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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) 1895-04-01 Volume 5 Issue 11 Pages Page range in volume 281–304 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18950401 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. VoI. V.-No. 11.] APRIL 1, 1895. [PRICE SIXPENCE. For the Opinions earpressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as earpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. - HE 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. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- WARNINGS AND ADWICE, agent. 4. AscERTAIN WEAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVEs To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an arrangement as to a joint venture in 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. 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your 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, 6. CoST OF PRODUCTION.——Never sign any agreement of which the alleged cost of production forms an integral part, until you have proved the figures. 7. 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. 8. FUTURE WORK.—Never, on any account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk or responsibility whatever without advice. Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a M.S. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—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. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. 13. ADVERTISEMENTs. -- Keep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. I4. 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, PoETUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. -- - *-- - --" - - - HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. I. RAWING THE AGREEMENT.-It is not generally understood that the author, as the vendor, has the absolute right of drafting the agreement upon whatever terms the transaction is to be carried out. Authors are strongly advised to exercise that right. In every form of business, this among others, the right of drawing the agreement rests with him who sells, leases, or has the control of the property. 2. SERIAL RIGHTS.—In selling Serial Rights remember that you may be selling the Serial Right for all time; that is, the Right to continue the production in papers. If you object to this, insert a clause to that effect. 3. STAMP You R 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 £IO 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 seldom neglects this simple precaution. The Society, to save trouble, undertakes to get all the agreements of members stamped for them at mo ea'pense to themselves eacept the cost of the stamp. WOL. V. I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub. lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice C C 2  ## p. 282 (#296) ############################################ 282 THE AUTHOR. 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 Com- mittee 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 scruple 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 is in 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. 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 Awthor notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers:—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. *-- ~ *-* •- ~~~ THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMBERS are informed : I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of the business of members of the Society. That it submits MSS. to publishers and editors, concludes agree- ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene- rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business details. w 2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured will be forwarded upon detailed application. 3. That the Authors' Syndicate works only for those members of the Society whose work possesses a market value. 4. That the Syndicate can only undertake any negotiations whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia- tions are placed ea clusively in its hands, and that all communications relating thereto are referred to it. 5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days' notice should be given. 6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi- cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent to defray postage. 7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS. without previous correspondence ; does not hold itself responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray postage. 8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for lectures by some of the leading members of the Society; that it has a “Transfer Department * for the sale and purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a “Register of Wants and Wanted '' is open. Members are invited to communicate their requirements 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. NOTICES, HE Editor of the Awthor 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 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 Awthor 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 P 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 P. 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 are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding 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 them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P 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  ## p. 283 (#297) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 283 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. *-*. --> THE COMMITTEE, R. HENRY NORMAN, the author of “Real Japan,” “The Peoples and Politics of the Far East” (just published by Mr. Fisher Unwin), and other books, and the literary editor of the Daily Chronicle, has been appointed to the committee and council of the Society. By Mr. Norman's election the last vacancy on the committee for the current year is filled. *-- - -—º r- - -, LITERARY PROPERTY, I.—CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. H.E Dominion Government have ceased the collection through the Customs of the 12% per cent. royalty on reprints of British copyright works brought into Canada, which has been collected hitherto for the benefit of the authors. The Tariff Act passed last season provided for the discontinuance of the collection of the royalty from March 27 of this year, in order to emphasise Canada's claim to exclusive jurisdiction in the Dominion regarding copy- right.—Standard, April 2. To the Editor of the Times. SIR,--Your issue of Feb. 26, containing the letter of Mr. W. M. Conway on Canadian copy- right, has just been received here, and I must ask the favour of a reply thereto. Mr. Conway overlooks several important points which entirely destroys the force of his arguments. First, the geographical position of Canada, side by side as it is with the United States. Second, that, should the English author fail to publish in the United States before or simul- taneously with publication elsewhere, he loses copyright there, and any United States publisher can reprint the book without payment of any royalty whatever, and send the book into Canada unless it is copyrighted here. Under the Canadian Act, on the other hand, the author has thirty days after publication elsewhere in which to publish in Canada, and thereby secure exclusive copyright. Third, to secure copyright in the United States the author must actually have the type set up within the United States, The Canadian law, on the other hand, specially permits the importation of plates into Canada free of duty. If the English author refuses or neglects to secure copyright in the United States, he loses all rights there. But not so in Canada, for the Canadian Act provides that any publisher here wishing to reprint any such book must first give security for the payment of a royalty of Io per cent, for the benefit of the author. It will be seen, then, that the Canadian Act grants valuable concessions to the English author which concessions are denied him in the United States. Mr. Conway repeats the statement that if the Canadian Bill becomes law Canadian reprints will inevitably flood the United States market. I think I can show Mr. Conway, and those who think as he does, that this statement has no foundation in fact. Section 4956 of the United States Copyright Act reads:—“During the existence of such copyright (in the United States) the importation into the United States of any book, chromo, or photograph, so copyrighted, or any edition or editions thereof shall be and it is hereby prohibited.” Section 4965 of the same Act provides the penalty for the infringe- ment of the foregoing provision. The United States copyright owners are therefore fully protected, and in the face of these provisions of the United States Act it will be worse than folly to continue to assert that Canadian reprints would or could flood the United States market. Mr. Walter Besant's new book, “Beyond the Dreams of Avarice,” furnishes an apt illustration in point. Mr. Besant’s book is issued in London at 6s. It is copyrighted in the United States, and is issued there at I dol. 50 cents. The British copyright owners have, however, issued a special cheap edition for the Canadian market, and Mr. Besant may rest assured that this special Canadian edition (which was printed in London and is now selling in Canada for 75 cents a copy) will not flood the United States market, for the very excel-  ## p. 284 (#298) ############################################ 284 THE AUTHOR. lent reason that the United States copyright owner is fully protected, as the United States copyright law prohibits the importation and sale of unauthorised editions in the United States. So with “The Ralstons,” Mr. Marion. Crawford’s recent novel, which is published in London at 12s. It is copyrighted in the United States, and sells there for 2 dols. owner has printed in London a special cheap edition, which is sold in Canada, for 75 cents a copy; yet the United States market is not being flooded with this cheap edition, although it is published at less than one-half the price of the United States edition, as the United States law prevents any such action. Did space permit, scores of similar cases could be given, and it can readily be seen that the fear that Canadian edi- tions will flood the United States market is utterly unfounded. In conclusion, I suggest that our English friends be perfectly fair in statements they make through the Press. Thus, when Mr. Conway says, as he does in his letter, that “Canadian reprints will flood, as they are intended to flood, the United States market,” and calls for signa- tures to a petition asking for disallowance of the Canadian Act on this account as one of the chief grievances, it is an open question whether every signature so secured has not been secured under false pretences, as Canadian reprints cannot flood, nor, above all, was it ever intended that they should flood, the United States market. Canadians resent and protest at such a misleading statement, as it places their case in a false light before the British public. RICHARD T. LANCEFIELD, Hon. Secretary Canadian Copyright Association. Public Library, Hamilton, March 9. Times, March 22, 1895. To the Editor of the Times. ... SIR,--The letter of Mr. R. T. Lancefield, hon. secretary of the Canadian Copyright Association, does not call for a lengthy reply. He contends that I overlook “ the geographical position of Canada, side by side as it is with the United States.” The fact is that the situation of Canada. is the chief cause of our anxiety. If Canada were a country isolated in the midst of others not English speaking, we should regret her action, but it would not be powerfully injurious, for the Canadian market for books is small, and the loss of it, though regrettable, would be no great matter. But if Canada obtains the right to issue cheap unauthorised reprints of the works of English writers, these reprints will be imported into the United States, all laws and customs houses not- The British copyright . withstanding, for Canada's long land frontier cannot be blocked. Tauchnitz reprints find their way through English customs houses in great numbers; how much more must Canadian reprints invade the United States if ever the threatened system were inaugurated. Mr. Lancefield’s further contention that the Canadian proposals would put an English author in a better position in Canada than he is now placed in the United States is specious; but the fact is not material, for the magnitude of the United States market is a compensation which Canada cannot offer. The question is one of cost. It pays to undergo considerable expense to secure the United States market ; it would not pay to undergo a much smaller expense to secure the Canadian market. Few books will ever be taken for Canada under the conditions of the new Act. The rest will be robbed of anything worth the name of copyright. From an author's point of view the situation threatens to become intolerable. Having written his book and secured an English publisher, he already has to hunt up an American publisher also. This takes time. It is proposed that he shall further have to find a Canadian publisher. If all the other parts of the British Empire follow suit, obviously an author's work in arranging with publishers all over the earth and seeing his book through the press in a dozen simultaneous editions will be much greater than his work in writing it. The only just and sound arrangement is for universal copyright to follow single publication anywhere, and this greatly desired consummation seemed till recently to be coming within the bounds of possibility. Canada’s proposed retro- grade and particularist action threatens to post- pone it indefinitely. Even Mr. Lancefield does not pretend that the Canadian Act is fashioned in the interests of literature, still less in the interests of the authors who make literature, or of the readers that profit by it. The injury is to be wrought solely for the sake of a small body of printers whose profits will be infinitesimal com- pared with the far-reaching damage they will effect.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant, W. M. ConwAY, Chairman of Committee of the Incorporated Society of Authors. 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn-fields. Times, March 24, 1895. One or two points may be added to those in Mr. Conway's letter. I. As to the Canadian proposal to retire from the position of civilised states in order to practise piracy openly, he says nothing.  ## p. 285 (#299) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 285 2. As to the flooding of the United States with cheap reprints, he quotes the Act, but neglects to point out how with the enormous undefended frontier it is to be enforced. He then mentions one or two books lately republished in Canada which have not been largely exported to the States. Why P Simply because they are published at 75 cents, or 3s. a copy. There is not likely to be any successful piracy at that price. 3. He is still bold enough to parade the old pretence of a royalty. First, it is to be a Io per cent. royalty—a miserable, iniquitous, and sweating royalty, long since exploded in this country and the States. But, even if it were a fair royalty, what security is there for its collec- tion ? None. The Canadian “royalty” has been with us for many years. Once Charles Reade got eighteenpence by it. Mr. W. H. Lecky, the other day, said that he had once obtained over a pound by it. I have never received a farthing from it. In the face of the absence of any machinery for enforcing the payment of the royalty, and for auditing the accounts; and in face of the miserable nature of the royalty offered; to talk of “con- cessions” to the British author demands, indeed, a brazen front. EDITOR. Also from the Times of the same date :- Mr. Lancefield’s argument appears to be that because the United States, a foreign power, chooses to impose conditions as to remanufacture of books in America before granting copyright protection to British authors, Canada, which is . a part of the British Empire, is justified in attempting to do likewise. He does not pretend that any necessity for this arises from the difficulty of procuring English books in Canada at moderate prices, for he carefully explains that under the present law the works of English authors are offered for sale in the Dominion at lower prices than in Great Britain or the United States. The only apparent reason for seeking to secure the Royal assent to this precious Bill is that it may possibly put a little money into the pockets of a few needy Canadian printers, while it would certainly injure English authors and would probably not benefit Canadian buyers. The logical outcome of such a concession to Canada would be similar legislation in each of the self- governing colonies, with the result that, although fully protected in nearly all foreign countries by the Treaty of Berne, an English author would, if he wished to remain proprietor of his own book, be obliged to provide for the printing of ten or a dozen separate editions. The economic waste of such a monstrous system is positively appalling. F. March 24. *- The petition against the Canadian Copyright Act, which has been lying for the last three weeks for signature at the offices of the Society, has now been forwarded to the Marquis of Ripon. There are more than 1500 signatures to the petition, and amongst them are the names of all the best known writers in science, fiction, &c., in the United Kingdom. In addition, the most im- portant known publishing firms have added their signatures. It is hard in such a long list to discriminate, but a few of the names are appended. Perhaps it is worth while to repeat again the points which make the question one of such great importance. After a long and difficult struggle it was recognised by most of the civilised nations, at the Berne Convention, that copyright was the exclusive property of the author, and was not therefore to be trammeled with trade restrictions. After a still further struggle the Americans were brought to recognise the fact that property existed in copyright, but unfortunately they attached to that property a trade limitation. The step was retrogressive, and opposed to the liberal view of all the nations that signed the Berne Convention. But to obtain any concession across the water was of considerable advantage to the holders and originators of valuable property. The Canadians are now desirous of placing a somewhat similar trade restriction on the property of British and other authors. It is not worth while to go into the Act in detail, but there appears to be no doubt that should it obtain the Royal assent, not only will the American copyright be imperilled, but it is quite possible that the signatories to the Berne Convention may have something to say on the matter. The question is not one concerning the freedom of a colony to legislate on its affairs—as the Canadians so frequently and so vainly assert—but touches the question of piracy, which, when on the high seas, has been long ago suppressed by the unanimous voice and power of the civilised world. L. Alma-Tadema, R.A. George Gissing Edward Arnold Frederick Goodall Sir Robert Ball, F.R.S. Sydney Grundy Robert Bateman Richard Garnett, LL.D. Geo. Bell and Sons Thomas Hardy Walter Besant Anthony Hope Hawkins Augustine Birrell, M.P. William Heinemann A. and C. Black Holman Hunt William Black Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. Hall Caine A. D. Innes and Co. Chappell and Co. Henry Irving Hon. John Collier Jerome K. Jerome W. M. Conway Henry Arthur Jones F. H. Cowen Mrs. E. Kennard A. Constable and Co. Prof. E. Ray Lankester Earl of Desart W. E. H. Lecky Frank Dicksee, R.A. Lady W. Lennox B. L. Farjeon Longmans, Green, and Co. Archdeacon Farrar, D.D. Mrs. Lynn Linton  ## p. 286 (#300) ############################################ 286 A UTHOR. THE Edna Lyall Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A. Sir A.C. Mackenzie, Mus.Doc. Macmillan and Co. James Martineau Helen Mathers S. H. Mendlessohn George du Maurier Phil May Methuen and Co. Justin McCarthy, M.P. John Murray Prof. Max Müller J. C. Nimmo Henry Norman David Nutt Novello and Co. W. H. Pollock Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D A. W. Pinero W. H. Russell. George Routledge and Co., Ltd. Sir B. W. Richardson T. Scrutton C.Williers Stanford, Mus.Doc. M. H. Spiellman Herbert Spencer Sir John Stainer Sir Arthur Sullivan Lord Tennyson Sir H. Thompson, Bart. Brandon Thomas Baron H. de Worms John Strange Winter J. McNeil Whistler Stanley J. Weyman Earl of Wharncliffe Florence Warden James Payn I. Zangwill. G. H. Titerse. II.-AN AGREEMENT ON THE CovKRT COPYRIGHT |BILL. (Sent to Congress, Feb. 27.) At a conference comprising representatives of the American Newspaper Publishers’ Association, the American Publishers’ Copyright League, and the American (Authors') Copyright League, held in New York, Feb. 21, 1895, the following sub- stitute for the proviso of the Covert Bill was unanimously agreed upon : “Provided, however, that in case of any such infringement of the copyright of a photograph made from any object not a work of the fine arts, the sum to be recovered in any action brought under the provisions of this section shall be not less than IOO dollars, nor more than 5000 dollars; and provided, further, that in case of any such nfringement of the copyright of a painting, drawing, statue, engraving, etching, print, or model or design for a work of the fine arts, or in case of any such infringement of the copyright of a work of the fine arts, the sum to be recovered in any such action shall be not less than 250 dollars,and not more than IO,OOO dollars.” This substitute is acceptable also to leading art publishers and photographers. It will relieve the newspapers of excessive penalties without endangering the security of copyright property. In behalf of the three above-mentioned national organisations, we respectfully request your sup- port to the effort to pass the Bill, as thus amended, at the present session by unanimous COnsent. W. C. BRYANT, Secretary, A.N.P.A. GEORGE HAVEN PUTNAN, Secretary, A.P.C.L. RoberT UNDER wood JoHNSON, Secretary, A.C.L. III.-ON SELLING A Book OUTRIGHT. A “Publisher,” writing to the Athenæum, calls upon the writer of the article with the above title to “state publicly ” in the Athenæum “what sort of book’’ he refers to as a 6s. book which can be produced at Is. a copy, or a 3s. 6d. book which can be produced at 8%d. I would point out to this “Publisher ” that it is not customary to call upon the writer of an article in one paper to explain himself in another, and that a state- ment made in the Author is as “publicly ” made as in the Athenæum. As he reads the Author, however, I will answer him here. If he will refer to the “Cost of Production,” a copy of which he doubtless possesses, he will find estimates showing exactly the kind of book meant. It is so clearly described as to leave no doubt possible. (Note that on p. 28 and on p. 34 there is a misprint of 5s. for 6s.) Since this pamphlet was printed, binding has gone up about 15 per cent., and composition has slightly advanced, but paper has gone down. From these estimates it is evident that a 6s. book printed in quantities may cost a good deal less than Is. a copy. As regards a 3s. 6d. book, the average book of that price was in the writer's mind, viz., such a story book for boys and girls, as printed in large editions, certainly does not cost more than 8; d. a volume. But in the “Cost of Production,” p. 34, it is shown that actually a long novel issued in a large edition would cost no more than four-fifths of a shilling per copy. The “Publisher ” wants to include advertising in the “cost of production.” Certainly not; for the simple reason that by including it the cost may be made anything. By charging whatever the publisher pleases for advertising as often as he pleases in his own organ, which costs him nothing ; for advertising by exchange, which costs him nothing; by suppressing large discounts received from certain papers; he can load the actual cost of the book indefinitely. Let us not forget the case quoted some time since in the Author, where a demand was made for £30 odd for advertisements; and where the author's adviser offered to pay only whatever money had been actually expended. The amount proved to be under £4 A very little book was thus alleged to have cost £26 more than it actually did by thus swelling the advertisements The amount actually spent for advertising—not, of course, counting a successful novel—is in general very little, except in the rare case of a book which will “bear” it. An ordinary book, calculated to obtain at the best a circulation sufficient to pay its expenses, and a modest something over, cannot possibly, as the smallest knowledge of the figures will show, have a very large sum  ## p. 287 (#301) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 287 spent upon announcing it. The reason may well be understood when it is known that the expenditure of £20—which seems little—in advertising an edition of IOOO copies actually means the addition of nearly 5al. a copy on the cost of production. We will add the advertising to the cost of production as soon as we know that the actual money homestly spent, and no more, is to be charged. To these considerations may be added the fact that publishing firms differ from each other in no respect more than in the money they spend on advertising and in the organs in which they spend it. THE WRITER OF THE ARTICLE. *- A --" - - - ROYAL LITERARY FUND, HE annual meeting of the Royal Literary Fund was held yesterday afternoon at 7, Adelphi-terrace. The chair was taken by Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, one of the vice-presidents, and there were present Mr. F. W. Gibbs, C.B., Q.C., Mr. C. Knight Watson, Mr. Lewis Morris, Mr. W. J. Courthope; Mr. Fraser Rae, Mr. William Stebbing, Mr. Edward Dicey, C.B., Mr. F. D. Mocatta, Mr. George Dalziel, Mr. J. H. Grain, Dr. Macaulay, Mr. Thornton Sharp, Mr. Sidney Lee, Mr. Richard Bentley, Mr. F. C. Danvers, Sir William Farrer, Sir B. W. Richardson, and others. The minutes of the last annual meeting, held last April, having been read and confirmed, Mr. W. J. Courthope read the registrars' report, which classified the grants awarded in 1894 as follows: —Class I., history and biography, nine grants, £455; class II., science and art, two grants, 34O; class III., classical literature and education, seven grants, 3485; class IV., archaeology, topography, and travels, six grants, 3415 ; class W., novels and tales, ten grants, 3400 ; class VI., periodical literature, three grants, 312O ; class VII., miscel- laneous, eight grants, £190. The grants varied in amount from £150 to £10. Of the forty-five persons relieved twenty-seven were men to the extent of £1,130, and eighteen women, 38975. The total sum invested as appearing in the treasurer's report amounted to £49,212 16s. 8d., producing an income of £1667 8s. The annual amounts of the grants had varied from ten guineas in 1790, the date of the foundation of the fund, to £3335 in 1883, which was the highest reached. 32Oo had been invested in Consols, and on Dec. 3 I there was a balance in hand of £199,-Times, March 14, 1895. > º: WOI. W. THE AMERICAN GUILD OF AUTHORS, HERE lies before us a copy of the tract T issued by the American Guild of Authors. It is called “Methods of Publishing.” Four methods are enumerated: 1. The royalty system. 2. That in which the author assumes a share of the cost and receives in return a larger royalty. 3. That in which the author bears the expense and pays the publisher a commission. 4. That in which the publisher buys out the author. On the first it is simply remarked that it is the fairest plan provided the publisher makes an honest return of the books sold. But nothing is said as to the amount of royalty. What is it to be P Why is it adopted as fair? What does it give the publisher and what the author? We recommend these questions very earnestly to our American friends. It is afterwards stated that popular authors are now asking for a “graded” royalty—10 per cent. for the first 3OOO, 15 per cent. up to 15,000 or 20,000, and after that 20 per cent. Let us see how this kind of “graded ” royalty would suit authors on this side. We may take our old friend the six shilling volume, 20 sheets, small pica type, about 258 words to a page. The cost of the first edition of 3OOO copies is about a shilling each — call it a shilling, that of the following copies is about IOd, a copy. The trade price may be taken as generally 3s. 7#d. The following result would be pretty close to the truth :— First 3Ooo. 3OOO–2O,OOO. Royalty Royalty IO per cent. I5 per cent. Author receives ... 3890 £765 Publisher makes ... 3303 ...... 39.1608 The publisher has to pay for the advertising, say £80. - We are willing to believe that the risk of pro- duction is perhaps greater in the States than here, but we are unwilling to believe that the American Guild of Authors desires the publisher to have three times the share of the author. On the second plan it is customary, it is said, for the author to pay the cost of composition and plates, and for the publisher to pay for printing, binding, and advertising, giving the author a 20 per cent. royalty. But it is complained that the publisher charges more than the real cost. Then follow two pages devoted to “tricks.” We are unfortunately familiar with them. The following figures are given as fair prices for printing, &c. : I) D  ## p. 288 (#302) ############################################ 288 THE AUTHOR. I. Composition and electro-plate, 12mo, small pica, about 420 words to a page; per page, I dol. 2. Paper and presswork, per IOOO copies, 257-56 dols. 3. Binding, at 22; cents, per volume, 225 dols. Total cost, 882.56 dols. The cost per volume would be ‘882 dols., or 3s. 6d. each. This is enormous compared with the English cost of production. One cannot under- stand how the business of publishing can be carried on at all against such high figures as these. A form of agreement, said to be customary, is included in the tract. We refrain from comment upon it in order to avoid a charge of interfering in what is not our business. The tract contains at the end a list of “Reputable Publishers.” We are happy to observe that there are a great many in various parts of America. Suppose, however, that it were discovered that one of them was not quite so reputable as had been believed; a new edition of the tract would have to be struck off with the offender's name removed. Would it not be better that the Society should vouch for no one, leaving, as we do, every house to make its own reputation ? *- --> * * *-*. LETTER FROM PARIS. ONSIEUR MARCEL PREVOST has written an indignant letter to the Paris edition of the New York Herald. He begins by saying: “This is what I read in the New York Recorder of Feb. 2 I. ‘Marcel Pre- vost’s much - discussed novel, “The Demi- Virgins,” which will be produced shortly as a play at one of the Paris theatres, has been trans- lated into English by Arthur Hornblow, and will be issued this week by the Holland Publishing Company. I am told that there is plenty of dramatic material in the book for a good play. Here is a golden opportunity for an aspiring dramatist.” Thus in the first place my “Les Demi-Vierges’ is translated without my autho- risation, without any compensation to me for the harm which the translated edition is likely to have on the sale of the original edition ; and secondly, young dramatic authors are cynically invited to make their fortunes by dramatising my story. I am sure, dear sir, that you consider such conduct unworthy of a great nation such as the one to which Mr. Hornblow belongs, and that you will assist me in defending my rights, or at least in protesting against this pillage of my work.” M. Prevost concludes by saying that he is aware that there is no literary convention between France and America, but neither is there one between France and Russia, or between France and Denmark, yet the publishers both in Denmark and Russia paid him fees for the autho- risation to publish translations of “Les Demi- Vierges.” r The Herald devotes a leader to the subject of M. Prevost’s letter, but I am afraid the indig- mant author will derive but small comfort from its remarks, which are summed up in the words concluding the article: “Unfortunately, however, there exists no treaty to protect author's rights of this nature, and so long as this defect in our international treaties remains there is no legal remedy. The appeal to public opinion, which M. Marcel Prevost to-day makes through the Herald's columns, is the only step that can be made towards obtaining an adequate redress.” I think this is the first time that a French author has protested in public against the American pirate, and it is to be regretted that the occasion of this first protest should be a book such as Marcel Prevost’s “Les Demi-Vierges”— a vile book if ever one was written ; and the only interest, to speak frankly, that I take in M. Prevost’s case, is in the information it affords as to the best way of creating for oneself with one's pen a success not only national but universal. It is a great pity that these things should be so, but so they are, and the writer of such books can reap rewards which are refused to men of letters who have a respect for their calling and the feeling of the dignity of their pen. “Les Demi-Vierges” went into over IOO editions in France, and has been translated into every European language. It now, according to Monsieur Prevost, is appearing in America, though I do not think that any publisher will care to undertake its publication in England. The moral seems to be that this is the stuff in which the reading public is most widely interested, and Du Maurier's clever cartoon in this week's Punch, depicting a conversation between a lady porno- grapher and a pornographic publisher is as true to life as are all the scenes depicted by this admir- able artist. It is a great pity that these things should be so, for it seems to show that civilisation is not advancing, and it shows further that the sense of human dignity is fading away through- out the world. I may be called a prude, but I declare very frankly that I have no manner of consideration for the writer who speculates on the hoggishness of the majority of readers, and that he is never, in my estimation, a brother author. I was speaking the other night with a Spanish journalist who has literary ambitions, and I asked him why he never wrote books, for I knew him as  ## p. 289 (#303) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 289 a very clever man, with a wide knowledge of life and a great experience. He said that he could not afford to work for nothing, and went on to explain that a Spanish author gets no money from a publisher, that consequently there are no Spanish authors, as you and I can well understand. I said, “What, not a peseta ?” and he said “Not a peseta.” This is worse than in Russia or Poland, where, I believe, a successful author may look for ten roubles, or even twenty, per sheet of printed matter, that is to say, about £2 for sixteen pages of printed text. We English authors and you French authors are very fortunate II.16I1. Alphonse Daudet has somewhat changed his mind about his intentions in England. He told me that he would accept certain invitations which had been made to him. “But,” he added, “they will have to be content with a bust. A bust is all that I can offer them.” He meant that he cannot appear otherwise than sitting down. It was sitting that our dear master made his memorable speech on the occasion of the De Goncourt banquet. Monsieur José de Herédia was to have been received into the company of the French Academy next month. This, however, has now been put off, and Monsieur Herédia’s reception will not take place for some months. The reason of this is that Monsieur François Coppée has been seriously ill, and will be unable to speak at Herédia’s reception, as had been arranged. The reference above to Polish and Russian authors makes me think, and not without a heaviness at heart, of a very sad experience of mine of a few days ago. Some years past I knew in Paris a Russian author. He had been in the Russian army, and was an exile under sentence of death. A very clever man, very well read, and always reading. He starved at ten roubles the sheet, but though he did not often have a dinner, he always could buy books, and the garret in which he lived—the identical garret occupied by Racine in the rue Wisconti—was full of them. He used to come and see me, and I loved his conversation. But he had strange habits of in- temperance, and in the end I was forced to ask him not to come to see me any more, for riotous- ness at that time appalled me. A year ago I received, when down in the South, a letter from him. He said that he wanted to see me again, that he could not bear the thought of a definite separation. I answered him, I am glad to remember this, in a friendly way, and told him that I would come and see him when I returned to Paris. Last week I found his letter amongst my papers, and at once wrote to invite him to my house. On Thursday morning I received a letter from a sister of charity to say that my old friend was ill and very tired, and could not come to see me, but that my visit would “give him immense pleasure.” I could not go to see him on Thursday, but I went on Friday. The street in which he lived was in a very remote quarter of Paris, and it took an hour in a cab to get there. The door was opened by a beautiful sister of charity in blue. I said, “You have a Monsieur here P” She said, “Yes,” and then added, quite simply, “he died one hour ago.” Then she pressed me to come and see him. “He looks quite nice,” she said, and she spoke of death, as it should be spoken of, as the great desideratum of life. I allowed myself to be persuaded, and followed her to the poor little room in this Polish house of refuge, and there I saw my old friend, with a table by the bedside, and on the table a crucifix and two burning candles. He had been a big, riotous man in the old days, and there he was, so pinched and peaked that his form hardly raised the covers of the bed. It was a terrible meeting, and though the sister wanted me to stay and kneel down Iran from the room. I have thought of nothing since, and I do not think that anything I have ever seen in life more deeply affected me. His poor fingers were stained with ink, and there was an unfinished manuscript on the chest of drawers. No doubt, the sister of charity was right. No doubt, Death was a comforter here. But why had I not arrived two hours earlier 2 “He was looking forward to your visit,” said sister Angéle. “Your letter made him quite joyous.” Death, whether it come as a comforter or no, is the one terrible thing. I met M. Aurélien Scholl, President of the Société des Gens de Lettres, a night or two ago, and he spoke to me for some time about the affairs of the society. Amongst other things which he told me was that certain friends and admirers of Paul de Kock had decided to erect a little statue or memorial to him in the garden of the house in which he lived for many years before his death. “I intend to interest the Society in this matter,” said the President, and he went on to speak of his high admiration for Paul de Kock. I think there never was an author more unfairly treated by fame. One knows what the average reader expects when with twinkling eyes he picks up a de Kock. It is quite unfair. Paul de Kock had wit and verve, and an admirable power of story-telling. He had no desire to attract readers by what has been alluded to above. People think that his speciality. I do not know if his Memoirs have ever been translated into English. They ought to be. I picked up a copy of them at a bookseller's some days ago. It was  ## p. 290 (#304) ############################################ 29O THE AUTHOR. a most interesting book, full of anecdotes about people of notoriety under the Revolution and the Empire. He knew Fouquier-Tinville as a bland young man. He had a famous interview with Emperor Napoleon. The book shows the man as he was, and it is strange that it should be out of print in France. Mr. Grant Allen is in Paris at the time of writ- ing, and, I am sorry to say, is ill. At least when I last heard news of him he was lying in bed with porous plasters wrapped about him. Mr. F. C. Philips is in Paris also, busy as usual, and full of work and schemes for future work. He is one of the English authors who are best known and most appreciated in France, where everybody seems to have read “As in a Looking-glass.” I under- stand that he is at work on a long novel sans pre- judice of any number of short stories and plays. This is a man of very wonderful activity. In reading over “Moll Flanders” in Marcel Schwob's masterly translation, I came across a passage which makes me think less of “Jane Eyre'” as a work of art than I have thought till now. You may remember that just after Jane Eyre has been pressed by the frigid St. John to marry him, she rushes out into the garden and there suddenly hears a cry of “Jane, Jane, Jane,” from the distant Rochester. When Charlotte Bronté was asked how she came to think of so striking a scene—those were the days when tele- pathy was unknown—she used to drape herself in some mystery—I have this from a person who so interrogated her —and reply: “I wrote it because it is true,” leaving one to imagine that this was a thing of her own experience. It was an effec- tive scene, but Defoe had imagined it some years previously, and so we have a sorrowful scholia to enter into our copies of “Jane Eyre.” . . . I have no English Defoe by me, but the scene to which I refer is where Moll Flanders calls for the departed Jemmy, in the inn at Chester, and Jemmy hears her very voice, though then fifteen leagues distant, and so returns to her. And alas and alack into our copies of “The Cenci” a similar sorrowful scholia must be entered, and indeed against those particularly beautiful lines which conclude the play: . . . . Here, mother tie My girdle for me, and bind up this hair In any simple knot; aye, that does well. And yours, I see, is coming down. You know the lines and, like us all, you have admired, with enthusiastic admiration, this con- ception which shows us a woman on the very brink of the precipice thinking about pretty, trivial womanly things. Well, I happened on Webster the other day, and, in turning over the leaves of “La Duchesse d’Amalfi.” in Ernest Lafond's translation, I read a passage where the Duchess just about to be strangled by the execu- tioner gives trivial womanly orders. Her little boy is to have the syrup for his cough, nor is her little girl to be allowed to go to bed until she has said her prayers. It is the finer conception of the two, and, such as it is, it deprives Shelley of all the glory of his lines. I am very sorry, for I think that there was nothing in Shelley that I liked better than this—this picture of femininity under the very shadow of death. But so our idols one after the other get broken and cast down. How true it is—as further exemplified by the preceding remarks—that “ les beaua esprits se rencontrent.” Let me point out that Tennyson's line in “Locksley Hall ”— it is line 38– And our spirits rushed together at the touching of the lips— reads like an almost literal translation of Schiller's lines in “Amalia’’: Seine Küsse—paradiesisch Fühlen Wie zwo Flammen sich ergreifen, wie Harfentóne in einander spielen Zu der himmelwollen Harmonie— Stürzten, flogen, schmolzen Geist und Geist zusammen Lippen, Wangen, brannten, zitterten Seele ranſm in Seele. And, again, as to that beautiful line about the “burden of an honour to which she was not born,” is not memory carried back to line 99 of the sixth Satire of the First Book by Horace: Nollem Onus haud unquam solitus portare molestum. The bitterest thing that was ever said about our poor friend Boulanger was Jules Ferry's remark that he was a “Saint-Arnaud de Café- Concert.” Boulanger called Ferry out for this epigram, and Ferry would not go. I have no comment to make on Ferry's conduct, for he is dead and Boulanger is with him, and those are things not to be talked of now. But I was reminded of this to-day on receiving from Tresse and Stock a copy of Dr. Cabrol’s interesting Memoirs, edited and prefaced by Paul de Régla, which deals exclusively—as the title of the volume indicates—with Marshal Saint-Arnaud in the Crimea. This is a very interesting book, giving a full account, almost day by day, of the last six months of the life of the Marshal, down to the hour when—well, I hardly like to repeat the Doctor's version of how the gallant Marshal met his death, for I have many friends in the Bonapartist camp. In the same packet I received from these publishers a book entitled “Le Roman d’une Fée,” by M. Henri Belliot, an ardent littérateur, who writes to me to say that, as an Englishman, I shall appreciate a fairy-story better than his compatriots. I hope to be able to do so when I have found time to  ## p. 291 (#305) ############################################ THE AUTHOR, 291 read the book. In the meanwhile I mention its existence and wish it very well. A curious offer was made to me the other day. It came by telegraph from the proprietor of a New York daily paper. This person, it appears, has written a historical work—or, rather, has had a historical work written for him by some literary hack—in French. He desired to publish a translation of the work in English, and asked me to do the translation for him. A condition was that my name should not appear in connec- tion with the book. He was to figure on the title-page as the writer. He proposed a remunera- tion of 6s. a thousand words. What amusing people there are in this world to be sure! ROBERT H. SHERARD. 123, Boulevard Magenta, Paris. *— a 2-2 -sº NOTES FROM NEW YORK, New York, March 16. HE most important literary news of the month is the announcement that New York is at last to have a public library worthy of the chief city of a great nation. At the present time this immense town of ours, with a population of perhaps four millions contained within a radius of twenty-five miles from the city hall, is less well provided with books accessible to all citizens than Boston is or Chicago, to make no comparison with London, or Paris, or Berlin. Hitherto the chief public library of New York has been that founded fifty years ago by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant who had made a fortune in New York, and wished to do some- thing for the city of his choice. He began by giving about £IOO,OOO, and his son and grandson in turn gave similar sums. The Astor Library was very fortunate in its first librarian, Coggswell, and its earlier books were admirably selected. But its endowment was inadequate, and it has grown but little of late years. It has not quite 3OO,OOO volumes, and its buildings, books, and funds are valued at perhaps 340O.OOO. A quarter of a century ago Mr. James Lenox— an interesting account of whose book collecting was written by the late Henry Stevens, of Wer- mont—established by will the Lenox Library, endowing it handsomely, and bequeathing to it all his own rare books, including the finest col- lection of Bibles in the world. This library is housed in a sumptuous building overlooking Central Park, and it has adjacent land, allowing for great expansion. Its assets are said to amount to more than £500,000. VOL. W. A third library was made possible by the will of Samuel J. Tilden, once a candidate for the presidency of the United States; but there was a long litigation over the will, and, after a final compromise, the trustees have now about 2400,000—a wholly insufficient sum with which to buy the land, erect a building, stock it with books, and meet the future expenses of a public library. A proposal was made by Columbia College to grant a site on the new grounds where the college is about to build, but this was not favourably received by the Tilden trustees. Now, however a union has been brought about, and all these institutions are to be merged in one, starting with perhaps 4OO,OOO volumes, and having assets of at least a million and a half sterling. The details of the consolidation are not yet determined upon, but the union itself is an assured fact. The site has not been selected; but probably the buildings of the Astor will be sold, and the new edifice will be erected on the ample grounds belonging to the Lenox. The style and title of the new corporation will be “The Public Library of the City of New York, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations.” This name will invite further benefactors, who might have thought it an impertinence to contribute to the library of the Astor family or to that bearing the names of the late Mr. Lenox or the later Mr. Tilden. The suggestion has been made that the new corporation should also take over the excellent and useful Free Circulating Library, which has half a dozen branches in the most thickly populated portions of the city. The announcement has been made that the new library will be managed in the most progressive manner; it will be open on Sundays, and in the evening ; it will allow books to be withdrawn for home reading; it will provide special privileges for students; it will endeavour to meet every reasonable public demand. Upon the new board of trustees are some of the ablest and most public spirited men in New York. Of course, it will be several years before the full benefit of the consolidation will be apparent; but the news has been received with the greatest satisfaction. The giving of prizes for stories, and plays, and poems has never greatly benefited literature, although it has always been an excellent adver- tisement for the giver. It is sixty years since Poe won a prize of £20 offered by a Baltimore weekly paper for the best short story, but he did not write the tale especially for the contest; he withdrew the “MS. found in a Bottle" from the paper to which he had sold it for £6, and offered it for the prize, and thus made an extra profit of 3I4. Three diffierent sets of prizes are now offered for competition among the American E. E.  ## p. 292 (#306) ############################################ ** ** . . *s. 292 Writers of fiction to-day. The most important o those is that which the New York Herald i prepared to give. Perhaps the conditions of the contest cannot be better set forth than in the actual words of the advertisement: THE HERALD’S PRIZE OFFER. SIXTEEN THOUSAND DoILARs To BE AwarDED TO AMERICAN NovKLISTS AND POETs. The New York Herald will award a prize of Io,000 dollars for the best serial story of between 50,000 and 75,000 words by an American writer, whether professional or amateur. The conditions of this contest are as follows : The manuscripts must be submitted anonymously, and must bear only the initials of their authors or other private identification marks, so that the identity of the writer will not be known to the committee of three examiners, who will be appointed by the Herald, and who will select three stories of the greatest merit. The stories, so selected, will be printed in the Herald, daily and Sunday, as occasion requires, beginning early in October, 1895. The readers of the Herald will be asked to decide by ballot which story they like best, and the prize of Io,000 dollars will be awarded accordingly. The manuscripts, other than the three selected by the examiners, will be returned to the writers, upon their identi- fication by means of their initials or private marks. The writers will be at liberty to publish these returned manu- scripts elsewhere, and no reference will be made by the Herald that they have been rejected. All manuscripts for this competition must be submitted before July 1, 1895. THREE OTHER PRIZES. The Herald also offers three other prizes—the first of 3000 dollars for the best novelette of between 15,000 and 25,000 words; the second, a prize of 2000 dollars for the best short story of between 6ooo and Io, Ooo words; and the third, a prize of IOOO dollars for the best epic poem, based on some event of American history that has occurred since the beginning of the War of the Revolution. The conditions that will govern the competition for the prize of Io,ooo will also govern those for the prizes of 3ooo dollars, 2000 dollars, and IOoo dollars. The chosen manuscripts will be published in the Herald, in turn, upon the conclusion of the serials. All manuscripts for these latter competitions must be submitted to the Herald before Sept. 1, 1895. The obvious comment to be made upon this is that the actual winner of any one of these prizes will be well paid, but that the unfortunate writers of the second best and third best novels, short stories, and epics will receive no payment at all. Far more equitable is the arrangement pro- posed by a syndicate of important papers headed by the Hartford Courant (of which Mr. Charles Dudley Warner is the editor in chief). Their advertisement reads as follow : A TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR PRIZE. A NUMBER OF WELL-KNOWN NEWSPAPERS ANNOUNCE THE LARGEST CAPITAL PRIZE, EVER OFFERED. We will pay a first prize of Two Thousand Dollars for the best detective story from 6ooo to 12,000 words in length, for publication in our daily issues in instalments of about 2000 words per day. be submitted to Prize Editor, THE AUTHOR. We will pay a second prize of Five Hundred Dollars for the second best detective story submitted. * . All manuscripts intended for this competition must Bacheller, Johnson, and Bacheller, Nos. 112 to 117, Tribune-buildings, New York City, on or before May 1, 1895, Every manuscript must be typewritten and accompanied by a sealed envelope con- taining the name of its author. It will not be opened until a decision is reached. For identification said envelope should bear some phrase which also appears above the title of the story submitted. All good stories will be published at a satisfactory price. Other details of the contest and arrangements for an equitable decision will be in charge of Mr. Irving Bacheller, to whom all inquiries should be addressed. - The third set of prizes is offered by the Pouth's Companion, of Boston, one of the most widely circulated weekly papers in the country, and one which has always exhibited remarkable enterprise in securing contributions from writers of prominence. In a former competition of the Youth's Companion a prize of £IOO was carried off by Mr. Frank R. Stockton's tale “An Unhistoric Page.” The stories now to be rewarded must not contain less than 22OO Words, or more than 3ooo; they must be original; they must not be love stories or fairy tales, nor can they deal with religion or politics; their moral tone must be unexceptionable, and the list of prizes is as follows:— Dollars. For the best original story sent us . . . . , 500 For the next in literary and general merit ... , 500 For the third in merit e e º e s a 250 For the fourth in merit ... 250 For the fifth in merit 25O For the sixth in merit 25O For the seventh in merit I OO For the eighth in merit ... IOO For the ninth in merit - . . . . . . . . IOO For the tenth in merit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I OO For the eleventh in merit ... . . . . . . . . . IOO Total ... 25OO To two recent issues of the New York Tribune, Professor T. R. Lounsbury, the author of the masterly “Studies in Chaucer,” contributes an eight column review of Professor Skeat's new edition of the author of the “Canterbury Tales.” The review is written, with all the learning and with all the humour which unite to make Professor Lounsbury a very dangerous opponent. It will probably be reprinted as a pamphlet, in which case it will reach the Chaucer students of Germany and England. Professor Lounsbury declares that Professor Skeat's new edition “will be abso- lutely essential to all who devote themselves to the special study of Chaucer,” and “as such it ought to be welcomed cordially by every lover of litera- ture.” But he accuses Professor Skeat of having made frequent and abundant use of his (Pro- fessor Lounsbury's) labours, without giving him any credit in the first three volumes.  ## p. 293 (#307) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 293 The Authors’ Club of New York, now in its thirteenth year, is at last permanently settled in quarters of its own, of which it has a long lease. Its new apartments are a handsome and commodious suite of four rooms on one of the upper floors of the extension of the magnificent music hall erected by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. As a member of the club, Mr. Carnegie saw that these rooms were specially reserved, and the terms upon which they were secured were ex- ceptionally favourable. “Liber Scriptorum,” the book of the Authors’ Club (of which an account has already been printed in your pages), has been so profitable that it was possible to vote a sum of £600 for the decoration and furnishing of the new apartments; and, in gratitude to Mr. Carnegie for his services in securing them, the original MSS. of the “Liber Scriptorum,” sump- tuously bound in two immense folio volumes, were presented to him. The fortnightly Thurs- day evening meetings of the Authors' Club continue to be among the pleasantest affairs of the kind. The prosperity of the club endures, and its membership increases steadily. Chicago, which has now three richly endowed public libraries, is getting to be a literary centre. Its Twentieth Century Club is a worthy rival of the Nineteenth Century Club of New York, in emulation of which it was founded. Its young and lusty university has not succeeded in attract- ing the best instructors from the older institutions of the East, but it has a tower of strength in Professor Von Holst, who has recently published a learned and acute study of the French Revolution. It has in the Dial one of the most scholarly critical journals in America—a critical journal so excell-nt indeed that its two faults may well be forgiven it. These faults are an undue jealousy of New York (but this is a common failing in Chicago) and an undue deference to the opinion of London, even on American authors (but this is a common feeling even elsewhere than in Chicago). Chicago is also the home of one of the most vigorous of American novelists, Mr. Henry B. Fuller, the author of that curiously dilletante book, “The Chevalier of Pensieri Wani,” and also of that robust specimen of realism, “The Cliff Dwellers.” He is now about to publish a second study of Chicago society, bearing the very up-to-date title, “With the Procession.” This will be published in New York by Harper and Brothers, but three other works of fiction by Chicago authors are announced by the new and enterprising Chicago house of Stone and Kimball. These are, “A Little Sister to the Wilderness,” by Miss Lillian Bell; “A Sawdust Doll,” by Mrs. Reginald De Koven (the wife of the composer of “Maid Marian’’); and “Two Women and a Fool,” by Mr. H. C. Chatfield-Taylor. The sale of “Trilby’’ is said to be slackening a little now, but it has already reached 150,000 copies, at seven shillings, and it is likely to be stimulated again by the success of the ingenious dramatisation just brought out at a Boston theatre by Mr. A. M. Palmer, and to be performed in New York next season. HALLETT ROBINSON. NOTES AND NEWS. AM very glad to see in “Hallett Robinson’s ” New York Letter a tribute to the literary position of Chicago and its aspirations. A year and a half ago I incurred the kind of ridicule which attaches to a new and unexpected state- ment by saying something to the same effect. When one finds a city richly endowed with public libraries; the natural centre of a vast geo- graphical area; possessed of a wealthy university, in which English literature is well represented and adequately taught; where literature is held by the cultivated class in the highest respect; possessing a critical paper equal in ability to anything we have in this country ; and containing a company of men and women, mostly young, eagerly cultivating literature, and aspiring to the production of good and, if it may be. great work, one is justified in prophesying that out of this company there will presently emerge some one who will make himself known over the English-speaking world. I spoke to this effect in 1893, and now our New York correspondent speaks to the same effect. The following extract is from a new American volume of essays, called “Meditations in Motley,” by Walter Blackburn Harte (Arena Publishing Company, Boston, Mass.). - It is a most lamentable thing that, in spite of all the literary activity and the intellectual restlessness of our time, there are not probably more than half a dozen writers in the United States who follow literature, pure and simple, as a profession; and it is noteworthy that among these there are neither poets nor essayists. The tractate of the American Guild of Authors, noted in another column, may partly explain the reason why so few Americans are able to adopt literature frankly as a profession. Of course, it is greatly to be desired that writers of the better kind —one would say men and women of genius, but that the word is now almost forbidden—should be able to devote themselves altogether to the literary craft. In order to do this, however, they must be  ## p. 294 (#308) ############################################ 294 THE AUTHOR. able to live. In this country there are thousands who do live by literature, not popular novelists alone, but writers in every branch, not leaders only, but writers of the rank and file. There never was a betterrank and file—better drilled, betterequipped, braver, and more full of zeal—than our own. Let us see how these our people live. First of all, many of them are students in the history of litera- ture; many of them are good scholars; many have studied some foreign literature, and are authori- ties in French, German, Italian, Spanish, or some other literature; many are students in history, ancient and modern, English or foreign; many are students in science; some have mastered out of the way branches; some have made a special study of sport, games, art, music, the drama, &c. Most, in fact, have some special knowledge which may at any time be wanted. In the next place, there are, in this country, a dozen magazines open to a scholar—perhaps a well- known writer may contribute six or seven articles in the year to these magazines; there is next the better class of weekly—the Saturday Review, the Spectator, the Athenæum, the Speaker, the National Observer, the Realm, and others— a good writer ought to find no difficulty in getting on one of these papers; there are the two Quarterly Reviews, but they can find room for very few writers; there are the weekly maga- zines, such as Chambers’, Cassells’, &c., to which few writers would disdain to contribute. Again, there is the literary department of the great daily papers; that of the evening papers; there is dramatic criticism ; art criticism; musical criticism. Or, again, there are the leading articles of the dailies. It will thus be understood that to the man who knows something, and can write pleasantly, there are abundant opportunities of work. Then a man’s special knowledge, sooner or later, whatever it is, naturally and inevitably assumes book form. Another branch of literary work is that of editing and preparing books for publishers. We are apt to forget, in our concern about modern literature, that publishers have the whole of the past to deal with as they please. They are con- stantly bringing out new editions of past authors. These must have an introduction, notes, appen- dices, and index, all to be done by some man of letters. Again, which one would fain ignore but cannot, there is the reading for publishers. It is not work that many like to do, but it must be done by somebody. These are some of the conditions of the literary life in this country. It would seem, however, as if in America things were different. The American magazines, with one or two exceptions, are not in the least like our scholarly Nineteenth Century, Contemporary, and Fort- nightly. Such weekly reviews as the Spectator or the Saturday simply do not exist in America; they have no Quarterly Reviews; they have no papers corresponding to Chambers’ and the Cassells' productions; their newspapers do not seem to include a considerable literary element— one may be wrong, but this is how it seems to us. Then the American publisher is not, apparently, always bringing out new editions of dead writers; and, in short, one would like some of our American friends to tell us how an American man of letters (not being a popular novelist) does manage to live at all. In the narrow churchyard south of St. Mary Overies (now called St. Saviour's), Southwark —somewhere, it is not known where—there lie in one grave the remains of Philip Massinger and of Fletcher his friend. The name of the latter is always associated with that of Beau- mont, but Massinger undoubtedly did a good deal of work with and for him. The name of Massinger is entered in the burial register as a “stranger,” which means, of course, nothing more than a person belonging by birth to some other parish. It is now proposed to put up a stained glass window in the new nave of the church, in memory of Massinger. I do not think that this is a cause which needs pleading with the readers of this paper and the members of this Society. Will those who love to see honour paid to litera- ture send their offerings to this object to the Rev. W. Thompson, D.D., St. Saviour's Church, Southwark? The church now rebuilt still retains its Reformation name. Perhaps it may be per- mitted to hope that it may soon return to its historic name of St. Mary Overies. The following letter has reached me: In Halifax, last week, I happened to pick up a book of yours, “The Revolt of Man,” issued by the Halifax Corpo- ration Library. I thought it might be an interesting fact to you to know that this august body does you the honour of circulating your work in its Tauchnitz Edition : Some time since a remonstrance was published in the Author against the importation and circu- lation of Tauchnitz books. An attempt was made to minimise the importance of the damage done to authors by the free circulation of their books. Here we have an illustration of what may happen. The number of libraries in the country is rapidly increasing ; many of these have several branches. Of popular books they take many copies. Suppose they ali take Tauchnitz copies! Why not ? No attempt is made to stop them. Library com- mittees will speedily forget that to buy these editions is against the law ; they will only  ## p. 295 (#309) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 295 remember that the Tauchnitz Edition is cheaper. Thus will be lost to author and publisher many thousands of every popular book. What is the law on the subject P It has thus been given to me by a lawyer: “I do not think there is any offence in owning or in circulating a copy of a Tauchnitz edition of an English book. The offender must not sell it or hire it, in which case it would be an infringe- ment of copyright, and he would be liable to be proceeded against under the 17th section of 1842 Act, and 42nd and 152nd section of the Customs Act, 1876, “The joint effect of these sections appears to be that anyone importing, selling, or hiring any foreign printed copy of a copyright book know- ingly, or having in his possession any copy for sale or hire, shall, on conviction before two justices of the peace, forfeit 310 and double the value of every copy: £5 to go to the officer of Excise, and the remainder to the proprietor of the copyright; such book to be seized and destroyed. “Does the Halifax Free Library hold the copy for sale or hire P Under the Customs Act of 1876 the Customs can seize and destroy any books on the copyright list; but notice of copy- right in writing to the Commissioners of Customs is a condition precedent.” A complete translation of Balzac's novels, published at a low price, edited by a well-known scholar, is a literary experiment of very con- siderable interest. All who read French at all read the Comédie Humaine; but will those who cannot read French buy the translation ? The writer, to begin with, is Parisian through and through, with that note of the past inseparable from work fifty years old. Again, does Balzac possess the sensational qualities which now seem necessary to success? And, when we have agreed to let our own past masters stand forgotten on the shelves, shall we be eager to take up the French masters? For instance, Dickens seems fast losing his hold—only for a time, but still— for the present. Thackeray is only read by “the better sort’”; as for Charles Lever and Anthony Trollope, apparently they are gone; and as for Wilkie Collins and Charles Reade, they are read only in two or three books. Each generation, in fact, will have its own novelists belonging to itself; it grudges not classics belonging to the dead, but they must be few, one to this old novelist, one to that ; it will refuse to read the whole of the dead man’s work. Will the present generation so far depart from established custom as to admit en bloc the whole of the Comédie Humaine P. We shall see, and, as I said above, it is a literary experiment of very considerable interest. With Messrs. Dent and Co., who understand dainty books, for publishers; with Mr. George Saintsbury, who understands his Balzac, for an editor, and with Messrs. Constable to print the work, the series should have every chance. Some three or four years ago—perhaps more— there appeared a new translation of “Don Quixote,” by Mr. H. E. Watts. It was not reviewed by many papers, and by still fewer was it adequately reviewed. One or two critics, how- ever, had the intelligence to perceive that this was the finest translation as yet offered to the public, and the work of a fine Spanish scholar who possesssed other qualities for the translation of Cervantes besides scholarship—notably, know- ledge of the time and the social conditions of the time; humour and the quick perception of the humorous ; and, among other things, the common sense which keeps a translator and an annotator from being carried away by his subject, and the various theories, fads, and crotchets which gather round such a subject as the Knight. The book was published in three big quarto volumes at a price prohibitory. The purse of the ordinary book buyer—marrow but well meaning — could not attain to that price. So the matter rested, and it seemed as if, but for a few libraries, the work was closed to the public. Well: a new edition has now been undertaken (Messrs. A. and C. Black) at a reason- able and possible price; and we shall be able to possess at last the immortal work of Cervantes in a translation worthy and adequate. Is there room for another novel on the gentle- man highwayman P. The field one would think was entirely occupied by Ainsworth and Lytton. Nevertheless, Mr. C. T. C. James—no novice in the art of story telling—boldly pushes in with a new story on the old theme. The fact is that no field in fiction is occupied. He would be a bold man who would treat of Tunbridge Wells in 1750, with Thackeray as a rival; but the rivalry is not an impossible thing. Again, he would be a bold man who would face Scott in the 1745 business, but such audacity is not impossible. Mr. James, however, does not in reality present himself as a rival of the two elder novelists. He confines him- self to a single tavern in a London suburb and to its adventures with a single highwayman. He presents a vivid and interesting picture of life a hundred and fifty years ago. The book carries one along breathless from beginning to end. There is only one fault to find with it—a fault  ## p. 296 (#310) ############################################ 296 THE AUTHOR. that is not discovered till the book is done with and cold criticism begins. The highwayman is pardoned. Why? Because his mistress once gave a cup of purl to the king P. Not sufficient reason. The man is a thief and a robber. There is no escape from that ; and, as such, he would assuredly have been hanged, purl or no purl. In January last, a communication entitled “Editorial Amenities,” signed “C. H.,” ap- peared in the Author. There were three cases of complaint. As regards the last, the editor of the magazine in question has sent copies of the corre- spondence to this paper. It appears from the letters (1) that the article was accepted and paid for; (2) that the editor, on revising his accepted articles, found errors which, in his judgment, made the paper useless to him; (3) that he accordingly declined to print the paper, still exercising his judgment as editor; (4) that, as the paper was anonymous, the refusal did no harm to the author's reputation; (5) that the author, although he had been paid for the paper, was quite free to send it elsewhere ; (6) that it is impossible for an editor to carry on a controversy with any contributor as to the reasons of his decision; (7) that the editor has found no reason to change his opinion as to certain inaccuracies in the contribution ; and (8) that the author is quite free to retain his own opinion, and to believe that the paper is accurate. It is always a mortifying thing to have a MS. returned. But an editor is absolute ; he must, in the nature of the case, be absolute; and an editor cannot possibly be expected to carry on ex- planations and reasons for his decisions. Two months ago, in a notice on the death of Sir John Robert Seeley, I mentioned that he had been a member of the council of the Society. A good many correspondents pointed out that his name was not on the list. In short, I was wrong, because Seeley never was upon our council at all. His connection with the Society was that of Vice- President, an office which still exists, but has been allowed to drop out of prominence, most of the W.P.'s having long since joined the council. In the first year of the Society's existence, when it was absolutely necessary that it should receive the nominal support and approval of as many leaders as possible, with this view, the committee invited certain writers and scholars to signify their approval of the objects of the Society by becoming Vice-Presidents. In the month of April, 1885, I find in the minute-book of the committee the following acceptances of this invita- tion. It was a goodly list. Matthew Arnold Philip James Bailey Lord Brabourne Frank Cowley Burnand J. Anthony Froude Bishop of Chichester Prof. Huxley, F.R.S. The Librarian of Windsor Castle . Sir Henry Maine, K.C.S.I. Sir Theodore Martin James Payn John Ruskin, D.C.L. Prof. Seeley Prof. Skeat' Sir Richard Temple Prof. Tyndall, LL.D. Dean Waughan W. G. Wills. Some of the Vice-Presidents afterwards, as stated above, became members of the council; others remained, and are still, vice-presidents, though their names are no longer advertised. It is pleasing to record that Seeley did more than remain simply an honorary vice-president. In the year 1888, when the Society gave a dinner to American men and women of letters, Seeley lent the weight of his name as a steward. He regularly received, and, there is reason to believe, read the documents of the Society and spoke. The Royal Literary Fund last year relieved the necessities of forty-five applicants—twenty-seven being men and eighteen women. By the rules of the Fund, applicants must prove that they are authors by putting in their published works. How many men and women are there in this country who could thus prove themselves to be authors P. There are about 1350 members of the Society, all of whom have produced books. Now this number includes very few writers of educa- tional books, very few writers of technical books, and not many writers of theological books. Let us suppose that there are twice that number out- side the Society: this gives us a total of, say, 4000 authors. The total applicants for relief during the last year was forty-five—that is to say, I 125 per cent. This is a very satisfactory percentage. Authorship is certainly improving on its material side. The grants to the men average about £42 apiece; those to the women £54 apiece. If “Weary" will send me her name and address, I will endeavour to answer her letter. The subject is hardly suitable for these columns. At the moment of going to press we learn that Canada has ceased to collect the royalties accord- ing to the old agreement. It would be interesting to learn how much was collected last year, and who has received any share of it. WALTER BESANT,  ## p. 297 (#311) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 297 DECADENCE OF LITERATURE, Dº 'S theory is eminently true of literature. It is a case of the survival of the fittest. The weak may flourish for a time and choke the environs like the lianes in a tropical forest, but they perish with their season, and the stalwart trees survive and make them- selves evident in later generations. For the present there is an enormous growth of these ephemeral productions, and may I be for- given for suggesting that editors and publishers of magazines are a good deal to blame, not only for their growth but for the deterioration of what might have been a forest tree, or at best a worthy shrub P No sooner has a writer made “a hit ’’ than he or she is besieged with solicitations to contribute to this or that periodical, and it requires considerable self-control, maybe, or in- dolence, or superiority to pelf to resist and refuse till the production is ripe, or not to try to gratify more than one at the same time. To take an illustration from art, pot-boilers, instead of pic- tures, are the consequence. Nothing is more true than what Mr. Cresswell says in the last number, though rapid work is good, hurried work is never good, and the pub- lisher who displays an attractive catalogue of authors announced at the beginning of the year, almost compels some at least to hurried work. Also the distinctive characteristics of the periodicals are lost by thus obtaining the ser- vices of the authors who are willing to write for all and each. I believe some of the American magazines bind a writer to write for nothing else; and it is really a wise arrangement, since the old sense that it was honourable to work for one firm alone has died away. Another modern fashion ruinous to good literature is the laying contribu- tions on the bed of Procrustes. Readers are sup- posed to object to a tale passing the limits of a volume. They like to have it finished off, and be free to begin a fresh serial, and thus the story always shows symptoms of winding up in November, and we are sure the hero and heroine will be married or defunct in December. Well if they are allowed to finish their career with proper honours! How many stories have I read where the beginning was full of pleasant details, but the latter end was evidently squeezed together and cut down, so as to lose all proportion and become a spoilt per- formance. This is a new fashion. Take up an old Black- wood, see “Ten Thousand a Year” runs on number after number ; or an old Cornhill, where “Phineas Finn,” “The Knight of Gwynne,” and the admirable “Lettice Lisle,” have a never wearied audience; or, again, Household Words knew and prized Mrs. Gaskell too well to part with her till death cut off the end of “Wives and Daughters.” Totus, teres atque rotundus is a good rule, but if Milton could not carve a statue out of a cherry stone it is hard for lesser geniuses, after carving the head in one proportion, to have to get the limbs into the remainder of the stone. If a fiction is to be good for anything, it must have its needful development, and not be sacrificed to a December number. Some people have a real genius for the short story, Brett Hart’s “Luck of Roaring Camp’’ or “Mademoiselle Ixe” seem to me perfect speci- mens of the style. Americans excel in them, but then they have the advantage of an immense field of country and every variety of manners and of civilisation, whereas in our old country the changes are continually rung on ghosts and detectives, and the demand creates a very mediocre style of supply. A tale of character requires space (at least if it be not a mere sketch), and it would be well to follow Anthony Trollope's habit of either publishing the whole at once, or not letting a chapter appear till the whole was complete in his portfolio. Another mischievous habit is that of hasty reviewing. When I began the world, to solicit a favourable notice would have been thought unworthy. I may truly say that I never have done so, except when a book was for some special purpose needed to be put forward. Reviews used then to be often good criticisms, really useful. Some- times they stung hard, but generally they were really improving by the faults they found. They embodied and brought home the judgment of the public of cultivated minds, and never should I have thought of trying to enlist them in my favour, or ask for their verdict. When an editor myself, I was always prejudiced (fairly or unfairly) by being asked for a friendly notice, or by having a whole bundle of cuttings from papers sent me with a MS. ; and, worse than all, it has happened to me to receive with a new book a packet of extracts from it in type, for the convenience of the reviewer P To see a whole page of opinions of the press, mostly provincial, never gives me a good impression, though this may be due more to the publisher than the author, and it is treating the subject like tea, cocoa, or soap. The multitude of publications which are all poured forth at one time, and the insistence of publishers and authors for an early notice, absolutely prevents efficient treatment in criticism. Time and space alike fail, and whether a book be bad or good, or “ower gude for banning ower good for blessing,” it has to be  ## p. 298 (#312) ############################################ 298 THE AUTHOR. skimmed over and despatched in a few lines. This is not criticism. It is mere advertisement. No guide to the author hardly, except in the higher stamp of literary journals—a guide to the reader in the selection from the circulating library. Are these simply the murmurs of an old author, laudator temporis acti, or is there any means of raising the tone and aspirations of writers P C. M. YONGE. *-- ~ 2–º s= **s-s A SHEAF OF POETS, HEY have accumulated during two months until now there is quite a little pile. Is it not a sign or proof of a reviving taste in poetry that there should be so many “bids” for poetic fame? We may take it, without meaning to give any offence, that the poets all pay for the production of their work. Would they tell us how many copies they sell? For instance, thirty years ago a certain friend of mine published at his own expense a thin volume of verse. Exactly three copies were sold. How many have been sold of the volumes before me? The best course for the Author to adopt is to let each scribe speak for himself without favour. The order in which they speak means nothing: I. The “In Memoriam ” of Italy. A Century of Sonnets from the Poems of Victoria Colonna, Marchesa de Pescara. Translator anonymous. (London: Henry Gray, Leicester-square.) AMOR, TU SAI. Thou knowest, Love I never turned my feet From thy dear prison; that I ne'er untied Thy light yoke from my neck, nor ne'er denied Thy service which at first my soul found meet ; Time shall ne'er change my faith, of old complete; Thy bond, as once I bound it, still shall bide ; Nor, for the bitter fruit thy tree doth hide, Doth my heart find the seed less pure or sweet. Now hast thou seen how in a faithful heart Thy sharpest arrow hath no skill to wound, That Death against it hath no force or power; O let at last the tie which bound it part, (Tho' sweeter aye it was than freedom found) Yet lags and lingers yet my joyful hour. II. “Sita,” and other Poems. By Mrs. Aylmer Gowing. (London: Elliot Stock.) TENNYSON. oCTOBER 6, 1892. All glorious with the mystery sublime Thy eyes shall fathom soon, Night's bosom pillows thee, O son of Time ! In splendours of the moon. Cometh thy daybreak—there shall be no night In that far heaven, Luntrod By course of quenching suns or stars, whose light Shall be the face of God. True seer, from thy heart the lamp of faith Glowed clear through storm and shine, And clothed the fearful majesty of Death In robes of grace divine. And thine the hand of might, the tender touch That makes our pulse thine own By love's enchantments, for thou hast loved much, And grief’s excess hast known. Sweet singer, by thy voice of human love And sorrow, pure and strong, Teach us to find our God, while thou, above, Art singing a new song. III. “Thoughts in a Garden.” Stevenson. (London : Elliot Stock.) AUTUMN SONG. All day the fiercest winds have blown, The leaves upon the grass are strown, Save a few stragglers, sad and lone, That fringe the boughs; The fir-tree groans, as, on the height, He feels the tempest's frenzied flight, Yet from the earth his grasp of might No wrench allows. By A. C. The flowerets, erst so bright and brave, Now in the dust have found a grave; No loving hand their life could save From ruin drear; Only the blossoms named of gold, Defiant of the rain and cold, Still form a funeral-wreath to fold O'er Nature’s bier. There is an end to Summer’s pride, To autumn with his garners wide; Now winter comes, with rapid stride, His throne to take ; Long will his fetters bind the earth, He robs the year of half its worth, While scent of flowers and woodland mirth, Our lives forsake. IV. “Wignettes.” By Aubrey St. John Mild- may. (London : Elliot Stock.) TWELFTH-NIGHT. (Reprinted by permission from the “Spectator,” January 13th, 1894.) I should like to have your dimples, Your wonderment, your nonsense, Your grave hands, and your tripping feet, Your carelessness, your conscience; I should like to know the secrets You are talking with your brother Between the mazes of the dance, As your eyes meet one another. Little maid, all eyes, and such eyes Half-lightning and half-laughter, Sugar-things I should like to eat, Aud never hunger, after : Tell me, little maid, do you believe That if you looked and looked, And turned into a tipsy-cake, The best that could be cooked, Do you think that if I swallowed you And incontinently died, That the judge would call it murder Or only suicide P  ## p. 299 (#313) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 299 Because I’ve drunk your beauty in ;- But you don’t know what that means Any more than beams, which pony loves, Can know that they are beans. Good-night, dear, dainty tipsy-cake, I’m but a selfish jade, Just whinnying to himself about The dinner he has made. And I may not, may not keep you For my sweet-meat to enjoy, God has planned you for a help-meet For some happy, happy boy. W. “Pipings.” By John Arthur Coupland. (London: John Ferries.) DREAMS. A ghost-like vapour wraps the wood, And frozen is the stream, The birds upon bare branches brood, And nothing breaks their dream. They dream of Spring, of Summer sweet, Of green and leafy bowers. I also dream : in winding-sheet Behold the murdered hours. WI. “In Leisure Time.” By William S. Mavor. (London: Elliot Stock.) TO TERPSICHORE. If Choryphaeus leading the dancing choir With steps of stately ceremonial; Or leaping Faun and Bacchanal Around thine altar cannot tire Their nimble feet; If Pyrrhic dances yield Their martial music as the crashing shield And falchion meet ; Or, if we pleasure us As eye beholds Nymphs, robed in draperies diaphanous, Whose fleecy veils their sensuous limbs surround In serpent folds, Whose lissom feet but kiss the ground ; If such affect Thee, gladly we Thus pay our festal vows, Terpsichore VII. “Scintillae Carminis.” By Percival W. H. Almy. (London: Elliot Stock.) RATE : A PASTORAL. And the bells, the bells, the tumbling bells Shall reel and peal through the livelong day; And they’ll deck the church with blooming birch, And the cherry bloom and the may, the may ; “So kiss me, Kate, and we’ll be married o' Sunday.” And you shall have rings and golden things, And satin shoes as white as milk, And coloured bows and high clock hose, And a glittering gown of silk, of silk; “So kiss me, Kate, and we’ll be married o' Sunday.” And servants shall wait on my Lady Kate, Like a maiden queen of a high degree ; And garlands rare shall bind your hair, Dragged from the mouth of the bee, the bee ; * So kiss me, Kate, and we’ll be married o' Sunday.” VIII. The “Mummer.” By Harry Gaelyn. (London : Elliott Stock.) IN A CITY. Dim grimy way In the dull drear City, Where never a ray Of God’s sun, through the livelong day Pierces the pall of the murky sky, To tell of pity And hope, to those who live and die T)ay by day, In that grimy way. Yet there, By yon crazy stair, Long years ago, Love stayed his flight. There, In the dusky light Love shook his wings and all was bright For two true souls—and they Until this day Have found that grimy way A pathway of delight. IX. “The Prophecy of Westminster.” Harriet E. H. King. (London: W. B. Whitting- ham.) This volume of verse is in honour of Cardinal Manning. THE COMFORTER, COMFORTED O Thou whose throne was set in Westminster, Among the many god-like names whereby We hold thee in our hearts, this one doth lie Nearest each thought of thee—the Comforter. What bitter pains, what manifold disgrace Hiding itself from every other face, What broken hearts, what wounds of penitents, What secret cruelties, what ghastly rents, Open have lain beneath thy pitying eye, Fled to thy bosom as to sanctuary, And felt thy holy tenderness outpoured Upon the quivering life, to hope restored X. “Religio Clerici and other Poems.” By Alfred Starkey. (London: Elliot Stock.) The principal poem in this collection is purely religious. It is difficult to quote any passage which, detached, would fully represent the powers of the poet. Here, however, are the opening lines: Last year, what time the bells of summer months Had rung their sweetest chimes, I took my way Up through the long sea-walleys, dark and stern In bouldered turf and reappearing rock Struck through the shallow soil, like hoary bones Of some vast buried age. In the slant light I saw the bramble dews gleam changeful sparks Of pearl and ruby ; and oft I stayed to watch The autumn spiders spin their floating threads, And launch their ačry voyages; or paused While on some red-leaved bough the robin, left Sole chorister of all the tuneful quire Which filled in spring, the chancel of the year With soft and grateful song, now piped a faint And faltering dirge o'er bright days dead or dying, Mingling its matin notes with vesper falls Of melancholy minors, like a sigh From Nature’s sabbath heart.  ## p. 300 (#314) ############################################ 3OO THE AUTHOR. XI. The “ Divine Surrender.” By William Wullan. (London: Elliot Stock.) This is a “Mystery Play” treating of the Crucifixion. It is impossible to quote anything unless one were to take several pages. *- a -º BOOK TALK, OME time ago Mr. John Hollingshead issued a booklet of an autobiographical nature, and now he announces a complete autobiography in two volumes for the coming publishing season. His acquaintance with literary and theatrical celebrities has been, of course, very large. A very curious and significant fact is announced from America, that the library of the late Oliver Wendell Holmes has been valued at only £160. A new connection between the Press and the publishers is to be inaugurated this spring by the appearance of the “ Pall Mall Magazine Library,” which Messrs. Sampson Low and Co. will issue. “The Decline and Fall of Napoleon,” by Lord Wolseley; and “The Rise of Wellington,” by Lord Roberts, will be the first two volumes. The editors of the Magazine will contribute an introduction. The price of the series is to be 3s. 6d. The work upon which the late Sir John Seeley was engaged when he died was “The Growth of British Policy,” and it is being edited by Pro- fessor Prothero for the Cambridge University Press, in two volumes. It seems a pity that this could not have been included in the uniform edition of Sir John Seeley's works, of which Messrs. Macmillan will issue “The Expansion of England” on May 3, and “Ecce Homo,” “Natural Religion,” and “Lectures and Essays” at monthly intervals. Mr. George Allen, who began as a publisher of Ruskin, is extending his list in many direc- tions, and “Ruskin House” is more of a com- pliment than a description. His edition of Spenser’s “Faerie Queen,” edited by Mr. Wise, and illustrated by Mr. Walter Crane, has reached its fifth part, and he announces “The Gurneys of Earlham,” in three volumes, by Mr. Augustus J. C. Hare, profusely illustrated. The work is the memoirs and correspondence of the eleven children of John and Catherine Gurney, 1775- 1875. The most important work of travel in the autumn season will probably be Captain Young- husband's account of his famous journeys in India and the far East. The title has not yet been finally settled, as it is difficult to get one which describes the whole field, but it will pro- bably be “The Heart of a Continent; being the Narrative of Travel from 1886-1894 in Man- churia, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, the Pamirs, and the Hindu-Kush.” Mr. McCormick, who illustrated Mr. Conway’s “Himalayas,” will also be the illustrator of this work. Mr. Murray is the publisher. A short time before his death Professor Blackie collected together materials for his biography, and this will be published in the autumn by Messrs. Blackwood and Co. It is written by Miss Stoddart. In Messrs. Putnam’s Sons’ “ Heroes of the Nations” series, Mrs. Oliphant will write on “Joan of Arc; ” Mr. Oman, of All Souls, Oxford, on “Marlborough and England as a Military Power; ” and Professor Burr, of Cornell, on “Charlemagne as the Reorganiser of Europe.” Mr. Leslie Stephen’s “Ethical Discourses” will shortly be published by Messrs. Sonnenschein who also announce twelve interesting volumes of their new “Social England” series. Mr. Baldwin Brown will write on “The History of the Fine Arts in England; ” Mr. Cornish, Vice-Provost of Eton, on “Chivalry;” Professor Winogradoff on “The English Manor;” Mr. Henry Balfour on “The Evolution of Household Implements; ” Mr. Inderwick, Q.C., on “The King's Peace, a His- torical Sketch of the English Law Courts; ” Mr. S. O. Addy, on “The Evolution of the English House; ” Professor Cunningham on “The Influence of Alien Immigration on Social Life; ” Alice Law on “Guilds, and the Rise of the Mer- chant Class; ” and Mr. G. C. Chisholm, on “ The Influence of Geography and Travel on Social Life.” The Westminster Gazette has published, on the authority of Messrs. Chapman and Hall, the interesting fact that, since 1872, of the People's Edition of Carlyle’s “Sartor Resartus” 89,000 copies have been sold, and of “ Heroes and Hero Worship,” IoS,000. All who have read and delighted in Mr. Nisbet Bain’s translations of “ Hans Andersen’s Fairy Stories”—and who has not both read them and delighted in them P-will look forward greatly to his Life of Andersen, which will be published by Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen in the spring. The Ealing Free Library has transferred “The Manxman " to the reference department, where only adults can procure it ; the chairman of the committee, the Rev. J. S. Hilliard, describing it as “a most indecent book.” No announcement has yet been made on the subject, but it may be taken for granted that in  ## p. 301 (#315) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3O I the autumn we shall have a striking account from the pen of Slatin Pasha on his eleven years' captivity in the Mahdi's camp. It will be remembered that Father Ohrwalder, who was rescued in a similar manner through the instru- mentality of Major Wingate, R.A., in 1892, published in that year a very interesting book. Mr. Blackmore has written a series of tales in verse, to be published under the title of “Fringalla,” by Mr. Elkin Matthews in the spring. The same publisher announces Professor Corbin’s Harvard prize essay on “The Elizabethan Hamlet,” with a prefatory note by Professor York Powell. The idea of the essay is that nowadays we have lost sight of a comic element in “Hamlet” which was present to Elizabethan audiences. A book awaited with eagerness by soldiers and historians is General Sir Daniel Lyson’s “The Crimean War from First to Last.” It is said to be full of facts and stories that have never been published before, and the author is credited with being one of the few officers who never left the camp of the First Division for a single day from the outbreak of hostilities to their conclusion. Sir Daniel is now eighty-one. A book by Baron Rothschild on his trip to Cape Town and on South Africa generally is nearly ready. No doubt it will appear in an appropriately gorgeous form. The publishers are Messrs. Longmans. The tenth edition of Erichsen’s magnum opus “The Science and Art of Surgery,” in two volumes, with a thousand engravings, is also announced by the same publishers. The Figaro has published a series of very interesting extracts from M. Clemenceau’s book entitled “La Mélée Sociale.” This appears to be a very pessimistic view of human activities. No doubt an English translation will soon be announced. Perhaps the indefatigable Mr. Sherard already has it in hand. The preliminary announcements of Mr. Henry Dyer’s volume on “The Evolution of Industry,” promise a very opportune and needed work. He regards his subject from both social and political standpoints, and discusses such timely topics as the position of women, Municipal control, State control, and, of course, industrial training. Messrs. Macmillan are the publishers. The new editor of the Daily Chronicle, in succession to Mr. A. E. Fletcher resigned, is Mr. H. W. Massingham, who has for a considerable period acted as assistant-editor and political director, as well as writing the brilliant daily sketch of House and Lobby. The new editor of the Morning Post, in succession to Mr. A. K. Moore, deceased, is Mr. Locker, son of Mr. Arthur Locker, for many years editor of the Graphic, and nephew of Frederick Locker- Lampson, the poet. The first edition of IOOO copies of Mr. Henry Norman’s book on “The Peoples and Politics of the Far East ’’ was sold out, the publisher announces, within the first week of publication, and a second edition is now ready. During the month Mr. Norman has been appointed assistant- editor of the Daily Chronicle, of which paper he has for some time had charge of the literary department. “The Cyclopædia of Names,” published by the Century Magazine, and by Mr. Fisher Unwin in this country—certainly one of the most useful books of reference that has ever seen the light— is to be issued in monthly half-guinea parts. Journalists, and people who have occasion to make researches, have for several years past greatly valued the “Index to Periodicals,” which has been issued yearly from the Review of Rezniews office. Mr. Stead has now commenced the issue of his “Index to Periodicals" monthly, at Id. The index shows the contents of the magazines and of the Review of Reviews for the coming month, and all the books issued during the previous month, including Parliamentary publications. A week or two will see a most important and interesting work, in the shape of the biography of the late Professor Freeman, by Dr. Stephens, the Dean of Winchester. Messrs. Macmillan and Co. will publish it in two volumes. It is said that “the letters will be found to contain a more striking testimony to the range and variety of their author's studies than is afforded by any of his printed works.” Every month now brings at least one new magazine, that of March being a sixpenny monthly called The Englishwoman, edited by Miss Ella Hepworth Dixon, and published by F. W. White and Co, A new sixpenny illustrated weekly, The Hour, has also made its appearance under the editor- ship of Mr. A. N. Williamson. “The World's Own Book; or, the Treasury of à Kempis,” by Percy Fitzgerald, is announced for early publication by Mr. Elliot Stock. The work incidentally gives an account of the chief editions of the imitation, with an analysis of its methods, and is illustrated by several facsimiles of pages from MSS. and early printed editions. The publication of Miss Elizabeth Hodges's book, “Some Ancient English Homes and their Associations: Personal, Archæological, and Historic,” T. Fisher Unwin, which was arranged for the first of the month, is, owing to the  ## p. 302 (#316) ############################################ 3O2 THE AUTHOR. ravages of influenza among the printers, post- poned until after Easter. The book, which is well illustrated, gives descriptive histories of some interesting but little known Warwickshire and Gloucestershire “Homes” and their various inmates, from Saxon times onward. Mr. Egerton Castle's new novel, called “The Light of Scarthey,” will appear serially in the Times (weekly edition) before coming out in one vol. form. It will begin on the 19th of April, and will run about six months. It will then be pub- lished by Messrs. Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co. “To-Day's Christ : A Study in Re-Incarna- tion,” by Dr. Joseph Parker, of the City Temple, is now ready. The publishers are James Nisbet and Co., 2 I, Berners-street, W. Mr. Reynolds Ball has been appointed travel editor of the Road, and will take charge of the new “Travel and Tour Department,” which begins in this month’s number. One of the most interesting features will be an exhaustive review of a recent popular travel work under the heading “The Book of Travel of the Month.” Mr. Douglas Sladen’s “On the Cars and Off” will be the subject of the April review. We are sorry to record the death of the lady who wrote under the nom de plume of “E. Chilton.” She wrote, in truth, very little, and probably many of our readers never heard of her. But she possessed a singularly pure and clear style, and a certain amount of humour, which made her work attractive. Perhaps she would have done very much better had she been spared. There seems to be no harm in mentioning that her real name was Mrs. Chilton Brock. A scholarly and instructive little book, called “Books Fatal to their Authors” (Elliott Stock), has been sent to me. In style and in matter the book reminds one of Disraeli’s books about literature and authors. Book lovers will make a note about it. The author, in a second edition, will do well to correct a misstatement. The editor of this paper has nowhere said that publishers now “incur no financial risk.” He has never said anything so foolish. What he has said, over and over again, is a very different thing: That in these days few publishers take risk, in the old sense of the word. They have found out the safer plan, viz., where there is risk to make the author take that risk. The richer houses sometimes publish books where returns are doubtful—there are often special reasons why even a certain loss is advisable; they sometimes start magazines; they sometimes lock up money in costly ventures; but the great majority, the smaller houses, seldom, if they can help it, run any risk at all in the publication of books. “Meditations in Motley,” by Walter Black- burne Harte, is a collection of essays by an American writer, published by the “Arena Com- pany, Boston.” It is a handy little volume, and contains many good things. Among others there is a revelation of the conditions of criticism in in America, which ought to reconcile us to our own country. “The Friend of Sir Philip Sidney’’ (London: |Elliot Stock,) is a selection from the works in verse and prose of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke. The selection is made by Alexander B. Grosart. A mºst curious and interesting little volume. The “Divine Problem of Man,” by Mariquita, Wiscountess de Panama (London: The Roxburghe Press) is a religions book which may be com- mended to those who read works of religious speculation. “Silvia Craven” (London : Elliot Stock), by M. Gordon Holmes, is a six-shilling novel. It is rather long for these days of quick reading. The tone of the book is maintained throughout at a high level. “Some of our English Poets.” By the Rev. Canon Bell, D.D. (London : Elliot Stock.) The poets treated are Gray, Goldsmith, Cowper, Scott, Coleridge and Wordsworth. There is always something new to say about a great writer. Canon Bell has found enough to make a charming volume of pleasant criticism. “Cardinal Manning,” a character sketch, by Harriet Clemence Hamilton King. (Dondon: Whittingham and Co.) This little work is written in uncritical admiration of the late Cardinal. It consists largely of extracts from his sermons. Mr. Arthur Dillon, with Mr. William Page, is forming a syndicate in order to revive Shake- speare's comedy of “Twelfth Night, or What You Will,” to be played after the 16th, or early 17th manner. Mr. Dillon says, “Our principle is that every playwright shows to fairest advantage in that form of stage for which. he designed his plays. This is especially true of Shakespeare, who wrote with such technical knowledge of the stage of his day.” “The Silent Room,” by Mrs. Harcourt Roe, has been published by Messrs. Skeffington and Co. in Is. form. Annabel Gray has transferred her works, “The Ghosts of the Guard-room" and “A Spanish Singer,” to Messrs. C. Turner and Co., 30 and 32, Ludgate-hill, who will continue the series. “Llanako: a Welsh Idyll,” is the title of a new novel just issued by Messrs. Gay and Bird. The author is Mrs. Fred Reynolds.  ## p. 303 (#317) ############################################ THE AUTHOR. 3O3 Mr. Frank Barrett's new story, “A Set of Rogues,” will appear serially this summer in a number of provincial weeklies. The arrange- ments are in the hands of the Authors' Syndicate. Mr. Richard Pryce's new story, “The Burden of a Woman,” will be published almost imme- diately by Messrs. A. D. Innes and Co. The arrangements have been concluded by the Authors' Syndicate. Mrs. Paul King, author of “Cousin Cinderella,” is about to produce a novel in three volumes, called “Lord Goltho, an Apostle of Whiteness.” The publishers are Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. Many of our older members will be pleased to hear that Mr. James Stanley Little was on the 23rd ult. married to Miss F. Maud Thérèse Lablache. There is always a certain diffidence in speaking of Pierre Plowman and other writings of that age. One ought to be able to read English of that period; it is English, only a little more archaic than Spenser. Yet, as a matter of fact, the reading is so troublesome, reference to notes or a glossary is so frequent, that, except in one's student days, Langland is practically never read at all. It is time to sweep away the convention that we all understand fourteenth-century English; and this, it is to be hoped, will be assisted by Miss Rate Warren’s “Translation Vision ” (Fisher Unwin, 1895). The Translation is close and literal, yet preserves the spirit of the original. A few notes are added; there is an appendix, and there is an introduction. Such a little book does more to make us understand the fourteenth century than half a dozen learned volumes with annotations and glossaries. We must have the learned volumes; but for them we could not become students in Old or Middle English. We hope that Miss Warren will con- tinue her task of making things plain and popular. * - - --" - w - CORRESPONDENCE, I.—“RUSTIC READING '': A REPLY. ET me assure my critic “C. M. Y.” that my article on this subject did not deal “with what was the case thirty or forty years ago,” an epoch with which I had no personal acquaintance. Every word of it was the result of my own observation and experience as a country clergyman, nor have I any reason to suppose that the condition of this parish in matters literary is in any way exceptional. ; “The writer,” says his critic, cannot really know John Bunyan's great classic if he thinks it of Langland’s. likely to terrify children into the way of virtue.” But it was to the alarming illustrations of certain editions, and not to the text, that I took exception, John Bunyan is not to be held responsible for the vagaries of his illustrators - Then I am told that I am not familiar with parish magazines. Alas ! this is far from being the case, and I can only repeat that hardly any of them contain writing worthy the name of literature. The one exception that I know is Mr. J. G., Adderley's Goodwill, but in this, unfortunately, there is a strong tinge of socialism. Lastly. “The nickname Hodge is one that greatly displeases both the peasant and all that are interested in him.” Dear me, what could I have been thinking of to use it in this gloriously democratic age I hope that Thomas Hodge, Esquire, Parish Councillor, will forgive my forget- fulness. THE WRITER OF THE PAPER. II.—EDITORs' RULEs. “R. L. T.” has mistaken my suggestion, and I fear if we authors combined to frame a set of rules, regulating the terms for the reception of our MSS., the only result would be a swift and speedy return of our productions by the indignant editors. My idea was that they should draw up a new act of uniformity, out of the kindness of their hearts, in order that the weary writers should know how long to wait for rejection or acceptance, and cheques. The vulgar tradesman does not give unlimited credit ; why then should the distinguished, or insignificant, author P S. B. III.--WoRD's For SoNGs. In Mr. R. H. Sherard's February “Letter from Paris,” he says: “Only the very best writers of words for songs in England can hope for as much as four, or at the outside five, guineas for their words, whilst the average price paid to the poet is, I believe, 5s.” Speaking from my own experience, the average price is two guineas for words worth setting, and I have never once been offered words at anything like as low as 5s., nor for the words of my songs have my publishers, who have uniformly and courteously given the price asked. The poet then, unlike composer and publisher, has no further risk. - Touching upon the half royalty system in France ; if a poet took half the royalties of a song in England, it would hardly be an equal divi- sion P The writer of the music has only that one form of publishing to profit by, whereas the poet only  ## p. 304 (#318) ############################################ 3O4. THE AUTHO/?. sells the musical copyright of his poem, and can publish it in book form without restriction. In cases where musical copyright is not wished to be disposed of, the poet frequently grants his very kind permission to set the same words many times, thereby popularising his work, or he can request special terms. With all appreciation of Mr. Sherard’s sugges- tions and with every respect for the unspeakable help of poetry, the labours and risks of music are so great that the benefit of the minor poet seems to me best insured in the position he occupies at present. MARY AUGUSTA SALMOND. IV.-MUSICAL PUBLISHING. In reading the valuable remarks upon this subject in the Author for March, I so thoroughly agree that “the iniquity of seven copies as six’’ should be challenged. Why should not thirteen copies count as twelve, as in the booksellers’ trade P If musical works are properly stored, this should amply allow for loss to publishers in soiled or spoilt copies. Regarding charges for the performing rights of composers in oratorios, cantatas, and operas, the remarks are just, but I would refer the writer to 45 & 46 Vict. c. 40, ss. I and 2, which is quoted on page 62 of that admirable little handbook, “The Law of Musical and Dramatic Copyright,” by Ed. Cutler, T. E. Smith, and F. E. Weatherley. In the case of songs it would seem impolitic if not imposible to charge. It must always be remembered how small a public music has compared with that which literature and the drama possess. In some songs, such as “The Lost Chord” and “The Better Land,” it would appear im- portant to have mentioned in royalty agreement if the publisher “shall be entitled to arrange and use the melody in any separate musical composition ” with or without any further payment P - It is for the greatest composers to begin to insist upon more equitable terms. Lesser writers would only have their work refused for that of others. M. S. W.—THE GENERAL MEETING. I was unfortunately unable to attend the general meeting on the 25th, otherwise, though only a very humble member, I should have felt it my duty to protest against Mr. Stuart- Glennie's strictures. I have belonged to the Society for nearly ten years, and whenever I have had occasion to resort to its services, have been invariably im- pressed by the admirable manner in which the business has been conducted. In fact, so far as my experience is concerned, its attributes may be summed up in these three words, “Capability, Celerity, Courtesy,” and there are, I am sure, very few members who would not render a similar testimony. WILLIAM TOYNBEE. WI.—PARALLELISM. On Nov. 16, 1892, I awoke from sleep with the idea of the following sonnet, and with the final line shaped almost exactly as it stands, present in my mind—whether as carried out of a dream or as forged in some mental process exactly synchronous with the recovery of consciousness I am quite unable to determine. The idea took possession of me, though at first I recoiled from the grotesquerie of the gnat, feeling that in the retention, at all events, of the word, the solemnity of the whole conception would be risked. That same morning I composed the sonnet (the first I ever wrote) in one draft, altering the last line to “The cry of a hurt bird doth reach me here "; but in a third copy restoring the ant, in the deliberate conviction that the grotesquerie was only skin-deep, and that the thoughtful reader would justify my decision. Besides, I felt a sort of scrupulousness in tampering with the gift of a dream. Two or three days ago I saw an advertisement of a new book or pamphlet by my friend Mr. Coulson Kernahan. The title is as follows: “God and the Ant: A Dream of the Last Day.” On the face of it, the motif of that, one would say, is almost identical with the motif of my Plagiarism, conscious or unconscious, is out of the question. - I fancy that the parallelism is remarkable enough to deserve record. Besides having seemingly been first in ink, I should like to be first in print. 'Atrokatóorraorus IIdivrov. Lo, the great day that sees God's purpose wrought ! Time in His lap doth lie, a woven skin, Sin is His awful aureole, and pain On His forefinger shines, a pearl sum-caught. Yea, the great day, the end of all God’s thought: The stars roll anthems, all the airy main Washes bright rapture, mingled with the strain Of human cycles to the vintage brought. Creation praises. Lo, God lifts His hand, Spreading mild lightning on from sphere to sphere : The tide of triumphs stops; the planets stand ; Yea, the worlds hearken, as high God speaks clear: “Broken is all the harmony I plann’d :— There is a gnat whose voice I do not hear.” FREDERICK LANGBRIDGE. 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. 05 Issue 11 (April 1895) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 05 Issue 11 (April 1895) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015013732253</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1895-04-01-The-Author-5-11 publications The Author