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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) 1896-04-01 Volume 6 Issue 11 Pages Page range in volume 245–268 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18960401 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin C be El u t b or, (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESAN. T. Wol. VI.-No. 11.] APRIL 1, 1896. [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 eaſpressing the collective opinions of the committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. *— a 2-2 z--- - - HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. *- a 2-2 WARNINGS AND ADWICE, { . 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 YOUR AGREEMENTs. – Readers are most URGENTLY warned not to neglect stamping their agreements immediately after signature. If this precaution is neglected for two weeks, a fine of £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 ea pense to themselves eaccept the cost of the stamp. 4. AsCERTAIN WHAT A PROPOSED AGREEMENT GIVES To BOTH SIDES BEFORE SIGNING IT.-Remember that an WOL. W.I. arrangement as to a joint venture in any other kind of busi- ness whatever would be instantly refused should either party refuse to show the books or to let it be known what share he reserved for himself. 5. LITERARY AGENTs.-Be very careful. You cannot be too careful as to the person whom you appoint as your 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 account whatever, bind yourself down for future work to anyone. 9. PERSONAL RISK.—Never accept any pecuniary risk o responsibility whatever without advice. - Io. REJECTED MSS.—Never, when a MS. has been re- fused by respectable houses, pay others, whatever promises they may put forward, for the production of the work. II. AMERICAN RIGHTS.—Never sign away American rights. Keep them by special clause. Refuse to sign any agreement containing a clause which reserves them for the publisher, unless for a substantial consideration. 12. CESSION OF COPYRIGHT.-Never sign any paper, either agreement or receipt, which gives away copyright, without advice. - I3. ADVERTISEMENTS. — Reep some control over the advertisements, if they affect your returns, by a clause in the agreement. 14. NEvKR forget that publishing is a business, like any other business, totally unconnected with philanthropy, charity, or pure love of literature. You have to do wit business men. Be yourself a business man. - Society’s Offices :- 4, PORTUGAL STREET, LINCOLN's INN FIELDs. *-*. e- 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- E E 2 ## p. (#600) ################################################ 246 THE AUTHOR. mittee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually engaged upon such questions for us. 3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree- ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor- mation thus obtained may prove invaluable. 4. If the examination of your previous business trans- actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should take advice as to a change of publishers. 5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. 6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in the case of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish- ing firm in the country. 7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything important to literature that you may hear or meet with. 9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con- fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. THE AUTHORS’ SYNDICATE, EMPERS are informed : 1. 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. * As-º 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 Author complete, attractive, and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this work send their names and the special subjects on which they are willing to write P Communications for the Author should reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each month. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. Members and others who wish their MSS. read are requested not to send them to the Office without previously communicating with the Secretary. The utmost practicable despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in which they are received. It must also be distinctly under- stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances, undertake the publication of MSS. The Authors’ Club is now open in its new premises, at 3, Whitehall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, &c. Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they have paid their subscriptions for the year P If they will do this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the trouble of sending out a reminder. Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the warning numbered (8). It is a most foolish and may be a most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest or dishonest ? Of course they would not. Why then hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them- selves into literary bondage for three or five years P Those who possess the “Cost of Production ” are requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15 per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble of “doing sums,” the addition of three shillings in the pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding ## p. (#601) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 247 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 £948. The figures in our book are as near the exact truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's, bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be arrived at. Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged in the “Cost of Production” for advertising. Of course, we have not included any sums which may be charged for inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines, or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket, by inserting any number of advertisements in his own magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it. *- FROM THE COMMITTEE, HE Committee beg to remind members that the Subscription for the year is due on January the First. The most convenient form of payment is by order on a Bank. This method saves the trouble of remembering. The Secretary will in future send reminders to members who are in arrear in February. The Author will not be sent to members in arrear after the month of March. The members of the Society were invited by the General Meeting of Feb. 17 to nominate certain men and women of letters willing and able to serve on the sub-committee for the con- sideration of changes—if any—that might be thought desirable in the constitution and manage- ment of the Society, and especially with the view of making the Committee more representative of the whole body of members. It was also ordered by the second resolution— see the Author for March, pp. 223, 22.4—that the names thus proposed and seconded should be published in the April number of the Society's paper, and that this list should be accompanied by a balloting paper. The second Resolution cannot be carried out for the reason that no names at all have been sent in. The subject will be laid before the Com- mittee at the next meeting. G. HERBERT THRING, Secretary. March 30, 1896. LITERARY PROPERTY. Mºº of the Society are invited to observe that when a case is quoted in these pages, they can learn the name of the publisher, if they desire to do so, by calling upon the Secretary. The name of the author concerned in the case is however confidential, and will not be divulged without his direct sanction. It is found necessary to make this known, as it has been suggested that the cases quoted in the Author have no real existence, but are inventions of some persons connected with the Society. ſ.—AN EXAMINATION OF Accounts. In this case an author receiving the accounts of his book was not satisfied with certain figures, and demanded an audit. The account, as ren- dered, showed a balance of so much against the author. The auditor examined the books and found the exact contrary—a balance due to the author. Such a case by no means necesssarily implies dishonesty, but a certain amount of care- lessness; it shows very strongly the necessity for auditing the accounts. The balance due to the author, on the amended account, was paid. II. THE CASE OF ABERNETHY v. HuTCHINson : A MUCH QUOTED CASE OF COPYRIGHT LAw. This was a very extraordinary suit, and as one of the three decisions upon its merits now forms the legal precedent upon which most disputes as to copyright in lectures are decided, we think that the account of the case, as published recently in the Lancet, will have interest for many of our readers—for all, indeed, who have made a study of questions of copyright. The Lancet, upon its appearance in 1823, started the practice of reporting certain medical lectures delivered to the classes of students at the Borough Hospital, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and in other public or semi-public places. The first victim—for so the reported men con- sidered themselves—was Sir Astley Cooper, who tacitly acquiesced in a publicity that served him well. The second was Abernethy, who brought an action against Hutchinson, the publisher of the Lancet, for infringement of copyright. “On the hearing of the motion,” says the Zancet, “an affidavit was put in by Abernethy which at great length cited the circumstances of the delivery of the lectures and gave an account of his calling forth ‘the hireling of the Lancet’ from the ranks of his students without response. He bitterly inveighed against the appropriation of his copyright, but at the same time protested that he would never withhold ## p. (#602) ################################################ 248 THE AUTHOR. from mankind any words of his the publication of which was for the true good of the public. The affidavit of the defendant Hutchinson con- tended that the publication was made exactly for the good of the public, and, such being the case, free publication ought to be permitted without legal restriction. He further tried to show that there was no precedent for the recognition of copyright vested in verbal utterances. The Lord Chancellor (Lord Eldon) on the third day refused to grant an application, but several times in the course of his judgment said that he would hear an argument upon the point whether there had been a breach of trust or of implied contract. Thus it was temporarily decided that words used in lectures for the public benefit had no copyright vested in them, and were liable to be published without reserve for the good of humanity.” Four months were allowed by Abernethy to elapse before he made his second application to the Lord Chancellor for an injunction on the ground suggested to him by his lordship, viz., that his lectures were delivered to persons under an implied contract not to publish them ; but at the end of May the application was made and the hearing was commenced on June I.O. Abernethy renewed his application obviously rather in the interests of other lecturers than his own, for at the time his lectures were not being printed in the Lancet, having been discontinued at the completion of the course some two months previously. “He may possibly have vamity enough to suppose that we shall reprint his lectures,” wrote Thomas Wakley, the editor of the paper. “On this point his mind may be perfectly at ease; our pages have been already obscured with his hypothetical nonsense during six tedious months, and when we read the proof of the last paragraph we felt relieved of a most intolerable incubus.” The result of the second application was that Abernethy was successful. The Lord Chancellor in his judgment to a certain extent went back on himself. He held that the lectures could not be published for profit, that if any pupil who had paid only to hear them afterwards sold them to the publisher he infringed the law, and that the publishers in so publishing them enacted “what this Court would call a fraud in a third party.” He dwelt upon the practical difficulty that existed in bringing home this fraud to anyone where no manuscript was in existence, but did not other- wise allow that there was any difference as far as the author's rights were concerned whether the lecture was delivered from a manuscript or as an extemporary effort. This is the judgment which forms the precedent upon which cases of infringe- ment of copyright in lectures are always decided, and in text-books upon the subject it is the case that is always quoted. Mr. Lely, in his excel- lent little pamphlet, “Copyright Law Reform,” published by the Society of Authors, quotes the case of Caird v. Syme; but the judgment here was, we believe, founded upon Lord Eldon's judgment in Abernethy v. Hutchinson. Mr. Scrutton, in our edition of “The Law of Copy- right” (1890), refers only to this judgment in Abernethy’s second application, and gives the place of the delivery of the lectures in question wrongly. He says they were delivered at Guy’s Hospital. They were delivered at St. Bartholo- mew’s Hospital, a distinction, as will be seen, with some difference. The lecturers at Guy’s Hospital never disputed the right of the Lancet to publish their lectures. Six months later Wakley applied to the Lord Chancellor to dissolve the injunction restraining him from continuing to publish or sell Abernethy’s lectures in the Lancet. The motion was un- opposed, and Lord Eldon dissolved the injunction. This judgment did not, and does not, affect the value of his previous judgment with regard to the legality of the publication of lectures, for the dissolution was granted upon new facts which were brought to the knowledge of the Court. Wakley had all along contended that it was monstrous that Abernethy should by one Act confer upon himself as a member of the Court of Examiners of the Royal College of Surgeons the exclusive right of lecturing in the character of a public functionary, and by another Act claim. the protection due to private lecturers on the ground of the injury which his reputation or pecuniary interests might sustain from the issue of his lectures in cheap form. For it must be understood that the said Court of Examiners, of which Abernethy was a member and at one time Chairman, decided who were to be the official lecturers to the students, and would take no other man’s certificates as to the competency of candidates for diplomas. After the injunction Abernethy had delivered an address to the students on the occasion of the opening of the session at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and this address had appeared in full in the Lanceſ, precisely as if no injunction existed, on the ground that it had been delivered by Abernethy in a public capacity. No retaliatory steps were taken by Abernethy. Shortly after this, a few days only before Wakley's application for a dissolution of the injunction, Abernethy tendered his resignation as a surgeonto the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital whilst desiring to remain a lecturer to the institution. The governors refused to accept his resignation as a surgeon unless he also tendered his resig- ## p. (#603) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 249 nation as a lecturer. This recognition of an inseparable tie between the two posts of surgeon and lecturer reached Wakley's ears, and supplied him with the very point in his argument for a dissolution of the injunction that he required. “Of course Abernethy’s lectures were public property,” he said: “they are delivered in his public capacity as surgeon to a public charity, and the students of the metropolis must attend them, or lectures from some five or six other functionaries similarly situated, whether they like or no.” The five or six others being the other lecturers licensed by the Court of Ex- aminers. The facts of Abernethy’s offer of resig- nation to the governors of St. Bartholomew's Hospital were set out in the form of an affidavit, and, no one appearing to represent Abernethy in opposition to a motion for dissolution of the injunction, Lord Eldon removed the restriction. The practical termination of this case, therefore, was, curiously enough, in exact opposition to the temporary termination which forms a precedent that is so widely quoted, and the Lancet, in publishing the whole story, has furnished us with an interesting piece of old-world literary history. III.--THE AMERICAN AUTHORs' GUILD. Some account appears in the Author for March of the Associated Authors' Publishing Company in New York, an enterprise destined, I trust, for good service to European as well as American authors. A remark in the Author, that the (English) Society of Authors could hardly enter upon the business of publishing, may lead to the inference that the American Guild has entered upon such business. But the Guild takes no responsibility for the new publishing company. On the other hand, it is important to add that the incorporators of the company include the president (General Grant Wilson) and other active members of the Guild, and that a majority of our Board of Manage- ment have recorded their “cordial approval and endorsement of the objects of the proposed corporation.” The American Guild, founded in May, 1892, incorporated in January, 1895, grows rapidly, and by latest accounts numbers more than 400 members. Its aims, as stated in the act of incorporation, are “to promote a professional spirit among authors; to foster a more friendly feeling, and create greater confidence, between authors and publishers, and to devise some practical means of securing accurate returns of sales by publishers; to advise authors as to the value of literary property and the different methods of publishing books, and to see that their contracts are so drawn as to secure to them their lawful rights; to determine disputes between authors and publishers by arbitration, or, if necessary, by an appeal to the courts; to maintain and defend literary property, and to advance the interests of American authors and literature; the furtherance of library, literary, benevolent, and social purposes.” There are twenty-one officers of the Guild. The monthly meetings have been well attended by these, and by unofficial members. The con- ferences have been quick with interest, and there has been a steady development of practical purposes. The Guild is about to establish a sort of club, or “Guild Home,” in New York, a relief insurance fund, a library, and the monthly Bulletin will be enlarged into a magazine. Thus far the only action towards national reform has been a petition to Congress for a manuscript post ; for it is one symptom of the long neglect under which our authors have suffered, that they must pay letter postage on manuscripts, though the very same manuscripts, when accompanied by the publisher's proof, pass as printed matter. When the presidential election is over this petition will probably be granted, but the reform- ing tendencies of the Guild constitute its raison d'être, and will ultimately deal with more serious evils than the postal anomaly. This organisation represents, as I believe, the awakening of literary men in America to the fact that in the republic of letters their nation is placed in the rear of civilised States by injurious external conditions, while possessing ample intellectual ability to keep abreast of other States. For the present the Guild is gathering its forces, and organising them; it is also studying seriously the causes of the injurious conditions, and steadily reaching a consensus thereon ; and on several occasions I have beard in its meetings the rights and wrongs of foreign authors, as affected by American legis- lation, considered with deep concern. The leaders of the Guild are men of experience and practical wisdom, and any Quixotic efforts at reform are as little to be apprehended as passive acquiescence in the oppressions under which American literature is suffering, and by which foreign authors are largely burdened. From letters just received from the president of the Guild and others I learn that international questions were to be discussed at an ensuing monthly meeting, and it is probable that I may ask space in a future number of the Author for a further state- ment. Mon CURE D. ConwAY. IV.--THE TRELOAR BILL. At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Publishers’ Copyright League, held ## p. (#604) ################################################ 25O THE AUTHOR. on the 2nd of February, the following resolutions were presented and adopted:— Resolved : That the American Publishers' Copyright League disapprove, on the following grounds, of the pro- visions of the bill introduced into the House of Represen- tatives by Mr. Treloar (H. R. 5976) for the revision of the copyright law : I. The bill provides for the restriction to “citizens of the United States” of the privilege of securing copyright under the statute. The Act of 1891 extended the privilege of securing copyright within the United States to the citizens of foreign states which conceded to American citizens the benefit of copyright. The Act of 1870 had limited the privilege of securing copyright to persons who were “residents * of the United States. The restriction now proposed, limiting the copyright privilege to citizens, would bring about a revocation or cancellation of the copyright relations which have been entered into by the United States, under the Act of 1891, with Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and Denmark, and would constitute a distinct step back of the policy of even our most primitive copyright laws in the recognition of literary and artistic property. 2. The bill provides for the addition to the list of articles which, in order to secure the privilege of copyright in the United States, must be wholly manufactured within the limits of the United States, of musical compositions and of reproductions of works of art in the form of engravings, cuts, or prints. In the discussion of the provisions of the Act of 1891 it was held by those having expert knowledge of the subject that the application of the manufacturing requirement to the production of foreign musical composers would in practice prevent such composers, in the majority of cases, from securing the benefit of American copyright, and would simply perpetuate the practice previously existing of the appropriation by American reprinters of the property in such productions. It was further established, during this discussion, that a condition requiring the manufacture or production in the United States of an engraving of a work of art by a foreign designer must, in the majority of in- stances (and particularly in the cases of the more important works of art which could not be brought across the Atlantic for the purpose of being engraved) render impracticable the securing of American copyright, and would leave open, as heretofore, the property in such reproductions to be appro- priated by unauthorised publishers. In connection with the difficulties in the way of securing simultaneous publication in the United States for editions of Continental books printed in the language of the country of their origin, the authors of France, Germany, and Spain have thus far secured but inconsiderable advantage from the American Copyright Act ; although the several nations which have entered into copyright relations with the United States have extended to our citizens, without any restric- tions of local manufacture, the full copyright privileges enjoyed by their own citizens. This result has naturally brought about, on the part of the nations referred to, a large measure of dissatisfaction with their copyright relations with the United States, and these relations would before now have been terminated (greatly to the disadvantage of American authors and artists) if it had not been for certain advantages secured under the Act of 1891 to the foreign producers of works of art. If the protection of American copyright is to be withdrawn also from the productions of foreign artists (as would be the result under the Treloar Hill), international copyright relations between the United States and the nations above specified will inevitably be brought to a close. 3. The provision in the bill under which the total amount to be collected for the infringement of the copyright of a literary production is limited to 5000 dollars is inequitable in itself, and constitutes a distinct departure from the principles heretofore controlling the law of copy- right throughout the world. An authorised reprinter might easily secure, through the appropriation of copyrighted work, proceeds which would enable him to pay such a penalty as that provided for, and still secure a satisfactory return from his undertaking. The penalty should be left, as under the present law, proportioned to the extent of the injury caused to the owner of the copyright, and proportioned also to the proceeds secured to the person appropriating the copyrighted property, which proceeds have been diverted from the right- ful owner. - 4. The plan for instituting the office of commissioner of copyrights can, in our judgment, be dealt with more effectively in a separate bill, such as has already been introduced in the House by Mr. Bankhead and in the Senate by Mr. Morrill. It is also our opinion that the staff provided under the Treloar bill for the Copyright Bureau would be unnecessarily large and expensive, and that the services of so many employes would probably not be required, at least during the earlier years of the opera- tion of the office. 5. The purpose expressed in clause XXVIII. of the bill for securing adequate protection for the property rights of dramatic authors can also, in our judgment, be better brought about under the provisions of the Cummings bill now pending the House of Representatives. - For these several considerations it is our judgment that the enactment of the Treloar bill would constitute a serious injury to the rights of producers of copyright property and to the interests of the community for the use of which such copyright property is brought into existence. It would further constitute, on the part of the United States, a breach of international good faith with the several nations of Europe that have extended copyright privileges to American citizens. We, therefore, ask that the bill may receive the unfavourable action of Congress and of the Executive. On motion it was also resolved “that this com- mittee cordially approves the purpose of the bills introduced in the House by Mr. Bankhead, and in the Senate by Senator Morrill, for instituting a separate bureau for the registry of copyrights. It is, however, the judgment of the committee that a larger staff of assistants than that specified in these bills will be required for the effective conduct of the work that is to be confided to this bureau; and it is further our opinion that more effective service will be secured if the responsibility for the selection of all the members of his working staff be placed in the hands of the proposed register of copyrights.” W.—A GREAT CHANCE. The following are certain novel conditions under which any writer may make a certainty of being heard in a Paper especially provided for him. It affords one the greatest pleasure to give publicity to this noble offer. “THIS offer is made to provide a means whereby Authors, Writers, and others of a literary bent or ability, may obtain ## p. (#605) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 251 publication for their work, and receive adequate remumera- tion from the owtset, besides bringing them into public notice, without ea pense to themselves. The Paper, which will be of a high class, will be issued at a popular price, and its circulation will ensure to its con- tributors a position unobtainable by other means. CoNDITIONs. (1) The Editor will receive, accept, and pay for on publication, at a liberal rate, any Article or Work, either in prose or verse, sent in by a Contributor, provided it be original. (2) The Editor shall have power to delete, alter, cut out, shorten, or expand any Article or Work as he may think fit, and any alteration so made shall be accepted by the Contributor. (3) The rate of remuneration shall be fixed on a basis according to the literary merit, ability, and length of the Work, but in no case shall it be less than at a rate of £5 58. for an Article of 5000 words, and at proportionate rates for other quantities. (4) The decision of the Editor as to the remuneration for any Work shall be accepted as final and binding upon all parties concerned. (5) A copy of each issue of the Paper will be sent post free to every Contributor. (6) Every Contributor is required to agree to subscribe to the Paper for a period of seven years, and to pay each year the Annual Subscription of £3 3s., in advance, failing which their contributions will not be accepted, published, or paid for. (7) The work of the Paper, such as reviews, reports, criticisms, notices, &c., will be distributed (and paid for at liberal rates) amongst Contributors only. This will give further opportunities of remuneration to them apart from their own original contributions. r (8) Every Contributor has the right under these Con- ditions of sending in work to the Paper, which will be accepted and paid for on publication in accordance with Conditions 1, 2, and 3. . (9) Every Contributor, on signing these Conditions and sending the Subscription, will be duly registered, and obtain the privileges contained herein. I agree to become a Contributor in accordance with the foregoing condidions, which I accept and agree to, and I inclose here with the sum of £3 38. as my first year's subscription. Signatwre............ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Address in full * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I think that a few questions should be sent to the editor before we make haste to pay our annual subscription of £33s. 1. Does the first condition really mean that every contribution sent in by any subscriber or contributor must be accepted and published by the editor? In that case the Tower of Babel itself would be intelligible and interesting in com- parison with a paper which published everything sent in. - 2. Does the second condition contradict the first P In the first the editor seems to bind himself to publish whatever is offered him. In the second he reserves the power to delete, i.e., to cut out, whatever is offered him. WC) L, WI. 3. The third condition appears to contradict itself. The pay is to depend on the literary merit and length of the work offered. But it is never to be less than a guinea for a thousand words. How, then, in the case of articles of no literary merit whatever, which the editor, by the first condition, is bound to publish P 5. A copy to be sent post free to each contri- butor. This is unheard of generosity. 6. This is the most startling condition. We are to engage to pay an annual subscription of 33 3s. a year for seven years | That is to say, we are to promise £3 3s. a year—we can get Longman's for 6s.-for a magazine of which we know nothing—for seven years to come ! This betrays an amount of confidence in the artlessness of literary aspirants which with all our experience we could never reach. For seven years l Blind confidence in the unseen for seven years! Wonderful - 8. The eighth condition clears up the doubt expressed above. The contributor by this con- dition seems to receive the absolute right of having his work, whatever it is, however impos- sible, however miserable, accepted, published, and paid for Another question or two: I. How many contributors will be accepted for each number P A thousand P Ten thousand P 2. What is to be the form, size, price, of the organ in question ? 3. What guarantee does the editor offer (I that the paper will continue; (2) that it will appear; (3) that he can carry out his promises P 4. Is it to be a political, a literary, or scientific organ P A weekly, monthly, or a daily organ P A London or a provincial organ P 5. Suppose it to be a monthly organ : suppose it to have acquired a thousand “contributors: ” has every contributor the power of contributing a contribution every month P If so, the maga- zine would contain something like 500 pages at least every month. Will not this bulk somewhat tax the resources of the enterprising editor P If the projector will enlighten us upon these points he may perhaps attract a large number of contributors. He will observe that I have given him for nothing an excellent advertisement. W. B. F. F. ## p. (#606) ################################################ 252 THE AUTHOR. NEW YORK LETTER, NEVERAL bills affecting copyright have been introduced into the present Congress. There T are first two short bills, providing for a separate bureau of copyright registry, differing chiefly in matters of salary and of sources from which the assistants in the proposed bureau are to be appointed. A third bill, by Mr. Cummings of New York, embodies the views of the owners of dramatic copyrights as to an adequate provision for enforcing the law against pirates of their works. A fourth bill, introduced by Mr. Treloar of Missouri, includes Mr. Cummings' bill ver- batim, and provides also for the much needed copyright bureau. It also extends the terms of copyright from twenty-eight and fourteen to forty and twenty years respectively, a provision suffi- ciently acceptable to the owners of copyright, but one for which there is no organised demand, and one which is deemed by the Authors' League im- practicable at the present time. It also makes some minor changes looking to the greater efficiency of the law as respects copyright in photographs. The rest of the bill is irredeemably bad, and would operate as a virtual repeal of the copyright law. It provides, first, that copyrights shall be given only to citizens of the United States, a provision repealed by the present Act. The exceptions to the non-importation clause in the case of copyright material are all omitted, with the exception of books in foreign languages. The present importation of two copies of a foreign edition of a copyrighted book for use and not for sale is stricken out. Newspapers could lio longer be imported if they contained copyright material, nor could books over twenty years of age, or books for libraries, governments, &c. This section is perhaps the most clumsy and unintelligent of the whole measure. Third, the manufacturing clause is extended to pe iodicals, maps, charts, musical compositions, engravings, cuts, and prints, in addition to the four articles from which that condition is now exacted, namely, books, chromos, lithographs, and photographs. The other details show that the bill is constructed in the most provincial spirit; but the changes provided for are so radical that the bill has already, awakened a storm of indignation among the friends of international copyright. The American Authors’ Copyright League and the American Publishers' Copyright League have already plotested in vigorous terms against the measure, which was opposed at a meeting of a committee on patents of the House of Represen- tatives on March 4, by Mr. Richard Underwood Johnson, secretary of the American Copyright League. Moreover, the American publishers themselves are by no means in favour of the measure, although it evidently had its origin in the desire to extend the manufacturing clause to music, as Mr. Treloar, who introduced it, is a music publisher. Mr. Treloar, to do him justice, is somewhat aghast at the destructive work of his measure, and has shown signs of desisting. There seems to be small chance of the bills pass- ing with these objectionable features, and as the removal of them would remove what was the motive of the introduction of the bill, it is im- probable that the bill will pass in any form. Meantime it is probable that the Authors' League will follow the Publishers' League in indorsing Mr. Bankhead’s bill for a bureau of copyright registry, but as that bill carries an appropria- tion with it, it is likely to meet with consider- able opposition at this time, when the leaders of the majority in the House of Represen- tatives are endeavouring to make a record for economy. English friends of international copyright need have little anxiety about public opinion in the United States on this question. Both the Authors’ and the Publishers' League look upon it as part of their duty to resist constantly any invasion of the present copy- right law tending to a less liberal policy. During the five years of its operation the recipro- cal operation of the American law has been extended steadily, so that now the United States is in copyright relations with Great Britain and her colonies, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzer- land, Portugal, and Denmark, and efforts are being made to strengthen the law still further by similar arrangements with other countries. This policy in its results has already shown its value, for now the authors are able to show Congress that an invasion of the present law would imperil the privileges of American citizens in foreign countries. Of course any change in the direction of liberality would not be met with this objection. It is to be borne in mind, also, that all the attacks upon the law at the present time have started from provincial sources and from men who had little conception of what would be the result of their proposed legislation. Should the bill by any chance succeed in passing the com- mittee there will be a vigorous agitation against it from all sides similar to that which succeeded in defeating the less radical Hicks bill of last year. A second edition of “The Question of Copy- right,” by George Haven Putnam, will be issued immediately by C. P. Putnam's Sons, This work is sound and complete in its history of copyright legislation and discussions of the underlying laws ## p. (#607) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 253. of property, and this edition will bring the story of the subject in America down to the present month. Another book by Mr. Putnam about to appear is the first volume of “Books and their Makers during the Middle Ages,” a study of the conditions of the production and distribution of literature from the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the seventeenth century. Chicago is rapidly taking its place as an important publishing centre as well as a literary centre. Still, rapid as has been the progress in the last five years, there is now a magnifying of everything coming from there which shows a great deal of the provincial spirit remaining. Charles Scribner's Sons have just issued “The Love Affairs of a Biblomaniac,” by Eugene Field, in a costly edition, and are about to issue “The House,” by the same author. Mr. Field, who is probably almost unknown to English readers, was a Chicago journalist who has just died. He wrote light poems and essays entirely without permanent value, and the announcement of these volumes, with the great amount of talk that has been made about the author since his death, is one of many indications that America in general and Chicago and the new West in particular have a local literary vanity which shows itself markedly in the output of the leading publishers. Henry B. Fuller, of Chicago, author of “The Chevalier of Pensieri Vani ’’ and of “The Cliff Dwellers,” is to have a volume of one act plays published this spring by the Century Company. He is a man who has shown literary powers of several different kinds, and he is one of the writers watched with real interest in his future by observers of American literature. The principal Chicago publishers, Stone and Kimball, who publish more books of Western life than any other house, have within the half dozen years of their existence come to play a leading part in the literary world here. Their last move was to establish, two weeks ago, a branch house in New York. As John Lane is to publish their Chap-Book in England, readers on the other side will get a very fair idea of the nature of present American taste in light semi-artistic literature. One of the most promis- ing of young Western writers is Hamlin Garland. His last book, “Rose of Dutcher's Coolly,” recently published by Stone and Kimball, has been much discussed. In its strength and its crudity it represents the best of our new work from the Western States. One of the publishers of the book remarked in conversation last week that what Mr. Garland needed for a real advance in power was a wider horizon, an experience in the old countries of Europe. This subject is being discussed vigorously just now ; the general subject of the value of European influence on our the stage. writers. Mr. Brander Matthews has just aroused controversy by the introduction and the conclu- sion of his “Introduction to American Literature,” published by the American Book Company. The author lays great emphasis on the distinction between British and English literature, including under the latter term the literature of all English speaking countries, and he emphasises the wisdom of taking our keellest interest in our own writers. This has been attacked on the one hand as literary jingoism, and defended on the other as an intelli- gent emancipation from secondhand ideas and interests. Whatever the merits of the case, the book is an excellent one for the clearness with which it points out, mainly for use in schools, the broad and simple traits which have thus far marked American literature. - In New York no writer of the last two or three years has attracted more attention than Edward Townsend. His “Chimmie Fadden º’ had an enormous sale, and is now having a success on It deals with a Bowery hero, or the typical Irish-American boy of the poorer district of the city. His “Daughter of the Tenements” if about to be published in England. It gives a fair idea of the quality of a kind of literature much in Vogue here, stories of local colour written by ready, versatile newspaper men, who are quick to seize upon the aspects of our life obviously available for literary purposes. The newspaper reporter is the material from which many of our most prominent young writers are now made. Stephen Crane, the author of “The Red Badge of Courage,” was a reporter here. Richard Harding Davis, Julian Ralph, and Earnest Riis are also reporters. So much “special work,” or articles of general local interest, of a half literary quality, are required by our newspapers now, especially for their great Sunday editions, that the more successful reporters become almost inevitably magazine writers, as the magazines, especially the illustrated ones, want the same sort of matter. The Scribner’s will publish this spring “Cinderella and other Stories,” by Mr. Davis. One of our best writers of stories of western life, Owen Wister, is a grandson of Fanny Kemble. He was a class-mate of Henry Norman at Harvard University, and acted with him in the famous Greek play given there, the GEdipus. Nſr. Norman’s “The Near East” will be published this spring by the Scribner's. The May number of the Bookman will contain an article on Samuel L. Clemens called “Mark Twain as an Historical Novelist,” and about the same time the Harper's will announce officially that Mr. Clemens is the author of “The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc,” the series which ## p. (#608) ################################################ 254 THE AUTHOR. has been running in Harper's Monthly signed Louis Leconte, announced by the Harper's as by the most popular magazine writer in the world. This article will take the position that Mark Twain is one of the writers of permanent impor- tance, especially for his pictures of south-western American life. “The Adventures of Huckle- berry Finn’’ is the book in which Mark Twain has made the solidest pictures of the characteris- tics of the people of that region, especially of the attitude toward slavery and of the conditions which still cause the violent bloody feuds. Cosmopolis is being watched with interest here. The critics have treated it kindly, but its sale has not been great. Any periodical published at a high price must have a hard time at present to compete with the mass of cheap ones. It is pointed out, by the way, with significance varying according to the point of view of the critic, that of the four Americans who have been asked to contribute to Cosmopolis but one lives in this country, Albert Shaw ; Joseph Pennell, Henry James, and Harold Frederick all live abroad. It is generally believed here that Thomas Hardy tried to withdraw “Jude the Obscure " from the Harpers’ on account of the omissions upon which they insisted. The present attitude towards realistic studies of what we call un- pleasant subjects is shown by a decision just reached, and not yet made public, by the faculty of Yale University. A course on modern novels, including George Moore’s “Esther Waters,” and several others of a similar unconventionality, is to be suppressed next year on account of the amount of unfavourable comment aroused by it. *- 2. ~~ NOTES AND NEWS. \O the members of the Society desire a more direct representation—viz., by some form of election by themselves—in the manage- ment P They have been invited to forward names of persons willing to consider the subject; they have been promised, further, the selection of three such persons from the list. The totally un- expected result has been that not one single name has been sent in. This result may be interpreted in two ways: either as a proof that the members are satisfied with the management, or that the members are apathetic on the subject. Satisfac- tion is, T venture to think, the principal cause ; for if we guard the essentials, no change would make much difference. The essentials are that the managing body shall keep steadily to the original principles of the Society, that is, that light should be constantly thrown upon the meaning of pub- new departure. lishing; the cost of production ; the meaning of agreements; the meaning of royalties; the tricks of tricky or dishonest publishers; and, in fact, on all actual facts connected with the business side of literature. Those who are not concerned with literary property have nothing to do with the Society. For those who are, the Society will, I hope, however it is governed, continue to carry on the work of ascertaining and making public the facts as connected with the production and the distribution of literature. Given the preservation of the essentials I think it matters very little indeed how the Society is governed—whether by a dictator or a Parlia- ment. At the same time there must be changes in the constitution of every society from time to time. One change that I have myself desired very strongly is the election of women on the Council. I believe that a great many other members hold this view. Considering how many women writers are members of the Society: considering, further, the place held in modern literature by wom, n: it does seem absurd that a Society of Authors should have no women on its Council. At the next meeting of Council, if no more per- suasive person takes up the matter, I propose to bring it forward and to propose members. By the Articles of Association the number of the Council is limited to sixty—I have never understood why. We limit the number when we wish to confer a distinction. In this case the distinction is conferred not upon the members, but upon the Society. However, there is the limit laid down. Now, we desire to have on our Council (I) the persons most largely interested in literary property of various kinds; and (2) those persons able to bring special knowledge on the subject of literary property and its manage- ment. A deliberative body, it may be urged, must not be too large : there should be some limit : the Council, however, is seldom called upon to exercise deliberative functions: its chief purpose is to show the world, by the guarantee of well-known names, that we are in earnest, and to supply, from its body, new members for the committee of management. -->ecº- A correspondent speaks of the Committee of inquiry into educational books as if it were a Not at all. Educational books : have hitherto been taken just as they come, with other books. It appears that it has seemed to some as if the Society was principally occupied with fiction. That is partly because fiction is a very important branch of literary property: partly because writers of fiction have now become awakened to this fact : partly because the kind ## p. (#609) ################################################ THE 255 A UTHOR. and other books as the example is the very con- venient unit — the six-shilling book—in which most works of fiction now appear : but mainly because writers of educational works do not, as yet, half understand the value of their own works. Hence they have been led to sign agreements of the most monstrous kind—taking small royalties, deferred till thousands—literally thousands—of copies have been sold. There are many other points connected with the publishing of educa- tional books which require separate and careful investigation. The sub-committee hope to receive assistance during this investigation from those members who have published educational works. My correspondent asks that a wider range of subjects should be explicitly classified and repre- sented. If the writer will turn to the prospectus, to the annual reports, to everything published by the Society, he will find that the widest possible range is already claimed. We look upon literary property of every kind as our field : there is no limit as to fiction or anything else: literary property of every kind belongs to the range of the Society’s work. The reason why my corre- spondent feels himself in the wrong corner is, to repeat, simply that educational writers as a rule do not understand their own rights or the value of their own property: therefore their cases are not often sent to the Secretary, and therefore the columns of the Author have contained, so far, very little reference to educational subjects. We approach the conclusion of another volume of this journal, and I take the opportunity of speaking about arrangements for the future. Our correspondents at Paris and New York will continue their monthly letters: Mr. Thring will communicate a series of papers from his own experience on agreements and their meaning : the members will, it is hoped, contribute notes as to their forthcoming books, with letters and papers on points of personal experience: cases and legal actions bearing on literary property will be reported : we shall repeat certain things already published in these pages: such as the meaning of royalties: and we shall continue to present certain unanswered questions: as, for instance, to the equitable remuneration due for the administration of an author's work : i.e., in those cases where a royalty or profit-sharing agreement is accepted. The warnings and notices which have hitherto been presented with every number of the journal will be recast, with certain additions and alterations. And it is hoped to present instructions of a practical and simple, kind to the WOL. W.I. of book adopted in the “Cost of Production ” candidate for literary success. As the presenteditor, I wish to point out that one cannot hope to provide a paper every word of which will be approved |by all the readers : I beg them, however, to remember that the only raison d’être of the Author is the definition and the defence of literary property: so far as it does that it is the organ and mouthpiece of the Society : as for the rest, we cannot all think alike. Further, signed articles must be taken to represent only the views of the writer: and the editor cannot, clearly, be held responsible for the opinions of his correspondents. Finally, I hope to continue for 1896-97 the feuille- tons that used to please some of our members: they were stopped because the supply was stopped: and that stoppage was caused by the pressure of other work. . t A note will be found in “Book Talk,” extracted from the Athenaeum, on the belief that a publisher, or, indeed, even an author, can command a good review. This note deserves a little attention. Ihave on several occasions “struck” this singular belief, which I think is wide spread. People write to me—“Your well-known friendship with editors: your immense influence with publishers”—it is, indeed, immense: “Your knowledge of journal- ists, your &c., &c., will enable you to procure a good review for my new work.” It is of no use to get angry with people who write in this way; it is generally a proof of ignorance to believe the worst. On one occasion a certain person—an old acquaintance—sent me a book with the usual request for assistance. I replied that the only possible way was to send round press copies: to hope for good reviews: and to advertise. He showed my letter around. “I have known this man,” he said bitterly, “for forty years—and this is all he will do for me!” What else could one do for the man? His fixed belief—it is the fixed belief of many—was that a good review is just a matter of private interest—that and nothing more. On Saturday, March 28, died, at her resi- dence at Hampstead, a gentlewoman whose writings have endeared her name wherever the English language is spoken. I do not pretend that she was a great writer, but I do pretend that what she produced always possessed the true ring; was always charming; was always delicate and pure and elevating. Mrs. Charles, the widow of the late Mr. Andrew Paton Charles, whose brother is the present Mr. Justice Charles, was a woman of wide reading, of many friends, of deep sympathies. In religion she was a strong Anglican without a touch of narrowness: among her closest friends were Dean Stanley and Lady G. G. ## p. (#610) ################################################ 256 THE AUTHOR. Augusta, of whom she wrote a memoir: and the only enemies she had in the world were those whose writings “made ’’ for what she considered evil. It is a great happiness for the Church of England that it can, and does, produce women such as Mrs. Charles; souls so pure, so high- minded, so sincere. Others will no doubt follow her, but to those who knew Mrs. Charles no one can take her place. WALTER BESANT. *~ * → THE SONNET. The sonnet is a dainty gem of rhyme, Where ten sweet syllables may smoothly flow " Through fourteen lines, all neatly set a-row, And linked together with harmonious chime ; Where some grave poet, with a thought sublime, May teach a thousand listening hearts to glow ; Or, word by word, as fancies come and go, A lighter muse may charm the flight of time. Will Shakespere wrought it, all in purest gold; Austerer beauty grew 'neath Milton’s hand; 'Mid Wordsworth’s bays it glittered like a star: And thou, presumptuous pen, dar'st thou ? Withhold ! . . Nor dream to mingle with that deathless band, But humbly follow, thou, afar—afar ! ‘. CRESANDIA. *-- ~ *-* g- > -º FEUILLETONS. I.—THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL. ** * * HEN his friends heard that Walter - . Hawkins was engaged, most of them wondered how that industrious journalist had found time to fall in love. However, they agreed, his life would be the better for a flavour of romance in it, for his daily work was more than sufficiently prosaic. He reviewed novels— which he really did read—for one paper, put together pot-boiling descriptive articles for others, was “Our London Correspondent’’ to more than one provincial journal, and, by dint of great facility and astonishing powers of work, derived from these various sources an income of about six hundred pounds a year. Once only had he been known to take a holiday, and this he had employed in falling in love with all the ardour of a beginner at that pastime. holiday was run he had found himself an engaged Iſlän. The benevolent friends who, as their kindly custom is, wondered what on earth he’d seen “in that girl” to attract him spoke in this instance with more show of reason than usual. The only daughter of a well-to-do solicitor, Margaret Wycherley had passed most of her life in her parents’ home at Wimbledon, where, despite her Before the brief course of that environment, she developed theories about life of a delightfully visionary kind. She dabbled a little in painting, and spent much of her time in an aesthetically-furnished studio, wherein she read Ruskin and Rossetti, and dreamed about Ideal Art. Is it necessary to add that she was barely twenty P Walter's daily work in town prevented him from seeing very much of his fiancée during the week, but he so far relaxed his industry as to permit himself an occasional Saturday-to-Monday visit to Wimbledon. Occasionally Margaret. questioned him about his work, but he had fenced with the subject so far, feeling uncomfortably conscious that her canons of literary taste could scarcely be satisfied by a young journalist of the modern time. He himself, he remembered, had suffered from youthful delusions like hers; but, judging from his own experience, he felt certain that her views would become more practical and less idealistic after a year or two. One Sunday evening in July, as he and Margaret were slowly pacing up and down the garden after dinner, she began to talk on her favourite theme—the dignity and responsibility of the literary life. Walter made haste, for the sake of peace and quietness, to agree with every- thing she said, and even—after several ineffectual attempts to change the subject—to quote poetry in support of her views, feeling all the time that he was an outrageous hypocrite. Unfortu- nately, his apparent sympathy only encouraged Margaret to pass from the discussion of literary work in general to that of her lover in par- ticular. “You never send me any of your things to read,” she said, reproachfully. “But I’m sure they must be noble, like yourself.” Walter laughed, rather uneasily. “Well, dearest, I didn’t think they would be much in your line. They’re not noble, by any means. I’m not a poet, you see; in fact, I gave up. writing verses years ago.” - “But noble thoughts can be expressed in prose,” replied Margaret; “and it isn’t kind of ou to laugh at me. Do you think I’m not intellectual enough to appreciate your writing P” Walter protested that this wasn’t at all his view. On the contrary, he didn’t think his work was worth showing to her. “Still,” he added, “ of course, you shall see it, if you really care to. Let me see, there’s a paper of mine on Lady Bicyclists in Wednesday's Mirror, and an illustrated article on “How Pins are Made ’’ in this month’s Fleet Street. Then there’s that 2 3 - Margaret suddenly came to a halt, and turned towards him. “Walter!” she cried piteously, ## p. (#611) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 257 “don’t-don't tell me that you write things like that ” - - “Such is the appalling fact, I assure you. It's not very high-class literature, but it’s good, sound journalism, and pleases my editors.” “But—oh, that you should write trash of that kind | ** Now, not even a penny-a-liner likes his paragraphs to be called “trash.” So it was much to Walter's credit that he replied tenderly : “At any rate, Madge, it fills my pocket, and we couldn’t be married without its help. But don’t trouble about my work, darling. Let's talk about something else.” “But I must talk about your work,” exclaimed Margaret. “You have the power of writing, the most precious gift that man can possess, and you have—I am sure of it—the feelings and nature of a poet—how else could I have come to care for you ?—and yet you are content to stifle your better self, and to do the work of a literary hack. Walter, it is unworthy of you!” It may be conceded in extenuation of Hawkins's subsequent folly that the girl really did look very beautiful as she stood there with sparkling eyes and lips quivering with the earnestness of her appeal. “I’m afraid it's too late to change now,” he answered. “I did think once upon a time—but that's long ago. Besides, there's the money to be considered. You wouldn’t like to be the wife of a poor man.” “Of course I shouldn’t, but there’s no reason why your higher work shouldn't bring you mone as well as fame.” Walter shook his head doubt- fully. “Oh, but I’m a better judge than you suppose P And you did feel, you say, at one time the desire to write poetry P. How could you ever be false to that purpose ! But I’m sure it's not too late to return to it. Have you kept any of your poems ?” 4” “No,” replied the other; “none of the editors would have them, and so one day I burnt the lot. They seemed to me, then, precious poor stuff, though, of course, I thought them magnificent when I wrote them.” “Your second thoughts were worst, then. If only you had persevered, what splendid things you would have done by this time!” Walter reflected in silence for a few moments. Like almost every literary neophyte, he had written quantities of verse in his youth. In the light of a later wisdom they had seemed only the feeble and imitative efforts of a beginner. But supposing Margaret were right after all, and a higher path than that of journalism lay open to him P - “Well, Madge,” he replied at length, “perhaps there's something in what you say. Anyhow, I’ll have a try at verse again, if I can find time.” “You’re certain to fail if you make the attempt in that spirit,” said Margaret with much scorn. “Poetry demands a greater sacrifice than that. You must give up your present degrading work, and follow Art with all your power. I never realised before to-night, Walter, how far you had forsaken your ideal. I loved you chiefly because I thought that you were an artist, but I can never, never give myself to one who has deliberately abandoned his proper aim in life for the miserable sake of making money. Let me help to recall you to the better way. You cannot really like your present employment—will it be so hard to leave it for Art’s sake and mine P’’ Walter listened to all this eloquence in some bewilderment. It had not occurred to him that anyone could reproach him for earning by honest hard work a sufficient income wherewith to sup- port himself and his future wife. She, indeed, would have some money of her own, but still He turned desperately to Margaret. “Tell me exactly what you want me to do,” he said humbly. “Do you need to ask P You must give up this cheap and nasty newspaper work. You must write, not for the sake of filling so many columns, but as inspiration moves you. You must look deep into your own soul, and enrich humanity with noble thoughts. Consecrate your- self to Art — thus will you lead the Ideal Tlife ” As she spoke, the last faint tints of sunset were dying out of the western sky, the stars were beginning to show overhead. A gentle evening breeze had sprung up, and all the air was fragrant with the scent of flowers. And there stood Margaret beside him in the twilight, her fair face raised pleadingly toward his own. What wonder that the sober journalist was thrown off his mental balance, that the girl’s earnestness raised an answering glow in his heart, that he saw an impossible vision of his own career as a poet, enabled to do splendid things by his own dormant powers, stimulated by his wife's divine sympathy P Everyone is a fool now and then, and many of us with far less justification for our folly than Walter. He stooped over Margaret and kissed her tenderly. - “You have indeed inspired me, darling,” he said. “I will do as you wish me. Only, I’m afraid 2 3 “No l’’ cried Margaret, “say nothing more. You will—you must succeed. Oh, Walter, how happy we shall be ” - ## p. (#612) ################################################ 258 THE AUTHOR. It is one thing to make an heroic promise to a charming young lady in the summer twilight; it is quite another to keep it in the stress and hurry of everyday life. As Walter journeyed up to London next morning, he reflected with some dismay on the course to which he had committed himself. What would his editors think of him; how would his friends regard this new departure ? He put aside these uncomfortable reflections, and began to read his daily paper. In it he chanced on a paragraph which suggested a capital subject for an article. He had already drawn his note. book from his pocket with the intention of jotting down the idea, when he suddenly replaced it with a guilty start. For the moment he had forgotten his compact of the previous night, but hence- forth he was to write no more newspaper articles. He reached Waterloo in an extremely despondent frame of mind, walked quickly to his chambers in the Temple, and sat down to his writing- table to produce the soulful poetry which alone would satisfy Margaret's ambition for him. Some days later a number of men were gathered in the smoking-room of the “Pen and Ink” club, of which Walter was a member. There you may find any day at luncheon-time a miscellaneous assemblage of literary men, a sprinkling of well- known novelists, a stray editor or two, a wander- ing “Paris correspondent,” and certain humble journalists whose ambitions scarcely go further than the writing of paragraphs at three halfpence a line. “Has anyone seen Hawkins lately P” asked Johnson, the well-known critic, from his arm- chair by the fireplace. “He’s not been here for some time.” “No,” said another man; “and have you heard the extraordinary stories about him P. He must be mad, if they’re at all true. I hear he's been throwing up his commissions right and left— refused an article for Fleet Street which he had promised ages ago—declined a first-class offer for a series from the Trifler, and so on. What on earth’s come to the chap P” Johnson whistled softly. “Ah, I thought that might happen. Do any of you men know the girl he's engaged to ? No! Well, if you did, you’d understand.” - He broke off suddenly, for the door opened, and Walter himself appeared, looking very ill and worried. - “ Hullo, Hawkins,” said a novelist called Manby, breaking the rather awkward silence that followed Walter's entrance; “we were just wondering what had become of you. Have you seen my new book P. Give it a good notice in the Mirror, there’s a good chap.” Walter smiled faintly. “Delighted to do so, I’m sure, only, you see, I’ve left the Mirror.” “What ?” chorused the rest in astonishment. “Yes, it’s quite true—no, Manby, no one's left me a fortune—wish they had. The fact is, that I have come to see how degrading a profession is journalism, and I’m going to have nothing more to do with it.” Johnson shook his head sadly, while the others stared at Walter in blank amazement. “But, great heavens, man l’’ cried one of them, “you must be making near a thousand a year out Of it.” “I am going to devote myself to true literature —to essays, to poetry.” There was a roar of laughter at this announce- ment. But Johnson sat up in his chair and turned round impatiently. “This is no laughing matter,” he said shortly. “Look here, Hawkins, let me entreat you not to be an infatuated ass. I can guess pretty well where you got this mad idea "–Walter reddened —“Yes, I thought so. Well, how much do you intagine your—your adviser really knows? All that high-flown talk about Art is sheer rot for a man like you. Some of us are made to be poets, and others to be journalists. The mistaken editors seem to think you're a good journalist—no one could ever suspect you of being even a tolerable poet. Take your inoney, and be precious thank- ful you can get it. And, for heaven's sake, don’t throw up your chance in life and behave like a raving lunatic.” Walter looked at him indignantly. “You don’t know what what you're talking about,” he exclaimed. “Of course, you don’t understand— how should you?—the pure joy of pursuing Ideal Art. Anyhow, I’ve done with journalism for ever,” and with these words he left the room, It would be too painful to dwell minutely on the next two months of Walter Hawkins’ life. Hardly any of his friends saw him during that period; he spent his days in miserable solitude, racking his brains for poetical thoughts, looking for the inspiration which never came. He did, indeed, manage to compose a few short poems of a kind, which he offered to the magazines under a pseudonym. But their prompt rejection was not necessary to convince him of their exceeding badness; he knew already in his own heart that they were worthless. As almost his entire income had been derived from journalism, his lot was speedily changed from that of a well-to-do bachelor to that of a very poor man. During these two months he did not once visit Wimbledon, for it would have been impossible for him to do so without confessing ## p. (#613) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 259 his failure to Margaret, and that might greatly change her feelings towards him. He wrote to her, however, from time to time, and at last was driven to explain that their marriage could not take place until he had managed in some way or other to secure an income. But he still hoped to succeed ultimately. - Margaret's reply to this letter did not greatly comfort him ; in fact, it seemed a little cold and heartless. She was sorry to hear that he was not making money, but she fully agreed that it would never do to marry unless they had plenty to live upon. Still, she was glad that he was striving patiently after true Art. Had he, by the way, read a little book of poems entitled “Heart - Throbs,” by Eustace Vanborough P If so, he would do well to take them for his model, they were so full of noble and beautiful thoughts. When “Heart-Throbs,” an elegant volume, beautifully printed and bound, arrived a few days later, Walter glanced at a few lines of it, and then flung it into the waste-paper basket. It was the most feeble, affected nonsense imaginable. Then he rose from his chair, and walked restlessly up and down his room. “Can Johnson have been right?” he thought. “Have I made a hideous mistake? Margaret’s view seemed far nobler than my own, and yet she admires that balderdash.” He took the volume out of the waste-paper basket again. “‘By Eustace Wanborough.” What an idiot the man must be l’’ Then he came back to his own position. “After all,” he reflected, “I have made this sacrifice for Madge’s sake, and so long as I have her love, nothing else can matter very much. And who knows whether she is not right— whether I shall not succeed—— ” There was a knock at the door, and his friend Johnson entered. “Came to see how you were getting on. How is—er, the Ideal Art prospering P Are you coming back to journalism P. " Walter groaned. “It’s no use your coming here,” he said. “I know you mean well, but it’s not a bit of good. You know—you said so that day at the club—who has made me change my work P” Johnson here.” “Well, I don’t mind confessing to you that I’m not sure whether her theories are right, at any rate for me. But if you loved that girl as I do, you would be content to follow her wishes blindly. Nothing you can say will make me alter my intention. I’ve resigned my income and my position as a journalist for her sake, and as long nodded. “Yes — that's why I'm as Miss Wycherley exists, I ask nothing better than to please her in every way I can.” “Quite so,” replied Johnson drily; “your senti- ments do you much credit, I’m sure. But as Miss Wycherley exists no longer —— ” “What 2" gasped Walter, growing deadly bale. pal Don’t excite yourself—she isn’t dead—far from it. Surely you must have heard P Why, she married the fellow who calls himself Eustace Wanborough this morning !” II.-IN THE NAME OF THE PROPHET-DESKs. There were once two shops on opposite sides of the street. They were both devoted to the sale of writing-desks – rosewood or mahogany, brass bound. One of these shops was avowedly run in order to make money, if possible; the other was run on the highest religious princi- ples possible, with prayers when the directors met, solely for thesake of spreading abroad true religion. Nothing could be more noble than the objects of this shop. Its friends called it the House Venerable; the manager they called the Hammer of Injquity; of him it was reported that at the mere sight of him Dissent curled and Infidelity. lay down and died. Now, at the first shop—the secular, worldly shop, whose interests were earthly and grovelling—the desks in the window were greatly superior to those in the window of the other shop. They were so much better that nobody would step across the street to look at the Christian writing-desks. Perhaps the reason was that, at the earthly, worldly shop the man who made the desk was paid for his desk a sum of money which was uniformly calculated on a certain proportion to the price for which the desk was sold. Thus, if a desk was to be priced at 50s., that irreligious proprietor gave the workman 25s. As he always took off large discounts and some- times sold his desks wholesale to the trade, the proprietor made a profit of no more than 158. to the workman’s 25s., so that the latter was quite satisfied, and put in his best work, and brought all his desks to this shop. At the other shop the workman was beaten down —of course, in the Cause of Pure Religion. If he was in necessity, he was offered a third, a quarter, an eighth of the price of 50s. In any case he was beaten down: he was offered a far lower price than he could get across the road. These two shops are still going on. But the desks in the House Venerable, which is managed by the Hammer of Iniquity, are reported to be growing daily worse and worse. *-* -º - - -n ## p. (#614) ################################################ 26o THE AUTHOR. BOOK TALK. M* WILLIAM LE QUEUX has almost finished “A Romance of the Land of No Return,” as the sub-title has it, called “The Eye of Istár.” He has also on hand a new novel for serial pu lication entitled “Devil's Dice.” The author of “Charles Dickens by Pen and Pencil,” Mr. F. G. Kitton, is engaged upon a new work dealing with the illustrations in the various editions of the novelist's writings. A third series of “Eighteen-Century Wignettes,” by Mr. Austin Dobson, is shortly to be published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus. Mrs. Marshall is writing a story of the period of the Jacobite rising in 1715, which Messrs. Seeley will issue. A new volume of stories by Mr. W. B. Yeates will be published immediately by , Messrs. Lawrence and Bullen. “George Egerton’’ is at work on a study called “The Hazard of the Ill,” which will appear this summer. a volume of short stories before leaving in the early autumn to join her husband in South Africa. A romance of African adventure called “The Oracle of Baal,” by J. Provand Webster, who herein makes his début, is announced by Messrs. Hutchinson for speedy publication. Mr. Robert Hichens has a new volume of stories in the press, entitled “The Folly of Eustace.” (Heinemann.) The popular thirst for information about the British Navy is at length to be gratified, as the publication of an exhaustive history is announced by Messrs. Sampson Low. Mr. W. Laird Clowes is the editor of the work, and the contributors include the foremost writers on naval matters. In the first volume the story of the Navy will be told from the beginning down to the Elizabethan period. An uncommon form of literary censorship is reported to have taken place at the Kingston Workhouse. A parcel of books for the inmates had been presented, consisting, it would appear, mostly of works which gave anything but enter- taining leading. Two of the guardians — a clergyman of the Church and a Nonconformist minister — after examining them, cast aside about one hundred and fifty as unsuitable. “Why?” asked the Chairman. “Because,” was the reply, “they are extremely dry theological works,” She will also have ready The following, from “A Publisher,” appeared in the Athenæum of the 14th ult.:— I lately had occasion to inform an author that his book, so far from having produced any profit, as he expected, had not paid expenses. In reply (I quote textually) he says, “Perhaps if you get somebody even now to give the book a good review, the remaining copies might be sold.” May authors, I have often suspected, have a Sneaking belief that a publisher keeps a stock of “good reviewers” as part of his regular staff, but I never met with such a naïve expression of the belief before. Mr. John O'Leary’s “Recollections of Fenian- ism,” will be published in two volumes by Messrs. Downey, probably this month, and also a volume of reminiscences by Mr. W. P. O'Brien, entitled “'The Great Famine.” “The Queen's Prime Ministers,” by the Hon. Reginald Brett, will be published immediately by Messrs. Macmillan. Other books from this firm will include a series of anecdotal sketches by Baron Ferdinand Rothschild, entitled “Personal Characteristics from French History ‘’’; and “A System of Medicine,” written by various autho- rities and edited by Dr. Allbutt, Regius Pro- fessor of Physics in the University of Cambridge. The discovery of a parcel of valuable old books is reported from the Cams Hall Estate, Hamp- shire. Among them are some of Caxton's, dating from 1474 to 1494, including “Justinian’s Law,” a later copy of which recently changed hands in London for over £IOOO. The books were found in a cupboard by Mr. M. H. Foster, the new proprietor, and are all in good condition. In a recent book sale at Sotheby’s, Goldsmith's “Deserted Village,” 1770, first edition, uncut, brought 345; “Paradise Tost,” 1667, first edition, presentation copy from Milton to his “loving friend” Mr. Francis Rea, 3885; and St. Jerome's “Epistles,” printed by Schiffer, 1470, on fine vellum, 38o. Mr. Clement Shorter is editing for Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Co. a series of Nineteenth Century Classics. The first volume will be “Sartor Resartus,” for which Professor T)owden writes an introduction ; the next two will also be Carlyle's, namely, “Heroes and Hero-Worship ’’ and “Past and Present,” with introductions by Mr. Gosse and Mr. Frederic Harrison respectively. These will be followed by Matthew Arnold’s poems, Mrs. Browning’s “Prometheus Bound,” and Mrs. Gaskell’s “Cranford.” A new year-book of London, “The London Manual,” in which the functions of all public bodies in the metropolis will be explained for the benefit of the ratepayers, is about to appear from the offices of London. It will have maps and diagrams, and will cost one shilling, ## p. (#615) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 261 Mr. Edward Carpenter's new volume of essays, which is to be published shortly by Mr. Dobell, will be entitled “Love's Coming of Age.” Mrs. Meynell is publishing in book form, through Mr. Lane, a number of her essays which have ap- peared in “The Wares of Autolycus’ column of the Pall Mall Gazette. The title is “The Colour of Life.” An account of the life and times of Alexander Russel, of the Scotsman, ought to be a con- siderable contribution to the political and social history of Scotland, and particularly of Edin- burgh. Such a work has been undertaken by Sheriff Campbell Smith, of Dundee, who knew Russel and wrote articles in his columns. There will be in May a volume of short stories by Marie Corelli, under the title of “Cameos' (Hutchinson). An illustrated book on “Notable Welsh Musicians,” by Mr. Frederic Griffith, will shortly be published by Mr. Francis Goodwen, 47, Leadenhall-street, E.C. The work will be rather of a descriptive than a critical character, and will notice alike the composers, the instrumentalists, and the vocalists in the musical community of Wales. Rarely a month passes without a Stevenson item or two. This time the record includes a volume of “Wailima Table-Talk,” which Mrs. Strong and Mr. Lloyd Osbourne have edited. Stevenson, it appears, consented to be “taken down" in his everyday utterances, and inclined to make a joke of it. Secondly, a new essay, which has been found among his papers, is to appear in the summer issue of the Illustrated London News. A history of architecture, written by Professor Banister Fletcher and Mr. Banister F. Fletcher, will be published shortly by Mr. B. T. Bats- ford. It will be illustrated chiefly by collotype plates. Lady Lindsay is about to bring out, through Messrs. Longmans, a new volume of verse entitled “The Flower Sellers.” Mr. Bliss Car- men's new volume and Mr. Percy Hemingway's “The Happy Wanderer” are to be published soon by Mr. Mathews, in whose “Shilling Gar- land ” Series will appear “Christ in Hades,” by Mr. Stephen Phillips. Mr. A. Barnard Miall is the author of a book of “Nocturnes and Pastorals,” which will be published by Mr. Smithers. The verse of the near future will also include Mr. Kipling's new volume. At the annual meeting of the Royal Literary Fund it was reported that forty-three grants, representing £1905, had been awarded during 1895, males receiving £1 185 and females 3720. Thirteen were to novelists, eight to authors of historical and biographical works, and eight to classical literature and educational authors. The fund has now £51,912 invested, yielding an income of £1676. The past month had a fairly large and un- usually interesting output of new books. Mr. Lecky's large work “Democracy and Liberty” was published by Messrs. Longmans, and Dr. Traill’s “Life of Sir John Franklin” by Mr. Murray. In travel there was Captain Young- husband’s “The Heart of a Continent” (Murray); while the social and dramatic world welcomed “A Few Memories” (Osgood), by the famous actress who was Mary Anderson. Mr. Crockett's “Cleg Kelly” appeared, and Mrs. Hodgson Burnett’s “A Lady of Quality.” Mr. James St. Loe Strachey, the well-known Spectator writer, has been appointed editor of the Cornhill Magazine in succession to Mr. James Payn, who has had to relinquish the position because of continued ill-health. This old-established sixpenny monthly will now be raised to Is. Mr. H. S. Salt, who is already known for works on Shelley, is about to issue a biographical study, “Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poet and Pioneer,” in which he will claim that the verdict of time has not only pronounced Shelley to be a great poet, but has also corroborated his social and religious views. The work will be published in London by Mr. W. Reeves. An American paper recently asked why did not some British journal get Olive Schreiner to tell its readers all about life in the Transvaal. The hint has been taken or anticipated, for the authoress begins in the April number of the Fortnightly Review a series of articles on “The Boers of the Transvaal.” Miss Beatrice Harraden contributes to the new number of Blackwood’s Magazine the opening chapters of a story of California entitled “Hilda Strafford,” while Chapman's will have the first instalment of “The Herb Moon,” by John Oliver Hobbes. ‘H pumópova (stepmother) of Gregorios Xeno- poulos will be issued from the “Bodley Head” during this season, done into English by Mrs. Edmonds; also a one-volume novel by Mrs. Edmonds, entitled “Links in a Chain,” will be published by Messrs. Jarrold and Sons. Hilton Hill's novel, “His Egyptian Wife,” which has enjoyed a large sale for a first book, has just been issued in a 2s. railway edition. Mr. Hill has ready a new novel, which will be ## p. (#616) ################################################ 262 THE AUTHOR. published in the autumn, like his first book, simultaneously in London and New York. We are glad to learn that Annabel Gray's book “Comrades,” recently published by Messrs. Drane and Chant, has met with so much success that the publishers will shortly issue a second edition. In “Phinlay Glenelg's' Maxims in last number of the Author, amend one line as follows: War is more a manner of emotion than a matter of reason. Mrs. E. Rentoul Ester's novel “The Way of Transgressors” has just appeared in a new edi- tion (Sampson Low and Co.). Mrs. Ester's new book “The Wardlaws” (which Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co. will publish immediately) treats of an Irish family of long descent. It will pro- bably be found to occupy comparatively new ground on topics Hibernian. “The Saint of Poverty,” a drama founded on the life of Frances of Assisi, by Henry N. Maughan, will be issued very shortly by Mr. Elliot Stock. The Roxburghe Press will issue, almost imme- diately, a volume entitled “Carina Songs ’’ and others, by Miss Amy C. Morant; a lady who is identified with most of the labour and social movements of the time. Mr. John Milne, late of Wilsons and Milne, Paternoster Row, has resumed publishing at Amberley House, Norfolk-street, Strand. It is his intention to issue works of a popular kind, and he is now making up a list of entirely original books of sport, travel, biography, adven- ture, fiction, and other light forms of literature. Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s article on “Danish versus English Butter-making,” which appeared in the Fortnightly, last May, has gone through several developments. It was afterwards enlarged and brought out as a pamphlet (Horace Cox) the result of which being that Mrs. Tweedie spoke on Agriculture—or more properly speaking dairy- ing—at the meeting of the Grand Council of Women at St. Martin’s Town Hall lately, when she advocated the formation of a Women's British Produce League for the encouragement of home trades generally, and more particulary to keep the £14,000,000 a year in this country which is paid out annually for dairy produce alone. She suggested women taking up dairying as a profession. A correspondent of the Bookseller suggests that as it is doubtful whether this year a dinner will be held in connection with the Booksellers' Provident Institution, a dinner representative of the three branches – author, publisher, and book- seller—should be held instead. If representative, he says, its permanent success should be as much assured as the annual dinner of the Royal Academy. Mrs. Elizabeth Rundle Charles, author of “The Chronicles of the Schönberg-Cotta Family” and other well-known works, died at her residence, Combe Edge, Hampstead, on Saturday afternoon. She came of an old Devonshire family, and was brought up in an ancient manor house near Tavistock, which town her father, Mr. John Rundle, represented for nine years in Parliament. She was born in Jan. 1828, at Tavistock, and began writing when she was twenty-two. Her first book was a translation from Neander, “Ilight in Dark Places: Memorials of Christian Life in the Middle Ages.” In 1851 she married Mr. Andrew Paton Charles, a brother of the present Mr. Justice Charles, who died in 1868. Mrs. Charles was a woman of considerable learning as well as of deep religious feeling, and she united marked literary ability with a strong, but sym- pathetic, Anglicanism. Encouraged by a certain modest success, Mrs. Charles went on writing. She published “Tales and Sketches of Christian Life in Different Lands and Ages,” 1851; “The Two Vocations,” 1853; “The Cripple of Antioch,” 1855; “The Song without Words,” 1856; “The Voice of Christian Life in Song” and “Sketches of Hymns and Hymn-Writers,” 1858; “The Three Wakings,” 1859; “Wanderings over Bible Lands and Seas” and “The Martyrs of Spain,” 1862; and “Sketches of Christian Life in England in the Olden Time,” in 1864. In 1864, also, she published “Chronicles of the Schönberg- Cotta Family.” This book was reviewed in the Times with warm eulogium, and it achieved at Once great popular success, which has continued to the present day. In America, the book was extensively pirated. Her “Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevelyan,” 1865, was also widely read. Her. other works include : “Winifred Bertram and the World She Lived In,” 1866; “The Draytons and the Davenants’’ and “On Both Sides of the Sea : a Story of the Commonwealth and Restoration,” 1867; “The Women of the Gospels,” 1868; “Watchwords for the Warfare of Life,” 1869; “Diary of Brother Bartholo- mew,” 1870; “The Victory of the Wanquished,” 1871; “The Cottage by the Cathedral,” 1872; “Against the Stream,” 1873; “The Bertram Family ’’ and “Conquering and to Conquer,” 1876; “Lapsed, but not Lost,” 1877; “Joan the Maid,” 1879; “Sketches of the Women of Christendom,” 1880. Mrs. Rundle Charles knew many distinguished Churchmen, including Dr. Pusey, Archbishop Tait, Dr. Liddon, Professor Jowett, and Charles Kingsley. She was particu- ## p. (#617) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 263 larly intimate with Dean Stanley and his wife, and she wrote a slight, but admirable, sketch of Lady Augusta Stanley's life. She was also the author of several popular hymns. Many of her books have been translated into German and Swedish. Of late years she did not write much, but recently she published a work on the black-letter saints, and last year appeared “Ecce Homo, Ecce Rex,” from her pen.—Times, March 30. e <3 LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS, MR. Low ELL IN ENGLAND. George W. Smalley. Harper’s for April. CANDOUR IN BIOGRAPHY. Wilfrid Ward. New Review for April. NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY. Leslie Stephen. National Review for March. MATTHEW ARNOLD. Frederic Harrison. Nineteenth Century for March. HERR SUDERMANN’s NOVELS. Fortnightly Review for April. THE PLAYS OF HROSWITHA. Review for March. ROBERT BURNS. for April. PEPYS AND EVELYN. April. THOMAS GENT, PRINTER. Austin Dobson. Magazine for April. MATTHEW ARNOLD’s POETRY. March 14. DEAF AND DUMB HEROES IN FICTION. Correspondence of Cuming Walters and the author of “In a Silent World.” Athenæum for Feb. 22 and March 21. M. ZoDA’s FROG. Speaker for March 7. THE ELDER. DUMAs. Emily Crawford. Century Maga- zine for March. ON AN AUTHOR’s CHOICE OF COMPANY. Wilson. Century Magazine for March. MR. HALL CAINE ON CANADIAN COPYRIGHT. Goldwin Smith. Letter to the Times of Feb. 29. LIVING CRITICS.–VI. Mr. Coventry Patmore. R. Garnett. Bookman for March. THE ETHICS OF MODERN JOURNALISM. Aline Gorren. Scribner’s for April. NOTABLE REVIEWS. Of Saintsbury’s “History of Nineteenth Century Litera- ture.” C. M. Hereford. Bookman for March. Of Crawfurd’s “Lyrical Verse from Elizabeth to Wic- toria.” Athemaewm for March 7. Of Frederick Tennyson’s “Poems of the Day and Year.” Athenaewm for March 21. Of “Brother and Sister” (The Renans). Daily Chronicle for March 25. Of Professor Bury’s “Gibbon.” Daily Chronicle for March 19. Of Lecky’s “Democracy and Liberty.” March 24. Mr. Goldwin Smith writes to the Times con- tradicting Mr. Hall Caine by saying that there was no “five years' outcry" in Canada, and no more excitement about the liberty of “self-mis- Janet E. Hogarth. G. de Dubor. Fortnightly D. F. Hannigan. Westminster Review E. E. Kitton. Atalanta for Longman's Saturday Review for Woodrow Frederic Harrison. Daily News for government” than about the question of copyright itself. Further, that the “marvellous unanimity” of the Canadian Parliament on the Act of 1889 was the unanimity of ignorance and indifference. “The Canadian Copyright Act, even supposing it to be intra vires, might with perfect safety have been disallowed as contrary to imperial policy, and subversive of the rights of subjects of the empire. It is really provoking to think of the smallness of the force which has given rise to all this trouble.” The company which an author should keep is the theme of Mr. Woodrow Wilson. While he lives a man can keep the company of the masters whose words contain the mystery of the entrance to the community of letters—and open it to those who can see almost with every accent, and in such company it may at last be revealed to him. Two tests admit to that company, namely, Are you individual? Are you conversable? He must speak with an individual note; and he must speak in such speech and spirit as can be under- stood from age to age, and not in the pet terms and separate spirit of a single day and generation. “Frequent the company in which you may learn. the speech and the manner which are fit to last. Take to heart the admirable example you shall See set you there of using speech and manner to speak your real thought and be genuinely and simply yourself.” Mr. Smalley thinks that Lowell's life in London is a much misunderstood part of his career. TI erefore the present article. In an introduction to a collection of some of the poet's letters, to be issued shortly, he will go into the subject more fully. Meanwhile he points out the important change which London made upon the character of Lowell. The recluse ceased to be a recluse; he perceived that a knowledge of men and of what is best in men was to be had otherwise than from books; he became a diner-out ; he was ripened, he got courage. The Lowell that came from Madrid “never would have written or never have delivered that essay on Democracy which probably reached the whole English mind as no other ever did.” Mr. Smalley, who was an intimate and long-standing friend, has much to say of Lowell's charity: “anybody could extract a letter from him as they could a five pound note;” “yet, if a man presumed upon his kindliness so far as to talk nonsense in bad English, or to be slovenly in his facts, woe unto him l’’ This disposition Mr. Smalley attributes to Lowell's inexhaustible faith in human nature, though surely the literary agent of to-day, if asked to explain his raison d’étre, might point to Lowell's case as sufficient answer (if “inexhaustible faith in human nature” be ruled out as not, primá facie, practicable):— ## p. (#618) ################################################ 264 THE AUTHOR. He had no notion of accounts and no capacity for private business. From the beginning, like Renan, he took what his publishers offered him for his books or other writings, and thanked God it was no less. Long after they ought to have brought him a handsome income he was content with a fixed moderate sum. When the Century and other magazines in later days sent him large cheques for verses and essays which he thought too slight for such ample pay, he seemed astonished at this wise liberality, and more than once protested. The early letters show him writing for almost nothing. As for Lowell’s ideas on style, the following single sentence, says Mr. Smalley, is more expres- sive than many an essay on the subject. Mr. Smalley had asked him to admit that Pepys, unscholarly and slovenly as he is, had often a power of expressing himself with effect and point:— Says Lowell: “I admit that Pepys was capable of writing good sentences when he tried. But Gray, for example, couldn’t write a clumsy one without trying, and this is what I mean by style.” [Again :] “Pepy's language, you must remember, has the freshness of being nowadays unfamiliar. There is a good deal of originality in having learned one’s English two hundred and fifty years ago, as Lamb discovered.” Mr. Frederic Harrison examines Matthew Arnold as poet, as critic, and as philosopher. As a poet, he says, Arnold is saturated with the clasical genius more than any in the roll of litera- ture (unless it be Milton), although his poetry is essentially modern in thought, and has all that fetishistic worship of natural objects which is the true note of the Wordsworthian school. It is perplexing that no sooner does Arnold pass into philosophy, into politics, into theology, than he disclaims any system, principles, or doctrines of any kind. His exquisite taste, his serene sense of equity, and his genial magnanimity made him a consummate critic of style, though “neither as theologian, philosopher, and publicist was he at all adequately equipped by genius or by edu- cation for the office of supreme arbiter which he so airily and perhaps so humorously assumed to fill. On the matter of criticism we extract the following from Mr. Harrison's paper:— The function of criticism—though not so high and mighty as Arnold proclaimed it with superb assurance—is not so futile an art as the sixty-two minor poets and the eleven thousand minor novelists are now wont to think it. Arnold committed one of the few extravagances of his whole life when he told us that poetry was the criticism of life, that the function of criticism was to see all things as they really are in themselves—the very thing Kant told us we could never do. On the other hand, too much of what is now called criticism is the improvised chatter of a raw lad portentously ignorant of the matter in hand. It is not the “indolent” reviewer that we now suffer under, but the lightning reviewer, the young man in a hurry with a Kodak, who finally disposes of a new work on the day of its publica- tion. One of them naïvely complained the other morning of having to cut the pages, as if we ever suspected that he cut the pages of more than the preface and table of contents. The Saturday Review article agrees with Mr. Harrison that Arnold's poetry will be longest remembered, and says incidentally that as one reflects on Mr. Swinburne's remarkable prescience as shown by his estimates (to give three) of Arnold, Dante Rossetti, and Christina Rossetti published many years ago, one regrets the more that Mr. Swinburne does not speak his mind as to the prospects of English poetry in the immediate future. The German novel, like the German nation, is still im werden, says the writer of the estimate of Sudermann in the Fortnightly. She points out, however, that Herr Sudermann has made a great. advance within the last ten years, and predicts for him a wider audience than the German. “It is a remarkable coincidence,” she continues, “that his best literary work should date from the period when he made his first appearance as a dramatic author. From that time, too, dates seemingly his popular recognition as a novelist.” His salvation in literature may have been, therefore, in learning, as a dramatist, to make his effect and make it directly. One important lesson, the writer explains in the following passage, Sudermann has been taught in his advance:— The affinity is clear between “Der Katzensteg” and that most singularly ugly play “Sodom’s Ende,” but since then Herr Sudermann has repented. He has learned to subordinate external nature to that interplay of character which might perhaps be not inaptly called morality. tº º “Man must begin, know this, where nature ends.” That. is the true answer to the naturalism of “Der Katzensteg,” and that is the lesson which the proper study of mankind had not failed to teach Herr Sudermann. Mr. Wilfrid Ward (who, by the way, is engaged on the Life of Cardinal Wiseman) sup- ports the view that there should be discreet. selection on the part of the biographer in pub- lishing documents, and considers it fortunate that the class of biography which leaves nothing unsaid which would tell in a man’s favour is more common than that which omits nothing which tells against him. Mr. Leslie Stephen indicates the value of the national dictionary of biography as preserving the commemorative instinct, and also shows how it is an amusing work. The writer on Journalism in Scribner's is concerned particularly with that of America, the personal and unliterary element of which is regarded as a result of the social system ; and European journalism is to be Americanised shortly. ## p. (#619) ################################################ THE 265 A UTHOR. TESTIMONIAL TO MR, GEORGE KNOTTES- FORD FORTESCUE. COMMITTEE has been formed of the following gentlemen:—Dr. Samuel Raw- son Gardiner (chairman and treasurer); the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kinns (hon. secretary); the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Ripon; the Right Hon. Lord Ribblesdale, P.C.; Sir Henry H. Howorth, K.C.I.E., M.P.; Sir George Sitwell, Bart.; Prof. W. J. Courthope, C.B.; the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, M.A.; Mr. T. B. Browning, M.A., of the Canadian Bar; Mr. Samuel Butler, B.A.; Mr. Alexander H. Grant, M.A.; Mr. Sidney Lee; and Mr. Alexander Macdonald, C.S.; to present Mr. George Knottesford Fortescue, the late superintendent of the reading room of the British Museum, with an illuminated address expressive of the readers' hearty appreciation of the ability and courtesy which he manifested in the performance of the duties of his office during the past eleven years, and also of the important service he has rendered to students by the com- pilation of the “Subject Catalogue,” a work of no little magnitude, involving considerable labour and care. The late Dr. George Bullen, when keeper of the printed books, tells us, in an introductory note to this catalogue, that it was compiled under his sanction, and adds:—“This useful work forms a nearer approximation to a general index of current literature than has yet been attempted. It remains for me to add that it has been compiled by Mr. Fortescue solely, and for the most part when away from the museum during non-official hours.” The committee would be very glad if any of the readers who are disposed to contribute a small sum towards this purpose, not exceeding 2s. 6d., would kindly give it to the treasurer or any member of the committee; or send it to the Hon. Secretary, at his private address, 182, Haverstock- hill, Hampstead. *~ - 2–’ z- * ~ BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 1895. HE number of publications issued in the course of last year almost exactly coincides with the output of its predecessor. We have to record an increase of thirty-one only. Theology shows a slight increase. In education the total is a little more than before. Works of fiction show a slight decline from the prodigious record for 1894, which, including new editions, furnished the reader of imaginative literature with about six fresh books for every week-day in the year. In political economy, trade, &c., the figures are somewhat higher than before Arts and sciences show a small decrease in their figures. Works of travel and adventure are also less in number than previously. History and biography in 1895 are largely in excess of the production of 1894. Of poetry we have nearly 50 per cent. more books. Serials somewhat decreased. Medi- cine and surgery show a rather remarkable in- crease in number. In general literature the figures do not call for remark, and miscellaneous publications are nearly the same in 1895 as they were in 1894. As our readers will observe, we have this year made one category of novels and juvenile works, both of these kinds being works of imagination, and very difficult at times to discriminate from the mere titles of the books. The analytical table is divided into thirteen classes; also new books and new editions: 1894. 1895. Divisions. a-— —A- -—, 2-——— New New New New Books. Editions. Books. |Editions. Theology, Sermons, Biblical, &c. - 476 80 501 69 Educational, Clas- sical, and Philo- logical - - - 615 127 660 111 Novels, Tales, and Juvenile Works... 1,584 366 1,544 347 Law, Jurisprudence, &c. * * * . . . . 126 23 57 33. , Political and Social Economy, Trade and Commerce ... 141 21 163 23. Arts, Sciences, and Illustrated Works 98 30 96 16. Voyages, Travels, Geographical Re- search ... - - - 282 68 263 75 History, Biography, &c. * * * . . . . 256 58 353 68. Poetry and the Drama ... - - - 160 21 231 16 Year - Books and Serials in Volumes 328 2 311 - Medicine, Surgery, - - &c. a º e - - - 97 59 153 53 Belles-Lettres, Es- says, Monographs, &c. 370 115 400 42 Miscellaneous, in- cluding Pamph- lets, not Sermons 767 215 749 182 5,300 1,185 5,581 935 5,300 5,581 6,485 6,516 — Publishers’ Circular. ## p. (#620) ################################################ 266 THE AUTHOR. CORRESPONDENCE, I.—ConstructION AND CHARACTER. WRITER of largely circulated fiction once A told me bluntly that his calling was a trade. I have heard the same avowal from an author whose work is taken more seriously. - Certainly the trade-test is not generally accepted by novelists or by critics. Yet at the present time, to the question whether fiction should be regarded as an art or a trade, the corpus of current criticism seems to answer—“A little of both.” But the two standards are inconsistent. trade-author writes to gain the largest number of readers that his qualifications will enable him to secure. He has to shape his utterances, guided by the formation of a whole world of tradition, prejudice, superstition, transient fashion, transient philosophy. He must suit himself to the tone of a particular decade. The larger percentage of his readers will be avid of sensation, unthinking as concerns literature, hasty in judgment, im- patient of subtle effects. He must depict “characters” that they will heartily like or utterly dislike. He must study construction ; that is to say, he must first work out his plot (to himself) and then make his puppets move along the lines of it, and hit out the situations in it, whether such folk would do so in nature or not. He must ignore the laws of character whenever needful, and make his marionettes get to and through the complications. The laws of character being to him of optional acceptance, he usually follows the course of ignoring them altogether, and works entirely by the lights of construction. A writer who writes by construction rejects the standard of characterisation ; one who writes by characterisation, ipso facto rejects the standard of construction. Yet how often do we see an author blamed because he has not combined his correct characterisation with that excellence in construc- tion which would, in fact, falsify his work, or his good construction with that true characterisation which would inevitably falsify his plot He is told, in other words, that he should have shaped up his book more with a view to the all-round requirements of the market—that he should try to get at readers by both methods, and be thorough in neither. . If we accept the dictum of Balzac.—-and Scho- penhauer was in accord with him as concerns literature—that the mission of art is to express nature, we perceive a reason for saying that “construction” work is inartistic. One does not express nature by presenting as actual events The series after series of ingeniously interwoven circumstances carrying certain lives to certain situations useful to the novelist, and happening ad hoc ; nor does one express nature by depicting as human lives trade characters bowdlerised or broadened to the taste of the fifties or the sixties, or the eighties or the nineties, of this or any other century. One expresses mature to the human soul by showing the envoi of what does subsist and consist in nature to this psyche. Certainly the laws of reality are deep and diffi- cult; as Balzac said of the fantastic beings evoked by Hoffmann, “they nevertheless have life.” But Hoffmann wrote on the plane of the avowedly fanciful, and the art-faculty can, perhaps, create phantasms showing the essence of reality on any plane. But each plane has its own truth. The ordinary trade-novel is nominally written on the plane of daily-human life actuality, and written falsely on this plane. If the recent development of fiction, the increased number of novels wrought with art- striving, be a sign that art-fiction has a consider- able audience, he surely would do both writers and readers a great service who would bring them to closer, clearer acquaintance, and find a certain, short means of communication between them, not perilous with draughts and blasts of inconsistent criticism. GODFREY BURCHETT. Farthingstone Rectory, Jan. 23. II.-AT HIS OWN ExPENSE. There ought to be no longer any confusion of thought as to the relative positions of authors and the publishers who produce their works. An author invents a book, just as an inventor invents a machine. The author employs a publisher to do the mechanical work of producing his book, sending out review copies to the Press, and selling It to the public—just as an inventor, who is not a machinist, employs a man who is, to make his machine, and perhaps advertise and sell it. The inventor is the employer, the machinist is the employed—who does the mechanical work of putting his ideas into brass and iron ready for the market. If the inventor is poor, he sells his invention to a capitalist—just as an author some- times sells his book to a publisher. An inventor, who had capital and business capacity, would not, as a rule, sell his invention; and an author, having capital and business capacity, ought not to sell his book. He ought to keep the copyright under his own control. The inventor who had capital and business capacity would start en- gineering works, and would manufacture his own ## p. (#621) ################################################ THE AUTHOR. 267 machine and sell it to the public himself. By keeping the profits of the manufacturer in his own hands, he could increase his sales, by giving better terms to the distributing shopkeepers. This is what authors, having capital and business capacity, ought to do. By keeping the profits of the book manufacturer in their own hands, they could benefit the reading public, and increase their own sales, by offering better terms to the booksellers. It is not necessary for authors to start book manufacturing works to do what I suggest. Publishers do not necessarily print and bind the books they publish. Given the capital required, the work of placing orders for printing and bind- ing, sending out review copies, &c., could be done through a central office, worked on the co-opera- tive principle. The Society of Authors might organise such a central office; and the expense of working it would not be heavy. I know there is an absurd stigma attached to an author who publishes his book at his own expense. Who attached this stigma P Probably publishers did it from interested motives. In my opinion no author, having capital to stand the risk of pub- lishing his own book, ought to part with the control over the copyright to a publisher. How is it possible that the acceptance of a book by a publisher can be any recommendation of it in the eyes of a man of sense and reflection ? What does it mean? Merely that a tradesman thinks the book is likely to take—“ catch on ”—with an uncritical and uncultured public; that it is likely to be a good business speculation. A publisher is not necessarily a man of culture or critical acumen. The probability is that, if he ever had the critical faculty, it has been so blunted by his tradesman’s way of judging of books that it has become worthless. It is not his business to judge of the literary and intrinsic value of a book; his test of merit is whether it will sell or not. His judgment has been so warped by the exigencies of his business, that he is one of the last men whose judgment, as to the literary excellence of a book, ought to be taken. 5 * JOHN LASCELLEs. III.-A SIDE LIGHT. Here is a side light on the royalty system. I have patented several small inventions, and have placed them with good firms to manufacture. The invariable terms have been these : The manufacturers have first calculated the actual cost of making : they have then added IO per cent. for working expenses and IO per cent. for their own profit; finally, they have asked me to add my royalty, with the warning that it should not exceed a certain sum, otherwise the sale would be too keenly handicapped. The total has made the selling price to the trade about one- half the selling price to the public. My royalty has varied from 12% to 33 per cent. of the selling price to the public. Why should not the same principle be applied to books? Surely it is ridiculous that (say) a novel of IOO,OOO words by a well-known author should be sold at the same price as a novel of the same length by a beginner. If the selling price were regulated by the royalty (other things being equal), the beginner, content with a small royalty, would have a better chance than he has now, while the receipts of the well-known author would not be affected, in spite of his larger royalty. I very much doubt whether his sales would suffer either. It will be observed that the manufacturer, . although his share in the production of a patented article is, as a rule, far greater than the in- ventor's, is satisfied with a profit of Io per cent. Is the publisher, small as is his share in the pro- duction of a book compared with the author's P Some time ago the editor of a London daily asked me to investigate certain financial matters, and with that object in view I inserted an adver- tisement stating that I had money to invest. Of course my name was not given. For days after- wards the postman staggered to the door with piles of letters. They came from all countries and from all sorts of people, cranks, swindlers, and a few honest men with genuine businesses. Among the last—at least I hope so — was a certain publisher, who offered me a partnership and invited me to inspect his books, which, he said, would prove his statement that he made “30 per cent. nett profit without risk.” He little thought he had hooked an author. As I did not inspect his books, I have no right to accept his statement. But unquestionably, if publishers make “30 per cent. nett profit without risk” while other business firms are content with IO, there is something radically wrong. X. IV.-EDUCATIONAL. I, and probably others, have always been in some doubt as to what was intended to be included in the term “author” as applied to our Society and Club. I joined both, as an author of educational works, and as financially interested in a Union or Mutual Protection Society of Authors in the widest sense. The first two or three pages of the Author usually reassure me; but the remaining pages always, now, raise serious misgivings as to whether I have not mis- taken the number of the house and got into the ## p. (#622) ################################################ 268 THE AUTHOR. wrong evening party. The last number of the Author suggests a kind of ea post facto invitation, for it reports that the chairman of the Society announced that it “proposed to go into the question of watching the interests of educational writers and musical composers, which was a branch quite by itself.” On the strength of that incidental remark, I venture to suggest that it would be well to define now more clearly what ground the Society really means to cover. At present I fear that the casual and thoughtless reader or observer would think it was mainly limited to fiction and light literature. If a wider range of subjects were explicitly claimed and represented, wider interests would be aroused, and wider support secured for the Club and the Society; if, on the other hand, it were felt that certain departments, e.g., educational and musical, were too large to be embraced by the Society, and explicitly disclaimed, the field would be left open for founding a Society for the protection of those interests, which are even larger and more in need of protection than those of fiction. The work already done has been so valuable that it seems a pity that it should not be made the basis for larger and wider efforts. Perhaps the new Committee might provide for the representation of such interests. [See p. 254.—ED.] J. E. N. =>e- W.—PUBLISHERS ONLY. Is it not worth recording in your columns that in the current year, 1896, for the first time “Publishers” find themselves under a separate heading in the Trades' section of the London Post Office Directory; a work which is, I believe, “official,” though emanating from the office of Messrs. Kelly and Co.? Hitherto anyone wishing to find the address of a publisher, or possibly to look through the list of publishers for an attractive name to which to consign the first fruits of his brain, found under the title “Publishers” no names at all, but only a note recommending him to see Booksellers, Diary Publishers, Engravers, Fashions (publishers of), Music, etc. Sellers, Photographic Publishers, Printers, also Printsellers, each and all of which trades had separate headings assigned under which their members’ names appeared. Now all this is changed, and publishers find a place allotted all to themselves, between a “publican’s stocktaker” and “publishers' central show rooms,” whatever these last may be. It is curious to note that each of these two trades has a heading to itself, though each is represented by a single address only. E. A. A. WI.-ON SELLING Books. Are we not in danger, while we talk so much about royalties and agreements, of forgetting the many conveniences of selling the copyright for a lump sum ? The advantages of doing this are the freedom from subsequent worry : relief from the worry of getting a proper agreement: from the suspicion of subsequent fraud. The dangers or disadvantages are — (1) that the price offered will be too low : an experienced agent would meet that difficulty; (2) the chance that the book might prove a great and unexpected success. This is most unlikely; and (3) the temptation to regard the lump sum as income, and to expect it to come in regularly for the rest of the natural span. Suppose that a book by one of the mode- rately successful would, on a 20 per cent. royalty, produce £300 the first year, and then 325 the next, getting gradually less for the next five years. Surely it would be in some cases better to capitalise this source of revenue, and to take, say, 3360 down, leaving the book in the pub- lisher's hands. A MODERATE SUCCEss. *-- ~ *-* *— - - At present, the few poets of England no longer depend on the great for subsistence; they have now no other patrons but the public; and the public, collectively considered, is a good and a generous master. It is, indeed, too frequently mistaken as to the merits of every candidate for favour; but, to make amends, it is never mistaken long. A performance indeed may be forced for a time into reputation, but destitute of real merit it soon sinks; time, the touchstone of what is truly valuable, will soon discover the fraud, and an author should never arrogate to himself any share of success till his works have been read at least ten years with satisfaction. A man of letters at present whose works are valuable is perfectly sensible of their value. Every polite member of the community, by buy- ing what he writes, contributes to reward him. The ridicule, therefore, of living in a garret might have been wit in the last age, but continues such no longer, because no longer true. A writer of real merit may now easily be rich if his heart be set only on fortune; and for those who have no merit it is but fit that such remain in merited obscurity. GoLDSMITH, “Citizen of the World,” Let. 84. 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 11 (April 1896) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 06 Issue 11 (April 1896) 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 1896-04-01-The-Author-6-11 publications The Author