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539	https://historysoa.com/items/show/539	The Author, Vol. 24 Issue 07 (April 1914)	<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.+24+Issue+07+%28April+1914%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 24 Issue 07 (April 1914)</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>	1914-04-01-The-Author-24-7					181–206																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=24">24</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1914-04-01">1914-04-01</a>							7			19140401	Che HMutbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> Monthly. )<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vor. XXIV.—No. 7.<br /> <br /> APRIL 1, 1914.<br /> <br /> _ [PRICE SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER:<br /> 874 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> a ee<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> 4 OR the opinions expressed in papers that<br /> are signed or initialled the authors alone<br /> are responsible. None of the papers or<br /> paragraphs must be taken as expressing the<br /> opinion of the Committee unless such is<br /> especially stated to be the case.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Tur Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The<br /> Author that the cases which are quoted in The<br /> Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of<br /> the Society, and that those members of the<br /> Society who desire to have the names of the<br /> publishers concerned can obtain them on<br /> application.<br /> <br /> ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTIONS.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor of The Author begs to remind<br /> members of the Society that, although the<br /> paper is sent to them free of cost, its production<br /> would be a very heavy charge on the resources<br /> of the Society if a great many members did not<br /> forward to the Secretary the modest 5s. 6d.<br /> subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for The Author should be<br /> addressed to the offices of the Society, 1, Cen-<br /> tral Buildings, Tothill Street, Westminster,<br /> S.W., and should reach the Editor not later<br /> than the 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by<br /> the Editor on all literary matters treated from<br /> <br /> Vou. XXIV.<br /> <br /> the standpoint of art or business, but on no<br /> other subjects whatever. Every effort will be<br /> made to return articles which cannot be<br /> accepted.<br /> <br /> ADVERTISEMENTS.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Matthews’ Advertising Service,<br /> Staple Inn Buildings, High Holborn, W.C.,<br /> will act as agents for advertisements for<br /> “The Author.” All communications respect-<br /> ing advertisements should be addressed to<br /> them.<br /> <br /> As there seems to be an impression among<br /> readers of The Author that the Committee are<br /> personally responsible for the bona fides of the<br /> advertisers, the Committee desire it to be stated<br /> that this is not, and could not possibly be, the<br /> ease. Although care is exercised that no<br /> undesirable advertisements be inserted, they<br /> do not accept, and never have accepted, any<br /> liability.<br /> <br /> Members should apply to the Secretary for<br /> advice if special information is desired.<br /> <br /> o&gt;<br /> <br /> THE SOCIETY’S FUNDS.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> 4 ROM time to time members of the Society<br /> desire to make donations to its funds in<br /> recognition of work that has been done<br /> for them. The Committee, acting on the<br /> suggestion of one of these members, have<br /> decided to place this permanent paragraph in<br /> The Author in order that members may be<br /> cognisant of those funds to which these con-<br /> tributions may be paid.<br /> <br /> The funds suitable for this purpose are:<br /> (1) The Capital Fund. This fund is kept in<br /> reserve in case it is necessary for the Society to<br /> incur heavy expenditure, either in fighting a<br /> question of principle, or in assisting to obtain<br /> copyright reform, or in dealing with any other<br /> <br /> <br /> /<br /> <br /> 182 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> matter closely connected with the work of the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> (2) The Pension Fund. This fund is slowly<br /> increasing, and it is hoped will, in time, cover<br /> the needs of all the members of the Society.<br /> <br /> —____—_+—&gt;—+___—_.<br /> <br /> THE PENSION FUND.<br /> <br /> —+——+ —<br /> <br /> N January, 1914, the secretary of the<br /> I Society laid before the trustees of the<br /> Pension Fund the accounts for the year<br /> 1913, as settled by the accountants. After<br /> giving the matter full consideration, the<br /> trustees instructed the secretary to invest a<br /> sum of £350 in the purchase of Great Eastern<br /> Railway Ordinary Stock. The amount pur-<br /> chased has been added to the investments set<br /> out below.<br /> <br /> The trustees desire to thank the members of<br /> the Society for the continued support which<br /> they have given to the Pension Fund. They<br /> have given notice to the Pension Fund Com-<br /> mittee that there is sufficient money at their<br /> disposal to enable them to give another<br /> pension.<br /> <br /> The nominal value of the investments held<br /> on behalf of the Pension Fund now amounts<br /> to £5,419 6s., details of which are fully set out<br /> in the following schedule :—<br /> <br /> Nominal Value.<br /> <br /> £ 4s. @.<br /> RGCAl Loans 6c 0is occ sc hecccs sconces 500 0 0<br /> Victoria Government 3% Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............ 291 19 11<br /> London and North Western 3%<br /> <br /> Debenture Stock .................. 250 0 O<br /> Egyptian Government Irrigation<br /> <br /> Trust 4% Certificates............. 200 0 0<br /> Cape of Good Hope 34% Inscribed<br /> <br /> Block 6. ak - 200 0 0<br /> Glasgow and South-Western Rail-<br /> <br /> way 4% Preference Stock ...... 228 0 0<br /> New Zealand 34% Stock .......... 247 9 6<br /> Irish Land 22% Guaranteed Stock 258 0 0<br /> Corporation of London 24%<br /> <br /> Stock, 1927-57 ...............:-. . 4388 2 4<br /> Jamaica 34% Stock, 1919—49 ... 1382 18 6<br /> Mauritius 4% 1987 Stock ......... - 120 12 1<br /> Dominion of Canada, C.P.R. 84%<br /> <br /> Land Grant Stock, 1988 ......... 198 3 8<br /> Antofagasta and Bolivian Railway<br /> <br /> 5% Preferred Stock ............... 237 0 O<br /> Central Argentine Railway Or-<br /> <br /> dinary Stock 21.00.65. 0igsecsss0ccses 232 0 0<br /> <br /> Nominal Value.<br /> SS, a.<br /> $2,000 Consolidated Gas and<br /> Electric Company of Baltimore<br /> 44% Gold Bonds ........+.++++-. 400 0 O<br /> <br /> 250 Edward Lloyd, Ltd., £1 5%<br /> <br /> Preference Shares ...............- 250 0 0<br /> 55 Buenos Ayres Great Southern<br /> <br /> Railway 4% Extension Shares,<br /> <br /> 1914 (fully paid) ................. 550 0 0<br /> 3 Central Argentine Railway £10<br /> Preference Shares, New Issue... 30 0 0O<br /> Great Eastern Railway Ordinary<br /> Stock cess cecpesuesd esse 655 0 0<br /> Total 2 £5,419 6 O<br /> <br /> —_——_———__+—&gt;—_+—____—_-<br /> <br /> PENSION FUND.<br /> <br /> —.—~ +<br /> <br /> Tue list printed below includes all fresh dona-<br /> tions and subscriptions (i.e., donations and<br /> subscriptions not hitherto acknowledged)<br /> received by, or promised to, the fund from<br /> October, 19138.<br /> <br /> It does not include either donations given<br /> prior to October, nor does it include sub-<br /> scriptions paid in compliance with promises<br /> made before it.<br /> <br /> Subscriptions.<br /> 1913.<br /> <br /> Oct. 8, Rees, Miss Rosemary<br /> Oct. 8, Pearee, J. . : Z<br /> Oct. 9, Drummond, Miss Florence<br /> Oct. 9, Rumbold, Hugo<br /> Oct. 18, Knowles, Miss<br /> Oct. 20, Collison, Harry :<br /> Oct. 21, Buchanan, Miss Meriel<br /> Oct. 25, Baker, EK. A. . :<br /> Nov. 6, Bentley, E. C. :<br /> Nov. 6, Petersen, Miss Margaret<br /> Nov. 7, Lang, Mrs. John j<br /> Nov. 19, Langferte, Raymond<br /> Nov. 24, Webb, W. Trego<br /> Nov. 24, Mackenzie, Compton<br /> Dec. 4, Vansittart, Robert<br /> Dec. 4, Lunn, Arnold . &lt;<br /> Dec. 4, Stewart, Miss Marie .<br /> Dec. 4, Berry, Miss Ana .<br /> Dec. 4, Vallois, Miss Grace . ‘<br /> Dec. 17, Beresford, J. D.<br /> Dec. 29, Inge, Charles .<br /> Dec. 29, Cross, Miss May<br /> Dec. 29, Hardy, Thomas, O.M.<br /> <br /> _<br /> <br /> ~<br /> NASCSCAAANMooaaaaanwe ao Toe<br /> <br /> i<br /> concoconeoooooocoOoOoOOOoSoO OF<br /> <br /> wpooocooooormooocooooroocooooh<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> i<br /> j<br /> i<br /> |<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 1914.<br /> Jan. 7, Ford, Miss May<br /> Jan. 7, Sephton, J.<br /> Jan. 16, Singer, I. :<br /> Jan. 16, Cooke, Arthur O.<br /> Jan. 28, Exley, Miss M. :<br /> Jan. 26, Sarawak, The Ranee of<br /> Mar. 11, Dowson, Osear F.<br /> <br /> 19138. Donations.<br /> <br /> Oct. 7, Darwin, Sir Francis . :<br /> <br /> Oct. 9, Carroll, Sydney Wentworth<br /> <br /> Oct. 21, Troubetzkoy, The Princess<br /> <br /> Oct. 27, Frankish, Harold . 2<br /> <br /> Oct. 30, Rosman, Miss Alice Grant<br /> <br /> Nov. 3, Holland, Theodore<br /> <br /> Nov. 3, Steane, Bruce .<br /> <br /> Nov. 3, Batty, Mrs. Braithwaite<br /> <br /> Nov. 10, Elrington, Miss Helen<br /> <br /> Nov. 10, Waterbury, Mrs. .<br /> <br /> Dec. 5, Dymock, R. G. Vaughton .<br /> <br /> Dec. 6, Macdonald, Miss Julia<br /> <br /> Dec. 11, Little, Mrs. Archibald<br /> <br /> Dec. 11, Topham, Miss Ann .<br /> <br /> Dec. 20, Edwards, Percy J. .<br /> <br /> Dec. 21, Keating, J. Lloyd<br /> <br /> 1914.<br /> <br /> Jan. 8, Church, Sir Arthur<br /> <br /> Jan. 5, Anon :<br /> <br /> Jan. 5, Joseph, L.<br /> <br /> Jan. 5, Swan, Miss Myra<br /> <br /> Jan. 5, Vernede, R. E. :<br /> <br /> Jan. 6, De Crespigny, Mrs. Champion<br /> <br /> Jan. 6, Rankin, Miss F. M. . .<br /> <br /> Jan. 7, Sneyd-Kynnesley, E. M.<br /> <br /> Jan. 7, Lathbury, Miss Eva .<br /> <br /> Jan. 7, Toplis, Miss Grace<br /> <br /> Jan. 8, Palmer, G. Molyneaux<br /> <br /> Jan. 9, Mackenzie, Miss J. .<br /> <br /> Jan. 10, Daniell, Mrs. E. H. .<br /> <br /> Jan. 12, Avery, Harold :<br /> <br /> Jan. 12, Douglas, Mrs. F. A.<br /> <br /> Jan. 15, Pullein, Miss Catherine<br /> <br /> Jan. 15, Thomas, Mrs. Fanny<br /> <br /> Jan. 16, James, Mrs. Romane<br /> <br /> Jan. 19, P. H. and M. K.<br /> <br /> Jan. 19, Greenstreet, W. J. .<br /> <br /> Jan. 19, Gibbs, F. Leonard A.<br /> <br /> Jan. 23, Campbell, Mrs. L. A. R. .<br /> <br /> Jan. 23, Cameron, Mrs. Charlotte,<br /> F.R.GS. . :<br /> <br /> Jan. 23, Blunt, Reginald<br /> <br /> Jan. 24, Raphael, Mrs. Mary.<br /> <br /> Jan. 25, Plouman, Miss Mary<br /> <br /> Jan. 80, Gibson, Miss L. S. .<br /> <br /> Feb. 5, Brooker, Lt.-Col. E. P.<br /> <br /> Feb. 6, Buchrose, J. E. :<br /> <br /> —<br /> S<br /> <br /> coomoooocooooooooooeooscr-<br /> <br /> Seeeoecoon,<br /> <br /> _<br /> ecoooceormroscoocooooro tu<br /> <br /> HH OOOH<br /> <br /> et K<br /> Or or or or or or?<br /> <br /> i<br /> <br /> —<br /> Ooo © OH eH Orbs Or Orr OO OO<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> peal<br /> <br /> _ —_<br /> ooanrgnocounooeawmanoduncocmn oc =<br /> <br /> _<br /> <br /> ee ON Oe et<br /> <br /> ccooocoeoe<br /> <br /> SCMmooooooanaaoacecooances ececoocoocoonanaoooooao<br /> <br /> ecoeoanooce<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 1838<br /> <br /> Feb. 7, Smith, Herbert W.<br /> Feb. 20, Eden Guy : :<br /> Feb. 21, Mayne, Miss Ethel<br /> bourn :<br /> Feb. 21, K. ; : :<br /> Feb. 25, Aspinall, Algernon E.<br /> Mar. 2, Dalziell, J. ‘<br /> Mar. 2,8. F.G. . ;<br /> Mar. 5, Saies, Mrs. F. H.<br /> Mar. 5, Thorne, Mrs. Isabel . :<br /> Mar. 5, Haviland, Miss M. D. :<br /> Mar. 5, Todd, Miss Margaret, M.D.<br /> Mar. 13, Cabourn, John 5 :<br /> Mar. 20, French, Mrs. G. F. .<br /> <br /> oon<br /> —<br /> oro 2<br /> co<br /> <br /> Col-<br /> <br /> et<br /> Oo &amp;<br /> <br /> CSCOrFOCCorFNOSS<br /> Soe Or or Oc<br /> coocoocooocoecocs<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.<br /> <br /> —-—— + —_<br /> <br /> HE Committee held their March meeting<br /> on the second of that month at three<br /> o’clock, at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> After the minutes of the previous meeting had<br /> been signed the committee dealt with the elec-<br /> tions and resignations. The number of elections<br /> —twenty-six—is chronicled in another column<br /> of this issue. This brings the total number for<br /> the current year up to ninety-five, slightly in<br /> excess of the number for the corresponding<br /> period of last year. The committee accepted,<br /> with regret, eighteen resignations. The large<br /> number of resignations during the month may<br /> b&gt; accounted for by the fact that at this period<br /> of the year the first application is issued for<br /> unpaid subscriptions. A certain number of<br /> resignations is bound to follow.<br /> <br /> The next question before the committee was<br /> the legal cases and the disputes of members.<br /> The solicitor attended and made his report.<br /> In the first claim against the proprietor of a<br /> magazine—the debt and costs had been paid.<br /> In a ease for the collection of dramatic fees,<br /> the solicitor reported that he had, at length,<br /> succeeded in obtaining the debt and costs.<br /> The costs had been increased as it had proved<br /> necessary, not only to issue a summons for an<br /> examination of the debtor, but also to proceed<br /> against him for an attachment.<br /> <br /> The solicitor then reported on the case of<br /> infringement of title by a cinematograph<br /> company which had been taken up at the last<br /> meeting. The judge considered it a case for a:<br /> speedy trial and the trial was fixed for the<br /> 10th of the month. In a case where money<br /> was claimed on a disputed account, the com-<br /> mittee decided to take action with the approval<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 184<br /> <br /> of the member concerned. The secretary then<br /> reported that in a case where an award had<br /> been given, one of the members, party to the<br /> award, desired certain letters to be read to the<br /> committee. These were read in due course,<br /> and the secretary was instructed to write a<br /> letter in reply, placing before the member that<br /> the award must be adhered to, and that the<br /> committee were unable to discuss the matter<br /> further. ‘The letter was to be submitted to<br /> the chairman of the committee for his approval.<br /> <br /> Difficult issues had arisen owing to the fact<br /> that a publisher had shown unreasonable delay<br /> in publishing the book which he had agreed<br /> by contract to produce. The committee decided<br /> to issue a writ for damages for delay or for<br /> immediate publication.<br /> <br /> In a case of infringement of dramatic rights<br /> of amember in Australia, the secretary reported<br /> that he had, in order to catch the Australian<br /> mail, obtained the chairman’s sanction to place<br /> the matter in the hands of the Society&#039;s<br /> lawyers in Sydney. The committee confirmed<br /> the chairman’s action.<br /> <br /> In a dispute between a member and an<br /> agent which the committee, for various<br /> reasons, at the last meeting had refused to take<br /> up. the secretary read_ to the committee a<br /> further communication he had received from<br /> the member, and, after again reviewing the<br /> case, the committee regretted they were unable<br /> to depart from their previous decision, and<br /> instructed the secretary so to inform the<br /> member.<br /> <br /> A question concerning the conduct of a case<br /> in the United States on behalf of a member<br /> was considered by the committee in the light<br /> of fresh facts which had just come to hand<br /> from the Society’s American lawyer.<br /> <br /> It was decided to take up an action against<br /> a paper in Vancouver, and the secretary was<br /> instructed to communicate with the Society’s<br /> lawyers on the subject. :<br /> <br /> The judgment in the highest court in<br /> Switzerland, on a question taken up by the<br /> Society some years ago, was laid before the<br /> committee. The committee regretted it was<br /> against the claim put forward on behalf of the<br /> member. As no further appeal was possible,<br /> the secretary. was instructed to inform the<br /> member of the result.<br /> <br /> In a dispute between a member of the Society<br /> and the editor of an illustrated paper the<br /> correspondence was read, and the chairman<br /> undertook to write to the editor.<br /> <br /> The next matter referred to a case of<br /> infringement of dramatic rights. The com-<br /> mittee, after consideration, regretted they<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> were unable to take up the case. In a dispute<br /> arising from the publication of a book, the<br /> committee gave instructions to the secretary<br /> as to the settlement.<br /> <br /> There was a question, also, of infringement<br /> of the rights in a title by a cinematograph<br /> production. The committee decided to take<br /> no action in this case, but to await the&#039;result<br /> of the case already pending.<br /> <br /> The next matter was a dispute, stretching<br /> over a period of years, under a publisher’s<br /> account. The committee decided to take up<br /> the case on behalf of the member.<br /> <br /> The secretary then reported the position of<br /> an important case in Toronto of infringement<br /> of copyright, taken up by the Society, and<br /> read a letter received from the member con-<br /> cerned dealing with the proposed terms of<br /> settlement as received from Canada. The<br /> committee approved the terms of settlement<br /> put forward by the member, and decided to<br /> instruct the lawyers in Toronto accordingly.<br /> <br /> As the chairman of the committee was going<br /> abroad for a short time, a vice-chairman was<br /> appointed in his absence.<br /> <br /> Authority was given for the payment of the<br /> cost of a cable sent to the Authors’ League of<br /> America, congratulating the League on its<br /> first annual dinner and on the success of the<br /> League.<br /> <br /> The question of the Society’s advertise-<br /> ments was next considered, and it was decided<br /> to settle the account of the previous agents<br /> in accordance with an arrangement made<br /> between them and the Society’s accountants.<br /> It was also decided to have an exchange<br /> advertisement with the Music Student.<br /> <br /> The list of non-payers for two years was laid<br /> before the committee, and the secretary was<br /> instructed to send a special letter to the<br /> members in arrears.<br /> <br /> Correspondence with a member on the<br /> subject of the libraries censorship was read,<br /> and the secretary was instructed to write to<br /> the member giving him the committee’s<br /> opinion and asking for possible suggestions.<br /> <br /> The seeretary then laid before the committee<br /> a short article dealing with a dispute between<br /> a member and a publisher which, on the<br /> suggestion of the Composers’ Sub-Committee,<br /> it was proposed to publish in The Author. He<br /> was instructed to lay the matter before the<br /> Society’s solicitors and, with their approval,<br /> to publish the article in the April issue.<br /> <br /> The matter of the change of the name of the<br /> Society from the Incorporated Society of<br /> Authors, to the Incorporated Society of<br /> <br /> Authors, Playwrights and Composers, was<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> next considered. The secretary reported that<br /> the solicitors of the Society had obtained the<br /> approval of the Board of Trade, and it was<br /> decided to have a special meeting of the<br /> council and the shareholders of the Society<br /> on April 17 to approve the change, and a<br /> confirmatory meeting later, according to the<br /> provisions of the Companies Acts.<br /> <br /> The committee authorised the investment of<br /> £260 from the Life Membership account in the<br /> purchase of Buenos Aires Great Southern<br /> Railway 4% Extension Shares, and authority<br /> was given to affix the seal of the Society if<br /> necessary.<br /> <br /> A difficult question, arising under a certain<br /> section in the Copyright Act, 1911, was<br /> referred to the Committee of Managment by<br /> the Composers’ Sub-Committee. It dealt with<br /> mechanical rights. &#039;The Committee of Manage-<br /> ment decided to take counsel’s opinion on the<br /> matter.<br /> <br /> It was decided to purchase a new type-<br /> writer for the Society’s office.<br /> <br /> A proposal was submitted to the committee<br /> by the Independent Music Club, and the<br /> secretary was instructed to state that the com-<br /> mittee regretted they were unable to accept it.<br /> <br /> Letters were read from the Foreign Office on<br /> the question of copyright in India, and from<br /> the Society’s lawyer in New York on the ques-<br /> tion of copyright in the United States.<br /> <br /> Votes of thanks were passed to the following<br /> members for donations to the Capital Fund of<br /> the Society: Mr. Arnold Bennett, £10;<br /> Edward Carpenter, £3; Philip Hubbard,<br /> 10s. 6d.<br /> <br /> 4<br /> <br /> Dramatic SuBp-CoMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> Tuer Dramatic Sub-Committee met at the<br /> Society’s offices on Friday, March 20.<br /> <br /> After reading the minutes the secretary<br /> reported that he had heard from Mr. Fladgate,<br /> the solicitor of the Society of West End<br /> Managers, in regard to the settlement of the<br /> Managerial Treaty, and that the question had<br /> been referred to Mr. Gatti and himself for dis-<br /> cussion. The secretary further reported that<br /> he had seen Mr. Gatti, and it was probable<br /> that the report would be laid before the next<br /> meeting of the sub-committee.<br /> <br /> The question of the conference to be held at<br /> the Society’s offices to discuss matters con-<br /> nected with the use of titles by film manu-<br /> facturers was mentioned to the sub-committee.<br /> Various bodies interested had consented to<br /> send delegates to the conference, and it was<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 185<br /> <br /> decided to invite the Society of West End<br /> Managers to attend, as well as a representative<br /> of the Committee of Management of the<br /> Society. The secretary was instructed also<br /> to communicate further with the Film Renters’<br /> Association. The agenda for the conference<br /> was settled in the following terms :—<br /> <br /> 1. To consider what joint action could be<br /> taken to safeguard<br /> <br /> (a) Titles.<br /> (b) Subject matter.<br /> <br /> 2. The appointment of a joint board to pro-<br /> tect the common interests of authors, manu-<br /> facturers, and the film trade generally.<br /> <br /> The secretary was instructed to send the<br /> agenda round to all the bodies which had<br /> signified their intention to be present.<br /> <br /> A cable from the Society’s American agent<br /> dealing with film rights was read to the sub-<br /> committee, and Mr. Cecil Raleigh reported on<br /> transactions which the agent had already<br /> carried through on his behalf. It was decided,<br /> as soon as Mr. Jordan arrived in England, to<br /> call a special meeting of the Dramatic Sub-<br /> Committee with a view to a discussion on the<br /> sale of cinema rights, as Mr. Jordan had<br /> stated that he had some important information<br /> to lay before the sub-committee.<br /> <br /> Mr. Raleigh then reported the action of the<br /> Society in regard to ‘Sealed Orders,’”’ and<br /> stated that the Society had obtained an<br /> injunction on his behalf, and, at the same time,<br /> a payment from the defendants towards the<br /> costs. Mr. Raleigh expressed his thanks to<br /> the Society for its assistance.<br /> <br /> A proposal to raise a fighting fund for sup-<br /> port of dramatic cases was carefully considered.<br /> It seemed clear that there were so many issues<br /> to be considered that it would be necessary to<br /> appoint a sub-committee for the purpose.<br /> <br /> Mr. Shaw, Mr. Raleigh and Mr. Chambers<br /> consented to serve. It was decided to have a<br /> meeting as early in May as possible.<br /> <br /> As the matters before the sub-committee<br /> had taken a considerable time to discuss it was<br /> decided to adjourn the general discussion on<br /> agents to another meeting.<br /> <br /> The Society’s representative who was to<br /> attend the Cinematograph Conference in Paris<br /> regretted he had been unable to do so.<br /> <br /> Two cases were then considered.<br /> <br /> The first was in relation to a contract<br /> carried through by the Society’s agent in<br /> Holland. The sub-committee instructed the<br /> secretary to write to the member concerned to<br /> the effect that it was important that action<br /> should betaken, andtothechairmanofthe Com-<br /> mittee of Management to get their sanction,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 186<br /> <br /> subject to the member’s consent to action<br /> being taken. o<br /> <br /> Another question arising out of a dispute<br /> on accounts was discussed. On_ the facts<br /> before them, the sub-committee did not con-<br /> sider that, at the present time, it was necessary<br /> to appoint an accountant to investigate the<br /> accounts.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> Composers’ SuB-COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> Tur Composers’ Sub-Committee met at the<br /> offices of the Society on Saturday, March 14,<br /> at eleven o’clock. After the minutes of the<br /> previous mecting had been signed, the secre-<br /> tary read counsel’s opinion that had been<br /> obtained, with the sanction of the Committee<br /> of Management, on a question arising under<br /> section 19 (7) (c) of the Copyright Act, 1911.<br /> The question related to rights assigned to<br /> publishers before the passing of the Act of<br /> 1911. The opinion, which was obtained from<br /> Mr. E. J. MacGillivray, was a very interesting<br /> one.<br /> <br /> The next question dealt with the matter of<br /> publishers’ contracts. The secretary reported<br /> that he had received no answer to two letters<br /> he had written to the Music Publishers’<br /> Association. He was instructed to write again<br /> and to press for a reply.<br /> <br /> The secretary then drew the attention of the<br /> sub-committee to the fact that Messrs.<br /> Chappell &amp; Co. were now manufacturing<br /> mechanical instrument contrivances, and put<br /> forward the suggestion that, as they were<br /> making a profit as manufacturers of these<br /> contrivances, they might not now think it<br /> necessary to share in the composers’ fees.<br /> <br /> The sub-committee then discussed the<br /> question of publishers’ accounts. The secre-<br /> tary explained the difficulties, both financial<br /> and other, of putting in a chartered accountant<br /> to check the accounts regularly. The sub-<br /> committee were agreed that if any concrete<br /> case came before them where the accounts<br /> appeared to be inaccurate, they would advise<br /> the Committee of Management to place in an<br /> accountant. The matter was adjourned to<br /> the next meeting for further consideration.<br /> <br /> —_+——<br /> <br /> Tue Pension FunNpD COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund Committee met at the<br /> offices of the Society on Tuesday, March 3.<br /> <br /> After reading the minutes of the last<br /> meeting the secretary made a full report of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> the position of the fund. He stated that the<br /> trustees had invested the sum of £350 in the<br /> purchase of Great Eastern Railway Ordinary<br /> Shares, and that, after consideration of the<br /> income of the fund, had declared to the<br /> committee that a further sum of £40 could be<br /> used for pensions.<br /> <br /> The committee formally approved the in-<br /> vestments of the trustees for 1913 and 1914.<br /> <br /> The secretary then reported that Mrs.<br /> Francis Marshall, who is at present receiving<br /> a pension from the Society, had applied for<br /> an increase. After due consideration, and<br /> subject to certain conditions, the committee<br /> decided to increase the pension by an amount<br /> of £15 per annum, bringing the total pension<br /> up to £40 per annum.<br /> <br /> — a<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> DurineG the last month the secretary has<br /> been very busy with cases coming into the<br /> office and, in addition to matters which it has<br /> been necessary to place in the hands of the<br /> solicitors of the Society when immediate legal<br /> action was imperative, has dealt with twenty-<br /> two cases. They may be catalogued as<br /> follows :—<br /> <br /> 8 claims for the return of MSS. ;<br /> <br /> 6 claims for money ;<br /> <br /> 3 claims for accounts and money ;<br /> <br /> 2 disputes on agreements ;<br /> <br /> 1 claim for infringement of copyright ;<br /> 1 claim for literary libel ;<br /> <br /> 1 claim for account.<br /> <br /> Of the six claims for money, one has been<br /> placed into the hands of the Canadian lawyers<br /> and one has been placed in the hands of the<br /> London lawyers. One will be placed in the<br /> hands of the London lawyers in the course of<br /> a few days, as no response whatever has been<br /> made to the secretary’s letters. One case has<br /> been completed and the money has been paid.<br /> Of the two remaining cases, one has only<br /> recently come to the office, and one lies in the<br /> United States.<br /> <br /> The claims for MSS. have been heavy. They<br /> are always difficult to deal with. In only one<br /> case has the MS. been collected. In one no<br /> answer has been given to the secretary’s letter,<br /> and it will most probably have to be placed in<br /> the hands of the Society’s solicitors. In two<br /> other cases the persons communicated with<br /> have promised to make a diligent search and<br /> write again. In two of the remaining no<br /> answer has been given, and it is very probable<br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> from the facts before the secretary that the<br /> address of the delinquents being incorrect, it<br /> will be impossible to obtain any satisfactory<br /> reply. The last two have only recently come<br /> to the office.<br /> <br /> There have been three claims for accounts<br /> and money. Two of these are against one<br /> publisher. The cases against the firm are<br /> adding up so rapidly that it may be necessary<br /> to place them into the hands of the Society’s<br /> solicitors after conferring with the committee.<br /> A letter in reply is still wanting in the third<br /> case, but the letter of demand has only just<br /> been written.<br /> <br /> In two eases of disputes on agreements, one<br /> has been settled and one is still in the course of<br /> negotiation.<br /> <br /> One claim on infringement of copyright has<br /> been settled.<br /> <br /> One case of literary libel has been placed in<br /> the hands of the Society’s solicitors. In a<br /> demand for an account, the publisher has<br /> written and promised to render it as soon as he<br /> can get it out.<br /> <br /> The settlement of these cases has so far not<br /> been very satisfactory, but it is hoped that in<br /> the May number it will be possible to report<br /> that they have been terminated.<br /> <br /> The disputes still outstanding from former<br /> months have practically all been settled,<br /> except those that are in foreign countries,<br /> or those which necessarily need lengthy<br /> negotiations.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> March Elections.<br /> Comtesse Irma Adel- Villa Riviera, Wies-<br /> mann. baden.<br /> <br /> Miss E. M. Evors<br /> Harold J. Flowers<br /> <br /> Hugo William Koch,<br /> (“ Hugo W.’’).<br /> <br /> F. Beverley Lanyon,<br /> (of. B.L.”’).<br /> <br /> George Morrow .<br /> <br /> Miss Emily Newling<br /> <br /> Eille Norwood<br /> <br /> Ivor Novello<br /> <br /> Mary O’Conor-Eccles<br /> <br /> Miss Muriel O’Conor<br /> <br /> Miss Nancy Margaret<br /> Paul.<br /> <br /> Marshall O. Roberts<br /> F. J. St. Aubyn .<br /> <br /> Hugh Stokes<br /> <br /> Isabel Thorne . -<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 187<br /> <br /> Lyceum Club,<br /> Piccadilly, W.<br /> Seagrave Rectory,<br /> Loughborough.<br /> 44, Doughty Street.<br /> London, W.C.<br /> Evelyns, Hillingdon,<br /> Uxbridge.<br /> <br /> 15, Penrith Road,<br /> Keswick.<br /> <br /> Little Marlow.<br /> <br /> Hotel Russell, Dub-<br /> lin.<br /> <br /> 30, Chester Street,<br /> Grosvenor Place,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> Hazel Rough, Hart-<br /> field, Sussex.<br /> <br /> Easton, Grantham.<br /> <br /> Lamb Building,<br /> Middle Temple,<br /> E.C.<br /> <br /> 77, Welbeck Street,<br /> Cavendish Square,<br /> W.<br /> <br /> Burleigh, Tudor<br /> Road, Upper Nor-<br /> wood, S.E.<br /> <br /> ee ee<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A F, Britten Austin<br /> <br /> 1, Northgate End,<br /> <br /> i Basil Dean<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Bishops Stortford,<br /> Herts.<br /> <br /> c/o. Cox &amp; Co., 16,<br /> Charing Cross,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> 19, Albany<br /> Ealing.<br /> Penrith New School,<br /> Long Lane, Finch-<br /> <br /> ley, N.<br /> <br /> Lt. ©.<br /> <br /> low.<br /> <br /> A. L. Brown-<br /> <br /> The Rev.<br /> chanan.<br /> Miss Frances N. Creaton<br /> <br /> E. S. Bu- Road,<br /> <br /> “* Custos” .<br /> <br /> 10, Abbey Court,<br /> Abbey Road, N.W.<br /> <br /> The Cobbles, Wal-<br /> ton - on - the - Hill,<br /> Surrey.<br /> <br /> 6, Portsdown Road,<br /> W.<br /> <br /> 5, Fetter Lane, E.C.<br /> <br /> Oscar F. Dowson<br /> <br /> Jack Edwards .<br /> <br /> David Delta Evans,<br /> (‘‘ Dewi Hiraddug ’’).<br /> <br /> While every effort is made by the compilers to keep<br /> this list as accurate and exhaustive as possible, they have<br /> some difficulty in attaining this object owing to the fact<br /> that many of the books mentioned are not sent to the office<br /> by the members, In consequence, it is necessary to rely<br /> largely upon lists of books which appear in literary and<br /> other papers. It is hoped, however, that members will<br /> co-operate in the compiling of this list, and, by sending<br /> particulars of their works, help to make it substantially<br /> accurate.<br /> <br /> ARCHAOLOGY.<br /> <br /> DESCRIPTION OF THE TEST SPECIMEN OF THE RostRo-<br /> Cartnate INDUSTRY FOUND BrneatH THE NorwicH<br /> Crac. By Sir Ray Lanxester, K.C.B. (Occasional<br /> Papers, No. 4.) 11 x 74. 18 pp. Three Plates. The<br /> Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and<br /> Treland.<br /> <br /> ARCHITECTURE.<br /> <br /> A Snort Account of GREAT MALVERNE PRioRY CHURCH.<br /> A History of the Monastery and Description of the<br /> Fabric. By the Rev. AnTrHony CHARLES Drannz,<br /> Vicar of Hampstead, sometime Vicar of Malvern. 74 x<br /> 5. 100 pp. (Bell’s Cathedral Series.) Bell. 1s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 188<br /> <br /> GREEK SCULPTURE AN<br /> delivered to the Stu<br /> <br /> London. By Sir CHARLES<br /> <br /> 5}.<br /> Press.<br /> Our Lapy<br /> 208 pp. Arrowsmith. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> REMARKABLE WoMEN oF F<br /> ~.-CoL. ANDREW<br /> 353 pp. Stanley Paul.<br /> Lir—E AND WRITINGS.<br /> Constable, Is. n.<br /> <br /> A Personal Study of James<br /> <br /> By Liev<br /> 9 x 5}.<br /> ToLsToy,<br /> GaRNETT.<br /> On THE LEFT oF A THRONE.<br /> Duke of Monmouth. By Mrs. Evan NEPEAN.<br /> Tilustrations.<br /> CHILDREN oF THE DEap Enp.<br /> By Patrick MAcGILL.<br /> Tue SECRET OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE.<br /> Reminiscences of the Real Monsieur and Madame Heger.<br /> By Frepertka Macpona.p, D.Litt. 73 x 5}. 263 pp.<br /> Jack.<br /> Lives AND LeGEenps or EneuisH Sarsts. By L. M.<br /> Methuen. 6s. n. 5<br /> By Henry James. 9} 7k x 5. 404 pp. Putnam. 6s.<br /> <br /> Navvy.<br /> <br /> SHORTT.<br /> Nores or A SON AND BROTHER.<br /> <br /> x 53%. 479 pp. Macmillan.<br /> <br /> A Gure to HistoricaL FICTION.<br /> D.Litt.<br /> <br /> Five Puays.<br /> Grant Richards.<br /> <br /> p MoprERN ABT. ;<br /> poole gory 4 aoe ay 304 pp. Ward, Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> Conbud e University REBECCA OF THE Fetts. By Heten H. Warson.<br /> i 8 8 x 5}. 388 pp. Religious Tract Society.<br /> <br /> RANCE FROM 1431 To 1749.<br /> Haaa@arp, D.§.0.<br /> 16s. ‘n.<br /> <br /> By Lorp Dunsany.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> A Girt rrom Mexico. By R. B. TownsHenp. 7} x 5.<br /> ; 314 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> Two lectures tyre Cason HONEYMOON. By Heapon Hitt. 7} x 5.<br /> <br /> THe Motor Maip. By C. N. and A. M. Witxramson.<br /> <br /> 4 r Forniss. 7 X 43. : :<br /> By Haray Fuenis 2 309 pp. Tur Man rrom Curpin’s River, on WHERE<br /> <br /> MEN aRE Mapr. By D. Mactan. (Cheap Reprints.)<br /> 7i x 4}. 280 pp. Hodderand Stoughton. 1s. n. each.<br /> Tur Para to Honour. By Sypney C. Grier. (Cheap<br /> Reprint.) 74 x 5. 329 pp. Blackwood. 1s. n,<br /> Tur Lapy Next Door. By Haroxtp Becsiz. 74 x 5.<br /> 160 pp. Popular Edition. Hodderand Stoughton. 1s. n.<br /> THE QUEEN’S QuarR. 384pp. OpENCounTRY. 256 pp.<br /> RicHaRD YEA-AND-Nay. 256 pp. Lirrte Nove.s oF<br /> <br /> By Epwarp<br /> <br /> 36 Ivary. 256 pp. THe Hatr-Way House. 256 pp.<br /> Lane. 10s. 6d. n. All by Mauricz Hewett. (New Sevenpenny Series.)<br /> The Autobiography of a 64 x 44. Macmillan.<br /> <br /> 7% x 5. Jenkins. 6s. THE ULSTERMAN. _AStory of To-day. By F. FRankrort<br /> Followed by Some Moorr. 7? x 5. 323 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> Time anp Tuomas Waring. By Moruey Roserts.<br /> 7k x 5. 365 pp. Nash. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue PripE oF THE Fancy. By G. Epear. 74 x 5}.<br /> 386 pp. Mills and Boon. 6s.<br /> <br /> CarMEN AND Mr. Dryaspust. By Humrrey JoRDAN.<br /> <br /> Tue Frourrs or tHe Morrow. By AGNES JACOMB.<br /> 72 x 5. 319 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Two Women. By Max Pempertron. 72 x 5. 314 pp.<br /> By E. A. Baker. Methuen. 6s.<br /> Routledge. 2ls.n, A Heater Mixture. By Morice Gurarp. 7} X 5.<br /> <br /> 319 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> Pua@se Maroon. By Mary F. Rapuarr. 7} X 5.<br /> <br /> 7% x 5. 111 pp. 317 pp. Heath, Cranton, and Ouseley. 6s.<br /> <br /> SunsHine. The Story of a Pure Heart. By Mary<br /> OprensHaw. 7} X 5. 318 pp. Heath, Cranton and<br /> <br /> EDUCATIONAL. : :<br /> <br /> Tur Scnootmaster. A Commentary upon the Aimsand ,, Ouseley. 6s. . g<br /> <br /> Methods of an Assistant-Master in a Public School, GtBERT Ray. By Mrs. E, Hucues-Gins. 7} x 95.<br /> By A. ©. Benson. Third Edition. 7} x 5. 173 pp. 331 pp. Heath, Cranton and Ouseley. 65. _<br /> <br /> Murray. Gorxe Some. A Romance of Strenuous Affection. By<br /> <br /> , Rex Beacu. 256 pp. THe Aurar Stairs. By G. B.<br /> <br /> Tae Brasts, Brrps AND BreEs or Vinci: A NATURALIST’S<br /> HANDBOOK TO THE GEORGICS.<br /> Royps, M.A., B.D.<br /> Fowuer, Oxford.<br /> <br /> JEHHANE OF THE ForEST.<br /> 315 pp. Melrose.<br /> Ir Witt se Att Rieu.<br /> 336 pp. Hutchinson.<br /> Tue Sea Caprain.<br /> Methuen.<br /> SHREWSBURY.<br /> Tar Granp Basyton Horst.<br /> Running WATER.<br /> 320 pp. THe WHEELS OF CHANCE.<br /> Brug Lagoon.<br /> <br /> 287 pp.<br /> 297<br /> <br /> PoTTEeR AND CLAY.<br /> <br /> Biackiaw. By Sr Georce MAxKGILy.<br /> <br /> ‘THE BRIDGE.<br /> Fisher Unwin.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> By Tuomas FLETCHER<br /> With a Preface by W. WarDE<br /> 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> By H. C. Batvey.<br /> <br /> By Stantey WEYMAN.<br /> By Arnotp Brennerr. THe Cuckoo Lams. By H. W. C. Newre. 7} x 5.<br /> By A. E. W. Mason. 402 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> By H. B. Marriorr WATSON.<br /> <br /> By Marx Somers.<br /> <br /> Lancaster. 324 pp. THE Man on THE Box. By<br /> H. MaceratH. 231 pp. (Shilling Library.) 74 x 44.<br /> Hodder and Stoughton. Is. n. each.<br /> <br /> Tur Grass Wipow. By DorotHEa GERARD. 318 pp.<br /> Toe Grau In Grey. By Curtis York. 318 pp.<br /> <br /> By L. A. Taupor. 7} x 5. Sevenpenny Editions. J. Long.<br /> Tur TRAIL OF THE Sworp. By Sir Gitpert Parker.<br /> By Tom Gatton. 7} X 5. 256 pp. Monrezuma’s Davucuter. By H. RipEr<br /> Haccarp. 320 pp. (Cheap Reprints.) 6} x 44.<br /> 7% x 5. 341 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 7d. n. each.<br /> Tue Enp or Her Honeymoon. By Mrs. BELLoo<br /> 356 pp. Lownpes. 7} xX 5. 309 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> By H. G. Wetts. An Assent HeERo. By Mrs. Frep ReyNorps. Tk x 44.<br /> <br /> By H. pre VERE Mills and Boon. 6s.<br /> <br /> 260 pp. THE Proressor’s Legacy. By Ir Was THE Time or Rosrs. By Dorr WYLLARDE.<br /> Mrs. ALFRED SIDGWICK.<br /> Library.)<br /> <br /> Tue Fork or Furry Farm.<br /> 315 pp.<br /> <br /> Once Upon A Timez.<br /> <br /> (The Wayfarer’s 7h x 43. 274 pp. Holden and Hardingham. 6s.<br /> <br /> ls. n. each. Tue Epucation or Otiver Hypr. By R. E. SaLwey.<br /> By K. F. Purpon. 7} x 5. 73 x 5. 288 pp... Digby Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> Frivote. By Kate Horn. 7} x 4}. 296 pp. Stanley<br /> Paul. 6s.<br /> Farner O’Fiynn. By H.pe Vern Sracroore. 7} x 4}.<br /> <br /> 7h x<br /> By Mrs. StanLey WRENCH. 7} X 5. 245 pp. Hutchinson. Is. n.<br /> <br /> ; Tur AMAZING PARTNERSHIP. By E. Puiiiips OPPENHEIM.<br /> 74x 5. 483 pp. 72 x 5. 312 pp. Cassell. 3s. 6d.<br /> Tun Essex Papers. By C. E. Pru.<br /> 7kx 5. 352 pp. A Free Hanp. By Heren C. Ropurts. 74 X 43.<br /> 322 pp. Duckworth. 6s.<br /> <br /> <br /> &#039;<br /> i<br /> i<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 189<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> <br /> An ENGLISHMAN Looks aT THE WoRLD. By H. G. WELLS.<br /> 8} x 54. 357 pp. Cassell. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> THs Derenpant. By G. K. Caesrerron. (The Way-<br /> farer’s Library.) 7 x 43. 172 pp. Dent. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> THE TRUTH ABOUT AN AuTHOR. By ARNOLD BENNETT.<br /> 62 x 44. 158 pp. Methuen. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> MILITARY.<br /> <br /> With tHe Turk in Wartime. By Marmaduke PIcK-<br /> THALL. § x 54. 216 pp. Dent. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> MUSIC.<br /> <br /> BuLuEBEARD. A Musical Fantasy. By Kate Dovcias<br /> Wiccin. 7 xX 4}. 58 pp. Harper. 2s. n.<br /> <br /> ORIENTAL.<br /> <br /> Tue Earty DEVELOPMENT oF MoHAMMEDANISM. Lec-<br /> tures delivered in the University of London, May and<br /> June, 1913. By D. Marcorrouts, D.Litt., Laudian<br /> Professor of Arabic in the University of Oxford. (The<br /> Hibbert Lectures, Second Series.) 83 x 5}. 265 pp.<br /> Williams and Norgate. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> PAMPHLETS.<br /> <br /> Immunity oF Sra-BorNE CoMMERCE FROM CapTuRE. By<br /> M. Pures Price. National Peace Council. 1d.<br /> <br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> Darts oF Derrance. Sonnets and other Poems. By<br /> B.A. Mtecn. 7} 5. 110 pp. Lynwood. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> POLITICS.<br /> <br /> Home Rute anp Crviz War. An Appeal to the British<br /> People. By Esmé WINGFIELD-StRaTFoRD. 7} x 4}.<br /> 120 pp. Bell. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> REPRINTS.<br /> <br /> A Cuancep Man. Tue Waitinc Supper, &amp;c. By<br /> Tuomas Harpy. Wessex Edition, Vol. XVIII. 9 x 53.<br /> 399 pp. Macmillan. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Views AND Reviews. Essays in Appreciation. By<br /> W. E. Henvey. Literature. 7 x 44. 235 pp. Third<br /> Edition. Nutt. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> SCIENCE.<br /> Wrretess TeLtecrapHy. A Handbook for the Use of<br /> <br /> Operatorsand Students. By W.H.Marcuant. 74 x 5.<br /> 241 pp. Whittaker. 5s. n.<br /> SOCIOLOGY.<br /> <br /> Lup Makers AND CLUB Members. By T. H.S. Escort.<br /> 9 x 53. 352 pp. Fisher Unwin. 12s. n.<br /> <br /> Waite Suaves or Tom. By W. N. Wiis. 7} x 5.<br /> 208 pp. Pearson. Is. n.<br /> <br /> Lire-THEORY AND SocraLism. Essays by O. C. Ironsipe.<br /> 7 x 43. 96 pp. Milner. 6d.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> Some Counssts or S. Vincent De Pau, to which is<br /> appended the Thoughts of Mademoiselle le Gras (First<br /> Superior of the Sisters of Charity). Translated and<br /> selected by E. K. Sanpers. 7 x 4}. 144 pp. Heath,<br /> Cranton, and Ouseley. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> JUDAISM AND St. Paut. Two Essays. By C. G. Monre-<br /> FIORE. 74 x 5. 240 pp. Max Goschen. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> THe Cuurcu RevivaL. Thoughts Thereon and Reminis-<br /> cences. By.S. Barina Govunp. 9 x 5}. 407 pp.<br /> <br /> Methuen. 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Tue Winps or Dawn AnD OTHER PARABLES FROM NATURE.<br /> By T. Rarcrirre Barnerr. 7} x 5. 87 pp. Nisbet.<br /> 2s. n.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> Catro or To-Day. A Practical Guide to Cairo and<br /> the Nile. By E. Reynoups-Batu. Seventh Edition.<br /> 6} x 44. 268 pp. Black. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Tue Istes or Scrtty: Terr Story, THEIR FotK, AND<br /> THEIR FLowers. With 24 coloured illustrations by<br /> Jessie MorHersoue. Published by R.T.S. at 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Se ee<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> = ‘OTES of a Son and Brother” is the<br /> <br /> title of Mr. Henry James’s sequel to<br /> <br /> ““A Small Boy and Others”; a<br /> continuation of his early reminiscences, with<br /> special reference to his father and to William<br /> James, but containing many portraits of other<br /> members of the family and the circle. The<br /> book is published by Macmillan &amp; Co. at 12s.<br /> <br /> Volumes XIII. and XIV. of the Bombay<br /> edition of Mr. Rudyard Kipling’s works are to<br /> be published this month by Macmillan. They<br /> will contain “ The Day’s Work ”’ and “ Stalky<br /> &amp; Co.”<br /> <br /> From the same firm of publishers there is to<br /> be expected, in May, Mr. H. G. Wells’s work,<br /> which is running scrially in the English Review<br /> —‘‘ The World Set Free, a Story of Mankind.”<br /> <br /> The title of Mr. Frankfort Moore’s new book<br /> —‘* The Ulsterman ’’—indicates its relation to<br /> the question of the hour. Though in the guise<br /> of fiction, it presents a serious portrait of the<br /> men who have now the eyes of the world upon<br /> them (Hutchinson &amp; Co.).<br /> <br /> Mr. Douglas Sladen’s ‘“‘ Twenty Years of<br /> My Life ’’ is announced by Constable &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> The subject of Mrs. Evan Nepean’s ‘* On the<br /> Left of the Throne”’ is the unhappy James,<br /> Duke of Monmouth, whom the author tries to<br /> see “through the eyes of the two people who<br /> knew and loved him better than anyone else<br /> in the world, Charles II. and Henrietta Lady<br /> Wentworth,” though without idealising him.<br /> A feature of the book is the very large number<br /> of Monmouth portraits which illustrate it,<br /> Mrs. Nepean frankly confessing her pleasure<br /> in his good looks (John Lane, 10s. 6d. net).<br /> <br /> “Children of the Dead End, the Auto-<br /> biography of a Navvy” is by Mr. Patrick<br /> MacGill, who in a foreword says that most of<br /> his story is autobiographical, but asks a little<br /> allowance for the pen of the novelist. Ireland<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 190<br /> <br /> and Scotland provide the scene of the greater<br /> part of the book, there is a short interlude in<br /> Fleet Street, and the story ends tragically in<br /> Glasgow (Herbert Jenkins). : (<br /> <br /> “Ravenna” is a geographical, historical,<br /> and critical study of the great Italian city<br /> which the author, Mr. Edward Hutton, calls<br /> the only remaining monument of the Dark<br /> Age—the period between Antiquity and the<br /> Middle Age (Dent, 10s. 6d. net). :<br /> <br /> Mr. Ernest A. Baker’s ‘‘ Guide to Historical<br /> Fiction” (Routledge, 21s. net) follows the lines<br /> of his ‘‘ Guide to the Best Fiction in English,”<br /> and is much more than an enlargement of his<br /> earlier ‘‘ History in Fiction,” we are told.<br /> <br /> The second section of Dr. Edwin A. Abbott’s<br /> work, ‘‘ The Fourfold Gospel,”’ has been issued<br /> by the Cambridge University Press at 12s. 6d.<br /> net. It is part of the close and voluminous<br /> examination of the text of the Christian<br /> Gospels and its interpretation, on which Dr.<br /> Abbott has long been engaged.<br /> <br /> Dr. Charles Sarolea is the editor of the<br /> Collection Gallia” (Dent &amp; Sons), the object<br /> of which is to spread the best French literature<br /> at a low price throughout the world. The first<br /> volumes include works by Balzac, Flaubert,<br /> Pascal, de Musset, etc.<br /> <br /> To the volume ‘‘ With Hunter, Trapper and<br /> Scout in Camp and Field”’ a story entitled<br /> “War Scouts at Tripoli” is contributed by<br /> Miss Ena Fitzgerald (Holden and Hardingham,<br /> 5s. net).<br /> <br /> ‘Simplified Spelling,” described as an<br /> appeal to common sense, is the third edition<br /> of a paper-covered booklet issued by the<br /> Simplified Spelling Society—as it spells itself<br /> on cover and title-page. Professor Gilbert<br /> Murray is the President—or Prezident—of the<br /> reformers.<br /> <br /> Four reprints of Miss Belham-Edwards’<br /> works have appeared within the last few<br /> months, notably that of her first novel, ‘‘ The<br /> White House by the Sea” (1857), lately<br /> republished by Baron Tauchnitz and Collins,<br /> Glasgow, and ‘“‘ The Lord of the Harvest ”<br /> (1889), added to the Oxford Press ‘‘ World’s<br /> Classics,” 1918, with a preface by Mr.<br /> Frederic Harrison.<br /> <br /> The same writer’s ‘ Pearla ’’—published<br /> simultaneously in London, Leipzig and New<br /> York (Harper) in 1881—was lately re-issued in<br /> Arrowsmith’s tasteful 1s. novel series, and<br /> the seventh and popular edition of her “* Home<br /> Life in France’ has just appeared from the<br /> house of Methuen.<br /> <br /> A new edition (among others forthcoming) of<br /> a very early novel will also be published shortly<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> This is ‘‘ Doctor Jacob,”<br /> the proofs of which were corrected by the<br /> author on the wedding day of Edward VII.<br /> and Queen Alexandra, March 10, 1868, and<br /> which was published the following year. The<br /> book went out of print with the “ yellow-<br /> backs ’’ in 1894 or thereabouts, but has since<br /> <br /> by a famous house.<br /> <br /> been often reprinted by Baron Tauchnitz. It<br /> will be seen, therefore, that this early Victorian<br /> has no reason to complain of neglect by<br /> Georgian publishers and readers.<br /> <br /> “* Acute General Miliary Tuberculosis ”’ is<br /> the name of a work by Professor G. Cornet, of<br /> Berlin and Reichenhall, translated by Mr.<br /> F. S. Tinker, late Senior Resident and Oph-<br /> thalmic Assistant to the Royal Infirmary,<br /> Liverpool (Bale, Sons, and Danielsson, 6s.<br /> net).<br /> <br /> A sevenpenny edition of Mr. Charles.<br /> Garvice’s ‘‘ Better than Life ’’ was published<br /> last month by Hodder and Stoughton.<br /> <br /> K. L. Montgomery’s forthcoming romance,<br /> ‘“* Kars of Leather,’ will be published by John.<br /> Long, Ltd. ‘‘ Ears of Leather” deals with<br /> the witch persecutions of Massachusetts in<br /> 1692, which the historian Lecky has styled<br /> “one of the tragedies of humanity.” K. L..<br /> Montgomery has been recently engaged on a<br /> series of articles on North Italian cities, for:<br /> The Car Illustrated.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Mary F. Raphael’s novel, ‘‘ Phoebe<br /> Maroon,”’ a story dealing with the life of an<br /> artist’s model, was published last month by<br /> Heath, Cranton, and Ouseley.<br /> <br /> Mrs: F. R. M. Fursdon’s novel, ‘‘ The Story<br /> of Amanda,’ will be published in May by<br /> Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent &amp; Co.<br /> The prologue gives Amanda’s peculiar parent--<br /> age; and the book, her transitions from<br /> childhood in the slums of a provincial city to<br /> life in a big country house during a General<br /> Election.<br /> <br /> Mr. G. B. Lancaster’s earlier stories of the<br /> South Seas, ‘‘ Sons 0’ Men” and ‘“‘ The Altar<br /> Stairs,” have been published in a shilling<br /> edition by Hodder and Stoughton, who are<br /> bringing out a third, “‘ The Spur,” later in the<br /> year.<br /> <br /> The new number of Poeiry and Drama,.<br /> edited by Mr. Harold Monro, includes poems<br /> by Messrs. Maurice Hewlett, Ezra Pound, etc.<br /> The Poetry Bookshop, which publishes this<br /> quarterly, has issued a shilling anthology of<br /> the Italian Futurist poets, compiled by Mr..<br /> Monro.<br /> <br /> The spring announcements of Constable &amp;.<br /> Co. include “‘ Cuddy Yarborough’s Daughter,”<br /> by Miss Ura L. Silberrad; ‘‘ Dust from the-<br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Loom,” by Mr. James Noble; and a second<br /> impression of ‘‘ The Making of an Englishman,”’<br /> by Mr. W. L. George.<br /> <br /> Miss Beatrice Chase’s Devonshire novel,<br /> **The Heart of the Moor,” has appeared with<br /> a prefatory note by the publisher, Mr. Herbert<br /> Jenkins, who explains how not only his four<br /> expert readers, but he himself, were compelled<br /> to defer their opinions to the author’s with<br /> regard to the book.<br /> <br /> Miss Jean Middlemass’s new serial, ‘‘ His<br /> Lordship’s Will,” is to appear in the news-<br /> papers connected with the National Press<br /> Agency next year.<br /> <br /> K. M. Edge (Mrs. Caulfield) has published<br /> her novel “Through the Cloudy Porch”<br /> through John Murray.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Helen H. Watson’s ‘‘ Rebecca of the<br /> Fells,’’ published by the Religious Tract<br /> Society, opens on the Lancashire Fells, whence<br /> the reader is taken to British Columbia. The<br /> same author’s “* When the King Came South,”’<br /> is being added to the Leisure Hour Monthly<br /> Library (6d.).<br /> <br /> Mr. Edward Wilmore, author of ‘“ East<br /> London Visions,’’ has a new book, ‘‘ Scril, a<br /> Story of the Stone Age ” (Longmans, Green &amp;<br /> Co., 1s.).<br /> <br /> ‘** Miss Rossiter’s Reputation,”’ being an ex-<br /> posure of the narrowness and bigotry of<br /> English provincial life, by Mr. E. Newton<br /> Bungay, is to be published next month by<br /> Lynwood &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Haslette, who has a serial running<br /> in the Daily News, has written a novel, which<br /> will be published this spring by Messrs. Smith,<br /> Elder &amp; Co. The title is ‘‘ Johnnie Maddison,”’<br /> and the story deals with a man’s struggle<br /> against the convention which holds that a<br /> man should not “ tell on ”’ a friend.<br /> <br /> Mrs. R. E. Salwey’s new novel is the story<br /> of a youngster, well placed in life, and en-<br /> dowed with great physical strength, who<br /> puts his instructors to flight by intimidation.<br /> Eventually the right man takes him the right<br /> way. The education lasts one day; after<br /> that it is self-education, and the real goodness<br /> of the hero’s nature comes out (Digby, Long &amp;<br /> Co., 6s.).<br /> <br /> A new novel, entitled ‘“‘ Megan of the Dark<br /> Isle,” by Mrs. J. O. Arnold, author of ‘‘ The<br /> Fiddler,” ete., will shortly be published by<br /> Alston Rivers. The scene is laid in the Island<br /> of Anglesey.<br /> <br /> Early this month is to be published a<br /> monthly magazine, The Photo-Play Writer,<br /> aiming to give practical information to both<br /> beginners and experts in the rapidly increasing<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 191<br /> <br /> body of British authors writing plays for the<br /> picture theatres. The editor is Mr. Ernest A.<br /> Dench, and the magazine may be obtained<br /> from 17, Frederick Crescent, Brixton, by<br /> subscription only.<br /> <br /> A new (acting) version of I. Hearne’s play<br /> “Queen Herzeleid,’’ is being published this<br /> month under the title of “The Mother of<br /> Parsifal ”’ (David Nutt).<br /> <br /> There will be a long Elizabethan poem by<br /> Dorothy Margaret Stuart in the May Pall<br /> Mall Magazine, entitled “Spring in the South<br /> Seas, 1572.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Methuen are publishing early in<br /> April a sezies of letters written by Miss Grace<br /> Ellison, and entitled ‘‘Life in a Turkish<br /> Harem.”<br /> <br /> DRAMATIC.<br /> <br /> ** The Quod Wrangle,”’ a farcical comedy by<br /> Mr. Oliphant Down, was presented at the<br /> Apollo Theatre on March 38.<br /> <br /> Mr. Seymour Hicks’s one-act musical play,<br /> ‘*The Model and the Man” was put on as<br /> curtain-raiser at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre<br /> on March 4.<br /> <br /> The first performance of Mr. Alfred Sutro’s<br /> new comedy, “‘ The Two Virtues,” took place<br /> at the St. James’s Theatre on March 5.<br /> <br /> On March 10 Mr. Edward Knoblauch’s<br /> ** ¥ismet ”’ was revived at the Globe Theatre.<br /> <br /> ‘* After Twenty Years,’’ a short sketch by<br /> Miss Cicely Hamilton, was seen at the Coronet<br /> Theatre on March 12, the author herself taking<br /> the part of the mother.<br /> <br /> Two afternoon performances took place at<br /> the Court Theatre on March 27 and 80 of a<br /> play founded by Mr. H. J. Twyford on Mrs.<br /> Charlotte Mansfield’s ‘“* The Girl ana the Gods.”<br /> <br /> ‘* Helen with the High Hand,” Mr. Richard<br /> Price’s adaptation of Mr. Arnold Bennett’s<br /> novel, was visited last month by the celebrated<br /> ‘* deportes ’’ from South Africa.<br /> <br /> Mr. Bernard Shaw’s ‘‘ Pygmalion” is in<br /> rehearsal at His Majesty’s Theatre, and the<br /> first night is fixed for the 11th instant.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Percy Dearmer’s “‘ Brer Rabbit: a<br /> Musical Frolic ”’ is to be seen at five matinées<br /> at the Little Theatre, commencing on Easter<br /> Monday.<br /> <br /> Sir Edward Elgar will this summer lay the<br /> foundation stone of the Glastonbury Festival<br /> Playhouse, which is to be built primarily for<br /> British music-drama, including the Arthurian<br /> eycle, composed and written by Messrs.<br /> Reginald R. Buckley and Rutland Boughton.<br /> <br /> ‘** Caprice ’’ by Mrs. V. C. Greenaway is the<br /> title of a one-act play which was produced by<br /> <br /> <br /> 190<br /> <br /> and Scotland provide the scene of the greater<br /> part of the book, there is a short interlude in<br /> Fleet Street, and the story ends tragically in<br /> Glasgow (Herbert Jenkins). :<br /> <br /> “Ravenna” is a geographical, historical,<br /> and critical study of the great Italian city<br /> which the author, Mr. Edward Hutton, calls<br /> the only remaining monument of the Dark<br /> Age—the period between Antiquity and the<br /> Middle Age (Dent, 10s. 6d. net).<br /> <br /> Mr. Ernest A. Baker’s ‘‘ Guide to Historical<br /> Fiction ” (Routledge, 21s. net) follows the lines<br /> of his ‘‘ Guide to the Best Fiction in English,”<br /> and is much more than an enlargement of his<br /> earlier ‘‘ History in Fiction,”’ we are told.<br /> <br /> The second section of Dr. Edwin A. Abbott’s<br /> work, ‘‘ The Fourfold Gospel,” has been issued<br /> by the Cambridge University Press at 12s. 6d.<br /> net. It is part of the close and voluminous<br /> examination of the text of the Christian<br /> Gospels and its interpretation, on which Dr.<br /> Abbott has long been engaged.<br /> <br /> Dr. Charles Sarolea is the editor of the<br /> «Collection Gallia’? (Dent &amp; Sons), the object<br /> of which is to spread the best French literature<br /> at a low price throughout the world. The first<br /> volumes include works by Balzac, Flaubert,<br /> Pascal, de Musset, etc.<br /> <br /> To the volume ‘‘ With Hunter, Trapper and<br /> Scout in Camp and Field”’ a story entitled<br /> ‘‘War Scouts at Tripoli” is contributed by<br /> Miss Ena Fitzgerald (Holden and Hardingham,<br /> 5s. net).<br /> <br /> ‘Simplified Spelling,” described as an<br /> appeal to common sense, is the third edition<br /> of a paper-covered booklet issued by the<br /> Simplified Spelling Society—as it spells itself<br /> on cover and title-page. Professor Gilbert<br /> Murray is the President—or Prezident—of the<br /> reformers.<br /> <br /> Four reprints of Miss Belham-Edwards’<br /> works have appeared within the last few<br /> months, notably that of her first novel, “* The<br /> White House by the Sea” (1857), lately<br /> republished by Baron Tauchnitz and Collins,<br /> Glasgow, and ‘‘ The Lord of the Harvest ”’<br /> (1889), added to the Oxford Press ‘* World’s<br /> Classics,” 1918, with a preface by Mr.<br /> Frederic Harrison.<br /> <br /> The same writer’s ‘* Pearla ’—published<br /> simultaneously in London, Leipzig and New<br /> York (Harper) in 1881—was lately re-issued in<br /> Arrowsmith’s tasteful 1s. novel series, and<br /> the seventh and popular edition of her “‘ Home<br /> Life in France”’ has just appeared from the<br /> house of Methuen.<br /> <br /> A new edition (among others forthcoming) of<br /> a very early novel will also be published shortly<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> by a famous house. This is “‘ Doctor Jacob,”<br /> the proofs of which were corrected by the<br /> author on the wedding day of Edward VII.<br /> and Queen Alexandra, March 10, 1863, and<br /> which was published the following year. The<br /> book went out of print with the “ yellow-<br /> backs ”’ in 1894 or thereabouts, but has since<br /> been often reprinted by Baron Tauchnitz. It<br /> will be seen, therefore, that this early Victorian<br /> has no reason to complain of neglect by<br /> Georgian publishers and readers.<br /> <br /> ** Acute General Miliary Tuberculosis ”’ is<br /> the name of a work by Professor G. Cornet, of<br /> Berlin and Reichenhall, translated by Mr.<br /> F. S. Tinker, late Senior Resident and Oph-<br /> thalmic Assistant to the Royal Infirmary,<br /> Liverpool (Bale, Sons, and Danielsson, 6s.<br /> net).<br /> <br /> A sevenpenny edition of Mr. Charles.<br /> Garvice’s ‘‘ Better than Life’ was published.<br /> last month by Hodder and Stoughton.<br /> <br /> K. L. Montgomery’s forthcoming romance,<br /> ‘‘ Ears of Leather,” will be published by John.<br /> Long, Ltd. ‘‘ Ears of Leather” deals with.<br /> the witch persecutions of Massachusetts in<br /> 1692, which the historian Lecky has styled<br /> ‘‘one of the tragedies of humanity.” K. L..<br /> Montgomery has been recently engaged on a<br /> series of articles on North Italian cities, for<br /> The Car Illustrated.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Mary F. Raphael’s novel, ‘‘ Phoebe<br /> Maroon,”’ a story dealing with the life of an<br /> artist’s model, was published last month by<br /> Heath, Cranton, and Ouseley.<br /> <br /> Mrs: F. R. M. Fursdon’s novel, “* The Story&quot;<br /> of Amanda,” will be published in May by<br /> Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent &amp; Co.<br /> The prologue gives Amanda’s peculiar parent--<br /> age; and the book, her transitions from<br /> childhood in the slums of a provincial city to<br /> life in a big country house during a General<br /> Election.<br /> <br /> Mr. G. B. Lancaster’s earlier stories of the<br /> South Seas, ‘‘Sons 0’ Men” and “ The Altar<br /> Stairs,” have been published in a shilling:<br /> edition by Hodder and Stoughton, who are<br /> bringing out a third, “‘ The Spur,”’ later in the<br /> year.<br /> <br /> The new number of Poetry and Drama,.<br /> edited by Mr. Harold Monro, includes poems<br /> by Messrs. Maurice Hewlett, Ezra Pound, etc.<br /> The Poetry Bookshop, which publishes this<br /> quarterly, has issued a shilling anthology of”<br /> the Italian Futurist poets, compiled by Mr..<br /> Monro.<br /> <br /> The spring announcements of Constable &amp;:<br /> Co. include *“* Cuddy Yarborough’s Daughter,”<br /> by Miss Ura L. Silberrad; ‘‘ Dust from the-<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Loom,”’ by Mr. James Noble; and a second<br /> impression of ‘‘ The Making of an Englishman,”’<br /> by Mr. W. L. George.<br /> <br /> Miss Beatrice Chase’s Devonshire novel,<br /> “The Heart of the Moor,” has appeared with<br /> a prefatory note by the publisher, Mr. Herbert<br /> Jenkins, who explains how not only his four<br /> expert readers, but he himself, were compelled<br /> to defer their opinions to the author’s with<br /> regard to the book.<br /> <br /> Miss Jean Middlemass’s new serial, ‘‘ His<br /> Lordship’s Will,” is to appear in the news-<br /> papers connected with the National Press<br /> Agency next year.<br /> <br /> K. M. Edge (Mrs. Caulfield) has published<br /> her novel “Through the Cloudy Porch”<br /> through John Murray.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Helen H. Watson’s ‘‘ Rebecca of the<br /> Fells,’ published by the Religious Tract<br /> Society, opens on the Lancashire Fells, whence<br /> the reader is taken to British Columbia. The<br /> same author’s ‘‘ When the King Came South,”<br /> is being added to the Leisure Hour Monthly<br /> Library (6d.).<br /> <br /> Mr. Edward Wilmore, author of ‘* Kast<br /> London Visions,’’ has a new book, “ Scril, a<br /> Story of the Stone Age ’’ (Longmans, Green &amp;<br /> Co., ls.).<br /> <br /> ‘* Miss Rossiter’s Reputation,”’ being an ex-<br /> posure of the narrowness and bigotry of<br /> English provincial life, by Mr. E. Newton<br /> Bungay, is to be published next month by<br /> Lynwood &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Haslette, who has a serial running<br /> in the Daily News, has written a novel, which<br /> will be published this spring by Messrs. Smith,<br /> Elder &amp; Co. The title is ‘‘ Johnnie Maddison,”’<br /> and the story deals with a man’s struggle<br /> against the convention which holds that a<br /> man should not “ tell on ”’ a friend.<br /> <br /> Mrs. R. E. Salwey’s new novel is the story<br /> of a youngster, well placed in life, and en-<br /> dowed with great physical strength, who<br /> puts his instructors to flight by intimidation.<br /> Eventually the right man takes him the right<br /> way. The education lasts one day; after<br /> that it is self-education, and the real goodness<br /> of the hero’s nature comes out (Digby, Long &amp;<br /> Co., 6s.).<br /> <br /> A new novel, entitled ‘“‘ Megan of the Dark<br /> Isle,” by Mrs. J. O. Arnold, author of ‘‘ The<br /> Fiddler,’ etc., will shortly be published by<br /> Alston Rivers. The scene is laid in the Island<br /> of Anglesey.<br /> <br /> Early this month is to be published a<br /> monthly magazine, The Photo-Play Writer,<br /> aiming to give practical information to both<br /> beginners and experts in the rapidly increasing<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 191<br /> <br /> body of British authors writing plays for the<br /> picture theatres. The editor is Mr. Ernest A.<br /> Dench, and the magazine may be obtained<br /> from 17, Frederick Crescent, Brixton, by<br /> subscription only.<br /> <br /> A new (acting) version of I. Hearne’s play<br /> *“ Queen Herzeleid,”’ is being published this<br /> month under the title of ‘‘ The Mother of<br /> Parsifal ’’ (David Nutt).<br /> <br /> There will be a long Elizabethan poem by<br /> Dorothy Margaret Stuart in the May Pail<br /> Mall Magazine, entitled “Spring in the South<br /> Seas, 1572.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Methuen are publishing early in<br /> April a sezies of letters written by Miss Grace<br /> Ellison, and entitled ‘‘Life in a Turkish<br /> Harem.”<br /> <br /> DraMatTIc.<br /> <br /> ‘** The Quod Wrangle,”’ a farcical comedy by<br /> Mr. Oliphant Down, was presented at the<br /> Apollo Theatre on March 3.<br /> <br /> Mr. Seymour Hicks’s one-act musical play,<br /> ‘The Model and the Man” was put on as<br /> curtain-raiser at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre<br /> on March 4.<br /> <br /> The first performance of Mr. Alfred Sutro’s<br /> new comedy, “ The Two Virtues,” took place<br /> at the St. James’s Theatre on March 5.<br /> <br /> On March 10 Mr. Edward Knoblauch’s<br /> ‘** }fismet ”’ was revived at the Globe Theatre.<br /> <br /> ** After Twenty Years,’’ a short sketch by<br /> Miss Cicely Hamilton, was seen at the Coronet<br /> Theatre on March 12, the author herself taking<br /> the part of the mother.<br /> <br /> Two afternoon performances took place at<br /> the Court Theatre on March 27 and 30 of a<br /> play founded by Mr. H. J. Twyford on Mrs.<br /> Charlotte Mansfield’s ‘“* The Girl ana the Gods.”’<br /> <br /> ‘** Helen with the High Hand,” Mr. Richard<br /> Price’s adaptation of Mr. Arnold Bennett’s<br /> novel, was visited last month by the celebrated<br /> ‘* deportes ’’ from South Africa.<br /> <br /> Mr. Bernard Shaw’s ‘“ Pygmalion” is in<br /> rehearsal at His Majesty’s Theatre, and the<br /> first night is fixed for the 11th instant.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Percy Dearmer’s ‘‘ Brer Rabbit: a<br /> Musical Frolic ’’ is to be seen at five matinées<br /> at the Little Theatre, commencing on Easter<br /> Monday.<br /> <br /> Sir Edward Elgar will this summer lay the<br /> foundation stone of the Glastonbury Festival<br /> Playhouse, which is to be built primarily for<br /> British music-drama, including the Arthurian<br /> cycle, composed and written by Messrs.<br /> Reginald R. Buckley and Rutland Boughton.<br /> <br /> ‘** Caprice” by Mrs. V. C. Greenaway is the<br /> title of a one-act play which was produced by<br /> <br /> <br /> 192<br /> <br /> West End Productions, Limited, on March 11,<br /> at the London Pavilion. The play deals with<br /> the action of a young wife who leaves her cold-<br /> hearted husband for a warm-hearted lover,<br /> ‘only to discover that she loves her husband<br /> better than she had imagined, and eventually<br /> returns to him.<br /> <br /> Musica.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Curwen &amp; Sons have published<br /> “A Federal Song ” for unaccompanied chorus,<br /> written by Mr. Reginald R. Buckley and<br /> composed by Mr. Edgar L. Bainton.<br /> <br /> ‘Men of Ulster ” is the name of a new song,<br /> of which both the words and the music are by<br /> Mr. Rowland R. Gibson.<br /> <br /> —————01— &gt; o__—_<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> ras<br /> a A REVOLTE des Anges ”’ is the title<br /> of the book just published by<br /> <br /> Anatole France.<br /> <br /> its thirty-third edition.<br /> “‘Chyistianisme et Culture Féminine,” by<br /> Lucie Félix-Faure Goyau, is a volume pub-<br /> lished since the death of this author. It contains<br /> a series of chapters on various subjects and,<br /> as we are told in the preface by her husband,<br /> had Madame Goyau been spared, we should<br /> probably have had another chapter forming a<br /> general study of the subjects treated in this<br /> volume. The first five chapters are devoted<br /> to the history of Radegonde, the romantic<br /> story of the young girl who was married against<br /> her wish to Clotaire, and who, after the murder<br /> of her brother by her husband, took refuge in<br /> a convent. Madame Goyau shows us, in<br /> these chapters, the culture of convent women<br /> in the sixth century, and we see in Radegonde<br /> the earliest of the women poets of France.<br /> ‘The next ten chapters treat of the culture of<br /> women of the Middle Ages. The first French<br /> authoress was Dhuoda, Duchess of Aquitaine,<br /> who wrote a book for her sons, inspired as she<br /> was by great grief, after having her second son<br /> taken away from her by her husband and not<br /> being allowed to know by what name the child<br /> was to be called. Dhuoda died in 1843.<br /> Madame Goyau gives us many examples,<br /> showing the remarkable culture of women in<br /> the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance.<br /> The second part of this volume is devoted to<br /> the mysticism of women and, in the last<br /> chapters, we have a remarkable study of<br /> Juliane of Norwich, an English recluse of the<br /> <br /> It is already in<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> fourteenth century. The whole volume is<br /> written with that scholarly precision and<br /> conscientiousness which were always such<br /> marked features of this author’s works.<br /> Thanks to her knowledge of foreign languages,<br /> Madame Goyau was able to draw her examples<br /> from many sources. She was a great optimist<br /> and a gifted psychologist. On closing the<br /> book, one can only regret the ‘“ unwritten<br /> chapter,” which was to have united all these<br /> separate studies. a<br /> <br /> After ‘‘ Napoléonette,”’ Gyp gives us another<br /> of her historical novels: ‘‘ La Dame de Saint-<br /> Leu.” Her documentation is as fictitious as<br /> her fiction, but Gyp’s dialogue is always<br /> amusing. English readers will recognise in<br /> the Baronne de Feuchéres, the famous Sophie<br /> Dawes, that English adventuress about whom<br /> so much has been written. Napoléonette<br /> reappears in this novel, but she is now the<br /> mother of four boys. Gyp’s story begins in<br /> 1824, and her chief personage is the last of<br /> the Condés, the Duc Louis-Henri-Joseph de<br /> Bourbon, who is found dead in his room at<br /> Saint-Leu a few weeks after the July revolu-<br /> tion of 1830. It will be as well for foreign<br /> readers to remember that the book is fiction<br /> and not history.<br /> <br /> ‘““ Nous, les méres,”’ the new novel by Paul<br /> Margueritte, is a story very true to life. It is<br /> the eternal history of a devoted mother who<br /> sacrifices her whole existence to her husband<br /> and children. When, as a widow, she might<br /> expect some return from her children for her<br /> devotion to them, her daughter is with her<br /> husband in Russia, and her son and daughter -<br /> in-law expect from her the last sacrifice<br /> possible. ‘To save their honour, she sells her<br /> home and retires to a little house in the country<br /> to live out the rest of her lonely life. With all<br /> the delicacy of a clever psychologist, Paul<br /> Margueritte tells this story simply and shows<br /> us all the pathos and reality of it.<br /> <br /> “Le Monde des Aveugles,” par Pierre<br /> Villey, is a valuable addition to the Bibliotheque<br /> de Philosophie Scientifique. It is written by<br /> a man who is blind and who, in spite of this<br /> terrible affliction, pursues his studies, is<br /> extremely intellectual, and has given to the<br /> world the result of his valuable historical<br /> researches. M. Villey writes on the subject of<br /> the intelligence and the psychology of the<br /> blind man. He shows us how the other senses<br /> should be educated and rendered capable to<br /> compensate, in a certain measure, for the lack<br /> of the visual sense. The author shows us how<br /> it is possible for blind men to be interested in<br /> travel, in nature, and in all the arts except :<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> painting, so that it is quite possible for them<br /> to earn their living and to take their place in<br /> <br /> “the world. The book is extremely interesting<br /> <br /> and should be widely read.<br /> <br /> “‘Le Bourgeois aux champs,” by M. Bricux,<br /> is being played at the Odéon. A retired<br /> barrister, who is a Socialist, buys an estate<br /> and endeavours to introduce new ideas in the<br /> country. The villagers have very little faith<br /> in his innovations. Disappointed on every<br /> side, the would-be Socialist decides to enter<br /> Parliament. M. Brieux expresses, by his<br /> various personages, his opinions on the political<br /> and social problems of our times.<br /> <br /> The ‘‘ Little English Theatre ’’ is mecting<br /> with great appreciation here, and Mr. Philip<br /> Carr may be congratulated on his venture.<br /> Two of Synge’s plays and one_ of Bernard<br /> Shaw’s drew a large public. M. Poincaré<br /> requested that a box might be reserved for<br /> him, the American Ambassador and his family<br /> occupied another one, and the Dowager<br /> Duchess d’Uzés a third. Among those present<br /> were Monsicur and Madame Boutroux, the<br /> Marquise de Ségur and many notabilities of<br /> the French literary world.<br /> <br /> Axrys HAaiarp.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “La Révolte des Anges”? (Calmann-Levy).<br /> “ Christianisme et Culture Féminine” (Perrin).<br /> “ Napoléonette” (Calmann-Levy).<br /> “ Nous, les méres” (Plon).<br /> “Le Monde des Aveugles” (Flammarion).<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —__—_+—_&gt;_+____—__-<br /> <br /> PUBLISHERS’ METHODS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> DEFERRED ROYALTIES.<br /> <br /> N the early days of the Society it was by no<br /> means an uncommon practice for publishers<br /> to purchase authors’ works outright for a lump<br /> <br /> sum. Indeed, the practice, though less prevalent<br /> than it once was, still obtains, especially in con-<br /> nection with a certain class of book—notably<br /> children’s. It is not a method of publication to<br /> which any author should assent, first, because it<br /> is almost impossible for him to estimate the value<br /> of his work beforehand; and, secondly, because<br /> under it he loses practically all control over his<br /> work, which the purchaser may hold up or publish<br /> according to his own convenience, and in many cases<br /> to the great: inconvenience of the author. Old books,<br /> with the copyright of which their authors have<br /> parted, have, before now, been known to re-appear<br /> on the market in time to damage the sale of the<br /> writer’s more mature work.<br /> <br /> But it is rather with financial considerations<br /> <br /> 193<br /> <br /> that we would deal in this article. Given a°<br /> royalty agreement, the author is able, if he seeks<br /> the advice of the Society, to insure getting a share<br /> in the success of his work, if such success, in the<br /> form of large sales, awaits it. Unfortunately there<br /> are both good and bad royalty agreements, and<br /> those latter royalty agreements are often deferred<br /> royalty agreements.<br /> <br /> Under a deferred royalty |<br /> <br /> agreement the author may—in practice, very<br /> <br /> often does—get nothing. ‘This method of pub-<br /> lishing is not uncommon. ‘Though a suit-<br /> able arrangement can be come to on the deferred<br /> royalty basis, still,,in nine cases out of ten, the<br /> contract is to the disadvantage of the author.<br /> The publisher, eloquent on the subject cf the risk<br /> incidental to the publication, persuades the author<br /> to let him have the first 500, 750, or even<br /> 1,000 copies of his book “free of royalty.” To<br /> make the agreement fair, after these sales the<br /> author ought to have a proportionately higher<br /> royalty and the publisher less profit, because he<br /> has recovered his outlay, and there is no further risk<br /> to be run.<br /> <br /> After that number has been sold, the author<br /> receives 10 per cent., 124 per cent., or even<br /> 15 per cent. Somehow or other the book seldom<br /> sells beyond the number on which no royalty<br /> is payable, and the larger the number free of<br /> royalty the less likelihood is there of an increasing<br /> sale; indeed, one publisher who had the free<br /> sale of 1,000 copies, printed that number and<br /> then broke up the type. But even if he had printed<br /> more than the number free of royalty, it does not<br /> then follow that the author will receive anything.<br /> For example, assuming 750 is the number on whicn<br /> the publisher pays no royalty, he will print an<br /> edition of 1,000 copies. After the 750 copies have<br /> been sold, he will discover that the sale is beginning<br /> to drop. Deducting the review copies (say 100)<br /> the publisher is left with 150 copies on hand. If<br /> he is to sell these at the full published price, he<br /> may have to incur additional advertisement expendi-<br /> ture from his point of view quite incommensurate<br /> with the returns from the sales. Rather than do<br /> this, he sells the book as a “ remainder,” interpreting<br /> the term ‘ remainder sale” to cover any sale at less<br /> than what he calls “the usual trade terms,” and<br /> by a clause he has been careful to insert in the<br /> agreement, pays the author 5 per cent. on the<br /> nett proceeds. It may often pay the publisher to<br /> sell the book thus cheaply, rather than to sell it at<br /> “the usual trade terms,” with the obligation to<br /> pay the author the royalty mentioned in the agree-<br /> ment. But if the publisher has put the author&#039;s<br /> royalty after the free sales as high as 20 per cent.<br /> or 25 per cent., the temptation to remainder the<br /> book is obvious. In short, what the publisher<br /> loses by selling the book as a “remainder” he<br /> 194<br /> <br /> may easily recover at the expense of the author&#039;s<br /> royalty.<br /> <br /> This does not necessarily happen; much must<br /> depend upon the publisher, and the aphorism<br /> &lt;* business is business,’ undergoes different inter-<br /> pretation at different hands.<br /> <br /> However, an agreement has been brought to the<br /> Society providing for a royalty even more deferred<br /> than has been indicated by the figures above. The<br /> clause runs :—<br /> <br /> ‘All copies sold of the said work within twelve months<br /> of the date of publication shall carry no royalty to the<br /> author, but on all copies sold after the expiration of the<br /> first twelve months after publication the publisher agrees<br /> to pay to the author and the author agrees to accept a<br /> royalty of . . . of the nominal published price on sales of<br /> the 6s. edition. and a royalty of 7% per cent. of the nominal<br /> published price on the sales of any cheaper edition or<br /> editions.”<br /> <br /> Now all publishers assert that the largest sales<br /> of a novel occur either on subscription before<br /> publication, or within the first four months after<br /> publication. Most publishers will inform an<br /> author that a book is dead at the end of six<br /> months, and all publishers will inform an author<br /> that the ordinary novel is dead at the end of<br /> twelve months, unless for some special reason<br /> the vitality of a book carries it forward for<br /> two or three years, or, perhaps, even longer.<br /> Therefore, when a publisher puts a clause of<br /> this kind into an author’s agreement, he must<br /> know that to all intents and purposes he is asking<br /> the author to give him the book for nothing, and<br /> most publishers, if they were asked to answer on<br /> oath in the witness-box, would corroborate this<br /> statement. It is quite true that if the author<br /> desires to give the publisher his work for nothing,<br /> there is nothing to prevent him from doing so,<br /> but it is a question as to how far, when a pub-<br /> lisher inserts such a clause in his agreement, he<br /> is bound to explain the effect of it to the author<br /> —to the author who is most probably ignorant of<br /> the fact that the ordinary novel is dead in six<br /> months.<br /> <br /> But there is this further difficulty, that the<br /> authors’ and the publishers’ interests are not in<br /> common ; that there is no stimulus whatever for<br /> the publisher to push the book beyond the first<br /> twelve months if it has had anything like an<br /> ordinary sale. In fact there is every reason why<br /> he should not do so. A publisher’s object is<br /> naturally to turn over his capital, and to make a<br /> percentage on it; when this object has been<br /> obtained, it may often be good tactics to take the<br /> book off the market, to make way for new books<br /> that are constantly coming forward. It is often<br /> more remunerative for the publisher to act thus<br /> than to expend labour in pushing the author&#039;s work<br /> into another edition of 1,000 or 2,000 copies.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> THE U.S.A. AND CUSTOM DUTIES.<br /> <br /> Boarp oF APPRAISERS HOLDS THAT THE<br /> Royatty ON Booxs ImportTeD IN SHEETS<br /> 1s Not Part oF THE ForEIGN MARKET<br /> VALUE.<br /> <br /> Tr an important test case standing in the<br /> name of E. B. Dutton &amp; Co., the Board<br /> of United States General Appraisers<br /> rendered a decision favourable to the Dutton<br /> Company. The precise question before the<br /> Board was whether a royalty of 10 per cent.<br /> of the retail price of a bound book was to be<br /> included as a part of the foreign market value<br /> of the printed unbound sheets of such book.<br /> <br /> It appeared from the testimony that Dutton<br /> &amp; Co. ordered the unbound sheets with the<br /> intention of binding the books in the States.<br /> The firm also agreed to pay Methuen &amp; Co.,<br /> the owners of the English copyright, a<br /> royalty of 10 per cent. on each book sold, the<br /> American selling price of which was fixed at<br /> $1.35 per volume. The appraising officers at<br /> New York included the 10 per cent. royalty in<br /> the foreign market price, and exacted duty<br /> accordingly. Dutton &amp; Co. appealed to the<br /> reappraisement division of the Board of<br /> General Appraisers, where arguments in sup~<br /> port of the importers were made by James F.<br /> Curtis, until recently Assistant Secretary of<br /> the Treasury Department, in charge of cus-<br /> toms, William L. Wemple, Assistant Attorney-<br /> General of the Department of Justice appearing<br /> for the Government.<br /> <br /> It was contended by the importers that the<br /> royalty being fixed upon the retail price of the<br /> finished book, which is more than eight times<br /> the price paid for the unbound sheets, is not a<br /> part of the foreign market value. Three<br /> reasons were adduced in support of the con-<br /> tention. The first was that the royalty was<br /> not properly payable on the value of the<br /> sheets, but upon the value of the retail price<br /> of the finished book. The second point was<br /> that the royalty did not attach to the sheets<br /> and would never become due and payable if<br /> the sheets remained unbound after importa-<br /> tion; and, thirdly, that the royalty attached<br /> only to the finished book, and even then<br /> became due and payable only upon the actual<br /> sale of the volume by the importers.<br /> <br /> The decision continues :<br /> <br /> Appellants further contend, and it is not<br /> here disputed, that such sheets are not sold in<br /> wholesale quantities in the British Empire,<br /> and that therefore there is no wholesale foreign<br /> market value in the country from whence<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> Bey<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> imported. They also contend, and neither is<br /> this disputed, that such sheets are not sold in<br /> wholesale quantities in the United States, and<br /> that therefore there is no basis for determining<br /> their foreign market value under the last pro-<br /> vision in sub-section 11 of section 28 of the<br /> Tariff Act of 1909.<br /> <br /> It is unquestioned that both of these con-<br /> tentions are well-founded, and such being the<br /> case, there remains only as the basis upon<br /> which foreign market value may be deter-<br /> mined, the cost of production as provided in<br /> the first part of sub-section 11, supra, but then<br /> the query presents itself whether there must<br /> be added to the cost of production thus ascer-<br /> tained the royalty to be paid as hereinbefore<br /> set forth. In thus determining the cost of<br /> production there is to be included the cost of<br /> material, cost of fabrication, all general ex-<br /> penses, and expense of preparing and putting<br /> up the merchandise ready for shipment, and<br /> an addition of not less than eight nor more<br /> than fifty per centum of the total cost as thus<br /> ascertained.<br /> <br /> Assuming the cost of the completed sheets<br /> to be correctly stated at 34d., it is at once<br /> apparent that the entered value was more than<br /> sufficient to include all the elements of cost of<br /> production as contemplated by the first pro-<br /> vision of sub-section 11, swpra, and more than<br /> ample to make foreign market value as thus<br /> ascertained, unless the royalty to be paid<br /> upon the actual sale by the publisher of the<br /> bound book is to be included as a part thereof.<br /> <br /> Our attention is brought to certain cases<br /> wherein it has been held by the Board and<br /> the Courts that royalties paid by purchasers<br /> were properly included in the dutiable value of<br /> the merchandise for the reason that the<br /> amounts paid as such royalties were parts of<br /> the cost. In the case at bar it may hardly be<br /> said, we think, that royalty agreed to be paid<br /> upon the sale in the United States of the<br /> bound book was a part of the purchase price<br /> of the unbound sheets; but even though it<br /> were we think it does not exactly follow in<br /> determining the foreign market value of the<br /> sheets that the full amount or even part of<br /> such royalty must be included. It is not at<br /> all unusual for appraising officers to find the<br /> foreign market value of merchandise to be less<br /> than the invoice and entered value, and even<br /> less than the price actually paid for the<br /> merchandise. Such, in fact, may be necessary<br /> to a compliance with the law under certain<br /> circumstances. Sub-section 10 of the Act of<br /> 1909, swpra, imposes upon all appraisers of the<br /> United States, and every person who shall act<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 195<br /> <br /> as such, the duty of appraising (any invoice or<br /> affidavit thereto or statement of cost, or of cost<br /> of production to the contrary notwithstanding)<br /> the actual market value and wholesale price<br /> of merchandise at the time of exportation to<br /> the United States. As has already been stated,<br /> unbound sheets similar to those here involved<br /> are not sold in wholesale quantities in the<br /> country of production and from whence<br /> imported, hence resort in determining foreign<br /> market value thereof must be had in the pro-<br /> cedure laid down in sub-section 10, supra.<br /> Although it does not appear in the stenographic<br /> report of the proceedings before the Board,<br /> it was announced on the hearing that the<br /> appraiser in fixing the foreign market value of<br /> these sheets was guided and controlled by the<br /> directions promulgated by Assistant Secretary<br /> of the Treasury Curtis, contained in a depart-<br /> ment Circular dated June 7, 1918, which, so<br /> far as applicable were as follows :<br /> <br /> ‘“©(2) That when such books, which are<br /> only sold at retail abroad, are imported in<br /> sheets, the actual price paid by the pur-<br /> chaser, not including the royalty charge, if<br /> any, should be taken as the market value<br /> for appraisal purposes, provided that in no.<br /> instance shall the appraised value be less than<br /> 124 per cent. of the foreign published price.”<br /> <br /> The rule of guidance thus promulgated, and<br /> followed, was an arbitrary one, and was of<br /> course wholly without warrant in law. It<br /> was repugnant to the very plain provisions<br /> of the statute, and a foreign value fixed there-<br /> under might only by the merest chance be a<br /> lawful one.<br /> <br /> We do not overlook the fact that in some<br /> instances the Board has heretofore held that<br /> royalties were properly included in the foreign<br /> market value, and it may be readily appre-<br /> ciated that conditions attending sales in whole-<br /> sale quantities of merchandise for consumption<br /> in the country of production might be such as<br /> to make the royalty part of the selling price,<br /> in which ease it should, of course, be included<br /> in the appraised value of like merchandise<br /> imported into the United States; and it is<br /> therefore not our purpose here to overrule any<br /> decision of the Board which may be in apparent<br /> conflict with the views here imposed. In the<br /> case at bar, however, we are satisfied from the<br /> detailed facts of the purchase that the royalty<br /> to be paid on the bound book after sale in the<br /> United States is no part of the foreign value<br /> of the sheets, and that the invoice values<br /> represent the full foreign value thereof; and<br /> for these reasons we sustain the entered value<br /> of each of the items.<br /> <br /> <br /> 196<br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> — 9<br /> <br /> 1. 7\ VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> HK advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor; but if there is any<br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion without<br /> any cost to the member. Moreover, where counsel’s<br /> opinion is favourable, and the sanction of the Committee<br /> is obtained, action will be taken on behalf of the aggrieved<br /> member, and all costs borne by the Society.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinarysolicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Before signing any agreement whatever, sen<br /> the document to the Society for examination. ’<br /> <br /> 4, Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no direct benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 5. The Committee have arranged for the reception of<br /> members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:<br /> (1) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action<br /> upon them. (2) To keep agreements. (3) To enforce<br /> payments due according to agreements. Fuller particu-<br /> lars of the Society’s work can be obtained in the<br /> Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 6. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> This<br /> The<br /> <br /> 7. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements,<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 8. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<br /> do some publishers. Members can make their own<br /> deductions and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> 9. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s. for life membership.<br /> <br /> ee gg<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> —t——+ —<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, ¢f a proper price can be<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> obtained, But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> II. 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 /> tights.<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 /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides, It isnow<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author,<br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :-—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the-advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book,<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :— :<br /> <br /> C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means,<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> eg =e<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> <br /> 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with any one 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. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> <br /> for production of the piece by a certain date .<br /> <br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> id<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> |. play are distinct from literary copyright.<br /> <br /> Bis «<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (‘.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (0.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> <br /> -| better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> <br /> paid in advance of such fees in anyevent. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> <br /> sd be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction<br /> is of great importance,<br /> <br /> 7, Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. They should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> —— oe<br /> <br /> REGISTRATION OF SCENARIOS AND<br /> ORIGINAL PLAYS.<br /> <br /> 1+<br /> <br /> CENARIOS, typewritten in duplicate on foolscap paper<br /> S forwarded to the offices of the Society, together with<br /> : a registration fee of two shillings and sixpence, will<br /> be carefully compared by the Secretary or a qualified assis-<br /> tant. One copy will be stamped and returned to theauthor<br /> and the other filed in the register of the Society. Copies<br /> of the scenario thus filed may be obtained at any time by<br /> the author only at a small charge to cover cost of typing.<br /> <br /> Original Plays may also be filed subject to the same<br /> rules, with the exception that a play will be charged for<br /> at the price of 2s. 6d. per act.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 197<br /> DRAMATIC AUTHORS AND AGENTS.<br /> <br /> —_-—&lt;—+ —_<br /> <br /> RAMATIC authors should seek the advice of the<br /> Society before putting plays into the hands of<br /> agents. As the law stands at present, an agent<br /> <br /> who has once had a play in his hands may acquire a<br /> perpetual claim to a percentage on the author’s fees<br /> from it. As far as the placing of plays is concerned,<br /> it may be taken as a general rule that there are only<br /> very few agents who can do anything for an author<br /> that he cannot, under the guidance of the Society, do<br /> equally well or better for himself. The collection of fees<br /> is also a matter in which in many cases no intermediary is<br /> required. For certain purposes, such as the collection of<br /> fees on amateur performances, and in general the trans-<br /> action of frequent petty authorisations with different<br /> individuals, and also for the collection of fees in foreign<br /> countries, almost all dramatic authors employ agents; and<br /> in these ways the services of agents are real and valuable.<br /> But the Society warns authors against agents who profess<br /> to have influence with managers in the placing of plays, or<br /> who propose to act as principals by offering to purchase<br /> the author&#039;s rights. In any case, in the present state of<br /> the law, an agent should not be employed under any<br /> circumstances without an agreement approved of by the<br /> Society.<br /> —_——\!_+-—&gt;—_-—__<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into particular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> ———__—~—_______<br /> <br /> STAMPING MUSIC.<br /> <br /> —— +<br /> <br /> The Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or part<br /> of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the Society’s<br /> safe. The musical publishers communicate direct with the<br /> Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to the<br /> members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble,<br /> <br /> ——-— ____<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> —— + :<br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> M branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience, The<br /> fee is one guinea,<br /> —_-—&gt;—_-<br /> <br /> REMITTANCES.<br /> <br /> ed<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post.<br /> All remittances should be crossed Union of London and<br /> Smiths Bank, Chancery Lane, or be sent by registered<br /> letter only,<br />  <br /> <br /> COLLECTION BUREAU.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to collect accounts and money<br /> due to authors, composers and dramatists.<br /> 1. Under contracts for the publication of their<br /> <br /> works.<br /> 2. Under contracts for the performance of their works<br /> <br /> and amateur fees.<br /> <br /> 3. Under the Compulsory Licence Clauses of the Copy-<br /> right Act, i.e., Clause 3, governing compulsory licences for<br /> books, and Clause 19, referring to mechanical instrument<br /> records.<br /> <br /> The Bureau is divided into three departments :—<br /> <br /> 1. Literary.<br /> 2. Dramatic.<br /> 3. Musical.<br /> <br /> The Society does not desire to make a profit from the<br /> collection of fees, but will charge a commission to cover<br /> expenses. If, owing to the amount passing through the<br /> office, the expenses are more than covered, the Committee<br /> of Management will discuss the possibility of reducing the<br /> commission.<br /> <br /> For full particulars of the terms of collection, application<br /> must be made to the Collection Bureau of the Society.<br /> <br /> AGENTS.<br /> <br /> Holland . . ; A. REYDING.<br /> United Statesand Canada. WALTER C. JORDAN.<br /> Germany . Mrs PoGson.<br /> <br /> The Bureau is in no sense a literary or dramatic<br /> agency for the placing of books or plays.<br /> <br /> ———_—_+- &gt; ___—___<br /> <br /> GENERAL NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> Tur ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.<br /> <br /> Tyr Annual General Meeting of the Incor-<br /> porated Society of Authors will be held on<br /> Friday, April 17, at 1, Central Buildings, at<br /> 4.30. Notice of the meeting will be sent to all<br /> the members in the course of a few days.<br /> <br /> Music PuBLISHERS AND PERFORMING RicHTs.<br /> <br /> WE are pleased to see from the Publishers’<br /> Weekly of the U.S.A. that there has been a<br /> meeting of the American authors, composers<br /> and publishers in New York City, in order to<br /> start a society to control the performing rights<br /> in music. This is a very important advance<br /> and we think the composers of our Society<br /> ought to make every effort to meet the pub-<br /> lishers with a view to establishing the same<br /> control over the performing rights. The real<br /> question, however, is, will the publishers meet<br /> the composers? The last time the composers<br /> wrote to the Music Publishers’ Association the<br /> secretary had to write three times before he<br /> received the courtesy of a reply. The associa-<br /> tion then regretted they were unable to<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> discuss the matter the composers put before<br /> them.<br /> <br /> We do not wish to criticise the non-possumus<br /> attitude of the music publishers, but merely<br /> would remark that this kind of attitude has<br /> been adopted in years gone by both by pub-<br /> lishers and theatrical managers ; but these have<br /> after mature consideration thought better of<br /> the matter. We hope, therefore, that the<br /> Music Publishers’ Association will give the<br /> matter their mature consideration, and that<br /> such mature consideration will place them in<br /> a better frame of mind to consider, not only<br /> what are the composers’, but what are also<br /> their own interests.<br /> <br /> With regard to performing rights, un-<br /> fortunately the music publishers have so long<br /> thrown these away that it may be difficult to<br /> come to any satisfactory arrangement, but this<br /> is no reason why a matter of such vital<br /> importance should not be discussed between<br /> the parties interested.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ——__—. &lt;&gt; —____<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AUSTRALIAN COPYRIGHT REGISTRATION.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> N the January number of The Author there<br /> appeared a General Note emphasising<br /> the importance of registration by authors,<br /> <br /> especially dramatic authors, of their copyright<br /> under the new Australian Act. In accordance<br /> with that note, the secretary of the Society<br /> was instructed to write to the Registrar of<br /> Copyrights in Australia on the subject, in order<br /> that. the members of the Society might have<br /> the fullest information. As a supplement to<br /> this month’s Author, the regulations, together<br /> with the forms which should be filled up, are<br /> printed. A number of these forms are lying<br /> at the offices of the Society and can be handed<br /> to those members who, because they have<br /> plays running in Australia, or because they<br /> have plays likely to run in Australia, desire to<br /> avail themselves of this opportunity for regis-<br /> tration. It was pointed out in The Author<br /> that the great advantage of registration lies in<br /> the fact that if a book or play is registered,<br /> then, in case of infringement, the author can<br /> avail himself of the summary proceedings<br /> granted by the Act. The Registrar of Copy-<br /> rights, in his courteous and detailed letter,<br /> points out that although no actual case has<br /> yet been carried through the courts, most<br /> <br /> robably no author will be entitled to the<br /> <br /> enefits under the Summary Proceedings<br /> clauses against any infringer if the infringe-<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ‘ment occurred before registration. In other<br /> Wwords, that he will only be entitled to take<br /> advantage of the clauses referred to in the<br /> em case of those infringements which occur after<br /> registration. It will be safer, therefore, for<br /> fi those who are likely to have or have already<br /> dramatic or literary property in Australia to<br /> «@register at the earliest opportunity. He sug-<br /> -% gests in his letter the following :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 7 “I think it would be advisable for authors who contem-<br /> ,|ia plate registering under the Australian law to register the<br /> _,9@ copyright paper of their respective works so that they<br /> &quot;* #@ would be in a position, at any time, to assign any of the<br /> rights comprised in the copyright. My reason for making<br /> om the suggestion is this: representatives of dramatic com-<br /> panies who have consulted me from time to time complain<br /> @ of the difficulty they experience in reaching and punishing<br /> pirates under the ordinary remedies provided by the<br /> Statute. The agreements entered into between these<br /> companies and authors abroad usually provide for the<br /> payment of a royalty covering a specified period, but do<br /> not vest ownership, or partial ownership, of the copyright<br /> or performing rights in the companies; the result being<br /> “that an unauthorised reproduction of a dramatic or<br /> musical work is given, and before the licensees of the copy-<br /> right or performing right have had time to obtain the<br /> # necessary authority to put the machinery of the law in<br /> motion, the pirate, like a will o’ the wisp, has vanished.<br /> If the course suggested by me were followed, agreements<br /> made between British authors and Australian citizens<br /> eould be swiftly enforced. In this connection it would<br /> also be advisable for the author or his representative to<br /> give the licensee, during the currency of the licence,<br /> authority to take proceedings as attorney for the owner of<br /> @ the copyright.”<br /> <br /> It is doubtful however, whether the members<br /> of the Society would care to adopt the course.<br /> Indeed, many dramatic authors have refused<br /> to grant such power of attorney. However,<br /> if it is possible to carry out the arrangement<br /> which the Society is at present organising for<br /> <br /> lacing powers of attorney in the hands of the<br /> Society’s lawyers in Australia, there will be no<br /> necessity for making the assignment referred<br /> to. If members, therefore, desire to register,<br /> they had better apply to the Society’s office<br /> for the forms, and, after having filled them up<br /> properly, return them with the fees referred<br /> toin the regulations. The Society will see that<br /> the matter is duly carried through in accord-<br /> ance with the members’ instructions. It is<br /> tated that there may be one or two little<br /> <br /> ifficulties with the first few registrations, but<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> after a little time the matter will run perfectly<br /> “smoothly and members will gain great ad-<br /> #@ vantage from the Society’s organisation and<br /> from the Society’s knowledge of the details.<br /> It is necessary to point out that under the<br /> New Zealand law similar provisions to those<br /> under the Australian law have been provided.<br /> The secretary has also written to the Registrar<br /> of Copyrights in New Zealand for the forms<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 199<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> and regulations. When these come to hand,<br /> the Society will be able to carry out for its<br /> members the necessary details and the author<br /> will be able to obtain the benefits under the<br /> New Zealand Act.<br /> <br /> A COMPOSER’S TROUBLES WITH MESSRS.<br /> BOOSEY &amp; CO.<br /> <br /> —_—+——+<br /> <br /> a December, 1911, a composer forwarded<br /> (through a well-known vocalist) a song<br /> to Messrs. Boosey &amp; Co. for publication,<br /> and obtained in reply a letter offering to publish<br /> the song subject to the payment of a certain<br /> royalty. These terms were accepted by letter.<br /> In April, 1912, the same composer forwarded<br /> another song, specially composed for another<br /> artist, to the same publisher, and, after a<br /> friendly interview with Mr. Boosey and a<br /> request that the firm would make a formal<br /> offer, received a letter offering similar terms<br /> to the letter he had received in December,<br /> and he accepted the terms. Immediately<br /> after the acceptance, Messrs. Boosey &amp; Co.<br /> forwarded him a document, which they sub-<br /> sequently stated was in use by all their com-<br /> posers, being an assignment of all the com-<br /> poser’s rights and interest, present, future and<br /> contingent, in consideration of the agreed<br /> royalty on copies sold and 50 per cent. of all<br /> mechanical instrument fees received by the<br /> publisher. Nothing had been said in_ his<br /> correspondence as to assignment of copyright<br /> or mechanical rights.<br /> <br /> The composer, in reply, pointed out that<br /> the letters which had been exchanged consti-<br /> tuted a binding contract and that, therefore,<br /> there seemed no necessity for his signature to<br /> such a document. Messrs. Boosey replied that<br /> this was the form of contract invariably used.<br /> The composer then pointed out that, if an<br /> agreement was actually necessary, he pre-<br /> ferred that it should be drawn up upon a<br /> business-like basis, and contain adequate pro-<br /> vision both for his own rights and those of<br /> the publishers. Messrs. Boosey &amp; Co. there-<br /> upon refused to discuss the matter in any<br /> respect whatever, returned the various MSS.<br /> and declared the business was atanend. The<br /> dispute was then brought to the Society, and<br /> the committee decided to take the case up.<br /> Accordingly the matter was placed in the<br /> hands of the Society’s solicitors. Proceedings<br /> were instituted and the publishers, through<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 200<br /> <br /> their solicitors, then agreed to publish the<br /> songs on the terms set out in their original<br /> letters and to pay the costs, these terms, for the<br /> satisfaction of both parties, to be embodied in<br /> a formal legal document. This document was<br /> signed in due course, but through all the nego-<br /> tiations, not only the Society, but the solicitors<br /> of the Society, had to complain of the offhand<br /> way in which the business was treated and<br /> the delay which took place. In the settlement<br /> ‘twas understood—the sclicitors of the Society<br /> making special mention of the fact to the solici-<br /> tors of Messrs. Boosey &amp; Co.—that Messrs.<br /> Boosey &amp; Co. would frankly accept the posi-<br /> tion and use their best endeavours to push<br /> the work to the same extent as they would<br /> have done if no question had arisen. The<br /> solicitors of the publishers at once gave their<br /> assurance to this effect; but what has been the<br /> result? In January, 1913, a year after one of<br /> the songs had been accepted under the original<br /> letter, the Society was asked to stamp, on the<br /> composer&#039;s behalf, 153 copies of one song and<br /> 155 of the other. The composer then wrote to<br /> inquire whether this was the extent of the<br /> editions which it was proposed to publish, and<br /> in reply received intimation that the number<br /> of copies mentioned represented the full print<br /> of the first edition. The publishers added:<br /> ““We shall, of course, reprint as required<br /> according to the demand for the songs,” and,<br /> on February 16, 1913, in answer to that letter,<br /> the composer wiote as follows :—<br /> <br /> February 16, 1913.<br /> <br /> Dear Strs,—!I thank you for your letter of February 14,<br /> with reference to the two songs of mine which you have<br /> recently published. I have not the time at present to go<br /> carefully into the matter, but, on the face of it, there is<br /> obviously something wrong in respect to the number of<br /> copies printed.<br /> <br /> Under the contract there are to be 200 copies of each<br /> song “free for novelty purposes.” In other words, no<br /> royalty is payable to me (at least so I read it) from any of<br /> the copies which you have already printed. Dealing more<br /> particularly with the Irish song, we may take fifty copies<br /> as the very lowest number you require for professional<br /> copies and for review purposes. This leaves no more than<br /> 100 copies as a preliminary supply to the trade throughout<br /> the country, eliminating the U.S.A. altogether, also the<br /> Colonies. Incidentally I may add that I know for a fact<br /> that inquiries have been made for the song in various parts<br /> of the country already, but that the music dealers have<br /> been unable to trace it.<br /> <br /> It appears to me a waste of time for me to seek the good<br /> offices of my musical and professional acquaintances in<br /> singing the song under such conditions. Apart from the<br /> business aspect of the case, I would venture to remind you<br /> of the very definite assurance given by your legal repre-<br /> sentative to my solicitors that “it was clearly under-<br /> stood that you frankly accepted the position and would<br /> use your best endeavours to push the work in just the<br /> same way as you would have done had no question arisen.’’<br /> It is, indeed, most distasteful to me to have to reopen<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> the question, but there appears to me some little evidence<br /> that the work is not being pushed forward as it should be,<br /> If you can give me your assurance to the contrary, I shall<br /> be only too pleased to accept it. ge<br /> <br /> As regards professional copies, I infer from your letter<br /> under reply that you propose to forward copies only to<br /> those artists whom I may specify to you. I will forward —<br /> you a short list in a day or two, but, while I shall be happy<br /> to do anything I can within reason to help forward<br /> sales, I would point out that the real work of propagation<br /> must necessarily devolve upon you, and that I can hardly<br /> be expected to act as “ traveller in my own goods, even<br /> had I the time and inclination.<br /> <br /> Very faithfully yours, |<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> He received a reply stating that the 200 (&gt;;<br /> copies mentioned are not deducted until the °°&quot;<br /> song has gone out as a novelty to the trade,<br /> that it would be useless to send either of the<br /> songs out at present as they were ** not suffi-<br /> ciently known”? (sie), but that they had sent<br /> out presentation copies to singers. It remains<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> to add that although Messrs. Boosey issued a<br /> catalogue in March, 1913, these two songs<br /> were not included in it (they were stamped in<br /> the preceding January); and that inquiry has<br /> been made for the songs at six of the largest #1<br /> FeO T<br /> jaw<br /> <br /> Hae We<br /> peg<br /> <br /> pe wt %<br /> <br /> retail houses in London, and at over a dozen —<br /> of the largest provincial centres, without<br /> sucecss; at none of these places had the songs<br /> been heard of, nor so far as could be ascer-<br /> tained offered by the travellers, nor could they<br /> be found in any lists.<br /> <br /> The whole case is very interesting from every AF<br /> point of view. It is impossible to think, after ti<br /> the assurance given by Messrs. Boosey’s solici-<br /> tors, and after consideration of the standing of<br /> Messrs. Boosey &amp; Co. and the position they<br /> hold in the trade, that they would not do<br /> everything that could be done by way of<br /> putting the songs before the public ; indeed<br /> under the rather peculiar circumstances of the<br /> case, it might have been thought that a firm<br /> of Messrs. Boosey’s standing would have put<br /> themselves out of the way to do more with<br /> this composer’s songs than they do in the<br /> ordinary course of business, in order that they<br /> might show clearly that after the little dispute<br /> they meant to deal fairly with the composer.<br /> We assume they have done so. It would<br /> then appear that Messrs. Boosey &amp; Co. consider<br /> they have done everything they. can and<br /> should do in the course of their business, to<br /> push two songs which they intend to put on<br /> the market by printing 158 copies of one song<br /> and 155 copies of another, and sending out<br /> presentation copies to singers. It would also<br /> seem to follow that this is the course adopted<br /> upon the publication of othcr similar songs<br /> published by the firm. It would be very<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 201<br /> <br /> woi/interesting to know the opinions of other com-<br /> <br /> seoposers on the present position and of other<br /> <br /> amusic publishers on the correspondence that<br /> has passed between the parties.<br /> <br /> —_———__+—_&gt;—__e—____—__-<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> T came about in this way. I had been<br /> busy in the garden cleaning up, hurrying<br /> to get some new trees in before the frost<br /> <br /> isceame. But the frost caught me and I had<br /> <br /> oto give up. SoI retired to my desk.<br /> <br /> ‘But the ideas I had felt materialising,<br /> <br /> -or nebulous and vague, in the back of my mind,<br /> <br /> ,oy would not develop. Yet I felt in the humour<br /> <br /> ‘0 for writing.<br /> <br /> - ‘** Then why not write ? ’’ something seemed<br /> <br /> _9 to inquire in my ear, with a faintly sarcastic<br /> <br /> ‘a inflection. ‘Surely it is not necessary to<br /> <br /> st have any concrete idea! An author can<br /> generally manage to turn out some drivel—<br /> <br /> 7 even about nothing in particular.”<br /> <br /> Z I admit I felt a little hurt, and I tried not<br /> <br /> 9 to listen. But the insidious voice went on:<br /> ‘7* “Tf you can’t think of anything else you<br /> might write about writing—anyway. You<br /> i authors can generally manage to find some-<br /> 4) thing nasty to say about one another, about<br /> “dj the public and its detestable taste, about the<br /> sweet reasonableness of editors, and, above<br /> all, about the incredible and unmentionable<br /> wickedness of—the publisher!”<br /> <br /> “© Yes,’ I thought. “I can do all that.<br /> I&#039;ll take you at your word.”<br /> <br /> It is quite true that one can generally be<br /> nasty if one gives one’s mind to it.<br /> <br /> “Let us start with fiction,’ I thought.<br /> “Yet, what is there to be said about 1t—<br /> beyond the barefaced abomination of its too<br /> evident existence ? ”<br /> <br /> It must seem, one would think, not only to<br /> the critic, but even to the indefectible and<br /> omnivorous gorger of fiction, in this day,<br /> that some great and not altogether whole-<br /> some change has gradually overtaken the<br /> work of the writer.<br /> <br /> The day of leisure is gone and the age of<br /> scurry is upon us; we have, it is true, nowa-<br /> days, no time for the languid perusal of long<br /> discursive prefaces, of long talky essays all<br /> about nothing of any earthly importance ;<br /> of pleasant, harmless, long-winded intro-<br /> ductions and descriptions.<br /> <br /> &#039; One is tempted to wonder what would<br /> <br /> happen to Scott and to Thackeray to-day ?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Would “ Waverley ” finda publisher ? Would<br /> anyone be found with the necessary patience<br /> and time to wade through——but there!<br /> There are doubts as to whether that is a<br /> subject one should pursue !<br /> <br /> None the less, it must be borne home to the<br /> most undiscerning reader that though we<br /> have gained much, we have lost not a little.<br /> This is not the age of literature, but of fiction<br /> (at so much per thousand words). The great<br /> mass of second and third rate stuff, the<br /> ‘* flimsy *’ of the bookstalls, that caters for<br /> the mob, has its own particular style and<br /> format in fiction, its mould through which every<br /> story must, apparently, be pressed in order<br /> that it may come out with every trace of<br /> originality, of style, of art it might contain<br /> ruthlessly eliminated. Every hero has to be<br /> cut to pattern; every incident, it would seem,<br /> must be laid in accordance with certain canons.<br /> One wonders if the readers who, according<br /> to an editor of these journals, ** will have that<br /> style,” ever get tired of wading through the<br /> same weary thing again and again, knowing,<br /> as they must know, exactly the course of every<br /> item, how it will all go and how it will end,<br /> beforehand.<br /> <br /> One of these magazines used to create<br /> some amusement in literary circles by giving<br /> in an editorial preface, every month, the most<br /> touching and fatherly advice to would-be<br /> contributors. There was, I remember, one<br /> delightful talk with hints on * style’ and<br /> its formation, with examples of the great<br /> classics one should study. ‘‘ or romance,<br /> study So-and-so;_ for action, study So-and-<br /> so’’-—along list. Yet it would seem that should<br /> anyone approach the greatness of any of these<br /> models, that very fact would surely be the<br /> first fatal step towards certain rejection in<br /> such a magazine, which appeared to disannex<br /> all those attributes that the student of litera-<br /> ture has learnt to venerate.<br /> <br /> ““The public will only have so-and-so,”<br /> wearetold. Yetitis a curious fact that when,<br /> once in a blue moon, a bold editor or publisher<br /> ventures out of the rut with a clever and<br /> original story, it is often hailed with joy and<br /> becomes a success. The fact is, the publisher<br /> can make anything go if he chooses; it 1s<br /> simply a matter of brain and boom, ability<br /> to spend his advertisement money to the right<br /> advantage. : :<br /> <br /> But what of the publisher’s reader ? One<br /> wonders what sort of a person he 1s—or Is<br /> ita she? The traditional publicational history<br /> would seem to stamp him as, of all men, the<br /> one who least knows his business, for if ever<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 202<br /> <br /> a great and striking novel has come to the<br /> front there has, almost invariably, been the<br /> same history of everlasting weary rejection<br /> until some lucky accident has brought that<br /> work before the world. And yet— observe<br /> what is poured out of the publishing houses<br /> every week! Take any work, fiction or other,<br /> that has eventually made a commotion, and<br /> what has been its early history? We are<br /> told the publisher’s reader is often a distin-<br /> guished novelist. We can quite believe it.<br /> <br /> The fact is, it is not the question of what the<br /> ‘public will have,” but what the editor or<br /> publisher thinks they will or ought to have.<br /> And the result<br /> <br /> Well, one result is that a work that in any<br /> way pertains to literature has too often no<br /> earthly chance of publication.<br /> <br /> A man may write literature (some men do)<br /> as an amusement, to please himself, and,<br /> indeed, he may publish it, but that’s<br /> another subject that need not be pursued.<br /> <br /> And so authors go on making fortunes for<br /> publishers—whose groans over their heavy<br /> losses ought to dissolve a brutal and unfeeling<br /> world in tears.<br /> <br /> But of fiction. What is one to write?<br /> Must one never leave the hard-beaten, dusty<br /> track ? One must, according to the modern<br /> magazine, not write of this; one must not<br /> touch upon that; yet we want originality<br /> and some little freshness, even in our reading,<br /> now and then. One can’t subsist for ever<br /> on sugar-pap.<br /> <br /> Of course, when an author has made his<br /> <br /> name he can write pretty well whatsoever he<br /> likes, and it is eagerly published. Is that,<br /> perhaps, the reason why so many ‘“ made”<br /> authors continue to turn out such ghastly<br /> stuff—or, are they merely using up the<br /> pabulum of their prentice days ?<br /> : As for verisimilitude, realism, truth, there<br /> is little enough of it, in spite of report ; little<br /> enough that is at the same time artistic.<br /> The realism, indeed, is rather too apt to become<br /> sheer dirtiness.<br /> <br /> There is at the present time a fashion in<br /> the fiction magazines for the medical story.<br /> When this is written by the half-dozen medical<br /> writers of the day all well and good, but<br /> otherwise the results are invariably absurd<br /> to a scientific reader. For it is an unfortunate<br /> thing that people will scribble about things<br /> of which they have no earthly knowledge.<br /> Writers cannot all be expected to be scientists,<br /> but if they have no scientific knowledge they<br /> should leave science alone.<br /> <br /> In no less than four stories in the magazines<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> published in one month were there instances of<br /> glaring and ridiculous mistakes that are most fix<br /> irritating. In one instance a writer excels &gt; i:i®<br /> himself in the marvellous description of a new f<br /> and utterly impossible orchid, and in the other}<br /> a zoological monstrosity is perpetrated out f»<br /> of all conformity with organic nature; and fii,<br /> these two examples are as nothing compared}<br /> with the others. One does not often come<br /> across such glaring blunders as the classie<br /> example of Boucicault in the old play “ The<br /> Octoroon’’; indeed, in these days of snapshot<br /> photography and kodaks it would be almost F ..,<br /> impossible. Often it is mere thoughtlessness 3)...<br /> and even some of the greatest masters of<br /> literature have made incredible mistakes.<br /> Then one gets a little tired of that everlasting<br /> so-called ‘‘ love-story.”” Must fiction always<br /> be a variation upon the everlasting human<br /> triangle and its tireless equations ?<br /> Here we have it: x +y=2&gt; &amp;.<br /> We have (A* ++ AY : B*) which develops into }*<br /> (A*: AY + B*). -<br /> One gets so wearied of Mr. A.’s matrimonial 7&quot;<br /> troubles and disputes with Mrs. A. and the i<br /> inevitable intriguing of the latter with her p&gt;&quot;<br /> tardily discovered soul affinity, Mr. B. Still,<br /> it is yet possible for an author of original turn<br /> to treat the subject in a moderately novel way.<br /> Authors, we are told, are a hardly-treated<br /> body, shamefully served by the publisher,<br /> Publishers, we are told, are a hardly-treated &gt;?&quot;<br /> body, abominably served by the public. The §#<br /> public are shamefully treated both by authors }<br /> and publishers (so they beg, borrow, or steal }<br /> books, but refrain from buying them). [<br /> Certainly authors have much to suffer, 7%<br /> Is it any wonder that one becomes depressed &gt;<br /> over the picture of the poor, struggling author } if<br /> labouring incessantly to pile up a huge fortune )%<br /> for the wicked publisher! (Oh, those motors »<br /> and yachts !)<br /> And, seriously, there are times when authors<br /> have other reasons for weeping. There are P<br /> editors who keep manuscripts for weeks and<br /> months knowing full well they never intend pt<br /> to use them, when there is not the least #<br /> excuse for keeping them more than a week<br /> or two. And there are editors who score<br /> marks and numbers upon the unfortunate<br /> manuscripts, so that they have to be retyped<br /> before they can, for very shame, go out on #<br /> their travels again. And there are editors<br /> who appear to use the unwanted manuscripts ®<br /> for the altogether improper purpose of cleaning<br /> the office floor. Indeed but that is also<br /> a subject we need not pursue any further.<br /> No doubt publishers and editors are a very<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> bag bad lot—who but a jackanapes could doubt it ?<br /> <br /> Yet who can feel angry with the kind and<br /> courteous gentlemen who send their regrets<br /> so nicely worded on such very superior paper<br /> (sometimes), and who thank one so effusively<br /> for allowing them to see the composition ?<br /> <br /> If I had my will I would sweep away all<br /> editors, publishers, and authors—and perhaps<br /> the public too—then one might have time to<br /> finish the garden; but for the life of me I<br /> ean’t get on because, forsooth! I have to<br /> turn out so many thousand words of explicit<br /> drivel every day in order that I may not put<br /> <br /> § extra work on the county court.<br /> <br /> Authors, we are told, are mean, liars and<br /> thieves, who will resort to any trick to get an<br /> extra 5 per cent. on their scrubby royalty.<br /> Publishers and editors are either hardened<br /> brutes or contemptible skunks—as yet I cannot<br /> quite decide which—who will do anything<br /> to trick the starving writer. And as for the<br /> public, that sucks the brains of the author—<br /> and often enough smacks his indelicate lips<br /> G over the process, in spite of his grumbles—well,<br /> 7) ‘twill always be much the same, I suppose,<br /> so why should one pursue that subject any<br /> further ?<br /> <br /> No doubt the editor is a good enough fellow,<br /> sometimes, even if his sense of humour is<br /> defective. But editors are not and cannot<br /> be angels, even if there were wings enough<br /> to go round, and you can no more make wings<br /> sprout than you can grow hair with any of<br /> the advertised ‘‘ restorers.”<br /> <br /> One editor of particularly angelic nature,<br /> in his monthly talk, used to give samples<br /> of the letters he received. The note of fulsome<br /> flattery was the main motif.<br /> <br /> ‘“‘T cannot say how grateful I am for your<br /> help. Since you took my last story and gave<br /> me advice I have sold nearly fifty stories to<br /> leading magazines at about twenty pounds<br /> (£20) each. I shall always remember you<br /> gave me a helping hand and you cannot think<br /> how I love you for it.” ‘ That,’’ was the<br /> editor’s beaming comment, “‘is the kind of<br /> letter that does a poor, hard-worked, worried<br /> editor’s heart good to read.” He did not<br /> say from which asylum his contributor wrote.<br /> “Probably you don’t just remember,” I<br /> thought ; “But, Sir, I can tell you something<br /> about the climate you will be enjoying one of<br /> these fine days, if you don’t try to live a good<br /> and truthful life, and find a more legitimate way<br /> of pushing your dolorous rag. All the inhabi-<br /> tants of this world (even such as read your<br /> magazine) are not stark and jibbering idiots !<br /> <br /> There are some editors who use a reject form<br /> <br /> 203<br /> <br /> carefully spaced out into reasons, and a mark<br /> is put against the division under which heading<br /> the rejection comes.<br /> <br /> A young friend of mine some time ago hit<br /> upon a startlingly original idea for a story<br /> and sent it to one of these magazines. The<br /> story was good, well written, terse and with<br /> style, and dealt with an idea that had never<br /> been used before. To our amazement it<br /> came back marked, if I remember rightly,<br /> *“ Not sufficiently novel!” which caused us<br /> no little amusement when we came to study<br /> the dead and dreary level of monotony that<br /> appeared to be the sine qua non of this<br /> particular magazine.<br /> <br /> I sometimes think the time is coming when,<br /> if literature is still to be written, some arrange-<br /> ment might surely be made whereby an author,<br /> who shows promise and produces a clever<br /> but not very marketable piece of literature,<br /> might have help in giving it to the<br /> world. And here the Society of Authors<br /> might see its way, one of these days, to do a<br /> valuable act of service both to authors and to<br /> the public, in setting up a special committee<br /> or commission to adjudicate upon real work<br /> of genius and arranging for its publication.<br /> <br /> Then I might devote myself to the creation<br /> of a work of incredible genius—and find time<br /> to finish the garden.<br /> <br /> FREDERICK GRAVES.<br /> <br /> ———————_-——_+—___——_<br /> <br /> «THE PUBLISHER.’’*<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> By AN AMERICAN CRITIC.<br /> <br /> YNAMITING butterflies is notoriously<br /> <br /> a futile sort of pastime; yet, con-<br /> ceivably, a butterfly may so_persis-<br /> tently obtrude its insignificant self as to become<br /> a bit of a pest, distracting the attention and<br /> obstructing clear comprehension of certain<br /> <br /> ponderable facts. In which event a charge<br /> of dynamite may be thought well wasted.<br /> Mr. Yard frankly holds a brief for the<br /> publisher and against the author and all his<br /> works ; and, like a loyal advocate, he doesn’t<br /> hesitate about ignoring facts that do not assort<br /> well with his argument or about modifying<br /> other facts to suit his requirements. By way<br /> of example (to select one of the multitude<br /> afforded by this little book), we may consider<br /> the figures he quotes in support of his conten-<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “The Publisher,” by Robert Sterling Yard. Houghton<br /> Mifflin Co., 1913. $1 net.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 204<br /> <br /> tion that “best sellers” are hardly to be<br /> yearned after by long-headed publishers. On<br /> page 23 he endeavours to demonstrate that a<br /> book selling 100,000 copies in its first form<br /> would earn its publisher a net profit of only<br /> some $10,300. To arrive at this figure he<br /> estimates cost of manufacture at $0.221 per<br /> copy. This is a very reasonable figure to apply<br /> to an edition of 5,000 copies, including the cost<br /> of making plates and the purchase price of<br /> drawings for illustrations ; but for subsequent<br /> printings it is absurd. Mr. Yard further<br /> reckons the royalty at a flat rate of 20 per cent. ;<br /> this is not fair, although possible, for it may<br /> be questioned whether many books, especially<br /> an author’s first book to sell 100,000 copies,<br /> draws a flat royalty of 20 per cent. Again,<br /> Mr. Yard would have us believe that a pub-<br /> lisher allows ‘‘ 28 per cent. of income ”’ (what-<br /> ever that means) for the cost of doing business,<br /> and reckons this to indicate $0.224 as the cost<br /> of selling each copy of an edition of 100,000.<br /> We may take the liberty of doubting this<br /> figure, if we may not successfully dispute it<br /> without access to the publisher’s books. But<br /> leaving out the author’s royalty, and taking<br /> the other figures without question, we find that<br /> 100,000 copies cost to manufacture, at $0.221<br /> per copy, $22,100, and to sell, at $0.224 per<br /> copy, $22,400; making the total of the<br /> investment $44,500, on which the publisher<br /> makes a net profit of $10,300, or something<br /> more than 23 per cent. Most men of business<br /> would consider this a handsome profit, but<br /> Mr. Yard would have us believe it beggarly.<br /> But in figuring the net profit, he allows for the<br /> profit of a cheap edition of only 50,000 copies ;<br /> whereas Mr. Yard knows, and every publisher<br /> knows, and every author who knows his<br /> business knows, that the cheap edition following<br /> a first publication of 100,000 copies or even<br /> fewer is far more apt to be double the first sale<br /> than half. Then, too, Mr. Yard has chosen to<br /> deduct from the gross profit on this alleged<br /> cheap edition of 50,000 copies ‘‘ 28 per cent.<br /> (again !) for cost of doing business— $1,800.”’<br /> I fancy few publishers will have the effrontery<br /> to claim that it costs them anything at all,<br /> much less $1,800, to sit tight and permit the<br /> popular-price publishers to bid against one<br /> another for the privilege of the cheap-edition<br /> rights. Finally, Mr. Yard allows for a plate-<br /> rental of only 10 cents a copy to be paid by the<br /> popular-price man to the first publisher, and<br /> by this last divided with the author ; whereas<br /> 12 cents per copy is the ruling rate for plate-<br /> rental on books whose sales have totalled far<br /> fewer than 100,000 copies.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Mr. Yard’s figures may, therefore, be revised<br /> as follows, without bothering to dispute his<br /> estimate of profits on the first edition :—<br /> <br /> $<br /> 8,500. *<br /> <br /> Net profit on 100,000 at average<br /> net profit of $0.085 per copy<br /> Cheap edition, 200,000 at 6 cents<br /> profits per copy, without deduc-<br /> tion for cost of doing business 12,000 °°&quot;:<br /> Total net profit (assuming that the<br /> publisher hasn’t grabbed by con-<br /> tracts and has no share in the<br /> author’s second serial, dramatic,<br /> moving-picture, English, and<br /> <br /> translation rights) 20,500 | )<br /> <br /> Or, say, 46 per cent. on the original investment.<br /> <br /> No, not half-bad ; considering that Mr. Yard<br /> would have us believe publishing “‘ the worst |<br /> business in the world.”’’<br /> <br /> But it is true that his efforts to prove this) —<br /> last contention are so unconvincing even to:<br /> himself that, as early in his argument as page 8,7 _<br /> he is forced to the admission that ‘‘ the worst !-~.<br /> business in the world” becomes one of the ):*<br /> best in the world when (to paraphrase) it has ):”<br /> solid financial backing and is administered<br /> with a normal amount of common sense and a) **<br /> little human luck. In other words, it is)<br /> amazingly like any other business you can’ ™~<br /> name: good when it’s good, and bad when it’s) &quot;|<br /> bad. But Mr. Yard is so alarmed at the}: &#039;<br /> possible effect of this admission that, through |&lt;!<br /> the remaining twenty-seven pages of his?<br /> chapter on ‘‘ the worst business ” he fogs his #7:<br /> own and the reader’s understanding in a dense )-!&quot;<br /> cloud of words, anecdotes, illustrations, figures, )&gt;%<br /> and gossip, which in the end enables him to)!<br /> close to his own satisfaction with the assertion ot!<br /> that, as for a “‘ publisher who got right out of<br /> general book-publishing alone . . . “thar ain’t } ©)<br /> no sech critter.” i<br /> <br /> Nor is this all; but space lacks in which to)<br /> explode all of Mr. Yard’s fallacious arguments. ©&quot;<br /> <br /> For all that, on page 29, Mr. Yard gravely ¥<br /> informs us: ‘ Royalties exceeding 10 per cent. ©<br /> are immoral,’’ Henry Holt is reported to have hh<br /> said. And sure we must concede that it was 3»<br /> worth while to make onesself known as the }<br /> author of an idle, if undoubtedly mischievous<br /> book in order that one might have the honour fi<br /> of embalming imperishably that deathless ”:<br /> epigram ! :<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> cod FO<br /> Li J. Ve 8<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> -or--—de<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> MR. ARNOLD BENNETT AND THE<br /> MOYEN DE PARVENIR.*<br /> <br /> Bo fourteen years ago Mr. Arnold<br /> Bennett, acting on the suggestion of<br /> <br /> Mr. Lewis Hind, then editor of the<br /> Academy, published in the columns of that<br /> paper his literary autobiography. He did not<br /> put his name to it, “‘ partly from discretion,<br /> and partly in the hope that the London world<br /> of letters would indulge in conjectures as to its<br /> authorship.”? In 1908 he secured—not with-<br /> out difficulty—a publisher for the work in<br /> volume form, still keeping up anonymity ;<br /> though it was an anonymity which only existed<br /> for the general public, literary London having<br /> soon penetrated the secret. Now in 1914<br /> Mr. Bennett brings out a new edition, through<br /> a different publishing firm, and this time puts<br /> his name to the book.<br /> <br /> As a ‘“‘remaindered’’ work, Mr. Bennett<br /> tells us in his Preface, the first edition had<br /> quite a vogue; but only as a remainder,<br /> price 6d. Otherwise it sold ill. The reason<br /> is obvious. The general public cares remark-<br /> ably little, perhaps in most cases much less<br /> than 6d., for the truth about an author. Yet<br /> it was a good idea to republish the book in<br /> cheap form now. As a household word in<br /> vast districts of Britain and a best-seller in<br /> the United States, Mr. Bennett is scarcely<br /> any longer a mere author. A super-author<br /> may fairly ask a shilling for the truth about<br /> himself.<br /> <br /> For other authors, if they have not already<br /> read it, the book is decidedly one to be read.<br /> They will be able to appreciate, as the general<br /> reader probably will not, the ‘‘ ingenuous self-<br /> complacency ”’ (Mr. Bennett’s own words) of<br /> the record. And to them the experiences, the<br /> views, the advice will have a meaning which is<br /> not for the general reader. Quotation alone<br /> can show the value of Mr. Bennett’s instruc-<br /> tions to his fellow-writers. The space at our<br /> command is limited, but we must touch upon<br /> three points. First, with regard to ‘“ free-<br /> lancing,”’ a subject which has been discussed<br /> of late in the columns of The Author. Mr.<br /> Bennett is healthily vigorous in his denuncia-<br /> tion of this ‘‘ humiliating ’’ employment. “A<br /> false aureole of romance,”’ he says, “‘ encircles<br /> the head of that miserable opportunist, the<br /> free-lance. ... The free-lance is a tramp<br /> touting for odd jobs; a pedlar crying stuff<br /> which is bought usually in default of better ;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “The Truth about an Author,” by Arnold Bennett<br /> London: Methuen &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “work.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 205<br /> <br /> a producer endeavouring to supply a market<br /> of whose conditions he is in ignorance, more or<br /> less complete; a commercial traveller liable<br /> constantly to the insolence of an elegant West<br /> End draper’s ‘buyer.’ His attitude is in<br /> essence a fawning attitude; it must be so;<br /> he is the poor relation, the doff-hat, the ready-<br /> for-anything. He picks up the crumbs that<br /> fall from the table of the ‘staff.’ ... He<br /> never goes to bed; he dares not; if he did a<br /> crumb would fall.”<br /> <br /> And now with regard to the reviewing of<br /> books: ‘‘ The sense of justice of the man in<br /> the street is revolted. ‘You do not read<br /> through all the books that you pretend to<br /> criticize ?’ he hints. I have never known a<br /> reviewer to answer this insinuation straight-<br /> forwardly in print, but I will answer it: No,<br /> I do not. And the man in the street says,<br /> shocked: * You are unjust.’ And I reply:<br /> “Not at all. 1 am merely an expert. ~ =.<br /> The title-page—that conjunction of the title,<br /> the name of the author, and the name of the<br /> publisher—speaks to me, telling me all sorts<br /> of things. The very chapter-headings deliver<br /> a message of style. . . . The whole book, open<br /> it where I will, is murmurous with indications<br /> forme. In the case of nine books [out] of ten,<br /> to read them through would not be a work of<br /> supererogation—-it would be a sinful waste of<br /> time on the part of a professional reviewer. .. .<br /> There remains the work of the true artist, the<br /> work that the reviewer himself admires and<br /> enjoys: say one book in fifty, or one in a<br /> hundred. The reviewer reads that through.”<br /> <br /> Working out the number of words which a<br /> reviewer would have to read to satisfy the man<br /> in the street before writing a column of reviews<br /> worth at the most three guineas, and reckoning<br /> the time taken over the whole job, Mr. Bennett<br /> asks: ‘‘Do you imagine that the reviewer 1s<br /> going to hire out his immortal soul, his ex-<br /> perience, his mere skill, at the rate of 31s. 6d.<br /> per day on irregular jobs ?__ Scarcely. He will<br /> earn his three guineas inside three hours, and<br /> it will be well and truly earned.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Bennett himself early established a rule<br /> —lucky man to be able to observe it !—never |<br /> to work for less than 10s, an hour upon. plece-<br /> “Tf an editor commissioned an article,<br /> he received from me as much fundamental<br /> brain-power and as much time as the article<br /> demanded—up to the limit of his pay in terms<br /> of hours at 10s. apiece. But each year I raise<br /> my price per hour.” This was written In 1900.<br /> We fancy the ordinary poor author would like<br /> a footnote to say what height has now been<br /> reached.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> i<br />  <br /> <br /> 206<br /> <br /> Our last quotation is not made for the pur-<br /> <br /> ose of the moral edification of our readers.<br /> Mr. Bennett is speaking of the first serial story<br /> written by himself. ‘I had entered into a<br /> compact with myself,” he says, ‘that I would<br /> never ‘write down’ to the public in a long<br /> fiction. I was almost bound to pander to the<br /> vulgar taste, or at any rate, to a taste not<br /> refined, in my editing, in my articles, and in<br /> my short stories, but I had sworn solemnly<br /> that I would keep the novel-form unsullied for<br /> the pure exercise of the artist in me. What<br /> became of this high compact? I merely<br /> ignored it. I tore it up and it was forgotten.<br /> <br /> —_—__—_—&lt;—_+—___ ——_<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> _—<br /> <br /> “ Reat EDITIONS.”<br /> <br /> Dear Sir,—In view of the recent announce<br /> <br /> ment by a prominent publisher that his editions<br /> are “real editions ’—the inference being that<br /> too many such are nothing of the sort—it<br /> really seems high time for authors to make<br /> some attempt at asserting themselves on a<br /> subject that concerns them quite as nearly as<br /> it concerns the publishers, who are rapidly<br /> reducing the whole vexed question of “ edi-<br /> tions ” to a preposterous farce.<br /> <br /> Between “real editions ’—so-called—and<br /> bogus editions—not so-called !—we are fast<br /> approaching the American method of merely<br /> <br /> _ shouting a book into popularity. Over there<br /> it would seem that the book itself matters<br /> little, the author less. Success depends mainly<br /> on how much money the publisher is prepared<br /> to spend on shouting—there is no other word<br /> for the process ; and over here it is unhappily<br /> an open secret that, of late, certain question-<br /> able novels have, by means of inflated announce-<br /> ments and ‘‘ huge editions ”’ been practically<br /> forced down the throat of a public that would<br /> otherwise probably have let them alone.<br /> <br /> But, shouting apart, there remains the<br /> puzzle, “What is an edition?” To that<br /> plain, straightforward question—constantly<br /> asked by the Bewildered Uninitiated—it would<br /> take a clever man to give a plain, straight-<br /> forward answer. Roughly, he might hazard<br /> the comprehensive reply: “Oh, anything<br /> between a thousand and fifteen thousand<br /> copies.” But even so he would still have<br /> underrated the elasticity of that conveniently<br /> elastic word. I have it on good authority<br /> that a third “‘ edition”? of a book has been<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> announced when little more than a hundred<br /> copies have been sold.<br /> <br /> This sort of thing suggests a new version of<br /> the old riddle: ‘“‘ When is an edition not an<br /> edition?” It would take a really “ up-to-<br /> date ” publisher to supply the answer to that !<br /> Whether or no some authors derive benefit<br /> from these tactics is a question well worth<br /> separate consideration.<br /> <br /> My present concern is simply to get at the<br /> rights of this obvious juggling with figures ;<br /> and the Shorter Catechism of the Uninitiated<br /> is not yet at an end.<br /> <br /> Why is it, for instance, that, if some of us<br /> are announced in thousands, this plain and<br /> simple method cannot be extended to all?<br /> The publisher addicted to shouting could still<br /> juggle with his thousands, of course. But<br /> those firms who respect themselves and their<br /> authors would lose nothing by more lucid<br /> statements; while both the public and_ the<br /> authors would know better, so to speak, ‘‘ where<br /> they are.” Another remedy—if there is any<br /> thing against plain thousands—would be to<br /> decide, once for all, on the “ unit ” of an<br /> edition; giving that “ unit ” some elasticity<br /> if need be. An edition might be fixed at any-<br /> thing from 3,000 to 5,000, or from 500 to<br /> 3,000 ; and thereby much confusion and mis-<br /> conception would at once be done away with.<br /> <br /> But of the two alternatives set forth there<br /> can be little doubt that a plain statement in<br /> thousands is the consummation most devoutly<br /> to be wished.<br /> <br /> The present arrangement is utterly mis-<br /> leading, not only as between novelist and<br /> novelist, but as between the earlier and later<br /> books of the same writer. Take my own case.<br /> Judged by the tale of mere editions my sale<br /> would appear to have been steadily decreasing<br /> for the last six years, for my first novel achieved<br /> nine editions in about the same time that it<br /> has taken my two later ones to achieve two.<br /> The reason is simple enough. With a new<br /> writer, orders were tentative and editions<br /> followed suit. Large advance orders produce<br /> a larger immediate output, with the natural<br /> result that while my earlier nine editions<br /> <br /> barely reached 12,000 copies, my last novel —<br /> <br /> started with a first edition of 15,000. This<br /> sort of thing must be the case with scores of<br /> novelists. It would be interesting to hear<br /> what they think about it and whether there is<br /> any hope, between us all, of inaugurating a<br /> reform on the lines I have suggested.<br /> I am, dear Sir,<br /> Yours truly, °<br /> ** A NOVELIST.” ~	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/539/1914-04-01-The-Author-24-7.pdf	publications, The Author