br />
The author, in her Preface, states that ‘‘ The Com-<br />
pact” is not primarily intended as a story, nor a<br />
mere medium for a moral truth. It is a mental<br />
study of the following idea: “ Would any woman<br />
<br />
give her soul to save the soul of the man she loved ? .<br />
<br />
An edition, limited to 400 copies, of Mr. Allan<br />
Fea’s work, “ Memoirs of the Martyr King,” has<br />
been issued by Mr. John Lane at the price of £5 5s.<br />
net. he book is printed on hand-made paper, is<br />
bound in leather, and contains upwards of one<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
hundred photogravure portraits and other illus-<br />
trations.<br />
<br />
Mr. Douglas Sladen’s new work, “ More Queer<br />
Things about Japan,” which is described as a<br />
sequel to the same author’s former book, “ Queer<br />
things about Japan,” has been published by Messrs.<br />
Treherne & Co. at the price of 21s. net.<br />
<br />
A second edition of “ Marie-Eve,” by Miss Marian<br />
Bower, author of “The Guests of Mine Host ” and<br />
“The Puppet-Show,” has just been issued.<br />
<br />
K. L. Montgomery, the author of the romances,<br />
«The Cardinal’s Pawn” and “ Major Weir,” has<br />
completed a new story entitled ‘ Stringer the<br />
Unconventional,” which the author hopes to<br />
serialise before publication. The scene is laid in<br />
Chateau d’Oex.<br />
<br />
No. 5 of Messrs. Egerton & Co.’s series of<br />
“Little Plays for Little Players’ is an acting ver-<br />
sion of “Little Red Riding Hood.” The book is by<br />
Gladys Davidson, the lyrics by Louise Egerton, and<br />
the music by Stephen R. Philpot. The libretto is<br />
published at the price of 3d., and the music at the<br />
price of 1s.<br />
<br />
Mr. John Long is about to publish on behalf of<br />
Miss Jean Middlemass, a novel entitled ‘Count<br />
Reming.”<br />
<br />
Messrs. Macmillan announce the second edition<br />
of Sir Frederick Pollock’s First Book of Jurispru-<br />
dence for Students of the Common Law, containing<br />
amplifications and new references.<br />
<br />
His Majesty the King has been pleased to accept<br />
a copy of a new historical work entitled, “‘ Eng-<br />
land’s Sea Story,” by the Rev. Albert Lee. The<br />
work, which claims to be a Popular Record of the<br />
Doings of the English Navy from the Earliest<br />
Days, is published by Mr. Andrew Melrose at the<br />
<br />
rice of 5s.<br />
<br />
“Dolly’s Governess” is the title of a humorous<br />
story written by Mr. George Somers Layard and<br />
published by Messrs. Isbister & Co. at the price<br />
of 1s. net.<br />
<br />
We have received from Messrs. A. & CO. Black<br />
(4, Soho Square, W.C.) “ Who’s Who,” for 1905<br />
(7s. 6d.), “ Who's Who” Year Book (1s.), and “The<br />
Englishwoman’s Year Book ” for 1905.<br />
<br />
“ Who's Who,” the first issue of which appeared<br />
in 1849, increases in bulk year by year, the present<br />
issue containing 1,796 pages. It is undoubtedly a<br />
useful annual.<br />
<br />
“ Who’s Who” Year Book, which was first pub-<br />
<br />
lished last year as a supplement to “ Who’s Who,”<br />
<br />
contains a fairly exhaustive list of periodicals,<br />
magazines, and newspapers. It also contains a list<br />
of civil servants, together with a list of clubs,<br />
societies, &c., &c.<br />
<br />
“The Englishwoman’s Year Book” for 1905,<br />
edited by Miss Emily Janes, contains a number of<br />
articles dealing with the different professions open<br />
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THE AUTHOR. 97<br />
<br />
Also a mass of information of use to<br />
It appears to be a very handy<br />
<br />
to women.<br />
women generally.<br />
book of reference.<br />
<br />
The Statutes of Practical Utility passed in 1904,<br />
with a Selection of Statutory Rules, made during<br />
the same period (Sweet & Maxwell, Stevens & Sons,<br />
7s. 6d.), have just been brought out in the tenth<br />
annual continuation of “Chitty’s Statutes.” The 19<br />
Statutes annotated include the Licensing Act, the<br />
Shop Hours Act, the Prevention of Cruelty to<br />
Children Act, the Savings Banks Act, and the<br />
Weights and Measures Act. The new Education<br />
Code, with its striking introduction as to moral<br />
training, is printed in its entirety, and so is the<br />
Religious Instructions Circular, known as “Circular<br />
512.” The reader will also find the Motor-Cars<br />
(Use and Construction) Order, and the Poor<br />
Prisoners’ Defence Regulations and Rules, which<br />
are subsidiary to the two Acts of 1903 on those<br />
subjects. The Witchcraft Act of 1735, and the<br />
Manufactured Tobacco Act of 1863 are added in<br />
an appendix. The preface contains various sugges-<br />
tions for the improvement of the legislative<br />
machine by the substitution of adjournments for<br />
prorogations and other methods.<br />
<br />
‘‘ How to Use the Prayer Book,” by Mrs. G. T.<br />
Romanes, is not intended to be a history of the<br />
Prayer Book, but rather as an aid to understanding<br />
the ideal of faith and conduct contained in the<br />
English Prayer Book. The book is published by<br />
Messrs. Longmans at the price of 2s. net.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Macmillan & Co. published at the end of<br />
December a work on “Shakespearean Tragedy,” by<br />
Prof. A. C. Bradley, of Oxford. In it the author<br />
takes the four principal tragedies — “ Hamlet,”<br />
“Othello,” “King Lear,’ and “Macbeth ’’—and<br />
considers them from a single point of view. Pro-<br />
fessor Bradley endeavours, in short, to excite a more<br />
intense apprehension of the action and the per-<br />
sonages of each play, in order that his readers may<br />
be brought into closer imaginative association with<br />
the genius of their creator, and for the attainment<br />
of this object it has been no part of his plan to<br />
discuss such questions as Shakespeare’s place in<br />
English literature, the development of his genius,<br />
or questions regarding his life and character.<br />
<br />
Mr. Austin Dobson has written an interesting<br />
introduction to the new edition of Locker-Lamp-<br />
son’s “ London Lyrics,” which will shortly come<br />
out in “ The Golden Treasury Series.” Mr, Dobson<br />
has also written many new notes for this edition<br />
which throw light on the sources of the poems.<br />
<br />
“Torn Lace,” by Miss Charlotte Mansfield,<br />
<br />
published by the Walter Scott Publishing Co., at<br />
the price of 8s. 6d., is the simple story of an Italian<br />
peasant girl, who, passing through many tempta-<br />
tions, in the final scene sacrifices her life for another.<br />
<br />
Mr. John Long will shortly publish Mrs. Aylmer<br />
<br />
Gowing’s new novel, “Lord of Himself,” which<br />
describes how the heir to a peerage, an under-<br />
graduate at Oxford, wins the Newdigate Prize, is<br />
cast upon the world, and fights his Way against all<br />
odds. A young Princess is his guardian angel.<br />
The pictures of Oxford life will make the story<br />
interesting to many.<br />
<br />
“A Boy’s Control and Self-expression ” (pub-<br />
lished at the price of 6s.), is the title of a new<br />
work from the pen of Mr. Eustace Miles. In his<br />
preface, the author states that his object is to make<br />
a boy more independent, and to enable him to learn<br />
the habit of self-control, self-expression, and self-<br />
respect by apparently alien things, including<br />
physical exercises. Copies of the book may be<br />
obtained from the author at 10, St. Paul’s Road,<br />
Cambridge. ‘<br />
<br />
Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s book, “Sunny Sicily,” is<br />
now on the market, published by Messrs. Hutchin-<br />
son & Co. The author says that Sicily teems with<br />
interest for the historian, the archeologist, the<br />
builder, for the painter, and for the lover of folk-<br />
lore, that probably no spot on earth of equal size<br />
holds such varied or such ceaseless charm. The<br />
book (published at the price of 18s.), is a descrip-<br />
tion of those features of the island which will<br />
appeal to the classes mentioned, as well as to the<br />
general body of readers.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Newnes have included in their sixpenny<br />
copyright novels, Mr. Eden Phillpott’s amusing<br />
story, “‘ A Deal with the Devil,” which some ofour<br />
readers may remember. The story, which describes<br />
the career of a modern Faust, has been illustrated<br />
by Mr. H. M. Brock.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Williams & Norgate will issue shortly a<br />
third part of Dr. A. H. Church’s work, “On the<br />
Relation of Phyllotaxis to Mechanical Laws,”<br />
which will be devoted to “Secondary Growth<br />
Phenomena,” and will also contain mathematical<br />
notes by Mr. EK. H. Hayes and the author. It will<br />
be illustrated with a number of figures.<br />
<br />
‘‘A Summerful of Children,” by Ella and Agnes<br />
Tomlinson, has been published by Messrs. J. M.<br />
Dent & Co. at the price of 10s. 6d. net. The old<br />
nursery rhymes have been illustrated by photo-<br />
graphs from life, and the result has been amply<br />
justified, owing to the skill and judgment of the<br />
photographers.<br />
<br />
Mr. Frederick Winbolt’s new book, “Philip of<br />
Macedon, a Tragedy,” has recently been issued by the<br />
De la More Press. A full description of the play<br />
will be found in the “ Era” of November 26th.<br />
<br />
“On Life’s Journey” is the title of a collection<br />
of poems, by Mary Gorges, which has been published<br />
by Messrs. Walter G. Wheeler & Co. The poems,<br />
which are of a varied character, deal with homely<br />
incident, scripture type and symbol, the songs of<br />
birds and the scent of flowers.<br />
<br />
<br />
98<br />
<br />
An informative article on the remarkable railway<br />
bridge across the Zambesi River below the Victoria<br />
Falls, illustrated from original photographs, appears<br />
in this month’s “ World’s Work and Play ” from the<br />
pen of Mr. Eustace Reynolds-Ball.<br />
<br />
Messrs. A. & C. Black published early last<br />
month the 4th edition of ‘Cairo of To-Day,”<br />
by the same author. The work, which has<br />
been revised and brought up to date, and in part<br />
rewritten, is intended to meet the demand among<br />
English and American visitors for a cheap and<br />
practical guide, Whilst mainly appealing to<br />
-tourists who are only able to spend a few weeks in<br />
Egypt, it does not neglect the interests of winter<br />
residents and invalids. The price of the work is<br />
2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
“ Rita’s” successful novel, ‘‘ The Jesters,” is<br />
being translated into Swedish through the “ Bureau<br />
Scandinavian ”’ agency.<br />
<br />
Mr. Brimley Johnson announces for publication<br />
in the spring a small book of light verse, entitled<br />
“Tea Table Rhymes,” by M. P. Guimaraens.<br />
<br />
A successful copyright performance of “The<br />
Cowslip Ball” (cantata-playette), by Ellen Collett,<br />
to music by George S. Aspinall, took place at the<br />
West Hampstead Town Hall on December 17th,<br />
before a crowded audience. The performance was<br />
ably given by the pupils of the Misses Barnett,<br />
sisters of Mr. John Francis Barnett, who presented<br />
prizes afterwards.<br />
<br />
—\_\_o——_e—__——_<br />
<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
HE annual prizes of the Société des Gens de<br />
Lettres were awarded in December. The<br />
Chauchard prize of 3,000 francs fell to<br />
<br />
Madame Séverine, the Balzac prize of 1,500 francs<br />
to M. Maurice Montegut, and the President’s<br />
prize to M. Albert Boissiere. The Petit Bourg<br />
prize was awarded to M. de Braisne ; two Chau-<br />
chard prizes of 1,000 francs each were given to<br />
M. Allais and M. Pierre Giffard. M. Guillanmin<br />
and M. Quentin-Bauchart both received a medal.<br />
The annual prize of 5,000 francs of the de Gon-<br />
court Academy has been awarded to M. Léon<br />
Frapié for his book entitled “a Maternelle.” It<br />
is a novel written with a purpose, and is the story<br />
of a young girl who has studied hard and taken<br />
her degrees, but who finds it difficult to obtain a<br />
good post and so enters a “ maternal school ” in a<br />
very poor part of Paris. She is at first impressed<br />
by the organisation of this institution, but as time<br />
goes on she is struck by the fact that the education<br />
given to the children is on an entirely wrong<br />
system. She comes to the conclusion that the<br />
education they receive is not what they will need<br />
in the hard struggle for life which will undoubtedly<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
be their fate. The author has succeeded in writing<br />
an interesting novel, and at the same time treating<br />
one of the most important social questions of the day.<br />
<br />
The Nobel Prize for poetry is to be divided this<br />
year between Frédéric Mistral and the Spanish<br />
poet, Echegaray. Mistral intends using his share<br />
of the prize in buying an old palace at Arles for<br />
the famous ethnological museum, the “ Muséon<br />
Arlaten.” He will restore the palace, and some<br />
literary fétes will probably be given there.<br />
<br />
In “Vies Intimes” M. Henry Bordeaux gives<br />
us a series of studies from life of romances that<br />
have been lived. ‘The titles of the various chapters<br />
will serve to show that the subjects chosen are<br />
some of the most interesting of the kind of the last<br />
three centuries :—* Petites méditations sur des<br />
Correspondances Amoureuses,” “ Mme. de Warens<br />
@apres de nouveaux documents,” “ Le roman d’une<br />
princesse,”” ‘ L’amour dans les ruines,” ‘“ Adélaide<br />
de Bellegarde,” “La Tour du Lépreux,” “ Rosalie<br />
de Constant,’ “ Uneamiede Chateaubriand,” “ Balzac<br />
at Mme. de Hanska,” “ Victor Hugo fiancé,” “ Miche-<br />
let amoureux,” “La Vie de Georges Sand,” “ Le<br />
premier amour de George Sand,” “ Le premier et<br />
le dernier amour de Berlioz,” “ La correspondance<br />
de Beethoven,” ‘La correspondance de Wagner,”<br />
“ Elizabeth d’Autriche et Louis de Baviére,” “ Une<br />
amie du poéte Aubanel,” “ Vie singuliére d’une<br />
Sainte moderne.” With the clearness and sincerity<br />
which are the characteristics of this author’s work,<br />
M. Bordeaux draws for us some admirable sketches<br />
of the women he has selected to illustrate his subject.<br />
His reflections und observations, which are most per-<br />
tinent and just, add greatly to the value of the book.<br />
<br />
“ Ay-dessus de |’Abime,’? by Madame Blanc<br />
Bentzon, is an extremely up-to-date sketch of a<br />
certain phase of social life in modern France. It<br />
shows the difficulties of the transition stage through<br />
which the country is now passing. The idea of<br />
separation between Church and State has divided<br />
the people more or less into various camps—those<br />
who adhere to their faith in ecclesiastical authority,<br />
those who approve of the separation between<br />
Church and State, those who would shake off all<br />
possible fetters, and those who are indifferent and<br />
only ask to be left in peace.<br />
<br />
In this story, Francoise Desprez, the most in-<br />
teresting character in the volume, is a girl who has<br />
received an education superior to her true rank in<br />
life. Her troubles begin when she has passed her<br />
<br />
examinations, taken her degrees, and has to earn —<br />
<br />
her own living. She has been educated at the<br />
secular college, and is consequently looked upon<br />
<br />
with disdain by the fervent Roman Catholics. She —<br />
<br />
is by birth a country girl, and feels imprisoned in<br />
a city.<br />
college life are distasteful to her.<br />
<br />
« En. cing ans,” she writes, “ jai traversé tous —<br />
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<br />
The routine, monotony, and strict rules of<br />
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<br />
THE AUTHOR. 99<br />
<br />
les cercles de l’enfer pédagogique ; j’ai aidé a<br />
attiser ces abominables fours ou l’on chanffe les<br />
examens a grand renfort de manuels, sans dévelop-<br />
per chez les éléves l’initiative ni la réflexion.”<br />
<br />
She has arrived at an age when she longs to see<br />
something of life outside the walls of a schoolroom,<br />
and she applies to a wealthy woman who has taken<br />
great interest in her to find her a situation in a<br />
private family. By following Francoise in her<br />
travels we are introduced to various typical mem-<br />
bers of present day society in France. We have<br />
the well-to-do family, consisting of husband and<br />
wife, with a daughter married suitably according<br />
to the old way of thinking, and an unmarried<br />
daughter, Colette, who is being educated according<br />
to the new system. She goes in for all kinds of<br />
sport, and is for a French girl decidedly emanci-<br />
pated. Then there is a financier, greatly respected<br />
on account of his vast wealth, until the tide of<br />
speculation turns for him, and he escapes reproach<br />
by suicide. His son has lived the life of a mil.<br />
lionaire, and is engaged to Colette at the time of<br />
his father’s ruin. With great tact and worldly<br />
wisdom Colette’s parents, while expressing their<br />
sympathy with the young man, break off their<br />
daughter’s engagement. ‘There is also the inevit-<br />
able American woman who has climbed, by means<br />
of her dollars, into a certain position in French<br />
society. She has bartered her money fora husband<br />
ten years her junior, with some kind of a title, and<br />
she gathers around her in her new home all kinds<br />
of antiquities more or less authentic,<br />
<br />
Frangoise and the son of the ruined speculator<br />
are the most interesting personages of the story.<br />
The great charm of this novelette consists in the<br />
faithful portrait it gives of this transition period in<br />
French life. The new woman problem is by no<br />
means solved yet in France. Several novelists<br />
have attempted to deal with it, but the attempts<br />
so far have not been very satisfactory. In this<br />
apparently slight story by Madame Blane Bentzon<br />
there is much more depth than one at first realises.<br />
The authoress is a keen observer and has handled<br />
her subject. most delicately. She gives us several<br />
types of women of this transition period, and one<br />
of the most true to life is Marthe Granger, a<br />
daughter of the people, who devotes her whole<br />
existence to caring for the children of one of the<br />
poorest districts of Paris. Within the last ten<br />
years she has rescued over three thousand children.<br />
Such work is going on quietly and surely in Paris,<br />
and it is very evident that the authoress of « Au-<br />
dessus de l’Abime,” when drawing her pictures of<br />
the new woman in France, has studied her subject<br />
more thoroughly than most of her confreres.<br />
<br />
A curious book has just been published by M.<br />
Emile Dard. It is a volume compiled from<br />
hitherto unknown documents giving an account<br />
<br />
of General Choderlos de Laclos, the author of that<br />
famous book ** Liaisons Dangereuses,” which Paul<br />
Bourget mentions as “ the masterpiece perhaps of<br />
analytical novels.” Laclos was a captain in the<br />
army under Louis XVI. He wasa most ambitious<br />
man, and when he found he did not advance in his<br />
career he wrote his celebrated book as a pamphlet<br />
against the Court. M. Dard describes Laclos as<br />
“un auteur caché du Drame revolutionnaire.” Hig<br />
influence was certainly felt in many different<br />
spheres, and his career was a most adventurous<br />
one.<br />
<br />
Among the new books are “Les Chevaliers de<br />
PAu-delai,” by Jean Rameau, a novel which treats<br />
of the trickery practised on a very wealthy widow<br />
by charlatans, who traded on her superstitions ;<br />
“a Cruche cassée,” by Gabrielle Réval, a some-<br />
what dramatic novel, in which we have an excellent<br />
picture of provincial life in France ; “ La Seconde<br />
Faute,” by Henri d’Hennezel; “La Nef,” by<br />
Eléimir Bourges, a kind of epic poem in prose, in<br />
which the author evokes the tortures and the<br />
visions of Prometheus. The style is admirable,<br />
and the whole book in every way worthy of the<br />
author of “ Le Orépuscule des Dieux.” “Roman.<br />
ciers et viveurs du XIXe. Siecle,” by Philibert<br />
Audebrand, is a book of memoirs in which the<br />
<br />
author evokes for us many of the well-known<br />
<br />
personages of the last century. “Un Homme libre,”’<br />
by Maurice Barrés ; “ L’Ombre de la Maison,” by<br />
Ivan Strannik; “L’Aventure d’Huguette,” by<br />
Guy de Chantepleure ; “Le Tumulte,” by Georges<br />
d’Esparbés.<br />
<br />
The literary rights of French authors in Canada<br />
appear to be proved now satisfactorily. It appears<br />
that as Great Britain has accepted the terms of<br />
the Berne Convention, Canada through Grea<br />
Britain has also accepted them. The publication<br />
of French works which are unauthorised by the<br />
author is therefore illicit, and the question of<br />
authors’ rights is to be brought into the Canadian<br />
law courts, so that’ French authors may be legally<br />
protected in future. The Council of the Cercle de<br />
la Lnbrairie in Paris is of opinion that steps should<br />
be taken at once in this matter. In the first place<br />
the French Société des Gens de Lettres should<br />
bring an action against the Canadian papers which<br />
are publishing French literature unauthorised by<br />
the author. Then a French publisher should<br />
make a claim on any Canadian publisher who has<br />
brought out French books that are not authorised<br />
by the author, and a law suit should be brought in<br />
cases where a French book that has been printed<br />
in New York is introduced into Canada. It is<br />
hoped that the Society of Dramatic Authors will<br />
also take up this matter, so that there should bea<br />
general protest against the present state of things.<br />
<br />
In the Revue des Dewa-Mondes there is an article<br />
<br />
<br />
100<br />
<br />
by M. Henry Houssaye on “Ta Retourdu Roi en<br />
1815.” M. Schuré gives some interesting details<br />
with regard to Wagner's correspondenve with<br />
Mathilde Wesendonk. M. Filon writes an article<br />
on H. G. Wells as novelist, prophet, and reformer.<br />
<br />
In La Revue Stéfane Pol discusses the question<br />
«“ Gomment combattre VYalcolisme.” M. Claude<br />
Anet writes on “Les chevaliers du vol aux Etats<br />
Unis,” and M. Garofolo on “Ta Orimonologie<br />
Moderne.” In La Quinzaine the Vicomte<br />
@ Adhémar writes on ‘Science eb Philosophie ”<br />
(a propos du radium), and M. de Contenson<br />
an interesting article on “ Le Devoir social de<br />
Vacheteur.”<br />
<br />
In the Jercure de France there is an article by<br />
Alexandra Myrial on “ Le Pouvoir religieux au<br />
Thibet,” and some hitherto unpublished letters of<br />
Chateaubriand.<br />
<br />
The great theatrical event of the month has been<br />
the staging of “ King Lear” at the Théatre<br />
Antoine. The translation is by MM. Pierre Loti<br />
and Vedel. The play is admirably put on and<br />
seems likely to prove a great success.<br />
<br />
“Notre Jeunesse,” by Alfred Capus, is a most<br />
<br />
brilliant play, in which the working out of the<br />
thesis and the dialogue are excellent. It is dis-<br />
tinctly a piece a these. Lucien Briant, who is very<br />
happily married, has an illegitimate daughter whom<br />
he has never seen. He is a good-natured, kind-<br />
hearted man, but with no will of his own. His<br />
old father is a veritable tyrant and a cynic. He<br />
lives with his son and his daughter-in-law, and in<br />
the first act it is very evident that Madame Briant<br />
has come to the end of her patience as regards<br />
submission to the caprices of her husband’s<br />
father, Her husband is absorbed in business<br />
affairs ; she finds her country life dull and<br />
monotonous, and in desperation commences a<br />
flirtation with a man whose love adventures<br />
have made him famous in social circles. Just<br />
at this dangerous moment in Madame Briant’s<br />
life the sister of one of her husband’s oldest friends<br />
tells her the story of Lucien’s daughter. Madame<br />
Briant sees the young girl, and, longing as she does,<br />
for some serious object in life, she determines to<br />
adopt her. The two women arrange the whole<br />
affair, and Lucien, to his horror, is confronted by<br />
his daughter. To explain everything to his old<br />
father is no easy task, and he is finally in despair<br />
at the turn matters are taking. His father will<br />
not hear of the adoption of the new found daughter<br />
and his wife treats him as a coward for not listen-<br />
ing to the voice of his own conscience. Inthe end<br />
the women prevail and Lucien, for the first time in<br />
his life opposes his father, who remains obdurate.<br />
The whole play is a brilliant satire on many phases<br />
of social life, but it is the satire of an optimist, and<br />
not that of a cynic.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
M. Jules Lemaitre has read his new comedy,<br />
“Ta Massiére” at the Renaissance Theatre.<br />
M. Antoine has accepted a piece by M. Antoine<br />
Bibesco, entitled “ Guet Apens.”<br />
Atys HALLARD.<br />
<br />
——_—_——_1— > —__———_<br />
<br />
UNITED STATES NOTES.<br />
ee:<br />
<br />
OLITICAL distractions seem to have produced<br />
little or no effect upon the literary world of<br />
America; and though exact statistics are not<br />
as yet to hand, it may- be stated without fear of<br />
contradiction that 1904 has been by no means a bad<br />
year for those interested in book-production, Some<br />
signs of a tendency to redress the balance between<br />
fiction and other literature have shown themselv4s,<br />
apart from such temporary influences as the war in<br />
the Far East and the Presidential election.<br />
<br />
An anonymous publisher, who has been printing<br />
his “ Confessions ” in the “ Boston Transcript,” has<br />
much to say on the subject of the commercialisa-<br />
tion of literature. He admits the fact, but denies<br />
the degradation which has been considered a<br />
necessary corollary to it. “There is much less<br />
reason to fear the commercial degradation of many<br />
other callings than the publishers,” he concludes<br />
cheerfully.<br />
<br />
But the most piquant part of the “ Confessions ”<br />
is supplied by certain admissions which constitute<br />
a considerable deduction from this conclusion.<br />
While admitting that ‘the very best traditions of<br />
publishing are yet a part of the practice of the best<br />
American publishing houses,” we are told that<br />
there are others who keep “ Literary drummers 4<br />
to look up popular authors and solicit books,<br />
instead of respecting each other’s clientéle. ‘* There<br />
are two men in the United States who have gone<br />
about making commercial calls on practically every<br />
man and woman who has ever written a successful<br />
book ”—says our authority. This, he concedes, is<br />
“demoralisation and commercialisation with a<br />
vengeance.” But, it seems, “ it is the sin of the<br />
authors.” Here we must interpose a word. Whilst<br />
far from standing forth as a partisan of the afore-<br />
said “ Literary drummer,” or any such person, the<br />
contention urged in favour of the old system of<br />
each house respecting the other’s authors seems to<br />
us to be pressed unduly when it is argued that the<br />
relation between author and<br />
able to that between patient and physician. And<br />
even if the analogy holds, it may sometimes be<br />
<br />
expedient for an author to change his publisher, as<br />
<br />
it is for a patient to have fresh advice.<br />
In connection with the abuses of fiction adver-<br />
tising, our anonymous publisher lets himself go in<br />
<br />
publisher is compar-—<br />
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<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
a healthy way and is justly severe upon “ Sapon-<br />
aceous publishers,” “Soap - novelists,” and the<br />
“ Wabash method.” But he assures us that these<br />
things are not so successfulas they seem. “ There<br />
is, I think, not a single soap-novelist who has put<br />
forth a subsequent novel of as great popularity as<br />
his “record breaker,” and he has even sometimes<br />
brought ultimate ruin upon his publisher. Good<br />
books to begin with, and personal sincerity on the<br />
part of the publisher, these are laid down, and we<br />
think rightly, as the prime requisites of good<br />
publishing.<br />
<br />
Whether the retailing of “personal and com-<br />
mercial gossip” by magazines and literary journals<br />
is So serious an evil as is represented we take leave<br />
to doubt ; and we are not so sure as the anonymous<br />
censor that “the one thing that is certain is that<br />
the critical crew and the academic faculty ” are<br />
sure not to recognise good literature when they see<br />
it. One has heard this before, but is loth to<br />
believe it.<br />
<br />
And now to take a survey of the crop. The<br />
list of fall announcements totalled some twelve<br />
hundred books, but these include a fair proportion<br />
of works by British writers. Poetry is as scant in<br />
bulk and import as usual, but history and biography<br />
are proportionately well represented. Literary criti-<br />
cism shows some vitality, whilst fiction displays<br />
its perennial luxuriance, and writers on politics<br />
and economics have something substantial to<br />
offer. Theology and ethics will, of course, always<br />
flourish in a nation the basis of whose civilisation<br />
is Teutonic. Once more we have to confess that<br />
there is no single volume which can claim the<br />
attribute “great,” though there are not a few of<br />
considerable interest and some of abiding merit.<br />
No new writer of anything like first rank has<br />
arisen, and no one of the old favourites has to any<br />
great extent advanced his position. A good<br />
average level has been maintained in original<br />
work, and there has been a noticeably increasing<br />
demand for reprints of English classics. Thackeray<br />
in particular seems to be called for at present : an<br />
editorial in the Dial speaks of four yards of him<br />
standing on the writer’s desk! This must, we<br />
think, be noted as a sign of literary health,<br />
though some might deem it a symptom of decay.<br />
<br />
The late Mr. Lafcadio Hearn’s “Japan: an<br />
attempt at Interpretation,” is possibly the most<br />
remarkable work emanating from an American-<br />
trained author. It has a literary quality which<br />
scarcely distinguishes such scholarly excursions<br />
into the same subject as Professor George W.<br />
Knox’s “ Japanese Life in Town and Country ” or<br />
Mr. Alfred Stead’s compilation, “ Japan by the<br />
Japanese.”’<br />
<br />
Two biographical works which call for special<br />
comment are Captain Robert E. Lee’s “ Recollec-<br />
<br />
101<br />
<br />
tions and Letters” of his father, the Confederate<br />
General, and Moncure D. Conway’s “ Autobio-<br />
graphy.” The memoir of General Lee is founded<br />
upon his letters to his wife, a descendant of Martha<br />
Washington, and upon his son’s reminiscences<br />
which begin with the father’s return from the<br />
Mexican war, in which he won his spurs as a<br />
soldier. Lee comes ont well, both as man and<br />
general, in his son’s book, and shines little less in<br />
peace than in war. The mutual appreciation of<br />
himself and Stonewall Jackson is especially<br />
touching, and his conduct towards the future<br />
biographer, who served some time under him as a<br />
private, has quite a Roman touch,<br />
<br />
Mr. Conway’s book will be more familiar to<br />
English readers, but the part of his life anterior to<br />
1864, when he settled in London, describes a<br />
notable phase of American development which will<br />
appeal chiefly to those who live in the land of his<br />
birth. The influence of Emerson is very marked.<br />
<br />
Another book has been written upon the Con-<br />
cord sage. It comes from the pen of Elizabeth<br />
Luther Cary, who is an experienced hand in literary<br />
biography. It is a well-balanced and capable<br />
study, erring only in an undue appreciation of the<br />
philosopher’s poetic gifts.<br />
<br />
Another autobiography, that of Rear-Admiral<br />
Schley, treats of quite another world and breathes<br />
a very different air. It is interesting to hear that<br />
it was Captain Marryat who first sent Schley to<br />
the sea, and also that Farragut used the expression,<br />
“JT want none of this Nelson business in my<br />
squadron about not seeing signals,” when<br />
Lieutenant Schley in an action with the Con-<br />
federates misinterpreted a signal to withdraw<br />
from action.<br />
<br />
The story of the Greely relief expedition is<br />
also highly interesting reading; the later and<br />
more contemporary parts of the book are im-<br />
portant but, of course, controversial.<br />
<br />
General James Grant Wilson’s “Thackeray in<br />
the United States” will be too well known already<br />
to readers of these Notes to call for further com-<br />
ment. Its publication may be partially responsible<br />
for the present large American demand for the<br />
works of the author it treats of.<br />
<br />
Other biographies which can only be named<br />
here are Augustus C. Buell’s “ History of Andrew<br />
Jackson,” Joseph M. Roger’s “The True Henry<br />
Clay,” and “The Life, Letters, and Travels of<br />
Father De Smet,” four volumes compiled by<br />
Captain Hiram M. Chittenden and A. T. Richard-<br />
gon.<br />
<br />
In_ historical literature Dr. Reuben Gold<br />
Thwaites has been indefatigable as ever; Messrs.<br />
William Estabrook Chancellor and Fletcher Willis<br />
Hewes have brought out the first two parts of their<br />
“History of the United States ;” and the initial<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
102<br />
<br />
volumes of Rufus Rockwell Wilson’s ‘Source<br />
Books of American History” have been issued.<br />
“The Evolution of the U.S. Constitution and<br />
History of the Monroe Doctrine,” by Dr. John<br />
A. Kasson, is an important item in Messrs.<br />
Houghton, Mifflin and Co.’s list ; and Cyrus<br />
Townsend Brady’s ten years’ story of “ Indian<br />
Fights and Fighters,” is worthy of mention.<br />
“The Historian’s History of the World,” a little<br />
work in 25 vols. is now reported as ‘ complete.”<br />
<br />
Charles Eliot Norton’s publication of the<br />
letters written to him by John Ruskin is a matter<br />
of moment to both continents, as also perhaps are<br />
Thackeray’s letters to the Baxter family.<br />
<br />
In fiction there have been new works by Henry<br />
James, W. D. Howells, and Marion Crawford.<br />
The first and third scarcely rank nowadays as<br />
American authors; but Mr. Howells will always<br />
be a true American. His latest novel, “ The<br />
Son of Royal Langbrith,” is one of his very best<br />
New England problem stories, the problem in this<br />
case being concerned with the treatment, of an<br />
unworthy father’s memory.<br />
<br />
Among younger masters of the craft, Mr.<br />
Stewart White has followed up “The Blazed<br />
Trail”? and “The Forest,” by a worthy successor,<br />
“The Mountains”; George Barr McCutcheon,<br />
has written a sequel to “ Graustark ” (‘ Beverley<br />
of Graustark”) which has recently been at the<br />
top of the “best sellers” ; and the author of the<br />
celebrated Self-made Merchant’s Letters has pro-<br />
duced in “Old Gorgon Graham” a new series<br />
which do not show the usual falling-off of a<br />
sequel. Another “best seller,” “The Affair at<br />
the Inn,” was inspired and directed by Kate<br />
Douglas Wiggin, but, as readers of the AUTHOR<br />
_will be aware, was written in England in collabo-<br />
ration with two English ladies and a gentleman.<br />
<br />
Mr. Robert Grant has written in “The Under-<br />
current” a novel which discusses the divorce ques-<br />
tion in a candid and interesting manner.<br />
<br />
The authorship of the clever “ Jessica Letters”<br />
has been revealed. It belongs to Mrs. Lundy<br />
Howard Harris and Mr. Paul Elmer.<br />
<br />
Mr. Jack London has again delighted his<br />
admirers with “The Sea Wolf,” and Messrs. H.<br />
L. Wilson and E. Phillips Oppenheim have satisfied<br />
theirs with “The Seeker” and ‘ The Betrayal.”<br />
<br />
A promising first appearance has been made<br />
by Miss Edith Rickert with her story of the<br />
Shetland Isles, called “The Reaper.” ‘ Wanted,<br />
a Cook,” by Alan Dale, has reached a large<br />
public.<br />
<br />
We should not conclude this imperfect survey<br />
without a passing allusion to two widely different<br />
works. Dr. William J. Rolfe’s valuable “ Life of<br />
Shakespeare,” and Miss Ida M. Tarbell’s meri-<br />
torious “ History of the Standard Oil Trust.”<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Life is not long enough for us to enter into the<br />
merits of the dispute between those who claim<br />
and those who deny the exclusive right to use the<br />
title of Webster’s Dictionary.<br />
<br />
Our obituary list contains few important names.<br />
There is Lafcadio Hearn, the American journalist,<br />
who ended a romantic career by becoming a<br />
Japanese subject and professor, and left a legacy<br />
of many charming books upon his adopted<br />
country.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Euphemia Vale Blake, who reached the<br />
advanced age of eighty-eight, was the author of<br />
“Arctic Experiences” and “A History of<br />
Tammany Hall,” amongst other works.<br />
<br />
Prof. Charles Woodruff Shields, of Princeton,<br />
was a well-known writer on the science of<br />
religion, who abandoned Presbyterianism to become<br />
an Episcopalian. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop’s<br />
name will endure in her books of travel in Asia<br />
and North America. It is more doubtful whether<br />
Jol. Prentiss Ingraham will find a place among<br />
the Immortals, in spite of the thousand novels<br />
which he left behind him.<br />
<br />
—_———_+—_>—_+__—_<br />
<br />
HINTS ON PRODUCTION.<br />
<br />
+<br />
<br />
Il.<br />
Mov.LpING, STEREOTYPING OR ELECTROTYPING.<br />
<br />
TT keep type standing for any period without<br />
a rental is not fair to the printer; therefore<br />
if the work is likely to be reprinted later on,<br />
<br />
it should be either stereotyped or electrotyped.<br />
<br />
If the probability of a reprint being required is<br />
small, moulding is a tentative process which does<br />
not cost very much. This is the preliminary stage<br />
of stereotyping by the papier-maché method. The<br />
moulds are readily stored, and if required later<br />
on may be easily cast from, the two methods of<br />
moulding and casting, done at two different periods,<br />
costing very little more in the aggregate than if<br />
stereotyped direct in the first place. But if there is<br />
acertainty that plates will be required, either stereo-<br />
type or electrotype plates may be made at the<br />
outset. The first is the cheaper kind, but the<br />
second, although dearer, is more serviceable if<br />
several editions are likely to be required.<br />
<br />
Here again it may be assumed roughly that the<br />
charges for these respective methods are—<br />
<br />
Moulding ... 4d. per sq. in.<br />
Stereotyping (at some Sd. in<br />
future date) from all.<br />
<br />
moulds oe ads. i<br />
Stereotyping direct ... 34. 5 5<br />
<br />
Electrotyping ... ald<br />
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<br />
THE AUTHOR. 103<br />
<br />
PAPERS.<br />
<br />
Paper isthe next important thing to be dealt with,<br />
and of this necessary material there is a very large<br />
selection to choose from. Naturally that made by<br />
hand is the best kind, and roughly three or four<br />
times dearer than an average paper made by<br />
machine. For bookwork the very cheap kinds are<br />
not recommended. Another class to be avoided as<br />
far as possible is shiny paper; in fact, smooth or<br />
glossy papers are always objectionable, although,<br />
in these days of graphic literature, process blocks<br />
absolutely demand a smooth surface for the satis-<br />
factory printing of illustrations. Papers which are<br />
extremely light in bulk and those which are very<br />
heavy are also to be avoided—the first are generally<br />
too poor in substance to stand handling, and the<br />
second are objectionable from the fact that they<br />
are usually clay-loaded. A medium weight should<br />
be selected, for one can obtain a fairly light-hand-<br />
ling paper, considering the bulk, without sacrific-<br />
ing the quality in order to obtain a minimum<br />
weight. It may be taken for granted that some-<br />
thing is wrong in its manufacture when either of<br />
the extremes is manifest and the bulk of the<br />
volume is considered. A paper made with a rough<br />
antique finish naturally bulks more than one which<br />
has been calendered, but judgment must be<br />
exercised in considering the two classes of paper—<br />
both of which are necessary for the production of<br />
either plain or illustrated volumes.<br />
<br />
Papers are made as a rule to definite sizes, but<br />
in the case of those produced by machine these<br />
sizes can be varied. Sheets for printing purposes<br />
are frequently made in double and quadruple sizes,<br />
in order to facilitate and cheapen production, but<br />
we need only give the single or more ordinary sizes<br />
with the publishers’ or booksellers’ equivalents in<br />
4to and 8vo:<br />
<br />
Printers’ Size of Publishers’ Sizes.<br />
<br />
Sheet. Quarto. Octavo.<br />
mppetial .., 30 x 22) .. Ib xl 3. 1 x 7%<br />
Super Royal 274 x 203 ... 133 x 10} ... 10} x 6%<br />
Royal soe 20 Le x 0 LO x 6<br />
moon 3. 24 % 19°. 12° =< OF 298 x 6<br />
Demy po eee te LE xe Be. SEK OF<br />
Post oe 20 16) a IO ee 8<br />
Crown ey 20 «16 10 x 1 1d Kb<br />
Foolseap ... 17 x 13} SA xX 6 ... 6) x 4<br />
Pat -.. 164 x 12} We x 642 6k x OE<br />
<br />
Books in quarto or octavo if with cut edges<br />
would measure slightly less, especially in height.<br />
The bulk of books as regards thickness cannot be<br />
foretold to a nicety, nor can the weight be quite<br />
determined, without a size or pattern copy being<br />
made up out of the exact paper, for, as before<br />
explained, the material used in making and the<br />
precise finish of the sheets does very considerably<br />
affect the exact bulking proportions of the paper.<br />
<br />
A ream consists of 500 sheets nominally, and<br />
papers are made to certain weights—so many<br />
pounds to a ream of a given size. An average<br />
weight of an ordinary paper in double crown size<br />
(30 x 20 in.) such as is used for a novel, if the<br />
paper is ofan antique character, may be 36 lb., and<br />
the equivalent weight in demy (224 x 174 in.)<br />
and double foolscap (27 x 17 in.) would be 24]b.<br />
and 27 lb. respectively.<br />
<br />
The cost prices of average papers may be taken<br />
for the purposes of calculation at 3d. per lb. per<br />
machine and about 1s. per lb. for those made<br />
by hand, but, of course, there are many qualities of<br />
each kind, both cheaper and dearer.<br />
<br />
ILLUSTRATIONS.<br />
<br />
The question of method to be adopted for illus-<br />
trating a work is an important matter and requires<br />
careful consideration. The old books were nearly<br />
all made beautiful with engravings on copper or on<br />
wood—the latter mostly. Although these methods<br />
were the most artistic, the expenses of production<br />
were great and at the same time very slow.<br />
Reproductive processes are so numerous now-a-<br />
days, so cheap, and at the same time so expeditious,<br />
that the choice is somewhat bewildering to many.<br />
By means of photography almost anything can be<br />
reproduced by these mechanical processes, and the<br />
methods mostly employed for illustrating books<br />
are those of photogravure, collotype, half-tone and<br />
line blocks. The first two are adapted for the<br />
separate plates of any volume, and are the more<br />
expensive kinds, especially the first. The other<br />
two methods are best for textual illustrations,<br />
although unfortunately it is a sime qua non that<br />
for all half-tone blocks very smooth paper must be<br />
used in order to bring out the full effects of tone.<br />
To avoid the use of this paper it is best to adopt<br />
the line method of reproduction as far as possible,<br />
for all drawings or pictures in wash or photo-<br />
graphs can only be made by the half-tone process.<br />
With regard to prices for all these processes it is<br />
somewhat difficult to give instances, for in the first<br />
place there is always a minimum charge for each<br />
subject, because any single reproduction is not worth<br />
handling below acertain price. In forming an idea<br />
of cost the making of photogravure plates costs<br />
about 2s. per inch; half-tone blocks range any-<br />
where between 9. and 1s., and line blocks half the<br />
price of half-tone. In all these cases the original<br />
plates or blocks can be held for future use, but with<br />
collotype plates it is a different matter, for. the<br />
method consists of printing from a gelatine film<br />
which has to be made from the negative and<br />
renewed from time to time in course of printing<br />
off. It may be taken for granted that for full page<br />
or separate plates, when only short numbers are<br />
volumes of Rufus Rockwell Wilson’s ‘ Source<br />
Books of American History’? have been issued.<br />
“The Evolution of the U.S. Constitution and<br />
History of the Monroe Doctrine,” by Dr. John<br />
A. Kasson, is an important item in Messrs.<br />
Houghton, Mifflin and Co.’s list ; and Cyrus<br />
Townsend Brady’s ten years’ story of “ Indian<br />
Fights and Fighters,” is worthy of mention.<br />
“The Historian’s History of the World,” a little<br />
work in 25 vols. is now reported as “ complete.”<br />
<br />
Charles Eliot Norton’s publication of the<br />
letters written to him by John Ruskin is a matter<br />
of moment to both continents, as also perhaps are<br />
Thackeray’s letters to the Baxter family.<br />
<br />
In fiction there have been new works by Henry<br />
James, W. D. Howells, and Marion Crawford.<br />
The first and third scarcely rank nowadays as<br />
American authors; but Mr. Howells will always<br />
be a true American. His latest novel, ‘“ The<br />
Son of Royal Langbrith,” is one of his very best<br />
New England problem stories, the problem in this<br />
case being concerned with the treatment of an<br />
unworthy father’s memory.<br />
<br />
Among younger masters of the craft, Mr.<br />
Stewart White has followed up “The Blazed<br />
Trail? and “The Forest,” by a worthy successor,<br />
“The Mountains”; George Barr McCutcheon,<br />
has written a sequel to “ Graustark” (“ Beverley<br />
of Graustark”) which has recently been at the<br />
top of the “ best sellers” ; and the author of the<br />
celebrated Self-made Merchant’s Letters has pro-<br />
duced in “Old Gorgon Graham” a new series<br />
which do not show the usual falling-off of a<br />
sequel. Another “best seller,” “ The Affair at<br />
the Inn,” was inspired and directed by Kate<br />
Douglas Wiggin, but, as readers of the AUTHOR<br />
<br />
_will be aware, was written in England in collabo-<br />
ration with two English ladies and a gentleman.<br />
<br />
Mr. Robert Grant has written in “The Under-<br />
current” a novel which discusses the divorce ques-<br />
tion in a candid and interesting manner.<br />
<br />
The authorship of the clever “ Jessica Letters”<br />
has been revealed. It belongs to Mrs. Lundy<br />
Howard Harris and Mr. Paul Elmer.<br />
<br />
Mr, Jack London has again delighted his<br />
admirers with “The Sea Wolf,” and Messrs. H.<br />
L. Wilson and E. Phillips Oppenheim have satisfied<br />
theirs with “The Seeker” and “ The Betrayal.”<br />
<br />
A promising first appearance has been made<br />
by Miss Edith Rickert with her story of the<br />
Shetland Isles, called “The Reaper.” « Wanted,<br />
a Cook,” by Alan Dale, has reached a large<br />
public.<br />
<br />
We should not conclude this imperfect survey<br />
without a passing allusion to two widely different<br />
works. Dr. William J. Rolfe’s valuable “ Life of<br />
Shakespeare,” and Miss Ida M. Tarbell’s meri-<br />
<br />
torious “ History of the Standard Oil Trust.”<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Life is not long enough for us to enter into the<br />
merits of the dispute between those who claim<br />
and those who deny the exclusive right to use the<br />
title of Webster’s Dictionary.<br />
<br />
Our obituary list contains few important names.<br />
There is Lafcadio Hearn, the American journalist,<br />
who ended a romantic career by becoming a<br />
Japanese subject and professor, and left a legacy<br />
of many charming books upon his adopted<br />
country.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Euphemia Vale Blake, who reached the<br />
advanced age of eighty-eight, was the author of<br />
“Arctic Experiences” and “ A History of<br />
Tammany Hall,” amongst other works.<br />
<br />
Prof. Charles Woodruff Shields, of Princeton,<br />
was a well-known writer on the science of<br />
religion, who abandoned Presbyterianism to become<br />
an Episcopalian. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop’s<br />
name will endure in her books of travel in Asia<br />
and North America. It is more doubtful whether<br />
Col. Prentiss Ingraham will find a place among<br />
the Immortals, in spite of the thousand novels<br />
which he left behind him.<br />
<br />
—___—_+ <> —__—_<br />
<br />
HINTS ON PRODUCTION.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
Il.<br />
MovuLpine, STEREOTYPING OR ELECTROTYPING.<br />
<br />
O keep type standing for any period without<br />
a rental is not fair to the printer; therefore<br />
if the work is likely to be reprinted later on,<br />
it should be either stereotyped or electrotyped.<br />
<br />
If the probability of a reprint being required is<br />
small, moulding is a tentative process which does<br />
not cost very much. This is the preliminary stage<br />
of stereotyping by the papier-maché method. The<br />
moulds are readily stored, and if required later<br />
on may be easily cast from, the two methods of<br />
moulding and casting, done at two different periods,<br />
costing very little more in the aggregate than if<br />
stereotyped direct in the first place. But if there is<br />
acertainty that plates will be required, either stereo-<br />
type or electrotype plates may be made at the<br />
outset. The first is the cheaper kind, but the<br />
second, although dearer, is more serviceable if<br />
several editions are likely to be required.<br />
<br />
Here again it may be assumed roughly that the<br />
charges for these respective methods are—<br />
<br />
Moulding a ... $d. per sq. in.<br />
Stereotyping (at som Sd. in<br />
future date) from all.<br />
<br />
moulds s oo ide, os<br />
Stereotyping direct ... 4d. , 5<br />
Electrotyping ... 1d, o<br />
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E 2<br />
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<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
PAPERS.<br />
<br />
Paper isthe next important thing to be dealt with,<br />
and of this necessary material there is a very large<br />
selection to choose from. Naturally that made by<br />
hand is the best kind, and roughly three or four<br />
times dearer than an average paper made by<br />
machine. For bookwork the very cheap kinds are<br />
not recommended. Another class to be avoided as<br />
far as possible is shiny paper; in fact, smooth or<br />
glossy papers are always objectionable, although,<br />
in these days of graphic literature, process blocks<br />
absolutely demand a smooth surface for the satis-<br />
factory printing of illustrations. Papers which are<br />
extremely light in bulk and those which are very<br />
heavy are also to be avoided—the first are generally<br />
too poor in substance to stand handling, and the<br />
second are objectionable from the fact that they<br />
are usually clay-loaded. A medium weight should<br />
be selected, for one can obtain a fairly light-hand-<br />
ling paper, considering the bulk, without sacrific-<br />
ing the quality in order to obtain a minimum<br />
weight. It may be taken for granted that some-<br />
thing is wrong in its manufacture when either of<br />
the extremes is manifest and the bulk of the<br />
volume is considered. A paper made with a rough<br />
antique finish naturally bulks more than one which<br />
has been calendered, but judgment must be<br />
exercised in considering the two classes of paper—<br />
both of which are necessary for the production of<br />
either plain or illustrated volumes.<br />
<br />
Papers are made as a rule to definite sizes, but<br />
in the case of those produced by machine these<br />
sizes can be varied. Sheets for printing purposes<br />
are frequently made in double and quadruple sizes,<br />
in order to facilitate and cheapen production, but<br />
we need only give the single or more ordinary sizes<br />
with the publishers’ or booksellers’ equivalents in<br />
4to and 8vo:<br />
<br />
Printers’ Size of Publishers’ Sizes.<br />
<br />
Sheet. Quarto. Octavo.<br />
Imperial on ee ee Ib eT Tx Tk<br />
Super Royal 274 x 204 ... 13% x 104 ... 10} x 6%<br />
Royal mee oe 20 AE 10, 10 KGS<br />
Medium 22019 12 OR Oe 6<br />
Demy sa coy X 1 ALE &K 8e We. 2 8S KX BS<br />
Post ee lO 6 10 oe) Be coe Bene<br />
Crown peel 15 10 ee TR a<br />
Foolscap ... 17 x 133 .- 83 x 62 ... 6% x 44<br />
Pots pe Oe IDE eK 6). OF Xk 38<br />
<br />
Books in quarto or octavo if with cut edges<br />
would measure slightly less, especially in height.<br />
The bulk of books as regards thickness cannot be<br />
foretold to a nicety, nor can the weight be quite<br />
determined, without a size or pattern copy being<br />
made up out of the exact paper, for, as before<br />
explained, the material used in making and the<br />
precise finish of the sheets does very considerably<br />
affect the exact bulking proportions of the paper.<br />
<br />
108<br />
<br />
A ream consists of 500 sheets nominally, and<br />
papers are made to certain weights—so many<br />
pounds to a ream of a given size. An average<br />
weight of an ordinary paper in double crown size<br />
(30 x 20 in.) such as is used for a novel, if the<br />
paper is ofan antique character, may be 36 Ib., and<br />
the equivalent weight in demy (224 x 17k in.)<br />
and double foolscap (27 x 17 in.) would be 241b.<br />
and 27 Ib. respectively.<br />
<br />
The cost prices of average papers may be taken<br />
for the purposes of calculation at 3d. per lb. per<br />
machine and about 1s. per lb. for those made<br />
by hand, but, of course, there are many qualities of<br />
each kind, both cheaper and dearer.<br />
<br />
ILLUSTRATIONS.<br />
<br />
The question of method to be adopted for illus-<br />
trating a work is an important matter and requires<br />
careful consideration. The old books were nearly<br />
all made beautiful with engravings on copper or on<br />
wood—the latter mostly. Although these methods<br />
were the most artistic, the expenses of production<br />
were great and at the same time very slow.<br />
<br />
teproductive processes are so numerous now-a-<br />
days, so cheap, and at the same time so expeditious,<br />
that the choice is somewhat bewildering to many.<br />
By means of photography almost anything can be<br />
reproduced by these mechanical processes, and the<br />
methods mostly employed for illustrating books<br />
are those of photogravure, collotype, half-tone and<br />
line blocks. The first two are adapted for the<br />
separate plates of any volume, and are the more<br />
expensive kinds, especially the first. The other<br />
two methods are best for textual illustrations,<br />
although unfortunately it is a sine qua non that<br />
for all half-tone blocks very smooth paper must be<br />
used in order to bring out the full effects of tone.<br />
To avoid the use of this paper it is best to adopt<br />
the line method of reproduction as far as possible,<br />
for all drawings or pictures in wash or photo-<br />
graphs can only be made by the half-tone process.<br />
With regard to prices for all these processes it is<br />
somewhat difficult to give instances, for in the first<br />
place there is always a minimum charge for each<br />
subject, because any single reproduction is not worth<br />
handling below acertain price. In forming an idea<br />
of cost the making of photogravure plates costs<br />
about 2s. per inch ; half-tone blocks range any-<br />
where between 9d. and 1s., and line blocks half the<br />
price of half-tone. In all these cases the original<br />
plates or blocks can be held for future use, but with<br />
collotype plates it is a different matter, for. the<br />
method consists of printing from a gelatine film<br />
which has to be made from the negative and<br />
renewed from time to time in course of printing<br />
off. It may be taken for granted that for full page<br />
or separate plates, when only short numbers are<br />
<br />
<br />
104<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
required, collotype pictures sometimes cost less<br />
than half-tone illustrations because of the initial<br />
cost of the block ; but, on the other hand, should<br />
a long number of copies be required of these<br />
separate plates, the initial cost of making half-tone<br />
blocks or even photogravure plates is merged into<br />
the total cost of producing the illustration.<br />
<br />
Press WORK.<br />
<br />
This term embraces all printing off, whether by<br />
hand or by machine. As already explained, to<br />
cheapen the cost of production of books, printing<br />
machines are now made much larger in size and<br />
paper may be obtained to suit the requirements of<br />
those machines. For instance, a crown 8vo novel<br />
is generally printed on a sheet of quad crown,<br />
40 x 30 in., which would contain 64 pages when<br />
printed both sides. This is a consideration when<br />
the number to be printed is fairly large. Prices for<br />
ordinary plain printing (that is, without illustra-<br />
tions) are charged as reams of 500 printed both<br />
sides, which means 1,000 impressions for each ream.<br />
These charges vary according to the size of sheet<br />
employed in printing, and depend also on the<br />
quality of the work. It should be noted that it<br />
is important that all printing should be firm,<br />
black, clean and even in “colour” throughout.<br />
A yolume which has been carefully designed in<br />
its format is sometimes spoiled by bad or careless<br />
press work, and possibly by the use of a common<br />
or poor ink, which gives off a weak or gray effect<br />
that is trying to the eyes in reading.<br />
<br />
BINDING.<br />
<br />
This is the final stage in the making of a book,<br />
which also requires some consideration. For most<br />
books a publisher’s (i.e, cloth) binding suffices.<br />
There are many varieties of cloths, linens, and<br />
other fabrics to be selected from, and if gold is to<br />
be employed on the cover for lettering or for a special<br />
design, do not let it be too prominent, for, as a<br />
rule, a mass of gold looks vulgar, especially if a<br />
common kind be used. A design blocked in ink<br />
is in better taste provided the ink harmonizes with<br />
the covering material of the case. Besides, ink is<br />
much cheaper than gold, and really looks more<br />
effective ifa good design has been prepared for it.<br />
The question of cutting or not cutting the edges<br />
of a volume should be determined by the character<br />
of the work. A book which is going to be read<br />
straight off, or a reference volume, should have<br />
the edges cut all round, but éditions de luxe and<br />
other dainty editions, or any work printed on<br />
handmade paper, should be left untouched.<br />
<br />
Cuas. T. JACOBI.<br />
<br />
Oe 9<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
AUTHORS AND INCOME TAX.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
S disputes have frequently arisen between<br />
authors and income tax collectors con-<br />
cerning the amount due to the Revenue on<br />
<br />
the sums that authors receive in payment for their<br />
literary work, the Committee decided to place a<br />
full statement of the case before counsel with a<br />
view of obtaining his opinion on the issues, The<br />
following case therefore, prepared by the secretary,<br />
and approved by the solicitors, with counsel’s<br />
opinion on the questions, is printed below.<br />
<br />
CASE,<br />
<br />
In order that the subject may be considered<br />
in its completeness, it is necessary to put forward<br />
in some detail the methods adopted between authors<br />
and publishers.<br />
<br />
The usual forms of agreement between author<br />
and publisher for the publication of books may,<br />
perhaps, be enumerated as follows :—<br />
<br />
(1) A sale out-right, in which the author<br />
transfers to the publisher his copyright and all<br />
other rights and receives alump sum. Sometimes<br />
in one payment and sometimes by instalments (say<br />
on delivery of MS.: passing of last proofs and<br />
publication).<br />
<br />
(2) A profit-sharing agreement, a form much<br />
less common now than some years ago. In some<br />
cases the.copyright is transferred to the publisher ;<br />
in others it is retained by the author. As a<br />
general rule the author provides the MS. and the<br />
publisher the cost of production, advertisement, etc,<br />
The whole monetary outlay is placed on the debit<br />
side of the account, with any commission that the<br />
publisher charges, and the return from the sales is<br />
placed on the other side of the account, and the<br />
proceeds are divided in the proportions agreed on,<br />
but the author is not liable to bear any portion of<br />
the loss in case the book, on the accounts, does not<br />
show a balance to thegood. This form of contract<br />
is varied in different ways : sometimes the author<br />
pays part of the cost of production and is credited<br />
with that amount, sometimes the publisher has the<br />
right to sell a certain number of copies before the<br />
profits are divided ; but the mode in which receipts<br />
and payments in respect of the joint venture in the<br />
book are dealt with remains the same.<br />
<br />
(3) An agreement based on the royalty system.<br />
It is very exceptional in the royalty agreements at<br />
present signed by authors and publishers for the<br />
author to convey his copyright to the publisher,<br />
though this does sometimes occur.<br />
generally transfers to the publisher a licence to<br />
publish, on certain terms and conditions set forth<br />
in the agreement, a fixed or unlimited number of<br />
editions or copies of the book, and receives in<br />
<br />
The author :<br />
<br />
return a payment of royalty on the published price:<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
(as distinct from the actual or discount price) on<br />
every copy sold. Of these forms of agreement<br />
there are also variations. Sometimes the author<br />
receives an advance lump sum in addition to<br />
royalties (dependent on sales), but this is certainly<br />
the exception ; sometimes, and more frequently,<br />
he receives a lump sum in advance of royalty.<br />
This amount has been held not to be repayable in<br />
case the royalty on the number of copies sold does<br />
not reach the figure advanced. Another variation<br />
is a contract for deferred royalty, where the author<br />
receives a royalty after the sale of a certain number<br />
of copies.<br />
<br />
(4) A commission agreement, where the author<br />
pays for the whole cost of production and receives<br />
in return the full amount which the publisher<br />
realises by sale of copies of the book, less his<br />
commission and any expenses incurred by him,<br />
such as advertisements.<br />
<br />
There is another class of cases to be considered,<br />
that is, authors’ receipts from contributions to<br />
magazines and other periodical literature.<br />
<br />
In some cases—contracts on this basis are most<br />
frequent nowadays—the author sells to a magazine,<br />
or periodical, or daily paper the use of his work<br />
for serial issue limited either to one paper or<br />
embracing entire serial rights. Again, it not<br />
infrequently occurs that an author sends his work<br />
up to a paper or periodical, and the work is printed<br />
without any contract. In this case, no doubt,<br />
the author does not confer the copyright<br />
on the proprietors of the publication. Lastly,<br />
there remains those cases in which the periodical<br />
purchases the copyright of the work and pays for<br />
it, the work coming under the 18th section of the<br />
Copyright Act (5 & 6 Vict. c. 45), to which counsel<br />
is referred. Very often under these circumstances<br />
the periodical makes no further use of the article,<br />
but allows the author to reprint in book form,<br />
making a formal acknowledgment or paying a small<br />
consideration. It will be best to consider the<br />
publication in a periodical or serial form as distinct<br />
from the publication of books.<br />
<br />
In the publication of books in the four examples<br />
put forward, it is submitted that as long as the<br />
author retains the copyright he has the property<br />
in his work, and therefore any royalty or profits<br />
that may be coming to him in any year should be<br />
reckoned as income of that vear on which he should<br />
be bound to pay the annual tax, either annually<br />
upon the amount he receives or by reckoning his<br />
income over a period of three years. He merely<br />
farms out or leases his work either by a licence to<br />
the publisher to publish, receiving returns by pay-<br />
ment of royalty or by a share of the profits, or<br />
again, by a licence to sell in the cases where he<br />
keeps the printing and publishing in his own<br />
hands, and makes the publisher a mere middleman<br />
<br />
105<br />
<br />
for the sale of his work. But when an author<br />
transfers his property, receiving in payment either<br />
a sum down or a share of the profits or payment by<br />
means of royalty, the question arises how far he ig<br />
to look upon the amount as income or capital, and<br />
this view seems to carry with it considerable doubt.<br />
If it is denied that moneys received for the sale of<br />
copyright are income, it will follow that an author,<br />
producing much work in a year, and selling all<br />
copyrights to his publisher, earns no taxable income,<br />
On the other hand, if such moneys be reckoned as<br />
income, the consequence can be set out in the<br />
following hypothetical case.<br />
<br />
A certain work produces in royalty £60 a year.<br />
It is sold for £600, which the author sinks in a<br />
terminable annuity of £40. The effect is to<br />
reduce his income from this source by £20 a year,<br />
but if the £600 a year is income, and a three years’<br />
average is struck, the author makes his terminable<br />
income from this source, £240 for the first year,<br />
£220 for the second, and £200 for the third, and<br />
will also have to pay income tax on his annuity of<br />
£40. Accordingly over three years the author has<br />
to pay income tax on £780, when his actual income<br />
is only £120. Supposing an author sells his copy-<br />
right for £600 to a publisher, and it is decided<br />
that this amount is to be reckoned as income, the<br />
publisher proceeds to sell the property to another,<br />
does the publisher reckon the £600 as income ?<br />
It is submitted he would not do so.<br />
<br />
Again, it should be considered whether, if<br />
an author writes works and does not proceed to<br />
publish them, and if the amount received from the<br />
sale of the copyright is to be reckoned as income, he<br />
is to make a schedule of the value of his copyrights<br />
in the return of income tax, although he may not<br />
as yet have marketed the commodity. This position<br />
seems to be untenable, and seems again to point to<br />
the fact that the property is, in itself, capital rather<br />
than income.<br />
<br />
Farther, counsel is requested to consider whether<br />
a payment in advance of royalty (under a royalty<br />
agreement which provides for the sale of the copy-<br />
right) stands on the same footing as payment of a<br />
lump sum down for the copyright.<br />
<br />
Questions of a similar kind arise when the whole<br />
serial rights in a contribution (7.e., a distinct part<br />
of the copyright) are sold to a magazine or<br />
periodical. Counsel is therefore asked to advise<br />
on the following questions :—<br />
<br />
(1) Is the sum received by an author in respect<br />
of a work of which he retains the copyright in all<br />
cases to be considered as income ?<br />
<br />
(2) Is the sum received on the sale of a copy-<br />
right to be considered as capital or income? And<br />
if capital, can a lump payment for such minor<br />
rights.as serial use, right of translation, dramatisa-<br />
tion, etc., be put on the same footing ?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
106<br />
<br />
(3) If the sum received is capital, will the<br />
<br />
liability of an author to pay income tax be varied<br />
by the method in which he receives payment—(q) by<br />
a lump sum in full discharge ; (0) by a share of<br />
the profits; (c) by a royalty ; (d) by a sum in<br />
advance of royalty ; (e) by a lump sum on sale of<br />
serial use to a magazine, periodical, or paper.<br />
<br />
(4) So far as an author’s receipts are to be<br />
treated as income, how is his payment to be<br />
regulated? Has he the right to make deductions<br />
for expenses incurred in compiling a book or<br />
in writing an article—(a) directly, as railway<br />
journeys, purchase of books, purchase of photo-<br />
‘graphs, stationery, typewriting, etc. 5 (0) indirectly,<br />
for rental of portion of his house as office ?<br />
<br />
(5) May he calculate the amounts he receives on<br />
the three-year basis ?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
CoUNSEL’S OPINION RE ASSESSMENT OF INcoME<br />
Tax ON Prorits FRoM LirERaRy, PrRo-<br />
DUCTIONS.<br />
<br />
By 5 & 6 Vict. c. 35, 8. 100, Sched. (D) :—The<br />
duties hereby granted, contained in the schedule<br />
marked (D) shall be assessed and charged under the<br />
following rules :—<br />
<br />
ScHEDULE (D).<br />
<br />
Rules for ascertaining the last-mentioned duties<br />
in the particular cases herein mentioned.<br />
<br />
First case... .<br />
<br />
Second case.—The duty to be charged in respect<br />
of professions, employments or vocations, not con-<br />
tained in any other schedule of this Act.<br />
<br />
RULES.<br />
<br />
Pirst, =...<br />
<br />
Second.—The duty to be charged shall be com-<br />
puted at a sum not less than the full amount of<br />
the balance of the profits, gains and emoluments of<br />
such professions, employments and vocations (after<br />
making such deductions, and no other, as by this Act<br />
are allowed), within the preceding year.<br />
<br />
Russ APPLYING To BoTH THE PRECEDING CASES.<br />
<br />
First.—In estimating the balance of the profits<br />
or gains to be charged according to either of the<br />
first or second cases, no sum shall be set against or<br />
deducted from such profits or gains for any disburse-<br />
ments or expenses whatever, not being wholly and<br />
exclusively laid out or expended for the purposes of<br />
such profession, employment or vocation ; nor for<br />
the rent or value of any dwelling-house or domestic<br />
offices, or any part of such dwelling-house or<br />
domestic offices, except such part thereof as may<br />
be used for the purposes of such trade or concern,<br />
not exceeding the proportion of the said rent herein-<br />
after mentioned, nor for any sum expended in any<br />
other domestic or private purposes, distinct from<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THB AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
the purposes of such trade, or of such profession,<br />
employment, or vocation. ;<br />
<br />
From the words “the amount of the balance of<br />
the profits and gains” it will be seen that<br />
income tax is intended to be a tax upon a per-<br />
son’s annual profits and gains, and such profits and<br />
gains must be ascertained on ordinary principles of<br />
commercial trading.<br />
<br />
“The rule contemplates the preparation of a<br />
balance-sheet in which proper trading disburse-<br />
ments and liabilities are to be set against trade<br />
assets, so that the surplus of the latter, if any, will<br />
represent the assessable profits or gains of the con-<br />
cern. All the other rules applicable to Schedule (D)<br />
are framed upon the same footing.” (Gresham<br />
Life Assurance Society v. Styles, (1892) A. C. per<br />
Lord Watson, p. 317.)<br />
<br />
Turning now to the questions which have been put:<br />
<br />
(1) and (2) The principle laid down in the above-<br />
mentioned judgment of Lord Watson, in my<br />
opinion, applies to the present case.<br />
<br />
Therefore, in ascertaining the amount of his<br />
profits or gains for the year an author must in<br />
all cases place upon the credit side of the balance-<br />
sheet the sum which he has received in respect of<br />
a work of which he retains the copyright. In the<br />
same manner he must account for any lump sum<br />
which he may receive on the sale of the copyright<br />
or any minor rights. Then, if after deducting any<br />
expenses which he may have incurred wholly and<br />
exclusively for the purposes of his profession or<br />
vocation a profit remains, he must pay income<br />
tax on the amount of such profit. ;<br />
<br />
There is really no mystery connected with the<br />
sales of copyright or minor rights, and they must<br />
be treated in any ordinary commercial way. I can<br />
see no difference in principle between the cases put<br />
and that of a coachbuilder who builds a carriage.<br />
'If the coachbuilder either lends out the carriage for<br />
hire or sells it there can be no doubt that in making<br />
his yearly return of profits or gains for the purpose<br />
of income tax he must bring into account the<br />
amount he receives for the hire or upon the sale. *<br />
<br />
(3) In my opinion, for the reasons already given<br />
in (1) and (2), the liability of the author to pay<br />
income tax on the amounts received will not be varied<br />
by the method in which he receives payment;<br />
although, of course, the time of payment of the tax<br />
may be, because he will only have to bring into<br />
account the amounts which he receives in the parti-<br />
cular year for which he has to make his return.<br />
<br />
(4) Here, again, the matter must be treated upon -<br />
ordinary principles of commercial trading, having<br />
regard to the restrictions imposed by the Act.<br />
<br />
The author is entitled to deduct any disburse-<br />
ments or expenses which he may have laid out or<br />
expended wholly or exclusively for the purposes of<br />
his vocation.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Therefore, in my opinion, the expenses or cost<br />
of such items as photographs, stationery and<br />
typewriting may be deducted.<br />
<br />
Books stand upon rather a different footing,<br />
because after they have been read they are still of<br />
value, and I think the proper deduction to be made<br />
would be the difference between the cost price and<br />
the present value of the book.<br />
<br />
With regard to travelling expenses I think that if<br />
they were incurred exclusively for the purpose of<br />
getting some information for the purpose of his<br />
vocation—e.y., to enable him to write a description<br />
of a particular place or to inspect a particular<br />
document—they might be deducted.<br />
<br />
In making any of the above deductions it must be<br />
remembered that the expenses need not necessarily<br />
be appropriated to any particular book or work, so<br />
long as they are incurred in the period for which<br />
the return is made and were incurred wholly and<br />
exclusively by the author for the purpose of his<br />
vocation.<br />
<br />
With regard to the rental of a portion of his<br />
house as an office, I think that the author would be<br />
entitled to deduct it if it can be proved that<br />
such portion of the house is used exclusively for<br />
the purpose of his profession or vocation, and if it<br />
can be shown that he would not have taken so large a<br />
house but for the fact that he was going to devote<br />
apart of it to the exercise of his vocation. The<br />
amount of such deduction would of course be sub-<br />
ject to the limits mentioned in the Income Tax Act.<br />
(See 6 Vict. ¢. 35, s. 101.)<br />
<br />
(5) By sec. 48 of 16 & 17 Vict. c. 34, the duty to<br />
be charged under Schedule (D) in respect of pro-<br />
fessions or vocations shall be computed on a sum<br />
not less than the full amount of the balance of the<br />
profits and gains of such professions or vocations<br />
upon a fair and just average of three years.<br />
<br />
If the author should have set up and commenced<br />
his profession or vocation within the three years from<br />
the date when he makes his return I think that<br />
under the first rule of the first case in Schedule (D)<br />
the computation would have to be made for one year<br />
on the average of the balance of the profits and<br />
gains from the period of first setting up.<br />
<br />
W. Ottver Hopes.<br />
<br />
7, Fig Tree Court, Temple.<br />
<br />
a<br />
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br />
<br />
-—<>— + —<br />
<br />
DECEMBER, 1904.<br />
<br />
THE ALBANY.<br />
A Shelley Letter.<br />
The Exile of Geo. Gissing.<br />
How I became an Author,<br />
The Drift of the Drama.<br />
On Giving People what they Want.<br />
<br />
By Richard Whiteing.<br />
By E. A. Morton.<br />
By Francis Gribble.<br />
<br />
107<br />
<br />
Bookman,<br />
<br />
Society in Recent Fiction. By Susan Countess of Malmes-<br />
bury, and Lady Violet Greville.<br />
<br />
Mark Rutherford’s Bunyan. By Ian Maclaren.<br />
<br />
The Feminine Note in Fiction. By Lucas Malet,<br />
<br />
CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL,<br />
<br />
Shakespeare in Scotland. By Alex. Cargill.<br />
The Romance of Old Book Collecting. By Clive Holland.<br />
<br />
CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br />
<br />
After the Reaction. By C. F. G. Masterman.<br />
<br />
The Relation between Ecclesiastical and General History.<br />
By Prof. Adolf Harnack. :<br />
<br />
Religion, Science and Miracle. 3y Sir Oliver Lodge.<br />
CORNHILL.<br />
<br />
Charles Lamb’s Commonplace Books.<br />
<br />
: By E. V. Lucas.<br />
Historical Mysteries.<br />
<br />
By Andrew Lang.<br />
<br />
THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br />
<br />
Adam Smith and Some Problems of To-day.<br />
Marriott.<br />
<br />
Artemis and Hippolytus. By J. G. Frazer.<br />
<br />
The Winged Destiny and Fiona Macleod.<br />
Goddard.<br />
<br />
The Crisis in the Book Market.<br />
Shore.<br />
<br />
The Sportsman’s Library, 1904.<br />
<br />
By Ethel<br />
By W. Teignmouth<br />
3y F. G. Aflalo.<br />
THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br />
Of Style. By C. F. Keary.<br />
<br />
The “ Trojan Women” of Kuripides.<br />
<br />
3y Gilbert Murray.<br />
The Religions of Japan.<br />
<br />
By Baron Suyematsu.<br />
<br />
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br />
<br />
The Ludlow Masque. By G. A. Nicklin.<br />
The Vicar of Morwenstow. By G. 8S. Freeman.<br />
The Pleasures of a Book Lover. By Michael Barrington.<br />
<br />
NATIONAL REVIEW.<br />
<br />
The London University and the Study of History. By<br />
<br />
Prof. Pollard.<br />
NINETEENTH CENTURY.<br />
<br />
Free Thought in the Church. By W. H. Mallock.<br />
<br />
Hymns “ Ancient’ and “ Modern.” By M. E. Jersey.<br />
<br />
The Rhodes Bequest and University Federation. By<br />
J. Churton Collins. :<br />
<br />
Queen Christina’s Pictures. By Bildt.<br />
<br />
PALL MALL MAGAZINE,<br />
Lines Written in a Copy of Henley’s “ Lyra Heroica.”<br />
By R. Ellis Roberts. 8<br />
Studies in Personality : Miss Marie Corelli. By Herbert<br />
Vivian. ee<br />
How Dr. Johnson wrote his Dictionary,<br />
Dobson.<br />
<br />
By Austin<br />
<br />
TEMPLE BAR.<br />
<br />
Richard Wagner in Zurich, By H. Alexander Clay.<br />
<br />
WorLbD’s WORK AND PBAY.,<br />
The Fourth Estate in Africa, By Leo Weinthal.<br />
<br />
There are no articles dealing with literary, dramatic, or<br />
<br />
: ; ; : 1s<br />
<br />
musical subjects in Blackwood’s Magazine, Longman’s<br />
Magazine, ov The Month,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br />
OF BOOKS.<br />
<br />
——<br />
<br />
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br />
agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br />
with literary property :—<br />
<br />
I. Selling it Outright.<br />
<br />
This is sometimes satisfactory, if @ proper price can be<br />
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br />
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br />
the Society.<br />
<br />
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br />
agreement).<br />
<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br />
<br />
C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<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. ‘Therefore keep control of the advertisements,<br />
<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br />
uniess the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
<br />
“.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. :<br />
<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor !<br />
<br />
III. The Royalty System.<br />
<br />
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br />
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br />
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br />
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br />
truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br />
with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IY. A Commission Agreement.<br />
<br />
The main points are :-—<br />
<br />
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br />
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br />
<br />
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book,<br />
<br />
General.<br />
<br />
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br />
above mentioned.<br />
<br />
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br />
<br />
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br />
the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br />
<br />
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br />
<br />
The main points which the Society has always demanded<br />
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.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br />
<br />
—_____——_+—___<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
deme Oe<br />
EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br />
Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br />
petent legal authority.<br />
2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br />
the production of a play with anyone except an established<br />
manager,<br />
<br />
108 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
8. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br />
in three or more acts :—<br />
<br />
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br />
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br />
such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br />
for production of the piece by a certain date<br />
and for proper publication of his name on the<br />
play-bills.<br />
<br />
(b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br />
perform on the basis of percentages on<br />
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br />
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br />
percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br />
in preference to the American system. Should<br />
obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed<br />
date on or before which the play should be<br />
performed.<br />
<br />
(c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br />
perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed<br />
nightly fees). ‘this method should be always<br />
avoided except in cases where the fees are<br />
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br />
other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br />
also in this case.<br />
<br />
4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br />
better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br />
paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br />
important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br />
be reserved.<br />
<br />
5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br />
be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br />
time. This is most important.<br />
<br />
6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br />
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br />
of great importance.<br />
<br />
7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br />
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br />
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br />
print the book of the words.<br />
<br />
8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br />
ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br />
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br />
consideration.<br />
<br />
9, Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br />
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br />
<br />
10, An author should remember that production of a play<br />
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br />
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br />
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br />
the beginning.<br />
<br />
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br />
is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br />
is to obtain adequate publication.<br />
<br />
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br />
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br />
tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br />
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
—___—_+—>—+-—___<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br />
<br />
—— ><br />
<br />
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br />
assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br />
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br />
<br />
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br />
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br />
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br />
property. The musical composer has very often ‘the two<br />
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br />
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THE AUTHOR,<br />
<br />
should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br />
an agreement, and should take into part. cular consideration<br />
the warnings stated above.<br />
<br />
$<<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
2<br />
<br />
1, VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
<br />
business or the administration of his property. The<br />
<br />
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br />
<br />
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br />
<br />
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br />
<br />
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br />
<br />
without any cost to the member.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br />
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br />
the Society.<br />
<br />
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts, with a copy of the book 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<br />
the document to the Society for examination,<br />
<br />
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br />
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br />
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br />
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br />
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br />
<br />
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br />
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br />
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br />
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br />
who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br />
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br />
advice concerning publishers, (2) To stamp agreements<br />
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br />
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br />
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br />
can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br />
<br />
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br />
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society,<br />
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br />
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br />
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br />
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br />
of the Society.<br />
<br />
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements, This<br />
must be done within fourteen days of first execution, The<br />
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,<br />
<br />
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br />
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br />
do some publishers. Members can make their own<br />
deductions and act accordingly.<br />
<br />
10. The subscription to the Society iis £1 1s. per<br />
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br />
<br />
109<br />
TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br />
<br />
—— 7 ——<br />
pe Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br />
behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br />
_,. part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br />
Society's safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br />
with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br />
the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble,<br />
<br />
To<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
Seg<br />
<br />
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br />
branch of its work by informing young writers<br />
<br />
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br />
treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br />
MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br />
<br />
and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br />
special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br />
Readers are writers of competence and experience, The<br />
fee is one guinea,<br />
<br />
———_—o + ___<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
—— 1<br />
HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br />
the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br />
free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br />
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
<br />
Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br />
to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br />
Gate, 8.W., 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 />
Communications and letters are invited by the<br />
Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br />
no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br />
return articles which cannot be accepted.<br />
<br />
— +<br />
<br />
The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br />
that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br />
and he requests members who do not receive an<br />
answer to important communications within two days to<br />
write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br />
<br />
y<br />
<br />
crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br />
by registered letter only.<br />
<br />
a ee ee<br />
<br />
LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br />
SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
—+—~>— +<br />
<br />
ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br />
pP either with or without Life Assurance, can<br />
be obtained from this society.<br />
Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br />
Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br />
Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHORITIES.<br />
<br />
—+—<br />
<br />
! N article by Mr. W. Teignmouth Shore,<br />
<br />
A entitled “The Crisis in the Book Market,”<br />
appears in the December number of 7'he<br />
<br />
Fortnightly. :<br />
<br />
A subject of this kind must, of necessity, appeal<br />
to members of the Society of Authors, as the<br />
prosperity of the book market must affect the<br />
author’s income. Mr. Shore has brought forward<br />
many generalities but few facts for what he terms<br />
“The Crisis in the Book Market,” and takes a<br />
very pessimistic view of the position.<br />
<br />
The first consideration of the article induces<br />
one to think that the whole system—author, trade,<br />
and reader—was running in a vicious circle, but<br />
Mr. Shore appears finally to put his finger on what<br />
he considers the weak spot, and comes to the<br />
conclusion that publishers are to blame for over-<br />
production and the consequent glutting of the<br />
market.<br />
<br />
He also states as an obiter dictum, “ Woe betide<br />
our writers if they slay the golden goose by play-<br />
ing the game of ‘heads I win, tails you lose.’”<br />
It is rather difficult to understand how playing a<br />
game of pitch and toss can slay any goose, even if<br />
it is golden; but putting this aside, why should<br />
the publisher be thus stigmatised ? As a similar<br />
remark was put forward on a former occasion, it is<br />
necessary once again to show the absurdity of the<br />
statement. Those who write and those who read<br />
are the two chief factors in this dispute. If those<br />
who read want to obtain the thoughts of those<br />
who write, and those who write are anxious to<br />
place their works amongst those who read, then if<br />
Mr. Teignmouth Shore’s “golden goose” was<br />
cleared off the market with its Christmas throat<br />
cut there would still be other means of bringing<br />
the two parties together. The readjustment of<br />
the trade would, no doubt, take a little time, but<br />
where there is supply and demand it would be<br />
bound to come at last. Although the publisher<br />
may not be exactly the “ golden goose,” it is<br />
possible that he may stimulate authors in the<br />
keen competition of the publishing business, toa<br />
production beyond the demands of the readers.<br />
‘This is what Mr. Teignmouth Shore is inclined to<br />
think has occurred. ‘Taking all things into<br />
consideration,” he says, “the bad condition of the<br />
book market can be made good only by efforts on<br />
the part of the publishers, and if these efforts are<br />
not made, the law of the survival of the fittest<br />
must take its course.”<br />
<br />
The law of the survival of the fittest must take<br />
its course in any event, and Mr. Shore, we are<br />
inclined to think, is too pessimistic.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
We have received from the publishers, Messrs.<br />
Stevens and Haynes, the 4th Edition of Mr. W. A.<br />
Copinger’s well known work on copyright, re-<br />
edited by Mr. J. M. Easton, of the Inner Temple.<br />
As the work came to hand but a short time before<br />
the issue of Zhe Author, it has been found<br />
impossible to give such consideration and care to<br />
its perusal as would be essential for a formal<br />
review. We hope, however, in another number,<br />
after an exhaustive study, to deal with the work in<br />
a manner befitting the importance of the subject.<br />
<br />
Mr. Easton, in his preface, states that some<br />
slight alterations have been made in arrange-<br />
ment, and that the increase in International Copy-<br />
right and the Judicial decisions since the last<br />
edition in 1893 have necessitated a re-writing of<br />
portions of the book dealing with this branch of<br />
the Law of Copyright.<br />
<br />
He acknowledges his indebtedness in dealitg<br />
with foreign law to “Le Droit d’ Auteur,” the<br />
organ of the Copyright Union. We have frequently<br />
had to thank the secretary and the officials con-<br />
nected with the International Bureau at Berne,<br />
and to be grateful to ‘‘ Le Droit d’ Auteur” for the<br />
careful and comprehensive way in which they have<br />
done their duty in dealing with the subject of<br />
copyright, and we are pleased to notice Mr. Easton's<br />
corroborative appreciation.<br />
<br />
In another column is printed the case set before<br />
counsel by the committee referring to the payment<br />
of Income Tax by authors, followed by counsel’s<br />
opinion on the questions submitted to him.<br />
<br />
It is somewhat amusing, with counsel’s opinion<br />
so strongly stated against The Author, to read the<br />
following utterance made by Mr. Gladstone, and<br />
recorded in Sir J. B. Robinson’s “Fifty Years<br />
of Fleet Street.”<br />
<br />
“He (Mr. Gladstone) told a story of Macaulay<br />
receiving £8,000 for his history and escaping pay-<br />
ment of Income Tax, on the ground that it was<br />
principal and not interest.”<br />
<br />
We wonder whether this was a statement of<br />
fact within Mr. Gladstone’s knowledge, or a matter<br />
of report and hearsay.<br />
<br />
It is to be feared that the Income Tax collectors<br />
have learnt their business more thoroughly since<br />
then, otherwise there would have been no need for<br />
the Society to go to the expense of obtaining<br />
counsel’s opinion.<br />
<br />
Amona the reasons or excuses put forward by<br />
publishers for offering inadequate payment to<br />
authors has been the statement that they are<br />
crippled by the excessive sums they have to. pay to<br />
the popular celebrities of the day. ‘Two instances<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
in which this ground has been alleged, one in this<br />
country, one in the United States, have recently<br />
come under our notice. It can hardly be necessary<br />
to point out that the excuse is not a good one. If<br />
the publisher pays a heavy price to an author he<br />
does so in the expectation that the transactions will<br />
lead to a corresponding profit, either directly or<br />
indirectly, as an advertisement and asa lure. If<br />
he misealculates, the publisher only proves himself<br />
wanting in business judgment. Should he offer<br />
less than fair market terms for the work of young<br />
authors, they are free to go elsewhere. There is no<br />
lack of firms ready to deal.<br />
<br />
WE regret to notice the death of Miss Adeline<br />
Sergeant, who was a member of the Society from<br />
1893 till 1898, when she resigned owing to ill-<br />
health. Miss Sergeant was the youngest daughter<br />
of the Rey. R. Sergeant, a rector in Derbyshire,<br />
and was born at Ashbourne in 1851. Her writing<br />
was, at all times, virile, strong, and engrossing.<br />
On one occasion, after she had made her name, she<br />
tried the daring experiment of publishing a book<br />
anonymously. The success of the book was remark-<br />
able, and was no doubt most satisfactory evidence<br />
to her of her continued powers. How many<br />
authors have made the experiment ? and, if they<br />
had, would obtain the same result ? We know of<br />
no similar instance.<br />
<br />
oe<br />
<br />
THE NOBEL PRIZES.<br />
<br />
— ++<br />
<br />
HE Nobel Prize for Literature has been<br />
divided between M. Mistral, the Provencal<br />
poet, and Don Jose Echegaray, the Spanish<br />
<br />
dramatist.<br />
<br />
Great Britain has, so far, been unsuccessful<br />
under the Nobel Statutes in obtaining any recog-<br />
nition for its great writers. The prizes in former<br />
years have been awarded as follows :—<br />
<br />
1901. M. Sully Prudhomme, the French poet.<br />
<br />
1902. Prof. Theodor Mommsen.<br />
<br />
1903. Mr. Bjornstjerne Bjornson.<br />
<br />
Although Great Britain has failed in literature,<br />
she has been very successful in science, last year<br />
in medicine and this year in physics. Lord<br />
Rayleigh, Professor of Natural Philosophy at the<br />
Royal Institute, and Sir William Ramsay, Pro-<br />
fessor of Chemistry at University College, have<br />
been awarded prizes this year, which are of the<br />
value of about £8,000.<br />
<br />
The Nobel Prize Committee of the Incorporated<br />
Society of Authors met at the offices of the society<br />
early last month, and passed the usual resolution for<br />
the dispatch of the circulars to those entitled to<br />
vote under the Swedish Statutes.<br />
<br />
iit<br />
<br />
As in former years, the votes will be collected<br />
before the Ist of January, and will be forwarded to<br />
Stockholm before the 1st of February. They are<br />
then laid before the Swedish Committee appointed<br />
for the purpose of selection for the award in 1905.<br />
<br />
———_—_-~» — bee<br />
<br />
LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br />
STATES.<br />
<br />
a<br />
‘[Seconp Arricnn.]<br />
<br />
I POINTED ont at some length, in the November<br />
issue of this magazine, the first important<br />
<br />
difference between our copyright law and that<br />
of the United States, as shown by recent decisions<br />
given by the American courts and now presented<br />
in the admirable compilation by Mr. Arthur 8.<br />
Hamlin.*<br />
<br />
That. first important difference, as I said, was<br />
registration. There is no copyright in America<br />
except by registration; and, even then, only if it<br />
is in the correct form prescribed by the American<br />
statute. In this respect, therefore, the very door-<br />
way to American copyright was shown to be a<br />
pitfall to the unwary ; whereas here at home we<br />
acquire copyright in books by the mere act of<br />
publication.<br />
<br />
Before proceeding to discover, from Mr. Hamlin’s<br />
instructive book, what, in America, constitutes<br />
publication, and what are the necessary consequences<br />
of it in the eyes of the American statute, whether<br />
a book be first published there, or first published<br />
elsewhere and afterwards there, let us pause for a<br />
moment to consider what may be the subject-matter<br />
of copyright in America.<br />
<br />
Subsect-MaTrer or CopyriGgur.<br />
<br />
This will not detain us long, for the examples<br />
given in this work show that America looks at this<br />
branch of copyright much as we do ourselves.<br />
<br />
I suggested in my previous article that America<br />
was still young in literature and the arts. It will<br />
scarcely be credited that she is so young as this :—<br />
A Mr. Cleland made and copyrighted a coloured<br />
photograph entitled “ Palisades Alpine Pass in<br />
Colorada.” A Mr, Thayer promptly infringed it.<br />
What was his defence? Simply that the scenery<br />
was “natural” scenery, and consequently public<br />
<br />
* Copyright Cases: A Summary of Leading American<br />
Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary<br />
Property, from 1891 to 1903; together with the Text of the<br />
United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent<br />
Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and<br />
<br />
Canada. Compiled by Arthur S, Hamlin. Published for<br />
the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P.<br />
Putnam’s Sons. 1904, $2.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
112<br />
<br />
property! More wonderful stil], he successfully<br />
defended himself on this plea at the first trial. On<br />
appeal, however, he was, of course, put out of court<br />
at once. So a photograph of natural scenery,<br />
however “natural ” and unreclaimed it may be, is<br />
a proper subject-matter for copyright protection in<br />
America. So, also, we should say.<br />
<br />
Let us now have another extreme case, only this<br />
time at the other end of the scale. One Young<br />
sent to the Librarian of Congress a blank book,<br />
demanding to have it copyrighted ! The Librarian<br />
refused. Young promptly sought a writ of man-<br />
damus to compel the Librarian to copyright his<br />
blank book. His argument was that the Librarian’s<br />
duty was a purely ministerial one—that he had no<br />
discretion in the matter. The judge, however,<br />
tripped him up. It was quite true, he said, that<br />
the Librarian had no discretion ; but before he, the<br />
judge, could issue the writ, Mr. Young would have<br />
to show that the writ would avail—namely, that a<br />
book containing not a single English sentence<br />
could be the subject of copyright. Mr. Young, of<br />
course, could not show this, and the court could<br />
not therefore “order a vain thing to be done.”<br />
Blank books cannot be the subject of copyright<br />
here or in America,<br />
<br />
Nor will a fitle of a book or play as such, and<br />
apart from its subject-matter, obtain protection.<br />
Du Maurier’s famous novel, ‘Trilby,” provided<br />
this decision. Messrs. Harper, its American pub-<br />
lishers, sought an injunction against one Renous,<br />
who produced a play entitled * Trilby ” (copying<br />
the plot and characters of the novel), to restrain<br />
him from using the title of the novel. This the<br />
judge refused. Fortunately the affidavits showed<br />
that the rest of the novel had also been pirated,<br />
and the judge therefore went out of his way to<br />
grant relief; but he let it be clearly understood that<br />
no action in copyright law could lie against the<br />
user of a mere title.<br />
<br />
But, this well-known ruling apart, note the dis-<br />
tinction between this and our own law. Here, it<br />
is free to anyone to dramatise a novel provided he<br />
does not let the printed or type-written copy of the<br />
drama get into the hands of the public. In that<br />
case an action will lie for the infringement of the<br />
copy right.<br />
<br />
A mere title, therefore, here or in America, gets<br />
no protection from the statute law. But in<br />
America the mere dramatiser of a novel may be<br />
proceeded against as an infringement. Not so<br />
here.<br />
<br />
“Ticker Tapes,” as they are called in America,<br />
provided another interesting case of equitable relief.<br />
One news company sued another for making use of<br />
readings from its tape machines. They could not<br />
be copyrighted, urged the wronged company,<br />
because they were published before there was time<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
to register them. The judges agreed, but held, in<br />
its equity jurisdiction, that the action of taking<br />
was unfair competition, and so granted an injunction<br />
restraining it.<br />
<br />
Readings of tape machines cannot, therefore, be<br />
copyrighted in America. Here they are, ipso facto,<br />
copyrighted the moment they emerge from the<br />
instrument.<br />
<br />
In answer to the well-known question: What<br />
constitutes literary value ? many interesting cases<br />
group themselves under this head of “ subject<br />
matter.”<br />
<br />
Has a bottle label, a letter file index, a racing<br />
chart, any literary value; has a circus poster<br />
artistic value—sufficient to entitle these produc-<br />
tions to copyright protection ?<br />
<br />
The bottle label in question was the property of<br />
Mr. Higgins, the famous ink and paste maker<br />
(with whose photo-mounting composition every<br />
amateur photographer ought to be acquaint2d),<br />
The only specific words on the label were: “ Water-<br />
proof Drawing Ink.” It was duly registered for<br />
copyright. The judge held that a mere descrip-<br />
tion of the contents of the bottle had no value for<br />
copyright purposes apart from the article described,<br />
and refused the injunction. Our courts would do<br />
the same.<br />
<br />
Similarly, a mere index to a letter file, however<br />
skilfully devised, was not within the protection of<br />
the Copyright Act, no literary explanation of its<br />
working being given. A book describing a short-<br />
hand system likewise failed to get protection against<br />
another book describing the same system, but<br />
written differently. There might be twenty books<br />
describing the same thing, provided they were<br />
different in treatment. But a racing chart, which<br />
formed part of a sporting paper, received protection;<br />
and it was no defence to say that it was disentitled<br />
to protection because designed for gaming pur-<br />
poses. A racing chart alone, however, could<br />
scarcely protect itself.<br />
<br />
A circus poster, showing performers on bicycles,<br />
and so forth, was not disentitled to protection on<br />
the ground of its being a mere advertisement. cx<br />
work of art,” said the judge, “is none the less a<br />
work of art because it is of little merit or humble<br />
degree.”<br />
<br />
Thus American Courts provide us with almost<br />
precisely similar rulings to the English Courts on ©<br />
the question as to what may and may not be the |<br />
subject matter of copyright.<br />
<br />
PUBLICATION AND ITS EFFECTS.<br />
<br />
Let us now see whether there is any difference<br />
between English and American law as to what —<br />
constitutes publication, and what are some of the |<br />
consequences of publication. ;<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
i We know that, over here, before we give a book<br />
to the world by publishing it, we can prohibit its<br />
«© publication by any unauthorised person by means<br />
»>> of an action at common law. It is the same in<br />
oe America. Similarly, after we have published a<br />
book, the common law protection ceases as far as<br />
its infringement goes, and the work now comes<br />
under the protection of the statute. But what,<br />
our author frequently asks, 7s publication ? Let<br />
» us see what America says on the subject.<br />
The Jewellers’ Mercantile Agency printed a book<br />
» of what, in America, are called “credit ratings,”<br />
which I take to be, from the evidence, a list of<br />
jewellers’ customers, with an account of their finan-<br />
cial standing. This they leased to their subscribers<br />
© only, having first copyrighted it. As soon as the<br />
| book was infringed, the plaintiffs alleged that,<br />
though copyrighted, it had not really been pub-<br />
i lished, seeing that it was only leased to their own<br />
“private subscribers. The trial court took this view<br />
<br />
. and granted them an injunction. But the appeal<br />
court reversed the judgment, holding that to lease<br />
a book to an unlimited number of subscribers<br />
amounted to‘a publication. This would be held<br />
‘' 5) to be good English law also.*<br />
qi Similarly, when Professor Loisette (the curer of<br />
<br />
~~ weak memory) issued his book to subscribers under<br />
“= a contract of secrecy, this was construed as a<br />
ji's4 publication of it, and the pirate went free. And<br />
when one Rigney published a cut in a trade<br />
journal, allezing that there was no real publication<br />
because it only circulated within the limits of the<br />
trade—his contention was manifestly ill founded.<br />
<br />
Does the previous serial issue of a work consti-<br />
tute publication in America ? Or, when the work<br />
has not been copyrighted in this serial form, may<br />
it afterwards be copyrighted in volume form? No,<br />
unfortunately. So the author of the “ Autocrat of<br />
the Breakfast Table,” Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,<br />
lost his copyright in that famous book.<br />
<br />
But if the last instalments of a serial be duly<br />
copyrighted, does this secure copyright in the<br />
whole work? ‘The appeals court answered this<br />
question for another famous author, Mrs. Stowe,<br />
but also in the negative.<br />
<br />
Before we come to the subject of the ‘‘ conse-<br />
quence of publication,” a very important case, not<br />
included in Mr. Hamlin’s book, but recently<br />
decided, should be mentioned as coming between<br />
the two questions of “publication” and its “ con-<br />
sequences,’’<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
© 2<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
we * It is noticeable that in both trials the important<br />
question as to whether “ publication” was a prerequisite<br />
to complete a copyright in America was avoided, Here<br />
itis, No book acquires copyright here without it. The<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Jaw in America on this point is doubtful; but Mr. Hamlin<br />
is of the opinion that the depositing of title and copies<br />
perfects the copyright without any publication,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
113<br />
<br />
In this case the great American Tobacco Com-<br />
pany got beaten in their own country. They<br />
printed and published, as an advertisement, the<br />
painting called “Chorus,” ‘a meritorious work<br />
of art, by Sadler, a British subject,” who sold it<br />
to Emil Werckmeister, “a citizen of Germany,”<br />
who hung it in the Royal Academy, London.<br />
<br />
The question was: Did this exhibition of the<br />
picture amount to “ publication” so as to deprive<br />
Werckmeister of his right to obtain copyright in<br />
America? In other words: Was the picture<br />
published ?<br />
<br />
In deciding this important question, Judges<br />
Lacombe, Townsend, and Cox were under the<br />
necessity of reviewing all the important decisions<br />
previously given in the analogous cases of books,<br />
lectures, and dramatic compositions, since the<br />
question as regards paintings had not hitherto<br />
been directly decided. With this review (which<br />
occupies fifteen pages of the royal-octavo pamph-<br />
Jet before me) I shall not trouble readers of Zhe<br />
Author. Suffice it to say, the judges decided<br />
that the exhibition did not amount to a publica-<br />
tion, on the grounds that (1) admission was by<br />
payment, implying a limitation of the persons who<br />
were to view the painting ; and that (2) there<br />
was express prohibition by the rules of the<br />
Academy against making copies of pictures ex-<br />
hibited therein.<br />
<br />
Now this decision is one to be thankful for,<br />
although it runs counter to our own law, which<br />
regards public exhibition in a gallery as publica-<br />
tion; and for the best commentary on the<br />
American decision (written long before it was<br />
given) I must refer readers of Zhe Author to<br />
Mr. Macgillerray’s book on ‘ Copyright,” pages<br />
263-4,<br />
<br />
CONSEQUENCES OF PUBLICATION.<br />
<br />
Under this section of Mr. Hamlin’s book we<br />
move among giants, and it becomes still more<br />
interesting when the “ publication” in question<br />
is a publication owlside the United States. Such<br />
cases are particularly instructive to all authors,<br />
English and Continental, having a sale in the<br />
United States.<br />
<br />
Richard Wagner transferred his music-book<br />
rights in “Parsifal” to B. Schotts & Sons, re-<br />
serving the acting rights to himself (which we know<br />
he liked to do—since no one else was, in his<br />
opinion, competent to deal with them). Schotts<br />
sent the book to America, but were many years too<br />
late for copyright. Oonfried put ‘‘ Persifal” on<br />
the boards, and Wagner brought an action to<br />
restrain him. Held that the book having once<br />
been published, the “reservation” notice was of<br />
no avail in America. ‘“ Parsifal”? could be “put<br />
on” by anyone.<br />
<br />
<br />
114<br />
<br />
The next case is interesting to all budding<br />
geniuses. When Mr. Kipling was yet in that<br />
enviable state, his books were naturally not copy-<br />
righted in America. So in the year 1900, when<br />
he had become world-famous, he tried to ‘‘ take it<br />
out of” America by bringing an action against<br />
publishers there to restrain them, not from pub-<br />
lishing and selling his stories, which he could not<br />
prevent, but from publishing and selling them<br />
except in such collections and under such totles<br />
as he himself should authorise. One finds it diffi-<br />
cult to refrain from a smile, and wonders what he<br />
said to his lawyers when the court told him there<br />
was nothing about that in the statute.<br />
<br />
Sudermann, Germany’s playwright, provides our<br />
last case under this head. He published the text<br />
of the play “Die Ehre” in Germany, and the<br />
celebrated Augustin Daly decided, with his per-<br />
mission, to put it on the boards in America. But<br />
one Walwrath got in before him and produced<br />
the play, and defended himself successfully against<br />
injunction, by pleading the previous German<br />
publication.<br />
<br />
The moral of all these cases for authors is: see<br />
that, if you hope for anything from America, your<br />
work is duly copyrighted there before you publish it<br />
elsewhere.<br />
<br />
If the courteous editor of The Author will allow<br />
me, I hope at a future date to deal with the<br />
remaining sections of Mr. Hamlin’s book: “ Literary<br />
Property and its Transfer,” “ Unfair Use,” and<br />
“Remedies and Penalties,” as America regards<br />
these matters.<br />
<br />
CHARLES WEEKES.<br />
<br />
2 ge<br />
<br />
EDITORIAL CRITICISMS.<br />
Se st<br />
T is seldom that an editor in returning a MS.<br />
I of which he cannot avail himself will vouch-<br />
safe his precise reason for declining it.<br />
<br />
He has not the leisure, perhaps, or it may be that,<br />
as hé cannot honestly offer encouragement to the<br />
writer, he restricts himself to the stereotyped form<br />
of regret which commits him to nothing. It may<br />
even be that he dreads what so often happens ifhe<br />
give his contributor an opening—that the latter<br />
will proceed to question his decision at the expense<br />
of much ink and paper.<br />
<br />
Should he, however, depart from his rule and<br />
proffer a criticism, it is worth considering in cold<br />
blood, no matter how cutting, presumptuous, or<br />
brutal an aspect it wears, for probably a lifetime<br />
of experience has perfected him in the art of<br />
silhouetting the weak points of an article at a<br />
glance. If he devote five or ten of his precious<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
minutes to bestowing the benefit of that experience<br />
on a complete stranger he does it, undoubtedly,<br />
with the kindliest of motives, and by no means<br />
merits the vituperation which ofttimes requites him:<br />
<br />
English editors volunteer ‘‘remarks”’ -less fre-<br />
quently than American ones, but it is the authors’<br />
fault. American writers (and not novices only)<br />
beg for a review of their work and profit by it,<br />
whereas their English brethren, hugging their<br />
amour propre, are apt to regard anything savouring<br />
of condemnation as insult added to injury.<br />
<br />
“Tt is impossible for us to criticise MSS., so<br />
many are submitted,” is a very usual notice in the<br />
Transatlantic magazines. It is rarely met with in<br />
an English periodical, for it is not needed. Yet<br />
“to see oursels as ithers see us” must be as<br />
salutary to authors as to other folk.<br />
<br />
«The reader foresees the dénouement almost from<br />
the beginning.” This comment was once sent vith<br />
a rejected story of my own, the “almost” just<br />
saving my self-esteem, for in a MS. of 2,000 words—<br />
a very acceptable length, by the way—there is not<br />
overmuch room for “ drawing a red herring across<br />
the trail.” I comforted myself with that reflection,<br />
but & propos of the criticism a problem presented<br />
itself—whether the majority of readers like to have<br />
the whole plot divulged, sprung upon them as it<br />
were, in the two last lines, or whether they have a<br />
secret predilection for the pleasant sense of their<br />
own perspicacity which the divination, from the<br />
very beginning, of the author’s intention inspires.<br />
Endeavouring to be quite honest with myself, I<br />
decided that I personally agreed with my friendly<br />
mentor, and had a distinct leaning towards ‘a<br />
measure of mystification.<br />
<br />
“The central ‘idea has done duty in scores of short<br />
stories.” This was, I remember, something of a<br />
blow, since I had fondly imagined my little tale quite<br />
original, but being well aware the editor saw more<br />
fiction in a day than I in a month, I sat down to<br />
think the matter out, and the more I reviewed his<br />
ultimatum the more grateful I was to him for<br />
having had the courage of his opinions, and the<br />
more willing to concede that some time, somewhere,<br />
I too had encountered. a not altogether alien<br />
argument.<br />
<br />
In this case—and to my mind it covered a multi-<br />
tude of sins—the regret was a written one, and put<br />
me in possession of an autograph I had long coveted.<br />
“Your story is too improbable.” Yet I had<br />
sent the MS. where “impossible” would have<br />
<br />
described the letterpress even better than “impro- —<br />
<br />
bable,” and I had spoken of what I knew to be<br />
true. Nevertheless the editor, with his finger on<br />
the pulse of the public, was right. I eliminated<br />
<br />
the “impossible” truth I hadthought so fascinating,<br />
and promptly disposed of my “ copy.”<br />
“Tf you care to change the convent into a Church<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
hy<br />
-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
of England boarding-school ’—O bathos !—“ we<br />
will reconsider the article.” Now the hours and<br />
the pains I had spent on “ getting up” that<br />
convent made the bare notion grievous. The<br />
walls were high and ivy-clad, the garden within<br />
them a place of peace, whilst the softened strains<br />
of the ‘“‘ Ave Maria” issuing from the little oratory<br />
were indispensable io my mise en scene. I felt I<br />
couldn’t part with a word, so I kept the MS.<br />
intact and sent it elsewhere. But I did not sell<br />
it for a very long time—not, indeed, until I had<br />
taken the editor’s advice.<br />
<br />
. L hold no brief for editors, nor do I claim<br />
infallibility for them—it is notorious that many a<br />
time and oft they decline excellent work, after-<br />
wards bitterly bewailing their short-sightedness—<br />
but I earnestly maintain that, since their intentions<br />
in advising are of the very best, it is crass folly to<br />
ignore their well-meant strictures or to lull oneself<br />
into the belief that one is superiur to ali such<br />
warnings.<br />
<br />
I have quoted adverse criticisms in every case,<br />
partly because they are more useful, but chiefly<br />
because favourable ones are few and far between.<br />
<br />
Literary wares bear a suspicious resemblance to<br />
all other saleable commodities, much as we like to<br />
flatter ourselves they are on an altogether higher<br />
plane. If good they are eagerly snapped up at the<br />
lowest price the author s poverty or love of fame will<br />
induce him to accept, and to praise them would be a<br />
quite superfluous indiscretion on the purchaser’s<br />
part, raising their market value immediately and<br />
possibly depriving him of a cheap monopoly. If<br />
they are faulty in the ways I have instanced the<br />
editor does himself no harm and the writer an in-<br />
estimable service by saying so, besides creating a<br />
bond of sympathy between himself and the more<br />
sensible of his contributors.<br />
<br />
If the ranks of the wise be ever so slightly<br />
swelled by the perusal of this article it has not<br />
been written in vain.<br />
<br />
: ANNIE Q. CARTER.<br />
<br />
oe gee<br />
<br />
LITERARY RESPONSIBILITY.<br />
<br />
1<br />
<br />
S an author responsible for the sayings and<br />
sentiments of his characters? ‘lhat—like<br />
“to be or not to be””—is the question : and<br />
<br />
a very burning question, too, upon occasions.<br />
<br />
The reading public apparently labours under an<br />
impression that the author of a novel has cast<br />
himself for every one of the parts ; that (after the<br />
manner of Bottom the Weaver) he is ready to<br />
play Pyramus and Thisbe, and the lion too—to<br />
excel in Ercles’ vein, to speak in a monstrous little<br />
-voice, to roar that it will do any man’s heart good<br />
<br />
115<br />
<br />
to hear him ; and yet all the time to be himself,<br />
bringing out of his mental treasure-house such<br />
stores of wisdom and knowledge as he has collected<br />
during the shining hours of his mundane career.<br />
<br />
We writers are constantly being hit full in the<br />
face with inquiries as to whether we “ really think ”<br />
the sundry and divers—often diverse—things that<br />
our characters see fit to enunciate ; and the horns of<br />
the dilemma whereon we then find ourselves are too<br />
sharp for us. If we say Yes, we are convicted of<br />
folly ; if we say No, we are convicted of untruth ;<br />
which is the severer condemnation it is not for us<br />
to decide. The sentiment thus quoted is probably<br />
the very last that one would choose to have fathered<br />
upon oneself : a sentiment which one has purposely<br />
put into the mouth either of a fool, to prove his<br />
want of wisdom, or of a knave, to prove his want<br />
of honesty. Yet the anxious inquirer pertinently<br />
asks whether it is, so to speak, one’s own confession<br />
of faith. If we say we agree with it, then we<br />
know ourselves for ever set down as fools or knaves<br />
as the case may be; if, on the other hand, we<br />
repudiate the doubtful sentiment, then we are con-<br />
fronted with the fact that we have said it in print,<br />
and that therefore we must have thought it, just<br />
as Mr. Winkle must have said that his name was<br />
Daniel as well as Nathaniel, or else it could never<br />
have been written on Mr. Justice Stareleigh’s<br />
notes.<br />
<br />
Next to being buried wholesale in Westminster<br />
Abbey, perhaps the most glorious thing that can<br />
happen to an author is to be preserved piecemeal,<br />
as it were, in a Birthday Book. The Birthday<br />
Book is the literary amber wherein our choicest<br />
epigrams are embalmed: and all of us to whom<br />
this honour has been accorded ought to be thankful<br />
that our jewr d’esprit have thus been rescued from<br />
the transitory state of ephemera to the immortality<br />
of flies in amber. But it is when we see ourselves<br />
first dissected and then mummified in a Birthday<br />
Book, that the terrible responsibility of authorship<br />
comes home to us! The speeches which we gave<br />
to our puppets to show, as we thought, the material<br />
whereof these puppets were made, now stand forth<br />
—with no background of atmosphere, no shadow<br />
of context—as our own confession of what life has<br />
taught us, and of what we are in turn longing to<br />
hand on to other people. It is ghastly !<br />
<br />
But apart from the fierce light that beats upon<br />
the separate atoms of the Birthday Book, even the<br />
consumers of novels roasted whole seem to find<br />
difficulty in differentiating between the author and<br />
his characters. I remember a reviewer once saying<br />
of me, in sorrow rather than in anger, that “ Miss<br />
Fowler ought to have known that no lady would<br />
address a gentleman as *Captain.’” Miss Fowler<br />
did know it, and had made use of what she vainly<br />
considered a subtle device to convey to her readers<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
116<br />
<br />
that the lady speaking was no lady. But I had<br />
apparently succeeded merely in conveying the im-<br />
pression that I was no lady myself; the reviewer<br />
evidently having fallen into the popular error of<br />
supposing that I was playing the parts of Pyramus<br />
and Thisbe and the lion as well.<br />
<br />
Now I maintain that a writer is not responsible<br />
for anything that appears in his books in the form<br />
of dialogue. His object is to make his characters<br />
speak according to their kind—to say what it<br />
would be natural for such people to say in such<br />
circumstances. He does not want to convey to<br />
the reader what sort of a person he is himself, but<br />
what sort of people are those about whom he is<br />
writing ; just as a painter has no wish to make a<br />
picture like himself, but like the person whose<br />
portrait he is painting. For the time being the<br />
writer must forget his own individuality and his<br />
own opinions, merging them in the personality of<br />
the creatures of his imagination. . He must be an<br />
actor, throwing himself heart and soul into the<br />
part which he has undertaken to play. In fact, I<br />
would even go so far as to say that in a really<br />
good piece of work the author is more apt to<br />
become like his hero, than the hero like the author :<br />
so that in drawing evil characters, and in writing<br />
about things and people which are distinctly not<br />
lovely nor of good report, the author is doing<br />
more harm to himself than to his readers, as the<br />
tendency of us all is to become the thing that we<br />
pretend to be. But alas! the better we act, the<br />
less is our audience pleased. When we play the<br />
lion’s part they expect that half our face shall be<br />
seen through the lion’s mane lest the ladies should<br />
be afeard: and instead of roaring as much like a<br />
lion as it lies in us to roar, they prefer that we<br />
should name our name, and tell them plainly that<br />
we are Snug the Joiner. Of a truth the hard-<br />
handed men that worked in Athens knew how<br />
to please the public better than some of us do<br />
after all.<br />
<br />
But, on the other hand, I do think that an<br />
author is responsible for what he says in narrative<br />
—that is to say, if he chooses to say anything at<br />
all which is not in the way of simple narration.<br />
Should he drop into philosophy, as Silas Wegg into<br />
poetry, he is bound to see that the philosophy is the<br />
best of its kind that he has in stock. He must<br />
stand or fall by whatever sentiments he then<br />
expresses. The greatest writers, with Shakespeare<br />
at their head, tell us nothing about themselves at<br />
all; we are absolutely ignorant as to what manner<br />
of men they were: their art is purely dramatic.<br />
But we have some good examples to follow, never-<br />
theless, if we choose to reveal our own thoughts<br />
and opinions to some extent in our writings ; but<br />
we owe it to our readers as well as to ourselves<br />
that this revelation should be, if not all the truth,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
at least nothing but the truth. Itis as untruthful<br />
—and therefore as inartistic—to say in narrative<br />
what we do not really think, as it is to make our<br />
characters say what they would not really think if<br />
they were actual people.<br />
<br />
For my own part, I neither drop into poetry nor<br />
into philosophy, but into downright old-fashioned<br />
preaching. I own the soft impeachment and make<br />
no bones aboutit. But | admit that what I preach I<br />
ought, if not to practice, at any rate to believe, and<br />
to be prepared to stand or fall by: though I<br />
absolutely decline to be responsible for the senti-<br />
ments and opinions expressed by my characters, as<br />
They are not I—they are themselves; and in<br />
fact they are very often not even the sort of people ah<br />
that I like or approve of; but that is no excuse for =<br />
me to trifle with them, or to put words into their<br />
mouths which I very well know they would never<br />
have uttered. I have a duty towards them, as well<br />
as towards myself and my public.<br />
<br />
The conclusion of the whole matter, therefore,<br />
seems to be this. As long as the author is «— .«<br />
dealing in dialogue, he must play in the tyrant’s *<br />
vein, or speak in a monstrous little voice, or |<br />
roar loudly enough to hang usall, according asthe —_. «<br />
parts of Pyramus or Thisbe or the lion demand— ;<br />
he must lose himself in his characters. But when 2 wl<br />
once he makes up his mind to writea prologuewhich<br />
shall, for the more better assurance, tell the public —.<br />
that Pyramus is not killed indeed—in short, that Et<br />
Pyramus is not Pyramus at all but Bottom the ~~<br />
Weaver—then let him take thonght to every word<br />
that he utters and to every opinion that he expresses;<br />
for surely he must one day give an account of these<br />
to all those readers who have believed what he said<br />
—if not before a Higher Tribunal. Whether he<br />
is drawing a fictitious character or describing his<br />
own, he must never cease in his endeavour<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
‘‘To paint the thing as he sees it<br />
For the God of things as they are.”<br />
<br />
ELLEN THORNEYCROFT FOWLER.<br />
<br />
++<br />
<br />
SHOULD AUTHORS HIDE THEMSELVES?<br />
<br />
—_t—— + —<br />
By Bastu Tozer.<br />
<br />
R. T. T. WRIGHT has been protesting<br />
lately in the Literary World against the<br />
publication of authors’ portraits in public _<br />
<br />
periodicals, and adding support to his argument by —<br />
declaring that a friend of his, a lady, remarked to<br />
him recently that she used always to read Mr.<br />
So-and-So’s articles with interest, until one day<br />
she saw a portrait of the distinguished writer in<br />
one of the illustrated papers. ‘That disillusioned | *<br />
her. A man with a face like that, she thought— =| *<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 117<br />
<br />
well, she didn’t say then just what she did think.<br />
Probably she felt that in a way she had been<br />
duped. The editor of the publication in which<br />
she had been in the habit of reading the distin-<br />
guished writer’s contributions ought, she no doubt<br />
felt, at least to have hinted to his readers what<br />
the distinguished writer looked like ; whether his<br />
features were chiselled or the reverse, if he wore<br />
his hair long, or preferred the billiard-ball coiffure,<br />
who supplied him with his suits and with his<br />
“neck-wear.” “I wish I hadn’t seen it,” the fair<br />
critic—or rather, unfair sceptic—did end by admit-<br />
ting with reference to the offensive photograph ;<br />
“he looks so gross, and I think I shall never like<br />
his articles again.”<br />
<br />
This is regrettable, from the standpoint of<br />
writer and reader alike, and it opens up a rather<br />
important question, namely, whether authors ought<br />
or ought not to hide themselves ? I remember a<br />
crushing reply that I received about a year ago,<br />
when, in the lending library of a certain well-<br />
known watering-place, I suggested to an acquaint-<br />
ance, again a lady, that she should read a book<br />
that I named, a book by an author whose works<br />
are generally popular. “What!” she exclaimed,<br />
in a tone of great contempt, “J read _ that<br />
man’s books? Why, he lives here!” Now, I<br />
have every reason to believe that this lady was by<br />
no means singular in her views, but that, on the<br />
contrary, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands,<br />
of readers, men as well as women, who would<br />
scorn the bare idea of reading anything that is<br />
written by anyone they happen to be personally<br />
acquainted with, no matter how excellent the<br />
article or the story may be. It is merely the<br />
truth of the hackneyed saying, “ Familiarity breeds<br />
contempt,” making itself manifest in a rather<br />
different guise, and these two ingenuous assertions,<br />
dropped, as it were incidentally and at haphazard,<br />
by two members presumably of the ordinary read-<br />
ing public, leads to the belief that the more our<br />
authors, as a body, keep themselves to themselves,<br />
the better it will be, pecuniarily, for themselves as<br />
well as for their publishers and editors.<br />
<br />
All this tends to show, then, that the habit of<br />
creating, unconsciously no doubt, “ideals,” of<br />
building up in the imagination little idols to be<br />
gazed upon from afar with respect and probably<br />
admiration, is not yet extinct. The girl in her<br />
teens who is fond of reading, and who is of a<br />
romantic, imaginative nature, unconsciously comes<br />
to think that the various handsome and attractive<br />
leading male characters in the books written by the<br />
highly-popular author, John Jones, must reflect<br />
some of the personal charms of their creator,<br />
John Jones himself. This belief gradually grows<br />
<br />
_ upon her, and as it grows she unwittingly comes to<br />
<br />
cherish it. By degrees John Jones becomes in her<br />
<br />
mind a very real personage, a sort of blend of<br />
everything that is fascinating about the various<br />
men he has pourtrayed in his various successful<br />
novels. At times she thinks about him a good<br />
deal. In her lucid intervals she perhaps wonders<br />
what he really is like, and whether, after all, he is<br />
not quite different from the being she has so often<br />
in her imagination pictured him to be, but asa<br />
rule the “ideal” remains paramount. Then one<br />
ee a portrait is, so to speak, sprung upon<br />
ner.<br />
<br />
“Oh!” The exclamation escapes her with a<br />
little gulp as she sees this portrait for the first<br />
time. Even if good-looking he is not in the least<br />
like what Lottie Venn used to call the “angel<br />
man” she had conjured up in her imagination,<br />
and that single glance at the portrait has shattered<br />
for ever her little “idol.” If only the wretched<br />
photograph had been left out of sight she would<br />
have revelled in reading all that he had to say<br />
about himself, his views upon life in general, the<br />
details of his mode of existence, and so on. Her<br />
appetite for his novels would if anything have<br />
been whetted by the knowledge that he lived in a<br />
bijou residence “ in the confines of lesser Surbiton,”<br />
that he was fond of croquet, a good bridge player,<br />
and an excellent judge of a cigar; that he ate<br />
sparingly, shunned alcohol, and approved of Back-<br />
ache’s Breakfast Nuts. Indeed it interests many<br />
persons to know that the much-talked-about gilt-<br />
haired heroine of John Jones’s latest masterpiece was<br />
neither created with a fountain pen nor hammered<br />
out on a typewriter, but that she was dictated to a<br />
stenographer, or shouted into a phonograph, and<br />
subsequently manifolded and sent straight to the<br />
printers. Yet I think I am well within the mark<br />
when I say that eight authors out of twelve<br />
appear to greater advantage in their writings than<br />
they do in real life, and certainly over and over<br />
again I have heard members of the general public<br />
—the circulating library public—express disap-<br />
pointment after being, accidentally or otherwise,<br />
brought into contact with authors whose works<br />
they enjoyed reading. The serious writer, for<br />
instance, is somewhat flippant in general conversa-<br />
tion. The humorist on paper is often deadly dull<br />
at a social gathering. The writer of brilliant<br />
epigrams may be “ quite ordinary” when you meet<br />
him at a dinner party. The lady novelist, whose<br />
creations are adorable, herself is sometimes tire-<br />
some to talk toand plain-featured toa degree. All<br />
these discoveries are unpleasant, and help to dis-<br />
enchant. Therefore the assertion made lately that<br />
some authors nowadays adversely affect the sales of<br />
their books—I am speaking of course of novelists—<br />
by being themselves rubbed shoulders with here,<br />
there and everywhere, may not be devoid of<br />
truth.<br />
<br />
<br />
118<br />
<br />
THE ARCHDEACON’S PERSONALTY.<br />
<br />
—_+—~>+<br />
<br />
A DIALOGUE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
By M. R.<br />
ScenE—CHAMBERS IN STAPLES INN.<br />
<br />
Tom Smith (Barrister).<br />
Jack Robinson (Writer).<br />
<br />
Smith (alone, sitting in an armchair by the fire).<br />
Now what I want to know is why the devil is my<br />
name Smith if I wasn’t born to be something out<br />
of the common? And here I am _starving-in<br />
wretched chambers, without briefs, devilling for<br />
a barrister, which is like devilling a bone a hungry<br />
tyke has spent an hour with. Heigho! I suppose<br />
I must read something—at any rate it’s less de-<br />
eraded than writing novels. ((roes to his shelves<br />
and takes down Henley’s “Book of Verses.) Come<br />
now, where is the rondeau with the refrain “ Let us<br />
be drunk!” I only wish I could afford to be so<br />
with a decent regularity that would excite no<br />
remark. (Reads and puts the book down). I wish<br />
old Jack would come as he promised. (A knock<br />
at the door). Why, there he is!<br />
<br />
Robinson. Well, here I am, old chap. Why,<br />
why, what’s the matter with you? You look as<br />
melancholy as a stray cat on a rainy night. What<br />
is the matter ? A question of oof ?<br />
<br />
Smith (sententiously). My dear Jack, your similes<br />
are low and the word “oof ” is very vulgar, though<br />
what it signifies is supremely and splendidly rare.<br />
J have a shilling.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Cheer up, my dear fellow, I'll toss<br />
you for it. Did you get my telegram ?<br />
<br />
Smith. Telegram? No.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Then I suppose I beat the telegraph<br />
this time. I was to have met your wild young<br />
devil of a cousin at the “ Cri.” ; so I wired you I<br />
would look in about nine. However, he didn’t turn<br />
up, and I wouldn’t wait, and came here in a<br />
hansom.<br />
<br />
Smith. You fat rascal, so you can telegraph<br />
and ride in cabs; sit down in the light and let me<br />
look at you, you confounded millionaire. Or was<br />
it that you did it with your last half-crown. Yes ?<br />
Ah, you true Bohemian! (Double knock at outer<br />
door.) Ah! there’s your telegram. A wasted<br />
sixpence! Into the fire with it.<br />
<br />
Robinson (jumping vainly to rescue it). Here, I<br />
say, come, you should always open a telegram.<br />
But there it goes, my message is in the sky by now.<br />
How, in the name of a mismanaged behind-the-time<br />
post and telegraph office do you know that was my<br />
telegram ?<br />
<br />
Smith (sardonically). What in the name of<br />
penniless Bohemia do you think it was ? The offer<br />
of a judgeship, or a report of my uncle’s death ?<br />
<br />
‘Robinson. How can I tell? But you certainly<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
should have opened it. How is the rich and<br />
venerable avuncular archdeacon ? How well he<br />
bears these magnificent adjectives !<br />
<br />
Smith. The dear old boy is horribly well, eats<br />
and drinks well, stamps about like the Com-<br />
mandatore, usually keeps his temper, takes exer-<br />
cise and no medicine, though he has a doctor on<br />
the premises as a kind of prophylactic. And if he<br />
<br />
_lives till eighty that doctor is to have a big bonus<br />
<br />
over and above his fees. And those would keep<br />
me in luxury.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Do you know that tame medical man ?<br />
<br />
Smith. Of course I do.<br />
<br />
Robinson. And yet<br />
<br />
Smith. Ah! You see I’m on the equity side.<br />
You, being on the criminal side, evidently can do<br />
as you please with your uncles.<br />
<br />
Robinson. My dear Innocent, I am not related<br />
to those of my uncles who are ever of any use to me.<br />
And as for my mother’s brothers, they are as one<br />
man kept by my father! Their unanimity in<br />
refusing to work is wonderful.<br />
<br />
Smith. Poison them off, and your father may<br />
increase your allowance. Have some whiskey !<br />
<br />
(Another knock at the door.)<br />
<br />
Smith (eacitedly). By Jove! another telegram !<br />
<br />
Robinson (snatchiug it from Smith). By Jove,<br />
indeed ! and this, this one ismine! Now you have<br />
done it! Ofalithe hot-headed, addle-pated, reason-<br />
less literary nincompoops I ever<br />
<br />
Smith. Silence, silence, you adjectival incubus.<br />
What the deuce shall I do? Let me think.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Yes, yes, sit down and read up for<br />
precedents in Shelley or Browning. And I’ll be<br />
practical for you. I'll go to the telegraph office<br />
<br />
and get a copy. (He looks out of the window.)<br />
No, I’m hanged if I do!<br />
<br />
snowing like the very devil.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
You had better get<br />
<br />
your porter to take a note from you to explain.<br />
<br />
matters.<br />
Smith, Yes, that will be the best thing. (@oes out.)<br />
Robinson (picking up the book of verses) :<br />
What’s this ?<br />
<br />
“ What is the use of effort? Love and debt<br />
And disappointment have us in a net,<br />
Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime—<br />
Let us be drunk——”<br />
<br />
Truly a poetical sentiment ; good sooth, the brave<br />
rhymer isright. ‘ We cannot please the tragicaster.<br />
Time!” (Smith returns.) Ob, here you are?<br />
Well, don’t worry, and out with the whiskey.<br />
<br />
Smith. There you are, help yourself, and I'll<br />
<br />
help myself. It’s the last half-bottle of a dozen<br />
the Venerable gave me. What an ass I was with<br />
that telegram. Do you know, Jack, I feel quite<br />
excited? It might actually be goo: news of some.<br />
<br />
sort. I have had a grey monotony of bad for a<br />
long eternity.<br />
<br />
2<br />
<br />
I take it all back. It’s.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Warm the grey with whiskey and<br />
forget publishers and editors and solicitors. What<br />
about the antique Venerable? What if he really<br />
has cheated the doctor of his bonus and left you<br />
your share ?<br />
<br />
Smith. Don’t talk rot. I don’t want the old<br />
boy to go and boom in the vast inane yet awhile.<br />
Let him live. He has helped me a good bit one<br />
way or another, and would have done so more if<br />
I hadn’t disgusted him by refusing the law and the<br />
prophets for——<br />
<br />
Robinson. The law and no profits out of letters,<br />
not even half profits, or ten per cent. after a sale of<br />
two thousand. But you talk much too correctly. I<br />
am not an uncle and don’t want proper sentiments ;<br />
you said just now you were on the equity side.<br />
This is just a true equity case. Think what a rare<br />
and rosy time, what a port winey archidiaconal<br />
abbotlike time he has had. Now he might retire<br />
gracefully and let you come in. Think of all it<br />
would mean! Think, think how you would quit<br />
elegiacs for drinking songs, and law for love!<br />
Here’s to his promotion.<br />
<br />
Smith. In his own whiskey! Well, well, I own<br />
it would mean a good deal. Mean, yes (jumps up)<br />
by the eternal processes of everlasting litigation<br />
I would throw my case books out of the window<br />
and burn them in a bonfire. And as to writing,<br />
why, I would chuck rhyme for reason, and reason<br />
for the fatness of things. I would circumnavigate<br />
the globe of my unexplored desire in a hired whirl-<br />
wind, and take the moon on a lease.<br />
<br />
Robinson. And the fixed stars and the planets,<br />
including Venus ?<br />
<br />
Smith. What, get married do youmean ? Well,<br />
all things are possible, even marriage for a rhymer.<br />
But go to, you are a cynic and dwell with clever<br />
journalists, hearing them prate inverted platitude<br />
called paradox, and with critics who go about<br />
teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Yes, their literary grandmothers, you<br />
benighted heathen. If that telegram only means<br />
oof, you shall be educated to construct hyperbole<br />
into a science and taught to see the preciousness of<br />
verse hard boiled in a religious stewpan of ancient<br />
measure. And I will inveigle you into taking or<br />
making a theatre in a big steamer anchored three<br />
miles beyond low-water mark, so as to be out of<br />
reach of the censor’s scissors. Oh, that would bea<br />
Theatre Libre !<br />
<br />
Smith. And the critics and the audience would<br />
be even sicker than they are on shore. No, no,<br />
my pippy literary chicken, you shall come with me<br />
and leave the dusiy Fleet Street barnyard. If<br />
being born in a stable doesn’t make a horse of you,<br />
<br />
herding with asses may make an ass of you. You<br />
want grass, and the air and the sky.<br />
Robinson (shouting). Aye; and all, all the<br />
<br />
119<br />
<br />
planets. ‘‘ Let us break out and taste the morning’s<br />
prime.”’ Poor old Henley !<br />
<br />
Smith. ‘Let us be drunk.” (Sits down.) And<br />
all this comes out of the ashes of a telegram<br />
floating on whiskey and water. What did you<br />
wire to me for? I have been up in the empyrean,<br />
beyond the ether, and the curses of law and labour<br />
lay blackly on our star. And now<br />
<br />
Robinson. And now, now comes the porter with<br />
the telegram. Believe me, you tragicaster, you<br />
dusty imp on a law book, you combination of all<br />
incompatibles of the modern, you shall be free and<br />
revel in the personalty of the Archdeacon. Read,<br />
read, what is it ?<br />
<br />
Smith. There will, I fear, be other claims on<br />
that property. It is from my cousin whom you<br />
did not meet. ‘Come and bail me out. I am at<br />
Vine Street Police Station.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
M. R.<br />
<br />
i 9<br />
<br />
LORD ALYERSTONE ON LITERATURE<br />
AND THE BAR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HE Lord Chief Justice was the guest of the<br />
evening at the Authors’ Club dinner on<br />
Monday, December 5th, with Sir Conan<br />
<br />
Doyle in the chair. In the course of an illumining<br />
and instructive speech Lord Alverstone drew an<br />
interesting parallel between the careers of law and<br />
authorship. He admitted that while speaking<br />
broadly the life of a successful lawyer had not<br />
much in common with that of a successful man of<br />
letters, yet in one respect they had much in<br />
common. For instance, success in advocacy calls<br />
into play the same qualities demanded of a skilful<br />
historian. He gave a striking instance of this in a<br />
criminal trial for murder in which he was once<br />
engaged.. The sole materials for the defence were<br />
three letters written a few weeks before his death<br />
by the victim. A night’s exhaustive study and<br />
analysis of these documents enabled him to piece<br />
together the story and build up a case which<br />
resulted in the triumphant acquittal of the accused.<br />
Dramatic authors, no doubt, had much in common<br />
with barristers, though the author certainly had<br />
the pull over counsel in that he could invent the<br />
replies as well as the questions of cross-examination<br />
(laughter). The cleverest and most convincing<br />
case of cross-examination on the stage was in that<br />
remarkable play ‘‘ Mrs. Dane’s Defence.” Coming<br />
to another department of literature—poetry, he<br />
feared there was little of the romance of poetry ab<br />
the Bar. Nor, indeed, was there much oratory<br />
now-a-days in the law courts. He remembered<br />
<br />
that Lord Coleridge had once observed to him<br />
that the days of set speeches of counsel with<br />
formal exordium and peroration were out of date.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
118<br />
<br />
THE ARCHDEACON’S PERSONALTY.<br />
<br />
—_1-—>—+<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
By M. R.<br />
SceNE—CHAMBERS IN STAPLES INN.<br />
<br />
A DIALOGUE.<br />
<br />
Tom Smith (Barrister).<br />
Jack Robinson (Writer).<br />
<br />
Smith (alone, sitting in an armchair by the fire).<br />
Now what I want to know is why the devil is my<br />
name Smith if I wasn’t born to be something out<br />
of the common? And here J am starving-in<br />
wretched chambers, without briefs, devilling for<br />
a barrister, which is like devilling a bone a hungry<br />
tyke has spent an hour with. Heigho! I suppose<br />
I must read something—at any rate it’s less de-<br />
graded than writing novels. (Goes to his shelves<br />
and takes down Henley’s “Book of Verses.) Come<br />
now, where is the rondeau with the refrain ‘“ Let us<br />
be drunk!” I only wish I could afford to be so<br />
with a decent regularity that would excite no<br />
remark. (Reads and puts the book down). I wish<br />
old Jack would come as he promised. (A knock<br />
at the door). Why, there he is!<br />
<br />
Robinson. Well, here I am, old chap. Why,<br />
why, what’s the matter with you? You look as<br />
melancholy as a stray cat on a rainy night. What<br />
is the matter ? A question of oof ?<br />
<br />
Smith (sententiously). My dear Jack, your similes<br />
are low and the word “oof ” is very vulgar, though<br />
what it signifies is supremely and splendidly rare.<br />
I have a shilling.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Cheer up, my dear fellow, I'll toss<br />
you for it. Did you get my telegram ?<br />
<br />
Smith. Telegram? No.<br />
<br />
Robinson. 'Then I suppose I beat the telegraph<br />
this time. I was to have met your wild young<br />
devil of a cousin at the “ Cri.” ; so I wired you I<br />
would look in about nine. However, he didn’t turn<br />
up, and I wouldn’t wait, and came here in a<br />
hansom.<br />
<br />
Smith. You fat rascal, so you can telegraph<br />
and ride in cabs; sit down in the light and let me<br />
look at you, you confounded millionaire. Or was<br />
it that you did it with your last half-crown. Yes ?<br />
Ah, you true Bohemian! (Double knock at outer<br />
door.) Ah! there’s your telegram. A wasted<br />
sixpence! Into the fire with it.<br />
<br />
Robinson (jumping vainly to rescue it). Here, I<br />
say, come, you should always open a telegram.<br />
But there it goes, my message is in the sky by now.<br />
How, in the name of a mismanaged behind-the-time<br />
post and telegraph office do you know that was my<br />
telegram ?<br />
<br />
Smith (sardonically). What in the name of<br />
penniless Bohemia do you think it was ? The offer<br />
of a judgeship, or a report of my uncle’s death ?<br />
‘Robinson. How can I tell? But you certainly<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
should have opened it. How is the rich and<br />
venerable avuncular archdeacon ? How well he<br />
bears these magnificent adjectives !<br />
<br />
Smith. The dear old boy is horribly well, eats<br />
and drinks well, stamps about like the Com-<br />
mandatore, usually keeps his temper, takes exer-<br />
cise and no medicine, though he has a doctor on<br />
the premises as a kind of prophylactic. And if he<br />
<br />
lives till eighty that doctor is to have a big bonus<br />
<br />
over and above his fees. And those would keep<br />
me in luxury.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Do you know that tame medical man ?<br />
<br />
Smith. Of course I do.<br />
<br />
Robinson. And yet<br />
<br />
Smith. Ah! You see I’m on the equity side.<br />
You, being on the criminal side, evidently can do<br />
as you please with your uncles.<br />
<br />
Robinson. My dear Innocent, I am not related<br />
to those of my uncles who are ever of any use to me.<br />
And as for my mother’s brothers, they are as one<br />
man kept by my father! Their unanimity in<br />
refusing to work is wonderful.<br />
<br />
Smith. Poison them off, and your father may<br />
increase your allowance. Have some whiskey !<br />
<br />
(Another knock at the door.)<br />
<br />
Smith (excitedly). By Jove! another telegram !<br />
<br />
Robinson (snatchiug it from Smith). By Jove,<br />
indeed ! and this, this one ismine! Now you have<br />
doneit! Ofali the hot-headed, addle-pated, reason-<br />
less literary nincompoops I ever<br />
<br />
Smith. Silence, silence, you adjectival incubus.<br />
What the deuce shall I do? Let me think.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Yes, yes, sit down and read up for<br />
precedents in Shelley or Browning. And I'll be<br />
practical for you. I'll go to the telegraph office<br />
and get a copy. (He looks out of the window.)<br />
No, I’m hanged if Ido! I take it all back. It’s.<br />
snowing like the very devil. You had better get<br />
your porter to take a note from you to explain,<br />
matters.<br />
<br />
Smith. Yes, that will be the best thing. (@oes out.)<br />
<br />
Robinson (picking up the book of verses) :<br />
What’s this ?<br />
<br />
“ What is the use of effort? Love and debt<br />
And disappointment have us in a net,<br />
<br />
Let us break out and taste the morning’s prime—<br />
Let us be drunk——”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Truly a poetical sentiment ; good sooth, the brave<br />
rhymer isright. ‘“ We cannot please the tragicaster.<br />
Time!” (Smith returns.) Oh, here you are?<br />
Well, don’t worry, and out with the whiskey.<br />
Smith. There you are, help yourself, and I'll<br />
help myself. It’s the last half-bottle of a dozen<br />
the Venerable gave me. What an ass I was with<br />
that telegram. Do you know, Jack, I feel quite<br />
excited ? It might actually be gooil news of some, —<br />
sort. I have had a grey monotony of bad for a<br />
long eternity. i<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Warm the grey with whiskey and<br />
forget publishers and editors and solicitors. What<br />
about the antique Venerable? What if he really<br />
has cheated the doctor of his bonus and left you<br />
your share ?<br />
<br />
” Smith. Don’t talk rot. I don’t want the old<br />
boy to go and boom in the vast inane yet awhile.<br />
Let him live. He has helped me a good bit one<br />
way or another, and would have done so more if<br />
I hadn’t disgusted him by refusing the law and the<br />
prophets for<br />
<br />
Robinson. The law and no profits out of letters,<br />
not even half profits, or ten per cent. after a sale of<br />
two thousand. But youtalk much too correctly. I<br />
am not an uncle and don’t want proper sentiments ;<br />
you said just now you were on the equity side.<br />
This is just a true equity case. Think what a rare<br />
and rosy time, what a port winey archidiaconal<br />
abbctlike time he has had. Now he micht retire<br />
gracefully and let you come in. Think of all it<br />
would mean! Think, think how you would quit<br />
elegiacs for drinking songs, and law for love!<br />
Here’s to his promotion.<br />
<br />
Smith. In his own whiskey! Well, well, I own<br />
it would mean a good deal. Mean, yes (jumps up)<br />
by the eternal processes of everlasting litigation<br />
I would throw my case books out of the window<br />
and burn them in a bonfire. And as to writing,<br />
why, I would chuck rhyme for reason, and reason<br />
for the fatness of things. I would circumnavigate<br />
the globe of my unexplored desire in a hired whirl-<br />
wind, and take the moon on a lease.<br />
<br />
Robinson. And the fixed stars and the planets,<br />
including Venus ?<br />
<br />
Smith. What, get married do you mean ? Well,<br />
all things are possible, even marriage for a rhymer.<br />
But go to, you are a cynic and dwell with clever<br />
journalists, hearing them prate inverted platitude<br />
called paradox, and with critics who go about<br />
teaching their grandmothers to suck eggs.<br />
<br />
Robinson. Yes, their literary grandmothers, you<br />
benighted heathen. If that telegram only means<br />
oof, you shall be educated to construct hyperbole<br />
into a science and taught to see the preciousness of<br />
verse hard boiled in a religious stewpan of ancient<br />
measure. And I will inveigle you into taking or<br />
making a theatre in a big steamer anchored three<br />
miles beyond low-water mark, so as to be out of<br />
reach of the censor’s scissors. Oh, that would bea<br />
Theatre Libre !<br />
<br />
Smith. And the critics and the audience would<br />
be even sicker than they are on shore. No, no,<br />
my pippy literary chicken, you shall come with me<br />
and leave the dusty Fleet Street barnyard. If<br />
being born in a stable doesn’t make a horse of you,<br />
herding with asses may make an ass of you. You<br />
want grass, and the air and the sky.<br />
<br />
Robinson (shouting). Aye; and all, all the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
419<br />
<br />
planets. ‘Let us break out and taste the morning’s<br />
prime.’ Poor old Henley !<br />
<br />
Smith. “Let us be drunk.” (Sits down.) And<br />
all this comes out of the ashes of a telegram<br />
floating on whiskey and water. What did you<br />
wire to me for? I have been up in the empyrean,<br />
beyond the ether, and the curses of law and labour<br />
lay blackly on our star. And now<br />
<br />
Robinson. And now, now comes the porter with<br />
the telegram. Believe me, you tragicaster, you<br />
dusty imp on a law book, you combination of all<br />
incompatibles of the modern, you shall be free and<br />
revel in the personalty of the Archdeacon. Read,<br />
read, what is it ?<br />
<br />
Smith. There will, I fear, be other claims on<br />
that property. It is from my cousin whom you<br />
did not meet. ‘Come and bail me out. I am at<br />
Vine Street Police Station.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
M. R.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
LORD ALYERSTONE ON LITERATURE<br />
AND THE BAR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HE Lord Chief Justice was the guest of the<br />
evening at the Authors’ Club dinner on<br />
Monday, December 5th, with Sir Conan<br />
<br />
Doyle in the chair. In the course of an illumining<br />
and instructive speech Lord Alverstone drew an<br />
interesting parallel between the careers of law and<br />
authorship. He admitted that while speaking<br />
broadly the life of a successful lawyer had not<br />
much in common with that of a successful man of<br />
letters, yet in one respect they had much in<br />
common. For instance, success in advocacy calls<br />
into play the same qualities demanded of a skilful<br />
historian. He gave a striking instance of this in a<br />
criminal trial for murder in which he was once<br />
engaged., The sole materials for the defence were<br />
three letters written a few weeks before his death<br />
by the victim. A night’s exhaustive study and<br />
analysis of these documents enabled him to piece<br />
together the story and build up a case which<br />
resulted in the triumphant acquittal of the accused.<br />
Dramatic authors, no doubt, had much in common<br />
with barristers, though the author certainly had<br />
the pull over counsel in that he could invent the<br />
replies as well as the questions of cross-examination<br />
(laughter). The cleverest and most convincing<br />
case of cross-examination on the stage was in that<br />
remarkable play “‘ Mrs. Dane’s Defence.” Coming<br />
to another department of literature—poetry, he<br />
feared there was little of the romance of poetry ab<br />
the Bar. Nor, indeed, was there much oratory<br />
now-a-days in the law courts. He remembered<br />
that Lord Coleridge had once observed to him<br />
that the days of set speeches of counsel with<br />
formal exordium and peroration were out of date.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
120<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Later in the evening Lord Alverstone remarked<br />
that the story of one of the guests who told the tale<br />
of a man who, reading the epitaph on the tomb-<br />
stone of a well-known solicitor, ‘‘ Here lies a lawyer<br />
and an honest man,” innocently asked why they<br />
buried two men in one grave, reminded him of the<br />
legal conundrum, “‘ What is the difference between<br />
an attorney-at-law and an action-at-law?” “An<br />
action-at-law only lies sometimes.” (Iaughter.)<br />
<br />
Or<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
—-—— + —_<br />
<br />
“Wuat’s In A Namn?”<br />
<br />
Sir,—I think the severest thing I said about<br />
Mr. Panter in my previous letter was that he was<br />
an ‘‘idealist.” Few idealists, in this prosy world,<br />
succeed in reforming it, chiefly because so many<br />
of them take little pains to understand it. Mr.<br />
Panter strikes me as one of the many. He will<br />
never reform the copyright law until he has given<br />
a little study to it. Not till then will he be entitled<br />
to treat it “‘more upon moral than upon legal<br />
grounds.”<br />
<br />
I tried to get Mr. Panter to understand that<br />
copyright would have no existence but for the<br />
copyright statutes; that the right was analogous<br />
to the right ina patent or trademark. He will not<br />
understand it. 1 tried to show him the reasonable-<br />
ness of those statutes in not giving protection to<br />
titles. Hewill have none of it. I tried to get him<br />
to distinguish between statute law and common<br />
law. It only makes him angry; and when the<br />
idealist is angry, he is very angry indeed. He calls<br />
me “cocksure,’”’ hints broadly that I should be in<br />
Colney Hatch, says that I write in a “raw” way,<br />
“in plenitude of words,’ ‘sophistically;” asks<br />
naive questions (leaving out in his haste his marks<br />
of interrogation), and makes hotch-pot of my<br />
simplest statements.<br />
<br />
Very well, then; if the idealist cannot come<br />
down to earth, the man of earth must perforce go<br />
up to the idealist. I shall not try any more to give<br />
Mr. Panter that instruction which he so badly needs,<br />
but just take him on his own ground.<br />
<br />
Mr. Panter wants the titles of books to be<br />
protected by statute just as the books themselves<br />
are now. For, in Mr. Panter’s belief, a title is<br />
“the first sentence” of a book, and, therefore,<br />
worthy of equal protection with it. That is to say,<br />
the title Hamlet is “ the first sentence” of Shake-<br />
speare’s play of that name; Vittoria is “the first<br />
sentence’ of Mr. Meredith’s novel; and Kim “the<br />
first sentence” of Mr. Kipling’s.<br />
<br />
“ Every sentence,” says Mr. Meiklejohn in his<br />
Grammar, “must consist of at least two parts :<br />
the thing we speak about and what we say about<br />
<br />
the thing.” Mr. Panter’s “sentences” only consist<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
of one word. Is Mr. Meiklejohn wrong then, or is<br />
Mr. Panter ?<br />
<br />
Assuming for the moment, and for the amuse-<br />
ment it will yield us, that Mr. Meiklejohn is wrong<br />
and Mr. Panter right, and that the title of a book<br />
is “the first sentence” of it, and consequently on<br />
that ground worthy of equal protection with a<br />
book, let us see how that will work out.<br />
<br />
In England alone we publish about five thousand<br />
books a year. ach of these books is protected for<br />
forty-two years of life and seven years. Five<br />
thousand times forty-two—it might be sixty-two if<br />
the author lived long enough—gives 210,000.<br />
According to Mr. Panter, the law should extend a<br />
protective monopoly for half a century or so, to<br />
210,000 titles of books, the actual books themselves<br />
—most of them, say, all but a round hundred—<br />
having long ago decently departed into the limbo of<br />
past things, very many of them a year or two after<br />
their birth, many of them a week or two! And<br />
what of the titles of poems, essays, and stories ?<br />
These would run, in a short time, into millions !<br />
<br />
The present condition of things under which titles<br />
of books fight with a fickle public for dear life, live<br />
as long as they can, and die when they needs must,<br />
yielding at length to their betters—may be a<br />
grievance. It may be a grievance that Mr. Panter<br />
and others find their pet titles indecently “jumped”<br />
by some horrid little scribbler, either before their<br />
books are ready for publication, or, being published,<br />
before (in their authors’ opinion) the life is half out<br />
of them—that, too, may be a grievance. But I<br />
entreat Mr. Panter once again to take consolation<br />
to himself ; these things are simply nothing to the<br />
position in which Mr. Panter and his friends would<br />
find themselves if the law gave the thousands of<br />
scribbling amateurs and literary sciolists the right<br />
to ring-fence their millions of titles against each<br />
<br />
other under a “Panter Act.”<br />
CHARLES WEEKES.<br />
Fly-Fishers’ Club, S.W.<br />
[This correspondence must now cease.—EDIToR.]<br />
—_+—< + —_.<br />
<br />
AMERICAN SPELLING IN ENGLISH Books.<br />
<br />
Sir,—Can nothing be done by the Society of<br />
Authors and other influential bodies to prevent<br />
English books being printed in American spelling ?<br />
Naturally authors wish to get an advantage of<br />
American copyright, but why cannot there be a<br />
separate American edition? The only wonder to<br />
me is that, under present circumstances, the<br />
American printer does not insist on altering the<br />
wording as well.as the spelling of our books. I<br />
suppose if they did claim to do this our authors and<br />
publishers would not protest—for fear they should<br />
be so many dollars out of pocket.<br />
<br />
REGINALD HAYNEs. | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/501/1905-01-01-The-Author-15-4.pdf | publications, The Author |