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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) 1895-10-01 Volume 6 Issue 5 Pages Page range in volume 101–120 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18951001 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be Elu t bor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) con DUCTED BY wal. TER BES ANT. Wol. VI.-No. 5.] OCTOBER 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 show.ld 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. *—- 2--" ,-- we ---, WARNINGS AND ADWICE, 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 no eaſpense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN WHAT 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 WOL. VI. 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 agent. Remember that you place your property almost un- reservedly in his hands. Your only safety is in consulting the Society, or some friend who has had personal experience of the agent. Do not trust advertisements alone. 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 accownt 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. I2. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. I3. 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, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *—- ~" - * ~ HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. 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 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 M 2  ## p. (#456) ################################################ I O2 THE AUTHOR. 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 mow offers:–(I) 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. *- - -º 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. 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 Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest 6s. 6d. subscription for the year. The 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 Awthor 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 P 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 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 48. 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.  ## p. (#457) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I O3 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. *- a 2- * * * LITERARY PROPERTY, THE CANADIAN CopyRIGHT QUESTION. I. Ottawa, Sept. IO. IR. C. H. TUPPER, speaking at Toronto yesterday, referred to the Canadian copy- right question. He said that, in his opinion, the time had come when the country must know whether the unanimous will of the Commons of Canada was to be respected by the advisers of Her Majesty in London. “I believe,” he continued, “that Mr. Chamberlain, with his great ability and knowledge of our affairs, will prove equal to the occasion, and insist, no matter how the authors and publishers of Canada and London may disagree, no matter whether the right of the argument be in favour of the authors and publishers of Canada or of the authors and publishers of England, that what was intended by the British Parliament in 1867 must be observed in 1895. We have a right to misgovern ourselves, if we choose, in the matter of copyright as we have in tariffs and everything else. In the course of a conversation which I had with him to-day, the Minister of Justice said that he would be glad to receive Mr. Hall Caine personally and listen to him, but as the Dominion Government simply represented the unanimous voice of Parliament, it would he improper for him to discuss with the representative of the Society of Authors the wisdom or unwisdom of the action of the Canadian Legislature.—Correspondent of the Times. II. Mr. Lancefield loses sight altogether of the real interests of the great body of authors and pub- lishers outside Canada, and very conveniently ignores England’s international copyright obliga- tions. The United Kingdom and the colonies have joined the Berne Literary Convention, which remedied, for the first time, a longstanding grievance, and has given protection to authors and publishers where formerly there was none. Is it then possible that the British Government will be so shortsighted as to weaken this important agreement on the simple plea that it does not suit specially the Canadian printers and pub- lishers? Concessions once made in favour of Canada could not be withheld from Australia and other British colonies, and any attempts to exclude the colonies from the Copyright Act would inevitably lead to dissensions. The conditions of the Berne Conventions are essentially based upon the mutual recipoclity of nations; France, Germany, and other contracting parties would, therefore, certainly have cause for complaint— and very justly so—if any such partial and one- sided exceptions were introduced. In what position would British authors be if, for instance, such important book-manufacturing centres of Germany as the kingdoms of Saxony, Bavaria, and Würtenberg determined, on the same plea, to free themselves from the restrictions imposed upon the whole of Germany by the Berne Con- vention ? These restrictions must have told very hardly in certain localities, considering that the people engaged in the production of books in any one of these kingdoms exceed by far those similarly occupied in Canada. If such exceptions were to be tolerated, I am afraid that piracy would soon be again the order of the day. HENRY KLEINAU. 18, King William-street, Charing Cross, Sept. 9. —Times, Sept. 13. III. Considerable interest has been aroused among British authors and publishers by reason of the attempt to obtain proclamation of the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889. This act was “assented to” May 2, 1889, to “come into force on a day to be named by proclamation of the Governor- General.” At the request of the Imperial Govern- ment a Canadian representative has been sent to England to discuss the copyright question with the imperial authorities, and in the meantime proclamation is withheld The particular provision of this Act which is most objectionable to the British author and publisher is the one which requires, as a condition of obtaining copyright in Canada, that a book, &c., shall be printed and published or reproduced in Canada within thirty days after publication elsewhere, in default of which any Canadian printer may lawfully print and publish the same, being obliged, however, to give security to pay to the author a royalty of IO per cent. upon the retail price of such publication. If a law containing such a provision is estab- lished in one of the British colonies, copyright throughout the imperial domain may be burdened  ## p. (#458) ################################################ IO4 THE AUTHOR. with the requirement of separate publication in each of the colonies, which would be especially embarrassing to the British author. A question of more general importance, if the right of colonial legislation upon copyright be admitted, will be the effect of such legislation upon international copyright. The Act of 1889, above referred to, contains this provision, limiting the persons who may obtain copright : Any person domiciled in Canada, or in any part of the British possessions, or any citizen of any country which has an international copyright treaty with the United Kingdom, in which Canada is included, who is the author, &c. This raises the question whether citizens of the United States could obtain copyright in Canada even by printing and publishing there, for there is no international copyright treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom. There can be little doubt that if the absolute right of Canada to legislate upon copyright is admitted by the Imperial Government, the United States international copyright law cannot long endure, and British authors will suffer in conse- quence. The Canadian market, considered as a market for Canadian readers, is of very little importance, but the Canadian market considered as a vantage-ground from which to send unautho- rised reprints into the United States is of very serious consequence. This presents practical questions which have already been forced upon our authors by a late ruling of the Treasury Department of the United States. Heretofore the proprietors of United States copyrights have had the aid of our Treasury Department in preventing the importation into the United States of unauthorised reprints of their works coming from abroad, so that careful authors, aided by the customs officers, have succeeded in fairly maintaining their copyright property. Of course this has not been done absolutely, for the long frontier gives special facilities for the passing into the United States of the garbled and trashy reprints coming from the Canadian presses. But the author has had his market fairly free from them. The importation of such copies being unlawful, and involving forfeitures and damages, the authors, when aided by the Treasury Department, have had practical facilities for protecting their rights, and seldom had occasion to resort to legal proceedings. By this new ruling, however, the Treasury Department has taken the position, in effect, that authors shall no longer have its aid in cases where not more than two copies of a work are imported, and that in such cases, if the copies imported are unauthorised reprints, the owner of the copyright must resort for relief to the courts, and bring his action for the forfeiture of the copies and for damages. As these reprints are generally of the very poorest quality, and sell for about twenty-five cents each, the duty upon them is also remitted under Article Io96, Customs Regulations of 1892. The effect of this ruling, which was promulgated last spring, has already been felt in the market, and the unauthorised reprints can now be readily obtained. Indeed, under such circumstances this could not be otherwise. It is well known that the Tauchnitz reprints find their way through English custom-houses in great numbers, not- withstanding the earnest efforts of the customs officers to prevent it, aided by the publishers who honestly desire that the importation into England of such reprints should not take place. |Unless our Treasury Department recedes from its present position, and co-operates with the authors as heretofore, the unauthorised Canadian reprints will seriously endanger the market value of all domestic copyrights, and materially reduce the profits of our authors. This extraordinary ruling of Secretary Carlisle could, we think, be reversed on a proper presenta- tion, and we are surprised at the indifference so far shown by American authors to the injurious significance of this ruling.—Harper's Weekly, Aug. 24. IV. A correspondent writes:—“The much-vexed question of Canadian Copyright has at length made some steps towards a settlement. Mr. E. L. Newcombe, Q.C., Deputy Minister of Justice, who came to this country as the representative of the Canadian Government, is on the point of returning to Canada. He will carry with him certain modifications of Canada's demand in the still inoperative Act of 1889. These modifications have been suggested by the Colonial Office after close and careful intercourse with Mr. Newcombe, as well as with the representatives of English authors and publishers, Mr. Hall Caine and Mr. F. R. Daldy. It would be inadvisable and prema- ture to make any statement of their scope further than to say that they are understood to recognise the right of copyright in Canada to every person who has any right of copyright in the United Ringdom. Beyond this general principle certain concessions are suggested which it is believed will meet all that is fair and just in Canada's expectations. It now remains to the Canadian Government to frame an amended Act that will be likely to obtain the approval of both Parlia- ments, and it is hoped that Canadian printers on  ## p. (#459) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. IO5. the one hand, and British authors on the other, will be able to accept the compromise which the Colonial Office suggests. As Mr. Newcombe's instructions forbade him to meet anybody except the Government, it has been thought right that Mr. Hall Caine should carry out the wish of the Authors’ Society and go to Ottawa as the delegate of English authors to confer with the Canadians on the terms of their reconstructed Bill. What he will be allowed to do, whether to appear before a committee of the Canadian Parliament or, perhaps, speak at the Bar of the House, will be, of course, at the discretion of the Premier ; but it is probable that the Colonial Office, and certainly the English people, would hear with satisfaction of any favourable mark of the disposition of the Canadians to arrive at a settlement which, while doing justice to Canadian demands, would not be unacceptable to the authors and publishers of this country. Mr. Caine is to sail on Sept. 18, by the White Star steamship Teutonic.”—Times. V The point we put is that it is a question of equity and honesty, and not, as Sir Charles Tupper puts it, a question of the right of Canadians to mis- govern themselves. Canadians get full protection in the Mother Country for all their rights, includ- ing copyrights and patents, by virtue of a common citizenship ; yet they now propose to deprive their fellow-citizens at home of the corresponding rights in Canada. That is no question of misgovernment, it is a question of honesty and right feeling. The average tone and spirit of politics in Canada is perhaps as low as it is in any part of the Queen's dominions, but we might reasonably expect that public opinion in Canada would not be favourable to the perpetration of an act of sheer confiscation. The Canadians might at all events be reached by considerations of self- interest. They are now proposing to wrong a class which exercises a most powerful influence On English Opinion. The question is often asked in this country, what possible advantage we gain by the association with Canada. The Dominion claims practically an absolute independence in its domestic, and almost absolute freedom in regard to its foreign, policy. She is a fruitful source of embarrassment in our relations with the United States. It would be difficult to point out where any compensating benefit to the Mother Country accrues. Money is borrowed in this country, and drawn from this country by millions, to promote the expansion of the Dominion, and in return our manufacturers are taxed to protect her struggling industries, and enrich her local manufacturers. We have to keep our fleet and army ready to protect her in her differences with the powerful Government at Washington, and every Canadian citizen has as freely at his disposal the aid of our diplomatic and consular service as any English- man. Except for the costly conceit of counting Canada as a dominion under the British flag, there is little we gain by the connection which could not as readily, and perhaps more cheaply, be secured from a foreign State. The Canadians would do well to ask themselves whether it is worth while, for the sake of benefiting a few pirates, to set against them the most powerful influence in the Mother Country. The least they can expect to pay for naval, military, and diplomatic protection is an equitable consideration for the rights of their fellow-citizens throughout the Empire.—Overland Mail, Sept. 13. VI. The following letter from Mr. John G. Ridout in further reply to Mr. Lancefield appeared in the Toronto Mail of Aug. 24. “SIR,--In the Mail of the 17th Aug. Mr. Lancefield is again as illogical and full of error as ever; he makes the mistakes of one who has only an imperfect smattering. He still thinks the manufacturing clause in the Patent Act is im- perative and unavoidable, and that, therefore, books (like inventions) should also be subject to manufacture in Canada to obtain copyright, whereas it is settled law here that if there is no demand for the invention in Canada, there is no obligation to manufacture within two years or other extended period. (See 2 Ex. Ct. Rep. Can —Barter v. Smith.) As a solicitor of patents, I am engaged every week in obtaining certificates of extension of time, and it is possible for a valid patent to exist for eighteen years without any manufacture whatever under it. How does this compare with the miserable one month allowed to manufacture under this piratical Copyright Act of 1889, which Mr. L. is so anxious to have passed in the interest of a few publishers? “Mr. L. is also grossly in error in supposing that Canada has the “undoubted constitutional right to legislate as to copyright,’ and that Lord Salisbury was given an unwarranted pledge to the United States authorities in 1891, when he told them that a U.S. citizen, by obtaining copy- right in Great Britain, secured it also in all British possessions. This Mr. L. designates ‘startling intelligence,’ ‘a thunderbolt out of a clear sky,’ whereas it has always been the case since the Imperial Act of 1842, before Mr. L. was born, and is likely to continue so. The B. N. A. Act did not affect this Act one iota. In Smiles v. Belford, 23 Grant, 590 (Sept., 1876), Proudfoot, J.,  ## p. (#460) ################################################ IO6 THE AUTHOR. finds that the Imperial Act of 1842 was still applicable to Canada, and states: ‘I have not been able to discovery anthing in the statute (B. N. A. Act, sect 91-129), re copyright con- ferring any greater powers in this respect on the Dominion and province, than was previously enjoyed by the Province of Canada. There is nothing indicating any intention of the Imperial Parliament to abdicate its power of legislating on matters of this kind. It was never contended that the Provincial Legislature could make laws at variance with those which the Imperial Parlia- ment might choose to pass, and declare to have effect throughout the British dominion, &c.’ “This was unanimously upheld in the Court of Appeal (Ont. S. C. I App. Rep. Ont. 436, March, 1877); it was also considered that the ‘Colonial Laws Walidity Act' was paramount, and all that was done by the B. N. A. Act was to transfer from each of the Provincial Legislatures to the House of Commons the right to legislate as to copyright. “On Dec. 31, 1889, the Law Officers of the Crown decided that the power of legislating as to copyright under the B. N. A. Act did not autho- rise the Parliament of Canada to amend or repeal any imperial Act conferring privileges in Canada, and that the Colonial Laws Walidity Act (1865) rendered such legislation void where repugnant to the provisions of this latter Act. “Notwithstanding all the sophistries and special pleading of the late Sir John Thompson, made doubtless to appease the Copyright Associa- tion of Canada, who have the cheek to hold them- selves forward as representing Canada, although with a membership of only some twenty-six, this question has been settled absolutely years ago, and yet Mr. Edgar, M.P., and some others, do not appear to be aware of this fact, and still harp on the B. N. A. Act. “Copyright is an imperial question and not a colonial question. Canada is part of a world- wide empire, and a member of the great inter- national brotherhood of authors and artists from which a few unpatriotic and selfish Canadian publishers wish to sever us. We have extradition treaties and Merchant Shipping Acts imposed on us without a murmur. As we are not permitted to make Canada the dumping ground and place of refuge for the criminals of the world, so we should not be permitted to make her a nuisance in the literary and artistic world by breaking up the international convention as to copyright, and destroying the rights and privileges of Canadian authors, artists, musicians, &c. (to say nothing of the rights of Britishers and others), throughout the empire and the most civilised countries of the world. This would be the effect of withdrawing Canada from the Berne Convention, in order to appease the greed of half a dozen Canadian publishing houses, members of this paltry Copy- right Association, who have been dictating the policy of the Government as to copyright. Our statesmen for years past have been pursuing a policy of isolation for Canada, both as to copy- right as well as patents, trade marks, and designs. What sense is there in belittling, dis- couraging, and destroying the privileges of over five hundred copyrighters each year in Canada, to appease the specious “home manufacture” cry of half a dozen Canadian publishers ? “Outside of the provisions of the Berne con- vention the International Copyright Act of 1886 (Imp.) gives a Canadian copyrighter copyright throughout all the Queen's dominions merely by obtaining copyright at Ottawa. What, then, have we to complain of P. We have reciprocal rights. - “Yours, &c., “JoBIN G. RIDOUT. “Toronto, Aug. 2 I.” NEW YORK LETTER, New York, Sept. 15. N the very Interesting series of letters on “Literature in America ’’ which has been appearing in the London Times, perhaps the most interesting paragraph was the one in which the correspondent declared that “No part of their British inheritance is more prized by Americans than our literature. Few of them cross the Atlantic without visiting Stratford-on-Avon—a pious pilgrimage seldom undertaken by ourselves. . In most departments of life national distinc- tions and improvements upon British example are emphasised ; in literature a disposition exists to claim a common heritage with us in the great masters of language; to assert an even firmer loyalty to the old models than we can. In American schools and universities the study of English literature receives undoubtedly more attention than in ours; and, even in purity of pronunciation and correct use of words, they are in many respects more conservative. Societies, clubs, and reading circles founded for the study of the works of a single author, or a particular period, are far more abundant ; and the average young American men and maidens have probably read and studied more standard English litera- ture than their contemporaries in the old country.” Here, if I may open a parenthesis, the corre- spondent of the Times fails to observe the dis-  ## p. (#461) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. Io'7 tinction between the words British and English, which is beginning to obtain among American writers on English literature. As I heard this distinction put by a professor of literature at a leading American university not long ago, it is to this effect, “English literature is co-extensive with the English language. Whatever is written in English, no matter whether in London or Edinburgh, or New York or Calcutta, or Mel- bourne, in so far as it may be literature at all, is a part of English literature. That portion of this great English literature of ours which is written in America is American literature, that portion which may be written hereafter in Canada or in Australia will be Canadian literature and Austra- lian literature. And thus, to distinguish that portion of English literature now being written in Great Britain, we are forced to call it British literature.” In a word, since both sets of writers are using the English language, the proper antithesis is not between English authors and American authors, but between American authors and British authors. But the correspondent of the Times is alto- gether right in his assertion that English literature as a whole is more elaborately studied in the United States than in Great Britain. Nothing is more surprising to the undergraduate at an American university who wishes to pursue still further his studies in his own language than to discover that he can get no instruction in English literature at either of the great English universities. Perhaps I am wrong in saying that nothing is more surprising than this, for there is one thing even more astonishing, and this is to find an accomplished journalist like Mr. Andrew Lang seriously contending that English literature cannot be taught. Apparently Mr. Lang con- founds teaching with examining. Titerature, whether English or French or Latin or Greek, is a bad subject to examine on, no doubt; probably but little of any Greek examination is based on Greek literature, as literature pure and simple. But it is only in Great Britain, I think, that teaching is subordinated absolutely to examining. The Germans teach German literature with their usual thoroughness; the French teach French literature with their usual tact and skill; the Americans teach English literature. Just how they do it can be seen by a perusal of a volume called the “Teaching of English,” recently published by D. C. Heath and Co., and containing a score of papers reprinted from the Dial of Chicago, where they appeared nearly two years ago. Each of these papers was written by a professor at an important American university, and each gives an account of the method employed at that institution, noting the number of instruc- WOL, WI. tors and providing a list of the courses given. In the department of English at Harvard there must be nearly half a score of instructors, and in the same department at Columbia there are more than half a dozen. I cite these two institutions because no other of the American universities give as much attention to English as do Harvard and Columbia. The writer of the article on Yale in this volume complains of the fatal inadequacy of the instruction there, for example. As the writer of the article on Columbia points out, the English department has three distinct divisions; it is expected to teach first, English composition, in other words, rhetoric ; and second, the history of the English language; and third, the history of English literature. At Oxford and at Cam- bridge there is formal instruction only in the second of these three divisions, the history of the English language, although a certain amount of instruction in the first of the three, rhetoric, is undoubtedly given to the tutors in their criticism of the frequent essays. In every important American university the effort is made to supply proper instruction in all three departments. It is perhaps in the teaching of rhetoric that the greatest advance has been made, under the leadership of Harvard. Professor Barrett Wendell there, acting perhaps on suggestions of Professor A. S. Hill, developed a new method of practical instruc- tion in English composition. The substance of Professor Wendell’s teaching is to be found in his volume of lectures published two or three years ago by Charles Scribner and Sons. Pro- fessor George R. Carpenter, a Harvard man, brought this method to Columbia, where it was still further improved. Now Yale has called a Columbian man, Dr. Charles S. Baldwin, to introduce it to the undergraduates at New Haven. Professor Carpenter's book on “Rhetoric * is now published by Macmillan and Co. Four little volumes recently issued by Henry Holt and Co. are also to be mentioned here, as they are the outcome of this new movement. They are “Specimens of Argumentation,” edited by Mr. G. P. Baker, of Harvard; “Specimens of Exposition,” edited by Mr. Lamont, also of Harvard; “Specimens of Narration,” edited by Mr. Brewster, of Columbia; and “Specimens of Prose Description,” edited by Dr. Baldwin, formerly of Columbia and now of Yale. These specimens have in each case been carefully chosen to reveal the principles of the art, and they are adroitly contrasted one with another; and the notes and introductions of the editors afford a body of doctrine which the student can afterward apply for himself. The literary activity of the faculty and advanced students at Columbia is probably second only to N  ## p. (#462) ################################################ IO3 THE AUTHOR. that at Harvard. The total number of instructors at Harvard is over three hundred, and the total number at Columbia is over two hundred and fifty; no other American university has two hundred—Chicago, Yale, and Princeton coming next to Columbia. Certain of the doctorate dis- Sertations are issued in a series of “Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law,” and others in a series of “Contributions to Philosophy, Psychology, and Education,” both of which now bear the imprint of Macmillan and Co. There is talk of a third series shortly to be begun of “Studies in Literature and Philology.” The next volume of the Columbia University Bio- logical series will be Dr. Bashford Dean’s “Fishes, Living, and Fossil; ” and the next three publi- cations of the Columbia University Press will be Professor Mayo-Smith’s “Statistics and Sociology,” Professor Munroe-Smith’s “Roman Cases on Obligation,” and Professor E. B. Wilson’s “Atlas of Fertilization.” Other new books by Columbia professors published by Macmillan and Co. are Professor Giddings' “Theory of Sociology” and Professor E. R. A. Seligman’s “Essays in Taxation.” I hear that Mr. Taurence Hutton, before his arrival in London, was busy in Paris with Dr. B. E. Martin, preparing a book upon the “Home and Haunts of French Men of Letters in the French Metropolis.” Dr. Martin, who has been a diligent and enthusiastic student of that side of Paris for upwards of a quarter of a century, had gathered a great mass of valuable and interesting material, which Mr. Hutton was helping him to verify and identify on the spot, and in a local way, with the aid of old maps and plans of the city. The book is to be uniform with Mr. Hutton’s “Literary Landmarks of London; ” and in view of Dr. Martin's knowledge of the French capital, the French language and French litera- ture, coupled with Mr. Hutton’s experience in digging out such things and putting such things together, the work should be one that will appeal to many readers. There is no book, in French or in English, especially devoted to this subject, and the allusions to it in the literature of Paris are scant and scattering Year by year the number increases of the books which have first seen the light piecemeal in the magazines; and just now an unusually large pro- portion of the volumes recently published or about to appear are made up of contributions to periodicals. Mr. Frederic Remington has found a particularly happy name for the collection of the breezy papers he has written to accompany his own vigorous pictures; he has called it “Pony Tracks,” and it is published by Harper and Brothers. From Harper's Magazine also has Mr. R. H. Davis gathered the papers which recorded the experience of a tenderfoot in Paris. To be expected soon is the volume containing the bold and striking stories of Western life with which Mr. Owen Wistar has strengthened the pages of Harper's during the past two years. From the Century have been taken the admirable woodcuts of the great Dutch paintings, engraved directly from the originals by Mr. Timothy Cole, and to be accompanied by letterpress from the pen of Mr. John C. Wan Dyke. In the Century also appeared the articles by Mr. Brander Matthews, which will be published in London by George Bell and Sons in the Ex-Libris Series, and here in New York by Macmillan and Co., under the title of “Bookbindings, Old and New ; Notes of a Booklover.” From St. Nicholas and from Harper's Young People comes a volume to be published by the Century Company; it is called “Hero Tales of American History,” and it has been prepared by Mr. Theodore Roosevelt and Mr. Henry Cabat Lodge, who have picked out of the very eventful and picturesque history of the United States certain of the most characteristic episodes—the Battle of New Orleans, for example, the Fight of the Constitution and the Guerrière, Cushing's Attack on the Albermarle, &c. Mr. Lodge is a senator of the United States, and Mr. Roosevelt is now President of the Police Com- mission of New York City; they are both men of letters, and they are both practical politicians. For the Freeman and Hunt series of “ Historic Towns,” published by Longmans, Green, and Co., Mr. Roosevelt wrote the volume on New York, and Mr. Lodge that on Boston. The welcome announcement has been made by Houghton, Mifflin, and Co., that enough of Lowell’s hitherto uncollected verse has been found to warrant the publication of another volume of his poetry this autumn. It is to be hoped that more than one volume of his prose will follow in due season, for there is abundant material for half a dozen volumes of essays scattered here and there in the Nation, and in the Atlantic Monthly, and in the North American Review. . R. *= ~ -º ar- - - NOTES FROM PARIS S a consequence of my last “ Notes from Paris” in the Author, I have received several letters in which I am asked several ques- tions. Of these the only one which I have time to answer this month is the question : “Who reads for publishers in Paris P” The answer is: The publisher himself, and that very rarely. French publishers rarely,if ever, take any riskin connection  ## p. (#463) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. Io9 with a book. An unknown author having an MS. to publish, must pay for its publication. A suc- cessful author's work is sent to the printers without any previous perusal. Few, if any, Parisian publishers have “literary advisers;” their “literary advisers” are their ledgers. What literary advisers there may be—I never heard of any—are certainly not successful authors. In conversation the other day, at the National Club, in a group in which, inter alios, Hall Caine and Harold Frederic were present, the talk turned on the literary blackleg, and the case of one was cited. It is worth repeating. This is a certain well-known literary person, who, according to reports which he has never contra- dicted, is making a very large income with his pen. Amongst other literary functions he is the editor of a publication issued in monthly parts. In this capacity he has recently been inviting various well known but financially unprosperous confrères to contribute papers on the special sub- jects dealt with in these monthly parts at the rate of 2 Is... the page of I IOO words, to include the whole copyright. I wonder, when this successful novelist looks in the glass, how he likes the look of himself. * Alphonse Daudet writes me that he has been très souffrant, but is now much better, and is hard at work again. He is enjoying the autumn down at Champrosay. I hear various accounts of Emile Zola's new novel “Rome” from various people who have discussed it with the master, or have heard him read passages from his manuscript. Some say it is far and away the best thing he has ever written, others that it is very fine, but that they do not see the novel in it. My own impression is that it will be very documentary and rather dull, and that there will be rather too much of it. Zola himself told me that it will exceed “La Debäcle” in length. The forthcoming publishing season in Paris promises works of great interest. To begin with there will be Alphonse Daudet's “Soutien de Famille,” some scenes in which are laid in Eng- land, and will afford an insight into the impres- sions received by the writer during his short stay in London this spring. Then there is Paul Bourget’s “L'Idylle Tragique,” Jean Richepin’s new novel “Flamboche,” and Maurice Barrès's “Leurs Figures,” a series of articles origi- nally published in Le Figaro. Apropos of Barrès's book, I must say, little as I like Barrès and his work, that the article which gives its name to the book is one of the best pieces of journalism that I have ever read. It was written just after the memorable sitting in the Chamber of Deputies when it was made public that the list of the IO4 deputies who had received bribes from the Panama Company was in the hands of the Government, and that a general prosecution would probably be commenced. Barrès in his article depicts “Their Faces.” It was published on the morrow, and by noon was the talk of the town. Daudet was enthusiastic about its literary quality. The gentle poet François Coppée is back in his native Paris from a cure at Eaux-Bonnes, and, I am glad to hear, at work again on a new novel which, begun in the spring, had been laid aside at the time of his illness. We shall await this novel with interest, for Coppée has not yet succeeded in producing a good novel, though he has produced good poetry and excellent plays. Few men can write hoth excellent plays and excellent novels. Will Coppèe be one of the few P I hope so, for he is such an excellent man. François Coppèe never refuses to be inter- viewed, though he is a nervous, reserved man, very fond of seclusion. I once saw him being interviewed by an American journalist who hardly spoke any French at all—Coppée speaks no English—and I could not help admiring his patience and his benevolence. “Why should I refuse to help the good young fellows—who, after all, are my confrères—to earn a little money P” he says. Of interest to English readers will be “Nouvelles études Anglaises,” by the late M. Darmesteter, which is to be published shortly by Messrs. Calman-Lévy. Of similar interest to the Americans will be Les Américaines Chez Elles, by Th. Bentzon, which will also be published by Messrs. Calman-Lévy. Amongst further contributions to the mass of literature on the Napoleonic period, which are shortly to be published in Paris, I note “Le Journal de la Campagne de Prusse, 1806-1807,” by Maréchal Davent, “Lettres de la Duchesse de Broglie,” “La Campagne de 1812,” by Major Faber du Faure, with a preface by Armand Dayot, Georges Barral’s “Epopée de Waterloo,” Ida Saint-Elme's “Memoires d’une Contem- poraine,” vol. 2 of the “Journal du Maréchal de Castellane, 1804-1862,” the “Memoires du Duc de Persigny,” the “Memoires du Lieutenant- Général Comte de Saint-Chamans, 1801-1830,” and the fifth and last volume of General Baron Thiebault's memoirs. And I have only mentioned the more important. Hall Caine used to tell me of some great writer who told him that it is the first sign of decay in a man when he begins to persistently look back on his past. If this be true, and if it holds good with nations also, I am afraid that our dear France must be in a bad way. Indeed, I know she is.  ## p. (#464) ################################################ UIQ. THE AUTHOR. A question which is agitating literary Paris is this: Inasmuch as the French Academy was only created by Richelieu for the purpose of writing a dictionary of the French language, will the Academy, ipso facto, be dissolved when it has finished its labours on the French dictionary P Academicians are being consulted on this ques- tion. In the meanwhile, M. Zola need not be anxious. The labour of the Academy appears to be as immortal as the Academicians themselves claim to be. The dictionary has not progressed during all these years beyond the letter A. Léon Daudet is bringing out a volume of “Critiques,” I am rather sorry to hear. Léon Daudet has far too much originality to need to write “critiques” about other writer's works. We had been hoping for his new novel, “Le Voyage de Shakespeare dans le Nord.” Considerable interest is being taken in France in contemporary English literature, and of late quite a number of translations of modern English novels have appeared en feuilleton in the best French news, apers. This is as it should be, though the prices paid for droits de traduction are lower than they should be under the circum- stances. In Arthur Benham we, of the Authors’ Club, have lost an excellent companion, a downright good fellow, and the world at large an excep- tionally gifted writer. If Benham had lived, the English stage would have been endowed with plays which would have been able to bear com- parison with the best French work. Those who knew his work, and could foresee of what he was capable, will agree with me in this statement. The tendency of French authors, with the notable exception of M. Emile Zola, is to give less and less matter in their 3ſr. 50c. volumes. This is less because the French author is lazy than because the French reader prefers a short book. In England, whose commercialism infects everything and everybody, the reader wants as much “reading-matter’’ for his money as he can get. Other things being equal, the 6s. volume, which contains 120,000 words, will sell far better than the 6s. volume of only 80,000 words, and so on. Many booksellers have told me this on both sides of the water. ROBERT H. SHERARD. NOTES AND NEWS, WHE utterances of Sir C. H. Tupper on the copyright question, as reported in the Times, do not appear conciliatory, but quite the contrary. He seems to have no under- standing of the real interests at stake which are not at all connected with the paltry gains of a few Toronto printers. Nor do they really concern, so far as Canada is concerned, the material interests of authors. Under the old arrangement Canada is bound to collect and to send over 12% per cent. royalty. This she has never done, except on a very small scale. Under the new arrangement she will be bound to collect and to send over a Io per cent. royalty. There is not the least reason to believe that she intends to discharge this, any more than she has hitherto discharged the other obligations. No one would object to the action of Canada in this matter but for the danger to international copyright. Nothing can be more important than that all the English speaking races should be governed by the same laws of copyright, and that these laws should protect literature alike in every one of the countries concerned. If Sir C. H. Tupper is unable to see the importance of binding all these countries together by the bond of a common literature, so much the worse for Sir C. H. Tupper; and still the fact remains that, although , the proposed action will endanger this great measure, now happily obtained after fifty years of struggle for it, these Canadians are pressing on a measure with no excuse but (1) the alleged right to make their own copyright laws, and (2) the undoubted intention of the Toronto printers—there are no publishers to speak of—to pour their cheap and pirated stuff into the American market. Is there to be a new form of novel? If so, it will be a novel told in dialogue, with scenes, acts, and tableaux. The French have for some time used this method with short stories. A story called “A Hard Woman,” by Miss Violet Hunt, now running in Chapman’s Magazine, is destined, I think, to be followed by many others told in the same way. Miss Hunt relates her story almost entirely by dialogue. Not quite. In her next novel of this kind she will probably still more largely use the dialogue form. In the bright and clever pages of “A Hard Woman” there are many little bits of description which might be turned into dialogue, and there are other bits which might be omitted altogether, as, for instance, the words which describe the action. Of course, it is quite possible to write a long novel wholly as a play. Since a  ## p. (#465) ################################################ THE AUTHOR, I I I play tells a story, a story can be told by a play. That is elementary. But there are certain rules to be observed in an acting play which do not apply to a novel: romance is not limited to two hours in reading: nor to five acts: nor to any set scenes; nor is it bound to observe the Conventional exits and entrances; nor has the novelist to “write up" parts for this or that actor. . In all these points he is quite free. Yet a novel in dialogue has to be dramatic. In other words the characters must stand out, every one clear and distinct and unmistakable: there can be no woolliness. The story must be clear and plain from the outset : everything must be indicated briefly : the situations must be effective: there must be no waste of talk: the scenes must not be too long : every chapter, i.e., every situation, must have its own scene: and there must be no waste of scenes, but every one must carrv on the story. Everybody must have observed the growing tendency to use dialogue instead of description. The old-fashioned description—word-painting it used to be called—is going out fast. Perhaps we are too impatient to read it any longer. If, for instance, you take up one of the old-forgotten novels of the last century—I have scores of these, and have had to read them all—you will find description employed for everything. No emotion, no passion, is suggested or left to the imagina- tion; there is very little dialogue. The result is, generally, the most deadly dulness conceivable. I think that Black and White was the earliest paper to publish those dialogues, and monologues, and scenes in dialogue which, in the hands of Anthony Hope and Miss Violet Hunt, and others, have been found so delightful and so fresh. With the “Hard Woman’ before us, it seems quite safe to prophecy a great development of the dialogue. Meantime, it must be remembered, that to read a play requires a certain amount of imaginative power. The larger part of mankind have not enough imagination to read plays with pleasure; therefore, this new branch of fiction can never supersede the other. Yet it will cause the old style to brighten itself, to become more dramatic—-that is to say, it will make the art of fiction more exacting and more difficult. This is as it should be; for, since the art has been found to offer a profession at once delightful and capable of offering great prizes in fame and fortune, it has begun to attract more and more the better sort. =sºººº- I have received several letters of complaints concerning contributors and their grievances. They have mostly been already treated, and at some length, in these columns. We are glad to believe that the publication of these complaints has resulted in some good, especially in those Quarters where the editor is anxious to treat his contributors with respect and courtesy. The com- plaints, which do not affect respectable journals, are as follows: I. A journal advertises for contributions, offer- ing so much per column. The contributor sends in something with stamps for return ; does not get it returned, and receives no answer to his letter. My contributor thinks that the editor thus acquires a valuable mass of literature. I rather incline to the belief that he acquires a valuable mass of postage stamps. 2. Long waiting. A MS. accepted; in seven months, a proof; in another month, appearance; three weeks after- wards, a cheque. My sympathies are, I confess, partly with the editor. Our English custom of paying on publi- cation is bad, because it tempts an editor to pile up more than he wants. Having all this matter, however, what can he do but take it as it comes? 3. Delay of readers. One writer has been kept: in suspense for two months. But perhaps the reader was on holiday. 4. Some editors announce, beforehand, that publication and not the sending of a proof is a guarantee of acceptance. Well, a public announcement of this limitation is like a clause in an agreement. “You can take it,” says the editor, who has a perfect right to make such conditions as he thinks fit, “ or you may leave it.” 5. My correspondent argues that all work should be paid for when bought. I think so too. But, On the other hand, there is this to be said. If the editor can wait, and use an otherwise doubtful article when it seems convenient; to fill a gap; to meet the topic of the day: there is many an article from unknown writers which he is able to take and to use—which he would not take and use had he to pay for it on the spot. I think, however, that it would be quite possible for an editor to say, “I may be able to use this article if you leave it with me? Perhaps I may not. Will you take your chance?” Great news for poets' An editor, a London editor, the editor of a London magazine is advertising for poems | Actually, a London editor, who is generally believed to live in an active shower bath of poems, is advertising for more | He says that he wants them for immediate printing. Well, this seems a chance, but still we must not be precipitate. First, we must find out  ## p. (#466) ################################################ II 2 THE AUTHOR. something about the special circumstances of the case. The address is not that of the Pall Mall Magazine, nor that of Longman's, nor that of the English Illustrated—what magazine can it be? For “immediate printing,” too. Is there to be any payment for these immortal poems ? Is the editor to have them for nothing? Once there was an editor who advertised for articles—prose or poetry. When anybody sent him an article he replied courteously—he was a very polite editor— that the article was magnificent—epochmaking— and that he should be delighted to publish it in his magazine. The author, of course, would at once become an annual subscriber—prepaid—and would take 500 copies of the number containing his article at sixpence a-piece. These copies he could easily sell among his friends for a shilling each, and so before long grow not only famous, but also rich beyond the dreams of avarice. I do not think, however, that the magazine had a long life. A correspondent writes as follows: “It is pro- bable that a little story, a gem of its kind, called “A Page of Philosophy,’ which appears in this (last) month's Macmillan's Magazine, may fail to receive the recognition due to its merit. I hope you will allow me to recommend to the attention of critics the simplicity and delicacy of portraiture achieved in a few lines; the subtlety of wit and the graceful polished style that characterises this story. One critic, at least, ventures to think that the story belongs both to literature and art. The author is a practised craftsman as well as an artist; the vividness with which this pessimist reveals himself no less through his letters than by the comments of his little group of friends, might well be envied by the master of short story- tellers.” I wish there were more correspondents so ready and eager to proclaim aloud the discovery of good work by a new, or an anonymous, writer. It is always easy—alas! so very easy—to decry and to depreciate and to “slate.” It requires only a bitter tongue and a malevolent heart; one need not read a work in order to revile it ; but to praise it intelligently and critically wants actual reading and the generosity of heart that can recognise work better than the critic can himself produce. As for this story, I have not yet read it, but I will make haste to follow my correspon- dent’s advice, and I recommend all readers of the Author to do likewise. - The following letter is stated by the Writer (Boston, Mass.) to have been received by an American publisher. It is so modest, so shrink- ing and diffident that one is amazed to learn that it was refused. Why does he not send it over here P A Boom—that enviable fortune—a Boom, would be certain : Messrs : Having just completed a novel, entitled “Doomed to Destruction: or, a Coquette's Punishment,” I take the liberty to write you, with a view, of course, of selling you the same. This is truly a most remarkable work throughout. Its style is pleasing, the plot is profound, and the characters play their parts in the drama to perfection. This is no blood-and-thunder story, but rather an intensely interesting love story, and is one of the few novels before the public which are able to hold the reader’s attention from the first page of the book to the last. Expecting an early reply, I am, yours most respectfully, A. B. From the same paper I learn that Mary Cowden Clarke, the compiler of the Shakespeare Concordance, is still living. Her home is at Genoa, and she is now eighty-six years of age. She therefore belongs to the Annus Mirabilis, 1809, which produced Darwin, Bismarck, Glad- stone, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and so many more illustrious men and women. The Writer is a paper devoted to the guidance and instruction of those who aspire to literary honours. There is generally some good and practical advice in its pages, together with a great deal of personal matter. Thus a long article is “made up" out of one in the Forum on the gains of a man who lives by writing. There is a paper on plot-making for stories by a writer whose name is not known on this side of the Atlantic. He has, however, little to say except to tell what is, or was, the practice of certain well-known novelists. There is talk about the methods of illustration; there are queries; there are grammatical notes; there are lists of books and literary articles; and there are personal notes—these in great abundance. There is also advertised a “Literary Bureau,” which reads MSS. and tries to place them, and advises on them. We observe that the “Bureau” charges exactly twice as much for reading and advising on an MS. book as is charged by our Society for the same work. Would it, I wonder, be a useful thing for the Society to offer advice on articles for magazines P. The Literary Bureau charges for reading and advising about one shilling for every thousand words. This seems to include typewriting, but the advertisement is not plain On this point. The charge, if it does not include typewriting, seems too much for a magazine article, which should run from six thousand to ten thousand words. Now, there are thousands of articles submitted to editors every year. Would it be possible for us to help the writers by giving them the opinion of a judicious coach,  ## p. (#467) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. II 3 and to relieve editors of some of their labours by reading magazine articles and advising on them for a small fee of five shillings each P Our present system of reading MSS. has proved very helpful to many. Perhaps some of our readers will give their opinion upon this point. Of course it must be understood that the Society cannot, at all events, at present, offer MSS. to editors, nor undertake the work of literary agency in any form. WALTER BESANT. *~ * ~ * - * --- JOHN KEATS, (Born 29th Oct., 1795.) Lyrist, who—nursed not by Aonian flow, But rush and roar of London's wilderness, Ere scathed by scorn Tartarean—felt the stress That fired the Greek, the pearl’d Spenserean glow, And garden-glamour of Boccaccio, Roams he thro' happier regions of redress P Whom the Gods loved—by some divine caress Dower'd with Song a hundred years ago. He has survived the Critic's venom'd fang, The Day-star of his fame has cleft the gloom, Pale o'er him no elusive Phantoms loom, Nor knows he fruitless Passion’s arrowy pang ; Still peer the Roman violets round his tomb, Whose chant was sweeter than the Bird’s he sang. C. A. KELLY. *- A -º- z- - - MR, AUSTIN DOBSON'S POEMS, HY is it that while poets of the more serious kind, poets who deal in ambi- tious tragedies and pessimistic odes, are as plentiful as gooseberries among us, those who sing leviore plectro have always been few, and threaten to become still fewer? Perhaps it is owing to the seriousness of the British tempera- ment, or perhaps to the playfulness of the critics, who conceive that the highest compliment possible to the writer of light verse is a statement that “this verse shows that the writer may some day accomplish work of a different and far more valuable kind,” meaning, presumably, an addition to those lugubrious works of which we have more than an abundance already. Why, again—to ask one more futile question—is there some species of deadly blight which afflicts the few who are really capable of giving us light verse of the first order, and which leads them to desert this form of composition so early P. Thus had Mr. Locker Lampson ceased to sing long years before his death, thus has Mr. Lang jilted the gayer muse, thus, worst far, is it possible for us to regard Mr. Dobson’s two small volumes as the sum of his work in rhyme. Small they are, the two together contain but some 500 minute pages. But how gladly would some of us forego many of his prose sketches of the eighteenth century, delighted as they are, for a third volume of verse, to stand on our book- shelves beside “At the Sign of the Lyre,” and “Old World Idylls 1” For, indeed, I do not think it overbold to claim that Mr. Dobson is absolutely the best writer of English light verse that has ever lived. There are the rollicking rhymes, which represented poetical humour in the earlier part of the century, bristling with puns, overflowing with animal spirits—the work of Thomas Hood in his more boisterous mood, of Theodore Hook, Barham, and others. There is the more subdued but deftly polished work of Praed, Henry Leigh, and Mortimer Collins, the irresistible parodies of Calverley and J. K. Stephen. But nowhere save in Mr. Dobson's poems do we find that exquisite perfection of form joined with the brilliancy of a finished wit and the tender insight of a true poet. Perhaps the late Mr. Locker Lampson approached him most nearly, but alike in structure and beauty of thought Mr. Dobson’s best verses seem to me to beat all rivals with the utmost ease. And, while no poet is perfectly equal to his best at all times, surely few are so little unequal as is Mr. Dobson. Of the two volumes into which his work has been gathered, perhaps “At the Sign of the Lyre " is slightly the better. From cover to cover, from “The Ladies of St. James’s ”: The ladies of St. James’s You scarce can understand The half of all their speeches Their phrases are so grand : But Phyllida, my Phyllida | Her shy and simple words Are clear as after rain-drops The music of the birds— (Could any but a poet have written these last four lines P) down to the graceful rondeau at the end the book is a pure delight. One does not know what quality in it to admire most. The humour of “A Legacy” and “Dora versus Rose,” the laughing satire of “The Poet and the Critics,” the charming tenderness of such pieces as “Little Blue-Ribbons” or “Daisy’s Walentines”: But wait. Your time will come. Obliging Fates, please send her The bravest thing you have in men, Sound-hearted, strong, and tender;-- The kind of man, dear Fates, you know, That feels how shyly Daisies grow, And what soft things they are, and so Will spare to spoil or mend her. And then, Mr. Dobson’s reverence for the poets forbids  ## p. (#468) ################################################ I4 THE AUTHOR. him to write mere parodies. But, however mechanical Pope's style may be, could ever imita- tion come closer than this passage written in his best manner: Pope was, like them, the Censor of his Age An Age more suited to Repose than Rage; When Rhyming turn’d from Freedom to the Schools, And, shock’d with Licence, shudder'd into Rules. Surely Alexander the little would have claimed the last couplet as his own. Indeed one is tempted to quote for ever, to write down extracts from the two green volumes long enough to fill many articles. But if any know not their charm, we envy them the pleasure yet to become their own. How playful is “An Autumn Idyll!” IIow keen the satire of “A Virtuoso | ?” How delicate the “Proverbs in Porcelain ” In these, and elsewhere too, the poet makes us feel the very atmosphere of the 18th century. Of his skill in the old French metres—Vallade, Triolet, Villa- nesse Chant Royal—it is needless to speak. His is the art that conceals artifice, that makes the metrical tours-de-force seem so easy to write. Let us quote only one triolet. O, Love's but a dance Where Time plays the fiddle ! See the couples advance— O, Love's but a dance A whisper, a glance— Shall we twist down the middle ! O, Love's but a dance Where Time plays the fiddle ! What a pity—what a thousand pities, we cry, that such a poet as this should resolutely put his verse aside for “the pains of prose.” In Temple Bar for March, 1895, Mr. Dobson bids his verse a last farewell: Not ill-content to stand aside To yield to minstrels fitter His singing robes, his singing pride, His fancies sweet and bitter. Ah, but he wrote long ago a prophetic answer to his own excuse. Indeed! You really fancy so P You think for one white streak we grow At once satiric P A fiddlestick | Each hair's a string To which our ancient Muse shall sing A younger lyric. And so, having sat down to attempt some sort of critical estimate of Mr. Dobson's poems, I have penned nothing but a frankly uncritical eulogy of it. him to give us more of his inimitable verse—only those who have humbly followed him at a distance know how inimitable. As for that which he already has done, surely it will live, for it is the work not merely of a humorist, but of a poet, in the truest sense of that weighty word. To Let me conclude by beseeching Mr. Dobson's verse we may fitly apply some words of his own. - It will last till men weary of pleasure In measure It will last till men weary of laughter And after ANTHONY C. DEANE. Barcombe, Lewes. *— — —” * * * FROM THE MAGAZINES AND REVIEWS, OLERIDGE looms large in the literary view at the present time, by reason of the volumes of his Letters which appeared lately. Mr. Nowell C. Smith (Fortnightly Review, “Coleridge and His Critics”) sighs over man- kind, preferring to be more interested in authors than their books, and takes the view that though otherwise it would have been well to wait sixty years, as we have done, for a Life of Coleridge, yet, as so much had been written and suggested about his character, “it was a thousand pities someone could not give to the world what the late Mr. Dykes Campbell has so lately given,” a plain, and so far as possible accurate, narrative. Mr. Smith appears satisfied with the poet's explanation in “Biographia,” how his life was “one long floundering in ‘a sea of trouble.’” He longed to take the world into his confidence, but had never learned that “the sympathetic ear of the world only exists in metaphor. He was an egotist, like all of us; but a guileless one, like—how many ?” Another writer (Atlantic Monthly) likens Coleridge to a nineteenth- century Dr. Johnson, “but living in an ampler ether and breathing a diviner air;” and regards the source of his thought as those ancient writers of the Neoplatonist school, Jamblichus and Plotinus. “The world did not lose when he turned from poetry to prose”; but the mis- fortune of his intellectual life was that his best found vent in conversation rather than in letters, perhaps because he needed the stimulus of a visibly present audience, “ or it may have been that in conversation he found a pathway which offered least resistance to his powers, hampered as they were by indolence and weakness of the will.” According to Mrs. Dynn Linton (National Review, “The Philistine's Coming Triumph,”) “our Philistine,” who “ has had enough to do to keep alive in him a glimmer of hope for better days on his political side, as on his literary and artistic,” now “sees the end of his travail and the beginning of his triumph.” We are to have, inter alia, “our sweet and strong and pure and domestic women back again.” But the Philistine  ## p. (#469) ################################################ THE II 5 A UTHOR. “must not stifle Art and clip the wings of Poetry, save where these are self-degraded by hiring themselves out to the service of filth and abomination. He may banish the Pandemos, but the Anadyomene is sacred; and when he attempts to drive out Nature with a pitchfork his hands must be tied behind his back.” Mrs. Linton first met George Eliot–Marian Evans of that day—at John Chapman's, and the effect was to put up her “mental bristles " (JWoman at Home, “A First Meeting with George Eliot ”). “She was essentially underbred and provincial; and I, in the swaddling-clothes of early education and prepossession as I was, saw more of the provincial than the genius. She held her hands and arms kangaroo fashion; was badly dressed; had an unwashed, unbrushed, unkempt look altogether; and she assumed a tone of superiority over me which I was not then aware was warranted by her undoubted leader- ship.” George Eliot's later self-consciousness Mrs. Linton is down upon, and her second marriage is described as “a blunder, if not worse, that will always cloud her memory and vitiate her first choice.” “Vernon Lee' offers a kind of mathematical plan to young writers learning their métier (Contemporary Review, “On Lite- rary Construction ”), taking the line that “in literature all depends on what you can set the reader to do ; if you confuse his ideas or waste his energy, you can no longer do anything.” A pen-stroke is to represent the first train of thought or group of facts. Another for the second, long or short, according to the number of words or pages occupied, and which, connected with the first stroke, “will deflect to the right or the left according as it contains more or less new matter; so that, if it grow insensibly from stroke number one, it will have to be almost straight, and if it contain something entirely disconnected, will be at right angles.” And so on, adding pen strokes of proportionate length for every new train of thought or group of facts, and writing the name along each. If the reader's mind is to run easily along the whole story or essay, the resulting map will approximate most likely to a perfect circle or ellipse.” The alleged failure of the Free Library is attributed by Mr. W. Roberts, in a paper on the subject (New Review), chiefly to lack of judg- mert in the selection of books. As showing the “absurd preponderance of fiction,” he quotes Mr. Charles Welch’s statistics that, in the twenty-seven districts of London which have adopted the Act, the issue of fiction averages 75 per cent. in seventeen, and reaches over 80 per cent. in the other nine. He recommends, to put the movement on a proper basis, (I) a central organisation, under the supervision, more or less, of the Home Secretary; (2) every reader to have direct access to the books, as a catalogue title is not, as a rule, a clear indication of the contents of a book; and (3) a monthly or quarterly list of acquisitions, arranged according to subject. Speaking for graduates of five-and-twenty years' standing, a writer on “Oxford Then and Now’ (Blackwood's Magazine), while not entirely appreciating Somerville Hall and “the invasion of our old University by a tribe of ‘revolted daughters,’” hails with pleasure “the presence of intellectual womanhood as represented by the wives of the married Fellows.” “Of one thing we may be sure, that ingenitae Artes and literae Humaniores will be more truly learned and prac- tised under the new than under the old régime, and that many of the more objectionable features of undergraduate life will of necessity be eradi- cated.” The Rev. T. E. Brown, in a causerie on Bobert Burton (New Review), characterises that Melancholist as a virtual Proteus, a will-o'-the- wisp. “‘What’s a sovereign P. No, it isn't,' was the question with which the late Professor of Political Economy at Oxford used to delight to pose an audience of young ladies. Well that is Burton : he does not want you to know ; your knowledge would be to him an impertinence.” *– A – CRICKET MATCH. PRESS CLUB v. AUTHORs’ CLUB. T Lord's, yesterday, representatives of these A clubs met in friendly rivalry for the first time. Although the Press Club had its strongest eleven in the field, the Authors' Club was not fully represented. The Authors lacked the services of Dr. Conan Doyle, who is on the Continent, and Mr. J. M. Barrie. The match proved a most Cxciting one, and the interest in it was well sustained to the finish. Although they won the toss, the Press Club put their opponents in first. At the outset this policy was not attended with very happy results, as, thanks to some vigorous cricket on the part of Lindsey and Grimwood-Mears, the Authors had at lunch-time put together 97 for the loss of only two wickets. After the interval, however, a complete change came over the game. Southerton and Preston each performed the “hat trick,” with the result that the Authors were eventually disposed of for 152. When they got out only an hour and three- quarters remained for play. Jones and Groves hit in brilliant style, and, as they registered 99 in less than an hour for the first wicket, the Press Club passed their opponents' total within fifteen minutes of the hour originally fixed upon for the  ## p. (#470) ################################################ I 16 THE AUTHOR. drawing of stumps, for the loss of only five of their men. The game was continued until six o'clock, with the result that the Press Club won by 49 runs. Scores: AUTHORs' CLUB. T. Lindsay, b Preston ... 56 G. C. Ives, not out H. A. Gwynne, b Graves I | A. Gomme, jun., b Pres- H. A. Holt, b Jones ...... O ton E. Grimwood-Mears, c T. Macfadyon, b Preston o Cowan, b Southerton... 61 | F. Beeton, b Southerton 6 J. Gilmer, b Southerton o Byes I7, 1-b I, n.-b I IQ N. Balfour, b Southerton o L. Gomme, b Preston ... 6 Total............ I52 PRESS CLUB. - ‘G. J. Groves, c Lindsey, A. Cowan, b Holt ......... 7 b Macfadyon ........ ... 69 H. Jacobson, b Ives ... ... I H. W. Jones, b Holt ... ... 25 | E. R. Ward, run out ...... O H. Preston, st Gwynne, b J. Barr, b Ives ... . . . . . . . . . 2 Ives ................. ...... I4 E. A. O’Keefe, b Holt ... 2 H. B. Smith, not out...... 55 B 7, 1-b 2, w 3 ... ... I 2 F. Catling, st Gwynne, b Holt........................ 7 --- S. J. Southerton, b Ives 7 Total ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 —Daily Chronicle, Sept. 18. *— — —” * BOOK TALK, R. EGERTON CASTTLE'S romance “The Light of Scarthey,” the publication of which as a serial in The Times' Weekly Edition has just come to an end, will be issued in one volume form by Messrs. Osgood McIlvaine and Co. during the first week of October. This book will be the second of The Times Novels; the first to appear in this new and important series was, as many may remember, Mrs. Francis's admirable story “A Daughter of the Soil.” Mr. Joseph Conrad is engaged upon a new romance to succeed his successful “Almayer's Folly.” The local setting and some of the characters will be the same. Mr. Fisher Unwin will publish the volume, which will be called “An Outcast of the Island.” * “The Wooing of Doris’’ is the title of a novel by the late Mrs. J. K. Spender, which Messrs. Innes are to publish very soon. Miss Mary Angela Dickens is the author of a novel called “Prisoners of Silence,” which Messrs. Osgood McIlvaine are about to publish. The Latin Quarter of Paris is the subject of a novel by Mr. Robert W. Chambers, called “In the Quarter.” Messrs. Chatto and Windus are the publishers. “Miss Grace of All Souls” is the striking title chosen by Mr. W. E. Tirebuck for his novel on the great coal strike. Miss Grace, a vicar's daughter, represents the modern woman of the story, and three other types are a grandfather whose faith is in the past, a son with unbounded belief in the present, and a grandson who is understood to hold the balance between labour and capital. The work attempts to represent the position of the man and woman of to-day towards the labour question. Mr. Heinemann will issue it. Another novel by Katharine Tynan is in the hands of Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen for publi- cation. The title is “The Way of a Maid.” Mr. Henry Craik's series of selections from English prose, which began with a volume from Sir John Mandeville and the early English writers, will be concluded this autumn. A new book by Mr. Grant Allen, “The Desire of the Eyes, and Other Stories,” is announced for publication by Messrs. Digby, Long, and Co. The author was, it seems, altogether unaware of this intention until he read the announcement, and, indeed, he would not have desired to re- publish the title-story. Writing the particulars to the Athenæum of the 21st ult., he states that, to prevent recurrence of such “unpleasant expe- riences,” he proposes to send the following printed notice with every manuscript he forwards to editors: “This article or story is offered or sold on the distinct understanding that I part with British serial rights only for a single periodical; the copyright, together with all other serial rights, foreign or colonial, remaining my own property, unless a written agreement to the contrary is signed by me.” A new series of tales of adventure will be com- menced by Messrs. Innes on an early day. The first volume is to be “A Set of Rogues,” by Mr. Frank Barrett ; the second, by Mr. James Chal- mers, entitled “The Renegade’’; and a historical tale of the seventeenth century, written by Mr. J. C. Snaith, and called “Mistress Dorothy Marvin,” will be the third. The same firm will also publish “Lost Chords,” a novel by Mr. Arthur Rickett ; and “For Love of Price,” by Mr. Leslie Keith. - Mr. James Hogg, the associate of De Quincey, has prepared a volume on “De Quincey and His Friends,” which will be issued this month by Messrs. Sampson Low. Besides his own remi- miscences and material Mr. Hogg has secured the recollections of others who also had admission to De Quincey’s circle. Dr. A. H. Japp writes an account of De Quincey’s career for the work. Mr. Edwin Hodder is to write the biography of the late Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, who was chiefly known for his work on behalf of children employed in canal boats and gipsy vans. A biography of the late Lord Clarence Paget, consisting of diaries and memoirs, edited by Sir  ## p. (#471) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I 17 Arthur Otway, will be published by Messrs. Chapman and Hall early in the autumn. Edinburgh is moving to celebrate the cen- tenary of the birth of Thomas Carlyle. The assistance of Professor Masson and Principal Muir has been secured amongst others, and various literary and other societies will take part. Mr. Thomas Usher, secretary of the Border Counties Association, Edinburgh, invites suggestions on the subject. A popular illustrated biography of Carlyle is announced for publication by Messrs. Chambers. Besides the “Centenary Burns,” which Mr. Henley and Mr. T. F. Henderson are editing, there is to be an edition of the Scottish poet by Mr. Andrew Lang. The latter is to be published by Messrs. Methuen ; the former hails from Messrs. Jack, of Edinburgh. Mr. William Wallace is revising for a new edition, the “Life and Works of Robert Burns,” by the late Dr. Robert Chambers, which will be in four or five volumes. It will have illustrations from original drawings by Mr. C. Martin Hardie, R.S.A., Mr. W. D. Mackay, R.S.A., Mr. G. O. Reid, A.R.S.A., and Mr. G. Pirie. Mr. William Archer has translated from the Norwegian Dr. Georg Brandes's work, “William Shakespeare: A Critical Study.” It will be in two volumes, and published by Mr. Heinemann. Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge is at work on a life of the poet, whose grandson he is. Quite recently the “Letters of Samuel Taylor Cole- ridge ’’ was published, and warmly welcomed under Mr. Coleridge’s editorship. He now invites those who may possess letters still un- published to forward them to him for use in the biography. Mr. Heinemann is publisher. A distinguished band of contributors has been got for “The Book of Beauty (late Victorian Era),” a work which Messrs. Hutchison and Co. are preparing. The writers include, for instance, Mr. Rudyard Kipling, Mr. Hall Caine, Mr. George Moore, Mr. Frankfort Moore, Mr. George Curzon, M.P., the Marchioness of Granby, Wis- countess Hood, Princess Henry of Pless, Lady Ileene Campbell, Lady Charlotte Stopford, and others; while there will be portraits by Sir Frederic Leighton, Sir John Millais, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Mr. Luke Fildes, Mr. J. S. Sargent, Mr. Whistler, and other painters. A volume on Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, and Persia has been edited by Sir Charles Wilson for Mr. Murray's Handbook series. Messrs. A. and C. Black have just published a new novel entitled “Dr. Quantrill's Experiment: the Chronicle of a Second Marriage,” by T. Inglis. (Price 3s. 6d.) A history of the most celebrated songs of the world will begin serially in Lloyd’s News this week. It is entitled “Stories of Famous Songs,” and the author, Mr. S. J. Adair Fitz-Gerald, has spent ten years over it. The work will appear later in book form. A new illustrated quarterly will make its appearance towards the close of the year, pub- lished by Leonard C. Smithers of Effingham House, Arundel-street, Strand. The name of this publication has not yet been decided on, but a rather strong band of contributors has been got together, including Mr. Aubrey Beardsley (Art Editor), Mr. Charles Conder, Mr. F. Norreys Connell, Mr. Ernest Dowson, Mr. Havelock Ellis, Mr. Herbert P. Horne, Mr. Lionel Johnson, Mr. George Moore, Mr. Will Rothenstein, Mr. Arthur Symons (Literary Editor), and many others. Mr. Smithers intends to attempt something quite unique in the reproduction of the artistic contributions. Mr. Smithers will also publish about the same time a new novel from the pen of Mr. F. Norreys Connell, whose “House of the Strange Woman,” in spite of much hostile criticism, is reported to be rapidly “catching on,” and further editions may be looked for in due course. Mr. Connell, too, has joined the staff of the Unicorn. The Roxburghe Press will issue almost imme- diately “Furs and Fur Garments,” a history of fur garments and fur animals. It is written by Mr. Richard Davey. The statistics as to the modern fur trade have been supplied by Mr. T. S. Jay, F. Z.S., whose practical knowledge and experience of the subject should render the work particularly interesting. It will be copiously illustrated and daintily produced. An edition of 5000 copies has already been called for. The first prize of 2000 dollars offered by the Bacheller Syndicate for the best detective story of 2000 words has been awarded to Miss Mary E. Wilkins, of Randolph, Mass., and Joseph Edgar Chamberlin, of the Youth's Companion, who submitted “The Long Arm,” written in collabo- ration. Brander Matthews took the second prize with “The Twinkling of an Eye.” Both stories have appeared in Chapman's Magazine. Among the well-known writers who submitted stories in competition for the prizes were : Anna Katherine Green, Florence Marryatt, Duffield Osborne, and Robert W. Chambers. There were 3000 stories sent in. Stories worthy of honourable mention were written by John Seymour Wood, of the University Club, New York city; H. Lynde, of Richmond, Ind. ; Edgar Thormet Roy, of New York city; and David Skeets Foster, of Utica, N. Y.  ## p. (#472) ################################################ I 18 THE AUTHOR. “Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire,” by H, Thornhill Timmins, F.R.G.S., will shortly make its appearance. Mr. Timmins’ “Herefordshire,” which was very favourably noticed by the Press. “Nooks and Corners of Pembrokeshire * describes, in a narra- tive way, the most interesting localities of that little known county, and is very fully illustrated by over Ioo sketches of its more picturesque features, drawn upon the spot by the author. A new edition of “The Steam Navy of Eng- land,” will shortly be issued by Mr. Harry Williams, R.N., the author. The publishers are W. H. Allen and Co., 13, Waterloo-place, S.W. This work is dedicated, by special permission, to Admiral of the Fleet, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. The author has taken advantage of the issue of this edition of his book to add an essay on the Personnel of the Steam Branch of the Navy, but notwithstanding this enlargement of the original work, the publishing price (12s. 6d.) will be the same as before. The fifth volume of the “Annual Index to Periodicals '' issued at the Review of Reviews office is now ready. It deals with 1894, as the pre- vious issues have dealt with 1890, 1891, 1892, and 1893, and thus it forms an exhaustive classified record of the contents of the English and American periodicals of last year. It is, in fact, an attempt to present, as nearly as possible, com- plete bibliographies of every subject discussed in the magazines and reviews of the year, as opposed to a mere alphabetical arrangement of the titles of articles, which are rarely, if ever, remembered with accuracy. The price is 5s. nett. A volume of stories by Rev. W. B. Wallace, B.A. (ex-Scholar, Senior Classical Moderator, and Fellowship Prizeman) of Dublin University, is to be issued in October by the Roxbourghe Press, under the title of the first story, “The Clue of Ariadne.” The other stories are entitled, “Princess Asenath ; a Metaphysical Romance; ” and “Thrusyllus: a Legend of Capri.” Sir Henry Irving has accepted the dedication of Mr. Farquhar Palliser's new work—a mytho- logical play in blank verse, entitled “Ermelyn,” the first portion of which had been previously sub- mitted for perusal. Mr. Farquhar Palliser, whose concluding lines to “Christopher Marlowe” were quoted by Sir Henry Irving at the unveiling of the Marlowe Memorial in Canterbury, is the author (under the nom de plume of “ Heber K. Daniels’) of the “Tales of a Terrace ’’ series, “Me and Jim,” and many other short stories and sketches. The work is similar to A little volume entitled “The Outcast ’’ will be published by the S.P.C.K. on 1st Oct. It will contain two short but very characteristic tales from the modern Greek of M. D. Kikela and M. Rarkavitsa, translated and adapted by F. Bayford Harrison. Mr. A. W. Gillman, grandson of “Coleridge's Gillman,” is about to produce a book called “The Gillmans of Highgate,” in which will be found much fresh information concerning Coleridge's residence with the Gillmans. There are also portraits, letters, &c., never before published. The publisher will be Mr. Elliot Stock, and the work will be in small quarto. New Zealand is waking up to her literary possi- bilities and duties. It is, indeed, almost time that she should contribute something to the literature of the day. A novel by Mrs. Suisted, of Westport, New Zealand, has been purchased by Messrs. Tillotson and Sons, of Bolton. In their hands Mrs. Suisted may rest assured that she will have a very good chance of making a name over the whole of the English-speaking world. The work will probably appear at Christmas or early mext Wear. “Doctor Johnson and the Fair Sex: a Study of Contrasts,” is the title of a work by Mr. W. H. Craig, of Lincoln's Inn, to be published by Messrs. Sampson Low. It will contain portraits of the Doctor and of ladies whose names happen in the volume—Miss Hannah Moore, Mrs. Siddons, Mrs Abington, Miss Burney, Mrs. Carter, and others. To drive briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman who understood him was, it will be remembered, the ideal existence the “old lion ” pictured on One occasion. - Mrs. W. K. Clifford has enlarged and rewritten her “A Flash of Summer,” which appeared in the Illustrated London News, and it will be issued soon in book form by Messrs. Methuen. Mr, Elkin Matthews is to issue at intervals, beginning in November, a series of shilling volumes of poetry. The first will be “London Poems,” by Mr. Lawrence Binyon, and the second by Mr. Robert Bridges. A book by Madame Belloc, called “In a Walled Garden,” which has a place in Messrs. Ward and Downey's list of forthcoming publications, is to contain personal recollections of, amongst others, George Eliot, “Barry Cornwall,” Mary Hewitt, Basil Montagu, Mrs. Procter, and Cardinal Manning. The same publishers will also send out “A Comedy of Contrasts,” by W. J. Locke, author of “At the Gate of Samaria.” Dr. Robertson Nicoll and Mr. Thomas Wise are associated in editing a work entitled “Literary  ## p. (#473) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. I I 9 Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century: Contri- butions towards a Literary History of the Period,” the first volume of which will be issued shortly by Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. A portrait of William Black (which has not previously been published), etched upon steel by the late William Bell Scott, is to be the frontispiece; and the contents will include the trial of Blake for sedition; Mrs. Browning on Tennyson; A. H. Hallam and the Tennysons; biographies of Thomas Wade, Richard Henry Horne, and Charles Wells, each with new material; a biblio- graphy of Browning; and letters from Shelley to Leigh Hunt. The edition is limited to Iooo copies. The September output of books was fairly large, but no work of outstanding importance appeared. That which was of most siguificance was of political rather than literary interest, namely, “ The Chitral Campaign : a Narrative of Events in Chitral, Swat, and Bajour,” the writer of which is Mr. H. C. Thomson, a press correspondent who accompanied the relief force. Mr. Crockett’s “The Man of the Moss Hags” (Ibister); George Macdonald's new romance, “Lilith ” (Chatto and Windus); “Clarence,” by Bret Harte (Chatto and Windus); “A Woman in It,” by Rita (Hutchinson); and “Four Years of Novel Reading,” by R. G. Moulton (Isbister), were some of the more distinctive of the books of the month. The last named work, whose author is a Professor of English Literature in the University of Chicago, tells of the experiment of establishing in a Northumberland village a novel- reading union on the lines that fiction is not intended solely for amusement, but should fill the reader's soul “with a sense of artistic beauty, and make him long to be good.” A volume of up-to-date poems entitled “Arrows of Song,” the author of which, though said to have achieved distinction as a writer, does not meantime wish his identity unveiled, is to be published by Messrs. Hutchinson about a month hence. Guy de Maupassant is the model chosen by the author of a little volume to be published by Mr. George Redway, entitled “How to Write Fiction, especially the Art of Short Story Writing: A Study in Technique.” A new birth in the periodical press during September is the Unicorn, a threepenny illus- trated weekly, edited by Mr. L. Raven-Hill, the well-known artist. The short story is to be made a feature. Other events of note in this depart- ment of literature are the change in the proprie- torship of Judy, from Mr. Gilbert Dalziel to Miss Gillian Debenham, Mr. C. H. Abbot, formerly sub-editor, getting the editor's chair; the resig- nation of Mr. Stanhope Sprigg from the editor- ship of the Windsor Magazine, which, however, does not come about until February next; and the alteration by which the American magazines, the Century and the St. Nicholas, will henceforth be published in this country by Messrs. Mac- millan and Co. in place of Mr. Unwin. Mr. J. F. Hogan's work, “The Sister Domi- nions,” the result of a tour of Canada and Australia during the last Parliamentary recess, will appear from Messrs. Ward and Downey in a few days. Mr. Edward Abbot Parry will immediately produce a fairy story, “Katawampus and its Treatment and Cure,” a moral story without morality. The book will be illustrated by Archie McGregor, and will be published by David Nutt, 270, Strand. At a meeting of the International League of Press Clubs, recently held at Philadelphia, one of Our members, Miss Amelia Josephine Cook, addressed a meeting on the subject of the Society of Authors and its work and aims in this country. She especially advocated the establishment of a Pension Fund in connection with the American Society or with the League of Press Clubs. The idea appears to have commanded the sympathy and interest of her hearers, and there is some hope that the interest thus created may be followed up. *-* - CORRESPONDENCE, I.—LECTURING IN AMERICA. OBSERVE that my recent letter to the Author, in which I warned lecturers going to America not to be misled by sensational rumours as to the profits to be earned, has been generally misquoted as being an acknowledgment upon my part that my own tour was unsuccessful. This would be immaterial if it were not that it places my manager, Major J. B. Pond, in a false position, since he has publicly stated that my tour was successful far beyond all possible expecta- tions. It is only fair to him to say that, during ten weeks, I hardly ever spoke to a house which was not full, and that I had to refuse more engagements than I accepted. I had certainly considerably more to do than I desired. I was able, however, when I was over there, to see something of the conditions of lecturing, and when I observed a very large sum mentioned in your columns as being obtained per night, I thought it right to warn brother authors or lecturers to be sure of their ground before cross- ing the Atlantic. My Calculation was based upon  ## p. (#474) ################################################ I 2G) THE AUTHOR. their giving four lectures a week. I have given as many as ten, but the physical strain was con- siderable. Far from being disappointed at the results of Major Pond's arrangements, I was amazed at their success. I repeat, however, that the making of money should be a secondary object, and there will then be no risk of disap- pointment. A. CONAN Doy L.E. II.-EVERY MAN HIS OWN PUBLISHER. There is no practical difficulty in now ascertain- ing the approximate cost of producing any ordi- nary mew book; but, having published his book, how is an unknown author to introduce it to the bookselling trade, and to give it on its own merits a fair chance of sale through the usual trade channels P The publisher, we know, has effective means to promote the sale of the books that he produces, by means of advertisement, the bookselling trade, circulating libraries, &c.; but the unknown author who may wish to publish his own book has usually no trade connection, and has in fact at present no available machinery for offering his book for sale, however intrinsically good or well written it may be. If the Society of Authors can show how, under the circumstances, would-be authors can dispense with the publisher's services, and what alterna- tive machinery exists to enable such persons when desirous of publishing their own books to carry out their object in a sound and business- like way, I cannot but think that many persons might be tempted to use that machinery. M. A. [There is but one way, and that is to do exactly what the publisher does—send round the book to the trade, advertise it, and send out copies for review. John Ruskin has shown the world how to do without the publisher. Everybody, however, would not find it pay so well as John Ruskin, Where a book is published for a special purpose, and to meet a limited demand, why should not the author advertise that it is to be had from his own residence P-ED.] III.—HIs Own BOOK PRODUCER. I too have an experience to record as to new ways of book-producing. A child’s book was on hand. Christmas before last small parcels of type were coming in, and the evenings saw us propping up the aggravating little letters. Meanwhile wood blocks were being cut in a fishing loft by the Sea. Having mastered the elements of printing, we engaged a capable printer to work with us. We found our knowledge sufficient to enable us to market for some time. get our own way when tradition was against us. Paper had to be found, and we searched London with a fat Jesuit schoolbook in our hands for sample. A coarse handmade paper at 19s. a ream, almost identical with that of our exemplar, was at length discovered. Finally we printed off two sheets of eight pages a week, the edition consisting of 300 copies of I2O pages. As the sheets left the press they again passed through our hands in order that certain initial letters might receive a wash of colour. We did not sell the book. A well-known firm kindly undertook to publish it at a moderate percentage, but though there would have been a good profit if the edition had been sold, either the price (IOS.) was too high, or we did not advertise enough, or the matter and shape did not interest any public. The cost was small compared with any recognised means of production. A. S. *- - -º New interest is being awakened in the writings of Sidney Lanier, whose books, previous to his death, had a limited circulation. A new edition of his “Select Poems ” has appeared, and atten- tion is being frequently called to his “Science of English Verse.” W. H. Ward found enough of material in the busy life of Lanier to make a captivating biography, which has been on the Sidney Lanier was a Southern man, and served in the Confederate army through the war. He enlisted as a private, and refused promotion three times, that he might be near a younger brother, who was in the same regiment. He was a prisoner in the Union army, and wrote “Tiger Lilies” to describe this period in his experience. After he came out of the Con- federate army Lanier studied law, presided over an academy, and lectured at Johns Hopkins University on “The English Novel.” His lecture appeared afterwards in book form. In 1873 he made his home in Baltimore, accepting an engage- ment as first flute for the Peabody's symphony concerts. His father desired that he should return to Macon, Ga., and engage in the practice of law, but, being in feeble health (for he was afflicted with consumption), he believed that his chances for life were better in Baltimore than in Macon, and he said that he could not consent to be a third-rate, struggling lawyer for the rest of his life, since he had been assured by good judges that he was the greatest flute player in the world. Besides, he had high hopes of a successful career in literature. He died at Baltimore of consump- tion, September 7, 1881, at the age of thirty-nine. —Chautauquan. 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. 06 Issue 05 (October 1895) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 06 Issue 05 (October 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 1895-10-01-The-Author-6-5 publications The Author