https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/454/1893-09-01-The-Author-4-4.pdf 3570f54a188039567b55887f9ee03b42 PDF Text Text ������������������������������������������ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1893-09-01 Volume 4 Issue 4 Pages Page range in volume 109–148 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18930901 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Che HMuthor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vou. IV.—No. 4.] SEPTEMBER 1, 1893. [PRICE SIXPENCE. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE Warnings ae wee aoe Feuilleton— ; . 1.—Confessions of a Critic ... aes see ose oe wee 134 How to use =o pomey : ae! R= - Modern Comedy () 2.6 ee ola ks 86 The Authors Syndicate ... ime ase ee woe con se me So-So Sociology = a ee ae ee oe - ... 136 Notices ... eee + 112 | Ugolino’s Love. By N. Chester... ... 0 ns tos SLB Literary Property— Literature in Oxford ... sea fee a. soe oe ss ce Lod 1.—Authors’ Rights in Germany ... ae as see pieclie Correspondence— : 2.—Cost of Production a ile 1.—A Novel Experience wee toe sas one tee 5 kao Omni Gath POR RCaInh 15 2.—A Dread Tribunal ... oes cS ses a8 ees nen koe mum Gatherum for september eee vee see nee eee 2 3.—George Eliot... as oe ey eee fe cs —g8 The Literary Conference at Chicago... a one oe seen ba. 4.—The Sweating of Authors... me as Be rea auc bee The Relati Z 8 isher. A P: Read at the 5.—Reviewing ... ae bbe aps are ea ae ose a0 os a f Whe bebo Uae 6 agp ey ee ere ee Pi -Autiorama diel. ce Pe al on, TAO The Sinner’s Comedy See ae ed owe eee at LT 8 “Thoetranster of BOOKS... i a ee 1 An American Statement. By Grace Greenwood ... eee +» 128 | ‘At the Sign of the Author’s Head” ... is ce wee oe UAL Notes and News oe oS ee See coe ace see ac aed New Books and New Editions ... ees is eS ce ... 143 1. The 9. The 3. The PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. Annual Report. That for January 1892 can be had on application to the Secretary. Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all Members. Grievances of Authors. (The Leadenhall Press.) 1s. The Report of three Meetings on the general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis’s Rooms, March, 1887. 4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Cotes, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher, ou . The 6, The 7. The g5, Strand, W.C.) 3s. History of the Société des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squrrm Spricen, late Secretary to the Society. 1s. Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type, size of page, &c., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of books. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 2s. 6d. Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squrrz Spriaex. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society’s offices, the various forms of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 3s. 8. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell’s Copyright Bill now before Parlia- 9. The ment. With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix containing the Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Leny. Eyre and Spottiswoode. 1s. 6d. Society of Authors, A Record of its Action from its Foundation. By Water Besant (Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). 1s. IIo ADVERTISEMENTS. The Society of Authors (Sncorporated). PRESIDENT. GHORGH MEREDITH. COUNCIL. Sir Epwin ARnoxp, K.C.LE., 0.8.1. ALFRED AUSTIN. J. M. Barrie. A. W. A Beckert. Ropert BATEMAN. Sir Henry Berane, K.C.M.G. WALTER BESANT. : AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, M.P. R. D. BuacKMORE. Rev. Pror. Bonney, F.R.S. Ricut Hon. James Bryce, M.P. Hawt Caine. EGERTON CASTLE. P. W. CLAYDEN. EDWARD CLODD. W. Morris Couzs. Hon. JoHN COLLIER. W. Martin Conway. F. Marion CRAWFORD. Austin Dosson. A. W. Dusoura. EpmunD Gossk. Tuomas Harpy. J. M. Lety. OswaLD CRAWFURD, C.M.G. Tue Haru or DEsaRrt. J. Eric Exicousen, F.R.S. Pror. MicHaEt Foster, F.R.S. Ricut Hon. HERBERT GARDNER, M.P. Ricuarp Garnett, LL.D. H. Riper Haeearp. Jerome K. JEROME. RuDYARD KIpPuine. Pror. E. Ray LAnKESTER, F.R.S. Ruv. W. J. Lorrie, F.S.A. Pror. J. M. D. MEIKLEJOHN. Herman C. MERIVALE. Rev. C. H. MippLEToN-WAKE. Lewis Morzis. Pror. Max MULLER. J. C. PARKINSON. Tue EARL OF PEMBROKE AND Mont- GOMERY. Sir FreprricKk Pouiock, Bart., LL.D. Water Herrizs PoLLock. A. G. Ross. GrorGEe AUGUSTUS SALA. W. Baptiste Scoonses. G. R. Sus. S. SqurrE SPRIGGE. J. J. STEVENSON. Jas. SULLY. Witiiam Moy THomas. H. D. Trait, D.C.L. Baron HENRY DE WoBRMs, E.B.S. EpMunD YATES. MP., Hon. Counsel—E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C. Solicitors—Messrs Fretp, Roscoz, and Co., Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Accountants—Oscar BERRY and CARR, Monument-yard, E.C. Secretary—G. HERBERT THRING, B.A. OFFICES. 4, PortuagaL STREET, Lincoun’s Inn Frenps, W.C. Third Edition, with Additions throughout, in demy 8vo., 700 pages, price 15s. AN ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, From the Earliest Periods to the Present Time. WITH NOTICES OF EMINENT PARLIAMENTARY MEN, AND EXAMPLES OF THEIR ORATORY. ComPpiLED FROM AUTHENTIC SouRCcES BY GHORGE HHNERY JENNINGS. CONTENTS. Parr I—Riseand Progress of Parliamentary Institutions. Part Il.—Personal Anecdotes: Sir Thomas More to John Morley. Part Ill.—Miscellaneous. 1. Elections. 2. Privilege; Ex- clusion of Strangers; Publication of Debates. 3. Parliamentary Usages, &c. 4. Varieties. Apprnpix.—(A) Lists of the Parliaments of England and of the United Kingdom. (B) Speakers of the House of Commons. (C) Prime Ministers, Lord Chancellors, and Secretaries of State from 1715 to { 1892. Opinions of the Press ‘“« The work, which has long been held in high repute as a repertory of good things, is more than ever rich in doth instruction and amuse- ment. ’—Scotsman. (Tt is a treasury of useful fact and amusing anecdote, and in its latest form should have increased popularity.” —Globe. ‘Its advantage to those who are seeking seats in Parliament, or who may have occasion to assist as speakers during the electoral eampaign, is incomparable.”—Sala’s Journal. of the Present Edition. “Tt is a work that possesses both a practical and an historical value, and is altogether unique in character.”—Kentish Observer. “We can heartily recommend this work to the politician, whatever may be his party leanings.”—WNorthern Echo. ‘Here we have the whole company of Parliamentary celebrities, past and present, reduced to puppets, so to speak, and made to repeat their best and most approved rhetorical performances for our leisurely entertainment, which is not less enjoyable from being allied with edification.”—iverpool Courter. KS Orders may now be sent to HORACE cox, “Law Times Office,” Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, E.C.  ‘ERTS SN 1 4 3.8 Che #Huthbor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vou. IV.—No. 4.] For the Opinions expressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as expressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, sec. a Nees Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. res AGREEMENTS. [ is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agree- ment upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. Inevery other form of business, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. ec. WARNINGS. EADERS of the Author and members of the Society R are earnestly desired to make the following warnings as widely known as possible. They are based on the experience of nine years’ work by which the dangers to which literary property is especially exposed have been discovered :— 1. SeR1AL Riauts.—In selling Serial Rights stipulate that you are selling the Serial Right for one paper at a certain time only, otherwise you may find your work serialized for years, to the detriment of your volume form. VOL. Iv. SEPTEMBER 1, 1893. [Price SIxPence. 2. STAMP YOUR AGREEMENTS. — Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £10 must be paid before the agree- ment can be used as a legal document. In almost every case brought to the secretary the agreement, or the letter which serves for one, is forwarded without the stamp. The author may be assured that the other party to the agree- ment never neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at no expense to themselves except the cost of the stamp. 3. ASCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES TO BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.—Remember that an arrangement as toa joint venturein any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 4. LirrrARy AGENTS.—Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 5. Cost or Propuction.-—Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 6. CHOICE oF PuBLIsHERS.—Never enter into any cor- respondence with publishers, especially with those who ad- vertise for MSS., who are not recommended by experienced friends or by this Society. 7. Futurr Worx.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 8. Royaury.—Never accept any proposal of royalty until you have ascertained what the agreement, worked out on both a small and a large sale, will give to the author and what to the publisher. 9g. PERSONAL RisK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. 10. RusecteD MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. 11. AMERICAN Riaurs.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. If the publisher insists, take away the MS. and offer it to another. K 2 112 12. Cesston or CopyrigHt.—Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTS.—Keep control over the advertise- ments, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agree- ment. Reserve a veto. If you are yourself ignorant of the _ subject, make the Society your adviser. 14. NevER forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do with business men. Be yourself a business man. Society's Offices :-— 4, PORTUGAL STREET, Lincoun’s Inn FIELDs. Secs HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. 1. Every member has a right to advice upon his agree- ments, his choice of a publisher, orany dispute arising inthe conduct of his business or the administration of his pro- perty. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not seruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This isin order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. Remember that there are certain houses which live entirely by trickery. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE. EMBERS are informed : 1. That the Authors’ Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. With, when necessary, the assistance of the legal advisers of the Syndi- cate, it concludes agreements, collects royalties, examines and passes accounts, and generally relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. 2. That the expenses of the Authors’ Syndicate are defrayed mainly out of the commission charged on rights placed through its intervention. This charge is reduced to the lowest possible amount compatible with efficiency. In consequence of the immense number of MSS. received, it has become necessary to charge a small booking fee to cover postage and porterage expenses, in all cases where there is no current account. 3. That the Authors’ Syndicate works for none but those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the business of the Syndicate is not to advise members of the Society, but to manage their affairs for them. 5. That the Syndicate can only undertake arrangements of any character on the distinct understanding that those arrangements are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all negotiations relating thereto are referred to it. 6. That clients can only be seen personally by appoint- ment, and that, when possible, at least four days’ notice should be given. The work of the Syndicate is now s0 heavy, that only a limited number of interviews can be arranged. 7. That every attempt is made to deal with the corre- spondence promptly, but that owing to the enormous number of letters received, some delay is inevitable. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 8. That the Authors’ Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence, and does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice. 9. The Editor will be glad to receive the titles of pub- lished novels available for second right serial use. Tt is announced that, by way of a new departure, the Syndicate has undertaken arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that a “Transfer Department,” for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals, has been opened ; and that a “ Register of Wants and Wanted” has been opened. Terms on application to the Manager. There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services will be called upon in any case of dispute or difficulty. It is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in the Syndicate. —_—— rs NOTICES. hae Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year.  THE AUTHOR. The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and communications on all subjects connected with literature from members and others. Nothing can do more good to the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write? Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year? If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker’s order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members aré most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (7). It is a most foolish and a most disastrous thing to bind yourself to anyone for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign themselves into literary bondage for three or five years ? Those who possess the “Cost of Production” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands at £9 4s. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer’s, or a binder’s, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “ Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher’s own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. 113 LITERARY PROPERTY. L Tue Protection or AutHors’ Ricuts IN GERMANY. HE Congress of German Journalists and Authors, which met at Munich in the second week of July, dealt, among other things, with the question of the protection of the rights of authors and “ mental property” (Das Urheberrecht and Das geistige Eigenthum). The result of the deliberations on this subject was embodied in the form of a projet de lot, or bill, which has been addressed to the Legislatures of all the States in the German Empire, with a recommendation from the Congress that it should be passed into law. The following is a transla- tion of the proposed measure: Sect. 1. The rights of authors comprise (a) the protection of every author in his personal relations to the intellectual work produced by him, and (6) mental property. Sect. 2. As mental property within the meaning of the present law is to be regarded every intellectual creation (getstige Schipfung) which has been put forth in external form. Any part, too, of a mental work is to be treated as such, if, when taken by itself, it represents a mental creation. Productions which result from working up or remodelling (existing works), and which are not new creations, are only to be treated as mental works in so far as the original creation does not come into con- sideration. Sect. 3. Every author is protected, according to the provisions of the present law, against unauthorised dealings with the mental work produced by him. Sect. 4. The following proceedings, when entered upon without the assent of the author, are to be regarded as unlawful dealings with a mental work: (1) the publication of any mental work not yet published; (2) enlarging the com- pass of a publication or changing the mode of publication ; (3) making any change whatever in a mental work. Sect. 5. In the absence of any special reserva- tion, the assent of an author is deemed to have been tacitly given for the reproduction of political articles and political speeches in newspapers, and likewise for quoting any special portion of a mental work in independent works devoted to a particular scientific or pedagogic object. Sect. 6. The reproduction of public transactions, as well as the publication of any State docu- ments and of any announcements made by the public authorities, is free.  114 THE Sect. 7. The author of a mental work, or his successors according to law, possess a mental pro- perty in such work. Mental property is the right of the exclusive and unrestricted economic owner- ship and disposal of a mental work. Sect. 8. Mental property is divisible in so far as various methods of deriving economic advantage from a mental work, can be pursued at the same time and independently of each other. Sect. 9. Mental property may be transferred, wholly or in part, from one living person to another, or on account of death. The use of mental property may also be granted for a pecu- niary consideration (usufruct) or it may be pledged (or mortgaged). Sect. 10. Those illegal dealings with 4 mental work which are designed to make a profit out of it, or which are detrimental to the mental owner’s interest in the property, or which injure the economic value of a mental work, are to be regarded as encroachments upon such mental property. Sect. 11. Mental property of which no use has been made tor thirty years 1s to be held to have been renounced. This assumption may, however, be invalidated at any time by a declaration on the part of the mental owner (claiming his former property) but without prejudice to the rights that any third person may have acquired in the meantime. Mental property expires after having been actually utilised for thirty years. Sect. 12. In contracts, the purpose of which is to transfer, utilise, or otherwise make money on mental property, the following regulations will have force in the absence of other arrangements between the contracting parties—first, during the life of the author, the rights derived from a contract, to deal with a mental work are only to be exercised in accordance with the consent given by the author (sects. 3 to 6 of this draft); second, after the death of the author, third parties, in dealing with a mental work, are only restricted in reference to the mental property. Sect. 13. Unlawful dealings with a mental work as contemplated in- paragraphs 3 to 6 of this statute are punished with a money fine up to 15,000 marks (£750), or by arrest or imprison- ment up to six months. A criminal prosecution is only to be undertaken when proposed by the author. Sect. 14. If the author proposes it, any person who is guilty of a transgression against the 13th paragraph of this statute, may be condemned by the Court to pay to the author such compensa- tion as it may think fit to impose. AUTHOR. Sect. 15. If the author should propose it, the publication of a sentence may be ordered in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 200 of the (German) Criminal Law Book. Sect. 16. Whoever, for the purpose of secur- ing to himself or to any other person a pecuniary advantage in violation of the law, encroaches on the mental property of another (paragraphs 7, et seq. of this statute) shall be punished with imprisonment. The attempt to do this is also ~ punishable. Sect. 17. The provisions of this statute are also applicable to mental works by foreign authors. Sect. 18. In case this statute clashes with the legal prescriptions of any foreign country, the provisions concerned in the Convention of Berne are to be applied as a constituent part of this law. Sect. 19. The penal prescriptions of this law have no retrospective effect. Sect. 20. Impressions of a mental work pro- duced before the official publication of this law, and which, according to its provisions, are unlaw- ful, may, if bearing an official stamp prior to this statute coming into force, be circulated afterwards in case the mental proprietor does not prefer to acquire them by payment of the cost of their production. Sect. 21. The benefit derived from an amplifi- cation of a piece of mental property belongs to the mental proprietor. The person who is to be regarded as such proprietor is determined in accordance with the contracts that have been entered into. II. Cost or PropuctTion. An account received only recently for a book published a short time ago is instructive in com- parison with the prices given in the “Cost of Production.” The book contained twenty-four sheets, printed in small pica, 272 words to the page (see “ Cost. of Production,” p. 27). The following are the accounts (1) as furnished by the publisher, whose figures there is no intention of questioning ; (2) as given in our estimate. The edition was of L000 copies. (1.) Publisher’s account : £ s. da. Composition and printing... ... ... 62 4 9 Paper a a Moulding 6. 4. ee Binding 700 at 83d. i 24 IS fo  THE AUTHOR. 11s (2.) As by the “Cost of Production,” altered for the number of words in the page. & s. ad Composition and printing ... 53.120 apene 68 2t 12 0 Woutdmo 6 ©: © Binding 700 at 4d. a vol. ... Tr 134 The binding actually used was much superior to that contemplated in the estimate, which was a perfectly plam boarding. Moreover, since our estimate, binding, as we have elsewhere stated, has gone up some 15 per cent. It will be seen, therefore, that our estimate was very nearly that charged for printing and paper ; and that the moulding was much lower than in our estimate. eo OMNIUM GATHERUM FOR SEPTEMBER. Subjects for Treatment. — The Red-legged Partridge ; the Local Guide Book; the Compara- tive Value of Sea, Lake, and River Bathing; Facilities for Riding Lessons in public schools; the Abolition of Second Class Railway Carriages ; the Printers’ Reader; a Bray September; ‘“ Not to be forwarded ” ; a Short Way with the Game, or Single-barrelled Guns for New Beginners. V’s for U’s.—In many inscriptions the curious habit of carving a “v’’ where a “u” is needed (e.g., Publicvm for Putlicum) has been, and is still (see, e.g., the new Shaftesbury fountain in Piceadilly-arcus) in vogue. The cause of this is believed to be either the ease of the lapidary or an unreasoning fondness for the art of ancient Rome, but surely the habit is an abnormally foolish one. And for that matter, why have Latin inscriptions at all? Lady Burton’s Book.—An entrancing bio- graphy, but sadly marred, as pointed out in the Athenzum review, by interpolations of letters to newspapers and other superfluous matter of every kind. Could not all this (except the one letter from Lady Burton to her mother in defence of her engagement) be swept out, and the reader swept along through Lady Burton’s picturesque pages without a check ? The Bill of Fare.—‘ French,” it is observed in the preface to Liddell and Scott’s Greek Lexicon, “is confessedly the language of mathematics,” and, it may be added, that it is also the language of light comedy. But it is only historically the language of cookery, and I submit that the time is come, for us in England at all events, to re- place “ menu” (a hard word for English lips) by “bill of fare,” and for the dishes served to substi- tute English titles for French. Few, indeed, are the cases where, as with ennui (by which we “ let the French translate the awful yawn which sleep cannot abate”), a title other than English for a dish or set of dishes is necessary or desirable. Hors d’ceuvres might perhaps be rendered by “ uncooked morsels.” At any rate, every kind of fish or bird should be Englished. Fairly good render- ings can be found in Mrs. Matthew Clarke’s translation of the 366 menus of the Baron Brisse ; but the whole work of producing English bills of fare (which I respectfully commend to the atten- tion of the cooks of English speakingdom) is one requiring a rare combination of culinary know- ledge and linguistic skill. Spooks.—Beyond all doubt these are greatly on the increase. Hven Miss Yonge and Miss Cole- ridge in the Monthly Packet must needs have their ghost story. I myself have seen three appa- ritions of persons well known to me during the last fortnight, and have carefully noted the hour (2.45 a.m. in one case, 3.15 a.m. in another, and 3.47 a.m. in the third), but the persons them- selves were and are alive. This strange expe- rience ought to be chronicled ;* if only to depart from “ the method” (I quote from Bacon’s Novum Organom, par. 46, Kitchin’s translation) “of almost every superstition, as in astrology. in dreams, omens, judgments, and the like, in which men who take pleasure in such vanities as these attend to the event when it is a fulfilment, but where they fail (though it be much the more fre- quent case) there they neglect the instance, and pass it by.” The Authors’ Club.—The library of this club is not quite up to the mark of its dinners. J. M. Lety. Ce THE LITERARY CONFERENCE OF CHICAGO, (Reprinted from the Times.) HE Literary Congress held at Chicago from July 10 to July 15 was divided into five departments or sections, named respectively after the Authors, the Librarians, History, Philo- logy, and Folk Lore. All these separate confer- ences were held simultaneously at the Art Insti- * By the way, are they rhymed with “snooks” or with “books,” &c.? The author of the cruelly clever lines in Punch, or the London Charivari for Aug. 5 has boldly rhymed them with ‘“ Cooks;’’ but he may have been a Lincolnshire man.  116 tute, a large and convenient pbuilding in the city itself, and not in the buildings of the Exhibition itself, which, as everybody knows, is seven miles distant from the city. There were many advantages in this arrangement. The congress, although an integral part of the programme of the World’s Fair, belonged to the city rather than to the Exhibition ; it could hardly be expected that the general run of visitors at the latter—as yet mainly Americans from the Mississippi Valley and the west—would care to assist at discussions on copyright, on realism in Art, or on the rela- tions of literature and journalism. Moreover, a congress must have its social side, and in 4 mere summer camp. such as_ that created by the temporary hotels round the Worlds Fair, there can be no social side at all. Therefore the librarians and authors and folk-lorists met quietly and peacefully in the halls of the Art Institute ; their papers were read before an audience largely composed of Chicago ladies, and their proceedings were only interrupted by the bells of the tram and the electric trolly and by the horn of the railway train—noises which in an American city must not be considered as any interruption, because they are part and parcel of the city itself, just as in medieval times London boasted its mingled roar of many industries, church bells and rum- bling wheels, which could be heard as far off as the slopes of Highgate. The project of a Literary Conference was first formed in the autumn of last year, when a rough draft of the proceedings was drawn up and sent about tentatively to literary men and women of America and Great Britam. At first the re- sponse was extremely disappointing. Very few writers took up the scheme at all; still fewer offered to send papers; none, at first, proposed to be present in person, It seemed as if the pro- posed Conference must fall through because there would be no authors to confer. Two fortunate accidents saved it. In London, the Society of Authors thought that good might come out of such a public Conference and offered to send papers on some of the more practical subjects proposed, leaving the ornamental part to the Americans themselves. Two members of the Society also offered to attend the Conference as delegates, if possible. At the same moment it occurred to a few literary men in New York, for much the same reasons, that the Congress ought to meet with the support of American authors. They therefore formed themselves into a committee, of which Oliver Wendell Holmes, in order to emphasize the importance of the occasion, was invited to become nominal chair- man, On the list of the committee are the well- known names of Aldrich, Cable, Furness, Gilder, THE AUTHOK. Howells, Higginson, Stedman, and Dudley Warner, while Professor Woodbury, of Columbia College, acted as secretary. The result of their labours, together with those of the English society, was that the Congress became a truly representative meeting, and that most of the papers produced were written by men whose experience in the subjects treated and whose position in the world of letters entitled them at least to a respectful hearing. The editor of the Dial, a literary and critical paper of Chicago— Mr. Francis F. Browne—was the chairman of the local organising committee, and there was ap- pointed a women’s auxiliary committee, on which, among others, was Miss Harriet Monroe, the author of the ode spoken on the opening of the Exhibition. What is the good of holding such a Conference ? A certain English man of letters has asked this question, adding, as his answer, that an author has notuing to do but to sell his wares and have done with it. But suppose he will not sell his wares and so have done with it. Suppose he understands—what many men of letters seem totally unable to understand—that his wares may represent a considerable, even a great, property, which is going to yield a steady return for many years; that he ought no more to sell this property “and have done with it” than he would sell a rich mine, or a mill, or a row of houses, and have done with it, unless for a consideration based on business principles. To such as understand this axiom—i.e., to all who are concerned in the material interests of literature—such a Conference may prove of the greatest possible use. _ For instance, among the questions to be con- sidered were (1) all those relating to copyright, international and domestic; (2) all those which relate to the administration of literary property ; (3) all those which are concerned with literature itself{—its past, its present, its tendency. In this paper 1 purposely keep the third branch in the background, because, unless a Congress is to attempt the function of an Academy, this must be either an ornamental section or the battle- ground of opinions and fashions of the day. Tt is manifest that the first two branches may be most important to those concerned with literary property—too. often any one but the producer and creator of it. There is, however, another point. It is greatly to be desired that those who belong to the literary profession should from time to time gather together and recognise the fact that they do belong to a common calling. Hitherto the author, though he calls himself a man of letters, has been too apt to refuse the recognition of a profession or calling of letters. He has sat apart—alone ; nay, in many cases his  fv THE only recognition of his brethren has been a cheap sneer or a savage gibe. To this day there remain a few of those of whom Churchill wrote, who can never speak of their brethren but with bitter- ness or derision. Sucha man at such a Conference is out of place; much more important. his very existence comes to be recognised as an anachro- nism: he will no longer be tolerated. Another kind of literary man is he who is con- tinually inveighing against the baseness of con- necting literature with lucre. He appears in this country, on an average, once a year, with his stale and conventional rubbish. Where this kind of talk is sincere, if ever it is sincere— mostly it comes from those who have hitherto failed to connect literature with lucre—it rests upon a confusion of ideas. That is to say, it confuses the intellectual, artistic, literary worth of a book with its commercial value. But the former is one thing, the latter is another. They are not commensurable. The former has no value which can be expressed in guineas, any more than the beauty of a sunset or the colours of a rainbow. The latter may be taken as a measure of the popular taste, which should, but does not always, demand the best books. No one, therefore, must consider that a book necessarily fails because the demand for it is small; nor, on the other hand, is it always just or useful to deride the author of a successful book because it is successful. In the latter case the author has perhaps done his best; it is the popular judg- ment that should be reproved and the popular taste which should be led into a truer way. A book, rightly or wrongly, then, may bea thing worth money—a property, an estate. It is the author’s property unless he signs it away; and since any book, in the uncertainty of the popular judgment, may become a valuable pro- perty, it is the author’s part to safeguard his property, and not to part with it without due consideration and consultation with those who have considered the problem. And it is the special function of such a Conference to lay down the data of the problem, and so to help in pro- ducing, if possible, a solution. But as for the question—is it sordid, is it base, for an author— a genius—to look after money? Well, a popular author is not always a genius. But even those who are admitted to have some claim to the possession of genius have generally been very careful indeed with regard to the money pro- duced by their writings. Scott, Byron, Moore, Dickens, George Eliot, Thackeray, Trollope, Tennyson, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade—almost every man, or woman, of real distinction in letters can be shown to have been most careful about the money side of his books. It is left for VOL. IV. AUTHOR. 1T] the unsuccessful, for the shallow pretenders, or for some shady publisher’s hack, to ery out upon the degradation of letters when an author is advised to look after his property. Let us simply reply that what has not degraded the illustrious men who have gone before will not degrade those smaller men, their successors. The Conference called together in order to throw the light of publicity upon these and similar questions held its first meeting, its open- ing meeting, on the evening of Monday, July to. The speeches were complimentary; the English delegates, Dr. Sprigge, formerly secretary of our Authors’ Society, and myself, were duly welcomed, and we separated till the next morning. The subject of the first day’s conference was literary copyright, under the presidency of the Hon. George H. Adams. This meeting was from the practical point of view the most useful of any. The chairman asked for a fair trial of the present International Copyright Bill; he admitted, how- ever, that the tendency was growing more and more in favour of giving the author larger and fuller rights over his own book. Then one of the papers brought over by the English delegates was read—that by Sir Henry Bergne on the Berne Convention of 1887, in which the author, after explaining what was meant by that convention, earnestly invited America to send a delegate to the Convention of 1894. Mr. George Cable, the novelist, of Louisiana, read a paper in which, among other points, he contended that authors have a right to demand nothing more than “ what will be best for the whole people.” As it is certainly best for the whole people that every man should enjoy what is his own, we may cordially agree with Mr. Cable. Mr. Gilder, the editor of the Century, made a forcible appeal in his paper for an extension of the term of copyright. The important paper of the day followed, one which was for the most part quite new to the audience—that, namely, by Dr. Sprigge on the copyright question in Great Britain. No one had suspected or realised the present condition of muddle and mess in which this important subject now stands in our country. The speaker analysed and explained the new Bill already read by Lord Monkswell in the House of Lords and drafted by the Copyright Committee of the Society of Authors. He pointed out that it is intended in this Bill to reduce eighteen separate Acts, all confused and contradictory, which now contain the law of copyright, such as it is, into one comprehensive and intelligible Act. The principal clauses of that Act are (1) the adoption of a uniform term of copyright—the author’s life and thirty years beyond—for every class of work; (2) the right of abridgment to L  118 remain with the author—this is the so-called “ mutilation ” clause, not intended to trespass at all on the fair right of fair quotation, but to pro- tect the author from such mutilation of his work as in his opinion is calculated to injure the book or himself; (3) the right of a novelist to dramatise a story, and the converse; (4) the period for which the proprietor of a magazine may keep an article locked up to be reduced from twenty-eight years to three ; (5) registration to be compulsory; this provision, for instance, would enable officials to enforce the law of piracy by giving them a list of books which must not be pirated; at present there is no such list ; (6) provision for the seizure of piratical books. Mr. R. R. Bowker, whose paper was read on the following day, advocated, among other things, the protection of the author by making it illegal to sell a copyright for more than a limited period, so that the author should not be allowed by law to give away for a song a work which in after years may perhaps become a property of great value to himself or to his heirs. The following day, under my own presidency, a paper was read by myself—(1) on the history of the relations between author and publisher ; and (2) on the recent investigations of the British Society into the meaning, the extent, and the value of literary property. In this paper I ven- tured to offer a solution of the difficulties now existing in the administration of literary property —a solution advanced solely as a personal sug- gestion, and in no way pretending to represent the official opinion of our Society. Papers on the same questions were read by Mr. Maurice Thomp- son, a Western poet, and Mr. Stanley Waterloo, a Western novelist. Papers by Sir Frederick Pol- lock (a paper which had already appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette), by Mr. J. M. Lely, barrister-at-law, by Mr. W. Morris Colles on “ Syndicating,” and by Mr. J. Stuart Glennie on “The Necessity of a Trades Union,” were read for the writers, in their absence. The absence of all the American publishers from this day’s Conference was marked, with ominous consent they stayed away from the discussion. It may be noted, however, that the position of the American author is not so independent of the publisher as with us. In the States most literary men either have some interest in a publishing house, or they are the salaried servants of pub- lishers; with us in England it is, of course, exceptional, though not unknown, to find a suc- cessful man of letters taking a salary from a publisher. These were the two meetings of the chief import- ance. Then followed other meetings at which papers were read upon purely literary points. THE AUTHOR. Charles Dudley Warner (president of the Critical Section), John Burroughs, Professor Moses Coit Tyler, Miss Marian Harland, Miss Molly Seawell, “Margaret Sidney,” Eugene Field, George Cable, “Octave Thanet,” Mrs. Catherwood, Mrs. Anna Rohlfs, and Thomas Nelson Page among the Americans read papers. Among English authors papers were read from Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, on the future of the drama; from Mr. H. D. Traill, on the relations of literature to journalism ; and from Mr. Douglas Sladen, on realism. If it is the intention of the promoters of this Congress that the papers should be edited, condensed, pub- lished, and sent to all the libraries of the United States and Great Britain, the Conference cannot fail to do great good by calling attention to the various points for which the English Society of Authors is responsible for bringing them to light. The Congress of Literature was held at Chicago ata fitting moment. It may be taken as the inauguration of a new Literature which has just begun to spring up in the West; a Literature of which I for one was profoundly ignorant until I learned about it on the spot. At present it exists chiefly in promise; but if it is a bantling, it is a vigorous bantling. In what direction this new Literature of the West will develop it would be quite impossible, even for one who knows the conditions of Western life, to predict. Enough to place on record for the moment, the fact that there has sprung. into existence during the last year or two a company of new writers wholly belonging to the West. All over the broad valley of the Mississippi and on the Western prairies there are farmers im vast numbers living for the most part in solitary homesteads; their chief recreation is reading ; there are also small towns and villages by the thousand; places whose population is between one and two thousand, in every one of which will be found a ladies’ literary society and a library. The former holds meetings, receives papers, and is, generally, a centre of a certain intellectual activity; for the latter, the ladies who manage it endeavour to procure as many new books as possible. The whole of this enormous district, together with the North-West country—Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba — contains as many readers as there are people. Hitherto they have read the literature of England and the Eastern States. They are now beginning to create their own. To meet this newly-born literature, there has been established in Chicago a large number of publishing houses—more than fifty. If we remember that the Directory shows for London, the centre of the book trade for the whole British Empire, no more than 400 pub- e  Se THE AUTHOR. lishers, speaking from memory, and not more than twenty-five or so who may be considered by literary men as serious and responsible pub- lishers, the fifty of Chicago may be taken to represent a very considerable bulk of business. They are publishers of various kinds, as we find in London—good and bad; those who sail near the wind and those who sail at large. One of them, for instance, has done me the honour to put my name to a work which I never saw, and to advertise it as a new book by myself. Others of them, owing to the trouble and expense of bringing the long arm of the law upon them, too often ignore the law of international copyright, and “chance it.” There are, how- ever, honourable firms, as is reported by those who ought to know, among the Chicago publishers. Meantime, what concerns us is that there has arisen, quite unknown to ourselves and not yet reported, so far as I know, by any literary paper, a new centre of publishing, and a new company of literary men and women. How great this new branch of Letters has already become may be inferred from the fact that some of the recent books issued by Chicago houses have arrived at sales numbering nearly 100,000—comparing favourably with the greatest successes of English books—and that I learned from one writer of standing and reputation that a work of his, beginning with one edition of 4000, has now gone, within a short period of three months, and apparently with a local success alone, to 18,000. Again, when the writing of books was first attempted in the West by the sons of the original settlers, it was with self- distrust and trepidation. They published their books by subscription; the men who managed their business for them have mostly retired with handsome fortunes. As I have heard no com- plaints from the authors, it may be supposed that they, too, have retired with handsome fortunes. But this I doubt. Some of the names of these western writers have gone eastward and have even reached English shores. Most of them, however, are as yet unknown. There are already about a hun- dred, or perhaps more, who are known in the West as writers. Whitcombe Ryley, Maurice Thompson, Eugene Field, Harriet Munroe—who wrote the Ode on the opening of the Exhibition —and W. V. Byers are among the poets. From the rest I learn the names of Sladen Thompson, Hamlin Garland, Opie Reid, and Stanley Water- loo. The most popular author is Opie Reid, novelist and writer of short stories of Western life. His best book is a highly successful work called “The Kentucky Colonel.” Mr Stanley Waterloo has also written a novel which is now, VOL. Iv. 119 deservedly, I believe, enjoying a very considerable success, called ‘“‘ An Odd Situation.” The works of these writers are said to be characterised, as one would expect, by vigour rather than by style. I have not yet read any of their books, because I do not desire in this place to criticise the works, but only to note the point that a new literature is beginning, free from the old English traditions and the continuity which makes Holmes and Longfellow direct suc- cessors of Goldsmith and Pope. It will also be quite free from the old traditions of publishing, and may make a departure of its own on condi- tions to be laid down by an association of their own. I have talked, further, with one of the leading Chicago publishers, and I found him ready to discuss the whole question openly and fairly; and, above all, ready at the outset to concede the principles for which our own Society has always contended—the right of audit; the right of open dealing, so that both parties to the agreement may know what it means to both sides; the absolute abolition of secret profits ; and the recognition of the simple moral law that he who secretly falsifies his partner’s accounts to his own advantage is—whatever you please to call him. On these points my Chicago friend had no doubts whatever. Wauter Besant. Fao eet —____. ___ THE BRITISH AUTHORS SOCIETY AND THE RELATIONS OF AUTHOR AND PUB- LISHER. (A Paper read before the Literary Congress of Chicago by WALTER BESANT.) EFORE I proceed to the main subject of this paper, which is the actual relation existing in Great Britain between authors and publishers, [ beg permission to read a brief apology for considering the material side of literature at all. I do so because one of the greatest difficulties with which our Society of Authors has had to contend is the charge of sordidness in considering money in connection with literature. I do not know whether that prejudice exists here. I hope not. In my own country it vanishes from the mind of a man of letters the moment that he finds his work to possess a marketable value. I venture, however, in case there may be any here to-day who think that a man of letters must not take thought for the commercial side of his work, must not inquire who is to enjoy the property created by his brain, to read a few words from an address delivered by myself to the English Society of Authors in L2 120 December last. What I then said was as follows :— «There has existed for 150 years at least, and there still lingers among us, a feeling that it is unworthy the dignity of letters to take any account at all of the commercial or pecuniary side. No one, you will please to remark, has ever thought of reproaching the barrister, the solicitor, the physician, the surgeon, the painter, the sculptor, the actor, the singer, the musician, the composer, the architect, the chemist, the physicist, the engineer, the professor, the teacher, the clergyman, or any other kind of brain worker that one can mention, with taking fees or salaries or money for his work; nor does anyone reproach these men with looking after their fees and getting rich if they can. Nor does anyone suggest that to consider the subject of payment very carefully—to take ordinary precautions against dishonesty—brings discredit on anyone who does so; nor does anyone call that barrister unworthy of the Bar who expects large fees in proportion to his name and his ability ; nor does anyone call that painter a mere tradesman whose price advances with his reputation. I beg you to consider this point very carefully. For the moment any author begins to make a practical investigation into the value—the monetary value —of the work which he puts upon the market—a hundred voices arise from those of his own craft as well as from those who live by administering his property—voices which cry out upon the sordidness, the meanness, the degradation of turning literature into a trade. We hear, I say, this kind of talk from our own ranks—though, one must own, chiefly from those who have never had an opportunity of discovering what literary property means, Does, I ask, this cry mean any- thing at all? Should it be considered ? Should we pay any attention at all to it? Well, first of all, it manifestly means a confusion of ideas. There are two values of literary work—distinct, separate ; not commensurable—they cannot be measured—they cannot be considered together. The one is the literary value of a work—its artistic, poetic, dramatic value; its value of accuracy, of construction, of presentation, of novelty, of style, of magnetism. On that value is based the real position of every writer in his own generation, and the estimate of him, should he survive, for generations to follow. I do not greatly blame those who cry out upon the connec- tion of literature with trade; they are jealous, and rightly jealous, for the honour of letters. We will acknowledge so much. But the confu- sion lies in not understanding that every man who takes money for whatever he makes or does may be regarded, in a way, and not offensively, as THE AUTHOR. a tradesman; but that the artistic worth of a thing need have nothing whatever to do with the the price it will command; and that the com- mercial value in the case of a book cannot be measured by the literary or artistic value. “ Tn other words, while an artist is at work upon a poem, a drama, or a romance, this aspect of his work, and this alone, is in his mind, otherwise his work would be naught. “But, once finished and ready for production, then comes in the other value—the commercial value, which is a distinct thing. Here the artist ceases and the man of business begins. Either the man of business begins at this point or the next steps of that artist infallibly bring him to disaster, or at least the partial loss of that com- mercial value. Remember that any man who has to sell a thing must make himself acquainted with its value, or he will be—what? Call what you please—over-reached, deluded, cheated. That is a recognised rule in every other kind of business. Let us do our best to make it recog- nised in our own. « Apart from this confusion of ideas between literary and commercial value, there is another anda secondary reason for this feeling. For 200 years, at least, contempt of every kind has been poured upon the literary hack, who is, poor wretch, the unsuccessful author. Why? We do not pour contempt upon the unsuccessful painter who has to make the pot boil with pictures at 15s. each. Clive Newcome came down to that, and a very pitiful, tearful scene in the story it is—full of pity and of tears. If he had been a literary hack, where would have been the pity and the tears? In my experience at the Society, 1 have come across many most pitiful cases, where the man who has failed is doomed to lead a life which is one long tragedy of grinding, miserable, underpaid work, with no hope and no relief possible. One long tragedy of endurance and hardship. I am not accusing anyone ; I call no names; very likely such a man gets all he deserves ; his are the poor wages of incompetence ; his is the servitude of the lowest work ; his is the contumely of hopeless poverty ; his is the derision of the critic. But we laugh at such a wretch, and call him a literary hack. Why, I ask, when we pity the unsuccessful in every other line, do we laugh at and despise the unsuccessful author ? “Onee more, this contempt—real or pretended —for money. What does it mean? Sir Walter Scott did not despise the income which he made by his books; nor did Byron, nor did Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Charles Reade, Wilkie Collins, Macaulay—nor, in fact, any single man or woman in the history of letters who has ever  THE AUTHOR. succeeded. This pretended contempt, then, only belongs to those who have not succeeded. It is sometimes assumed by them; more often one finds it in articles written for certain papers by sentimental ladies who are not authors. Where- ever it is found, it is always lingering somewhere —always we come upon this feeling, ridiculous, senseless, and baseless—that it is beneath the dignity of an author to manage his business matters as a man of business should, with the same regard for equity in his agreement, the same resolution to know what is meant by both sides of an agreement, and the same jealousy as to assigning the administration of his property. “Again, how did the contempt arise? It came to us as a heritage of the last century. In the course of our investigations into the history of literary property — the result of which will, I hope, appear some day in a volume form—TI recently caused a research to be made into the business side of literature in the last century. Publishers were not then men of education and knowledge, as many of them are at the present moment; they were not advised by scholars, men of taste and intuition; the market, compared with that of the present day, was inconceivably small; there were great risks due to all these causes. The practice, therefore, was, in view of these risks, to pay the author so much for his book right out, and to expect a suc- cessful book to balance, and more than balance, one that was unsuccessful. Therefore they bought the books they published at the lowest price they could persuade the author to accept. Therefore—the consequence follows like the next line in Euclid—the author began to appear to the popular imagination as a suppliant standing hat in hand beseeching the generosity of the bookseller. Physician and barrister stood up- right taking the recognised fee. The author bent a humble back, holding his hat in one humble hand, while he held out the other humble hand for as many guineas as he could get. That, J say, was the popular view of the author. And it still lingers among us. There are, in other callings, if we think of it, other professional con- tempts. Everybody acknowledges that teaching is a noble work, but everybody formerly despised the schoolmaster because he was always flogging boys—no imagination can regard with honour and envy the man who is all day long caning and flogging. The law is a noble study, but every- body formerly despised the attorney, with whom the barrister would neither shake hands nor sit at table. . Medicine is a noble study, but the surgeon was formerly despised because in former days he was closely connected with the barber. Do not let us be surprised, therefore, if the author, 12] who had to take whatever was given him, came to be regarded as a poor helpless suppliant.” These words, I repeat, were addressed to our members as an apology for our very existence. If they are not sufficient, if any other apology be needed, I would submit this consideration. Some branches of the literary calling — say, rather, some literary men—demand for their work absolute freedom from every other kind of work. Whether their work is successful or not, good or bad, popular or unpopular, it must absorb all their day, all their thoughts, all their strength. They must live by their work, whether they live poorly or richly. They must live upon it. Now, the whole history of letters shows that the best work has been always produced under the influence of a certain material well- bemg. The most illustrious writers in our lan- guage—whether Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dry- den, Pope, Fielding, Smollett, Johnson, Words- worth, Coleridge, Lamb, Scott, Washington Irving, Longfellow, Emerson, Lowell, Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Browning— have written from their own studies, in physical ease, with little thought about the morrow’s dinner ; yet all witha certain driving of necessity. Thackeray could never sit down and say, “I will only write when I feel disposed to write.” Had he been able to say it, the world would have been the poorer by the ‘‘ Newcomes ”’ at least. Genius starving; genius mendicant; genius holding out his hand for another guinea from the publisher; genius in rags—genius under these conditions has produced very little work which the world cares to preserve. Who are they—the starving poets—the Budgells and Savages of the last century? They area ragged, drunken company, whose names are already— as well as their work—things of the dead and forgotten past. Like the flowers of the field and hedge, the flowers of literature want sunshine and warm showers, and the soft breezes of summer. We are, then, I hope, agreed to discuss, in the highest interests of literature, its material side. The main facts in the history of publishing are these : a. Publishers, who were also booksellers, began by buying their works of authors for a certain sum. In order to protect them- selves, several joined in the—then real— risk. b. Authors sometimes issued their books by subscription—a very good plan, which seems still capable of wide application. ce. The plan of sharing profits was introduced towards the end of the last century.  122 Profits meant the simple difference be- tween proceeds and cost of production. d. The general rule was to share profits equally. There were, however, some authors—e.g., Gibbon—who received two-thirds of the profits. e. This system, which still seems to many the most equitable, fell into disfavour entirely through the practice, secretly introduced about sixty years ago, of secret and fraudulent profits. Publishers began to falsify their accounts. f. Then some form of royalties was invented ; and authors jumped eagerly at this method, being now sure of getting some- thing. g. Observe that no British publisher, even in the most risky venture, has ever dared to claim, as his share, more than half of the profits. But the royalty system now enables him to pocket, unknown to the author, a very much larger share, amount- ing to three and four times the author’s share. h. In purchasing books, some houses withhold from the author the actual value of his work, and pay hima tenth of what they know the book will bring in. Here we come upon another and a wholly unexpected difficulty. This is the difficulty of persuading people, especially our own people, those most interested in it, that there is any such thing as Literary Property. They can’t see it; houses, lands, warehouses full of things, they can see that is property, but—a book or a thousand books— they cannot understand that they mean real, tangible, marketable property; nay, in some cases, like Mr. Thrale’s Brewery, the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, the average person cannot understand. You think, perhaps, that such blindness is impossible. In America you are credited with a keener vision and a stronger common sense than our people possess. Doubtless you can all understand that Literary Property is a very real thing; but I assure you that very many of our literary people cannot. It is in vain that we point out to them publishers who live in great houses ; publishers who die worth great fortunes; publishers, now rich, who, thirty years ago, had nothing at all. They think it is successful gambling that has made them prosperous. They cannot believe in literary property at all. Actually our own brothers—the men who create the property—are rising up against us, saying that it is all very well to talk, but there is no such thing as literary property. THE AUTHOR. If you tell them that certain men by writing history, novels, scientific works, educational works, religious works, have made great fortunes, and are making great incomes, they still cannot understand —they cannot understand that the literary man should be anything but a starving and dependent hack. That view, indeed, was. never wholly true, and is now absolutely futile. I will give you an illustration. The man con- cerned is a very distinguished writer; you all know his name. He was told some time ago that, for his share in a certain work he would receive a certain royalty. “I would rather,” he said, “have a ten pound note down.’ That was his view of literary property. In plain words we have against us certain rooted prejudices. 1. That’ it is beneath the dignity of Literature to consider the question of money. Of course, this opinion has been carefully nursed by those who want to have all the money. 2. That publishing is a great gambling game, and that the production of every book means the risk of an enormous sum of money. 3. That there is no such thing as literary property. 4, That authorship is a beggarly and contemp- tible trade. These prejudices we have found rooted in the minds not only of the outside world at large, but also of the journalists who move the world, and even, in many cases, of those who follow the lite- rary profession. Tt has been the work of the Society of Authors to uproot and destroy these prejudices. So far we have, I think, quite succeeded with the younger generation of writers, but only partially with the old. One writer with a great name—a name that you all respect—has always held aloof fromus. I hayeonly recently discovered the reason. Tt is that he has never succeeded in making any money at all by his own books, and therefore he cannot be persuaded that anybody else can. ‘As for our friends the journalists, they follow the younger men and the newer ideas, and so may be left, and little by little I think that we shall destroy the Grub-street ghost. Grub-street itself is now transformed into a street of warehouses. The denizens of Grub-street shall be transformed into an orderly and clean living race of men who occupy the lower paths of literature. The task which the Society of Authors pro- posed to itself was threefold. First, it desired - to remove these prejudices and ignorances con- cerning the literary calling; next to expose and to present to men and women of letters the mean-  THE AUTHOR. ing and condition of literary property and the actual share possessed by those who create that property ; thirdly, to maintain the rights of lite- rary men over their own property; and, lastly, to establish the material side of literature upon an equitable basis, or, at least, on a basis recognised and accepted by authors and publishers alike as satisfying the claims of both. The Society has been in existence for eight years. What it has done so far I will tell you immediately. What it is in point of members and of numbers you ought first to know. It contains, to begin with, over a thousand members. We have not, of late, published a list of members and, for many reasons, we shall not publish a list. A very common charge is made against us by our enemies, who are the fraudulent members of the publishing trade, that wedo not contain in our body the leading men and women of the day. Very well! I will suppose this charge to have been made in this place. Who, let me ask, are the leading men of the day ? [Here followed a list of the principal members of the Society, which can here be omitted. ] In short, the Society has attracted to itself by far the greater number of the better kind of living English writers, and the fact that at every meeting we elect more members proves, not only that we are trying to do work that was wanted, but that we are trying in a way that recommends itself to these leaders. There are our leaders and our officers. In the rank and file of our regiment are many menand women that you have never heard of, many that you will never hear of. In the same way there are hundreds called to the Bar who never achieve distinction, and hundreds ordained to the Church who do not become leaders and prophets. There must be everywhere rank and file. We admit all those who call themselves literary mean and women without question. In our profession more than any other, out of the ranks will step forth the officers of the future. We should not be a representative body did we not number those who only carvy a rifle as well as those who carry a sword. I want you, this day, to accept the British Society of Authors as, in fact, it is—the only existing representative body of modern British literature. The first difficulty which met us was our own ignorance of the meaning of things. What did a book cost to produce? What should be spent in advertising it? What is the price of it to the retail trade? Until we had learned these things —-apparently quite simple things—it was useless attempting anything. We therefore attacked the printer, and after, considerable difficulty and labour and getting estimates from many people, 128 we succeeded at arriving ata fair. average esti- mate of the cost of almost every kind of book, with the average amounts actually expended in advertising them and the actual price to the retail trade. This knowledge we did not keep to ourselyes—we printed it and published it, greatly to the benefit and advantage of authors. This so-called ‘‘ Cost of Production”—a copy of which I lay before you—is a little book, the figures of which, though only approximate, are closely approximate. A printer’s bill is an elastic thing. But the figures given in our book have never been seriously attacked ; one publisher who ventured to dispute them was silenced by the offer to conduct the whole of his printing on these terms. We are thus able to consider the question from the same point of view as the other side. We know what any book of any form is going to cost. : The next thing was the application of this knowledge. Our-secretary, Mr. Sprigge, began and conducted exhaustively an examination into all the methods of publication in use. There are, as perhaps you know, a great many. There are the various forms of sharing profits ; there are the various forms of royalty ; there is the purchase of copyright; there is the commission business ; and there are the agreements framed to meet all these forms. In our book called “Methods of Pub- lishing” all these are considered, and the tricks and frauds practised in connection with each are exposed. I have used the words “tricks and frauds.” They are not pretty words. I use them, however, deliberately. I say, “tricks and frauds.” This is not an occasion on which we should disguise the truth, and the melancholy truth is that among British publishers we find, on investiga- tion, that tricks and frauds were widespread. Every kind of trick, every kind of fraud, was carried on with impunity upon the helpless and ignorant author. The accounts were systemati- cally falsified, the cost of everything was over- stated, the profits were swamped by advertising in the publisher’s own magazine, which cost him nothing, or. in other magazines by exchange, which cost him nothing; very large discounts were swept into his own pocket, the sales were understated—in fact, whatever you can imagine in the way of robbery was carried on with impunity, because the author did not know, and there was no one to tell him or to help him, We have stated these facts openly ; we have never tried to conceal them; they have never been denied. All that the sharks have done in reply is to raise the cry that we call all publishers thieves, which is false, because we have never  124 brought any such sweeping charge. We have said, and we shall repeat it, that we have found a widespread system of fraud among publishers. It is still going on, but in a greatly mitigated form. These facts, I say, never have been denied. We did expect, however, that the better-class pub- lishers would, for their own credit, and for the honour of their calling, and out of self-respect and having regard for their own honour, join with us in our attempt to enforce openness and honesty of dealing. They have not done s0. Messrs. Longmans, it is true, most honourably justified the traditions of their house by publicly accepting our claim that all accounts between author and publisher should be open to audit. They now send out vouchers with every account, thereby setting an example to honourable houses which should become a law to all others. With most publishers, however, I am sorry to say that hosti- lity and misrepresentation have met our labours. We are none the worse, collectively or individually, because, as you may also remember to your own advantage, modern literature may be bought, modern authors may be tricked, by publishers— but modern literature is neither created nor con- trolled by them. For the most part they consti- tute a machinery of distribution only, and a machinery which may be changed or placed in other hands at the will of the creators. Should there be any doubt in your minds as to the truth of these statements, you may consider the position. Hitherto a game of blind confidence has been carried on and demanded: the pub- lisher rendered accounts which he refused to have audited: no one must question his word: he alone among living mortals, must hide his books from his partner. That was the position. Next consider the subject of human weakness under such conditions. Is it possible that such a power should be deposited in any man, or body of men, without its abuse? Who among us could resist this temptation in a time of difficulty, when to falsify a few accounts would smooth over every- thing, and could never be found out? Ever since I began to understand the situation I have been inclined to think that there is a certain clause in the Lord’s Prayer which must be uttered by publishers with more than common fervency. Other thieves are sure of being found out—he who falsified an author’s accounts was sure never to be found out. Therefore the temptation to this unfortunate class of persons was far stronger than to other men, and the backslidings have been more frequent. We have, then, therefore taught the world of letters exactly what is meant by the agreements which authors have hitherto signed in ignorance. THE AUTHOR. We have shown them what it costs to produce any kind of book; we have shown what books are sold for to the retail trade; we have shown the profits made by publishers, where agreements are honestly carried out, and what are made by dishonest persons. We have therefore prepared the ground in the minds of authors for the question to be argued on fair grounds, and the data known to both sides—what should be the equitable relations between authors and pub- lishers ? At present, and while this question awaits debate and settlement, we limit our demands to three points— : 1. The right of audit. 2, That in any agreement based on royalties we must know what this agreement gives to either side 3. That there must be no secret profits, 7.e., no falsification of accounts. What else has the Society done during its eight years of existence ? We have investigated and published an account of the administration of the Civil List from its beginning. The Civil List is an anoual grant of £1200 made to literature, science, and art. It is annually diverted from its purpose by successive First Lords of the Treasury, and given to widows of men in the army and navy and civil service. We opened up a correspondence on the subject with the late W. H. Smith, then First Lord of the Treasury. It began with a letter from his private secretary, in. which that gentleman made the astonishing statement that the “ regulations ’ did notallow of any novelists, except historical novelists, being placed upon the List. We pointed out that this rule was not followed in former lists, which we copied for Mr. Smith’s information. This did no good. We then asked Mr. Gladstone if he knew of these regulations. He replied that he did not. We then respectfully invited the First Lord of the Treasury to let us see those regulations. He refused, We then caused certain questions to be asked in the House, when Mr. Smith had to state publicly that, in spite of his private secre- tary’s statement, there were no such regulations. An attempt, therefore, probably made by some subordinate, without Mr. Smith’s knowledge at ‘all, to exclude novelists from the Civil List, was happily defeated. We have made a careful and prolonged inquiry into the very difficult subject of the present nature and extent of literary property. By the passing of the American International Copyright Act a writer of importance in our language may address an audience drawn from a hundred million of English-speaking people. Remember that never before in the history of the  THE world has there been such an audience. There were doubtless more than a hundred millions under the Roman rule round the shores of the Mediterranean, but they spoke many different languages. We have now this enormous multitude, all, with very few exceptions, able to read, and all reading. Twenty years ago they read the weekly paper; there are many who still read nothing more. Now that no longer satisfies the majority. Every day makes it plainer and clearer that we have arrived at a time when the whole of this multitude, which in fifty years time will be two hundred million, will very soon be reading books. What kind of books? All kinds, good and bad, but mostly good; we may be very sure that they will prefer good books to bad. Even now the direct road to popularity is by dramatic strength, clear vision, clear dialogue, whether a man write a play, a poem, a history, or a novel. We see magazines suddenly achieving a_ circulation reckoned by hundreds of thousands while our old magazines creep along with their old circulation of from two to ten thousand? Hundreds of thousands? How is this popularity achieved? Is it by pandering to the low, gross, coarse taste commonly attributed to the multitude? Not at all. It is accomplished by giving them dramatic work—stories which hold and interest them— essays which speak clearly—work that somehow seems to have a message. If we want a formula or golden rule for arriving at popularity, I should propose this. Let the work have a message. Let it have a thing to say, a story to tell, a living man or woman to present, a lesson to deliver, clear, strong, unmistakable. The demand for reading, then, is enormous, and it increases every day. I see plainly—as plainly as eyes can see—a time—it is even now already upon us—when the popular writer—the novelist, the poet, the dramatist, the historian, the physicist, the essayist—will command such an audience—so vast an audience—as he has never yet even conceived as possible. Such a writer as Dickens, if he were living now, would command an audience—all of whom would buy his works—of twenty millions at least. The world has never yet witnessed such a popularity —so wide-spread —as awaits the successor of Dickens in the affections of the English-speaking races. This consideration must surely en- courage us to persevere in our endeavours after the independence of our calling. For you must not think that this enormous demand is for fiction alone. One of the things charged upon our society is that we exist for novelists alone. That is because literary property is not understood at all. Asa fact educational litera- ture isa much larger branch than fiction. But VOL. Iv. AUTHOR. 125 for science, history—everything—except, perhaps poetry — the demand is leaping forward year after year in a most surprising manner. Now, in order to meet this enormous demand, which has actually begun and will increase more and more—a demand which we alone can meet and satisfy—I say that we must claim and that we must have a readjustment of the old machinery —a reconsideration of the old methods—a new appeal to principles of equity and fair play. Well: we have taken another step to assist us in this new appeal. We have founded for our own purposes a paper which is devoted entirely to the accumulation of facts and the dissemination of teaching in our own business relations. This paper has now been running for two years and a half. I have just been turning over the leaves of the paper, and I am amazed at the mass of material that has been brought together and the number of contributors who have assisted in bringing together that mass of material. Expo- sures of swindlers who advertise for MSS.: exposures of iniquitous agreements: discussions on reviews and reviewers: the discovery of tricks : the meanings of royalties: the law as to diffi- cult points which turn up day by day: warnings : advice: controversies—there has never been pub- lished anywhere any paper like our own, so entirely devoted to things which four or five years ago were carefully concealed from us or supposed to be beyond our own province. Add to the books we have published, and the paper we issue, the great fact that our Office has become the recognised Refuge for all who are in trouble or doubt. People come to us for advice on all subjects connected with literary property. The cases always in the Secretary’s hands average at any moment about a dozen. As fast as one is cleared off, another one comes in. The corre- spondence increases daily; from all parts of the country, and from the Colonies, the letters pour in. Our secretary, Mr. Thring, told me, a short time ago, that he dealt with sixty-two cases in six months, all of them being disputes between author and publisher, or author and editor. Of these, thirty were cases in which editors of third-rate journals refused to pay for published contributions, refused to return MSS. offered, or refused to answer letters. Of these thirty, he succeeded in twenty cases ; and in the other ten he failed, either because the paper could not pay, or the author declined to give evidence in court. Of the other thirty-two cases, between auth r and publisher, all, with one or two exceptions, were settled satisfactorily. He had also in his hands the claims of certain ra  126 authors against a bankrupt. These debts he proved, and the dividends which they would otherwise only have obtained by every man employing a solicitor for himself at heavy cost, had been secured for the claimants at no cost to themselves at all, and no trouble. This, then, is something of what we have done for the members of the Society, and for the cause of literature generally, during the nine years of our existence. What has still to be done? First of all, to maintain an attitude of vigilance; and next, to persevere in our attitude of aggression until we succeed in placing the relations of author and publisher on a footing which will be accepted and recognised by honourable men on either side. This done, it will only remain for us to maintain, as I said before, that attitude of vigi- lance, because property cannot be defended once for all. Where riches are stored up thieves will break in and steal. Property of every kind must be always under watch and guard; the Society of Authors has, therefore, come to stay. Next, we have, if possible, to procure this adjustment of the relations between author and publisher. Remember that we have never ques- tioned the right of the latter to a substantial share in the work. The question is, what he does for a book, and what should be his share. So far we have only arrived at vague statements totally unconnected with practical claims. We have been told of enormous risks and frightful losses. We have ascertained that the risk, as a rule, does not exist, and that when it does exist, it is generally very small, and that neither risk nor loss need be encountered by a cautious house. To say that risks are never run would be ridicu- lous, though we are constantly charged with saying so. To say that there are no losses would be ridiculous, but it is certain that with the great majority of publishers the only loss is the failure of expectation, z.e., that the big success fondly anticipated did not arrive. But some answer to these questions must be given. Here is a great body of men and women always producing property of a most valuable character. Very rightly, as we have shown, and for very good cause they are profoundly dissatis- fied with the machinery that distributes their pro- perty, and the persons who run that machinery have hitherto turned a contemptuous ear to their complaints. It is, however, always com- petent for the dissatisfied to set up new machi- nery for themselves. This is the first occasion on which English- speaking writers have ever met in congress. It will not, I am sure, be the last. I hope that something very practical, something very definite, THE AUTHOR. may come out of this congress. I do not expect from an American Conference the solution of difficulties which are distinctly English. Your problems are not always ours, yet some of them are the same. I hear complaints of false returns in royalties. I hear of suspicions; there are, doubtless, hard cases with you as well as with us. It will help if you accord to us your sympathy and your advice. On our part, since the works of those who write in our language are now published with equal popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, I venture to offer you the practical assistance of the Society in advising you how and when to publish. I venture to promise you the agency of the Society’s syndicate in order to place your works, and I am instructed by my committee to lay before you all our papers and the results of our investigations. But suffer me to submit my own proposal for the solution of the problem. It is a very simple proposal; it is based upon a long consideration of present and past usage, and of the figures involved. It is not, again, a new thing. I pro- pose, therefore, that, in the case of books by authors whose names alone is a guarantee of the demand exceeding the actual cost of production, the principle to be adopted should be that the publisher be allowed one-third of the actual profits —meaning by profits the excess of proceeds over actual cost of production—the author taking two- thirds. I may explain that in two or three of the foremost houses in London this method is already practised. The plan in honest hands seems to me one that is as just and fair as could be desired, and one that should work well. Of course, one cannot by any plan on paper provide altogether against the robber. There must be a few simple safeguards. The return of accounts must be accompanied by an audit in the interests of the author. There must be absolutely no secret profits. No advertisements must be charged except those actually paid for, 1.€., neither advertisements in the publishers’ own magazines nor in exchanges. Next, as regards books which carry risk. English publishers, as we have said—in fact, all publishers—naturally avoid risk as much as possible. But there are many books—a very large proportion of them published—which, though they are certain to pay their bare expenses, are not certain to give the publisher such a return as will make it worth his while to take them up on such terms as those proposed above. The great mass of new books belong, in fact, to this class. For instance, I take at random, and without choice of any particular day, those columns of the London Times, which are  THE AUTHOR. 127 devoted, on one day, to advertising new publica- tions. I find forty-one new books advertised. Among these there are four books of biography, which are certain to prove a valuable success. There are three religious books, which will also be successful, but not greatly. There are sixteen books of essays, history, and general literature, which certainly cannot be expected to pay either author or publisher anything worth consideration. There are eighteen novels, of which four are new editions of a very popular writer; three more are certain to run into cheap editions; and the rest (eleven in number) are published just to fill the boxes of Mudie’s circulating library or at the cost of the writers. It is quite certain that there will never be second editions of any, and it is also evident, to those who know, that, by the circulating library system, they are issued in order to give the publishers about £100 apiece and the author about half that sum. We must, therefore, meet this case, because the publisher, like the solicitor, must be paid first. 1 would propose, therefore, that a first charge be made on the proceeds, a first charge to be agreed upon ; that this sum be taken out of the proceeds by the publisher ix advance of his profits; that is to say, to take simple figures, the first charge agreed upon being £20, and the actual profits proving no more than £30, the author’s profits bemg under the agreement, two-thirds the whole, less this sum agreed upon, he must pay over to the publishers first this £20. If, on the other hand, the profit should amount to £60, the share of the author would be £40 and of the-publisher £20. But the publisher would draw that £20 out of the proceeds as a first charge. I advance the plan, not as a new thing, but as a method already tried. It is better than a royalty, because it leaves the publisher’s hand free to deal with the book as he wishes, i.e., to make bargains with it at special prices to meet special conditions of sale. It is not so con- venient as a royalty because it necessitates, for the sake of the audit, greater care in accounts than has hitherto been customary. If a royalty is preferred it should be based on this principle of proportion in accordance with the actual cost of production. T advance this method as my own solution. I have submitted it as yet to none of my friends on the council of our Society. I lay it before you as my personal contribution only—as a pro- posal which, I submit, is worthy of serious con- sideration and argument as a proposal not alto- gether new, because it is already practised to a sale extent by at least three leading English rms, THE SINNER’S COMEDY. HE appearance of a new book by the lady who calls herself John Oliver Hobbes is one of those minor literary events the noting of which assigns to the writer a certain place on the literary ladder. The author of “Some Emotions and a Moral” has, in fact, seized upon the place which belongs to one who can write epigrams. Therefore one took up the “Sinner’s Comedy,” which is her latest work, with the pleasurable anticipation of things clever and things sparkling. That there was going to be a story, in the ordinary sense of the word, one did not expect. Therefore there was no disappointment. In about a hundred and sixty small pages of large type the author introduces some seventeen characters. They are all quite distinct, all carefully drawn in a very few lines, and, with perhaps one exception, all seem to come out exactly as the artist intended. The characters include a noble lord who is ambitious of being accepted as an authority, and therefore starts a daily paper, which is very funny, and only anticipates what will happen in the future by ten years or so; a woman, his sister, who is very carefully drawn, but yet, somehow—it may be the fault of the reader— remains blurred; a truly admirable baronet— “ his views on Woman were perhaps more remark- able for their chivalry than their reverence ; that she lost her youth was a blot on creation; that she could lose her virtue made life worth living ;” one Anne Christian, a wife separated from her husband—* an actor; a gentleman with strong feelings and a limp backbone. He was an un- speakable man ; and, having endured all things, she left him. It was a bad beginning, but two years’ companionship with the Impossible had taught her to bear the Necessary with patience ” ; an artistic couple. As for the man, “the ends of his pale yellow necktie were hid with artistic abandon, his short serge coat was of the finest texture, and his loose trousers, of the same mate- rial, hung with an idea of drapery about his elegant legs. Mr. Digby Vallance was a gentleman of some fame, who had translated Theocritus out of honesty into English, and in his leisure bred canaries. His celebrated paradox, ‘There is nothing so natural as Art,’ was perhaps even more famous than he.” There is, again, a dean; and there is the sister of a dean; there is a literary hack of some genius; so that in real life he would have ceased to be a literary hack and commanded righteous royalties in a cheap issue. As for the story, the Baronet loves the sepa- rated wife innocently (¢) for four years. Then he  128 marries. The separated wife consoles herself by falling in love, innocently, (?) with the Dean, who becomes a Bishop. The literary hack dies ; so does the separated wife. That seems to be all the story. The book, nevertheless, carries the reader along by its wealth of epigram and its clear sketches of persons and character, who have nothing what- ever to do with the thin thread of a story. The principal character is the separated wife. But, in fact, nobody has much to do with the story. Now, seeing that the author is distinctly very clever—seeing, besides, that she deliberately chooses fiction as her medium of expression, and, moreover, that she possesses, apparently, most of the qualities required to make a writer of the first class, would it not be well for her to treat her fiction seriously? The kind of thing that she has on three separate occasions put before us, is very pleasant reading ; it is pleasant because it is clever, but as fiction it is naught. The Art in it is the delineation of character by description without necessary incident, or by dialogue which does not forward or advance any kind of story. One would not propose seriously to such a writer that she should imitate anyone ; but there are a few simple rules in every work of Art; as that there should be a central thought, intention, or motif in the work; that characters should only be introduced which belong to that central intention; and that dialogue, description, incident, and everything should belong to that central intention. At present itis truly deli ehtful, and a man may read it twice through in an evening, and bubble and simmer gently over it like a kettle on the old-fashioned hob. Yet it isn’t Fiction. The writer, since she is so clever, has, perhaps, the right to do exactly what she pleases. ‘And whatever she does she is sure to please. Yet—one cannot help thinking—there is such a thing as Art in Fiction, and these little books are not Art in Fiction. e———_—— AN AMERICAN STATEMENT. TRCUMSTANCES are terrible tyrants ; and, they having forbidden me to take my humble place in the most noble Columbian Congress of representative women, and even from that session of it accorded to our gallant little band of recalcitrant authors, I have resolved nevertheless to have my say, though in writing— to tell my experience by proxy. I would like to take more time than can well be allowed ‘me. I would willingly preach a double-headed sermon—or one based on two THE AUTHOR. distinct texts, yet not without spiritual con- nection—namely, “ Put not your trust in pub- lishers!’”” ‘Train up your daughters in the way they should go, as—not for—business men.” Tn treating both texts, I should be compelled to stand forth as the “awful example.” I shrink with actual shame from revealing, as I must in a truthful statement, my own weakness, ignorance, and eternal verdancy in matters of business. I have been almost from the beginning of my book- making experience a meek sheared sheep —a bewildered, plucked goose, subject to all the inclemencies of the book markets and trade sales —Jost in “the ways that are dark ”—done for by “the tricks that are vain” of the masters of the Guild. Still, for the truth’s sake, and the good of younger writers, I have made up my mind to “a yound unvarnished tale deliver,” wherein I shall “naught extenuate, and naught set down in malice.” My first publishers, a distinguished Boston house, who took me up in 1850, perhaps spoiled me a little by their kindness. They were my personal friends, and fair and considerate, as publishers go. I was really very popular in those days, when clever young women, ambitious for literary honours, did not beset publishers in such ravenous hosts as office-seekers beset Congress- men now, and I don’t think that Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, who continued to publish for me some twenty-five years, lost by me at any time. But the house changed hands, and durmg my absence of a year in Europe, their successor, without con- sulting with me (a lordly way these potentates have), sold the plates of all my books, some fourteen volumes, to a certain New York publisher also distinguished, who, I was assured, would continue for me, keeping the books in the market, as far as possible, and paying me my royalty on all copies sold. T never received from this New York house one penny, nor was any account ever rendered, even of the copies printed, which were, I was told, sold with the plates. Had I not been crippled by some pecuniary losses, and discouraged by more serious illness, I should myself have bought the plates, and resumed the publication of at least the juvenile story-books, which were and are the most popular of my writings — my readers as they grew beyond them, kindly handed them down to children of a smaller growth. As it was, I had to let them remain in the hands of that very respectable concern, hoping always that they had “a good holt” on them, and would see their way to resume their publication and do justly by me. For generosity, I was not quite simple enough to look,  THE AUTHOR. “Tt never rains but it pours” disasters on the poor, unprotected female orphan-author. On my return from that visit abroad I ascer- tained that another New York house, which had published my two last volumes, bringing them out handsomely, and reporting good sales, had, in a stress of adverse fortune, sold, not only the plates of both books, but the copyrights. My copyrights! Still I did nothing. I did not see that I could do anything but harm others without benefiting myself. If before sailing for Europe, Thad intrusted my modest store of family plate to the care, left it in the hands of certain Boston and New York friends, and if on my return I had found that one party had pawned my paternal teapot, and the other party had sold my grand- mother’s spoons, I should have roundly declared that such conduct was mean, unjustifiable, abso- lutely dishonest, and ought to be looked into! But these gentlemen were publishers, respectable citizens, honourable men — “all honourable men.” During another, and prolonged visit to Europe, I was informed that a certain book-concern had exhumed the long-buried plates of my juvenile books, and were publishing them, in a cheap, much mixed up edition. I winced a little at the inelegant new dress of the Boston-born volumes, but was comforted somewhat by a modest royalty, which was regularly paid me, for two or three years, till that company failed, owing me several hundred dollars! This time, a court awarded me judgment for the amount due, but the sheriff reported that he could only collect sufficient from the wreck to pay his own fees! Still I believe the company soon revived, and went on as before—even better, lightened of its tiresome obligations. Then the big scoop-net of another big Book Company gathered up my poor little floating volumes. ‘T'o pacify me, who tearfully demanded my rights, they brought out a new edition, on which I bestowed a great amount of new work, and was beginning to receive something in the way of royalty when that stupendous publishing concern was suddenly wound-up or tied-up, leaving me again in the lurch. It was in debt to me, though not to such an extent as to have pre- cipitated the grand catastrophe. One or two of my volumes are in the hands of Tait, Sons, and Co. They are also New York publishers, and yet I have hope in their justice and fair dealings. “ Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” Since the failure of that gigantic book company, the Juggernaut of smaller publishing concerns, I have ascertained that they are publishing two additional volumes, bearing my name, one of 129 which I had heard of, and denounced to them as “a, piracy ’’—an early book, reprinted with a new title, the other was one on which I had received no royalty since the first year, when the payments were quite satisfactory. The other volume, wherein it is held I have no rights which a publisher is bound to respect, is a “ Life of Queen Victoria,” published by a certain, or uncertain, transitory firm. This firm dissolved partnership in 1884, since which time the remain- ing partner has given me no returns, vouchsafed me no account, though he did make to me, some four years after the dissolution of partnership, the astonishing statement (which I have in writing, as a curiosity in a business way) that he had destroyed his old account books so that he knew nothing of what was due to me, if any- thing, and had no way of finding out. He has, however, offered to sell me at a third of their cost (a considerable sum at that) the plates of the biography—a book which was certainly very well received by the public, both here and in England, and approved by the Royal Family, but the sale of which was injured by a gaudy style of binding and by exceptionally bad management. During the Jubilee year, however, it revived, and did well, as the party most concerned him- self admitted ; but not then, nor in any year since 1884, has the value of one of the Queen’s own penny postage stamps been poured into my coffers by a grateful publisher. Still I doubt not but that in the eyes of his kind, he is an honourable man. “So are they all, all honourable men.” Grace GREENWOOD. Washington, May 16th, 1893. ee NOTES AND NEWS. HF following paragraph is taken from the Times :-— The seventieth birthday of Miss Yonge has been marked by a presentation to her from admirers in all parts of the world. An album containing 5000 autographs and criticisms of her writings was left on her birthday at her dwelling in the village of Otterbourne. On the front page is the fol- lowing inscription in an illuminated border :—‘ Charlotte Mary Yonge.—We offer our hearty congratulations on your seventieth birthday, and desire to express to you the great enjoyment that we have received from your writings, and our belief that they have done much good in this genera- tion. August 11, 1893.” Amongst the signatures are those of the Archbishop of York, the Earl of Selborne, the Marquis of Salisbury, Viscount Wolmer, the Bishops of London, Manchester, Salisbury, Chester, Bath and Wells, Chichester, Leicester, Reading, Southwell, Cape Town, Con- necticut, and St. Helena, Bishops Selwyn, Jenner, and Hob-  130 house, the Deans of Winchester, Windsor, and Salisbury, Canon Scott Holland, the Warden of Keble College, Mr. Balfour, and several members of Mr. Gladsdone’s family, besides the local clergy and gentry. The Queen of Italy sent a large photograph of herself, bearing her autograph and accompanied by a congratulatory note. Local presentations were made to Miss Yonge on the eve of her birthday. May we, too, members of an association honoured by the membership of Miss Charlotte Yonge, venture to add our congratulations and our best wishes for a long continuance of work from this accomplished hand? Great as have been the achievements of women in the world of fiction, it will be admitted by all that no one has surpassed Miss Charlotte Yonge in the lifelike reality of her characters, nor in the interest with which she can surround a group, a family, a little company of girls in whose lives there occurs no incident except, perhaps, the disturbing element of love. And certainly no one man or woman has done more than Miss Yonge for the Church of England, and for that part of the Church represented by the teachers of Miss Yonge’s youth, Keble and _ his friends. We may add that the type of gentlewoman, high- minded, pure, religious, charitable, artistic, delicate in speech and thought and manner, created by Miss Yonge, has done more to elevate the women of our middle class than anything else ever invented or taught Girls by the thousand have tried to reach that standard ; they have not, perhaps, quite succeeded, but the endeavour has transformed them. It is forty years since the “ Heir of Redclyffe ” captured the world. The author has held her own ever since that first success without a note of weariness or of “ writing out.” The world has nothing but praise and gratitude for this novelist. She has written nothing that she can herself regret or that the world would wish had never been written. Of what other living writer can so much be said ? And since her work is still so young and strong, we may hope for more and still for more. Sir Edward Hamley is dead. Soldier, poli- tician, and novelist, had he been one instead of three, he might have made a greater mark. His “Lady Lee’s Widowhood”’ was the most success- ful thing he wrote. The “Story of the Cam- paign of Sebastopol,” ‘ Wellington’s Career,” the “ Operation of War,” ‘‘ Our Poor Relations,” and an Essay on Thomas Carlyle exhaust his literary baggage, unless we include work lying concealed in back numbers of Blackwood, which, for some reason, he was contented to leave there. Perhaps, now that he is dead, these papers of his will be collected. — THE AUTHOR. I see that a writer in the Sketch cannot agree with me as to the magnitude of the audience commanded by a popular author now compared with that enjoyed by Dickens. He says he will give figures. He then says that Dickens went into 30,000 copies, after which the copies could not be counted. Where are his figures, then? That is not reasoning by figures; therefore, now I will give my figures. The population of Great Britain and Ireland in 1835 was 24,000,000. In 1893 it is 37,000,000. The population of the United States in 1835 was 15,000,000. It is now 60,000,000, @.e., four times as great. The population of Australia was in 1835 nothing to speak of ; it is now 4,000,000. The white population of New Zealand in 1835 was nothing at all; it is now nearly a million. The population of Canada in 1835 was about a million ; it is now six millions. The population of South Africa in 1835 was about 200,000; it has now reached a million. The population of India is about 250,000,000. In 1835 none of these people could read English, At the present moment there are hundreds of thousands who read English literature new and old. In other words, there were in 1835 about 40,000,000 of English-speaking people. There are now, without counting the scattered islands and small settlements, about a hundred and ten millions, and will soon be a hundred and twenty millions. The number of possible readers has therefore trebled. But the proportion of readers to population has also enormously increased. The whole of England and Scotland now reads; the whole of the United States, except the negroes of the south ; the whole of Australia and New Zealand; the whole of Canada. Again, there were no free libraries at all in 1835; there are now in Great Britain and America and the colonies about 4000. How many readers must be reckoned for one popular book before it falls to pieces? A thousand ? Thena single popular writer gets 4,000,000 readers for 4000 copies of his books. These are my figures ; and with them before me I have no hesitation whatever in saying that Dickens could not command a quarter—perhaps not an eighth—of the audience that one who successfully appeals to the popular imagination already commands—and that is nothing com- pared with the audience which he will command in a future by no means distant. —— THE AUTHOR. I find that during my absence in America I have been the object of some delicate and appreciative courtesies from the delicate and courteous pen of Mr. Robert Buchanan in the Daily Chronicle, and, by an interesting coinci- cidence, at the same time, the subject of certain pages in Longman’s Magazine from the pen of Mr. Andrew Lang. It is not often that one can enjoy the privilege of coupling these two writers together. Indeed I never remember any instance before in which the opinions of Mr. Lang or his methods coincided with those of Mr. Buchanan. It would be interesting to discover, if one could, the mental process which could lead these two poets to this simultaneous attack—surely, a coincidence—upon the Society which does its best to maintain the interests of those who follow, as they themselves follow, literature as a profession. What Mr. Buchanan says, however, is what one expects from Mr. Buchanan. What Mr. Lang says is not what one expects from Mr. Lang. That is the main difference. For instance, one does not expect from Mr. Lang the perversion of words. “The writer in the Author,” says Mr. Lang, “ decides that there is a prejudice against literary men as against needy mendicants.”’ The writer in the Author did not decide anything of the kind: he lamented the fact of a prejudice. Mr. Lang then proceeds to alter his position. “We are,” he first said, “to sell our wares and there’s an end.” He now says “ we are to dispose of our wares toan advantage.” Very good. Thealtera- tion makes a considerable difference. Mr. Lang next points out, very justly, that a mendicant does not sell, but begs. He also pretends that in the Author begging and selling are confused. Of course they are not. But, unhappily, the history of our literature is full of begging. I have seen the most astonishing begging letters, borrowing letters, letters entreating for more money—an advance—a further advance—stiil more money. We do not wish the practice of mendicancy to continue; we desire that those who write shall learn that their material interests are not dependent on the caprice of a publisher, but on the demand of the public. We do say—what is perfectly true—that some writers in the past and in the present have been mendicants and are mendicants; that the thing degrades literature ; and that it can only be stopped when writers cease to think, or to speak, or to appeal to the “ generosity’ of the publisher. Mr. Lang says, further, “ we are dependent on the public, dependent for the commercial profits, but we are dependent on no other thing under Heaven.” Is it possible that any man who has ever written books could deliberately write such a sentence and believe it to be true? Dependent 131 on the public? Why, if so, there would be nothing to be said. Authors would be indepen- dent. Observe that I say independent, not rich, or prosperous. They would be independent—poor, perhaps, which does not so much matter—but independent, which is the main thing. At present authors are dependent, all but a very few, on the publisher. There is no independence of authors save for this very small number. They are dependent on the publisher. They have got to go to the publisher and ask him on what terms he will consent to administrate their property. Why, if authors were only dependent on the public they would no longer—any of them—have to stand in the attitude of the needy mendicant with bending knees and bowing back, entreating the “ generosity ” of the men with the bag. The change from dependence upon the publisher to dependence upon the public is the one great end and aim of all our efforts—the end and aim which have aroused the indignation of these two poets. Mind—not the abolition of the publisher at all, but the establishment of systematic and recog- nised methods of publishing. Consider. A man has a book. He now takes it to a publisher, or a publishing company, or a religious society. He endeavours, as Mr. Lang advises, to “ dispose of his wares to an advantage.’’ He wants, perhaps, to sell. He is offered a sum of money ; he knows not why this sum, or that sum, or any other sum should be offered ; he has to take that sum because, you see, a man cannot go hawking literary wares about; he cannot; he is ashamed ; he takes that sum. Or, if he tries to get better terms—on what grounds is he to base his objection? Because the book will fetch much more in the market? No; because this he does not under- stand, and it is not explained to him; he must depend upon the “ generosity ” of the publisher. According to the old ideas—which are still struggling for existence—what a publisher gave for a book was prompted by his mood of the moment, without the least reference to the com- mercial value of the book! And this is what Mr. Lang calls being dependent on the public! Or, say that he does not wish to “ sell his wares.” Then he is offered some kind of royalty, and an agreement is placed before him which he is called upon to sign blindly, without the least inquiry into the meaning of the royalty or the proportion of his own estate which he gives up to his partner or his agent, as the case may be. Nor is he ever told what proportion he is receiving for this concession of the sole per- manent administration of his estate. Mr. Lang says that he does not dispute the existence of literary property. He assumes, how- ever, that the average author knows what it  130 house, the Deans of Winchester, Windsor, and Salisbury, Canon Scott Holland, the Warden of Keble College, Mr. Balfour, and several members of Mr. Gladsdone’s family, besides the local clergy and gentry. The Queen of Italy sent a large photograph of herself, bearing her autograph and accompanied by a congratulatory note. Local presentations were made to Miss Yonge on the eve of her birthday. May we, too, members of an association honoured by the membership of Miss Charlotte Yonge, venture to add our congratulations and our best wishes for a long continuance of work from this accomplished hand? Great as have been the achievements of women in the world of fiction, it will be admitted by all that no one has surpassed Miss Charlotte Yonge in the lifelike reality of her characters, nor in the interest with which she can surround a group, a family, a little company of girls in whose lives there occurs no incident except, perhaps, the disturbing element of love. And certainly no one man or woman has done more than Miss Yonge for the Church of England, and for that part of the Church represented by the teachers of Miss Yonge’s youth, Keble and _ his friends. We may add that the type of gentlewoman, hirgh- minded, pure, religious, charitable, artistic, delicate in speech and thought and manner, created by Miss Yonge, has done more to elevate the women of our middle class than anything else ever invented or taught Girls by the thousand have tried to reach that standard ; they have not, perhaps, quite succeeded, but the endeavour has transformed them. It is forty years since the “ Heir of Redclyffe”’ captured. the world. The author has held her own ever since that first success without a note of weariness or of “ writing out.” The world has nothing but praise and gratitude for this novelist. She has written nothing that she can herself regret or that the world would wish had never been written. Of what other living writer can so much be said ? And since her work is still so young and strong, we may hope for more and still for more. —— Sir Edward Hamley is dead. Soldier, poli- tician, and novelist, had he been one instead of three, he might have made a greater mark. His “Lady Lee’s Widowhood”’ was the most success- ful thing he wrote. The “Story of the Cam- paign of Sebastopol,” ‘“ Wellington’s Career,” the “ Operation of War,” ‘‘ Our Poor Relations,” and an Essay on Thomas Carlyle exhaust his literary baggage, unless we include work lying concealed in back numbers of Blackwood, which, for some reason, he was contented to leave there. Perhaps, now that he is dead, these papers of his will be collected. ee THE AUTHOR. I see that a writer in the Sketch cannot agree with me as to the magnitude of the audience commanded by a popular author now compared with that enjoyed by Dickens. He says he will give figures. He then says that Dickens went into 30,000 copies, after which the copies could not be counted. Where are his figures, then? That is not reasoning by figures; therefore, now I will give my figures. The population of Great Britain and Ireland in 1835 was 24,000,000. In 1893 it is 37,000,000. The population of the United States in 1835 was 15,000,000. It is now 60,000,000, z.e., four times as great. The population of Australia was in 1835 nothing to speak of ; it is now 4,000,000, The white population of New Zealand in 1835 was nothing at all; it is now nearly a million. The population of Canada in 1835 was about a million ; it is now six millions. The population of South Africa in 1835 was about 200,000; it has now reached a million. The population of India is about 250,000,000. In 1835 none of these people could read English. At the present moment there are hundreds of thousands who read English literature new and old. In other words, there were in 1835 about 40,000,000 of English-speaking people. There are now, without counting the scattered islands and small settlements, about a hundred and ten millions, and will soon be a hundred and twenty millions. The number of possible readers has therefore trebled. But the proportion of readers to population has also enormously increased. The whole of England and Scotland now reads; the whole of the United States, except the negroes of the south ; the whole of Australia and New Zealand; the whole of Canada. Again, there were no free libraries at all in 1835; there are now in Great Britain and America and the colonies about 4000. How many readers must be reckoned for one popular book before it falls to pieces? A thousand ? Thena single popular writer gets 4,000,000 readers for 4000 copies of his books. These are my figures ; and with them before me I have no hesitation whatever in saying that Dickens could not command a quarter—perhaps not an eighth—of the audience that one who successfully appeals to the popular imagination already commands—and that is nothing com- pared with the audience which he will command in a future by no means distant, =e fied Ef Poy 52 i Ge. ce bo =o THE AUTHOR. I find that during my absence in America I have been the object of some delicate and appreciative courtesies from the delicate and courteous pen of Mr. Robert Buchanan in the Daily Chronicle, and, by an interesting coinci- cidence, at the same time, the subject of certain pages in Longman’s Magazine from the pen of Mr. Andrew Lang. It is not often that one can enjoy the privilege of coupling these two writers together. Indeed I never remember any instance before in which the opinions of Mr. Lang or his methods coincided with those of Mr. Buchanan. It would be interesting to discover, if one could, the mental process which could lead these two poets to this simultaneous attack—surely, a coincidence—upon the Society which does its best to maintain the interests of those who follow, as they themselves follow, literature as a profession. What Mr. Buchanan says, however, is what one expects from Mr. Buchanan. What Mr. Lang says is not what one expects from Mr. Lang. That is the main difference. For instance, one does not expect from Mr. Lang the perversion of words. “The writer in the Author,” says Mr. Lang, “ decides that there is a prejudice against literary men as against needy mendicants.” The writer in the Author did not decide anything of the kind: he lamented the fact of a prejudice. Mr. Lang then proceeds to alter his position. ‘“ We are,” he first said, “to sell our wares and there’s an end.” He now says “ we are to dispose of our wares toan advantage.” Very good. Thealtera- tion makes a considerable difference. Mr. Lang next points out, very justly, that a mendicant does not sell, but begs. He also pretends that in the Author begging and selling are confused. Of course they are not. But, unhappily, the history of our literature is full of begging. I have seen the most astonishing begging letters, borrowing letters, letters entreating for more money—an advance—a further advance—stiil more money. We do not wish the practice of mendicancy to continue; we desire that those who write shall learn that their material interests are not dependent on the caprice of a publisher, but on the demand of the public. We do say—what is perfectly true—that some writers in the past and im the present have been mendicants and are mendicants; that the thing degrades literature ; and that it can only be stopped when writers cease to think, or to speak, or to appeal to the “ generosity ’ of the publisher. Mr. Lang says, further, “we are dependent on the public, dependent for the commercial profits, but we are dependent on no other thing under Heaven.” Is it possible that any man who has ever written books could deliberately write such a sentence and believe it to be true? Dependent 131 on the public? Why, if so, there would be nothing to be said. Authors would be indepen- dent. Observe that I say independent, not rich, or prosperous. They would be independent—poor, perhaps, which does not so much matter—but independent, which is the main thing. At present authors are dependent, all but a very few, on the publisher. There is no independence of authors save for this very small number. They are dependent on the publisher. They have got to go to the publisher and ask him on what terms he will consent to administrate their property. Why, if authors were only dependent on the public they would no longer—any of them—have to stand in the attitude of the needy mendicant with bending knees and bowing back, entreating the “ generosity ” of the men with the bag. The change from dependence upon the publisher to dependence upon the public is the one great end and aim of all our efforts—the end and aim which have aroused the indignation of these two poets. Mind—not the abolition of the publisher at all, but the establishment of systematic and recog- nised methods of publishing. Consider. A man has a book. He now takes it to a publisher, or a publishing company, or a religious society. He endeavours, as Mr. Lang advises, to “ dispose of his wares to an advantage.’ He wants, perhaps, to sell, He is offered a sum of money ; he knows not why this sum, or that sum, or any other sum should be offered ; he has to take that sum because, you see, a man cannot go hawking literary wares about; he cannot; he is ashamed; he takes that sum. Or, if he tries to get better terms—on what grounds is he to base his objection? Because the book will fetch much more in the market? No; because this he does not under- stand, and it is not explained to him; he must depend upon the “ generosity ” of the publisher. According to the old ideas—which are still struggling for existence—what a publisher gave for a book was prompted by his mood of the moment, without the least reference to the com- mercial value of the book! And this is what Mr. Lang calls being dependent on the public! Or, say that he does not wish to “ sell his wares.” Then he is offered some kind of royalty, and an agreement is placed before him which he is called upon to sign blindly, without the least inquiry into the meaning of the royalty or the proportion of his own estate which he gives up to his partner or his agent, as the case may be. Nor is he ever told what proportion he is receiving for this concession of the sole per- manent administration of his estate. Mr, Lang says that he does not dispute the existence of literary property. He assumes, how- ever, that the average author knows what it  132 means. For he depicts the author saying airily, as one strong in the possession of full and accurate knowledge. ‘‘ You offer me too much or too little”? But the author must know what literary property means, else how should he be able to say “too much” or “too little P” Before he can say this, the author must know (1) the cost of printing, paper, binding, cor- rections, advertisements—all the details which o to the manufacture of a book; (2) the price of the book to the trade; (3) the probable circulation of the book; (4) the fair proportion of the proceeds between publisher and author. With this knowledge the author is certainly able to say “too much” or “too little.” Without that knowledge he cannot, as a wise man, say anything at all. The working man, with whom Mr. Lang compares the literary man, sells his wares for what he can—but with a difference. For the working man, dependent on the master trades- man, has his Union, which, in a rough and ready way, does regulate prices. We have no such union; we are like the working man as he was ; we are dependent upon the publisher. Our depen- dence is mitigated, it is true, by the competition between publishers, and that 1s doubtless a very great thing, but. still the author is dependent upon the publisher. The position we have always maintained cannot be too often repeated : 1, A book may be a very considerable property. 2. An author should recognise this possibility, and should be as careful in the disposition of this kind of property, as he is in the disposition of any other kind of property. _ ‘He must ascertain for himself, or learn from others, what the administration of such property means, namely, what are the expenses incurred, and what are, or may be, the returns realised. 4. He must not sign away any rights unless he knows exactly what these rights mean. “How,” asks Mr. Lang, “can a hundred Congresses at Chicago secure these conditions ”— i.e., of independence for the author ? The author’s independence will be secured for him from the moment that his pay—the com- mercial side of his work—is put, once for all, on such a footing of recognised terms and propor- tions as will make him absolutely independent of the publisher and dependent solely on the public, as a physician, or a barrister, or an architect, or a solicitor, is independent. This can be done, and will be done, by the arrival at an understand- ing between honourable publishers and leading writers. Whatever understanding this may be, it must rest upon the basis of the demand for a book by the public. Our efforts have been all THE AUTHOR. along directed to showing the literary profession the meaning of their property so that they may see the necessity of coming to such an under- standing. Mr. Lang does his best—Mr. Buchanan does his best—to retard this most desirable condition of things ; the former by representing the author as already, and actually, dependent upon the public alone; and by supposing him already possessed of so much technical knowledge as to enable him to know what he should receive for an unpublished book, The latter does his little best to darken counsel by prating foolishness about Literature and Luere. When we do come to that attempt, however, I have hopes that we may find Mr. Andrew Lang in the conference—or congress— OF committee—or meeting. Mr. Buchanan, I am sure —that is, I hope and trust—will not be present. Meantime we are not dependent on the public —no—no—a thousand times No—we are depen- dent on the publishers, which is the reason why some of us dispose of our wares through the agency of a third person. And as to those material interests which are so sordid .to the Scottish bard —I mean Mr. Buchanan—let us take courage and go on safe- guarding them and so degrading Literature with Lucre, in the company of Scott, Byron, Dickens, Thackeray, Reade, Wilkie Collins, George Eliot, Tennyson, and a goodly number of living men and women into whose company it is an honour and a distinction to be received. I cut the following from an American paper, I wonder how many of our readers know anything about Mr. FitzJames O’Brien :— That reminds me of a story told about FitzJames O’Brien and Fletcher Harper, then the head of the Harper publishing house. O’Brien had a habit of always finding his way down to the Harper office when he was unsteady, as you call it, and borrowing money. One day the poet went down to Franklin-square and begged Fletcher Harper to let him have 25 dollars. Harper refused, and this made O’Brien mad. He swore around, and finally seeing a large placard with “ Livingstone’s Africa ”’ printed on one side, he took it, turned it over, and on the blank side drew in large black letters the words : “ One of Harper’s Authors. T am starving.” Before any one was aware of his intention, O’Brien had attached a string to the cardboard, hung it about his neck, walked down to the street, and was parading up and down before the publishing-house. Of course, a large crowd gathered, but O’Brien was obdurate against all entreaties. “Won't stop till I get some money from Harper,” said he, and he didn’t. A compromise was effected through the medium of a 5-dollar bill, and O’Brien went on his way for that day. FitzJames O’Brien, poet, journalist, story- teller, and politician, was an Trishman by birth. emai  Pte ee THE AUTHOR. He was born in 1828, and in 1852, after a brief career in London, he went to America, where he lived and wrote till the outbreak of the Civil War. He joined the Army of the North, and was killed in action in the year 1862. This is the brief record of a man possessed of a rare genius. Some of his short stories have been collected and published in this country (Ward and Downey, 1887), but none of his verses, so far as I know. The collection of stories is called “The Diamond Lens.” I do not know whether they have become popular, but they deserve a very wide popularity. There is a magazine in the United States—L believe it is newly started—which is founded for the purpose of publishing MSS. “rejected by publishers” —or editors—which? This invaluable journal will be called Happenchance. It will probably be followed by the foundation of another magazine to contain articles rejected by Happenchance. This will be called Happen- chance-by-luck. Then a third magazine will be founded for articles rejected by Happen-chance- by-luck. This will be called Happenchance-by- luck-and-lottery. Others will follow, and there is no limit possible to the series, each an advance upon its predecessor in literary excellence. — After the iron has entered your soul, try it on your manuscript. In other words, when an unappreciative editor has returned your contribution with the paper creased by folding, so that it has a worn and weary look, take it to the kitchen, get Mary to give you a hot flat-iron, and iron the offending creases out. Then send the manu- script out again. The preceding is from the Writer, an American paper. Everybody who remembers the Days of Rejection—who does not ?—must acknowledge the appropriateness of the adjectives, the ‘‘ worn and weary ” look of the unlucky MS. returning once more unsuccessful. It has a guilty look as well —an ashamed and guilty look. Perhaps the hot iron may restore its self-respect as well as its early freshness. The bogus publisher is with the Americans as wellas with us. His methods are apparently the same there as here. His reader returns a highly- flattering opinion of the MS., and the publisher, wholly influenced, of course, by this disinterested reader, who is a noble Patron of Literature, makes what he calls a ‘“ highly advantageous ” offer : ‘You to pay us the sum of so much—one- half the cost of publishing—we to produce the book, &¢., and the proceeds to be divided equally between us.” And there never are any pro- ceeds, and the unlucky author finds at the end 133 that he has paid the whole, instead of the half of the cost, with something over. The following is from the Writer : While reading in the Writer for April, 1892, the article entitled ‘Shall Writers Combine,’ by John Bancroft, I determined to tell you my ‘tale of woe.” In November, 1890, seeing the advertisement of the Welch-Fracker Com- pany, I determined to put a book manuscript of humorous sketches, entitled ‘‘ Mirandy and Dan’el,” into their hands. If they thought it worth publication, I would see what arrangements could be made. I had written quitea number of these sketches for the Burlington Hawkeye. After the very flattering comments of the Welch-Fracker reader, I decided to allow publication. J. L. Waite, of the Hawkeye, wrote an able introduction for the forthcoming book. The proof was sent to me for correction, and the contract be- tween us was that the book was tobe sent out May 6, 1891, I to send check for the 300 dollars—one-half of the expense of publishing—that day. I fulfilled my part of the agree- ment, but, alas for the honour of that firm ! the firm, money, manuscript—all have disappeared, and I am left, without either. I took every precaution, and was referred to Hon. Francis Sessions, of Ohio, and he wrote me that he had found the Welch-Fracker Company all right. But since his decease, I have been informed that before his death, he, too, found them unreliable. Yes, it is quite time there was some plan by which an author may save his money and manuscripts from such misfortune. Maria M. Van DERVEER. Long Branch City, N.J. All the American magazines do not come over here; there is for instance, Godey’s, which has been running for sixty-three years, as long as any of the English monthlies except the Gentle- man and Blackwood. Ifound it in America, and looked at a number, and was rewarded with a pleasant and well written story, called “ Judy Robinson-Milliner,” by Lee C. Harby. It is a story of American life— quite through and through American—and therefore, perhaps, the more interesting to me after seeing something—a little—of American ways. There was also in the number a paper on Francis Saltus, musician, composer, dramatist, linguist, traveller, and poet. He wrote ten complete operas, and over a thousand pieces of music. Whether he was a great musician or not I know not. That he was not a great poet is obvious from the specimens given; but that he was a real, though a minor, poet seems certain. The paper conveys the impression of a richly gifted nature and of wide and singular abilities and activities. He died at the age of forty. The verses of the minor singers are sometimes pleasant to read. Here and there among the rhymes and the thoughts, and the lines dragged in for the rhyme, are phrases that strike the eye. “DPD. M. B.” sends me a small volume of verse called ‘‘ London Sketches,” published at Maid-  134 stone—the bard must be very modest who does not publish in London, where the writer, like so many others, finds his inspiration. There is sometimes—not always—the real ring about “TD. M. B’s” verses. For instance: The light is low ; The sea to night is like a silver lake ; The weary reapers harvest fields forsake, And homeward go— Till I alone Am left with the young moon and the still sea ; The green bents shimmering along the lea In one grey tone. No burning glow Of sunset glory changing grey to gold, But cloudless opal—clear and crystal cold The shadows grow. Alone I stand Within the magic of the northern light, While all my senses seek a southern night When shining sand And deep blue wave Are whispering to another soft and sweet ; Our spirits in the twilight stillness meet, And meeting—save For this brief hour All heartache and all yearning of the day, Soothing and tender—soon to pass away In night’s dark power. The light is gone: The sea is toneless and as quiet as fate. The moon and I, we are not desolate, Though all alone. There was anarticle in the Speaker a week or two ago with which there was little to disagree, pleading, as it did, that the reason why books do not succeed lies with the public and not with the publisher. But who ever said otherwise ? What man in his senses could possibly suppose that a publisher would not “boom” everyone of his books if he could? What was the good of advancing such a self evident proposition? I only notice the paper here because of the use made of my name. I am told that I “ will not see it”—see, that is, that a certain amount of work is produced which is “too delicate, too imaginative, or too bizarre” to please the public. I do see it, and I also know under what circum- stances and conditions this kind of work is produced. I know, in fact, what the writer of this article advances as a new thing, that pub- lishing is a business. The writer then pretends that I “dream of the time when thousands of royalty-paid writers will be reeling off high-class works of fiction for the millions of English speaking readers.” Where did he find that dream? My dream is of a much simpler and more practical kind. It is of a time, not far off, when a popular writer of English—there can never be more than two or three at a time—will command an audience of as many millions as THE AUTHOR. Dickens had thousands, or Fielding hundreds. Having thus made me say what I have never said, this truthful person adds, “ Yet Mr. Besant paints the public with a halo round its great stupid head, and puts a lily in its horny hand.” Where have T executed this remarkable work of art? From what words, metaphorically, can the writer justify this statement? He cannot. But of course it is “all ofa piece.” The Society can only be attacked by misrepresentation, Therefore those who attack it must misrepresent. A circular has been sent me stating the in- tention of erecting a bust of Lord Tennyson in the Abbey, for which permission has been granted by the Dean. It is believed that the bust will cost £300. The circular is signed by the Duke of Argyll. Subscriptions will be received by Mr. G. L. Craik, at Messrs. Macmillan’s, Bedford. Street. The books of the month are the new edition after more than twenty years, of Mrs. Webster's “ Portraits”; “ Selections” from the same poet’s verse; and Forrest’s ‘‘ History of the Indian Mutiny.” One notes also Mr. Le Gallienne’s “Poems of Arthur Hallam,” It seems as if this book had been wanting all along to supplement the works of Tennyson. There is a field for the novelist, almost new, in the West Indian Islands. A young writer, Mr. W.R. H. Trowbridge, is attempting this field. He sends me a book of sketches and stories called ‘Gossip of the Caribbees,” published in New York; Ihave read it with considerable interest and pleasure. I mention it here because he tells me that itis about to appear in this country. I hope it will meet with a kindly reception. The workmanship is good for a beginner—promising for the future—and the people and the scenes are novel. Water Besant. © sec FEUILLETON. L CoNFESSIONS OF A CRITIC. BEGIN with a letter. A letter written ina bold round hand, full of character, and evidently connected with a firm wrist. Nothing has ever amazed me so much as that letter. It came from an unknown lady, who told me that she was the secretary of a women’s literary society. The members, she said, num- bered twenty-four damsels, whose ages began at ea reread oe SS : me THE AUTHOR. nineteen and left off at twenty-five. They were pledged, by the rules of this society, to submit twelve manuscript stories each month—that is, one manuscript per member per two months—to a critic, whose business it was to point out defects, encourage good qualities, reprimand eccentricities of style, grammar, and composition, and endea- vour to make himself generally useful. The honorarium for these benefits was represented by the symbol zero. It was all for love—naturally love—and nothing for reward. Now, the presiding critic had come to the con- clusion that he had bestowed sufficient largess upon this club by the simple method of unpaid services. He therefore retired. Some kind friend advised the secretary to invite me to try on the empty shoes. He said I was a benevolent, com- passionate, genial soul, and ready at all times to succour the friendless. Hence the secretary’s letter, setting forth the foregome facts. The letter ended by saying that the burning hearts of the society were quivering for my answer. If I should comply with their secretary’s request, how grateful—and so on. If I should decline—but then it was not possible for so kindly a heart as mine to think of declining. I looked this communication squarely in the face. It asked me to instruct a school of ladies in the art of letters. It meant that I must teach them composition, scheme, technique, develop- ment, plot, counterplot, the difference between marionettes and human beings, conversation, repartee, a general insight into the ways and manners of all grades of society, geography (including the use of the globes), history (omit- ting, perhaps, the times of the Jacobites), and— but that would be sufficient for the present. Whether or not I could claim to be sufficient for these things was a question which passed me by, because of the dazzling halo around the title of critic. Oh, to be a critic! To possess the un- limited power of slanging—even as one’s self had been slanged. To know the luxury of ripping things to pieces. To be the happy owner of a thick blue pencil, warranted to obliterate choice bits with such a mark as should defy the attack of any yet known ink-eraser. Then to be able to write a critique, with a pen of pity and a hand of scorn. To realise the joy of gibbetting slips of the memory, venial errors, little flights of fancy betokening the first faint flutter of unfledged wings—yet giving promise of a bolder and more successful power. ‘ Revenge, revenge! ” Timo- theus cried; and so did I. I accepted the post of critic, and lay in wait for manuscripts. I was not asked to review—only to criticise. And there was no pay attached to my office, eh? Very well! 135 The manuseripts came ; twelve maiden stories told upon sheets of virgin white ; no erasures, no blots; fair as an unblemished snowdrift recently liberated from a glass case. Well, two or three were very bad. Some of them, with a little dressing, might have found a home in this or that magazine. All of them smacked of remi- niscences: of Dickens, of Victor Hugo, of Zola, Ouida, Girton, Newnham, Somerville Hall. But I missed some old friends. Not a single hero was described as a Greek god; neither were his ivory limbs—indistinctly observable through the lining of his pantaloons—tinged with the roseate hues of conscious integrity. It grieved me to see that there was nothing of this sort of thing. More- over, I was disgusted to find that no heroine hurled herself into the arms of her lover before she had known him for at least a week. In fact there was nothing for a critic to lay hold of which could afford him any real delight. True, there were errors of judgment, style, motive, and the happy-go-lucky deviation into reverie so dear to the unmasculine mind. But whatever there was of fault only required a little snipping and trimming; and of what use is a critic with- out his steam hammer ? This question vexed me, until Madam Con- science paid me a visit. Said she, “ You were once an ignorant fool. I have not observed that any other title rightly belongs to you now. When you were prevailed upon to submit your manuscript to a really qualified opinion—because I asked you to deduct 75 per cent. from the opinion of your friends—you approached to reason and sanity as nearly as I ever remember. The Authors’ Society helped you and sent your trash to a reader who knew things. When it came back, with a criticism pinned to the corner, you called the reader a dolt, a booby, a fraud, a know-nothing, a make-believe, a _ blind-eyed ignoramus, a fellow, a person who could not recognise a good thing when he sawit. Oh, yes, you did. I heard you. But why? Because he was a wise andtalented man. You raved against a student and a scholar, because you were neither. I, who know you better than you know yourself, recognise in the hard names you called him a-splendid description of yourself. But for the gentle nature of that reader, he might easily have chopped you into little bits. And now--- what are you going to do with these manu- scripts P”’ If anybody has ever studied the gingerly, leisurely, daintily-fluffy, don’t-ye-mind-me-dear kind of fashion in which an old hen lets herself down upon a newly-hatched brood of chickens, he will understand the qualities which charac- terised me as the critic of this Ladies’ Literary  136 Society. I even went so far as to offer the secre- tary —after I had despatched the first lot of criticisms—the few scattered locks of hair still left to me for submission to the vengeance of the members. Further, and as a lover of fair play, I wrote a story, and invited the members to criticise it. The result was to enlarge my vocabulary of phrases ; because all the criticisms were tentative. Asthus: “Don’t you think the story—very good as a whole—would run better if,” &¢e; “How would it be if you made the story run upon this sort of line,” &c.; “I ques- tion if a girl, under similar circumstances, would,’ &e.; “The whole thing might be improved, perhaps, if,” &c. So that the sweet solicitude of Woman taught me how to stand in the position of other people. T understood the Power of Sympathy. It is better to tickle than to thump in a case of this kind, A critic may bang an author back into his shell; but he may, with a little trouble, wheedle him out of it, and cause him to exhibit his proportions. Evena peacock will expand his beautiful tail if you but whistle softly to him. And I take no merit to myself in the last confession that I am still the critic of a Ladies’ Literary Society, whose members have taught me how to see with their own eyes. Bennett Coue. I. A Moprrn Comepy (?). (Enacted Daily.) Scene: Fleet-street. A large shop, bearing on the signboard the announcement “ Furniture pought and sold.” Enter Mr. Young Author. (Reads announce- ment.) “Ha! the very thing for me. I have some nice chairs at home I should like to dispose of. I'll bring them here.” (Goes home, gets a chair, and brings it to the shop.) Mr. Y. A.: “Good morning, sir; I see you deal in furniture. I have just brought you a nice chair of a new pattern which I am making a number of at present. I’ll be very glad to sell . you this one. What’ll you give me for it? Mr. Cute Editor (proprietor of the business) : “No time to discuss matter with you at present. You can leave the chair though.” Mr. Y. A.: “Oh thanks! I'll leave it, and take the liberty of calling again.” (EHxit.) (Six months elapse.) _Mr. Y. A. (timidly): “I have taken the liberty, Mr. Editor, of calling to know whether THE AUTHOR. you have agreed to purchase my chair. I sent it you six months ago, you will perhaps re- member. Mr. C. E. (surprised): “ Your chair! Why, my dear sir, it was of no earthly use to me, and I sent it off with my rubbish to be made into fire- wood. Mr. Y. A. (groaning): But, surely you might have returned it to me; I would willingly have paid the cost of carriage, or come for it myself if you had let me know.” Mr. C. E. (offended) : You ought to have kept a copy. You can surely easily make another of the same pattern, just a little more wood, and a few hours’ labour ; and yet you come and annoy me and take up my precious minutes about a paltry chair!” Mr. Y. A.: “Allow me to reason out the matter with you calmly, sir. The chair was my property, not yours. It may have been a poor thing, but it was my own—my own idea and my own labour, to say nothing of the wood. If it was of no value to you, it might have been of value to some other dealer; it was at least of value to me; and I shall thank you to pay me that value, or produce the chair.” Mr. C. B.: “As L already said, I have no time to waste discussing matters with you; but before you take any legal action you had better direct your attention to this notice. Perhaps you didn’t see it, but that wasn’t my fault. Underneath my name on the signboard you will see, if you look carefully, the words ‘ We cannot undertake to return any furniture sent us for approval; makers send at their own risk.’ And now, sir, you will please remember that I have the law on my side. Good morning.” Evit Mr. Y. A., aghast and threatening vengeance. — re $0-S0 SOCIOLOGY. (Continued from page 97-) 25. Melancholy is oftener due to poverty of body than to piety of soul. 26. The morbid soul would rather cherish a grievance than welcome a benefit. 27. The saner the soul, the sounder the sympathy. 28. Marriages are angel-made, man-made, or devil-made: of heaven, earth, or hell. 29. Hell often apes heaven to please earth. 30. It is generally far easier to disapprove than to disprove.  3k VG THE AUTHOR. 31. Proof is less a matter of accuracy than of acceptance. 32. All truth is not beautiful, all beauty good, nor all goodness true, to an imperfect race. 33. Happiness, like beauty, is less a duty than a harmony. 34. Fashion may be only a matter of tense; taste is more a manner of temperament. 35. Constancy is no more a matter of sex than charity is of sect. 36. It is far easier to forget conduct than to forgive character. 37. Inconsistency of character is a mere myth. 38. Nature never fully forgives where she has once injured. 39. Fancies of the present are popularly credited to facts of the other tenses. 40. Credulity is not always a reliable gauge of veracity. 41. But for extremes, the mean would never rise. fz. The value of a civilization is estimable by the due culture of its children. 43. Misuse the rod—damn the child. 44. The main difference between saint and sinner is self. 45. Even personal experience fails to teach hopeless fools. 46. Relative truth is less a matter of reflection than a manner of refraction. 47. "Tis but a feeble fiction that cannot outbid fact, in fancy and in flattery. 48. The past is always greater than the present: there was ever so much more of it. 49. The weak vainly try to recover by obstinacy what they have lost by credulity. 50. When health goes, hell grows. 51. Who physics himself poisons a fool. 52. Bigotry is the devilry of temporary theology. 53. Charity is the archangel of right religion. 54. There is one vice—selfishness: and one virtue—sacrifice. 55. There is no sex in courage, devotion, wisdom, or wickedness. 56. Personal purity is essential to perfect poetry. 57. A minim of sympathy is worth a tun of theology. 58. Nature admits no claim to compensation ; she punishes—as she rewards—with compound interest. 59. Living nature shows neither equality nor identity. 60 The majority is usually more concerned with consistency than with accuracy. 137 61. The insane soul reveres power more than virtue. PHINLAY GLENELG, Erratum on p. 96: Delete “or proof.” (To be continued.) UGOLINO’S LOVE. ‘* Poscia piu che ’l dolor pote il digiuno.” Inf., XX XTIL., 75. Thrice cruel grief since thou refus’dst to stay, When Ugolino’s sons lay on the ground, Mute chilly corpses, whence no more should sound The voices welcome as the dawn of day ; Shall even famine rob thee of thy prey, And in her heart more tenderness abound, By her shall freedom for the soul be found, Whom thou wouldst keep in tenement of clay ! Alas! the groping o’er those dear dead sons, Alas! the horror of the midnight tomb ! Why e’en in traitors, fathers’ hearts blood runs, And Ugolino from thy awful doom, Which with dismay the hardest spirit stuns, Thy human love still shines above the gloom. NoRLEY CHESTER. LITERATURE IN OXFORD. URING the summer term the following D lectures were held at Oxford—the Taylor Institute: —One by the Professor of Poetry on the influence of the Renaissance in English Poetry, which included the reading of many poems of that period; one on Russian and Old Russian Ballads, by the Reader in Slavonic Languages; one on Molitre, by Mr. Markham, of Queen’s College ; one on the importance of Lan- guage Teaching in Education, by Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh; two on Scandinavian Literature, by Dr. Lentzner—the first treated of Danish Language and Literature, the second of Bjérnstjerne Bjornson. Dr. Lentzner will also deliver two more lectures next term—one on the Danish poet, Paludan Miiller, and the second on Henrik Ibsen. CORRESPONDENCE. I. A Novet EXPERIENCE. We have had here far more failures than successes, but I am content to put the failures down to bitter bad luck, or to lack of under- standing in regard to the artfulness and mysteri- ousness of the craft of publishing. But this is not quite what I sat down to write about. This morning’s post brings an unasked-for and most acceptable cheque towards recouping publishers’ losses from one whose book—a really good book that was much praised—failed to ‘catch on.” I want to place on record that this is our first and only experience of the kind. Gladly would I help in placing the effigy of so generous hearted a man on a pedestal in the sanctum sanctorum of the Society of Authors. Anprew W. Turr. The Leadenhall Press Limited. TI. Toe Reat “ Dreap TRIBUNAL.” Among all the utterances about the trials of authors, their most real and most formidable adversaries are rarely alluded to. These I con- ceive to be those familiars of the inquisition who, while keeping out of sight themselves, superintend and direct the tortures that are in- flicted on the uphappy aspirants to literary fame. I mean the readers employed by the publishers to judge the manuscripts. These are “the gods who kill and make alive ”—for is it not often a matter of life and death to a poor author, whether his work is accepted or rejected P—and the blow is struck in secret, we never see the hand by which it is dealt. An author seeks an interview with a publisher, and is somewhat reassured in his trepidation by the kindness of the suave gentleman who, in spite of a preoccupied look which he cannot quite suppress, receives him politely, and listens to him with attention, taking the MS. from his hand, and laying it carefully on his own particular table, before he graciously bows his visitor out. The author, if he or she be young, goes away more happily, fondly cherishing the idea that Mr. A. or B.—the publisher—is going to make an exception in his favour, and look at this author’s work himself. Alas! how different is the fate of the unhappy MS.! It goes we know not whither, to be tried we know not by whom. The unseen foe that we have to encounter is omnipotent, from his tribunal there is no appeal. The reader may be a prejudiced man, an ignorant man, an interested man, THE AUTHOR. even a dishonest man, but there is none to call him to account. Surely authors have some ground of righteous complaint here; surely the readers, in whose hands all the power really is, ought to be, like other experts, known to the public, so that those who refer to them may feel sure that they will be honestly dealt with. They should be formed into a separate association, admitted only after an examination, so that authors may no longer feel that their works—which, perhaps, is the only property they possess, and which means often their very life- blood itself—is not being judged by incompetent _ or prejudiced persons who are acting only in the interests of the one publisher whom they serve. Surely, considering the fact that authorship is a calling involving great responsibility and great anxiety, with but small reward, except in few cases, those who are treading its thorny path ought to feel assured that their work will be honourably and justly dealt with by persons fully qualified and competent to form a right judgment as to its merits and its value. L. C. Sry. [The writer must remember that a reader who passed. by or rejected good work would very soon cease to be a reader. ‘That is to say, a reader— even the best reader—may make a mistake, but such incompetence, or neglect, or malignity as our writer imagines, is not conducive to the interests of a publishing house and would not be endured.—Ep. | IT. Grorce Evior AND RESPECTABILITY. In his interesting paper on “ The Profession of Letters,” in the July number of the Author, does not Mr. Besant somewhat exceed the mark when he says that George Eliot’s “ whole life was a protest against respectability ?” There are some female writers—notably Georges Sand—whose life and writings amply justify such a description. But, notwithstanding her connec- tion with Mr. Lewes, I have never regarded George Eliot as one who delighted to outrage public opinion ; nor do I think that she wished her example to be regarded by others as a prece- dent. Her connection with Mr. Lewes seems to to have been the result of exceptional circum- stances in her environment, rather than the pro- duct of natural character. Georges Sand held peculiar views upon mar- riage, deliberately acted upon them, and sought to justify them through the medium of her novels. George Eliot, I think, wished so far as possible to ignore her anomalous position. She desired  I a Sag ce THE AUTHOR. in all respects to be treated ag Mr. Lewes’s wife, and nothing distressed her more than being addressed as Miss Evans instead of Mrs. Lewes. It even seems to me that the almost startling and painful suddenness, with which she entered into marriage after Mr. Lewes’s death may be traced to her keen susceptibility concerning the position in which she had been placed by that death. Again, with her religious opinions; though she held views upon religion that, when held by a woman, were considered a few years ago to be less “‘ respectable ” than they are rapidly growing to be now, yet in no sense can she be described as openly inculcating them. They were studiously ignored in her novels—somewhat too much SO, as I venture to think. I have often regretted that one who could draw so sympathetically and finely the characters of the Methodist Dinah Morris and the Catholic Savanarola should not have devoted time to the delineation of a character holding views similar to her own. It seems to me that her susceptibi- lity about her position may have made her anxious to do nothing further to outrage public opinion, and thus rendered her less courageous in her convictions than she would otherwise have been. So far from holding revolutionary views upon marriage, I agree with Mr. Hutton that “in story after story, she attempted to impress upon others the absolute sacredness of the rela- tions to which her own action had apparently shown her to be indifferent.” Would one whose “whole life was a protest against respectability ” have thought it necessary to do this? Aug. 7. C. E. Puumerre. [I should be sorry, indeed, to say one word in disrespect of George Eliot. But I have always understood her open, unconcealed connection with G. H. Lewes to mean a defiance of the laws and conventions which govern the world in the matter of marriage. In that sense, if I am right, it was a long “protest against respectability.” But, if I am wrong, Iam most willing to be put right, and therefore I publish Mr. Plumptre’s remonstrance without hesitation.—W. B.] IV. Tue Sweating or AvtHors. Mr. R. H. Sherard complains, with reason, of the sweating to which translators are subjected ; but, as a writer of original matter, my case—and that of hundreds of others no doubt—is little better. For short stories, of between three and four thousand words, I receive one guinea (less percentage), my remuneration being thus about a 139 halfpenny a line. On the whole, I think the translator is the better paid of the two, for he has not to wear out his brains trying to hit on novel subjects. His work is more or less mechanical, and demands little thought. Truly it is no wonder we should all have periodical fits of discouragement. The wonder is that the periodicity does not merge in continuity. H. R. G. V. Reviewine. In the current number of the Author Mr. Sherard concludes an article with some remarks on the inappropriateness (I will not use a word of a different shade—impropriety) of one author reviewing the work of another. Now, if an author should be forbidden to eriti- cise the book of his brother, how much more is he falsely and meretriciously employed in acting as a publishers’ reader, standing at the very fountain head, and either letting pass, or im- peding, work that should flow to the public for them to taste. How entirely wrong is it that an author—who must of nature (he must be greatly ignorant of the history of literature who does not know this) be a creature of the strongest prejudices—should be arbiter as to what order of, or predilection in, literature shall reach the public, and be in a position to colour, to a vast extent, the work set before us. I believe we have sufficient record that the very greatest and most illustrious of English writers have left behind them abundant instances of such prejudices. I would ask, what would have resulted had Johnson been a publisher’s reader? I do not think he would have let us have Sterne or Fielding. I do not think Sterne would have let us have Johnson. I do not think Byron would have permitted Wordsworth. I think Scott would have allowed a flood of rather mawkish stuff. We have seen how Milman tried to squelch Keats, as a critic—what would he have done as a publisher’s reader of his work ? The fact is, the author is, and must be, ever- more particularly narrow in his vein of ideas— he cannot have the insight into, the genuine toleration for, other work that a perfectly im- partial publisher’s reader should have. INGENUE. VI. Tue Pousuic Taste. I wonder if it is true (as we are constantly assured) that there is always a remunerative market for good literary work, no matter what its genre may be. 140 THE AUTHOR. About two years ago I wrote a “ study,” which the publishers were kind enough to tell me was extremely clever, and which they would have been only too delighted to bring out had they been in Paris, but that the book (which I must hasten to add was not the least improper) would not do for England. It hadn’t swing enough. It was with- out the elements of popularity. I, therefore, entirely rewrote it; trying to work it up (I daren’t say down) to the public taste. And now they write again as follows : “T have carefully reread (your MS.) and have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it is stilla work which the English novel reader would fail altogether to appreciate. You have certainly improved the story by making it less diffuse and giving it more plot; but it is still much too delicate and much too subtle for English tastes. I should have-greatly liked to accept the book if I had been able to anticipate any success for it ; but there is really no place in this country for work of this kind.” T don’t in the least complain of the publishers, andif the book would have no sale they are only acting rightly in refusing it. I am writing this merely to ask if it be true that the English public are so narrow as to neglect work because it is “ delicate and subtle,’ and whether there is, there- fore, really “no place in this country for work of thiskind” ? If this be so (and I, myself, cer- tainly think it is), howand what must I write in future ? If it be not so; what shall I do with my MS.? An INEXPERIENCED AUTHOR. Vil. AvtHOoR AND EpITorR. “M. B.” writes: “An author forwards a MS. accompanied by an envelope directed and stamped to the tune of 2d. or 3d. He receives back the MS. torn and dirty, perforated with pins and tacks, not in the envelope sent for the protection of his property, but in a rolled wrapper of skimpy dimensions, and stamped to half the amount sent by him for postage.” He goes on to say that, if this is the general practice, somebody must make aw nice little addition to his salary by the differ- ence in the postage. He points out further that, so long as the MS. is the author’s property, no one has the right to make marks or remarks on the pages. Perhaps there are editors and editors, those who treat the contributor with courtesy and those who treat him as if he were a mendicant. The latter, let us hope, are the exceptions. VIII. TRANSFER OF Books, Tt often happens that a publisher—more especially one who has not a very large business —sells the whole or part of his stock to another publisher without giving any notice of the transaction to the authors of their publications. In certain cases this unmannerly proceeding may not be productive of any harm to the respective authors, but frequently it may inflict material loss—when the author has to expect a “ royalty ” —or cause moral injury or personal annoyance. It is a well-known fact in the publishing trade that publishers sometimes purchase the copyright of books merely with the view of suppressing them, so that they should not compete with their older and perhaps more profitable publications. This is in particular the case with works relating to special subjects, such as scientific and educa- tional books, works on art, &c. Now most authors are not satisfied with the remuneration alone which they receive, however liberal it may be, but they want their books to live, as it were, and to effect some good—which, of course, they cannot do if silently suppressed. It may also be that a publisher disposes of his stock to a person between whom and the author of some of the books unfriendly or downright hostile relations prevail, and the thought that the productions of his labours should enrich an enemy of his must be painful to him, however humanely disposed he may be. I beg, therefore, to suggest that the attention of authors should be called to the advisability of stipulating in certain cases “that, whenever the publisher of their books should sell, during their lifetime, his copyright stock to someone else, they should be consulted on the matter, and if they can produce any valid objection, the publisher should not be allowed to sell the copyright of the respective books to the person in question.” I think that when an author has to expect a “royalty ” on his works he has, of course, a legal claim to be consulted about the disposal of his works, and when he has unfortunately sold the copyright once for all, he ought at least to retain a moral veto in the transaction. ——  THE AUTHOR. “AT THE SIGN OF THE AUTHOR'S HEAD.” eat ee [We propose for the convenience of members who do not see all the papers containing literary intelligence, to compile as complete a list as possible every month. We shall endeavour to acknowledge the source of our news in every case; and we must beg our readers to bear in mind that when no acknowledgment is set down they must credit us with having received it independently. ] NEW novel is about to be produced by Cecil Cole. It will be called “A Norse- man’s Wooing.” The second edition of Mr. Theodore Bent’s “Ruined Cities of Mashonaland ” will shortly be ready. It is chiefly remarkable for additional notes in the Preface by Professor D. H. Miiller, of Vienna, and Mr. A. St. Chad Boscawen. There is also an appendix on the present state of Mashonalind and the progress it has recently made, by the secretary of the Chartered Company. The Newcastle Daily Journal now devotes several columns a week to current literature, and signed articles are written by a member of the Society of Authors. Books intended for review or literary notices from authors or publishers will receive attention if addressed “ Hirondelle,” Daily Journal Office, Newcastle-on-Tyne. With the July number of the Art Amateur the English supplement will be increased to eight pages, and, in addition to giving brief accounts of the chief doings of the Art world in England, it will contain the first instalment of a serial story, entitled “A Cruel Dilemma,” by Mary H. Tennyson. This story describes the struggles of an art amateur who is suddenty thrown entirely on her own resources. Her art difficulties are great, and her ignorance of the world leads her into many perilous positions. Messrs. J. EH. Nixon and E. H. C. Smith, of King’s College, Cambridge, are about to produce a Book of Parallel Verse Extracts (Latin), being extracts for Verse Composition for Higher Forms, with Prefaces on Idioms and Metres. Macmillan (pp. Ixxxvilit152). 5s. 6d. The poem addressed by Mowbray Marras to Arrigo Boito, which appeared in our July number, is quoted in the Gazzetta Musicale of Milan otf the 6th August, together with an Italian trans- lation and a eulvgistic paragraph, referring in flattering terms to the English author. The Rey. Professor Momerie sailed for Canada from Liverpool on Aug. 24, en route for Chicago, to attend the great International Church Congress which is to be held in September. Dr, Momerie has been appointed a member of the Council. He will read a paper on Theism, 141 Mr. H. Johnson, editor of “On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers,” which has already reached a fifth edition, and a popular edition being now in the press, is preparing a short “ Life of Miss Kate Marsden.” The volume will be published simultaneously in England and America, the Record Press, Limited, 376, Strand, London, WC., being the publishers in this country. The second edition of a Treatise on *‘ Dynamics,” by W. H. Besant, Se.D., F.R.S., has just been published by Messrs. Bell and Sons. Many improvements on the first edition have been effected by careful re-arrangements and con- siderable additions. A play from the pen of Mr. F. H. Cliffe is in the press, and will shortly be published by Messrs. Remington and Co. “ Four Centuries After; or, How I Discovered Europe,” by Ben Holt, published in New York, is a fairly amusing book of modern travel in Europe. It is, however, lacking in sustained interest, and the humour does not flow with suffi- cient strength to carry the reader to the end. “The Discovery of Europe” does not throw any new light either on the aborigines of that conti- nent or their manners and customs. A four-act play of serious interest, by Charles Thomas and Walter Ellis, entitled “Troubled Waters,” has been purchased by the American actress Miss Frances Drake, who preposes to make it the leading feature of her coming season in the United States. The play will probably be presented in London next year. Miss Drake has for the past few seasons played all the leading parts in one of Daniel Frohman’s companies, and is said to be an actress possessed of unusual emotional powers. “The Transgression of Terence Clancy ” is the title of the new novel, in 3 vols., by Harold Vallings, author of ‘The Quality of Mercy,” &c. The publishers will be Bentley and Son. Mr. F. Bayford Harvcison is taking a new de- parture in the shape of a novel, which will be published early in the autumn by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett. “ Who Wants Home Rule?” The question is answered in blank verse in six pages. There is no author’s name ; but as the brochure advertises other works by William Alfred Gibbs, it is rea- sonable to suppose Mr. Gibbs is also the author of these lines, which are at least vigorous, The title of Mr. J. HE. Muddock’s forthcoming novel, to be published by George Newnes Limited in the autumn, is “Only a Woman’s Heart.”  i i 1 tt | 4 | | | { | i | | | 142 A few days ago, Mr. J. E. Muddock, the nove- list, who is also known as “ Dick Donovan,” was presented with a handsome and valuable diamond ring, by a numerous circle of friends, on the oceasion of his fiftieth birthday, and as a token of his many excellent qualities as a man, and his ability as a writer. Messrs. Chatto and Windus have the thir- teenth volume of the Dick Donovan series of detective stories in the press, and will issue it shortly under the title of “Suspicion Aroused.” Thirteen volumes in something like four years is not a bad record even for the exhaustless Dick Donovan. A new novel by Annabel Gray, called “A Spanish Singer,” will appear in Theatricals of October next. “ Verses Grave and Gay,’ is the title of a new volume of verse, which Mr. F. B. Doveton has compiled, and which will be published by Mr. Horave Cox. Many of the pieces included in this collection are old friends. The dexterity and effectiveness of Mr. Doveton’s work is well- known to the readers of the Author. The verses entitled “The Outcast,’ “Why not Women Solicitors ?” “Flee the Flask,” “A Melody of Mars,” and “A Modern Fatima ” (in part), are reprinted by permission from the P. M. G., and “Mag on the Moor” and “The Old Fisherman,” from Bailey’s Magazine. Mr. Lawson Johnstone has completed a new story of adventure entitled “In the Land of the Golden Plume.” It will be published in October by W. and R. Chambers. Mr. Charles Ashton, of Dinas Mawddy, North Wales, is performing a useful but laborious task for his compatriots. This is nothing less than a complete bibliography of Welsh books, pamph- lets, periodicals, and newspapers, including books about Wales in other languages. He intends to give the title-page in full, with an added note stating the size, number of pages, and biographi- cal details. Mr. Ashton is appealing to all who own Welsh books to send him a list of short titles, in order that he may mark those about which he desires fuller information. Nine thousand entries have already been made.— Literary World. Miss Annie Swan, the novelist, has been appointed editor of a new magazine for women, entitled Woman at Home, the first number of which will appear on September 20th. Illustrated interviews with women will form a great feature of the periodical, which will also devote a portion of its space to the interests of children.—Sé. James’s Gazette. THE AUTHOR. Mr. John Southward, author of various books on printing, has in preparation an entirely new work for the use of students and practitioners, entitled “ Typography : a Synopsis of the History and an Account of the Processes of Letterpress Printing,” with many original illustrations. The author has devoted many years to the subject of printing, and has had considerable experience in conducting and contributing to trade journals. Mr. Southward will endeavour to describe the art in its multitudinous modern developments, as practised by the best printers of the present day. —Literary World. Miss Hannah Lynch is engaged upon a new novel dealing with modern French provincial life. An interesting article from her pen, dealing with the Spanish dramatist Echegaray—who may be called the Ibsen of Spain—will appear in the October number of the Contemporary Review. Mr. Hare’s new book, “The Story of Two Noble Lives: Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford,” will be issued in three volumes shortly by Mr. George Allen. The first volume will shed fresh light on some obscure points of French history, particu- larly about the period of the accession of Louis Philippe. The second volume will contain some interesting particulars of the Indian Mutiny, and of Lord Canning’s experiences and trials as Governor-General of India; while the last volume will deal chiefly with matters of personal interest connected with the life of Lady Waterford.—St. James’s Gazette. A new book of travel, entitled “In Search of a Climate,’ by Charles G. Nottage, LL.B., F.R.G.S., will be published in the early autumn by Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. It will deal chiefly with the Sandwich Islands and Southern California; and will give various data relating to the different health resorts of the world. The author was in Honolulu during the Revolution, and the true state of affairs as between Queen Liliuokalani and the American Minister will be given. Ina chapter on Ancient Hawaii, the author will show that the native idea of the creation is very similar to that set forth in Genesis. The book, which should appeal both to the invalid and traveller, will be illustrated by over thirty pictures done by the photomezzotype process.— Westminster Gazette. Miss Annie E. Holdsworth, better known by her pseudonym ‘Max Beresford,’ has written a serial .story for the, Woman’s Herald, under the name of “Johanna Traill, spinster.” It is a tale of modern London life, and deals with the problem of female work and independence.  THE AUTHOR. 143 Mrs. Steel, the writer of a number of admirable sketches of Indian life which have lately appeared in’ Macmillan’s Magazine, has written a new volume of stories dealing with phases of Indian life hitherto undepicted. The book is called “From the Five Rivers,” and is published by Mr. Heinemann. A collection of biographical, critical, and topographical sketches entitled “In the Foot- steps of the Poets,’ to which Professor Masson, Mr. R. H. Hutton, the Bishop of Ripon, and others have contributed, will be published next month by Messrs. Isbister. The same publishers will also bring out a volume dealing with the English cathedrals, to which Archdeacon Farrar, Canon Fremantle, and others have contributed. Mr. Herbert Railton has illustrated the book. Dr. J. Woodward, says the Daily Chronicle, has just completed a book on “ Ecclesiastical Heraldry,” with numerous emblazoned and other plates, which will shortly be published by Messrs. W.and A. K. Johnstone. We are glad to observe that Mr. Walter Low’s admirably written and accurate little book on the “ English Language ” has just gone into a second and larger edition. Though primarily intended for London University students, its scholarship makes it something more than a text-book, and it will be found of use by every literary man who knows less about the English language than he should. The book is published by Messrs. Cave and Co. “Bay Ronald,” a novel by Miss May Crom- melin, has just been published by Messrs. Hurst and Blackett. The scene is laid in Kent; time, the end of the last century up to the date of Waterloo. All the scenery is copied from a well- known moated house in Kent. es NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. Theology. Hicxiz, W. J. Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testa- ment, after the latest and best authorities. Macmillan. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BIBLE AND THE Koran. Watts and Co. History and Biography. Apkins, W. Rytanp. Our County. Sketches in Pen and Ink of Representative Men of Northamptonshire, Illustrations by W. B. Shoosmith. Elliot Stock. Beacu’s Historica, READER. Standard 5-6. W. H. Allen. 1s. 3d. CHUNDER BHOLANAUTH. Raja Digambar Mitra, his Life and Career. Hare Press, Calcutta. Forrest, G. W., B.A. Selections from the Letters, Despatches, and other State Papers preserved in the Military Department of the Government of India, 1857-58. Hdited by. With a map and plans. Vol. 1. Calentta, Military Department Press, 1893. Gasquet, F. Arpan, D.D. Henry VIII. and the English Monasteries. Parts xv. and xvi. John Hodges, Agar- street, W.C. 2s. Ty Memoriam: Georce HERBERT. A collection of papers relating to the parish of Bemerton. Salisbury. Edward Roe and Co. Macxintuay, Rev. J. B. Saint Edmund: King and Martyr. A history of his life and times; with an account of the translations of his incorrupt body, &c., from original MSS. London and Leamington Art and Book Company. New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago. Benziger Bros. tos. 6d. Mauuxson, Coronet G. B. Lord Clive, and the Establish- ment of the English in India. (Rulers of India Series, edited by Sir W. W. Hunter.) Oxford, at the Claren- don Press. London: Henry Frowde. 2s. 6d. Marsuam, J. C. Abridgment of the History of India. Third edition, with map. Blackwood, 6s. Moserty, G. Hersert. Life of William of Wykeham. Second and enlarged edition, published for the quin- gentenary celebration. Winchester: Warren and Son. London: Simpkin and Co. Limited. SANDoRN, F. B., anp Harris, W. T. A. Bronson Alcott: His Life and Philosophy. 2 vols. T. Fisher Unwin. TopuuntTeER, Isaac. A History of the Theory of Elasti- city and of the Strength of Materials from Galilei to the Present Time, by the late Isaac Todhunter, D.Sc., F.R.S., edited and completed for the Syndics of the University Press by Karl Pearson,.M.A. Vol. II. Parts I. and II. Cambridge, at the University Press. Weir, Preston. The Invaders of Britain. An Intro- duction to the Study of British History. J. Baker and Son, Clifton. Simpkin, Marshall. WeLcH, CHARLES, F.S.A. History of the Monument. Published under the authority of the City Lands Com- mittee of the Corporation of the City of London. Is. 6d. General Literature, ABERDEEN, THE CouNTESs or. Through Canada with a Kodak. Edinburgh: W. H. White and Co. AnnUAL REpoRT oF THE SANITARY COMMISSIONER WITH THE GOVERNMENT oF INDIA, 1891. Calcutta, office of the Superintendent of Government Printing. 5 rupees. BarDEKuR’s SWITZERLAND, and the adjacent portions of Italy, Savoy, and the Tyrol, with thirty-nine maps, twelve plans, and twelve panoramas. 15th edition. London: Dulau. 8 marks. BaRTHOLOMEW, J. Plan of Bournemouth, with Environs. New and revised edition, on cloth. W.H. Smith and Son, ts. Bent, J. THeoporn, F.S.A. The Ruined Cities of Mashona- land, being a Record of Excavation and Exploration in 1891, with a chapter on the Orientation and Mensura- tion of the Temples, by R. M. W. Swan, new edition. Longmans. 7s. 6d. Brrp, Rey. A. Ryper. Boating in Bavaria, Austria, and Bohemia, Down the Danube, Moldau, and Elbe. Simpkin, Marshall. 6s. Boot’s District GuipEr To Lonpon, 6d.; issued with the authority of the District Railway Company; A B C Holiday Guide and Hotel, Boarding-house, and Apart- ment Directory, 3d.; The Thames from Hampton Court to Clacton, Harwich, Margate, and Ramsgate, SS ES ET Se Si SSS PSL RLS ENA OER ne 144 THE AUTHOR. official guide of the Victoria Steamboat Association Limited. Boot and Co., 24, Old Baily, E.C. 2d. Bramston, A.R., AND Leroy, A.C. A City of Memories, With a preface by the Lord Bishop of Winchester. Etchings and illustrations by W. B. Roberts, S.P.E. Winchester, P. and G. Wells; London, David Nutt. 5s. net. BusHevy, Rev. W. Dons. Harrow Octocentenary Tracts, II. Wulfred and Cwoenthryth. Camb.: Macmillan and Bowes. Is. Catutius. Edited by Elmer Truesdell Merrill, Rich Professor of Latin in Wesleyan University. (College Series of Latin Authors). Boston, U.S.A., and London : Ginn and Co. CurLp, Jacop 8. The Pearl of Asia: Reminiscences of the Court of a Supreme Monarch; or, Five Years in Siam. Kegan Paul. os. 6d. Cooke, C. W. Rapcurrre, M.P. Four Years in Parliament with Hard Labour. Third edition. Cassells. Is. “ Drvia Hrpernis.” The Road and Route Guide for Ireland of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Compiled and edited by George A. de M. Edwin Dagg, D.I., of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co. Limited. Durr, E.Gorpon. Early Printed Books. Kegan Paul. 6s.net. Exsersoup, F. Illustrated Europe Series, Nos. 155, 156, 157, and 158; Through the Bernese Oberland. With seventy-six illustrations and a map. Zurich: Art. Institut Orell Fussli. 52s. EHRENBERG, Fritz. Illustrated Europe: Hohwald and its Environs in the Vosges Mountains. With twenty- three illustrations by J. Weber, a map, and “ Hohwald Indicator.” Published by the Art. Institut Orell, Fussli, Zurich. 6d. Fow ier, G. Hersert. The Conditions for successful Oyster Culture. Dulau and Co. 4d. GARDNER, Pror. Percy, Litt. D. Catalogue of Greek Vases in the Ashmolean Museum. Frowde. £3 33. Grsps, Henry H. A Colloquy on Currency. ts. London: Effingham Wilson. Manchester: J. EH. Cornish. Gipson, Herspert. The History and Present State of the Sheep-breeding Industry in the Argentine Republic. Ravenscroft and Mills. Griec, JonHn. Scots Minstrelsie: A National Monument of Scottish Song. Edited and arranged by. Vol. 3. Edinburgh: T. C. and E. C. Jack. GuipE To Ben Nevis, with an account of the foundation and work of the Metrological Observatory. 1s. John Menzies and Co., Edinburgh and Glasgow. GwyNnepp, Mapoc Owen. Madoc; an essay on the dis- covery of America in the 12th century. By Thomas Stephena. Edited by Llywarch Reynolds, B.A. (Oxon). Longmans. 7s. 6d. Hacearp, F.T. Strikes versus Supply and Demand, and Live and Learn. Tunbridge-wells, Courier Printing and Publishing Company. Here, Hernricu. The Works of Heinrich Heine. Vol. 4. The Salon ; or Letters on Art, Music, Popular Life, and Politics. Translated by Chas. Godfrey Leland (Hans Breitmann). Heinemann. 5s. Hougarr, CLuirroRD W. Winchester Commoners, 1800- 1835. An index of the surnames of commoners given in the “Lacy Rolls” of Winchester College for the years 1800 to 1835 inclusive. With introduction and notes. ts. net. Salisbury, Brown and Co. ; Winchester, P. and G. Wells; London, Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. Hupson, W. H. Birds in a Village. 7s. 6d. Chapman and Hall. InLustRATED OrFiciAL HANDBOOK OF THE CAPE AND SoutH Arrica: A Resumé of the History, Conditions, , Populations, Productions, and Resources of the several Colonies, States, and Territories. Edited by John Noble. Cape Town and Johannesburg, J. C. Juta and Co. INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND TRELAND. ReG@uLATIONS FoR ADMISSION TO MeEm- BERSHIP AND ReGisTeR. Issued by order of the Council. Is. JENKINSON’S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE ENGLIsH LAKES, 9th edition, revised and edited by the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley, M.A., and Thos. Bakewell, with maps and views. Stanford. 6s. Jorpan, W. L. The Standard of Value. Fifth edition. Longmans. Kina, Cuarurs. Love in the Woods: a Rustic Idyll, con- taining 100 hidden names of trees and woods. King. 2d. Kina, Cuaries. Riding, the Use and Misuse of Reins and Stirrups. Fifteen illustrations. Fourth edition. King. 2d. Lane, ANDREW, M.A. Custom and Myth. Longmans. 38. Od. Lester, EpwarD. The Story of Abibal, the Tsourian. Trans- lated from the Pheenician by. Preceded by an account of the finding of the manuscript by Emily Watson. Edited by Val. C. Prinsep, A.R.A. Smith Elder. Low’s HANDBOOK TO THE CHARITIES OF LONDON, giving the objects, date of formation, office, &c., of over a thousand Charitable Institutions, revised according to the latest reports. Sampson Low, Marston. 1s. 6d. Narurauist’s Map or Scornanp. By J. A. Harvie- Brown and J. G. Bartholomew. J. Bartholomew and Co. 3s. 6d. NeEILson, GeorGE. Peel: Its Meaning and Derivation. Re- printed from the Transactions of the Glasgow Archzxo- logical Society. Glasgow, Strathern and Freeman. Norman, J. H. A Ready Reckoner of the World’s ‘xchanges. Sampson Low. OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE SCARBOROUGH AND WHITBY Raitway Coast Rovutsr. Scarborough, Alexander Wilson, 29, Falsgrave-road. OrricrAL HanpBookK oF THE NATIONAL ARTILLERY ASSOCIATION, 1893. Issued by order of the Council. J. J. Keliher and Co., 33, King William-street. On THE DisTRIBUTION OF RAIN OVER THE BRITISH IsLES DURING THE YEAR 1892, as observed at nearly 3000 stations in Great Britain and Ireland, with articles upon various branches of rainfall work, com- piled by G. J. Symons, F.R.S., and H. Sowerby Wallis, F.R.Met.Soc. Pamety, Cates. The Colliery Manager's Handbook. Containing nearly 500 plans, diagrams, and other illus- trations. Second edition, revised, with additions. Crosby Lockwood. PHotograpHy ANNUAL FoR 1893. A compendium of information and statistics of the year. Edited by Hy. Sturmey. Iliffe and Son, 3, St. Bride-street. H.C. Rozortom, ArTHuR. Travels in Search of New Trade Products. Jarrold and Sons. Paper covers. Is. net. Roya CononraL InstituTE: REPORT OF PROCREDINGS. Edited by the Secretary. Vol. xxiv., 1892-93. Pub- lished by the Institute. Roya UNIVERSITY oF IRELAND EXAMINATION PAPERS, 1892. A Supplement to the University Calendar for the year 1893. Dublin, Alex. Thom and Co. Speru, G. W. Whatis Freemasonry? George Kenning, 16 and 16a, Great Queen-street, W.C. Tus Bapminton Lisrary—Swimmine. By Archibald Sinclair and William Henry, with illustrations by S. T. Dadd and from photographs by G. Mitchell. Large paper copy. Longmans.  THE AUTHOR. “Tue Bookman” Directory or BooxksELLEeRs, Pus- LISHERS, AND AuTHoRS. Hodder and Stoughton. 1s. THE CHAMBERLAIN OF LONDON (TREASURER) IN ACCOUNT WITH THE CORPORATION OF LONDON IN RESPECT OF THE Ciry’s EsTATE FOR THE YEAR 18092, ALSO IN RESPECT OF VARIOUS PUBLIC AND Trust FUNDS IN THE CHAMBER OF LoNDoN. Printed by Charles Skipper and East, St. Dunstan’s-hill, B.C. THe County Council FoR THE CounTY PALATINE OF Lancaster. Report of the Director of Technical Instruction, J. A. Bennion, M.A., Cambridge, of the Inner Temple, barrister-at-law, for the year ending September, 1892. With appendices, tables, and twenty-eight maps. Printed by C. W. Whitehead, 125, Fisher-gate, Preston. THE CURRENCY QUESTION: REPORT OF THE HERSCHELL CommirTrE. Proceedings in the Imperial Legislative Council. Speeches by the Viceroy, Sir David Barbour, and the Hon. J. L. Mackay. Verbatim Report. Allahabad, the Pioneer Press. One rupee. THE ‘“GENTLEWomMAN’s” Royan REcoRD OF THE WEDDING OF THE Princess Mary or TECK AND THE DvuKE oF YorEK. Gentlewoman Office. 2s. 6d. Tue Letters oF “ VeTUS” ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE WAR OrFice. Reprinted, by permission, from the Times. With a preface by Gen. Sir George Chesney, K.C.B., M.P. Cassell’s. 15. Tue Lrsrary Assocration Series, No. 2, Pusuic Liprary LeGisnation. By H. W. Fovargue and J. J. Ogle. Simpkin, Marshall. 2s. 6d. THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (AUTHORISED EDITION.) Fourth series, Vol. XII. Fifth volume of Session 1893, containing the Debates in both Houses from May 4 to June 1, 1893. Eyre and Spottiswoode. THe TWENtTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CO-OPERATIVE CoNGRESS, 1893, held in the hall of the Y.M.C.A., St. James’s- square, Bristol, on May 22, 23,and 24. Edited by J. G. Gray, general secretary. Manchester, the Co-operative Union Limited, City-buildings, Corporation-street. Topp, Grorcr Eyre. Byways of the Scottish Border: A Pedestrian Pilgrimage. With illustrations by Tom Scott, A.R.S.A. Selkirk: James Lewis, 13, High- street. 4s. 6d. Tompkins, Norton. 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THE TIMES: ‘‘Mr. James Payn’s pleasant story contains a startling novelty. - The leading actors are a group of undergraduates of Cambridge University. Mr. Payn’s picture of University society is frankly exceptional. Exceptional, if not unique, is the ‘nice little college’ of St. Neot’s. Cambridge men will have little difficulty in recognising this snug refuge of the ‘ploughed.’ . . . An ingenious plot, clever characters, and, above all, a plentiful seasoning of genial wit. The uxorious master of St. Neot’s is charmingly conceived. If only for his reminiscences of his deceased wives, ‘A Stumble on the Threshold’ deserves to be treasured. . . . We turn over Mr. Payn’s delightful pages, so full of surprises and whimsical dialogue. Bae DaILy NEws: “The dramatic story is told with an excellent wit. It abounds in lively presentation of character and in shrewd Sayings concerning life and manners. That study of mankind which is ‘man’ has furnished a liberal educa- tion to this genial humorist. The men and women he pourtrays move before us, as do our friends and acquaintances, distinct individualities, yet each possessed of that reserve of mystery a touch of which in the delineation of human nature, is more convincing than pages of analysis. Needham, Fellow of St. Neot’s, Cambridge—simple, loyal, gently independent—is a beautiful study. The story alternates in its setting between Bournemouth, Cambridge, and some charming spots near the Thames. The description of life in the Alma Mater on the banks of the Cam gives Mr. Payn opportunities for humorous sketches of professors and students, and he shows himself in the light of an excellent raconteur. This part of the narrative furnishes some delightful reading; we seem to be listening to the best talk, incisive, racy, and to the point. Space will not allow us to quote some of the wise and witty sayings, tinged it may be with cynicism, which are the outcome of Mr, Payn’s philosophy of life, and which are not the least entertaining part of this attractive novel.” DAILY CHRONICLE: ‘*Mr. James Payn is here quite at his usual level all through, and that level is quite high enough to please most people. The character drawing is good. The story of the master sounds strangely like truth. A book to read distinctly.” DAILY GRAPHIO, ‘ . . . The dramatic unity of time, place, and cir- ‘cumstance has never had a more novel setting. » SATURDAY REVIEW: ‘*A very interesting story, and one that excels in clever contrast of character and close study of individualism. : The characters make the impression of reality on the reader. : Extremely pleasant are the sketches of University life.” THE WORLD: “The most.sensational story which the author has written since his capital novel, ‘By Proxy.’ Never flags for a moment.” BIACK AND WHITE. “ . . . Ingenious and Original. Mr. Payn knows how to invent and lead up to a mystery.” LEEDS MERCURY: ‘“Three more distinctive characters have, perhaps, never been drawn by Mr. James Payn than in Walter Blythe, Robert Grey, and George Needham, Cambridge undergraduates, who figure prominently in ‘A Stumble on the Threshold.’” GLASGOW HERALD: “. , . . Mr. Payn’s latest invention in sensational episode; but wild horses will not drag from us a statement of the mystery. It is new and thoroughly original, and worthy of the ingenuity of the loser of Sir Massingberd.” BATLEY REPORTER: “. . . . Is most attractive reading.” HAMPSHIRE TELEGRAPH AND CHRONICLE: ‘*Mr, James Payn’s latest story, ‘A Stumble on the Threshold,’ which has been the chief attraction in the ‘ Queen’ during the last few months—where, by the way, it was most admirably illustrated—has just been issued in two handsome vols. by Mr. Horace Cox. The story is written in Mr. Payn’s happiest vein; it sparkles with wit, the characters are most unconventional, and the old, old theme is worked out on quite novel lines.” HEREFORD TIMES ‘‘ With all their sparkle and gaiety, Mr. Payn’s novels would not be complete without the dread Nemesis, mysterious in operation, and casting suspicion for a time on every side but the right one. The novel is thoroughly attractive, and a credit to the practised hand which penned it.” THE OBSERVER: “6... 6s a characteristic story, remarkably quietly told, always pleasing and satisfying, and pro- viding a startling incident at a moment when everything seems serene.” London: HORACE COX, Windsor House, Bream’s Buildings, E.C.  148 ADVERTISEMENTS. MESDAMES BRETT & BOWSER, TYPISTS, SELBORNE CHAMBERS, BELL YARD, TEMPLE BAR. Authors’ MSS. carefully and expeditiously copied, from 1s. per 1000 words. Extra carbon copies half price. Refer- ences kindly permitted to Augustine Birrell, Esq., M.P. THE AUTHOR’S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD. (Tue Leapennatt Press Lrp., E.C.) pe Contains hairless paper, over which the pen slips with perfect freedom. Siwpence each: 58. per dozen, ruled or plain. Miss RR. V. GILT, TYPE-WRITING OFFICES, 6, Adam-street, Strand, W.C. 0 Authors’ and dramatists’ Work a Speciality. All kinds of MSS. copied with care. 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LONDON: HORACE COX, “LAW TIMES” OFFICE, WINDSOR HOUSE, BREAM’S BUILDINGS, E.O. Printed and Published by Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream’s-buildings, London, E.C, Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 04 Issue 04 (September 1893) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 04 Issue 04 (September 1893) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1893-09-01-The-Author-4-4 publications The Author