| 295 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/295 | The Author, Vol. 07 Issue 05 (October 1896) | <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.+07+Issue+05+%28October+1896%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 07 Issue 05 (October 1896)</a> | | | <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049239455" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015049239455</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> | 1896-10-01-The-Author-7-5 | | | | | 97–116 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=7">7</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1896-10-01">1896-10-01</a> | | | | | | | 5 | | | 18961001 | TLhc Hutbor*<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. VII.—No. 5.]<br />
OCTOBER 1, 1896.<br />
[Price Sixpence.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
General Considerations<br />
Literary Property—<br />
1. The Berne Congress<br />
2. Thirteen as Twelve ...<br />
3. Booksellers and Publishers<br />
4. A Photographer's Copyright Onion<br />
The Third Point of View<br />
New York Letter. By Norman Hapgood<br />
Reviewing<br />
The Prairie Songs of Hamlin Garland ...<br />
NoteB and News. By the Editor<br />
PAOi,<br />
... 97<br />
. 99<br />
. 99<br />
. 100<br />
. 100<br />
. 101<br />
. 102<br />
. 104<br />
. 105<br />
. IOC<br />
From a Penman's Workshop<br />
Loose English. By H. E. Keen*<br />
•• When I am Gone." By F. B. Doveton<br />
Book Talk<br />
Literature in the Periodicals<br />
Correspondence—1. The First Book. 2. Royalty on First Books.<br />
3. Onr Brains. 4. Monsters in Fiction. 5 The Title<br />
The Publishing Season<br />
Sir John Erichsen<br />
A Cricket Match<br />
PAGB<br />
.. 108<br />
.. 109<br />
.. 110<br />
.. 110<br />
.. 112<br />
114<br />
118<br />
116<br />
no<br />
PUBLICATIONS OF THE SOCIETY.<br />
of<br />
1. The Annual Report. That for January 1896 can be had on application to the Secretary.<br />
2. The Author. A Monthly Journal devoted especially to the protection and maintenance of Literary<br />
Property. Issued to all Members. Back numbers are offered at the following prices:<br />
Vol. I., ios. 6(2. (Bound); Vols. II., HI., and IV., 8«. 6d. each (Bound) j Vol. V., 6s. 6d.<br />
(Unbound).<br />
3. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colles, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,<br />
95, Strand, W.C.) 3*.<br />
4. The History of the Societe des Gens de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprigge, late Secretary to<br />
the Society, i*.<br />
5. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of<br />
size of page, &c., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kirn<br />
books. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 2*. 6d.<br />
6. The Various Methods Of Publication. By S. Squire Sprigge. In this work, compiled from the<br />
papers in the Society's offices, the various forms of agreements proposed by Publishers to<br />
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.<br />
Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. 3*.<br />
7. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parlia-<br />
ment. With Extracts from the Report of the Commission of 1878, and an Appendix<br />
containing the Berne Convention and the American Copyright Bill. By J. M. Lely. Eyre<br />
and Spottiswoode. is. 6d.<br />
8. The Society of Authors. A Record of its Action from its Foundation By Walter TStoktsi<br />
(Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). 11.<br />
9. The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and w .^et^- W<br />
Lunge, J.U.D. 2.9. 6d.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 96 (#128) #############################################<br />
<br />
11<br />
AD VERTISEMENTS.<br />
^i)e $octetp of Jluf^ors (gncotporateb).<br />
Sir Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.<br />
Alfred Austin.<br />
J. M. Barbie<br />
A.. W. X Beckett.<br />
C E. Beddard, P.B.S.<br />
Robert Bateman.<br />
Sir Henry Bergne, K.C.M.G.<br />
Sir Walter Besant.<br />
Augustine Birrell, M.P.<br />
Bev. Prop. Bonnet, P.B.S.<br />
Rioht Hon. James Brtce, M.P.<br />
Right Hon. Lord Burghclere, P.C<br />
Hall Caine.<br />
Eoerton Castle, F.S.A.<br />
P. W. Clatden.<br />
Edward Clodd.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
Hon. John Collier.<br />
Sir W. Martin Conwat.<br />
P. Marion Crawford.<br />
PRESIDENT.<br />
O-IEO IRQ-IE MEREDITH.<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
The Earl of Desart.<br />
Austin Dobson.<br />
A. Conan Doyle, M.D<br />
A. W. Dubourg.<br />
Sir J. Eric Erichsen, Bart., F.B.S.<br />
Prof. Michael Foster, P.B.S.<br />
Bichard Garnett, C.B., LL.D.<br />
Edmund Gosse.<br />
H. Bider Haggard.<br />
Thomas Hardy.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
Jerome K. Jerome.<br />
Eudyard Kiplino.<br />
Prof. E. Bay Lankkster, F.B.S.<br />
W. E. H. Lkcky.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
Mrs. E. Lynn Linton.<br />
Bev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mua.D.<br />
Prof. J. M. D. Meiklejohn.<br />
Hon. Counsel — E. M. Underdown,<br />
Herman C. Merivale.<br />
Bev. C. H. Middleton-Wakk.<br />
Sir Lewis Morris.<br />
Henry Norman.<br />
Miss E. A. Obmerod.<br />
J. C. Parkinson.<br />
Bight Hon. Lord Pirbkight.<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.<br />
Walter Herries Pollock.<br />
W. Baptiste Scoones.<br />
Miss Flora L. Shaw.<br />
G. B. Sims.<br />
S. Squire Sprigge.<br />
J. J. Stevenson.<br />
Prof. Jas. Sully.<br />
William Moy Thomas.<br />
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.<br />
Mrs. Humphry Ward.<br />
Miss Charlotte M. Yonge.<br />
Q.C.<br />
A. W. a Beckett.<br />
Sir Walter Besant.<br />
Eoerton Castle.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.<br />
Chairman—H. Bider Haggard.<br />
Hon. John Collier.<br />
Sir W. Martin Conway.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
„ .. .. ( Messrs. Field, Eoscoe, and Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.<br />
solicitors ^ Q Herbert Thring, B.A., 4, Portugal-street, W.C.<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mus.D.<br />
Henry Norman.<br />
S. Squire Sprigge.<br />
Secretary—G. Herbert Thring, B.A.<br />
OFFICES: 4, Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.<br />
.A.. IP. WJ^TT &c SOIDsT,<br />
LITERARY AGENTS,<br />
Formerly of 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE,<br />
Have now removed to<br />
HASTINGS HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND.<br />
LONDON-, W.C.<br />
WINDSOR HOUSE PRINTING WORKS,<br />
BREAM'S BTJIT-jXJIZLSTG-S, E.O.<br />
Offices of "The Field," "The Queen," "The Law Times," &e.<br />
Mr. HOBACE COX, Printer to the Authors' Society, takes the opportunity of informing Authors that, having a very<br />
large Office, and an extensive Plant of Type of every description, he is in a position to EXECUTE any FEINTING they<br />
may entrust to his care.<br />
ESTIMATES FORWARDED, AND REASONABLE CHARGES WILL BE FOUND.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 97 (#129) #############################################<br />
<br />
XIbe Hutbor*<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. VII.—No. 5.]<br />
OCTOBER 1, 1896.<br />
[Price Sixpence.<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
collective opinions of the committee unless<br />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
THE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br />
important communications within two days will write to him<br />
without delay. All remittances should be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only. ______<br />
Communications and letters are invited by the Editor on<br />
all subjects connected with literature, bnt on no other sub-<br />
jects whatever. Articles which cannot be accepted are<br />
returned if Btamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.<br />
THERE are several methods of publishing by agree-<br />
ments. Thus (1) an author may sell his work for a<br />
sum of money down: (2) he may take a share of the<br />
profits: (3) he may accept a royalty.<br />
The first method is the readiest and, where a proper<br />
price is paid, perhaps the beBt. It involves a certain amount<br />
of risk or doubt as to the result on the part of the buyer,<br />
and a certain amount of hesitation on the part of the seller.<br />
The author would do well to Bell through an agent. But let<br />
him beware as to his choice of agent.<br />
At a time when the production of new books involved<br />
great riBks and where the possible circle of purchasers was<br />
very small, the publishers, joining together, took half the<br />
profits as a return for their risk and services. At the present<br />
time in many cases, where there are no risks, they often take<br />
two-thirds and even more of the profits, and that after setting<br />
apart a large sum for "office expenses," allowing the author<br />
nothing at all for his office expenses. In other words,<br />
it is as if a steward were to charge first for his office<br />
and desks and then to take half or two-thirds of the<br />
remainder for himself as steward's fee. Therefore the author<br />
must in every case ascertain carefully) before Bigning the<br />
agreement, what proportion is appropriated under its clauses<br />
by the publisher for himself. If the any,or is in doubt, let<br />
him submit the agreement to the seorM, 0r to one of the<br />
VOL. VII.<br />
literary agents recommended by the secretary. Above all<br />
things he must remember that in any business transaction<br />
the one who accepts an agreement in ignoranoe will quite<br />
certainly get the worst of it. The folly of signing in<br />
ignorance is the main cause of half the quarrels between<br />
anthor and publisher.<br />
In the case of profit-sharing.agreements, remember that a<br />
very common form of getting the better of an author is the<br />
practice of advertising the book in the publisher's own organs,<br />
very likely magazines of small circulation. Sometimes,<br />
also, he " exchanges " advertisements with other magazines,<br />
and charges the author as if he had paid for them. In this<br />
way the publisher may put the whole profits of a book in his<br />
own pooket. One way to prevent thiB sharp practice is to<br />
insert a clause to the effect that advertisements shall only<br />
be charged at the actual price paid for them. A better way,<br />
however, is to agree beforehand npon the papers in which<br />
advertisements may be inserted.<br />
As regards the right of inspecting the books, that neeo<br />
not be claimed, because it exists as the right of every<br />
partner, or joint venturer. You have only to demand the<br />
inspection of the books by your solicitor, your accountant,<br />
or the secretary of the Society.<br />
If the book is a first book, or one that carries risk, it is fair<br />
to make an arrangement for the first edition and another for<br />
the second, and following, if any. The publisher confers so<br />
Bignal a service upon the yonng anthor by producing his<br />
work at all—i.e., by giving him the chance he desires above<br />
all things—that it seems fair in such a case to yield him the<br />
larger share.<br />
In a profit-sharing agreement do not let the cost of pro-<br />
duction form a part of the agreement, otherwise yon will<br />
be unable to contest it afterwards.<br />
It will be wisest never to enter into relations with any<br />
publisher unless recommended by the Society.<br />
There are many other dangers to be avoided. SeriaO<br />
rights: stamping the agreement: American rights: future<br />
work: cession of copyright—these things cannot possibly<br />
be attended to by the young author. Therefore his agree-<br />
ment should always be shown to the secretary.<br />
It has been objected that these precautions presuppose a<br />
great success for the book, and that very few books indeed<br />
attain to this great success. That is quite true: but there is<br />
always this uncertainty of literary property that, although<br />
the works of a great many authors carry with them no risk<br />
at all, and although of a great r^v-ny it ibknown witbi—o>£ev<<br />
copies what will be their mi ^ ^utn cucu\a,_«nv,\\> S»<br />
known what will be their<br />
anthor, for every book, shoul^ ^ ^ge<br />
success which will not, proVw>. JjX*9, 0«<br />
may come. ^"YJ \<br />
The four points which the \&<br />
from the outset are:— *4<br />
(1.) That both sides sh^-v ^<br />
means. \>v'<br />
V 0<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 98 (#130) #############################################<br />
<br />
98<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br />
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br />
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br />
withheld.<br />
(3.) That there shall be no secret profits.<br />
(4.) That nothing shall be charged which has not been<br />
actually paid—for instance, that there shall be no charge for<br />
advertisements in the publisher's own organs and none for<br />
exchanged advertisements: and that all discounts shall be<br />
duly entered.<br />
If these points are carefully looked after, the author may<br />
rest pretty well assured that he is in right hands. At the<br />
same time he will do well to send his agreement to the<br />
secretary before he signs it.<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
1. 1/1 VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
Pj advioe upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the oonduct of his<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the advice<br />
sought is such as can be given best by a solioitor, the member<br />
has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the<br />
case is such that Counsel's opinion is desirable, the Com-<br />
mittee will obtain for him Counsel's opinion. All this<br />
without any cost to the member.<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publisher's agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple<br />
to use the Society first—our solicitors are continually<br />
engaged upon such questions for us.<br />
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past<br />
aooounts with the loan of the books represented. This is in<br />
order to ascertain what has been the nature of your agree-<br />
ments, and the results to author and publisher respectively<br />
so far. The Secretary will always be glad to have any<br />
agreements, new or old, for inspection and note. The infor-<br />
mation thus obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
4. If the examination of your previous business trans-<br />
actions by the Secretary proves unfavourable, you should<br />
take advice as to a ohange of publishers.<br />
5. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Society for examination.<br />
6. The Society is acquainted with the methods, and—in<br />
the oase of fraudulent houses—the tricks of every publish-<br />
ing firm in the oountry.<br />
7. Remember always"that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br />
reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing<br />
the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-<br />
dence of the writer.<br />
8. Send to the Editor of the Author notes of everything<br />
important to literature that you may hear or meet with.<br />
9. The committee have now arranged for the reception of<br />
members' agreements and their preservation in a fireproof<br />
safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con-<br />
fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who<br />
will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :—(1)<br />
To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To<br />
stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon<br />
them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments<br />
due according to agreements.<br />
THE AUTHORS' SYNDICATE.<br />
MEMBERS are informed:<br />
I. That the Authors' Syndicate takes charge of<br />
the business of members of the Society. That it<br />
submits MSS. to publishers and editors, conoludes agree-<br />
ments, examines, passes, and collects accounts, and, gene-<br />
rally, relieves members of the trouble of managing business<br />
details.<br />
2. That the terms upon which its services can be secured<br />
will be forwarded upon detailed application.<br />
3. That the Authors' Syndioate works only for those<br />
members of the Society whose work possesses a market<br />
value.<br />
4. That the Syndioate can only undertake any negotiations<br />
whatever on the distinct understanding that those negotia-<br />
tions are placed exclusively in its hands, and that all<br />
communications relating thereto are referred to it.<br />
5. That clients can only be seen by the Director by<br />
appointment, and that, when possible, at least two days'<br />
notice should be given.<br />
6. That every attempt is made to deal with all communi-<br />
cations promptly. That stamps should, in all cases, be sent<br />
to defray postage.<br />
7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS.<br />
without previous correspondence j does not hold itself<br />
responsible for MSS. forwarded without notice; and that<br />
in all cases MSS. must be accompanied by stamps to defray<br />
postage.<br />
8. That the Syndicate undertakes arrangements for<br />
lectures by Borne of the leading members of the Society;<br />
that it has a "Transfer Department" for the sale and<br />
purohase of journals and periodicals; and that a " Register<br />
of Wants and Wanted" is open. Members are invited to<br />
communicate their requirements to the Manager.<br />
There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whose services<br />
will be called upon in any oase of dispute or difficulty. It<br />
is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the<br />
Advisory Committee have no pecuniary interest whatever in<br />
the Syndioate.<br />
NOTICES.<br />
THE Editor of the Author begs to remind members of the<br />
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br />
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
6*. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
The Editor is always glad to receive short papers and<br />
communications on all subjects connected with literature<br />
from members and others. Nothing can do more good to<br />
the Society than to make the Author complete, attractive,<br />
and interesting. Will those who are willing to aid in this<br />
work send their names and the special subjects on which<br />
they are willing to write f<br />
Communications for the Author should reach the Editor<br />
not later than the 21st of each month.<br />
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind, whether<br />
members of the Society or not, are invited to communicate<br />
to the Editor any points connected with their work which<br />
it would be advisable in the general interest to publish.<br />
Members and otherB who wish their MSS. read are<br />
requested not to send them to the Office without previously<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 99 (#131) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
99<br />
<sommu»icating with the Seoretary. The utmost practicable<br />
'despatch is aimed at, and MSS. are read in the order in<br />
which they are received. It must also be distinctly under-<br />
stood that the Society does not, under any circumstances,<br />
undertake the publication of MSS.<br />
The Authors' Club is now open in its new premises, at<br />
3, Whitehall-oourt, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary<br />
for information, rules of admission, Ac.<br />
Will members take the trouble to ascertain whether they<br />
have paid their subscriptions for the year? If they will do<br />
this, and remit the amount, if still unpaid, or a banker's<br />
■order, it will greatly assist the Secretary, and save him the<br />
trouble of sending out a reminder.<br />
Members are most earnestly entreated to attend to the<br />
following warning. It is a most foolish and may be a<br />
most disastrous thing to enter into an agreement binding<br />
for a term of years. Let them ask themselves if they<br />
would give a solicitor the collection of their rents for five<br />
years to come, whatever his conduct, whether he was honest<br />
or dishonest? Of course they would not. Why then<br />
hesitate for a moment when they are asked to sign them-<br />
selves into literary bondage for three or five years?<br />
Those who possess the "Cost of Production" are<br />
requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15<br />
per cent. This means, for those who do not like the trouble<br />
of "doing sums," the addition of three shillings in the<br />
pound on this head. In other words, if the cost of binding<br />
is set down in our book at eight pounds, to this must now be<br />
Added twenty-four shillings more, so that it now stands<br />
At £g 4*. The figures in our book are as near the exact<br />
truth as can be procured; but a printer's, or a binder's,<br />
bill is so elastic a thing that nothing more exact can be<br />
Arrived at.<br />
Some remarks have been made upon the amount charged<br />
in the " Cost of Production" for advertising. Of oourse, we<br />
have not included any sums which may be charged for<br />
inserting advertisements in the publisher's own magazines,<br />
or in other magazines by exchange. As agreements too<br />
often go, there is nothing to prevent the publisher from<br />
sweeping the whole profits of a book into his own pocket,<br />
by inserting any number of advertisements in his own<br />
magazines, and by exchanging with others. Some there are<br />
who call this a form of fraud; it is not known what those<br />
who practise this method of swelling their own profits call it.<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
I. — The Berne Congress.<br />
f 11HE eighteenth Congress of the International<br />
I Association for the Protection of Literary<br />
Property was held iu August last. It is<br />
very much to be regretted that the efforts of the<br />
■committee to send a delegate proved fruitless.<br />
No one could be found to go, perhaps because the<br />
association is not generally considered a very<br />
practical body. However, it is a good thing to<br />
bring before people in some official manner, at<br />
regular intervals, the fact that literary property is<br />
a real thing, meaning a great deal more than the<br />
world at large understands. England seems to<br />
have been represented by one lawyer, and the<br />
greater number of members present were French.<br />
An account of the proceedings was furnished by<br />
the Athenaeum of Sept. 5, from which.the follow-<br />
ing is a brief resume:<br />
A paper was read on the " Work accomplished<br />
by the Diplomatic Conference held at Paris in the<br />
Spring of the present year." The period during<br />
which works are protected against unauthorised<br />
translation was assimilated to that of ordinary<br />
copyright, on the condition that an authorised<br />
translation is made within ten years The artick<br />
of the Convention relating to articles in news-<br />
papers and magazines was made "more stringent."<br />
And the Conference passed certain resolutions in<br />
favour of penal legislation as regards the forgery<br />
of authors' names, &c.<br />
"The Congress expressed hopes that the reso-<br />
lutions of the conference may be ratified, and that<br />
the reform of the law of copyright, which is now<br />
well started in Germany, may extend to Great<br />
Britain also. It is possible, if the Authors'<br />
Society, the English Copyright Association, and<br />
other bodies could be induced to agree, that some-<br />
thing might be done in this direction, though the<br />
inefficiency of Parliament as a legislative machine<br />
renders the success of any reform to which any of<br />
our Parliamentary busybodies might raise an<br />
objection more than doubtful."<br />
During the discussion following the paper, the<br />
Congress pronounced in favour of a Dramatic<br />
Authors' Society—presumably international—and<br />
of the formation of a bureau in each country to<br />
give legal advice on the subject of copyright else-<br />
where.<br />
Copyright in newspaper articles was advocated.<br />
A model copyright law was laid before the<br />
Congress.<br />
The rights of unpaid creditors to an author's<br />
unpublished work was discussed.<br />
Certain points of law liable to be raised by<br />
collaborateurs were also discussed.<br />
A paper was read by a Parisian barrister pro-<br />
posing to give the author or his heirs a perpetual<br />
royalty to be given after the copyright term<br />
expires.<br />
Another account of the meeting is given in the<br />
Publishers' Circular, which contains a statement<br />
that in less than fourteen years the Socie'te des<br />
Auteurs Franrais has "netted forty million<br />
francs." It would be serviceable to us if we<br />
could find out what this meaus.<br />
II.—Thirteen as Twelve.<br />
The revelations recent made as to the prices<br />
exacted of booksellers h^v'e eafted attention te ^e<br />
clause frequently prop<w 1 yd tojaltj a^esme^8-<br />
that thirteen are to be >». votJ-C^ 88<br />
The just<br />
to the<br />
ustification of « ^W^LTa<br />
trade is <*»<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 100 (#132) ############################################<br />
<br />
IOO<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
thirteen as twelve. If this were true, it might<br />
be considered, at least. But it is not true.<br />
The general rule is that when a dozen books at<br />
least are ordered—sometimes of the same work,<br />
sometimes of other books published by the firm<br />
—thirteen are sent as twelve. When a single book<br />
is ordered, or two or three only, the general rule<br />
is to charge for it, at a eertain fixed price, gene-<br />
rally 4*. 2d. on a 6s. book, occasional exceptions<br />
and modifications being made by certaiu houses.<br />
What is the average proportion of books sent out<br />
at thirteen as twelve P As no figures are forth-<br />
coming, it lies with the author to demand a<br />
modification of the clause. He must absolutely<br />
refuse to allow thirteen as twelve, unless the<br />
publisher does it also. If the publisher does<br />
allow it in every case, the author may, perhaps,<br />
do so, but not unless. Hitherto, the meanings of<br />
royalties, as published in the Author, have been<br />
based on the assumption that thirteen as twelve<br />
is the rule. Since we have now discovered that it<br />
is not the rule, we must reconsider the meanings,<br />
which shall l>e done in the next number.<br />
Note, however, that on those meanings, if you<br />
grant the clause of thirteen as twelve, you<br />
actually give the publisher that allowance twice<br />
over!<br />
A reasonable way out of the difficulty might lie<br />
to allow the publisher thirteen as twelve on a<br />
certain number of any edition. Thus on a<br />
thousand copies, if all were sent out at thirteen<br />
as twelve, there would be a loss, or giving away,<br />
of seventy-seven copies. Since the practice is not<br />
universal, but only partial, it would, perhaps, be<br />
fair to allow the publisher, say, forty copies or 4<br />
per cent, of the edition on this account, taking<br />
the full royalty on all the rest.<br />
Authors have, surely, never yet realised what<br />
they are giving away by this clause. Take, for<br />
instance, two loyalties: that of one-sixth or<br />
i6f per cent.: and that of 25 per cent.: on the<br />
common 6*. book.<br />
By this clause the author loses 7r\ per cent.<br />
That is to say, in the former he loses nearly .£4,<br />
and in the latter he loses nearly =£6 on every<br />
thousand copies.<br />
The publisher gains therefore this amount less<br />
the deduction made in certain cases—not by any<br />
means all—as the united testimony of booksellers<br />
clearly proves. Since the deduction is only made<br />
in certain cases, what justification can be pleaded<br />
for charging it upon the author in all cases?<br />
And why should the publisher get the allowance<br />
twice over? ri<br />
III.—Booksellers and Publishers.<br />
It is pleasing to note that not all publishers<br />
attempt to represent themselves as victims by<br />
talking vaguely about awful expenses; by twist-<br />
ing figures; or by confidently stating in public<br />
things which they have to deny in private. I<br />
have received from a firm of publishers the exact<br />
figures concerned with the sale of a certain work<br />
recently issued by them. The numbers sold<br />
amounted to many thousands. The published<br />
price of the book was 6s. In the first place, this<br />
firm always allowed 5 per cent, on every copy<br />
taken at 4*. 2d. or at 4*., except an inconsiderable<br />
number sold for cash over the counter, not<br />
exceeding twenty-five at the outside. The prices<br />
obtained by the publisher varied from 3*. n^d.<br />
down to a fraction under 3*. \d. The retail trade<br />
was represented by 49 per cent, of the sales—it<br />
may be remembered that one of the persons who<br />
recently engaged in the "vague talk" spoke of<br />
the wholesale trade as forming "the great bulk" of<br />
their business. It is not, therefore, "the great<br />
bulk" in every house. The average price obtained<br />
by the publisher was what has always been<br />
assumed in these columns, namely, as nearly as<br />
possible, 38. 6d. These figures are supplied by<br />
a young and rising firm which enjoys the useful<br />
credit of making "easier" terms with the trade<br />
than some of the larger and older houses.<br />
W. B.<br />
IV.—A Photographic Copyright Union.<br />
Photographs are not books. But there is a<br />
law of copyright in photographs as in books<br />
and pictures. This Union is governed by a com-<br />
mittee consisting of well-known photographers.<br />
The rules show that the members mean busi-<br />
ness: they contemplate, especially, legal action.<br />
If the society takes a case into court, two-"<br />
thirds of the damages go to the member con-<br />
cerned, and one-third to the society: if no<br />
damages are obtained, the member must pay-<br />
half the expenses: where compensation has been<br />
obtained without litigation, the society shall take<br />
25 per cent, of the amount. And the union<br />
limits the right of allowing a copyright picture to<br />
be reproduced to a certain minimum. A reserve<br />
fund is to be created. In these rules is there<br />
nothing that our Society might follow? We<br />
want a large reserve fund: we want some definite<br />
plan of action in the case of legal action: there<br />
are many cases which cry aloud to be taken into<br />
court, but members are unwilling and afraid of<br />
the consequences. If we could,- like the photo-<br />
graphers, increase our reserve by taking cases into<br />
court, surely there would be at least manifested<br />
some desire among our members to settle their<br />
disputes in this, the only possible, way.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 101 (#133) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 101<br />
THE THIRD POINT OP VIEW.<br />
fT^HE following remarks represent an interview<br />
I with one of the trade:—<br />
"I am a bookseller. I want to point<br />
out to authors whose works I try to sell certain<br />
facta which may show them that they ought to be<br />
even more interested in the bookseller than in the<br />
publisher. There are three persons concerned in<br />
the presentation of a book to the public; they are<br />
the author who creates the book, and whoso pro-<br />
perty it is until he parts with it: the publisher,<br />
who sends it to the printer, pays the printer's<br />
bill, advertises it; and the bookseller, who orders<br />
so many copies and puts them in his window and<br />
sells them. If we ask what are the respective<br />
shares of the three in the control of the book, we<br />
very quickly discover that the second person of<br />
the three has not oniy got the whole control of<br />
the business into his own hands, but he takes the<br />
lion's share of the returns. He has obtained the<br />
control by carefully keeping things dark. He<br />
does not allow the author to know what he exacts<br />
of the bookseller: nor does he let the bookseller<br />
know what he allows the author: nor does he<br />
suffer either of them to know what he pays the<br />
printer: and by exchanges, and by charging for<br />
advertisements in his own magazine, he gets,<br />
according to the Author, a great part of his<br />
advertising done for nothing. And, of course,<br />
he keeps this last fact very dark indeed.<br />
"Your Society has broken down a part of this<br />
ignorance, which I, for one, believe to have been<br />
designed. Your Society has shown, first, what<br />
it actually costs to produce a book. I have read<br />
all the denials, and laughed over the shuffling<br />
with which they try to wriggle out of the truth.<br />
I daresay that a printer's bill is an elastic thing:<br />
but men in business do not pay more than they<br />
are obliged, and I am confident that your<br />
Society's figures are as nearly right as can be got.<br />
Moreover, I observe in all the letters that have<br />
appeared from the persons concerned that no<br />
one of the writers gives his own figures. Why?<br />
Because, if he cooked his accounts printers by the<br />
<lozen would offer to do the work for less: and if<br />
he told the truth, he would be confessing that the<br />
Society is right. Now, by exposing the Cost of<br />
Production and the meaning of Royalties, your<br />
society has done great service to booksellers, as<br />
well as to authors. I hope that every bookseller<br />
in the country will make haste to take in the<br />
Author and to procure a copy of the "Cost of<br />
Production."<br />
"The kind of service you have rendered to us<br />
is exactly the same as that which you have ren-<br />
dered to authors: the disclosure of the truth.<br />
It matters very little whether your figures are a<br />
penny above or below those of any particular<br />
book. Every book, of course, must have its own<br />
figures, and I do not suppose that yours are<br />
meant for more than the average.<br />
"I now ask permission to state the booksellers'<br />
case, and to show why authors ought to make<br />
common cause with them.<br />
"(i) Their risk.—The publisher of current lite-<br />
rature, not to speak of great ventures which<br />
require capital and carry risks, runs, as you<br />
have always said, practically little risk. If he<br />
runs any, considering the great number of popular<br />
writers, it is his own look out. That is, your<br />
Society is quite right in saying that he only<br />
publishes for authors for whose works there is<br />
some demand — generally enough to see him<br />
through by the first run of the book. The<br />
exceptions to this rule are few, but we must<br />
admit that there are exceptions. But the bookseller<br />
must buy on spec. Every book, except the earlier<br />
copies of a very popular author, is a risk. You<br />
may see on my shelves rows of books which mean<br />
failures. They cannot be sold.<br />
"(2) The office expenses.—In most publishers'<br />
houses these are reckoned at 10 per cent. In my<br />
house they are from 16 to 20 per cent. In other<br />
words, if a publisher makes 3*. 6d. for a 6*. book,<br />
or even only 3s. ^d., he pays about 4<f. for his<br />
office expenses, leaving himself, when author and<br />
printer are paid, about i*. 2d. or is. The book-<br />
seller, however, has to reduce his earnings by<br />
i^d., leaving him about b\d. on the volume.<br />
The publisher speaks of advertisements. Well,<br />
your Society has pointed out that <£io spent on<br />
advertising 2000 copies means just over id. a<br />
copy.<br />
"I would, therefore, with these facts before<br />
me, appeal to the authors. I ask them these<br />
questions:<br />
"(1.) For what reasons, for what services,<br />
should the publisher be allowed to take the lion's<br />
share?<br />
"(2.) Is it fair that the booksellers' office ex-<br />
penses and risks should be absolutely ignored?<br />
Is it fair that authors' expenses should be also<br />
ignored?<br />
"(3.) Is it right that the literature of the<br />
country should be wholly managed by the class<br />
which takes the least share of the work, the risk,<br />
and the responsibility, and for their own interests<br />
alone?<br />
"Next. I put to you authors and readers the<br />
following considerations: "V^\iat do you wish to<br />
gain by your writings'? jfc fame and name'<br />
Is it money? I take it th_» « 'wa,at ^>^V*A'aAae<br />
and your own money: but v\\ tneae {^jytf^<br />
be obtained bv means<br />
to have a clear understan.^^ N^^Vvea. ^^3^<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 102 (#134) ############################################<br />
<br />
102<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
your Society rightly calls the administration of<br />
your own estate. The value of this estate rests, I<br />
would urge you to consider, ultimately with the<br />
bookseller and the libraries. The bookseller,<br />
especially, can place your books on his shelves.<br />
He can give you a fair show: he can offer you to<br />
the public: he can recommend you: he can cause<br />
you to live on and on for years: most books die<br />
almost as soon as they are born, even good and<br />
popular books, because the bookseller has no<br />
interest to make them live. He can, in a word,<br />
do more to advance your reputation than any<br />
reviews. He wants nothing more than an<br />
encouragement to do so. But it is impossible for<br />
him to stock his shelves with your books unless<br />
he is properly treated. Remember that he has<br />
rent and ordinary expenses to pay: and that he<br />
has a wife and family to keep. There must,<br />
therefore, be a sufficient margin. Formerly, he was<br />
told that the greed of authors caused this margin<br />
to grow smaller and smaller. He now under-<br />
stands that the authors have no knowledge at all<br />
of this diminution; but it is, on the other hand, a<br />
desperate clutching at the lion's share which<br />
makes the margin grow smaller. If you ask a<br />
man to sell your book on a margin of 4</., he will<br />
not do so unless he is obliged.<br />
"I would ask you, therefore, as authors, to con-<br />
sider your position with reference to the book-<br />
seller. Do not let your attention be diverted by<br />
any false scent: if publishers claim that the<br />
figures are wrong—well, then, give them a penny<br />
or so if they like, and still ask this question—<br />
What has a publisher done for a book which is<br />
sure to sell by thousands, that he should take for<br />
his own profit as much as author and bookseller<br />
together: or that he should take more than the<br />
author, or as much as the author: or more than<br />
the bookseller, or as much as the bookseller?<br />
And if some way can be found out by which this<br />
injustice can be set right, will the authors make<br />
common cause with the booksellers? As a book-<br />
seller I can promise, in the name of the trade,<br />
that if they do, they will speedily find out where<br />
their true interests lie."<br />
NEW YORK LETTER.<br />
New York, Sept. 17.<br />
HILL AND COMPANY, who have been<br />
preparing a large Encyclopedia of Ency-<br />
clopedias, have just given notice to those<br />
employed on the work that they are dismissed,<br />
and the whole venture postponed until after the<br />
election. Their other principal undertaking, the<br />
"Library of World Literature," conducted by<br />
Charles Dudley Warner, continues, but is being<br />
kept back as much as possible in order to see what<br />
the situation will be after Nov. 3.<br />
Mr. Warner, by the way, whuse experience in<br />
the magazine business is great, commented yester-<br />
day on the paragraph in the last Author about<br />
the effect of mailing rates on the prosperity of<br />
magazines. The art editor of one of our three<br />
principal magazines also expressed his opinion on<br />
the same subject, and the business aspect was<br />
represented by a member of the publishing<br />
department of one of the principal houses. The<br />
business manager was especially strong in agreeing<br />
with the statement in the Author that the mailing<br />
rate was a very important factor in the prosperity<br />
of American magazines. He said that his house<br />
was making every effort to get as large a part as<br />
possible of its circulation on its subscription<br />
books, rather tban sell through the American<br />
News Company, which does all the distributing<br />
here, except that of Munsey's Magazine, which<br />
does its own rather than pay the high distributing<br />
charge. Scribner's Magazine now has 30,000<br />
names on its subscription list, most of them in<br />
America. Harper's and the Century also have a<br />
very large subscription list. All possible methods<br />
are used, such as offering the magazine with books,<br />
or offering two magazines together, and having<br />
agents on the road. There is some possibility,<br />
probably not very serious, that the present privi-<br />
leges will be restricted by the next Legislature.<br />
The movement for restriction grows out of the<br />
fact that some publishers are taking advantage of<br />
the favourable laws to mail what is really onlv<br />
advertising under the guise of a regular monthly<br />
or weekly periodical.<br />
These three representatives, however, of the<br />
various departments, while they agreed that this<br />
was an important element, laid a great deal of<br />
emphasis on other facts. All three of them said<br />
that decidedly the leading cause was the illustra-<br />
tion, the number and excellence of the pictures,<br />
and that all expected to see the illustrations in<br />
England grow more numerous and better. Enter-<br />
tainment has been the idea on which the circula-<br />
tions of our magazines have been built up. As<br />
Mr. Warner said: "No where else can a man get<br />
so many really good pictures for 25 cents, and<br />
the text, although not as well written as in<br />
England, is more entertaining to the large mass<br />
of people. The English magazine seems more as<br />
if it were written by experts, ours by amateurs;<br />
but ours are new in subjects, fresh and popular.<br />
This is wanted also in England, as shown by the<br />
success of Bret Harte there, which is greater than<br />
it is here, and by the former circulation there of<br />
such papers as the Detroit Free Press, with their<br />
local stories." After emphasising this literary<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 103 (#135) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOH. 103<br />
difference, he returned to his former statement<br />
that the picture side was the most important<br />
cause. The business manager referred to spoke<br />
specially of the excellence of the illustrated<br />
advertisements as one of the great reasons for the<br />
success of our magazines.<br />
Bret Harte, by the way, although less popular<br />
here than he was some years ago when his vein<br />
was new, is still much read, and Houghton,<br />
Mifflin, and Co. are to get out a complete edition<br />
of his works. It will be interesting to see<br />
whether they or the English edition, appearing<br />
about the same time, will have the greater sale.<br />
Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson said<br />
recently in Harper's Bazaar: "Henry James<br />
speaks contemptuously of Thoreau as parochial;<br />
but who can help seeing that Thoreau's parish of<br />
thoughtful readers grows and grows, while that<br />
of James is long since stationary? Who can<br />
doubt that fifty years hence the disproportion<br />
will be far greater than now? After all is said<br />
and done, the circle of American writers who<br />
established our nation's literature nearly half a<br />
cycle ago, were great because they were first and<br />
chiefly American; and of the Americans who<br />
permanently transplanted themselves for literary<br />
purposes it is pretty certain that James and Bret<br />
Harte and Leland would have developed more<br />
staying powers had they remained at home."<br />
Severe as the effect of the silver craze is on the<br />
publishing business, it has its compensations.<br />
Books on financial questions sell in unusual<br />
numbers ; almost every house has several of them,<br />
and so great is the demand for them that it seems<br />
to effect the announcement for some time ahead.<br />
On a list of the highest sales made by John<br />
Wannamaker, the great dealer in cheap books,<br />
the only novel in the first six was the " Damnation<br />
of Thereon Ware," sold in England under the title<br />
of "Illumination;" all the others were books on<br />
finance, ranging upwards from Coin's " Financial<br />
School" to several of the most sober arguments<br />
on the subject. D. Appleton and Co., who are<br />
going in especially for the publication of books<br />
on politics and finance, write me: "The political<br />
campaign has increased the demand for books<br />
upon economic and financial subjects, like Wells's<br />
'Recent Economic Changes,' Laughlin's ' History<br />
of Bimetallism in the United States,' McPherson's<br />
'Monetary and Banking Problems,' and Jevens's<br />
'Money and the Mechanism of Exchange.' So<br />
far as the present trade in general books is con-<br />
cerned business is dull, and the usual quiet of<br />
this particular season is doubtless augmented by<br />
the effects of the campaign. So far as orders for<br />
the future are concerned, however, our business<br />
is satisfactory. By this we mean orders from<br />
the trade for autumn and holiday books which<br />
VOL. VII.<br />
will be sold at retail after the election. These<br />
orders are larger than last year, indicating a<br />
trade belief in a prosperous business after the<br />
election."<br />
The American News Company has political<br />
pamphlets of all kinds sold on its stands all over<br />
the country.<br />
Macmillan and Co., who are reprinting John<br />
Morley's "Life of Richard Cobden," and pub-<br />
lishing other. volumes touching more or less<br />
on what is the absorbing interest of the day,<br />
write: "There is no doubt whatever, we think,<br />
that the present political excitement unfavour-<br />
ably affects the general business of bookselling,<br />
but it would be a little difficult, we think,<br />
to explain exactly how this comes about. We<br />
also think it probable that the lighter literature<br />
would be more affected than that for which for<br />
the most part we publish, and hence other firms<br />
dealing in light literature to a greater extent<br />
might find more difference in their business than<br />
we ourselves do.<br />
"There has been, we think, a considerable<br />
increase in the demand for political literature,<br />
and particularly for literature in any way relating<br />
to the question of money during the past six or<br />
eight weeks."<br />
Henry Holt and Co. say: "The sale of books<br />
in general literature has not been as good during<br />
the spring and summer as last year.<br />
"We find that our books on money have sold;<br />
one of them nearly three times as many as last<br />
year, counting from the beginning of January to<br />
date and the same period last year; a work on<br />
wages has increased in sale somewhat during the<br />
same period, whilst another on currency has<br />
increased 50 per cent.<br />
Scribner's Sons write: "The demand for the<br />
kind of books you mention has been increased,<br />
we think, by the political campaign. As a straw<br />
and symptom we inclose a catalogue we have<br />
recently had prepared by Professor Laughlin."<br />
Professor Laughlin is the head of the Political<br />
Economy Department at Chicago University, and<br />
one of the leading authorities of the country.<br />
The fifty books published by the Scribners on<br />
the list made by him, include recent works of<br />
all kinds, short and long, and also standard books<br />
on currency, finance, and banking. A noticeable<br />
thing about the list is that the books are intended<br />
for the general reader ratber than the student,<br />
and that is true in genera\ oi the immense sale<br />
that works on these sm ;ect8 816 IK>,W \ffl»,'m?'<br />
showing how largely ^ yv&Vttn Yu^d OaSs.<br />
Another straw to show X > 0«8 ^s ari^^r3<br />
-eading public, is given V W* etotea. .\«(«<br />
n the list report to CV^^WS<br />
of F. H. Hill, librari^ ^^^Jj*<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 104 (#136) ############################################<br />
<br />
io4 THE AUTHOR.<br />
to show that the proportion of fiction has been<br />
growing less for the past few years. The circula-<br />
tion of books and periodicals during the past<br />
year was greater according to the report than in<br />
any other institution in the world, 2,542,244, an<br />
increase of 52,192 over the preceding year.<br />
The following is the list of books:—English<br />
Prose, Fiction, 489,503; Juvenile Literature,<br />
252,791; History and Biography, 96,703; Geo-<br />
graphy and Travels, 52,694; Sciences and Arts,<br />
89,428; Poetry and Drama, 39,901; Miscel-<br />
laneous, 28,753; Foreign Languages, 123,813.—<br />
Total, 1,173,586.<br />
Next in order is the report from Manchester,<br />
England ; Boston, Mass.; and Birmingham, Eng-<br />
land.<br />
Scribners will publish in the fall " Problems of<br />
American Democracy," by E. L. Godkin, whose<br />
comments and criticisms they already publish. Mr.<br />
Godkin is the editor of the Nation, as well as of the<br />
Evening jPo**,and as an important and picturesque<br />
figure in American journalism he has but one rival,<br />
Charles A. Dana of the Sun. The active courses<br />
of both men are probable nearly over, and this<br />
is likely to be for each the last campaign. Mr.<br />
Dana has represented intelligence of a high order<br />
without moral sympathy, and has steadily opposed<br />
all efforts for political improvement. He has<br />
been a staunch defender of Tammany Hall and<br />
the spoils system, but his paper has kept its place<br />
because it was the best written and keenest of any<br />
in the country. Mr. Godkin has been the inno-<br />
vator of many of the most important improve-<br />
ments made in this country in the last twenty-<br />
five years. His new lx>ok, which contains selec-<br />
tions from his articles, comes at an opportune time<br />
in the present great political interest. It shows<br />
the originality and fearlessness of his mind and of<br />
his style. Norman Hapgood.<br />
REVIEWING.<br />
I.—Si stem and Prejudice.<br />
THE article in your September number is well<br />
chosen. The present system of reviewing<br />
leaves much to be desired. To a great extent<br />
it is a matter of personalities and of cliqueism. A.<br />
has reviewed B.'s book favourably; he meets B.<br />
at dinner, congratulates him on his success, and<br />
hints that he has contributed to it. A., himself<br />
an author, is about to publish a book; B. gets it<br />
from one of his oilices to review, and, mindful of<br />
his friend's favour, he cannot—that is, he does<br />
not wish to—avoid giving a favourable notice in<br />
return. It is with him a moral obligation—or,<br />
say, a moral politeness. Again, it happens that a<br />
man gets a book by his close friend—and he<br />
praises it to the skies. Writers who get hard<br />
things said about them in a certain paper ferret<br />
out the names of its reviewing staff, and take the<br />
opportunity of dealing a return blow when they<br />
think they have their critic's book—very often a<br />
mistaken fancy. We may observe a distinguished<br />
critic " saying things " about this or that review,<br />
and then see the latter journal discovering<br />
absurdities of composition in the reviews of novels<br />
in that critic's own organ.<br />
Not long since a writer in one of the magazines<br />
instanced the case of a prominent reviewer of<br />
books whose batch to the second-hand bookseller<br />
he had seen. He was surprised, knowing the<br />
weighty reviews which appeared from that pen,<br />
to notice how exceedingly sparing with the paper-<br />
knife the critic had been. Reviewing to-day is<br />
monstrously facile. Let me give you a contrast.<br />
One London paper devotes a column to a review<br />
of a book of travel, finds it a "truly delightful"<br />
work, and compliments the writer finally by saying<br />
that while some men who have lectured in<br />
America have made money, others made para-<br />
graphs, and others made silence, this particular<br />
man has made a book. Another London paper<br />
gives seven lines to a notice of the same work.<br />
I reproduce these lines as an instance of the<br />
facile and simple method which requires no read-<br />
ing of the book:<br />
A great deal of talk, very little account of travel, and<br />
both equally uninteresting. The two volumes are egotism<br />
rampant. Bat what can be expected from one who accepts<br />
a lady's hospitality in a foreign country for two days, and<br />
then writes complaining that "she got on oar nerves,"<br />
especially when the lady and her husband are both dead P<br />
As for the question of the wholesale extracts<br />
from any important book, publishers should get<br />
over it, in my opinion, by specifying when they<br />
send out such books a limit of space for extracts<br />
which they wish to be observed. Editors have no<br />
reason to quarrel with publishers, and they would<br />
hardly wish to go in the face of such a request as<br />
I indicate. In some papers the principle of<br />
reviewing has been lost sight of in the obvious<br />
desire to make interesting reading by quoting the<br />
main contents of a book. Will not some publishers<br />
give the Author their views on this subject?<br />
Recently I met a gentleman who was pro-<br />
posing to translate the works of a popular<br />
German writer. But he was fearful of the<br />
reception English critics might give the venture.<br />
"Nothing's done without palm oil," he remarked,<br />
with a significant gesture. I was astounded, and<br />
wondered how on earth he could get such an idea.<br />
On pressing the question I discovered that he had<br />
once been on the selected list of candidates for a<br />
librarianship, and had been told how he could<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 105 (#137) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
ensure getting the post. From what he said it<br />
seemed clear that the man who did get the post<br />
descended to the method suggested. But I<br />
pointed out that this was not a case of literary<br />
criticism, and that no breath of that type of<br />
scant1 al tainted the atmosphere of English<br />
literary circles. As a matter of fact, we have<br />
many fearless, conscientious critics. I have<br />
known such to decline reviewing a work by a<br />
personal great rival whose work he could say<br />
nothing good of, and would not review it on the<br />
ground that it might be he was prejudiced. The<br />
capable, kindly men who can be severe are<br />
wanted; the smart, facile men, to whom the<br />
penning of harsh phrases is little else than a form<br />
of self-indulgence, our journals would be well rid<br />
of. It is for this reason I offer my humble<br />
suggestion for signed reviews in all cases. Let<br />
everybody know who is criticising them. Then<br />
they will know, and the public will know, how<br />
much value to place upon that opinion. To-day,<br />
on the contrary, the merest novice may do dis-<br />
graceful harm to an author, especially to a young<br />
author. It is to be hoped that this subject will<br />
be fully and patiently discussed.<br />
Behind the Scenes.<br />
II.—Educational Criticism.<br />
In the last number of your journal Mr. M.<br />
Boss has pointed out the folly, from a commercial<br />
point of view, of critics who " sneer and carp at<br />
a widely popular author," because his admirers<br />
do not like to see their favourite insulted. Allow<br />
me to supplement this remark by calling attention,<br />
from an ethical point of view, to the injustice and<br />
unfairness so often met with in educational<br />
criticisms.<br />
Writers of fiction are, on the whole, rarely<br />
attacked from sordid motives — from "pro-<br />
fessional envy." The appetite for novel reading<br />
is insatiable, and there is room for all readable<br />
stories. Not so as regards educational books.<br />
The field is more limited, and the use of one book<br />
may preclude the use of a rival publication on<br />
the same subject; hence the great partiality and<br />
the virulence so often to be found in educational<br />
criticisms. The reign of Zoilus seems to be fairly<br />
at an end in all departments of literature, except<br />
in that of education. Some educational authors<br />
certainly pass just verdicts on the works of their<br />
confreres, although they may be rivals; but as<br />
this is not done by all writers of educational<br />
books, the editors of journals should always be on<br />
their guard when they receive from educational<br />
authors carping criticism's, mingled with personal<br />
insults, on the works of their colleagues. I leave<br />
it for another occasion to dilate more fully on<br />
this subject, which should be brought under the<br />
special notice of conductors of journals, but in the<br />
meantime I hope you will find room for these<br />
lines, more especially as your Society has begun<br />
to pay friendly attention to the welfare of educa-<br />
tional writers. An Educational Author.<br />
III.—Bevikwino.<br />
As a reviewer of books, and one who reads<br />
what he reviews, let me enter a protest against<br />
the practice of altering novels between their<br />
serial and their volume form. When we have<br />
read a work month after month in a magazine,<br />
we do not expect to have to read it all over<br />
again for review. Moreover, when the reader<br />
has got in his mind one sequence of events<br />
and has connected them with the character,<br />
it is most confusing to learn that they behaved<br />
quite otherwise, talked differently, and were<br />
moved by unexpected and hitherto unexplained<br />
motives. And the better the book, the more<br />
vexatious is the alteration. One thing, at all<br />
events, we might ask as a right: that the author<br />
should state in a preface the nature and extent of<br />
the changes made. "Critic."<br />
"PRAIRIE__SONQS."<br />
THE "Prairie Songs " are by Hamlin Garland,<br />
and they come from Chicago, where they<br />
were published in the year 1893 by Messrs.<br />
Stone and Kimball. Have they been published<br />
in this country? If so, the present writer has not<br />
seen the English edition. Whether they have<br />
appeared in English dress or not, the present<br />
writer may be pardoned for introducing to his<br />
readers a poet of originality and force if with no<br />
other quality.<br />
The volume is small, containing about a<br />
hundred short poems contained in less than two<br />
hundred pages.<br />
We will let him speak for himself, which is,<br />
after all, the readiest introduction of a poet, and,<br />
in most cases, better than the finest criticism.<br />
The songs are all of the Prairie; one feels the<br />
Prairie through and through, in every page.<br />
Before the close of the volume the reader is filled<br />
with the air, the sunshine, the loneliness, the<br />
terror, of the Prairie.<br />
O wide dun land, where the fierce Buqg sx&\te,<br />
And the wind is a furnace breath,<br />
Where the beautiful sky has a sinister \\<br />
And the earth lies dread and dry as <ie» ^<br />
Where the sod lies scorching and wa^ • Jo*1<br />
And the hot red morning has no bir^Jj,<br />
O songfless sunset land! I close<br />
In sheer despair of thy dim reach—<br />
O level waste! so lone thou art, no x>»<br />
Can tell, no pictures teaqb.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 106 (#138) ############################################<br />
<br />
io6<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
A presence like a ourse! no insects hum—<br />
No chirping crickets' oheery ring—<br />
A white mist-wall of bounding space<br />
Flecked with the swift gull's fluttering,<br />
Alone confronts the asking face!<br />
No tree stands green against the sky—<br />
The hawk swims in the blazing air,<br />
He scarce can find (though keen his eye)<br />
A human heart beat anywhere.<br />
The Prairie is not always the land of drought<br />
and scorching heat:—<br />
O the music abroad in the air,<br />
With the autumn wind sweeping<br />
His hand on the grass, where<br />
The tiniest blade is astir, keeping<br />
Voice in the dim, wide ohoir,<br />
Of the infinite song, the refrain,<br />
The wild, sad wail of the plain!<br />
And there is spring:—<br />
When the hens begin a-squawkin'<br />
An' a-rollin' in the dust;<br />
When the rooster takes to talkin',<br />
An' a-orowin' fit to bust;<br />
When the crows are cawin', flockin'<br />
And the chickling boom and sing,<br />
Then it's spring!<br />
When the roads are jest one mnd-hole<br />
And the worter trioklin' round,<br />
Makes the barn-yard like puddle,<br />
A.n' softens np the ground<br />
Till y'r ankle-deep in worter,<br />
Sayin' words y'r hadn't orter—<br />
When the jay-birds swear an' sing,<br />
Then it's spring!<br />
And here, to conclude this introduction, is the<br />
song called " Growing Old," showing the cheerless,<br />
joyless life of never-endiDg grinding poverty. We<br />
are likely to hear a great deal more—one hopes<br />
—from Mr. Hamlin Garland.<br />
F'r forty years next Easter day,<br />
Him and me in wind and weather<br />
Hare been a-gittin' bent V gray<br />
Moggin' along together.<br />
We're not so very old, of course!<br />
Bnt still, we ain t so awful spry<br />
As when we went to singin'-school<br />
Afoot and 'oross lots, him and I—<br />
And walked back home the longest way—<br />
An' the moon a-shinin' on the snow.<br />
Makin the road as bright as day<br />
An' his voice talkin' low.<br />
Land sakes! Jest hear me talk—<br />
F'r all the world, jest like a girl,<br />
Me—nearly sixty !—Well-a-well!<br />
I was so tall and strong, the curl<br />
In my hair, Sim said, was like<br />
The crinkles in a medder brook,<br />
So brown and bright! but there!<br />
I guess he got it from a book.<br />
His talk in them there days was full<br />
Of jest sech nonsense—Don't you think<br />
I didn't like it, for I did!<br />
I walked along there, glad to drink<br />
His words in like the breath o' life—<br />
Heavens and earth, what fools we women be!<br />
And when he asked me for his wife,<br />
I answered, " Yes," of course, y' see.<br />
An' then come work, and trouble bit—<br />
Not mnch time for love talk then!<br />
We bought a farm and mortgaged it,<br />
And worked and slaved like all possessed<br />
To lift that tumble grindin' weight.<br />
I washed and churned and sewed—<br />
An' childurn come, till we had eight<br />
As han'some babes as ever growed<br />
To walk beside a mother's knee.<br />
They helped me bear it all, y' see.<br />
It ain't been nothin' else but scrnb<br />
An' rub and bake and stew<br />
The hull, hull time, over stove or tub—<br />
No time to rest as men folks do.—<br />
I tell yeh, sometimes I Bit and think<br />
How nice the grave'll be jest<br />
One nice, sweet everlastin' rest!<br />
0 don't look scart! I mean<br />
Jest what I say. Ain't crazy yet.<br />
But it's enough to make me so—<br />
Of course it ain't no use to fret—<br />
Who said it was P It'6 nacherl, though,<br />
But O, if I was only there—<br />
In the past, and young once more—<br />
An' had the crinkles in my hair—<br />
An' arms as round and strong, and side<br />
As it was then!—I'd—I'd—<br />
I'd do it all over again, like a fool,<br />
I s'pose. I'd take the pain<br />
An' work an' worry, babes and all.<br />
1 s'pose things go by some big rule<br />
Of God's own book, but my ol' brain<br />
Can't fix 'um np, so I'll just wait<br />
An' do my duty when it's clear,<br />
An' trust to Him to make it straight. Goodness! noon is almost here,<br />
And there the men come through the gate!<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
SIE EDWIN ARNOLD'S case, concerning<br />
which everybody feels the greatest sym-<br />
pathy for him, should be a warning. When<br />
a poet parts with his copyright the purchaser<br />
buys—what? The right of printing it wherever<br />
he pleases? Certainly. Yet the poet would never<br />
dream of such a right. But Sir Edwin parted<br />
with the copyright: that is, with all rights. The<br />
owner of the property may even use it for adver-<br />
tising purposes if he likes. That is, at least, my<br />
opinion. The poet must therefore stipulate that<br />
the poem is not to be published except in the<br />
accepted meaning of the word—that is, in maga-<br />
zines, in books, in those columns of papers which<br />
contain the news, the reports, the communications.<br />
But not with the advertisements.<br />
There is another point which we want to clear<br />
up. If a man buys the copyright can he alter<br />
the work in any way Y That is, as yet, uncertain,<br />
the case of Lee v. Gibbings having been left un-<br />
decided. Let those, therefore, who part with<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 107 (#139) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
copyright stipulate that no change is to be<br />
made in the text.<br />
I commend general attention to the " New York<br />
Letter" of this number, and the expression of<br />
opinion on the wide success of American maga-<br />
zines compared with our own. The greater<br />
facilities of postage, especially, account for a<br />
great part of their superior circulation. As was<br />
set forth in these columns, if a publisher can<br />
send out a shilling magazine for a penny, he is<br />
obviously in a far better position than if he has<br />
to pay i\d. ■. he is also in a far better position if<br />
his magazine costs a shilling than if it costs nine-<br />
pence. Cannot something be done with our post-<br />
office? It is at all events worth trying. We<br />
greatly desire an increased demand for our<br />
magazines. Cheaper postage: the abolition of<br />
the discount: these two gains would surely bring<br />
about a speedy reformation. Whether illustra-<br />
tions are necessary or not is another question.<br />
Personally, I prefer the unassisted imagination,<br />
except with papers which really want illustration.<br />
But I believe that there is a large class of readers<br />
who cannot have too many pictures.<br />
I also recommend the contribution of the book-<br />
seller on p. 101 of this number. It should lead us<br />
to realise the fact that the bookseller is as impor-<br />
tant a factor in the management of a book as the<br />
author. He is, in fact, indispensable. The man<br />
who creates the book: then the man who distributes<br />
the book to the world: and shows the book: and<br />
calls attention to the book, these are the two who<br />
cannot possibly stand without each other. The<br />
man who goes between saves trouble; but he is<br />
not indispensable. It is, for instance, quite<br />
within the power of authors to create their own<br />
machinery to do the publisher's part. It is also<br />
equally within the power of the booksellers to do<br />
exactly the same thing. There are English writers<br />
in all branches by the hundred, who might quite<br />
fearlessly resolve on creating such machinery.<br />
For instance, in the Athenaeum of Sept. 26 there<br />
are eight pag. s of advertisements of new books<br />
and reprints, not counting the religious aud<br />
scientific books, and among these one can count<br />
without hesitation at least 120 announcements of<br />
books, concerning which it is perfectly certain<br />
that they carry no risk whatever. This is a<br />
point which must be repeated over and over<br />
again. Nothing dies harder than a bad<br />
character, and the general belief about litera-<br />
ture, that the presentation of it to the world<br />
is always risky and generally disastrous, still<br />
lingers and is still encouraged by interested<br />
persons.<br />
The second point to remark is that, above all<br />
things, authors want to be placed on the shelves<br />
and offered, at least, to the public. Unless,<br />
however, it is made worth their while booksellers<br />
simply cannot do this. One or two copies taken<br />
and sold, no more are ordercl, and the book dies.<br />
Surely it is a foolish policy to expect them to be<br />
eager about selling a book for 4.V. 6d. for which<br />
they have to pay 4*. 2d. In the correspondence<br />
on this subject this fact was never denied. "The<br />
policy is, as our bookseller says, a desperate<br />
attempt to grab, and to hold, the lion's share.<br />
It is sometimes argued that the weak point in<br />
the royalty system is that the publisher has to<br />
pay the royalties before his liabibties for produc-<br />
tion are paid. For instance, if a first edition of<br />
3000 costs him .£150; if in six tuonths he sells<br />
only 1200 he has to pay the author—say—/"6o,<br />
together with this £150, and he has only received<br />
£210, so that he has, so far, made nothing for<br />
himself; after that, however, his very large profit<br />
begins. Remember, however, that he does not<br />
bind the whole edition to begin with. I have<br />
sometimes thought that the best plan would be<br />
to deduct the actual cost of production and then<br />
to divide the selling price — say 4.S. 6d.—into<br />
three equal parts, one to author, one to publisher,<br />
and one to bookseller; or into five parts, two to<br />
author, one to publisher, and two to bookseller.<br />
Yet one remembers the half-profit system, and<br />
how it has become a thing suspect and accursed on<br />
account of the voluminous overcharges and secret<br />
profits which disgrace it still in certain quarter-".<br />
Since the recent publication of Mr. Thring's<br />
articles on the consideration of agreements, one<br />
has been brought before the notice of the secre-<br />
tary, in which the publisher, instead of attempt-<br />
ing to charge the 50 per cent, in agency clauses<br />
as was the common practice, pointed out in those<br />
articles, now proposes to hand over to the author<br />
90 pei cent, of the returns, taking the customary<br />
agency fee of 10 per cent. I think it only fair<br />
that this fact should be mentioned. Whether the<br />
change is due to these articles or to the prompt-<br />
ings of conscience does not appear, and need not<br />
be asked.<br />
To me, personally, the book of t\xe season is<br />
Skeat's "Student's Pastime." W^vft one bas<br />
known a man intimately for forty -y^ "Vv"*»<br />
known also the fixed and delilwraWV" 66°* A<br />
life; and has watched the resolute ^VsSV0 a «f°^L&»<br />
that purpose, it is intelligible that ^ ^tfV , \)1 %o^-<br />
may be, to this old friend, the b(Xi\5*~<br />
This, however, is no ordinary bool^ 4^<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 108 (#140) ############################################<br />
<br />
io8<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
there, to begin with, a collection of contributions<br />
made by our best Anglo-Saxon and early English<br />
scholar to literary journals during this long<br />
period. These alone are of the greatest value<br />
and interest. But it contains more. The author<br />
has prefixed certain notes autobiographical. I<br />
should like to have written those notes for him,<br />
because I could say in them what he cannot. I<br />
should then have related how Professor Skeat,<br />
when quite a young man, deliberately resigned<br />
every kind of work by which money can be<br />
made, and chose a line of research in which it<br />
was absolutely impossible to derive any profit of<br />
a pecuniary kind. For thirty years and more<br />
he went on enriching Anglo-Saxon and English<br />
literature with the long-lost treasures of the past.<br />
These treasures, when he began, were received<br />
even by students coldly: it is now acknowledged<br />
that they have caused the history of our litera-<br />
ture, from Beowulf to Lydgate, to be entirely<br />
rewritten. He has received his reward: not only<br />
in the Professorship which he holds: but in the<br />
consciousness of the first position among the<br />
scanty company of English students, and in the<br />
foremost place among living scholars.<br />
Walter Besant.<br />
FROM A PENMAN'S WORKSHOP.<br />
MY destiny pointed with unrelenting finger<br />
to the typewriter. So I began to learn<br />
the machine, and used to practise in the<br />
evening at a school where the use of it was taught.<br />
An employment bureau was attached to this<br />
school, and the notices of available employment<br />
were pinned to a board in the entrance hall. I<br />
did not always spend the evening in front of the<br />
typewriter; it seemed to tap the terrors of<br />
competition into my mind, and I frequently<br />
shirked it. Once I strolled into the school-<br />
building after I had avoided my duty for<br />
four nights running, and on the notice-board I<br />
saw the following announcement: "Wanted,<br />
amanuensis to literary man. Salary, £1 i$s.<br />
per week." That was just the work to which<br />
I aspired, the work for which I had vainly<br />
hoped—and the announcement was three days<br />
old already. I thought of the competition with<br />
a shudder as I walked into the employment<br />
manager's office.<br />
"I don't know whether the place is filled,"<br />
said the manager. "We have sent several people<br />
down. He wants—let me see his letter—he<br />
wants someonp who has had experience in the<br />
atelier of an English literary man. Have you<br />
that qualification r"<br />
I had not. The words "experience in the<br />
atelier" struck me as odd.<br />
Hope dies hard, and I wrote to the literary<br />
man who wanted an amanuensis. He replied<br />
that the place was taken; but he noted my<br />
acquirements, and if he were not well suited he<br />
would revert to my application. Hope became<br />
comatose. But it seemed that the popular author<br />
had not been well suited, and in a few days he<br />
wrote to me again, with a request that I would<br />
call upon him. Of course I called.<br />
"I have to deliver a plot," he observed, " the<br />
plot of a story. I don't know anything about it<br />
yet. I have to deliver it to-morrow."<br />
I was raw to the me'tier, and found nothing<br />
better to say in response than "Oh!"<br />
He seemed to hesitate for awhile; then he said,<br />
"Come upstairs." So I followed him to his<br />
workroom. It was very plainly furnished ; nothing<br />
found a place there but the tools and a few photo-<br />
graphs.<br />
He walked up and down for a few minutes,<br />
wrapped in meditation. Then he cried of a<br />
sudden, "Take your pen and write."<br />
I took my pen and soon my shorthand abilities<br />
were taxed to keep pace with current literature—<br />
current with a vengeance. My stupor increased<br />
as we proceeded, and did not expedite my pen.<br />
"Is this what sells?" I ask myself. "Is this<br />
what some some large class of people buys and<br />
reads?"<br />
For we were with the army of a first-class<br />
Continental power, and we were in the middle of<br />
the present century; yet side by side with the<br />
captain of a company in action appeared our<br />
English hero—and he was arrayed in no kipi, in<br />
no pan talon g aranee, but in a straw hat and in<br />
flannels; in one hand he bore a sword—for which,<br />
by the way, he had no scabbard—and in the<br />
other hand a pistol. Both "reeked." Soon we<br />
were introduced to a hybrid villain advanced in<br />
years, and to the beautiful young orphan, heiress<br />
to large estates and untold wealth, whom he had<br />
abducted in childhood; thus she was ignorant of<br />
her real English name and legitimate English<br />
status.<br />
"Does a responsible, known author dictate<br />
this?" I asked myself. "Well, he will find no<br />
conceivable editor or publisher to pay him for<br />
it."<br />
We finished an instalment of six thousand<br />
words (I think), and at the end of it the hero,<br />
accompanied by the French captain, had forced<br />
his way over heaped corpses into the presence of<br />
the villain; and the villain had fired a mine of<br />
powder prepared beneath his sitting-room, and<br />
had blown all the principal characters in the story<br />
through the roof, except the heroine, who had<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 109 (#141) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
109<br />
fled through the window in the nick of time. It<br />
is needless to add that the hero survived this<br />
treatment.<br />
"There!" said the literary man to his wife,<br />
when we were at supper, for the work kept us<br />
late, and he had kindly invited me to his table,<br />
"I haven't given him a plot, but I've got an in-<br />
stalment to take him, a whole instalment."<br />
The word "him" referred to the proposed<br />
editor.<br />
Then he turned to me and said, laughing, "I<br />
don't know what the plot will be yet."<br />
Well, my anticipations proved to be groundless;<br />
that story sold, and it sold well, and the book-<br />
rights were worth something after the serial pub-<br />
lication was completed.<br />
And before the story was ended I learned a<br />
rule of the workshop. The literary man had a<br />
valuable knack. He began the tale with some-<br />
thing that caught the reader's attention; he<br />
wove a story round that incident; he "kept on<br />
telling the story " (I quote him); and he always<br />
remained in touch with that central interest on<br />
which he had fixed the reader's attention.<br />
These methods do not show the application of<br />
principles of art, but they are worth knowing—<br />
at least they were very well worth knowing in<br />
his case. G. B.<br />
LOOSE ENGLISH.<br />
fl^HE question, often discussed in the Author<br />
I and elsewhere, as to whether our noble<br />
language would be seriously benefited by<br />
the establishment of a Royal Literary Association<br />
(of the nature of the French Academy) involves<br />
two distinct questions.<br />
The general consensus of opinion as to the<br />
futility of expecting any great and durable l>enefit<br />
to English letters from the constitution of such<br />
an authority derives support from French expe-<br />
rience. From the days of Richelieu downwards the<br />
Academy has failed to capture some of the<br />
greatest literary artists ; it has hardly engendered<br />
any important production; it has never even<br />
carried much weight in the pedantic province to<br />
which its operation has been chiefly confined.<br />
Pascal, La Bruyere, Boileau, Molicre, Rousseau,<br />
the Guncourts, Flaubert, Daudet, Zola, are names<br />
which shine by their absence from the lists of<br />
membership; such a self-made master as Littre<br />
repudiates the Academy's judgment on many<br />
points of grammar and orthography ; Prof. Saints-<br />
bury answers us that the purity of the French<br />
tongue has not been preserved. "The language<br />
and literature have been flooded with new words,<br />
new forms of speech, new ideas, new models."<br />
(" Short History of French Literature," 2nd edit.,<br />
p. 508.)<br />
Such changes, so far as they are required by<br />
new methods of living and scientific progress are<br />
not only deserving of discouragement, but cannot<br />
in the long run be anyhow discouraged. But<br />
there are other innovations, which may be more<br />
deplorable and may admit of correction (if<br />
opposed in time) without the cumbrous and<br />
uncertain machinery of Academies. The develop-<br />
ment of Democracy and diffusion of primary<br />
education tend to the production of vulgar neolo-<br />
gisms of which we may cull a few samples as we<br />
go-<br />
Some of these are of the nature of what are<br />
called '"Americanisms." Many of the best<br />
American authors use a style which is admirable<br />
for flexible strength and musical modulation;<br />
but certain locutions, taken from high-class trans-<br />
atlantic periodicals, will be recoguised by a little<br />
trained observation. For instance:<br />
"Back of," instead of behind; surely unneces-<br />
sary as a substitution. The same may be said of<br />
"around," used as a preposition. "Round the<br />
mahogany tree," sings Thackeray, and it is<br />
enough. Why spoil the metre, no less than the<br />
grammar, by employing a dissyllable which is an<br />
adverb; and, in good English, intransitive? As<br />
for neuter verbs, a constant mistake is to give<br />
them an active meaning. In a recent tale by so<br />
distinguished a writer as Mark Twain, an edu-<br />
cated man is represented as saying, "Nothing<br />
shall swerve me," meaning make me swerve.<br />
This is worse than the feminine "I did not<br />
trouble to go," when Lindley Murray—himself<br />
a native of Pennsylvania—would demand the full<br />
trouble myself. Another uncalled-for practice<br />
is the employment of substantives as verbs; "to<br />
mail a letter" is perhaps not worse than to post<br />
a letter; but what conceivable excuse can there<br />
be for saying, "He loaned me a hatchet?" The<br />
word "to advocate" may perhaps be cited, but<br />
it must be remembered that there was no exact<br />
verb at hand; whilst in the other case that is not<br />
so, "loan" being an established substantive of<br />
which the verb is " to lend."<br />
Some neologisms are common to both sides of<br />
the Atlantic. One can hardly take up a London<br />
paper without seeing such a sentence as<br />
"The<br />
man whom we see did this . . "-where a.<br />
small expansion would show the t^or.<br />
who did this, as we see ;" that is , tf^*6- \»<br />
actual meaning. Another palp^KA^ JwS*1^^<br />
the phrase "Santa Claus" lor<br />
gift-bringer. The proper wor<J. -vv^ «!*•"<br />
las; for a male saint could ^ W ^ ^f^V^<br />
Then, again, why do we fiud" x^^X^ \jl<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 110 (#142) ############################################<br />
<br />
1 IO<br />
THE AtlTHOU.<br />
I>eeuuiary is the right word? Moneta is a mint;<br />
and the adjective should be kept for use when we<br />
mean things of coinage or currency. All these<br />
appear gratuitous corruptions of the idiom of<br />
Shakspere, Addison, Washington Irving, and<br />
Macaulay; things that could be perhaps even<br />
now repressed by concurrent vigilance on the<br />
part of accepted authors. H. G. Keene.<br />
Brussels, August, 1896.<br />
WHEN I AM GONE!<br />
When I am gone far—very far away<br />
Beyond the glory of the dying day,<br />
Oh! let there be no pageantry of woe;<br />
No hideous hearse—no mourners moving slow.<br />
But let me to my pleasant conch be borne<br />
By comrades in the golden light of morn,<br />
Looking my last npon the soft bine sky<br />
With blythe birds singing as they bear me by!<br />
No leaden bier for me,<br />
But let my coffin be<br />
Fashioned of flowers from the greenwood wild;<br />
Then, in some corner green.<br />
Where violets bloom unseen,<br />
Lay me to rest like some poor weary child!<br />
II.<br />
When I am gone beyond the evening star,<br />
And sweet church bells from villages afar<br />
Are faintly pealing in the balmy night<br />
Of leafy June—then, in the fading light,<br />
Oh! give one thonght in some dim brambled dell<br />
To him who loved that fairy music well!<br />
One thought to him who nevermore will roam<br />
In twilight woods till darkness calls him home!<br />
But never weep for me,<br />
As haply I shall be<br />
Where restless souls at last are lulled to rest!<br />
No pang or doubt again<br />
Shall rack this fevered brain,<br />
When Mother Earth has clasped me to her breast!<br />
in.<br />
When day his course has run,<br />
And with the setting sun,<br />
Four daily cares have also found an ond,<br />
In the deep hnsh that steals<br />
Across the darkening fields,<br />
Kemember then your fond yet faulty friend.<br />
But shed no tears—the violets blue<br />
May weep for me in tears of dew,<br />
I loved them so in my past earthly days!<br />
The birds may miss me in the glen,<br />
And trembling blooms unseen by men<br />
May mourn me in the dewy tangled ways.<br />
F. B. Dovkton.<br />
Okehampton, Devon.<br />
BOOK TALE.<br />
THIS month will witness the appearance of<br />
the Progressive Review, a new shilling<br />
monthly, to be edited by Mr. J. A. Hobson<br />
and Mr. William Ciarke. It is intended to apjjeal<br />
specially to the thinking class of workmen, and<br />
trade union or co-operative society members.<br />
Consisting of 100 pages, and priced is., it will<br />
provide in each number some half-dozen articles,<br />
rather shorter than the ordinary review article.<br />
Sir Charles Dilke will contribute to the opening<br />
issue, and Mr. Edward Carpenter will have an<br />
article on "Democracy and Art." The publishers<br />
are Messrs. Horace Marshall and Son.<br />
The novels by the author of " John Westacott"<br />
having run out of print, are all to be reissued in<br />
a uniform edition, at a popular price, by Messrs.<br />
Chapmau and Hall. "John Westacott' will<br />
start the series, and during the season a new<br />
historical fifteenth century romance by Mr. James<br />
Baker will be issued by the same firm. Mr.<br />
Baker's lecture on Egypt, which was so success-<br />
ful last year at the Imperial Institute, will be<br />
given before the Aberdeen Philosophical Society<br />
in November, as well as before other lecture<br />
societies during the winter months.<br />
Mr. F. B. Doveton has made a selection of ton<br />
essays from his "Fisherman's Fancies," and has<br />
issued them in cheap form, viz., a sixpenny little<br />
volume called "Delightful Devon." The poem<br />
by him published in another column reminds us<br />
that "Q." in the Speaker calls Mr. Doveton " one<br />
of the sweetest of Devon singers now alive."<br />
The most notable publication of any kind<br />
within the last few weeks has been the first of<br />
two volumes of the Travels of His Imperial<br />
Majesty the Tsar in the East (1890-91), when<br />
Cesarewitch. Messrs. Archibald Constable and<br />
Co. have the distinction of publishing this large<br />
work, which is finely illustrated. It is written<br />
by a ltussian Prince, and edited by Sir George<br />
Birdwood.<br />
Mr. Crockett's story, which has l>een appearing<br />
in the Graphic, entitled " 1 he Grey Man," will<br />
be published immediately. There will also be an<br />
Edition dc luxe, with illustrations by Mr. Lucas.<br />
The long-announced novel by Mrs. Craigie<br />
(John Oliver Hobbes), entitled "The Herb<br />
Moon," will be published this autumn by Mr.<br />
Unwin. This publisher also announces a volume<br />
of literary criticisms by Mr. Zangwill.<br />
Mrs. Henry Norman (Mi'nie Muriel Dowie) is<br />
the writer of the first volume of short stories in<br />
a new scries which Mr. Lane is inaugurating.<br />
The title of Mrs. Norman's volume is that of the<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 111 (#143) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
leading story in it, namely, " The Hmt o' Hairst"<br />
—title suggested by a line from the Scottish poet<br />
Ainslie. Among other contributors of volume.-:<br />
to this series will be R. V. Risley and Mrs.<br />
Murray Hickson.<br />
Mr. Barrie's story of child life, "Sentimental<br />
Tommy," which ran serially in Scribner's, will<br />
be published early this autumn by Messrs. Cassell.<br />
A cycling romance by Mr. H. G. Wells is very<br />
shortly to be published by Messrs. Dent, entitled<br />
"The Wheels of Chance.'*'<br />
Mr. Louis Becke has written another story of<br />
the South Seas for publication in Mr. Fisher<br />
Unwin's Century Library under the title "His<br />
Native Wife."<br />
Mr. Guy Boothby's story "Dr. Nikola," and<br />
Mr. Arthur Morrison's "Adventures of Martin<br />
Hewitt," both of which have run in the Windsor<br />
Magazine, are announced by Messrs. Ward,<br />
Lock, and Co.<br />
Mr. H. D. Lowry has now ventured into a long<br />
story, which will be issued soon by Messrs. Bliss,<br />
Sands, and Co., entitled " A Man of Moods."<br />
Mrs. Mannington Caffyn, author of "The<br />
Yellow Aster," has written a new story entitled<br />
"A Quaker Grandmother," which Messrs.<br />
Hutchinson will issue immediately.<br />
The following volumes of fiction will appear in<br />
Mr. Lane's "Kevnote" series: "Maris Stella,"<br />
by Miss Marie Clothilde Balfour; "Ugly Idol,"<br />
bv Mr. Claud Nicholson; " Shapes in the Fire,"<br />
by Mr. M. P. Shiel; "Kakemonos," by Mr. W.<br />
Carlton Dawe; "God's Failures," by Mr. J. S.<br />
Fletcher; "A Deliverance," by Mr. Allan Monk-<br />
house; "Mere Sentiment," by Mr. A. J. Dawson.<br />
A three-volume novel by Miss Brooke, author<br />
of the "Superfluous Woman," is about to be<br />
published by Mr. Heinemann. The title is " Life<br />
the Accuser."<br />
Mr. G. A. Henty has a three-volume novel,<br />
entitled "The Queen's Cup," in the hands of<br />
Messrs. Chatto and Windus for early publication.<br />
During the autumn Messrs. Henry will publish<br />
the following new novels: "The Passion for<br />
Romance," by Edgar Jepson; "The Tides Ebb<br />
Out to the Sea," by "Hugh Langley ;" and<br />
"Lady Levallion," by George Widdrington.<br />
Mr. Clark Russell will add to his sea-stories<br />
this autumn with "What Cheer!" The scenes<br />
are laid in Deal. Mr. J. A. Barry will also have<br />
a volume of tales of the sea entitled "In the<br />
Green Deep."<br />
Mr. Hardy is including "The Pursuit of the<br />
Well-Beloved" in the collected edition of his<br />
works, the issue of which is now almost complete.<br />
Mr. L. F. Austin has put together a volume of<br />
his essays, which will be published at once by<br />
Messrs. Ward and Lock, under the title, " At<br />
Random: Recollections of Literary Men."<br />
Mr. S. J. Stone, who was deputy inspector-<br />
general of police in the N.W. Provinces of India,<br />
has written a record of his sporting and explor-<br />
ing expeditions, some of which were to practically<br />
unknown country. The volume will be called<br />
"In and beyond the Himalayas," and Mr. Edward<br />
Arnold will publish it.<br />
Sir James Ramsay has written a "History of<br />
England to theDe ithof Stephen," which Messrs.<br />
Swan Sonnenschein will publish.<br />
Professor Max Muller, Dr. Garnett, Mr. F. E.<br />
Baines, and Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, are among the<br />
writers of a book, to be called "The Civilisation<br />
of Our Day," which Messrs. Sampson Low will<br />
publish. It will consist of twenty-five essays,<br />
relating and sketching the progress in all depart-<br />
ments during this century. Mr. James Sainuel-<br />
son is editor.<br />
Another autobiography which may be expected<br />
soon is that of Sir Richard Temple. It will be in<br />
two volumes, published by Messrs. Cassell.<br />
Mr. Aubrey de Vere's reminiscences of the last<br />
fifty years will be published shortly by Mr.<br />
Arnold.<br />
Mr. Arthur Dasent is engaged on a work to be<br />
called " Through the Heart, of Mayfair." It will<br />
appear next year, from Messrs. Macmillan's, as a<br />
companion volume to the ajthor's "History of<br />
St. James's Square."<br />
"Annals of the Norfolk and Norwich Musical<br />
Festival" is a work written at intervals during<br />
the last three years bv Mr. Robin H. Legge,<br />
assisted by Mr. W. E. Hansell, which will be<br />
ready in time for the approaching Norwich<br />
Triennial Musical Festival. Messrs. Jarrold are<br />
the publishers.<br />
Mr. J. T. Cunningham, M.A., is the author of a<br />
book about to be published under the auspices of<br />
the Marine Biological Association, on the natural<br />
history of commercially valuable sea-fishes. The<br />
work is in the press, and will be published by<br />
Messrs. Macmillan.<br />
Sir Edwin Arnold has translated for the first<br />
time—as a holiday task—a very old Sanskrit love<br />
poem, which is about to be publisfo^A ^es8rt?-<br />
Kegan Paul and Co. A novelty tbe<br />
cation, which is to be called" \ ind"**^ ^°"'e<br />
Lament," is that it will be i^T^ \<br />
facsimile of Sir Edwin's marv^^v^<br />
fanciful illuminations bv him i x^^i-t^ ^<br />
Mrs. Mevnell has written a Vi-V"*"^!^ '"W ^<br />
entitled "The Darling Yo*i»g.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 112 (#144) ############################################<br />
<br />
1 I 2<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
lished by Mr. John Lane. From the Bodley<br />
Head publishing house there will also appear<br />
shortly, "The Quest of the Golden Head," by<br />
Mr. Le Gallienne," and " The Battle of the Bays,"<br />
by Mr. Oscar Seaman.<br />
Mr. W. J. Stillman is engaged on an art<br />
volume entitled "Venus and Apollo in Painting<br />
and Sculpture," which will contain eighty-one<br />
large-sized photogravures of works by the most<br />
celebrated of the old masters. The only modern<br />
example will be a Burne-Jones, the original of<br />
which belongs to the editor. Messrs. Bliss,<br />
Sands, and Co. are to publish the book towards<br />
the end of the year.<br />
Following their " Temple " Shakespeare, Messrs.<br />
Dent are about to publish a series of "Temple"<br />
dramatists, and another of "Temple" classics.<br />
Mr. Israel Gollancz will edit these new series also.<br />
Mr. Kipling's volume of poems, " The Seven<br />
Seas," is expected to be in the hands of the book-<br />
sellers within a month from this date. The pub-<br />
lishers, Messrs. Methuen, have also a volume of<br />
vprse by Mr. A. T. Quiller-Couch.<br />
A volume of verse by Mr. Theodore Watts-<br />
Dunton will be published this autumn by Mr.<br />
John Lane. Many of the poems have appeared<br />
in the Athenmim. The same publisher will also<br />
issue a volume of " New Ballads" by Mr. John<br />
Davidson, a new volume of poems by Mr. A. C.<br />
Benson, and another volume of poems, illustrated,<br />
by Mr. Lawrence Housman.<br />
Mr. John Farmer is engaged upon a volume of<br />
"Songs for Soldiers and Sailors," selected from<br />
among the best English ballads.<br />
Sir George Robertson, British Agent at Gilgit,<br />
has written an account of his experience in<br />
Kafirstan, entitled "The Kaffirs of the Hindu<br />
Kush." It will be illustrated by Mr. A. D.<br />
McCormick. and published by Messrs. Lawrence<br />
and Bulleu.<br />
Mr. George Du Maurier has lately been occu-<br />
pied on a number of original drawings for a new<br />
book by Mr. Felix Moscheles entitled "In<br />
Bohemia with Du Maurier," which Mr. Fisher<br />
Unwin is about to publish.<br />
Mrs. K. L. Parker has collected and retold in<br />
English a number of "Australian Legendary<br />
Tales," which will be published in one volume<br />
under that title by Mr. Nutt. The author lived<br />
for over twenty years among the few remaining<br />
members of the Noongahburrah tribe in inner<br />
New South Wales. There will be illustrations in<br />
the book by a native artist, and a glossary of<br />
native words will be provided.<br />
Miss Francis Armstrong, author of "A Fair<br />
Claimant, &c, will publish in October a new story<br />
in one volume entitled " A Girl's Loyalty, price 5s.<br />
(Messrs. Blackie.)<br />
Mr. John Robert Robinson, author of "The<br />
Princely Chandos," "The Last Earls of Barry-<br />
more," " Old Q.," &c, has completed a biography<br />
of Philip Duke of Wharton. It will be published,<br />
among the autumn books by Messrs. Sampson<br />
Low and Co.<br />
Mr. J. W. Oddie, M.A., Fellow of Corpus<br />
Christi, Oxford, will publish immediately a<br />
volume of translations entitled " Choice Poems of<br />
Heinrich Heine" (Messrs. Macmillan and Co.).<br />
In these translations an effort has been made<br />
to combine almost literal faithfulness to their<br />
originals, with a thoroughly poetic rendering of<br />
most of the best pieces of the great German song<br />
writer. In addition to many gems from the<br />
"Buch der Lieder," there are included several of<br />
the later poems, which have seldom been trans-<br />
lated, such as the wonderful fourteenth chapter<br />
of "Deutschland," and the terrible "Spanische<br />
Atride."<br />
Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales has<br />
accepted a copy of Mr. Arthur Lee Knight's book<br />
for children, "The Adventures of a Gunroom<br />
Monkey."<br />
LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS.<br />
[This precis is compiled up to the 26th of each month.<br />
All publications should reach the office of the Author by<br />
the 25th at the latest.]<br />
The Question of Reviewing. Leading article in<br />
Publishers' CircuUir for Sept. 12.<br />
Booksellers as Literary Censors. Bookseller for<br />
Sept. 4.<br />
Booksellers and Publishers. Paragraph in<br />
Athenseum for Aug. 29; Mr. Longman's letter in Athenmum<br />
for Sept. 5; Letters of Mr. S. E. WiUon and Mr. Alfred<br />
Wilson in Bookseller for Sept. 4; Letter of Mr. E. W.<br />
Humphries in Publishers' Circular for Sept. 5; Letter of<br />
Mr. James P. Britten in Publishers' Circular for Sept. 19;<br />
and leading article in last-mentioned paper.<br />
Minor Poets. Monthly Packet for September.<br />
Teaching the Spirit of Literature. W. P. Trent.<br />
Atlantic Monthly for September.<br />
The English Language. Frank GiUett. Idler for<br />
September.<br />
The Story of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Charles Dudley<br />
Warner. Atlantic Monthly for September.<br />
The Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Richard<br />
Burton. Century for September.<br />
Edmond de Goncourt. Yetta Blaze de Bury. Fort ■<br />
nightly Review for September.<br />
Library Association. Report of Annual Meeting at<br />
Buxton. Athenamm for Sept. 5 and 12.<br />
English and Americans in French Fiction.<br />
Andrew de Tcrnant. Gentleman's Magazine (or September.<br />
Literary and Numismatic Sales of 1896. Times for<br />
Sept. 8.<br />
A New Well of Literature. Speaker for Sept. 19.<br />
Goldsmith's Conversation. Speaker for Sept. 19.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 113 (#145) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Mors Reflections of a Schoolmaster: Waverley<br />
and the Iliad. Blackwood's Magazine for September.<br />
M. Paul Hervieu. Hannah Lynch. Fortnightly<br />
Review for October.<br />
H. C. Bunner. Brander Matthews. Scribner's Maga-<br />
zine for September.<br />
Dante Gabriel Bossetti. Janet Harper. Westminster<br />
Review for September.<br />
"A Literary Outrage." Letters of Sir Edwin Arnold<br />
in Times for Sept. 24 and 25, and Times' comment on<br />
former date.<br />
Notable Reviews.<br />
Of G. Thorn Drury's edition of the Poems of John Keats.<br />
Athenseum for Sept. 12.<br />
Of Mrs. Alexander's Poems. (Hymns v. Poetry.) Daily<br />
Chronicle for Aug. 26.<br />
Of Mrs. Humphry Ward's "Sir George Tressady.''<br />
W. L. Courtney. Daily Telegraph for Sept. 25.<br />
Sir Edwin Arnold was naturally surprised and<br />
indignant to find a poem -which he had written,<br />
on the subject of the Queen's reign, for a monthly<br />
magazine, reprinted on the morning of the 23rd.<br />
ult. in the middle of a page advertisement in the<br />
newspapers, *' in intimate connection of manner,<br />
type, and place with advertisements of bovril,<br />
patent medicines, and other articles useful, but<br />
not in any way connected with the august subject<br />
of the poem." The Times, however, had made<br />
inquiries before accepting the advertisement, and<br />
the advertisement agent produced the correspon-<br />
dence. "Of course," the latter had written, "it<br />
is understood that, as I mentioned in my previous<br />
letter, on receiving your poem and paying you<br />
cash your price, I become the absolute proprietor<br />
of the copyright of this poem, and I am at liberty<br />
to use it as I like, whenever and wherever Hike."<br />
To this Sir Edwin Arnold had replied: "I accept<br />
in full the conditions which you attach to this<br />
payment." In his rejoinder in the Times, Sir<br />
Edwin states that, in this acceptance, he never<br />
heard and never dreamed of any advertising<br />
element.<br />
It is a difficult question, says the Publishers'<br />
Circular, to say what are the proper limits of<br />
quotation in reviews, inasmuch as no hard and<br />
fast lines can be drawn for the guidance of the<br />
reviewer. The writer is discussing the matter<br />
it propos the article in the Author last month,<br />
which suggested that the whole question of<br />
reviewing ought to be taken up by the Society of<br />
Authors, either in conjunction with the Society of<br />
Publishers or separately. "There can be no<br />
question whatever," our contemporary proceeds,<br />
"that long quotations tend to damage the<br />
fortunes of a book." Indeed, "it is well known<br />
that many brilliant people derive almost their<br />
entire knowledge of current literature from<br />
extracts in so-called reviews." How, then, to stop<br />
the evil?<br />
Most editors leave reviewing wholly to subordinates; but<br />
if their attention were drawn to the abuses of which the<br />
writer in the Author complains, not without cause, we feel<br />
sure that reform would follow.<br />
And on the general question, after allowing<br />
that as a rule reviewers do their work "with<br />
intelligence and judgment," the Publishers'<br />
Circular concludes as follows:<br />
Reviews, it is sometimes said, have not the influence they<br />
onoe had. Perhaps not. But in one respect, if in one<br />
only, their power seems to us to be increasing; if they are<br />
no longer potent to help, they are, when unfairly done<br />
potent to hinder. So far the contributor to the Author is<br />
unquestionably right.<br />
The cry of the booksellers goes up to the pub-<br />
lishers. "The latter, however," says Mr. Britten,<br />
"like the Great Powers of Europe, stand by and<br />
watch the massacre, apparently too much dis-<br />
tracted to agree to an effectual remedy." It is<br />
the discount system that is complained of prin-<br />
cipally, but there is also a feeling against the<br />
interference of drapery and other stores with the<br />
trade. On this latter point, to take it first, the<br />
Publishers'1 Circular remarks as follows:<br />
Is a man who adds a book department to his drapery or<br />
his grocery business to be excluded from the magic oircle<br />
because he happens to be a draper or a grocer, as well as a<br />
seller of books? A unanimous answer to that qnestion<br />
would do much to restore the peace, if not the prosperity,<br />
of the trade. But for complete unanimity we are likely to<br />
hare some time to wait.<br />
Mr. Alfred Wilson and Mr. E. W. Humphries<br />
suggest that as the leading tobacco manufacturers<br />
have recently laid down the law that merchants<br />
who sell their goods under the published prices<br />
will, after a certain date, not be supplied, so pub-<br />
Ushers should act in regard to booksellers who<br />
undersell.<br />
The Athenseum a few weeks ago inquired<br />
what the use of the Publishers' Association<br />
was, seeing that it had declined to discuss two<br />
proposals for amendment made by the Associated<br />
Booksellers, and had said with regard to a third<br />
that it was a matter for the individual publisher<br />
to decide.<br />
Mr. C. J. Longmau, Chairman of the Pub-<br />
Ushers' Association, replied to the Athenseum to<br />
say that it had omitted the most important part<br />
of the proposal, namely, that in reference to the<br />
first and second points "steps should be taken<br />
to enforce them." These points, it may be<br />
recalled, were (1) "that all books published at<br />
net prices be sold at the fuU price," and (2)<br />
"that no greater discount than 25 per cent, be<br />
allowed upon books published on the old terms,<br />
and that steps be taken to enforce both these<br />
regulations." Mr. Longman continued. •<br />
The only suggestion made for enforcing the% te8a^a't*0nft<br />
involved coercion or boycotting in some t0>.^ «AVt>***<br />
this that the oouncil of the Publishers' ^0.*etCe<br />
not willing to discuss. The general qu^f^tji* v\ °0^:<br />
up again before the Publishers' Associatio^***^ ^<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 114 (#146) ############################################<br />
<br />
ii4<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
and no doubt before the Booksellers' Association also, and<br />
Bhonld any feasible solution be found, it will be welcomed<br />
by the publishers no less than by the booksellers themselves.<br />
Mr. Alfred Wilson states, however, that<br />
Messrs. Longmans on one occasion refused to<br />
supply him with a book unless he promised not<br />
to let a certain firm have copies of it. This corre-<br />
spondent adds:<br />
The system by which high-priced books are credited by<br />
publishers to the authors twenty-five as twenty-four, though<br />
not a retail bookseller in the oountry is able to avail himself<br />
of the odd copy offered in mockery, is hardly an honest one,<br />
and if the publishers could see their way to allow the book-<br />
sellers that 4 per cent, on single copies, an advantage would<br />
be 'given us which would re-act to the benefit of the<br />
publishers in the long run.<br />
Mr. S. R. Wilson says bookselling has de-<br />
generated to the huckster's barrow, and recom-<br />
mends his country friends to stand aloof and let<br />
the publishers sell tbeir books themselves.<br />
Meanwhile the Publishers' Circular asks book-<br />
sellers not to expect the impossible, and reminds<br />
them that the interests of publisher and book-<br />
seller are indissolubly bound together.<br />
On the subject of booksellers as censors of<br />
literature, referred to in this column last month<br />
in connection with the action of Messrs. Smith<br />
withdrawing a certain novel from their stalls, the<br />
Bookseller does not suppose that either side would<br />
always carry out their contention to its logical,<br />
for, after all, booksellers are men of business first,<br />
and they will always in these doubtful cases act<br />
as they think will be best for their business<br />
reputation in the long run.<br />
COBBESPONDENCE.<br />
I.—The First Book.<br />
IQUITE agree with the editor that an author<br />
is lucky if he gets his first book taken on<br />
any terms, provided that he is not obliged<br />
to pay for its production.<br />
I have just experienced this "luck," having<br />
parted with all rights of a short novel for a small<br />
sum. I had thoughts of submitting the proposal<br />
to the secretary before accepting, but, on second<br />
thoughts, decided it was not necessary, the offer<br />
coming from a well-known man of letters, and one<br />
of the leading houses. I do not think many new<br />
writers are in a position to do as the editor advises,<br />
namely, to print their first book themselves; for<br />
these nothing remains but to write on and submit<br />
their stories till success comes; this is what I<br />
have had to do, and it has taken years, but I do<br />
not think my fortune is made yet.<br />
Alan Oscar.<br />
[Note.—My own experience in printing at my<br />
own exj>en.se was related as an example to those<br />
who are willing to take the risk of a first book.<br />
By this method one at least avoids the common<br />
overcharges of paying for production.—Ed.]<br />
II.—Royalty on First Books.<br />
As both you and Mr. Moncure Conway ask for<br />
au instance where an English author has obtained<br />
gradually increasing payments for successive<br />
editions of a "first book," and as it seems fair<br />
that publishers, when liberal, should have the<br />
credit of it, I may mention a case where I con-<br />
ducted the arrangements with Messrs. Blackwood<br />
on the above footing. The author received ,£50<br />
for the first edition, and was paid on a gradually<br />
rising scale for each successive edition, until the<br />
royalty reached 2 5 per cent of the published price<br />
(counting thirteen as twelve), and has remained<br />
at that rate for the last six editions. The sales<br />
in this country havf exceeded 14,000 copies; in<br />
America about half that number (for which the<br />
author has received about .£75 in spite of the<br />
Copyright Act); and about 5000 in the Colonies.<br />
The author's total receipts have considerably<br />
exceeded £1000, and the book is still selling, so<br />
that I doubt not that the publishers, have done<br />
very well tod.<br />
The arrangement was an entirely business one,<br />
as I was a complete stranger to Messrs. Black-<br />
wood, and they were unaware of the name of the<br />
author (who had never published anything before)<br />
for some time after publication.<br />
Sept. 14. in A Member.<br />
III.—Our Brains.<br />
The practice which prevails amongst certain<br />
journals of appropriating gratis or at the<br />
meanest possible figure, all they can lay their<br />
hands upon, has of late been severely condemned<br />
in the columns of the A uthor. A system equally<br />
unfair is that whereby contributions are utilised<br />
for the purpose of elaborating more or less viva-<br />
cious paragraphs without our receiving a cent of<br />
recompense. Surely he, or she, who supplies<br />
stock for the editorial stewpan deserves a share<br />
of its nutrition? Many papers thrive exceedingly<br />
upon this inglorious method of brain-sucking.<br />
Their defence is that it is necessary to manipu-<br />
late the substance by deft hands into a shape<br />
which shall be palatable to the particular organ's<br />
clientele. That is a very convenient excuse for<br />
paying nobody, and is altogether unsound. One is<br />
reluctant to price such wares straight off, trusting<br />
to mutual consideration and courtesy. And this<br />
is only too often all the reward we get for our<br />
confidence!<br />
Does not my complaint apply also in a degree to<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 115 (#147) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
"letters to the editor?" A writer may chance to<br />
initiate a correspondence which proves quite a<br />
godsend to some newspaper in want of a fillip.<br />
But recognition, save that of private glory,<br />
rarely comes his way. As the topic has, in all<br />
probability, been launched anonymously, he does<br />
not even enjoy the benefit of an advertisement.<br />
Cecil Clarke.<br />
Author's Club, S.W. Sept. 19, 1896.<br />
IV.—Monsters in Fiction.<br />
Your contributor, D. F. Hannigan, raises a<br />
question about monsters, and regards the problem<br />
of monstrosity as one which has not yet been<br />
solved: "Perhaps the time is at hand when we<br />
shall find literature assisting science in throwing<br />
light on the question." The paper is concerning<br />
monsters in fiction, and assumes that the centaur<br />
and the man-bull are fabulous creations of a<br />
luxuriant imagination. This is no doubt the<br />
general impression; but may not the monsters of<br />
mythology have been symbolical of ideas and<br />
truths, and fashioned consistently in accordance<br />
with a principle?<br />
"Gorgons, and hydras, and chiniaeras dire."<br />
carry us back at once to Ancient Greece, where<br />
the legends meant something. Visitors to Athens<br />
and Rome, Pompeii and Naples, will remember<br />
how often the Minotaur is represented, as well as<br />
Medusa's snaky head. There was religious zeal<br />
and theological meaning in these frequent repro-<br />
ductions. Egyptian gods and goddess combine the<br />
human body with the head of a cow or ram, a<br />
hawk or an ibis. It is not to be supposed that<br />
learned priests conceived that such beings existed<br />
in any literal sense. In early times people talked<br />
in figure, and used emblems, to a much larger<br />
extent than now. The truths of their astro-<br />
religious system were set forth in symbol; and<br />
the religious teaching was acted in ceremony.<br />
The multitude could then see, as they did in a<br />
later age when Pilate washed his hands in token<br />
of innocency.<br />
It should be as possible to recover this lan-<br />
guage of symbol as it has been to decipher the<br />
hieroglyphics themselves; and then it would be<br />
found that there was a fitness in every representa-<br />
tion, however grotesque. As a single example<br />
let us take the man-bull of Assyria. It unites<br />
the parts of three animals, and sometimes four,<br />
namely, the head of a man, the body of a bull,<br />
the wings of an eagle, and the claws of a lion.<br />
These were four signs of the Zodiac — the<br />
four quarter signs, associated with the summer<br />
aud winter solstice, and the vernal and autumnal<br />
equinox. The eagle in some Zodiacs takes the<br />
place of the scorpion. The man-bull would thus<br />
be the symbol of the ecliptic circle and the<br />
four chief "houses" of the sun. The Greek<br />
sphinx, according to the common idea, comprised<br />
the head and breast of a woman, and a lion's<br />
body with wings; but sometimes the tail of a<br />
serpent was included. The Egyptian sphinx—<br />
uniting only the human head and breast and a<br />
lion without wings might possibly represent the<br />
two solstices. The sun might be viewed in two,<br />
aspects, or three, or four; and the symbolical<br />
figure would say—These are a 11 one!<br />
In the monsters of mythology there was.,<br />
symbol and sense; but when Flaubert tells of<br />
"headless things with enormous shoulders," it is<br />
not so, nor when "Peter Wilkins" marries a<br />
flying woman. These are instances of what your<br />
contributor calls a human imagination with its<br />
excesses unchecked by science; but the man-bull<br />
of the Assyrians and the Centaur of the Greeks<br />
had a sober and serious origin. As to dwarfs,<br />
Stanley's African race run to more than four feet<br />
high, while the pygmy sons of Ptah were only of<br />
one cubit; and being seven in number, like the<br />
Cabiri, they meant something.<br />
Geo. St. Clair.<br />
V.—The Title.<br />
Referring to the answer which your correspon-.<br />
dent " Old Bird" has kindly given to my inquiry,<br />
does not the case seem eminently one for organisa-<br />
tion? Instead of each author hunting over<br />
Smith's or Mudie's catalogues at the British<br />
Museum, or paying some one else to do so, might<br />
not a catalogue of titles be compiled and kept up<br />
to date with comparative ease, if the co-operation<br />
of the authorities were obtained? A fee might<br />
be charged for consulting it, or, on application<br />
and payment by letter, a certificate that such and<br />
such a title was or was not in the list at such and<br />
such a date might be procured; and the scale<br />
could be so regulated that all expenses might be<br />
defrayed; to the saving in the long run of time<br />
and trouble to everyone concerned, not omitting<br />
the officials of the Museum themselves.<br />
Tyro.<br />
THE FUBLISHINa SEASON.<br />
TI^HE following is a resume of the an-<br />
I nouncements made in the Athcnceum for<br />
September:<br />
Athenaeum, Sept. 5, i&c\f, .. -w<br />
Cassell and Co. announce 21 woj-u 'j^, ■.<br />
and Tales, 12 (apparently<br />
and biography, 6 (one book a-tw \\%'<br />
2 SHvjjSP<br />
risk); Poetry, 1; Reprints, z<br />
Mr. Fisher tlnwin announce^<br />
^ 1 \&<br />
HP<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 116 (#148) ############################################<br />
<br />
u6<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Novels and Tales, i 7; History and Biography,<br />
17; Belles Lettrcs, 5; Children's books, 3;<br />
Travel, 5; Essays, &c, 5.<br />
Messrs. W. and R. Chambers announce 18 works,<br />
viz.: Novels and Tales, 14; Science, 1; His-<br />
tory and Biography, 2; Reprint, 1.<br />
Messrs. Skeffington and Son announce 9 works,<br />
all religious.<br />
Athenteum, Sept. 12.<br />
Clarendon Press:—Theology, 10; Classics, 5;<br />
Oriental, 7; General Literature, 5; Art and<br />
Archaeology, 7; History, Biography, and Law,<br />
11; Science, 4; Sacred Books of E., 3; Anee-<br />
dota Oxon., 8.—58.<br />
Dent :—Fiction, 18; History, Belles Lett res,<br />
6.—24.<br />
Innes :■—History and Law, 4 ; Travel, 1 ; Belles<br />
Lett res and Verse, 4; Sport, 3; Fiction,<br />
10.—22.<br />
Nutt :—Folk and Fairy Lore, 11; Translation,<br />
5; Belles Lett res, 6.—22.<br />
Hodder and Stoughton:—Fiction, 5; Theological,<br />
12; History and Travel, Biography, 5.<br />
Skeffington:—Fiction, 2; History, 1; Belles<br />
Lettres, 1.<br />
Athenaeum, Sept. iy.<br />
Maemillan :—Reprints, 13 ; Fiction, 6 ; Travel, 9;<br />
Biography and History, 10; Theology, 2; Eco-<br />
nomics, 7; Classics, 12; Religious, 2.<br />
Heinemann :—Reprints, 7; Fiction. 23; Travels,<br />
2; Biography and History, 16.<br />
Sampson Low:—Fiction, 7; Travel, 3; Biography<br />
and History, 8; Theology, 4; Boys', 5.<br />
Constable:—Reprints, 7; Fiction, 8; Travel, 1;<br />
Poetry, 3; Religious, 3.<br />
Athenaeum, Sept. 26.<br />
Cambridge University Press:—Theology, 18;<br />
Oriental, 4; Classical, 5; Law, History, and<br />
Economics, 12; Belles Lettres, 5 ; Educational,<br />
3; History, Biography, and Miscellaneous, 11.<br />
Messrs. Sonnenschein :—Philosophy and Theo-<br />
logy. 7 ; History, 12 ; Belles Lett rex and Art, 3;<br />
Reprints, 3; Miscellaneous, 4; Social Eco-<br />
nomics, 9.<br />
Mr. John Lane :—History, 2; Belles Lettres and<br />
Poems, 41 ; Fiction, 18.<br />
Seeley :•—Fiction, 2; Miscellaneous, 4.<br />
SIB JOHN ERICHSEN.<br />
BY the death of Sir John Erichsen the Society<br />
has lost a warm friend and supporter,<br />
while the medical and scientific world have<br />
lost one of its greatest lights. The career of Sir<br />
John has been one long succession of dist inguished<br />
work, • rewarded by distinguished posts. He<br />
became a member of the Royal College of Sur-<br />
geons in 1839, and a fellow in 1845. He lectured<br />
on physiology at Westmiuster Hospital, became<br />
assistant surgeon at University; professor of<br />
surgery there in 1850; Holme Professor of<br />
Clinical Surgery in 1865; he was put on the<br />
Council of the College of Surgeons in 1869;<br />
examiner in 1875; president in 1880. He was<br />
LL.D. of Edinburgh; F.R.S. ; fellow of many<br />
foreign societies; President of the Royal Medical<br />
and Chirurgical Society; senior surgeon to the<br />
Queen, with other posts of honour. He was the<br />
author of the "Science and Art of Surgery. He<br />
was made a baronet in 1895, but leaves no<br />
children.<br />
AUTHORS v- PRESSMEN.<br />
ri^HIS match, played for the first time last<br />
I year, and won by the Press Club, took<br />
place on Lord's Cricket Ground a day late,<br />
having l>een postponed from the previous Thurs-<br />
day through rain. The Press won the toss and<br />
put their rivals in, with the result that the<br />
Authors scored 216 for the loss of only one<br />
wicket. The feature of the game was the fine<br />
play of Dr. Conan Doyle, who scored 101 not out.<br />
During three hours' cricket he gave no chance,<br />
and hit eleven fours, five threes, and eleven twos.<br />
With Tyssen, who made 97, the Doctor put on<br />
178 for the first wicket. The Press Club had just<br />
a little over an hour's play, and in this period lost<br />
six wickets for 81, so that they had much the worst<br />
of the draw. Score:<br />
Authors' Club.<br />
A. Conan Doyle, not out 101<br />
C. A. Tyssen, e Jones, b Groves 97<br />
G. Duckworth, not ont 8<br />
Extras 10<br />
•Total (1 wkt) 216<br />
* Inningrs declared closed.<br />
G. H. Duckworth, H. A. Holt, G. C. Ives, E. R.<br />
Tottenham, J. M. Barrie, W. H. Winter, R. Bennett, A. S.<br />
Openheimer, and Frankfort-Moore did not bat.<br />
Press Club.<br />
G. Groves, c Duckworth, b IveB 24<br />
H. B. Smith, c and b Holt 18<br />
H. V. Jones, c Tissen, b Doyle 17<br />
G. Bull, b Holt °<br />
H. Preston, not out 12<br />
W. T. A. Beare, b Holt 2<br />
S. J. Southerton, b Doyle °<br />
J. Barr, not out 3<br />
Kxtras 5<br />
Total 81<br />
"J. Wilson." C. Edwards, and E. R. Ward did not bat.<br />
Daily Kexcr.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 116 (#149) ############################################<br />
<br />
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London: HORACE Cox, Windsor HouHe, Bream's-buildings. E.C.<br />
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By OSWALD H. PARRY, B A.<br />
(Of Magdalen College, Oxford.)<br />
Illustrated by the Author. With a Prefatory Note by the<br />
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M The author of tin* haudsomc volume presents 1 a detailed Btudy of<br />
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IN NEW SOUTH AFRICA.<br />
Travels in the Transvaal and Rhodesia.<br />
With Map and Twenty-six Illustration*.<br />
By II. LINCOLN TANOYE.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
Introductory.<br />
PART I.<br />
Chapter I.—The Land of Gold and the Way there.<br />
,, II.—Across Desert and Veldt.<br />
in.—Johannesburg the Golden.<br />
,, IV.—A Transvaal Coach Journey.<br />
V.—Natal: the South African Garden.<br />
,, VI—Ostracised in Africa. Home with the Swallows.<br />
PABT II —RAMBLES IN RHODESIA.<br />
Chapter I.—Eendragt Maakt Magt.<br />
II.—Into the Country of Lobengula.<br />
„ III.—The Trail of War.<br />
,, IV.—Goldmining. Ancient and Modern.<br />
V.—Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.<br />
VI.—To Northern Mashonaland.<br />
.. VII.—Primitive Art. The Misadventures of a Wagon.<br />
Index.<br />
London: IIobace Cox. Windsor House, Bream's-buiMings, E.C.<br />
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THE AUTHOR'S HAIRLESS PAPER-PAD.<br />
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THE<br />
PRINCIPLES OF CHESS<br />
IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.<br />
james is^jf^sonsr.<br />
CONTENTS. — 1. Elements of Chess. 2. General Principles.<br />
8. Combination. 4. Exposition of Master Play Complete.<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
THE ART of CHESS. By James Mason. Price 5s.<br />
net, by post 5s. 4d.<br />
THE KNIGHTS and KINGS of CHESS. By the Rev.<br />
G. A. MACDONNELL, B A. With Portrait and 17 Illustra-<br />
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London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
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