| 474 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/474 | The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 12 (May 1900) | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+10+Issue+12+%28May+1900%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 12 (May 1900)</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> | 1900-05-01-The-Author-10-12 | | | | | 253–276 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=10">10</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1900-05-01">1900-05-01</a> | | | | | | | 12 | | | 19000501 | She Author.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. X.—No. 12.]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MAY tf, 1900.<br />
<br />
[Prick SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
collective opinions of the Committee unless<br />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br />
<br />
important communications within two days will write to him<br />
without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on<br />
all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub-<br />
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are<br />
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
One<br />
<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<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 />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I. THAT OF SELLING IT OUTRIGHT.<br />
<br />
This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper<br />
price can be obtained. But the transaction should be<br />
managed by a competent agent, or with the advice of the<br />
Secretary of 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 />
(1.) 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 />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
<br />
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br />
<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor !<br />
<br />
Til. THE ROYALTY SYSTEM.<br />
<br />
It is above all things necessary to know what the<br />
proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible<br />
for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly<br />
the truth. From time to time the very important figures<br />
connected with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br />
“ Cost of Production.”<br />
<br />
IV. 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 />
oe<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
Ye Ne sign an agreement without submitting it to<br />
the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some<br />
competent legal authority.<br />
<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 />
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for PLAYS<br />
IN THREE OR MORE ACTS :—<br />
<br />
(a.) SALE OUTRIGHT OF THE PERFORMING RIGHT.<br />
This is unsatisfactory. An author who enters<br />
into such a contract should stipulate in the con-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
254<br />
<br />
tract. 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<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES<br />
on gross receipts. Percentages vary between<br />
5 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 in advance 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<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF ROYALTIES (1.e.,<br />
fixed nightly fees). This method should be<br />
always avoided except in cases where the fees<br />
are likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br />
other safeguards set out under heading (b.) 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 preserved.<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 American rights may be exceedingly<br />
valuable. They should never be included in English<br />
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br />
consideration.<br />
<br />
g. 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 are<br />
referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
1. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the<br />
<br />
advice sought is such as can be given best by a solici-<br />
tor, the member has a right to an opinion from the<br />
<br />
Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s<br />
<br />
opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for<br />
<br />
him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the<br />
member.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publisher’s agreoments do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple<br />
to use the Society.<br />
<br />
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. The<br />
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br />
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br />
obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
<br />
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Society for examination.<br />
<br />
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br />
reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing<br />
the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-<br />
dence of the writer.<br />
<br />
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception of<br />
members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof<br />
safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con-<br />
fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who<br />
will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :—(1)<br />
To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To<br />
stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upom<br />
them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce paymente<br />
due according to agreements.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
N “EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this.<br />
<br />
branch of their work by informing young writers of<br />
<br />
its existence. Their MSS. can be read and treated<br />
<br />
as a composition is treated by a coach. The Readers are<br />
<br />
writers of competence and experience. The fee is one<br />
guinea.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the<br />
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br />
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br />
<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
<br />
Communications for The Author should be addressed te<br />
the Offices of the Society, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn<br />
Fields, W.C., and should reach the Hditor 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 te<br />
publish.<br />
<br />
The present location of the Authors’ Club is at 3, White-<br />
hall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for<br />
information, rules of admission, &c.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Shea NAD NRA SS<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 255<br />
<br />
THE PENSION SCHEME.<br />
<br />
HERE seem to be some indications that the<br />
a. Pension Scheme has been misunderstood<br />
by our members. It is well, therefore,<br />
<br />
that the principles should be stated over again.<br />
<br />
1. It is a scheme for making the followers of<br />
literature provide by their own efforts for<br />
the relief of those who break down<br />
through ill-health or old age.<br />
<br />
2. It is not designed to furnish a pension for<br />
every member of tbe Society, as has been<br />
misrepresented.<br />
<br />
3. It is proposed to make it self-supporting and<br />
efficient in the following manner :<br />
<br />
(a) To form a nucleus by donations.<br />
<br />
(6) To supplement this beginning by annual<br />
subscriptions.<br />
<br />
(c) To devote a certain proportion—say one-<br />
third—of the annual subscriptions to<br />
the grant of pensions, and the remainder<br />
—say two-thirds—to the permanent<br />
fund.<br />
<br />
4. It is thought that when the advantages of<br />
the Pension Fund are clearly understood—<br />
that it will be a fund expressly reserved<br />
for, and devoted to, the life-long assistance<br />
of those who are old or broken—it will<br />
receive the cordial support of every<br />
member of the Society.<br />
<br />
5. Since many members are not rich, it 1s pro-<br />
vided that either occasional donations or<br />
small annual subscriptions will be received.<br />
Members need be in no way discouraged<br />
from becoming annual subscribers for quite<br />
small amounts.<br />
<br />
The method of working may be thus illustrated.<br />
A nucleus of about £1000 has been formed. 1<br />
over 1500 members between them provide us<br />
with an average of Ios. a year, or a total of<br />
£750, the Committee would be able to use £250<br />
a year for pensions, and to transfer £500 to the<br />
principal. In twenty years the principal would<br />
become the very respectable sum of £11,000,<br />
yielding, say, £300 a year, and the Committee<br />
would have £550 a year to give in pensions. It<br />
is estimated that, considermg the present con-<br />
dition of literature as a profession, this amount<br />
would amply cover all legitimate demands that<br />
could be made upon the fund.<br />
<br />
It may be argued that the membership of the<br />
society will increase, and therefore the demands<br />
upon this fund. It is to be hoped that it will.<br />
But in that case the subscriptions to the Pension<br />
Fund will increase also.<br />
<br />
The Committee, therefore, very earnestly invite<br />
their members to consider how far they can<br />
support a scheme which is based on the inde-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
pendence of the author and the duty of those in<br />
the same profession to support others who are<br />
stricken down and unable to work.<br />
<br />
It may be urged that the Civil List and the<br />
Royal Literary Fund already provide for those in<br />
need.<br />
<br />
The answer is that the proportion of the Civil<br />
List that should be used for literature is only<br />
£400 a year, and that this slender provision is<br />
very largely, and very properly, used for the<br />
widows and daughters of literary men. As<br />
regards the Royal Literary Fund, it gives no<br />
pensions, but only grants in aid.<br />
<br />
It is also hoped that the pensions of the<br />
Society’s Pension Fund, being provided by the<br />
donations and subscriptions of authors, and being<br />
given in recognition of literary merit no less than<br />
in relief of necessitous cases, may be considered<br />
as an evidence of the appreciation of the literary<br />
profession, and as an honourable testimonial to<br />
the good work done by the recipients.<br />
<br />
Members paying subscriptions through their<br />
bank can pay pension subscriptions also in the<br />
same manner.<br />
<br />
_____——»e«e<br />
<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I.—Tue Copyrient Br.<br />
<br />
PNHE Literary Copyright Bill has gone into<br />
committee in the House of Lords. The<br />
committee appointed to consider it con-<br />
<br />
sists of the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of<br />
<br />
Selborne, Viscount Knutsford, Lord Balfour, Lord<br />
<br />
Hatterton, Lord Monkswell, Lord Thring, Lord<br />
<br />
Farrer, Lord Welby, Lord Davy, Lord Avebury.<br />
<br />
On Tuesday, April ard, Mr. 8. L. Clemens<br />
(“Mark Twain ”) presented his views on the<br />
question, and brought forward strong argu-<br />
ments for copyright in perpetuity. It is hoped<br />
that some day this very desirable object may<br />
be obtained; but the committee did not appear<br />
to be in sympathy with Mr. Clemens on the<br />
point. The Draft Copyright Bill now before<br />
the House of Lords differs in some important<br />
points from the Draft Bill approved by the<br />
House of Lords committee at the end of last<br />
Session, the chief point being the abandonment<br />
of registration. Dramatic authors must make a<br />
strong stand against provisions in sects. 6 and 7,<br />
clause 5. This the Society of Authors, which is<br />
watching the Bill very carefully on their behalf,<br />
will do at the proper time.<br />
<br />
It is understood that the committee will not<br />
take any more evidence: the only opportunity of<br />
raising objections to the Bill will be as it passes<br />
through the House of Lords or the House of<br />
Commons.<br />
<br />
<br />
256<br />
<br />
Il.—Auvsrria-Hunegary AND THE BERNE<br />
ConvENTION.<br />
<br />
The Droit d’Auteur of March contains an<br />
important document issued by the Minister of<br />
Justice of Austria-Hungary respecting the inter-<br />
national copyright relations of the dual monarchy,<br />
together with detailed comments upon it. The<br />
general drift of the official document is opposed<br />
to the entrance of the dual monarchy into the<br />
Berne Union on the grounds of the differences<br />
existing between the copyright laws of Austria<br />
and Hungary, and the fact that the protection<br />
given to foreign authors by the Berne Convention<br />
would be under certain circumstances wider than<br />
that given to subjects of the Austro-Hungarian<br />
Empire. e<br />
<br />
We, however, entirely agree with our valuable<br />
contemporary the Droit d’Au/feur in thinking<br />
that, notwithstanding certain divergencies, ‘‘ the<br />
Austrian legislation and the Convention of Berne<br />
might work together as satisfactorily as the Con-<br />
vention and the German Legislation have done<br />
for the last fourteen years.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Carl Junker. ‘“ Die Berner Convention zum<br />
Schutze der Werke der Literatur und Kunst und<br />
Oesterreich-Ungarn.” Wien: Holder. 1900.<br />
<br />
Mr. Carl Junker, who was last year com-<br />
missioned by the Austro-Hungarian Booksellers’<br />
Union to make a full report upon the subject of<br />
the empire’s possible adhesion to the Berne Con-<br />
vention, has published in an amplified form, in<br />
a very interesting pamphlet, the results of his<br />
investigations, which originally appeared in the<br />
“ Oesterreichisch-Ungarische Buchhandler Corres-<br />
pondenz”; and his excellent brochure may be<br />
strongly recommended to the attention of all who<br />
are interested either in the wider extension of the<br />
Berne Convention or in questions of inter-<br />
national copyright.<br />
<br />
First of all sketching the history of the Berne<br />
Convention, Mr. Junker gives the text of the<br />
various official documents of the Convention, and<br />
after enumerating the countries which have<br />
already joined the Union, and alluding to the<br />
steps in the direction of adhesion taken by the<br />
Netherlands and Russia, reviews the present<br />
situation in the dual monarchy. Here a good<br />
deal of confusion exists in the copyright enact-<br />
ments, and some essential difference between the<br />
laws of Austria and Hungary. For example, the<br />
duration of copyright in the latter country is for<br />
life and fifty years; in the former for life and<br />
thirty years. On the whole, the Hungarian legis-<br />
<br />
lation is the more enlightened, but neither<br />
Hungary nor Austria protects the foreign author,<br />
except in cayes povided for by particular treaties.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Mr. Junker rightly points out that less trouble<br />
would be given by adhesion to the Berne Conven.<br />
tion than by a further multiplication of these<br />
treaties with individual countries. The question<br />
of translations (an important one in an Empire<br />
comprising so many different languages) is some-<br />
what fully discussed, and the opinion is stated<br />
that these form but an insignificant part of the<br />
whole literary production. It seems, however,<br />
impossible to avoid a suspicion that, though the<br />
number of translated works may be few in com-<br />
parison with the whole output, some of them<br />
must represent cases in which individual authors<br />
are mulcted of a considerable portion of their<br />
rights. This at least is certain, that translations<br />
of a considerable number of English and French<br />
novels appear in the Hungarian and Bohemian<br />
popular libraries; and it is evident that these<br />
libraries have a respectable sale. On the other<br />
hand, it is made clear that, amongst others, the<br />
publishers of the dual monarchy find exclusion<br />
from the Berne Convention detrimental to their<br />
interests ; and this to such an extent that impor-<br />
tant firms have migrated to Leipzig for the sake<br />
of securing the advantages accompanying publica-<br />
tion in a country belonging to the Union. Mr.<br />
Junker, whilst admitting that a reform of the<br />
Austrian and Hungarian copyright laws is desir-<br />
able, thinks that the present enactments in no<br />
way preclude an immediate accession to the<br />
Union, and urges that this step should certainly<br />
be taken on grounds of “ justice, economy, and<br />
morality.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TIL.—A Canapian CoMPLAINT.<br />
The following cutting has been forwarded to<br />
me from Canada:<br />
<br />
CopyrRicHT UNFAIRNESS.<br />
<br />
Here is an excellent illustration of the injustice of the<br />
present copyright law. A Canadian publisher came across<br />
a story published in a United States weekly paper. After<br />
waiting some time, he wrote to his agent in London to find<br />
if there was an edition of the book published in England.<br />
Answer—‘“ No book of that title published here.” The<br />
Canadian then ran it through his paper, and shortly after-<br />
wards was politely requested to pay a few hundred dollars<br />
and a heavy lawyer’s fee, as the book had been entered at<br />
Stationers’ Hall, London—but not printed in England. That<br />
would be all right, were it not for the fact that the Canadian<br />
publisher might pay five hundred dollars to a Canadian for<br />
a story to run through his paper, and yet if he did not print<br />
it also in the United States, any United States publisher<br />
could reprint the story without penalty. Where is the<br />
reciprocity in this ? Is it not one answer to the question,<br />
why does not the Canadian publisher help along the Canadian<br />
author P<br />
<br />
The arguments put forward are certainly<br />
amusing, but can be put aside with little com-<br />
ment. To begin with, the Canadian publisher’s<br />
agent must have been exceedingly ignorant of<br />
<br />
<br />
4<br />
|<br />
2<br />
4<br />
_<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
the manner of doing business in England if he<br />
did not search in Stationers’ Hall to see whether<br />
the book had been entered.<br />
<br />
Secondly, it should be remarked that the entry<br />
in Stationers’ Hall does not give copyright ; pub-<br />
lication of the book in England does. How far<br />
had this publication been made? There are no<br />
details on this point.<br />
<br />
These statements, however, have nothing to<br />
do with the real inwardness of the paragraph.<br />
The writer argues as follows: Because an<br />
American author is not bound to print in<br />
Canada, therefore the Canadian publisher should<br />
not help along the Canadian author. A wonder-<br />
ful deduction. An American author is not bound<br />
to print in England to secure copyright. To<br />
this extent there is a lack of reciprocity<br />
between England and America, and to the same<br />
extent there is a lack of reciprocity between<br />
Canada and America, but English publishers do<br />
not argue that this is any reason why they<br />
should not help on English authors. Logically,<br />
it seems impossible to deduce the one from the<br />
other. Perhaps the writer can explain his<br />
meaning.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TV.—Marxk Twain on CopyrRiaut.<br />
<br />
A special meeting of the Select Committee of<br />
the House of Lords on Copyright was held to<br />
take the evidence of Mr. Samuel Clemens (“ Mark<br />
Twain’). Lord Monkswell presided.<br />
<br />
Mr. Clemens, at the request of the chairman,<br />
read a written statement of his views on the law<br />
of copyright in England. He regarded the copy-<br />
right laws of England and America as nearly<br />
what they ought to be. They needed, however,<br />
one commercially trivial, but gigantic, amendment<br />
in order to become perfect. That was the removal<br />
of the forty-two-years limit, and returning to<br />
perpetual copyright. One advantage claimed for<br />
limited copyright was fallacious. It was that<br />
which made a distinction between authors’ pro-<br />
perty and real estate. A book was usually<br />
regarded as a combination of ideas, and that<br />
was just as much a property as any other. There<br />
was no property which was not due to some man’s<br />
mind, as well as his labour. A man who pur-<br />
chased an estate had to improve it by the exercise<br />
of his intellect, the intreduction of railways, and<br />
so on. His land was what the book was—the<br />
result of brain work—the combination and exploi-<br />
tation of ideas.<br />
<br />
Was it sound public policy, he asked, that con-<br />
ferred a benefit on the nation as against the<br />
author? Out of a hundred tons of books ninety-<br />
eight tons were light literature. ‘‘ My works are<br />
light,” said Mr. Clemens, witha sigh. ‘“ Many<br />
unthinking thinkers think they think,” he added.<br />
<br />
vou. x.<br />
<br />
257<br />
<br />
Cheap editions of deathless books would be<br />
insured by perpetual copyright. Only one book<br />
in the world, he believed, had been fairly<br />
treated since Queen Anne’s time, and that was<br />
the English Bible. It was the only book in<br />
possession of perpetual copyright. Had that<br />
deprived the public of cheap editions? It had<br />
not.<br />
<br />
How many books outlive the forty-two-years<br />
limit ? He placed those forty-two-years immortals<br />
at sixty-five. ‘The amount which would accrue to<br />
authors and their relatives from perpetual copy-<br />
right would not exceed £6500 per annum in all.<br />
There was not a professional man of repute in<br />
London who could not earn that in the year. This<br />
was the sum which was taken out of the pockets<br />
of illustrious men who had taken a share in<br />
building up British power and spreading wide the<br />
glory of Englishmen. Great Britain issued 5000<br />
volumes a year.’ Only sixty-five reached the<br />
forty-two-years limit. Most of them would be<br />
dead and gone inside five years. It was safe to<br />
say that not more than 650 volumes out of<br />
500,000 would outlive a century. In America,<br />
when the number of slaves subject to the lash<br />
equalled the population of London to-day, a woman<br />
wrote a book which aroused humanity, swept<br />
slavery out of existence, and purged the fair name<br />
of America from reproach. “The author,” con-<br />
cluded Mr. Clemens, “is now dead; the copy-<br />
right is dead; the children live and the book<br />
lives ; but the profits @ go to the publishers.”<br />
<br />
In the course of reply to questions, Mr. Clemens<br />
remarked incidentally that some of his manuscript<br />
was once taxed as “ gas works.”<br />
<br />
The Chairman thanked the witness for his<br />
evidence.— Daily News.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.—Vizereviy v. Mupie.<br />
<br />
In Vizetelly v. Mudie’s Select Library<br />
(Limited) the plaintiff obtained a verdict for<br />
£100 damages, on account of a libel contained in<br />
a book circulated and sold by the defendants in<br />
the ordinary course of their trade, though they<br />
had no knowledge of the libel and the book was<br />
published by a high-class British firm of pub-<br />
lishers. The verdict does not appear to us a<br />
satisfactory one. The rule of law applicable to<br />
the case is no doubt the one stated by the Court<br />
of Appeal in ELmmens v. Pottle (55 L. J. Rep.<br />
Q. B. 51). The decision there was that a vendor<br />
of a newspaper, though primd facie responsible<br />
for a libel contained in it, is not answerable if he<br />
can prove that he did not know that it contained<br />
a libel; that his ignorance was not due to negli-<br />
gence; and that he did not know, and had no<br />
ground for supposing, that the newspaper was<br />
<br />
ec<br />
<br />
<br />
258<br />
<br />
likely to contain libellous matter. If he proves<br />
these facts, he is not the publisher of the libel.<br />
Mr. Justice Grantham’s direction that the ques-<br />
tion for the jury was whether the defendants were<br />
negligent seems, therefore, indisputable. He,<br />
however, expressed the view that the defendants<br />
conducted their business in a negligent way,<br />
because they did not ascertain for themselves that<br />
the contents of all the 4000 new books which they<br />
circulate on an average in each year were not<br />
libellous. We fail to see why the proprietors of<br />
a circulating library should not in general be<br />
entitled to rely on the good reputation of the<br />
publishers from whom they receive books, at any<br />
rate when the publishers carry on their trade in<br />
the United Kingdom and can be reached by the<br />
arm of the law. The charge of negligence was<br />
also supported on the ground that the publishers<br />
of the book had put a notice in the Publishers’<br />
Journal and the Atheneum requesting that all<br />
copies should be returned to them for cancellation<br />
of the libellous passages, and that the defendants<br />
took in both these newspapers and ought to have<br />
read the notice. If it be the general pvactice of<br />
the publishing trade to insert such notices in<br />
these newspapers, the omission to read them may<br />
justify a finding of negligence ; otherwise it is a<br />
strong thing to say that a man is expected to<br />
read the whole of a periodical to which he sub-<br />
scribes, even if it be a trade newspaper.—From<br />
the Law Journal (by permission).<br />
<br />
[On appeal the judgment has been maintained.<br />
The opinion of the Law Journal on the general<br />
principle is, however, instructive. |<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VI.—Srrcimens oF AGREEMENTS.<br />
<br />
Here are two agreements. The reader will be<br />
pleased to peruse documents which will so greatly<br />
raise the calling of publishers in his estimation.<br />
In what follows A. B. is the publisher.<br />
<br />
1. A. B. to have exclusive right of publishing<br />
<br />
everywhere.<br />
<br />
2. Corrections above 25 per cent. of the cost of<br />
type-setting to be borne by the author.<br />
<br />
3. The first 500 copies to bear no royalty.<br />
<br />
4. After the first 500 copies the royalty to be<br />
12} per cent. on the published price ; 13<br />
copies as 12, 7.e., on a 6s. book, 854d.<br />
<br />
5. If the book is sold at or below half published.<br />
price, the royalty to be 123 per cent. on<br />
the net receipts.<br />
<br />
6. A royalty of 10 per cent. on the net receipts<br />
to be paid for a colonial edition.<br />
<br />
7. A. B. to have all rights, serial, dramatic,<br />
translation, and colonial, continental,<br />
American, &. And to pay the author<br />
one-half the profits on each.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
8. The author to revise future editions.<br />
<br />
g. The author shall not publish any abridg-<br />
<br />
ment.<br />
<br />
10. The author to pay £50 to the publisher on<br />
<br />
going to press.<br />
<br />
Many agreements have been submitted to the<br />
Society, but this seems on the whole the most<br />
admirable, both in the brazen front of the pub-<br />
lisher and in his sublime reliance on the ignorance<br />
of the author.<br />
<br />
First, for the author. It is supposed that an<br />
edition of 1500 copies has been printed and sold.<br />
It is a six-shilling book, not a novel. The average<br />
price is 3s. 6d. to the trade. But after the first<br />
1000 we suppose that the rest are sold at half-<br />
price, viz., 38. (see clause 5).<br />
<br />
The average cost of an average six-sbilling book<br />
for 1500 copies may be set down, with adver-<br />
tising, at about £110, all being bound.<br />
<br />
The author receives for the first 500... 9 O O<br />
” : » second 500... 17 6 4<br />
” ] » bhird 500... 84 9<br />
Tn all the author’s account stands thus :<br />
PD ae<br />
Paid to publisher............ 50 0 6<br />
Received i... cececc cee 25 19 3<br />
Loss 3.6 ed SD<br />
50 0 6<br />
<br />
On the other hand, consider the publisher. He,<br />
worthy creature, stands as follows:<br />
<br />
& s d. & 3 &<br />
Cost of production ......... 110, 6 0<br />
Author in royalties......... Ze 19 8<br />
Profit’ (0.28.1 Iba 0-6<br />
——————. 300 0:0<br />
By sales :<br />
1000 at 3s. Od..... 2. 275 OC. 2<br />
SOO at 38. cece cece eee ane 75 O20<br />
Received from author...... 56 0<br />
— 300 0 0<br />
<br />
Of course, it may be said that so large an<br />
edition might not be sold. The answer is that it<br />
might be, and that this is how it would work<br />
out.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here is another agreement. It was a little<br />
book of only 60,000 words, impudently offered to<br />
the public at 6s. The royalty was to be 1s. 6d. a<br />
copy unless the book was sold at or under half-<br />
price, when it was to be 25 per cent. on the net<br />
receipts. The author was to pay down £40.<br />
<br />
There was an edition of 1500, of which 500 copies<br />
were bound, and 400 sold, 200 at 3s. 6d. and 200<br />
at 2s. 113d. Ona colonial edition the author was<br />
to have 34d. a copy.<br />
<br />
<br />
ps<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Cost of printing and paper<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
The author’s account, therefore, stood as<br />
<br />
follows : Ss a<br />
Paid to publisher......... i 40 O O<br />
Received :<br />
<br />
Royalty of 1s, 6d. on 200<br />
copies sold at 3s. 6d. .... 15 0 O<br />
Royalty of 25 per cent. on<br />
net receipts of 200 sold<br />
at 2S. £140. 0. ss...<br />
<br />
Colonial edition at 33d. 14 11<br />
<br />
40.60 0<br />
How does the publisher stand ?<br />
<br />
oe 8. bs. a,<br />
<br />
about : 3 50.0 0<br />
Minding 500 ............ fay 8 10 O<br />
Advertising ............ Say 10 0 0<br />
PROVSNICS 2 ogee 26.19. 7<br />
PerOUt 3 ee ee A 2<br />
. 154 11-3<br />
Paid by author 2... 40° OO<br />
200 copies at 35. 6d. ...... 25. 0. 0<br />
200 copies at 1s. 113d. ... 29 11 8<br />
Colonial edition .......... 50-0 OC<br />
¥54 if 8<br />
<br />
There must be something wrong here, because<br />
the poor man lamented the loss of more than £20<br />
on the transaction, and, as is well known among<br />
his friends, he cannot swerve from the truth.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VIL.—“ Our FavovurABLE CONSIDERATION.”<br />
<br />
We have often warned our readers against the<br />
publisher who gives a MS. a consideration so pro-<br />
tracted and careful that he answers by return post,<br />
and so favourable that he offers the “following<br />
advantageous” terms. But the game goes on<br />
merrily. It has of late extended its list of players.<br />
There were, until recently, two sportsmen only who<br />
practised in this field: thenathird appeared: and<br />
now there is at least one more. In fact, the game<br />
of deluding the ignorant aspirant by dangling<br />
hopes of “future and following ” editions before<br />
him with promises of two-thirds, three-fifths—<br />
any proportion you please—of the profits, seems<br />
to be attracting and tempting publishers hitherto<br />
considered above such practices. But with pub-<br />
lishers as with the rest of humanity—they can<br />
withstand anything but temptation.<br />
<br />
Here are two cases which have recently been<br />
brought before the Secretary. The first is an<br />
example of the old trickery.<br />
<br />
Dear Srr,—We have given your MS. our consideration<br />
and have decided to make yon the following offer for its pro-<br />
duction and publication in one volume.<br />
<br />
voL. X.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 259<br />
<br />
That in consideration of our printing 750 copies in the<br />
best style, publishing at the popular price of 3s. 6d., binding<br />
‘in handsome cloth, gold lettered) as trade demands warrant,<br />
advertising at our expense to the amount of £10 (full details<br />
of which would be duly sent you), and giving you two-<br />
thirds of the proceeds of sales, you agree to pay to us the<br />
sum of £69, £39 on signing the agreement, and £30 when<br />
you see the last proofs.<br />
<br />
The expenses of all future editions to be borne entirely by<br />
us, you then receiving a royalty of 1s. per copy.<br />
<br />
The above amount to constitute your sole outlay, the<br />
copyright remaining your property.<br />
<br />
We should publish the book during the spring season.—<br />
Faithfully yours, Rook<br />
<br />
What does this mean to the luckless author ?<br />
First, there will be a bill for corrections—there<br />
always is. ‘Then, after a brief interval, there<br />
will be a strong recommendation to spend another<br />
£7—they are always very exact—in advertising.<br />
Then there will follow a statement of sales.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Review Copies ...........5++ 50<br />
GLUOR 3 es 25<br />
GIGS oes eerste a 2<br />
<br />
In stock 672 to be sold as waste paper.<br />
<br />
The author pays £69. He then pays the bill<br />
for corrections—say £6, and sends up the addi-<br />
tional £7 for advertisements. In all he pays £82.<br />
What does he get back? Asa rule, nothing. On<br />
the most favourable terms, the sale of the whole<br />
edition, he can get back about £40. In other<br />
words, he must lose £40, and he stands to lose<br />
£80, and yet he accepts !<br />
<br />
As for the publisher, he prints the book; he<br />
binds only what are wanted ; and as for the<br />
advertisements, only he himself knows where they<br />
go and what they cost. On the usual estimate<br />
he stands to win about £25.<br />
<br />
Here, however, is another case. The terms are<br />
somewhat varied. The publisher says: ‘“ The<br />
book will cost £ for print, paper, and binding.<br />
T shall advertise to the extent of £ I shall<br />
take a commission of 20 per cent. on the proceeds.<br />
You must send me a cheque for £ in advance.<br />
There will also be incidental expenses.” This<br />
looks like a bond fide commission business, only<br />
with a high percentage.<br />
<br />
In the case before us the author was lured on<br />
by the prospect of a safe and very profitable<br />
investment. The result was a dead loss of every-<br />
thing paid in advance, and a demand for more.<br />
The book has proved a failure: the publisher if<br />
he had been straightforward would have foretold<br />
the failure and warned the author. And, as in<br />
the preceding case, the publisher has made a<br />
certain profit in advance. He pledged himself, in<br />
his estimate, to bind the whole: it is not<br />
certain that he has done so. He also pledged<br />
himself to spend a certain sum in advertising: it<br />
remains to be proved how much he has spent.<br />
<br />
ee2<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
260<br />
<br />
And, as in the preceding case, the author stood<br />
to lose so much certainly, and so much more<br />
possibly. In such cases as this it is always the<br />
“ possible” event which happens.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VIIl.—Tue Property or AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
The following are extracts from a paper read by<br />
Mr. Charles Dudley Warner before the recently<br />
organised National Institute of Arts and Letters<br />
in New York. The paper is printed in evtenso in<br />
the Writer (Boston, U.S.A.) for February :—<br />
<br />
Consider first the author, and I mean the author, and not<br />
the mere craftsman who manufactures books for a recog-<br />
nised market, His sole capital is his talent. His brain<br />
may be likened to a mine, gold, silver, copper, iron, or tin,<br />
which looks like silver when new. Whatever it is, the vein<br />
of valuable ore is limited, in most cases it is slight. When<br />
it is worked out the man is at the end of his resources.<br />
Has he expended or produced capital? I say he has pro-<br />
duced it, and contributed to the wealth of the world, and<br />
that he is as truly entitled to the usufruct of it as the<br />
miner who takes gold or silver out of the earth. For how<br />
long? I will speak of that later on. The copyright of a<br />
book is not analogous to the patent right of an invention,<br />
which may become of universal necessity to the world. Nor<br />
should the greater share of this usufruct be absorbed by the<br />
manufacturer and publisher of the book. The publisher<br />
has a clear right to guard himself against risks, as he has<br />
the right of refusal to assume them. But there is an<br />
injustice somewhere, when for many a book, valued and<br />
even profitable to somebody, the author does not receive the<br />
price of a labourer’s day wages for the time spent on it—to<br />
say nothing of the long years of its gestation,<br />
<br />
The relation between author and publisher ought to be<br />
neither complicated nor peculiar. The author may sell his<br />
product outright, or he may sell himself by an agreement<br />
similar to that which an employee in a manufacturing<br />
establishment makes with his master to give to the estab-<br />
lishment all his inventions. Either of these methods is fair<br />
and business-like, though it may not be wise. A method<br />
that prevailed in the early years of this century was both<br />
fair and wise. The author agreed that the publisher should<br />
have the exclusive right to publish his book for s certain<br />
term or to make and sell a certain number of copies. When<br />
those conditions were fulfilled, the control of the property<br />
reverted to the author. The continuance of these relations<br />
between the two depended, as it should depend, upon mutual<br />
advantage and mutual goodwill.<br />
<br />
WoRrRKING FoR A MARKET.<br />
<br />
By the present common method the author makes over<br />
- the use of his property to the will of the publisher. It is<br />
true that he parts with the use only of the property, and<br />
not with the property itself, and the publisher in law<br />
acquires no other title, nor does he acquire any sort of<br />
interest in the future products of the author’s brain. But<br />
the author loses all control of his property, and its profit to<br />
him may depend upon his continuing to make over his books<br />
to the same publisher. In this continuance he is liable to the<br />
temptation to work for a market, instead of following the<br />
free impulses of his own genius. As to any special book, the<br />
publisher is the sole judge whether to push it or to let it sink<br />
into the stagnation of unadvertised goods.<br />
<br />
The situation is full of complications. Theoretically it is<br />
<br />
the interest of both parties to sell as many books as<br />
possible; but the author has an interest in one book, the<br />
publisher in a hundred, and it is natural and reasonable<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
that the man who risks his money should be the judge of<br />
the policy best for his own establishment. I cannot but<br />
think that this situation would be on a juster footing all<br />
round if the author returned to the old practice of limiting<br />
the use of his property by the publisher. I say this in<br />
full recognition of the fact that the publishers might be<br />
unwilling to make temporary investments, or to take risks.<br />
What then? Fewer books might be published. Less<br />
vanity might be gratified. Less money might be risked in<br />
experiments upon the public, and more might be made by<br />
distributing good literature. Would the public be injured ?<br />
It is an idea already discredited that the world owes a living.<br />
to everybody who thinks he can write, and it is a supersti-<br />
tion already fading that capital which exploits literature as<br />
a trade acquires any special privileges.<br />
<br />
‘ ABSURDITY” OF THE CopYRIGHT LAw.<br />
<br />
The property of an author in the product of his mental<br />
labour ought to be as absolute and unlimited as his pro-<br />
perty in the product of his physical labour. It seems to<br />
me idle to say that the two kinds of labour products are so<br />
dissimilar that the ownership cannot be protected by like<br />
laws. In this age of enlightenment such a proposition is<br />
absurd. The history of copyright law seems to show that<br />
the treatment of property in brain product has been based<br />
on this erroneous idea. To steal the paper on which an<br />
author has put his brain work into visible, tangible form<br />
is in all lands a crime, larceny, but to steal the brain work<br />
is not a crime. The utmost extent to which our enlightened<br />
American legislators, at almost the end of the nineteenth<br />
century, have gone in protecting products of the brain has<br />
been to give the author power to sue in civil courts, at<br />
large expense, the offender who has taken and sold his<br />
property.<br />
<br />
And what gross absurdity is the copyright law which<br />
limits even this poor defence of authors’ property to a<br />
brief term of years, after the expiration of which he or his<br />
children and heirs have no defence, no recognised property<br />
whatever in his products. And for some inexplicable reason<br />
this term of years in which he may be said to own his<br />
property is divided into two terms, so that at the end of<br />
the first he is compelled to reassert his ownership by<br />
renewing his copyright, or he must lose all ownership at<br />
the end of the short term.<br />
<br />
Duty oF THE GOVERNMENT.<br />
<br />
Tt is manifest to all honest minds that if an author is<br />
entitled to own his work for a term of years, it is equally<br />
the duty of his Government to make that ownership per-<br />
petual. He can own and protect and leave to his children<br />
and his children’s children by will the manuscript paper on<br />
which he has written, and he should have equal right to<br />
leave to them that mental product which constitutes the<br />
true money value of his labour. It is unnecessary to say<br />
that the mental product is always as easy to be identified as<br />
the physical product. Its identification is absolutely certain<br />
to the intelligence of judges and juries. And it is apparent<br />
that the interests of assignees, who are commonly pub-<br />
lishers, are equal with those of authors, in making absolute<br />
and perpetual this property in which both are dealers.<br />
<br />
Another consideration follows here. Why should<br />
the ownership of a bushel of wheat, a piece of silk<br />
goods, a watch or a handkerchief in the possession of an<br />
‘American carried or sent to England or brought thence to<br />
this country be absolute and unlimited, while the ownership<br />
of his own products as an author or as & purchaser from an<br />
author is made dependent on his nationality ? Why should<br />
the property of the manufacturer of cloths, carpets, satins,<br />
and any and every description of goods be able to send his<br />
products all over the world, subject only to the tariff laws<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
eof various countries, while the author (alone of all known<br />
producers) is forbidden to do so? The existing law of our<br />
country says to the foreign author : “ You can have property<br />
in your book only if you manufacture it into saleable form<br />
in this country.” What would be said of the wisdom or<br />
‘wild folly of a law which sought to protect other American<br />
industries by forbidding the importation of all foreign<br />
manufactures ?<br />
<br />
Wart tae Carrranist Has Dons.<br />
<br />
One aspect of the publishing business which has become<br />
increasingly prominent during the last fifteen years cannot<br />
be overlooked, for it is certain to affect seriously the pro-<br />
duction of literature as to quality and its distribution.<br />
Capital has discovered that literature is a product out of<br />
which money can be made, in the same way that itcan be<br />
made in cotton, wheat, oriron. Never before in history has<br />
so much money been invested in publishing, with the single<br />
purpose of creating and supplying the market with manu-<br />
factured goods. Never before has there been such an<br />
appeal to the reading public, or such a study of its tastes, or<br />
supposed tastes, wants, likes, and dislikes, coupled also with<br />
the same shrewd anxiety to ascertain a future demand that<br />
governs the purveyors of spring and fall styles in millinery<br />
and dressmaking. Not only the contents of the books and<br />
periodicals, but the covers must be made to catch the<br />
fleeting fancy. Will the public next season wear its hose<br />
dotted or striped ?<br />
<br />
The consolidation of capital in great publishing establish-<br />
ments has its advantages and its disadvantages. It increases<br />
vastly the yearly output of books. The presses must be<br />
kept running; printers, paper-makers, and machinists are<br />
interested in this. The maw of the press must be fed. The<br />
capital must earn its money. One advantage of this is that<br />
when new and usable material is not forthcoming, the<br />
“ standards” and the best literature must be reproduced in<br />
countless editions, and the best literature is broadcast over<br />
the world at prices to suit all purses,even the leanest. The<br />
disadvantage is that products, in the eagerness of competi-<br />
<br />
“tion for a market, are accepted which are of a character to<br />
harm and not help the development of the contemporary<br />
mind in moral and intellectual strength. The public<br />
expresses its fear of this in the phrase it has invented—<br />
“the spawn of the press.” The author who writes simply<br />
to supply this press and in constant view of a market, is<br />
certain to deteriorate in his quality; may, more, as a<br />
beginner he is satisfied if he can produce something that will<br />
sell without regard to its quality.<br />
<br />
It would not be easy to fix the limit in this vast country<br />
to the circulation of a good book if it were properly kept<br />
before the public. Day by day, year by year, new readers<br />
are coming forward with curiosity and intellectual wants.<br />
The generation that now is should not be deprived of the<br />
best in the last generation. Nay, more, one publication in<br />
any form reaches only a comparatively small portion of the<br />
public that would be interested init. A novel, for instance,<br />
may have a large circuJation in a magazine, it may then<br />
appear in a book, it may reach other readers serially again<br />
in the columns of a newspaper, it may be offered again in<br />
call the by-ways by subscription, and yet not nearly<br />
exhaust its legitimate running power. This is not a sup-<br />
_position, but a fact proved by trial. Nor is it to be<br />
wondered at when we consider that we have an unequalled<br />
“homogeneous population with a similar common school<br />
‘education. In looking over publishers’ lists I am constantly<br />
-eoming across good books out of print, which are practi-<br />
cally unknown to this generation, and yet are more profit-<br />
-able, truer to life and character, more entertaining and<br />
“amusing, than most of those fresh from the press month by<br />
month.<br />
<br />
261<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
5, rue Chomel, Paris.<br />
<br />
FY XHE stupendous event has come off! The<br />
<br />
Great Exhibition has been formally<br />
<br />
declared open to the public, despite its<br />
unfinished condition. Royalty was conspicuous<br />
by its absence on this occasion, and so was the<br />
upper-class Britisher. This is hardly surprising ;<br />
though the malevolent, anti-English attitude of<br />
the journalists has been greatly modified during<br />
the past month. Two new foreign papers have<br />
just been established here. Both are edited by<br />
warm friends of France. The first, entitled ZZ<br />
Risveglo Italiano, appears once a week, and is<br />
the official organ of the Italian colony in Paris.<br />
The second is a Russian daily, entitled Paryskaia<br />
Gazeta, which is reported to have secured the<br />
collaboration of the best-known Russian writers,<br />
in addition to having correspondents all over the<br />
world. Our American cousins are likewise pre-<br />
paring an innovation in the newspaper depart-<br />
ment. The New York Times announces its<br />
intention of initiating the public into some of the<br />
mysteries of publication by daily issuing during<br />
the Exhibition a special edition, printed under<br />
the public eye, in one of the American off-shoots<br />
in the Champ-de-Mars. Mentioning the exhibi-<br />
tion reminds me that a new propaganda to obtain<br />
daily subscriptions for the Boers has just been<br />
started. Its first and very successful public<br />
appeal was issued the week previous to the<br />
opening of the big French show. This appeal,<br />
which was the work of a group of young French-<br />
men, was reproduced in most of the leading dailies.<br />
It began as follows :<br />
<br />
“We are not inveterate enemies of the British<br />
nation. We detest no one; but we hate injustice<br />
and hold in horror the covetous financiers, the<br />
men of prey, who have coldly plotted this criminal<br />
war. They have committed with premeditation<br />
the greatest of crimes—the crime of ‘lése-<br />
humanité,’ &e.”<br />
<br />
But what about the crime of “ lése-patrie”<br />
perpetrated by the Britisher in visiting an exhibi-<br />
tion a portion of whose profits will be devoted to<br />
prolonging a murderous warfare which imperils<br />
the safety of his own countrymen? It will be a<br />
bad thing for all pecuniarily interested in the<br />
Exhibition if the French persist in thrusting this<br />
reflection home to the conscience of the British<br />
nation.<br />
<br />
Tue Lapres’ Drernat.<br />
<br />
The attempt to introduce a feminine member in<br />
the committee of the Société des Gens de Lettres<br />
has failed. The masculine element was propitious,<br />
upwards of 248 votes having been registered by<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
262<br />
<br />
the small group of feminine candidates who pre-<br />
sented themselves to the suffrages of the electors.<br />
The wise resolve of preventing all splitting of<br />
votes by nominating a single candidate not having<br />
been adhered to, the ladies have only themselves<br />
to blame for their non-success. Mme. Daniel<br />
Lesueur headed the poll of the vanquished party<br />
with ninety-six votes, followed by Mme. Henry<br />
Gréville, who boasted sixty-two adherents. Despite<br />
their defeat, it is evident that feminism has made<br />
enormous progress since Mme. Anais Ségalas<br />
presented herself, ten years ago, as a candidate<br />
for a seat on the committee, and registered four<br />
votes! Mesdames “Gyp” and Séverine are<br />
reported to have both declined the honour of<br />
becoming candidates in the present election. A<br />
few months ago the Simple Revue instituted a<br />
plebiscite to decide the awarding of the title of<br />
Princess of French Literature. Mme. Séverime<br />
came off victor in the contest, closely followed<br />
by “Gyp” (Comtesse de Martel). These two<br />
ladies have warmly supported the candidature of<br />
Mme. Daniel Lesueur, grand-niece of O’Connel,<br />
and author of twenty volumes of verse and<br />
fiction dealing with the prominent social and<br />
philosophical questions of the day. In Mme.<br />
Séverine’s writings we find this high-flown descrip-<br />
tion of the defeated candidate :—<br />
<br />
“ Perspicacity, and a prompt and just concep-<br />
tion of life, are in her limpid blue eyes :<br />
The Lyonnais origin of her father is shown in<br />
her low, obstinate forehead, in her firm chin;<br />
while her Parisian birth is revealed by her small,<br />
delicate nose, whose nostrils quiver above the<br />
crimson mouth like a butterfly over a balsa-<br />
mine.”<br />
<br />
MM. Victorien Sardou, Sully Prudhomme,<br />
Henri de Bornier, Camille Flammarion, Edmond<br />
Haraucourt, and Georges Ohnet, were among<br />
Mme. Lesueur’s supporters.<br />
<br />
M. Hervisev anp THE ACADEMIES.<br />
<br />
Encouraged by the above result, the lady<br />
students of divers nationalities of the Latin<br />
Quarter are mooting the formation of a feminine<br />
association similar to the existing General Asso-<br />
ciation of Male Students. The authorities are<br />
decidedly favourable to the proposition; while<br />
M. Paul Hervieu, the newly-elected president of<br />
the Société des Gens de Lettres, is rumoured to be<br />
. as warm an advocate of ladies’ rights as was M.<br />
Marcel Prévost, his predecessor. The flattering<br />
<br />
unanimity of his election by acclamation, and his<br />
numerous contributions to literature as essayist,<br />
novelist, and dramatist, render him an important<br />
auxiliary tothe feminine cause. His official recep-<br />
tion at the French Academy is announced to<br />
place towards the end of June. M.<br />
<br />
take<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Brunetitre is the member appointed to receive<br />
him.<br />
<br />
A propos of the Académie des Sciences, the<br />
late Professor Hughes, of London, inventor of the<br />
telegraphic apparatus which bears his name, has<br />
confided to its committee a legacy of 100,000<br />
francs, whose interest is to be devoted annually to-<br />
rewarding the autbor of the most useful inven-<br />
tion in the department of physics, electricity, or -<br />
magnetism.<br />
<br />
Among minor events may be mentioned<br />
the protest entered by a learned member of<br />
the Biological Society against the bicycle on<br />
the ground that this method of locomotion<br />
seriously increases the annual ratio of madness<br />
and crime. Mgr. Maillet, Bishop of St. Claude,<br />
is evidently of the same opinion ; the Semaine<br />
religieuse of the diocese has recently published his<br />
interdiction of its usage to his clergy “ under<br />
penalty of mortal sin.” This is the severest con-<br />
demnation that the bicycle has yet received in<br />
Catholic quarters.<br />
<br />
“T/INCONNU ET LES PROBLEMES PSYCHIQUES.”<br />
<br />
Such is the title of M. Camille Flammarion’s<br />
new book. Its advent has occasioned a profound<br />
sensation. In his present work the learned<br />
author of “ Astronomie populaire ” cites no fewer<br />
than 438 authenticated instances of psychical<br />
phenomena, telepathic communications from @<br />
distance, mental suggestions, futurity revealed by<br />
dreams, apparitions of dying friends, &c. The<br />
question whether these psychological problems can<br />
be resolved within the limits of scientific analysis<br />
is pertinently discussed by the writer. “. .<br />
Is such an attempt rational?” he inquires; “is<br />
it logical ? Can it lead to any definite results ?<br />
Of this I am ignorant. Nevertheless, it is<br />
interesting. And if it leads us to a fuller<br />
knowledge of the nature of the human soul<br />
it will enable humanity to make a progress<br />
superior to that made up to the present<br />
time by the gradual evolution of all the other<br />
sciences united.” M. Flammarion’s final conclu-<br />
sions are that Thought is not a function of the<br />
brain; that the Soul actually exists as a real<br />
being independent of the body; that it is gifted<br />
with faculties still unknown to science; and that<br />
it can act and perceive the future (determined<br />
beforehand by natural causes) without the<br />
intermediate agency of the senses. The numerous<br />
well-known names attached to many of the<br />
examples quoted in support of the above<br />
theories amply guarantee the veracity of the<br />
narrator. M. Ernest Flammarion is the pub-<br />
lisher of this weird and curious work, and also of<br />
a French translation of the “Résurrection” of<br />
Count Tolstoi.<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 263<br />
<br />
“Borry YEARS OF THE THEATRE.”<br />
<br />
The first volume of the “Quarante Ans de<br />
Théitre” series of M. Francisque Sarcey, edited<br />
by M. Adolphe Brisson (Bibliothéque des Annales),<br />
has just appeared. It contains “ the good Uncle’s”<br />
most important articles on the Comédie Francaise.<br />
“Those who wish to make acquaintance with the<br />
French theatre of the nineteenth century will<br />
find in Sarcey’s writings all that is necessary to<br />
be known of its plays, authors, and actors,” said<br />
M. Mézitres, president of the Parisian Associa-<br />
tion of Journalists, at a recent meeting of the<br />
society. “They will find, above all, an accent<br />
of admirable sincerity. No exterior<br />
influence, no consideration of friendship or expe-<br />
diency, ever biassed his judgment. i.<br />
Never to have sought, never to have wished to<br />
say anything but the truth during forty years of<br />
journalism, is not this the highest praise that<br />
could be given to any of our members ?”<br />
<br />
M. Méziéres spoke truly. Francisque Sarcey<br />
united the rare qualities of a disinterested, com-<br />
petent, and benevolent critic. The curs of the<br />
Press yelped over his grave and endeavoured to<br />
blacken his fair renown. They failed signally.<br />
The proofs of his sterling honesty and the upright-<br />
ness of his long public career formed an impene-<br />
trable egis to protect his memory. The spirit in<br />
which he worked may be seen from the appended<br />
rough translation of a simile taken from the<br />
chapter entitled “ Rights and Duties of a Critic ”<br />
in the newly issued volume of the “ Quarante Ans<br />
de Théatre ” series.<br />
<br />
“A tiler climbs up a steep, sloping roof, ninety<br />
feet above the ground. He tranquilly arranges<br />
his tiles on it, regardless that he risks breaking<br />
his neck a hundred times a day. He perceives no<br />
bravery in that—it is his trade to risk his life ;<br />
he risks it, and sees no reason for being proud of<br />
the act. The trade of the critic has likewise its<br />
drawbacks. In speaking the truth, he risks<br />
making almost as many enemies as there are<br />
persons mentioned in his articles. But that is<br />
our trade. We are paid for doing it; and in<br />
accomplishing it we believe we are only doing the<br />
simple duty of an honest man.”<br />
<br />
A Mortuary PaRraGRaPH.<br />
<br />
The inauguration of Alphonse Daudet’s statue,<br />
at his natal town of Nimes, furnished abundant<br />
copy to the journalist. In order to avoid creating<br />
a precedent and adding to their already weighty<br />
funereal duties, the French Academy decided ,not<br />
to send an official representative to the ceremony.<br />
We may mention in passing that the unfinished<br />
statue was merely lent by the sculptor for the<br />
occasion. He has since repossessed himself of<br />
his work, in order to modify the somewhat heavy<br />
<br />
contour of the features and pose of the unfinished<br />
figure.<br />
<br />
The death of M. Valentin Simond, founder of<br />
the Echo de Paris, the Marseillaise, the Réverl,<br />
and the Mot d’Ordre, was sincerely lamented<br />
by his contributors and staff, owing to the<br />
courteous respect he invariably showed towards<br />
their individual opinions. M. Louis Enault,<br />
a prolific contributor of fiction to the railway<br />
libraries, has likewise joined the ranks of<br />
the great majority ; closely followed by M. Joseph<br />
Bertrand, the celebrated occupant of the chair of<br />
mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne, member<br />
of the French Academy, and permanent secretary<br />
of the Academy of Science, commander of the<br />
Légion d’honneur, &c., and author of “ Traité<br />
Walgtbre,’ “Traité du calcul différential et<br />
intégral,” “ Caleul des probabilities,” “ Thermo-<br />
dynamique,” ‘“L’Histoire de VAcadémie des<br />
Sciences,” &e., and a host of erudite articles on<br />
physics, mathematics, astronomy, acoustics, the<br />
laws of capillary attraction. The Ecole poly-<br />
technique, recognising the extraordinary mathe-<br />
matical aptitude of this modern Pascal, admitted<br />
him as a pupil at the early age of eleven years.<br />
By the death of Count Benedetti France loses<br />
an agreeable writer and well-known diplomatist<br />
to whom she latterly made honourable, though<br />
tacit, amends for the unjust suspicion with which<br />
she had long regarded a certain incident in his<br />
diplomatic career.<br />
<br />
Guy pr Maupassant.<br />
<br />
The second volume of the hitherto unedited<br />
tales of Guy de Maupassant has recently been<br />
published by the Maison Ollendorf under the<br />
title of “Le Colporteur.” Each of these short<br />
compositions 1s a model of elegant, nervous<br />
writing. De Maupassant possessed the advan-<br />
tage of an excellent master in literary style at<br />
the commencement of his career. The renowned<br />
Gustave Flaubert—than whom no greater purist<br />
existed—appointed himself the critic of the<br />
youthful writer’s productions, sternly forbidding<br />
him to publish the immature overflowings of<br />
his fertile imagination.<br />
<br />
“ Wait a little, young fool,” was his vigorous<br />
exhortation on one occasion ; “‘ advance as I order<br />
you, and carry out my prescriptions. ‘To-morrow<br />
morning you will walk along the street until you<br />
see a concitrge sweeping out her doorway. At<br />
this juncture you will stop; you will contemplate<br />
this spectacle until you have absorbed it; and<br />
then you will faithfully narrate the various<br />
impressions it has suggested to you. Quick, to<br />
work!”<br />
<br />
When the prescribed literary exercise was sub-<br />
mitted for approval: “You must prune these<br />
264<br />
<br />
epithets, my son. And this verb? What is this<br />
verb doing here?” was the only encouragement<br />
vouchsafed.<br />
<br />
For six years this hard discipline continued<br />
unrelaxed; at the end of that period de Maupas-<br />
sant was a finished stylist. To Flaubert’s train-<br />
ing he undoubtedly owes the classical reputation<br />
he to-day enjoys, the unfortunate cloud which<br />
latterly obscured his brilliant intellect being in<br />
no wise apparent in his earlier works.<br />
<br />
New Boos.<br />
<br />
Among recent publications, we find “ La Petite<br />
Bohéme,”’ by M. Armand Charpentier, one of the<br />
most promising writers of the Zola school. His<br />
best known novel is “ L’Initiateur,’’ to which M.<br />
Alphonse Daudet furnished a moral letter-preface<br />
—‘the only moral in the book,” according toa<br />
witty confrére. ‘‘ La Constitution du monde,” a<br />
scientific work by Mme. Clémence Royer, evolves<br />
some remarkable theories; “Le Roman de<br />
Ambition,” by M. Marcel Barriére, is the second<br />
volume of the “Nouveau Don Juan” trilogy,<br />
begun by “L’Education d’un Contemporain” ;<br />
and “Le Caractére et la Main” is an interesting<br />
treatise on chiromancy by M. J. Leclercq, con-<br />
taining reproductions of the hands of Zola,<br />
Coppée, Rodin, Clemenceau, Réjane, “ Gyp,”’ Loie<br />
Fuller, and a score of other celebrities. ‘ Figures<br />
du temps passé,” by M. Lucien Perey; the third<br />
yolume of ‘ Napoléon et sa famille,” by M.<br />
Frédéric Masson; “ Fiancée d’Avril,” by M. Guy<br />
Chantepleure; ‘En flanant,’ by M. André<br />
Hallays; and “ L’Art du Chant,’ by M. Marie<br />
Sasse of the Opéra, are also among the interesting<br />
publications of the month.<br />
<br />
Darracorre Scorr.<br />
<br />
Dec<br />
<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
<br />
PUBLISHER'S proposal as to the exten-<br />
A sion of copyright is that after the legal<br />
term has expired the heirs of the author<br />
may, by paying a small fine or fee, take out a<br />
renewal. He adds, “ or representatives,” probably<br />
meaning that the trade will do their level best to<br />
make the privilege their own in the initial agree-<br />
ment. This would no doubt be attempted, and as<br />
the chance of a book being worth renewal after the<br />
term of copyright is small, it would in most cases<br />
be granted. This, however, must not be permitted.<br />
A law of copyright which enables a publisher to<br />
keep a monopoly of a book for ever would be<br />
far worse than the existing law. Perhaps the<br />
following amendments are worth considering :<br />
1. The sale of copyright to be legal for the<br />
existing term only,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
2. At the expiration of the existing term the<br />
author’s heirs to recover possession of the copy-<br />
right.<br />
<br />
3. The original publisher not to sell a single<br />
copy, even for waste-paper, after the expiration of<br />
the term.<br />
<br />
4. The author’s heirs to be at liberty to make<br />
arrangements for another term of years,<br />
and again at the expiration of the second and<br />
every following term.<br />
<br />
Consider the position of the heirs of Charles<br />
Dickens or of Scott were such provision legal.<br />
They would have left a huge property enduring<br />
one knows not how long, for it is ve<br />
certain that our own great grandchildren will<br />
read Scott, and, I believe, Dickens as well,<br />
with as much delight as we ourselves of the<br />
present day. I refer to the observations of<br />
Mr. Charles Dudley Warner on the subject<br />
(see p. 260) in another column.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The following proposal advanced by the Man-<br />
chester Guardian is worth considering :—<br />
<br />
“ There is a crusade on foot just now to extend<br />
the term during which an author’s heirs or pub-<br />
lishers may preserve copyright in his books. . . .<br />
But it does not seem to have occurred to anyone<br />
that the book-buyer has an interest in the matter.<br />
By all means let the author’s heirs get as much as<br />
they can from his works; but there seems to be<br />
no reason why one publisher should be able to<br />
keep others, who would perhaps employ better<br />
editors or printers, out of the field. If the term<br />
of copyright is extended, we hope that some pro-<br />
vision will be made for the right of any publisher<br />
who chooses to pay for it to issue an edition of a<br />
popular author. At present, indeed, the<br />
chief objection to the extension of copyright is<br />
that it gives a monopoly toa publisher who may be<br />
neither intelligent nor enterprising. Surely it<br />
would be possible to throw openall popular books<br />
to “the trade” after their author’s death, on the<br />
understanding that the author’s representatives<br />
were to receive the same royalty from any pub-<br />
lisher who chose to issue them. This plan would<br />
combine the interests of the book-buyer, who<br />
deserves some consideration, with those of the<br />
author’s family, and it ought not to prove unwork-<br />
able in practice.”<br />
<br />
The objection to this proposal is precisely the<br />
same as that advanced above, that it leaves an<br />
author, or his heirs, the power of selling all future<br />
interest in a work. Now, if literary property is<br />
to be protected, in the interest of authors it<br />
must be saleable for a term of years only, and<br />
then for another term. In this way only can the<br />
work be protected against forced sales, sales<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 265<br />
<br />
through ignorance or carelessness, and sales for<br />
the exigencies of the moment.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
What is the objection to the admission of<br />
women into the learned societies? Science is<br />
not in the least concerned with the sex of those<br />
who follow and work in the field of research. It<br />
may be that women will never succged so well as<br />
men in science: it may be that in some fields<br />
they will do better. Surely the broad rule of<br />
good work as the one condition of admittance<br />
is all that is wanted: that—and a strict obedience<br />
to that rule. Membership of a scientific society<br />
ought to be a distinction, or at least a recognition,<br />
To admit women would mean, in most cases, to<br />
raise the standard of membership. It is notorious<br />
that there are many learned societies which<br />
will admit anybody without asking for proof<br />
of qualification. How many geographers are<br />
there in the Geographical Society ? How many<br />
antiquaries in Burlington House? How many<br />
astronomers in the Royal Astronomical Society ?<br />
Once admit women, however, and the rule<br />
of qualification, the condition of good work,<br />
will be applied with rigour. The societies will<br />
become poorer, but poverty will have the com-<br />
pensation of distinction and honour.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The archxologists and antiquaries among our<br />
readers will be interested in hearing that further<br />
examination of the catacombs of Rome is to be<br />
undertaken. The Commission — “ Commissione<br />
di Archeologia Sacra’”’—appeals to all those, of<br />
every nation, interested in the subject for assist-<br />
ance. Information can be had by writing to<br />
Monsignor P. Crostarosa, Secretary to the Com-<br />
mission, 24, Via del Quirinale, Rome. These<br />
catacombs, in which so much has been found, in<br />
which so much more certainly remains to be found,<br />
after being closed from the ninth century, have<br />
only been opened in this, the nineteenth: and as<br />
yet have been most imperfectly examined. Out<br />
of forty-five cemeteries five only are accessible to<br />
the visitor.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
It is interesting to see ina cutting from the<br />
Toronto Globe that the Canadian Society of<br />
Authors is going ahead. It has given a dinner,<br />
presided over by the Hon. G. W. Ross, Premier<br />
of Ontario and chairman of the Society, to the<br />
French-Canadian writer, Dr. Frechette, whose<br />
writings have been so widely read in Canada, and<br />
whose book written in English, bearing on the<br />
characteristics of the French. Canadian of the<br />
province of Quebec, was published last year.<br />
<br />
The dinner appears to have been a great success,<br />
as, indeed, it deserved to be. The Society has<br />
<br />
elected a considerable number of new members,<br />
<br />
amongst whom appear Mr. Gilbert Parker of our<br />
Committee, and Mr. Thring, the Secretary of the<br />
Society.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Some friends of the late Mrs. Lynn Linton are<br />
anxious that her memory should be perpetuated<br />
at Keswick—her native place—and wish to pre-.<br />
sent her portrait (done in oils by the Hon. John<br />
Collier) to the museum there. And as it is felt<br />
that many others may wish to join in such a<br />
memorial, Mr. G. S. Layard, of Lorraine Cottage,<br />
Great Malvern, who is at present engaged in<br />
writing Mrs. Linton’s life, has kindly consented<br />
to receive and acknowledge subscriptions towards<br />
the fund. Subscriptions may also be sent to Mr.<br />
William Toynbee, 1, York-street, Portman-square,<br />
London. Water Besant.<br />
<br />
Pes<br />
<br />
ERNEST DOWSON.<br />
<br />
T is in the cruel irony of things that I should<br />
I be writing of my dead friend, Ernest<br />
Dowson, in this town of St. Germain-en-<br />
Laye. For not very long before he died—<br />
although at a time when he had no foresight of<br />
what was so soon to befall him—he had coun-<br />
selled me, one-night when we were talking of<br />
our future lives, to betake myself, my pens and<br />
paper and wayward fancies here and to work,<br />
where there was an old castle, full of inspira-<br />
tion, to contemplate a church in which an<br />
unhappy English king lies buried (in which to<br />
seek higher things), and a forest, full in spring<br />
of the flowers and birds and butterflies that one<br />
“loved long since,” where one could walk away<br />
all the melancholy of a hard life laid in hard<br />
ways. And so, having bidden an eternal farewell<br />
to Ernest Dowson, as he lies under fifteen feet of<br />
Kentish loam in the cemetery of Brockley, near<br />
Lewisham, I betook myself here, as it were in<br />
execution of a dying request, and here it is that I<br />
write of him. I think that all in all he was the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MOST UNHAPPY MAN OF LETTERS<br />
who ever lived. I say it advisedly and after<br />
having thought over in the solitude of long forest<br />
walks what I know of him, what I know of<br />
his life. I say it in spite of the fact that for<br />
two days and two nights I had his face in its<br />
last sleep open to my tearful eyes and that one<br />
never saw peace more reposeful on features more<br />
ravaged. I say it in spite of the echoes that the<br />
winged choristers of the French forest have at all<br />
times been ringing in my ears of that outburst of<br />
twittering song which broke from many English<br />
birds at the very moment when the poet’s soul<br />
<br />
<br />
266<br />
<br />
passed into eternity. It was such a_ gentle<br />
death, a trespass so peaceful, that thinking of<br />
that alone one might be inclined to say that no<br />
one who so left life—whatever his life might have<br />
been—could be written down as altogether<br />
unhappy, the Miserrimus before whose tombstone<br />
posterity stops and sighs. Here there was not<br />
the devil-haunted garret of Brooke-street, Hol-<br />
born, in which, amidst a litter of destroyed master-<br />
pieces, Chatterton writhed his last in arsenic-<br />
agonies. Here was not the muddy gutter where,<br />
prone on his face in alcoholic apoplexy, Edgar<br />
Allan Poe breathed away in shameful hiccoughs<br />
his lyric soul. Nor here that fateful iron grating<br />
in Old Lanthorn-street from which, one grey<br />
morning, men of police cut down the stark body<br />
of Gerard de Nerval, hapless lover of the Queen<br />
of Sheba.<br />
<br />
For he just turned over on his side and left me.<br />
There was no struggle—there was no agony ; and<br />
the only sign that was given to me that the unex-<br />
pected end had indeed come, and that one more<br />
dear one had left me—still more lonely—for ever,<br />
was the beautiful calm that settled down, like a<br />
brooding dove, upon his tired face.<br />
<br />
I have all these things well before my mind,<br />
and yet, advisedly, I say that I do not know in<br />
the mournful history of unhappy men of letters a<br />
page more sad than that which tells of Ernest<br />
Dowson’s short career. Nor do I here make<br />
reference to certain shameful speculations, of<br />
which he was the victim in his last days, of<br />
tradings on his weakness, rags, and hunger. I<br />
look at his life as a whole, and I do not find any-<br />
where outside of certain lines in Edgar Allan Poe<br />
any description of the unhappiness of his life.<br />
Yet one admits that he was one of those who were<br />
born to be unhappy, for no other reason than that<br />
their natures and temperament are such that they<br />
are not of this world, and, being alien to it, must<br />
perforce succumb from first to weary last. Chat-<br />
terton had some glory and a little love; Poe had<br />
much love and a little glory; de Nerval staggered<br />
through life in a dream of renown with a blazing,<br />
if unrequited, passion at heart. But Ernest<br />
Dowson—who in the opinion of many of critical<br />
faculties had genius as great as any of these—<br />
never received, outside a small circle, any recog-<br />
nition; and though he had a beautiful face and<br />
the largest heart, was not, I think, once called into<br />
that revivifying sunshine which is a woman’s love<br />
to a poet’s soul.<br />
<br />
I procured a copy of Balzac’s ‘La Cousine<br />
Bette” on the first day on which I came here, and<br />
in re-reading that masterpiece I fancied I had<br />
come to one explanation of his want of success.<br />
Do you remember those fine pages in which<br />
Balzac, himself the most conscientious of workers,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
describes the reason of the failure of Wenscelas<br />
Steinbock, the artist whom Cousine Bette had saved<br />
from suicide, setting it forth as the result of his<br />
neglect of constant industry, for, as Balzae<br />
writes: “Le travail constant est la loi de l’Art,<br />
comme celle de la vie, car Vart c'est la création<br />
idéaliste” 2 To see Ernest Dowson ever wander-<br />
ing, unsettled, for long periods inactive, and<br />
<br />
OFTEN IN QUEST OF EXCITEMENT,<br />
<br />
one might have fancied him unconscientious, a<br />
semi-artist, whereas I do not think it would<br />
be possible to find amongst the poets of the<br />
last decade of this century a worker more<br />
devoted, an artist more religious, a conscience<br />
more profound. He never had the care of<br />
money; he had most deeply the cultus of his<br />
art. He wrote in collaboration with Mr. Moore<br />
two novels, “A Comedy of Masks,” which was<br />
published by Heinemann, and “Adrian Rome,”<br />
which was published by Methuen. On both of<br />
these books the two collaborators expended<br />
a sum of industry that would have saved<br />
Dumas pére from occasional visits to Clichy,<br />
and exerted an energy of polishing which<br />
would have worn MHorace’s grindstone down<br />
to its axle. He worked on both books as few<br />
men of letters—and I have Alphonse Daudet<br />
in my mind when I say this, as well as Henryk<br />
Sienkiewicz—have ever worked. He was so<br />
entirely an artist that he could never leave a<br />
phrase alone. He had the preciousness of George<br />
Moore or of Maupassant, without their fortune.<br />
He affords altogether the most discouraging<br />
example of the inutility of conscientiousness in<br />
modern English literature that one can find. He<br />
<br />
WORKED WELL AND WITH GENIUS<br />
<br />
for ten years, and I do not think that during the<br />
whole of that time—even including a quantity of<br />
Grub-street productions to which he was con-<br />
strained—he ever earned a wage equivalent to that<br />
of the husband of the bricklayer’s wife who per-<br />
formed in my cottage on his dead body the last<br />
offices which our poor bodies exact. He wrote<br />
short stories which are masterpieces—you should<br />
read “Dilemmas”; he was an exquisite poet.<br />
Mr. Smithers, his publisher, will tell you that<br />
certain admirers of his—alas, too few—took his<br />
volumes by the half quire, and as a translator<br />
from the French into limpid English he had no<br />
rival. And it was all in vain, in the sense that<br />
honest work should procure some happiness, &<br />
little sunshine, a few of those things which tend<br />
to reconcile one with all the tears and stress of<br />
this life. He knew it; he felt it, and I shall not.<br />
presently forget the grey Kentish evening on<br />
which he said to me: “ Literature has failed for’<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
me. I shall look somewhere else in the future.”<br />
I said nothing, although now I recognise that I<br />
had a presentiment that there were perhaps on<br />
the knees of the gods better things for Hrnest<br />
Dowson, than that eternal straining of eyes<br />
towards a promised land into which there is and<br />
never can be any entering. At the time I did not<br />
know how good was God to be to him.<br />
<br />
He was born at Lee, near Lewisham, thirty-<br />
two years ago, and he now lies in Kent from<br />
which he sprang. Kentish people will be proud<br />
of him now that it is too late, and that all the<br />
appreciation of all the world cannot wipe out one<br />
sad line from his classical mouth or put one little<br />
glint of contentment into his spiritual eyes.<br />
<br />
I do not wish to be critical about his<br />
works. Chacun a son métier. There are many<br />
critics who will be busy about the very sweet<br />
English poet that he was. My métier is here<br />
that of a friend and to some extent of a<br />
moralist, who is very unhappy, and who sees in<br />
this life and in this death another reason to<br />
deplore the fatal impulse which drives those<br />
insufficiently equipped with tenacity, and pru-<br />
dence, and, above all, combative strength, into the<br />
arduous profession of letters. But I will say<br />
this about certain lines in Ernest Dowson’s prose<br />
and about certain verses of the poetry that<br />
Ernest Dowson wrote, that, stiffen I my back<br />
never so bravely, that soliloquise I never so<br />
comfortably “Let the dead bury the dead,” I<br />
have at the loss of this artist—I say nothing<br />
now about the friend—a grief which lies far<br />
deeper than human tears, deeper far than the<br />
tears which I shed at his going away, when the<br />
bricklayer’s wife, to whom I have alluded above,<br />
asked me with English expletives, “What was<br />
the use of that blubbering now that the gentleman<br />
was gone?”<br />
<br />
I do not know where I met Ernest Dowson<br />
first. I know where I met him last—that is to<br />
say, day for day, six weeks before his death. It<br />
was in a place in Bedford-street,<br />
<br />
A PLACE WHERE THEY SELL SPIRITS<br />
<br />
and where the “M’as-tu-vus” of London con-<br />
gregate. I was downstairs, writing some futile<br />
paragraphs on public paper. He touched me<br />
on the shoulder, and I turned round. It was<br />
as if Death had— being in a kindly mood —<br />
beckoned me away from that unrest which the<br />
men in Bedford-street miscall delight. I questioned<br />
him, and he told me that he was in sore stress<br />
and had crawled out to procure from a publisher<br />
a little money. I did not know then that his<br />
landlord—in a vague garret, somewhere on the<br />
outskirts of Somers Town—had that afternoon<br />
delivered to him an ultimatum whereby he would<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
267<br />
<br />
have been homeless on the morrow, failing the<br />
publisher (who had failed him) ; but what I did<br />
know—for I saw it—was that here was a man in<br />
a very great weakness, a man to whom I was<br />
indebted for kindness and artistic sympathy more<br />
than I am to most men; and so I asked him to<br />
come away with me, and to leave his Somers Town<br />
landlord to clamour for the present, and just to<br />
take a rest.<br />
<br />
And so he came home withme. Andif he had<br />
never written a line to exhilarate my heart, I<br />
could never be sufficiently grateful to him for<br />
those six weeks when I sat with him all day, and<br />
lay in his room at night. For I think that in the<br />
last days of an artist’s life all the treasures that<br />
are in an artist’s mind are scattered in largesse<br />
on those nigh to him. This, I know, was not the<br />
case with Baudelaire. It was certainly so with<br />
Ernest Dowson. What a beautiful soul revealed<br />
itself at every moment of the day, and how one<br />
grew to love a man so distressed !—yet so good<br />
and so patient that when I think of those SIX<br />
weeks I can vaguely discriminate the comforts of<br />
Calvary.<br />
<br />
We were very cheerful all the time, and we<br />
talked of literature from morning till night. He<br />
wanted Landor’s “ Imaginary Conversations,”<br />
but, though I ordered it from a local librarian,<br />
the book did not come until it was too late. But<br />
he glutted himself on Dickens, and I had also an<br />
“ Esmond,” by Thackeray, to put into his gaunt<br />
hands. He had “Esmond” in his bed, by the<br />
way, when he died. But as to Dickens, here was<br />
a perfect stylist and most laborious artist who<br />
delighted himself for the last precious days of a<br />
short life in the hasty writings, but perfect<br />
humanity, of our English Balzac.<br />
<br />
And I shall never take up an “ Oliver Twist”<br />
again without remembering these circumstances:<br />
Five hours before Ernest Dowson died I was<br />
lying on a couch in a room adjoining his, keeping<br />
myself awake at six o’clock in the morning with<br />
the adventures of that most smug of prigs, So as<br />
to keep converse with my friend, who could not<br />
get to sleep and who had begged me to talk to<br />
him. I happened to say to him, to show that I<br />
was vigilant: ‘“ How absurdly melodramatic this<br />
is, about the murder of Nancy. Do you think<br />
that, for anything Fagin could tell him, Sikes,<br />
who knew Fagin to be the worst liar on earth,<br />
would have killed his missus? ”<br />
<br />
“ No,” said Dowson ; ‘he would have gone for<br />
Claypole.” And that was the last thing on litera-<br />
ture that he ever said. For when he woke four<br />
hours later it was to ask for a doctor—till then<br />
he had always strenuously refused to see one.<br />
Too late, for the rest. Too late by many months.<br />
For the doctors and the coroner’s people, who did<br />
<br />
<br />
268 THE<br />
come after the end, said that the death was<br />
caused by tuberculosis. I would add “accele-<br />
rated by privation,” for I afterwards learned at<br />
his lodgings that repeatedly, during the months<br />
which preceded my meeting with him,<br />
<br />
HR HAD PASSED WHOLE DAYS<br />
<br />
and even couples of days without leaving his<br />
room or procuring food. He had the delicacy<br />
and pride of all elect artistic temperaments,<br />
and rather than communicate with his relations<br />
—kindest and most generous of people — he<br />
preferred to suffer. And he held that a man<br />
working at a trade should live by it.<br />
<br />
I think that his example is one on which young<br />
authors should meditate. Not in discouragement<br />
from a fine and noble profession, but to derive<br />
caution and prudence. I think his sad life and<br />
early death should warn all but the strongest<br />
against taking to literature, pure and simple, as a<br />
sole means of livelihood. And I am sorry to<br />
add that I think they teach the lesson that in<br />
literature also some spirit of commerciality is<br />
essential. He suffered so pitiably at the thought<br />
that he had failed, after doiny his best, and I<br />
cannot help thinking that this morbid self-<br />
reproach did much towards breaking him down.<br />
If he had been a little more ‘practical in his<br />
dealings with the publishers, a little more provi-<br />
dent, and especially if he had sacrificed a little of<br />
his artistic prejudice to the public demand, his<br />
life might have been different.<br />
<br />
And yet I don’t know. I cannot conceive<br />
Ernest Dowson otherwise than supremely un-<br />
happy. He was not of this world orforit. A<br />
symbol of his life was given to me in the first days<br />
of my visit here. I was walking in the forest,<br />
and in the bright sunshine saw a yellow butterfly<br />
disporting itself under the leafless trees. It was<br />
trying to be happy and fancied the spring was<br />
come. And that evening there was a terrible<br />
snowstorm, and I could not but think of the icy<br />
shower battering down the fragile and gaudy<br />
wings. I could not but think that such natures<br />
as was Ernest Dowson’s have as much chance of<br />
lasting happiness in this world as had that yellow<br />
papillon in the treacherous sunshine. Above the<br />
leafless trees the crushing storm lies gathering.<br />
There was no power of resistance here. It is cruel,<br />
doubtless, and heartrending, but it is the nature<br />
of things. We can but steel our hearts and, for-<br />
getting the snowstorm, think of the sunshine and<br />
the brave flutter that for a little while the yellow<br />
' wings made—a thing of beauty, a passing joy.<br />
Rozert H. SHERARD.<br />
<br />
pe<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS<br />
AND LETTERS (NEW YORK),<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HE address of Mr. Charles Dudley, Warner,<br />
, of which a portion will be found in another<br />
column, may be taken as an indication<br />
that the National Institute of Arts and Letters<br />
is to be a serious and permanent association.<br />
Its aim, in general terms, is the advancement of<br />
Art and Literature. Its membership is to be<br />
restricted in numbers, and is to demand as a<br />
condition of admission some notable achievement<br />
in Art and Literature. It will endeavour to<br />
promote “healthful and hopeful criticism” ; it<br />
will keep alive the traditions of good litera-<br />
ture; it will advocate an equitable law of<br />
copyright; it will try to establish the rela-<br />
tion of publisher and author on a basis of<br />
equity. The institute, it will be seen, is to<br />
become, if it succeeds, a national academy of<br />
literature.<br />
<br />
The programme, it will be observed, is much<br />
larger than our own. We are concerned only<br />
with literary property, the law of copyright,<br />
the relation of publisher and author, and the<br />
maintenance of literary property in the interests<br />
of the creator. It is greatly to the credit of the<br />
American good sense that this maintenance of<br />
literary property is perceived to be one of the<br />
principal factors in the advancement of litera-<br />
ture, and one of the objects in a national academy<br />
of literature. In this country there would be<br />
heard still, though more faintly than of old, the<br />
bleating about commercialism and the sordid<br />
connection of literature with money ; as if litera-<br />
ture, alone among the callings in which men work,<br />
is degraded by that connection which does not<br />
degrade art, or science, or law, or medicine, or any<br />
other of the occupations by which the curse of<br />
labour is turned into a blessing. But the creation<br />
of literary property is an accidental consequence<br />
due to the conditions of the time rather than an<br />
essential. For it is quite easy to conceive of<br />
the finest poem, the finest work of art, the most<br />
startling discovery, failing to become a property<br />
at all.<br />
<br />
It may be that we shall ourselves learn from<br />
our American friends how we may enlarge our<br />
own field. It may be that the establishment and<br />
success of a National Academy of Letters in the<br />
States may lead to the creation of a Royal<br />
Academy of Letters in this country. We might<br />
perhaps consent to be amalgamated in a more<br />
comprehensive association—provided that there is<br />
ample security that our special work will be carreed<br />
on. It may be that the interests of literature—<br />
the interests of the author—will be administered<br />
<br />
<br />
a ins al aa a<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
more efficiently by a limited number of Acade-<br />
micians than by a society unlimited in number<br />
and demanding no condition of literary distinc-<br />
tion for membership. These things are in the<br />
lap of time. We wait and look on. Certainly in<br />
one respect our own need of watchful jealousy over<br />
criticism is as pressing as that of the States. We<br />
shall perhaps learn, also, how to advance litera-<br />
ture by some new methods, if there are any, other<br />
than ‘by classical education and by confining<br />
criticism to scholars.<br />
<br />
The following notes on the foundation of the<br />
institute are taken from the Writer (Boston,<br />
U.S.A., Feb. 1900).<br />
<br />
The National Institute of Arts and Letters is likely to be<br />
an important factor in the development of American litera-<br />
ture. The original members were selected by an invitation<br />
from the American Social Science Association, which acted<br />
under the power of its charter from the Congress of the<br />
United States. The members thus selected, who joined the<br />
Social Science Association, were given the alternative of<br />
organising as an independent institute or as a branch of<br />
the association. At the annual meeting of the Social<br />
Science Association on Sept. 4, 1899, at Saratoga Springs,<br />
the members of the institute voted to organise indepen-<br />
dently. They formally adopted the revised constitution,<br />
which had been agreed upon at the first meeting in New<br />
York in the preceding January, and duly elected officers<br />
The object is declared to be the advancement of art and<br />
literature, and the qualification shall be notable achieve-<br />
ment in art or letters. The number of active members will<br />
probably be ultimately fixed at 100. The society may<br />
elect honorary and associate members without limit. By<br />
the terms of agreement between the American Social<br />
Science Association and the National Institute, the members<br />
of each are ipso facto associate members of the other. As<br />
Mr. Warner says: “In no other way as well as by associa-<br />
tion of this sort can be created the feeling of solidarity in<br />
our literature and the recognition of its power. It is not<br />
expected to raise any standard of perfection, or in any way<br />
to hamper individual development, but a body of con-<br />
centrated opinion may raise the standard by promoting<br />
healthful and helpful criticism, by discouraging mediocrity<br />
and meretricious smartness, by keeping alive the traditions<br />
of good literature, while it is as hospitable to all discoverers<br />
of new worlds. A safe motto for any such society would be<br />
Tradition and Freedom—Traditio et Libertas.”<br />
<br />
spec<br />
“PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE.”<br />
<br />
N adaptation of “Pericles” by Mr. John<br />
Coleman was produced at the Memorial<br />
Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, in commemo-<br />
<br />
ration of the 336th anniversary of Shakespeare’s<br />
birthday. In some interesting “forewords” put<br />
into the hands. of the audience, Mr. Coleman<br />
described the genesis of the play, Shakespeare’s<br />
part in it, and its stage history :<br />
<br />
Entirely derived from the “ Apollonius of Tyre”’<br />
Saga, ‘+ Pericles” is the most singular example in<br />
Elizabethan literature of a consistent copying of<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 269<br />
<br />
a venerable and far-travelled story. Although<br />
one of the best abused plays of the period, there<br />
is abundant evidence to prove that “ Pericles”<br />
never relaxed its hold upon the public till the<br />
time of the Civil Wars, when all the theatres<br />
were closed. Immediately after the Restoration<br />
(1660) the Poet Laureate, Sir William Davenant<br />
(popularly believed to have been Shakespeare’s<br />
son), revived the play at his own playhouse, on<br />
the site where the 7'%mes office now stands. After<br />
maintaining its attraction unabated for upwards of<br />
sixty-three years, with the death of the great actor<br />
Betterton the play disappeared from the acting<br />
drama. Sixty-five years later (1735) George Lillo<br />
produced at Covent Garden Theatre an adaptation<br />
of the play called ‘“ Marina,” a small and puerile<br />
thing which failed utterly. After an elapse of<br />
more than a hundred years, Phelps revived the<br />
play at Sadler’s Wells with a success which (he<br />
assured Mr. Coleman) was the most memorable<br />
of all the many triumphs of that memorable<br />
Shakespearean management. Since that time<br />
“ Pericles” has never been acted on the English<br />
stage; but on Oct. 20, 1882, a version by Herr<br />
Ernest Possart was acted with the most brilliant<br />
success at the Court Theatre, Munich, where it<br />
continued to attract large and appreciative audi-<br />
ences during a period of upwards of twelve<br />
months. The repeated recommendations of his<br />
friend, the distinguished tragedian, Mr. Phelps,<br />
induced Mr. Coleman to turn his attention to the<br />
subject—the result being the present adaptation,<br />
which upon three occasions has been within<br />
measurable distance of production at Drury-lane,<br />
twice under the régime of his friend the late Sir<br />
Augustus Harris, and once during his own recent<br />
management of the National Theatre, but in<br />
every instance some insuperable obstacle barred<br />
the way. Fortified by the many eminent autho-<br />
rities who subscribe to his opinion as to Shake-<br />
speare’s actual share in the authorship of this<br />
play, Mr. Coleman did not hesitate to expunge<br />
the first act, to eradicate the banality of the<br />
second, to omit the irrelevant Gower chorus, and .<br />
to eliminate the obscenity of the fourth act.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
eee<br />
<br />
A FEW IDEAS.<br />
\ LL mind is above measure and all spirit over<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
proof.<br />
As there is no inert matter, so there is<br />
no inept mind.<br />
Civilisation is an ideal—to be realised in Para-<br />
dise.<br />
Conceit is always honest, but never just.<br />
Democracy as yet exists only in theory.<br />
270<br />
<br />
Equality differs from equity as monotony from<br />
melody.<br />
<br />
Free speech thrives only in solitude.<br />
<br />
Government by the best has yet to come.<br />
<br />
Humour is a loyal servant of love.<br />
<br />
Like other sovereigns, women never learn the<br />
total truth.<br />
<br />
Most of us still are—what all of us once were<br />
—children.<br />
<br />
Perfectly sane minds would be infallible.<br />
<br />
Salvation means perfect sanity.<br />
<br />
Spring-time gives pessimism the lie—politely.<br />
<br />
Temperance is the twin sister of tolerance.<br />
<br />
The chivalrous will not presume upon their sex<br />
—whichever it is.<br />
<br />
The rights of majorities are those of the un-<br />
wisest—or the youngest.<br />
<br />
There is only one autocrat—the Creator.<br />
<br />
Untruth is wedded to vanity—for life.<br />
<br />
Vanity wishes the whole world to witness its<br />
various weaknesses.<br />
<br />
Virtue means manliness—or womauliness.<br />
<br />
What is not fair is not love—what is not just<br />
is not war.<br />
<br />
With an efficient minority, Society is always<br />
fairly sane.<br />
<br />
Youth is the most curable, or least durable, of<br />
our qualities.<br />
<br />
All buds are new—“ under the sun.”<br />
<br />
All souls are—more or less—lonely.<br />
<br />
An Age of Gold may lie in the Past—the Age<br />
of Love must live in the Perfect.<br />
<br />
Death is only an eclipse of life.<br />
<br />
Even death cannot change the truth.<br />
<br />
Love is always on the right way to perfection.<br />
<br />
Man is not old enough for Truth—nor Time<br />
long enough for Understanding.<br />
<br />
Poetry need never reason, so long as it can<br />
sing.<br />
<br />
Prayer never fails while it inspires.<br />
<br />
The father of wisdom may be reason — the<br />
mother must be love.<br />
<br />
The greatest genius is not yet married—he is<br />
still unborn.<br />
<br />
The most pardonable of weaknesses is youth.<br />
<br />
Fintay GLENELG.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Soe<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I—Lirzerary CoMPETITION.<br />
<br />
E your criticism of the Academy’s methods,<br />
would it not be a useful move if the Society<br />
of Authors took up this matter of literary<br />
<br />
competitions ? A judicious monthly competition,<br />
open to members of the Society only, would, I<br />
think, prove an attraction. In addition to the<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
prize, an honour list might be published in<br />
numerical order of merit. This would let the<br />
young author know where he was. The innova-<br />
tion, I think, would prove useful and attractive.<br />
M. E. C.<br />
[Would the innovation be permitted by the<br />
Society’s Articles of Association ?—Ep. |<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Il.—Tue War.<br />
<br />
I think, whatever our political convictions may<br />
be, we cannot refrain from admiring the magnifi-<br />
cent loyalty and devotion of our brothers of<br />
Greater Britain. As a trifling mark of one<br />
Englishwoman’s appreciation I should like to give,<br />
as far as I am able, a copy of my book, “ The<br />
Guests of Mine Host,” to any colonial home for<br />
wounded or invalided colonial soldiers.<br />
<br />
The gift is nothing in itself, but, as a poor<br />
means of marking the feeling that is sweeping<br />
over the nother country, I venture to ask you to<br />
insert this letter.<br />
<br />
In so doing I hope it may meet the eye of those<br />
concerned in the management of these hospitals<br />
and homes, and if they will let me know I shall<br />
feel honoured by being asked to forward a copy.<br />
<br />
I may say that ‘‘ The Guests of Mine Host” is<br />
being published in a colonial edition, which may<br />
lessen the difficulties. Marian Bower.<br />
<br />
Stradishall Place, near Newmarket.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IT..—“ Commercianists”—An ExpLaNnaTIoNn,<br />
<br />
In the last number of The Author the editor<br />
asks, with reference to my letter: ‘ Does not the<br />
writer make the common mistake of supposing<br />
that if a literary work has a commercial value<br />
the writer is therefore a commercialist?” I<br />
hasten to reply that I did not think for a moment<br />
of suggesting such a thing. I meant no offence.<br />
There are several kinds of writers, e.g., (1) those<br />
who do bad work for pay and get it; (2) those<br />
who do good work without thinking of the pay, and<br />
yet get paid; (3) those who do good work without<br />
thinking of pay and without receiving it. Market<br />
value may mean much or little. The land at<br />
Kimberley had no market value until some years<br />
ago. x Y,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IV.—A Few Smart GRuMBLES.<br />
<br />
I have been much disappointed lately in not<br />
being able to find out the true history of the<br />
“Three Tailors in Tooley-street.” It is stated in<br />
Dr. Brewer’s excellent “Reader's Handbook”<br />
that they were three worthies who petitioned the<br />
House of Commons when Canning was Prime<br />
Minister, the petition beginning, ‘“ We, the<br />
people of England.”<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 271<br />
<br />
Is this really so? What were their names ?<br />
What was the petition about? Were they the<br />
only signatories? I have often thought that the<br />
whole story may have been an invention of<br />
Canning in some speech ridiculing some real but<br />
much more numerously signed petition of his day.<br />
The phrase is so often quoted that it may be<br />
worth while to get at the bottom of it.<br />
<br />
Another thing that troubles me is the frequency<br />
with which the mark of interrogation is dropped<br />
in modern printing.<br />
<br />
Another, that the issue of books with uncut<br />
edges (as advocated by the late Mr. Darwin) is<br />
not nearly so frequent as it ought to be; and<br />
that even magazines and newspapers are fre-<br />
quently issued with uncut edges. [N.B.—The<br />
Spectator has recently improved in this respect. |<br />
<br />
Another, that a table of contents is not so<br />
frequently placed as it ought to be on the out-<br />
side page of magazines and newspapers.<br />
<br />
Another, that the price of books when reviewed<br />
is in the majority of cases not stated in the<br />
review.<br />
<br />
Another, that such expressions as “joining the<br />
majority,’ “passing away,” “ thereof,” “the<br />
same,” and “ galore” are used far too often.<br />
<br />
Another, that illustrations are too many in<br />
quantity and too often bad in quality.<br />
<br />
J. M. Ley.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.—Youne Ficrion Wrirers anp THE WAR<br />
Funp.<br />
<br />
Most of the leading writers of fiction will<br />
doubtless contribute to the volume which Mr.<br />
C. J. Cuteliffe Hyne is arranging, and which is to<br />
be sold in aid of the war fund. Why could not a<br />
similar volume be produced by us young writers ?<br />
By the term “ young” I mean all those who have<br />
issued their first (not necessarily successful)<br />
book ; those who have had one or more stories<br />
published in any magazine. The volume would<br />
no doubt have a large sale, and we, like the<br />
leading novelists, should have done some-<br />
thing for a great object. I feel sure that our<br />
editor—the friend and champion of the young<br />
writer—would be willing to help us with advice,<br />
and perhaps he could be persuaded to write a<br />
preface to the book?<br />
<br />
I should be happy to hear from any “ youag”<br />
writers who would be willing to contribute to<br />
such a volume. Should there be sufficient reasons<br />
to justify the idea being proceeded with, an editor<br />
could be appointed, and the volume brought out<br />
with all possible despatch.<br />
<br />
James BagnaLi-StuBss.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vi.—tTue Frerionist’s Art.<br />
<br />
Beginners in Fiction, like my humble self, are<br />
oftentimes sadly perplexed by the varying advice<br />
given by leading practitioners of the art. For<br />
instance, in “ The Pen and the Book,” Sir Walter<br />
Besant says that the short story “should turn on<br />
one incident.” With this “Lanoe Falconer”<br />
agrees, for she says (in “The Art of Writing<br />
Fiction”) that “the design of the short story<br />
must itself be short and simple. A single, not<br />
too complicated, incident is best.” Mr. Frederick<br />
Wedmore goes still further and says that “plot<br />
or story proper is no essential part of” a short<br />
story, “though in work like Conan Doyle’s or<br />
Rudyard Kipling’s it may be a very delightful<br />
part.” Then “An Editor” says (in “How to<br />
Write for the Press”) that short tales of about<br />
2000 words “should have only one striking<br />
incident’; and he affirms that amidst the many<br />
kinds of stories there are “ some in which incident<br />
is of no importance whatever.”<br />
<br />
On the other hand, I have known of cases<br />
where stories (2500 to 5000 words) have been<br />
condemned by experts because the stories each<br />
contained only one dramatic incident.<br />
<br />
It would seem to be really true that<br />
There are nine-and-sixty ways of constructing tribal lays,<br />
And—every—single—one —of—them—is—right.<br />
<br />
Or, as Miss Jane Barlow puts it, “There are<br />
ways of many a sort of constructing stories short,<br />
and every single one of them is wrong, except for<br />
its owner.” Perry Barr.<br />
<br />
——<br />
<br />
VII. EncovuRAGEMENT FOR YOUNG AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
“Magazine Scribbler” seems sorely exercised<br />
over my statements and that of others, which<br />
she (or he) calls “ bewildering disagreement of<br />
doctors.” (See The Author for December last.)<br />
<br />
T confess I do not see any disagreement between<br />
my assertion that one can make possibly £500 a<br />
year by “ hack-work,” and Sir Walter Besant’s<br />
advice “ Do not at first try to live by writing for<br />
the magazines.”<br />
<br />
T ask ‘ Magazine Scribbler,’ Does an apprentice<br />
expect to live on the unpaid, incomplete work he<br />
has to do while learning his trade ?<br />
<br />
The apprentice, of course, is provided with<br />
board and lodging until he can work well. Just<br />
so with the scribbler, who must work for a long<br />
time before he gains place among paid writers,<br />
and can be assured of an income through his pen.<br />
<br />
“ Magazine Scribbler ” wishes me to say in<br />
what class of periodicals £400 or £500 a year<br />
may be earned. She (or he) also wishes to know<br />
sf the work should be entirely fiction’ One<br />
author’s experience may not be that of others. I<br />
cannot advise on this point. I wrote on all<br />
272 THE<br />
<br />
‘lines ’—religious essays, political articles, folk-<br />
lore, poetry, children’s stories, adventures, novels,<br />
short tales. I found that fiction paid best. I<br />
sent my scribblings at a venture to any magazine<br />
or newspaper I fancied they might suit. I often<br />
had “copy” rejected by second-rate magazines,<br />
yet accepted by high-class ones. I took what-<br />
ever money was offered. When asked for “copy ”’<br />
T always said ‘“ Yes,” though often the remunera-<br />
tion was trifling, but I believe in a bird in the<br />
hand being of more value than two in the<br />
bush. I never kept an editor waiting for<br />
what he wanted. I worked eight or ten, aye,<br />
sometimes sixteen, hours a day. When a tale<br />
got a good grip of my imagination I could put<br />
it on paper at the rate of 5000 words a day. It<br />
is not for me to say whether such rapid work is<br />
good work. All I know is that my children<br />
needed the price of my work, and that the editors<br />
took it, asked for it, and paid for it. After<br />
besieging the editorial doors for years some of<br />
those good gentlemen became my friends and<br />
employed me regularly, but if my work was not<br />
quite suitable it came back from those friends<br />
just as it might from strangers.<br />
<br />
“Ottawa” gives some excellent advice in the<br />
letter preceding that of ‘‘ Magazine Scribbler,”<br />
who I hope has read it with benefit.<br />
<br />
It is certainly true that persistent advertising,<br />
log-rolling, a pat on the back from a “ big name,”<br />
shoves a young author on, and sells his work for<br />
atime. Only for a time!<br />
<br />
The reading-thinking public is no fool. If<br />
true literary genius is not in one’s work it must<br />
die eventually.<br />
<br />
If one is writing to make money (and God<br />
knows I have required to consider that point first<br />
and foremost, so that I do not “ lichtlie ” such an<br />
object), one is apt to overlook the guality of<br />
one’s work, and rather ask one’s self, “ Will it<br />
sell” If “it” owns some temporary attraction,<br />
it may sell; but we must not blame the public if<br />
“it” loses the charm of novelty very soon and<br />
ceases to be “in demand.”<br />
<br />
I am afraid a great portion—a very great<br />
portion—of writers have mistaken their vocation.<br />
They have no original talent for literature, or<br />
lack the perseverance which is the necessary<br />
adjunct of all successful talent. The wailings of<br />
this disappointed throng are painful to hear. One<br />
feels sympathetic with them, but it is desirable<br />
that they should not blame a noble profession for<br />
their failure to win first place in it.<br />
<br />
J. M. H.S.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
BOOK AND PLAY TALK,<br />
M* RUDYARD KIPLING is writing a<br />
<br />
new series of animal tales,<br />
<br />
Mr. Winston Churchill’s first book on<br />
the war will be ready shortly, under the title<br />
“London to Ladysmith, wa Pretoria.” After<br />
the war is over he will write a history of the<br />
whole campaign.<br />
<br />
Mr. Alexander Innes Shand has written a<br />
memoir of General John Jacob, of Jacobabad.<br />
Friend of Outram and Bartle Frere, and distin-<br />
guished alike as soldier and administrator, Jacob:<br />
was an indefatigable writer, and a great mass of<br />
his letters and manuscripts has been placed at<br />
Mr, Shand’s disposal. The book will be pub-<br />
lished by Messrs. Seeley and Co.<br />
<br />
Principal Rhys and Mr. Brynmor Jones, Q.C.,.<br />
M.P., have completed “ The History of the Welsh<br />
People,” which will be published shortly by Mr.<br />
Fisher Unwin. The work is founded upon the:<br />
report of the Welsh Land Commission.<br />
<br />
A second series of “ Essays in Liberalism,” by<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
a group of Oxford men who represent “the:<br />
advanced, though not the collectivist, wing of the<br />
<br />
party,” will be published by Mr. Brimley John-<br />
son—a new publisher. One of the subjects<br />
treated is the “ Liberal tradition in Literature ”<br />
and the book as a whole will offer “a statement<br />
of the principles by which Liberals of all times<br />
have been inspired, and will apply them to<br />
the political crises and party transactions of<br />
to-day.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Edward Carpenter is engaged upon a prose:<br />
version of the ‘Eros and Psyche ” of Apuleius,<br />
and a verse translation of the first book of<br />
“ Wiad,”<br />
<br />
Mr. Bloundelle-Burton’s new story, ‘The<br />
<br />
Seafarers,” will be published shortly by Messrs.<br />
Pearson.<br />
<br />
A volume of African sketches and stories by<br />
Mr. A. J. Dawson will be published by Mr.<br />
Heinemann under the title “African Nights’<br />
Entertainments.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Ranald Macdonald, son of Dr. George<br />
Macdonald, has written his first novel, ‘“‘The<br />
Sword of the King,’ a romance of the time of<br />
William, Prince of Orange. It will appear in a<br />
month or two.<br />
<br />
Mr. Herbert Spencer attained his eightieth<br />
birthday on Friday last (April 27). A biogra-<br />
phical and critical study of the distinguished<br />
writer and his works is just being published from<br />
the pen of Mr. Hector Macpherson, editor of the<br />
Edinburgh Evening News.<br />
<br />
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a Kt Wk TC<br />
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—~ xe @&* 4 Ww oe et<br />
<br />
Ba pa a ae ada<br />
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<br />
THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF AUTHORS PENSION FUND.<br />
<br />
<n<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I hereby enclose £<br />
<br />
as (1) A Single Donation towards Tur Pension Funp.<br />
<br />
(2) A Donation of £. per annum, over a period of<br />
<br />
(3) An Annual Subscription to the Fund.<br />
<br />
Name<br />
<br />
Address<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
During the hearing, in New York, im_ the<br />
matter of the application by Messrs. Harper and<br />
Brothers for a voluntary dissolution of their busi-<br />
ness, Mr. Ralph E. Prime, of Yonkers, appeared<br />
for a number of authors and asked what would<br />
become of royalty and other contracts between<br />
authors and the Harper concern. Mr. George L.<br />
Rives, attorney for the Harper Corporation,<br />
assured Mr. Prime that he need not worry about<br />
putting inany claims. ‘As you probably know,”<br />
he said, “ the publishing business is to be carried<br />
on under the supervision of Alexander E. Orr,<br />
Colonel Harvey, and J. Pierpont Morgan. The<br />
re-organisation committee is going to pay all<br />
debts to authors in full.”<br />
<br />
“Some Heresies Dealt With” is the title of a<br />
new volume of essays, chiefly scientific, by Dr.<br />
Alexander Japp. Under a pseudonym the same<br />
author is issuing another work, called “ Offering<br />
and Sacrifice.” This is an essay in comparative<br />
customs and religious development. Both books<br />
will be published by Mr. Thomas Burleigh.<br />
<br />
Mr. Thomas Mackay is to write an authorita-<br />
tive biography of the late Sir John Fowler, the<br />
engineer. It will be published in the autumn by<br />
Mr. Murray.<br />
<br />
A collection of short stories and essays by<br />
Mark Twain will be published in September by<br />
Messrs. Chatto and Windus, under the title<br />
(taken from the opening tale) “The Man that<br />
Corrupted Hadleyburg.”<br />
<br />
Professor Muirhead, of Mason College, Bir-<br />
mingham, has aimed in his forthcoming work,<br />
entitled “‘ Chapters from Aristotle’s ‘ Ethics,’ ” at<br />
applying the principles of the famous treatise to<br />
modern thought. The book will be published by<br />
Mr. Murray.<br />
<br />
The prizes this year under Mrs. Crawshay’s<br />
Memorial Endowment will be:—For Byron’s<br />
“Manfred,” “Heaven and Earth,” “Ode to<br />
Napoleon Buonaparte,’ “ Ode on Waterloo,”<br />
<br />
and ‘“Napoleon’s Farewell’? ; for Shelley’s<br />
“Revolt of Islam” and “ Hellas”; and for<br />
Keats’s “Isabella, or the Pot of Basil.” Essays<br />
<br />
are to be sent before June 1, 1900, to Mrs.<br />
Crawshay, care of 12, Warwick-road, Paddington,<br />
W., London.<br />
<br />
Mr. Frank Murray, of Derby, has in the press an<br />
exhaustive bibliography of Mr. Austin Dobson.<br />
<br />
Dean Farrar’s new book, “The Life of Lives,”<br />
a@ companion and supplementary work to his<br />
“ Life of Christ,’ will be published shortly by<br />
Messrs. Cassell.<br />
<br />
A sixpenny edition is about to appear of Mrs.<br />
Craigie’s “ The School of Saints.”<br />
<br />
a79<br />
<br />
Miss Olive Garnett has a volume of short stories<br />
being published by Mr. Heinemann.<br />
<br />
Mr. Tree’s revival of “ Rip Van Winkle” at<br />
Her Majesty’s will take place early this month.<br />
The parts of Gretchen and Derrick are to be made<br />
more of than has been the case formerly, and the<br />
play will be in three acts instead of four.<br />
<br />
The Royal General Theatrical Fund has now<br />
come into possession of the Lacy bequest (£2600).<br />
The legal proceedings, however, have cost £1700.<br />
At the annual meeting of the fund on the 12th<br />
ult., Mr. Edward Terry, who presided, in con-<br />
gratulating the meeting on the prosperous condi-<br />
tion of “this, which they might call the only,<br />
theatrical provident fund,” said there were<br />
other funds which he thought might well be<br />
amalgamated into two groups, provident and<br />
benevolent, and one of them was _ particularly<br />
anxious to merge its small capital in the Royal<br />
Fund.<br />
<br />
Mr. George Alexander will preside at the fourth<br />
annual general meeting of the Actors’ Orphanage<br />
Fund on May 17, at midday, in the Haymarket<br />
Theatre.<br />
<br />
“David Harum” was successfully produced in<br />
Rochester, N.Y., on April 9, by Mr. William H.<br />
Crane.<br />
<br />
The directors of the Paris Théatre du Gymnase<br />
have invited Mr. F. R. Benson to take his Shakes-<br />
pearean company there for two months, beginning<br />
July 1. Since the destruction of the Théatre<br />
Francais the Gymnase has enjoyed a State sub-<br />
vention.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Greet and Engelbach will take pos-<br />
session of the Globe Theatre on Sept. 1, having<br />
secured a long lease of it from Lord Kilmorey.<br />
<br />
“Quo Vadis” will be produced at the Adelphi<br />
on May 3, with Mr. Robert Taber as Vinicius,<br />
Mr. J. H. Barnesas Petronius, the Roman soldier,<br />
Mr. G. W. Anson as Nero, Miss Wallis (Mrs.<br />
Lancaster-Wallis) as Poppcea, and Miss Lena<br />
Ashwell as Lygia, the Christian hostage. In<br />
New York, by the way, two productions of the<br />
dramatised version of this novel were presented<br />
the other week within eight blocks of each other.<br />
One was by Miss Jeannette Gilder, the other<br />
(announced as ‘‘ the only authorised version ”) by<br />
Mr. Stanislaus Stange.<br />
<br />
The ‘Agamemnon ” of Alschylus will be per-<br />
formed at Bradfield College, Berks, in the open<br />
air, on June 19, 21, 23, 25,and 26. The theatre<br />
is carved out of a chalk pit, and constructed on<br />
the ancient Greek model.<br />
<br />
On the authority of the Chicago Tribune, “ the<br />
decadent drama is a failure from the box-office<br />
<br />
<br />
274<br />
<br />
standpoint. During the season now closing all of<br />
the great successes have been plays free from the<br />
taint of nastiness, while a large amount of money<br />
has been lost by managers who have attempted to<br />
force into popularity indecent farces, decadent<br />
society comedies, and sensational ‘emotional’<br />
dramas.”<br />
<br />
A matinée in aid of the Officers’ Families<br />
Fund will be given at the St. James’s Theatre<br />
on the roth inst. ‘The programme, in which<br />
many of the best-known actors and actresses<br />
will take part, includes two new plays, one by<br />
Mr. Sydney Grundy and one by Miss Florence<br />
Warden.<br />
<br />
Mr. Bernard Shaw’s “ You Never Can Tell”<br />
will be produced at the Strand Theatre by Mr.<br />
Yorke Stephens and Mr. James Welch at a<br />
matinée on May 2.<br />
<br />
Mr, J. H. Leigh will recite Mr. Arthur Dillon’s<br />
poem, “The Wayfarers,” at a concert to be given<br />
at St. James’s Hall on the evening of the<br />
26th June. The chief part of the concert will<br />
consist of the lyrics and choruses to Mr. Dillon’s<br />
play, “ The Maid of Artemis,” set by Mr. Charles<br />
E. Baughan. Miss Esther Palliser and Miss Ada<br />
Crossley will be the vocalists.<br />
<br />
Mr. G. F. Savage-Armstrong has a new volume<br />
of poems in the press, which will be entitled<br />
“Ballads of Down,” and will be a companion<br />
volume to “ Stories of Wicklow.”<br />
<br />
“The Mystic Number 7,” by Annabel Gray, is<br />
now published by Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall and<br />
Co., price 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
In the last number of The Author, Mr. J. H.<br />
Skrine’s new book, “ The Queen’s Highway,” was<br />
by an absurd error called “ The Queen’s Highway-<br />
man.” We owe an apology to Mr. Skrine for<br />
careless reading of proofs.<br />
<br />
Miss Marian Bower, author of “ The Guests of<br />
Mine Host,’ has kindly offered to give 3s. on<br />
every copy sold of her book at the Army and<br />
Navy Stores up to one hundred to the Patriotic<br />
Fund, the amount to be equally divided between<br />
<br />
Lady Lansdowne’s Fund and the Daily Telegraph<br />
Fund.<br />
<br />
“We Three and Troddles,’ a successful<br />
humorous hook by R. Andom, with illustrations<br />
by A. C. Gould, which first appeared some six<br />
years ago, is being published in sixpenny form<br />
next month by Messrs. Jarrold and Sons, who<br />
also have in hand a sequel containing further<br />
adventures and exploits of Troddles and his com-<br />
panions.<br />
<br />
“ Joey and Louie; or, The Fairy Gift,” by Miss<br />
Edith Gibbs, published by S. W. Partridge and<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Co., of 8, Paternoster-row. This is a pretty story<br />
for children. The book also contains a short tale,<br />
entitled ‘“ Pickles.”<br />
<br />
———<br />
<br />
BOOKS AND REVIEWS.<br />
<br />
(In these columns notes on books are given from reviews<br />
which carry weight, and are not, so far as can be learned,<br />
logrollers.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tue Narat Campaian, by Bennett Burleigh (Chapman,<br />
6s.), “ will probably arouse interest,” says Literature, “ by<br />
reason of its criticisms.’’ Mr. Burleigh ‘“ knows things and<br />
has standards of comparison; and heis not afraid of speak-<br />
ing out. He had the wit to clear ont of Ladysmith before<br />
the circle of investment was complete, so that he is able to<br />
throw light upon a somewhat neglected period of the war—<br />
the period when Estcourt was isolated, and General Buller<br />
had not yet arrived.” In the volume we first get a sketch<br />
of{the state of affairs before the ultimatum—of the feeling of<br />
the two Republics. ‘Mr. Burleigh’s description of Spion<br />
Kop,” says the Guardian, “is specially interesting.” Ina<br />
review dated March 27, the Daily Chronicle says that this<br />
account of the Natal Campaign “is the most important and,<br />
on its special subject, the most complete of the war histories<br />
that have so far appeared.”<br />
<br />
Towarps PREroriaA, by Julian Ralph (Pearson, 6s.),<br />
succeeds, says Literature, “in giving the impression of a<br />
real man describing a real thing that he has seen.” “ Of<br />
the operations of Lord Methnen’s column, which he accom-<br />
panied, there has appeared no more vivid and acceptable<br />
account.” ‘Mr. Ralph’s is distinctly one of the war books<br />
to be read.”<br />
<br />
On tHe Eve or THE War, by Evelyn Cecil, M.P.<br />
(Murray, 3s. 6d.), bears directly on the questions of the<br />
hour. It is, says the Daily Chronicle, “but a snapshot<br />
view of things as they were in South Africa on the eve of<br />
the war. The author saw the Cape Premier and the<br />
Prezident of the Afrikander Bond, President Kruger at<br />
Pretoria and President Steyn at Bloemfontein. He was in<br />
Ladysmith on the very day when the war broke out, and he<br />
was in Natal for three weeks after the colony had been<br />
invaded. The public will find in the book, says the Daily<br />
Telegraph, “ much to support the view that the struggle we<br />
have engaged in is an essentially just one, and-was forced<br />
upon us by unavoidable circumstances.”<br />
<br />
‘Tae Borr Srarss, by A. H. Keane (Methuen, 6s.),<br />
“will be welcome to many people,” says the Times, “ who<br />
are less anxious to form political opinions than to have some<br />
information about the general conditions of South Africa.”<br />
Mr. Keane, who was lately vice-president of the Anthro-<br />
pological Institute, approaches his subject from the scientific<br />
point of view. ‘‘ Not overburdened with detail,” says the<br />
Daily Chronicle, “the work is yet informative enough on<br />
the features of the countries and on the issues that have led<br />
up to the war.” ‘“Admirably clear and concise, and<br />
strictly impartial in tone,” says the Daily Telegraph. ‘Mr.<br />
Keane shows, for example, that the great majority of the<br />
earliest settlers at the Cape were drawn from the lower<br />
grades of Dutch society and the riff-raff of Western<br />
Europe.” 2<br />
<br />
A History or SourH Arrica, by W. Basil Worsfold<br />
(Dent, 1s. net), “so far as it goes,” says Literature, ‘is.<br />
admirable.’ “The tone is calm, judicious, and even<br />
little professional.’’ The greatness of the cost of conquer-<br />
ing the Republics is, says Mr. Worsfold, “the penalty we<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
pay for fifty years of official ineptitude, for fifty years of<br />
national neglect.”<br />
<br />
PINK AND SCARLET ; or Hunting as a School for Soldier-<br />
ing, by Lieutenant-Colonel E. A. H. Alderson (Heinemann,<br />
7s. 6d. net), is recommended by the Guardian as “a book<br />
that should be on every young officer’s table.” “ Any<br />
subaltern who reads it carefully, and acts upon the hints<br />
that are there given to him, will be able to dress himself<br />
properly, to sit in a well-fitting saddle ona horse that is in<br />
good condition, to ride to hounds like a gentleman and<br />
sportsman, and to have a thorough knowledge of the<br />
hunting-field’s etiquette.” The Daily Chronicle praises the<br />
book “ for its light and entertaining style, for its profound<br />
knowledge both of hunting and of war, and for the cunning<br />
skill with which these two subjects are intertwined.”<br />
<br />
Tae Love oF AN UNCROWNED QUEEN, by W. H.<br />
Wilkins (Hutchinson, 36s.),is the story of the Consort of<br />
George I—‘‘ two bulky octavo volumes,’ says the Daily<br />
Chronicle, “out of which at least twenty romances could<br />
be made; volumes that elaborate the tragic love story of<br />
which Thackeray-in his ‘Four Georges’ gives the essential<br />
features.” A large part of the volumes consists of corre-<br />
spondence attributed to the pair—Sophia Dorothea and<br />
Count Koenigsmarck. ‘“ These letters have been rejected,”<br />
says the Daily Telegraph, “by good authorities as spurious.<br />
Mr. Wilkins, we think, advances better reasons why they<br />
should be accepted as authentic.” “On the whole,’ says<br />
the Times, “the volomes are interesting enough, although<br />
they do not belong to a very high order of historical<br />
literature.” Literature refers to the work as being “‘ as<br />
exciting as an historical novel by Dumas, and to the<br />
judicious reader a good deal more interesting.”<br />
<br />
WiTHOoUT THE LimELicHT, by G. R. Sims (Chatto,<br />
2s. 6d.), consists of ‘‘instructive papers,’ says the Daily<br />
Telegraph, which tell many true stories of the ups and<br />
downs of theatrical life. ‘‘ With respect to the vicissitudes<br />
of life upon the stage Mr. Sims may confidently be accepted<br />
as a skilled expert and trustworthy authority.” ‘Ifa<br />
parent or guardian wishes to disenchant a stage-struck lad<br />
or girl, here,” says the Spectator, ‘is a potent remedy.”<br />
“Mr. Sims tells his stories in a simple and effective fashion,<br />
with no unnecessary horrors or extravagant pathos.” ‘‘ One<br />
cannot lay down the book,” says the Daily Chronicle,<br />
*‘ without concluding that the acting profession is a very<br />
slippery one for the climbers.”<br />
<br />
In THE WAKE oF THE War,” by A. St. John Adcock<br />
(Hodder and Stoughton, 2s. 6d.), is a collection of aptly-<br />
named stories, says the Spectator, ‘in which the homely<br />
tragedies that mark the progress of a campaign like the<br />
present are unfolded with unfailing sympathy and skill.”<br />
<br />
Tun Farrinepons, by Hilen T. Fowler (Hutchinson, 6s.),<br />
appears to Literature to “ mark a real artistic advance in<br />
the writer.” ‘Elizabeth Farringdon is certainly Miss<br />
Fowler’s chef d’euvre. We know few characters in recent<br />
fiction so consistent and so human.” ‘“ At its best,” says<br />
the Spectator, the work “affords ample food for mirth.”<br />
The Daily Telegraph finds its “ great merit” to be the<br />
cleverness of the conversations. The Daily Chronicle says<br />
“it is bright, it is interesting ; it preaches, so far as it can<br />
be said to preach at all, a wide and fashionable theology,”<br />
a the dénowement is just what we all would wish it to<br />
<br />
e.””<br />
<br />
Tue Green Fuaa, by A. Conan Doyle (Smith, Elder,<br />
63.), is a collection of short stories dealing with war and<br />
sport. ‘There is no subtlety about them,” says Literature,<br />
“but they are generally interesting.’ Among them are<br />
“a striking story of the Franco-Prussian War,’ and “a<br />
most ingenious tale of the Peace of Amiens.” ‘‘ The Striped<br />
<br />
275<br />
<br />
-Chest,” says the Daily Telegraph, “is as blood-curdling as<br />
the wildest of Poe’s romances,” and “ altogether the volume<br />
is admirable.” On the whole, the Daily Chronicle does<br />
“not think anyone has a right to ask for a more varied,<br />
interesting, or better lot of stories than are to be found in<br />
this volume.” :<br />
<br />
SopuHra, by Stanley Weyman (Longmans, 6s.), proves to<br />
the Spectator “that a sound instinct has led him to the<br />
England of the eighteenth century as the true field for the<br />
exercise of his talents as a narrator and interpreter.” The<br />
Daily News refers to “his unique gifts of thrilling uarrative<br />
and lifelike, yet unobtrusive and entirely unforced, descrip-<br />
tion of the times.’”” Mr. Weyman’s heroine, a young heiress<br />
who at eighteen has lost her heart to a plausible Irish<br />
adventurer, “is own cousin to the charmer of Tom Jones,”<br />
says the Daily Telegraph. “The eighteenth century with<br />
all its delights from the romantic point of view passes<br />
before our vision like a living picture in these fascinating<br />
pages.”<br />
<br />
Tur PLUNDERERS, by Morley Roberts (Methuen, 6s.),<br />
althought it “must surely,” says the Daily News, “be<br />
regarded as an elaborate burlesque and satire, is vivid,<br />
sparkling, and clever ’—“‘a stirring political parable.” “A<br />
story of unscrupulous and unjustifiable adventure,’’ says the<br />
Daily Telegraph, told with “verve and verisimilitude.”<br />
“ The book is the story of a private expedition on the model<br />
of the Jameson Raid, a story,” says the Daily Chronicle,<br />
‘told with any amount of zest and go.”<br />
<br />
ArpEN MasstTeR, by William Barry (Unwin, 6s.) is the<br />
story of a young man who reminds the Spectator “ not @<br />
little of the Bulwer or Disraelian type of hero.” “ A more<br />
exciting or vivid picture of the inferno of modern Italian<br />
politics and society it would be difficult to imagine.” “ The<br />
canvas is crowded with striking and sinister characters,<br />
amongst whom the saint-like dévote, Donna Costanza,<br />
shines conspicuous by her unearthly purity.” “ Altogether<br />
itis a novel of engrossing interest, in which exceptional<br />
powers of expression are employed with unfailing skill in the<br />
delineation of an intensely dramatic phase of modern life.”<br />
The Daily Telegraph refers to it as “ undoubtedly one of<br />
the books of the year”; and it has filled Literature with<br />
admiration, and become a permanent addition to the books<br />
we cherish.”<br />
<br />
Tur COLLAPSE OF THE PENITENT, by Frederick Wedmore<br />
(Hutchinson, 3s. 6d.), is described by the Daily Telegraph as<br />
“ delicateas well as clever,” and “assuredly a book worth<br />
reading.”<br />
<br />
Hnarts Importunate, by Evelyn Dickinson (Heine-<br />
mann, 6s.), is described by the Daily Telegraph as “ vigo-<br />
rous, forcible, convincing, portraying with some power the<br />
absorbing strife and struggle of two hearts importunate and<br />
noble.” The Spectator speaks of the author’s “ excellent<br />
style,” and says “she is familiar with life in the bush and<br />
in Sydney; she has faithfully studied various types of<br />
Colonials.”<br />
<br />
Tym TRIALS OF THE BANTocKs, by G. S. Street (Lane,<br />
3s. 6d.), is described by the Spectator as “ an artistic rather<br />
than an agreeable study of snobbishness ” —“a collection of<br />
what might be called tales of mean souls. Mr. Bantock is<br />
a very wealthy and painfully respectable banker, with a<br />
wife and children to match, and the aim of the narrator is<br />
to show how each member of the family has a fly in the<br />
ointment of his or her ‘unctaoas rectitude.” “ Mr. Street<br />
has a light and delicate touch,” and in this small book, says<br />
the Daily Chronicle, “ he lays bare the ambitions and failures<br />
of a family of wealthy snobs from the point of view of a<br />
poor one.”<br />
<br />
Matay Maatc, by Walter William Skeat (Macmillan,<br />
gis. net), “is practically a treatise on the whole life of<br />
<br />
<br />
276<br />
<br />
the Malays.” They do nothing without magical cere»<br />
monies. ‘Like all books of the kind,” continues the<br />
Times, “it leaves us with a strong sense of the community<br />
‘of human nature and human beliefs. The work is of high<br />
value.” Literature also says this is ‘a very valuable con-<br />
tribution to the science of folk-lore, the more welcome<br />
because such things are fast perishing off the face of the<br />
-earth.” ‘Mr. Skeat, moreover,” says the Guardian,<br />
“writes in an easy and flowing style, which makes him 2<br />
pleasant guide, and provides very useful and well-executed<br />
illustrations to make his matter more intelligible. He has<br />
an additional merit, not always found in collectors of folk-<br />
lore, in that he has a proper sense of logical division, and<br />
keeps his subjects from jostling one another overmuch.”<br />
<br />
A439; OR, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A Prano, by<br />
‘Twenty-five Musical Scribes, edited by Algernon Rose<br />
(Sands and Co., 6s.). Daily News says: “The book is a<br />
jeu esprit following out in literature an idea which has<br />
frequently been adopted in composition by many musicians<br />
from Schumann to Sullivan. The result is surprisingly<br />
good.” “All lovers of music,” says the Queen, ‘‘ will be<br />
interested, edified, and even instructed by it.’ The Irish<br />
Times (Dublin): ‘A439’ is an up-to-date and remarkable<br />
production of musical thought, and as such deserves the<br />
attention of a very wide circle of readers.” Truth says:<br />
“<The surprise of the book comes at the end, where Dr.<br />
Ebenezer Prout, Professor of Music at Dublin University,<br />
comes forward as a first-class humourist and the writer of<br />
three pages of doggerel of the most excruciating character.”<br />
The Scotsman: “As a whole, in spite of the variety of<br />
styles—or is it in virtue of them ?—the story of the piano’s<br />
chequered career makes capital reading for anyone who is<br />
musically informed and musically inclined.”<br />
<br />
Peas<br />
<br />
OBITUARY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TYNHE late Mr. Andrew Tuer, author as well as<br />
| publisher (whose death was briefly<br />
<br />
announced in our March issue), was a<br />
member of the Society of Authors almost from<br />
its beginning, and at all times a friend of the<br />
Society and a personal friend of many of its<br />
members. The books which bore his name were<br />
such as appealed generally more to’ the anti-<br />
quarian or to the collector than to the general<br />
public. Among them, however, were several<br />
topographical books of great interest and impor-<br />
tance, especially the very beautiful volume by the<br />
Rey. W.J. Loftie called “ Kensington.” His loss<br />
makes a gap in this direction which it will be<br />
difficult to fill.<br />
<br />
The death-roll of the past month began with<br />
Dr. Sr. Grorcr Mrvart, F.R.S,, philosopher and<br />
metaphysician, whe died on April 1 at his resi-<br />
dence near Hyde Park. Bornin 1827, Dr. Mivart<br />
(he was M.D.) was a man of wide attainments.<br />
A barrister-at-law nearly fifty years ago, for a<br />
time he was lecturer on zoology at St. Mary’s<br />
Hospital Medical School, and professor of the<br />
philosophy of biology at the University of Louvain.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Among his many works are<br />
of Species” (non-Darwinian), “Nature and<br />
Thought,” and “On Truth.” During the past<br />
year his name had been prominent in connection<br />
with the controversy between himself, as a<br />
Catholic layman, and Cardinal Vaughan. Dr.<br />
Mivart was to have been entertained at dinner by<br />
the Authors’ Club on April 2, and when com-<br />
piling his speech for that occasion on the morning<br />
of the previous day he had expressed his belief<br />
that he would die at the board of his hosts. His<br />
one essay in fiction, “Castle and Manor,” was<br />
published only last month, but it was a revised<br />
version of a novel he published anonymously<br />
under another title many years ago.<br />
<br />
Mr. Roserr A. M. Stevenson, the art critic of<br />
the Pall Mall Gazette,and author of “The Art<br />
of Velasquez,” the letterpress of “The Devils of<br />
Notre Dame” (illustrations by Mr. Pennell), and<br />
many esssays, died on April 18. Mr. Stevenson<br />
was born in 1847, and was cousin to the late<br />
Robert Louis Stevenson. Mr. Frepericx O.<br />
Crump, Q.C., who died at Hertford suddenly on<br />
April 15 from cardiac syncope, was editor of<br />
the Law Times for the last thirty years. Another<br />
Queen’s Counsel, Mr. CHaruzs Isaac Enron,<br />
author of “Origins of English History,’ and<br />
similar works, besides several manuals on land<br />
tenure, died on the 23rd ult., at the age of sixty.<br />
Mr. Arcuipatp Fores, the Daily News war<br />
correspondent, whose letters from the Franco-<br />
German and Russo-Turkish wars won for him<br />
almost a world-wide distinction, died on<br />
March 30 in his sixty-second year. He was the<br />
author of many books, chiefly on military<br />
campaigning, including “Glimpses through the<br />
Cannon Smoke,” a history of the Black Watch<br />
Regiment, and a life of Napoleon IIT.<br />
<br />
66 :<br />
THE AUTHOR.”<br />
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