https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/348/1901-12-01-The-Author-12-5.pdf 77eb4447e8ba0693fe995e1813e70762 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) 1901-12-01 Volume 12 Issue 5 Pages Page range in volume 53–80 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 19011201 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin The Author. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) Vol. XII.—No. 5. DECEMBER 1, 1901. [PRICE SIXPENCE. CONTENTS. PAGE PAGE ... 53 ... ... 53 54 General Memoranda ... Warnings to Dramatic Authors How to Use the Society The Reading Branch ... Notices ... ... ... The Pension Fund of the Society of Authors From the Committee ... ... ** Authorities ... ... .... Author and Literary Agent ... How to make Plays Readable Literary, Dramatic, and Musical Property Publishers' Methods and the Society's Action ... Memorial to R. D. Blackmore The Sixpenny Book ... ... Kipling v. Putnam . Neufeld v. Chapman & Hall, Ltd. ... Mr. Harry Quilter and the Society of Authors Judgment in Fiction ... ... The Autumn Season ... Publishers' and Editors' Delays ... The Method of the Future ... The Authors Club Book and Play Talk ... Correspondence... ::::::: :::::::::::: PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 1. The Annual Report for the current year. ls. 2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary Property. Issued to all Members gratis. Price to non-members, 6d., or 58. 6d. per annum, post free. Back numbers from 1892, at 108. 6d. per vol. 3. Literature and the Pension List. By W. MORRIS COLLES, Barrister-at-Law. 38. 4. The History of the Société des Gens de Lettres. By S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. 18. 5. The Cost of Production. (Out of print.) 6. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE. In this work, compiled from the papers in the Society's offices, the various forms of agreements proposed by Publishers to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. 38. Addenda to the Above. By G. HERBERT THRING. Being additional facts collected at the office of the Society since the publication of the “Methods.” With coinments and advice. 28. 7. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill of 1890. With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, the Berne Convention, and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. LELY. 18. 6d. 8. The Society of Authors. A Record of its Action from its Foundation. By WALTER BESANT ( Chairman of Committee, 1888--1892). 1s. 9. The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. By ERNST LUNGE, J.U.D. 28. 6d. 10. Forms of Agreement issued by the Publishers' Association; with Comments. By G. HERBERT THRING, and Illustrative Examples by Sir WALTER BESANT. 2nd Edition. ls. [All prices net. Apply to the Secretary, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey's Gate, S.W.]  ## p. 52 (#436) ############################################# ADVERTISEMENTS. To LTERARY AGENCY SALE OF MSS. OF EVERY KIND. Literary Advice, Revision, Research, etc. ARRANGEMENTS FOR Printing, Publishing, Illustration, Translation, etc. THE LITERARY AGENCY OF LONDON, 5, HENRIETTA STREET, W.C. G. H. PERRIS. C. F. CAZENOVE. In 1 volume, Crown 8vo, Discount price, 28. 8d., Cloth. KING HELGE. ASLOG. Dramas based on the Norse Sagas. By F. I. WINBOLT. “These versions are pleasant reading both in respect of style and tenor. The legends of the Norsemen will not soon be divested of interest.”—Dundee Advertiser. In the Press, price as above, FRITHIOF THE BOLD, LONDON: SWAN, SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIMITED. by the same Writer. TYPEWRITING COMPANY, Oswald House, Queen Victoria Road, Coventry. Typewriting of every description, from Ninepence per Thousand Words (including good paper). Specimens on application. Special Work undertaken_(not necessarily for publication); neatly and carefully executed in Two Colours, at Special Charges. Testimonial.—" Undoubtedly the finest piece of work I have ever seen produced on a Typewriter." " REMINGTON STANDARD" up-to-date Instruments. DARLINGTON'S HANDBOOKS W MRS. GILL, TYPE-WRITING OFFICE, 35, LUDGATE HILL, E.C. (ESTABLISHED 1883.) Authors' MSS. carefully copied from 1s. per 1000 words. Duplicate copies third price. Skilled typists sent out by hour, day or week. French MSS. accurately copied, or typewritten English translations supplied. References kindly permitted to Messrs. A. P. Watt & Son, Literary Agents, Hastings House, Norfolk Street, Strand, W.C. THE WEST KENSINGTON TYPEWRITING AGENCY. SIKES and SIKES, 23Wolverton Gardens, Hammersmith Road, W. ESTABLISHED 1893. Authors' MSS. carefully and promptly copied. Usual Terms. Legal and General Copying. Typewritten Circulars by Copying Process. LESSONS GIVEN. AUTHORS' REFERENCES. "Sir Henry Ponsonby is commanded by the Queen to be thank Mr. Darlington for a * copy of his Handbook." “Nothing better could be wished for."-Britisu WEEKLY. “Far superior to ordinary guides."-LONDON DAILY CHRONICLE. Edited by RALPH DARLINGTON, F.R.G.S. 1s. each. Illustrated. Maps by JOHN BARTHOLOMEW, F.R.G.S. THE ISLE OF WIGHT. THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. THE VALE OF LLANGOLLEN.THE NORFOLK BROADS BRECON AND ITS BEACONS. THE SEVERN VALLEY. BOURNEMOUTH AND THE NEW FOREST. THE WYE VALLEY BRIGHTON, EASTBOURNE, HASTINGS, AND ST. LEONARDS ABERYSTWITH, TOWYN, BARMOUTH, AND DOLGELLY. MALVERN, HEREFORD. WORCESTER, AND GLOUCESTER. LLANDRINDOD WELLS AND THE SPAS OF MID-WALES. BRISTOL, BATH, CHEPSTOW, AND WESTON-SUPER-MARE. LLANDUDNO, RHYL, BANGOR, CARNARVON, ANGLESEA. CONWAY, COLWYN BAY, BETTWS-Y-COED, FESTINIOG, SNOW DON. 'THE AUTHOR." SCALE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS. (ALLOWANCE TO MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY 20 PER CENT.) : : Front Page ... ...£4 0 0 Other Pages ... ... ... 3 0 Half of a Page ... 0 .. ... 1 100 Quarter of a Page ... 0 15 0 Eighth of a Page ... 0 7 6 Single Column Advertiseme per inch 0 6 0 Bills for Insertion per 2,000 3 0 Reduction of 20 per cent. made for a Series of Sir and of 25 per cent. for Twelve Insertions. Advertisements should reach the Office not later than the 20th for insertion in the following month's issue. All letters respecting Advertisements should be addressed to the I ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER, The Author Office, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey's Gate, S.W. "The best Handbook to London ever issued."- LIVERPOOL DAILY Post, "THE Handbook to London-- it very emphatically tops them all." DAILY GRAPHIC. 3rd Edition, Revised, 6s. 60 Illustrations, 24 Maps and Plans. LONDON AND ENVIRONS. By E. C. Cook and E. T. Cook, M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 15. THE HOTELS OF THE WORLD. A Handbook to the leading Hotels throughout the world. Llangollen : DARLINGTON & Co. London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co. LID. Railway Bookstalls and all Booksellers. PHOTOGRAPHS.-BIRTHDAY and SEASON CARDs from negatives by Ralph DARLINGTON, F.R.G.S., of Scenery, Ruins, &c., in Italy, Greece, ot, ls., 1s. 6il., 25., and 2s. 6d. List, post free, of DARLINGTON & CO., LLANGOLLEN.  ## p. 53 (#437) ############################################# The Author. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT. VOL. XII.-No. 5. DECEMBER 1ST, 1901. [PRICE SIXPENCE. GENERAL MEMORANDA. (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong to the author. * We are advised that this is a right, in the nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or withheld. WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS. ITERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an agreement. There are four methods of dealing with literary property : I. 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. II. 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! III. 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." IY. 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. VOL. XII. TEVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com- petent 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. tract for production of the piece by a certain date and for proper publication of his name on the play-bills. (6) 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 (i.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 (6.) 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 reserved. 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 exceed- ingly valuable. They should never be included in English  ## p. 54 (#438) ############################################# 54 THE AUTHOR. 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. must be done within fourteen days of first execution. Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members. This The 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so do some publishers. Members can make their own deductions and act accordingly. agreements without the author obtaining a substantial consideration. 9. 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 INFORMA. TION ARE REFERRED TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY. THE READING BRANCH. CEMBERS 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 term MSS, includes NOT ONLY WORKS OF FICTION, BUT POETRY AND DRAMATIC WORKS, and when it is possible, under special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The Readers are writers of competence and experience. The fee is one guinea. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. NOTICES. M HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of T 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 58. 6d. subscription for the year. Communications for The Author should be addressed to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey's Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor NOT LATER THAN THE 21st OF EACH MONTH. All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate to the Editor any points connected with their work which it would be advisable in the general interest to publish. 1. D VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive V advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub- lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his business or the administration of his property. If the advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor, the member has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel's opinion. All this without any cost to the member. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publishers' agreements do not generally fall within the experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society. 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past accounts, with a copy of the book 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 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 independence of the writer. 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception of members' agreements and their preservation in a fire- proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as confidential 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 to give advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to agreements. 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society. Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful consideration the contracts submitted to them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit them for inter- pretation and explanation to the Secretary of the Society. For the Opinions expressed in papers that are signed or initialled the Authors alone are responsible. None of the papers or paragraphs must be taken as expressing the opinion of the Committee unless such is especially stated to be the case. COMMUNICATIONS AND LETTERS ARE INVITED BY THE EDITOR on all subjects connected with literature, but on no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to return articles which cannot be accepted. THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and he requests members who do not receive an answer to important communications within two days to write to him without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent by registered letter only.  ## p. 55 (#439) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 55 Society . . . . · CHANGE OF ADDRESS. At the meeting of the Committee held on November 18th twenty new members and associates were elected. The office of the Incorporated Society of Authors The Committee have the pleasure of congratu- has been removed to- lating the Society on the judgment obtained by 39, OLD QUEEN STREET, Mr. Neufeld against Chapman and Hall. STOREY'S GATE, S.W. The further business transacted was as follows : It was decided to take counsel's opinion on another important case regarding the rights of a member of the Society to prohibit the dramatic NOTICE. recitation of his work. And, secondly, owing to the favourable opinion expressed by counsel on the case mentioned last M HE EDITOR begs to inform members of the month, the Committee will support the member 1 Authors' Society and other readers of The whose property is involved, and, if necessary, carry Author that the cases which are from time the case throngh the Con to time quoted in The Author are cases that have A few other minor matters referring to disputes come before the notice or to the knowledge of the between Authors and Publishers were gone into Secretary of the Society, and that those members and settled. of the Society who desire to have the names of the publishers concerned can obtain them on application. Besant Memorial. Donations from Members of the Council. THE PENSION FUND OF THE SOCIETY Meredith, George, President of the OF AUTHORS. . .£10 0 0 à Beckett, A. W. . 1 1 0 Barrie, J. M. . . . . . 5 5 () M HE following is the total of donations and Bateman, Robert 5 0 0 1 subscriptions promised or received up to Beddard, F. E.. 2 0 0 the 9th November, 1901. Bonney, Rev. T. G. . Further sums will be acknowledged from month Clodd, Edward . . to month as they are received, as it has been con Colles, W. M. . 5 5 0 sidered unnecessary to print the full list with Collier. The Honble. John every issue. Conway, Sir W. Martin . 1 1 0 Donations .................. ......£1439 16 6 Craigie, Mrs. . Subscriptions .................... 107 8 6 Dobson, Austin . . Doyle, A. Conan. 15 0 Dubourg, A. W.. DONATIONS. Foster, Sir Michael, M. P., F.R.S. Nov. 9, Dale, Miss ...... 2 11 0 Freshfield, D. W. Oct. 10, Harrison, Mrs. (Lucas Malet) 5 5 0 Garnett, Richard Oct. 15, Rossi, Miss L. .... 0 10 6 Gosse, Edmund . Oct. 25, Potter, M. H. ...... 0 12 0 Grundy, Sydney. 2 2 0 Oct. 30, Stanley, Mrs. ....... Haggard, H. Rider . Hardy, Thomas . Harrison, Mrs. (Lucas Malet) Hawkins, A. Hope 0 0 FROM THE COMMITTEE. Jerome K. Jerome . . 2 2 0 Keltie, J. Scott . . 1 1 0 Kipling, Rudyard . 2000) The Work of the Society. Lely, J. M. . 1 1 0 The Committee have deemed it advisable, owing Loftie, Rev. W.J. . . 1 1 0 to certain information they have received, to take Middleton Wake, Rev. C. Rev. C. H. . . 2 2 0 no further steps for the present touching the Norman, Henry . petition it had been proposed to lay before the Parker, Gilbert .. • . 3 3 0 Board of Trade with regard to Copyright Pinero, A. W.. . 5 5 0 Legislation. Pollock, Sir F.. . 1 1 0 ལ་ · · · · · · · · · · NOOT OINN · · · · · · · 10 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 3 · · · · · 3 0 · · 108-107NCO N Coco er NET N · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 1 1 · · · · · · ·  ## p. 56 (#440) ############################################# 56 THE AUTHOR. Rose, Edward . £220 Although the piracy of books goes on to a some- Scoones, W. Baptiste. . 1 1 0 what similar extent, it is much more difficult for Sims, George R.. · · · ... 5 0 0 the publisher to escape detection, and to benefit Sprigge, S. S. . . 2 2 0 by the piracy, without running the risk of subse- Ward, Mrs. Humphry . 5 0 0 quent retribution, as he generally possesses an office and has a “ local habitation.” Not so the The list of subscriptions set out above, amounting dramatic pirate. Should every colony pass a law in all to £137 18s., comprises the contributions of on the lines suggested, it would do a great deal to the Council so far received in answer to the circular stop the infringement of dramatic rights issued from the office. There are many people who would run the risk The Committee now lay the matter before all the of performing a play if only subject to the payment members of the Society, and would ask all those to of a remote pecuniary damage who would be pre- subscribe who value the work of the founder of the vented from doing the same thing if they were Society and have benefited by his ungrudging liable to imprisonment. devotion and unselfish labours. A short state- In England, which is a small country, there is ment was made in last month's Author as to the very little difficulty in tracing performances of a arrangements that have been made, with Lady play : but in some of the towns and cities in the Besant's full approval, and with the sanction of West of America, in the depths of Cape Colony, or the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. To this in the back part of Australia it to? members are again referred. Cheques should be for news to travel to the writers of the play and made payable to the Incorporated Society of to the holders of the copyright. Authors, and crossed London and Joint Stock Bank, Westminster Branch. We see that Mr. Hall Caine has taken up politics in the Isle of Man, and that he has been elected a member of the House of Keys by a majority of AUTHORITIES. 267 at a bye-election for the town of Ramsey. We congratulate him on his success. The theme of politics is not one which is very ULTE have much pleasure in inserting a state- popular among writers of fiction, though of late ment of the judgment in Neufeld v. vears sundry novelists have stood for Parliament, Chapman and Hall. The matter has been some without success and some with success. supported throughout by the action of the Com- Mr. Gilbert Parker is M.P. for Gravesend. Dr. mittee of the Society of Authors, and the decisions Conan Doyle stood unsuccessfully for Edinburgh. that have been come to under the judgment have Mr. H. Rider Haggard was unsuccessful in Norfolk. amply justified the action of the Society in the matter. and Mr. A. Hope Hawkins would have stood at All those who read the judgment will see that the last election but was debarred from doing so there are one or two very important points to on account of ill-health. authors which came forward for decision. Though the Author is not a political paper, it may interest many of the members to have a brief statement of Mr. Hall Caine's propaganda-we The following cutting is taken from the Hobart extract from the article in the Daily Mail :- Mercury (Australia) :- COPYRIGHT IN PLAYS.-A movement is on foot among 1. To re-establish the credit of the island. leading theatre managers to get an Act passed by the 2. To prevent a recurrence of financial disaster- Federal Parliament similar to the law existing in America, (a) by nationalising certain industries of the island ; making the appropriating and using of plays, operas, (6) by establishing a principle of co-operation in musical pieces, or any portion thereof, an offence punishable others. by imprisonment. 3. To float the Isle of Man on that great wave of social and economic reform which is passing over the free If this is true, the action is one of considerable and enlightened peoples of the world. importance to all dramatic authors, and should be strongly supported. The piracy of dramatic works In the same article Mr. Caine proceeds to discuss in the Colonies and in America is, we regret to how he hopes to attain some of these objects. say, a very crying evil. It is so exceedingly easy On the other side of the water also we are to have a performance of a play without being informed from a paragraph in Literature that found out by the author of the play. Many months Samuel L. Clemens (“ Mark Twain”) is taking pass, and then when the matter comes to the up politics, and has been speaking forcibly in author's ears there is no chance left of obtaining opposition to Tammany doctrines in New York. damages for the infringement.  ## p. 57 (#441) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 57 A certain firm of publishers who hold a high SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR. position amongst publishing houses in England I like the Fret-ful Por-cu-pine. has a custom of writing letters to authors, and De-cep-tion is not in his line ; upon the author demanding a formal agreement, of With him there is no Make-be-lieve; replying that they consider their letters good as He wears his Thorns up-on his Sleeve. Un-like some Hu-man Por-cu-pines, an agreement if accepted in their entirety. Who care-ful-ly Conceal their Spines, We fear this firm must be suffering from His Bad Points stick out eve-ry-where. heredity, and cannot free itself from the unbusi- 'Tis true he's Fret-ful as a Bear, nesslike habits of the publishing trade in years And Vain-er than a Pop-in-jay; Yet has he One Re-deem-ing Trait gone by. Several of these letters which embody That to my heart en-dears him Quite : the terms of the agreement have been laid before Though full of Quills, he Does Not Write. the secretary of the Society. - Century Magazine. With due acceptance by the authors they certainly become binding contracts as far as they go, but the curious part of the whole case The Editor of the “Literary Year Book” has is, that there are many clauses omitted which are forwarded us the following note :- customary in all agreements, not only benefiting “The sixth issue of the Literary Year Book' the author but also the publisher. is now in active preparation. From constant experience it appears that nearly “Authors who have not received forms for the all complications arising between author and Directory of Authors are requested to send their publisher are brought about owing to the lack names to the Editor. It is intended to develop of finality in the contracts. If, therefore, there this portion of the Year Book' by inserting is any method calculated to arouse complications, it fuller details of literary activity, and the Editor is the method of writing a letter as suggested will be grateful for any assistance. All communica- by the publishing firm referred to, and merely tions should be addressed to the Editor of the obtaining an acceptance from the author. *Literary Year Book,' 156, Charing Cross Road, If the letter was in the form of an agreement, wau. and was drawn up on a legal basis, and contained We have much pleasure in giving prominence to all the clauses that were necessary to cover all this announcement, as the “ Literary Year Book” the contingencies that might arise, then nothing has, under its present editor, become a matter of further could be said. The contract would be interest to all authors, and it is of importance that final, clear, and decisive. a work of reference of this kind should be made as But unfortunately the letters are far from being perfect as possible. drafted along these lines. Not bad so far as regards the points they deal with, they are full of omissions rather than commissions. The mistake is a great one, and even the publisher's reputation cannot cover the delinquency. We see it stated that Mr. Andrew Lang thinks We cannot help thinking, therefore, that the the biographies of authors are of little use; that matter is the result of heredity, which is a most we know enough of an author who is merely an stubborn disease and most difficult to subdue. author from his works or from his letters, if he If not in this generation, we hope it may be himself has deemed them worthy of publication. rooted out in the next. The question of biographies is one that needs careful consideration. Men who have made their name by their actions as great commanders, as We níust congratulate Miss Netta Syrett on great diplomatists, as great civil administrators, having her play accepted in the competition as great politicians—these men deserve a biography arranged by the Playgoers' Club. for the benefit of the world in general and their We regret that the announcement was too late compatriots in particular, in order that the methods to place in the last number of the Author. by which they attained to greatness may be made Miss Netta Syrett's literary record has been put patent to all members of the human race, and forward in nearly every literary paper. It is may urge forward others to follow or avoid their sufficient to say that she has written many examples. But those who have come to greatness short stories, and has produced one or two by the writing of fiction, by scientific discoveries novels. embodied in their works, by poems, or by musical We hope that her play will have the success composition—these and others of a like kind are which a knowledge of her stories would seem to much better without biographies. In many cases augur. the stories of their lives, the many details of their  ## p. 58 (#442) ############################################# 58 THE AUTHOR. They continue that their personal relations with Mr. Stevenson were those of unclouded cordiality to the day of his death. On investigation, we find that “ Treasure Island” has been published in the following editions in England : 58., 38. 6d., 6d., 6s., 12s. 6d., and 3s.6d., illustrated. Taking 58. as an average price, we find that 10 per cent. on 80,000 copies amounts to £2,000. From Messrs. Cassell's point of view the “un- clouded cordiality” is readily explained. G. H. T. everyday existence, the sordidness of their motives, and sometimes the pettiness or harshness of their nature, take away from them the glory which they have deservedly obtained from the world in general in another line. It is not a kindness to write a biography of these men. It is mere idle curiosity on the part of the public which stimulates the desire for such biographies—curiosity that should not be gratified. The relation of these details—this sordidness and pettiness—cannot arouse their fellow-mortals to go and become famous in a path of life which brought them fame, for there is no connection between the public fame and the private misery; but the relation of a life of action may easily have an invigorating and ennobling effect, and may act as a life tonic. While thoroughly agreeing, therefore, with Mr. Lang that the biographies of authors are of little use, we go further and say that the biographies of those men obtaining their fame and their greatness by other means than a life of action are of little use, nay, may do a great deal of harm by damaging a brilliant reputation deservedly obtained ; and lastly, that the biographies of living men, whether men of action or men of thought, should, under no circumstances, be tolerated. AUTHOR AND LITERARY AGENT. I. The King of Italy, judging from the following cutting, is about to become an author :- The King of Italy is about to be added to the list of authors, a distinction not shared by many of the members of Royal Houses. He is learned in coins, and the title of his book will be, not“ Corpus Numinorum Italicorum," as a contemporary gravely assures its readers, but “ Corpus Nummorum Italicorum." It ought to be a mighty tome, for there have been in all some 250 different mints in the Peninsula. The subject is no doubt a difficult one, and must entail an amount of research for which it would be thought a reigning monarch had scarcely time. As far as royal authors are concerned, we should not forget that the late Queen added some inter- esting books to the output of English literature, and that other royalties have also entered the field of writing. President Roosevelt, again, is a man of considerable literary distinction, as the record of his book production shows. W E have written to sundry publishers since Mr. Heinemann's article appeared in the Author, asking them if they would do us the honour of writing on the subject which is of interest to all parties. We regret to say, however, that so far they have all made excuses; but Mr. C. J. Longman has kindly written a short note stating that it would be impossible for him to spare the time to discuss the question with the requisite detail, but putting forward his views as follows : “(1) I see no reason why an author who feels himself incompetent to carry on the business side of his calling should not employ an agent, as is done universally by land-owners, in dealing with farmers, labourers, public bodies, and so forth. “(2) The danger of employing an author's agent is the possibility that direct communication be- tween the author and the publisher should become less frequent and less intimate, to the serious loss of both parties. “(3) If the business is properly conducted by the author's agent, this danger ought to be avoided. The fact that pecuniary questions never come up for discussion seems to me to tend to increase the probability of intimacy between author and publisher, and my experience bears out this view." One important point that Mr. Longman makes is the fact that the discussion of financial questions being left to the publisher and the agent tends to make the intimacy between the publishers and the author, in many cases so necessary for the proper production of a book, stronger, more efficacious. Without betraying any confidence we may quote an instance which occurred with Mr. Longman's firm of which he may perhaps be personally unacquainted. A writer of considerable position came to the society for advice as to what agent to entrust with negotiations with Messrs. Longman, for the very In a letter of Messrs. Cassell & Co., Ld., to the Times, they repudiate the idea, suggested appa- rently from one of Stevenson's letters published in the new “Life of Stevenson," that £100 only was paid to Stevenson for the copyright of “ Trea- sure Island,” and state that the amount paid up to the present time is upwards of twenty times that amount (i.e., £2,000).  ## p. 59 (#443) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 59 II. III. reason that, being a personal friend of Mr. Longman, I therefore decided to negotiate my MSS. he had no desire to discuss the financial side of myself, and by a judicious selection of the most the question with him. The result was satisfactory suitable channels I successfully disposed of every- in every way. The book was produced without thing I wrote. An increasing output of literary friction between the parties and with the happiest matter, and other pressure on my time, decided me results. to again offer my wares to a literary agent for disposal, and I sent them to a gentleman who charged me a heavy “booking fee” above the usual commission terms. Now I am beginning to WITH regard to the controversy concerning regret my employment of this agent, who, in spite authors, publishers, and agents, it must be surely of the fact that he declared at the outset that he better for an author to be safeguarded by a good was well acquainted with my work, and knew the agent who is a capable man of business, their right channels in which to set it afloat, has, after interests being identical. At the same time, should several months, secured no results. Query : Can difficulties arise with a publisher or an agent who I demand the return of my booking fee ? may be hostile to an author, it is very unwise, if The antipathy of some publishers to the literary not ungrateful, to throw over the protection of the agent I can also illustrate. I am about to publish Society of Authors and withdraw from membership. a book which I personally offered to a London I can only say that, personally, I have received firm. Terms were proposed by the publisher, and every kindness and much assistance from the I informed him that my agent would arrange the Society of Authors on many occasions where details on my behalf. Thereupon the publisher, otherwise a lawyer must have been employed, and evidently not having hitherto expected that I was probably a heavy bill of costs run up. represented by a business man, treated me to a ANNABEL GRAY. short discourse on the disadvantages of employing a literary agent from what, he wished nie to under- stand, was the author's point of view, but which I knew was really from his own, and in the end THE Perusal of several interesting letters on declined my book. the value of the literary agent in the last two My early experiences of the ways of the literary numbers of The Author has infected me with an agent make me feel justified in borrowing a phrase attack of cacoethes scribendi. from Mr. Benson's letter in your last issue, in My complaint against the literary agent is that signing myself he does not lay himself out to introduce an “A Poor BLEATING LAMB !” unknown author to publishers and public. I will illustrate. A friend of mine wrote to a well-known literary agent, asking him to act as her business representative. She had published several fugitive HOW TO MAKE PLAYS READABLE. essays and papers on popular subjects, but she was comparatively unknown. As she could not produce newspaper testimonials she was politely VIVE years ago every publisher who was refused as a client. About the same time another approached with a view to publishing a lady friend, who had published two books, asked p lay at once said, “No use : people won't the same agent to represent her. She showed him read plays in England." This was unfortunate, several very formidable reviews of her two novels, because the economic conditions of theatrical enter- was able to prove her success, and he at once prise had by that time made it impossible to ask accepted her as a client. à manager (except with a deliberate view to his A few years ago a literary agent was asked to ruin) to produce any but very widely popular plays; represent me by a well-known novelist for whom and if neither the managers nor the publishers he acted as business representative. I, also, will touch the higher stratum of dramatic art, what was only known to the reading public through is to become of the unfortunate authors whose gifts occasional papers and short stories I had published lie in that stratum ? Must they relapse into novel in certain newspapers, reviews, and magazines. writing, or depend on the fact that though the This agent's excuse for not wishing to represent production of really philosophic plays at the com- me was that he was too busy with other clients' mercial theatres is an economic impossibility in work to undertake mine. Yet, shortly after, when the present state of popular culture, yet the thing a popular author, with whom I am acquainted, may actually occur from time to time, either as a made a similar suggestion on his own account, pure error of judgment on the managers part, or it was not in vain. in one of those emergencies created by the failure  ## p. 60 (#444) ############################################# 60 THE AUTHOR. of the supply of popular plays, when, having to facts for our business paper, not as "green-room choose between an experiment in high art or the gossip." closing of his theatre, the manager accepts what is Of course, if I had foolishly and snobbishly stood to him the less of the two evils ? I have dissuaded sneering at Ibsen, at the Independent Theatre, at managers from committing these acts of despera- the New Century Theatre, at the experiments of tion with plays of my own often enough to convince Charrington, Grein, Waring, Miss Farr, Miss me that a capable dramatic author can get any sort Robins, and the other pioneers, instead of seizing of play, however excellent (or the reverse), pro- the opportunity to help dramatic literature and duced at one time or another, provided he is ready train myself as a practical playwright at the same to take advantage of the manager's infatuation, time, all this would not have happened to me. But his artistic enthusiasm, his ambition to be regarded the fact that it did happen, not only to me, but to as an intellectual connoisseur, or his occasional others in proportion to their activity as uncom- destitution in the matter of new plays. But as mercial playwrights, seems to me to prove that it no honorable author will take up dramatic work is quite worth any young author's while to peg seriously on the chance of being enabled, by acci- away at the superpopular drama with a reasonable dent at some uncertain date, to add to the losses certainty of gaining sufficient stage experience and of a cornered or too appreciative manager, imme- newspaper renown to ensure him a place among diate acceptance and success at the commercial the commercially successful dramatists, if he theatres may be left out of the question by the chooses afterwards to turn his apprenticeship to writer of plays which are “ above the head of the account by writing what the managers and the public": that is, the sort of head represented by public want. the greatest common measure of, say, 75,000 But since this road to fame lies partly through metropolitan playgoers. the publication of plays, of what use is it to point On the other hand, 2,000 purchasers or so, at it out if the publishers say, “No use : in England six shillings, less threepence in the shilling, will people dont read plays”? Well, of course they pay for the publication of a volume of plays, and dont; but pray, whose fault is that? I suggest leave, perhaps, £100 for the author, which sum, that it is the fault of the playwrights who delibe- eked out with a little journalism, will at least rately make their plays unreadable by flinging save him from the starvation threatened by the repulsive stage technicalities in the face of the unmarketable nature of his genius. The play, once public, and omitting from their descriptions even published, will probably get performed by the Stage that simplest common decency of literature, the Society or by Mr. Grein, and thus procure for the definite article ? I wonder how many readers author some practical experience of the stage, and Charles Dickens would have had, or deserved to give him a good advertisement into the bargain, have, if he had written in this manner :- leading possibly to a commercial commission for a (SYKES lights pipe—calls dog—loads pistol with popular play “as you [the populace] like it," as newspaper—takes bludgeon from R. above fireplace soon as he has learnt how to write one. and strikes NANCY. NANCY: Oh Lord, Bill ! A striking contemporary instance of this process (Dies. SYKES wipes brow—shudders — takes hat is Hauptmann, who came to the front as a dramatist from chair 0.P.-sees ghost, not visible to audience through single performances of his plays in Germany —and exit L.U.E.). by dramatic clubs like the Stage Society, and by This sort of thing, in which literary people their publication. I myself have published ten trying their hand at the drama for the first time plays. Seven of them may be classed commercially revel as ludicrously as amateur actors revel in as unacted. But of these seven, five have been flagrant false hair, misfitting tunics and tin spears, performed at London theatres with the same is not a whit less dishonoring to literature and ceremonies of first-night celebration, press notices, insulting to the public than an edition of Shake- and—what is far more important—the same spear would be if it were cut down in this experience of the stage gained by the author at fashion :- rehearsal as if they had been built by Mr. Pinero, Sc. 2. Change to carpenters' scene and set room in Mr. Jones, or Mr. Cecil Raleigh to run a thousand the Tower behind. RICHARD on prompt to centre. nights. Through that experience and advertise- ment I was enabled to write and find a manager RICHARD. Now is winter of our discontt. for a melodrama which brought me in from America Made glorious summer by sun of York alone more money than I could have earned at And all clouds th, lowered, &c., journalism in the time it took me to write all my In deep bosom of ocean buried. ten plays. My two unperformed plays are in that If the reader's imagination may be quenched, condition for special reasons which do not affect the his taste offended, and his good sense revolted argument. I chronicle these matters as business merely to save the author's time in describing the  ## p. 61 (#445) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 61 action of a piece, why should not the same thing pains to commit just such outrages. The fact is, be done in handling the dialogue ? the actor and the reader want exactly the same But there is another party to be considered thing, vivid strokes of description, not stage besides the author and the reader. There is the manager's memoranda or impertinent instructions actor (who is nowadays the manager also), an in the art of acting from literary people who exceptionally susceptible, imaginative, fastidious cannot act. It is true that most authors consider person, easily put out by the slightest incongruity, themselves born actors, and that most actors easily possessed by the slightest suggestion. His consider themselves born authors; but these weak- work is so peculiar and important; its delicacy nesses should be confessed under seal of rehearsal, depends so much on the extent to which a play not proclaimed to a derisive world. To do the can be made real to him and the technical conditions actor justice, he tries not to carry the stage about reduced to unnoticed matters of habit ; above all, with him wherever he goes, whereas the would be it is so necessary to his self-respect that the playwright never lets you escape from it, even in obligation he is under to make himself a means to print. If the reader attempts to forget that what the author's end should not be made an excuse he is reading is fiction, he promptly has a pin for disregarding his dignity as a man, that an stuck into him by the statement that such and author can hardly be too careful to cherish the such a piece of furniture is R. or L. or “near the actor's illusion and respect his right to be ap- front of the stage,” or that the masterpiece of proached as a professional man and not merely painting on the easel, which the villain or adven- ordered to do this or that without knowing why. turess will presently slash with a knife, is “ turned Imagine, then, the effect of handing an actor a part, away from the audience.” It is just as if a or an actor-manager a play, drawn up exactly like novelist were to write, “A keen pang shot through a specification for a gasfitter! How can any man the mother's heart ; for she saw at a glance that or woman of letters be so foolishly inconsiderate as her child had not many chapters to live," or to suppose that an actor-manager, at the moment “When we left Grimwood, he had just dealt the when he is full of curiosity and hope as to the coward's blow that stretched young Alton Dale a opportunity of striking the public imagination corpse three lines from the foot of the first page of offered him by a writer whom he can only judge signature c.” A dramatist's business is to make according to his or her power of imaginative and the reader forget the stage and the actor forget vivid description, really likes to receive a silly the audience, not to remind them of both at every amateur attempt to imitate a fiyman's scene plot turn, like an incompetent “extra gentleman” who and a prompter's memorandum of positions and turns the wrong side of his banner towards the list of "props" ? When I read the prompt copies footlights. Every such reminder is a betrayal in that are not only sent in to managers for accept art and a solecism in manners. Why should ance, but actually to the printers for the delectation novices advertise their inexperience by sedulously of the unprofessional public, I often wonder how committing them on every page, and even clinging many managers or readers would ever get as far as to the “exits” and “exeunts” which survive from the second page in “Hamlet "if it were presented to the time when dramatists like Chapman wrote all them in so loathly a fashion. their stage directions in Latin, perhaps to avoid Let me give an example of a stage direction of spoiling the illusion by them, perhaps only to show my own which has been rebuked as a silly joke off their scholarship. by people who do not understand the real relations The safe rule is, Write nothing in a play that you of author and actor. It runs thus : “ So-and-So's would not write in a novel ; and remember that complexion fades into stone-grey; and all movement everything that the actor or the scene-painter shows and expression desert his eyes.” This is the sort of to the audience must be described -- not technically stage direction an actor really wants. Of course specified, but imaginatively, vividly, humorously, he can no more actually change his complexion to in a word, artistically described--to the reader by stone-grey than Mr. Forbes Robertson can actually the author. In describing the scene, take just as die after saying, “ The rest is silence.” But he much trouble to transport your reader there in can produce the impression suggested by the imagination as you would in a narrative. Your direction perfectly. How he produces it is his imaginary persons must not call " off the stage”; business, not mine. This distinction is important, your guns must not be fired “behind the scenes”; because, if I wrote such a stage direction as “ turns you must not tell the public that “ part of the his back to the audience and furtively dabs vaseline stage is removed to represent the entrance to a on his eye-lashes " instead of “his eyes glisten with cellar.” It will often strain your ingenuity to tears," I should be guilty of an outrage on both describe a scene so that though a stage manager actor and reader. Yet we find almost all our can set it from the printed description, yet not a inexperienced dramatic authors taking the greatest word is let slip that could remind the reader of the  ## p. 62 (#446) ############################################# 62 THE AUTHOR. author's personal friends) one copy of a new play when they order several hundred copies of a new novel. G. BERNARD SHAW. LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL PROPERTY. footlights. But it can be done; and the reward for the trouble is that people can read your plays – even actor-managers, who suffer just as much from the deadening, disillusioning, vulgarising effect of the old-fasbioned stage direction as other people do. I may add here parenthetically that if some of our novelists would work out the stage manage- ment of their scenes, they would be heavily taken aback at the number of physical impossibilities their descriptions involve. Not that it matters in a novel ; but it does matter very much when the novelist takes to play-writing. Finally, do not drop into the Elizabethan tradi- tions of play publication. Remember that on Shakespear's stage descriptive recitation did a great deal that is now done by stage business and scenery. “Before my body," says Macbeth, “I cast my warlike shield ” ; but the modern leading man cannot very well say “I take my revolver out of my pocket and pull the trigger.” The scene between Richard and Lady Anne at the funeral of Henry VI. is full of action; and so is the scene between Falstaff and the Lord Chief Justice. Yet they do not need stage directions. “Lo, here I lend thee this sharp pointed sword . ... and humbly beg the death upon my knee," says Richard. “Go pluck him by the elbow : I must speak with him says the Lord Chief Justice. Shakespear, who had no faith in “inexplicable dumb show," used all his cleverness to make his plays tell their own story ; and the modern play- wright should use his cleverness to the same end, though he cannot use Shakespear's methods, because the modern actor, on his pictorial stage, does things which Burbage, with his platform crowded by spectators, could only have described himself as doing. Therefore the modern play wright, if the reader is to see the play in his mind's eye as well as to read the dialogue, must interpolate strokes of description which in Shakes- pear's works form part of the dialogue. Most modern plays would be incoherent and consequently only half intelligible without such descriptive interpolations; and why authors should assume, as they generally do, that these interpolations need have no artistic character—which means that they are to be unreadable except by stage carpenters as a matter of business can only be explained as a survival from the time when the proportion of interpolated description to dialogue was, as in “ King Lear,” perhaps one to a thousand. There are modern plays in which one to four would be nearer the mark ; and as long as authors persist in issuing books that are one quarter unreadable, and the rest unintelligible without that unreadable quarter, they must not be surprised if Mudie and Smith order (under pressure from the I.-Performing Rights at the Cape. TN the Supreme Court at the Cape, before the Acting 1 Chief Justice (Sir John Buchanan) and Mr. Justice Maasdorp, Sir H. Juta, K.C., again mentioned the matter of Sass v. Wheeler. This matter originally came before the Court on a motion calling on the respondent to show cause why he should not be restrained from playing in any part of this Colony the play “ Magda." The appli- cation stood over for further affidavits. The affidavit of James Murray Wilson was now produced. He said he was sub-manager in Cape Town for Mr. Edward Sass, who is now in Natal. Mr. George Alexander, of St. James's Theatre, London, was the bolder of the English-speaking rights of “Magda," and Sass held from him the sole right of perform- ance in South Africa for one year, under an agreement dated September 9, 1900. The applicant objected to the production of “Magda" in Cape Town by the respondent, and said it was his intention to produce the play on his return to Cape Town in October. Mr. Searle, K.C., on behalf of the respondent, read the affidavit of Frank Wheeler, theatrical manager, who stated that his firm were the lessees of the Good Hope Hall, and they had come to an arrangement whereby the O'Neil Company were allowed to use the hall. As far as he could understand Mr. McKee Rankin held the rights of production of “ Magda " in South Africa, Mr. McKee Rankin, in his affidavit, described the success of Herr Suderman's play when produced in Germany some ten years ago, and its subsequent translation into English, under the title of " Magda," and its production in America. The author copyrighted the play in America, and a person named Lederer was appointed as Herr Suderman's agent in America. Since 1998 Miss O'Neil had produced the play all over the United States, Australasia and Canada, and when he undertook the management of her tour he secured from Lederer the sole rights of production of the play " Magda " in Australia and South Africa. Lederer informed him that the English rights were confined to Mr. George Alexander, but he understood that this only meant the rights of production in the British Isles. Sir H. Juta suggested that seeing that the play had been already played, this matter should stand over. It was only a question of costs at present. Mr. Searle objected on the ground that the applicant had made out no case for an interdict. After argument, the Acting Chief Justice, in giving judgment, said the applicant held under cession from Mr. Alexander the English-speaking rights of the play. The respondents advertised that they were going to perform this play in South Africa. Thereupon the applicants wrote to them stating their rights and claiming that they would give an assurance that they would not do so. The respon- dents, after communications, refused to give this assurance, and the applicants gave notice that they would apply to the Court for an interdict. Meanwhile, before they could get the interdict, the respondents proceeded with the play, and played it several times in Cape Town. The play not now being further advertised, the applicant was willing  ## p. 63 (#447) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 63 that the question of costs should stand over until the action spoke. The Attorney-General, in reply, said that for damages was heard. Under these circumstances, no he would convey all that had transpired to the interdict would now be granted, but as applicant had very President of the Board of Trade, in whose care the strong prima facie rights, the question of costs would stand over until the action was heard. contemplated new Copyright Bill is. He would also, in the event of a fresh application to him for his fiat, consider the same afresh. II.- Piracies of Copyright Music. From The Times, November 6th. III.-- Australasian Copyright. A DEPUTATION of music publishers from the SENATOR KEATING has given notice in the Senate Music Publishers' Association and the music of his intention to move for leave to bring in a trade section of the London Chamber of Com- Bill relating to copyright. The object of the merce waited on the Attorney-General (Sir Robert measure is to simplify the copyright laws existing Finlay, M.P.) by appointment, on the subject of in the different States, and make one uniform Act “ piracies of copyright music.” The following for the Commonwealth. It will be divided into formed the deputation : Mr. Edwin Ashdown five parts—literature, music, art, the drama, and (President of the Music Publishers' Association), newspapers—and will seek to give a measure of ayton (President of the music section protection not before possible. of the London Chamber of Commerce), Mr. Arthur Boosey, Mr. Emile Ascherberg, Mr. Cosmo Pavona (Messrs. Ricordi and Co.), Mr. David Day, Mr. Philip J. Rutland (Messrs. Francis, Day, and PUBLISHERS' METHODS AND THE Hunter's solicitor), and Mr. George Dixey (secre- SOCIETY'S ACTION. tary of the Music Publishers' Association). Mr. Ashdown drew the Attorney-General's attention to the seriousness of the systematic pirating of copy M HE case we are about to describe was one right songs by street hawkers, and the great injury 1 which the Society was able to settle out of sustained by music publishers, as also by music Court, but we think well to deal with it at dealers, authors, and composers. Mr. Day said some length, on account of its general interest to that an application was made, but without success, authors as an example and a warning. as far back as 1895 to the then Attorney-General In the spring of 1898 an author who was (Sir R. T. Reid), on behalf of his firm, through desirous of publishing a series of books was their solicitor, and by him through Mr. Hammond introduced to the literary adviser of a certain Chambers, Q.C., for his fiat to allow criminal pro- publisher. This gentleman undertook, on behalf ceedings being taken under the Newspaper Act, the of the author, to make arrangements for the pub- piracies having been issued without any printer's lication of these books, and not long afterwards name or address. Applications for assistance had the following terms were put before the author :- been made to the Commissioner of Police of the That the publisher would produce the books on Metropolis, the Commissioner of the City Police, a royalty of 12per cent., to rise to a further per- and the Home Secretary, but with no satisfactory centage if the books were a “success, i.e., after a result. The Music Publishers' Association and the certain number had been sold.” It was also stated music trade section of the London Chamber of that a certain number would probably be sold Commerce had drawn up suggested clauses for without royalty, such number depending upon the incorporation in the new Copyright Bill that was amount spent in the cost of production. being prepared, providing for summary remedies It will be seen how delightfully vague and for such piracies. Mr. Day added that at the uncertain the terms of the proposed contract International Congress of Publishers held at were. The author then wrote to the publisher, Leipzig in June last he attended and read a paper who, in the first instance, had been acting through on the subject, when a resolution was unanimously his literary adviser, and obtained from him an passed by that body recommending the adoption of acknowledgment of the terms set out above. In these clauses to the attention of the authorities. his answer he stated that the royalty should not Mr. Clayton urged that the proposals for summary commence until a certain number had been sold, proceedings with respect to such piracies were fully such number depending upon the ainount of money supported by the Royal Commission on Copyright. he had to outlay for the art work; but this he He also suggested that the Newspaper Act might asserted was a minor matter, and he promised, as be made to apply, and, further, that a charge of soon as he heard from the artist, to lay the matter criminal conspiracy might be brought against those clearly before the author—a promise which was engaged in this nefarious trade. Mr. Rutland also never carried out.  ## p. 64 (#448) ############################################# 64 THE AUTHOR. The whole of the negotiations so far are delight matter into Court at the expense of the Society, fully wanting in exactitude and definitionbut considering the case to be one of importance to the author was given to understand that the authors generally, as well as one where, without letter was sufficient guarantee for the terms, and the help of the Society, the author was in danger that the final agreement would be settled later. of losing his rights. Without drawing up and submitting a formal Before stating the proceedings taken in Court, document, the publisher proceeded to produce an it will be interesting to put forward in detail some enormous number of each of the books, which of the positions taken by the publisher in the course were placed on the market in the beginning of of the prolonged negotiations :- 1899. (1) In addition to registering himself at The author had also written a separate book Stationers' Hall as the owner of the copyright explanatory of the series, which was accepted and as above mentioned, the publisher copyrighted published by the publisher without any business the books in America in his own name, though arrangement at all, beyond a vague understanding he had not even obtained from the author a right (never reduced to writing) that it was to carry a to publish them. similar royalty. (2) The books were very elaborately illustrated, In February of the same year, after their pub- the illustrations being an important adjunct to lication, a form of agreement was laid before the the system propounded. In these illustrations, author, who was much surprised at the large for which the publisher had paid (as he had for number of books it was proposed to sell before the the other expenses of publication), he claimed the payment of any royalty. In addition, no mention full art copyright. The artist himself denied that whatever was made of the promised rise in royalty he had conveyed the copyright to the publisher, in the event of a “success." The author protested stating that he only conveyed the right of repro- against the large postponement and on other points, but the publisher showed no disposition to meet The Society's solicitors several times asked the him, and took such a personal line that the author publisher and his solicitor to produce his title to felt unable to deal, and accordingly joined the the copyright in the illustrations. The publisher Authors' Society on the suggestion of one of his and his solicitor, however, refused to produce the friends. artist's letters, on which they relied, which were In the autumn of the year the secretary sug- admittedly in their possession. gested that the case should be placed in the (3) On the author's advisers calculating the lawyer's hands, in the hope that the matter would amount of the royalties the publisher proposed to stop be satisfactorily settled when the publisher saw on account of the“ outlay for the art-work,"it became that it was the intention of the Society to take apparent that by this means the publisher would the matter up in earnest. The first result of the be repaid the full amount he had paid to the artist author mentioning that he would act through a with liberal interest. Nevertheless, the publisher solicitor was that the publisher stated he should continued to claim the pictures as his sole property, withdraw any concession he had made on the and that he could use any of them in any way he agreement, and hold to it as drafted without any chose, although they had been specially designed as amendment, whatever. It is needless to add that a series to illustrate the books in question. The he did not persevere in this frame of mind, but publisher then set up that by “ art-work ”he meant took the more sensible course of calling in his own the cost of printing off the pictures. solicitor to act for him. (4) The publisher demanded a postponement of Negotiations on the draft agreement then pro- royalty on the explanatory book above mentioned, ceeded for a good deal over a year without a settle- although the artist bad drawn no pictures for it. ment being arrived at. At an early stage of these (5) Whenever the publisher was brought to bay negotiations it transpired that the publisher had (as by an intimation of Court proceedings) he always registered the books at Stationers' Hall as his came forward with some proposition for parting own copyright, and set up that this gave him an with his venture. These proposals were on a indisputable title. When called on at a later date diminishing scale, which is very instructive. First to explain his action on affidavit in Court, the he required to be compensated not only for the publisher could set up nothing but an “under- stock in hand, but “ for the enormous amount of standing” that he was to have copyright in the labour spent upon it"; then he wished to be com- first edition in consequence of his great outlay. pensated “ for any material loss." Later he offered This “understanding” was never mentioned to accept out-of-pocket expenses, and last of all to before, and the author entirely denied it. take 10 per cent. off the cost of production. As a reasonable arrangement appeared to be This sounded an eminently satisfactory proposal, impossible, the Committee decided to take the but when it came to the settlement of the terms  ## p. 65 (#449) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 65 love and honour the author of “The Maid of Sker” and “ Lorna Doone.” Subscriptions should be sent to R. B. Marston, Esquire, hon. secretary of the Blackmore Memorial Fund, St. Dunstan's House, Fetter Lane, London, E.C., who will gladly send a full copy of the circular to all readers of The Author who desire a more detailed statement of the action that it is proposed to take. “I have been asked to act as hon, secretary and hon treasurer of a fund to be raised with the object of placing a memorial of the late Mr. R. D. Blackmore in Exeter Cathedral, and, having known Mr. Blackmore intimately for nearly thirty years, and enjoyed the great privilege of his hearty friendship, I need hardly say that in accepting the position I do so with the feeling that whatever work it may entail will indeed be a labour of love. "It is probable that the Subscription Fund will be more than sufficient for the erection of a suitable memorial in Exeter Cathedral, and I have proposed, with the sanction of Mr. Blackmore's representatives, that any surplus should be invested for the benefit of the Authors' Benevolent Fund, which has recently been established in connection with the Society of Authors. “I am, yours faithfully, “R. B. MARSTON." again the publisher proved himself exceedingly difficult. He began by refusing to give a detailed statement of the amount expended, and afterwards asked a sum which appeared to the author and his advisers to be exorbitant. However, whether this was the case or not, the sum was subsequently reduced by the publisher ; but even then the price asked was considerably more than the author felt inclined to give, or to induce any other pub- lisher to give for the right of publication. In the end the Society decided to put the dispute, as before mentioned, to the arbitrament of the Law Courts, and (on the advice given them) in the first instance to raise the question whether the publisher was within his legal rights in registering himself as the owner of the literary copyright. An application was accordingly made by the author, supported by affidavit, for the rectifi- cation of the register. On the very day in the summer of this year) on which the motion was going to be heard, the pub- lisher, through his counsel, made overtures to the author, and in the result the agreement of publica- tion was arranged between the counsel on both sides on the basis of the agreement approved of by the solicitors of the Society, with some additional stipulations designed to make the terms still more clear and definite. An order of the Court was then taken by consent to rectify the register, and directing the publisher to pay the costs of the motion. This was the best arrangement for the author, but from other points of view it would have been exceedingly interesting to have had discussed in open Court the whole course of the negotiations, and the publisher's lengthened action for over three years. A satisfactory result has in the end been achieved, but at the cost of a considerable amount of money and great friction and loss of time. The publisher is of course the heavier sufferer, in money expended at any rate, and if in the first place he had not tried to claim more than his rights, all this might have been avoided. In the present instance the author has got a satisfactory settlement, due to the intervention of the Society. THE SIXPENNY BOOK. M HE question of book production in sixpenny form is naturally a question of vital import- ance to the author. As we pointed out in our last number the final settlement of the price of the book must lie with the producers. The first question is whether the sixpenny book can be placed on the market so that by its sale it will make a profit for the publisher, bookseller, and the author. After several attempts made by different publishers it has been found impossible to produce a book direct from the author's pen at the price of sixpence, and at the same time to obtain an adequate return for all parties. This statement of course refers not to trashy sixpenny works, but to works from the large number of writers whose books stand in the ranks of literature above mere sentimental gush or melodramatic humbug. We well know that there is still such a thing as a penny novelette, but this type of book does not come within the scope of the argument. The next question that arises is whether it is possible and profitable (because the possibility must depend upon the question of profit) to produce novels from our better class writers in sixpenny form at any time. On looking through the book lists and on reading various statements, this seems to have been carried out with success in a great many cases lately. The fact appears to be that the production in sixpenny form touches a different MEMORIAL TO R. D. BLACKMORE. M H E following letter has been forwarded to the I office of the Society referring to the memorial to R. D. Blackmore. We have much pleasure in publishing it in the columns of our paper, both because of the fact that Mr. Blackmore was for many years a member of the Society, and also because we  ## p. 66 (#450) ############################################# 66 THE AUTHOR. public from the one that has already perused the Messrs. Warne, and others have issued a great number book in its six shilling issue, and that therefore, as of sixpenny books which have sold and are still it would be impossible to touch this public by any selling in their hundreds of thousands. These books other means, the additional price that the author are principally non-copyright books and books and publisher obtain is an addition to and not a whose copyright has expired-such popular and diminution from the profits that might have been well-known authors as Lytton, Marryat, Ainsworth, obtained. Dickens, &c., &c. These and many other authors The next side of the question is the discussion always have had and always will have a steady sale in that has arisen in the papers as to whether the their sixpenny form. During the last two or three sixpenny book should be sold at a discount or net. years the sixpenny novel has made great advances This point embraces the whole of the net system, into public favour ; nearly every publisher has which is a question rather too long and too intricate entered into competition and produced a large to be discussed in a mere paragraph, and has been number, until, unfortunately, the public are begin- dealt with elsewhere. But certain writers in the ning to expect that the very latest and the very public Press, pretending to represent the public best of our novels will appear in the sixpenny form, interest, assert that if the discount system is given and I am constantly told, when I am asked for the up with regard to the sixpenny novel the privileges latest book by any popular author, that they will of the great public are threatened. A similar note wait until it appears in the sixpenny edition. For has been struck in one or two letters to the papers this reason I use the word “unfortunately," as so from different pens. many good books have lately appeared in a sixpenny This way of putting the matter is, of course, form that the public imagine they can get every and absurd. The question is simply a trade question any book of note in this form ; probably they will of supply and demand, and if it is impossible to if they wait long enough—that is to say, until the obtain a sufficient profit out of the book subject to copyright expires. The publication of a new novel the usual discounts, the book will go off the market, at sixpence that has never appeared in any other and if the public do not submit to the sixpenny form before is a mistake. An older novel that has net they will get no sixpenny book at all, so that made a name always sells readily, therefore I think the outcry that is being raised against the abolition that any author who contemplates bringing out his of the discount system might tend to deprive the newest story in sixpenny form to gain thus a much public of the actual thing that they are clamouring larger public than if he brought it out at 6s., had for, namely, good literature in cheap form. better disabuse his mind at once of the idea, as it will There is no doubt that the book trade is still never pay him or his publisher. Take, for instance, passing through a period of evolution. What the the excellent series of sixpenny novels issued by ultimate issue may be must depend upon a wide Messrs. Chatto & Windus. These novels have gradu- trade question, and the wide principles of political ally run down the gamut of price, first issued in the economy. One form will be thrown off the market old form, three volumes 31s. 6d., then 6s., then if it is found not to pay, and in its stead another 3s. 6d., then 2s., and lastly 6d. ; each edition has in form will be substituted. If sixpenny books cannot no way clashed with the other ; there is and be produced subject to the usual discounts, and always will be a public for each (except the obsolete make a sufficient return, they will be produced at three volume 31s. 6d. circulating library edition). net prices. If then the return is insufficient, some So I am sure the author of the future will have no other evolution is bound to take place; but to talk reason to fear the sixpenny edition. If the book is of the rights of the public to insist on a certain by an author of reputation, it will sell much better form at a certain price is like insisting that your in the six shilling edition than in any other or cheaper tradesman should provide you with food at the form. After it has had its day (which year by price which is convenient for you to pay, and not year gets shorter owing to the multiplicity of new at a price which will return a fair profit to the novels issued) the reissue in a cheaper form will tradesman. G. H. T. give it a fresh lease of life and bring it before a larger public. Only one firm, I think, has been daring enough to bring out an original novel in II.-A Bookseller's Notes. the first instance at sixpence, and I fancy it has For very many years past there has been a six- no intention of continuing the scheme, as it has penny novel. It is no new idea ; there has been and proved that older novels, which have previously sold always will be a large section of the public who will in higher-priced form, are much more successful in not buy a book above the published price of sixpence, the sixpenny edition than an entirely new work by and these people always have and always will insist a first, second, or third-rate author. upon having it at the discount price of fourpence- To bring out future novels at a net price of halfpenny. For many years past Messrs. Routledge, sixpence and not allow any discount will, I am sure, --  ## p. 67 (#451) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 67 editions come out so soon after the higher-priced ones, the public prefer to wait for the former instead of purchasing the latter. KIPLING v. PUTNAM. be a great mistake. The public who will not buy a higher priced book than sixpence are the very people who insist upon having a discount, and I am quite convinced that any novel issued at net price will prove a mistake. Is not a novel a luxury? You cannot, anyway, say it is a necessity; therefore, make it as cheap as possible by giving the public a discount and thus hold out an inducement for them to buy the six-shilling (or any other price) novel at a cheaper rate than the advertised price. They will then think they are saving money and will and do buy more freely. Is it not so in all trades? Can you deny that Messrs. Linen & Cotton, the well-known drapers, by largely advertising a sale, all prices marked down, their 30s. bonnets sale price 258., and so on, do not offer an inducement to the ladies to flock to their shop and buy things they would not if this inducement was not offered ? Undoubtedly it is so in all trades. What will be the result if this net system grows ? Why, the second-hand book seller will find his trade flourishing, as the public rather than pay the published price (that is, the top price) would say, “ I'll get it second hand,” and in the case of novels would not Messrs. Mudie & Smith reap the advantage by increased demands for their surplus books ? and would this do the author any good ? Rather let the discount be cat down to 4d. in the ls. if the number of copies sold is to be the desired end. Who can deny that the greater the competition the brisker the sales and demand ? With professional and technical books it is quite another question. No one will buy these unless they are absolutely required for their education, and thus they are the “ tools of their trade," and should undoubtedly be net in price. But with novels and general literature produced for the amusement or entertainment of the book-buying public, it certainly goes without saying that small profits and quick returns are best for the three parties concerned, author, publisher, and Yours obediently, THE BOOKSELLER. E regret that in the October number of The Author it was stated, with regard to this case, as follows: “Does the purchase of a copy- right book in sheets by a publisher or bookseller entitle the purchaser to add to that book, without the author's consent, such additional copyrighted matter or illustrations as he may think of interest to the public at the time, or of advantage to his own interests ? " This statement is, owing to a misprint, inaccu- rate, and we have been asked by Mr. Kipling to correct it. To those who have read the article carefully it is evident that the paragraph should have run as follows :- “Does the purchase of a copyright book in sheets by a publisher or bookseller entitle the purchaser to add to that book, without the author's consent, such additional uncopyrighted matter or illustrations as he may think of interest to the public at the time, or of advantage to his own interests ?' We tender our apologies to Mr. Kipling for omitting this note from the November number. -ED. NEUFELD v. CHAPMAN AND HALL, LTD. III. The Council of the Associated Booksellers wish to call attention to the great increase in the issue of sixpenny editions, and more particularly to the early publication at that price of books having a good sale in the 6s. form. The Council are of opinion that the sale of the higher-priced issues is greatly interfered with by the premature publication of sixpenny editions, and they hope that publishers will take steps to prevent the market from being deluged with the cheap copies. They also desire to point out that as the sixpenny M HIS action was brought by Mr. Charles Neufeld for an account of all sums due to him in respect of the publication of his book entitled “The Prisoner of the Khalifa,” for royalties and otherwise, and for a sum of £60, part of a larger amount alleged to have been paid by him for photographs supplied to the defendants. It appeared from the evidence given that Mr. Neufeld had been kept in captivity for some twelve years by the Dervishes, and on his release in 1898 by Lord Kitchener he was approached by a large number of publishers who were desirous that he should write an account of his experiences whilst he was a prisoner. The defendants were among the number who requested him so to do, and eventually an unsigned agreement was sent to the plaintiff, who was then in Egypt, by the defendants at the end of 1898, but the agreement was not signed until July, 1899. The agreement was as follows: “Indenture made the day of December, 1898, between Charles Neufeld of the one part and  ## p. 68 (#452) ############################################# 68 THE AUTHOR. Chapman and Hall, Limited, of 11, Henrietta The plaintiff alleged that he had expended a Street, Covent Garden, in the City of London, sum of £207 in and about obtaining photographs, of the other part. Witnesseth, that in considera- and he claimed £60, being part of the costs so tion of the sum of £800 and a royalty of 15 per cent incurred by him for the photographs, some of upon the published price of all copies sold beyond which were used by the defendants to illustrate the number of 4,000 (reckoning 13 as 12), that the book. Charles Neufeld hereby grants and assigns to The defendants, by their defence, said that by Chapman and Hall, Ltd., the copyright in the the terms of the agreement the royalty of 15 per work written by him relating the story of his cent. was payable only upon copies of the work captivity, part of the manuscript of which is now which were published and sold by the defendants. in the hands of Chapman and Hall, Ltd., and They denied that they were liable to pay any the residue whereof the said Charles Neufeld royalty upon the serial publication in the Wide hereby undertakes to forward as soon as possible. World Magazine, but they paid into Court, with a And it is hereby agreed between the parties denial of liability, a sum equal to 15 per cent. hereto that the aforesaid assignment is intended upon the purchase price received from Messrs. by the said Charles Neufeld to convey and assign, Newnes. and in the case of dispute shall be considered as They also said that they were under no liability conveying and assigning, to Chapman and Hall, to pay any royalty in respect of copies sold by the Ltd., the entire manuscript of the said work and German publishers in Germany, but they paid into the sole and exclusive right to publish the said Court, with a denial of liability, a sum equal to work, whether in serial or book form, in Great 15 per cent. on the amount received from the Britain or elsewhere, and for the purpose of German publishers. effectuating this intention the said Charles With regard to the copies sold to American Neufeld covenants not to grant the right of publishers they pleaded that the plaintiff had publication to any other company, person, or verbally agreed with them that he should only persons in any country whatsoever, and upon receive 15 per cent. upon the price at which the request to execute any further assurance or do defendants actually sold the copies to the American any further act that may be necessary for carrying publishers, but they eventually paid into Court a his intention into effect. Lastly, it is agreed that sum equal to 15 per cent. upon the full published this Indenture shall be construed according to price, and this sum was taken out of Court by the English Law.” plaintiff before the trial. The book was published in England by the With reference to the photographs the defendants defendants in October, 1899, but before that time denied that the plaintiff procured the photographs an agreement had been made by the defendants, for them or that they authorised the alleged in February, 1899, with Messrs. Newnes & Co., expenditure, and whilst denying liability they paid giving them the right, for £250, to publish £23 into Court in full satisfaction of the claim. copies of the work in the Wide World Magazine. In the alternative the defendants counter-claimed The publication of the work in the Wide World for a rectification of the agreement upon the ground Magazine commenced in June, 1899, and was that it did not carry out the intention of the completed in eight numbers. Certain portions of parties and was entered into under a common the work were left out, but substantially it was a mistake. copy of the whole book. The action was tried before Mr. Justice Walton About the month of July, 1899, the defendants without a jury on the 30th October last, when Mr. also agreed to sell to certain German publishers the Scutton, K.C., and Mr. W. 0. Hodges (instructed right of publishing copies of the work in Germany by Messrs. Field, Roscoe & Co.) appeared for the for a sum of about £242. plaintiff, and Mr. J. Eldon Bankes and Mr. In cross-examination, the plaintiff said he did Montague Shearman (instructed by Messrs. Baxter not suggest that his royalty was payable on the & Co.) for the defendants. Mr. Justice Walton, total price of the magazine, but suggested that the after stating the facts and reading the agreement, royalty ought to be calculated upon the proportion gave judgment as follows :- which his story bore to the whole number of pages “Two questions arise upon the construction of the of the magazine—i.e., if the magazine contained agreement : first, whether the plaintiff, Mr. 200 pages and his story took 50 pages, he was Neufeld, is entitled to royalties upon the copies of entitled to his royalty on one-fourth of the price his work which have been sold in Germany by of the magazine. German publishers under the authority which they The defendants had also sold a large number of acquired from Messrs. Chapman and Hall. It copies to American publishers under the agreed is contended on behalf of the defendants that they published price. are not liable for the copies so sold. They say  ## p. 69 (#453) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 69 they are orly liable for copies at any rate published with some other treatise added by some other and sold by themselves, and that they are not liable author-suppose they published Mr. Neufeld's for royalties upon copies sold by German publishers work and something else in a single book--it could in Germany. It can scarcely be doubted that scarcely be doubted that Mr. Neufeld would be Messrs. Chapman and Hall, if they had thought fit entitled to his royalties on the sale of the copies of to transfer their rights to other English publishers his work so published, and I feel unable to dis- and the other English publishers had published tinguish that kind of case from the case of a copies of the work, that Messrs. Chapman and publication of what undoubtedly was, and admittedly Hall would have been responsible to Mr. Neufeld was, a copy of his work in a serial form. for royalties upon the copies sold by the other “But there is a difficulty, because what he is English publishers under the authority or licence entitled to is 15 per cent. of the published price of given to them by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. the copies sold, and it is difficult no doubt to say “Now, Messrs. Chapman and Hall had exactly the what was the published price of the copies of his same right to publish in Germany which they had work which were in fact published and sold in the to publish in England, and if what I have said is Wide World Magazine. There was a published correct with regard to copies published by other price—that is, the price of the magazine--but that publishers who bought a right to publish from price is a price for something more than the copy Messrs. Chapman and Hall in England, I do not of Mr. Neufeld's work. see how it makes any difference that Messrs. “But again, of course, the same thing might Chapman and Hall, who had the exclusive right to happen, as I have said, in publishing the work in publish copies in Germany just as they had in book form with something else added. England, transferred that right to publishers in “Is Mr. Neufeld deprived of his royalty because Germany ; and it seems to me that in one case as the publishers, the defendants, who are the persons in the other Mr. Neufeld must be entitled to his who can do just as they please, choose to publish royalties upon the copies sold whether in Germany his work with something else at a price which or elsewhere under a grant or licence or authority includes both ? I think that cannot be so. There given by Messrs. Chapman and Hall. is a published price.-whatever the price is—of the “That is the first question, and therefore with magazine, and 15 per cent. of the published price regard to that my judgment is that Mr. Neufeld is of the copy of Mr. Neufeld's work in the maga- entitled to an account of the sales so made. zine must be arrived at in some way. “Now, the second question, with regard to which “It is included in the published price of the I had very much more difficulty, is whether Mr. magazine, and how to precisely analyse that price Neufeld is entitled to a royalty upon the copies of and say how much of it ought to be attributed to his work which have been published and sold in Mr. Neufeld's work, and how much to the other the Wide World Magazine. articles, is no doubt extremely difficult to deter- “What was published and sold in the Wide mine ; but taking one number with another, I World Magazine did consist substantially and suppose the interest of other articles in the certainly for the purposes of the Copyright Acts of different numbers of this magazine as compared copies of Mr. Neufeld's work, and if he is to have with the interest of the plaintiff's work would 15 per cent. upon the price of all copies sold of his vary—sometimes there may have been other work--and that is what I think the word 'copies' articles more attractive ; at other times the means in the contract--I have not heard any plaintiff's may have been the principal attraction- sufficient reason for not including in that right and I think, taking the eight numbers all round, the right to have a royalty upon copies sold in probably the fairest way of dealing with the serial form. matter, and perhaps the only way of dealing with “Messrs. Chapman and Hall could have published it, is to allow to Mr. Neufeld so much of the pub- this book in parts ; it was entirely at their dis- lished price of the magazine as the pages of his cretion ; they could do what they liked ; they could article are of the total matter in the magazine. I publish it in parts, and if they had done so, I do do not see how I can arrive at it in any other way, not think for a moment they could have disputed and that is the way I think upon which the their liability to pay royalties. plaintiff's claim is put forward. “They could publish, if in parts, together with “Now with regard to the photographs, there is other matter if they chose. They were open to do really very little evidence either that Mr. Neufeld was it by the rights which they had acquired from the asked to obtain them, or that there was any con- plaintiff ; and I do not see that because they tract at all to pay him for them. Apparently some chose to add other matter therefore the plaintiff's of his photographs have been used, and the pub- right to his royalty is taken away. lishers have-I think, very fairly—said that they are “Suppose they published the book in cheap form willing to pay £23 for them. That is the figure  ## p. 70 (#454) ############################################# 70 THE AUTHOR. which they have paid into Court, and I think that annual subscription, or what definite purpose is £23 is quite enough. achieved by the Society—these are things few “Therefore the plaintiff will have judgment for people understand.” the £23, and he will be entitled to an account of Here Mr. Quilter once more shows either a the copies sold upon the basis which I have woful ignorance or a lack of understanding. All indicated. those who are concerned with the benefits which “ With regard to the ratification there is no the Society gives understand accurately the policy evidence before me upon which I can act.” of the Society and its work. If Mr. Quilter is one Judgment was accordingly entered for the of those people who does not understand, it is plaintiff upon the claim and counter-claim, with because he has never taken the trouble to obtain costs, the plaintiff to have no costs of the issue as the necessary information, or because he is lacking to the £23 after the date of payment in. in mental calibre. Mr. Eldon Bankes applied for a stay of execution These are trivial matters, but later on in the pending an appeal, upon the ground that the case article Mr. Quilter states as follows : “There is no was one of importance, and the learned judge club-house, and the only privilege that the members granted the application, remarking that it was one possess, so far as we can ascertain, is that of con- of some difficulty. sulting the society on any question of agreement, in which case a formal letter is generally received suggesting that the company's solicitor should be employed to advise upon the matter-at, of course, MR. HARRY QUILTER AND THE SOCIETY the client's expense." OF AUTHORS. The fact that there is no club-house is merely because the Society is a business body and not a social one. The latter part of the quotation, how- M R. HARRY QUILTER, with a great ever, is a charge against the Society of a more M f anfare of trumpets, has produced a book serious kind, as there is no foundation for it in called “What's What.” As far as the fact. If Mr. Quilter had been sincerely interested Authors' Society is concerned, it might, with much to find the rights and wrongs of the case, he more reason, have been called “What's Not.” would not have recklessly libelled the Society and The criticisms in other papers have been fully its work. exposing the faults of this book as a book of As all the members of the Society know, it is reference. Here it is only necessary to deal with never the general custom of the secretary to refer the article on the Society. letters to the society's Solicitors. As a rule he In a book of reference accuracy in statement of gives advice and answers the questions in the fact as the result of careful research is supposed member's letter without any such reference. If to be combined with soundness of judgment in the matter is referred to the Society's solicitors it criticism from wide and general knowledge ; but never has been at the client's expense. One of the Mr. Harry Quilter, from flagrant inaccuracy and first principles of the Society is that a member is gross misstatement of fact, the result clearly of entitled to the opinion of the Society's solicitors no adequate research, has made, as would be gratis on payment of his subscription. natural, a criticism as worthless as it is erroneous, Mr. Quilter tries to save his position by saying and exhibits a lack of knowledge simply appalling. “80 far as we can ascertain." This statement It is not difficult to knock Mr. Quilter from his I deny emphatically, as he could have ascertained pedestal of universal information in the case of the information had he desired to do so with con- the Society ; his falsehoods must almost be apparent summate ease. It is only another instance of to those who have never heard of its existence. Mr. Quilter's slipshod methods. Some of the For example, he commences by calling us “ the other statements contained are equally unfounded Royal Incorporated Society." and absurd. He states that in sixteen years of It is a matter of common knowledge that the the Society's existence it has done absolutely word “ Royal ” is never permitted to be applied to nothing. What efforts has Mr. Quilter made to a contentious body. The very life of the Society find out what the Society has done or has not is its fighting force. done ? What reason has Mr. Quilter for putting He talks of Sir Martin Conway as Secretary of forward this valueless string of falsehoods ? the Society. If he had taken the trouble to During the last three years the Society's solici- enquire for any of the Society's pamphlets or tors' bill has averaged between £300 and £400 reports, he would have known the statement to be a year in obtaining advice and support for its untrue. members. During the same period the secretary He goes on to state, “What is done with the of the Society has settled on behalf of the members  ## p. 71 (#455) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 71 between 300 and 400 cases. This statement does ment in fiction. Those opinions, whatever their not include the numerous letters of advice that the value, have at least the distinction of being secretary writes daily in answer to the many queries perfectly disinterested. That is to say, they are put before him, nor does it include cases that have the opinions, arrived at without bias, of a plain been settled by the Society's solicitors, either by reader with no vested interests at stake but those action in court or otherwise, nor does it include of an admirer of good literature, who wishes to those cases in which the Society obtains counsel's have as much of it as he can get, and who there- opinion, either for the benefit of the individual fore looks for guidance in its pursuit to those who author or for the benefit of the collective body of occupy high places in the courts of criticism. members. From this frankly confessed standpoint my views With regard to the letters of advice the secre may perchance have some slight interest in the tary writes on an average four or five a day, or in columns of the representative organ of English the year about 1,500, thus giving gratis to members authorship. 1,500 legal opinions, the secretary himself being a The subject of criticism is by no means a new solicitor. one, but some of its later developments in relation With regard to the cases which the Society takes to fiction, the predominant literary force of our through the Courts, these amount to between twenty time, leave me in bewilderment; and I find myself and thirty a year. With regard to the counsels' compelled to ask the primary question, Is it, or is opinions, putting it very low, they would average it not, possible to tell a good novel from a bad five a year. one? And yet that is too tame a way of putting it. In an airy fashion Mr. Quilter ends his article Rather let us say, given a book purporting to be a by saying: "We shall be glad to revise our opinion work of creative imagination, is it conceivable if it can be shown to be a practical and business that one class of critic should honestly mistake like undertaking.” it for drivel, whilst another declares it to be a He ought to have made this enquiry before he great and vital production ? I am not dealing started writing his tissue of fabrications. But he with a merely hypothetical case, as I will presently has gone further than merely stating that the show. Meanwhile let me emphasise the question. society is unbusinesslike. He suggests that the I am quite aware that criticism is not a fixed funds of the Society have been improperly used. science; but surely this does not mean that it has Here again, had he made proper research, he no laws, no standards, no touchstoneg—that it is would have been able to see the statement of all purely a matter of idiosyncrasy and personal accounts which is issued yearly to all members, and standpoint. If it meant that, the term “ classic," is again placed before them at the general meeting; for example, and indeed the term “ literature” but once more it appears that his ignorance is as itself, would have no definite significance ; such, gross as his assertions are strong. accordingly, must be an impossible supposition. It is hardly worth while taking much further What, then, are the inferences to be drawn from notice of Mr. Quilter's aspersions on the work of some recent manifestations of the reviewer's art ? the Society, and on the action of the committee The most serious of these, as it seems to me, is. who deal with its funds, amongst whom are included the indication that we are entering upon a period some of the best-known authors in England. of critical decadence, and that the methods and It remains to say that if the other articles in the temper of present-day anonymous reviewing are book are written with as great a disregard for truth reverting to those of a century ago. In those as the article on the Society of Authors, then the days the literary world was more or less dominated book is worse than useless—it is a lylng guide. by the great “Empire of Dulness" of which the G. HERBERT THRING. early reviewers were the critical kings. Their usages and influence are matters of history. The sceptres they wielded were yard-sticks of the most artificial rigidity, failing which they had recourse to the bludgeon or the tomahawk. Living in a JUDGMENT IN FICTION. great creative era, they were blind and deaf to its fertility and power. They focussed everything through an inverted telescope. They never dreamt NTOT being a member of the Society of Authors, of judging an anthor by his intention, or conceived IV and having no pretensions to the equipment that his standpoint could be other than their own. of a professional critic, it is with some of fundamental aim and central motive as qualities sense of temerity that I venture to invoke the which might inspire and energise a work of creative hospitality of The Author's pages for the expression literature they had simply no conception. Their of a few personal opinions on the subject of judg. delight was to seize upon irrelevant trivialities of  ## p. 72 (#456) ############################################# 72 THE AUTHOR. detail and magnify their method of treatment into essence or ethical intention, have the defects been a criminal offence, alike ignoring any fresh breadth indicated with insight, sincerity, and moderation ? of mental aspect and sneering at any new evidence Let us see. of artistic originality. And when, as not infre. From the mass of reviews which might be cited quently occurred, the critic was seized with a I select three-—those, namely, which appeared in special accession of intellectual impotency, he made the Spectator, Saturday Review, and Academy, and up for the defect by his redoubled virility with the treat them in summary. We find Mr. Hall Caine cudgel and an increased effusion of personal spleen therein described as an “orotund and oleographic upon the head of the luckless possessor of a genius master," who is “lavish of emotional outbursts," which it was not even in his nature to comprehend. of “unctuous ecstasy,” and “luscious sentiment- Had the bark of these critical watch-dogs been ality.” In “ The Eternal City" he sets up a obeyed, the splendour of Scott's achievement and “whole apparatus of blood-and-thunder melo- the delightful art of Jane Austen would never have drama." He writes “ drivel,” and “fills 600 realised their consummation. pages to the satisfaction of fools and ignoramuses." Now what do we find to substantiate my conten- His hero, David Rossi, is a “perfectly Christian tion of a reversion to those “old, unhappy, far-off young man, living with anarchists and directing things”? We find, as I am driven to think, the their operations, with the intention of establishing same obliquity of vision, the same petty enlarge- forth with Christ's Kingdom on earth by means of ment on minor details, the same misconception of bombs and daggers." His heroine, Roma Volonna, the author's fundamental aims, the same sinister is a “wicked and beautiful young woman " who note of personal abuse. Especially vigorous is the “sets out to seduce the good young man." Alto- treatment meted out to the writer who makes any gether the novel is “wildly impossible," "unthink- attempt to combine moral purpose with artistic able," contains " no humanity," " no genuine intention. A man may tell stories, but what right observation of life," and is “sentimental and has he to enforce principles ? A novelist may melodramatic to the verge of crudeness.” And touch life at every point of its surface, but let him so forth, the important fact which remains to be beware of the problems beneath. He may work noted being that in regard to no single one of the wonders with incident, but the moment his incident charges here alleged is there the slightest attempt bases itself on motive he becomes falsely psycho- to substantiate it, by quotation, by illustration, by logical and vulgarly melodramatic. Such at least constructive argument, or by any shred of proof are some of the deductions which appear to me whatsoever—with the solitary exception of the inevitable from certain recent pronouncements. Academy, which adduces two short extracts, making I take for illustration the outstanding book of 20 lines in all, as sufficient to dispense with the moment in the province of fiction-Mr. Hall “ analytic criticism” in relation to a book of more Caine's “ Eternal City.” Here is a writer whose than 600 pages! Neither is there the smallest effort works have placed him in the front rank of his to grasp the author's intention, or to cultivate that compeers. His early promise was warmly recog- sympathy of standpoint which Coleridge declared nised by such masters of the craft as R. D. to be the first qualification for sanity of judgment Blackmore, Wilkie Collins, and Sir Walter Besant; in matters of literature. The critics simply stalk and the promise has been redeemed by a series of solemnly forth and fling broadcast their pompous triumphs which have brought him world-wide objurgatory inanities as in the brave days of old. fame. At the height of his career he devotes four How far the principle of anonymity may be respon- years to the writing of a book which, upon its sible for the style of reviewing here exhibited would appearance, commands instant and universal atten- form a suggestive inquiry. At all events, it is only tion. What has been the reception accorded to a consummation of the reader's bewilderment on this book by prominent journals which readers turning from this series of anonymously oracular could formerly consult in the certainty of meeting verdicts, which would simply exclude “ The Eternal therein broad and reasoned judgments on any im- City” from the pale of literature altogether, to find portant contribution to literature—verdicts which the same book so differently characterised by men of might be unfavourable, and even strongly condem- position and achievement in the craft of letters. natory, but which usually did the writer the justice “I cannot understand,” says Mr. Coulson Kernahan, of understanding him ? Have these critics tried “the attitude of mind of those who are unmoved to gain even an elementary comprehension of the by the magnificent humanity of one of the noblest work in question ? Have they treated it on such characters in fiction. The character of David lines of intelligent exposition as the character and Rossi could only have been conceived by a man of standing of the author and the great constituency great heart and great ideals." The book, declares of his readers might alike in fairness expect? Mr. Clement Scott, “is so fascinating that once And if found wanting in any quality of literary taken up it cannot readily be set down." Dr.  ## p. 73 (#457) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 73 Robertson Nicoll asserts that the novelist “has professiona pronouncement and popular response, respected, and that deeply, his message, his art, the meaning of which I submit to be this: that and his readers,” and says that “ if The Eternal the professional literary tribunal must mend its City' is an immense popular success, our novelists manners and readjust its code, if there is not to may take courage and give the public their very ensue a complete severance of its interests from best." Dr. Joseph Parker affirms that Mr. Hall those of the public whose intellectual welfare it Caine “always succeeds in being great," and assumes to guard. There must be a reversion undertakes out of this book “ to bring pictures to first principles and established precedents ; a enough to crowd the walls of the Royal Academy renouncement of the luxury of personal abuse ; a itself.” Sir Edward Russell discerns in Roma “a clearing of the mind from cant, and of the mouth feast of fair things—sound, sincere, holy, refined,” from its phrases. There must be a cultivation of and in David Rossi one who “besides being in the spirit of sanity in appreciation, and of fairness politics an able and serene enthusiast, masterly by and sincerity even in condemnation. In short, ability, is also of knightly devotion to his love,” there must be a willingness of disposition to “see and describes the book as a whole as “a great things as in themselves they really are." novel, revealing the author at the very zenith of his gift.” And Ian Maclaren finds in it “not one HIRAM TATTERSALL. or two but a dozen scenes of profound emotion and intense dramatic interest." I need not further multiply examples. Those THE AUTUMN SEASON. already given will serve to indicate the position to which we are brought. Here is a work of fiction which, on the one hand, meets in the pages of TN a number of Literature issued in October anonymous, if representative, journalism with the I there is a long Supplement containing a classi- most concentrated opprobrium, and which, on the fied list of Publishers' Announcements for the other, is greeted by men of name and standing in Autumn Season. the world of letters with the utmost warmth of Those who may be interested in the details of enthusiasm. What is the upsophisticated reader the autumn publications cannot do better than to think? Can both classes of exponent be right refer to this list. We have taken the liberty of -or both wrong? I revert to the question with totalling the number of books under each heading. which I started. Granted two types of critic, of as the literary output at any period cannot but be common honesty and intelligence ; is it consonant a matter of extreme concern to all members of the with, let us say, elementary common sense that Society. one should bodily condemn a book as mere catch- The details as they stand afford subject for penny rubbish, and the other proclaim it with instructive comment. Fiction stands at the head equal unanimity an accomplishment of high artistic with an output of 367 books, almost 150 more merit ? The dilemma would seem to be really too than any other form of production, absurd, and vet it is the problem with which Interesting figures as to the number of readers modern criticism confronts us. of fiction might be deduced from this output. What, meanwhile, of the general public—that Taking it that each volume has a circulation of at public to whose intellectual guidance the exalted least 500 copies, which on the whole ought to be organs of opinion above referred to are supposed a low estimate, and each copy circulated has at to devote themselves ?. Within a month of the least five readers, giving again a low average, the appearance of “ The Eternal City " they have total would come out at a reading public of bought and read the book by scores of thousands. 917,500. No account is here made of the fact Burke declared that to impeach a nation was that a great many of these people might read at ridiculous ; is it not at least equally so to arraign least one-quarter of the number of books issued ; a whole world of readers ? They wait no longer but under any circumstances that there should be for the fiat of such journals as the Spectator, the such an output shows that the fiction-reading Saturday Review, and the Academy. They calmly public must attain extremely large proportions. ignore them and go their own way, selecting their That this is the case, the figures that have been books for themselves. And why? Because, so reached in the circulation of some of the more. far as they are concerned—and they form the popular books of late gears go to prove. “collective voice” to which all appeal must Did not Mr. Hall Caine's novel, “The Eternal ultimately be cast — anonymous criticism has City,” go to press with an edition of 100,000 become a discredited thing, a mere crackling of copies ? Has not Mr. Anthony Hope's “ Prisoner thorns under the pot. of Zenda” had an enormous sale ? Some of Mr. Thus we see an emphatic dislocation between Robert Louis Stevenson's books have reached  ## p. 74 (#458) ############################################# 74 THE AUTHOR. 80,000 and 90,000 copies. “ Called Back" sold It would be interesting to make a detailed study of half a million copies in a very short space of time; the whole list, dealing with the subject from many and Mr. Jerome's “ Three Men in a Boat” having standpoints. But though by this means a work both reached 160,000 copies, is, we understand, still recondite and erudite might be produced, it would selling. hardly be suitable for this periodical, or of sufficient Again, look at the figures of some of the books interest to any but the student of human nature. produced by American writers—“Richard Carvel ” The total number of books appears, however, to 365,000, “The Choir Invisible,” 213,000. “David be very high—1,772 volumes. Is this in excess of Harum” must have nearly broken the record with other years ? or is it an average yield ? Truly of 400,000 copies. the making of books there is no end. How many What may be the effect upon the human rące of of the one thousand seven hundred will be on the this greed for devouring fiction it is perhaps early market ten years hence ? How many twenty at present to consider, but in the meantime there years ? Perhaps one hundred, perhaps ten. It is is the feeling that authors whose business is a sign of the times. In the rush for existence properly conducted will be able to live free from sometimes a genius may be trampled under foot by the generosity of their patrons. the coarse-grained cad, and the seed that he has It is somewhat astonishing to note that the down by the labour of his hands may never bear next item on the list is Theology, which it appears fruit. reaches an output of 220 volumes. We hardly The serious side of the subject must be dealt dare to prophesy for these so large a reading with by others ; here only is room for a statement public as for the works of fiction. of facts. Books for the Young come third with 205 issues. TOTALS OF THE CLASSIFIED LIST OF PUBLISHERS' This is also a sign of the times and of the progress AUTUMN ANNOUNCEMENTS. of modern education. Children's books nowadays nonood in hoontifin formand full of Archæology ............... 7 are produced and full of in beautiful form Lettres ....... Architecture ............ 4 Medical interesting matter. Art ........ ... 50 Miscellaneous ............ The only point which seems to be surprising is Biography .. Music ... that the books for children should not have sur Books for the Young... 205 Natural History and passed the issue of fiction at this time of year. Classical ................. 17 Gardening ............ Drama ..................... 12 Oriental .................. It is possible perhaps that the two overlap, that Economics and Soci. Philosophy the catalogue is not quite accurate. ology ................. Poetry ..................... The item that comes next, strange to say, is Educational............... 92 Political .................. Biography. There are to be published 110 books ungineering ............ Reprints .................. Fiction ........... ...... 367 of biography. Is it possible that there are so many Science and Mathema. Folklore and Anthro- tics .... as 110 illustrious individuals in Great Britain pology ........... Sport........................ 23 whose lives are worth recording in one autumn ? History and Geography 72 Theology .................. 220 Perhaps the number is swollen by the pride of the Law Books ............... ...... 30 Topography and Travel 73 Literature and Belles- writers when living, and the relations of the writers 1,772 when dead. How many of these biographies will reach the circulation of 3,000 copies? How far will the PUBLISHERS' AND EDITORS: DELAVS British public, as a public, have any interest in their production ? These are questions which it is impossible to answer, but in many cases no DROBABLY many would agree with me in answer is needed if the love of a relative is I thinking that the most interesting pages satisfied by a printed record of the friend that is of The Author are those which frankly gone. give the experiences of different writers. Whether Educational works are high up in the list, but these are happy or the reverse, they touch a sym- compared with the other numbers the total is pathetic chord. I suppose we like to read even of small. misfortunes and failures which some of us know Perhaps the Autumn Season is not the best only too well, and a real success gives us new hope season for the publication of educational books, and courage. With the object of contributing to and this reason may account for the deficit. In the general store, I should like to relate some a country teeming with good, bad and indifferent experiences of what is, perhaps, one of the greatest education, among a people constantly demanding hardships a writer has to bear the publishers' from the educational theorists something new, it is delay.- indeed a wonder that the educational market does I began to write before I was out of my teens not produce a larger result than even that of fiction. (now, alas ! a long time ago), and then first became 9 10 48  ## p. 75 (#459) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 75 acquainted with some of the publishers' little ways. educational books, even though these books are Chiefly, I suppose, from my upbringing in a clergy- generally at a disadvantage, as they have to be man's family, I turned instinctively to the religious sold, in order to keep the market, at a particularly press. A huge publishing society accepted my work low price. more than ouce, and paid for it; but the period Again, a book published at the author's expense between acceptance and payment was the dis- with a publishing house that does not confine itself couraging part of the transaction. to commission publishing, is naturally handicapped, Once, I remember, I sent an article to an as the publisher desires to cover the return of his American religious periodical. Months passed own capital, and to sell those books for the cost of away, when, by accident, after I had given up producing which he has had to pay. Yet with all hope of ever seeing it again, I came across all these disadvantages books so published have a copy of the paper containing my article. I brought in, and do bring in, under certain circum- promptly wrote for payment, which was sent to stances, an excellent return to the author. me. In this the American editor acted more Why, then, do authors not adopt the system ? honourably than an English editor, who, having There are many reasons. Firstly, it is very accepted and printed an article of mine about the difficult to upset the old-established trade routes. same time, was requested to forward his usual rate Secondly, authors are in many cases timorous and of remuneration, when his only reply was an abusive fearful of losing some portion of their income by a letter. new venture. Thirdly, it does not appear that any All this was in the bad old time before the publisher has as yet entered the market with such Society of Authors had come into being ; but, a grip of the literary world, the publishing and even now, much more recent experiences convince book trades, as to get the necessary backing. me that this very real evil is by no means banished. If a young and energetic publisher would start To prove this, let me tell you my treatment by a a business confining himself (this is an essential) well-known paper with an enormous circulation, to book publishing on commission, and if he could which is, I suppose, one of the most valuable obtain the support of the right kind of author, the properties of the kind in existence. A short success of the enterprise is assured. article, accepted, and printed in this paper on Where is that author with courage and November 1st, 1900, was paid for in January of enterprise ? the following year. Another article printed early Where is the publisher with energy and in August this year remains unpaid for. knowledge ? This is the delay after the thing has been The following figures, compiled by one who is printed and published. How can such a delay eminently capable of dealing with matters of this be justified ? Having accepted an article, what kind, whose knowledge of the printing and publish- right has the editor or publisher to keep the, ing trades is undoubted, will show what results probably poor, author waiting for months before may be obtained. ħe pays for it ? Failure and hope deferred the This is not fiction : it is a fact. A publisher writer has to bear with what philosophy he may, but starting under these conditions does not even need why should his very success be embittered by this to ask for money from the author, but' merely a heartless system of deferred pay? If the Society guarantee of a minimum circulation. of Authors could devise some remedy for this The estimates are based on a uniform volume of gross injustice, it would do another real service 320 pp., small pica type, of about 100,000 words; to the struggling author. selling price 6s., trade price 3s. 4d. It will be seen that the estimates are if anything slightly against rather than in favour of the author. THE METHOD OF THE FUTURE. 2,000 COPIES. NE of the late Sir Walter Besant's ideas was £ 8. d. £ 8. d. the publication of books at the author's ex- 2,000 copies 68., net 38. 4d. ......... 333 6 8 pense on commission, the publisher merely Less : Cost of production, as below......... 95 1 acting as an agent and being paid a percentage on 8 Advertising, about ............. ...... 40 00 the returns. Publisher's commission, 15 per cent. That such a publication is possible and will pay on £333 68. 8d.... ....... 50 0 0 the author considerably more than he would be 185 18 likely to receive under existing circumstances, is Author receives ...... , £148 5 0 abundantly clear from the instances that have come before the secretary of the Society. At present (Or over 1s. 520. per copy, say the examples chiefly arise from the publication of 25 per cent., 13 as 12.) C. P.  ## p. 76 (#460) ############################################# 76 THE AUTHOR. Note.-Cost of production as above : £ 8. d. Composition, 320 pp. small pica, 96,000 words 23 5 0 Moulding, 53 by 31 at 3d. ............ 4 0 0 Printing, 20 reams quad crown at 128. ............ 12 0 0 Paper, 20 reams quad crown, 90lbs., at 3d....... 22 10 0 Binding, 4d, per copy ......... 33 6 8 €95 1 8 Note.-Cost of production as above: £ 8. d. Composition, 320 pp. small pica, 96,000 words 23 5 0 Stereotyping, 58 by 3), at 9d............ ............ 12 00 Printing, 100 reams quad crown, at 78............. 35 00 Paper, 100 reams quad crown, 90 lbs., at 3d. ... 112 10 0 Binding, 4d. per copy ......... ... 166 13 4 £349 8 4 3,000 COPIES. £ 8. d. £ 8. d. 3,000 copies 6s., net 38. 4d. ......... 500 0 0 Less : Cost of production, as below ...... 127 2 6 Advertising, about ..................... 50 0 0 Publisher's commission, 15 per cent. on £500.. 75 0 0 252 2 6 Author receives ...... £247 17 6 (Or 18. 8d. per copy.) Note.-Cost of production as above : £ $. d. Composition, 320 pp. small pica, 96,000 words 23 5 0 Moulding, 59 by 31, at 3d. ... 4 0 0 Printing, 30 reams quad crown at 108. 9d. ...... 16 2 6 Paper, 30 reams quad crown, 90lbs., at 3d....... 33 15 0 Binding, 4d. per copy .................................... 50 0 0 £127 2 6 50,000 COPIES. £ 8. d. £ $. d. 50,000 copies 68., net 38. 4d. ...... Less : Cost of production..................... 1,557 0 0 Advertising, about..................... 150 0 0 Publisher's commission, 10 per cent. on £8,333 68. 8d. ...... 833 00 — 2,540 0 0 Author receives ...... £5,793 6 8 (Or over 28. 31d. per copy.) From these figures it is clear that on the sale of 2,000 copies only an author might obtain about 25 per cent. Again, on the sale of 5,000 the author receives ls. 10d. per copy—a much larger percentage than any publisher would offer. Neither has the publisher any cause to complain. He obtains £125, and has risked but little. On the sale of 10,000 copies and over the author obtains a sum which even the most successful modern author may wonder at. These are facts. In some cases already—as has been stated above—the method has proved thoroughly suc- cessful. Given a fair chance it ought to have a wider success with the publication of fiction. Trade opposition would be strong, as the publisher always resents any scheme that may cause him to lose his grip on the throat of the author—that is one reason he objects to the agent. But a good cause is worth fighting for, and stimulates virility, and virility is life. It is to be hoped, then, that at no distant date not only the publisher will spring up, but that he will get the support of the author, and that the full results of a successful experiment may be laid bare in the pages of this periodical. G. H. T. 5,000 COPIES. £ 8. d. 5,000 copies 6s., net 38. 4d. ......... Less : Cost of production, as below......... 196 1 8 Advertising, about ..................... 600 0 Publisher's commission, 15 per cent. on £833 68, 8d. ......... 125 00 £ 8. d. 833 6 8 381 1 8 Author receives ...... £452 5 0 (Or about 18. 10d. per copy.) Note.-Cost of production as above : £ $. d. Composition, 320 pp. small pica, 96,000 words 23 5 0 Stereotyping, 54 by 3 at 9d. ........................ 12 0 0 Printing, 50 reams quad crown, at 88. 6d ........ 21 5 0 Paper, 50 reams quad crown ........................ 56 5 0 Binding, 4d. per copy ........... 836 8 £196 1 8 $. d. £ $. d. 1,666 13 4 10,000 COPIES. £ 10,000 copies 6s., net 38. 4d. .......... Less : Cost of production, as below ......... 349 Advertising, about ..................... 100 Publisher's commission,12} per cent. on £1,666 138. 40. .................. 208 THE AUTHORS' CLUB. 8 0 4 0 6 8 657 15 0 Author receives ...... N Monday, November 4th, the Authors' Club opened its autumn season by giving a dinner to Admiral Sir Edward Seymour, G.C.B., who has recently returned from China. Though the night was one of the most foggy that has been £1,008 18 4 (Or over 28. per copy.)  ## p. 77 (#461) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 77 known in London for many years, there was, nevertheless, a large attendance to meet the distinguished guest. Lord Monkswell took the chair, and after the health of the King had been drunk, proposed the toast of “ The Guest of the Evening." Admiral Seymour, after returning thanks, spoke seriously about the magnitude of the international competition which was bound to take place in the course of the present century, and put before his audience the great importance of the Navy to the English people. He also stated that he thought it would be a mistake to overbuild ships at any given time, as those which were suitable for to-day's needs might be practically useless ten years hence. His remarks with regard to the friendly relations that he had held with the other nations represented in Chinese waters were most interesting. He stated how—happening to be the senior admiral- it fell to his lot to take command of the cosmo- politan force, among which the greatest harmony had existed in their endeavour to reach the Legation at Pekin. Dr. Conan Doyle, the Chairman of the Club, and Mr. Poulteny Bigelow also spoke. BOOK AND PLAY TALK. is one of this season's notable publications. This vivid man-Tennyson calls him a “jolly, vivid man-vivid as lightning”-eager, unresting, who never spared himself, was influenced by the teach- ing of F. D. Maurice, took Holy Orders, and for nine years laboured in the East End and at Hoxton. What time he could snatch from strenuous work among his people he spent at the British Museum. For years he was a regular contributor to the Saturday Review'. Green, who died learning, was a born historian, and he knew it. His fascinating “ Short History of the English People” had an extraordinary success. Like Louis Stevenson, Green was a con- sumptive. Mrs. Humphry Ward thus describes sumptive. Mrs. Humphry Ward him as he was towards the end of his life :- "There in the corner of the sofa sat the thin, wasted form, life flashing from the eyes, breathing from the merry or eloquent lips, beneath the very shadow and seal of death -the eternal protesting life of the intelligence. ... There was in him a perpetual eagerness, an inexhaustible power of knowledge, that were ever putting idler or emptier minds to shame.” Mrs. J. R. Green has written a memorial sketch of her friend the late Miss Mary Kingsley for the first number of the African Society's Quarterly Journal. The African Society was founded in commemoration of Miss Kingsley and her work. Another notable publication is the “Life of Pasteur,' translated from the French of René Vallery-Redot by Mrs. R. L. Devonshire. It is in two volumes with a portrait (Constable, 32s.), and is a comprehensive biography. Louis Pasteur, who was one of the greatest observers of his century, and possessed a constructive imagination as well, lived only for his work. He stopped an annual waste of many millions of francs in the silkworm industry through his exhaustive researches into the cause of the pebrine epidemic among silkworms. The wine and beer industries also benefited by his labours. This great man, whose name is connected with the discovery of a cure for rabies, was of a loving and tender nature, while his sensibility to pain in others was extreme. Often he went home sickened, even ill, from the operating theatres. Lister wrote to Pasteur, generously acknowledging that the “principle upon which alone the antiseptic system could be carried out” he owed to the great Frenchman's researches. Then there is “ The Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox, 1745—1826,” edited by the Countess of Ilchester and Lord Stavordale, 2 vols., 32s. net. Mr. John Murray is the publisher. Lady Sarah Lennox, fourth daughter of the second Duke of Richmond, after her divorce from Sir HE publication of a new volume of poems by Mr. Thomas Hardy is one of the important literary events of this season. In his little Preface to “ Poems of the Past and the Present " (Osgood, 68.), Mr. Hardy says : "Of the subject-matter of this volume which is in other than narrative form, much is dramatic or impersonative even where not explicitly so. Moreover, that portion which may be regarded as individual comprises a series of feelings and fancies written down in widely differing moods and circumstances, and at different dates. It will prob- ably be found, therefore, to possess little cohesion of thought or harmony of colouring. I do not greatly regret this. Unadjusted impressions have their value, and the road to a true philosophy of life seems to be in humbly recording diverse readings of its phenomena as they are forced upon us by chance and change." There are some ninety-eight poems in the volume. The first set are called “War Poems ;”. then come “Poems of Pilgrimage”;“Miscellaneous Poems” follow; “Imitations” include half-a- dozen poems ; in “Retrospect” there are three. Of these, the last is a specially significant expres- sion of the author's attitude towards Life and its Maker. “ The Letters of John Richard Green” (Mac- millan, 158. net), edited by Mr. Leslie Stephen,  ## p. 78 (#462) ############################################# 78 THE AUTHOR. Charles Bunbury, married the Hon. George Napier. Dr. Selwyn defends the genuineness of the Second One of her sons was Sir Charles Napier, the Epistle of St. Peter, develops his theory that conqueror of Scinde ; another was Sir William, St. Luke wrote that Epistle for St. Peter at Rome, the author of " The History of the Peninsular and identifies Luke with Silas. War." Over sixty thousand parts of the “Twentieth Dean Hole has lately published, through Messrs. Century New Testament” have been sold. The Hutchinson & Co., a book which he calls “ Then chief aim of this new translation is to rely upon and Now" (168. net). It is full of amusing stories. simple modern English, all words and phrases not Dean Hole in 1892 presented His “ Memories” to used in the English of to-day being excluded. A the reading public, and in 1895 he published company of about twenty translators has been “More Memories." engaged upon the work for ten years. Mr. F. G. Kenyon, of the British Museum, is Dr. Richard Garnett has contributed an interest- publishing through Messrs. Macmillan a “ Roman ing introduction to “ What Makes a Friend," a little Handbook to the Textual Criticism of the New volume compiled by Volney Streamer (Truslove, Testament,” designed for students. Mr. Kenyon Hanson and Comba). It consists of a selection of gives an account of the available textual material; the best of what has been said upon friendship ancient versions in various languages and quota- by those whose moral and intellectual rank entitles tions from it in the early Christian writers. At them to a hearing. the head of each chapter is a list of authorities Messrs. Macmillan are the publishers of a work most likely to be useful to the student who wishes by Mr. B. Seebohm Rowntree. This important to push enquiry further. Copious indices are given, contribution to practical sociology contains the and there are sixteen full-page facsimiles (reduced) results of a thorough investigation into the con- from MSS. of first to eighth centuries. ditions of life and labour in New York, somewhat Miss Adeline Sergeant. the prolific novelist and on the lines of Mr. Charles Booth's great work on story writer, is one of the contributors to “ Roads “Life and Labour in London.” It seems that to Rome.” a volume which contains personal records over twenty thousand souls in New York live in a of some of the more recent converts to the Catholic state of chronic poverty. The broad result of Mr. Faith. Cardinal Vaughan has written an Intro Rowntree's investigations goes to show that there duction, and it is compiled and edited by the is an almost identical proportion of poverty in the author of “ Ten Years in Anglican Orders” provincial city of New York and the Metropolitan (Longmans, 78. 6d. net). City of London. Miss Adeline Sergeant's novel, “ The Mission of Messrs. Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. publish this month a new poetical drama entitled “Frithiof the Margaret,” will be published on December 2nd by Bold,” by F. ). Winbolt, author of “King Helge" John Long, price 6s. and “ Aslog.” Its price is 3s. 6d. Mr. Murray is the publisher of “ Old Diaries, aries, Mr. G. H. Perris has just published through Mr. 1881–1900," by Lord Ronald Sutherland Gower. Grant Richards a volume called “The Life and Lord Ronald Gower has selected from the diaries Teaching of Leo Tolstoy." It is a book of extracts, kept during the last twenty years passages relating with an introduction of more than ordinary interest. to the distinguished men and women whom he Says Mr. Perris :- met in this country and abroad. These include “ Tolstoy is stimulating as much by his insistence upon reminiscences of H. M. the late Queen Victoria, the the superior importance of moral over material progress as Empress Frederick, Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. Glad- by his marvellous power of depicting the drama of the stone, Lord Dufferin, Cardinal Rampolla,“ Ouida," inner life. His attempt to formulate a moral dynamic J. A. Symonds, and Mr. Swinburne. is open to criticism, but it voices a hunger that is spreading and deepening in every country where machine industry The Memoir of Sir George Grey, G.C.B., 1799 and plutocracy are the governing conditions of the popular -1882, by Dr. Mandell Creighton, the late Bishop life .... He will not be canonised by any Church, and it is only after long years of laborious growth into complete of London, is just out (Longmans). This is a self-possession and self-expression that this rare mind reprint of a volume privately printed in 1884. shows us, reflected, all the agonising search and struggle of Sir George Gray held offices in the Ministries of the soul of our time." Lorá Melbourne, Lord John Russell, and Lord Mr. Aylmer Maude is editing a revised edition Palmerston. He was Home Secretary during the of Tolstoy's works. The most scrupulous care has Chartist troubles of 1848. been taken to present reliable versions. The first Dr. Selwyn, the Headmaster of Uppingham, has volume, “Sevastopol,” translated by Louise and written a sequel to his work “The Christian Pro- Aylmer Maude, has appeared. Mr. Grant Richards phets,” entitled “St. Luke the Prophet.” In it is the publisher.  ## p. 79 (#463) ############################################# THE AUTHOR. 79 “La Chartreuse de Parme," translated from the In this second edition of “The Lectures and French of De Stendhal, by the Lady Mary Loyd, is Essays "two essays belonging rather to the domain the first volume of the series of French romances of mathematics are omitted. being published by Mr. Heinemann. Mr. Maurice Mr. S. Baring Gould's famous West of England Hewlett has written the introduction. It is a romance “ John Herring" is the latest addition handsome volume in blue and gold, with four to Mr. George Newnes' sixpenny series. Mr. F. dainty coloured plates, a frontispiece portrait of Anstey's well-known “ Vice Versâ." John Oliver Stendhal, and six portraits of him at various Hobbes' “ The Herb Moon,” Mrs. Humphry Ward's ages. “ Robert Elsmere ” and “The History of David In his new novel, “ Marietta—a Maid of Venice," Grieve,” Mr. Rider Haggard's “ She” and “ Jess," Mr. Marion Crawford has collected, and used with and six of Dr. Conan Doyle's novels are included in his usual skill, a mass of curious and picturesque this series. knowledge about Venetian glass-blowing. He has There was an interesting meeting of the Play- drawn on fifteenth century records of a certain goers' Club in the Victoria Hall at the Hotel Cecil Zorzi Ballarin, who, being taken into the office of on the evening of November 17th, when Miss Nella Angelo Beroviero, a great craftsman in the art of Syrett presided, and Mr. F. Norreys Connell read glass-blowing, shows such aptitude for the art, that a paper on “Should Novelists write Plays ? " It he is admitted to the practice of it, in defiance of provoked an animated discussion. Mr. Connell the law which forbids any foreigner to learn and said that the novelist whose sole concern was to practise the art in Venice. . tell a story could write plays easily. But to the Mr. Eden Phillpotts' new novel, “ Fancy Free” novelist whose story was also a serious criticism of (Methuen, 6s.), is a humorous medley, illustrated life the stage offered no opportunities. Two of thuse by Mr. J. A. Shepherd and others. who took part in the discussion said that novelists “The Making of a Marchioness," by Mrs. Hodg needed to learn the art of play construction, and son Burnett, has lately been issued by Messrs. that most novelists were deplorably ignorant of Smith Elder (68.). It is a story of modern English stage requirements. life, and makes pleasant reading. Mr. and Mrs. Kendal and Mrs. Tree are playing Mr. A. E. W. Mason's new novel “Clementina ” at the St. James' Theatre in Mr. W. K. Clifford's is a stirring historical romance. It is doing well. successful drama, “The Likeness of the Night,” Messrs. Methuen are the publishers (6s.). which has been played in the provinces and at “ Light Freights," by Mr. W. W. Jacobs, is Fulham. A version of it appeared in the Anglo- another of the same firm's successful publications. Saxon Review; it is also published in volume Mr. Jacobs is happy in being able to give the form. public an amusing book, for such books are greatly Mr. George Alexander is to resume the run of in demand just now. Mr. H. V. Esmond's “The Wilderness” at the Miss F F Montrésor's new novel “ The Alien ” St. James' Theatre this month, and he will give is in its second edition : so. too. is Mr. B. M. matinées during the Christmas holidays of Mr. Croker's novel “ Angel,” Mr. Eden Phillpotts' R. C. Carton's pretty comedy “Liberty Hall.” “ The Striking Hours," Dorothea Gerard's “The Mr. Sydney Grundy's latest adaptation from the Million," and Mr. Baring Gould's“ Royal Georgie.” French will be produced at the Haymarket on the Mr. Rudyard Kipling's " Kim” has been selling 10th inst. The cast includes Miss Emery, Miss at the rate of about 500 copies a day, and is still Ellis Jeffreys, and Mr. Cyril Maude. going remarkably well. Mr. Edward Martyn, the author of “The Heather The editor of the Cornhill Magazine has been Field,” has just published two plays through Mr. fortunate enough to secure the serial publication of Fisher Unwin. They are “ The Tale of a Town” Mr. Anthony Hope's new novel. Messrs. Harper and “ An Enchanted Sea.” Mr. Martyn is an Bros. will publish it simultaneously in America in Irishman. one of their magazines. It will be remembered “Aladdin ” is to be the pantomime at the Hippo- that “ Tristram of Blent" appeared serially in the drome, while Mr. Arthur Collins is providing a Monthly Review. gorgeous spectacular display at Drury Lane. A “ The Lectures and Essays of the late Professor property elephant, resembling that on which Miss W. K. Clifford" forms a welcome addition to the Edna May rode in “ An American Beauty,” is to Eversley Series (Macmillan, 2 vols.). Mr. Leslie be an important feature of the pantomime. A Stephen is the editor. There is a sympathetic troupe of elephants hailing from Paris may take biographical introduction by Sir Frederick Pollock. part in the proceedings.  ## p. 80 (#464) ############################################# 80 THE AUTHOR. CORRESPONDENCE. and social position; those who admit exceptions agree that such exceptions are congenital idiots. In truth—and this is the underlying fact-not one PUBLISHERS AND MSS. writes from the point of view of art. Not one even SIR,– My experience of“ really good houses” in the refers to the attitude of mind necessary for a man matter of defacing MSS. exactly accords with that of to give the world honest, lasting achievement. All “Member” in the last issue of the Author. After write from the point of view of the writer, and of submitting MS. of a work to which I had devoted what is advisable for him personally. much time and research to two of the best houses May 1, cynically, suggest that your correspon- in the trade, I happened to open the MS. in a part dents write honestly ? May 1-also cynically- I had not carefully examined when returned on the suggest that it is this tradesman-like spirit per- former occasion, and found the page lined with vading literature which accounts for the fact that pencil marks and the notation “not true" appended -except as to the works of one living man- to statements of fact. Unfortunately, I could not fix no modern romance has any chance of more than the guilt on any one of these firms, or I should ephemeral life? have given the “ gentleman” a bit of my mind. Your correspondent, who wrote from an excep- After this experience of publishers' readers I tional point of view, affirmed that no man can invariably affix to the front of my MSS. the possibly achieve living success who does not write appended notice, which has had an excellent from sheer love of writing. He suggested that one effect:- pound a week is sufficient for such a man to live on, “ As this manuscript is private property, the pub- and he further suggested that to succeed in depict- lishers and their readers are requested to treat it ing humanity a man must live face to face with in an honourable manner, in the same way as they humanity, and not peer at it through the spectacles would expect their own property to be treated when of a class, however admirable in manner and dress. “ lent on approval ” with a view to sale ; and not Did this correspondent say that not one single to turn down the corners or otherwise damage it, man born to wealth and high rank has given the or return it in a filthy condition, as is sometimes world one single work of genius in romance ? done by dishonourable firms and their employées.” As this ridiculous world is constituted, the writer November, 12th, 1901. H. N. S. must write for money to clothe his back and fill his stomach. Success may give him social position. OLD AND YOUNG REVIEWERS. But for living work he must write from sheer love of work ; wealth and position must be simply inci- To the Editor of THE AUTHOR. dental. The man who writes for the admiration of SIR,--I do not agree with “ Judas Quilldriver.” a class must keep his finger on the pulse of that Twenty years ago any contributor to the old class—he loses the pulse of humanity. Saturday Review under Mr. Philip Harwood, or to In trying to turn the old Bohemian republic of the old Pall Mall Gazette under Mr. Greenwood or literature into an aristocracy with rewards of Mr. John Morley, would have acted altogether at wealth and position, the twentieth century is making his peril if he had made a practice of reviewing a deadly mistake. Humanity is swamped ; criticism books without reading them. Also the practice of becomes a criticism of clothes ; language and con- throwing in the book as part of the reviewer's struction are looked to, not the ideal. reward was certainly not uniform then. We may laugh at Hall Caine or Marie Corelli for ANOTHER OLD REVIEWER. their huge circulation. But they touch humanity. November 14th, 1901. Regarding literature from the shopkeeper's point of view, I do not believe that one single writer can attain a huge circulation without writing from MONEY AND LITERATURE. sheer love of work. Mere inhuman refinement of SIR,—Though it is as ridiculous for the cynic to language and perfection of construction may gain come out of his tub and discuss a question of art as the critic's applause and some measure of readers ; it is dangerous for a free-born Briton to suggest genius may fail ; in the races of literature the best that the destruction of nationalities is not Christ- horse may be shut out and an outsider win. But be like, I cannot resist writing a few words touching sure of this : no man ever attained the position of one fact which underlies your published corre- a Shakespeare, Molière, Alexandre Dumas, or, to spondence on the above subject. come to the present, the position of the one man I With one remarkable exception, all your corre. have referred to, who did not write from sheer love spondents deal with the question of reward from a of writing. And no man absorbed in a class of severely practical and personal point of view. Some humanity ever has or ever will achieve a work of say that all men without exception write for reward genius. CYNICUS.  ## p. 80 (#465) ############################################# ADVERTISEMENTS. ESTABLISHED) (XVIII. CENT. The Athenæum Press, Taunton. BARNICOTT & PEARCE INVITE ENQUIRIES RESPECTING PRINTING. ESTIMATES OF COST, AND OTHER DETAILS, PROMPTLY GIVEN. Monthly, 3d. » Post free to any address in the United Kingdom, 4s. per annum. 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Experienced in all kinds of scientific and Literary Agents.--Authors are warned against dealing with any Literary Agent without referring to the Society for infor- difficult MSS. Reduction for large quantities. mation. Authors are also warned not to sign Agreements on the MISS CARRINGTON, advice of Literary Agents alone. All Agreements should be submitted to the Society for advice. 27, Kelmscott Road, Clapham, S.W. By Order, G. HERBERT THRING, Secretary Society of Authors, TYPEWRITING 39, Old Queen Street, Storey's Gate, S.W. With Accuracy and Despatch. The “Forms of Agreements" issued by the Publishers' Authors' MSS. 9d. per 1000 words. In duplicate, 1s. Association can be obtained at the Office, with a full explanation of their meaning, price 1s. post free. Authors are warned not per 1000. Plays, Translations, General Copying, Samples to sign any agreement which may embody the Clauses expose i and References on Application. without submitting it first to the Society. MISS JANET WAY, By Order, G. HERBERT THRING, Secretary Society of Authors, 33, Ossian Road, Stroud Green, N. 39, Old Queen Street, Storey's Gate. S.W.  ## p. 80 (#466) ############################################# ADVERTISEMENTS. LADY FLORENCE DIXIE'S NEW BOOK. F NOW READY. “The Songs of a Child” BY DARLING (Lady Florence Douglas.) LORD YTTON a Written in Childhood. mmmmmmmm Dedicated to the first LORD LYTTON and containing lines addressed by him to the Child Author recording his first meeting with her. Published for the first time. Popular Edition, 2s. 6d. FIRST EDITION EXHAUSTED. SECOND EDITION READY IMMEDIATELY. Edition de Luxe, 7s.6d. Both contain Coloured Portrait Frontispiece of the Author as a Child. PUBLISHERS : THE LEADENHALL Press, 50, LEADENHALL STREET, E.C. CHARLES SCRIBNER AND Sons, NEW YORK. N DEN "REE Printed by BRADBURY, AGNEW, & Co. LD., and Published by them for THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (INCORPORATED), at 10, Bouverie Street, London, E.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. 12 Issue 05 (December 1901) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 12 Issue 05 (December 1901) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006979390" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015006979390</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1901-12-01-The-Author-12-5 publications The Author