https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/469/1899-12-01-The-Author-10-7.pdf 7c708c4e733844fe1f50c860a5b5bd6b PDF Text Text �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource The Author Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, The Author, 1890–1914, made available together for the first time. Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&collection=&type=&tags=&exhibit=&date_search_term=&submit_search=Search+For+Items&sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1899-12-01 Volume 10 Issue 7 Pages Page range in volume 137–164 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 18991201 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Che Huthbor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vou. X.—No. 7.] [Prick SIXPENCE. For the Opinions expressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or para- graphs must be taken as expressing the collective opinions of the Committee unless they are officially signed by G. Herbert Thring, Sec. eo | ae 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. Po GENERAL MEMORANDA. : ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an agreement. There are four methods of dealing with literary property :— I. THAT OF SELLING IT OUTRIGHT. This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper price can be obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of the Society. Il. A PROFIT-SHARING AGREEMENT (a bad form of agreement). : In this case the following rules should be attended to: (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro- duction forms a part without the strictest investigation. (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise- ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements. (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,” unless the same allowance is made to the author. (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental rights. (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher. As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or doctor ! VOL. X. Ill. THE ROYALTY SYSTEM. It is above all things necessary to know what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly the truth. From time to time the very important figures connected with royalties are published in The Author. Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the “© Cost of Production.” IV. A COMMISSION AGREEMENT. The main points are :— (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production. (2) Keep control of the advertisements. (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book. GENERAL. All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four above mentioned. Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author. Never sign any agreement without competent advice from the Secretary of the Society. Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp. Avoid agreements by letter if possible. The main points which the Society has always demanded from the outset are :— (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement means. (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or withheld. WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS. 1. N sign an agreement without submitting it to . the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some competent legal authority. 2. Never negotiate for the production of a play with anyone except an established manager. 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract :— (1) SALE OUTRIGHT OF THE PERFORMING RIGHT, This is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into such a contract should stipulate in the con- tract for production of the piece by a certain date and for proper publication of his name on the play-bills. (2) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE TO PERFORM ON THE PROFIT-SHARING SYSTEM. This method can only be entered into when a fixed sum is agreed per week for cost of produc- tion, It is not a common method. o 2 138 (3) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES (i.e., royalties) on gross receipts. Royalties vary between 5 and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts. Should obtain a sum in advance of royalties. A fixed date on or before which the play should be performed. 4. Authors should remember that performing rights can be limited, and are usually limited by town, country, and time. This is most important. 5. Authors should not assign performing rights, but should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is of great importance. 6. Authors should remember that performing rights in a play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot print the book of the words. 7. Never send a copy of the play to America unless it is protected by a preliminary performance in the United Kingdom. 8. Never forget that American rights may be exceedingly valuable. They should never be included in English agreements without the author obtaining a substantial consideration. g. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced. Never admit a collaborator when once the actual work of writing the play has begun or after it is finished. 10. An author should remember that production of a play is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract. He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in the beginning. 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market is exceedingly limited. As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete on account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con- tracts, those authors desirous of further information are referred to the Secretary of the Society. i 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 solici- tor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society. 3. Send to the Office copies of [past agreements and past accounts with the loan of the books represented. The Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The information thus obtained may prove invaluable. -4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro- posed document to the Society for examination. THE AUTHOR. 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles cf 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. 6. 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. eae THE READING BRANCH. Ve will greatly assist the Society in this i branch of their work by informing young writers of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The Readers are writers of competence and experience. The fee is one guinea. 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. Communications for The Author should be addressed to the Offices of the Society, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn Fields, W.C., and 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. The present location of the Authors’ Club is at 3, White- hall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for information, rules of admission, £c. => FROM THE COMMITTEE. URING the year (Jan, 1—Nov. 20) 200 new D members have been elected to the Society. The number in 1897 was 180 for the whole year, and in 1898 was 175. Every year there are some members who resign chiefly because they do not se2 that the Society does much for them personally. Every year, however, the feel- ing seems to grow that a society which does so much for those who do want assistance, especially in the way of advice upon azre2ments and the collection of money due, deserves support from alk who follow the life of letters. THE At the meeting of the Committee of Manage- ment on the 20th Nov. the following resolution, proposed by the Art Sub-Committee, was formaliy confirmed by the committee : Resolution : “That the Art Sub-Committee of the Socicty of Authors views with regret the action of the council of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society in withdrawing the privilege of taking photo- graphs in their Exhibition Gallery as heretofore enjoyed by authorised persons to whom the artists concerned had duly accorded their consent—in consequence of which freshly imposed impediment authors and editors are hampered in their pro- fessional duties, and artists who are desirous of bringing their works before the public are denied the benefit of and the advantage accruing from such publicity. “ And in the interests of its members the Sub- Committee expresses the hope that the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society may see its way to reconsider the regulation in question.” G. HT. ect LITERARY PROPERTY. I—CopyricHt 1n Reports. YEVERAL letters have been addressed to The Author on the subject of the important case of Walter vy. Lane. The question is as yet undecided, therefore it is best to reserve comment until the judgment of the Lords has been pronounced. Meantime it would be only courteous, where the proprietors of a paper have clearly expressed their opinion as to the copyright of reports, to respect that opinion, and not to reproduce any report without first seeking the permission of the paper in question. We have hitherto reproduced law reports from the Times with acknowledgment, but, as has been the custom, without leave sought or obtained. In future, whatcver the decision may be, such reports will only appear in these columns, whether from the Times or any other paper, by permis- sion or arrangement with the editor or proprietor. We have, for instance, to thank the editor of the Daily Chronicle for permission to reproduce the report of the appeal in Walter v. Lane, aud the editor of the Scotsman for permission to reproduce his report of Mr. Augustine Birrell’s lecture. For the note on Mr. Ticebuck’s lecture on Art we have to thank the author himself. Il.—Watter v. LAne. (From the Daily Chronicle, Nov. 10, 1899, by permission.) The Court of Appeal yesterday, composed of the Master of the Rolls, the President of the AUTHOR. 139 Probate Division, and Lord Justice Romer, delivered judgment in the appeal by the Times newspaper against the decision of Mr. Justice North on Aug. 10, in the action of Walter v. Lane, granting an injunction against Mr. John Lane restraining him from publishing a book of speeches by the Earl of Rosebery, delivered by his Lordship on various subjects, and copied by the defendant from reports of those speeches appearing in the Times. A great deal of interest has been taken in the subject, more because the court had really to decide what was meant by the word “author” inthe Copyright Act of 1842. The effect of Mr. Justice North’s decision was that the reporter of a speech was the author if the person who Celivered the speech had not pre- viously to the delivery taken the steps necessary to copyright the speech. Considering the import- ance of the issue there was very little public interest shown in the court itself. The rows reserved “for counsel only ” merely contained the “juniors ” engaged in Valter v. Lane and those in the cases which followed, together with the barristers who are the official reporters of the autho- rised Law Reports. The Queen’s Counsel, of course, took their seats within the bar. They were Mr. H. Terrell, Q.C. and Mr. A. Birrell, Q.C., M.P. The juniors of these two gentlemen were Mr. McSwinney and Mr. Scrutton, Mr. H. Terrell and Mr. McSwinney representing the Times, and Mr. Birrell and Mr. Serutton the defendant, Mr. Lane. Mr. Lane, who appealed, had been restrained by Mr. Justice North from further publishing until the trial of the action a book which he entitled “ Appreciations and Addresses Delivered by Lord Rosebery,” the plaintiff in the action, Mr. Walter, alleging that tive of the addresses in the book were copies of the Times reports of those speeches. The plaintitts claimed copyright in the reports, which copyright was assigned to them by the reporter. The appeal was argued on Oct. 30 and 31, and on the latter day the Master of the Rolls said at the conclusion of the argu- ments that, having regard to the great import- ance of the case, their Lordships would take time to consider their judgment. THE POINTS OF THE CASE. The Master of the Rolls, who delivered the judgment of the court, pointed out that Mr. Justice North had granted an injunction to restrain the defendant from publishing certain adéresses bound up in a book, and which he copied from the Z'mes newspaper. The action was brought on behalf of the Zvmes, and the articles copied were reports of speeches made by Lord Rosebery on various occasions, the reporter 140 being Mr. Brain, who said that he had been employed to make reports of these speeches, and that in the course of their duties the reporters had to exercise their judgment and skill so as to represent in a form fit for publication the features of a meeting and the material parts and substance of the speeches, a work which involved skill and labour. The case, said his Lordship, turned on the true construction of the Copyright Act of 1842, 5 and 6 Vict. c. 45. That Act defined “copyright” and “book,” and conferred copyright on every author of a book and his assigns. The Act contained no definition of “author,” but it conferred copyright on the authors of books first published in this country. There could be no copyright in what was not published in a book; but it did not follow that the first person who published a book acquired a copyright init. The meaning of the word “author” as used in the Copyright Act must be gathered from its own language and the decisions upon it. The word occurs constantly throughout the Act. It was plain that a person who was not the author of a work might nevertheless be the proprietor of the copyright in it. The wording of the Act, said the Master of the Rolls, justified the view that the owner of an un- published manuscript, although not the author of it, acquired copyright in it by first publishing it. The author of an unpublished manuscript had no copyright in it, but he had the right to acquire copyright in it, and this right he might implicitly transfer to anyone to whom he sold or gave the manuscript. Further, an author who sold or gave away an unpublished manuscript composition of his own might be fairly inferred to transfer his own right to publish it unless he expressly or im- plicitly prohibited the publication of the manu- script which he sold or gave. But this would not carry the plaintiffs far enough. The plaintiffs did not derive their title to the publication from Lord Rosebery. The word “compose” obviously meant composition in the sense of being the author of the matter published. This was made perfectly clear by the language of the provisoes, which prevented the publisher or proprietor of the newspaper, &c., from publishing the article in a separate form without the consent of the author, and which entitled the author to publish it himself in a separate form. WHAT I§ AN AUTHOR? The “author” (continued his Lordship) here was the person employed to compose the article. It was contended, and Mr. Justice North took the view, that although the reporter had no copyright in the speech he was entitled to copyright in his report of it. But the Court of Appeal could not THE AUTHOR. follow this. The report and the speech reported were no doubt different things; but the printer or publisher of the report was not the author of the speech reported, which was the only thing which gave any value or interest to the report. The printer or reporter of a speech was not the author of the reported speech in any intelligible sense of the word “author.” To hold that every reporter of a speech has copyright in his own report would be to stretch the Copyright Act to an extent which its language would not bear, and which the Legislature obviously never contem- plated. The Act was passed to protect authors, not reporters. Moreover, although it might be that reporters and their employers ought to be protected from the unauthorised appropriation of their labours by others, it by no means followed that Parliament would place reporters and their employers on the same footing as authors. It was only by treating reporters as authors of what they reported—which they clearly were not—that they could be brought within the existing Copy- right Act. Although the court had no sympathy with the defendant, they were unable to decide in favour of the plaintiffs. The arguments addressed to the court on their behalf were based on the untenable doctrine that for purposes of copyright reporters ‘were authors. The analogy of direc- tories, road-books, naps, &c., was wholly mislead- ing. There each man who himself made a direc- tory, &c., and published it was the author of what he published. The reporter of a speech was not. The distinction was all-important, but it was only by wholly ignoring it that the decisions on direc- tories, &c., could be invoked by the plaintiffs. If the reporter of a speech gave the substance of it in his own language; if, although the ideas were not his, his expression of them was his own and not the speaker’s with immaterial differences, the reported speech would be an original composition of which the reporter would be the author, and he would be entitled to copyright in his own pro- duction. This was the ground on which copy- right in law reports was based. They are by no means mere transcripts of judgments delivered in court; but the reporter had reproduced to the best of his ability not only the ideas expressed by the speaker, but the language in which the speaker expressed those ideas. An accurate report was not an original composition, nor was the reporter of a speech the author of what he reported. The appeal must be allowed, with costs here and below. IIT.—A Royvatty AgREEMENT. Memorandum of agreement entered into the day of , 18 , between , as agent for and on behalf of - , of ,» pub- THE AUTHOR. lishers, hereinafter called “ the publishers,” which term when requisite is to include their successors and assigns, of the one part, and , here- inafter called “the author,’ which term when requisite is to include his executors, adminis- trators, or assigns, of the other part. The publishers agree to manufacture and publish at their own risk and expense, and in such style as they deem best suited to its sale, the work entitled , of which the said is the author, on the following conditions :— 1. The author guarantees that the said work is original, and in no way whatever an infringement of any copyright belonging to any other person, and that it contains nothing of a libellous or scandalous character, and the author shall and will hold harmless the publishers from all manner of claims and proceedings which may be made and taken against them on the ground that the work is such an infringement or contains any- thing scandalous or libellous, and the publishers shall be entitled to retain and reimburse them- selves out of the author’s royalty all costs and expenses incurred by the publishers in con- sequence of such claims and proceedings, or in protecting the copyright of the work. 2. The author agrees that the publishers shall have the exclusive right during the legal term of copyright to publish the work in any part of the world, and will not during such term employ any other publisher or publishers for the purpose, and hereby empowers the publishers to arrange for any translation or reprint of it in such manner as and wheresoever they shall from time to time think fit. The publishers shall pay to the Author of net proceeds of their sale of the rights of such foreign reprints or trans- lations. 3. The publishers agree to pay the author or his legal representatives a royalty of per cent. on retail price for all copies of said work sold by them in the usual course of trade. Provided, nevertheless, that no royalty whatever shall be paid on any copies given away for review. and other purposes. Pro- vided also that such royalty shall not become payable unless and until copies of the said work shall have been sold. In the event of an edition being sold to America or to the colonies at a reduced price the author is to be paid ro per cent. of the net proceeds of such sale received by them in lieu of the aforesaid royalty. If an English edition is called for at half-a-crown or less, the royalty to be paid on the usual] trade sales thereof, will be 10 per cent. on the pub- lished price. 4. If at the end of years from the date of publication the publishers shall give notice in 141 writing to the author that in their opinion the demand for the said work has ceased, the author shall have the right (to be exercised within three months from the date of such notice) to buy from the publishers the stereotype plates and engrav- ings (if any) of the said work at half cost, and whatever copies they may have on hand at cost ; and if the author does not within three months of the date of such notice elect to buy the plates, engravings, and copies of the said work, the pub- lishers shall have the right to dispose of the said plates, engravings, and copies in any way that they may think fit, and to melt up the said plates, paying to the author in lieu of the said royalty 10 per cent. of the net proceeds of such sale ; provided also that the author shall not be entitled to receive any of the proceeds of such sale unless copies of the work shall have been sold at the ordinary trade price. In either of these events this agreement shall terminate. 5. Accounts shall be made up to the close of each half year, and rendered in August and February, and the proceeds to which the author is entitled shall be payable on application at the end of six months after such rendering of the account. 6. The author agrees to pay personally all cost of corrections and alterations in the proof sheets exceeding 20 per cent. of cost of composition. As witness the hands of the parties :— Witness The agreement printed above is an excellent example of the kind of agreement that an author should never sign. Referring to the parties to the agreement, it must again be pointed out, as often before, that an author should never bind himself by agreement to the successors and assigns of the publisher. The publishing con- tract is a personal contract, and should always be kept as such. It is most dangerous for an author to make a contract as drafted above owing to the fact that should anything happen to the firm, should the partners desire to give up business, the author might find his work being published by a firm and in a method wholly distasteful to him. In the preliminary statement before clause 1 the agreement of the publishers is much too wide in its terms, and these terms are not sufficiently curtailed in the clauses of the agreement that follow. With regard to clause 1, the clause is reason- able except as far as the closing lines are con- cerned. The publishers should not be allowed to 142 reimburse themselves all expenses there referred to unless such expenses can be shown to have been reasonably incurred. It is easy for the author to insert words in the clause which will be fair to both parties. Clause 2 has been frequently commented on in these pages, but, as a clause of this kind seems to be constantly recurring it is necessary to repeat the warnings: Firstly, the author should not give such wide powers to the publisher, as the book might be published in a form and at a price distasteful to him. It is quite sufficient if the author assigns the right to publish in a par- ticular form at a particular price, and limited to a particular country. If necessary, the last limita- tion could be for Great Britain, its colonies, and dependencies. The final part of clause 2 refers practically to rights, which are much _ better placed in the hands of an agent than in the hands of a publisher. The blank in this clause was filled up in this particular case by 50 per cent., thus showing that the work for which an agent would charge generally 10 per cent. is in the hands of a publisher charged at the rate of 50 per cent. There is this additional disadvan- tage in assigning these rights to the pub- lisher, that a publisher's duty is not to act as a literary agent, ard that, therefore, he has less facilities for assigning these rights than those who undertake this work and nothing else. Clause 3 is the most extraordinary clause in the agreement. The percentage to be paid to the author was 10 per cent. and the royalty was not to become payable until 1500 copies of the book had been sold. Even, there- fore, if the book had been exceedingly successful, the author could only reap a ridiculously small return compared with the amount received by the publisher. If the book had sold to the extent of 10,000 copies the publisher would have received quite three times as much as the author. This, however, is not the worst feature in the clause, as it is possible for a publisher to only print 1500 copies and then break up the type. On the sale of, say, 1450 copies the author would receive nothing and the publisher would net about £100. It would not pay a publisher to allow the sales of the book to reach 2000 copies, as under those circum- stances he would only make a small amount com- pared with what he would have made had he sold only 1450, as the author’s royalty of 10 per cent. is payable from the beginning if the sales go beyond the agreed number. It is absolutely essential in all agreements which are likely to work satisfactorily that the interests of both parties should run together. Here, however, under this clause the interest of the publisher is opposed to that of the author. There are one or THE AUTHOR. two minor points in this clause which should be avoided, but they are of such small importance compared with the main issue that comment will be omitted. In clause 4 the author should have a right to purchase at a valuation. It has been often pointed out that many of the copies may not be in a fit state and the stereo plates may be worn out. It is a fair thing to both the publisher and the author that a valuer should be appointed. In the latter part of the clause the author is practically not entitled to any moneys on the sale of the remainder, as, firstly, the blank is filled up with the number 1500, as in clause 3; and, secondly, the additional words have been added “at the ordinary trade sale price.” The words, “the ordinary trade sale price ” have been inserted as if the trade sale price was well known and easily ascertainable. Here again it has frequently been pointed out that trade price varies enormously, and there are as many as ten to fifteen different ways of selling to retailers. It would be very easy to show, therefore, that the number of copies required had not been sold at the ordinary trade price. The result of this clause, with the rest of the financial part of the agreement, is that the author will receive nothing and the publisher will have the power of making £120 or £130 over and above the cost of production and advertisement without having to account to the author for any of the amounts received. The account clause (clause 5) is also an extra- ordinary clause, as it enables the publisher to retain the author’s money, if the author is lucky enough to get any, for at least nine months. If the book was published in March accounts will be rendered in August, and the publisher will only be bound to pay on a personal application by the author in the February following. This form of account clause is another way by which the pub- lisher is able to obtain a further profit from the sales of the book. In clause 6 the author is responsible for all corrections. Of course, the words “other than printers’ errors” should be inserted. Otherwise there might be no end to the claim of the printer. It is needless to state, after the above com- ments, that both from the financial and other points of view this agreement affords a startling example of what is unfair as between author and publisher. It is also needless to add that the author entered into it without proper advice. IV.—Tue Resurrection Man. The following letter was sent to the Hditor of this paper. He communicated it to Sir Martin jg a ew OS THE AUTHOL. Conway. It was by him sent to the Z'imes, where it was published with comments : Cable Address Correspondents will please Pablishers’ ‘“ Writewell”’ give their full Post Office Editors’ New York. Address in each letter and Correspondents Authors’ in The Agency Canada, Paris Associated International Press and Vienna, Cair > and Exchange Capetown Literary Syndicate Calcutta New York and London Melbourne 114, Pifth-avenue, New York, Sept. 15, 1899. The Editor, the ——, Nassau-street, New York City. Attractive Kipling Material. Dear Sir,—We offer for use in your paper 81 articles by Rudyard Kipling, as enclcsed list. If you ran one of the pieces each day you would possess @ feature which would prove enormously popular, and in addition have 81 days’ service, with their exclusive use in New York State. By doing this you would secure the privileges of what, for newspaper purposes, would be of equal benefit of copy- right to you, as no one else possesses a complete set, and, owing to the fact that Kipling has not reproduced the pieces, they are (having been written before he was known) practi- cally new to the public. We question very much whether it is possible for any person to procure a complete collection under 15,000 to 20,000 dollars. The 81 pieces cover a period of 14 years, 1881-94. A special interest is attached to many of the earlier poems and articles, on account of the publication this autumn of “Stalky and Co.’ A large number were written during Kipling’s attendance (1879-82) at the United Services College in Devonshire, the ecene of the “ Stalky ”’ stories. All of the pieces are in English, notwithstanding the occasional Latin titles in the list. The pieces are from several sources, all of which have been authenticated. We may mention that one privately printed pamphlet (Lyrics 1881), the whole contents of which are included here, recently sold at auction in London for $675.00. Another, a magazine (United Services College Journal) containing contributions by Kipling (all of which are here included), sold for $505.00 at auction. Some of the other poems represent Kipling’s share in another privately printed booklet, issued in 1884 (Echoes), a copy of which recently changed hands at $500.00. We have to ask your immediate decision. Yours very truly, THe DIRECTORS. pe TABLES OF ROYALTIES. ABLES showing the meaning of royalties have been presented from time to time in The Author. They must be repeated from time to time because they are easily mislaid and always forgotten. An average 6s. book is taken, the cost of which, including advertising, is about £150 for an edition of 3000 copies. It may be a little less or a little more, but the figures rey resent an average cost. Now the following tables give the amounts VOL. X. 143 per volume due to author and publisher respec- tively—not taking thirteen as twelve :— Per cent. ...... | | | 5 | te | 15 | 20 a5 | 90 | 35 . d.\s. d.|s. d.|s. d.|s. d. . a. oa Author........| 38] 74| rogir 281 6 h gz2 1f je ee Pablisher ...... 2 agi 103) 731 381 0 82 48 But should the book run through the second edition, the cost is reduced to about 8d. So far, the author has only begun to understand this difference, and the bookseller not at all. Now, we have the following table for the second edition : Per eee 1 to. | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 Author ...<:\.; 38| 7 103) 2%1 6 iI gfi2 1% Publisher ...... 2 682 Ae 4 |r og) 8% But some publishers try on the “ deferred. ” royalty, which is to begin a royalty after a certain number of copies have been sold. In this case the sale of 500 copies would about pay for the cost, supposing only so many were bound. Suppose, however, the whole were bound in the prospect of a large sale. And suppose the publisher asked for goo copies before beginning @ royalty. He begins, therefore, the royalty with 2100 copies which cost him nothing. He has, therefore, 3s. 6d. clear on every copy, out of which has to come the royalty. Per cent. ...... (= | to | 1S | 20.) 26 | 30 | 35 god: e d.|s. d.\s. d. is. d.|s. d. is. d. Author ......... | a 7s 103) 261 6 |r 82 1k oe —— =|— Publisher ...... |g 28/2 108/2 73\2 382 0 |r 8alr 48 So that if there is to be any equality, the royalty must begin with 30 per cent. on the pub- lished price of 6s. In such a deferred royalty the comparative shares of the author and the publisher are as follows, on a sale of 3000 copies:— The publisher takes— 1. The value of 900 copies, out of which he has to pay the cost of production. 2. The value of 2100 copies, less the royalty to the author, which is at 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 per cent. respectively, £63: £94 I0s.: £126: £157 ros.: and £189. And the publisher would receive on a royalty of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 per cent. respectively, the sums of £304 10s.: £273: £241 148.: £214 108.: and £178 10s. P 144 These figures should be very carefully con- sidered. Of course, it may be said that the whole edition may not be sold. Thatis true. Take, for example, a case where only 600 copies were sold, with a royalty of 15 per cent. There would be no more copies bound than were wanted. The cost of an edition of 1000 copies, of which 600 only were bound, with a small sum of £10 spent on adver- tising, would be about £65. The author would receive £27: the publisher about £13. In these calculations the Press copies are not counted, because it was estimated at the Pub- lishers’ Congress, where a good many things “came out” that some would have wished con- cealed and that others had denied publicly, that the “ overs ” average 2 per cent., or on an edition of 3000, sixty—quite enough for Press and presenta- tion copies. In applying these figures authors must be careful to remember that the assumed edition is 3000: that the number of sheets is ten at thirty- two pages each, and that, roughly, each sheet, without counting, binding or advertising, costs about £7 10s. 6d.: that the binding may be done at 33d. a copy: and that advertising does not include advertising in the publisher’s own organs or “ exchanges,”’ which cost him nothing. Secs PARIS NOTES. 5, rue Chomel, Paris. READER of Zhe Author recently wrote me a propos of M. Adolphe Brisson and “Portraits Intimes.” Having unfortu- nately mislaid the letter containing my corre- spondent’s name and address, I take this oppor- tunity of supplying the information he desires, with apologies for the delay. M. Adolphe Brisson occupies a prominent posi- tion among the leading French critics and writers of the present day. He is the brother of M. Jules Brisson, editor of the Annales, and son-in-law of the late regretted Francisque Sarcey, at whose death it was truly said that “it was not merely a man but an epoch that had disappeared.” As a man, he can scarcely, perhaps, lay claim to the sterling moral worth which distinguished his father-in-law, but his writings are undoubtedly superior in elegance of finish and polish. Rapidly to seize and individualise detail is the pre- rogative of the French writer; and “ Portraits Intimes” appear to me to give the strongest evi- dence of M. Brisson’s superlative talent in this respect. In them he has elevated the profession of interviewing toa fineart, and the moral and physical THE AUTHOR. traits of the innumerable personages he interviews are conscientiously reproduced with masterly skill and inexorable fidelity to nature. This prince of literary “ kodaks” gives us no flat commonplaces, no meagre banalities; but a graphic delineation of the original. From which it will be seen that I have a genuine admiration for M. Adolphe Brisson—in print. The work in question was issued in a series of four separate volumes, of which the last appeared in the beginning of the present year. Its three predecessors are unfortunately out of print; but the fourth volume is still in circulation,and may be obtained from Messrs. Armand Colin et Cie, 5, rue de Méziéres. It deals with a score of contempo- rary celebrities, including MM. Henri Lavedan, Georges Courteline, Paul Deschanel, Ernest Legouvé, Yann Nibor, de Bargy, &e. My own impression is that a translation would prove interesting to the literary English public; but the Reading Branch of the Authors’ Society would be the best authorities on this subject. The fourth volume, which —like each of the series—is complete in itself, contains 372 pages, in eighteen jésus, and is divided into thirty-eight chapters. Its published price is 3 frs. 50. A Popuuar UNIVERSITY. It is always pleasant to record the successful inauguration of a good work, the realisation of the dream of a humble philanthropist. The “Université populaire,” newly established in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, owes its existence to a humble typographer, George Deherme by name —whose absorbing desire was to obtain for those of his own class the benefits of the higher educa- tion monopolised by the wealthy. Deherme possessed no means beyond his daily wage, no influence beyond that which a superior mind invariably exercises over its fellows. But, remembering, possibly, one of his own com- patriots’ adaptation of the famous phrase: “The written word is merely the breath of thought, yet, nevertheless, it is the thought made universal which stirs the universe,” he commenced opera- tions by founding a small monthly review (February, 1896) entitled La Coopération des Idées, which he composed, printed, and edited himself. His idea, thus made in some sort universal, was warmly supported by the poorer literary public and the people itself. In 1898 modest premises were hired in the rue Paul-Bert, and a series of evening lectures on literature, art, science, medicine, sociology, poetry, philosophy, &c., were inaugurated. Students, teachers, doctors, pastors and workmen flocked round the poor printer, and generously gave their services gratuitously whenever aid was required. Nor THE AUTHOR. were these the only volunteers—for among the names of the first lecturers we find those of Jules Lernina, Max Nordau, and Paul Desjardins. The lack of space and suitable accommodation greatly impeded the progress of the new work, Finally, 12,000 francs were subscribed, by means of which the “ Société des Universités populaires ” founded its first university a few weeks ago in the back of an old house in the Faubourg Sainte- Antoine. Its premises consist of a small theatre adjoining a lecturing hall, a “ salle de jeux ” anda “musée du soir.”” Those who wish to participate in the benefits offered by the ‘‘ University popu- laire” must sign a “ bulletin d’adhésion ” and pay the small sum of fivepence monthly. This tiny fee, in addition to a free entrance to the nightly lectures, also entitles the member to admission to the “salle de jenx,’ and all dramatic entertain- ments. The programme of lecturers for the present month includes the names of several well- known literary men; and the “sujets de con- férence” are duly advertised in the morning papers. Dumas anp M. Bovurecer. The librairie Plon has just issued the first volume entitled “Essais de Psychologie Con- temporaine,” of its promised complete edition of the work of M. Paul Bourget. It comprises ten studies, respectively dealing with Baudelaire, Renan, Flaubert, Taine, Stendhal, Dumas Jils, Leconte de Lisle, les Goncourt, Tourgueneff, and Amiel. In the present edition the author has added an appendix to each essay. His “souvenirs personnels” of Alexandre Dumas /i/s are especially interesting. The latter steadily discouraged M. Bourget’s tendency to unduly develop his analytic talent—the “ manie d’analyse” as the offender himself phrases it. On one oceasion Dumas remarked: ‘“ You have the same effect upon me as a man of whom I ask the time, and who draws out his watch and breaks it before me in order to show me how the spring worked!” Plain speaking, assuredly, but a com- parison not lacking in salutary truth. On another occasion, alluding to the extraordi- narily conscientious and arduous method of com- position adopted by Flaubert, he observed: “Cdtait un géant. qui abattait une fortt pour fabriquer une boite” —then gravely added— “The box is perfect, but it has truly cost too dear.” The weary hopelessness which oppressed his later years is painfully evident in the following extract from a letter, written shortly before his death: “Je me suis remis a la ‘ Route de Thébes,’ mais je n’en vois pas la fin et je crains bien de ne li voir jamais. L/enthousiasme et l’emballement von. X. 145 n’y sont plus. Je sais bien ce que je veux dire, mais je me répete sans cesse: a quot bon dire quelque chose? La vérité est que j’en sais trop long sur la nature humaine !” “Tf,” says M. Paul Bourget, “ Dumas had been only an artiste, the definite triumph of his esthétique and works would have filled him with all the joys of a satisfied pride.” He was aware of the impression he had made on the literature of his native land; but unhappily ‘son ambition avait ¢t¢ plus haute.” Nature had framed him to be an actor “au premier plan” in the drama of life, but Fate intervened and made him merely a reporter in the side scenes. M. Zoua. The second volume of ‘‘Choses Vues,” by Victor Hugo, edited by M. Paul Meurice, and the “ Bécondité” of M. Emile Zola, rank high among the noteworthy publications of the month. The former was published simultaneously in Paris, London, and New York; and the latter has, I understand, been already fully noticed in the English papers. It is the first of a four-volume series entitled “Les Quatre Evangiles,” and is a kind of prose epithalamium in honour of the Divine command, “Be fruitful and multiply,” given to man at the creation of the world. Its raison détre is the steady depopulation of France, and the growing repugnance of the modern generation—the feminine portion, at least—to incur the cares and expense involved by the upbringing of a large family. Some of the scenes depicted are repulsive and harrowing : nevertheless, the book contains much fine writing. In short, it possesses the family traits, the chronic faults and virtues, which characterise almost all the works of that modern Quixote, Emile Zola— “ amant passioné et brutal de la vérité.” Current Frencn LITERATURE. M. Jules Soury has just published two enormous volumes, entitled “Le Systtme nerveux central.” According to the Figaro, this monumental achieve- is one of vast importance, since it is the most com- plete treatise on the functions of the human brain that has ever yet been produced. The twentieth volume of the Voyage en France series, by M. Ardouin Dumazet, has likewise appeared this month (chez Beger-Levrault), and has been warmly welcomed in geographical circles. It deals with the most curious and least known portion of ancient France—viz., the Noyonnais, Soisson- nais, Thi¢rachie, Porcien, Champagne de Reims et de Chalons, and Ardennes districts ; and is written throughout in an interesting and lucid style, being a successful attempt to popularise a knowledge of the topography and resources of their native 29 i" 146 THE country among the rising generation of French- men. Nor must we omit to mention the amusing “Humour et Humoristes,’ of M. Paul Acker (chez Simonis Empis), which deals with upwards of two dozen boulevard celebrities, to wit—MM. Georges Courteline, Jules Renard, Alphonse Allais, Alfred Capus, Georges Auriol, Pierre Veber, Tristan Bernard, &c.—the first-named of whom recently returned from Brussels to assist personally at the benefit given at the Odéon, in aid of the causes de secours of the Associations des journalistes républicains et des journalistes Parisiens—being an honoured member of both these societies. A BovnevarD CELEBRITY. Indeed, M. Courteline has no reason to complain of a lack of appreciation on the part of his con- temporaries. He is the enfant gdte of the Parisian Press, and the reports of his vagaries forin an inexhaustible theme of amusement to the general public. He has taken M. Brisson into his con- fidence respecting the difficulties he experienced in evading the “ palmes académiques ” that a too grateful director desired to impose on him. Not- withstanding this—and the remarkable adroitness with which he has succeeded during the last fifteen or twenty years in evading the official duties that interfered with his literary aspirations— a benevolent Ministry insisted on decorating this small, nineteenth-century Molicre, author of such inimitably comic masterpieces as “ Boubouroche,” “Ronds de Cuir,” “ Peur des Coups,” “ Gaietés de Vl’Escadron,”’ ‘“ Client Sérieux,’” ‘“ Théodore cherche des Allumettes,” &c. His physiognomy is droll; and, when mounted on the bicycle he adores, one of his colleagues has assured us that M. Georges Courteline presents ‘“ une silhouette qui vaut de lor!” Busy DRAMATISTS. The remainder of the fraternity of dramatic authors are all under arms. M. Bergerat is writing a new play entitled “Madame,” which will be placed, when finished, at Mme. Sarah Bernhardt’s disposal. M. de Porto-Riche is hard at work on a five-act play entitled ‘“ Manon’”’ ; MM. Feydeau and Bilhaud are putting the finish- ing touches to “ La Galerie,” written to inaugurate 1900 at the Vaudeville; M. Marcel Prévost gives us a four-act play entitled “ Unis”; M. Brieux, “Nos Juges”; M. Abel Hermant, “Le Fau- bourg’’: Mme. Berthe Menotes, ‘“‘ Les Rayons X”’ ; while MM. Donnay, de Curel, and Edmond “Rostand are each reported to have a new play on hand. M. Paul Meurice is busily engaged at the Porte-Sainte-Martin theatre in superintending the rehearsals of his adaptation of ‘‘ Les Misér- AUTHOR. ables” of Victor Hugo; while M. Porel, director of the Vaudeville, is about to perform a some- what similar office for the “Chandelier” of Musset. InterEstTine Hovsszs. Two dwellings, dear to all lovers of literature, are now advertised as awaiting tenants. The one is the small hotel in the rue de Douai, occupied by Francisque Sarcey for almost thirty years ; and the other is the suite of apartments, at 76 rue d’Assas, so long inhabited by the Michelets. The furniture left by the widow of the great historian will likewise shortly be sold, minus a few relics distributed by the family as souvenirs. The brother of Mme. Michelet has entrusted M. Gabriel Monod of the Institute with the task of arranging and classifying the Michelet papers ; hence the publication in the Grande Revue of the private journal of M. and Mme. Michelet. In accordance with the instructions of his deceased sister, M. Mialaret has presented the town of Montauban with about a hundred documents, pictures, objets dart, &c. The Musée Carnavalet has received the “ grand bureau de travail” of the historian in addition to two portraits—the one representing Michelet enfant, the other Mme. Michelet. “Figures Contemporaines,” is the title of M. Jules Delafosse’s latest work, a remarkably brilliant and able analysis of five modern historical personages, viz., Comte de Chambord, Napoleon IIL., Gambetta, Bismarck, and Léon XIII. Of the second he says: ‘“ Napoleon III. fut un idéaliste égaré sur le trone. so C’est du méme cceur qu'il s’intéressait a l’émanci- pation des peuples, futurs rivaux de la France, et i l’émancipation des travailleurs qui allaient bientOt renverser son tréne et bruler les Tuileries.’ This work has justly attracted attention. The much talked of Chanson de Jehanne Dare, of M. Clovis Hugues, has been received by the crities with a chorus of panegyric. Space will not allow us to give any quotations from this lengthy poem, or do more than cite the titles of the following works: ‘(La Dame du lac,” by M. Pierre Gauthiez (chez Ollendorf) ; “Les Roses de Kerné,” by M. A. Paban (librairie Maisonneuve) ; “Joachim Pecci,’ by Henry des Houx; “ La Graine Humaine,” by Emile Goudeau; “ Clio,” by Anatole France; and “Le Baiser,” by Nonce Casanova. Darracotte £corr. Oe THE NOTES AND NEWS. BEG to call attention to the letter of Mr. Robert MacLehose in another part of this paper. The subject is of the greatest im- portance to everybody concerned. It is not to be supposed that in so vital a part of the administra- tion of their property authors are going to have no voice. But in the interests of the booksellers, most of whom do think that they see a way of salva- tion by coercion, the decision ot the Committee to let them make a fair trial of the plan seems the best thing to do. It also appears that some of the booksellers look forward to a considerable extension of the net system. To me it certainly seems as if certain things had better be left alone. To meddle with that extremely doubtful form of property, the 6s. book, now sold at 4s. 6d., would be a very unwise policy. It is the most profit- able book that publsihers have, whatever agree- ment is accepted by the author. For most of the books published at 6s. the price is too high. With a very little mismanagement and meddling the 6s. book will tumble headlong to the ground like its predecessor who went forth at a nominal 31s. 6d. The net system will have one result : the revision of all royalties. A table is given in this number showing the meaning of royalties. Another will be given in the next number showing how the net system affects the figures. LT wish that writers would study these figures and apply them more to their own case. One man cannot understand figures: another is in the hands of an agent: a third— this is very common—has “no fault to find with his publisher ”—and this without the least attempt to understand the nature of the agreement. I never hear these complaints about auy other kind of figures. No one acknowledges that he is too foolish to understand what rent he can afford to pay: what rent or dividend he receives from other property : what he can afford in this or that direction. Why, then, does he affect not to understand the very simple figures which apply to the management of his literary property ? Why do we not issue draft agreements— “Equitable,” of course —as a counterblast to those of our friends the publishers, to whom we are indebted for a new interpretation of the word “ Equitable,” an enrichment of the language? Henceforth let the word Equitable be illustrated in dictionaries by extracts from the “ Draft Agreements.” The chief reason for not being in any hurry about advancing our own draft agree- ments is the fact that there is always some new AUTHOR. 147 danger discovered: something previously unsus- pected to guard against. For instance, a corre- spondent (p. 157) calls attention to the fact that while an agreement generally assigns to a pub- lisher the right to publish during the legal term of copyright, it does not bind him to do what he ean to advance the book during that term, or any part of it, so that in most cases the publisher’s work for the book is over after a year or 80, and the book is taken off his list. Now, when this is done, it is certainly a confession that the pub- lisher does not consider that the book has any further chance. Therefore, the author ought to ‘nsert a clause allowing him to get back the plates at some part of their value whenever the annual sale of the book has fallen below a certain number. Another point is, that an agreement must be> considered a personal matter between author and’ publisher, in which the latter has no right of transfer. This should be made clear in the agreement. Some time ago I hoped to raise this question and to bring it before the courts. I learned that two books of my own were being transferred from one publisher to another with- out any permission asked or obtained from myself, I therefore wrote to the first publisher asking by: what right he proposed to execute this transfer : and I instructed my solicitors to write to the. second publisher stating that if they attempted. to sell my books an injunction would be asked for. There was no fight, however. The first publisher had no defence, and the second pub- lisher offered no resistance. I recovered my two books, one of which has now gone into another,. fourth, edition, while the other will be reprinted when I have time to revise it. I mention this. little episode because it shows the necessity of watchfulness, and affords a proof that an agree-~ ment that does not give the book to publishers assigns is a personal contract only. The lady who writes under the name of “ Ouida”’ is allowed, from time to time, to have a fling all round in things literary. In_ the November number of the Fortnightly she had such a fling. First she reviled the Society of Authors—“ an association for the multiplication and publication of inferior works” !! This poor Society—and it has never had anything whatever to do with pub- lication! Then she reviles the Literary Agent, to whom is “due, probably, in part the enormous increase in the issue of rubbish of all kinds.” Poor Literary Agent! Alas! He cannot get any rubbish published at all: his hands are tied: he can only succeed in placing MSS. by writers in demand. 148 Then “ Ouida” grows eloquent over the “ appal- ling” increase of the output. Of course she has no conception whatever—none of those who write so glibly of the enormous output have any con- ception—of the enormous literary market. They still think that the publishing of books means purveying to a little body of critical readers such as existed when the Edinburgh Review was first started. Now who is “appalled” by the thou- sands of volumes annually printed? Not the general reader, who is not in the least concerned, and goes on reading what he likes. Not the writer of reputation, who is not moved to change his style, nor does he lose his clientele, though the output is increased by thousands. Not the book- seller, who does not attempt to “stock” these thousands. Not the publisher, who, if the books did not pay, would not issue them. It seems to me that the only person who is likely to be appalled is the reviewer, and that only because by a bad tradition he tries to notice in half inches all the books that come out. The literary value of good books, the reputation of English litera- ture, is not in the slightest degree affected by the appearance of many thousands of books that are rubbish. The rubbish dies: the good books survive. “ Ouida” touches on many other subjects. One will suffice. She says that there is no protection against swindling in literature — she means plagiarising—or against libels. There are the courts of law. But, she says, there is the “odious publicity.” Precisely—justice must be public—it is essential that a court of justice must be public. If people are afraid to stand up in open ccurt and give evidence they must, of course, suffer from libels and all kinds of things. As regards an accusation of plagiarism which she brings against an unnamed writer there is this to be said. If “Ouida” had been a member of the Society of Authors she might have laid the case before the Committee: if the case was what she describes it, the committee would certainly have fought it as a test case at no expense or loss to her. But, unhappily, “Ouida” calls the Society “chiefly an association for the multiplica- tion and publication of inferior works.” WALTER Besant. ee THE AUTHOR. GOOD BOOK OR BAD? R. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, Q.C., de- livered the inaugural lecture at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution on Nov. 7, on the question “ Is it possible to tell a good book from a bad one?” The following report of the address is reproduced here by per- mission, first of the lecturer himself and next of the editor of the Scotsman : A good book, he said, could be known from a bad one by the exercise of a discriminating faculty called Taste. If they asked the man in the street what Taste was, the only answer they were likely to get was that “tastes differ,” or “what is one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” or “all is grist that comes to my mill”—all most discourag- ing replies. Nor would it be wise to minimise the differences of taste ; they were most real. The truth was obvious. They all hated fustian and affectation, but were he to have such bad taste as to inquire whether that popular novelist Mr. A. B. ever wrote anything but fustian, and whether the style of Mr. C. D. had any savour of affectation, he should excite angry passions. In the realm of morals they might believe with the great Bishop Butler that there was in every man a superior principle of reflection or conscience which passed judgment upon himself, which, without being consulted, without being advised with, magis- terially exerted itself and approved or condemned accordingly. In the region of the exact sciences among a thousand different opinions which diffe- rent men might entertain of the same subject there was one, and but one, that was just and true. But who would dare to lay down the law about the life of a book, and 3 et who could doubt that in the realm of beauty there was a reign of law, a superior principle of reflection, magisterially asserting itself on every fit occasion, Speaking for himself, he cculd wish for nothing better apart from moral worth than to be the owner of a taste which should enable him to appreciate real excellence in literature and art, and to depre- ciate bad intentions and feeble execution wherever he saw them. To be for ever alive to merit in poem or in picture, in statue or in bust; to be able to distinguish between the grand, the gran- diose, and the merely bumptious ; to perceive the boundary between the simplicity which was divine and that which was ridiculous, between gorgeous rhetoric and vulgar ornamentation, between pure and manly English, meant to be spoken or read, and sugared phrases which seemed intended like lollipops for suction; to feel himself going out in joyful admiration for what was noble and perma- nent, and freezing inwardly against whatever was 150 These figures, which may be taken as fairly correct, are very striking, both as to the place which the high-class magazine occupies as a source of income; next, as to the general manage- ment of the magazines; and thirdly, as_ to certain conditions in the literature of special subjects. It is evident that under the most favourable circumstances, that of having contributed five papers in one year, nothing approaching an income can be derived from these magazines. Five-sixths of the whole number of contributors sent in one article each. The magazines, there- fore, are not supported by their contributors with a view to their personal profit and gain. If we ask who the contributors are, one can only reply with an analysis very incomplete, because most of the writers are personally unknown to me. The incomplete classification, however, in which there is some overlapping, is as follows :— I. Well-known men and women of letters II. Medical men and lawyers (but there are many lawyers in other sections) 8 HE Protessors..7,.0.0000.. 12 Ly. Journalists 28 Vo Poliigans. on Wie Divinés) ee, 26 Wil Peers 10 VIII. Writers on matters of Social Economics, Hinance, &. 0 a soe. The Berrios, XM Whe Colonies... 7 XT. Art, Archeology, and History (but many included in the first section)... 6 This accounts for 219 out of the 648. Without consulting books and people I am not able to classify the remaining 429. Probably the proportions would be about the same when all were accounted for. We have, therefore, an army of between six and seven hundred writers contributing every year to these magazines. They are paid for their work: but if they are literary people by profes- sion, the amount thus made is extremely small. Their real source of income is another question. Enough in this place to show that it is not the magazine. The next point is the light which this list and its analysis throw upon the management of the magazine. It is evident that the conductors are determined that their pages shall not become the happy hunting grounds of any writers : they will have variety, not only of subject but of writers. There are, indeed, plenty of warnings in the past —even in the present—of the fatal effects of allowing any one writer, or set of writers, to 47 THE AUTHOR. appear over and over again. That magazine which falls into this error speedily shows signs of decay. There is never any lack of subjects in these days of invention, research, discovery, and theory. The object of the editor is to find for every subject the one man most capable of writing upon it: to give him a free hand: and to put his name to the paper. The editor born to the work gets, somehow, to know all the men who have authority to speak on any subject. You may recognise the true editor by the selection of his men as well as his subjects. You may also recognise the true editor by the practical nature of his subjects. It is the practical subject which attracts the reader. If you want to kill your maga- zine, fill it with literary papers—‘ apprecia- tions” of dead writers, critical papers on bygone work—there are hundreds of pens ready to write as many of these papers as they can get accepted. That way lies destruction. At the same time such an occasional paper, by one of the very few masters in criticism, is acceptable and useful. To sum up, the conduct of two or three, at least;” of these magazines is remarkable for the practical ability displayed and the success which has attended the editor’s policy. And there are two or three whose decay is due to the absence of any policy except that of picking the best out of a bagful of casual articles. : One more point comes out with great clearness. The useful “ general” hand, the man-of-all-work in literature, is disappearing. knowledge and research there are men who can write while they work. To these men the papers on their own special work are confided. the literary man turned his hand to anything, and wrote on all subjects. This change may not only be observed in the magazines: it is also remarkable in the nzwspapers. Every great newspaper, like every great magazine, has already its specialists, men or women, who do not belong to the daily staff, but write when they are invited to do so, when the occasion seems to require their services. In every way this is great gain: even the man of letters, though he loses all this work, gains in being forced to become himself a specialist; and as regards the magazines, he no longer lives as he lived in the last century, by writing for them on all subjects, but when a subject on which he is an authority comes to the front he can write upon it for one of these magazines, which give him a not unwelcome cheque, and what is worth many In every branch of . Formerly _ cheques—the reputation of being an authority on : the subject. Writing for the magazines, therefore, which has been discussed by some of our correspondents, cannot be considered as a source of income as THE AUTHOR. pretentious, wiredrawn, and temporary — this indeed was to taste of the fruit of the tree, once forbidden, of the knowledge of good and evil. But this was simply to extol what had not yet been proved to be attainable. He thought the best definition of good taste was Burke’s, given by him in the treatise on the “ Sublime and Beautiful.” He wrote: “I mean by the word taste no more than that faculty or those faculties of the mind which are affected with, or form a judgment of, the works of imagi- nation and the elegant arts. The cause of a wrong taste is a defect of judgment, and this may arise from a natural weakness of the under- standing, or, which is much more commonly the case, it may arise from a want of proper and well- directed exercise, which alone can make it strong and ready. It is known that the taste is improved exactly as we improve our judgment, by extending our knowledge, by a steady attention to our object, and by frequent exercise; they who have not taken these methods, if their taste decides quickly, it is always uncertainly, and their quick- ness is owing to their presumption and rashness, and not to any hidden irradiation that in a moment dispels all darkness from their minds.” To Burke’s statement that the cause of a wrong taste was defect of judgment he must add that nobody came into this world with a ripe judg- ment. They were as likely to be born with silk hats on their heads as with good taste implanted in their breasts. To go wrong was natural; to go right was discipline. If they would possess good taste they must take pains about it. They must study models, they must follow examples, they must com- pare methods, they must crucify the natural man. The best way of telling a good book from a bad one was to make themselves as well acquainted as they could with some of the great literary models. They must be possessed, too, of a7sound understanding if they were even to know a good book from a bad one. Without under- standing, without the happy mixture of strong sense and delicacy of sentiment, they would fail to discover amid the crowd and crush of authors the difference between the good and the bad. They would belong to the class who preferred Cleveland to Milton, Montgomery to Keats, Moore to Wordsworth, and Tupper to Tennyson. Understanding might be got. By taking thought they could add to their intellectual stature. Delicacy might be acquired. Good taste was worth striving after. To tell a good book from a bad one, then, was a troublesome job, demanding first a strong understanding, second, some know- ledge, the result of study and comparison, and third, a delicate sentiment. If they had some 149 measure of these gifts, which, though in part the gift of the gods, might also be acquired and could always be improved, and could avoid prejudice —political prejudice, social prejudice, religious prejudice, irreligious prejudice, the prejudices of the place where they could not help being born, the prejudices of the university whither chance sent them, all the prejudices that came to them by way of inheritance, and all the prejudices picked up on their own account—if they could give all these the slip and manage to live just a little above the clouds and mists of their own generation, why then, with luck, they might be right nine times out of ten in their judgment of a dead author, and ought not to be wrong more frequently than perhaps three times out of seven in the case of a living author, for it was indeed a very difficult thing to tell a good book from a bad one. Dec ON WRITING FOR THE MAGAZINES. HERE has been some talk in these columns | on the subject of writing to the magazines, as a branch of the literary life and a source of income. Ihave felt some doubts as to how far the magazines of the better class offer any sub- stantial increase of income to their writers, and I have now caused an inquiry to be made into the __ subject.7 The result will be found, I think, interesting. I directed my inquiry to be made into the following magazines: the Contemporary, the Nineteenth Century, the Fortnightly, the National, the Westminster, the Cornhill, the Temple Bar, Longman’s, and Macmillan’s. By an oversight, which I regret, I did not include the Pall Mall Magazine. I deliberately excluded. the American magazines because most of their contributors are Americans. Nor did I include the lighter magazines, of which three in the list above may be taken as specimens. Blackwood 1 excluded because its articles are, I believe, mostly unsigned. Perhaps it would have been as well had I kept to the first five magazines only. However, I directed the preparation of a list giving the names of all the contributors to the above magazines for the twelve months—Dec. 1898 to Nov. 1899, both inclusive. Without counting the anonymous papers, there were 648 different contributors during that period. Out of this number, excluding the serials, four con- tributed five articles each to the various maga- zines; eight contributed four articles each ; twenty-four contributed three articles ;. ninety- eight contributed two articles—the rest, 514 im number, contributed one article each. the vast unity of art. THE regards the high-class magazines. Those which appeal to a wider and a lower body of readers may be considered on another occasion. W. B. ec — MR. W. E. TIREBUCK ON BOOK CRITICISM. “ () the question of literary art serious need exists for caution, as the most conflicting confusion prevails amongst authors and critics,’ said Mr. W. E. Tirebuck, in a lecture before the Teachers’ Guild in Liverpool. In support of his contention Mr. Tirebuck quoted from a few of the classic writers, and also the views of many critics. Such consummate literary artists as Hazlitt, Russell Lowell, Fielding, Thackeray, George Sand, and Ruskin had _ ex- pressed conflicting opinions upon the two definite qualities in art—the subject and the treatment of that subject ; the thought, and the character of the expression that particular thought received. He was convinced that no single definition of any man, however great, could fully define art ; for all achievements iu art soared from the individual to the universal, from the finite to the infinite, from the material to the spiritual. All art seemed to have been viewed too much in segments instead of as a whole; as if one judged all forests by a single tree; all seas by one particular wave ; or the universe by their own planet, the earth. Viewed as a whole must art be, and as impartially as they would view a scientific fact of life. As it had its gradations as a whole, so each branch of art—poetry, music, painting—had also its grada- tions of growth; and every phase of art, however simple, had its own justification for existence in They had no more right to regard one particular phase of one particular section of art as the only legitimate expres- sion of the mind of man, than they had the right to regard one particular section of science as the only section of scientific truth ; or to regard one sectarian form of universal religion as the only legitimate expression of man’s belief in God. In regard to a book, he suggested that they should first judge themselves as to what particular grade of literature they had a right to speak of. Some had a preference for history, and therefore they could perhaps better judge that than the quality of some new phase of poetry or of fiction. Granting that they could judge a given book, how out of all the vagueness of impression could anything definite be derived ? Art anp LIFE. He would suggest keeping the judgment clear upon the simple line that art was nothing more AUTHOR. 131 than expression. But an expression of what? Was it an expression of itself or of something else? He thought that originally it was an expression of something within a man or of something outside of him, and that though art as art had since then been elaborated into special importance by the self-consciousness of the painter, the composer, and the writer, it had never really had an existence absolutely its own, wholly sepa- rated from the utility of life. One conclusion always seemed to him to be that art was an expres- sion—a language—of man. Another complicated question was the quality of the expression, One depended on dramatic situation, and another on the analysis of character and the psychology of life, and it could not be questioned which of the phases was more legitimate in art as a whole. An author’s conception of a given fact in life was one thing, a reader’s perception of the author's render- ing of that fact might be something different. Each organism saw phenomena through the modi- fying medium of its own conditions. ‘There were no two individual expressions precisely alike, although there was one broad basis of art. The same complexity occurred in other arts. There was no finality in art or in the expression of faith or belief, such being subject even to the momentary revelation of truth. Was there, then, no standard of excellence, no ideal of perfection F Shakespeare, for instance, was a standard of excellence, but not necessarily a final ideal of perfection. Nor were Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Macau- lay, Emerson, and Ruskin. But he was of opinion that some broad basis could be estab- lished upon which even the liberty of opinion could work with a consciousness of logic, upon definite points well in view, rather than with that semi-conscious confusion which confounded itself the more it spoke. Tur Conrusion oF CRITICS. When one critic condemned a book because of its themes, apart from the treatment, another condemned the same book for its treatment apart from its themes, while a third condemned both themes and treatment, together with another who pronounced the book a masterpiece, he was certain that it was a time that some clear basis should be formed to work upon, even though the basis be a good old-fashioned one. Any mind incapable of making this simple sepa- ration of subject and treatment, in painting, music, and literature, should frankly own that it had no right to sit in glib judgment upon subjects which made even the wisest modest, and the pro- foundest to hesitate and think. Moral purpose justified a very strong degree of realism. ‘The 52 THE AUTHOR. opinion of some was that art must not deal with questions of morals. That upward aspiration in the soul of man which more than anything had evolved art must not, forsooth, be expressed by art! This surely was the narrowest of versions of both life and art. Rather let them work upon the historical fact that as all life had affected all art, so all phases of art must in turn affect all phases of life for the continuous development of mankind. < THE BOOKSELLERS’ QUESTION. I.—Tue Brcinnine oF CoERCION. At a special general meeting of the Publishers’ Associa- tion, held at Stationers’ Hall on Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 14, Mr. John Murray, the president, in the chair, it was decided that the new scheme for dealing with net books should come into force on Jan. 1, 1900. The president informed the meeting that out of 1270 booksellers in the United Kingdom who had been askei1 to tiga an undertaking not to sell net books to the public at a discount, no less than 1106 had signed, and that among those who for various reasons had not signed were many who have never undersold net books, and who have no intention of doing so. This paragraph is taken from the Publishers’ Circular of Nov. 18. In accordance with the veport of the sub-committee (see The Author, June 1899), the Committee of this Society will not in any way interfere with this arrangement so long as the booksellers think it will be for their advantage. But the Committee will watch it with interest. The working of the scheme seems to be as follows :— The 1106 booksellers pledge themselves to sell at net prices, without discount, whatever books they are ordered to do. If they do not agree, or if they break their agreement, the Publishers’ Association will one and all refuse to let them have any other net books. It will be observed (1) that all the publishers have not joined the association: nor all the book- sellers: (2) that to the booksellers is left the detective work: (3) books which are not pub- lished at net prices are still open to all book- sellers: (4) that net books are at present chiefly high priced books: (5) that evasion of the agree- ment has been proved by experience to be possible in twenty different ways: (6) that the public are used to discount, and will certainly do their best to get it, and will give their sympathies to the discount booksellers. “Let the plan, however, since so many book- sellers want it, have a trial. In six months or so let us ask the 1106 booksellers what they have gained by the arrangement, and those who have stood out what they have lost. It will then, perbaps, become possible for the authors and the booksellers to take counsel. II. [By Mr. Ropert MacLenosz. | I have read with much interest the letters and notes written by yourself in The Author and else- where in reference to the ‘“ Discount Question,” and I gather from them and from the report of the sub-committee of the Authors’ Society, printed in the June number of The Author, that you and your committee are anxious to support the book- sellers in their efforts to improve their position, Your repeated insistence that a book is not pro- perly published until it is shown on booksellers’ counters has, I know, had a great effect; and I should very much like to see the weight of your influence thrown on the side of the recent agree- ment arrived at between publishers and book- sellers. From certain statements made in the report above referred to, and from notes of yours in the September number of The Author and your letters to the Daily Chronicle, I can see that some points bearing on the present position of affairs have not been brought before your notice. I venture, therefore, to place before you the follow- ing facts which may, perhaps, throw a little additional light on the matter. About two years ago a proposal was made that all booksellers should be compelled to agree not to give any discount on net books and to limit the discount on non-net books to 2d. in the shilling. This proposal was approved of by many of the leading publishers and was warmly welcomed by the great mass of booksellers in the country. It was, however, objected to by the Committee of the Authors’ Society and was ultimately abandoned. One of the chief objections made to the scheme by your committee was that it was too hard and fast, and allowed no option to the author to have his book placed on the market without any conditions. The Publishers’ Association, when they in- timated to the Booksellers’ Association that the scheme was abandoned, stated at the same time that they were prepared to consider any alterna- tive scheme submitted to them. Thereupon a new scheme, which was a modification of the original proposal, was prepared and, before being sent to the Publishers’ Association, was submitted to the various branches of the Booksellers’ Asso- ciation and to the Authors’ Society. This was approved of by these branches and by your Society and was ultimately sent to the Publishers’ Association. After careful consideration of it, the Publishers’ Association reported that they found it too complicated, and submitted to the Book- sellers’ Association the present agreement as an alternative and simpler scheme. The agreement ee ee ee THE AUTHOR. was then sent in draft to the various branches of the Booksellers’ Association to be brought before their members. In all cases it was heartily approved of by the branches asa step in the right direction, and in the case of the Scottish branch, which I know more intimately than the others, the meeting of booksellers convened to consider the matter was the largest ever held in Scotland and was most cordial and enthusiastic. The draft agreement, after having thus been accepted by the Booksellers’ Association, was returned to the Publishers’ Association. But before finally adjusting the agreement, delegates from all the branches of the Booksellers’ Association were invited to meet the publishers in conference in London. ‘That the representa- tives of the various branches were hearty in their support of the scheme is shown by the fact that every delegate invited was present, and that members came specially to London from all parts of England, and from Edinburgh and Glasgow. On the day of the conference there were three meetings of booksellers: (1) Of the delegates alone; (2) of the delegates with the publishers ; (3) of the members of the Booksellers’ Associa- tion, at which the delegates were present. At all these meetings the agreement was cordially approved of; and it was left to the Publishers’ Association to have it submitted to counsel. Before the end of June the agreement was printed and signed by most of the firms belong- ing to the Publishers’ Association, and was sent to the individual booksellers for their signatures by the local secretaries of the various branches, along with two printed letters: (1) that signed by the presidents of the Publishers’ and the Book- sellers’ Associations, and (2) that signed by the local secretary. I enclose you a copy of the first of these letters, and of the local letter issued to the Scottish branch, which may serve as a speci- men. The agreement has now been signed by over 1100 booksellers, and Mr. Murray and Mr. Keay, the presidents of the two associations, are trying by friendly representations to induce the very small number of booksellers who have not yet signed, to do so. My reason for going over this “history ” in such detail is to show you that the agreement, while nominally emanating from the publishers, is in reality a concession to the wishes of the booksellers by the publishers, who recognise that with the welfare of the booksellers the own welfare is bound up. - In no sense is it the case that it is an agreement forced by the publishers on an unwilling body of booksellers. It is most important that this should be recognised, as it would be a fatal objection to the agreement or, deed, to any arrangement if it could be shown ’ 153 that it was in the interest of any individual class. The interests of the three classes—authors, pub- lishers, and booksellers, are one, and if the Authors’ Society were to support the scheme which has been approved of by the Publishers’ and the Booksellers’ Associations, it would, I am convinced, have a great influence on the public. In paragraphs 4 and 5 of your sub-committee’s report, printed in the June number of The Author, it is said (paragraph 5) : «There ought to be preserved a margin of 25 per cent., that is to say, the profit to the book- sellers on the sale of a book should be at least 20 per cent. on the trade price of it.” With this the great majority of booksellers will, I have no doubt, heartily agree. But how is this to be reached? In paragraph 4 it is said: “They (the booksellers) can make terms for themselves, if they only agree among them- selves.” For years every effort has been made to bring about ‘such desirable mutual agreement. The Booksellers’ Association has established branches throughout the country, and by this means has aroused among the individual booksellers a fellow-feeling to an extent that never existed before. By the combined efforts of the Beok- sellers’ and the Publishers’ Associations the great majority of the booksellers of this country have signed the present agreement, and it is hoped that by friendly means the very small minority of objectors may be further reduced. But if these friendly means fail, there is no alternative left except some form of control. Strange as it may seem, it is a fact, that as things now stand, even if 99 per cent. of booksellers agree as to terms, such an agreement can be made of no avail jf one bookseller insists on under-selling his neighbours, and the question is, are we to allow the minority of one to control the majority of ninety-nine, or should the ninety-nine control the one? The Publishers’ and the Booksellers’ Associations believe in the latter alternative, and I hope you will agree that their decision is a wise one. By common consent it has been agreed that if the ‘principle of control be admitted, then the particular form of its application is a matter of minor concern. The present agreement, in which the principle of control is embodied, has been very carefully thought out, and the objections which have been suggested by different parties have been considered. The objection to the first scheme offered by the Authors’ Society, viz. that it gave to the author no option of having his book published without conditions, has been met. The present agreement only refers to net books, and if an author wished to have his book pub- 154 THE AUTHOR. lished without conditions, he can still have it so published as a non-net book. It will, thus, I think, be seen that the clause in the report of the Authors’ Society which says that “the committee of the Publishers’ Association have proclaimed that they will not allow, if they can prevent it, the creators and owners of literary property to have any voice in the administration of their affairs,” is scarcely accurate. Technically, it is true that the Authors’ Society have not been con- sulted about this agreement ; but practically they have been consulted in so far as their publicly expressed views have moulded the form of the agreement. Indeed, one of the recommendations made in the former report of your committee— viz., that a bookseller should be at liberty to take or not to take net books on net terms “ without interference with his liberty to do what he pleases with other books” (see report in June Author, par. 6) amounts to very much the same as the present agreement, which does not compel a book- seller to take net books at all, if he prefers to be without them, but only compels him, if he does take them, to sell them at net prices. The other chief objection to the present agree- ment is that it forbids the booksellers, but not the publishers, to sell net books at reduced rates to retail customers. This objection was considered by the delegates of the booksellers at their meeting in London prior to the conference with the publishers. It was then felt to be a delicate a question to bring up, as it seemed to imply a doubt of the honour of the members of the Publishers’ Association, which no one there present wished to impugn. It was, however, brought up at the conference, and it was left to the publishers to have the opinion of counsel taken on the matter. That opinion, as you know, was given in favour of leaving the agreement in its present form. Apart from any question as to the wisdom of this opinion, it is obvious that the signatures appended to the agreement bind those signing it to carry out the agreement, even though they might claim technical legal rights to break it in this respect; and at the conference the delegates were assured that the Publishers’ Asso- ciation would not tolerate that any of its members should underbid the bookseller in the sale of net books. There are other minor objections which have been brought against the scheme, with which I shall not take up your time. But if your Society can see its way to support the scheme in its main contentions, it will do much to remove any doubt as to the value of the agreement that may remain in the mind of the public. The scheme is only an experiment. If it proves a success, it will doubtless be carried further ; if it does not succeed, then at least we may feel that an earnest attempt has been made to arrest the decay of bookselling—a decay which you have often lamented as injurious to the spread of literature. Ihave thought it right to show this letter to Mr. Murray and Mr. Keay, the presidents of the Publishers’ and the Booksellers’ Associations. It has met with the approval of these gentlemen, and if you can see your way to insert it in The Author J shall feel greatly obliged. Glasgow, Oct., 1899. ——— II. It will be well to reprint the Report of the Sub-Committee on the Discount System adopted by the Committee of Management and published in the Author of June 1899 :— “ The circular dated March 1899, issued by the Publishers’ Association, contains a scheme for the “extension and the enforcement” of the net system. “The difference between the present scheme and that for 1897 is difficult to understand. By the former all books were to be sold at a net price; by the latter a more ‘general trial of the net system is advisable, especially in the case of books above 6s.’ It is not, however, stated that the trial is to be confined only to books above 6s. in price. Nothing is said in reply to the objec- tion to binding booksellers by restrictions un- recognised by law. The new scheme has been prepared by the com- mittee of the Publishers’ Association submitted to a general meeting of that body, adopted by that meeting, and referred to a meeting of pub- lishers and booksellers, without the least refer- ence to the creators and part owners of the property concerned. In other words, the committee of the Publishers’ Association have proclaimed that they will not allow, if they can prevent it, the creators and owners of literary property to have any voice in the administration of their own affairs. “TI. Your committee have been informed on good authority that the condition of many book- sellers at the present moment is so deplorable that they are ready to catch at any concession on any terms which may seem to offer relief. Under these circumstances your committee are not pre- pared to advise opposition to any scheme which the booksellers may think promising, even though the way proposed is beset with obvious objec- tions and dangers. “TIT. Your committee, therefore, while con- tinuing to protest against methods of coercion Pele outa TILE which deprive a man of the right of doing what he pleases with his own, think it desirable to point out the true nature of the scheme and what its adoption will entail. “1. The booksellers will sign an obligation not to sell ‘books published by us ”’—certain pub- lishers—‘at net prices below the published price. Nothing is said here as to any limita- tion of net prices to high-priced books. The door is carefully left open for the inclusion of all books as net. Something was said in the publishers’ report, but this is not binding. Nothing binds except the exact words of the signed agreement. “ Nothing is said which forbids the publisher to sell at a reduced rate. He is thus free to under- bid the bookseller if he pleases, and to deprive him of the whole trade with local libraries, schools, and institutions. The bookseller, therefore, fetters himself while the publisher goes free. Is it to be believed that the publisher will not take alvan- tage of this liberty of action ? “ Nothing is said as to any time limitation. Does the bookseller bind himself for life ? “No improvement in the booksellers’ position is offered on books published at six shillings and under, i.e. on the bulk of his business ; that part on which he has to depend. “rt. If, however, high-priced books are only to be made net, what advantage will the bookseller gain in return for entering into this one-sided arrangement? Surely the advantages ought to be substantial. «Tet a book now published at 12s. be taken as an example : “By the present system the bookseller gets it at 8s. 1d. and sells it at 9s. “ By the new system he will get it at 7s. 11d. and sell it at 10s. «The advantage is therefore 1s. 2d.—a substan- tial gain on every copy. “On a 24s. book his advantage would be 2s. 4d. “Tf, therefore, a country bookseller should sell in the course of the year forty-eight copies of a 12s. book, he would gain £2 16s. ; twenty-four copies of a 248. book, he would gain £2 45.; twelve copies of a 36s. book, he would gain £2 2s. Yo that his increased profit on the year, after resigning the power of selling his own property in his own way, would only amount to £7 38. a year. Perhaps the demand for high-priced books ia the country is greater than these figures would show. They are submitted as tentative only. In any case it is certain that the sale of books at a high price is never very large, except in very excep- tional cases. It will be easy for any beokseller to go through his books and calculate for himself AUTHOR. 155 how much advantage he would gain in the year by this proposed change. “s11. The Publishers’ Association very wisely refuse to undertake the detective part of the scheme. That is left to brother booksellers. It will be an ungracious task. Let them ask themselves seriously how they will undertake it, and let them remember that without some method of supervision — same method which will create bitter animosities—the scheme cannot last. “yy, Evasion again is perfectly certain whenever the interests of the trade require it. Former experience shows that there area dozen ways of evasion, and that they will be practised. Restric- tions which ought not to be imposed, which are contrary to the liberty of the citizen, have always been evaded and always will—and that without reluctance so long as they are felt to be con- trary to the spirit of freedom. “«y, If, however, booksellers decide, in the face of these considerations, that the scheme can be worked, and that it will turn out to their advan- tage, your committee would not recommend that the Society should stand in their way. But they should agree to adopt the scheme fora limited period only ; they should boldly face the difficulty of providing the necessary supervision ; above all things they should insist on the publishers being bound not to undersell them; and they should make it clear that they sign only for books pub- lished at about 6s. “ At the end of the limited time the booksellers should be invited to confer with the authors as to the continuance, further development, or abolition of the scheme. “TV. Your committee would point out to the booksellers that, so far from being obliged to accept any terms that may be imposed upon them, they are in a perfectly independent position. They can make terms for themselves if they only agree among themselves. “VY. Your committee would point out, for the consideration of booksellers, that whatever arrangement be adopted, whether an extended net system for a term on the present arrange- ment, or any other, there ought to be preserved a margin of 25 per cent., that is to say, the profit to the booksellers on the sale of a book should be at least 20 per cent. on the trade price of it. “VI, Your committee would also repeat the recommendations made in their former report. These recommendations were adopted by the Committee of Management. They were also adopted by the Booksellers’ Association of Scot- land (see The Author, Aug. 1898, pp. 61 and 63). They were designed in order to give the net 156 system a fair trial without coercion. It was there proposed :— “(1.) That books at 6s. and under shall remain as before. “(2.) That, as at present, every net book shall be made the subject of a special contract, and that a bookseller shall be at liberty to take it on net terms or not, without interference with his liberty to do what he pleases with other books, his own property. “ (3.) That the system of. sale or return shalljbe more extensively adopted. This method, indeed, is absolutely necessary if books are to be really published for the world and not, as now happens with a great many, which are not taken by the booksellers, only printed. “ Your committee desire to see in every book- seller’s shop in the country a collection of all the new books worth buying offered for sale. ‘“©(4.) That the ‘odd’ copy shall be abolished as practically useless and even mischievous. 1V.—Wuat 1s WANTED. We are informed by the Publishers’ Circular that at length something is to be attempted towards the mending of the retail bookseller’s financial position. Whatever may be our opinion as to the adequacy of the proposed course, there can be no doubt that it is imperative there shall not be a moment’s delay in the alteration of trade terms in such a manner that men of intelligence shall be attracted to what should rank as a profession. What the public wishes is guidance and help from an educated, interested man. No guidance is found. There can be but one reason in these days of over-crowding and competition. There is no money in it. But why do I trouble you about this? Because it is clear that authors must suffer from the present defective method of reaching the public, as recently stated in your columns, by advertisements, by review, or by the bookseller. I venture to say that if you improve the quality, not the quantity, of the latter’s collection of books, the advertisements and review (aptly joined) may be done without. Ifthe author or the publisher pay him well, the bookseller, not the assistant bookseller, will be with his customer, and he will most effectively review and advertise not only the latest, but the best of the books upon his shelves. The little known writer may suffer most from the present system, but not he alone. All suffer, for surely the cost of advertisement comes from the popular author’s pocket in the form of a THE AUTHOR. lower rate of royalty than he would otherwise receive. The trader who supplies only the book he is asked for does light porter’s work and receives light wages. It would seem that the sale or return system advocated in your columns should bring into the trade some who dare not risk much capital in the purchase of books. But these, having selected their stock, must go one step further, they must be in a position to help book-buyers—who will be found much more ready to rely upon the judg- ment of the booksellers than to be guided by unsigned reviews. The author, too, will be liberated from his bogey. He will no longer fear that his book being ignored, or dismissed with a sneer by an anony- mous reviewer, has no other chance of a hearing. One INTERESTED. ec MR. ENDEAN AND MESSRS. SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, AND CO. LETTER appeared in the Times of Nov. 18 from Mr. J. Russell Endean telling an interesting story. It was to the effect that he arranged with a publisher for the expendi- ture of £15 im advertising a new edition of a certain work : that when the account was rendered, £15 was charged: that he asked for details and was informed that only £6 gs. 8d. had been spent —of this £1 6s. was disallowed as contrary to the agreement, so that only £5 3s. 8d. had been actually spent instead of £15; that the explanation offered by the publishers was that the charge was “ provisional”: that another account would have been rendered at the end of the next half-year when any part of the £15 not spent would be credited. A reply to this letter was sent to the Times two days afterwards in which Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Company admitted that they are the publishers referred to and offered the follow- ing explanation : Oor advertising clerk, when sending the account which Mr. Endean copied into your columns, admitted that by his oversight some advertisements which ought to have been inserted in certain papers had not been inserted. He admitted the error, said it should be put right, and it was put right as far as possible. The rectification, one supposes, was either the withdrawal of the first account and the substitu- tion of another: or else the immediate laying out ~ of the overcharged £9 16s. 4d. in advertising the book. It seems a pity that the firm did not think it necessary to state the nature of the rectification. The story is, in consequence, at THE AUTHOR. 157 present only half complete. It seems also a pity that the letter was headed “ Authors and Pub- lishers,” because only one publisher was concerned and only one charge was brought. Meantime, with the view of making their staff more careful, and for the sake of the house, it would be well if every author receiving an account from Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston and Co. (Limited), would refer it back for details. The firm, one is quite sure, would gladly welcome this co-operation of the authors with themselves in ensuring the accuracy of their clerical staff. Do CORRESPONDENCE. {.—Orr THE List. HE more experience I have of publishing agreements the more difficult I find it to contrive one which shall entirely safeguard the interests of the author and properly protect his interests. So much so is the case that I would venture to suggest that the time has come when the Council of the Society should among them draft, not agreements, but special clauses which should be found in every agreement. Quite recently I heard of a somewhat difficult case in which the author suffered for want of a clause which, I believe, is never found in any agreement. The book was published on the half- profit system. The publishers bore the entire expense of publication, the author bore the entire expense of writing the book. The publisher undertook to publish the book, and the profits arising from the sales—or, I should say, what the publisher called profits—were to be equally divided between the parties “during the legal term of copyright.” The general management of the production, publication, and sale of the book was to be left to the “judgment and discretion Z of the publisher. The book had a sale of 700 or 800 copies, but there were, according to the accounts rendered, no profits to be divided. The author now ex- presses himself surprised to find the book omitted from the publisher’s catalogue. It is, in fact, not being offered to the public, though the “legal term of copyright” is far from having expired. Can the author do anything? It is a doubtful point. Clearly the publishers, as partners in the transaction, are bound to exercise that “ judg- ment and discretion” in a bond fide and proper manner. Are they doing so in cutting the book out of their lists. Their case, no doubt, would be that the book no longer sells, and that it is unwise to go to the expense of, say, 58., for printing the title of it in their catalogue. To make good this contention they would have to show that they omitted from their lists all other books which no longer sell, and this it is doubtful if they could do. Should not the Society take counsel’s opinion on the point, for the form of agreement is a very common one ? There is, however, a moral in all this, and it is, that in every publishing agreement the publisher shall be bound to keep the book in all his lists for a specified period, which in most cases should be the period of copyright. Another useful clause is that in any year in which less than a specified number of copies have been sold, the author shall have the right to rescind the agreement, taking over unsold stock, blocks, moulds, or plates at a valuation. Lastly, I would strongly support your frequent recommendation to authors never to sign an agreement by which the copyright of a book is passed to the publisher, except when the book is sold outright for a specified sum. There are, I may almost say, hundreds of reasons why authors should keep their copyright. If they do not, the publisher may cut out paris of their work, alter them, put objectionable inset advertisements in every other page, publish the book in some form which might discredit the author, even sell it to some soap firm for the purposes of adver- tisement. Where the copyright of the book is sold for a specified sum, there should be a clause in the agreement prohibiting abridgment or alteration of the text without the author’s consent. Nemo al. I. L. II.—RasuH CRriTIcIsM. In The Author of October last you have an article on Criticism in which (IX.) it is said: “Don’t try to prove every successful author a plagiarist.” As illustrating how easily a story may look like a plagiary, the following experience may interest. Some months ago I finished a story of the Pre-historie or Antediluvian age. While it was yet in the typing stage a similar story by a well- known novelist appeared in a popular magazine. T read the first five chapters and found it sub- stantially my own story, the difference beimg chiefly in localisation and style. I followed the events of my own story, and found even the details reproduced with slight variations, ey. : My antediluvians are ruled by a fiendish man, his by a fiendish woman; my king orders his guards to arrest a virtuous priest who interrupts a banquet, denouncing the wrath of Jehovah, and the guard who obeys is struck by lightning ; his queen does the same, but the priest denounces the wrath of the gods and the guard is struck 158 with leprosy! And so on, through five consecu- tive chapters—as far as I have read ! My MS. has never left me but once, and then it was in typists’ hands; moreover a well- known writer would certainly not plagiarise from one so unknown and inexperienced as myself. The events reproduced are fictiticus; hence one can only suppose that, by a pure coincidence, the same ideas occurred to us both. Had our posi- tions been reversed, I should certainly have considered the unknown writer a barefaced plagiarist. 1 think, therefore, your contributor does well to caution the critic. M. Sr. J. III.— Literary Yrar-Boox. The suggestion made in the last issue of 7’he Author that a Literary Year-book should be issued by the Society is, I think, well worth the consideration of the Society’s Committee. The book should be, above all else, for the information of writers. I have a copy before me of the last edition of “The Literary Ycar-Book,” which is by no means the useful guide one would expect. It is to be hoped, however, that the forthcoming edition will be more satisfactory ; otherwise the Committee should take the matter into considera- tion. GLENFRUIN. IV.—Tue Reaping Brancu. May I callattention to a very serious want in this connection? A young writer submits, we will say, ten short stories (about 50,000 words) to the Society’s reader, and pays the fee. In due course he gets the opinion and advice of the expert. Profiting thereby he writes another 5000 words story. Would it not now be a vast help to him if he could submit this one to be read for a small fee —say 2s. 6d.? Of course, he might wait until he had ten stories to submit; but if has not gone on the right tack after the first reading, look at the waste of labour and time! What he wants is to be able to submit each piece of work separately, as itis completed. Is it possible for the Society to arrange for this ? Half-a-crown is admittedly a very small fee. Yet when I was connected with a well-known daily, many a time have I reviewed in thirty or forty lines (at three halfpence per line) a 400-page Look dealing with some branch of economics with which I am tolerably familiar. Buppine Fictionist. V.—Tue Preriop oF Copyricut. Iam exceedingly glad to see that The Author is now on the track of “leases” by the author to’ the publisher. Allow me, after thirty years’ THE AUTHOK. dealings with musical composers, to say that merely to extend the period of co; yright would benefit not a small proportion, and would simply enrich the capitalist publisher. I have seen it stated that the United States plan of twenty- eight plus fourteen years was the old English plan, which has been retained from colonial days. If so, we have a precedent, and the period of lease could be extended. I have in several cases seen the beneficent effect of the United States law in bringing sums to widows and children after the composer’s death. The lawyers would, how- ever, have to make some provision to prevent the pawning of “ futures’’ by improvident authors. It is an unpleasant thing for a music publisher to have composers bring in really good stuff and offer it, even press it, for sale out and out ata price below its value in order that the composer may “meet a bill,” ‘save his furniture,” “pay his life insurance,’ &c. This kind of thing gives an opportunity to hard and grasping pub- lishers. It will, I suppose, always go on, but under the system of lease there would, if the work met with success, be a revaluation and re-sale after a certain number of years, which would do something to right matters. Let me say that out of all the thousands of things which I have recommended to my company not one is published on commission or on the half- profits system. The plans of lump payment or royalty are exclusively used, and the composer is always offered the option of a royalty as against alump sum. I mention these facts to show that I belong to the better class of publisher with which, as I know, the readers of The Aushor are in sympathy. A Music PusLisHER. = Vi.—LiveratvreE AS A PROFESSION. I will not, if you please, sign this letter, as I am sick of the sight of my own name; but I may say it has been mentioned once or twice by your correspondents, although I have not the honour to be acquainted with a single author in England. I should like to allude to some letters of your members who have made certain statements of mine pegs whereon to hang complaints against the literary profession, which, while I deeply sympa- thise with them, I do not entirely endorse. In your issue for September Annabel Gray very trenchantly declares that Press booms, advertising, beaiing the dium, favour with “rag- bag” proprietors, huge posters, or commendatory letters from high personages, are indispensable to “success.” “UL. 8.’ declaims against chance, poverty, and the “ jealousy ” of successful authors | THE AUTHOL. who refuse to advise a struggler. “ NW. S complains that a novel by an unknown hand cannot secure even a nominal price. Now, I wish to say that I personally have never complained of any of the obstacles of Litera- ture, but simply of my failure to do good work ; it is true that I have attributed that in part to poverty ; but I do not blame Literature that I am poor. I am forced to agree that Annabel Gray has much reason. We must never complain of the successful ; if we emulate their particular form of success, we must imitate their methods, and if we despise their methods, we need not envy their success. The author with whom I am in sympathy is one who aspires to a solid reputation, with or without profit, rather than a noisy and short-lived notoriety, and the unseemly making of hay. His ambition must be such that he will not permit himself to hope for more than even post- humous fame or, at least, a quiet and retired reputation which earns a humble living but high honour from the highest men. If an author can do the work of George Eliot or Thackeray or Meredith it is probable that he will achieve suffi- cient for comfort for his latter years, and the chances are that he is bound to be “ discovered ”’ before his death. But he need not regret the lack of worldly push; real genius is almost invari- ably accompanied, by the most sensitive pride. The man who makes Literature a mere profession must undoubtedly obtain some of those aids recom- mended by Annabel Gray; but I regretfully confess that I have quite retired from that sort of competi- tion myself and therefore cannot advise. I depre- cate the abasement of touting for paragraphs and puffs; nor do I think it a sign of dignity to seek for commendatory letters from successful authors. Self-respect is really more valuable than a “boom.’? Do good work—do good work !—and then, if your own judgment is really satisfied and you cannot place it, get a few copies printed very cheaply to send to the Press, or set your teeth, lay it aside, and let your soul die and revive again. It is painful to reflect on failure and the vulgarity of life. ‘Personally, I support myself by this thought: Is there any known case of a poet or novelist of genius who has perished unheard ? And can you point to any high reputa- tion of ten years’ standing that is not amply justified by its work? Do not worry about those whose vein is different to yours: but in your own vein ? May I encroach a little further on your space ? In your issue for May 1899 appeared a letter from “ Waiting,” headed “ Against Difficulties.” It is rather unusual, but will you permit me to address “ Waiting” through you? I should 159 like to tell this gentleman that I wrote to him; responded to a sympathy which he appeared to extend to me, and which surprised and pleased me; but owing to an accident—I was far away from post offices at the time—the letter was lost I hope this will meet his eyes. « Waiting” said: “ Meanwhile Tam miserable. I have had sufficient success to warrant me in believing that in two years I could, by constant work and hard writing, earn a ‘ comfortable ‘neome. But I am chained to office work, and my evenings are as miserable as my mornings and afternoons, for what literary work can a man do who comes home tired out?” Tf I were a publisher or @ patron, I should take “ Waiting’s” brief statement to represent a character of grit. I can only say—work on Sundays and holidays. One of the most suc- cessful recent novels was written by a clerk who could only begin at 10 p.m. When I was a clerk, with the luxurious hours of 10 to 4, I thought it spoilt my writing, though I wrote from 6 to 7.30, and from g to 12. I threw up my job to get more time. I regret it now. I see that I did my best work then; the chafing of the day’s slavery stimulated concentration ; the annoyances of bondage made me determined to achieve my liberty. “ Waiting ” must not wait, but burn two ends of the candle. He is not compelled to fire off his work in haste to get a dinner, but he should be accumulating and polishing it. Give a year, instead of three months, to a novel or to half-a-dozen tales; then send out —they may bring you in £25, which is half way to liberty, or they may make your market. If you have had “sufficient success” to warrant anything, why not have more? You can do it, my dear fellow ; lock your door and say, I will! And, mem.—I£ you get home by six, take half- an-hour’s nap, then tea. Sleep is the most vital help to good work. Have you tried going to bed early, and putting in an hour in the morning ? Let no domestic annoyances disturb you; a man must sacrifice the lesser to the great, and be ruthless with the women-folk. Here is agood refutation to Annabel Gray’s remarks on log-rolling and influence, and a useful word of encouragement. During three years, virtually a stranger to London and without a single literary acquaintance, I placed work with four good publishers and three good magazines, although the work was exceptionally bad. Owing to the badness of the work, and nothing else, L failed; I achieved no sort of reputation. Since then, owing to some rather contemptible “ con- fessions”’ in a review, I have seen my name para- graphed, and to quite a flattering extent, in many of the best literary papers and dailies ; 160 almost sufficient to make Annabel’s “literary sensation,” if I wished, or knew how, to take advantage of puffs. And yet Lassure you I don’t know a single editor or critic, nor doany of them know me. What astonishes me, is the unwar- ranted luck authors have, to have so many generous journalists ready to advertise them for nothing. An inventor, a far more useful per- sonage, has no such luck, and he needs it. Ottawa, Oct. ’99. VIL—EnNcouRAGEMENT FOR Youna AvtrHors. “J. M. E.S.’s” letter in the October issue is undoubtedly very encouraging reading for strug- gling beginners. She says: “Had my health and other duties allowed continuous work, I could have realised from £400 to £500 a year by what I call ‘hack-work.’” Yet from others we have widely different testimony. In “The Pen and the Book” Sir Walter Besant seems to be almost feverishly anxious to dissuade any beginner from trying to make a living by writing for magazines and journals. ‘“ Above all things,” he says, “ do not at first try to live by writing for the magazines and journals if you value your reputa- tion, your independence, and your self-respect.” This is backed up by what an anonymous lady writer says in a National Review article on “The Sorrows of Scribblers” (March, 1898) :-— “There may be, perhaps, some twenty or thirty people in England who make £200 a year by magazine writing. Their names are well known to the public and area safe ‘draw’; while outside these is the large army of magazine contributors whose earnings average, say, from £20 to £50 a ear.” On the other hand, we have a widely-expe- rienced editor and contributor telling us in “ How to Write for the Press” (Horace Cox) that his experience by no means bears out what the National Review says. He declares that “ there must be some scores of men making much more than £200 a year by magazine writing.” What is a poor beginner to do amidst this bewildering disagreement of doctors? I think that a good deal of the disagreement arises from not properly distinguishing between earnings from daily papers, weekly papers, and monthly magazines. Will “J. M. E. 8.” be kind enough to say in what class of periodicals the £400 or £500 a year would have been earned—dailies, weeklies, monthlies, or all three combined, and would the work have been entirely fiction ? Tf “An Editor” (the author of “How “to Write for the Press”) should happen to see this, perhaps he may be good enough to tell us what a fairly suecessful writer who would have to THE AUTHOR. accept usual magazine pay (not a popular “star ”? like the late Mr. Grant Allen, Dr. Conan Doyle, Anthony Hope, or Mr. Rudyard Kipling) may hope to make from monthly magazines alone. I fancy “An Editor” has written very largely for the weekly popular Press; but, as he says, “ success therein brings you nothing but lucre, and. that, after all, is not everything.” Most beginners look to the monthly magazines which publish signatures, Macazine STRUGGLER. sect BOOK AND PLAY TALK. HE Editor of the “Literary Year Book” wishes it to be known that it is not the intention of the new Year Book to “slate” any writer in its critical articles, and that he hopes there will be found no suppressions of fact. We reserve, therefore, further observations until the appearance of the volume. In the November number the name of Jean Ingelow was printed instead of Jean Middlemass. An apology is due to the friends of the late Jean Ingelow, and to Miss Middlemass, and an expres- sion of regret that the very singular slip of the pen escaped the notice both of the contributor and the Editor. The Irish author, Mr. W. B. Lappin, whose novel “ Mad Mag” had recently such a successful serial run in an Ulster paper, is just now engaged on another one, the scenes of which are all princi- pally laid around a well-known castle amidst the hills of Iveagh. One of the characters is a fool named Nickey Saoi Glic or Nickey, the Cunning Sage, who gives a tone to the novel, both m humour and eccentricity. The dialect speech of the “ Black North,” too, may be looked for. “Forbidden Banns,’ by Annabel Gray, has been accepted by a well-known Italian editor. It will appear the end of this month as a feuilleton translated into Italian in a daily paper. All of Mr. Mackenzie Bell’s works that are now before the public will in future be published by Mr. Thomas Burleigh. The Shakespeare Press of New York city whose place of business is in Westfield, N.J., announce that they expect to publish during the coming winter a volume on the Shakespeare sonnets, being the first of two volumes of a work upon the “ Allusive Poesy of William Shake- speare,’ and which will take new ground as to Francis Bacon’s “authorship” therein. The text to be employed will be that of the original quarto: THE The author of the work will be Mr. The of 1609. Frederick C. Hunt, of the Oklahoma Bar. volume will be about 500 pages uniform with the publications of the New York Society. Mr. Robert Freke Gould’s new book entitled “Military Lodges,” published by Gale and Polden, has just appeared. It contains an account of the Freemason lodges in regiments and ships of war, and also a statement of famous soldiers and sailors who have belonged to the body of Freemasons. The following books by Miss L. E. Tiddeman have just been published by Messrs. Blackie and Sons: “What Mother Said” (1s.), ‘“ Sahib’s Birthday” (6d.). Two juvenile books by the same author have been published by Messrs. Chambers entitled, “ Daddy’s Darling” and “ Molley’s Mother,” and another “ The Sea-Bird x by Messrs. Nister and Co. Lord Rosebery’s monograph on Chatham is in the hands of the printers. It will be a companion volume to his “ Life of Pitt.” Shakespeare During the past month Stevenson’s Letters to his family and friends have been published in two large volumes, which are edited by Mr. Sidney Colvin. Mr. Colvin, however, has resigned the task of writing the life of his friend in favour of Stevenson’s cousin, Mr. Graham Balfour. Mrs. Hodgson Burnett has completed the new novel which has engaged her for some time past, and it will be issued by Messrs. Warne under the title, “In Connection with the De Willoughby Claim.’ The “claim” referred to is for damages inflicted during the American Civil War, but that of itself is only a secondary matter in comparison with the love-interest of the story. Mr. Edward Carpenter has writtten a story of Indian life entitled “ Narayan,’ which is to appear first of all in the New Age. A volume for the tourist in Egypt, entitled “Pyramids and Progress,” has been prepared by Mr. John Ward, and will be published shortly by Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode. It will contain an introduction from the pen of Professor Sayce. The volume of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s remi- niscences, by Mr. Arthur Lawrence, will be published soon by Mr. Bowden. Mr. F. W. Findon writes an appreciation of Sir Arthur Sullivan as composer, and a complete biblio- graphy has been compiled by Mr. Wilfrid Bendall. Sir Arthur Sullivan, by the way, con- ducted at the Alhambra the other day, in the AUTHOR. 160i cause of the charity of the moment, the first performance of his setting of Mr. Kipling’s poem, “The Absent-minded Beggar,” a work which has in every conceivable way been turned to account —by the author, the proprietors of the Daily Mail, and others—on behalf of the soldiers’ families. Professor Bury has written a popular “ History of Greece from the Earliest Times to the Death of Alexander the Great,” which Messrs. Macmillan will publish. Mr. Frederic Harrison has collected a number of his essays for early publication by Messrs. Macmillan in a volume. The principal one, that on Tennyson, has not been published before. The volume will be called “ Tennyson, Ruskin, Mill; and other Literary Estimates.” Mrs. Roy Devereux has written “ Side-Lights on South Africa,” a book of travel, which Messrs. Sampson Low will publish immediately. The Duchess of Sutherland is engaged upon a new novel. John Oliver Hobbes’s new novel, “ Robert Orange,” is first to appear serially in the Ladies” Field. After several years spent in the Pacific, particu- larly in studying the Caroline Archipelago, Mr. F. W. Christian has written a book about the history, physical aspects, archeological remains, language, and religion of that part of the world. It will be published, entitled “The Caroline Islands,” by Messrs. Methuen. The second volume of Mr. Herbert Spencer’s revised and enlarged edition of ‘“ Principles of Biology ” has just been published by Messrs. Williams and Norgate. The December number of the Fortnightly Review contains an article by Mr. Spencer on Professor Ward’s “ Naturalism and Agnosticism.” Mr. Frank Mathew has written a historical romance, called “Our Queen Triumphant,” which Mr. Lane will publish. As a result of the territorial changes in Samoa, Stevenson’s grave is now on German soil. Some enthusiasts have already suggested that the coffin should be brought to Scotland and re-interred ; as to which the Globe remarks that ‘it will be time enough to move Stevenson’s dust when the Germans claim him for a German author.” As surely as Burns’s birthday anniversary comes round, some new point of discussion arises in connection with the rustic poet. Now it is the turn of a writer in the Library World, Mr. J. C. Ewing, who avers that among the 93° editions of 162 the poet which have been issued since 1786, not one is perfect. Besides protesting against edito- rial interference with Burns’s text, and the inclu- sion of pieces which Burns himself wished destroyed, Mr. Ewing states that many picc2s which Burns never wrote at all are printed in every edition of his works. Mr. Jerome’s comedy, ‘“ Miss Hobbs,” will be produced this month at the Duke of York’s by Mr. Charles Frohman, with Miss Evelyn Millard in the part which was filled in America by Miss Annie Russell. The opening performance at Mr. Wyndham’s rew theatre on Nov. 16 being for the benefit of the sufferers by the war, was the occasion of an extraordinary craze. Such was the eagerness manifested, and such the prices paid for seats (and standing room, too, for this alone in some parts easily fetched a guinea a time), that £4000 was realised in a house whose takings will range ordinarily from £260 to £300 when filled. The play was ‘“ David Garrick,” in which the audience had the gratification of witnessing once again both Mr. Wyndham and Miss Mary Moore. Altogether it was a brilliant scene. In the course of his speech at the close, Mr. Wyndham happily remarked that the play of “David Garrick” revolves round two ideas—duty and home. “The soldier nobly responds to the call of duty, and you, just as nobly, respond to the call of home— the homes of those gallant men who are fighting now for ours.’’ In many other ways and at many different places during the month the services of the theatrical, musical and literary professions have been exercised on behalf of the sufferers by the South African War. But the annual per- formance for the Royal General Theatrical Fund, which took place at Drury-lane, was rather poorly attended. Mr. Benson has arranged for a series of Shake- speare plays at the Lyceum, beginning on Feb. 15. “Hamlet” (March 1) will be produced for the second time in its entirety (the first occasion having been at Stratford-upon-Avon), the per- formance beginning at 3.30 and lasting till 10.45, except for an interval of an hour and a half for dinner. The other Shakespeare plays which Mr. Benson will produce are “ Henry the Fifth,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ “Richard the Second,’ “ Twelfth Night,” “ Antony and Cleopatra,” and “The Tempest.” During his eight weeks at the Lyceum he will elso revive Sheridan’s comedy, “The Rivals.” Nearly six hundred ladies and gentlemen lave formed themselves into a committce in order to pro- mote the success of Mr. Benson’s Shakespearian revivals. THE AUTHOR. Meanwhile, Mr. Tree has begun the rehearsals of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” which is intended for production at Her Majesty’s early in January. Himself will play Bottom the Weaver; Mrs. Tree will play Titania; the part of Oberon will be taken by Miss Julia Neilson, and that of Hermia by Miss Sarah Brooke, who joins Mr. Tree’s company for the first time. “The Children of the Ghetto ” will be produzed at the Adelphi on Dec. 11, with Miss Rosabel Morrison in the part of Hannah Jacobs. Mr. George Alexander gave a copyright per- formance at Liverpool on Nov. 17 of Mr. Stephen Phillips’s poetic drama, ‘“‘ Paolo and Francesca.” A comedy of modern manners by Mr. Charles Brookfield, entitled “One Law for the Man,” founded on M. Paul Hervieu’s “Le Loi de ?Homme,” will be presented at the Criterion on the 7th inst. ty Mrs. Kettlewell (Miss Edith Woodworth), who takes the principal part. Among the company will be Miss Lottie Venne, Miss Keith Wakemann, Mr. Hermann Vezin, and Mr. Norman McKinnell. “The Little Library,” is the title of a new series promoted by Messrs. Methuen, which is to con- sist of many of the famous books in English and other literatures. Each volume is tu have a photogravure frontispiece, and will be supplied with critical introduction and notes, the first to appear being Lord Tennyson’s “ Princess,” edited by Miss Elizabeth Wordsworth. Her Majesty has graciously accepted from Blanche Eryl a copy of her song “ Peace,” the Angel’s Song, from the poem of “The Light of the World,” by Sir Edwin Arnold. The old Tottenham-street Theatre, which at one period of its existence was known as the Prince of Wales’s, is about to be re-opened. The third and concluding volume of the “Handbook to Christian and _ Keclesiastical Rome,” by M. A. R. Tuker and Hope Malleson, embracing part 3 (“ Monasticism in Rome”) and part 4 (‘ Ecclesiastical Rome’’) will be published shortly by Messrs. A. and C. Black, and by the Macmillan Company in New York. The book will be illustrated with coloured pictures. Lieutenant-Colonel E. Gunter’s “ Outlines of Modern Tactics,” has just gone into a thnd edition, which is published (7s. 6d.) by Messrs. William Clowes and Sons. The Literary Agency of London (manager, Mr. G. Radford) has removed from 2, Whitehall- gardens to 5, Henrietta-street, Covent-garden, W.C. ee THE BOOKS AND REVIEWS. (In these columns notes on books are given from reviews which carry weight, and are not, so far as can be learned, logrollers.) —— REcoLLECTIONS, 1832 to 1886, by Sir Algernon West, K.C.B. (Smith, Elder, and Co., 21s.)—one whose career has been crowded with interesting associations and who was for many years Mr. Gladstone’s right-hand man—is © both entertaining and interesting,” says the Daily News, “but the public must not expect any ‘ revelations,” civil servants in general being nothing if not discreet. The Daily Chronicle says that though the many cupboards in Downing- street and Somerset House, full of fascinating skeletons are not laid bare, the volumes “are full of good things, well worth preserving and well worth reading”; while the Daily Telegraph predicts that these two volumes “ will be widely read and highly appreciated.” Lorp Lytrron’s Inp1an ADMINISTRATION, 1876-1880, compiled from lettars and official papers, by Lady Betty Balfour (Longmans, 18s.), is avolume wherein, says the Times, the author has done a noble service to her father’s memory; and “no honest judgment can hereafter be formed on our relations with Central Asia without a careful study of the facts and documents presented in this book.” ‘It will be exceedingly useful,” says the Daily News, “to all those who desire to possess in convenient form the complete record of an eventfal viceregal reign.” Memoirs of A REVOLUTIONIST, by Prince Kropotkin (Smith, Elder, and Co., 21s.), is an intensely dramatic narrative, says the Daily Chronicle, which reviews the work of the Russian exile under the title of ‘ Prince and Anarchist.” ‘‘A more sincere, we might almost say naive, self-revelation was never given to the world.” ‘‘ There is no lack of adventures in these memoirs,” says the Daily Telegraph. Tue Hiauest ANDES, by E. A. FitzGerald (Methuen, 30s. net.), is “a book which is not only popular in the best sense of the word,’ says the Times, “but is a permanent and solid contribution to the literature of mountaineering, and to our knowledge of one of the most marvellous regions on the surface of the earth.” It isa record of the first ascent of Aconcagua and Tupungato in Argentina, and the exploration of the surrounding valleys. The Daily Chronicle remarks that “the story is simply told, and there is no straining after effect’; “‘ the photographs are admirably reproduced, and the book is got up with a care and finish worthy of so great @ subject”; while with regard to the part taken in Mr. FitzGerald’s expedition by Mr. S‘uart Vines, “there are few finer records in the history of climb- ing.” Toe Hirnerto UNIDENTIFIED CONTRIBUTIONS OF THACKERAY TO Punch, by M. H. Spielmann (Harpers, 78. 6d.), is based upon authentic and exclusive information. The Daily News describes it as “a great literary fund,” and adds that the book must be taken for what it is, namely, rather a descriptive bibliography than a collection of Thackeray’s pieces. “ Thackeray’s contributions to Punch were in reality much more extensive than has been commonly supposed,” says the Daily Chronicle. ‘The new items, great and small, which this volame contains number about 150,” and they are “not unworthy of Thackeray’s reputation.” “Naturally they reflect in many ways the home and foreizn politics of the time.” Tor Letters or Rosert Lovis STEVENSON TO HIS Faminy AND FRIENDS, edited by Sidney Colvin (Methuen, 25s, net) is praised by all the critics for ita interest and fascination. The Daily Telegraph, for example, says itis “‘ one AUTHOR. 163 of the two living and memorable books o% the year ’—the other being the Browning Love-Letters. Tur Lire AND Lerrers oF Sir JoHN EvERETT Mruxats, by John Guille Millais (Methuen, 32s.), has like- wise been received with general approval. The Daily Chronicle says ‘it is of unusual interest and charm,” and the Daily News that “ it is a gold mine of good things.”’ Some SourH AFRICAN REcoLLECTIONS, by Mrs. Lionel Phillips (Longmans, 7s. 6d.) is a connected summary of the chapter of South African history in which the writer’s husband (one of the five principal reformers of Johannes- burg who were sentensed to death) took so prominent a part. Mrs. Phillips, adds the Times, “ shows how, far from stirring up the movement, the so-called ‘ capitalists’ were for a long time strongly averse to it.” “ Many of the book’s details,” says the Daily Chronicle, “are new, the frankness of the writer is distinctly charming, and, not least important, the pictures add considerably to our knowledge of the Transvaal.” Some Account oF THE MILITARY, POLITICAL, AND SoctaL Lire oF THE RiaHT Hon. JosEerH MANNERS, Marquis of Granby, by Walter Evelyn Manners (Macmillan, 18s.), would haye been more acceptable to the Spectator “had it been less controversial.” ‘‘ However, Mr. Manners has been indefatigable in the collection of material, and at any rate he has given us all the facts upon which to form a judgment.” The Daily Ch ronicle verdict is very similar: “The work enables us to realise what fine qualities must have been possessed by the nobleman who became a popular idol and was glorified on so many sign-posts.” Tue River War, by Winston Spencer Churchill (Long- mans, 36s.), is said by the Daily Chronicle to be “ likely to take its place, among many competitors, as the standard history of the successful advance from Wady Halfa to Khartoum.” Mr. Winston Churchill was present at the Battle of Omdurman. ‘He has compiled two admirable volumes,” says the Daily Telegraph; ‘‘he is the master of a most fascinating style.” Interature, coupling its review of this book and Supan Camparan, 1896-1899, by An Officer (Chapman, tos. 6d.), says that ‘these volumes. cannot be neglected in any statement of Egyptian events for the last thirty years of this century.” A Hisrory oF THE British Army, by the Hon. J. W- Fortescue (Macmillan, 36s. net), consists of two volames— the first part of the work—which come down to the close of the Seven Years’ War. “It is sound, admirable workman- ship,” says the Daily News, “a book for which every reade of the nation’s history will heartily thank its author.” The Daily Chronicle (which makes special mention of the maps) says that the work “ fills a gap in our historical literature,” and “ judging by this first instalment it promises to fill it in a very satisfactory way.” First PRINCIPLES IN Potrrics, by W. S. Lilly (Murray, 14s.), considers the twin questions—are there any basic principles in politics, and is democracy at present satisfac- tory to those who desire to see polities governed by morality. The Spectator says that, ‘ike not a few physicians, Mr. Lilly is better at diagnosis than at therapeutics.” It is, however, “a very able and interesting work, and “the suggestive and usefal chapter on crime and punish- ment seems to us altogether admirable, especially in its exposure of the gushing sentimentalism which some well-- meaning but foolish persons reserve for some of the worst criminals.” Tue LAND oF Contrasts, by James Fallarton Muirhead (Lane, 6s. net.), described in the sub-title as ‘‘ a Briton’s view of his American kin,’’ “is one of the best of the lighter books on the United States that we have had for a long time,” 164 THE says the Daily News. ‘‘ No shrewder, no more sympathetic wielder of the pen has come our way for a long time,” says the Daily Chronicle. “Every page is a page full of interesting observations or reflections interestingly put.” Bouemian Paris or To-Day, by W. C. Morrow, with 106 illustrations by Edouard Cucuel (Chatto, 6s ) is described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘‘a fascinating combination of brightly written letterpress and admirably executed drawings, avowedly intended to instruct as well as entertain.” “Mr. Morrow would have us think,’ says Mr. Tighe Hopkins in the Daily Chronicle, and we are in no way fain to believe him, that the very dissipations of these students are an essential part of the training.” Literature says “ it is mainly devoted to a description of the recreations of the great mass of dissolute Parisians,” and though on the whole “suffi- ciently amusing, it leaves us with a very unpleasant impres- sion of French student life.” Lyra Frivona, by A. D. Godley (Methuen, 2s. 6d.), is praised by the Spectator, which says that “Mr. Godley has earned the gratitude of all university men and all lovers of belles lettres by collecting in this slim volume some thirty of the entertaining pieces that he has con- tributed in the last ten years to the Oxford Magazine and other journals.” Tue Log or A Sea Warr, by Frank T. Bullen (Smith, Elder, and Co., 8s. 6d. net), “is full of thrilling adventure admirably told,” says the Times, “but it also tells many a sad and sickening tale of the hardships that British seamen are quite unnecessarily made to endure in many cases.” The author says he has written nothing but the truth— recollections of the first four years of his sea life—as to which the Times says that “no one who reads his volume will hesitate to acknowledge that truth is oftentimes stranger than fiction.” Mr. Bullen “is a highly eitertaining shipmate,” says the Daily Chronicle, “ who spins his yarns of vivid colours and of good honest English staff.” Tusy THat Wak IN Darkness, by I. Zangwill (Heinemann, 6s.), is a republication, in a greatly enlarged form, of Mr. Zangwill’s “‘ Ghetto Tragedies,” which origi- nally saw the light in 1893. The Spectator observes that “no reader, who is not blinded by prejudice, will rise from the perusal of this engrossing volume without an enhanced sense of compassion for and admiration of” the Jewish race. The Daily Telegraph says these stories “bave dramatic power, unsparing realism, exquisite pity.” The Daily Chronicle is struck by Mr. Zangwill’s sincerity and simplicity. An ENGLIsHMAN, by Mary L. Pendered (Methuen, 6s.), is ‘a story of how a girl of the upper classes of London society marries a grocer, and will be ‘ happy ever after.’” The Guardian says it is “ decidedly noticeable,’ and the Daily Telegraph describes it as “an excellent novel, by no means lacking in sensational incident, and closely in touch with the more salient political and social questions of the age we live in.” Miss Pendered writes of the lower middle- class existence with great intelligence and understanding,” says the Daily Chronicle; “the result of her observations constitutes almost a document.” — THE Crown or Lirn, by George Gissing (Methuen, 6s.), is quite optimistic, the Daily News says, and “is rich in the interest so conspicuous in Mr. Gissing’s work, which springs from the impression it gives us that we are looking upon life itself, and that the representa- tion of it is unheightened by adventitious touches.’’ “The ‘Crown of Life’ is love, and the book may be described as a study of the various sorts of love that make for marriage.” AUTHOR. No Soun Apovn Monny, by Walter Raymond (Long- man, 63.), is “powerful and poignant in its well-nigh unrelieved tragedy,” says the Daily News. The story ig set in Somersetshire, and “deals with simple villagers, with the primitive and inexorable forces of human life.” The Spectator says the author has not belied the confidence which was inspired by the high level of excellence he reached in his last novel. The Literary World admits that in its intensity the book “may shock the feelings of some, but there is no doubt that in its way the story is perfect, that is to say, once begun, the consequent events and the ending were inevitable.” THE Surp or Srars, by A. T. Quiller-Couch (Cassell, 6s.), is “an admirably written and interesting story,” says the Spectator. The tale is that of the growth from boy- hood to early manhood of the son of a poor and studious clergyman in the West Country. The Literary World finds it “both an exhilarating and a depressing book, its cha- racters are thoroughly studied and well-drawn, and its pictures of West Country life vivid.” TALES OF SpAcE AND TIME, by H. G. Wells (Harpers, 6s.), is described by the Spectator as an “ extremely interesting, suggestive, but occasionally disquieting volume,” partaking to a great extent of the nature of a supplement to his last two volumes, “The War of the Worlds” and “When the Sleeper Wakes.” The Daily Chronicle says the tales ‘‘ are worth reading.” TRicKs AND TRIALS, by Christabel R. Coleridge (Hurst and Blackett, 6s.), is “an original and decidedly clever novel,” saysthe Guardian. “ Miss Coleridge has got hold - a new situation, and treats it with spirit and distinc. ion.” THe Eve or THE Rerormation, by F. A. Gasquet, D.D. (Nimmo, 12s. 6d. net), does good service, says the Guardian, “to the cause of historical truth by insisting that the Church in England on the eve of the Reformation was not so hopelessly corrupt as the fancy of the popular Protestant has painted it.” “THE AUTHOR.” SCALE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. Front Page we . w= £4 0 0 Other Pages om 8 0 8 Half of a Page ... : ow L100 Quarter of a Page «. 015 0 Eighth of a Page ake aS we Oe Single Column Advertisements ... perinch 0 6 0 Bills for Insertion per 2000 3 0 0 Reductions made for a Series of Siz or Twelve Insertions. All letters respecting Advertisements should be addressed to the ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER, The Author Office, 4, Portugal-street, London, W.C. Mr. J. Eveleigh Nash, LITERARY AGENT, AMBERLEY HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, W.C. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 07 (December 1899) Subject The topic of the resource The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 07 (December 1899) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1899-12-01-The-Author-10-7 publications The Author