https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/529/1913-06-01-The-Author-23-9.pdf fb1b8dccdb4a8611e1586bcac1888654 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) 1913-06-01 Volume 23 Issue 9 Pages Page range in volume 249–278 Ngram Date Version of the date in YYYYMMDD format for use by the Ngram plugin 19130601 Ngram Text Version of the text with no HTML formatting for use by the Ngram plugin Che FOUNDED BY SIR Muthor. (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.) WALTER BESANT. ay) : Vor. XXTII.—No. 9. JUNE 1, 1913. [PRIcE SIXPENCE. TELEPHONE NuMBER: 374 VICTORIA. + TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS: : AUTORIDAD, LONDON. a 0 NOTICES. —_+-~> + OR the opinions expressed in papers that 4 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. Tue Editor begs to inform members of the Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author that the cases which are quoted in The Author are cases that have come before the notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the Society, and that those members of the Society who desire to have the names of the publishers concerned can obtain them on application. ARTICLES AND: CONTRIBUTIONS. Tue Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the Society that, although the paper is sent to them free of cost, its production 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 5s. 6d. _ subscription for the year. ' Communications for The Author should be _ addressed to the offices of the Society, 1, Cen- ' tral Buildings, Tothill Street, Westminster, $§.W., and should reach the Editor not later | than the 21st of each month. Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on all literary matters treated from Vou. XXIII. the standpoint of art or business, but on no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to return articles which cannot be accepted. ADVERTISEMENTS. On and after June 13 Messrs. Matthews’ Advertising Service, Staple Inn Buildings, High Holborn, W.C., will act as agents for advertisements for ‘The Author.” All communications respecting advertisements after that date shouid be addressed to them. As there seems to be an impression among readers of The Author that the Committee are personally responsible for the bona fides of the advertisers, the Committee desire it to be stated that this is not, and could not possibly be, the ease. Although care is exercised that no undesirable advertisements be inserted, they do not accept, and never have accepted, any liability. Members should apply to the Secretary for advice if special information is desired. eg THE SOCIETY’S FUNDS. ee ek “[_\ROM time to time members of the Society K desire to make donations to its funds in recognition of work that has been done for them. The Committee, acting on the suggestion of one of these members, have decided to place this permanent paragraph in The Author in order that members may be cognisant of those funds to which these con- tributions may be paid. The funds suitable for this purpose are: (1) The Capital Fund. This fund is kept in reserve in case it is necessary for the Society to incur heavy expenditure, either in fighting a question of principle, or in assisting to obtain copyright reform, or in dealing with any other "2 250 matter closely connected with the work of the Society. (2) The Pension Fund. This fund is slowly increasing, and it is hoped will, in time, cover the needs of all the members of the Society. Ce See oe THE PENSION FUND. ———1 — le January, the secretary of the Society laid before the trustees of the Pension Fund the accounts for the year 1912, as settled by the accountants. After giving the matter full consideration, the trustees in- structed the secretary to invest a sum of £300 in the purchase of Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway 4% Extension Shares, 1914, £10 fully paid. The number of shares pur- chased at the current price was twenty-five and the amount invested £296 1s. 1ld, The trustees are also purchasing three more Central Argentine Railway New Shares at par, on which as holders of the Ordinary Stock they have an option. The trustees desire to thank the members of the Society for the continued support which they have given to the Pension Fund. The nominal value of the investments held on behalf of the Pension Fund now amounts to £4,764 6s., details of which are fully set out in the following schedule :— Nominal Value. £ os. 2. Local Loans ........+5.2+005+% 500 0 0 Victoria Government 3% Consoli- dated Inscribed Stock ........ 291 19 11 London and North-Western 3% Debenture Stock ............ 250 0 0 Egyptian Government Irrigation Trust 4% Certificates ........ 200 0 0 Cape of Good Hope 34% Inscribed Stock. 0.0.0.5. ten 200 0 0 Glasgow and South-Western Rail- way 4% Preference Stock . 228 0 0 New Zealand 34% Stock ....... 247 9 6 Trish Land 22% Guaranteed Stock 258 0 0 Corporation of London 23% Stock, 1927—57 ........-.45- 4388 2 4 Jamaica 34% Stock, 1919—49 .. 182 18 6 Mauritius 4% 1987 Stock ....... 120 12 1 Dominion of Canada, C.P.R. 34% Land Grant Stock, 1938 ...... 198 8 8 Antofagasta and Bolivian Railway 5% Preferred Stock .......... 237 0 0 Central Argentine Railway Or- Aynary Stock ..64.....5.5.55. 232 0 0 THE AUTHOR. ‘prior to October, nor does it include sub- Nominal Value. s. d. $2,000 Consolidated Gas and Electric Company of Baltimore 44% Gold Bonds .......-.+- 400 0 0 250 Edward Lloyd, Ltd., £1 5% Preference Shares ..........-- 250 0 O 55 Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway 4% Extension Shares, 1914 (fully paid) ..........-- 8 Central Argentine Railway £10 Preference Shares, New Issue.. 30 0 O- PENSION FUND. age Tue list printed below includes all fresh dona- tions and subscriptions (7.é., donations and subscriptions not hitherto acknowledged) received by, or promised to, the fund from October 1, 1912. It does not include either donations given scriptions paid in compliance with promises made before it. Subscriptions. 1912. £ 5. 4 Oct. 10, Escott, T. H. S. . . 0-5 @ Oct. 10, Henderson, R. W. Wright. 0 5 0 Oct. 10, Knowles, Miss M. W. - 0 5 8 Oct. 11, Buckley, Reginald . 0 5 O Oct. 12, Walshe, Douglas 010 0 Oct. 12, ‘‘ Penmark”’ . : 010 0 Oct. 15, Sinclair, Miss Edith. 010 6 Oct. 16, Markino, Yoshio 1 1°06 Oct. 20, Fiamingo, Carlo 70s 8 Oct. 29, Henley, Mrs. . 4 yo ia 8 Nov. 8, Jane, L. Cecil . . 0 8 6 Nov. 14, Gibb, W. 0 5 0 Dec. 4, De Brath, SS. . : 0 5 0 Dec. 4, Sephton, The Rev. J. 0 5 0 Dec. 4, Cooper, Miss Marjorie 010 0 Dec. 7, MacRitchie, David 0 5 OF Dec. 11, Fagan, James B. 10 04 Dec. 27, Dawson, Forbes. . 010 6 1913. Jan. 8, Toynbee, William (in addi- tion to his present sub- scription). . . Jan. 9, Gibson, Frank . Jan. 29, Blackley, Miss E. L. ‘. Jan. 31, Annesley, Miss Maude . Feb. 6, Rothenstein, Albert . ‘ Feb. 10, Bradshaw, Percy V. . April 8, Caulfield-Stoker, TT. ‘ 2° eeocescsceo — Aontonane SAaAanDSSS  vtDec. | 7 ec | \oafDec. oatDec. THE AUTHOR. 251 Donations. 7 1912. ‘oyNov. 20, Kennard, Mrs. N. H. : A, McEwan, Miss M. S. . 4, Kennedy, E. B. . : 11, Begarnie, George ; 11, Tanner, James T. . : 11, Toplis, Miss Grace . ve(Dec. 14, Watson, Mrs. Herbert A.. - \9afDec. 14, French, Mrs. Warner : (Dec. ri iofDec. aa(Dec. 17, Smith, Miss Sheila Kaye . 17, Marras, Mowbray . ‘ 27, Edwards, Percy J. : oan 1913. ag Jan. ‘a Jan. igJan. is Jan. ‘eiJan. + aed an. : ald an. Jon. ‘elJan. .asiJan. aelJan. _asiJan. al Jan. ‘si Jan. ialJan. we isi Jan. atl Jan. 48 Jan. A alJan. ' agLJan. 48 Jan. ‘cal Jan. | “i Jan. 1, Risque, W. H. ‘ 1, Rankin, Mrs. F. M. 2, Short, Miss L. M. 2. Mackenzie, Miss J. A 2, Webling, Miss Peggy Z 3, Harris, “Mrs. E. H.. : S, Church, Sir Arthur, K.C.V. O., ete. : 4, Douglas, James A. : ; A, Grant, Lady Sybil 6, Haultain, Arnold 6, Beveridge, Mrs. 2 6, Clark, The Rev. Henry 6, Ralli, C. Scaramanja . : 6, Lathbury, Miss Eva . 6, Pryce, Richard - 7, Gibson Miss L. S. : 10, K. ‘ : 10, Ford, Miss May 12, Greenstreet, W. J. 14, Anon 15, Maude Aylmer 16, Price, Miss Eleanor . 17, Blouet, Madame , 20, P. H. and M.K. . : . 22, Smith, Herbert W. . ‘ .25, Anon. . ‘ ‘ . 27, Vernede, R. E. : . 29, Plowman, Miss Mary . . 29, Todd, Miss Margaret, M.D. , 31, J acobs, W. W. c : 1, Davy, Mrs. E.M. . . 8, Abraham, J. J. . . 4, Gibbs, F. L. A. : . 4, Buckrose, J. E. ‘ : . 4, Balme, Mrs. Nettleton : . 6, Coleridge, The Hon. Gilbert . 6, Machen, Arthur i . 6, Romane-James, Mrs. . . 6, Weston, Miss Lydia . : . 14, Saies, Mrs. F. H. (in addi- tion to her subscription) Feb. 14, O’Higgins, H. J. é a aH Ooo eeoceoogaonoonoancoooooecooooeooooooo cooooo ocooooeoooce: a oe OR Or OLOLO O- _ i COOCSCSCO CHOCO CONMSCSCOMM OHTA A OO bent tet a oot QQaQek Ke OH OM ONE NPR OOCOHR EK ORM AAO OOOOH NS OH ooo COFMPRF OF OCrFONFOSCOCOCOBE OF COOCOCOBROWOORNWH! = et & ed Ror oN: Feb. 15, Stephens, Dr. Ricardo Feb. 15, Jones, Miss E. H. Feb. 17, Whibley, Charles Feb. 22, Probert, W. S. Feb. 24, S. F. G. Feb. 27, XX. Pen Club : Mar. 7, Keating, The Rev. J. Lloyd. . - Mar. 7, Tharp, Robert C. . : Mar. 10, Hall, H. Fielding . : Mar. 18, Moffatt, Miss Beatrice Mar. 14, Bennett, Arnold . Mar. 17, Michell, The Right Hon. Sir Lewis, K.C.V.O, . Mar. 17, Travers, Miss Rosalind : Mar. 26, Hinkson, H. A. A 5 Mar. 26, Anon. . : . : April 2, Daniel, E. J. . : ‘ April 2, Hain, H. M. : April 7, Taylor, Miss Susette M. April 7, Harding, Newman . April 9, Strachey, Miss Amabel April 10, Aspinall, Algernon . April 15, Craig, Gordon naomoso OrRoooh SO Or Or moocoocoourorF ececooconooeoso SSeSoSoo cocoa eo oe SK Oranano ore ar oH CoMMITTEE’S CONFERENCE WITH EDITORS AND . NEWSPAPER PROPRIETORS. ene Durrine the past few months a considerable correspondence has passed between the Com- mittee of Management of the Society and the editors and publishers of papers, in order, if possible, to agree to some _ standardised arrangement for the payment of accepted contributions. It will be remembered that the committee notes published in the May issue of The Author contained a reference to a proposal to hold a conference on the subject in that month. Accordingly a circular was forwarded to the editors of magazines, putting forward the following proposal, that accepted articles, stories and illustrations should be paid for on publication or within six months from acceptance, whichever should be the shorter period. A number of letters were received in response and an influential gathering met to discuss the question. It was found impossible to pass any definite resolution at the meeting owing to the fact that some of the editors present were bound to refer the matter to the proprietors of the papers they represented, but they promised to do this, and the meeting accordingly was adjourned till Thursday, 252 June 19, when it is hoped that some definite issue may be reached, which it will be possible to announce in The Author. Dramatic SuB-COMMITTEE. Tur May meeting of the Dramatic Sub- Committee was held at the offices of the Society on Friday, May 23. After the minutes of the previous meeting had been read and signed, on a letter received by Mr. Bernard Shaw from Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree the question of meeting delegates of the West End‘ Managers’ Association was discussed. It was decided that Mr. Shaw, Mr. Carton, Mr. Jerome and the secretary, subject to their consent, should act as delegates of the Dramatic Sub-Committee, and the secretary was instructed to write to the Society of West End Managers with a view to a meeting, if possible, early in June. The question of amateur rights was next dealt with, and a letter from the Association of Amateur Dramatic Clubs was laid before the mecting. The secretary was appointed as delegate to meet the association, and to discuss with that body the possibility of getting into touch with their members for the produc- tion of plays by the dramatists of the Society. A letter from Mr. H. M. Paull was also laid before the meeting, as also was a letter from Mrs. Maxwell Armfield. The secretary received instructions to reply. The questions contained in both the letters referred to amateur performances and the Collection Bureau of the Society, which is about to circularise the amateur clubs on behalf of the members. The secretary then reported to the sub- committee the plays with which the Bureau was dealing, and the number of dramatists for whom it was acting. The question of foreign dramatic agents appointed by the Society was considered and the sub-committee suggested that their names and addresses should be published monthly in The Author. It was decided to adjourn the Dramatic Conference till the autumn, after the meeting with the delegates of the West End Managers’ Association. The sub-committee decided to ask the Committee of Management to obtain the opinion of a Dutch lawyer on the peculiar position arising out of the fact that Holland had only just joined the Berlin Convention. It appears that the Dutch are anxious to produce THE AUTHOR. English plays, but the question has arisen ag to the rights both of English dramatists and Dutch translators. The secretary then reported the legal cases — which had been taken up by the Society, After the discussion of the details of one case the sub-committee passed a recommendation ~ to the Committee of Management that it — would be advisable to submit the matter to arbitration. i The consideration of the Dramatic Contract and Pamphlet was next commenced, and after considerable discussion the secretary was instructed to draft a fresh contract, for a period of years, between dramatists and managers. as this seemed to the sub-committee a more suitable form of contract for the benefit o members than the contract already embodied in the pamphlet. —_+ =< ComposERS’ SUB-COMMITTEE. A MEETING of the Composers’ Sub-Com. mittee was held at the offices of the Society o Saturday, May 26. After reading the minute of the former meeting, a circular, which it wai proposed to send round to composers, wa considered and settled. The secretary wai instructed to send it round as soon as possibl that composers might be given an opportunit of answering the questions put before them, with a view to a closer combination of the profession. The sub-committee then considered thi names of members of the Society who might b suggested to the Committee of Managemen to fill the vacancy caused by the resignatio of Mr. Herbert Sullivan, and the secretary wa instructed to put forward their recommen dation at the next meeting. It had been suggested that the Mechanica Instrument Trade should be _ invited co-operate with the Society in order to obtai a joint opinion from counsel on question relating to copyright and mechanical repro duction. The secretary reported to the sub committee that the trade’ were unwilling adopt the suggestion, giving as their reaso the fact that they had, already, taken man opinions and that they did not see that an, good purpose would be served by taking further opinion. The sub-committee regrette they had adopted this view, as it seemed them that a joint opinion might have bee very useful to all parties and, if all parties ha decided to abide by it, would have saved considerable amount of litigation in the fut  THE AUTHOR. ‘A contract proposed by a German Society _ fin respect to the collection of mechanical ‘epinstrument fees was next considered, and sathe secretary was instructed to write for “pfurther particulars in the hope that a satis- ioefactory agreement might be settled, by which ermembers of the Society could have their »rmechanical instrument fees collected in *o»Germany. A letter from a French society for the lecollection of fees was also considered, and the ‘ssecretary was instructed to ask for further jaidetails. ! The replies from music publishers to a ovicircular sent to them, on the instructions of eithe sub-committee, on the question of the “uniform rendering of accounts, were next soconsidered, and the secretary was instructed / eto tabulate the answers and to print an article son the matter in The Author. : After due consideration it was found “impossible to adopt a proposal to circularise Jpvillage musical clubs with a list of composers’ tovworks suitable for reproduction by their com- ‘“semunities. With regret the sub-committee felt “compelled to abandon the idea. The view of sdthe sub-committee was that the matter was afone for the publishers rather than for the sor Society. —_ + <-> — Cases. Durie the month twelve cases have passed «i through the secretary’s hands. It is curious '@ to note the increasing number of cases abroad. iC Of the twelve, four are foreign cases, two being “in the United States, and two in France. *s Last month four of the total number were ’# cases in foreign countries, one beingin Hungary, +7 two in the United States and one in Russia. 1The majority of cases this month are disputes fon terms of agreement. Five come under this so head ; of these, two have been settled, but the 1% other three are still open. Disputes on agree- of ments generally take a longer time to arrange sf than ordinary claims for money and accounts, 9% because, as a rule, a considerable amount of ‘1, correspondence is necessary. (There are four cases of claims for the ‘9 return of MSS. Two of these have been om successful and the MSS. have been returned 9 to the members ; in the third case, the person 6 to whom the MS. was sent has made every »-effort to find it, but the author had no evidence © to show that it actually came to hand. The ‘a6 last case has only recently come to the office. "There are two cases for money and accounts. ‘one being in France and one in the United r 253 States. These are both open, as sufficient time has not yet elapsed in which to receive a reply. The last question is one of accounts which has only come to the office just before going to press. There are two cases open from former months, one being in Hungary. As it is a dispute on an agreement and therefore a matter for negotiation, some time must elapse before it is finally settled, but the Socicty’s lawyers in Hungary have been successful in getting into favourable communication with the defendants. The second is an ordinary question of settlement of ageeement and as has already been stated, settlements of disputes on agreements take a longer time than mere questions of claims for liquidated amounts. Elections. Arthurs, George . . 22, Shandon Road, S.W. : Ivy Cottage, Clare- morris, Co. Mayo. 97, Finborough Road, Earl’s Court. Knocke - sur - mer, Belgium. The Towers, dlesham. Oaklands, Elstree. Lyceum Club, Picca- dilly, W. 43, Chisholm Road, Croydon. Aylward, Frank Banner, Joseph Brentwood, Evelyn Elvey, G. F. Handel Win- Everett, P. W. . S Graham, Miss Bertha N. Hardy, Dr. H. Nelson, F.R.C.S., Edin. Hosie, Miss Lillie C. Jerningham, Charles E. 14, Pelham Crescent, Thurloe Square,S.W. c/o Messrs. H. Massie & Co., 21, Tavistock Street, Covent Gar- dens, W.C. Landi, Caroline F. M., Countess Zanardi Louis, Edward Z Manahan, William A. . 110, Seville Place, North Strand, Dub- lin. 12b, London Road, St. Albans. Whitehall Hotel, 18, Montague Street, Russell Square, and Summit, W.C. ; New Jersey, U.S.A., 36, Priory Terrace, Stamford, Lines. Nuttall, G. Clarke , Porter, Grace Cleveland Raythorne, Miss Valerie 254 Temple, The Rev. W. . The Hall, Repton, Burton-on-Trent. . The Towers, St. Stephens Road, Bath. West, Mrs. Katherine East S: Sussex. Willis, William 20, Belmont Road, Nicholas. Twickenham, S.W. Talbot, Mrs. : Grinstead, ——_+—>—_+—___—_ BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS. —— + While every effort is made by the compilers to keep this list as accurate and exhaustive as possible, they have some difficulty in attaining this object owing to the fact that many of the books mentioned are not sent to the office by the members. In consequence, it is necessary to rely largely upon lists of books which appear in literary and other papers. It is hoped, however, that members will co-operate in the compiling of this list, and, by sending particulars of their works, help to make it substantially accurate. ART. Wantep: A Mruistry oF Fine Arts. DewHurst. Reprinted from the 84 x 54. 101 pp. Hugh Rees. 1s. n. BIOGRAPHY. Wui1am Morris. A Study in Personality. By A. Compton Rickert. 82 X 5}. 325 pp. Herbert Jenkins. 7s. 6d. n. Goxtpwin SMITH’s CoRRESPONDENCE. Haviram. 9 x 53. 540 pp. Werner Laurie. BOOKS OF REFERENCE. Tue SraresMan’s YuAR Boor. 1913. Edited by J. Scorr Kerrie, LL.D. Assisted by M. Epsrzrn, Ph.D. 74 x 43. 1452 pp. Macmillan. 10s. 6d. n. DRAMA. Prays or Onp Japan. Tue “No.” By Mane C. Sroxzs, D.Sc., and Proressor Jogi SakuRal. With a Preface by His Excettency Baron Karo. 8} X 54. 103 pp. Heinemann. 5s. n. Tus Marrrep Woman. A Play in Three Parts. By Cc. B. Fernatp. 74x 5. 111 pp. Sidgwick & Jackson. 3s. 6d. n. Toe “Minp THE Paint” GIRL. Acts. By Arraur W. PINzERO. Heinemann. ls. 6d. FICTION. Lorz or PROSERPINE. By MauricE HEWLETT. 288 pp. Macmillan. 5s. n. TurovcH THE Winpow. By Mary E. Many. 319 pp. Mills & Boon. 6s. Tue Bonp or Freepom. By A. B. SPENS. 316 pp. Everett. 6s. Bistine Dawn. By Hanoitp Bzcain. 7} x 5. Hodder & Stoughton. 68. Tun Destroyine ANGEL. By Louis J. VANCE. 309 pp. Grant Richards. 68. Ix tue Grre or Destiny. By Cuaruzs E. 74 x 5. 301 pp. George Allen. Tue Sxy-Line. By ErueEL CaNNIne. Digby, Long. 6s. By WyYNFORD Art Chronicle. Edited by ARNOLD 18s. n. A Comedy in Four 62 x 5. 234 pp. 72 x Sh. 72 x 5. 7% x 5. 312 pp. 7} x 5. SrERNY. 7h x 5. 381 pp. THE AUTAOR. Hearts at War. By Erris ADELAIDE ROWLANDS_ 72x 5. 336 pp. Hurst & Blackett. 6s. Oncz Rounp. By SterHen Knorr. 73 x 5. 366 pp, Murray & Evenden. 6s. Love Lerrers or A WorLDLY Woman, By Mrs. W. K. Cuirrorp. Newand Enlarged Edition, 277 pp. Con- stable. 2s. 6d, n. Tur Pursuit or Mr. Favret. 6} x 4}. 380 pp. Nelson. 7d. n. Tur Sprvster. By Husert Waxes. (Cheap Edition) 74 x 43. 320 pp. John Long. Is. n. I wut Repay. By Tae Baroness Onczy. 74 x 44. Hodder & Stoughton. Is. n. So ir Is WITH THE DaMSEL. By Nora VYNNE. Stanley Paul. 6s. Tun Kryepom. By H. ErspaLe Goap. pp. Heinemann. 6s. Tur Hovse or Sanps. By L. M. Wart. 312 pp. Martin Secker. 6s. Mr. Laxwortuy’s ADVENTURES. By E. P. OPPENHEIM 7% x 5. 312 pp. Cassell. 3s. 6d. Tur Mixp Reaper. By Max RITTENBERG. 325 pp. Appletons. 6s. : Tus Gops ARE Atuirst. Authorised Translation. B A. Attinson. 8} x 5}. 285 pp. Lane. 6s. Tue Pomp oF THE Lavierres. By GisERT PARKER 64 x 4}. 223 pp. Methuen. 7d. n. : Tue STRENGTH OF THE Hits. By HaLirwELt SUTCLIFFE- 732 x 54. 307 pp. Hatr anp Harr TRAGEDY. By A. R. Horn. 8 X 5}. E1iza’s Son. By Barry Pain. 7} X 5. Cassell. Is. n. ] Tas Woorne or Miranwy. Second Edition. By Eprru C. Kenyon. Holden & Hardingham. 6s. THe WINNING oF GwENoRA. By Epira C. Kenyon- Holden & Hardingham. 6s. HISTORY. A GxgweraL History oF THE WORLD. By Oscar BROWNING, Senior Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge,. ete. With Maps and Genealogical Ta les. 74 X 5. 799 pp. Arnold. 7s. 6d. n. School Edition. 5s. n. it x 5 Stanley Paul. 6s. Scenes in Black and White. 58, 8 119 pp. 340 pp. Black. LAW, Pmorace Law. Being the Pilotage Act, 1913. With Introduction, Notes and Appendices. By E. AYLMER. Diasy, Lieutenant R.N. (retired), Secretary to Depart- mental Committee of Pilotage, 1909—11. Barrister-at- Law, and 8. D. Corz, Member of the Departmental © Committee on Pilotage, 1909—11, Solicitor of the ~ Supreme Court. 8} X Bf. 108 pp. Sweet & Maxwell.” _ 56. nD. LITERARY. Jovous Garp. By A. C. BEnson. 7x 5. 235 pp- Murray. 3s. 6d. n. THe VULGATE VERSION OF THE ARTHURIAN RoMANCES. © Edited from Manuscripts in the British Museum. By — Hi. Oskar Sommer. Vol. VI., Le Aventures ou las: Queste del Saint Graal: La Mort de Roi Artus.. 12 x 94.’ 390 pp. Washington : The Carnegie Insti tute of Washington. : Tan Joy or THE THEaTRE. By GitpeRT CANNANS 7x 5. Batsford. 2s. n. , Tur Country. By E. THomas. 7 X 5. 60 pp. Bats ford. 2s, n. MISCELLANEOUS. ‘Tan Perrect GentLEMaN. A guide to Social Aspirants. By Harry GRraHAM. New Edition. 7$ x 5. 212 pp Arnold. 2s. 6d. n.  NATURAL HISTORY. ‘oul FLowrrLess Puants. How and Where they Grow. i ‘By S. Lzonarp Bastry. 8} x 5}. 152 pp. Cassell. ‘Oo 68. n. “if Tur Brrps or Austra. By ‘sf ‘~-Vol. IIT., Part II. 143 x 10}. 105—204 pp.. SOCIOLOGY. ~ | Inprviptcm wunp STaat: UNTERSUCHUNGEN UBER DIE nied GRUNDLAGE DER Kuttur. By GrorGEs CHATTERTON- ca . Hin, Ph.D. Verlag von oa. J.C. 'B. Mohr. G. M. Marraews Witherby xvii x 207 pp. Tiibingen: TOPOGRAPHY. By Himatre BELLoc. 7s. 6d. n. TRAVEL. c70) Queer THINGS ABOUT JAPAN. By Dovetas SLADEN. Fourth Edition, to which is added a Life of the late “ +Emperor of Japan. 8} x 54. 443 pp. Kegan Paul. : 6s. n. /an—) me Conressions oF A TENDERFOOT. Grant Richards. 10s. 6d. ‘a— Tue Stane STREET. 83 x 6. 304 pp. Constable. By Ratpx Stock. — re MITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL NOTES. Ts HE late Professor Goldwin Smith’s Bt ‘Correspondence’? has been _ pub- : lished by his literary executor, Mr. “@* Arnold Haultain, through Mr. T. Werner I Laurie. The book, which is demy §8vo, 560 pages, with illustrations, costs 18s. net, “ee .and comprises letters written, not only by _ Goldwin Smith, but also to him by Matthew Arnold, W. E. Gladstone, Frederick Harrison, Lord Cromer, and many other famous people, living and dead. The ‘Life of the Right Hon. Sir Alfred “Comyn Lyall,” by Sir Mortimer Durand (Messrs. Blackwood & Sons, 16s. net), noticed in another column. M. Maurice Bourgeois, the sole authorised French translator and producer of the late J. M. Synge’s “Playboy of the Western World ” and ‘‘ Well of the Saints,” is bringing out, in September, through Messrs. Constable, .a work entitled ‘“‘ John Milligan Synge and the Irish Theatre.” Mr. Douglas Sladen’s new novel is ‘‘ The ‘Curse of the Nile ’’—a story of Egypt in Khar- tum and Omdurman days. The publishers -are Messrs. Stanley Paul & Co. Messrs. Duckworth & Co. publish Mr. J. ‘Quigley’s “‘ Leandro Ramon Garrido: His Life and Art,” with twenty-six full-page ‘reproductions of the painter’s art. is 5s. net. THE AUTHOR. The price 255 Dr. Henry Lansdell has brought out the fourth part of his history of “ Princess 4lfrida’s Charity” (Messrs. Burnside, Ltd., 6d., by post 7d.), describing Morden College under its early trustees, ete. ** Pilotage Law ”’ (described in the sub-title as ‘* The Pilotage Act, 1913, with Introduction, Notes, and Appendices’) is the joint pro- duction of Messrs. E. Aylmer Digby, lieutenant R.N., retired, and Sanford D. Cole, author of ‘* The Shipmaster’s Handbook to the Merchant Shipping Acts,” etc. Messrs. Sweet & Maxwell are the publishers. Mr. Humfrey Jordan’s novel, ‘“‘ Patchwork Comedy,” is being produced by Messrs. Put- nam in three editions—English, American, and Australian. ‘“Feigning or Folly’ is the name of Miss A. V. Dutton’s latest story (Messrs. Heath, Cranton & Ouseley). Mrs. J. G. Frazer has produced, through Messrs. Heffer & Sons, of Cambridge, ‘* First Aid to the Servantless,” a book for all who would reduce the work of the house to a minimum without sacrificing its comforts. The price is 1s. net, and 2,000 copies have already been sold. Mr. R. H. Forster, the Northumbrian author, is bringing out with Messrs. John Long, Ltd., ** The Little Maister,”’ another historical novel dealing with his favourite portion of England. Mr. R. F. Johnston, author of ‘‘ From Peking to Mandalay,” ete., has written a book on ** Buddhist China,”’ which is to be published by Mr. John Murray. Miss Grace Porter’s forthcoming work will be a collection of traditional negro plantation singing-games, most of them transcribed by the author with the guidance of an old negress ; to which is added a group of French Canadian folk singing-games played by the “‘ Habitants.” It will be published by Messrs. Curwen. “A Grey Life,” by ‘“‘ Rita’ (Mrs. Desmond Humphreys), is already in its fourth edition. Under the title of “Letters to Jack’s Mother,’ Mr. Edgar W. Martin has written a little pamphlet on the training of a child—at the request of a lady social worker in Bir- mingham. Messrs. Cornish Brothers, of that city, publish it at 1s. 8d. a dozen copies, including postage. ** Life’s Many Colours” is a collection of essays by Mr. J. C. Wright, F.R.S.L. A new and cheaper edition of ‘‘ The Perfect Gentleman: A Guide to Social Aspirants,”’ by Captain Harry Graham, has been issued by Mr. Edward Arnold. The pen-and-ink sketches by Mr.. Lewis Baumer are included. 256 Mr. Ralph Stock, whose travel book, “ The Confessions of a Tenderfoot,” is chronicled elsewhere in this issue, has published a novel, entitled ‘‘ The Pyjama Man,” through Messrs.: Hutchinson & Co., during the past month. The first book is a record of the author’s world wanderings and experiences during the last twelve years in Canada, America, the South Pacific Islands, and Australia, illustrated with. eighty-five photographs taken by Mr. Stock. The second book is the love story of a young Englishman in Australia. It is announced that this spring MM. Payot & Cie., of Lausanne, intend to issue a French translation, by E. Combe, of Mr. W. A. B. Coolidge’s book entitled ‘‘ The Alps in Nature and History” (published by Messrs. Methuen in 1908). Mr. Coolidge asks us to state that this translation has been neither authorised nor approved by him, so that he declines to be held responsible for any mistakes or alterations that may be contained therein. Mr. Basil Stewart edits ‘‘ The Lecture Year Book, 1913-4,’ which Messrs. Heath, Cranton & Ouseley publish at 3s. 6d. net. Lecturers, the Preface states, are perhaps the only pro- fessional class hitherto without their annual reference book, and this is an endeavour to supply the lack. Portraits of various pro- minent lecturers and lecture-secretaries are included. “Christopher Columbus: An Historic Drama in Four Acts,’’ is published for the author, Mr. Roland Hill, by Messrs. Sampson, Low, Marston & Co. ‘People (thither coming out of a region wherein disasters are met as if they were a jest) whom You may Meet at the Fair ” is the name given by Mr. Adair Welcker, of Berkeley, Cali- fornia, to a work of which a copy has been forwarded to us by him. We take a passage from the Foreword: ‘‘ One of the great labors that through this book will eventually be seen to have been accomplished is this: All pub- lishers, and all authors of the world, are to be shown that to a work not miscalled ‘ literature ’ will the attention of mankind be, to the limit of its reading capacity, given, without the adoption into the world of business by any publisher, and use . . . of the various methods that by prescription have become the property of (and therefore of which they should not be despoiled) mendicants — beggars — lazaroni.” In other words, Mr. Welcker has published the book himself. We regret to record the death, on April 25, of Mrs. Harcourt-Roe, of Hurst, Berks, for many years a member of the Society. Her THE AUTHOR. chief literary work lay in novel writing, though her latest publication, ‘ as a March Hare,” or “The Land of Shadows,” could — hardly be designated as such, being a political skit. Among her novels were ‘‘ The Bachelor Vicar of Newforth?” ‘‘ Whose Wife?” ‘* The Silent Room,” ‘‘ A Man of Mystery,” ete., all of which earned the appreciation of her public, In connection with *‘ A Man of Mystery ”’ Mrs. Harcourt-Roe received many letters from the late Lady Isabel Burton and others on the subject of its exposition of the Buddhist religion and its suggestion of the force of will- power. Her favourite line of thought was of a high spiritual order, thrown into the form of a novel, and she took great interest in all literary affairs. Soho Square—‘“‘the prettiest square in London,”’ according to Sir Walter Besant— has been the scene of a reception by Messrs. A. and C. Black to the contributors of the ‘*Englishwoman’s Year Book,’’ one of the many annuals issued by them. The guests. were received by the editor, Miss G. E. Mitton, supported by the consultative committee, Lady Strachey, Lady Huggins, Mrs. Hertha Ayrton, M.1.E.E., Miss S. A. Burstall, M.A., Mrs. J. R. Green, and Dr. Margaret Todd; also by Mr. Adam Black and his partner, and other mem- bers of the firm. After tea the many treasures in possession of Messrs. Black were displayed, including the famous interleaved set of the Waverley Novels, in which Sir Walter Scott made his additions and corrections for the final edition. DraMarIc. At the Court Theatre, on May 12, Miss Horniman revived “The Pigeon,” Mr. John Galsworthy’s three-act fantasy, originally pro- duced at the same theatre a year and a half ago. The sketch ‘“‘ The Widow Woos,” which is now the curtain-raiser to “* The Headmaster ” at the Playhouse, is a dramatisation by Mrs. Francis Blundell and Mr. Sydney Valentine of a short story by the former. On May 17 a new musical play, “ The Mar- riage Market,”’ was produced at Daly’s Theatre, being the work of Messrs. Brody and Martos, adapted for the English stage by Miss Gladys Unger, with lyrics by Messrs. Arthur Anderson and Adrain Ross, and music by Mr. V. Jacobi. On May 29 Mr. Bernard Shaw’s “ Cesar and Cleopatra ”’ was played by Mr. Forbes Robert- son for the last time at Drury Lane. On the following day there was a revival of the dramatic version of Mr. Rudyard Kipling’s “The Light that Failed.”  THE AUTHOR. _ At the Aldwych Theatre, from May 27 to -/May 31, a new musical play, “‘ Claude Abroad,” swas staged, in aid of the Middlesex Hospital. The book was by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Scott- eaatty, and the music by Mr. Charles Scott- asatty, Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty, and Mr. Cecil oForsyth. ‘| During the Croydon Repertory Season, at uche Grand Theatre, Mr. Keble Howard pre- -asented, for the third week, Mr. Charles ~9McEvoy’s four-act comedy, “* The Situation at »Newbury,”’ first seen at the Liverpool Reper- scory Theatre last year. MUSICAL. _ At the Queen’s Hall, on the evening of aMay 6, the London Choral Society gave an anniversary concert in memory of King 5Edward’s death, May 6, 1910. The pro- “sgramme consisted chiefly of works by Miss ~sMargaret Meredith, including settings of Mr. biRudyard’s Kipling’s “‘ Recessional’”’ and Mr. “wOwen Seaman’s ‘“ Passing of King Edward IVIL.,” for choir, organ, and piano. Among the »oerformers were Sefior Casals (violoncello), »2iMiss Ada Forrest, Miss Phyllis Lett, and Mr. s9cecil Fanning (vocalists), and Miss Meredith wterself (pianoforte). The whole concert was seleserving of a larger audience than was »eooresent ; but, as it was, encores lengthened it © yy nearly half an hour. ——_—__—_—_+——_e_—__. PARIS NOTES. — a [ A MAISON ”’ is the title of the latest novel by Henry Bordeaux. It is the autobiography of a boy, Francis, “iavhich, with the exception of certain details, ‘uinight be the autobiography of hundreds of “iaoys of provincial France of to-day. The shitle, “La Maison”? would be extremely oth ifficult to render in English, as it means here “ She ancestral house, the symbol of the past, ') f£ the family which has inhabited it for /ofenerations. It is one of the most essentially rench books which has been published for long time and, in order to appreciate it, the “Peeader must be able to place himself in the murroundings described by the author. “T The book is extremely interesting as a “oysychological study. The boy’s father is the “iqypical head of the family, his mother a very ypical French wife and mother, upholding the ditions of the race. Then comes a curious gure in the person of the boy’s grandfather, ‘man who would break through the traditional stters and who, perhaps more out of bravado 257 ~~’ than from real conviction, professes to have gone over to the new order of things. Francis is greatly influenced by his grandfather. He begins to look disdainfully on the rest of his family and their old-fashioned ways. He accompanies his grandfather to a café, where he hears all kinds of theories propounded. He is at first amazed, but gradually becomes quite accustomed to the new ideas. Nothing could be more slight than the story. There are very few events interesting to anyone but the family immediately concerned. The whole interest centres in the psychology of the various members of the family, including the typical spinster aunt, with her ever-ready duster and brush. It is not until Francis finds himself unexpectedly the head of the family that he realises all that it means and rouses to a sense of responsibility. This novel is, perhaps, the strongest and most concise of any yet written by M. Bordeaux, who is a typical representative of conservative France. ‘““Au Hasard de la Vie,” by Edouard Lockroy, has just been published, with a preface by Jules Claretie. This volume of notes and souvenirs represents half a century of the author’s life. M. Lockroy, who was formerly Minister of the Navy, has known most of the interesting Frenchmen of his time. He is an extremely cultivated man and an ardent patriot. The volume is composed of a series of articles on the most varied topics imaginable. The author writes of his recol- lections of the year 1848, of Garibaldi, of Renan. M. Lockroy accompanied Renan on his scientific mission to Phoenicia and he now gives us some excellent portraits of one of the most interesting of Frenchmen. Several chapters are devoted to this expedition, which is most graphically described. A large part of the volume treats of the various episodes of the war of °70. Autour de Metz, Autour du 4 Septembre, Pendant le Siege and A Versailles, are the titles of these chapters. M. Lockroy also gives us two excellent chapters on M. de Bulow and Victor Hugo. In a volume, entitled ‘“‘ Les Fantoches de la Peur,” Charles Foley has grouped the various individuals who have inspired fear. We have Les Fantoches de la Bastille, Dupes, Dupeurs, Dupes, Fantoches burlesques, Fantoches tra- giques, Folies burlesques, Folies tragiques. In the last chapter, Leur Fraternité, the author sums up the chief principle of this fraternity in the celebrated phrase, ‘‘ Sois mon frére, ou je te tue,” which is the main principle of nearly all political and religious fanaticism. In this work the author has gone back to the accounts 258 of contemporaries, and the consequence is that we find quite another La Fayette, Biron, Hanriot and Fouquier-Tinville than those which later historians have painted. The grouping of the fantoches is an excellent idea, and the various anecdotes and quotations make the accounts most entertaining. “ J;’Entraineuse ” is the title of the novel by Charles Esquier from which the piece now being given has been taken. It is a novel which appeals more directly to the Latin race ; the story of a wife sacrificing everything for her husband, a weak man, whom she loves with an almost maternal love. The play is having as much success as the novel. ‘* Parvati,”’ by Robert Chauvelot, is a story of one of the désenchantées of India. The author tells us the tragic story of a beautiful young woman, who, after finishing her educa- tion in European countries, is destined for the wife of a Maharajah. Her husband sends for a celebrated French artist to paint her por- trait, with the result that the artist falls hope- lessly in love with his model. We then have some very graphic descriptions of the ways and customs of the country to which the woman belongs, and we follow the lovers through the various episodes of their escapade to the tragic dénouement. “En Colonne ” is the title of a volume by General Bruneau, in which the intrepid soldier and explorer gives us an account of his various expeditions. Among the subjects are : Souvenirs de V Insurrection Kabile, Le Sanglier Marabout, Une Vision des Temps Prehistoriques, Un Affut a la Panthere, Un Raid_d'Infanterie, Entre la Vie er la Mort, and A la Légion. An extremely valuable historical work has just been published by Mlle. Emilie Cher- buliez. It is entitled ‘“‘ Mémoires de Isaac Cornuaud sur Genéve et la Révolution de 1770 421795.” The book will be greatly appreciated by all who are interested in the history of Switzerland. Isaac Cornuaud was one of the ardent patriots of his day, a man who con- tributed largely to the political history of his country. Mlle. Cherbuliez has compiled the volume from ten huge manuscript volumes, of about 500 pages each, written between the years 1785 and 1796 by her great-great-grand- father. Isaac Cornuaud was the great-grand- father of Victor Cherbuliez, and, thanks to his position and personality, he had_ excellent opportunities for seeing and knowing every- thing which concerned the life, at that critical time, of the “ political atom,” as he styles Geneva. The Introduction to the volume is written by Gaspard Vallette, and the bio- THE AUTHOR. graphical notice by Mlle. Cherbuliez. Among the twenty-three chapters are the following; Introduction a Vhistoire des Natifs jusqu'a 1766, including the Rapports des Natifs avec Voltaire; Le Plan de Conciliation; La Prise d’armes dus fevrier 1781; Entrée des troupes étrangeres % Geneve; Genéve, apres la Révolution de 1782; La Révolution de 1789; L’égalité politique; Le ~ gouvernement révolutionnaire; and Questions sae" administratives et économiques. At the Odéon, ‘‘ David Copperfield ” is being — - played. ‘‘ La Demoiselle de Magasin is now # being given at the Gymnase, and, at the | « Athenée, ‘‘ La Semaine Folle.” At the ThéAtre des Champs-Elysées “ Boris Godounow”’ is now on the bill, and at the © Gymnase we are to have a series of Polish plays, | Atys Hatuarp, “La Maison.’ (Plon.) << Au Hasard de la Vie.”’ (Grasset.) “Les Fantoches dela Peur.” (Blond.) “L’Entraineuse.” (Calmann-Lévy.) “Parvati.” (Michel.) «En Colonne.” (Calmann-Lévy.) “Mémoires de Isaac Cornuaud sur Genive et la Révolution de 1770 4 1795.’ (A. Jullien.) +—<—_+—___—_- LEGAL CASES. ———+ — Copyricut TECHNICALITIES 1N THE U.S.A, — = I EGAL cases in the United States ate © matters of almost equal interest to United States authors and to British authors. The case quoted below is of special importance as it shows the difficulties into» which it is possible to run when the law makes | technicalities essential for securing copyright. | ~ There is hardly any copyright case taken im the United States but the pirate or other’ © offender bases his defence on the technicalities ~ necessary under the United States Act. Tne : case quoted is taken from the New York Times : and that paper in its leader on the subject, states as follows :—‘ Section 12, upon while the Court based judgment, says that no action or proceedings shall be maintained for oe ment of copyright until the copies of pea have been deposited in the mails n vain the counsel for The Times pointed out to the Court that the action was not for infringement of copyright, it was not 4 suit) to recover damages, it was an equity pro=" ceeding to restrain a threatened violation of | 3, its copyright.” It further adds :—* If the) © law is to be construed as it has been constru Ls ; in the present case, ‘ what may we expect when’  oo ee Bae Mico SG sete 28 Sh wig ’ Pole, THE AUTHOR. the Courts are asked to pass on the meaning of the “registration” in Section 127°” The matter is, of course, a very serious matter, and it is a real blessing that under the new English Copyright Act no technicalities whatever are necessary. This has its disadvantages, but the advantages running with no technicalities are overwhelming, and the plenipotentiaries who met at the Convention of Berlin, as at the Convention of Berne, fully understood its importance. The Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the decree of the United States District Court, dismissing on demurrer the complaint of The New York Times Company against The Sun Printing and Publishing Association in an equity suit to secure an injunction forbidding the publication by the defendant of Amund- sen’s account of his discovery of the South of which copyright had been secured by The Times. The decree of the District Court is sustained on the ground that at the time the injunction was applied for The Times had not complied with that provision of the copyright law which requires that two complete copies of the publication must be deposited in the mails addressed to the Register of Copyrights at Washington. The history of the case is that The Times acquired by purchase from the London Chronicle the full American rights of publica- tion and copyright in Amundsen’s personal narrative. The Amundsen story was cabled to The Times on the afternoon of March 8, 1912. The matter was put in type, bound in book form with a copyright notice on each copy, and prior to the application for injunction it was publicly exposed for sale and copies were sold. ‘This step was taken in order to secure a copyright under section 9 of the Copyright Act, which provides— “That any person entitled thereto by this Act may secure copyright for his work by publication thereof with the notice of copyright required by this Act ; and such notice shall be affixed to each copy thereof published or offered for sale in the United States by the authority of the copy- right proprietor.” The Times felt that this publication with copyright notice had made the copyright secure. The word ‘‘ secure” is used in section 9. The word is again used in section 12— “that after copyright has been secured by publication of the work with the notice of copyright as provided in section 9 of this Act.” If the provisions of section 9 and section 12 mean anything, they mean that by publication of the Amundsen story in book form with copyright notice, The Times had before 10 P.M. of March 8 secured its copyright. 259 Now as to the mailing provision. Sec- tion 12 provides that after copyright has been secured by publication with the copyright notice,— “there shall be promptly deposited in the copyright office or in the mail addressed to the Register of Copyrights, Washington, D.C., two complete copies of the best edition thereof then published.” It is perfectly true, as Judge Lacombe said in his opinion, on which the decree of the District Court was made, that The Times, had in its possession copies of the publication, two of which it might at once have deposited in the mails. But on the evening in question The Times had before it the rules and regula- tions established by the Register of Copyrights for procedure in such cases. One of these rules related to the form of the affidavit to be submitted to the Register with the copies mailed or deposited by the applicant. It is here quoted :— “Noricy.—The date of the execution of this affidavit must be subsequent to the stated date of the publication of the book.” That is not permissive, but mandatory. The date of the publication of the book was March 8. Therefore two copies of the book with the accompanying affidavit were deposited in the mails addressed to the Register of Copy- rights at Washington a few minutes after mid- night. The copies were mailed, that is, on March 9. But as The Times had been put no notice of an intention on the part of some of its contemporaries to publish the Amundsen story, it was necessary that the application for an injunction to restrain such acts in violation of its copyright should be made before midnight on March 8. The application was so made and a restraining order issued. Both the application and issue necessarily preceded the deposit of the copies in the mails addressed to the Register of Copyrights, which did not take place until a few minutes alter midnight. On this account the District Court set aside the restraining order, and on this ground the Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the decree dismissing the injunction proceedings. The court bases its affirmance upon this provision of section 12 of the copyright law :— “No action or proceeding shall be maintained for infringe- ment of copyright in any work until the provisions of this Act with respect to deposit of copies and registration of such work shall have been complied with.” This decision would seem proper enough in a suit for damages for infringement begun before the deposit of copies in the mails. But The Times had begun no such suit; its pro- 260 ceeding on the night of March 8 was taken for the purpose of preventing, not punishing, infringement. Section 86 of the Copyright Act provides— “That any such Court or Judge thereof shall have power, upon bill in equity filed by any party aggrieved, to grant injunctions to prevent and restrain the violation of any right secured by said laws.” Taking the words of section 9, “‘ may secure copyright for his work by publication thereof with the notice of copyright,” in connection with those of section 36 just quoted, it would seem to the lay mind that The Times had a clear right to protection, by injunction, against intended theft. But the Court holds otherwise. It seems a curious matter that The New York Times, instead of disputing the decision and carrying the action to a second Court, did not, having registered their copyright, begin a second action for infringement. This would no doubt have been the cheaper proceeding of the two. RESERVATION OF Dramatic RIGHTS, IN THE U.S.A. II. {Reprinted from the Bulletin of the Author League of America.) : Tue case of Dam v. Kirk La Shelle Com- pany, decided in the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in Janu- ary, 1910, is of such importance to writers for magazines and other periodicals as well as to publishers that it deserves careful attention. This case may be said to be the last important decision on the question of what protection the blanket copyright secured by a magazine publisher, upon his magazine, affords the authors of the various storiés, articles and poems contained in it. The facts were briefly as follows :— Henry J. W. Dam wrote a story in 1898, called “ The Transmogrification of Dan.” In 1901 he sent the manuscript to the Ess. Ess. Publishing Company, a corporation publishing the “Smart Set Magazine.” The editor accepted the story and sent a check in return for $85, together with a receipt reading :— “Received of the Ess, Ess. Publishing Company $85 in full payment for story entitled *‘ The Transmogrification of Dan.’ ” This Dam signed and mailed back to the editor. At no time did he have any interview with the editor or any correspondence bearing on the understanding with which the story was sold. The story came out in the ‘‘ Smart Set ”’ for Erc., THE AUTHOR. September, 1901, and the particular number in question was copyrighted by the Ess. Ess, Publishing Company, in its own name, and bearing a notice which read :— ‘“‘ Copyrighted, 1901, by Ess, Ess. Pub- lishing Company.” No steps were taken by the magazine or b Dam to copyright the story separately from the magazine. Some time afterward Paul Armstrong wrote a play entitled ‘‘ The Heir to the Hoorah,” which Dam claimed was founded on his story, “The Transmogrification of Dan.” The defendant, Kirk La Shelle Company, presented the play by arrangement with Paul Armstrong, On October 27, 1905, the Ess. Ess. Pub- lishing Company assigned to Dam its copy- right of the particular number of the ‘‘ Smart Set ’ in which his story had appeared, in so far as it covered or protected his story, and all its interest in the story itself and any claim or demand which it might have for the infringe- ment of the copyright in question. In due course Dam sued for a preliminary injunction against the defendant, and in his affidavit swore :— ““T have not at any time parted with any right or interest in said literary work entitled * The Transmogrification of Dan,’ except the right for publication thereof in said number of the ‘ Smart Set ’ for September, 1901.” Later on, the complaint was amended so as to allege simply that Dam sold and assigned the story in question to the Ess. Ess. Pub- lishing Company. Among other things in defence the Kirk La Shelle Company set up the claim that Dam’s original statement, sworn to in his complaint to the effect that he had not sold any of his rights in the story to the “‘ Smart Set,” except the right of publication in the particular number in question, must be taken as true; and that it followed as a necessary consequence that the blanket copyright secured by the Ess. Ess. Publishing Company, on the particular issue of the magazine, only operated to afford such protection as the Publishing Company needed as publishers of the magazine, and did not operate to protect the rights which Dam retained, whatever they might have been, including the right of dramatisation which Dam claimed had been infringed, and for which he asked an injunction. The Circuit Court of Appeals.found as a fact that Dam’s statement that he had parted with ~ no right or interest in the story except that of serial publication was not the case, and (in spite  NDE Zo pete EG ee ee ae ess ae Pe en SR ee ee ES SS feet ee Se) OO ree St EN ewe en THE AUTHOR. 261 of Dam’s original allegations to the contrary) that when he mailed the story to the “ Smart Set ’ and the editor sent him a check for $85 this constituted an absolute sale without reservations, and that the Ess. Ess. Publishing Company thereby acquired all rights in the story, including the dramatic rights. This, in itself, would have been a decision of considerable importance, in view of the widely prevalent belief that when a magazine writer sends his product to a magazine, without an accompanying letter specifying the terms under which the story or article is offered, he is selling merely the serial rights thereto. But the Court in discussing the facts in general, went somewhat beyond the precise point in issue, and held that if it had been true that Dam had offered for sale and sold to the Ess. Ess. Pub- lishing Company only the right to print the story in serial form, that probably, as matter of law, the dramatic rights would never have been copyrighted at all, since it was a funda- mental proposition that no one could copy- right that which he did not own, and, if the Ess. Ess. Publishing Company had purchased only the serial rights in the story, the copy- right upon the particular number of the “Smart Set ’’ would have operated to protect only those serial rights, and that as Dam had taken no further steps to protect or copyright the rights or interests in the story which he had reserved, and as the story had been published, there would have been an abandonment of it to the public and no protection for the dramatic rights at all. The opinion of the Court is reported in 176 Federal Reporter, page 902, and reads as follows :— **Tt is claimed, however, that such steps accomplished no more than to obtain such protection needed as publishers of the magazine. Assuming that Dam retained the dramatic rights to the story, there would be much force in this contention. In such a case we doubt very much whether the steps which the publisher took to copyright his magazine, especially in view of the form of the copyright notice, would have been sufficient to protect the dramatic rights.” After referring to the case of Mifflin v. Dutton et} (190 U. S. 265), the Court continued :— ** In view of this decision by the Supreme Court, we think that had Dam retained the dramatic rights to his story, the entry of the magazine and the notice of copyright would have been insufficient to protect them. . . . In the case of the reservation of dramatic rights, in addition to the notice of the copy- right of the magazine, it may well be that it should appear in some distinct way that such reservation of such rights to the particular story is made for the benefit of the author. Indeed, it may be that the author should contemporaneously take out in his own name a copyright covering such rights.” The Court then proceeded to hold that inas- much as the Ess. Ess. Publishing Company had in fact acquired all rights to the story, the copy- right which they secured on the particular number of the magazine in question did operate to protect all rights, including the dramatic rights; and that, since there had been a re- assignment by the Ess. Ess. Publishing Com- pany to Dam of the dramatic rights, he could properly ask for an injunction and an account- ing, and they thereupon awarded to the com- plainant, who, at the time the decision was rendered, was the administratrix of Dam’s estate, the total profits received by the Kirk La Shelle Company from its production of the play. The case was not appealed to the Supreme Court, but has since been settled, and, therefore, represents the law to-day, which may be stated as follows :— (a) The sale by an author of a story to a magazine, and the acceptance of a sum of money ‘‘in full payment for the story,” without any further agreement, is in legal fact an absolute sale without reservation, carrying with it as an incident of ownership the exclusive right to dramatise the story. (b) The copyright of such magazine is suffi- cient to secure the copyright of the story pub- lished therein, and protects the right to dramatise it when the publisher is the owner of both the story and the dramatic rights. (c) (Dictum.) Where the owner of a story sells the same only for magazine or serial publication, the copyright of the magazine does not protect those rights which the author retains, unless he takes some independent steps to copyright them himself; and since the publishing of the story in the magazine operates as an abandonment of such rights, if the story is thereafter dramatised by a third party, the author can have no redress. The action, although a recent one, was brought under the former copyright law, but there would not seem to be anything in the present Act which would qualify or render less significant the decision. The attorney for the Authors’ League of America doubts seriously whether the dictum of the court (c) is the view which will ultimately prevail if the point 1s eventually properly raised either before the Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court 262 of the United States. He believes that this court could have reached the same decision in the Dam case by another process of reasoning more consistent with the general understanding under which authors are accustomed to submit their manuscripts to editors and publishers. This he believes to be that, in default of any written or oral agreement between the parties, an editor or publisher of a magazine who pur- chases a manuscript does so on the implied understanding that he shall copyright the same and hold the copyright thereof in trust for the author, thus protecting not only the dramatic rights, but all other rights for the author’s benefit. If this be so, the author can compel a reassignment of the copyright to him- self when necessary, such as Dam secured voluntarily from the Ess. Ess. Company. But, in any event, so long as this and similar matters remain in doubt, both authors and publishers should, for their own protection, agree on some system whereby the dramatic and all other rights sre thoroughly safeguarded. This can be accomplished in either of two ways :— (a) The editor can copyright each story or article separately in the author’s name, printing at the bottom of the first page thereof a proper copyright notice, as follows :— ‘Copyright, John Doe, 1913.” The author should then immediately on pub- lication mail one copy of the magazine to the Registrar of Copyrights in Washington, in conformity with the requirements of the present Act, enclosing the fee of One Dollar. This is perhaps the simplest way, although it involves a separate registration of the magazine for each story or article so copyrighted. (b) Or the author can sell his story outright to the editor or publisher, and safely reserve his equitable interests in the dramatic or other rights thereto by attaching to his manuscript a “rider” or slip somewhat as follows :— “This manuscript is submitted with the understanding that if accepted for publication, the same shall be copyrighted by the pub- lishers, and all rights under said copyright (except that of magazine publication) shall be held in trust for the benefit of the writer or his assigns, and will be reassigned to him upon demand.” The writer believes that, under the present state of the law, only by one of the two methods outlined above can a magazine writer be sure that his rights will be properly protected. Arruur C. TRAIN, Attorney for Authors’ League of America. THE AUTHOR. MAGAZINES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTORS. —— HE attention of the committee of the Society of Authors has been called to certain transactions by proprietors and editors of magazines which bring great hard- ship upon those authors who contribute to their journals. The difficulty arises owing to the fact that neither editor nor author makes a clear statement of the terms of the contract under which the one desires to sell his work and the other desires to publish it. The author sends his work up to a journal, the editor writes a letter stating that he is willing to accept the work; the work is. published and the author receives a cheque with a receipt either on a separate paper or endorsed at the back of the cheque, purporting to convey certain rights which the author never contemplated con- veying, and which, when obtained, are often of no value to the proprietor or editor. The receipt purports to convey either the whole copyright or all serial rights. In the first case, that is where the receipt is a separate document, the author is able to cash the cheque and to alter the receipt according to the implied terms of the contract that has been entered into. The hardship in this case arises out of the fact that an author sometimes is afraid to alter the receipt because he thinks such alteration may prejudice him in future in his negotiations with the firm. This has not infrequently been shown to be the result. When, however, the receipt purporting to convey the copyright or all the serial rights is printed on the back of the cheque, the bankers, as a rule, have instructions not to cash the cheque if any alteration is made in the receipt. The author anxious, first, to obtain the money, and secondly, not to have any trouble with the proprietors for the reasons already given, signs the document and thus sells his birthright for a mess of pottage. To a certain extent there is fault on both sides, for the author, if he was really business- like, would forward his article to the magazine and would state clearly, in a covering letter, the rights he desired to sell, and the price at which he desired to sell those rights. If the editor then accepted the MS., it would be accepted, on the terms of the letter which had been sent, unless the editor made some special stipulation before publication. The case is unbusinesslike from the editor’s point of view, for when he accepts the work he ought to state clearly what rights he desires to buy, and the price he desires to give for those  THE AUTHOR. rights. A worse complexion, however, is thrown on the case where the author sends up his work and it is printed without any accept- ance whatever. There is, no doubt, some implied contract where no terms are specified and the implied contract seems to be quite clear. When a person sends an article up to a magazine, the implied contract is, that he grants to the magazine the first serial use of that article for that paper. He doesn’t grant all his serial rights, for no doubt in many cases secondary serial rights are very valuable. He certainly doesn’t grant his copyright, and indeed, under the present copyright law, he could not assign away his copyright except in writing. It is, therefore, very unbusinesslike or unjust of proprietors and editors to put the author in the awkward position of having to sign away his rights, or of being boycotted for the future. As several complaints have come to the - Committee of Management of the methods of certain magazines and certain publishers who acted on these lines, a circular was issued from the Society’s office, asking for the editors’ opinions in the circumstances put forward. Out of a dozen letters that were issued, under the committee’s authority, some half-dozen replies were received. An answer from the Religious Tract Society stated that no endorse- ment was made on the cheques, but a separate receipt was sent. As, however, the separate receipt asked for the copyright, it was clear that there was no alleviation of the author’s position, except that he got his money and had the power to alter the receipt. But on his altering the receipt considerable dispute arose, and the editor, in a letter addressed to the author, stated clearly that all matter printed in his paper was the copyright of the paper, and that he had no record of any arrangement by which the author had reserved the copyright of his story. An editor who had any knowledge of the business side of his position would know that, as an universal rule, an author does not intend to convey his copyright to a magazine, and that it is not for the author to reserve the copyright, but for the editor, if he desires to have the copyright, to make a special contract for it. In a letter received from the Amalgamated Press, Ltd., the manager says that the rights that have been acquired are specified at the back of the cheque, and at the same time states that great inconvenience would be caused if every short story or article that was 263 purchased was the subject of a written agree- ment. This may be frue in some circumstances, but the procedure adopted in this case turns out all for the advantage of the papers repre- sented by this manager. For, if anagreement has not been entered into beforehand (and apparently the manager considered and acted upon the consideration that it would be a great inconvenience to enter into an agreement on every occasion), then it is quite clear that the only right acquired would be the first serial use of the story in the paper to which it had been forwarded. If the manager was pre- pared to fill in the endorsement on the back of the cheque on these lines, in those cases, where no written agreement had been made beforehand, then there would be no objection to this method of carrying on the business, and a great deal of difficulty might be saved ; but if the endorsement on the cheque exceeds the first serial use, it is needless for the manager to say, as he states in his letter, that ‘the author in endorsing the cheque would note the form and could at once raise any question as to the rights acquired by the com- pany,” for that places the author under the very hardship that was mentioned at the beginning of this article. A third letter from Messrs. Cassell & Co., states that they have received no complaints in regard to the points raised in the com- mittee’s circular. This statement is not endorsed by the information which has come to the office on several occasions. It would be as well, perhaps, if this manager had made closer enquiries before he responded tothe circular. Another well-known proprietor of magazines stated, as in the first instance, that the company did not place a printed form of receipt on their cheques, but that a separate slip was enclosed in which the terms of purchase were plainly stated. This, as has already been pointed out, has a great advantage if the terms are disputed. Finally, the last letter received was from the ‘English Review.” The manager recog- nised the difficulty and suggested that the Society should draw up some form, and should organise some method which would be simpler for both the authors and the proprietors. It would be useless to multiply cases, but it may be of interest to quote an example of what very frequently happens, and the committee are able to give the particulars of a very clear case that ‘is before them. A member of the Society sent up a copy of verses to a magazine, the proprictors of which 264 are Messrs. Dent & Co. The verses were published without any communication what- ever to the author. In due course the author received a cheque, with a formal receipt accompanying, asking for the whole of the copyright ; the receipt running as follows :— ** Received this day of from (publishers) the sum of in payment of the amount agreed to be paid by them to me for a poem entitled a ” in the number of on the terms that the copyright in any work therein shall belong to the said (publishers) absolutely.” The payment was very inadequate, even for the first serial use. It was absolutely absurd for the copyright of a work, and the receipt is inaccurate for it contains the words ‘“ the amount agreed to be paid by them to me,” and ‘‘on the terms that the copyright... shall belong to the publishers absolutely,” though no agreement whatever had been come to on either point. In this special case the author altered the receipt, returned it, did not fight about the absurd smallness of the payment, but handed the cheque over to the Pension Fund of the Society of Authors. In this case, all the points that have been raised are clearly set out. First, the author receives an inadequate payment even for the serial use; secondly, he receives a receipt asking him to convey the whole copyright, the only saving point being that the receipt was not at the back of the cheque. It is all very well for proprietors to maintain also that the author can dispute the rights, but many authors do not understand the legal technicalities contained in the words and may be, and often are, quite unconsciously, selling rights which they never intended to sell. In this special instance, it must be remembered that the power of selling poetry, especially if it is fitted for production to music, is exten- Sive, as sometimes two or three composers will set a song to music, and for each licence the author may obtain from two to five pounds. The committee, however, desire, in order, if possible, to come to some satisfactory arrange- ment, to propose the following :— 1. That no receipt whatever should be demanded by the process of endorsement to the cheque. 2. That in the case where, owing to pressure of business or other matters, it is impossible to make a formal written agreement with the author, and failing any covering letter sent THE AUTHOR. by the author to the publisher, the receipt should run as follows :— “* Received of the sum of being payment for the first serial use of the article entitled in maga- zine. The author hereby, undertakes not to produce the said work in serial or book form for a term of months from the date of such publication,” The committee have given the time limit their serious consideration. They consider that in many cases where a striking story or striking poem has been published ina magazine, review or paper, it is only fair that the magazine, paper or review should benefit by the increase in its circulation for a limited time after the publication of the work. They think that in special cases a six months’ limit is reasonable, but in the majority of cases the limit should be much less, and that, if any- thing, this limit gives an advantage to the magazine rather than to the author. ST MAGAZINE CONTENTS. a, British REVIEW. The Popular Taste. By R. A. Scott James. CoNTEMPORARY. Wagner in 1913. By Ernest Newman. Shakespeare and Pictorial Art. CoRNHILL. The Little Brothers of the Pavement. By Gilbert Coleridge. Encuish REVIEW. Boceaccio. By Walter Raleigh. Mr. Newton-Robinson’s Poems. By William Steb- bing. FORTNIGHTLY. By Oliver Onions. Henry Ospovat. By W. L. Courtney. Realistic Drama, I. NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER. Gobineau, Nietzsche, Wagner. By Georges Chatterton- Hill. SCALE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS, [ALLOWANCE TO MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY 20 PER CENT.) Front Page dee . £4 0 0 Other Pages vee one se ae see ase a 8 0 0 Half of a Page ... aes en aes Ca oie eek wea ks 10> 0 Quarter of a Page uae oan ves on on ae on O16 6 Highth of a Page ce se ms - $ cs a OT 8 Single Column Advertisements perinch 0 6 0 Reduction of 20 per cent. made for a Series of Sia and of 25 per cent, for Twelve Insertions. All letters respecting Advertisements should be addvessed to J. F. Brimont & Co., 29, Paternoster Square, London, E.G.  i 3 a THE AUTHOR. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. — i. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive iD 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. The Secretary of the Society is a solicitor; but if there is any special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they deem it desirable, will obtain counsel's opinion without any cost to the member. Moreover, where counsel's opinion is favourable, and the sanction of the Committee is obtained, action will be taken on behalf of the aggrieved member, and all costs borne by the Society. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi- ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society. 8. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the document to the Society for examination. 4. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no direct benefit to yourse!f, and that you are advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer. 5. The Committee have 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 stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (2) To keep agreements. (3) To enforce payments due according to agreements. Fuller particu- lars of the Society’s work can be obtained in the Prospectus. 6. 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 with publishers submitted to them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary of the Society. 7. 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 8. 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. 9. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per annum, or £10 10s. for life membership. Oi WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS OF BOOKS. —_=<—+—_ ERE 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 sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be 265 obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of the Society. Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of agreement), In this case the following rules should be attended to: (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro- duction forms a part without the strictest investigation, (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise- ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements, (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,” unless the same allowance is made to the author. (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental rights. (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher. As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or doctor ! III. The Royalty System. This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form of agreement. 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 the truth. From time to time very important figures connected with royalties are published in Zhe Author, 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, (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. (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright. ++ —____—___ WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS. a EVER 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 any one 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 contract for production of the piece by a certain date and for proper publication of his name on the play-bills, 264 are Messrs. Dent & Co. The verses were published without any communication what- ever to the author. In due course the author received a cheque, with a formal receipt accompanying, asking for the whole of the copyright ; the receipt running as follows :— ‘* Received this day of from (publishers) the sum of in payment of the amount agreed to be paid by them to me for a poem entitled a *? in the number of on the terms that the copyright in any work therein shall belong to the said (publishers) absolutely.” The payment was very inadequate, even for the first serial use. It was absolutely absurd for the copyright of a work, and the receipt is inaccurate for it contains the words “the amount agreed to be paid by them to me,” and ‘“‘on the terms that the copyright... shall belong to the publishers absolutely,” though no agreement whatever had _ been come to on either point. In _ this special case the author altered the receipt, returned it, did not fight about the absurd smallness of the payment, but handed the cheque over to the Pension Fund of the Society of Authors. In this case, all the points that have been raised are clearly set out. First, the author receives an inadequate payment even for the serial use; secondly, he receives a receipt asking him to convey the whole copyright, the only saving point being that the receipt was not at the back of the cheque. It is all very well for proprietors to maintain also that the author can dispute the rights, but many authors do not understand the legal technicalities contained in the words and may be, and often are, quite unconsciously, selling rights which they never intended to sell. In this special instance, it must be remembered that the power of selling poetry, especially if it is fitted for production to music, is exten- sive, as sometimes two or three composers will set a song to music, and for each licence the author may obtain from two to five pounds. The committee, however, desire, in order, if possible, to come to some satisfactory arrange- ment, to propose the following :— 1. That no receipt whatever should be demanded by the process of endorsement to the cheque. 2. That in the case where, owing to pressure of business or other matters, it is impossible to make a formal written agreement with the author, and failing any covering letter sent THE AUTHOR. by the author to the publisher, the ; should run as follows si receipt “Received of the sum of being payment for the first serial use of the article entitled in maga- zine. The author hereby, undertakes not to produce the said work in serial or book form for a term of months from the date of such publication.” The committee have given the time limit their serious consideration. They consider that in many cases where a striking story or striking poem has been published in a magazine, review or paper, it is only fair that the magazine, paper or review should benefit by the increase in its circulation for a limited time after the publication of the work. They think that in special cases a six months’ limit is reasonable, but in the majority of cases the limit should be much less, and that, if any- thing, this limit gives an advantage to the magazine rather than to the author. ee MAGAZINE CONTENTS. ——— + British REVIEW. The Popular Taste. By R. A. Scott James. CoNTEMPORARY. Wagner in 1913. By Ernest Newman. Shakespeare and Pictorial Art. CoRNHILL. The Little Brothers of the Pavement. Coleridge. By Gilbert Eneuish REVIEW. Boccaccio. By Walter Raleigh. Mr. Newton-Robinson’s Poems. bing. By William Steb- FORTNIGHTLY. Henry Ospovat. By Oliver Onions. Realistic Drama, I. By W. L. Courtney. NINETEENTH CENTURY AND AFTER. Gobineau, Nietzsche, Wagner. By Georges Chatterton- Hill. SCALE FOR ADVERTISEMENTS, [ALLOWANCE TO MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY 20 PER CENT.} Front Page ie see ee tee me << sau es a Other Pages ae ste see obs ee “se “8 ose ) Half of a Page ... ake owe wee a Quarter of a Page tee 5 EHighth of a Page sae Ge Single Column Advertisements Q 6 os au 0 T 0 . perinch 0 6 O Reduction of 20 per cent. made for a Series of Six and of 25 per cent. for Twelve Insertions. All letters respecting Advertisements should be addressed to J. F. Bextoont & Co., 29, Paternoster Square, London, B.C. THE AUTHOR. HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY. a i. VERY member has a right toask for and to receive K 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. The Secretary of the Society is a solicitor; but if there is any special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion without any cost to the member. Moreover, where counsel’s opinion is favourable, and the sanction of the Committee is obtained, action will be taken on behalf of the aggrieved member, and all costs borne by the Society. 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi- ence of ordinarysolicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use the Society. 3. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the document to the Society for examination. 4. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are reaping no direct benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer, 5. The Committee have 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 thesafe. The Society now offers: (1) To stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon them. (2) To keep agreements. (3) To enforce payments due according to agreements. Fuller particu- lars of the Society’s work can be obtained in the Prospectus. 6. 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 with publishers submitted to them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary of the Society. 7. 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 8. 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. 9. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per anoum, or £10 10s. for life membership. Or WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS OF BOOKS. een gece ERE 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 sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be 265 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. This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form of agreement. 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 the truth. From time to time very important figures connected with royalties are published in Zhe Author, 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. (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. (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright. he WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS. ee EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the N 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 any one except an established manager, 8. 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 contract for production of the piece by a certain date and for proper publication of his name on the play-bills, 266 (v.) 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.c., 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 (0.) 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 United States rights may be exceed- ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English 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 information are referred to the Secretary of the Society. + REGISTRATION OF SCENARIOS AND ORIGINAL PLAYS. ——$- 9 ne ape typewritten in duplicate on foolscap paper forwarded to the offices of the Society, together with a registration fee of two shillings and sixpence, will be carefully compared by the Secretary or a qualified assis- tant. One copy will be stamped and returned to theauthor and the other filed in the register of the Society. Copies of the scenario thus filed may be obtained at any time by the author only at a small charge to cover cost of typing. Original Plays may also be filed subject to the same rules, with the exception that a play will be charged for at the price of 24. 6d. per act, THE AUTHOR. DRAMATIC AUTHORS? AND AGENTS. —t RAMATIC authors should seek the advice of the Society before putting plays into the hands of agents. As the law stands at present, an agent who has once had a play in his hands may acquire a perpetual claim to a percentage on the author's feeg from it. As far as the placing of plays is concerned, it may be taken as a general rule that there are only very few agents who can do anything for an author that he cannot, under the guidance of the Society, do equally well or better for himself. The collection of fees is also a matter in which in many cases no intermediary is required. For certain purposes, such as the collection of fees on amateur performances, and in general.the trans- action of frequent petty authorisations with different individuals, and also for the collection of fees*in foreign countries, almost all dramatic authors employ agents; and in these ways the services of agents are real and valuable, But the Society warns authors against agents who profess to have influence with managers in the placing of plays, or who propose to act as principals by offering to purchase the author's rights. In any case, in the present state of the law, an agent should not be employed under any circumstances without an agreement approved of by the Society. ee WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS. oe ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the assistance of producers of books and dramatic authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan- cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic property. The musical composer has very often the two rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He should be especially careful therefore when entering into an agreement, and should take into particular consideration the warnings stated above. Oi STAMPING MUSIC. The Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble. re THE READING BRANCH. — > EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this branch of its 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, —— ee REMITTANCES. a : The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post. All remittances should be crossed Union of London and Smiths Bank, Chancery Lane, or be sent by registered letter only. THE AUTHOR. COLLECTION BUREAU. ——_-— | due to authors, composers and dramatists. 1. Under contracts for the publication of their works. 2. Under contracts for the performance of their works and amateur fees. 3. Under the Compulsory Licence Clauses of the Copy- right Act, i.e., Clause 3, governing compulsory licences for books, and Clause 19, referring to mechanical instrument records. The Bureau is divided into three department :— 1; Literary. 2. Dramatic. 3. Musical. The Society does not desire to make a profit from the collection of fees, but will charge a commission to cover expenses. If, owing to the amount passing through the office, the expenses are more than covered, the Committee of Management will discuss the possibility of reducing the commission. For full particulars of the terms of collection, application must be made to the Collection Bureau of the Society. The Bureau is in no sense a literary or dramatic agency, for the placing of books or plays. —___—_+—~>—_+-—____—_- GENERAL NOTES. THEATRICAL CONDITIONS IN HOLLAND. F We have received a very interesting report from Mr. A. Reyding, the Society’s recently appointed agent in Holland, touching the theatrical conditions obtaining in that country. Mr. Reyding informs us that while the fees paid for representations in Amsterdam are not those which could be obtained in London or Paris, they are by no means to be despised. Amsterdam possesses five theatres of import- ance, and a few smaller ones, apart from music halls and numerous cinematograph theatres. Four managers in Amsterdam and one in Rotterdam are continually in search of good plays which have attained success in London. One of the most important theatrical institutions is the “Royal Company” in Amsterdam. It is managed by a board of directors and liberally subsidised by the Queen. Moreover, it is allowed to give performances in the “ Municipal Theatre,” a large, modern building. Practically the management run two companies, alternatively travelling in the provinces. Another first-rate enterprise is the ‘‘ Crystal Palace Theatre’? in Amsterdam. It is man- aged by a gifted and energetic actor-manager, who has already achieved great successes during the short period of his directorship. Here again a double company is maintained with a view to travelling. 267 As third and fourth in rank, the ‘‘ Holland Theatre” and the ‘Grand Theatre” in Amsterdam may be mentioned, both under the management of a well-known author. The company engaged by this director is so numer- ous that it allows of dividing into three or even four parts, according to circumstances. The ‘Rembrandt ‘Theatre’ produces musical comedies only. Among the smaller theatres, two are worthy ofattention. Firstly, the “‘ Frascati Theatre,” managed by a young, intelligent actor-manager, and presenting good performances of the Paris ‘‘ Theatre des Varietes ’’ repertory and light comedy in general. Secondly, the ‘Plantage Theatre,” cultivating detective- drama. As to gross box receipts, these are naturally inferior to London figures, owing to the fact that the charges for seats remain far below cosmopolitan standard prices and that, practi- eally, real full houses occur on Sunday nights only. At a rough estimate, £40 may be con- sidered as the average gross takings on a week-day in any principal theatre, always provided that the play is a success. And the receipts on Sunday nights may amount to £120, and even more in one or two houses. It follows that the totality during each week might be valued at about £360 in favourable cases. Series of a hundred consecutive representa- tions are by no means the longest on record ; the way in which Amsterdam companies are being managed allows of continuous runs. An exception, however, must be made for the “Royal Company,” where the “ Comedie Francaise” example is followed, the playbill changing about every day. Nevertheless, if a play produced by that company prove successful, it may become a repertory play, yielding profits during many years. Other companies only re-start a play in case of its run having been interrupted by the end of the season, or on the ground of some other urgent cause; for, as a rule, re-starting a piece does not pay. Amsterdam may be called the centre of theatrical life in Holland, yet Rotterdam possesses a fine playhouse and an excellent company of its own. But as that city has a relatively small number of inhabitants, long runs never occur there. A series of twenty representations may be considered as a maxi- mum. As to receipts there is no sensible difference between Amsterdam and Rotterdam figures. It. may be taken as a general rule that, in 268 Holland, translators’ fees are paid by the managers, quite separate from authors’ fees. English authors, therefore, should never put their plays into the hands.of would-be trans- lators, who offer to divide equally the profits derived from representations in Holland. Concerning authors’ fees for cinematograph performances, up to this moment films of British origin have only been produced here by way of exception, and in these cases the usual course seems to be that the manufac- turers pay a sum once to the author of a plot. Music PUBLISHERS AND FoREIGN MECHANICAL Ricuts. WE have already called attention to the claim of the English music publisher to take 50% of the composer’s mechanical fees. This claim, when admitted by composers, reduces their fees under the compulsory licence clauses of the Copyright Act to something near the vanishing point, so far as the United Kingdom is concerned. ‘But the mischief does not end here. There are the foreign mechanical fees to be considered, and from correspondence which has come to the Society’s office, it would seem that the case of the composer in respect of these fees, is even worse than it is in the United Kingdom. For example, reference may be made to the sale of mechanical reproductions in Germany. The practice of the English music publisher is to assign the mechanical rights to the German publisher, subject to the payment to the English house of half the fees which their sale produces. The effect of this is that the English music publisher gets 50°% of what the German publisher receives, and the English composer 50% of what the English publisher receives, or 25% of the figure actually paid by the mechanical trade in Germany, less the cost of collection by the agent who is employed to carry through the collection. It may seem strange to the composer that the English publisher should be willing to yield to the German publisher 50% of the fees. Composers are quite accustomed to the music publisher’s request that they should surrender 50% of their fees, but the willingness of the publisher to make a similar surrender does not coincide with their experience of his ability to look after himself in these matters. An explanation, however, occurs to us. It THE AUTHOR. may not be the correct one, but as it certainly would explain a practice otherwise almost inexplicable, we think it worth while to put it forward. We shall be very glad to learn that it is incorrect. Is there a reciprocal arrangement between the British and German music publisher, by which each surrenders 50°% of the mechanical fees produced in their respective countries ? For example, the English publisher may accept half the mechanical fees in Germany for one of his composer’s works on condition that the German house allows him the same share in the mechanical fees in Great Britain of the work of a German composer. An arrangement of this kind protects both parties against loss. But what of the two unfortunate composers. They are obviously in a different position. Depending as each of them does on the popularity of his own compositions, neither is able to reap any advantage from an arrangement of the kind indicated. In consequence, this alliance, if our deduction is correct, is admirable from the point of view of the publishers in the two countries, but is extremely unsatisfactory from the standpoint of the composer, alike in Ger- many and in the United Kingdom. Movine Pictures. Ir is with much pleasure we note that the valuable report by Mr. Cecil Raleigh on Moving Pictures that appeared in last month’s issue, has raised considerable interest not only with the producers of cinematograph films, but also with the authors that write the plots. The Bioscope has interviewed Mr. Raleigh and the Daily Chronicle has inserted a long article from his dictation. As we pointed out in last month’s Author the matter is of the greatest importance; it must not be reckoned that that report is final. Mr. Raleigh, himself, does not consider it so. Since it was produced, further information has come to his knowledge and to the office of the Society. It appears that the French Society has also issued a report, and a report has also come through from Germany ; further details are also to hand from America. It is likely, therefore, that at no distant date a subsidiary report will have to be made, dealing with these new facts. It seems quite clear that there will be a large and increasing market for good plots for films, and if properly handled there should be a considerable income for those authors who study the public tastes.  BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE UNITED STATES, R. GEORGE P. BRETT has been or writing in the April number of the Atlantic Monthly on ‘* Book Publish- ing and its present Tendencies.” We take it that he refers to book publishing in America. He arrives at the conclusion that although the number of books put on the market has greatly inereased during the past few years, the total circulation of books in the United States has not increased in anything like the same pro- portion; and he further explains that many of the publishers who were known for a particu- lar class of book have gone in for general publishing business. He draws the conclusion that the gross circulation has not increased owing to the fault in distribution, and his solution of the difficulty appears to be that books should be published at a cheaper rate, and as a corollary, that the authors must take smaller royalties. It is quite true that if books are published at a cheap rate, the authors cannot take the same amount of royalty as they can if the book is published at a higher price, but it does not follow by any means that if the book is produced in the first instance at a low price that the increase in the circulation will be at all proportionate. I mean by that, that the publisher and the author will arrive at the same amount of profit in the end. Indeed, all evidence goes to show that the deduction isfalse. There are no doubt a few authors who make a universal appeal, that is, an appeal to all people who can read and write, but the number who can make this appeal can be reckoned on the fingers of one hand. The general author has a certain following, and, however cheap his books are, that following will not be increased very perceptibly by publishing at a cheaper rate. The Society of Authors went into the figures as far as the English market is concerned, in great detail, and issued a report not long ago on the subject. Mr. Brett instances France and Germany, but the case in France certainly has tended to reduce the profits, and has not been a financial success from the author’s point of view. In England, for instance, supposing an author gets 1s. on a 6s. book, published subject to discount, he would get, perhaps, _ 14d. on.a 1s. net book. He would, therefore, have to obtain eight times the circulation in order to make his returns equivalent, and this THE AUTHOR. 269 extra circulation he does not, as a rule, obtain. Indeed, the publication of so many cheay books is very often, as the booksellers pointed out, disastrous to the bookselling trade. The booksellers having no room in which to display the crowd of new and cheap books, in consequence find their shops filled with unworkable stock. Mr. Brett says, “‘ the successful experiments in the publishing of cheap editions of books abroad are usually with those books which are either out of copy- right, and consequently pay no royalty to the authors, or for which a very low rate of royalty can be arranged.” By abroad, no doubt he includes England, but although no doubt the English classics are published in cheap form, there is, at the same time, an enormous output of copyright books pub- lished also in the cheap form, but—after they have already appeared in a more expensive edition. The article contains some very interesting statements, but statements which are not by any means satisfactory from the author’s. point of view, statements which by no means apply to the English market, even if they do to the American. Has Mr. Brett really made an exhaustive study from all points ? or is he only feeling his way as a publisher? I cannot at all agree with Mr. Brett that the solution of the difficulty, at any rate as far as England is concerned, is by issuing books at alow price. It is always possible to reduce the price of a book half-a-dozen years after its original publication, if it is clear that there is still a continuing demand for it, but the result of this reduction in the price is by no means always financially successful to the author and the publisher for the reasons already given. If the book shows that it is likely to have a universal appeal, then no doubt, after a run at a higher price, it will be best to produce the book in cheap form, but if there is not sufficient vitality to carry the book through five or six years, then a cheap edition is not desirous but disastrous; and probably if the book had originally been published at a low price, the financial result to the author and the publisher would have been unsatisfactory and destructive to both their interests. The main point of Mr. Brett’s arguments, as has already been pointed out, lies in the fact that he considers authors are too grasping. From the author’s point of view, neither Mr. Brett’s deductions nor his arguments can for a moment be admitted. G. H. T. 270 THE AUTHOR. THE COMMERCIAL SIDE OF MUSIC. ————_ (Reprinted from “The English Review” by kind permission of the Editor.) 1 is a degradation to the profession that any composer should be asked to sign the common form of agreement that is at present being put forward by some of the best houses in the music publishing trade. There has been considerable correspon- dence in The Times and other papers about the sale by Mr. Coleridge Taylor of his copy- right in ‘“‘ Hiawatha” to Messrs. Novello & Co. outright for a sum down. But it is not on this form of contract that I desire to comment, but on a much more subtle form, namely, a contract for the payment of a royalty on the assignment of the copyright. This form is distinctly more subtle, for it seems to the composer that by securing a royalty he may be gaining his just reward, whereas he may still be losing by the assignment every- thing that is worth holding. When a publisher of literary works asks for a licence to publish, he is generally contented with a licence to ublish in book form; in some cases even this 1s limited to book form at a certain price or during a certain period, and if the publisher does not keep the book on the market the contract is at an end. He does not ask for —or should he ask for, does not get—the dramatic rights, the rights of translation, the American copyright and cinematograph rights ; but the music publisher, who should be content with a licence to publish in printed form, asks for an assignment of copyright which carries the performing rights—equal to dramatic rights; the rights of publication in foreign countries—infinitely more valuable than the translation rights, for music is a universal language; the rights in the United States— infinitely more valuable than an author’s United States rights, because the heavy tax of printing in the United States is unnecessary in the case of music; and the rights of repro- duction by mechanical instruments—at the present time more valuable still than the cinematograph rights in a book. After this preamble, it may be useful to print an ordinary form of music publisher’s agreement :— y ieee se OL aise ca in consideration of the royalties hereinafter reserved and of the sum of one shilling (the receipt of which I hereby acknowledge as an advance pay- ment) hereby assign to.....; SAOr el (hereinafter called the Publishers) their successors and assigns the entire and exclusive copyright, rights of representation and arrangement of whatever kind, rights of reproduction tipon mechanical instruments of every description and all othe ‘ rights whatsoever in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland its Colonies and Dependencies and in all foreign countries their Colonies and Dependencies now or hereafter conferred or created of and in the following original work of which I am the composer and compiler The Royalties shall be (a) In the United Kingdom its Colonies (except Canada) and Dependencies at the rate of pence on all copies sold by the Publishers or their successors or assigns. (b) And in the United States of America and Canada and on the Continent of Europe one half of that rate. No royalty on copies gratuitously distributed nor on Band parts. : 7 copies shall be counted as 6. On Mechanical Reproductions :— 50 per cent. of the nett amounts received by the Pub- lishers therefor : AS WITNESS &c. It is surely a mockery to call such a document an agreement ; and, indeed, many of the music publishers realise this fact,,as they refuse or neglect to send the composers a copy signed by the firm; and if the composer has not the business acumen to keep an exact copy, he is left in the humiliating position of having to appeal to the publisher should he subsequently desire to have particulars of the document he has so rashly and foolishly signed. Before discussing this particular form, it will be as well to repeat here some of the legal difficulties which arise out of an assignment of copyright. To begin with, if anything should happen to the firm, if it should become bankrupt, or —if a company—go into liquidation, the composer would have no right, according to existing decisions of the Court, to prevent the assignment of the copyright to another purchaser, and he might find that his property had come into the hands of a most undesirable assignee. But there is worse to follow, for the com- poser would have no claim for royalties against the assignee, and would be in a worse position than if he had sold his copyright for a sum down. Secondly, after the work has once been published, even in a limited degree, no power on earth can force the publisher to continue to keep the work on the market, and the com- * poser might have to buy back that which the publisher refuses to utilise at the publisher’s owr price. Thirdly, if after the work is put on the market an action for infringement of copyright is threatened—this case actually occurred— even though the composer may have the strongest evidence that there is no infringement  THE AUTHOR. the publisher may refuse to run the risk and has power to withdraw all copies. Again the eomposer is without a remedy. Finally, the publisher may alter the work within the limit of libel, produce a chorale as a waltz, or adapt the airs for other purposes than those originally designed by the composer. Such alterations, which might be the cause of the greatest annoyance to the composer, need not, and probably would not, give him a right of action. These are some of the legal difficulties arising out of the assignment of copyright. The financial loss is also considerable, for the performing rights, save in few cases, are squandered by the publishers for the adver- tisement of their own wares, when these rights might be husbanded by the composer, and, if properly marketed, bring in, in this country, as good a return as they bring in to foreign composers. Reference will be made later to the Toss to the composer arising from the assignment of his mechanical instrument rights. The faults to which attention has been drawn are, however, faults of commission ; but look at the faults of omission. The publishers do not undertake to put the work on the market. No doubt, as payment of a royalty on every copy sold is part of the consideration, publication would be an implied term of the contract. But what kind of pub- lication? In what form? At what price ? By what date? As the royalty is a fixed royalty of so many pennies a copy, it is of great importance that the published price should be fixed, for what might be a fair royalty if the work was issued at one price might be a very unfair royalty if the work was issued at another price. Then, again, all mention of the date is omitted. It is not unknown in the publishing trade that where no date has been fixed, delays of six, twelve, or eighteen months have occurred. Again, there is no clause to compel the publisher to continue publishing, or, alterna- tively, having published, to give up his rights if he does not intend to use them further when the work is out of print. There is not even a common form clause: by which the composer is to receive accounts properly issued at fixed dates. Many other points might be noted, but for the present purpose these are sufficient. The answer of the man of business is clear : “What a fool the composer must be.” To some extent this is true, but it must be reme- bered that the marketing of works of art is different from the marketing of merchandise. 271 The artist is a man often in absolute ignorance of his rights and their potentialities, and he is dealing with a man whose business in life has been to study every detail of artistic property from the commercial standpoint. No wonder, then, that music publishers grow fat and prosper, and that, as far as financial returns are concerned, there are many Coleridge Taylors among the rank and file of the profession. What wonder, also, when one of the leading members of the profession in his smug prosperity says he sees no need for a combination of composers to strengthen the chances of his struggling confreres ; when another states in public that he is too busy to look after his royalties (he may be quite sure the publisher is not) ; when another writes that. most of his contracts are made across his publisher’s dinner-table. If the leaders are so weighted with chains, whether of gold or of inertia or of prejudice, no wonder that the young composer sees so little chance. But the young generation is vigorous and full of life. If it is neglected by those who ought to make it their duty to help, by those who have known what it is to be told that if they did not like to put their name to a con- tract of slavery, the publisher will never publish anything more for them, still, let it fight on until it carves the way to its own salvation. Rights of Reproduction on Mechanical Instru- ments.—When the Copyright Act of 1911 came into force, a splendid opportunity occurred for the composer to break away from his bondage. The rights of reproduction on mechanical instruments were then, for the first time, included under Statutory Copyright, and in order that composers who, before the Act, had assigned their copyrights, might not lose by such conveyance rights of property which, prior to the Act, had not existed, the « Act placed those rights, in spite of the assign ment of copyright, in their hands to deal with. But it stipulated that composers should receive a fixed royalty. The publishers, seeing what was about to happen, at once took steps to counteract the benefits that the Act bestowed. The Society of Authors wrote a letter to The Times to point out to composers their position under past contracts. But the publishers proceeded to form a company for the collection of fees, by the rules of which, after deducting all the expenses of collection—a quite indeter- minate quantity—80 per cent. of the royalties on the property, which, by the Act, was the composer’s absolutely, was transferred to the publishers’ pockets. The music publishe 272 THE AUTHOR. claimed that he was entitled to a percentage of these fees because, by publishing the composer’s music, he had made the mechanical reproduction rights valuable. This may or may not have been true, but if it were true it was a matter to be decided between the com- oser and the publisher, and not arbitrarily & a company which was started on a business basis and not for the settlement of an ethical question. It is certain, however, that in the near future it will be the music publisher who will have to’ thank the mechanical reproducer for the advertisement rather than the mechanical reproducer the publisher. Mechanical reproduction is going ahead very fast, and many owners of pianolas, gramo- phones, etc., go to the retail dealers and try reproductions, quite irrespective of the music publisher, and make their choice for purchase or hire, quite irrespective of whether they have heard the original played from sheet music. This practice will become more and more common, so that the music publisher’s argument that he is entitled to a share in the mechanical instrument rights, if ever it was good, grows less and less valid. But I do not admit it was good. The music publisher is the agent of the composer to produce his music in a certain form specified in the contract, and the author’s royalty is based on this considera- tion. He is not the principal, to claim from the composer control over his rights. The editor of a magazine might as well claim a share in the book production, or the pub- lisher of a book claim a share of the serial rights. But the rules of this company contained other interesting statements. The committee of the company was to be allowed to conduct or defend’ such legal proceedings, as they might sanction, appar- ently, without reference to the composer who was the owner of the rights. Under this rule they might neglect, perhaps for financial reasons, to protect the composer’s rights, and in that case the composer would have no means of obtaining redress for infringements, as the transfer of his rights to the company would have prevented his taking independent action. Secondly, the committee might decide to take action in a case to which the composer might strongly object; and thirdly, the com- mittee might take action in respect of the repro- duction of the rights of one of its members, and get involved in a complicated lawsuit, leaving the rest of the members to bear the expenses of the proceedings, however indis- creetly the committee may have acted. The only limit upon the expenses was the total amount of all royalties collected. Generally, a society can rely on the subscriptions received, and no member is liable for anything more, But in the case of the company referred to, the whole income of the members for royalties on mechanical reproductions was at stake. The principles embodied in the rules of this company have been put forward at some length. It may be that some of the rules have been altered since they were first pro- mulgated ; that milder methods have been suggested. But the idea underlying the publishers’ action is still the same ; they desired to obtain 80 per cent. of property to which they had no right, which, under the very wording of the Act, was declared to be the composer’s absolutely. But there is something more bitter behind. The management of the company was to be under the control of a board consisting of six publishers, three composers and three authors. I understand that composers have been ready to accept places on_ that board. Under the Act another difficulty has arisen. It has been pointed out that the composer, although he had assigned his copyright before the Act came into force, was still allowed to maintain the right of mechanical reproduction in spite of such assignment. It seems, how- ever, from recent evidence, that composers consider that the same principle applies to any contract entered into after the Act has come into force. This deduction is entirely false. Any assignment of copyright after the Act has come into force assigns to the publishers the rights in mechanical repro- duction. In the agreement printed on a previous page the publisher has taken advantage of this and claims 50 per cent. This is kind and generous, for, as he held the copyright, he might have taken everything ; but he has also the power to license or refuse to license the reproduction. That they should retain this in their own hands is a matter which some composers might consider to be of the utmost importance. Is it true, then, that composers are letting slip their opportunities, and are coming back to a worse slavery owing to the fact that copyright now means much more than it did? If it is true it is the fault of those in the forefront of the profession, who from their position could make a firm stand, but refuse to  do so. It is not the negative side, the faults of omission, which is making it so hard for those who are struggling to rise; it is the positive action and the sins of commission. While these continue it is much to be feared that there will be little change in the customary form of pseudo-agreement on which I have reluctantly been compelled to comment. G. HERBERT THRING. —_—_____e —~.— + LIBELS, LIBELLERS AND THE LIBELLED—ALLEGED. ———+ — T least three recent libel actions, A widely reported and more or less “ sensational’? in character, have ended in verdicts for the defendants, for which reljef those gentlemen are no doubt duly thankful. They have good reason to be so, for juries who have awarded undeserved damages in the past, and judges who also have been found not without sympathy with the plaintiffs, have contributed to render the bringing of actions in respect of alleged libels not altogether unprofitable. The successes of his predecessors have, in fact, tended to give the would-be plaintiff an idea that apart from the merits of his case, which he is not likely to underrate, he will start with odds in his favour. The plaintiff's case may, of course, be a perfectly just one. The libel or supposed libel from which authors, composers and artists, the members of the Society, are most likely to suffer, is that which is contained in criticism upon a_ published work. Criticism that is unfair exists ; sometimes it may err through negligence inexcusably, but more or less inadver- tently ; sometimes it is deliberately intended to wound or injure. Authors, however, and the others mentioned, although not insensitive to criticism, as a rule know how to take their knocks philosophically ; they have too much good sense to air their wrongs in litiga- tion, and criticism that is neither fair nor reasonable is tolerated and condoned because it is not worth while to take notice of it. This, however, has nothing to do with the actions for libel to which reference has been made, which have ended in verdicts for defen- dants who have had to watch big bills of costs being piled up, a considerable proportion of which in any event must be paid by them. Actions of this kind interest authors rather THE AUTHOR. 273 as potential writers of libels than as victims of defamation. They cause reflections as to the ease with which law suits may be launched, and unhappy writers compelled to spend their money in self-defence. Alleged libellers who call for sympathy as such are of two kinds, if they may be classified roughly—those who, writing honestly and from a sense of duty, criticise deliberately and unfavourably the acts or writings of others, which either invite or challenge criticism ; and those who write without any idea that an article not aimed at any such mark may wound the feclings of a hyper-sensitive individual. There is also the class of persons involved by law in the blame where any supposed libel is published, as publishers and even as printers ; these are more or less connected with the latter group. In the class of those who deliberately criticise and have to take their risks would be included the authors of the criticism, which was claimed to_be libellous by Miss Lind-af-Hageby and Lord Alfred Douglas in the recent cases referred to, It is not necessary to recall the details of either case, except to say that observations which juries have found not to be such that the plaintiff deserved damages in respect of them, were the occasion of two trials of length unusual in actions of any kind involving far more im- portant issues,' and that such actions may be brought at any time in respect of criticism upon any person’s conduct, which may eventually be found to be perfectly fair and reasonable in view of the facts. The Times, in commenting upon these cases, pointed out most reasonably that the tendency of such actions must be to deprive the public of the benefit of wholesomé criticism in such matters as are of public interest. Newspapers, con- ducted with the care with which English newspapers are conducted, do not, as a rule, err in the direction of over-candid or searching criticism, even where the facts demand. it, and this, no doubt, is largely due to fear of the law being set in motion, and perhaps successfully set in motion, owing to some trifling slip or inaccuracy in an otherwise correctly revised article. No one desires to see slap-dash and indiscriminate onslaughts made upon persons or institutions deserving censure, but it cannot be for the public good that criticism should be restricted or kept out of existence by the fear of consequences wholly disproportionate to any fortuitous error which may be discovered in it. In the criticism of literature, of music, and of art, a veiled and gentle reticence may be  274 more agreeable to the feelings of individuals immediately affected, but» can hardly be beneficial to the public taste, stimulating to authors, or conducing to the general good of literature, art and music. This, however, is but a small section of the subject-matter upon which comment is made in newspapers and in books. For example, many persons are actively engaged in making money at the expense of the rest of their fellow men by means which vary in the degree of honesty employed. The methods of company promoters, of quack medicine vendors, of exploiters of new religions and other movements affecting the pockets or the health, bodily or otherwise, of their fellow men demand and deserve criticism in the public interest. A variety of causes contribute to their either escaping it or only obtaining it toned down to a point which renders it useless in the public interest, and it is submitted that not the least of those causes is the condition of the law with regard to libel, and the feeling that the courts are far more likely to reward the plaintiff beyond his deserts than to safeguard the defendant against oppression. As The Times observed in the article referred to even an unsuccessful action has been known to give a thoroughly profitable advertisement to the plaintiff. The other type of libel is that which arises more or less accidentally, and generally in fiction, through some foolish person fitting upon his own head a cap which may properly become him but which the unhappy defendant never intended for the personal misuse of an individual. Sometimes the fortuitous adop- tion of a name makes the supposed picture more complete by suggesting that of the injured person. If this is the case, or if other- wise one or two circumstances combine to make the likeness assured, the unhappy defendant runs a poor chance of being believed. Everyone must remember cases of this kind, in which juries have awarded damages although the defendant, an honourable man, has never swerved from his original statement that he wrote nothing which he intended to refer to the plaintiff, of whom (according to his evi- dence) he may never have heard. Cases of this kind supply some of the trivial but irritating libel actions which The Times suggests might be brought in the county court. No doubt, originally, the idea was that the possibility of a county court action for libel or slander would involve the multiplying of petty suits of this kind. That is still the chief argument against such an innovation. The Times compares petty libel actions to those THE AUTHOR. brought to recover small tradesmen’s bills, but the parallel is not a close one. The tradesman is not claiming an unascertained sum as damages for a supposed wrong. Still, if the change could be tried as an experiment it would be interesting, and perhaps persons obviously (even to themselves) likely to re- cover small damages only, would ‘abandon the attempt to do so if they felt that it would be imprudent to launch a High Court action. There is less publicity and less fame attaching to success in the county court. Perhaps, also, libel actions would be better tried, if it could so be provided by statute, without juries, by judges sitting alone. On the other hand, reference has been made above to sympathetic judges, and on the whole it must be said that judges have in the past shown in libel actions some leaning towards the side of the plaintiff. It used to be said at the bar of one or two occupants of the bench that they had often had to submit to criticism in the press without the opportunity to reply, and that they were taking it out of libellers whenever they got the chance. Perhaps the recent cases to which reference has been made show that a more impartial spirit now pervades the judicial bench. ANTONIO FOGAZZARO. 1 IFE on earth, if taken as the sum total of all experiences and of all sensations of which we are conscious, holds much that is of the flesh and much that is of the spirit ; life everlasting, if we could conceive it in its entirety, would hold more of the spirit than of the flesh—so it is with love sacred and profane. As exponents of these different aspects of life and love in modern Italian literature, two eminent writers stand out prominently: Antonio Fogazzaro, who believes in the spiritualisation of love capable of carrying man into regions of everlasting glory beyond earthly life, and Gabriele d’ Annunzio, who stands for the materialisation of love and the gratification of desire through possession ; the first appeals to the spirit, the second to the senses. I will endeavour to followtheir thoughts in their quest after love and ts ine a without attempting to discuss their methods of reaching the ideal. Each reader knows whether he is spiritually or materialistically inclined: if he loves spiritually let him read one by one  THE AUTHOR. the books of Fogazzaro, of which there are translations into English; if sensually, he will find food for thought in the works of Gabriele @’ Annunzio, which I will deal with in a coming issue of The Author. Antonio Fogazzaro was born in Vicenza on March 25, 1842, he wrote some verses between 1863—1872, but his first book, ‘* Miranda,”’ did not appear till 1874. Then came: “ Valsolda”’? (1876), ‘‘ Malombra”’ (1881), “ Daniele Cortis ” (1885), ‘Il mistero di un Poeta”’ (1888), ‘* Piccolo mondo antico” (1896), ‘‘ Piccolo mondo moderno” (1901), “T] Santo” (1905), and “ Leila »» (1910). He died a few months after the publication of this book. He also went in for philosophical dissertations (1891—1898), which have since been collected. Fogazzaro understood life as a harmony of which music was the language; he said of it that it was a generator of vague shadows, of sentiments of joy, sorrow, desire, dismay, pity, all without definite causes, and also of superb daring and an impulsive courage to achieve the impossible. He said that the best music also suggested confused images to the imagina- tion, signifying turbidly a narration, dialogue or drama, incomprehensible in its magnitude, because the language in which it is expressed is unknown to us, and unlike any language with which we are familiar, a language far removed from daily speech, but gifted with the sound of human passions, many of which are even correctly ordered, in proper sequence, following the methods of the highest reasoning in the world. Fogazzaro’s first book, “* Miranda ’’ (1874), initiates one in his belief with regard to love, a belief which he held to the last, and which gives a special “stamp ” to all his works. He shows love as a light, a sentiment capable of lifting man to spiritual perfection through self-denial and renunciation. Some of his earlier critics condemned him for dwelling too much on lofty passions and glorified love, instead of on the love of ordinary mortals in everyday life. This may be so, but one must not overlook the fact that he held the belief that physical attraction was an instinct outside man’s will, whilst the intel- lectual power of love could be cultivated into a thing of moral beauty, which was more lasting than mere mortal life, and more powerful than instinct. In “ Miranda” the heroine is a simple girl brought up amongst the flowers of the fields. There is no hypocrisy, no study or fictitious innocence in her purity; she is pure, simply 275 because she has never come in contact with vice, and when the man she loves discloses its existence through his materialistic and pleasure-seeking tendency, she is horrified, and her whole being rebels against it. But she cannot give up the man she loves, even though she thinks him unworthy. She is of the women who love once and for ever, but with a profound religious sentiment which holds feminine chastity supreme, and forbids her from falling in with his views. So she offers her life to the Almighty as a sacrifice, so that the man she loves may be redeemed. Her object is reached. He is redeemed through the force of moral love which, emanating from the human heart, is capable of regenerating the world. Throughout all Fogazzaro’s works the mission of love is that of conversion and redemption; human love thus becomes a path leading to divine love. This idea of the necessity for renunciation came to Fogazzaro through his conception of the immortality of the soul. He believed that the human body had evolved from a lower species, and that the soul of man, also evolved. from a rudimental, primordial soul, to a soul of transcendental beauty. He compares the birth of a soul to the striking of the hour ina clock; the hour is not complete until the clock strikes ; so at a given moment, when man reached a spiritual state capable of expression, when his hour was about to strike, with an infinitesimal change, God created in him an immortal soul which was not his before. Through this soul he can get in touch with the Supreme Being, his intellect guided by the Divine Spark making him capable of con- ceiving an abstract idea, and love lifted from a physical passion to a spiritual power. Because he believed utterly in the communion of souls, by some he was looked upon as an ascetic; because he fought all forms of limitation, and aspired to a free church for free men, with free souls capable of out- standing earthly passions, desires and sins, he was condemned by the Church as irreligious. Because in the “ Mystery of a Poet’ he declared that he saw “in every soul some reflection of an unknown light,” he was accused with dabbling in the occult and mysterious. In reality he had a pure conscience, a pure aim, and only pure art inspired him. He was rightly termed “ the Chevalier of the Spirit,” who believed in the ultimate apotheosis of all created things to a final perfect state of love, grace and beauty. Whoever reads his books may agree or 276 THE AUTHOR. disagree with his theories and_ principles, may find his men too perfect, and his women too frail, but whoever believes in the soul’s immortality will take fresh heart, and acquire a stronger faith in the ascension of man to perfection by Fogazzaro’s exposition of a superhuman love, which we may not have met in our lives, but for the existence of which at some time we have surely longed. E. S. Romero-Topesco. RICHARDSON’S LAW OF COPYRIGHT.* —— ++ R. RICHARDSON marshals his com- ments and explanations relating to the Law of Copyright and _ the changes effected in it by the Act of 1911 in a form different from that commonly adopted in legal text-books dealing with statute law. He gives as his reasons for abandoning the obvious and usual method of dealing with a branch of the law that has been codified, by commentary upon the Codifying Act, that in the first place the Copyright Act, 1911, does not lend itself easily to commen- tary. By this presumably he means that to quote sections or parts of sections of the new Act and to append to them notes explaining them and comparing their provisions with the law as it stood before they came into force or as it stands with regard to matters not affected by the new Act, is a method which he has tried and has found difficult to employ satisfactorily. In the second place, he considers that to adopt the method indicated would have involved unnecessary length, and he has preferred the task of summarising the new Act briefly where he deals with it in his notes. He further adds that it is difficult in dealing with the law of copyright to work in the old law while commenting upon the new. He, therefore, relegates the text of the Act of 1911 to his first appendix, where he sets it out verbatim and commences with a short outline of the history of copyright, chiefly literary * “The Law of Copyright,’ by J. B. Richardson, M.A., LL.B. (Cantab.), of the Middle Temple and the North- Eastern Circuit, Barrister-at-Law, late holder of a student- ship awarded by the Council of Legal Education. Jordan & Sons, Limited, London, 1913. Pp.390. Price, 6s. net. copyright, explaining its position before July” 1912, and summarising the principle changes which came into being on the first day of that month. Thence he proceeds to discuss. the general system now established, and lastly he treats in detail the various branches of copyright law as distinguished by the subject- matter of the right conferred. In subsequent chapters Colonial copyright is considered, and the international system arising out of the Berlin Convention and the Act of 1911. Mr. Richardson’s notes are clear and _ brief, and the form in which he has thus presented them to his readers is well adapted for the purposes of those who desire to obtain rapidly a bird’s-eye view of the law, past and present, affecting a particular point of copyright law. They would, no doubt, be convenient also to anyone desiring to study the law of copyright for the purpose of passing an examination in it. It is, however, a matter for individual opinion, how far the method followed has had as its result a text-book useful for the purpose of reference to a lawyer in practice, and how far it may be safe for an author to depart in such matters from precedents which have been tried and generally accepted. The answer to the question is not one easy for a reviewer to supply authoritatively, and must be answered rather by the barrister or solicitor who, when he has consulted a book a few times for professional purposes, will not have great difficulty in making up his mind as to whether he can find his way about in it easily, and put himself upon the track of that which he seeks to discover. At all events, Mr. Richard- son’s work contains a good deal of useful information within a moderate compass. We note that he condemns as a very doubtful experiment the system of royalties introduced in section 8, and the liberty given to republish without leave of the owner of the copyright twenty-five years after the author’s death, an experiment tried with a view to the con- ciliation of those who objected to a lengthened term of copyright, which certainly will not have the merit of simplifying the conditions of book publishing. ; He also condemns the limitations of the subject-matter of copyright laid down in section 1, sub-section 1, of the Act, but does not suggest that it prescribes a narrower area of protection than prevails in other countries, an aspect of the situation which presumably was taken into consideration when the section was framed. The rules made under the new Act will be found with other necessary_or useful information in an appendix.  THE AUTHOR. 277 CORRESPONDENCE. Oe AN AMERICAN “ WRITER'S YEAR BOOK.’”* — 1,001 addresses of places where manu- scripts can be sold, or any other } pumber,is not —. nor does this particular ti much matter. It must be presumed that a | title of this sort makes an appeal to some or it would not have been chosen ; yet pad that to others it may not seem quite bon ton. The work is intended as a guide essentially for writers on the other side of the ‘Atlantic, and the greater number of its pages are justly devoted to periodicals published in the United States. We are able to judge of the value of its information respecting such publications only by inference. In the case ‘of the journals with which we are acquainted the information is correct and the advice a . The chapter devoted to “ English Magazines that ty American MSS.” is dis- ey = done. The general hints given in preface are also admirable. There can be no doubt that the classification of the various periodicals into chapters (** Advertising ogg [ oo Journals,” and so h) has its advantages; but it has dis- Advantages also; as it is not always an casy ‘Matter to find any particular journal that is seg We _. that the work would be Much improved by an index. The work eontains a chapter dedicated to ‘‘ Publishers Books,” in which “ the endeavour has been have this a list of publishers of standing.” yang that this chapter may be of value ne ish authors, independently of other ‘Mivice respecting openings on the other side the Atlantic which they will find in the work. gre that English work is not very likely accepted appears, however, to be fairly penn preferences expressed for “* Ameri- th, i. New England Stories,” aud so ong “Fraternal Publications ”’ What they may be we do not know) the Red . en's Official Journal “ do [sic] not use matter t than that we dig up or is furnished by co. from members of the order.” ‘ournal, e official announcement of the for which the editor of ‘ 1,001 : a Manuscripts must not be held W voor ad there are really in this work . “100 + Ba; 1 Places to Sell Manuscripts.” i Ninth edition. itor Company, Ridgewood, New Jersey. 1913. AUTHOR AND AGENT. Dear Sir,—In the last month I have had three separate firms of agents ‘‘ butting in” to my business. They come to me with proposals of remarkable magnificence from Messrs. A. and Messrs. B., and so forth. Why Messrs. A. and Messrs. B., and so forth, do not communicate directly with me, I cannot under- stand. Whatever I am prepared to sell to Messrs. A., B., and so on, for £100 I shall obviously want £110 for, if they insist upon the intervention of Messrs. Agency, Clause & Co. I know of no way of stopping this increasing nuisance of agents, except by proclaiming clearly that, like all saucibhs authors, I do not employ agents except for specific jobs. There is, | believe, a growing tendency on the part of agents to go to firms of publishers and represent themselves with no authority at all as acting on an author’s behalf. I am not lawyer enough to determine how far that is illegal, but, at any rate, it is one that needs to be violently discouraged at the present time. Very sincerely Yours, H. G. WELLs. UNREVIEWED Books. Dear Srr,—lI have been much interested in the article and letters regarding “ Unreviewed Books ” that have appeared in your columns. If for one moment your correspondents would place themselves in the position of the dis- tressed literary editor, they would refrain from suggesting such impossible alternatives to the present system as (a) the sending of stamps for the return of books that have not been reviewed, or (b) that the editors should write to publishers stating what books they can notice. To take the first of these two suggestions. Last year there were nearly 13,000 books published, of which the principal papers received in all probably not less than 10,000, Imagine the additional Jabour involved in sorting out ten thousand lots of stamps! Then what is to become of the stamps sent with those books that are reviewed ? If they are to be returned also, there would be the writing of 10,000 envelopes or labels. The other suggestion that editors should write and state what books they can review 18    278 ve impracticable. Suppose an editor oe aanon ae a mabiishee's list “* Golden Agates,” a novel by James Blank, and he has never heard of James Blank, how in the name of all that is inspired can he tell whether or no he be prepared to give space to reviewing the book? The lot of the literary editor is suffi- ciently difficult without our adding to the burden of his responsibilities. Authors and publishers must be sportsmen and optimists, and if they be men of the literary world also they will appreciate that everybody connected with books is keenly on the look out for that which is good. If only a small percentage of the copies sent out for review produces notices, then the book does not appear to the literary editors to be a work likely to interest their readers. An editor is in every sense of the word the servant of the public. He must fill his columns with attractive matter. He can guide his readers to some extent ; but on the whole he has to consider what the public wants. I know many literary editors, and that in the triple capacity of author, reviewer and publisher, and I have a profound admiration for their ability and fair- ness. One point that seems to have been over- looked is that all the books sent in are acknow- ledged under the heading of ‘“ Books Re- ceived.” If your correspondents will remember that there are some thirteen thousand books yearly endeavouring to storm the slopes of Parnassus, they will realise that of necessity there must be a list of slain and wounded. If a book fail to get a place do not let us regard it as wasted; but rather that as an ‘also ran ” it has helped to make the pace for the others. This requires a Spartan philosophy with erhaps some admixture of humour ; but it will prove very comforting. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, HERBERT JENKINS, + CONCERNING “ Cart ATHLETICS,” IN a recent number J é : : of the New York Times se Supplement Mr. Grant Richards sere “at — - the methods employed by 4 ‘ American ishers - trast a te sae publishers, and con odious features of the English Jjte , is the fiction that has paid to Sop bl The first question js; i} that “ one of the most market t published.” pays to Tho be THE AUTHOR. published—and why? And the second : What publishers accept payment Webes why ? Answer (to the first question): Who to be published, and why ? of this paper, has paid. Paid twice. to an American publisher and once English one for publishing Justice's novels, Justice wrote as a free lance for twenty vears— for money. Yet, until Mr. Wells enlightened his fellow-craftsmen in the May Author Justice had supposed the unknown novelist always paid to publish because 80 informed Justice’s publishers. In each case, too, wit the exception of the publishers’ obligato announcements of fortheoming productions, Justice was inveigled into “ doing the adver. tising ” because * decent publishers don’t like descending to the tricks of the trade.” also consented to the 13 as 12 clause, to six ‘“author’s copies ”—and bought in, “at the lowest possible author's rates,” copies to bestow upon “friends” who couk n't—or wouldn't buy. For having the first novel published, in America, Justice was asked to pay, and paid, $330. For publishing the second novel, in London, Justice paid £98, Answer to the second question : What pub- lishers accept payment for publishing? The names of aforesaid publishers are at the disposi- tion of any serious literary worker requiring useful information for self-protection, from Justice, through the Authors’ Society. In answer to why the publishers exact money from novices? Well—ask the pub- lishers ! Dear Fettow-Autnors,—Can’t we be- ginners in our beloved profession hence- forward, to defeat the “ shark ” publisher, establish a league to be known as the Wells League that has for its ideal agreement the one Mr. Wells advises, and for its actual one something just as near it as feasible ? Mr. Wells writes: ** The ideal thing for the author to do is to fix up a standing agreement on the lines I have given above with a big solvent firm—and think no more of these things.”’ Did Mr. Wells “think no more of these things” in the days before he, on his. own terms, advertised the publishers—gratis? Won’t Mr. Wells tell us somet hing of - “green and salad” experiences with Pho lishers ? We can’t write as he does. ; can? But Napoleon was no less Na — St. Helena than at Corsica, was he? at Wate than at Austerlitz. Jou to publish, andi Justice, the writer} Onee } to anf Justice & egypt 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. 23 Issue 09 (June 1913) Subject The topic of the resource <em>The Author</em>, Vol. 23 Issue 09 (June 1913) Type The nature or genre of the resource Publication Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1913-06-01-The-Author-23-9 publications The Author