https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/474/1900-05-01-The-Author-10-12.pdf 805591184bc70db0f36fc4ae562c8d7a PDF Text Text �������������������������� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Author Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em> Description An account of the resource A digitised run of the Society of Authors' monthly periodical, <em>The Author</em>, 1890<span>–</span>1914, made available together for the first time.<br /><br />Currently users can browse issues and <a href="https://historysoa.com/items/browse?search=&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&amp;advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Index&amp;collection=&amp;type=&amp;tags=&amp;exhibit=&amp;date_search_term=&amp;submit_search=Search+For+Items&amp;sort_field=Dublin+Core%2CTitle">indices</a> (not available for all volumes). Full text search for all issues, and other additional search functionality, will be added in 2022. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1890–1914 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context The-Author-Issues Publication Date The date of an event (in YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD format) 1900-05-01 Volume 10 Issue 12 Pages Page range in volume 253–276 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 19000501 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin She Author. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT. Vou. X.—No. 12.] MAY tf, 1900. [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. HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and requests that all members not receiving an answer to important communications within two days will write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered letter only. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other sub- jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS. One 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 ! Til. 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. oe WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS. Ye Ne sign an agreement without submitting it to the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some competent legal authority. 2. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for the production of a play with anyone except an established manager. 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for PLAYS IN THREE OR MORE ACTS :— (a.) SALE OUTRIGHT OF THE PERFORMING RIGHT. This is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into such a contract should stipulate in the con-  THE 254 tract. for production of the piece by a certain date and for proper publication of his name on the play-bills. (b.) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES on gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5 and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts in preference to the American system. Should obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed date on or before which the play should be performed. (c.) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF ROYALTIES (1.e., fixed nightly fees). This method should be always avoided except in cases where the fees are likely to be small or difficult to collect. The other safeguards set out under heading (b.) apply also in this case. 4. PLAYS IN ONE ACT are often sold outright, but it is better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely important that the amateur rights of one act plays should be preserved. 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can be limited, and are usually limited by town, country, and time. This is most important. 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is of great importance. 7. 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. 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. 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, and that for a novice the first object is to obtain adequate publication. 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. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. 1. 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. AUTHOR. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publisher’s agreoments 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. 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen- dence of the writer. 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 upom them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce paymente due according to agreements. THE READING BRANCH. N “EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this. 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 te the Offices of the Society, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn Fields, W.C., and should reach the Hditor 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 te 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. Shea NAD NRA SS THE AUTHOR. 255 THE PENSION SCHEME. HERE seem to be some indications that the a. Pension Scheme has been misunderstood by our members. It is well, therefore, that the principles should be stated over again. 1. It is a scheme for making the followers of literature provide by their own efforts for the relief of those who break down through ill-health or old age. 2. It is not designed to furnish a pension for every member of tbe Society, as has been misrepresented. 3. It is proposed to make it self-supporting and efficient in the following manner : (a) To form a nucleus by donations. (6) To supplement this beginning by annual subscriptions. (c) To devote a certain proportion—say one- third—of the annual subscriptions to the grant of pensions, and the remainder —say two-thirds—to the permanent fund. 4. It is thought that when the advantages of the Pension Fund are clearly understood— that it will be a fund expressly reserved for, and devoted to, the life-long assistance of those who are old or broken—it will receive the cordial support of every member of the Society. 5. Since many members are not rich, it 1s pro- vided that either occasional donations or small annual subscriptions will be received. Members need be in no way discouraged from becoming annual subscribers for quite small amounts. The method of working may be thus illustrated. A nucleus of about £1000 has been formed. 1 over 1500 members between them provide us with an average of Ios. a year, or a total of £750, the Committee would be able to use £250 a year for pensions, and to transfer £500 to the principal. In twenty years the principal would become the very respectable sum of £11,000, yielding, say, £300 a year, and the Committee would have £550 a year to give in pensions. It is estimated that, considermg the present con- dition of literature as a profession, this amount would amply cover all legitimate demands that could be made upon the fund. It may be argued that the membership of the society will increase, and therefore the demands upon this fund. It is to be hoped that it will. But in that case the subscriptions to the Pension Fund will increase also. The Committee, therefore, very earnestly invite their members to consider how far they can support a scheme which is based on the inde- pendence of the author and the duty of those in the same profession to support others who are stricken down and unable to work. It may be urged that the Civil List and the Royal Literary Fund already provide for those in need. The answer is that the proportion of the Civil List that should be used for literature is only £400 a year, and that this slender provision is very largely, and very properly, used for the widows and daughters of literary men. As regards the Royal Literary Fund, it gives no pensions, but only grants in aid. It is also hoped that the pensions of the Society’s Pension Fund, being provided by the donations and subscriptions of authors, and being given in recognition of literary merit no less than in relief of necessitous cases, may be considered as an evidence of the appreciation of the literary profession, and as an honourable testimonial to the good work done by the recipients. Members paying subscriptions through their bank can pay pension subscriptions also in the same manner. _____——»e«e LITERARY PROPERTY. I.—Tue Copyrient Br. PNHE Literary Copyright Bill has gone into committee in the House of Lords. The committee appointed to consider it con- sists of the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Selborne, Viscount Knutsford, Lord Balfour, Lord Hatterton, Lord Monkswell, Lord Thring, Lord Farrer, Lord Welby, Lord Davy, Lord Avebury. On Tuesday, April ard, Mr. 8. L. Clemens (“Mark Twain ”) presented his views on the question, and brought forward strong argu- ments for copyright in perpetuity. It is hoped that some day this very desirable object may be obtained; but the committee did not appear to be in sympathy with Mr. Clemens on the point. The Draft Copyright Bill now before the House of Lords differs in some important points from the Draft Bill approved by the House of Lords committee at the end of last Session, the chief point being the abandonment of registration. Dramatic authors must make a strong stand against provisions in sects. 6 and 7, clause 5. This the Society of Authors, which is watching the Bill very carefully on their behalf, will do at the proper time. It is understood that the committee will not take any more evidence: the only opportunity of raising objections to the Bill will be as it passes through the House of Lords or the House of Commons.  256 Il.—Auvsrria-Hunegary AND THE BERNE ConvENTION. The Droit d’Auteur of March contains an important document issued by the Minister of Justice of Austria-Hungary respecting the inter- national copyright relations of the dual monarchy, together with detailed comments upon it. The general drift of the official document is opposed to the entrance of the dual monarchy into the Berne Union on the grounds of the differences existing between the copyright laws of Austria and Hungary, and the fact that the protection given to foreign authors by the Berne Convention would be under certain circumstances wider than that given to subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. e We, however, entirely agree with our valuable contemporary the Droit d’Au/feur in thinking that, notwithstanding certain divergencies, ‘‘ the Austrian legislation and the Convention of Berne might work together as satisfactorily as the Con- vention and the German Legislation have done for the last fourteen years.” Carl Junker. ‘“ Die Berner Convention zum Schutze der Werke der Literatur und Kunst und Oesterreich-Ungarn.” Wien: Holder. 1900. Mr. Carl Junker, who was last year com- missioned by the Austro-Hungarian Booksellers’ Union to make a full report upon the subject of the empire’s possible adhesion to the Berne Con- vention, has published in an amplified form, in a very interesting pamphlet, the results of his investigations, which originally appeared in the “ Oesterreichisch-Ungarische Buchhandler Corres- pondenz”; and his excellent brochure may be strongly recommended to the attention of all who are interested either in the wider extension of the Berne Convention or in questions of inter- national copyright. First of all sketching the history of the Berne Convention, Mr. Junker gives the text of the various official documents of the Convention, and after enumerating the countries which have already joined the Union, and alluding to the steps in the direction of adhesion taken by the Netherlands and Russia, reviews the present situation in the dual monarchy. Here a good deal of confusion exists in the copyright enact- ments, and some essential difference between the laws of Austria and Hungary. For example, the duration of copyright in the latter country is for life and fifty years; in the former for life and thirty years. On the whole, the Hungarian legis- lation is the more enlightened, but neither Hungary nor Austria protects the foreign author, except in cayes povided for by particular treaties. THE AUTHOR. Mr. Junker rightly points out that less trouble would be given by adhesion to the Berne Conven. tion than by a further multiplication of these treaties with individual countries. The question of translations (an important one in an Empire comprising so many different languages) is some- what fully discussed, and the opinion is stated that these form but an insignificant part of the whole literary production. It seems, however, impossible to avoid a suspicion that, though the number of translated works may be few in com- parison with the whole output, some of them must represent cases in which individual authors are mulcted of a considerable portion of their rights. This at least is certain, that translations of a considerable number of English and French novels appear in the Hungarian and Bohemian popular libraries; and it is evident that these libraries have a respectable sale. On the other hand, it is made clear that, amongst others, the publishers of the dual monarchy find exclusion from the Berne Convention detrimental to their interests ; and this to such an extent that impor- tant firms have migrated to Leipzig for the sake of securing the advantages accompanying publica- tion in a country belonging to the Union. Mr. Junker, whilst admitting that a reform of the Austrian and Hungarian copyright laws is desir- able, thinks that the present enactments in no way preclude an immediate accession to the Union, and urges that this step should certainly be taken on grounds of “ justice, economy, and morality.” TIL.—A Canapian CoMPLAINT. The following cutting has been forwarded to me from Canada: CopyrRicHT UNFAIRNESS. Here is an excellent illustration of the injustice of the present copyright law. A Canadian publisher came across a story published in a United States weekly paper. After waiting some time, he wrote to his agent in London to find if there was an edition of the book published in England. Answer—‘“ No book of that title published here.” The Canadian then ran it through his paper, and shortly after- wards was politely requested to pay a few hundred dollars and a heavy lawyer’s fee, as the book had been entered at Stationers’ Hall, London—but not printed in England. That would be all right, were it not for the fact that the Canadian publisher might pay five hundred dollars to a Canadian for a story to run through his paper, and yet if he did not print it also in the United States, any United States publisher could reprint the story without penalty. Where is the reciprocity in this ? Is it not one answer to the question, why does not the Canadian publisher help along the Canadian author P The arguments put forward are certainly amusing, but can be put aside with little com- ment. To begin with, the Canadian publisher’s agent must have been exceedingly ignorant of 4 | 2 4 _ THE AUTHOR. the manner of doing business in England if he did not search in Stationers’ Hall to see whether the book had been entered. Secondly, it should be remarked that the entry in Stationers’ Hall does not give copyright ; pub- lication of the book in England does. How far had this publication been made? There are no details on this point. These statements, however, have nothing to do with the real inwardness of the paragraph. The writer argues as follows: Because an American author is not bound to print in Canada, therefore the Canadian publisher should not help along the Canadian author. A wonder- ful deduction. An American author is not bound to print in England to secure copyright. To this extent there is a lack of reciprocity between England and America, and to the same extent there is a lack of reciprocity between Canada and America, but English publishers do not argue that this is any reason why they should not help on English authors. Logically, it seems impossible to deduce the one from the other. Perhaps the writer can explain his meaning. TV.—Marxk Twain on CopyrRiaut. A special meeting of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Copyright was held to take the evidence of Mr. Samuel Clemens (“ Mark Twain’). Lord Monkswell presided. Mr. Clemens, at the request of the chairman, read a written statement of his views on the law of copyright in England. He regarded the copy- right laws of England and America as nearly what they ought to be. They needed, however, one commercially trivial, but gigantic, amendment in order to become perfect. That was the removal of the forty-two-years limit, and returning to perpetual copyright. One advantage claimed for limited copyright was fallacious. It was that which made a distinction between authors’ pro- perty and real estate. A book was usually regarded as a combination of ideas, and that was just as much a property as any other. There was no property which was not due to some man’s mind, as well as his labour. A man who pur- chased an estate had to improve it by the exercise of his intellect, the intreduction of railways, and so on. His land was what the book was—the result of brain work—the combination and exploi- tation of ideas. Was it sound public policy, he asked, that con- ferred a benefit on the nation as against the author? Out of a hundred tons of books ninety- eight tons were light literature. ‘‘ My works are light,” said Mr. Clemens, witha sigh. ‘“ Many unthinking thinkers think they think,” he added. vou. x. 257 Cheap editions of deathless books would be insured by perpetual copyright. Only one book in the world, he believed, had been fairly treated since Queen Anne’s time, and that was the English Bible. It was the only book in possession of perpetual copyright. Had that deprived the public of cheap editions? It had not. How many books outlive the forty-two-years limit ? He placed those forty-two-years immortals at sixty-five. ‘The amount which would accrue to authors and their relatives from perpetual copy- right would not exceed £6500 per annum in all. There was not a professional man of repute in London who could not earn that in the year. This was the sum which was taken out of the pockets of illustrious men who had taken a share in building up British power and spreading wide the glory of Englishmen. Great Britain issued 5000 volumes a year.’ Only sixty-five reached the forty-two-years limit. Most of them would be dead and gone inside five years. It was safe to say that not more than 650 volumes out of 500,000 would outlive a century. In America, when the number of slaves subject to the lash equalled the population of London to-day, a woman wrote a book which aroused humanity, swept slavery out of existence, and purged the fair name of America from reproach. “The author,” con- cluded Mr. Clemens, “is now dead; the copy- right is dead; the children live and the book lives ; but the profits @ go to the publishers.” In the course of reply to questions, Mr. Clemens remarked incidentally that some of his manuscript was once taxed as “ gas works.” The Chairman thanked the witness for his evidence.— Daily News. V.—Vizereviy v. Mupie. In Vizetelly v. Mudie’s Select Library (Limited) the plaintiff obtained a verdict for £100 damages, on account of a libel contained in a book circulated and sold by the defendants in the ordinary course of their trade, though they had no knowledge of the libel and the book was published by a high-class British firm of pub- lishers. The verdict does not appear to us a satisfactory one. The rule of law applicable to the case is no doubt the one stated by the Court of Appeal in ELmmens v. Pottle (55 L. J. Rep. Q. B. 51). The decision there was that a vendor of a newspaper, though primd facie responsible for a libel contained in it, is not answerable if he can prove that he did not know that it contained a libel; that his ignorance was not due to negli- gence; and that he did not know, and had no ground for supposing, that the newspaper was ec  258 likely to contain libellous matter. If he proves these facts, he is not the publisher of the libel. Mr. Justice Grantham’s direction that the ques- tion for the jury was whether the defendants were negligent seems, therefore, indisputable. He, however, expressed the view that the defendants conducted their business in a negligent way, because they did not ascertain for themselves that the contents of all the 4000 new books which they circulate on an average in each year were not libellous. We fail to see why the proprietors of a circulating library should not in general be entitled to rely on the good reputation of the publishers from whom they receive books, at any rate when the publishers carry on their trade in the United Kingdom and can be reached by the arm of the law. The charge of negligence was also supported on the ground that the publishers of the book had put a notice in the Publishers’ Journal and the Atheneum requesting that all copies should be returned to them for cancellation of the libellous passages, and that the defendants took in both these newspapers and ought to have read the notice. If it be the general pvactice of the publishing trade to insert such notices in these newspapers, the omission to read them may justify a finding of negligence ; otherwise it is a strong thing to say that a man is expected to read the whole of a periodical to which he sub- scribes, even if it be a trade newspaper.—From the Law Journal (by permission). [On appeal the judgment has been maintained. The opinion of the Law Journal on the general principle is, however, instructive. | VI.—Srrcimens oF AGREEMENTS. Here are two agreements. The reader will be pleased to peruse documents which will so greatly raise the calling of publishers in his estimation. In what follows A. B. is the publisher. 1. A. B. to have exclusive right of publishing everywhere. 2. Corrections above 25 per cent. of the cost of type-setting to be borne by the author. 3. The first 500 copies to bear no royalty. 4. After the first 500 copies the royalty to be 12} per cent. on the published price ; 13 copies as 12, 7.e., on a 6s. book, 854d. 5. If the book is sold at or below half published. price, the royalty to be 123 per cent. on the net receipts. 6. A royalty of 10 per cent. on the net receipts to be paid for a colonial edition. 7. A. B. to have all rights, serial, dramatic, translation, and colonial, continental, American, &. And to pay the author one-half the profits on each. THE AUTHOR. 8. The author to revise future editions. g. The author shall not publish any abridg- ment. 10. The author to pay £50 to the publisher on going to press. Many agreements have been submitted to the Society, but this seems on the whole the most admirable, both in the brazen front of the pub- lisher and in his sublime reliance on the ignorance of the author. First, for the author. It is supposed that an edition of 1500 copies has been printed and sold. It is a six-shilling book, not a novel. The average price is 3s. 6d. to the trade. But after the first 1000 we suppose that the rest are sold at half- price, viz., 38. (see clause 5). The average cost of an average six-sbilling book for 1500 copies may be set down, with adver- tising, at about £110, all being bound. The author receives for the first 500... 9 O O ” : » second 500... 17 6 4 ” ] » bhird 500... 84 9 Tn all the author’s account stands thus : PD ae Paid to publisher............ 50 0 6 Received i... cececc cee 25 19 3 Loss 3.6 ed SD 50 0 6 On the other hand, consider the publisher. He, worthy creature, stands as follows: & s d. & 3 & Cost of production ......... 110, 6 0 Author in royalties......... Ze 19 8 Profit’ (0.28.1 Iba 0-6 ——————. 300 0:0 By sales : 1000 at 3s. Od..... 2. 275 OC. 2 SOO at 38. cece cece eee ane 75 O20 Received from author...... 56 0 — 300 0 0 Of course, it may be said that so large an edition might not be sold. The answer is that it might be, and that this is how it would work out. Here is another agreement. It was a little book of only 60,000 words, impudently offered to the public at 6s. The royalty was to be 1s. 6d. a copy unless the book was sold at or under half- price, when it was to be 25 per cent. on the net receipts. The author was to pay down £40. There was an edition of 1500, of which 500 copies were bound, and 400 sold, 200 at 3s. 6d. and 200 at 2s. 113d. Ona colonial edition the author was to have 34d. a copy. ps Cost of printing and paper THE The author’s account, therefore, stood as follows : Ss a Paid to publisher......... i 40 O O Received : Royalty of 1s, 6d. on 200 copies sold at 3s. 6d. .... 15 0 O Royalty of 25 per cent. on net receipts of 200 sold at 2S. £140. 0. ss... Colonial edition at 33d. 14 11 40.60 0 How does the publisher stand ? oe 8. bs. a, about : 3 50.0 0 Minding 500 ............ fay 8 10 O Advertising ............ Say 10 0 0 PROVSNICS 2 ogee 26.19. 7 PerOUt 3 ee ee A 2 . 154 11-3 Paid by author 2... 40° OO 200 copies at 35. 6d. ...... 25. 0. 0 200 copies at 1s. 113d. ... 29 11 8 Colonial edition .......... 50-0 OC ¥54 if 8 There must be something wrong here, because the poor man lamented the loss of more than £20 on the transaction, and, as is well known among his friends, he cannot swerve from the truth. VIL.—“ Our FavovurABLE CONSIDERATION.” We have often warned our readers against the publisher who gives a MS. a consideration so pro- tracted and careful that he answers by return post, and so favourable that he offers the “following advantageous” terms. But the game goes on merrily. It has of late extended its list of players. There were, until recently, two sportsmen only who practised in this field: thenathird appeared: and now there is at least one more. In fact, the game of deluding the ignorant aspirant by dangling hopes of “future and following ” editions before him with promises of two-thirds, three-fifths— any proportion you please—of the profits, seems to be attracting and tempting publishers hitherto considered above such practices. But with pub- lishers as with the rest of humanity—they can withstand anything but temptation. Here are two cases which have recently been brought before the Secretary. The first is an example of the old trickery. Dear Srr,—We have given your MS. our consideration and have decided to make yon the following offer for its pro- duction and publication in one volume. voL. X. AUTHOR. 259 That in consideration of our printing 750 copies in the best style, publishing at the popular price of 3s. 6d., binding ‘in handsome cloth, gold lettered) as trade demands warrant, advertising at our expense to the amount of £10 (full details of which would be duly sent you), and giving you two- thirds of the proceeds of sales, you agree to pay to us the sum of £69, £39 on signing the agreement, and £30 when you see the last proofs. The expenses of all future editions to be borne entirely by us, you then receiving a royalty of 1s. per copy. The above amount to constitute your sole outlay, the copyright remaining your property. We should publish the book during the spring season.— Faithfully yours, Rook What does this mean to the luckless author ? First, there will be a bill for corrections—there always is. ‘Then, after a brief interval, there will be a strong recommendation to spend another £7—they are always very exact—in advertising. Then there will follow a statement of sales. Review Copies ...........5++ 50 GLUOR 3 es 25 GIGS oes eerste a 2 In stock 672 to be sold as waste paper. The author pays £69. He then pays the bill for corrections—say £6, and sends up the addi- tional £7 for advertisements. In all he pays £82. What does he get back? Asa rule, nothing. On the most favourable terms, the sale of the whole edition, he can get back about £40. In other words, he must lose £40, and he stands to lose £80, and yet he accepts ! As for the publisher, he prints the book; he binds only what are wanted ; and as for the advertisements, only he himself knows where they go and what they cost. On the usual estimate he stands to win about £25. Here, however, is another case. The terms are somewhat varied. The publisher says: ‘“ The book will cost £ for print, paper, and binding. T shall advertise to the extent of £ I shall take a commission of 20 per cent. on the proceeds. You must send me a cheque for £ in advance. There will also be incidental expenses.” This looks like a bond fide commission business, only with a high percentage. In the case before us the author was lured on by the prospect of a safe and very profitable investment. The result was a dead loss of every- thing paid in advance, and a demand for more. The book has proved a failure: the publisher if he had been straightforward would have foretold the failure and warned the author. And, as in the preceding case, the publisher has made a certain profit in advance. He pledged himself, in his estimate, to bind the whole: it is not certain that he has done so. He also pledged himself to spend a certain sum in advertising: it remains to be proved how much he has spent. ee2  260 And, as in the preceding case, the author stood to lose so much certainly, and so much more possibly. In such cases as this it is always the “ possible” event which happens. VIIl.—Tue Property or AUTHORS. The following are extracts from a paper read by Mr. Charles Dudley Warner before the recently organised National Institute of Arts and Letters in New York. The paper is printed in evtenso in the Writer (Boston, U.S.A.) for February :— Consider first the author, and I mean the author, and not the mere craftsman who manufactures books for a recog- nised market, His sole capital is his talent. His brain may be likened to a mine, gold, silver, copper, iron, or tin, which looks like silver when new. Whatever it is, the vein of valuable ore is limited, in most cases it is slight. When it is worked out the man is at the end of his resources. Has he expended or produced capital? I say he has pro- duced it, and contributed to the wealth of the world, and that he is as truly entitled to the usufruct of it as the miner who takes gold or silver out of the earth. For how long? I will speak of that later on. The copyright of a book is not analogous to the patent right of an invention, which may become of universal necessity to the world. Nor should the greater share of this usufruct be absorbed by the manufacturer and publisher of the book. The publisher has a clear right to guard himself against risks, as he has the right of refusal to assume them. But there is an injustice somewhere, when for many a book, valued and even profitable to somebody, the author does not receive the price of a labourer’s day wages for the time spent on it—to say nothing of the long years of its gestation, The relation between author and publisher ought to be neither complicated nor peculiar. The author may sell his product outright, or he may sell himself by an agreement similar to that which an employee in a manufacturing establishment makes with his master to give to the estab- lishment all his inventions. Either of these methods is fair and business-like, though it may not be wise. A method that prevailed in the early years of this century was both fair and wise. The author agreed that the publisher should have the exclusive right to publish his book for s certain term or to make and sell a certain number of copies. When those conditions were fulfilled, the control of the property reverted to the author. The continuance of these relations between the two depended, as it should depend, upon mutual advantage and mutual goodwill. WoRrRKING FoR A MARKET. By the present common method the author makes over - the use of his property to the will of the publisher. It is true that he parts with the use only of the property, and not with the property itself, and the publisher in law acquires no other title, nor does he acquire any sort of interest in the future products of the author’s brain. But the author loses all control of his property, and its profit to him may depend upon his continuing to make over his books to the same publisher. In this continuance he is liable to the temptation to work for a market, instead of following the free impulses of his own genius. As to any special book, the publisher is the sole judge whether to push it or to let it sink into the stagnation of unadvertised goods. The situation is full of complications. Theoretically it is the interest of both parties to sell as many books as possible; but the author has an interest in one book, the publisher in a hundred, and it is natural and reasonable THE AUTHOR. that the man who risks his money should be the judge of the policy best for his own establishment. I cannot but think that this situation would be on a juster footing all round if the author returned to the old practice of limiting the use of his property by the publisher. I say this in full recognition of the fact that the publishers might be unwilling to make temporary investments, or to take risks. What then? Fewer books might be published. Less vanity might be gratified. Less money might be risked in experiments upon the public, and more might be made by distributing good literature. Would the public be injured ? It is an idea already discredited that the world owes a living. to everybody who thinks he can write, and it is a supersti- tion already fading that capital which exploits literature as a trade acquires any special privileges. ‘ ABSURDITY” OF THE CopYRIGHT LAw. The property of an author in the product of his mental labour ought to be as absolute and unlimited as his pro- perty in the product of his physical labour. It seems to me idle to say that the two kinds of labour products are so dissimilar that the ownership cannot be protected by like laws. In this age of enlightenment such a proposition is absurd. The history of copyright law seems to show that the treatment of property in brain product has been based on this erroneous idea. To steal the paper on which an author has put his brain work into visible, tangible form is in all lands a crime, larceny, but to steal the brain work is not a crime. The utmost extent to which our enlightened American legislators, at almost the end of the nineteenth century, have gone in protecting products of the brain has been to give the author power to sue in civil courts, at large expense, the offender who has taken and sold his property. And what gross absurdity is the copyright law which limits even this poor defence of authors’ property to a brief term of years, after the expiration of which he or his children and heirs have no defence, no recognised property whatever in his products. And for some inexplicable reason this term of years in which he may be said to own his property is divided into two terms, so that at the end of the first he is compelled to reassert his ownership by renewing his copyright, or he must lose all ownership at the end of the short term. Duty oF THE GOVERNMENT. Tt is manifest to all honest minds that if an author is entitled to own his work for a term of years, it is equally the duty of his Government to make that ownership per- petual. He can own and protect and leave to his children and his children’s children by will the manuscript paper on which he has written, and he should have equal right to leave to them that mental product which constitutes the true money value of his labour. It is unnecessary to say that the mental product is always as easy to be identified as the physical product. Its identification is absolutely certain to the intelligence of judges and juries. And it is apparent that the interests of assignees, who are commonly pub- lishers, are equal with those of authors, in making absolute and perpetual this property in which both are dealers. Another consideration follows here. Why should the ownership of a bushel of wheat, a piece of silk goods, a watch or a handkerchief in the possession of an ‘American carried or sent to England or brought thence to this country be absolute and unlimited, while the ownership of his own products as an author or as & purchaser from an author is made dependent on his nationality ? Why should the property of the manufacturer of cloths, carpets, satins, and any and every description of goods be able to send his products all over the world, subject only to the tariff laws  THE AUTHOR. eof various countries, while the author (alone of all known producers) is forbidden to do so? The existing law of our country says to the foreign author : “ You can have property in your book only if you manufacture it into saleable form in this country.” What would be said of the wisdom or ‘wild folly of a law which sought to protect other American industries by forbidding the importation of all foreign manufactures ? Wart tae Carrranist Has Dons. One aspect of the publishing business which has become increasingly prominent during the last fifteen years cannot be overlooked, for it is certain to affect seriously the pro- duction of literature as to quality and its distribution. Capital has discovered that literature is a product out of which money can be made, in the same way that itcan be made in cotton, wheat, oriron. Never before in history has so much money been invested in publishing, with the single purpose of creating and supplying the market with manu- factured goods. Never before has there been such an appeal to the reading public, or such a study of its tastes, or supposed tastes, wants, likes, and dislikes, coupled also with the same shrewd anxiety to ascertain a future demand that governs the purveyors of spring and fall styles in millinery and dressmaking. Not only the contents of the books and periodicals, but the covers must be made to catch the fleeting fancy. Will the public next season wear its hose dotted or striped ? The consolidation of capital in great publishing establish- ments has its advantages and its disadvantages. It increases vastly the yearly output of books. The presses must be kept running; printers, paper-makers, and machinists are interested in this. The maw of the press must be fed. The capital must earn its money. One advantage of this is that when new and usable material is not forthcoming, the “ standards” and the best literature must be reproduced in countless editions, and the best literature is broadcast over the world at prices to suit all purses,even the leanest. The disadvantage is that products, in the eagerness of competi- “tion for a market, are accepted which are of a character to harm and not help the development of the contemporary mind in moral and intellectual strength. The public expresses its fear of this in the phrase it has invented— “the spawn of the press.” The author who writes simply to supply this press and in constant view of a market, is certain to deteriorate in his quality; may, more, as a beginner he is satisfied if he can produce something that will sell without regard to its quality. It would not be easy to fix the limit in this vast country to the circulation of a good book if it were properly kept before the public. Day by day, year by year, new readers are coming forward with curiosity and intellectual wants. The generation that now is should not be deprived of the best in the last generation. Nay, more, one publication in any form reaches only a comparatively small portion of the public that would be interested init. A novel, for instance, may have a large circuJation in a magazine, it may then appear in a book, it may reach other readers serially again in the columns of a newspaper, it may be offered again in call the by-ways by subscription, and yet not nearly exhaust its legitimate running power. This is not a sup- _position, but a fact proved by trial. Nor is it to be wondered at when we consider that we have an unequalled “homogeneous population with a similar common school ‘education. In looking over publishers’ lists I am constantly -eoming across good books out of print, which are practi- cally unknown to this generation, and yet are more profit- -able, truer to life and character, more entertaining and “amusing, than most of those fresh from the press month by month. 261 PARIS NOTES. 5, rue Chomel, Paris. FY XHE stupendous event has come off! The Great Exhibition has been formally declared open to the public, despite its unfinished condition. Royalty was conspicuous by its absence on this occasion, and so was the upper-class Britisher. This is hardly surprising ; though the malevolent, anti-English attitude of the journalists has been greatly modified during the past month. Two new foreign papers have just been established here. Both are edited by warm friends of France. The first, entitled ZZ Risveglo Italiano, appears once a week, and is the official organ of the Italian colony in Paris. The second is a Russian daily, entitled Paryskaia Gazeta, which is reported to have secured the collaboration of the best-known Russian writers, in addition to having correspondents all over the world. Our American cousins are likewise pre- paring an innovation in the newspaper depart- ment. The New York Times announces its intention of initiating the public into some of the mysteries of publication by daily issuing during the Exhibition a special edition, printed under the public eye, in one of the American off-shoots in the Champ-de-Mars. Mentioning the exhibi- tion reminds me that a new propaganda to obtain daily subscriptions for the Boers has just been started. Its first and very successful public appeal was issued the week previous to the opening of the big French show. This appeal, which was the work of a group of young French- men, was reproduced in most of the leading dailies. It began as follows : “We are not inveterate enemies of the British nation. We detest no one; but we hate injustice and hold in horror the covetous financiers, the men of prey, who have coldly plotted this criminal war. They have committed with premeditation the greatest of crimes—the crime of ‘lése- humanité,’ &e.” But what about the crime of “ lése-patrie” perpetrated by the Britisher in visiting an exhibi- tion a portion of whose profits will be devoted to prolonging a murderous warfare which imperils the safety of his own countrymen? It will be a bad thing for all pecuniarily interested in the Exhibition if the French persist in thrusting this reflection home to the conscience of the British nation. Tue Lapres’ Drernat. The attempt to introduce a feminine member in the committee of the Société des Gens de Lettres has failed. The masculine element was propitious, upwards of 248 votes having been registered by  THE 262 the small group of feminine candidates who pre- sented themselves to the suffrages of the electors. The wise resolve of preventing all splitting of votes by nominating a single candidate not having been adhered to, the ladies have only themselves to blame for their non-success. Mme. Daniel Lesueur headed the poll of the vanquished party with ninety-six votes, followed by Mme. Henry Gréville, who boasted sixty-two adherents. Despite their defeat, it is evident that feminism has made enormous progress since Mme. Anais Ségalas presented herself, ten years ago, as a candidate for a seat on the committee, and registered four votes! Mesdames “Gyp” and Séverine are reported to have both declined the honour of becoming candidates in the present election. A few months ago the Simple Revue instituted a plebiscite to decide the awarding of the title of Princess of French Literature. Mme. Séverime came off victor in the contest, closely followed by “Gyp” (Comtesse de Martel). These two ladies have warmly supported the candidature of Mme. Daniel Lesueur, grand-niece of O’Connel, and author of twenty volumes of verse and fiction dealing with the prominent social and philosophical questions of the day. In Mme. Séverine’s writings we find this high-flown descrip- tion of the defeated candidate :— “ Perspicacity, and a prompt and just concep- tion of life, are in her limpid blue eyes : The Lyonnais origin of her father is shown in her low, obstinate forehead, in her firm chin; while her Parisian birth is revealed by her small, delicate nose, whose nostrils quiver above the crimson mouth like a butterfly over a balsa- mine.” MM. Victorien Sardou, Sully Prudhomme, Henri de Bornier, Camille Flammarion, Edmond Haraucourt, and Georges Ohnet, were among Mme. Lesueur’s supporters. M. Hervisev anp THE ACADEMIES. Encouraged by the above result, the lady students of divers nationalities of the Latin Quarter are mooting the formation of a feminine association similar to the existing General Asso- ciation of Male Students. The authorities are decidedly favourable to the proposition; while M. Paul Hervieu, the newly-elected president of the Société des Gens de Lettres, is rumoured to be . as warm an advocate of ladies’ rights as was M. Marcel Prévost, his predecessor. The flattering unanimity of his election by acclamation, and his numerous contributions to literature as essayist, novelist, and dramatist, render him an important auxiliary tothe feminine cause. His official recep- tion at the French Academy is announced to place towards the end of June. M. take AUTHOR. Brunetitre is the member appointed to receive him. A propos of the Académie des Sciences, the late Professor Hughes, of London, inventor of the telegraphic apparatus which bears his name, has confided to its committee a legacy of 100,000 francs, whose interest is to be devoted annually to- rewarding the autbor of the most useful inven- tion in the department of physics, electricity, or - magnetism. Among minor events may be mentioned the protest entered by a learned member of the Biological Society against the bicycle on the ground that this method of locomotion seriously increases the annual ratio of madness and crime. Mgr. Maillet, Bishop of St. Claude, is evidently of the same opinion ; the Semaine religieuse of the diocese has recently published his interdiction of its usage to his clergy “ under penalty of mortal sin.” This is the severest con- demnation that the bicycle has yet received in Catholic quarters. “T/INCONNU ET LES PROBLEMES PSYCHIQUES.” Such is the title of M. Camille Flammarion’s new book. Its advent has occasioned a profound sensation. In his present work the learned author of “ Astronomie populaire ” cites no fewer than 438 authenticated instances of psychical phenomena, telepathic communications from @ distance, mental suggestions, futurity revealed by dreams, apparitions of dying friends, &c. The question whether these psychological problems can be resolved within the limits of scientific analysis is pertinently discussed by the writer. “. . Is such an attempt rational?” he inquires; “is it logical ? Can it lead to any definite results ? Of this I am ignorant. Nevertheless, it is interesting. And if it leads us to a fuller knowledge of the nature of the human soul it will enable humanity to make a progress superior to that made up to the present time by the gradual evolution of all the other sciences united.” M. Flammarion’s final conclu- sions are that Thought is not a function of the brain; that the Soul actually exists as a real being independent of the body; that it is gifted with faculties still unknown to science; and that it can act and perceive the future (determined beforehand by natural causes) without the intermediate agency of the senses. The numerous well-known names attached to many of the examples quoted in support of the above theories amply guarantee the veracity of the narrator. M. Ernest Flammarion is the pub- lisher of this weird and curious work, and also of a French translation of the “Résurrection” of Count Tolstoi.  THE AUTHOR. 263 “Borry YEARS OF THE THEATRE.” The first volume of the “Quarante Ans de Théitre” series of M. Francisque Sarcey, edited by M. Adolphe Brisson (Bibliothéque des Annales), has just appeared. It contains “ the good Uncle’s” most important articles on the Comédie Francaise. “Those who wish to make acquaintance with the French theatre of the nineteenth century will find in Sarcey’s writings all that is necessary to be known of its plays, authors, and actors,” said M. Mézitres, president of the Parisian Associa- tion of Journalists, at a recent meeting of the society. “They will find, above all, an accent of admirable sincerity. No exterior influence, no consideration of friendship or expe- diency, ever biassed his judgment. i. Never to have sought, never to have wished to say anything but the truth during forty years of journalism, is not this the highest praise that could be given to any of our members ?” M. Méziéres spoke truly. Francisque Sarcey united the rare qualities of a disinterested, com- petent, and benevolent critic. The curs of the Press yelped over his grave and endeavoured to blacken his fair renown. They failed signally. The proofs of his sterling honesty and the upright- ness of his long public career formed an impene- trable egis to protect his memory. The spirit in which he worked may be seen from the appended rough translation of a simile taken from the chapter entitled “ Rights and Duties of a Critic ” in the newly issued volume of the “ Quarante Ans de Théatre ” series. “A tiler climbs up a steep, sloping roof, ninety feet above the ground. He tranquilly arranges his tiles on it, regardless that he risks breaking his neck a hundred times a day. He perceives no bravery in that—it is his trade to risk his life ; he risks it, and sees no reason for being proud of the act. The trade of the critic has likewise its drawbacks. In speaking the truth, he risks making almost as many enemies as there are persons mentioned in his articles. But that is our trade. We are paid for doing it; and in accomplishing it we believe we are only doing the simple duty of an honest man.” A Mortuary PaRraGRaPH. The inauguration of Alphonse Daudet’s statue, at his natal town of Nimes, furnished abundant copy to the journalist. In order to avoid creating a precedent and adding to their already weighty funereal duties, the French Academy decided ,not to send an official representative to the ceremony. We may mention in passing that the unfinished statue was merely lent by the sculptor for the occasion. He has since repossessed himself of his work, in order to modify the somewhat heavy contour of the features and pose of the unfinished figure. The death of M. Valentin Simond, founder of the Echo de Paris, the Marseillaise, the Réverl, and the Mot d’Ordre, was sincerely lamented by his contributors and staff, owing to the courteous respect he invariably showed towards their individual opinions. M. Louis Enault, a prolific contributor of fiction to the railway libraries, has likewise joined the ranks of the great majority ; closely followed by M. Joseph Bertrand, the celebrated occupant of the chair of mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne, member of the French Academy, and permanent secretary of the Academy of Science, commander of the Légion d’honneur, &c., and author of “ Traité Walgtbre,’ “Traité du calcul différential et intégral,” “ Caleul des probabilities,” “ Thermo- dynamique,” ‘“L’Histoire de VAcadémie des Sciences,” &e., and a host of erudite articles on physics, mathematics, astronomy, acoustics, the laws of capillary attraction. The Ecole poly- technique, recognising the extraordinary mathe- matical aptitude of this modern Pascal, admitted him as a pupil at the early age of eleven years. By the death of Count Benedetti France loses an agreeable writer and well-known diplomatist to whom she latterly made honourable, though tacit, amends for the unjust suspicion with which she had long regarded a certain incident in his diplomatic career. Guy pr Maupassant. The second volume of the hitherto unedited tales of Guy de Maupassant has recently been published by the Maison Ollendorf under the title of “Le Colporteur.” Each of these short compositions 1s a model of elegant, nervous writing. De Maupassant possessed the advan- tage of an excellent master in literary style at the commencement of his career. The renowned Gustave Flaubert—than whom no greater purist existed—appointed himself the critic of the youthful writer’s productions, sternly forbidding him to publish the immature overflowings of his fertile imagination. “ Wait a little, young fool,” was his vigorous exhortation on one occasion ; “‘ advance as I order you, and carry out my prescriptions. ‘To-morrow morning you will walk along the street until you see a concitrge sweeping out her doorway. At this juncture you will stop; you will contemplate this spectacle until you have absorbed it; and then you will faithfully narrate the various impressions it has suggested to you. Quick, to work!” When the prescribed literary exercise was sub- mitted for approval: “You must prune these 264 epithets, my son. And this verb? What is this verb doing here?” was the only encouragement vouchsafed. For six years this hard discipline continued unrelaxed; at the end of that period de Maupas- sant was a finished stylist. To Flaubert’s train- ing he undoubtedly owes the classical reputation he to-day enjoys, the unfortunate cloud which latterly obscured his brilliant intellect being in no wise apparent in his earlier works. New Boos. Among recent publications, we find “ La Petite Bohéme,”’ by M. Armand Charpentier, one of the most promising writers of the Zola school. His best known novel is “ L’Initiateur,’’ to which M. Alphonse Daudet furnished a moral letter-preface —‘the only moral in the book,” according toa witty confrére. ‘‘ La Constitution du monde,” a scientific work by Mme. Clémence Royer, evolves some remarkable theories; “Le Roman de Ambition,” by M. Marcel Barriére, is the second volume of the “Nouveau Don Juan” trilogy, begun by “L’Education d’un Contemporain” ; and “Le Caractére et la Main” is an interesting treatise on chiromancy by M. J. Leclercq, con- taining reproductions of the hands of Zola, Coppée, Rodin, Clemenceau, Réjane, “ Gyp,”’ Loie Fuller, and a score of other celebrities. ‘ Figures du temps passé,” by M. Lucien Perey; the third yolume of ‘ Napoléon et sa famille,” by M. Frédéric Masson; “ Fiancée d’Avril,” by M. Guy Chantepleure; ‘En flanant,’ by M. André Hallays; and “ L’Art du Chant,’ by M. Marie Sasse of the Opéra, are also among the interesting publications of the month. Darracorre Scorr. Dec NOTES AND NEWS. PUBLISHER'S proposal as to the exten- A sion of copyright is that after the legal term has expired the heirs of the author may, by paying a small fine or fee, take out a renewal. He adds, “ or representatives,” probably meaning that the trade will do their level best to make the privilege their own in the initial agree- ment. This would no doubt be attempted, and as the chance of a book being worth renewal after the term of copyright is small, it would in most cases be granted. This, however, must not be permitted. A law of copyright which enables a publisher to keep a monopoly of a book for ever would be far worse than the existing law. Perhaps the following amendments are worth considering : 1. The sale of copyright to be legal for the existing term only, THE AUTHOR. 2. At the expiration of the existing term the author’s heirs to recover possession of the copy- right. 3. The original publisher not to sell a single copy, even for waste-paper, after the expiration of the term. 4. The author’s heirs to be at liberty to make arrangements for another term of years, and again at the expiration of the second and every following term. Consider the position of the heirs of Charles Dickens or of Scott were such provision legal. They would have left a huge property enduring one knows not how long, for it is ve certain that our own great grandchildren will read Scott, and, I believe, Dickens as well, with as much delight as we ourselves of the present day. I refer to the observations of Mr. Charles Dudley Warner on the subject (see p. 260) in another column. The following proposal advanced by the Man- chester Guardian is worth considering :— “ There is a crusade on foot just now to extend the term during which an author’s heirs or pub- lishers may preserve copyright in his books. . . . But it does not seem to have occurred to anyone that the book-buyer has an interest in the matter. By all means let the author’s heirs get as much as they can from his works; but there seems to be no reason why one publisher should be able to keep others, who would perhaps employ better editors or printers, out of the field. If the term of copyright is extended, we hope that some pro- vision will be made for the right of any publisher who chooses to pay for it to issue an edition of a popular author. At present, indeed, the chief objection to the extension of copyright is that it gives a monopoly toa publisher who may be neither intelligent nor enterprising. Surely it would be possible to throw openall popular books to “the trade” after their author’s death, on the understanding that the author’s representatives were to receive the same royalty from any pub- lisher who chose to issue them. This plan would combine the interests of the book-buyer, who deserves some consideration, with those of the author’s family, and it ought not to prove unwork- able in practice.” The objection to this proposal is precisely the same as that advanced above, that it leaves an author, or his heirs, the power of selling all future interest in a work. Now, if literary property is to be protected, in the interest of authors it must be saleable for a term of years only, and then for another term. In this way only can the work be protected against forced sales, sales  THE AUTHOR. 265 through ignorance or carelessness, and sales for the exigencies of the moment. — What is the objection to the admission of women into the learned societies? Science is not in the least concerned with the sex of those who follow and work in the field of research. It may be that women will never succged so well as men in science: it may be that in some fields they will do better. Surely the broad rule of good work as the one condition of admittance is all that is wanted: that—and a strict obedience to that rule. Membership of a scientific society ought to be a distinction, or at least a recognition, To admit women would mean, in most cases, to raise the standard of membership. It is notorious that there are many learned societies which will admit anybody without asking for proof of qualification. How many geographers are there in the Geographical Society ? How many antiquaries in Burlington House? How many astronomers in the Royal Astronomical Society ? Once admit women, however, and the rule of qualification, the condition of good work, will be applied with rigour. The societies will become poorer, but poverty will have the com- pensation of distinction and honour. The archxologists and antiquaries among our readers will be interested in hearing that further examination of the catacombs of Rome is to be undertaken. The Commission — “ Commissione di Archeologia Sacra’”’—appeals to all those, of every nation, interested in the subject for assist- ance. Information can be had by writing to Monsignor P. Crostarosa, Secretary to the Com- mission, 24, Via del Quirinale, Rome. These catacombs, in which so much has been found, in which so much more certainly remains to be found, after being closed from the ninth century, have only been opened in this, the nineteenth: and as yet have been most imperfectly examined. Out of forty-five cemeteries five only are accessible to the visitor. It is interesting to see ina cutting from the Toronto Globe that the Canadian Society of Authors is going ahead. It has given a dinner, presided over by the Hon. G. W. Ross, Premier of Ontario and chairman of the Society, to the French-Canadian writer, Dr. Frechette, whose writings have been so widely read in Canada, and whose book written in English, bearing on the characteristics of the French. Canadian of the province of Quebec, was published last year. The dinner appears to have been a great success, as, indeed, it deserved to be. The Society has elected a considerable number of new members, amongst whom appear Mr. Gilbert Parker of our Committee, and Mr. Thring, the Secretary of the Society. Some friends of the late Mrs. Lynn Linton are anxious that her memory should be perpetuated at Keswick—her native place—and wish to pre-. sent her portrait (done in oils by the Hon. John Collier) to the museum there. And as it is felt that many others may wish to join in such a memorial, Mr. G. S. Layard, of Lorraine Cottage, Great Malvern, who is at present engaged in writing Mrs. Linton’s life, has kindly consented to receive and acknowledge subscriptions towards the fund. Subscriptions may also be sent to Mr. William Toynbee, 1, York-street, Portman-square, London. Water Besant. Pes ERNEST DOWSON. T is in the cruel irony of things that I should I be writing of my dead friend, Ernest Dowson, in this town of St. Germain-en- Laye. For not very long before he died— although at a time when he had no foresight of what was so soon to befall him—he had coun- selled me, one-night when we were talking of our future lives, to betake myself, my pens and paper and wayward fancies here and to work, where there was an old castle, full of inspira- tion, to contemplate a church in which an unhappy English king lies buried (in which to seek higher things), and a forest, full in spring of the flowers and birds and butterflies that one “loved long since,” where one could walk away all the melancholy of a hard life laid in hard ways. And so, having bidden an eternal farewell to Ernest Dowson, as he lies under fifteen feet of Kentish loam in the cemetery of Brockley, near Lewisham, I betook myself here, as it were in execution of a dying request, and here it is that I write of him. I think that all in all he was the MOST UNHAPPY MAN OF LETTERS who ever lived. I say it advisedly and after having thought over in the solitude of long forest walks what I know of him, what I know of his life. I say it in spite of the fact that for two days and two nights I had his face in its last sleep open to my tearful eyes and that one never saw peace more reposeful on features more ravaged. I say it in spite of the echoes that the winged choristers of the French forest have at all times been ringing in my ears of that outburst of twittering song which broke from many English birds at the very moment when the poet’s soul  266 passed into eternity. It was such a_ gentle death, a trespass so peaceful, that thinking of that alone one might be inclined to say that no one who so left life—whatever his life might have been—could be written down as altogether unhappy, the Miserrimus before whose tombstone posterity stops and sighs. Here there was not the devil-haunted garret of Brooke-street, Hol- born, in which, amidst a litter of destroyed master- pieces, Chatterton writhed his last in arsenic- agonies. Here was not the muddy gutter where, prone on his face in alcoholic apoplexy, Edgar Allan Poe breathed away in shameful hiccoughs his lyric soul. Nor here that fateful iron grating in Old Lanthorn-street from which, one grey morning, men of police cut down the stark body of Gerard de Nerval, hapless lover of the Queen of Sheba. For he just turned over on his side and left me. There was no struggle—there was no agony ; and the only sign that was given to me that the unex- pected end had indeed come, and that one more dear one had left me—still more lonely—for ever, was the beautiful calm that settled down, like a brooding dove, upon his tired face. I have all these things well before my mind, and yet, advisedly, I say that I do not know in the mournful history of unhappy men of letters a page more sad than that which tells of Ernest Dowson’s short career. Nor do I here make reference to certain shameful speculations, of which he was the victim in his last days, of tradings on his weakness, rags, and hunger. I look at his life as a whole, and I do not find any- where outside of certain lines in Edgar Allan Poe any description of the unhappiness of his life. Yet one admits that he was one of those who were born to be unhappy, for no other reason than that their natures and temperament are such that they are not of this world, and, being alien to it, must perforce succumb from first to weary last. Chat- terton had some glory and a little love; Poe had much love and a little glory; de Nerval staggered through life in a dream of renown with a blazing, if unrequited, passion at heart. But Ernest Dowson—who in the opinion of many of critical faculties had genius as great as any of these— never received, outside a small circle, any recog- nition; and though he had a beautiful face and the largest heart, was not, I think, once called into that revivifying sunshine which is a woman’s love to a poet’s soul. I procured a copy of Balzac’s ‘La Cousine Bette” on the first day on which I came here, and in re-reading that masterpiece I fancied I had come to one explanation of his want of success. Do you remember those fine pages in which Balzac, himself the most conscientious of workers, THE AUTHOR. describes the reason of the failure of Wenscelas Steinbock, the artist whom Cousine Bette had saved from suicide, setting it forth as the result of his neglect of constant industry, for, as Balzae writes: “Le travail constant est la loi de l’Art, comme celle de la vie, car Vart c'est la création idéaliste” 2 To see Ernest Dowson ever wander- ing, unsettled, for long periods inactive, and OFTEN IN QUEST OF EXCITEMENT, one might have fancied him unconscientious, a semi-artist, whereas I do not think it would be possible to find amongst the poets of the last decade of this century a worker more devoted, an artist more religious, a conscience more profound. He never had the care of money; he had most deeply the cultus of his art. He wrote in collaboration with Mr. Moore two novels, “A Comedy of Masks,” which was published by Heinemann, and “Adrian Rome,” which was published by Methuen. On both of these books the two collaborators expended a sum of industry that would have saved Dumas pére from occasional visits to Clichy, and exerted an energy of polishing which would have worn MHorace’s grindstone down to its axle. He worked on both books as few men of letters—and I have Alphonse Daudet in my mind when I say this, as well as Henryk Sienkiewicz—have ever worked. He was so entirely an artist that he could never leave a phrase alone. He had the preciousness of George Moore or of Maupassant, without their fortune. He affords altogether the most discouraging example of the inutility of conscientiousness in modern English literature that one can find. He WORKED WELL AND WITH GENIUS for ten years, and I do not think that during the whole of that time—even including a quantity of Grub-street productions to which he was con- strained—he ever earned a wage equivalent to that of the husband of the bricklayer’s wife who per- formed in my cottage on his dead body the last offices which our poor bodies exact. He wrote short stories which are masterpieces—you should read “Dilemmas”; he was an exquisite poet. Mr. Smithers, his publisher, will tell you that certain admirers of his—alas, too few—took his volumes by the half quire, and as a translator from the French into limpid English he had no rival. And it was all in vain, in the sense that honest work should procure some happiness, & little sunshine, a few of those things which tend to reconcile one with all the tears and stress of this life. He knew it; he felt it, and I shall not. presently forget the grey Kentish evening on which he said to me: “ Literature has failed for’  THE me. I shall look somewhere else in the future.” I said nothing, although now I recognise that I had a presentiment that there were perhaps on the knees of the gods better things for Hrnest Dowson, than that eternal straining of eyes towards a promised land into which there is and never can be any entering. At the time I did not know how good was God to be to him. He was born at Lee, near Lewisham, thirty- two years ago, and he now lies in Kent from which he sprang. Kentish people will be proud of him now that it is too late, and that all the appreciation of all the world cannot wipe out one sad line from his classical mouth or put one little glint of contentment into his spiritual eyes. I do not wish to be critical about his works. Chacun a son métier. There are many critics who will be busy about the very sweet English poet that he was. My métier is here that of a friend and to some extent of a moralist, who is very unhappy, and who sees in this life and in this death another reason to deplore the fatal impulse which drives those insufficiently equipped with tenacity, and pru- dence, and, above all, combative strength, into the arduous profession of letters. But I will say this about certain lines in Ernest Dowson’s prose and about certain verses of the poetry that Ernest Dowson wrote, that, stiffen I my back never so bravely, that soliloquise I never so comfortably “Let the dead bury the dead,” I have at the loss of this artist—I say nothing now about the friend—a grief which lies far deeper than human tears, deeper far than the tears which I shed at his going away, when the bricklayer’s wife, to whom I have alluded above, asked me with English expletives, “What was the use of that blubbering now that the gentleman was gone?” I do not know where I met Ernest Dowson first. I know where I met him last—that is to say, day for day, six weeks before his death. It was in a place in Bedford-street, A PLACE WHERE THEY SELL SPIRITS and where the “M’as-tu-vus” of London con- gregate. I was downstairs, writing some futile paragraphs on public paper. He touched me on the shoulder, and I turned round. It was as if Death had— being in a kindly mood — beckoned me away from that unrest which the men in Bedford-street miscall delight. I questioned him, and he told me that he was in sore stress and had crawled out to procure from a publisher a little money. I did not know then that his landlord—in a vague garret, somewhere on the outskirts of Somers Town—had that afternoon delivered to him an ultimatum whereby he would AUTHOR. 267 have been homeless on the morrow, failing the publisher (who had failed him) ; but what I did know—for I saw it—was that here was a man in a very great weakness, a man to whom I was indebted for kindness and artistic sympathy more than I am to most men; and so I asked him to come away with me, and to leave his Somers Town landlord to clamour for the present, and just to take a rest. And so he came home withme. Andif he had never written a line to exhilarate my heart, I could never be sufficiently grateful to him for those six weeks when I sat with him all day, and lay in his room at night. For I think that in the last days of an artist’s life all the treasures that are in an artist’s mind are scattered in largesse on those nigh to him. This, I know, was not the case with Baudelaire. It was certainly so with Ernest Dowson. What a beautiful soul revealed itself at every moment of the day, and how one grew to love a man so distressed !—yet so good and so patient that when I think of those SIX weeks I can vaguely discriminate the comforts of Calvary. We were very cheerful all the time, and we talked of literature from morning till night. He wanted Landor’s “ Imaginary Conversations,” but, though I ordered it from a local librarian, the book did not come until it was too late. But he glutted himself on Dickens, and I had also an “ Esmond,” by Thackeray, to put into his gaunt hands. He had “Esmond” in his bed, by the way, when he died. But as to Dickens, here was a perfect stylist and most laborious artist who delighted himself for the last precious days of a short life in the hasty writings, but perfect humanity, of our English Balzac. And I shall never take up an “ Oliver Twist” again without remembering these circumstances: Five hours before Ernest Dowson died I was lying on a couch in a room adjoining his, keeping myself awake at six o’clock in the morning with the adventures of that most smug of prigs, So as to keep converse with my friend, who could not get to sleep and who had begged me to talk to him. I happened to say to him, to show that I was vigilant: ‘“ How absurdly melodramatic this is, about the murder of Nancy. Do you think that, for anything Fagin could tell him, Sikes, who knew Fagin to be the worst liar on earth, would have killed his missus? ” “ No,” said Dowson ; ‘he would have gone for Claypole.” And that was the last thing on litera- ture that he ever said. For when he woke four hours later it was to ask for a doctor—till then he had always strenuously refused to see one. Too late, for the rest. Too late by many months. For the doctors and the coroner’s people, who did  268 THE come after the end, said that the death was caused by tuberculosis. I would add “accele- rated by privation,” for I afterwards learned at his lodgings that repeatedly, during the months which preceded my meeting with him, HR HAD PASSED WHOLE DAYS and even couples of days without leaving his room or procuring food. He had the delicacy and pride of all elect artistic temperaments, and rather than communicate with his relations —kindest and most generous of people — he preferred to suffer. And he held that a man working at a trade should live by it. I think that his example is one on which young authors should meditate. Not in discouragement from a fine and noble profession, but to derive caution and prudence. I think his sad life and early death should warn all but the strongest against taking to literature, pure and simple, as a sole means of livelihood. And I am sorry to add that I think they teach the lesson that in literature also some spirit of commerciality is essential. He suffered so pitiably at the thought that he had failed, after doiny his best, and I cannot help thinking that this morbid self- reproach did much towards breaking him down. If he had been a little more ‘practical in his dealings with the publishers, a little more provi- dent, and especially if he had sacrificed a little of his artistic prejudice to the public demand, his life might have been different. And yet I don’t know. I cannot conceive Ernest Dowson otherwise than supremely un- happy. He was not of this world orforit. A symbol of his life was given to me in the first days of my visit here. I was walking in the forest, and in the bright sunshine saw a yellow butterfly disporting itself under the leafless trees. It was trying to be happy and fancied the spring was come. And that evening there was a terrible snowstorm, and I could not but think of the icy shower battering down the fragile and gaudy wings. I could not but think that such natures as was Ernest Dowson’s have as much chance of lasting happiness in this world as had that yellow papillon in the treacherous sunshine. Above the leafless trees the crushing storm lies gathering. There was no power of resistance here. It is cruel, doubtless, and heartrending, but it is the nature of things. We can but steel our hearts and, for- getting the snowstorm, think of the sunshine and the brave flutter that for a little while the yellow ' wings made—a thing of beauty, a passing joy. Rozert H. SHERARD. pe AUTHOR. THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS (NEW YORK), HE address of Mr. Charles Dudley, Warner, , of which a portion will be found in another column, may be taken as an indication that the National Institute of Arts and Letters is to be a serious and permanent association. Its aim, in general terms, is the advancement of Art and Literature. Its membership is to be restricted in numbers, and is to demand as a condition of admission some notable achievement in Art and Literature. It will endeavour to promote “healthful and hopeful criticism” ; it will keep alive the traditions of good litera- ture; it will advocate an equitable law of copyright; it will try to establish the rela- tion of publisher and author on a basis of equity. The institute, it will be seen, is to become, if it succeeds, a national academy of literature. The programme, it will be observed, is much larger than our own. We are concerned only with literary property, the law of copyright, the relation of publisher and author, and the maintenance of literary property in the interests of the creator. It is greatly to the credit of the American good sense that this maintenance of literary property is perceived to be one of the principal factors in the advancement of litera- ture, and one of the objects in a national academy of literature. In this country there would be heard still, though more faintly than of old, the bleating about commercialism and the sordid connection of literature with money ; as if litera- ture, alone among the callings in which men work, is degraded by that connection which does not degrade art, or science, or law, or medicine, or any other of the occupations by which the curse of labour is turned into a blessing. But the creation of literary property is an accidental consequence due to the conditions of the time rather than an essential. For it is quite easy to conceive of the finest poem, the finest work of art, the most startling discovery, failing to become a property at all. It may be that we shall ourselves learn from our American friends how we may enlarge our own field. It may be that the establishment and success of a National Academy of Letters in the States may lead to the creation of a Royal Academy of Letters in this country. We might perhaps consent to be amalgamated in a more comprehensive association—provided that there is ample security that our special work will be carreed on. It may be that the interests of literature— the interests of the author—will be administered a ins al aa a THE more efficiently by a limited number of Acade- micians than by a society unlimited in number and demanding no condition of literary distinc- tion for membership. These things are in the lap of time. We wait and look on. Certainly in one respect our own need of watchful jealousy over criticism is as pressing as that of the States. We shall perhaps learn, also, how to advance litera- ture by some new methods, if there are any, other than ‘by classical education and by confining criticism to scholars. The following notes on the foundation of the institute are taken from the Writer (Boston, U.S.A., Feb. 1900). The National Institute of Arts and Letters is likely to be an important factor in the development of American litera- ture. The original members were selected by an invitation from the American Social Science Association, which acted under the power of its charter from the Congress of the United States. The members thus selected, who joined the Social Science Association, were given the alternative of organising as an independent institute or as a branch of the association. At the annual meeting of the Social Science Association on Sept. 4, 1899, at Saratoga Springs, the members of the institute voted to organise indepen- dently. They formally adopted the revised constitution, which had been agreed upon at the first meeting in New York in the preceding January, and duly elected officers The object is declared to be the advancement of art and literature, and the qualification shall be notable achieve- ment in art or letters. The number of active members will probably be ultimately fixed at 100. The society may elect honorary and associate members without limit. By the terms of agreement between the American Social Science Association and the National Institute, the members of each are ipso facto associate members of the other. As Mr. Warner says: “In no other way as well as by associa- tion of this sort can be created the feeling of solidarity in our literature and the recognition of its power. It is not expected to raise any standard of perfection, or in any way to hamper individual development, but a body of con- centrated opinion may raise the standard by promoting healthful and helpful criticism, by discouraging mediocrity and meretricious smartness, by keeping alive the traditions of good literature, while it is as hospitable to all discoverers of new worlds. A safe motto for any such society would be Tradition and Freedom—Traditio et Libertas.” spec “PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE.” N adaptation of “Pericles” by Mr. John Coleman was produced at the Memorial Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon, in commemo- ration of the 336th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birthday. In some interesting “forewords” put into the hands. of the audience, Mr. Coleman described the genesis of the play, Shakespeare’s part in it, and its stage history : Entirely derived from the “ Apollonius of Tyre”’ Saga, ‘+ Pericles” is the most singular example in Elizabethan literature of a consistent copying of AUTHOR. 269 a venerable and far-travelled story. Although one of the best abused plays of the period, there is abundant evidence to prove that “ Pericles” never relaxed its hold upon the public till the time of the Civil Wars, when all the theatres were closed. Immediately after the Restoration (1660) the Poet Laureate, Sir William Davenant (popularly believed to have been Shakespeare’s son), revived the play at his own playhouse, on the site where the 7'%mes office now stands. After maintaining its attraction unabated for upwards of sixty-three years, with the death of the great actor Betterton the play disappeared from the acting drama. Sixty-five years later (1735) George Lillo produced at Covent Garden Theatre an adaptation of the play called ‘“ Marina,” a small and puerile thing which failed utterly. After an elapse of more than a hundred years, Phelps revived the play at Sadler’s Wells with a success which (he assured Mr. Coleman) was the most memorable of all the many triumphs of that memorable Shakespearean management. Since that time “ Pericles” has never been acted on the English stage; but on Oct. 20, 1882, a version by Herr Ernest Possart was acted with the most brilliant success at the Court Theatre, Munich, where it continued to attract large and appreciative audi- ences during a period of upwards of twelve months. The repeated recommendations of his friend, the distinguished tragedian, Mr. Phelps, induced Mr. Coleman to turn his attention to the subject—the result being the present adaptation, which upon three occasions has been within measurable distance of production at Drury-lane, twice under the régime of his friend the late Sir Augustus Harris, and once during his own recent management of the National Theatre, but in every instance some insuperable obstacle barred the way. Fortified by the many eminent autho- rities who subscribe to his opinion as to Shake- speare’s actual share in the authorship of this play, Mr. Coleman did not hesitate to expunge the first act, to eradicate the banality of the second, to omit the irrelevant Gower chorus, and . to eliminate the obscenity of the fourth act. eee A FEW IDEAS. \ LL mind is above measure and all spirit over proof. As there is no inert matter, so there is no inept mind. Civilisation is an ideal—to be realised in Para- dise. Conceit is always honest, but never just. Democracy as yet exists only in theory. 270 Equality differs from equity as monotony from melody. Free speech thrives only in solitude. Government by the best has yet to come. Humour is a loyal servant of love. Like other sovereigns, women never learn the total truth. Most of us still are—what all of us once were —children. Perfectly sane minds would be infallible. Salvation means perfect sanity. Spring-time gives pessimism the lie—politely. Temperance is the twin sister of tolerance. The chivalrous will not presume upon their sex —whichever it is. The rights of majorities are those of the un- wisest—or the youngest. There is only one autocrat—the Creator. Untruth is wedded to vanity—for life. Vanity wishes the whole world to witness its various weaknesses. Virtue means manliness—or womauliness. What is not fair is not love—what is not just is not war. With an efficient minority, Society is always fairly sane. Youth is the most curable, or least durable, of our qualities. All buds are new—“ under the sun.” All souls are—more or less—lonely. An Age of Gold may lie in the Past—the Age of Love must live in the Perfect. Death is only an eclipse of life. Even death cannot change the truth. Love is always on the right way to perfection. Man is not old enough for Truth—nor Time long enough for Understanding. Poetry need never reason, so long as it can sing. Prayer never fails while it inspires. The father of wisdom may be reason — the mother must be love. The greatest genius is not yet married—he is still unborn. The most pardonable of weaknesses is youth. Fintay GLENELG. Soe CORRESPONDENCE. I—Lirzerary CoMPETITION. E your criticism of the Academy’s methods, would it not be a useful move if the Society of Authors took up this matter of literary competitions ? A judicious monthly competition, open to members of the Society only, would, I think, prove an attraction. In addition to the THE AUTHOR. prize, an honour list might be published in numerical order of merit. This would let the young author know where he was. The innova- tion, I think, would prove useful and attractive. M. E. C. [Would the innovation be permitted by the Society’s Articles of Association ?—Ep. | Il.—Tue War. I think, whatever our political convictions may be, we cannot refrain from admiring the magnifi- cent loyalty and devotion of our brothers of Greater Britain. As a trifling mark of one Englishwoman’s appreciation I should like to give, as far as I am able, a copy of my book, “ The Guests of Mine Host,” to any colonial home for wounded or invalided colonial soldiers. The gift is nothing in itself, but, as a poor means of marking the feeling that is sweeping over the nother country, I venture to ask you to insert this letter. In so doing I hope it may meet the eye of those concerned in the management of these hospitals and homes, and if they will let me know I shall feel honoured by being asked to forward a copy. I may say that ‘‘ The Guests of Mine Host” is being published in a colonial edition, which may lessen the difficulties. Marian Bower. Stradishall Place, near Newmarket. IT..—“ Commercianists”—An ExpLaNnaTIoNn, In the last number of The Author the editor asks, with reference to my letter: ‘ Does not the writer make the common mistake of supposing that if a literary work has a commercial value the writer is therefore a commercialist?” I hasten to reply that I did not think for a moment of suggesting such a thing. I meant no offence. There are several kinds of writers, e.g., (1) those who do bad work for pay and get it; (2) those who do good work without thinking of the pay, and yet get paid; (3) those who do good work without thinking of pay and without receiving it. Market value may mean much or little. The land at Kimberley had no market value until some years ago. x Y, IV.—A Few Smart GRuMBLES. I have been much disappointed lately in not being able to find out the true history of the “Three Tailors in Tooley-street.” It is stated in Dr. Brewer’s excellent “Reader's Handbook” that they were three worthies who petitioned the House of Commons when Canning was Prime Minister, the petition beginning, ‘“ We, the people of England.”  THE AUTHOR. 271 Is this really so? What were their names ? What was the petition about? Were they the only signatories? I have often thought that the whole story may have been an invention of Canning in some speech ridiculing some real but much more numerously signed petition of his day. The phrase is so often quoted that it may be worth while to get at the bottom of it. Another thing that troubles me is the frequency with which the mark of interrogation is dropped in modern printing. Another, that the issue of books with uncut edges (as advocated by the late Mr. Darwin) is not nearly so frequent as it ought to be; and that even magazines and newspapers are fre- quently issued with uncut edges. [N.B.—The Spectator has recently improved in this respect. | Another, that a table of contents is not so frequently placed as it ought to be on the out- side page of magazines and newspapers. Another, that the price of books when reviewed is in the majority of cases not stated in the review. Another, that such expressions as “joining the majority,’ “passing away,” “ thereof,” “the same,” and “ galore” are used far too often. Another, that illustrations are too many in quantity and too often bad in quality. J. M. Ley. V.—Youne Ficrion Wrirers anp THE WAR Funp. Most of the leading writers of fiction will doubtless contribute to the volume which Mr. C. J. Cuteliffe Hyne is arranging, and which is to be sold in aid of the war fund. Why could not a similar volume be produced by us young writers ? By the term “ young” I mean all those who have issued their first (not necessarily successful) book ; those who have had one or more stories published in any magazine. The volume would no doubt have a large sale, and we, like the leading novelists, should have done some- thing for a great object. I feel sure that our editor—the friend and champion of the young writer—would be willing to help us with advice, and perhaps he could be persuaded to write a preface to the book? I should be happy to hear from any “ youag” writers who would be willing to contribute to such a volume. Should there be sufficient reasons to justify the idea being proceeded with, an editor could be appointed, and the volume brought out with all possible despatch. James BagnaLi-StuBss. Vi.—tTue Frerionist’s Art. Beginners in Fiction, like my humble self, are oftentimes sadly perplexed by the varying advice given by leading practitioners of the art. For instance, in “ The Pen and the Book,” Sir Walter Besant says that the short story “should turn on one incident.” With this “Lanoe Falconer” agrees, for she says (in “The Art of Writing Fiction”) that “the design of the short story must itself be short and simple. A single, not too complicated, incident is best.” Mr. Frederick Wedmore goes still further and says that “plot or story proper is no essential part of” a short story, “though in work like Conan Doyle’s or Rudyard Kipling’s it may be a very delightful part.” Then “An Editor” says (in “How to Write for the Press”) that short tales of about 2000 words “should have only one striking incident’; and he affirms that amidst the many kinds of stories there are “ some in which incident is of no importance whatever.” On the other hand, I have known of cases where stories (2500 to 5000 words) have been condemned by experts because the stories each contained only one dramatic incident. It would seem to be really true that There are nine-and-sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, And—every—single—one —of—them—is—right. Or, as Miss Jane Barlow puts it, “There are ways of many a sort of constructing stories short, and every single one of them is wrong, except for its owner.” Perry Barr. —— VII. EncovuRAGEMENT FOR YOUNG AUTHORS. “Magazine Scribbler” seems sorely exercised over my statements and that of others, which she (or he) calls “ bewildering disagreement of doctors.” (See The Author for December last.) T confess I do not see any disagreement between my assertion that one can make possibly £500 a year by “ hack-work,” and Sir Walter Besant’s advice “ Do not at first try to live by writing for the magazines.” T ask ‘ Magazine Scribbler,’ Does an apprentice expect to live on the unpaid, incomplete work he has to do while learning his trade ? The apprentice, of course, is provided with board and lodging until he can work well. Just so with the scribbler, who must work for a long time before he gains place among paid writers, and can be assured of an income through his pen. “ Magazine Scribbler ” wishes me to say in what class of periodicals £400 or £500 a year may be earned. She (or he) also wishes to know sf the work should be entirely fiction’ One author’s experience may not be that of others. I cannot advise on this point. I wrote on all 272 THE ‘lines ’—religious essays, political articles, folk- lore, poetry, children’s stories, adventures, novels, short tales. I found that fiction paid best. I sent my scribblings at a venture to any magazine or newspaper I fancied they might suit. I often had “copy” rejected by second-rate magazines, yet accepted by high-class ones. I took what- ever money was offered. When asked for “copy ”’ T always said ‘“ Yes,” though often the remunera- tion was trifling, but I believe in a bird in the hand being of more value than two in the bush. I never kept an editor waiting for what he wanted. I worked eight or ten, aye, sometimes sixteen, hours a day. When a tale got a good grip of my imagination I could put it on paper at the rate of 5000 words a day. It is not for me to say whether such rapid work is good work. All I know is that my children needed the price of my work, and that the editors took it, asked for it, and paid for it. After besieging the editorial doors for years some of those good gentlemen became my friends and employed me regularly, but if my work was not quite suitable it came back from those friends just as it might from strangers. “Ottawa” gives some excellent advice in the letter preceding that of ‘‘ Magazine Scribbler,” who I hope has read it with benefit. It is certainly true that persistent advertising, log-rolling, a pat on the back from a “ big name,” shoves a young author on, and sells his work for atime. Only for a time! The reading-thinking public is no fool. If true literary genius is not in one’s work it must die eventually. If one is writing to make money (and God knows I have required to consider that point first and foremost, so that I do not “ lichtlie ” such an object), one is apt to overlook the guality of one’s work, and rather ask one’s self, “ Will it sell” If “it” owns some temporary attraction, it may sell; but we must not blame the public if “it” loses the charm of novelty very soon and ceases to be “in demand.” I am afraid a great portion—a very great portion—of writers have mistaken their vocation. They have no original talent for literature, or lack the perseverance which is the necessary adjunct of all successful talent. The wailings of this disappointed throng are painful to hear. One feels sympathetic with them, but it is desirable that they should not blame a noble profession for their failure to win first place in it. J. M. H.S. AUTHOR. BOOK AND PLAY TALK, M* RUDYARD KIPLING is writing a new series of animal tales, Mr. Winston Churchill’s first book on the war will be ready shortly, under the title “London to Ladysmith, wa Pretoria.” After the war is over he will write a history of the whole campaign. Mr. Alexander Innes Shand has written a memoir of General John Jacob, of Jacobabad. Friend of Outram and Bartle Frere, and distin- guished alike as soldier and administrator, Jacob: was an indefatigable writer, and a great mass of his letters and manuscripts has been placed at Mr, Shand’s disposal. The book will be pub- lished by Messrs. Seeley and Co. Principal Rhys and Mr. Brynmor Jones, Q.C.,. M.P., have completed “ The History of the Welsh People,” which will be published shortly by Mr. Fisher Unwin. The work is founded upon the: report of the Welsh Land Commission. A second series of “ Essays in Liberalism,” by a group of Oxford men who represent “the: advanced, though not the collectivist, wing of the party,” will be published by Mr. Brimley John- son—a new publisher. One of the subjects treated is the “ Liberal tradition in Literature ” and the book as a whole will offer “a statement of the principles by which Liberals of all times have been inspired, and will apply them to the political crises and party transactions of to-day.” Mr. Edward Carpenter is engaged upon a prose: version of the ‘Eros and Psyche ” of Apuleius, and a verse translation of the first book of “ Wiad,” Mr. Bloundelle-Burton’s new story, ‘The Seafarers,” will be published shortly by Messrs. Pearson. A volume of African sketches and stories by Mr. A. J. Dawson will be published by Mr. Heinemann under the title “African Nights’ Entertainments.” Mr. Ranald Macdonald, son of Dr. George Macdonald, has written his first novel, ‘“‘The Sword of the King,’ a romance of the time of William, Prince of Orange. It will appear in a month or two. Mr. Herbert Spencer attained his eightieth birthday on Friday last (April 27). A biogra- phical and critical study of the distinguished writer and his works is just being published from the pen of Mr. Hector Macpherson, editor of the Edinburgh Evening News. a Kt Wk TC —~ xe @&* 4 Ww oe et Ba pa a ae ada  THE INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF AUTHORS PENSION FUND. <n I hereby enclose £ as (1) A Single Donation towards Tur Pension Funp. (2) A Donation of £. per annum, over a period of (3) An Annual Subscription to the Fund. Name Address   THE AUTHOR. During the hearing, in New York, im_ the matter of the application by Messrs. Harper and Brothers for a voluntary dissolution of their busi- ness, Mr. Ralph E. Prime, of Yonkers, appeared for a number of authors and asked what would become of royalty and other contracts between authors and the Harper concern. Mr. George L. Rives, attorney for the Harper Corporation, assured Mr. Prime that he need not worry about putting inany claims. ‘As you probably know,” he said, “ the publishing business is to be carried on under the supervision of Alexander E. Orr, Colonel Harvey, and J. Pierpont Morgan. The re-organisation committee is going to pay all debts to authors in full.” “Some Heresies Dealt With” is the title of a new volume of essays, chiefly scientific, by Dr. Alexander Japp. Under a pseudonym the same author is issuing another work, called “ Offering and Sacrifice.” This is an essay in comparative customs and religious development. Both books will be published by Mr. Thomas Burleigh. Mr. Thomas Mackay is to write an authorita- tive biography of the late Sir John Fowler, the engineer. It will be published in the autumn by Mr. Murray. A collection of short stories and essays by Mark Twain will be published in September by Messrs. Chatto and Windus, under the title (taken from the opening tale) “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.” Professor Muirhead, of Mason College, Bir- mingham, has aimed in his forthcoming work, entitled “‘ Chapters from Aristotle’s ‘ Ethics,’ ” at applying the principles of the famous treatise to modern thought. The book will be published by Mr. Murray. The prizes this year under Mrs. Crawshay’s Memorial Endowment will be:—For Byron’s “Manfred,” “Heaven and Earth,” “Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte,’ “ Ode on Waterloo,” and ‘“Napoleon’s Farewell’? ; for Shelley’s “Revolt of Islam” and “ Hellas”; and for Keats’s “Isabella, or the Pot of Basil.” Essays are to be sent before June 1, 1900, to Mrs. Crawshay, care of 12, Warwick-road, Paddington, W., London. Mr. Frank Murray, of Derby, has in the press an exhaustive bibliography of Mr. Austin Dobson. Dean Farrar’s new book, “The Life of Lives,” a@ companion and supplementary work to his “ Life of Christ,’ will be published shortly by Messrs. Cassell. A sixpenny edition is about to appear of Mrs. Craigie’s “ The School of Saints.” a79 Miss Olive Garnett has a volume of short stories being published by Mr. Heinemann. Mr. Tree’s revival of “ Rip Van Winkle” at Her Majesty’s will take place early this month. The parts of Gretchen and Derrick are to be made more of than has been the case formerly, and the play will be in three acts instead of four. The Royal General Theatrical Fund has now come into possession of the Lacy bequest (£2600). The legal proceedings, however, have cost £1700. At the annual meeting of the fund on the 12th ult., Mr. Edward Terry, who presided, in con- gratulating the meeting on the prosperous condi- tion of “this, which they might call the only, theatrical provident fund,” said there were other funds which he thought might well be amalgamated into two groups, provident and benevolent, and one of them was _ particularly anxious to merge its small capital in the Royal Fund. Mr. George Alexander will preside at the fourth annual general meeting of the Actors’ Orphanage Fund on May 17, at midday, in the Haymarket Theatre. “David Harum” was successfully produced in Rochester, N.Y., on April 9, by Mr. William H. Crane. The directors of the Paris Théatre du Gymnase have invited Mr. F. R. Benson to take his Shakes- pearean company there for two months, beginning July 1. Since the destruction of the Théatre Francais the Gymnase has enjoyed a State sub- vention. Messrs. Greet and Engelbach will take pos- session of the Globe Theatre on Sept. 1, having secured a long lease of it from Lord Kilmorey. “Quo Vadis” will be produced at the Adelphi on May 3, with Mr. Robert Taber as Vinicius, Mr. J. H. Barnesas Petronius, the Roman soldier, Mr. G. W. Anson as Nero, Miss Wallis (Mrs. Lancaster-Wallis) as Poppcea, and Miss Lena Ashwell as Lygia, the Christian hostage. In New York, by the way, two productions of the dramatised version of this novel were presented the other week within eight blocks of each other. One was by Miss Jeannette Gilder, the other (announced as ‘‘ the only authorised version ”) by Mr. Stanislaus Stange. The ‘Agamemnon ” of Alschylus will be per- formed at Bradfield College, Berks, in the open air, on June 19, 21, 23, 25,and 26. The theatre is carved out of a chalk pit, and constructed on the ancient Greek model. On the authority of the Chicago Tribune, “ the decadent drama is a failure from the box-office  274 standpoint. During the season now closing all of the great successes have been plays free from the taint of nastiness, while a large amount of money has been lost by managers who have attempted to force into popularity indecent farces, decadent society comedies, and sensational ‘emotional’ dramas.” A matinée in aid of the Officers’ Families Fund will be given at the St. James’s Theatre on the roth inst. ‘The programme, in which many of the best-known actors and actresses will take part, includes two new plays, one by Mr. Sydney Grundy and one by Miss Florence Warden. Mr. Bernard Shaw’s “ You Never Can Tell” will be produced at the Strand Theatre by Mr. Yorke Stephens and Mr. James Welch at a matinée on May 2. Mr, J. H. Leigh will recite Mr. Arthur Dillon’s poem, “The Wayfarers,” at a concert to be given at St. James’s Hall on the evening of the 26th June. The chief part of the concert will consist of the lyrics and choruses to Mr. Dillon’s play, “ The Maid of Artemis,” set by Mr. Charles E. Baughan. Miss Esther Palliser and Miss Ada Crossley will be the vocalists. Mr. G. F. Savage-Armstrong has a new volume of poems in the press, which will be entitled “Ballads of Down,” and will be a companion volume to “ Stories of Wicklow.” “The Mystic Number 7,” by Annabel Gray, is now published by Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall and Co., price 3s. 6d. In the last number of The Author, Mr. J. H. Skrine’s new book, “ The Queen’s Highway,” was by an absurd error called “ The Queen’s Highway- man.” We owe an apology to Mr. Skrine for careless reading of proofs. Miss Marian Bower, author of “ The Guests of Mine Host,’ has kindly offered to give 3s. on every copy sold of her book at the Army and Navy Stores up to one hundred to the Patriotic Fund, the amount to be equally divided between Lady Lansdowne’s Fund and the Daily Telegraph Fund. “We Three and Troddles,’ a successful humorous hook by R. Andom, with illustrations by A. C. Gould, which first appeared some six years ago, is being published in sixpenny form next month by Messrs. Jarrold and Sons, who also have in hand a sequel containing further adventures and exploits of Troddles and his com- panions. “ Joey and Louie; or, The Fairy Gift,” by Miss Edith Gibbs, published by S. W. Partridge and THE AUTHOR. Co., of 8, Paternoster-row. This is a pretty story for children. The book also contains a short tale, entitled ‘“ Pickles.” ——— 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.) Tue Narat Campaian, by Bennett Burleigh (Chapman, 6s.), “ will probably arouse interest,” says Literature, “ by reason of its criticisms.’’ Mr. Burleigh ‘“ knows things and has standards of comparison; and heis not afraid of speak- ing out. He had the wit to clear ont of Ladysmith before the circle of investment was complete, so that he is able to throw light upon a somewhat neglected period of the war— the period when Estcourt was isolated, and General Buller had not yet arrived.” In the volume we first get a sketch of{the state of affairs before the ultimatum—of the feeling of the two Republics. ‘Mr. Burleigh’s description of Spion Kop,” says the Guardian, “is specially interesting.” Ina review dated March 27, the Daily Chronicle says that this account of the Natal Campaign “is the most important and, on its special subject, the most complete of the war histories that have so far appeared.” Towarps PREroriaA, by Julian Ralph (Pearson, 6s.), succeeds, says Literature, “in giving the impression of a real man describing a real thing that he has seen.” “ Of the operations of Lord Methnen’s column, which he accom- panied, there has appeared no more vivid and acceptable account.” ‘Mr. Ralph’s is distinctly one of the war books to be read.” On tHe Eve or THE War, by Evelyn Cecil, M.P. (Murray, 3s. 6d.), bears directly on the questions of the hour. It is, says the Daily Chronicle, “but a snapshot view of things as they were in South Africa on the eve of the war. The author saw the Cape Premier and the Prezident of the Afrikander Bond, President Kruger at Pretoria and President Steyn at Bloemfontein. He was in Ladysmith on the very day when the war broke out, and he was in Natal for three weeks after the colony had been invaded. The public will find in the book, says the Daily Telegraph, “ much to support the view that the struggle we have engaged in is an essentially just one, and-was forced upon us by unavoidable circumstances.” ‘Tae Borr Srarss, by A. H. Keane (Methuen, 6s.), “will be welcome to many people,” says the Times, “ who are less anxious to form political opinions than to have some information about the general conditions of South Africa.” Mr. Keane, who was lately vice-president of the Anthro- pological Institute, approaches his subject from the scientific point of view. ‘‘ Not overburdened with detail,” says the Daily Chronicle, “the work is yet informative enough on the features of the countries and on the issues that have led up to the war.” ‘“Admirably clear and concise, and strictly impartial in tone,” says the Daily Telegraph. ‘Mr. Keane shows, for example, that the great majority of the earliest settlers at the Cape were drawn from the lower grades of Dutch society and the riff-raff of Western Europe.” 2 A History or SourH Arrica, by W. Basil Worsfold (Dent, 1s. net), “so far as it goes,” says Literature, ‘is. admirable.’ “The tone is calm, judicious, and even little professional.’’ The greatness of the cost of conquer- ing the Republics is, says Mr. Worsfold, “the penalty we  THE AUTHOR. pay for fifty years of official ineptitude, for fifty years of national neglect.” PINK AND SCARLET ; or Hunting as a School for Soldier- ing, by Lieutenant-Colonel E. A. H. Alderson (Heinemann, 7s. 6d. net), is recommended by the Guardian as “a book that should be on every young officer’s table.” “ Any subaltern who reads it carefully, and acts upon the hints that are there given to him, will be able to dress himself properly, to sit in a well-fitting saddle ona horse that is in good condition, to ride to hounds like a gentleman and sportsman, and to have a thorough knowledge of the hunting-field’s etiquette.” The Daily Chronicle praises the book “ for its light and entertaining style, for its profound knowledge both of hunting and of war, and for the cunning skill with which these two subjects are intertwined.” Tae Love oF AN UNCROWNED QUEEN, by W. H. Wilkins (Hutchinson, 36s.),is the story of the Consort of George I—‘‘ two bulky octavo volumes,’ says the Daily Chronicle, “out of which at least twenty romances could be made; volumes that elaborate the tragic love story of which Thackeray-in his ‘Four Georges’ gives the essential features.” A large part of the volumes consists of corre- spondence attributed to the pair—Sophia Dorothea and Count Koenigsmarck. ‘“ These letters have been rejected,” says the Daily Telegraph, “by good authorities as spurious. Mr. Wilkins, we think, advances better reasons why they should be accepted as authentic.” “On the whole,’ says the Times, “the volomes are interesting enough, although they do not belong to a very high order of historical literature.” Literature refers to the work as being “‘ as exciting as an historical novel by Dumas, and to the judicious reader a good deal more interesting.” WiTHOoUT THE LimELicHT, by G. R. Sims (Chatto, 2s. 6d.), consists of ‘‘instructive papers,’ says the Daily Telegraph, which tell many true stories of the ups and downs of theatrical life. ‘‘ With respect to the vicissitudes of life upon the stage Mr. Sims may confidently be accepted as a skilled expert and trustworthy authority.” ‘Ifa parent or guardian wishes to disenchant a stage-struck lad or girl, here,” says the Spectator, ‘is a potent remedy.” “Mr. Sims tells his stories in a simple and effective fashion, with no unnecessary horrors or extravagant pathos.” ‘‘ One cannot lay down the book,” says the Daily Chronicle, *‘ without concluding that the acting profession is a very slippery one for the climbers.” In THE WAKE oF THE War,” by A. St. John Adcock (Hodder and Stoughton, 2s. 6d.), is a collection of aptly- named stories, says the Spectator, ‘in which the homely tragedies that mark the progress of a campaign like the present are unfolded with unfailing sympathy and skill.” Tun Farrinepons, by Hilen T. Fowler (Hutchinson, 6s.), appears to Literature to “ mark a real artistic advance in the writer.” ‘Elizabeth Farringdon is certainly Miss Fowler’s chef d’euvre. We know few characters in recent fiction so consistent and so human.” ‘“ At its best,” says the Spectator, the work “affords ample food for mirth.” The Daily Telegraph finds its “ great merit” to be the cleverness of the conversations. The Daily Chronicle says “it is bright, it is interesting ; it preaches, so far as it can be said to preach at all, a wide and fashionable theology,” a the dénowement is just what we all would wish it to e.”” Tue Green Fuaa, by A. Conan Doyle (Smith, Elder, 63.), is a collection of short stories dealing with war and sport. ‘There is no subtlety about them,” says Literature, “but they are generally interesting.’ Among them are “a striking story of the Franco-Prussian War,’ and “a most ingenious tale of the Peace of Amiens.” ‘‘ The Striped 275 -Chest,” says the Daily Telegraph, “is as blood-curdling as the wildest of Poe’s romances,” and “ altogether the volume is admirable.” On the whole, the Daily Chronicle does “not think anyone has a right to ask for a more varied, interesting, or better lot of stories than are to be found in this volume.” : SopuHra, by Stanley Weyman (Longmans, 6s.), proves to the Spectator “that a sound instinct has led him to the England of the eighteenth century as the true field for the exercise of his talents as a narrator and interpreter.” The Daily News refers to “his unique gifts of thrilling uarrative and lifelike, yet unobtrusive and entirely unforced, descrip- tion of the times.’”” Mr. Weyman’s heroine, a young heiress who at eighteen has lost her heart to a plausible Irish adventurer, “is own cousin to the charmer of Tom Jones,” says the Daily Telegraph. “The eighteenth century with all its delights from the romantic point of view passes before our vision like a living picture in these fascinating pages.” Tur PLUNDERERS, by Morley Roberts (Methuen, 6s.), althought it “must surely,” says the Daily News, “be regarded as an elaborate burlesque and satire, is vivid, sparkling, and clever ’—“‘a stirring political parable.” “A story of unscrupulous and unjustifiable adventure,’’ says the Daily Telegraph, told with “verve and verisimilitude.” “ The book is the story of a private expedition on the model of the Jameson Raid, a story,” says the Daily Chronicle, ‘told with any amount of zest and go.” ArpEN MasstTeR, by William Barry (Unwin, 6s.) is the story of a young man who reminds the Spectator “ not @ little of the Bulwer or Disraelian type of hero.” “ A more exciting or vivid picture of the inferno of modern Italian politics and society it would be difficult to imagine.” “ The canvas is crowded with striking and sinister characters, amongst whom the saint-like dévote, Donna Costanza, shines conspicuous by her unearthly purity.” “ Altogether itis a novel of engrossing interest, in which exceptional powers of expression are employed with unfailing skill in the delineation of an intensely dramatic phase of modern life.” The Daily Telegraph refers to it as “ undoubtedly one of the books of the year”; and it has filled Literature with admiration, and become a permanent addition to the books we cherish.” Tur COLLAPSE OF THE PENITENT, by Frederick Wedmore (Hutchinson, 3s. 6d.), is described by the Daily Telegraph as “ delicateas well as clever,” and “assuredly a book worth reading.” Hnarts Importunate, by Evelyn Dickinson (Heine- mann, 6s.), is described by the Daily Telegraph as “ vigo- rous, forcible, convincing, portraying with some power the absorbing strife and struggle of two hearts importunate and noble.” The Spectator speaks of the author’s “ excellent style,” and says “she is familiar with life in the bush and in Sydney; she has faithfully studied various types of Colonials.” Tym TRIALS OF THE BANTocKs, by G. S. Street (Lane, 3s. 6d.), is described by the Spectator as “ an artistic rather than an agreeable study of snobbishness ” —“a collection of what might be called tales of mean souls. Mr. Bantock is a very wealthy and painfully respectable banker, with a wife and children to match, and the aim of the narrator is to show how each member of the family has a fly in the ointment of his or her ‘unctaoas rectitude.” “ Mr. Street has a light and delicate touch,” and in this small book, says the Daily Chronicle, “ he lays bare the ambitions and failures of a family of wealthy snobs from the point of view of a poor one.” Matay Maatc, by Walter William Skeat (Macmillan, gis. net), “is practically a treatise on the whole life of  276 the Malays.” They do nothing without magical cere» monies. ‘Like all books of the kind,” continues the Times, “it leaves us with a strong sense of the community ‘of human nature and human beliefs. The work is of high value.” Literature also says this is ‘a very valuable con- tribution to the science of folk-lore, the more welcome because such things are fast perishing off the face of the -earth.” ‘Mr. Skeat, moreover,” says the Guardian, “writes in an easy and flowing style, which makes him 2 pleasant guide, and provides very useful and well-executed illustrations to make his matter more intelligible. He has an additional merit, not always found in collectors of folk- lore, in that he has a proper sense of logical division, and keeps his subjects from jostling one another overmuch.” A439; OR, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A Prano, by ‘Twenty-five Musical Scribes, edited by Algernon Rose (Sands and Co., 6s.). Daily News says: “The book is a jeu esprit following out in literature an idea which has frequently been adopted in composition by many musicians from Schumann to Sullivan. The result is surprisingly good.” “All lovers of music,” says the Queen, ‘‘ will be interested, edified, and even instructed by it.’ The Irish Times (Dublin): ‘A439’ is an up-to-date and remarkable production of musical thought, and as such deserves the attention of a very wide circle of readers.” Truth says: “<The surprise of the book comes at the end, where Dr. Ebenezer Prout, Professor of Music at Dublin University, comes forward as a first-class humourist and the writer of three pages of doggerel of the most excruciating character.” The Scotsman: “As a whole, in spite of the variety of styles—or is it in virtue of them ?—the story of the piano’s chequered career makes capital reading for anyone who is musically informed and musically inclined.” Peas OBITUARY. TYNHE late Mr. Andrew Tuer, author as well as | publisher (whose death was briefly announced in our March issue), was a member of the Society of Authors almost from its beginning, and at all times a friend of the Society and a personal friend of many of its members. The books which bore his name were such as appealed generally more to’ the anti- quarian or to the collector than to the general public. Among them, however, were several topographical books of great interest and impor- tance, especially the very beautiful volume by the Rey. W.J. Loftie called “ Kensington.” His loss makes a gap in this direction which it will be difficult to fill. The death-roll of the past month began with Dr. Sr. Grorcr Mrvart, F.R.S,, philosopher and metaphysician, whe died on April 1 at his resi- dence near Hyde Park. Bornin 1827, Dr. Mivart (he was M.D.) was a man of wide attainments. A barrister-at-law nearly fifty years ago, for a time he was lecturer on zoology at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School, and professor of the philosophy of biology at the University of Louvain. THE AUTHOR. Among his many works are of Species” (non-Darwinian), “Nature and Thought,” and “On Truth.” During the past year his name had been prominent in connection with the controversy between himself, as a Catholic layman, and Cardinal Vaughan. Dr. Mivart was to have been entertained at dinner by the Authors’ Club on April 2, and when com- piling his speech for that occasion on the morning of the previous day he had expressed his belief that he would die at the board of his hosts. His one essay in fiction, “Castle and Manor,” was published only last month, but it was a revised version of a novel he published anonymously under another title many years ago. Mr. Roserr A. M. Stevenson, the art critic of the Pall Mall Gazette,and author of “The Art of Velasquez,” the letterpress of “The Devils of Notre Dame” (illustrations by Mr. Pennell), and many esssays, died on April 18. Mr. Stevenson was born in 1847, and was cousin to the late Robert Louis Stevenson. Mr. Frepericx O. Crump, Q.C., who died at Hertford suddenly on April 15 from cardiac syncope, was editor of the Law Times for the last thirty years. Another Queen’s Counsel, Mr. CHaruzs Isaac Enron, author of “Origins of English History,’ and similar works, besides several manuals on land tenure, died on the 23rd ult., at the age of sixty. Mr. Arcuipatp Fores, the Daily News war correspondent, whose letters from the Franco- German and Russo-Turkish wars won for him almost a world-wide distinction, died on March 30 in his sixty-second year. He was the author of many books, chiefly on military campaigning, including “Glimpses through the Cannon Smoke,” a history of the Black Watch Regiment, and a life of Napoleon IIT. 66 : THE AUTHOR.” SCALE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. Front Page ese = wee ses aan Ses uae war ee Other Pages $ Half of a Page ... ‘ es ote eee Sak kai eck Quarter of a Page ae see oe son Nes ace tee 0 0 “The Genesis Eighth of a Page aay cee Single Column Advertisements Bills for Insertion... oon SCanase cseacoococ Reductions made for a Series of Six or Twelve Insertions. All letters respecting Advertisements should be addressed to the ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER, The Author Office, 4, Portugal-street, London, 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 12 (May 1900) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 12 (May 1900) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1900-05-01-The-Author-10-12 publications The Author