| 241 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/241 | The Author, Vol. 01 Issue 03 (July 1890) | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=%3Cem%3EThe+Author%3C%2Fem%3E%2C+Vol.+01+Issue+03+%28July+1890%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 01 Issue 03 (July 1890)</a> | | | <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927&view=1up&seq=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031017927</a> | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Publication">Publication</a> | 1890-07-15-The-Author-1-3 | | | | | 59–88 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1">1</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1890-07-15">1890-07-15</a> | | | | | | | 3 | | | 18900715 | Vol. 1.–No. 3]<br />
JULY 15, 1890.<br />
.<br />
[Price, Sixpence,<br />
The Author.<br />
THE ORGAN OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS<br />
(INCORPORATED).<br />
CONDUCTED BY<br />
WALTER BESANT.<br />
Published for the Society Be<br />
ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,<br />
LONDON, E.C.<br />
-<br />
1890.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 58 (#82) ##############################################<br />
<br />
Berton, Sept 1yh1878 anse Mersands of letters.<br />
Men. Marie, Todd & Co.<br />
Jene t it as of our one<br />
..... und and I hohe ou une<br />
I have seus me of your<br />
do the beat you can for it<br />
frius, to have a point meuded . Though I have in the mean<br />
rough Meu Hoshu, leurs : Trier bought another of qui<br />
It. of Mencity.<br />
Ton may like to know that shake - Corrugated mached C.<br />
Thave and this yeu constantly<br />
I do not know whether :<br />
formure than twenty years,<br />
que caus hin this testimonial<br />
hine the days of a book of min<br />
hot'I jul as if the fun when<br />
called "The Automath of the<br />
Breakfast talle "1857-8 mutie<br />
. has cancied out to much of<br />
muy thought and brought back<br />
last Friday without repair and<br />
always with herfect satisfaction To much in banin farms in<br />
ehun was enlitted to this<br />
I have written with in halfa<br />
- Certificat of hinnata tecnica<br />
dozen or more volumes, a<br />
lange number of Ennys de<br />
Mira Wordleli Hermes<br />
ILLUSTRATED Price List will be sent, free and post paid, on application to MABIE, TODD & BARD, 93, CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 59 (#83) ##############################################<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. I.—No. 3.]<br />
JULY 15, 1890.<br />
[Price Sixpence.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
News and Notes ...<br />
"The Literary Handmaid of the Church"<br />
The German Society of Au-hors<br />
A Hard Case, No. Ill<br />
La Federation du Livre<br />
Unauthorized Publication of Sermons—<br />
I. Note by W. Morris Colles<br />
II. Note by F. P<br />
III. IV. Letters reprinted from the Times by the Bishop<br />
Peterborough {by permission)<br />
The Inauthorated Corpses<br />
Leaflet No. III.—On Paying for Publication<br />
of<br />
Questions, Cases, and Answers<br />
A Personal Experience<br />
Chestnut Bells Encore. By Charles G. Leland<br />
The Queen's English. By Oswald Crawfurd ...<br />
The Memorial to the First Lord of the Treasury<br />
The Pensions of the Year<br />
A New Guide to Books<br />
Mr. Bainton on Himself<br />
At Work<br />
New Books and New Editions<br />
Advertisements<br />
PAGE<br />
... 7«<br />
... 78<br />
... 79<br />
... 79<br />
... 80<br />
... 82<br />
... 8a<br />
83<br />
... 84<br />
... 85<br />
... 86<br />
NEWS AND NOTES.<br />
TH F. Council of the Society has been strength-<br />
ened by the accession of the following<br />
names: — Lord Brabourne, Sir Henry<br />
Bergne, K.C.M.G., Messrs. Alfred Austin, R. D.<br />
Blackmore, James Bryce, W. Martin Conway, P. W.<br />
Clayden, Oswald Crawfurd, Marion Crawford, Eric<br />
Erichsen, G. R. Sims, and Edmund Yates. Of<br />
these gentlemen Mr. W. Martin Conway joins the<br />
Committee of Management.<br />
The Third Annual Dinner of the Society was<br />
held on Tuesday, July 8th. The Chair was taken<br />
by Prof. Jebb. There were 200 present on the<br />
occasion. A full report will be presented with the<br />
next number.<br />
A lady who wishes to be anonymous has offered<br />
to present to the Committee the sum of ^30<br />
annually for three years, to be expended in such a<br />
manner as may appear to be for the best interests<br />
of Literature. This offer of pecuniary assistance<br />
is a new thing of this year. It shows that the<br />
work of the Society is being understood and ap-<br />
preciated. Another sign of advancing opinion is<br />
that on the foundation of The Author a good many<br />
members came forward to give it a start. It isastound-<br />
ing how much may be effected even in such a Society<br />
as ours by means of the little cheque. We have never<br />
yet gone begging, but . Meantime, there would<br />
be no pecuniary anxieties if we had two thousand<br />
members instead of six hundred, and if everybody<br />
would remember the modest annual obligation.<br />
Amid the general mingled chorus of denunci-<br />
ation, exasperation, disappointment, satire, and dis-<br />
gust, caused by the loss of the International Copy-<br />
right Bill, there has hitherto been lacking—what it<br />
specially behoves The Author to supply—some<br />
recognition of the noble efforts made by the leading<br />
men, the men of culture, in the Eastern States.<br />
These men have never rested, and are still active,<br />
in advocating by every means in their power the<br />
passage of the Bill. They include all the authors<br />
of America, all the honourable publishers, and a<br />
great number of editors. The opponents of the Bill<br />
are the ignorant Western farmers, who know nothing<br />
about literature, literary property, authors' rights,<br />
or anything else except their own local interests.<br />
The education of these men is a slow process; they<br />
take a great deal of time to grasp new ideas; the<br />
existence of authors is not suspected by them ; the<br />
existence of authors' rights is absolutely unknown<br />
to them. But they are gradually being educated.<br />
Let us consider our own case before we throw<br />
stones at the Americans. It is now five years since<br />
vol. 1.<br />
E<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 60 (#84) ##############################################<br />
<br />
6o<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
this Society began its endeavours to educate the<br />
British world into the perception of the fact that<br />
there is such a thing as literary property and that<br />
it is a very real thing. We are not Western farmers.<br />
Yet we have not learned to grasp this one central<br />
fact any more than these honest members of Con-<br />
gress. Still the old ideas cling; still those who talk<br />
of literary property as if it was a real thing, like<br />
turnips, are regarded as madmen. Still the leading<br />
articles talk of the dangers and uncertainties of<br />
publishing. Still the old belief remains, that authors<br />
must take whatever their employers choose to bring<br />
them; still that old Bogey, "Risk," is trotted out to<br />
frighten us; still men continue to talk about the<br />
"generosity " of their publishers—as if writers were<br />
beggars, humbly holding out their hands for doles,<br />
instead of honest men demanding their just share<br />
in the proceeds of the work of their hand and brain.<br />
These ideas will slowly pass away. But meantime<br />
since they linger in this country, and are every day<br />
traded upon for their own purposes by interested<br />
persons, we cannot be surprised at an equal ignorance<br />
among the narrow-minded and half educated people<br />
who form the greater part of Congress.<br />
Consider, again, a special case, recent and<br />
treated further on in these columns. There is a<br />
certain great Society called the Society for Promot-<br />
ing Christian Knowledge. Its President is the Arch-<br />
bishop of Canterbury: its Vice-Presidents are<br />
other Archbishops and Bishops: its Publication<br />
Committee are all clergymen.<br />
Now, not one of these illustrious men seems as<br />
yet to have grasped the simple truth that an author<br />
may be sweated as well as a needlewoman; and<br />
that in the purchase of literary property there are<br />
elementary laws of morality based on the Eighth<br />
Commandment. Not one, so far as I know, up to<br />
the present moment of writing, when their Society<br />
has been called upon to compare its methods of<br />
publishing with these simple principles of truth and<br />
equity, and has, so far, by its silence, refused to do<br />
so, has boldly declared that he will no longer pre-<br />
side—or vicariously preside—over a great Corpora-<br />
tion, which, unless certain ugly allegations can be<br />
explained, seems to be little better than a Society<br />
of Sweaters for the greater glory of Christ.<br />
With this illustration before them can the authors<br />
of Great Britain expect from an ignorant Western<br />
farmer a keener thirst for righteousness than they<br />
have found at home among the Societies of the<br />
Anglican Church?<br />
As for what is said on International Copyright<br />
by newspapers in the Eastern States, read the<br />
enclosed from the New York Evening Post. It<br />
refers to the pirated edition of the "Encyclopaedia<br />
Britannica."<br />
"A certain man went from Edinburgh to America<br />
and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his<br />
sheets, and electrotyped him, and departed, leaving<br />
him half dead. And a certain Doctor of Divinity<br />
passed by on the other side; and when he saw him<br />
he went over, and came where he was, and said<br />
unto him: 'How is it with thee, my friend?'<br />
And he answered him: 'I am in sore distress,<br />
for that I have been robbed of nearly all that I<br />
possess.' And the Doctor of Divinity spake and<br />
said: 'My heart is heavy for thee, my friend; but<br />
hast thou yet anything left?' And he answered<br />
him again, saying: 'Yea, the half of what I had is<br />
left me; but I am in fear least my enemy return<br />
and carry off the rest!' 'Nay,' said the man of<br />
God, 'but if others are to have a cast at thee, I<br />
may as well come in for my share; but, for that I<br />
have great compassion on thee, I will leave thee<br />
a portion of what these wicked men have spared.'<br />
And, so saying, he took what pleased him of the<br />
man's goods, and having preyed upon him, gave<br />
him his blessing and went and prayed in the<br />
temple. Likewise a certain Pharisee, who was<br />
also a haberdasher and a man of letters, passed<br />
that way, voyaging from Washington by way of<br />
Philadelphia; and he came and looked on the man<br />
and saw that he was helpless, and heard his groans.<br />
And he also inquired of him what ailed him; and<br />
when he had heard his story he beat his breast and<br />
cried aloud: 'This is flat burglary, to take all that<br />
thou hast, and to leave next to nothing for me!<br />
Verily, I must protect myself against such wicked-<br />
ness, and must circumvent the doers thereof; since<br />
it is expected of me that when circumventing is to<br />
be done, I shall be there!' And with that he<br />
seized on the balance of the man's stock, and<br />
blessed him in the name of his peculiar god, and<br />
went his way. But a certain Government having<br />
on his breast a breastplate whereon was writ in<br />
letters of gold, 'In God We Trust,' came where<br />
the man was, and when he saw him, he had com-<br />
passion on him, and went to him, and opened his<br />
wounds, and rubbed into them salt and vinegar,<br />
and set him on a wild ass of the desert, and put a<br />
bunch of nettles under the tail of the beast, and<br />
cried unto the man: 'Away with thee, thou<br />
foreigner! What rights hast thou that I need<br />
respect? I care not twopence for thee or thy<br />
wrongs; and if ever thou darest come again, I will<br />
repay thee!"'<br />
In another place will be found a letter from Mr.<br />
Bainton on the subject of what he is pleased to call<br />
a " stab in the dark." Everybody else thinks that<br />
it has been a stab in the open. But never mind,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 61 (#85) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
61<br />
The point and moral of the correspondence to the<br />
readers of The Author should be that in future they<br />
should not allow themselves so easily to be drawn.<br />
Why should authors alone, of all professions, be<br />
asked to explain their methods? Why should they,<br />
when they are asked, be so ready to reply? For<br />
my own part, I fell into the trap, like my neighbours,<br />
but fortunately wriggled out again and did not<br />
explain my methods. In future, let us behave with<br />
greater reticence. Now what would be thought<br />
if some enterprising gentleman were to write to<br />
all the barristers in practice in the following<br />
terms ?—<br />
Dear Sir,<br />
I must speak at last. There comes a time when<br />
silence is culpable. I have long" considered you<br />
the most eloquent orator as well as the most accom-<br />
plished and learned lawyer that at present adorns<br />
the Outer or the Inner Bar. I read nothing at<br />
all but your speeches; my wife reads nothing at all<br />
but your speeches. She takes them after early<br />
dinner, with a nap; moreover, I have for a long<br />
time given my mother-in-law, who lives with us,<br />
and is now in declining spirits, nothing at all to<br />
read but your speeches; my children learn your<br />
speeches by heart. My youngest—Teeny Wheeny,<br />
three—is now learning her alphabet out of your<br />
speeches. They are, in fact, deeply alphabetic. I<br />
am going to give a little lecture—just a little lecture<br />
—to one or two young people. I wish to call my<br />
lecture the "Art of Demosthenes, or the Ciceronian<br />
Bag of Tricks." I desire above all things to<br />
strengthen it by a description of your own Bag of<br />
Tricks, oratorical and legal. Will you therefore<br />
kindly tell me where you picked up your method of<br />
oratory, and how you manage to seem to know so<br />
much law?<br />
I remain, Sir,<br />
Your obedient admirer and respectful<br />
worshipper,<br />
Theophilus Swipe.<br />
Now who would expect a barrister to answer<br />
this letter, or to take the least notice of the writer?<br />
Vet the authors, when they receive a similar letter,<br />
reply all together en masse, without, apparently, any<br />
exception.<br />
There was, I learn, an exception. It was an<br />
American man of letters, and one of great distinction.<br />
He positively did not reply. It is not generally<br />
known that a certain fable of ^isop referring to a<br />
fox and a crow and a piece of cheese, was written<br />
for authors, who have so far failed to observe the<br />
moral. The following is a close translation of the<br />
fable in its first form.<br />
Amid the leaves—the leaves of bay—■<br />
The leaves they use for crowns—<br />
The author sat, the livelong day,<br />
Above the common clowns;<br />
Well skilled was he the crafty rhyme<br />
And artful plot to mix;<br />
And in his hand he held, meantime,<br />
His precious Bag of Tricks.<br />
"Oh! Master, Master, greatest, first—"<br />
He heard, and blushed to hear—<br />
"All other bards with envy burst—<br />
I've seen 'em—that I swear.<br />
Day in, day out, the week about,<br />
Thy great works through and through,<br />
I read and read—I do, indeed;<br />
So do my children too.<br />
"Tell me, sweet author, whom I love—<br />
Ah !head so fitly crowned!<br />
Thy place so rightly set above,<br />
The bay leaves circling round!—<br />
Tell me, sweet author, if thou wilt,<br />
Oh! condescend to tell-<br />
How are thy tales romantic built?<br />
How canst thou rhyme so well?<br />
"Thy art, thy secret, and thy craft,<br />
Confide—confide to me."<br />
The author smiled—the author laughed;<br />
Yet never a word said he.<br />
"Oh! by the crown of glory grand<br />
That on thy pale brow sticks"<br />
That crown to feel, he raised his hand<br />
And dropped his Bag of Tricks!<br />
There is no moral to this fable in the original.<br />
But La Fontaine's will do—<br />
"Mon bon Monsieur,<br />
Apprens que tout flaneur<br />
Vit aux depens de celui qui lecoute.'<br />
The Daily News, which has always been on the<br />
alert to watch any step in the movement for<br />
International Copyright, reportsadecision which may<br />
lead to very valuable results. It was delivered on<br />
June 25th, by Judge Shipman, of the United<br />
States Circuit Court. Three suits were begun some<br />
time ago by Messrs. A. and C. Black, cf Edinburgh,<br />
and the Scribners, their American agents, against an<br />
American firm which had published a pirated<br />
edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" from<br />
photographic plates, charging infringement of the<br />
American copyright laws because the republication<br />
contained articles written by Americans and copy-<br />
righted in this country by them. The defendants<br />
entered demurrers based on the general ground<br />
VOL. I.<br />
E 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 62 (#86) ##############################################<br />
<br />
62<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
that the publishers of the "Encyclopaedia Britan-<br />
nica," in employing American authors to treat of<br />
American topics and then publishing their articles<br />
under copyright, thereby laid a trap for the American<br />
public and American publishers, and therefore a<br />
court of equity could not interfere to protect such<br />
a fraud. Judge Shipman overruled the demurrers,<br />
and declared that the assignments in no way<br />
permitted other parties to infringe authors'<br />
copyrights. This decision has been hailed with<br />
delight by the advocates of International Copyright,<br />
who regard it as the most serious check the piratical<br />
publishers have yet had. There are three photo-<br />
graphic editions of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica"<br />
now selling at about a seventh of the price of the<br />
authorized edition. The decision is likely to alarm<br />
the publishers, since, if sustained in further<br />
judgments, Messrs. A. and C. Black will bring suits<br />
against them for heavy damages.<br />
"I have never yet had any disagreement with<br />
my publisher," said a well-known man of letters<br />
the other day. "Therefore, I have not joined the<br />
Society." The remark and the inference alike<br />
illustrate a common disposition to look on the<br />
Society as one which exists for the purpose of patch-<br />
ing up or even of creating quarrels and grievances<br />
with publishers. That is not the case, of course,<br />
only one is well-nigh tired of repeating the fact.<br />
It suits certain persons who regard us with natural<br />
hostility to keep this delusion alive. The Society<br />
has no quarrel with publishers as such, and never<br />
has had any. It maintains continually that the<br />
services which publishers render to Literature are<br />
solid, and must be substantially paid for. The<br />
Society exists, however, mainly for the purpose of<br />
maintaining the rights, the sacredness, and the<br />
reality of Literary Property. Therefore it fights<br />
the battle of all authors, and should be supported<br />
by all who approve of its principles.<br />
Briefly, they are these :—<br />
(1) Literary property is created by the author,<br />
and belongs at the outset to him.<br />
(2) Literary property must be held as sacred as<br />
any other kind of property.<br />
(3) Literary property is ruled by the demand for<br />
a book just as colliery property means the<br />
sale of the output. And as the value of a<br />
colliery depends first on the output in tons<br />
and their price, so the value of a book can<br />
only be estimated with reference to the<br />
number of copies sold.<br />
(4) The author must not part with his property<br />
without due consideration, nor without<br />
understanding exactly what possibilities, as<br />
well as what certainties, he gives and what<br />
he receives.<br />
(5) What the author is entitled to, is, after pay-<br />
ment of the cost of production and the<br />
publisher's agency and labour, all the remain-<br />
ing proceeds. This proportion of the returns<br />
is the property which he has to sell for a<br />
lump sum down, or to receive year by year.<br />
(6) The publisher has to be remunerated for his<br />
agency and labour out of the returns of the<br />
book in a certain proportion, which should<br />
be a fixed proportion recognised by both<br />
contracting parties and understood by both.<br />
These principles have long been recognized by<br />
the French after a good fight, carried on by the<br />
Socie'te des Gens de Lettres, an association of<br />
which ours is a successor and an imitator. But how,<br />
it may be asked, if publishers will not agree to the<br />
adoption, once for all, of an equitable arrange-<br />
ment? It is the task of the Society to create<br />
such a consensus of opinion on the subject as<br />
will cause all houses which desire to maintain a<br />
good name to fall in with the Society's views. It<br />
will also cause all authors of ability and reputa-<br />
tion to insist upon equitable agreements. How, it<br />
may be asked again, about the unfortunate begin-<br />
ners and those who have no name? The scheme<br />
to be put forward by the Society will cover their<br />
case as well. But they must, first of all, be protected.<br />
And for this reason our pages are full of stories of<br />
the scoundrels who deceive and rob the literary<br />
beginner. Consider. Is there to be no protection<br />
for the weak? Is a pickpocket to get off with<br />
impunity because he has only stolen a girl's purse?<br />
The Council of this Society does not hold that<br />
opinion.<br />
There are many who still maintain that sharks<br />
and thieves should be free to do as they please—<br />
devour and destroy—rob and lie with impunity,<br />
because ignorant and young literary aspirants<br />
ought to take care of themselves, and because<br />
most of their work is rubbish. In no branch of<br />
the industrial community should thieves be per-<br />
mitted to exist. And even if good quality of work<br />
were to be the condition of protection, we should<br />
have to protect a whole hundred because one of<br />
them—an unknown one—may have in him the gift<br />
of authorship. As a curious illustration of the<br />
growing change in opinion on this subject, it may<br />
be mentioned that in one of the most popular penny-<br />
papers of the day, a paper which circulates by<br />
the hundred thousand, there lately appeared an<br />
article on " Bogus Publishers," written by one who<br />
knows the gentry and has served under them.<br />
The article might have been written in this office,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 63 (#87) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
63<br />
so true it is, and so complete in its details. Was it<br />
conscience or was it revenge which forced this ex-<br />
perienced person to reveal the secrets?<br />
"We have taken your new MS. on the old terms,"<br />
said a certain small publisher recently. "Of course,<br />
however, you will not join the Society of Authors.<br />
In fact, we put a black mark against the name of<br />
every member of that Society." The writer of that<br />
work is a member. If this remark has been made to<br />
anybody else, let me hasten to point out that if this<br />
publisher were to put all the black marks he has got<br />
against all the names of all the authors, no harm<br />
whatever would be done because in such a case<br />
we should immediately find other publishers who<br />
would do the work of production and distribution<br />
quite as well, and in this case perhaps much better.<br />
Fortunately the public cares nothing who publishes<br />
a book; it is concerned solely with the contents.<br />
Plenty of men—hundreds and thousands of men—<br />
are willing and anxious to step into any trade by<br />
which they can make money. But to the marker in<br />
black—the black marker—we would point out very<br />
seriously that the Society itself can do a great deal<br />
more harm to a publisher than he can do to any<br />
individual member. We are now, he should under-<br />
stand, by no means a small, harmless, or a feeble<br />
body.<br />
One does not like even the appearance of boast-<br />
fulness, but the following little fact illustrates some-<br />
thing approaching to power. There is a certain firm<br />
in this city of which it is sufficient to say that all the<br />
worst things ever alleged against the publishing<br />
trade maybe brought together, and, with the greatest<br />
truth, alleged against this particular firm. We have<br />
for a long time kept work out of their hands, and<br />
we intend to go on doing so until they mend their<br />
ways. It was reckoned the other day, by one who<br />
has had the chief conduct of this business, that in<br />
the space of eighteen months or two years over<br />
,£2,000 worth of work has been kept from these<br />
people, and that without reckoning on the chance<br />
of a big success among the authors kept from them.<br />
Now as writers learn more and more to distrust their<br />
own ignorance and to seek advice of those who<br />
know as to whom they should trust, this branch of<br />
our business will naturally increase and multiply.<br />
My statement in last month's Author that there<br />
are fifty men and women who make a thousand a<br />
year by writing novels has been questioned. I<br />
have, therefore, taken the trouble to draw up a<br />
list, which, however, must not, for obvious reasons,<br />
be published. I find that I can enumerate almost<br />
off-hand more than fifty—Americans and English<br />
—who are called novelists by the world, and make<br />
over a thousand a year by writing, though the whole<br />
income may be sometimes derived from other kinds<br />
of literary work. I know the facts partly from ex-<br />
perience acquired in the offices of the Society,<br />
partly from information. A note in the St. James's<br />
Gazette asks whether these works are worth the<br />
money. This question denotes some confusion of<br />
ideas. For what is the actual worth of a book?<br />
You cannot measure it at all by money. A suc-<br />
cessful novelist is one who holds the attention,<br />
commands interest, awakens emotions, amuses or<br />
terrifies, calls up tears or laughter, and brings<br />
brightness into millions of dull lives. This great<br />
power is not to be valued by money at all. If the<br />
St. James's critic asks whether the books really<br />
produce by their sale all this money, that is a very<br />
different question. They really do—and a very<br />
great deal more.<br />
Here is an interesting little proposal. A<br />
"Graduate of Oxford," modestly hiding his philan-<br />
thropic name, has conceived a theory that there are<br />
many poets, as yet unrecognized, who would like<br />
their "best" verses—only their best, mind—to be<br />
published. He invites them, therefore, to send<br />
him two or three short poems not exceeding in all<br />
120 lines. With their best verses is to be forwarded<br />
a guinea. In return the contributor will receive two<br />
copies of a handsome volume in which—oh! Joy<br />
and Glory!—his own best verses will appear. It<br />
will be like bringing out the best china, or wearing<br />
the best clothes, or sleeping in the best bed room, all<br />
these things being among the innocent pleasures of<br />
our ancestors. "These," will say the glorified bard,<br />
"are my best verses; others I have, second best,<br />
for home consumption, and even third best, for<br />
washing day, but these are my best."<br />
If the poet is to be made happy, what shall be<br />
said of the benevolent Graduate? His handsome<br />
volume contains, we will suppose, 20 sheets, or<br />
320 pages, with, at the rate of three pages apiece,<br />
107 contributors. He must print 214 copies at<br />
least. The cost of the volume will be about ,£35.<br />
Grateful to their Graduate, the poets will contribute<br />
^107. Net profit to the Graduate (besides<br />
gratitude, warmth of heart, and glow of virtue)<br />
^72. Who will say that he is overpaid?<br />
The Society does not, as a rule, work for people<br />
whojare not members, but there are occasions on<br />
which it is necessary to break this rule. One such<br />
occurred the other day when a young writer<br />
sent up a grievous case. He had been writing<br />
steadily for a certain firm, until their obligations<br />
amounted to a considerable sum. He therefore<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 64 (#88) ##############################################<br />
<br />
64<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
wrote for a cheque. He received no answer. He<br />
wrote again—and again. There was still no answer.<br />
He wrote therefore to the Society. The firm were<br />
informed that if they preferred legal proceedings to<br />
paying their just debts, they could have them.<br />
They preferred, however, paying the author in full,<br />
with the statement that they had not received more<br />
than one letter of application. Now the firm will<br />
probably never take any more work from the young<br />
man. But this is the very best thing that could<br />
possibly happen to him. He will now try to get<br />
employed by some firm which does pay.<br />
I give, after these notes, a brief resume of a<br />
pamphlet addressed to the Publication Committee<br />
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.<br />
I have received other instances of their treatment<br />
of authors, even more flagrant than those quoted<br />
in the pamphlet. No answer has been vouch-<br />
safed to this pamphlet either by the Archbishop of<br />
Canterbury, the President of the Society, or by the<br />
Publication Committee. As this worthy body<br />
will not meet till October, further action in the<br />
matter is deferred until then, when I hope to<br />
parade a few more facts to delight the world with<br />
the "Christian" methods of dealing with other<br />
people's property.<br />
—*<br />
Among the " warnings " which we publish every<br />
month in Tlie Author, and every year in the<br />
"Annual Report," is one which cautions writers<br />
against signing any agreement, in which the alleged<br />
cost of production forms an integral part, without<br />
consulting the Society. A little circumstance<br />
which happened a year or two ago, and was related<br />
to me the other day by a very well known man of<br />
letters, illustrates the necessity for this warning.<br />
It is what mathematicians call an extreme case—<br />
that is to say, we have never at the Society come<br />
across one quite so "extreme." Here it is :—A<br />
person had produced a MS. on a certain subject<br />
which she—it was a lady—wished to publish. She<br />
accordingly took it to a man whom she believed<br />
honest, and asked him if he would produce it. He<br />
agreed to do so if she would pay the whole cost of<br />
production. He sent an estimate of this. It<br />
amounted, according to his showing, to £120 for<br />
so many copies. She showed the estimate to a<br />
friend, who submitted the MS. to a printer. He<br />
offered to print and bind as many copies for the<br />
sum of ^16—of course it was a very short manuscript.<br />
This was done and the work published. We have<br />
often seen the "cost of production" set down at<br />
double. But to multiply the actual cost by seven<br />
and a half shows an amount of enterprise which we<br />
could not previously expect.<br />
Waltlr Besant.<br />
"THE LITERARY HANDMAID OF<br />
THE CHURCH."<br />
THIS pamphlet appeared in the third week<br />
of June. A copy has been sent to the<br />
President and all the Vice-Presidents of the<br />
Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.<br />
The following is an abridgment of its contents :—<br />
"The Publication Committee of the Society for the Promo-<br />
tion of Christian Knowledge, in their Report for last year,<br />
announce that they will 'gladly receive any suggestion'<br />
which may enable them to make * the venerable Society<br />
the most efficient literary handmaid of the Church of Eng-<br />
land throughout the world.'<br />
"A Publication Committee has to do with Literary Property.<br />
It is therefore desirable first of all to lay down certain pre-<br />
liminary observations on the nature of Literary Property.<br />
"(I.) First of all, it is very real property; it has its fluctua-<br />
tions, like corn, wine, and any other property; but it is a<br />
species of property which enables a few hundreds to live in<br />
great comfort, plenty, and luxury, and a great many thousands<br />
to live simply and carefully.<br />
"(2.) Literary property is subject to the laws w hich protect<br />
all property. The simplest and the most comprehensive of<br />
all these laws is the Eighth Commandment, ' Thou shalt not<br />
steal.'<br />
"Applied to literature and addressed to Publishers, Publish-<br />
ing Societies, and Publication Committees, this Command-<br />
ment is thus to be interpreted: 'Thou shalt not cheat the<br />
author while buying his work from him; thou shalt not pay<br />
the workmen a price which will reserve for thyself the principal<br />
profit ; thou shalt remember that the work is his—his the<br />
design of it, his the invention, the fancy, the imagination,<br />
the learning, the brain, and the hand of it. It is not thine<br />
at all. If it becomes thine it must be by an equitable agree-<br />
ment, which shall give thee only a fair reward for labour<br />
done, and leave to him all the rest.' In no other way can<br />
this Commandment be read and interpreted by a conscien-<br />
tious Publication Committee.<br />
"(3-) What is the value of a book? Clearly it is the price<br />
which it will fetch in the market. That is say, it depends<br />
upon the number of copies which the public will buy. An<br />
author, therefore, can claim his reward solely with reference<br />
to that number, and a publisher, can, equitably, make his<br />
offer of remuneration only with reference to that number.<br />
"(4.) The publisher is an agent ; he must be paid for his<br />
agency in managing, distributing, and collecting, out of the<br />
proceeds of the lxx>k. For his trouble he is entitled to a<br />
reasonable percentage on the proceeds.<br />
"For example, if a publisher gives an author £yi for a book<br />
out of which he makes a nett profit of £100, knowing, or<br />
reasonably expecting, that he is going to make that, or some<br />
similar amount, he may be a successful trader, but he must<br />
lie classed as a sweater and a robber in the eyes of honour-<br />
able men, and especially of a Society which exists for the<br />
Promotion of Christian Knowledge. For if Christian Know-<br />
ledge be not promoted on Christian principles, then were it<br />
better not to be promoted at all. The author may never<br />
know that he has been robbed. But the fact remains. The<br />
Eighth Commandment still hangs upon the wall."<br />
The pamphlet then goes on to speak of the four<br />
kinds of publishers.<br />
"First, the upright, or perfect publisher. He, sensitive and<br />
lender of conscience, will not take from an author one penny<br />
more than is his own just due. lie has settled with his<br />
conscience what he should lie paid for what he has done, and<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 65 (#89) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
65<br />
he will lake no more. If he pays an author a sum of money<br />
down, it is considered by this person only as an advance on<br />
what may become due to him afterwards if his work succeeds.<br />
He will not publish bad work, or work that will not succeed.<br />
To have that publisher's name at the foot of a title-page is a<br />
hallmark of excellence. To be in his hands is to rest easy in<br />
the assurance that he will do the best for the book and be<br />
honest, that is, just, with the author.<br />
"Where is that publisher to be found? Surely, we should<br />
look for him first in the Society for Promoting Christian<br />
Knowledge. It is a Society whose President is the<br />
Primate of all England ; whose Vice-Presidents are all the<br />
Archbishops and Bishops; whose General Literature Com-<br />
mittee contains nine clergymen out of twelve members; and<br />
whose three Secretaries are also Clergymen.<br />
"There, if anywhere, should we expect to find the upright<br />
publisher.<br />
"The second kind of publisher is he who belongs to a house<br />
well established and desirous to be considered as honourable.<br />
The distinction, let us remember, between the 'honourable'<br />
houses and those which are not honourable is well known and<br />
perfectly understood by all who have studied the business of<br />
publishing. Now when we divide publishing houses into<br />
those which are honourable and those which are dishonour-<br />
able, there cannot, surely, be a doubt or a question on which<br />
side we ought to place the Literature Department of the<br />
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge—the 'Literary<br />
Handmaid of the Church.' The gentlemen who form the<br />
Publication Committee shall themselves, if they please,<br />
when they have inquired into the conduct of their own<br />
business, answer that question, each in turn, after the manner<br />
of the House of Lords, every man his hand on his heart—<br />
'Upon my Honour.'<br />
"The third class is that of the knavish publisher. These<br />
gentry, of whom there are many, are those who rob and<br />
cheat the ignorant author in every account that they produce,<br />
who chea-t and lie in their statements of the cost of produc-<br />
tion, of t he sums spent in advertising, in the moneys they<br />
have received, and, in fact, in every way that can suggest<br />
itself to the ingenuity of man.<br />
"The fourth class is that of the sweating publisher.<br />
"The Select Committee of the House of Lords, on the<br />
sweating system, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury,<br />
President of the Society for Promoting Christian Know-<br />
ledge, was a member, reports that the first evil of the<br />
sweating system is 'A rate of wages inadequate to the<br />
necessities of the workers or disproportionate to the work<br />
done.' Let us accept this definition, and apply it to this<br />
class of publishers.<br />
"The sweating publisher, then, is one who grinds down the<br />
faces of his unfortunate authors, who offers a miserable sum<br />
for work which is going to bring him in a hundredfold<br />
profit—who scruples not to toss an author a ten-pound<br />
note for his labour, and without a pang of shame or<br />
remorse makes ^50 or .£100 or £$oo profit for himself;<br />
who knows no law but the cruel law of supply and demand,<br />
and recognises no other right in an unfortunate author<br />
but his right to receive meekly the highest sum that he can<br />
obtain.<br />
"There are many of these people abroad. They deal<br />
largely with the productions of women. The sweater, it is<br />
well known, works more comfortably by means of women.<br />
They are helpless, they are ignorant of business, they are<br />
yielding; if they cannot be frightened they can be cajoled.<br />
And literary women, again, are timid about their own work,<br />
not knowing what amount of stability they have achieved<br />
or what is the extent of their popularity. Therefore the<br />
sweater can do what he pleases with them. If they venture<br />
gently to remonstrate, he bullies them; if they weep and<br />
entreat, he threatens. He enjoys making them feel that he<br />
is their master; he is never so happy as when he has them<br />
at his feet, humiliated and submissive. The sweater is always<br />
a bully as well as a sweater.<br />
"He has got all kinds of excuses for his sweating. His first<br />
excuse—in fact, the words are seldom out of his mouth—is<br />
that there is perfect freedom of contract between himself<br />
and his authors. 'It is take it or leave it. Here is a sum<br />
of money, there is the MS.' That is all. There is no other<br />
consideration.<br />
"Freedom of contract! It is freedom of contract w hen the<br />
wretched seamstress toils all day long—a day of sixteen<br />
hours—for 11 hi.—or less. She is free to take it or to leave it.<br />
It is freedom of contract when the poor woman who writes<br />
for her bread submits a manuscript which has cost her weeks<br />
and months of labour; yes, and that of a kind which requires,<br />
before it can be produced, a pure heart, a lofty soul, a brain<br />
rich with knowledge and a-glow with ideas, fancies, and a<br />
imaginings, and a trained hand. Such a woman is a most<br />
precious gift and blessing to the generation in which she<br />
lives and works. She may lie a most potent force in the<br />
advancement of humanity. But she is also a most sensitive,<br />
and delicate instrument. And she has to deal with a sweater!<br />
She goes to him trembling, because she knows what to expect.<br />
He will toss her j£\0, £20, ^30, £$o, whatever it may be.<br />
And out of her book he will make to himself a profit of ten,<br />
twenty, fiftyfold.<br />
"Freedom of contract! No greater mockery, no greater<br />
cruelty than to speak of such a woman driven to such<br />
necessities, as free to choose—free to accept or to reject.<br />
She is not free, she is the slave of the sweater."<br />
After these preliminary considerations, the<br />
pamphlet quotes three several cases and describes<br />
the treatment received by the author in each, and<br />
the sums received.<br />
In the first of these cases the Society bought,<br />
outright, the copyright of a small biographical<br />
work for the stupendous sum of £12! There was<br />
also a promise, as affirmed by the author, of future<br />
payment should the book prove "a success."<br />
\Vhat constitutes a success? The book is now in<br />
its seventh thousand—perhaps by this time in its<br />
eighth or ninth. The Secretary, while denying the<br />
promise, owns in his letters to a profit of about six<br />
times that of the author! This he states without<br />
a word of shame. Just as if it was a right and<br />
proper thing, a thing in accordance with the highest<br />
Christian ethics, that the Society should make this<br />
enormous proportion of profit!<br />
In a second case, the author, a lady, wrote ten<br />
books for the Society. She received, on an average,<br />
£50 a-piece for them. They were historical books<br />
and works of fiction. Taking one of the books as<br />
an example, it is shown that if 6,000 copies have<br />
been sold this just and generous Society has made<br />
a profit of about ^330 to the author's £50, i.e.,<br />
£Z2> 5s- > so that taking the whole ten books the<br />
profits of this Christian Society seem to stand at<br />
the figures of ,£2,739 10 ^4rS—tne actual sum—<br />
given to the author.<br />
Who are the authors who write for this Society?<br />
"I turn next to the list of authors. Setting aside the<br />
clergymen who have written religious books and still keeping<br />
to the department of belles lettres and fiction, I find among<br />
the writers hardly one single name of those who at present<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 66 (#90) ##############################################<br />
<br />
66<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
stand in the first rank, of those in the second rank'half a<br />
dozen. The rest are wholly unknown and obscure. Why is<br />
this? Why does not this venerable Society, with its enormous<br />
prestige, its immense clientele, its unparalleled power of selling<br />
books, command the services of the best writers? Have all<br />
the authors of Great Britain and Ireland abandoned the<br />
Kaith of their Fathers? No bruit or rumour of so deplorable<br />
an apostacy has reached my ears. How, then, can we<br />
account for their absence?<br />
"Is not the reason proclaimed—shouted aloud—by the facts<br />
quoted above? Does the needlewoman continue in her<br />
bondage when she has found a door of escape? Does she<br />
return to her old employer unless she is compelled by famine?<br />
"Let us, however, consider another imaginary scene. I see<br />
before me a Society which has a department devoted to the<br />
publication of books of all kinds; it defends, in the first in-<br />
stance, the tenets and doctrines of the Christian religion, and<br />
in the second place those of the Church of England. Besides<br />
these books it publishes, on terms and methods prepared<br />
with the most scrupulous attention to justice and righteous<br />
dealing, a vast mass of general literature. It is an honour to<br />
write for the Society ; it is a voucher of the value of the work,<br />
only to have the name of the Society on the title-page; no<br />
books have so wide a circulation. Hither come the historians,<br />
the scholars, the poets, the essayists, the novelists, the writers<br />
on science, art, music, everything. All the best men<br />
come to this Society. Its corpus of literature contains all<br />
that is best and noblest of the work of each generation.<br />
Those who are authors by profession long to get into the lists<br />
of the Society. If a clergyman of the Church writes such a<br />
lxx>k as Farrar's ' Life of Christ,' it is to the Society that<br />
he goes with it quite naturally, and as if it was the only thing<br />
to do. If another writes such a book as Green's ' History<br />
of the People,' it is to the Society that he offers it. If a<br />
novelist has a finished work, it is to the Society that he takes<br />
it. This Society leads all other publishers, and is an example<br />
for them; fair and honourable dealing is rendered necessary<br />
to all by the bright and shining example of the 'Literary<br />
Handmaid of the Church.' Nor is the money received the<br />
only thing. This Society, while it continues to defend the<br />
Church, regards literature from a broad and comprehensive<br />
point of view. The Church is better served by those who<br />
write for men, than by those who write for girls."<br />
This "Reply" to the invitation of the Publica-<br />
tion Committee of the S.P.C.K. has created<br />
a certain amount of interest, as was to be ex-<br />
pected from the nature of the subject and the<br />
position of the venerable Society concerned. The<br />
principles laid down in the pamphlet as to the<br />
Ethics of Publishing are simple, and will probably<br />
command general acceptance by all but persons<br />
interested in keeping up the old fictions.<br />
Among other letters received upon the subject is<br />
one from a Bishop which so remarkably and so<br />
fully (though in small space) illustrates a common<br />
attitude of mind that I venture to quote from it.<br />
His Lordship writes as follows :—<br />
(i) "I do not find any reason to suppose that<br />
the publishing department of the S.P.C.K..<br />
act otherwise than other publishers."<br />
One is sorry, indeed, that the Bishop thinks<br />
so badly of other publishers. The pamphlet<br />
shows some of the prices given by the S.P.C.K.<br />
and some of the profits made out of the unfortu-<br />
nate authors. Now, the good Bishop would boil<br />
with indignation were he to read or hear of<br />
sweaters in other trades. Yet he can find no tear,<br />
no sympathy, for the sufferings of the man or woman<br />
who writes and is sweated.<br />
(2) "Nor am I convinced that there is any<br />
injustice in a publisher who has purchased<br />
an author's copyright making a larger<br />
profit on the particular work than he seems<br />
to have paid for. All publishers risk losses<br />
by books that do not pay, and take their<br />
chance of profit or loss. The author will<br />
not share the loss. He has made his own<br />
bargain and receives the money. I do not<br />
see that he is entitled to claim a share in<br />
the gain unless indeed that is part of the<br />
bargain."<br />
The Bishop has here confused two or more<br />
points of importance which should have been kept<br />
separate. Let us divide the word.<br />
a. No risk need ever be incurred by the S.P.C.K.<br />
Let us repeat this over and over again, be-<br />
cause of all the Bogies, Spectres, and Ghosts<br />
ever raised by interested persons this is the<br />
hardest to lay. No Risk. No Risk at<br />
ALL NEED BE INCURRED BY THE S.P.C.K.<br />
In the old days, in fact down to very recent<br />
times, the business of publishing was specu-<br />
lative and risky. It is so no longer. That<br />
is to say, the area of the reading public is so<br />
vast; the book trade is so enormous; the<br />
demand is so varied; the knowledge of<br />
markets and the demand is so much in-<br />
creased, that no publisher who knows his<br />
business need ever undertake a risk. In<br />
other words, having regard (i) to the<br />
literary worth of a MS. (ii) to the subject;<br />
(iii) to the name of the author; (iv) to his<br />
own machinery—the publisher who knows<br />
his business knows very well before he<br />
consents to publish a book that he can<br />
"plant" such a minimum number of copies<br />
as will repay the cost of production, in-<br />
cluding a certain profit for himself.<br />
p. In the case of the S.P.C.K. their machinery<br />
for the disposal of books is unrivalled.<br />
They have shops and agents all over the<br />
country; they have an immense number of<br />
subscribers; and they have the invaluable<br />
reputation of publishing only books that<br />
are doctrinally "sound." Another reason<br />
why the S.P.C.K. need never actually pub-<br />
lish a book which results in a loss.<br />
7. "The author will not share the loss."<br />
First, there is, as I have said above, no<br />
loss except such as is caused by an error of<br />
judgment.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 67 (#91) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
67<br />
Next, apply this principle to other<br />
branches of production. A man makes a<br />
beautiful desk. He takes it to a shopkeeper<br />
who sells desks. The shopkeeper says, "My<br />
friend, this is an admirable desk. It should<br />
be worth three pounds to you. But as I<br />
was a fool yesterday, and bought a desk<br />
which is too bad for me to sell again, I<br />
can only give you thirty shillings. You<br />
must share in the loss."<br />
The Lord Bishop's ears shall not be<br />
shocked by hearing the reply of that<br />
cabinet-maker.<br />
i. The principles laid down by this Society are<br />
few and simple. For our part we contend<br />
that they are based upon a commandment<br />
which is read in the Churches every Sunday<br />
once and sometimes in the week.<br />
It is contended by the defenders of the Society<br />
that they give away their books largely. Perhaps<br />
they do—but perhaps their gifts are not so very<br />
large. In one of the cases quoted the Secretary<br />
did not claim to have given any away: he only<br />
owned that the profits made by the Society<br />
amounted to something like six times the sum paid<br />
to the author. Now to repeat the Archbishop's<br />
own definition, "The first evil of the sweating<br />
system is a rate of wages inadequate to the neces-<br />
sities of the workers or disproportionate to the<br />
work done." Six times the author's profit! Six<br />
times! My Lord Archbishop, late of the Com-<br />
mittee on the Sweating System, will you produce<br />
that sweating cabinet-maker, that sweating shoe-<br />
maker, that sweating shirt-maker who sweats his<br />
workmen to the tune of a profit six times the men's<br />
wage? And there are other cases behind even<br />
worse than those quoted in the pamphlet which<br />
shall be produced in good time.<br />
It remains to be said that as yet no reply at all<br />
to this pamphlet has been issued by the Publication<br />
Committee, nor has any answer been received by<br />
the author from the President of the Society.<br />
*<br />
THE GERMAN SOCIETY OF<br />
AUTHORS.<br />
AS at present constituted the Deutsche Schrift-<br />
steller Verbund originated from a fusion of<br />
the old Schriftsteller Verbund (founded in<br />
1878) and the former Schriftsteller Verein, a fusion<br />
which took place some three years ago, and it<br />
comprises now about 700 literary men and women<br />
of Germany, Austria, and German Switzerland.<br />
Its objects are :—<br />
{a.) To look after the members' interests as to<br />
their calling in general.<br />
(6.) To support them in case of need and in old<br />
age, as well as to provide for those they may<br />
leave behind.<br />
The constitution of the Society under the<br />
Presidency of Herr Robert Schweichel in Berlin,<br />
is similar to that of the English Society of Authors,<br />
but it is at the same time sub-divided into branch<br />
societies at Berlin, Breslau, Hamburg, Leipsic,<br />
Frankfort-on-Maine, Munich, Stuttgart, Vienna,<br />
Prague, and Gratz.<br />
Rather important factors in the working order of<br />
the General Society are :—<br />
(a.) The "literary bureau," a kind of agency<br />
established with a view to placing literary<br />
work of the members, to providing situa-<br />
tions (in editorial offices, &c), and to find<br />
out pirated reprints.<br />
(d.) The "Syndikat," under a lawyer, to give<br />
advice gratis on all questions regarding<br />
their literary interests.<br />
(c.) Courts of Arbitration, settling any disputes<br />
between the members who, it must be<br />
remembered, consist of editors as well as<br />
contributors, and even as regards publishers,<br />
I should think he would be a rash man<br />
who would not readily submit to it.<br />
The official organ of the Society is the "Deutsche<br />
Presse," which comes out weekly.<br />
All this may look satisfactory enough, but I am<br />
afraid I must add that all is not yet in such perfect<br />
working order as it might be, and I feel sure, one<br />
day—will be.<br />
As a special feature of our Society, however, I<br />
should like to mention also the facilities for social<br />
intercourse afforded thereby, and which by drawing<br />
kindred—or may be sometimes even the reverse—<br />
spirits of the same calling together, constitute<br />
perhaps the greatest advantages cf all. There are<br />
not only frequent meetings all through the year ot<br />
the members of the different branch societies—some<br />
having even special "Vergniigungs" Committees<br />
for arranging entertainments, excursions, &c.—but<br />
once a year a particular place is chosen, to which<br />
a goodly number of the members always flock from<br />
all sides for several days' fete, and of course for the<br />
transaction of some important business of the<br />
Society. The place chosen for this summer is<br />
Breslau, and if you, or any of your members, should<br />
like to have any further information on the<br />
"Schriftsteller Tag" of this summer, I should be<br />
happy to give it as soon as the programme is out.<br />
If any of the members of your Society should be<br />
anywhere near Breslau at the time and care to be<br />
present at the gathering, I feel sure they would be<br />
heartily welcomed by my friends in Germany.<br />
Wilhelm F. Brand.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 68 (#92) ##############################################<br />
<br />
68<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
A HARD CASE.<br />
No. III.<br />
THIS was certainly a hard case, but it was<br />
also one where the author's negligence<br />
largely contributed to his own mishaps.<br />
For this was a publishing transaction undertaken<br />
without any agreement at all.<br />
The publisher approached the author with<br />
regard to the production of a technical work.<br />
According to his proposal the author was not only<br />
to contribute to the work, but was also to obtain<br />
and edit the other material necessary, and to pay<br />
towards the cost of production of the first edition<br />
^150; it being understood that all other monies<br />
necessary for the issue should be found by the<br />
publisher. Any profits that might result were to<br />
be equally divided between the author and the<br />
publisher. These terms, however, were never<br />
embodied in any agreement.<br />
It is easy to see what they might mean.<br />
When the cost of production is left entirely in<br />
the publisher's hands, he can make it as high as he<br />
likes. He can make it as low as he likes. He can<br />
advertise to what extent he chooses. He need not<br />
even advertise at all. He can receive money for<br />
advertisements to be inserted in the work—it was<br />
an annual of the nature of an almanac, appealing to<br />
a very large body of scientific men, and especially<br />
likely to be used as a medium of advertisement by<br />
many tradesmen—and he can settle the scale at<br />
which such advertisement shall be charged for.<br />
He can print as many, or as few copies as he chooses.<br />
He can, in fact, if he pleases, put off the author's<br />
chance of a share of profits indefinitely, because it<br />
is in his power so to manage matters that there<br />
shall never seem to be any profit to share. He<br />
can, almost without fear of detection, add what<br />
sums he likes to the various items of the cost of<br />
production; he can receive from tradesmen and<br />
from advertisers whatever commission they may<br />
choose to give him: he can, in fact, so arrange<br />
a system of secret profits for himself, that he shall<br />
receive at least six times as much as the author,<br />
even should he allow the author ever to receive<br />
anything at all. Of course he would always and<br />
in all cases do such things at the risk of a law-suit<br />
or a criminal prosecution, and, if the author had<br />
provided himself with an agreement, having in it<br />
a clause giving him the right to demand an audit<br />
of the account, with the examination of the actual<br />
charges incurred by the publisher, it is clear that<br />
the publisher—though as unjust as the steward of<br />
Scripture—would not be able to render "cooked"<br />
accounts.<br />
Whether or no some such "cooking" took place<br />
in the case before us, cannot be certainly stated,<br />
but the publisher asserted that the first three annual<br />
editions only just covered the expenses, so that<br />
there were no profits to divide, while it came to<br />
the author's ears that considerable profits had really<br />
been made. He then directed his solicitors to<br />
apply for a statement of accounts.<br />
Then a strange thing happened. The publishers<br />
wrote repudiating the author's claim on the grounds<br />
that they had nothing to do with the matter at all!<br />
They were, they said, only issuing the annual on<br />
commission for another gentleman—naming one of<br />
their own employes, whose Christian name was par-<br />
tially, andsurname entirely identical with those of the<br />
head of the firm—and that to him all application for<br />
redress must be made. They reminded the author<br />
that all the correspondence concerning the business<br />
had been transacted between himself and this<br />
gentleman, who had, it appeared, represented him-<br />
self as the firm.<br />
Shortly afterwards the publishers went into bank-<br />
ruptcy. The trustees then communicated with the<br />
author, telling him that the accounts of his publish-<br />
ing transaction with the bankrupts were open to<br />
his inspection, but refusing to recognise his claim"<br />
against the estate upon the grounds alleged by the<br />
bankrupts.<br />
Considerable profits were then found to have<br />
been obtained upon the first three editions. The<br />
employe^ whom the publishers declare to be their<br />
client, and responsible to the author for the author's<br />
share of profits, then wrote and denied his liability.<br />
He asserted that the book was issued by the firm,<br />
and not hy himself, and that it was ridiculous for<br />
the firm to attempt to set up such a plea. He<br />
promised to give the author every assistance in his<br />
power, and, further, said that the accounts opened<br />
for inspection did not reveal the true state of the<br />
case, but that the profits were really larger than<br />
they were there made to appear.<br />
There was nothing to be done. The offenders<br />
were bankrupt, and the author had no agreement<br />
whereby to substantiate his claim.<br />
The want of a proper agreement has often, to<br />
our knowledge, been the source of great loss to an<br />
author in various ways, but this is the only case<br />
that has come before us in which the author was<br />
not able to prove with whom he had made a con-<br />
tract, having no written contract at all to show.<br />
This book, treated with such a contemptuous<br />
want of formality, seems to have been a fairly<br />
valuable property. Would tlie author have allmved<br />
a pig-stye of his to be hired of him without knowing<br />
who his tenant actually was, and without taking the<br />
trouble to record on paper the terms of the trans-<br />
action?<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 69 (#93) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
69<br />
It remains to be stated that the author, who<br />
only came to the Society when he thought it might<br />
help him, retired when he found that nothing could<br />
be done for him. This was, in fact, a Hard Case<br />
for the Society. There have been many such, of<br />
writers who keep aloof till they are in trouble, then<br />
get proposed and elected, pay the first year's sub-<br />
scription, sometimes entail upon the Society legal<br />
expenses amounting to many years' subscription,<br />
and then resign.<br />
*<br />
LA FEDERATION DU LIVRE.<br />
To the Editor of'The Author.<br />
I have read the " Literary Handmaid" with much<br />
interest; the correspondence in the Guardian I<br />
had seen at the time. I hope the Authors' Society<br />
will keep up the discussion, and give an eye also<br />
toother Religious Societies, which I do not imagine<br />
to behave much better to their authors than the<br />
S.P.C.K. This question of the duty of charitable<br />
or religious institutions, as employers of labour, is<br />
not new ; it must be thirty years or more since the<br />
Bookbinders' Union appealed to the dignitaries at<br />
the head of the Bible Society not to cheapen Bibles<br />
to such a point as to make them hateful to the<br />
starving folders and sewers. But in those days<br />
good people were afraid of labour questions and<br />
the operatives got no satisfaction.<br />
Has it occurred to you that in this matter the<br />
author, the printer, the binder—and even the ink<br />
and paper-makers—are more or less in the same<br />
boat? The unprincipled publisher, who grows<br />
rich by grinding the faces of poor authors, also<br />
has his binding and printing done cheap by the<br />
houses which the Workmen's Unions call "unfair."<br />
And these employers of cheap labour undersell<br />
liberal publishers, and make it more difficult for<br />
them to deal fairly by all grades of book pro-<br />
ducers.<br />
Now as authors—I won't say are—but are sup-<br />
posed by an indulgent public to be—a superior<br />
race of intellectual beings, would it not be appro-<br />
priate for them to take the initiative in organizing<br />
the industry with which they are connected dc fond<br />
en cortbic, in a reasonable and righteous manner?<br />
Should we not have a better position, as regards<br />
the public, when trying to convince the " Literary<br />
Handmaid " that the labourer is worthy of his hire,<br />
if we spoke on behalf of all those who get their<br />
living by assisting in the manufacture of books as<br />
well as in the interests of the writers? Is it even<br />
fair for the author to take a high moral ground and<br />
lecture the publisher on his duties unless he him-<br />
self is careful not to have any share in the profits<br />
of iniquity?<br />
But unless there is some concert and co-opera-<br />
tion between authors and operatives, through their<br />
respective organizations, how can the most scrupu-<br />
lous writer be secure against a partnership in the<br />
very evils, perhaps denounced in his book? At<br />
present there is nothing to prevent authors who,<br />
by position or principles ought to be most secure<br />
against such dangers, from falling a victim to them.<br />
There must be something rotten in the state of the<br />
book trade when it is possible for the works of a<br />
great and honourable writer to be printed at—what<br />
the mass of workmen call—an "unfair " house : or<br />
when the journal of a certain most illustrious<br />
Authoress (who does not depend for maintenance<br />
on her pen) narrowly escapes causing a strike<br />
among the women sewing it. (The book referred<br />
to was on extra thick paper, and the firm of binders<br />
employed by the publisher refused to pay extra on<br />
this account; the sore fingers produced by the<br />
hard work required in a short time are still well<br />
remembered in the trade.)<br />
On the other hand, supposing the printing trade<br />
to be hampered by any unreasonable or ignorant<br />
prejudices among the operatives, who could medi-<br />
ate with more effect than writers, who have an<br />
interest in cheap printing, controlled by the con-<br />
scientious desire to secure fair wages throughout<br />
the trade?<br />
Some slight approach has been made in Paris<br />
towards recognizing this natural solidarity among<br />
all workers in the book industry. I do not know<br />
whether the Soci^ti; des Gens de Lettres is in any<br />
relation with the Federation du Livre, which last<br />
year had between 5,000 and 6,000 members in<br />
Paris, including, besides ordinary compositors and<br />
bookbinders, highly-paid lithographers and various<br />
classes which have not yet learnt to act together<br />
in England.<br />
In the printing trade the State is not a better<br />
employer than the Church, and while State, Church,<br />
and competing private publishers continue to en-<br />
force the "Law of elevenpence ha'penny," what<br />
avails it for one eloquent author to lift up his voice<br />
against it?<br />
No doubt some people will say, authors have<br />
enough to do to fight their own battles without<br />
troubling about the operatives, who can take care<br />
of themselves.<br />
But it is often easier to do a big thing than a<br />
small one. Suppose there are six sets of work-<br />
men employed in turning out a book, including<br />
the humble functionary who writes it. Each of<br />
the six has to do with an employer or entrepreneur,<br />
with an interest in keeping down his wages; and<br />
all six, author included, are more often defeated<br />
A<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 70 (#94) ##############################################<br />
<br />
70<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
thrm victorious in their bargains with this opponent.<br />
But let the six interests be allied, and they are<br />
stronger than any one adversary; and as a disin-<br />
terested alliance is only possible in a good cause,<br />
there is nothing to be feared from a rival federation<br />
of sweaters.<br />
If you object that the plea for extended organi-<br />
zation comes with a bad grace from a scribbler<br />
who has not joined the Society, I plead guilty and<br />
am willing to amend, but the fact is, I have been<br />
waiting for an occasion to ask your views on this<br />
point first, as one feels now-a-days that any or-<br />
ganization partaking of the character of a Trade<br />
Union is particularly bound to recognize the rights<br />
and interests interwoven with its own, and to sus-<br />
tain rather than endanger their just claims.<br />
Edith J. Simcox. *<br />
UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION<br />
OF SERMONS.<br />
I.<br />
SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK in your June<br />
number criticises my note on "Copyright in<br />
Lectures " which you published in May. I<br />
hope you will permit me, as the writer of the note,<br />
to point out that the common law only gives protec-<br />
tion to lecturers so long as their lectures are not<br />
published by being publicly delivered. This protec-<br />
tion is afforded by the Courts in a practical way<br />
by issuing an injunction against infringers. But<br />
directly there is publication (as when a clergyman<br />
preaches a sermon in church or a public lecture<br />
open to all without condition is delivered) the<br />
common law protection is at an end, and the<br />
lecturer is left to such protection as the statute gives<br />
him. I am glad of an opportunity to make this<br />
distinction clear, although as my note only referred<br />
to public lectures I did not before allude to the<br />
common law rights in unpublished lectures.<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock cites the case of "Caird<br />
v. Sime" (12 App. Ca. 326) but it was there held<br />
by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Watson (Lord<br />
Fitzgerald dissenting) that Professor Caird's lec-<br />
tures to the students of Glasgow University were<br />
not public but private, and that, therefore, he was<br />
entitled to a "perpetual interdict" against their<br />
publication. Moreover, Lord Watson in his<br />
judgment remarks :—" On the other hand I do not<br />
doubt that a lecturer who addresses himself to the<br />
public generally without distinction of persons or<br />
selection or restriction of his hearers has, as the<br />
Lord President observes in this case, abandoned<br />
his ideas and words to the use of the public at<br />
large." The preamble of the Statute 5 and 6,<br />
Will. IV, c. 65, runs:—"Whereas printers, &c,<br />
have frequently taken the liberty of printing and<br />
publishing lectures delivered upon divers subjects<br />
without the consent of the authors, &c, to the<br />
great detriment of such authors, &c." This, I<br />
suppose, was true. As Lord Watson puts it in<br />
"Caird v. Sime," the purpose of the Act is to<br />
secure their right of property to the authors of such<br />
lectures, notwithstanding their having been pub-<br />
lished by delivery. Nor are all University, &c,<br />
lectures private, for, as Lord Watson was careful to<br />
add, "there may be lectures delivered within the<br />
walls of such institutions which do by their delivery<br />
become public property just as there may be others<br />
which do not." It was pointed out by the Copy-<br />
right Commissioners, 1878, that these are denied<br />
statutory protection. It was, as Lord P'itzgerald<br />
observes in his dissenting judgment in the same<br />
case, thought desirable by the House of Commons<br />
of the day that these lectures should remain public<br />
property, and that their authors should be denied<br />
statutory copyright.<br />
My authority for the statement that " a lecturer<br />
is powerless to prevent unauthorized re-delivery," is<br />
in the Report of the Copyright Commission, 1878,<br />
pp. xvi, xvii. "The present Act of Parliament," the<br />
Report runs, "which gives copyright in lectures,<br />
seems only to contemplate one kind of copyright,<br />
namely, that of printed publication, whereas it is<br />
obvious that for their entire protection lectures<br />
require copyright of two kinds, the one to protect<br />
them from printed publication by unauthorised<br />
persons, the other to protect them from re-delivery."<br />
The Report goes on to suggest that an author's<br />
copyright should extend to prevent re-delivery. If<br />
the Commissioners are right, I am correct in stat-<br />
ing that "there is no such thing as" performing<br />
right "in a species of literary production in which<br />
this may be really valuable."<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock further remarks:—"There-<br />
fore, a person acting on the commentator's opinion<br />
that sermons 'seem to be clearly public property,'<br />
would be more likely to make practical acquaint-<br />
ance with the nature and operation of an injunction<br />
than to make his fortune by unlicensed reprints of<br />
pulpit eloquence." But I contend that it is a fact<br />
that the piracy of pulpit eloquence is a systematic,<br />
and, perhaps, a profitable trade. Lord Eldon, in<br />
Abernethy v. Hutchinson [3 L. J. (Ch.) 214], distin-<br />
guished the case of a clergyman as one in which<br />
there was no remedy by injunction, and Copinger<br />
remarks (Lmv of Copyright, p. 35), "it would appear<br />
that sermons by Clergy of the Established Church,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 71 (#95) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
7i<br />
in endowed places of public worship, are deemed<br />
public property." The Bishop of Peterborough,<br />
to whose case I referred, in complaining of the<br />
unlicensed publication of his sermons by the Editor<br />
of the Contemporary Pulpit, remarked (Times, June<br />
14th, 1888):—"I am aware that for this kind of<br />
literary assassination an unhappy preacher has no<br />
redress; he is completely at the mercy of penny-<br />
a-liners and enterprising editors who make 'per-<br />
nicious nonsense ' of his discourses, and then vend<br />
them for their own gain." A story is told of the<br />
late Canon Henry Melvill to the effect that, on<br />
one occasion, he paused in the middle of a sermon,<br />
and exclaimed, pointing an indignant finger at a<br />
reporter, "There is a thief. He is stealing my<br />
property." Sir Frederick Pollock writes with<br />
authority, but it is more than singular that an<br />
injunction was never sought by any injured and<br />
outraged preacher; and I venture to think that<br />
the explanation is to be found in the fact that<br />
sermons, like public lectures, are, in Lord Eldon's<br />
phrase, "communicated urbi et orbi by the mere<br />
act of delivery."<br />
W. Morris Collet<br />
II.<br />
The point is certainly unsettled. I have little<br />
doubt that a generation or two ago Mr. Colles's<br />
opinion was the commonly received one. But, in<br />
addition to disclaiming any pretension of writing<br />
with authority myself (which would be superfluous<br />
if I were writing for lawyers only), I may point<br />
out that there is no real authority on the other<br />
side. The opinion of the Copyright Commissioners<br />
could not be referred to in a Court of Justice, and<br />
the dicta in Caird v. Sime are extra-judicial, not<br />
being at all necessary to the decision. It may be<br />
a long time before we get a legislative declaration,<br />
and meanwhile case-law can be improved only by<br />
those who have the courage to dispute current<br />
opinions. Many opinions quite as current as this,<br />
and having more show of authority, have been<br />
over-ruled in our own time. There would be a<br />
fair chance, to the best of my judgment, of inducing<br />
the Court of Appeal to throw on the unauthorized<br />
reproducer the burden of proving an unlimited<br />
dedication to the public. I do not know why<br />
authors should acquiesce more than other men in<br />
that view of a doubtful point which is least favour-<br />
able to themselves, and I only wish the Bishop of<br />
Peterborough had been advised to stand in the<br />
breach. At all events the author who publishes a<br />
revised text of his discourse has the protection of<br />
ordinary literary copyright for his additions and<br />
corrections. F. P.<br />
III.<br />
[Reprinted from The Times, June 14th, 1888. By permission<br />
of the Bishop of Peterborough.]<br />
To the Editor of The Times.<br />
Sir,<br />
I have just received a copy of a publication<br />
purporting to be a series of sermons on the Church<br />
Catechism by the Bishop of Peterborough, re-<br />
printed, apparently, from the Contemporary Pulpit.<br />
I ask your permission to state that this publication<br />
has been made without my consent or knowledge;<br />
and that (with the exception of the first sermon of<br />
the series, which was partially corrected by me) I<br />
am in no way responsible for its contents.<br />
The facts of the case are interesting as an illus-<br />
tration of what preachers, who, like myself, do not<br />
use manuscript, have to suffer at the hands of re-<br />
porters and editors of religious periodicals. I have<br />
preached lately a series of short sermons in Peter-<br />
borough Cathedral on the Church Catechism.<br />
These were reported in the local newspapers; and<br />
the editor, I think, of the Contemporary Pulpit, or,<br />
if not, some other editor, sent me shortly after a<br />
proof of the first of these for correction, with a<br />
view to publication in his magazine. I found it,<br />
as might have been expected, both imperfect and<br />
inaccurate. I could not afford the time, even if I<br />
had the ability, to reproduce the sermon from<br />
memory. I was obliged, therefore, to content<br />
myself with rendering into English a good many<br />
sentences which were certainly not printed in that<br />
language, and with erasing one or two amazing<br />
doctrinal statements which were the reporter's and<br />
not mine.<br />
The remaining sermons were published in the<br />
Contemporary Pulpit without any revision or cor-<br />
rection from me, and are now republished in a<br />
permanent form for the profit of the publisher or<br />
editor, with the heading "Magee Extra; price<br />
sixpence.<br />
I am aware that for this kind of literary assassina-<br />
tion an unhappy preacher has no legal redress; he<br />
is completely at the mercy of penny-a-liners and<br />
enterprising editors, who make "pernicious non-<br />
sense" of his discourses and then vend them for<br />
their own gain. I do not grudge them their gains,<br />
though, if I might be allowed the choice, I would<br />
gladly pay them what they might think their<br />
venture worth on condition that they would forego<br />
it. But what I do complain of is that, because I<br />
will not, and indeed cannot, reproduce for them<br />
my sermons, I must submit to the publication<br />
and circulation of all the bad English and worse<br />
theology which they think fit to give to the public<br />
as mine. I complain, too, of the further annoyance<br />
of having to answer numerous letters from per-<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 72 (#96) ##############################################<br />
<br />
72<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
plexed, and occasionally angry, correspondents,<br />
who ask, "Did you really say this?" "Can it be<br />
possible that you said that ?"and of having to write<br />
to each one an assurance that I never said "this"<br />
or "that," and an explanation—sometimes a long<br />
one—as to what I really did say.<br />
I know that these complaints of mine will fall—<br />
so far as enterprising editors are concerned—upon<br />
deaf ears. Preachers are their natural prey and<br />
diet. But, as a matter of common honesty, I think<br />
it only due to any intending purchaser of this<br />
particular "Magee Extra "to apprise him that, if<br />
he expends upon it the sum of sixpence, he will get<br />
for his money a good deal more of the "Extra"<br />
than of the " Magee."<br />
I am, Sir,<br />
Faithfully yours,<br />
W. C. Peterborough.<br />
Palace, Peterborough, June nth.<br />
—»<br />
IV.<br />
[Reprinted from The Times, June 25th, 1888. By permission<br />
of the Bishop of Peterborough.]<br />
To the Editor of The Times.<br />
Sir,<br />
The editor of the Contemporary Pulpit alleges<br />
that "misunderstanding has been caused" by my<br />
not having "communicated with him" on the<br />
subject of his " Magee Extra," about which I lately<br />
wrote to you. I confess that I see no reason why<br />
I should have communicated with him on the<br />
matter. The injury of which I complained—<br />
namely, the publication of a volume of sermons as<br />
mine without my consent or knowledge and with-<br />
out any correction or revision from me—was done<br />
and could not be undone by means of any com-<br />
munication of mine to the doer of it. It seems to<br />
me that it would be as reasonable to expect me to<br />
"communicate " with a person who had assaulted<br />
me in the street in order to prevent any misunder-<br />
standing that might arise from my giving him into<br />
custody. Might I suggest to the editor of the<br />
Contemporary Pulpit that previous communication,<br />
in either of these cases, from the intending assailant<br />
to his intended victim, would be the more reason-<br />
able course of the two? It would prevent some<br />
pain to one of the parties concerned, and a good<br />
deal of trouble to both.<br />
I hasten, however, to correct, as far as possible<br />
to make amends for these "misunderstandings"<br />
that I have caused. I was "mistaken," it appears,<br />
in thinking "that my sermons were reprinted from<br />
the Contemporary Pulpit." That periodical, it<br />
seems, is none of your "penny dailies," nor six-<br />
penny weeklies even. It is nothing less—so please<br />
you—than a quarterly, which "publishes every<br />
quarter full reflexes of the best preaching of the<br />
day"—obtained in my case, at least, by printing off<br />
a bundle of uncorrected newspaper cuttings—<br />
edited with no greater pains or cost than is implied<br />
in the use of the scissors and the paste pot. I<br />
admit and apologise for my ignorance as to the<br />
rank and dignity of this youngest of the "quarterlies."<br />
Possibly, however, some of the editor's elder breth-<br />
ren may think that, under the circumstances, and<br />
for the credit of the family, some apology is due to<br />
them from him. I was also wrong, I am told, in<br />
believing that the editor was guilty of the weakness<br />
of allowing me to revise the proof of even one of<br />
my sermons. As a matter of fact, I did not assert<br />
this. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and<br />
said that this was done either by him or " by some<br />
other editor." I admit, however, my mistake in<br />
crediting him with even this small amount of fair-<br />
ness and courtesy, and I apologize accordingly.<br />
Having now, I trust, sufficiently explained my<br />
"mistake," I proceed briefly to comment on the<br />
remainder of the editor's letter. He is evidently a<br />
person who, in conducting his business, is in the<br />
habit of "supposing" a good deal. For (1) he<br />
"supposed " (he does not say why) that I revised<br />
all the reports of my sermons for the newspapers in<br />
which they appeared." (2) He " supposed" that<br />
the necessarily hurried and rough correction of<br />
reporters' errors and mistakes of the Press, which<br />
alone is possible in such a case, was really equiva-<br />
lent to the careful revision and to the supply of<br />
omitted passages which a preacher might not un-<br />
reasonably desire to make in a re-publication in a<br />
permanent form of newspaper reports of bis sermons.<br />
(3) He "supposed" that I had no "intention of<br />
publishing these sermons myself." For, as he<br />
assures us that it is his rule in such a case never to<br />
publish, and as he certainly never said a word to<br />
me on the subject, he must have either taken for<br />
granted that I had no such intention, or he must<br />
(4) have "supposed" that it was my business to<br />
notify such intention to every religious editor in<br />
the country, and that failing such notification they<br />
were free to publish the sermons on their own<br />
account.<br />
In the next place, I observe that this editor<br />
measures out his civilities to preachers in the<br />
same way that railway servants are sometimes<br />
accused of measuring theirs to railway passengers<br />
—namely, according to their rank. To a "more<br />
eminent preacher" than myself, it seems, "any<br />
terms " for the right to publish his sermons revised<br />
and corrected by himself." To second class<br />
preachers like myself he offers no terms whatever,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 73 (#97) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
73<br />
and no opportunity for revision or correction. He<br />
roundly claims the right to republish our sermons<br />
as a literary speculation, uncorrected and unrevised,<br />
when and how he pleases, unless, indeed, we in-<br />
form him beforehand of our intention to publish<br />
them for ourselves. How he treats third-class<br />
preachers I hardly dare to imagine. It may be<br />
that he does not publish their sermons in any<br />
shape. If so, I should be infinitely obliged to him<br />
if he would henceforth put me in the third class.<br />
Probably, however, if we had the opportunity of<br />
interviewing the eminent preacher above referred<br />
to, he would tell us that, having been offered the<br />
uncomfortable alternative either of devoting much<br />
valuable time and pains to revising and correcting<br />
his sermons for another man's profit, or of allowing<br />
them to go forth unrevised, he chose, as the least<br />
of two evils, the latter course. So should I, were<br />
I given the choice, of which, however, it appears I<br />
am not worthy.<br />
The editor adds that "it is impossible for him<br />
to yield to any further claim of mine." Let me<br />
assure him that I made and make no claim upon<br />
him whatsoever. I fully anticipated, as I said in<br />
my former letter, that any claim of mine on him,<br />
either for justice or mercy, would "fall on deaf<br />
ears." Preachers are, as I said, "the natural prey<br />
and diet of religious editors;" and I have never<br />
heard that the carnivorous animals are much<br />
affected by the sufferings of the creatures upon<br />
which they dine.<br />
All that I claimed was the right to disclaim all<br />
responsibility for the "bald, disjointed trash,"<br />
which he has published as mine, and to warn in-<br />
tending purchasers of it as to what they would get<br />
for their money.<br />
One word more on the general subject. I make<br />
no complaint of reporters. They do their best,<br />
often under very difficult circumstances, and it is<br />
no discredit to a country reporter if he is not as<br />
deft and practised as one of the staff of The Times,<br />
nor so well skilled in divinity as to qualify him for<br />
detecting doctrinal misstatements in his reports,<br />
which nevertheless may be distressing to a preacher.<br />
Nor do I in the least complain of the editors of<br />
local newspapers for publishing such reports. I<br />
am not so absurd as to expect that editors of<br />
newspapers should send me, even if it were always<br />
possible to do so, the proofs of my sermons or<br />
speeches, and still less that they should find space,<br />
to the exclusion of other matter, for sermons in<br />
extenso. I am quite content in this respect to<br />
share "neighbours' fare," and to suffer, as every<br />
public speaker must, the passing annoyance of<br />
some misquotation, which I can correct, if I care<br />
to do so, in the next day's paper, or the suppression<br />
of what I might wish had been published, but<br />
which the editor, probably quite rightly, thought<br />
might not interest his readers. I know that all<br />
such reports will, in a day or two, find decent in-<br />
terment and oblivion in the common grave of<br />
speeches and sermons, the back files of old news-<br />
papers.<br />
But it is quite another matter when some re-<br />
ligious editor exhumes the mangled corpse, labels<br />
it as mine, and displays it in an exhibition, "ad-<br />
mission sixpence," in order that he may turn what<br />
I suppose he calls an honest penny at my expense.<br />
To protest against this may appear to the editor a<br />
"claim " so outrageous that he "declines to com-<br />
ment on it." To me it appears a perfectly just and<br />
reasonable protest against a practice which I had<br />
rather not describe by its proper name.<br />
I am, Sir,<br />
Yours faithfully,<br />
W. C. Peterborough.<br />
The Palace, Peterborough, June 22nd.<br />
*<br />
THE INAUTHORATED CORPSES.<br />
TWO Congresses, fifteen Legislatures, one<br />
House of Commons, and several hundred<br />
newspapers had sat upon the question of<br />
International Copyright for years; and nothing<br />
beyond pirated editions were ever hatched of it.<br />
As the honourable member for Lower Idaho<br />
pointed out in Congress: "If we can hike down<br />
the fruit of the centuries from the moss-gnarled<br />
trunks of an effete civilization over the sea, why in<br />
Paradise should we pay a dollar for a book when we<br />
can hook it for a dime? Let the good work go on."<br />
In England every vestryman knew that there were<br />
no votes to be obtained from authors, and no one<br />
could quite understand what it was the gang<br />
wanted, or why they should actually own what<br />
they had " made out of their heads, y' know," and<br />
the situation crystallued itself into a round game<br />
of grab. The American publishers began by giving<br />
an English author ten pounds for advance-sheets<br />
of a book which they brought out for fifty cents.<br />
Then the Sad Sea Wave Library would undercut<br />
the first firm, and produce a thirty cent edition;<br />
and last of all the "Bowery Bloodsucker Serials"<br />
would set a muzzy German to abridge and adapt<br />
the book and would issue the mutilated fragments<br />
for a dime or ten cents. When a man had taken<br />
some trouble over his book and put perhaps one<br />
or two ideas into it, and was feeling happy, his<br />
friends would post him American variorum edi-<br />
tions of that book to make him happier. Later<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 74 (#98) ##############################################<br />
<br />
74<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
on the American publisher discovered that it was<br />
not worth while to pay the author for advance-<br />
sheets at all. The syndicates established an agency<br />
for appropriation, and their agents moved among<br />
the English printing-houses and turned the handle<br />
of a printing press four or five times more than<br />
was necessary, and went away with the advance-<br />
sheets. That was called Enterprise, and it made<br />
both the British and American reading public<br />
laugh.<br />
Then the authors borrowed some writing-paper<br />
and wrote a petition to Parliament asking that the<br />
fight might be made if not a fair, at least a free one.<br />
They respectfully prayed that all the laws were on<br />
one side, but, they said, if the matter of copyrights<br />
were "left to be fought out by such instruments as<br />
your petitioners' resources allow they would ever<br />
pray, &c." Parliament being then extremely busy<br />
with a new scheme for Local Self-Government<br />
in Cornwall (which county had discovered that it<br />
was Phoenician and not British), said, "Let it be<br />
law as it is desired," and it was law.<br />
Three days after it came into effect, the London<br />
representative of the great "publishing" firm of<br />
Fibbs and Glew met an author-man by appoint-<br />
ment in the former's rooms.<br />
"How is the Legend of the Spotted Death getting<br />
on ?" said the representative, with a grin.<br />
"Gone to press," said the author. "What are<br />
you going to do about it?"<br />
"Nothing much. One of our men photoed<br />
the MS. page by page in the office, with a button-<br />
hole camera. I've mailed the enlarged films to<br />
America, and I guess we've got the drop on your<br />
English lirm this time."<br />
"But I'm going to knock the thing about in proof<br />
a great deal," said the author. "There's more bad<br />
work in the last chapter than I care to think of."<br />
"'Can't help that," said the representative.<br />
"We must be first in the market if you wrote a<br />
revised edition of the alphabet with twenty-six<br />
misprints. However, we've dealt with you from<br />
way back. Here's a tenner. Take it or leave it."<br />
He turned to his desk to get the money. When<br />
he faced round he was looking directly down the<br />
barrel of a '440 Derringer. His hands stiffened<br />
above his head, the bank note in the right fist.<br />
"Who has the drop now?" said the author.<br />
"It's a fair fight at last—with such resources as we<br />
can command. Keep your hands up, please."<br />
"Don't be an ass," said the representative.<br />
"This isn't a theatre."<br />
"Quite right. It's a court of law. Understand,<br />
I'm not in the least angry with you. You had a<br />
perfect right to steal my work, which is about all<br />
the property I have or ever shall have. You were<br />
entitled to insult me with the sort of 'tip' his<br />
uncle gives to a boy going to Eton, as well as to<br />
make hay of my sentences to suit your con-<br />
venience. There was no law, and so you reverted<br />
to the primitive man. Quite right. Now you're<br />
going to learn the law just as a horse-thief in Idaho<br />
learns it—through fear of death and physical pain."<br />
He took the bank note from the uplifted hand.<br />
"Lie down on the hearth-rug with your hands<br />
behind you. I'm going to take all the money I<br />
can find in the office. Drop!"<br />
The representative obeyed, and the author made<br />
investigations which repaid him for two years'<br />
sales of unauthorized editions.<br />
"Now it's not safe," he concluded, "to leave you<br />
with a fighting hand. I should be within my right<br />
if I killed you as your countrymen kill horse-thieves.<br />
And let us be moral. Why do they kill horse-<br />
thieves?"<br />
"Because," said the representative, his face on<br />
the hearth-rug, "the assumption is that when you<br />
steal a horse you dismount a man, and the man<br />
may die in the wilderness."<br />
"Exactly. How do you know where I wish to<br />
ride on these my books, and why do you try to<br />
dismount me before I dismount myself?"<br />
"There was no law," said the representative.<br />
"The law has come now. It's primitive for the<br />
nineteenth century, but I think it will work. Hold<br />
your right hand over the fender-rim; I don't want<br />
to spoil your carpet. There! Through the right<br />
wrist. That will cripple you for life. If you can<br />
shoot me with your left next time we meet, well and<br />
good. Then you can go on stealing without fear.<br />
Let me tie your hand up. We must all learn the<br />
Law with pain and sorrow. Good bye!"<br />
The author departed while the representative lay<br />
fainting with his head in the fender. He came of<br />
a nation eminently just at heart, so he brought<br />
neither a civil nor a criminal suit against the<br />
author, but went to the very best doctor and the<br />
best gunmaker in all London, and made arrange-<br />
ments to bring out an edition as soon as possible<br />
of that author—in boards—limited to one copy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 75 (#99) ##############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
75<br />
LEAFLET No. III.<br />
On Paying for Publication.<br />
THOSE who pay for the publication of their<br />
works are young poets, travellers, novelists,<br />
essayists, and clergymen who bring out<br />
their sermons. The number of poets who at the<br />
present moment can dispense with the ceremony of<br />
pre-payment for publication is certainly small,<br />
probably not more than eight or nine. And there<br />
appears no indication of an immediate increase in<br />
their number. The handsome illustrated books of<br />
travel appear also, for the most part, and judging<br />
from the agreements sent to this Society, to be<br />
largely paid for by the author, who is asked to<br />
"guarantee," that is, to take and pay for, at a<br />
certain price, so many copies. The greater number,<br />
however, of those who pay for the production of<br />
their books are novelists. Now in the year 1889<br />
lhere were 828 new novels published and 353 new<br />
editions of novels. (Let us here remark that both<br />
writing and publishing of novels ought to be in a<br />
healthy condition since so many new editions are<br />
called for.) Out of the 828 new works of fiction<br />
at least one-half are children's books or goody books,<br />
of which the output is enormous. Of the remaining<br />
half between two and three hundred are three volume<br />
novels; the rest are either six shilling one volume<br />
novels, or shilling stories. In any case at least<br />
two-thirds, and perhaps three-fourths, of this long<br />
list of novels are books paid for by the author.<br />
The following is the invariable process. The<br />
author has written the book—perhaps with im-<br />
mense pains and trouble; perhaps he has " dashed"<br />
it off at odd moments when there was nothing else<br />
to do. In any case the MS. is at last ready. The<br />
writer of it now begins to send it round. He<br />
looks at the advertised lists of books. He selects<br />
a firm: if he is wise, he begins with a big house:<br />
and he sends off his manuscript. He then waits<br />
with a beating heart for a reply. Presently he<br />
receives a polite answer declining the work. He<br />
tries another publisher with the same result. And<br />
a third —being rejected again. At this point he<br />
generally commits a fatal error. For, if he were a<br />
wise man, he would argue that (1), these firms all<br />
vol.. 1.<br />
ardently desire to publish good work which they<br />
can sell; that (2), the fact of their refusal to pub-<br />
lish his work shows that it lacks at least com-<br />
mercial value, if not literary merit; and that (3),<br />
he should now revise it and submit it to some third<br />
person, say one of the readers for this Society, for<br />
an independent opinion as to the cause of these<br />
repeated failures. But he does not take this line at<br />
all. He says, "Perhaps, if a great house will not<br />
take my MS., a smaller house will." Now, there<br />
are small houses of various kinds. Most of them<br />
mainly live by bringing out books which are paid<br />
for by the authors. Some of them do this work,<br />
which can hardly be called the highest class of<br />
publishing, honourably and honestly. Others, to<br />
put it mildly, do not. He goes to one of these<br />
and he pays for production.<br />
Whether the author pays a large sum or a small<br />
sum need not here be considered. The question<br />
is, why he pays anything at all.<br />
Consider. There are many authors and many<br />
publishers. But there is only one public. It is<br />
true that there are many branches of the public.<br />
One branch, for instance, likes sporting books, and<br />
another likes religious books; some like love<br />
stories and others like murders. Still only one<br />
public, wherever the author goes—for all publishers<br />
alike.<br />
Let him ask this question then. If this public<br />
should refuse to buy this MS. if published—say<br />
—by Longman or Bentley, of what other pub-<br />
lisher would they buy it? and for what reason ? .<br />
In other words:—If a MS. is offered to all the<br />
respectable houses in vain, it is refused because<br />
all the respectable houses are agreed in thinking<br />
that the public will have none of it. Where, then,<br />
is that other public which will demand it when it<br />
is published elsewhere?<br />
In this Society, cases by the score—by the<br />
hundred—have been examined in which the author<br />
has had to pay for the production. Nay, in look-<br />
ing down the lists of new books advertised in the<br />
papers, we are able to name the books which are<br />
paid for because we know the houses which publish<br />
in this way. Seldom, indeed, does a case come<br />
before us in which the writer gets any of his money<br />
back. Never does he get any kuIo* at all. He<br />
1<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 76 (#100) #############################################<br />
<br />
76<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
gets contemptuous reviews, his friends snigger at<br />
his failure, he writhes under the shame and pain<br />
of the plain truth : and when his accounts come<br />
in there prove to have been no sales.<br />
Only yesterday I read a letter from a young lady.<br />
She had paid ^50, being deluded by glowing<br />
hopes, but not actual promises, of large profits<br />
to divide. The sales amounted to £1 2s. gd.<br />
Sometimes, however, there are absolutely no sales<br />
at all.<br />
Literary vanity is, of course, at the bottom of<br />
this folly. All the writer asks for is to be in print,<br />
only to be printed; if he can obtain this, as he<br />
always can on such terms, he will pay anything<br />
and sign anything. No rebuffs, no reader's<br />
opinions, no rejections can persuade him that his<br />
MS. is worthless, and that, whatever he pays, he<br />
will meet with nothing but disappointment, vexa-<br />
tion and shame. He is quite sure that his work is<br />
brilliant and certain to succeed.<br />
There are instances on record of books, after-<br />
wards successful, having been refused by one pub-<br />
lisher after the other. The famous and leading<br />
case of Vanity Fair is one. These instances do<br />
mightily comfort the rejected author. He feels<br />
himself a possible Thackeray // only he can get<br />
printed. Mistakes, he says, have occurred before<br />
now. Readers are fallible. Mistakes may occur<br />
again. And perhaps the reader is also himself a<br />
novelist. We all know that jealousy is a common as<br />
well as a hateful vice. Or perhaps the reader knows<br />
some private enemy of the author and bears a grudge.<br />
What more likely than that the jealous reader<br />
should wish to smother a dangerous rival? Or<br />
perhaps the perfidious reader has not even taken<br />
the trouble to look at his work. Anyhow, since<br />
the best firms are so foolish as to refuse to make<br />
money by his work, some other shall have the<br />
chance. He will get it printed even though he<br />
has to pay for it. And so the output of worthless<br />
books is increased by one more, and the reviewers<br />
grow more and more savage over the swelling<br />
flood of rubbish, and the noble art of fiction is<br />
degraded and insulted. Will not the readers of<br />
this paper join in dissuading, by all means in<br />
their power, their friends from paying for produc-<br />
tion? Editor.<br />
QUESTIONS, CASES, AND<br />
ANSWERS.<br />
"Some years ago I wrote a biographical paper<br />
for a magazine. It was accepted and published.<br />
When I wrote for payment I had no reply. I<br />
wrote another paper also on an historical subject for<br />
a weekly newspaper. The editor returned it, ask-<br />
ing me to enlarge it. This I did, and he printed<br />
it. But he never paid me.<br />
"I recently sent an article of a similar character,<br />
on which I had expended a considerable amount<br />
of trouble and time, to a monthly magazine. The<br />
editor has now lost it. I have kept no copy, and<br />
must write it again. Is there no redress?<br />
"A publisher lately signed an agreement in which<br />
he covenanted to bring out a written work in a<br />
certain series at a certain price. He has printed<br />
the work and now refuses to bring it out, alleging<br />
that he believes it would be a failure. He offers<br />
the author the printed sheets for the price of set-<br />
ting up the work. What should the author do?" ♦<br />
If such a thing should now occur of an editor<br />
accepting a MS., publishing it in his paper, and<br />
refusing payment, the author has only to bring the<br />
case before the Society and he will get redress.<br />
But the Society cannot take up old cases.<br />
As for losing a MS. most editors find it necessary<br />
to warn authors that they will not be responsible<br />
for losing MSS. If contributors could see the piles<br />
of MSS. offered to every editor they would not be<br />
surprised at this stipulation.<br />
The third question is one for a lawyer to con-<br />
sider. The proposer of the case should sent up<br />
all the agreements and letters to the Secretary.<br />
"When an author has paid for the publication of<br />
a book is it fair on the part of the publisher to sell<br />
the remainder of the edition as waste paper without<br />
consulting the author, without giving him the choice<br />
of buying up the remaining copies, which he would<br />
assuredly in many cases be glad to do at a price<br />
even above that of waste paper?<br />
"If the publisher is entiiled to do this can the<br />
poor author lay no claim to a share in the proceeds<br />
of this melancholy transaction?"<br />
The reply to the last question is that the agreement<br />
generally contains a clause giving the publisher<br />
such power. It is for the author before signing<br />
the agreement to make a stipulation that he shall<br />
first be consulted If he has paid for the publi-<br />
cation all the copies should be his own, and the<br />
remainder of the stock should be sent to him as<br />
soon as the sale is finished.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 77 (#101) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
77<br />
Up to the present, authors have always felt that<br />
to have an MS. published in a magazine was to<br />
ensure payment according to the scale of the maga-<br />
zine. This prop appears about to be knocked from<br />
under them. An enterprising publisher has now<br />
hit upon the ingenious plan of getting work into<br />
his magazine for nothing. His method and the<br />
generosity of his soul are shown in a letter addressed<br />
to an author. He says that he has been in con-<br />
sultation with the editor of the Magazine<br />
since he received the writer's MS. The Editor is<br />
willing to insert this story as a serial, if it is illus-<br />
trated. This the Firm would be willing to do at<br />
their expense, "if you are willing to make over the<br />
story to us free of charge." Should the Firm, in<br />
the future, think to bring out the work as a volume,<br />
they should perhaps be able to offer some small<br />
sum. The pages of the magazine, he says, are full<br />
for twelve months to come, but the Firm will retain<br />
the MS. and insert it after that period if the writer<br />
wishes. "It would have the effect of placing your<br />
name before the public at all events."<br />
He goes on to say, "The Firm feel that the<br />
publication is such a speculation, that considering<br />
that a great deal of money will have to be spent<br />
upon illustration and advertising before its publica-<br />
tion, no payment can be offered to the author until<br />
the work appears in book form." The letter con-<br />
dudes with these words: "We have really only<br />
made the offer to insert the story in the magazine<br />
so as to try and give you some encouragement to<br />
continue writing."<br />
Observe upon this:—i. The publisher, con-<br />
sidering the vast sums he spends on illustrating and<br />
advertising his magazine, cannot pay for the work<br />
at all. The same reasons apply to all other con-<br />
tributions. Therefore, we suppose, he has a good<br />
reason for paying nobody. 2. The author is to give<br />
him the copyright of the work. If he chooses, he<br />
is to give her " some small sum," whether it succeeds<br />
or not. Even if it turns out to be a great success,<br />
he is not bound to give the author anything.<br />
3. This noble offer is wholly disvnteresttd and<br />
prompted by nothing but a disposition to help a<br />
struggling author! Generous, large-hearted, whole-<br />
souled Patron of Letters! One other observation<br />
presents itself. How enviable is the lot of the<br />
editor of such a magazine!<br />
"In your last number, quoting Mr. Rider Hag-<br />
gard's letter to Messrs. Rand, McNally & Co., you<br />
very justly denounce what you call a 'new terror<br />
to literary men.' But this piratical liberty of<br />
mutilating as well as stealing literary property is by<br />
no means new. It must be some fifteen years ago<br />
that I picked up by chance on an American book-<br />
vor. 1.<br />
stall a little book of my own, which, without my<br />
knowledge, had been fitted for theft by the altera-<br />
tion of phrases likely to wound transatlantic sus-<br />
ceptibilities. I fancy such a process of judicious<br />
editing of stolen matter is far from uncommon.<br />
Has no enterprising American firm thought of<br />
bringing out a revised edition of the Bible, with<br />
desirable omissions—for instance, of the eighih<br />
commandment! We can sympathize with Mr.<br />
Rider Haggard; but he must not expect from all<br />
robbers the courtesy of a Claude Duval."<br />
A. R. H. M.<br />
"Do warn," a lady writes, "all young authors of<br />
the folly of doing all or nearly all their work for<br />
one editor. Editors die, or, as in my case, take<br />
up another paper or magazine, and the faithful old<br />
contributor finds her position changed.<br />
"Ten years ago I did an immense amount of<br />
work for a certain paper, which we will call the<br />
Strand Circus—essays, stories, &c. It was then<br />
edited by the eldest son of the proprietor, and I<br />
was given to understand that it would be worth my<br />
while to work away at the Strand Circus, to study-<br />
its interests, and not go roving here and there<br />
with MSS. Therefore I declined offers of work from<br />
other papers, and never sought new openings. All<br />
went well for many years. Then the father died;<br />
his son had to take over other work, and a new<br />
editor was appointed." The sequel may be guessed.<br />
The warning, however, is serious. Let no young<br />
author be contented with one magazine or journal.<br />
In every fresh opening he should find another<br />
pillar of support, and another body of readers and<br />
friends.<br />
♦<br />
Bad authors create bad publishers. This fact, once<br />
fully apprehended, should be an inceniive to the<br />
production of good work. But perhaps the state-<br />
ment wants explanation. A correspondent fur-<br />
nishes an illustration.<br />
"A lady once wrote to me 'as a successful<br />
author'—I had at that time published one in-<br />
different novel, which had been gently reviewed—<br />
asking my advice under the following conditions.<br />
She had published three novels at her own expense,<br />
not one of which had attracted any attention.<br />
What did I think she had better do now? The<br />
style of her stationery, as well as this confession,<br />
pointed to her being wealthy, while the literary<br />
style of her letter proved that she had no idea of<br />
writing at all.<br />
"This experience directed me in certain inquiries,<br />
and I discovered how- the idiotic three volume<br />
novels which are found in circulating libraries at<br />
F 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 78 (#102) #############################################<br />
<br />
7«<br />
THE A UTHOR.<br />
seaside places get beyond the MS. stage. They<br />
are written by well-to do women who are ready to<br />
pay £200 to get a novel published.<br />
"Does not the existence of 'authors' of this<br />
kind account in some measure for the existence of<br />
low class publishers? May we not go even further<br />
and call this fact a justification of their existence?<br />
Honourable publishers refuse books which .ire<br />
foregone failures; they will not allow their names<br />
to appear on the title-page of such rubbish. Where,<br />
then, are the poor rich things to go with their MSS.<br />
and their money, save to such a friendly gentleman,<br />
who will kindly take £200 for publishing a book<br />
which costs less than £100 to produce?"<br />
My correspondent is a little too hasty. It is not<br />
only the rich woman but the poor woman as well<br />
who is responsible for the existence of these persons.<br />
It is any one, man or woman, who believes that a<br />
MS., refused by those who only publish books<br />
certain to be in demand, will be accepted by the<br />
public when they are issued by those who publish<br />
any rubbish brought to them. In another part of<br />
this number we deal with the question of paying for<br />
publishing at greater length.<br />
"I think," says a correspondent, "that you do<br />
not realise that small authors really get a great<br />
advantage in selling their copyright. In this way<br />
we get the money at once, without waiting for a<br />
year, and we have no risk or anxiety as to whether<br />
the book will sell or not." Well, if there is any<br />
risk or anxiety on that score the publisher will not<br />
buy the MS. at all. At the same time there are<br />
very few writers who would not rather take a lump<br />
sum down than the same or a little more spread<br />
over a term of years. The hardship is that the<br />
lump sum down is too often such a very little lump<br />
indeed. One fair and honest way would be for the<br />
publisher to buy an edition of so many copies, a<br />
new arrangement to be made when these were<br />
gone.<br />
*<br />
A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.<br />
MY remarks arise out of one made by Mr.<br />
Max Miiller :—" Find a respectable pub-<br />
lisher and stick to him." It has been<br />
the ambition of my literary life to do so, but I shall<br />
have to postpone it, I fancy, to another and a better<br />
world! I began full of hope ten years ago, deter-<br />
mined to give the public the best work of which I<br />
was capable as a novel writer. I loved the work<br />
and spared no pains to make it good. I sent what<br />
I had written to a firm of leading publishers, who<br />
accepted my novel. Terms—half profits. I<br />
accepted the offer with joy, thinking myself fortu-<br />
nate th:it I had not been asked to take any risks.<br />
My book was well launched and excellently re-<br />
viewed by all but the Athenceum, Academy, and the<br />
Saturday Revieiv. The Athenceitm called it "a<br />
wealth of nonsense," whereupon I asked the<br />
editor—when I told him it had been accepted on<br />
its merits by the firm in question, who, he admitted,<br />
would not have accepted "a wealth of nonsense "—<br />
how he permitted such an unjust criticism in the<br />
pages of a journal supposed to guide literary<br />
opinion. The Academy critic cast odium on his<br />
paper by uttering an opinion on the book and the<br />
writing which a subsequent critic in the same paper<br />
emphatically contradicted. He spoke of the book<br />
as "beneath criticism," while my next critic<br />
in the same referred to it as a book of " distinct<br />
merit." The Saturday Review danced upon it.<br />
The result of this handling by the three leading<br />
papers then, was, that the short three months'<br />
existence enjoyed by a three volume novel, by an<br />
unknown author, was insufficient to sell the number<br />
of copies published, and my publishers, while<br />
admitting that I had written a good book, found<br />
me a non-financial success, and bade me go else-<br />
where. The consequence of their decision was<br />
that other firms fought shy of my next book, which<br />
took three years in finding a publisher and was<br />
refused by twelve, one of whom took twelve months<br />
to consider it, and finally refused it "regretting—"!<br />
It was published at length and favourably reviewed.<br />
But all this came too late. The three years lost in<br />
finding a publisher made me practically once more a<br />
beginner after the lapse of five years between my<br />
first and second book. I lost heart after this, and<br />
tried no more "leading firms," since I found it was<br />
not good work they wanted so much as quick<br />
financial returns.<br />
Last year, ten years after my first work appeared,<br />
I went casually and as a stranger into a first class<br />
library in a fashionable watering place. I asked for<br />
a small shilling story I had just brought out—not<br />
by a leading firm. Of course it had never been<br />
heard of, so I humbly said, "It is by the author of and "naming my books. "Oh," ex-<br />
claimed the librarian, brightening up, "I know<br />
those books well, they are among the best read in<br />
our library." This after ten years!<br />
Moral:—Would it not be well for leading firms<br />
to be a little more patient with the slow sales of an<br />
unknown author's work ripening into "profits." My<br />
difficulty has been not so much in not being able<br />
to find a publisher I could stick to, but in finding<br />
one who would stick to me. I think I have proved<br />
that the adhesive properties are not lacking in<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 79 (#103) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
79<br />
consequence of bad work, or work that is short-<br />
lived. Where is the remedy for such a case as<br />
mine?<br />
Editor's Note.—Perhaps the author is wrong,<br />
and the three leading literary papers were right.<br />
That is to say, they were probably right when they<br />
condemned the book from a literary point of view,<br />
and in regard to style or artistic construction. In<br />
such matters these papers do not often go wrong.<br />
But there are readers in plenty who regard neither<br />
style nor artistic construction. For them the<br />
story—that is the leading situation—is everything.<br />
And the leading firms do publish many books every<br />
year the sale of which is necessarily slow.<br />
*<br />
CHESTNUT BELLS ENCORE.<br />
APROPOS of Chestnut Bells. We often see the<br />
hand-bell in grotesque sculptures of the<br />
middle ages used in a manner which clearly<br />
indicates that it is intended to impose silence, oras an<br />
intimation that what one person is saying is not<br />
believed in, or is ridiculed by another. Thus on the<br />
grand portal of St. Stephen's Church, Vienna, there<br />
is a sp;rited stone-picture of a rollicking witch and a<br />
reprobate priest (perhaps a sorcerer), engaged in<br />
a tussle, he holding her by one leg, while she with<br />
the right hand pulls his head back by the capote,<br />
and with the other rings a bell in his ear—as if to<br />
silence his love-making, and say, "Yes, I have<br />
heard all that before—enough—shut up!"<br />
A copy of this will appear as a vignette in my<br />
work on gypsy sorcery now in the press. On more<br />
than one bas-relief of the fourteenth century, we<br />
see a goat dressed as a monk, and in one instance,<br />
a sow, ringing a small bell. The allusion here is<br />
to telling coarse tales, since in modern German<br />
phrase doing this is called ringing the Sauglocke,<br />
or sow-bell, and I possess an outrageous little old<br />
work bearing that name, with the picture of a bell<br />
on the cover depicted in a manner "which could<br />
convey little joy to either moralist or Christian."<br />
The Lumpenglock, or blackguard's bell, is a term<br />
applied in Germany to the bells in steeples, rung<br />
at eleven o'clock p.m., as a signal to close all the<br />
beer-houses. So we are told of that veteran rois-<br />
terer, the Herr von Rodenstein, that when he died—<br />
"The blackguard's l>ell in the old Town Hall,<br />
Began of itself to ring."<br />
A man who is always telling coarse and rude tales<br />
—or a Zotenreisser—is commonly said to be contin-<br />
ually ringing the sow-bell. And I think it very probable<br />
that at a time when symbolism entered into every-<br />
thing, there was something of all this implied by the<br />
bells on the cap of the professional jester or fool.<br />
There was mockery in their sound, as in the words<br />
of their wearer, and both were like the ring of the<br />
chestnut bell, and the tinkling of brass pots of<br />
yore—all synonyms for vain repetition and idle<br />
chatter.<br />
It may be here observed that the primary object<br />
of church bells was not so much to call the faithful<br />
together to worship, as to drive away and avert<br />
evil influences, especially devils, concerning all<br />
which there is a deeply learned chapter in Southey's<br />
Doctor. The primitive Christian church bell was<br />
very truly what Mr. William Sikes called a " tinkler,"<br />
since it was precisely of the shape, material, and<br />
make of the same which, in America especially, is<br />
hung to the necks of cows. Their object is to<br />
keep the cows from straying afield too far—that of<br />
the chestnut bell to recall men from wandering in<br />
discourse.<br />
When I was a schoolboy, I once invested my<br />
last cent in the purchase of a black letter Latin<br />
folio—the " Moralization of the entire Bible," by<br />
Petrus Berchorius, all of which I perused faithfully<br />
and admiringly many times. By the way, my copy<br />
had belonged to Melancthon. It just occurs to<br />
me that the spirit of the old monk Pierre Bercheur<br />
is living again in these disquisitions on the true<br />
inwardness of the chestnut bell, and the esoteric<br />
mysteries of the Sauglocke. "Oh, good old man—<br />
even from the grave thy spirit" comes over thy<br />
disciple, into the year eighteen hundred and ninety,<br />
prompting him to find preaching in pebbles and<br />
sermons in grains of sand ; of which "making great<br />
amount of small things," all that can be said is that<br />
it is better than making no account of or be-littling<br />
great ones, which is the vice of our day.<br />
Chari.es G. Leland.<br />
*<br />
THE QUEEN'S ENGLISH.<br />
'"T^ HE enrolment into a single company of<br />
I so numerous and influential a body of<br />
English writers as composes the Society<br />
of Authors, may perhaps be profitably utilized in a<br />
manner which, if it be a little outside the scope<br />
of its foundation, would interest and benefit every<br />
reader and writer of the English language.<br />
There has never yet existed in this country any<br />
academic body, any authoritative company of edu-<br />
cated Englishmen qualified to pronounce judgment<br />
upon moot points connected with the writing of<br />
English. It has been questioned whether the<br />
formal institution of such an Academy would be<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 80 (#104) #############################################<br />
<br />
8o<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
for the lasting benefit of literature, and I doubt<br />
myself if the ex cathedra pronouncements of an<br />
official Board of Letters would ever carry much<br />
weight with Englishmen. We are too impatient of<br />
law and precedent; but in a humble way some nse-<br />
ful work might surely be done. An expression of<br />
the consensus of opinion of so influential a body<br />
as our Society, can never be without influence and<br />
effect, and a resolution of the doubts and uncer-<br />
tainties that exist on manypoints in syntax, spelling,<br />
prosody, and phraseology would be welcomed by<br />
every educated man and woman in the land inside<br />
and outside of our own circle. I venture to sug-<br />
gest therefore that the Society of Authors should<br />
from time to time hold an inquest upon some one<br />
or other of the aforesaid moot points, and that their<br />
deliberation should issue in the shape of verdicts<br />
to be arrived at by unanimity, or by a large<br />
majority of votes; the verdicts to be published to<br />
the world at large in the columns of The Author.<br />
There is another and perhaps a still greater service<br />
which our Society and its new organ might confer<br />
upon English letters, and that is by their sanction of<br />
the admission of useful provincial words into general<br />
usage. Many an admirable English word has no<br />
circulation beyond a limited district, many a word<br />
expressing ideas that can only be rendered else-<br />
where by a clumsy paraphrase. More competent<br />
persons than myself could cite many local words,<br />
which, if they were made general, would enrich the<br />
language. I will give but one example at present.<br />
In parts of the West and of the North of England<br />
backword signifies a refusal to comply with a<br />
pomise made or to fulfil some intention declared.<br />
The following telegram was recently offered at a<br />
London Post Office: "Dine with me on Saturday.<br />
A sends me a backword." The telegraph clerk<br />
refused "backword" as a single word, properly<br />
observing that it was in no dictionary, and the<br />
recipient of the message—a cockney—had no<br />
notion of its meaning. Now surely such a word<br />
deserves to pass into circulation, to enjoy the<br />
approval, to be stamped with the mint mark of<br />
some academic body, and to become at once<br />
current coin of full weight and value in the realm<br />
of English literature.<br />
Oswald Crawfurd.<br />
<br />
THE CIVIL LIST.<br />
I.<br />
The following is the Memorial which it was<br />
proposed to submit to Mr. W. H. Smith :—<br />
"This Memorial Sheweth as follows:—<br />
"(a) It was enacted by section 5 of 1 Vict., c. 2.<br />
That your Memorialists respectfully submit that<br />
further Legislation is urgently needed on the<br />
grounds and for the following purposes :—<br />
"(b) Section 6 of 1 Vict., c. 2, declared that it<br />
is the bounden duty of the responsible advisers of<br />
the Crown to recommend to her Majesty, for grants<br />
of pensions of the Civil List, such persons only as<br />
have just claims on the Royal beneficence, or who<br />
by their personal services to the Crown by the<br />
performance of duties to the public, or by their<br />
useful discoveries in science or attainments in<br />
literature and the arts, have merited the gracious<br />
consideration of their Sovereign and the gratitude<br />
of their country.<br />
"(c) The Select Committee appointed in 1837<br />
to inquire into the then existing pensions, classed<br />
them under the following heads:—(i)Army; (2)<br />
Navy; (3) Diplomatic; (4) Judicial and Legal; (5)<br />
Political; (6) Civil and Revenue; (7) Colonial;<br />
(8) Services to Royal Family and in Household;<br />
(9) Rewards for Literary and Scientific Attain-<br />
ments; (10) Royal Bounty and Charity; (11)<br />
Compensation for Forfeited Estates; (12) Mis-<br />
cellaneous.<br />
"The said Select Committee also reported as<br />
follows :—The operation of the Superannuation<br />
Acts, the system of retired allowances, the military<br />
and naval pensions for good services, the pensions<br />
granted by 57 Geo. iii, c. 65, for pensions holding<br />
high political offices, and the pensions for the<br />
diplomatic and consular services, have to a great<br />
extent superseded one of the original purposes of<br />
the Pension List. These Acts have also substi-<br />
tuted a strictly-defined and regulated system of<br />
reward for a system which depended on the<br />
arbitrary selection of the Crown or the recommen-<br />
dation of the existing Government exposed to the<br />
bias of party or personal consideration.<br />
"(d) The said regulated system of reward has<br />
since the passing of 1 Vict., c. 2, been confirmed,<br />
amended, and extended by the following statutes:<br />
The Superannuation Act, 1859 ; The Naval and<br />
Marine Pay and Pensions Act, 1865 ; The Colonial<br />
Governors' Pensions Act, 1865; The Superannua-<br />
tion Act, 1866; The Diplomatic Salaries Act,<br />
1869; The Political Offices Pensions Act, 1869;<br />
The Colonial Governors' Pensions Act, 1872;<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 81 (#105) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
81<br />
The Superannuation Act, 1876; The Pensions<br />
and Yeomanry Pay Act, 1884; The Pensions<br />
(Colonial Service) Act, 1887.<br />
"(e) Notwithstanding the said Statutes, and the<br />
Report of the said Select Committee, pensions on<br />
the Civil List have been granted for services per-<br />
formed in the (1) Army; (2) Navy; (3) Diplo-<br />
matic Service; (4) Civil and Revenue Services;<br />
and (5) Colonial Service.<br />
"(J) It appears from the 'Returns of all Per-<br />
sons now in receipt of Pensions charged on the<br />
Civil List' (1889), that of the ,£25,221 13*. 4*/.<br />
(the total annual charge of the pensions payable at<br />
the date of the said Return) £8,625 was payable<br />
at the date of the said Return in the following<br />
proportions for services in the (1) Army (.£2,710);<br />
(2) Navy (£1,335) j (3) Diplomatic Service<br />
(£9°°); (4) Civil Service and Revenue (£3,455) J<br />
(5) Colonial Service (.£225).<br />
"And your Memorialists respectfully submit<br />
that further Legislation is urgently needed for the<br />
following purposes :—<br />
"(a) The restriction of the grant of pensions on<br />
tie Civil List within ascertained limits.<br />
"(b) The allocation of pensions amounting to<br />
ru t less than £800 in each year to those who by<br />
th.iir useful discoveries in Science or attainments<br />
in Literature and the Arts have merited the gra-<br />
cious consideration of their Sovereign and the<br />
gratitude of their country, or their widows and<br />
children.<br />
"(c) The increase of the Royal Bounty Fund<br />
and the Civil List Pension Fund so that her<br />
Majesty may be enabled to relieve distress and<br />
reward merit in a manner worthy of the dignity of<br />
the Crown."<br />
The Memorial speaks for itself and requires<br />
little further elucidation here. It places on record<br />
the following facts :—(1) That notwithstanding the<br />
wording of the Civil List Act, and notwithstanding<br />
the Report of the Select Committee, pensions on<br />
the Civil List have been improperly granted; (2)<br />
That of the £25,221 13*. ^d. (the total annual<br />
charge of the pensions payable in May, 1889),<br />
.£8,625 was paid to the classes of persons not<br />
contemplated by the Act or the Report of the<br />
Committee.<br />
Mr. VV. H. Smith remarks in his letter to Mr.<br />
S. S. Sprigge, which we published last month, " that<br />
the figures in the Memorial, accepting them as<br />
fairly correct, show that the practical administration<br />
of the Fund is almost identical with the distribu-<br />
tion proposed by the Societies, namely, one-third<br />
to services rendered to the Sovereign, and two-<br />
thirds to the representatives of Science, Literature,<br />
and Art" From this it appears that the First<br />
Lord of the Treasury defends the grant of pensions<br />
on the "Civil List" for services performed in the<br />
Army, Navy, Diplomatic, Civil and Revenue, and<br />
Colonial Services on the grounds that these are<br />
"services to the Sovereign." The Act, however,<br />
only empowers the grant of pensions for " personal<br />
services to the Crown," and it is, we imagine,<br />
merely idle to pretend that this expression was<br />
ever intended to have any such meaning as that<br />
which it is now sought to give it. It was no<br />
doubt one of the original purposes of the Pension<br />
List to reward all these classes of public servants,<br />
but as the Report of the Select Committee (cited<br />
in the Memorial) points out, various statutes have<br />
been passed "substituting a strictly-defined and<br />
regulated system of reward " in all these cases fcr<br />
a system which depended on the caprice of the<br />
Crown and of Her Majesty's advisers. It was<br />
clearly not the intention of the Act or the desire of<br />
the Committee-—and it is necessary to remember<br />
that it was a Select Committee of Inquiry into this<br />
very question appointed in deference to a loudly<br />
expressed public opinion—that any pensions for<br />
these services should in future be charged on the<br />
Civil List. We think, then, that we have fully<br />
established the irregularity of all these pensions,<br />
and we regret that the First Lord of the Treasury,<br />
who admits that he enjoys "that discretion which<br />
must in such cases finally rest with some one res-<br />
ponsible minister," has attempted to evade the<br />
conclusion.<br />
Mr. W. H. Smith further remarks that" to make<br />
such changes as the Memorial suggests would<br />
necessitate a new Act of Parliament." This we<br />
are not prepared to deny. The Memorial prays<br />
for " further legislation " for certain specified pur-<br />
poses. We feel some diffidence in making any<br />
rejoinder to Mr. Smith's expression of opinion that<br />
there has not been "any such expression of dis-<br />
satisfaction either in the House or outside of it as<br />
would justify the proposal." But we think it due<br />
to ourselves to say that the Incorporated Society<br />
of Authors and the Institute of Journalists do<br />
not stand alone in objecting to the present<br />
administration of the Civil List Pension Fund.<br />
The press has almost without distinction or<br />
exception condemned the existing system in no<br />
measured terms, and we are not aware that a single<br />
voice has been raised in its defence. If the Fund<br />
were administered strictly within its proper limits,<br />
it would, it is universally admitted, be impossible<br />
to satisfy the just claimants. Restrictions, it<br />
appears, already exist. It will be seen from the<br />
correspondence published in the current report of<br />
the Executive Committee that literary pensions<br />
can only be granted to the writers of "historical<br />
novels and technical and useful books," owing<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 82 (#106) #############################################<br />
<br />
82<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
to the unexpected existence of certain regulations,<br />
or, as Mr. Smith denned them in the House of<br />
Commons, "notes on practice." The Society has<br />
already placed on record a protest against the<br />
"permanent exclusion of any class of Literary,<br />
Scientific, or Artistic production from the just<br />
claims on the Royal beneficence contemplated by<br />
section 6 of i Vict., c. 2." The Society has already<br />
demanded that "the regulations, if any, under<br />
which the Civil List Pension Fund is administered<br />
should be communicated to the public." The<br />
case for reform is now complete. It cannot be<br />
left to private secretaries to draw up rules which<br />
vary the meaning and affect the application of an<br />
Act of Parliament. It is high time that genuine<br />
regulations were framed, if necessary by statute,<br />
which should restrict the grant of pensions not upon<br />
an artificial theory but in accordance with public<br />
opinion. Mr. Smith "fears that Parliament would<br />
be very unlikely to agree to an increase of the sum<br />
annually set apart for the Pension List." We, on<br />
the other hand, believe that if the necessity were<br />
shown to exist, the popular representatives would<br />
ungrudgingly support such a use of public money.<br />
And there is only too little doubt as to the urgent<br />
character of the necessity. It is the unanimous<br />
testimony of every First Lord of the Treasury that<br />
he is year by year deluged with applications for<br />
pensions which he is unable to grant. Many of<br />
those cases which now, perhaps, "lie forgotten in<br />
the cupboards of the Treasury," were, we do not<br />
doubt, sad and saddening, although no whisper<br />
of them reached the unofficial world. There are<br />
moreover, few years that pass by without the<br />
country being startled by the announcement that a<br />
pension has been refused to some distinguished<br />
man of letters or his surviving widow and children.<br />
We do not doubt, we repeat, that the public<br />
would support even an increase of the Pension<br />
List, but be that as it may, it cannot be denied<br />
that the country at large would welcome a re-<br />
form in the administration of the Pension Fund,<br />
which would ensure it being devoted to the pur-<br />
poses for which it was founded.<br />
II,<br />
The Pensions of the Year.<br />
The Civil List Pensions granted during the last<br />
twelve months have now been published. They<br />
are as follows:—William Muggins, LL.D., a pension<br />
of ^150 (very good). Ellen S. Scott, widow of<br />
(General H. Scott, R,E., a pension of j£iqo (very<br />
bad). The widow of a soldier does not fall within<br />
the limits of the grant. Bessie Hatch (widow of<br />
Rev. Edwin Hatch, a pension of £100 (very good).<br />
Ellen Isabella Tupper, daughter of Martin Tupper,<br />
a pension of ^75 (very good). Rosamond Bur-<br />
nard, daughter of Gen. Sir H. W. Burnard, a pension<br />
°f £lS- 1"ne daughter of a soldier has no business<br />
in the list at all, unless that soldier was also dis-<br />
tinguished for service, art or literature. Henrietta<br />
Elizabeth Wood, widow of the late J. T. Wood, a<br />
pension of £,!$■ Augusta Theresa Motteram,<br />
widow of the late Judge Motteram, a pension 0^75.<br />
l>ady Wilde, a pension of ^70. Pensions of ^50<br />
each to Mrs. Caroline Blanchard, Mr. John<br />
Absolon, Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, Dr. William<br />
Spark, Mrs. Kate Livingstone, Miss Catherine<br />
Shilleto, Mrs. Jane Eleanor Wood (widow of Rev.<br />
J. G. Wood). Pensions of ^25 each have been<br />
granted to the Misses Eliza and Mary Maquire,<br />
daughters of the late Dr. Thomas Maquire, of<br />
Trinity College, Dublin, and of £20 each to the<br />
four unmarried daughters of the late Rev. M. J.<br />
Berkeley, F.R.S. General verdict. On the whole,<br />
a great improvement on many recent lists.<br />
*<br />
A NEW GUIDE TO BOOKS.<br />
AGUIDE to Books should be found in any<br />
review. That is to say, the reader should<br />
be able to depend upon the review which<br />
he reads regularly to guide him in the ordering of<br />
books from the library. And, no doubt, the<br />
reader of the Saturday Review, for instance, would<br />
find no difficulty in understanding what is promis-<br />
ing in the way of new literature. But one can<br />
very well understand that there may arise cases in<br />
which the most perfect review may fail to inform<br />
the reader as to the best books on special subjects.<br />
For instance, the Saturday Review may be acknow-<br />
ledged by its best friends to be weak in the<br />
Department of Surgery, or of Pure Mathematics,<br />
or of Electricity. Therefore, a certain compilation<br />
which will first appear in the autumn may prove of<br />
great use to specialists, if not to the general reader.<br />
The object of the editors is to "place at the<br />
service of the reader the opinions of those who<br />
may be trusted to give sound advice upon the<br />
books which are of value in each department of<br />
knowledge." A great many people—specialists-<br />
have promised to assist. Among them—members<br />
of the Society—we find the names of William<br />
Archer, Courthope Bowen, James Bryce, John<br />
Earle, Richard Gamett, J, W. Hales, E. Ray<br />
Lankester, J. Norman Lockyer, Erikr Magnusson,<br />
Max Miiller, Sir Frederick Pollock, Burden San-<br />
derson, J. R. Seeley, Sir Henry Thompson, Andrew<br />
Tuer, and Sir Charles Wilson,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 83 (#107) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 83<br />
MR. BAINTON ON HIMSELF.<br />
To the Editor of The Author.<br />
Sir,<br />
I deeply regret I should have been the cause of so serious<br />
an amount of feeling and annoyance as the correspondence<br />
in your paper reveals—a correspondence which comes upon<br />
me as a most painful surprise. I must ask your corres-<br />
pondents to believe me when I say that my fault or folly,<br />
whichever it may be, was wholly unintentional ; and that how-<br />
ever carelessly I may appear to have acted in certain instances,<br />
I have had no other than the purest purpose in view, and have<br />
been moved by no mean or dishonourable motive. Un-<br />
fortunately the book in question was quite an after-thought.<br />
When preparing my address I had no idea of so extended a<br />
compilation. I simply desired my lecture to be issued in<br />
pamphlet form, shoul 1 it stem likely to answer the purpose<br />
for which it was designed. My fault has been in changing<br />
the form of publication without first acquainting all my<br />
generous correspondents of what I purposed doing. But I<br />
acted under the impression that this was not necessary after<br />
having solicited their consent to use their words in print.<br />
That in this I committed a serious over-ight I now learn to<br />
my bitter cost, and I deeply regret it should have happ ned.<br />
But that I have been guilty of the unfairness, the wilful<br />
discourtesy, and other outrageous sins which some of your<br />
correspondents—and especially yourself—are anxious to fasten<br />
upon me, I most earnestly and indignantly deny.<br />
After the first portion of the address was given here in the<br />
Old Grammar School, to a united meeting of the Young<br />
Men's Associations of the City, and largely reproduced in<br />
the columns of our local papers, I was repeatedly urged to<br />
return to the subject, and put the matter I had already<br />
spoken into print. Through lack of time long delays inter-<br />
vened before I could make any attempt to compile a<br />
promised second part of the same address, or before I could<br />
do anything towards remoulding what I had roughly sketched<br />
out. When I did the contributions with which I had to<br />
deal were so many, and the interest attaching to them so<br />
great, that my MS. quickly exceeded the limits of an ordinary<br />
pamphlet. It was then, and not till then, the idea of the<br />
book occurred to me. Had I for a moment conceived that<br />
in this I was exceeding the bounds of a strict courtesy and<br />
integrity, I should most certainly have communicated again<br />
with the authors who had generously sent me the items of<br />
their experience. Indeed the book would have been at once<br />
abandoned had I known it would have given pain to any. I<br />
had no interest to serve by concealment, and nothing what-<br />
ever to lead me to act in the spirit Mr. Hall Caine insinuates.<br />
Some of your correspondents, and several critics outside<br />
the columns of The Author, have Hung the ungenial sneer at<br />
my supposed sordid desire for gain. The imputation is most<br />
unjust, and does not speak well for the spirit of those by<br />
whom it is made. I have not received one penny from the<br />
book. When towards the close of last year I finished the<br />
MS. and submitted it to the publishers, I did not stipulate<br />
for any payment, I did not ask for any terms on my own<br />
behalf, but gladly accepted their suggestions, with the<br />
assurance I should be only too pleased and grateful if the<br />
book repaid them the cost of production, and proved of some<br />
real in erest and value to its readers. Should anything ever<br />
come to me from its sale it will be hea tily at the disposal of<br />
those who made the book possible. I prepared the book<br />
with a good motive, and it was not the motive of personal<br />
gain.<br />
I notice in many of the letters you have reproduced your cor-<br />
respondents speak of their communications to me as private.<br />
They quite overlook the fact that I wrote to them upon a<br />
matter for a pitblic and not a private purpose. Letters sent<br />
expressly for use in illustrating a lecture can hardly be<br />
regarded as ordinary private correspondence. A lecture is<br />
not usually private ami confidential. It is liable to be<br />
reported and reproduced in print, with or without the<br />
lecturer's consent ; and as a matter of fact the lecture in<br />
question, which Mr. Hall Caine angrily infers was never<br />
given, was in great part printed in the columns of a local<br />
paper,* portions of the same appearing three successive<br />
weeks, with Ion*; extracts from the most interesting and<br />
useful letters, Mr. Hall Caine's not excepted. The com-<br />
munications were not sent to me as private, or for a private<br />
purpose ; they were not requested for any private aim, else<br />
they would have been treated strictly as such. A few of the<br />
most helpful letters I received and retain, were not used at<br />
all, because the writers expressly objected to their contents<br />
being made public.<br />
You mention several persons and say they were all ignorant<br />
that I intended to print their remarks. That is not correct.<br />
I wrote to almost every person you name, to almost every<br />
correspondent in your columns, asking permission to use<br />
their words in print. Only in two instances am I uncertain<br />
of having done so. To Mr. Allen, then in Italy, I wrote<br />
twice, to make sure he should receive my request, and neither<br />
letter was returned. Several like Mr. Allen did not reply.<br />
Was I wrong in assuming that such silence meant either<br />
indirierence or consent? If Mrs. Parr, Mr. Gilbe rt, and<br />
others had the opportunity to refuse and did not, where is<br />
the breach of faith of which they speak? Surely if they had<br />
felt so serious an objection to the use of their words they<br />
would at least have given expression to it. But though<br />
opportunity was afforded they did nothing of the kind; they<br />
left me, therefore, free to act as I thought best, and I inter-<br />
preted silence as consent. The majoiity did reply, and gave<br />
the consent I asked. How then can they have been ignorant<br />
of my intention to print their remarks? One of the most<br />
eminent of your correspondents assures you I acted in his<br />
case with perfect frankness and consistency throughout. In<br />
no instance have I sought to be less open and (rank. Why<br />
should I i What had I to gain by such concealment with<br />
one person more than another? Whatever you or others<br />
may affirm to the ontrary I am at least guiltless of any<br />
intention to deceive.<br />
Memory does not serve some of your correspondents with<br />
any great fidelity. Miss Yonge mvy perhaps recall her<br />
assurance that I could make the use I asked of what she had<br />
written, when I remind her that such consent was given upon<br />
condition that no mention should be made of a statement<br />
concerning a recent writer. I was careful to respect her<br />
wish. Mr. Blackmore too was asked and consented to the<br />
use of his letter in print ; and only a few weeks since, May<br />
3rd, 1890, wrote in acknowledgment of acopyof his printed<br />
letter, "Am glad to hear of the appearance of your book,<br />
which I hope to procure at the first opportunity. With all<br />
good wishes for its success, &c." Yet this gentleman<br />
"'objects to the use Mr. Bainton has made of the reply<br />
procured through the good will due to a clergyman, and lor<br />
clerical purposes." Mrs. Kennard also joins in the protest<br />
that she did not know, though her letter was printed with<br />
her consent ; while writing on May 5th, 1890, she says,<br />
"My poor remarks scarcely deserved such prominence as<br />
you have been g'>od en ugh to give them. Thanking you<br />
for the compliment you have paid me, &c." To Mr. Rider<br />
Hagyaid I owe a special word of explanation and apology.<br />
The proof he requested when consenting to mv use of his<br />
letter would have been submi'ted, but for a statement I saw<br />
at the time that he was travelling in the Erst. I trust he<br />
will accept the expression of my sincere regret that for this<br />
reason his desire was not complied with.<br />
* Coventry Times.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 84 (#108) #############################################<br />
<br />
«4<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Permit me to add in conclusion that only this week have I<br />
learned, and that quite casually, of this painful corres-<br />
pondence. No copy of The Author was sent me, and no<br />
intimation was given that you were endeavouring so seriously<br />
to injure my good name. Is it fair dealing to stab a man in<br />
the dark? Is it fair dealing to seek to destroy a man's<br />
reputation without a word of warning, and without so much<br />
as a hint of the course of action you have taken? Is this the<br />
spirit in which the Society of Authors is conducted? If so<br />
it is the spirit of a ruthless cruel'y. I do not for a moment<br />
doubt that your purpose is just and your motive pure; but<br />
surely before seeking fataby to injure the reputation and<br />
character of another, you might at least have had sufficient<br />
considerate feeling to give him a chance to vindicate himself<br />
and explain his conduct in the same issue of the journal in<br />
which you have printed your hard and harsh judgment. You<br />
have not done so, and I now claim the right that my letter<br />
shall appear in the following number of the paper, the<br />
columns of which have been used to do me so grievous a<br />
wrong.<br />
Gf.orgf. Bainton.<br />
Coventry, /tine 26/h, 1890.<br />
P. S.—When writing the above letter more than a week<br />
since, I could discover scarcely any of the replies I had re-<br />
ceived frc-m authors giving me permission to use their<br />
communications in print. 1 can now put my hands upon<br />
several, and I may even yet find others. Unfortunately I<br />
did not conceive the matter would ever be called in question,<br />
and, therefore, never thought it necessary to preserve them.<br />
But it would have been strange had I been so punctilious<br />
about the consent of some, and so careless about that of others<br />
of my correspondents. An impartial judge would surely<br />
admit the strong probability that what was done in so many<br />
cases was haidly neglected in the bulk cf the others. When<br />
I have used no more than a sentence or two I did not trouble<br />
the writers with a note of request ; but if I missed any others<br />
the omission was purely accidental. My complaint of the<br />
lady who opened this painful controversy is, that she printed<br />
two of my letters, and said not a word about the letter in<br />
which I responded to and thanked her for her communica-<br />
tion. It was in that I asked her to do me the kindness to<br />
consent to the use of her letter.<br />
Much has been made of the fact that I used in many cases<br />
the same form of request. After writing to the first author I<br />
retained a rough copy of the letter sent, and used it whenever<br />
its terms made it possible, or altered it as the circumstances<br />
of the case rt quired. This was done to save unnecessary<br />
trouble, and I cannot think in doing so I did wrong. I spoke<br />
in some of those letters of the author's books as having given<br />
me very special pleasure and help. After twenty-five years<br />
constant reading, a man may well have very many pleasant<br />
companions amongst the authors of the day—it would be<br />
strange if he had not. In my own case I think the book<br />
itself will sufficiently show I hardly deserve the suspicious<br />
comments you have made. It is easy for a critic to indicate<br />
a special point in the speech or conduct of another, and then<br />
draw from it a general adverse conclusion.<br />
At first I only purposed securing the aid of a few favourite<br />
authors, and wrote to that end. The words, which I fain<br />
hope were not often used, to which you so seriously and<br />
justly object, formed part of the draft of the earliest commu-<br />
nication sent out, and were not written with any attempt to<br />
mislead.<br />
All the correspondence I hold relating to the matter in<br />
question is freely open to the inspection of anyone concerned<br />
in it.<br />
George Bainton.<br />
July 5th, 1890.<br />
To the Editor of The AUTHOR.<br />
Sir,<br />
Mr. Bainton has only himself to thank for our change of<br />
tone towards him.<br />
Many may have wished him success—as I did—through<br />
misconception of his purpose. W ho could foretell from a<br />
page of his book what the nature of the volume was to be?<br />
It proves to be a piece of patchwork, collected from fifty<br />
quarters; and the patches, though not exactly pilfered, were<br />
procured for a very different use.<br />
If Mr. Bainton had said at first—" I am writing to all the<br />
English authors I have heard of, to ask them how they do<br />
their work; I shall use their replies for my own pupils first,<br />
and then (if I see my way) make a book out of them "—how<br />
many answers would he have got?<br />
Later on, when he had obtained replies (by writing to<br />
scores of authors, as if to each exclusively and for a benevolent<br />
purpose), in fairness he should have explained to each the<br />
character of his forthcoming volume, instead of describing it<br />
as a mere expansion of his lecture. In that case, how many<br />
would have allowed him to pour on the literary world<br />
(instead of his Coventry class) their off-handed replies?<br />
Faithfully yours,<br />
R. D. Blackmore.<br />
[Mr. Bainton's letter only shows the justice of those who<br />
complained of his conduct. He asked certain questions,<br />
the answers to be used for a lecture. That he admits. He<br />
then used them for a book. That he also admits. If a man<br />
prints a communication for one purpose which was intended<br />
for another it is not enough ;o write for permission—he must<br />
also obtain permission. A letter is a private document,<br />
unless the contrary is stipulated expressly. As for the spirit<br />
in which this Society is conducted, it is one of continued<br />
hostility to all who invade or attack the rights of authors.<br />
Having printed Mr. Bainton's reply, we can now leave the<br />
matter as between Mr. Bainton and his correspondents and<br />
between him and The Author to be judged by our readers.<br />
—Editor.]<br />
*<br />
AT WORK.<br />
This column is reserved entirely for Members of the Society,<br />
who are invited to keep the Editor acquainted with their<br />
work and engagements.<br />
<br />
R. J. NORMAN LOCKYER, F.R.S., is editing<br />
Am£dee Guillemin's work, "The Heavens."<br />
Mr. J. E. Gore, F.R.A.S., has presented to the Royal<br />
Irish Academy a "Catalogue of binary Stars for which<br />
orbits have been computed." The Catalogue, which will be<br />
published by the Academy, contains the elements of all the<br />
orbits hitherto calculated, the magnitudes and colours of the<br />
components, spectra, "hypothetical," and measured parellax,<br />
the relative brightness of each compared with a standard star,<br />
and data for computing the velocity in the line of sight, for<br />
use in the spectroscopic method of measuring the star's<br />
distance from the earth. The Catalogue is followed by a<br />
series of notes giving further details and the most recent<br />
measures of position of the component stars.<br />
There has been a change in the Editorship of the<br />
Publishers' Circular"; Mr. J. A. Steuart is the new Editor.<br />
Mr. Steuart has in the press a work of Criticism and a<br />
novel, both of which will be published in the autumn by-<br />
Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 85 (#109) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE A UTHOR<br />
85<br />
Mr. Charles Leland is now preparing a work on "Gypsy<br />
Sorcery and Fortune Telling." There will be an Edition de<br />
Luxe. 150 copies only, and all numbered. The publisher,<br />
Mr. Fisher Unwin, receives names of intending subscribers.<br />
Mrs. Cashel Hoey has this year written the summer<br />
number for Household Words. It is a complete story called<br />
"His Match and More."<br />
In last month's "At Work," two mistakes were left<br />
uncorrected. The name of William Westall appeared as<br />
"William Werlah," and Mr. Watt wis announced as the agent<br />
for The Author under Ithe heading of Mr. W. F. Smith's<br />
new version of "Rabelais." The author should not be in<br />
italics. It refers to the translation of "Rabelais," not the<br />
Journal.<br />
Mr. E. M. Edmonds will contribute an English edition of<br />
the "Autobiography of Koloko Kenes," with an historical<br />
introduction on the Klephts for Mr. Fisher Unwin's "Adven-<br />
ture Series." His biography of Klugas, the Protomartyr of<br />
Greece (Longman), has already shown his knowledge of<br />
kindred subjects.<br />
Mr. Oscar Wilde's story, " The Picture of Dorrin Grey,"<br />
which constituted the July number of LippincotCs Magazine,<br />
will shortly be issued as a one volume novel by Messrs.<br />
Ward and Lock.<br />
Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson will shortly issue, through<br />
Messrs. Chatto and Windus, "Father Damien: an open<br />
letter to the Kev. Dr. Ande."<br />
A second edition is ready of Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball's<br />
"Mediterranean Winter Resorts." It is a handbook to the<br />
principal health and pleasure resorts on the shores of the<br />
Mediterranean (London, L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand; and<br />
Paris, The Galignani Library, 224, Rue de Rivoli).<br />
The article on "Alexandria," in Nos. 9 and 10 of Cassell's<br />
"Picturesque Mediterranean," is by Mr. Eustace A. R. Ball,<br />
who is also the author, under the pseudonym of Evelyn<br />
Ballantyne, of the article called "The Pit and Its Critic."<br />
Rev. James J. Hillock has issued the third edition of his<br />
"Hard Battles for Life and Usefulness" (Houlston and<br />
Sons). Crown 8vo. 3*. 6d.<br />
Miss Frances Armstrong begins a story for the young<br />
called "Changed Lots; or, Nobody Cares," in the July-<br />
Number of Newbery House Magazine.<br />
Miss BIyth's new story is entitled " Adolphus Etherton ; or,<br />
the Boy who was Always Amused."<br />
Mr. Edric Vredenburg has recently completed a new story<br />
which will be published in the Weekly Times and Echo,<br />
beginning January 3rd of next year.<br />
Mrs. Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell's book on Palestine,<br />
called " Forty Days in Holy Land," is in the press, and will<br />
be published by Messrs. Kegan Paul & Co.<br />
A new edition of Mr. Justin McCarthy's " History of the<br />
Four Georges" is being issued by the same publishers.<br />
Volumes I and II are now ready.<br />
Esme Stuart commences a new serial tale in the July<br />
number of the Newbery House Magazine.<br />
It is now stated that Mr. Christie Murray is not lost at all.<br />
He has sailed for Samoa vid Sydney with the intention of<br />
joining Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson.<br />
The author of "Thoth" (Blackwood), and of " Toxar"<br />
(Longman) is Professor Nicholson of Edinburgh, a member of<br />
this Society.<br />
NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS.<br />
Aubyn, St. Alan. A Fellow of Trinity. Chatto and<br />
Windus. 3 vols. Crown 8vo. (Shortly.)<br />
Author ok "Thoth." Toxar, a romance. 1 vol. 6s.<br />
Longmans.<br />
BESANT, W. H., D.Sc, F.R.S. Notes on Roulettes and<br />
Glissettes. Second Edition, enlarged. Messrs. Bell.<br />
8vo. 5/.<br />
Collins, M. The Blossom and Fruit: A True Story of a<br />
Black Magician. Crown 8vo. 2s.<br />
Conway, H. Martin. Climber's Guide to Central Alps.<br />
I vol. 10s. T. Fisher Unwin.<br />
Conway, W. M. Climbers' Guide to the Central Pennine<br />
Alps. i8mo. lew.<br />
Crommelin, May. Midge. Trischler and Co. 6s.<br />
Dowden, Professor. The Poetry of John Donne. Chap-<br />
man and Hall.<br />
Farrar, F. W. The Passion Play at Oberammergau,<br />
1890. W. Heinemann. 4to. 2s. 6d.<br />
James, C. T. C. The New Faith. 3 vols. 31*. 6d.<br />
Ward and Downey.<br />
"John Strange Winter." Dinna Forget. Trischler<br />
and Co. Paper, is. ; cloth boards, Is. 6d.<br />
Kennard, Mrs. G. Matron or Maid: A Novel. Crown<br />
8vo. 2s. td.<br />
Lange, F., Ph. D. Elementary German Reader: A Gra-<br />
duated Collection of Readings in Prose and Poetry.<br />
With English Note and a Vocabulary. Messrs. Bell.<br />
8vo. is. 6d.<br />
Linton, E. L\ nn. Sowing the Wind: A Novel. Crown<br />
8vo. 3s. 6d.<br />
Murray (C), and Herman (H.). Wild Darrie. i2ino. 2s.<br />
Murray (D. Christie) and Herman (Henry). Paul<br />
Jones's Alias. Chatto and Windus. is.<br />
"Nemesis." By Seyton Crewe. Eden, Remington and<br />
Co. 6s.<br />
Oliver, Cai'T. P. Madagascar; or, Robert Deury'sJournal<br />
during Fifteen Years' Captivity on that Island. T. Fisher<br />
Unwin. 5*.<br />
Powell, F. York, M. A. History of England, Part I,<br />
From the Earliest Times to the Death of Henry VII.<br />
Rivington. 2s. 6d.<br />
Robinson, F. W. The Keeper of the Keys. Hurst and<br />
Blackett. 3 vols.<br />
Ruskin, John, D.C.L., LL.D. The Seven Lamps of<br />
Architecture. New cheap editions. George Allen.<br />
Small post 8vo. p. 6d. each.<br />
■ Aratra Pentelici. Seven Lectures on the Elements of<br />
Sculpture.<br />
Val D'Arno. Ten Lectures on Art of the Thirteenth<br />
Century in Pisa and Florence.<br />
Salmone, H. Anthony. An Arabic-English Dictionary<br />
on a New System. 2 vols. Triibner & Co.<br />
Symonds, John Addingto.n. Essays, Speculative and<br />
Suggestive. Chapman and Hall. 2 vols.<br />
Warden, Florence. St. Cuthbert's Tower. Popular<br />
Edition. Cassell and Co. $s.<br />
Westall, William. Strange Crimes. I vol. 6s. Ward<br />
and Downey.<br />
Whistler, J. McN. Gentle Art of Making Enemies. W.<br />
Heinemann. 4th thousand, ioj. 6d.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 86 (#110) #############################################<br />
<br />
86<br />
AD VER TISEMENTS.<br />
THE LITERARY HAJYDJHAID OF THE<br />
CHURCH"<br />
J3 -V -%KT AIiTBB 3B E S A T.<br />
HENRY GLAISHER, 95, STRAND. Price ONE SHILLING.<br />
NOW READY.<br />
This pamphlet is a reply to the invitation issued by the Publication Committee of the Society for<br />
the Promotion of Christian Knowledge in their Report of last year, for any suggestions, which they "will<br />
gladly receive," on the best way of making "the Venerable Society the most efficient literary handmaid<br />
of the Church of England throughout the world."<br />
The suggestions offered in these pages contain, first, some of the elementary principles which guide<br />
honourable men in the administration of literary property. The writer next advances three cases, as<br />
illustrating the methods adopted by the Society. A copy of this pamphlet will be sent to any member of<br />
the Society by application to the Office, including two postage stamps.<br />
THE METHODS OF PUBLICATION.<br />
BY S. S. SPRIGGE, B.A.<br />
READY IN OCTOBER.<br />
This book, compiled mainly from documents in the office of the Society of Authors, is intended to<br />
show a complete conspectus of all the various methods of publication with the meaning of each; that is to<br />
say, the exact concessions to publishers and the reservation of the owner and author of the work. The<br />
different frauds which arise out of these methods form a necessary part of the book. Nothing is advanced<br />
which has not been proved by the experience of the Society.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 87 (#111) #############################################<br />
<br />
87<br />
NEW BOOKS.<br />
RABELAIS.<br />
A New Translation. liy W. F. Smith, M.A., Fellow<br />
and Lecturer of Saint John's College, Cambridge.<br />
Issued to Subscribers in a limited Edition of 750<br />
copies, all numbered, of which 500 copies are for<br />
this country and 250 for America. In two hand-<br />
some 8vo vols. Price 2$s the set. The aim of<br />
the al>ove translation has l>een to render more<br />
accessible, to explain and illustrate a book which<br />
has exercised a wide influence on the French<br />
language as well as on European literature.<br />
A system of marginal reference has been<br />
introduced. Great attention has been paid<br />
to the historical aspect of the book, and<br />
points bearing on the political and religious<br />
affairs of the times have been carefully<br />
noticed. As the work must be presented as<br />
a whole, and as certain passages and parts<br />
can no longer l>e presented in English, these<br />
have been left in the original old French, where<br />
they can lie read by such as desire it. The work<br />
will be accompanied by a life of Rabelais, a notice<br />
of the translators, Urquhart, and Motteux, a map of<br />
the environs of Chinon, the part of France where<br />
Ra!>elais was brought up, notes on the language and<br />
style, and on other points. It will be, in fact, an entirely<br />
new and complete presentation of the great French master.<br />
Prospectus giving /nil details ami all information to lie had OH<br />
a/plication from the Publisher.<br />
A HOOK NECESSARY TO EVERY AUTHOR.<br />
SLANG AND ITS ANALOGUES — Past and<br />
Present. By John S. Fakmkk, Author of "Americanisms—Old<br />
and New," &c. A new and absolutely unique -Slang Dictionary,<br />
In three volumes, foolscap 4to, primed antique style, on thick paper,<br />
large margin, to the number of 500 copies for England and 250 for<br />
America, each copy being numbered and signed, to Subscribers<br />
only as follows: The Set (3 vols.) £5 51. net. In hall-calf, parch-<br />
ment sides. The price will be raised 011 completion as in the case'of<br />
"Americanisms—Old and New." A Dictionary, Historical and<br />
Comparative (011 the lines of Dr. Murray's New Ivnglish Dictionary)<br />
of the Heterodox Speech of all Classes of Society for more than<br />
300 years, the whole presenting a Curious Picture of Social Life<br />
and Manners of the English People.<br />
Sotes and Queries says—" For the first time in a dictionary the subject<br />
of English Jantf is seriously treated. Recent works liavu been catchpennies,<br />
and Mr, Farmer is the first to treat the subject of slant in a manner com-<br />
mensurate with its importance. . . . Very full is Mr. Farmer s list, the<br />
first volume extending- to mer four hundred double columnct panes. . . .<br />
His book commends itself warmly to our readers, and its progress cannot be<br />
otherwise th.ui inUTi-^ttnif. As it is issued in a limited edition it can scarcely<br />
fail of becoming a prized possession."<br />
Prospectus and all information to be hadfrom the Publisher,<br />
AMERICANISMS: OLD AND NEW. By John<br />
S. Fakmeh. In 1 vol. Foolscap 4tot printed in antique style, and<br />
bound in vellum, £2 2s,<br />
A book for the library, desk, or general reading; for journalists.<br />
Members of Parliament, public speakers, and all professional men. It is<br />
a dictionary of words, phrases, and colloquialisms peculiar to the United<br />
States, British America, the West Indies, &e, &c, together with their<br />
derivation, meaning, and application.<br />
"Certainly the best and completes! dictionary of Americanisms at<br />
THREE NEW BOOKS ON THE<br />
HOLY LAND.<br />
PALESTINE UNDER THE MOSLEMS. liy<br />
GUY LE Strange, With Map, and numerous Plans and Drawings<br />
specially executed for this work. Handsome post 8vo, pp. 604.<br />
Cloth extra, 12s. txl.<br />
"A work intended to render the mass of interesting iiiN'niiatiun about<br />
Palestine, which lies buried in the Arabic texts of the Moslem geographers<br />
and travellers of the middle ages, available to the English reader."<br />
".... is written throughout with a sort of luting care which<br />
proves how thoroughly the author nas lelt the fascination of his subject."—<br />
Saturday Review,<br />
Third Edition, now ready.<br />
THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES.<br />
By Henry A. Hakier. With an Introduction by Walter liesant.<br />
Coloured Map and numerous Illustrations, demy 8vo, 16*.<br />
"Instructive, interesting, and in many ways admirable . . . enables<br />
the reader so to revise his impressions of Scripture typography as in many<br />
caser, to throw quite a flood of new light upon a hitherto obscure narrative."<br />
—Manchester hxamintr%<br />
"Supplies .1 long-felt want by connecting in a popular and vivid manner<br />
the work which has been done by the Society with the Bible narrative."—<br />
Christian Leader,<br />
NORTHERN AJLUN, "Within the Decapolis,"<br />
liy Hkrk Schumacher, Author of "Across the Jordan," &c.<br />
With Maps, Plans, and over 60 Illustrations, crown 8vo, 3.1. 6*/.<br />
"Altogether we have to thank Mr. Schumacher for an important<br />
addition to ojt knowledge of what has long remained a terra incognita,"—<br />
Saturday A'eriert'.<br />
THE SURVEY OF WESTERN<br />
PALESTINE.<br />
Only 17 sets of this magnificent work now remain. It will<br />
ttevtr be reprinted, ~<<ith the exception of the two volumes<br />
"Flora and Fauna " and "Jerusalem." '/'he price of the<br />
set is 25 guineas. It consists of the following in seven<br />
uniform and handsomely bound volumes. $to.<br />
THE MEMOIRS. Being the Notes taken in the Field<br />
by Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E,, and Colonel Kitchener, C.M.G.,<br />
A.D.C.R.E., re-written and arranged after their return. With<br />
thousands of illustrations of tombs, ruins, &c, drawn expressly for<br />
these volumes, a'id not to be found anywhere else. 3 vols.<br />
THE NAME LISTS. Transliterated from the Arabic<br />
with translation by Major Conder, R.E.,and edited by Professor K.<br />
H. Palmer. 1 vol.<br />
THE VOLUME OF SPECIAL PAPERS. Con-<br />
sisttug mostly of reprints of important p.ipers from the "Quartet ly<br />
Statement," by Col. Sir Charles Wilson, K..C.B., K.C.M.G., F.K.S.,<br />
D.C.L., I.L.D., K.E. ; Col. fcir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., K.C.U.,<br />
F.R.S., K.K.: Major Conder, D.C.L., R.E.; M. Clermont-<br />
1 Ganneau, Mr. Greville Chester, etc. 1 vol.<br />
THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF PALESTINE.<br />
With manv Illustrations (hand-painted). riy Canon Tristram,<br />
LL.D., F.R.S. 1 vol.<br />
THE JERUSALEM VOLUME. With a Portfolio<br />
of 50 Plates. By Col. Sir Charles Warren, G.C.M.G., and Major<br />
Conder, D.C.L., R.E. 1 vol.<br />
THE MAPS.<br />
An IUnalrated Circular, giving all information about the above, will be<br />
sent, post free, on application.<br />
Published for the Palestine Exploration Fund by<br />
London: ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, Paternoster Square, E.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 88 (#112) #############################################<br />
<br />
88<br />
TYPE-WRITING!<br />
CHARING CROSS TYPE-WRITING ASSOCIATION,<br />
■* 447, STRAND *■<br />
(Directly opposite Charing Cross Station).<br />
Managers - Miss ROUSE & Mrs. URQUHART.<br />
Authors' MSS. copied with accuracy and despatch.<br />
Specifications. Law copying.<br />
Translations from and into all foreign languages.<br />
Shorthand Writers always in attendance.<br />
Misses GILL & CARPENTER,<br />
TYPE-WRITING OFFICES,<br />
6, ADAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.<br />
MISS ETHEL DICKENS,<br />
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,<br />
26, WELLINGTON STREET, STRAND<br />
(Over the Office o/ " All the Year Round" ).<br />
MSS. copied. Price List on application.<br />
CATALOGUE OF<br />
SECOND-HAND BOOKS,<br />
AND SUNDRY REMAINDERS OK<br />
NEW UNCUT BOOKS,<br />
No. 72, JULY.<br />
At Greatly Reduced Prices, Post Free.<br />
WILLIAM POTTER,<br />
3o, EXCHANGE STREET EAST, LIVERPOOL.<br />
TO AUTHORS!<br />
MS. Type-written at i/- per i,ooo. Duplicate<br />
Copies 6d. per 1,000 (for over 10,000 words).<br />
Plays from 5/- per act. Shorthand Writers and<br />
Type-writers sent out to Hotels.<br />
Type-Writers Sold and Let on Hire.<br />
THE METROPOLITAN SCHOOL OF SHORTHAND, Ltd.,<br />
27, Chancery Lane, W.C.<br />
TELEPHONE NO. 2801. TELEGRAMS "SHORTHAND." LONDON.<br />
TYPE-WRITING OFFICE,<br />
ST. PAUL'S CHAMBERS, 19, LUD6ATE HILL, E.C.<br />
Authors' MSS. carefully copied from<br />
i/- per 1,000 words. One additional copy<br />
(carbon) supplied free of charge.<br />
References kindly permitted to many<br />
well-known Authors and Publishers.<br />
Further particulars on application.<br />
Catalogues of Rare, Curious and Useful<br />
BOOKS in all classes issued Monthly by<br />
J. W. JARVIS & SON,<br />
28, KING WILLIAM STREET, CHARING CROSS,<br />
LONDON, W.C.<br />
Cat. 70, of Choice Books from the Gaisford and other<br />
Libraries.<br />
Cat. 72, in preparation, of very fine Books, early English<br />
Literature, WvNKYN de Worde, Pynson, and other<br />
important Presses, etc.<br />
Free on receipt of Stamp.<br />
Revolving Book Stands. Particulars on application.<br />
ESTABLISHED 1851-<br />
SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, CHANCERY LANE.<br />
THREE per CENT. INTEREST allowed on DEPOSITS, repayable on demand.<br />
TWO per CENT. INTEREST on CURRENT ACCOUNTS when not drawn below £100.<br />
STOCKS, SHARES, and ANNUITIES purchased and sold.<br />
SAVuras dhpartmbstt.<br />
For the encouragement of Thrift the Bank receives small sums on deposit, and allows interest, at the rate of THREE<br />
™.r rvVT ner Annum, on each completed £\. The Interest is added to the principal on the 31st March annually,<br />
per C LM. per .annum, u. v FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.<br />
TroW to PURCHASE A HOUSE FOR TWO GUINEAS PER MONTH, OR<br />
rl A PLOT OF LAND FOR FIVE SHILLINGS PER MONTH, with immediate<br />
Dossession Apply at Office of the Birkbeck Freehold Land Society.<br />
THF BIRKBECK ALMANACK, with full particulars post free on application.<br />
1HB. BiKM5c<~n. ah v r FRANCIS RAVENSCROFT, Manager.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 88 (#113) #############################################<br />
<br />
AD VER TISEMENTS.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER saves the eyesight.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents writers cramp.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER prevents ronnd shoulders.<br />
THE BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER enables you to keep pace<br />
with your thoughts, the operation requires less mental<br />
effort than the use of a pen, allowing you to concentrate<br />
your mind more fully on the matter you are writing on.<br />
The writing of the BAR-LOCK TYPE-WRITER is equal to a printed proof, and can be used as<br />
such for corrections, thus saving large printer's charges which are sufficient in many books to defray the<br />
cost of a Bar-I ,ock.<br />
Supplied for Cash, or on our Hire Purchase System.<br />
CORRESPONDENCE AND INSPECTION INVITED.<br />
W. J. RICHARDSON & Co., 12 & 14, Queen Victoria St, E.C.<br />
40, North John Street, Liverpool; 22, Renfield Street, Glasgow; Guardian Building,<br />
Manchester; Exchange Building, Cardiff; 385, Little Collins Street, Melbourne.<br />
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
1. The Annual Report. That for January, 1890, can be had on application to the Secretary.<br />
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of<br />
Literary Property. Issued to all members.<br />
3. The Grievances of Authors. (Field & Tuer.) 2s. The Report of three Meetings on the<br />
general subject of Literature and its defence, held at Willis's Rooms, March, 1887.<br />
4. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry<br />
Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C.) 4-f. 6d.<br />
5. The History of the Soctete" des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, Secretary to the<br />
Society, is.<br />
6. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of<br />
type, size of page, &c, with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds<br />
of books. The work is printed for members of the Society only. 2s. 6d. (A new Edition<br />
preparing.)<br />
7. The Various Methods of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled<br />
from the papers in the Society's offices, the various kinds of agreements proposed by Publishers<br />
to Authors are examined, and their meaning carefully explained, with an account of the various<br />
kinds of fraud which have been made possible by the different clauses in their agreements. The<br />
book is nearly ready, and will be issued as soon as possible.<br />
Other works bearing on the Literary Profession will follow.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 88 (#114) #############################################<br />
<br />
The Society of Authors (Jncorporated).<br />
PRESIDENT.<br />
The Right IIon. The LORD TENNYSON, D.C.L.<br />
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.S.I.<br />
ALFRED AUSTIN.<br />
ROBERT BATEMAN.<br />
Sir HenRY BERGNE.<br />
WALTER BESANT,<br />
R. D. BLACKMORE.<br />
REV. Prof. BONNEY, F.R.S.<br />
LORD BRABOURNE.<br />
JAMES BRYCE.<br />
P. W. CLAYDEN.<br />
J. Comen's CARR.<br />
EDWARD Clodd.<br />
W. MARTIN CONWAY.<br />
MARION CRAWFORD.<br />
OSWALD CRAWFURD.<br />
THE EARL OF DESArt..<br />
A. W. DUBOURG,<br />
ERIC ERICHSEN, F.R.S.<br />
PROF. Michael Foster, F.R.S.<br />
HERBERT GARDNER, M.P.<br />
RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D,<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
EDMUND Gosse.<br />
II. RIDER HaggarD.<br />
THOMAS HARDY.<br />
PROF. E. RAY LANKESTER, F.R.S.:<br />
Rev. W. J. LOFTIÉ, F.S.A.<br />
GEORGE Meredith.<br />
HERMAN C. MERIVALE. .<br />
T. C. PARKINSON..<br />
THE EARL OF PEMBROKE AND MONTGOMERY.<br />
Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK, Bart., LL.D.<br />
WALTER HERRIES POLLOCK..<br />
A. G. Ross.<br />
GEORGE AUGUSTUS Sala.<br />
W. BAPTISTE SCOONES.<br />
G. R. Sims.<br />
J. J. STEVENSON.<br />
JAS. Sully.<br />
WILLIAM MOY THOMAS.<br />
H. D. TRAILL, D.C.L.<br />
EDMUND YATES.<br />
-<br />
Hon. Counsel-E. M. UNDERDOWN, Q.C.<br />
Auditor-Rev. C. H. MIDDLETON-WKAE, F.L.S.<br />
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.<br />
Chairman-WALTER BESANT.<br />
I<br />
ROBERT BATEMAN.<br />
W. MARTIN COYWAY..<br />
EDMUND Gosse.<br />
H. RIDER HAGGARD.<br />
A. G. Ross.<br />
J. M. LELY,<br />
Sir FREDERICK POLLOCK.<br />
Solicitors.<br />
Messrs. FIELD, Roscoe, & Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.<br />
Secretary-S. SQUIRE SPRIGGE.<br />
OFFICES.<br />
4, PORTUGAL Street, LINCOLN's Inn Fields, W.C.<br />
Printed for the Society, by HARRISON & SONS, 45, 46, and 47, St. Martin's Lane, in the Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in the City<br />
of Westminster. | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/241/1890-07-15-The-Author-1-3.pdf | publications, The Author |