| 307 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/307 | The Author, Vol. 08 Issue 04 (September 1897) | <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.+08+Issue+04+%28September+1897%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 08 Issue 04 (September 1897)</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> | 1897-09-01-The-Author-8-4 | | | | | 89–108 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=8">8</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1897-09-01">1897-09-01</a> | | | | | | | 4 | | | 18970901 | XT be Hutbor*<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED B7 WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. VIII.—No. 4.] SEPTEMBER 1, 1897. [Price Sixpence.<br />
CONT<br />
PAOl<br />
General Memoranda. 89<br />
From the Committee—//! /f« Whitcon.b 91<br />
Literary Property—<br />
1. On the New Law of Copyright 91<br />
J. The Localisation of Copyright 9»<br />
Solecisms a Hundred Years Ago 93<br />
New York Letter. By Norman Hapgood 91<br />
ENTS.<br />
PAOl<br />
Notes from Elsewhere. By B. H. Sherard 97<br />
Feuilleton.—The Story of a Broken Pen *W<br />
Book Advertising in 11*00 103<br />
Freedom of Criticism 104<br />
Book Talk J04<br />
Literature in the Periodicals 106<br />
The Books of the Month 108<br />
PUBLICATIONS OP THE SOCIETY.<br />
1. The Annual Report, That for January 1897 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, 6*. 6d. per annum. Back numbers are offered at the<br />
following prices: Vol. I., ios. 6d. (Bound); Vols. II., HI., and IV., 8s. 6d. each (Bound);<br />
Vol. V., 6s. 6d. (Unbound).<br />
3. Literature and the Pension List. By W. Morris Colleb, Barrister-at-Law. (Henry Glaisher,<br />
95, Strand, W.C.) 3*.<br />
4. The History of the Societe des GeilS de Lettres. By S. Squire Sprioge, late Secretary to<br />
the Society, is.<br />
5. The Cost of Production. In this work specimens are given of the most important forms of type,<br />
size of page, Ac., with estimates showing what it costs to produce the more common kinds of<br />
books. Henry Glaisher, 95, Strand, W.C. as. 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. 3s.<br />
7. Copyright Law Reform. An Exposition of Lord Monkswell's Copyright Bill now before Parlia.<br />
ment. With Extracts from the Eeport 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 Besant<br />
(Chairman of Committee, 1888—1892). is.<br />
9. The Contract of Publication in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland. By Ernst<br />
Lunge, J.U.D. 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 88 (#506) #############################################<br />
<br />
11<br />
AD VER TISEMENTS.<br />
g>ocietp of Jlufljors (gncorporafeb).<br />
8ib Edwin Arnold, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.<br />
J. M. Barbie.<br />
A. W. X Beckett.<br />
ROBEKT BATEMAN.<br />
F. E. Beddabd, F.R.S.<br />
Sib Henrt Bebone, K.C.M.G.<br />
Sib Walter Besant.<br />
Augustine Birrell, M.P.<br />
Bbv. Prop. Bonnet, F.B.S.<br />
Right Hon. James Bryce, M.P.<br />
Bight Hon. Lord Burghclebe, P.C<br />
Hall Caine.<br />
Egerton Castle, F.S.A.<br />
P. W. Clatden.<br />
Edward Clodd.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
Hon. John Collier.<br />
Sib W. Martin Conwat.<br />
F. Marion Crawford.<br />
The Earl of Desart.<br />
PRESIDENT.<br />
GEORGE IMZIEIRIEIDITH<br />
COUNCIL.<br />
Austin Dobbon.<br />
A. Conan Doyle, M.D.<br />
A. W. Dubourg.<br />
Prof. Michael Fosteb, F.E.S.<br />
D. W. Freshfield.<br />
Bichabd Gabnett, C.B., LL.D.<br />
Edmund Gosse.<br />
H. Bideb Haggard.<br />
Thomas Habdt.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
Jerome K. Jerome.<br />
Eudyabd Kipling.<br />
Pbof. E. Bay Lankesteb, F.E.S.<br />
W. E. H. Lecky, P.C.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
Mbs. E. Lynn Linton.<br />
Rev. W. J. Loftie, F.S.A.<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mus.Doo.<br />
Pbof. J. M. D. Meiklejohn.<br />
Hebman C. Mebivalb.<br />
Hon. Counsel — E. M. Undebdown, Q.C.<br />
Eev. C. H. Middleton-Wakk.<br />
Sir Lewis Mobbis.<br />
Henby Norman.<br />
Miss E. A. Obmerod.<br />
J. C. Pabkinson.<br />
Eight Hon. Lord Pibbbight, P.C,<br />
F.E.S.<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., LL.D.<br />
Walter Herries Pollock,<br />
w. bapti8te scoones.<br />
Miss Flora L. Shaw.<br />
G. B. Sims.<br />
S. Squire Sprigge.<br />
J. J. Stevenson.<br />
Francis Storr.<br />
William Mot Thomas.<br />
H. D. Traill, D.C.L.<br />
Mrs. Humphry Ward.<br />
Miss Charlotte M. Yonob.<br />
COMMITTEE OF MANAGEMENT.<br />
Chairman—H. Eider Haggard.<br />
Sir W. Martin Conway.<br />
D. W. Fresiifield.<br />
Anthony Hope Hawkins.<br />
J. M. Lely.<br />
SUB-COMMITTEES.<br />
MUSIC.<br />
C. Villibrs Stanford, Mus.D. (Chairman).<br />
JACQUE8 BLUMENTHAL.<br />
J. L. MOLLOY.<br />
( Field, Eoscoe, and Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields.<br />
'( G. Herbert Thring, B.A., 4, Portugal-street. Secretary—G. Herbert Thbing, BA. OFFICES: 4, Pobtuoal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.<br />
A. W. X Beckett.<br />
Sir Walter Besant.<br />
Egerton Castle, F.S.A.<br />
W. Morris Colles.<br />
ART.<br />
Hon. John Collier (Chairman).<br />
Sir W. Martin Conway.<br />
M. H. Spielmann.<br />
Solicitors-<br />
Sir A. C. Mackenzie, Mus.Doo.<br />
Henry Norman.<br />
Francis Storr.<br />
DRAMA.<br />
Henry Arthur Jones [Chairman]<br />
A. W. X Beckett.<br />
Edward Rose.<br />
IF. WATT &c SOIDsT,<br />
LITERARY AGENTS,<br />
Formerly of 2, PATERNOSTER SdUARE,<br />
Have now removed to<br />
HASTINGS HOUSE, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND,<br />
LONDON, W.C.<br />
Published every Friday morning; price, without JReports, S*d.; with<br />
Reports, Is.<br />
THE LAW TIMES, the Journal of the Law sx^ the<br />
Lawyers, which has now been established for over half a century<br />
supplies to the Profession a complete Record of the Progress of * °£au<br />
Reforms, and of all matters affecting the Legal Profession. yip<br />
Reports of the Law Times are now recognised as the most complete<br />
and efficient series published.<br />
Offices: Windsor House, Bre&m'B-buildings, E C<br />
THE ART of CHESS. By James Mason. Price 5a.<br />
net, by post 5s. 4d.<br />
London: Horace Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
THE KNIGHTS and KINGS of CHESS. By the Eev.<br />
G. A. MACDONNELL, B.A. With Portrait and 17 Illustra<br />
tions. Crown 8vo., cloth boards, price 2s. Cd. net<br />
London: HoBAOK Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.G.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 89 (#507) #############################################<br />
<br />
XT be Hutbor*<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
Vol. Vin.—No. 4.]<br />
SEPTEMBER 1, 1897.<br />
[Price Sixpence.<br />
For the Opinion* 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 Sooiety begs to give notioe 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, but on no other sub-<br />
jects whatever. Articles which cannot bo accepted are<br />
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
]J\OTH some years it has been the practice to insert, in<br />
j every number of The Author, certain " General Con-<br />
siderations," Warnings, Notices, to., for the guidance<br />
of the reader. It has been objected as regards those<br />
warnings that the tricks or frauds against which they are<br />
directed cannot all be guarded against, for obvious reasons.<br />
It is, however, well that they should be borne in mind, and<br />
if any publisher refuses a clause of precaution he simply<br />
reveals his true character, and should be left to carry on<br />
his business in his own way.<br />
Let us, however, draw up a few of the rules to bo<br />
observed in an agreement. There are three methods of<br />
dealing with literary property:—<br />
I. That of selling it outright.<br />
This is in some respects the most satisfactory, if a proper<br />
price can be obtained. But the transaction should be<br />
managed by a competent agent.<br />
II. A profit-sharing agreement.<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br />
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part.<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
VOL. VIII.<br />
in his own organs: or by oharging exohange advertise-<br />
ments.<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special oharge for " office expenses,"<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
(5.) Not to give up Berial or translation rights.<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor!<br />
(7.) To stamp the agreement.<br />
III. The royalty system.<br />
In this system, which has oponed the door to a most<br />
amazing amount of overreaching and trading on the<br />
author's ignorance, it is above all things necessary to know<br />
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br />
possible for an author to ascertain approximately and very<br />
nearly the truth. From time to time the very important<br />
figures connected with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from tho<br />
"Cost of Production." Let no one, not evon the youngest<br />
writer, sign a royalty agreement without finding out what<br />
it gives the publisher as well as himself.<br />
It has been objected that those precautions presuppose a<br />
great succoss 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 many it is known within a few<br />
copies what will be their minimum circulation, it is not<br />
known what will be their maximum. Therefore every<br />
author, for every book, should arrange on the ohance of a<br />
success which will not, probably, come at all; but which<br />
may come.<br />
The four points which the Society has always domanded<br />
from the outset are:—<br />
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
(2.) The inspection of tho3e 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 Bhall be no secret profits.<br />
(4.) That nothing Bhall 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 tor<br />
exchanged advertisements and that all discounts shall be<br />
duly entered.<br />
If those 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 Bend his agreement to the<br />
secretary before he signs it.<br />
i 2<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 90 (#508) #############################################<br />
<br />
go<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
I. IjTVERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
Fj advioe upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the advioe<br />
sought is snch as can be given best by a solicitor, the member<br />
has a right to an opinion from the Society's solicitors. If the<br />
case is suoh 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 tho Socioty 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 />
accounts 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 Seoretary 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 change 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 case of fraudulent nouses—the tricks of every publish-<br />
ing firm in the country.<br />
7. Remember always that in belonging to the Society yon<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 tho key of tho safe. Tho Sooiety 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, concludes 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' Syndicate works only for those<br />
members of the Society whose work possesses a market<br />
value.<br />
4. That the Syndicate 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 alt coses, be sont<br />
to defray postage.<br />
7. That the Authors' Syndicate does not invite MSS.<br />
without previous correspondence; 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 some of the leading members of the Socioty;<br />
that it has a "Transfer Department" for the sale and<br />
purchase of journals and periodicals; and that a " Register<br />
of Wants and Wanted" is open. Members aro invited to<br />
communicate their requirements to the Manager.<br />
There is an Honorary Advisory Committee, whoso services<br />
will be called upon in any ooso of dispute or difficulty. It<br />
is perhaps necessary to state that the members of the<br />
Advisory Committee have no peouniary interest whatever in<br />
the Syndicate.<br />
NOTICES.<br />
THE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of tho<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 />
6s. 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 thoir names and the special subjects on which<br />
they are willing to write P<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 others who wish their MSS. read are<br />
requested not to send them to the Office without previously<br />
communicating with the Secretary. 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 Sooiety 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-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary<br />
for information, rules of admission, &c.<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 bo 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 />
<br />
<br />
## p. 91 (#509) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
9i<br />
or dishonest? Of conrse 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 fire years?<br />
Those who possess the "Cost of Production" are<br />
requested to note that the cost of binding has advanced 15<br />
per oent. 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 Jig 4s. 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 course, 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 />
FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br />
HIGH COURT OP JUSTICE.—QUEEN'S<br />
BENCH DIVISION.<br />
(Sittings in Bankruptcy, before Mr. Registrar<br />
Hope.)<br />
In Be Whitcomb.<br />
THIS was an adjourned sitting for public<br />
examination under a receiving order made<br />
against H. and B. W. Whitcomb,described<br />
as of 12, Burleigh-street, Strand. The examina-<br />
tion of the debtor, H. Whitcomb, was ordered to<br />
be concluded on June 30 last, and the other<br />
debtor now attended. His accounts showed<br />
liabilities <£i 169, with assets ,£1034.<br />
Mr. C. A. Pope attended as assistant official<br />
receiver, and Mr. Mellor appeared for creditors.<br />
In the course of his evidence, B. W. Whitcomb<br />
s:ui<mI that he was an actor, and had followed<br />
that profession for eight or nine years, his income<br />
from that source averaging about £300 a year. In<br />
Sept. 1896, he started a journal known as the New<br />
Saturday,Andput about*£20ointo the undertaking.<br />
He had no knowledge of journalism, and it was<br />
arranged that his brother (the debtor, H. Whit-<br />
tomb) should act as manager of the paper. He<br />
skirted the journal because he thought it would<br />
prove a successful speculation. His brother, who<br />
had experience in journalistic work, was an un-<br />
discharged bankrupt at the time.<br />
The Assistant Official Receiver.—Was not the<br />
object of your becoming the registered proprietor<br />
merely to cover your brother and enable him to<br />
carry on the newspaper, in spite of the fact that<br />
he was an undischarged bankrupt P<br />
The debtor emphatically denied that this was<br />
the case, and said that the idea was to form a<br />
syndicate to carry on the business, but the syndi-<br />
cate never got beyond a suggestion. The paper<br />
was a loss throughout, and he was responsible for<br />
all the debts incurred.<br />
Mr. Mellor also briefly questioned the debtor,<br />
and the examination was ordered to be concluded.<br />
—The Times, Aug. 17.<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
L—On the New Law op Copyright.<br />
THE Incorporated Society of Authors and the<br />
Incorporated Institute of Journalists are<br />
doing their best to press forward a long-<br />
needed amendment of the Law of Copyright. As<br />
things are, successful writers, dramatists, lecturers,<br />
and even preachers, are at the mercy of the un-<br />
scrupulous class of persons who find it much easier<br />
to steal other people's ideas than to create ideas of<br />
their own. Of course there is a copyright law in<br />
existence, but its imperfections are only fully<br />
known to those who have had occasion to seek its<br />
protection. By some strange perversity of judg-<br />
ment, it has long appeared to otherwise honest<br />
and honourable men that a broad distinction may<br />
properly be drawn between property in the pro-<br />
duction of a man's brains and property in the<br />
production of a man's hands. If a carpenter<br />
lawfully acquires a few slips of wood and makes<br />
them into a chair or a table, that chair or table<br />
is his own, and the individual who attempts to<br />
dispose of it, without first satisfying the maker,<br />
runs a good chance of spending a few weeks in<br />
close confinement. Even if the thief takes the<br />
precaution of taking the chair or table to pieces,<br />
and selling the pieces of wood separately, he is<br />
still held responsible for an act of dishonesty.<br />
Or, in another case, if the carpenter or ironworker<br />
or other artificer produces quite a new design in<br />
his work, and has the design properly registered,<br />
then he can prevent by law a less ingenious com-<br />
petitor from palpably copying that design and<br />
passing the work off as his own. But mark how<br />
the law deals with a brain-production in the<br />
shape of a book, or a play, or a lecture, or a<br />
sermon. Perhaps sermons are pilfered least; but<br />
this, in turn, may be because they are, as a<br />
rule, least worth pilfering. The principle holds<br />
good all the same, and those who are moving<br />
in the matter wish to protect brain-workers<br />
of all grades, just as hand-workers are already<br />
protected. Their principle is that what a man<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 92 (#510) #############################################<br />
<br />
92<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
produces by the exercise of thought, invention,<br />
and cultivated mental effort is as much his own<br />
property as the coster's donkey-cart belongs to<br />
the coster, and cannot be "appropriated" by the<br />
first person who sees his way to make money by<br />
the elementary process of taking something that<br />
does not belong to him. As a rule it is the<br />
novelist and the dramatist who get their brains<br />
"picked " most persistently. Mr. Brain Stoker,<br />
who gave evidence before the Lords' Committee,<br />
put the matter very clearly. The successful<br />
novel is forthwith pounced down on by the light-<br />
fingered dramatist; and the successful dramatist<br />
is the immediate victim of the cadging novelist.<br />
In other words, the man who has no ideas walks<br />
about like a hungry jackal, ready to devour,<br />
without leave and without reward, the ideas of<br />
the man more favoured in that respect than<br />
himself. Of course, in spite of the doubtful<br />
dictum that a good novel usually makes a bad<br />
play, there will always be a natural, and perhaps<br />
laudable, desire to see the characters of a favourite<br />
story personified on the stage. There is no harm<br />
in that; indeed, quite the contrary. But surely<br />
the man who wrote the story and created all that<br />
is worth appropriating from it ought to be pre-<br />
sumed to have such legal property in his own<br />
production as would prevent its appropriation<br />
by anyone without his consent, and without<br />
affording him any recompense. So with the<br />
dramatist; if after a long expenditure of<br />
thought he produces a play which "means<br />
money," why should the hack story-writer<br />
steal, from a back seat in the gallery, all<br />
the ideas, the situations, and the general<br />
effect that mean so much to the dramatist?<br />
Or, to take the lecturer, why, because he reads or<br />
recites his "book," should he be less protected<br />
than if he issued it in printed form? What a<br />
man writes, so far as it is his own, ought to be<br />
protected as his own; and it should be legally his<br />
"property" as against all comers who decline to<br />
pay the owner's price for it. To the question, Is<br />
there not already a Copyright Act? the short<br />
answer is that it fails in nine cases out of ten<br />
through technical defects, or through its limited<br />
application, or, perhaps most of all, through the<br />
expense and difficulty of putting it into operation.<br />
If a thief steals a pennyworth of tintacks he may<br />
be treated with "summary diligence," and the<br />
owner's rights be vindicated. If he "appro-<br />
j>riates " the year's labour of a man's brain he<br />
may go on his way rejoicing, for the chances are<br />
the law will be too slow, too clumsy, and too<br />
costly to overtake him. It is high time this state<br />
of things should be altered.—Birmingham Daily<br />
News, July io.<br />
II.—Localisation of Copyright.<br />
At a meeting of the Council of the Publishers'<br />
Association held on Aug. 6, it was resolved that<br />
the following recommendation should be circulated<br />
among the members:—<br />
The subject of the localisation of copyright, as<br />
illustrated by special American, Colonial, and<br />
Continental editions of English publications,<br />
having engaged the attention of the second Inter-<br />
national Publishers' Congress, held at Brussels in<br />
June, 1897, that body passed the following reso-<br />
lution: "La cession d'cditions localisces k certains<br />
pays implique pour le cessionaire l'obligation<br />
d'indiquer sur ces editions spcciales autorisces les<br />
pays auxquels la vente en est liinitee."<br />
The importance of the American market to Eng-<br />
lish publishers is so great that it seems specially<br />
desirable to secure the adherence of American<br />
publishers to this resolution. With that object<br />
it is recommended that authors and publishers<br />
(following the precedent of Continental and<br />
Colonial editions) should, in all agreements made<br />
with American publishers, stipulate that a noti-<br />
fication limiting the American issue to the United<br />
States be insisted on, while at the same time the<br />
British edition should bear a notice excluding it<br />
from circulation in the United States.— The Pub-<br />
lishers' Circular.<br />
<br />
SOLECISMS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.<br />
u Tip j8 weu known that the ancient Greeks and<br />
I Romans took infinite pains to improve their<br />
respective languages. We have many re-<br />
markable instances of their labours to this effect<br />
in the writings of Dionysius of Halicarnassus,<br />
the author who passes under the name of<br />
Demetrius Phalereus, Cicero, Quinctilian, Aulus<br />
Gellius, and others. The English reader will<br />
be surprised to see with what exactness they<br />
measured their periods, analysed their phrases,<br />
arranged their words, determined the length of<br />
their syllables, and avoided all harsh and ele-<br />
mentary sounds, in order to give grace and<br />
harmony to their compositions. To this refine-<br />
ment we may, in a great measure, ascribe that<br />
inexpressible charm which every man of taste<br />
and learning discovers in some of the classics,<br />
and which is not to be found in the generality of<br />
modern compositions.<br />
Such an attention to propriety and elegance<br />
of style is of the greatest importance, as no pro-<br />
duction can be read with pleasure, or transmitted<br />
to posterity with applause, if it is defective in<br />
this respect. It should likewise be considered,<br />
that the literary character of a nation will always<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 93 (#511) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
93<br />
depend on the accuracy and elegance of its publi-<br />
cations.<br />
Since the" beginning of the present century the<br />
English language has been much improved and<br />
refined. Several able writers have examined its<br />
principles, and pointed out its beauties and<br />
defects, with a critical and philosophical investi-<br />
gation.<br />
I must, however, observe that many enormous<br />
solecisms still appear in almost all the produc-<br />
tions of our English writers, such as,<br />
You was. This expression sometimes occurs<br />
in books, is often heard in conversation, and<br />
frequently echoes through the caverns of West-<br />
minster Hall. The nominative case is the second<br />
person plural, and the verb to which it is united<br />
is the first or the third person singular.<br />
More or most universal. 'Its success was not<br />
more universal' (Gibbon, vol. II., p. 357).<br />
'Money is the most universal incitement of<br />
human industry' (lb., vol. I., p. 356; vol. III.,<br />
p. 66, <fec.). 'Company more universally accept-<br />
able' (Zeluco, vol. I., p. 398). 'That which<br />
pleases most universally is religion' (' Blair's<br />
Sermons,' vol. II., p. 168). What is universal<br />
cannot admit of augmentation.<br />
Of all others. 'The profession, of all others,<br />
for which he was the fittest' (Zeluco, vol. I.,<br />
pp. 75, 118). 'The most precious of all others'<br />
(Anachar, vol. III., p. 288). 'It is that species<br />
of goodness with which, of all ot/iers, we are best<br />
acquainted' ('Blair's Sermons,' vol. II., p. 129).<br />
'To collect a dictionary seems a work, of all<br />
others, least practicable in a state of blindness'<br />
(Johnson's 'Life of Milton,' p. 169). This ex-<br />
pression resembles the following absurdity in<br />
Milton:<br />
Adam, the goodliest man of men since born<br />
His sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve.<br />
B. IV., 322.<br />
I would not attempt to vindicate Milton, as<br />
some have done, by pleading that this is a figure<br />
of speech or a 'poetic licence.' I would rather<br />
say, with Horace, it is one of the<br />
Macula;, qnas ant incnria fndit,<br />
Ant humana parum cavit natnra.<br />
Ax. P. 552-<br />
No apology, however, can be made for the fore-<br />
going expression in prose.<br />
Either side. 'Either sex and every age was<br />
engaged in the pursuits of industry' (Gibbon,<br />
vol. I., 452). 'He retired with a multitude of<br />
captives of either sex' (lb., vol. IV., 281).<br />
'Pilled with a great number of persons of<br />
either sex' (lb., vol. II., 324; alibi passim).<br />
'In that violent conflict of parties, he (Edmund<br />
Smith) had a prologue and epilogue from the<br />
first wits on either side* (Johnson's 'Lives,'<br />
vol. II., p. 248).<br />
Either signifies only the one or the other; and<br />
is improperly used instead of each in the<br />
singular number, or both in the plural.<br />
We meet with innumerable writers who talk of<br />
looking into the tcomb of Time. But this expression<br />
suggests a gross and indelicate idea, and is in<br />
itself absurd; for Time, according to the mytho-<br />
logists, is an old fellow, the Chronos or Saturn<br />
of the ancients, and consequently has no womb.<br />
All personifications ought to be consistent.<br />
An accusative or objective case after a passive<br />
participle.<br />
'He (Thompson) was taught the common rudiments of<br />
learning' (Johnson's 'Lives,' vol. IV., p. 252). 'He<br />
(Watts) was taught Latin by Mr. Pinhorae ' (lb., p. 278).<br />
'He (Milton) was offered the continuance of his employ,<br />
ment' (lb., vol. I., p. 183). 'Thus I have been told the<br />
story' (Telem. vol. I., p. 92, edit 1795).<br />
It would be better to say: he was instructed in<br />
the rudiments of learning; he learned Latin under<br />
the tuition of Mr. Pinhorne; the King, or the<br />
Ministry, offered to continue him in his former<br />
employment; thus I have heard the story, or thus<br />
I have been informed. The author of these<br />
remarks has observed, with regret, the last of<br />
these expressions in a translation, which he wished<br />
to give the public in an unexceptionable style.<br />
But he has been long convinced that no work was<br />
ever published without some inadvertencies of the<br />
author and the printer.<br />
'Two highwaymen were hung this morning.'<br />
This is a common vulgarism. We should rather<br />
say: 'two highwaymen were hanged.' This<br />
verb should be used in the regular form when it<br />
signifies to execute, and in the irregular when it<br />
denotes only suspension; as, 'he was hanged,<br />
and afterwards hung in chains.'<br />
The eldest of the two. 'Her eldest son, Esau'<br />
(Genesis xxvii., 15). When only two things are<br />
mentioned, there cannot be what grammarians<br />
sometimes call the third degree of comparison.<br />
In this case we should say, the younger, the elder,<br />
the wiser, the better.<br />
The conjunction nor is frequently used after an<br />
affirmative sentence very improperly in this<br />
manner:<br />
'It was impossible that a soldier could esteem so dissolnte<br />
a sovereign, nor is it easy to conceal a just contempt'<br />
(' Gibbon,' vol. II., 5). 'Modern Europe has produced<br />
several illustrious women, who have sustained with glory<br />
the weight of empire; nor is our own age destitute of such<br />
distinguished characters' (lb. 32).<br />
It would, I think, be much better to begin the<br />
latter part of these sentences without this con-<br />
junction, which only seems to form a connection,<br />
but in reality has no corresponding negative.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 94 (#512) #############################################<br />
<br />
94<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
The simple independent word 'not' would be<br />
preferable.<br />
The impropriety, I believe, has never yet been<br />
observed; and some, perhaps, may think the<br />
foregoing expressions unexceptionable. I shall<br />
not dispute with critics who are so easily satis-<br />
fied."—" Eubebiub," in the Gentleman's Maga-<br />
zine, for July 1797.<br />
NEW YORE LETTER.<br />
New York, July 18.<br />
THE recent announcement in England, that a<br />
magazine is to be started in England to<br />
comment on books and literary matters<br />
"in the American manner," would be more inte-<br />
resting with more explanation. If it means, as it<br />
probably does, in a light, bright, and somewhat<br />
callow manner, with what we call "freshness," it<br />
begins at a time when that tone is less in demand<br />
here than it was a short time ago. We have had<br />
so much " cleverness " of a certain kind that the<br />
public is sick of it. "Chap-Booky" used to be<br />
the adjective for this quality. Herbert Stone,<br />
editor of the Chap-Book, was in New York the<br />
other day, and I asked him if he had any ideal<br />
for the periodical. "Yes," he said, "a bi-weekly<br />
Atlantic Monthly. At first the ideal was the<br />
Saturday Review, but we have now given that up."<br />
Smartness simply did not pay any more than the<br />
other idea, yellowness—which he also imported<br />
from England—did, and he has also abandoned<br />
that. "Your book business and your paper will<br />
never pay," said a watchful critic to him, " until<br />
you make people take them seriously. They were<br />
amused by your experiment for awhile, but that<br />
sort of interest doesn't last." Stone is now trying<br />
to get as solid a line of books as he can, and also<br />
to get short essays and stories for the Chap-Booh,<br />
which shall carry by their solid worth.<br />
The essay of from 1000 to 2000 words on<br />
literary subjects or general topics of the day is<br />
especially called for just now. The Atlantic<br />
Monthly, which is as good as it has ever been<br />
now that Walter H. Page has charge of it, and is<br />
much the best periodical we have, wishes to get<br />
so many of these little essays that it can ru u two<br />
departments of them every month. The same<br />
sort of thing is wanted in books by all the<br />
leading publishers, except the Harpers, who<br />
confine their interests, as in fiction and essays<br />
and literature generally, to a few men of an estab-<br />
lished market.<br />
A tendency that is visible in current American<br />
criticism, especially in newspapers, is to substitute<br />
exposition for judgment; to tell just what is in<br />
a book, and quote the best things in it, saying<br />
comparatively little by way of comment. This is<br />
called " getting the news out of books," and the<br />
ethics of it and its effect on the sale have been<br />
fully discussed in The Author.<br />
Nothing pays like "news" of whatever kind.<br />
The marked success of the Bookman is largely<br />
due to the unusual amount of news in it. "I<br />
have always thought I ought to have been a<br />
newspaper man," said Professor Peck, the editor,<br />
the other day.<br />
Frank A. Munsey is going to show the essence<br />
of cheap American literary methods in their most<br />
interesting form to the English public by esta-<br />
blishing his magazine in London. If he lives up<br />
to his reputation, he will make the Strand and.<br />
the Pall Mall "bustle" before he has been<br />
there long, and also any other periodicals in his<br />
field which England may boast. The McClure-<br />
Doubleday Company is going into cheap editions<br />
of good works in the fall, heavily, relying on<br />
large sales, taking classics on which the copy*<br />
right has expired, and publishing them in pretty<br />
little sets in boxes at 25 cents, a volume. The<br />
public, at least, is the gainer.<br />
All writers will naturally be interested in the<br />
new edition of "Authors and Publishers," by<br />
G. H. and J. B. Putnam, especially as there is<br />
matter in it which was not in the earlier editions.<br />
George Haven Putnam is decidedly entertaining<br />
in his introduction, and he puts in many true<br />
observations,'_which are mixed, however, with some<br />
unconvincing ones. It is an old storv that a man<br />
ought not to write unless he is "called to," and<br />
Mr. Putnam retells it. But it is not a very pro-<br />
found observation. It is an axiom to any observer<br />
that a man often does best in something in which<br />
he is not most interested, and writing is not an<br />
exception to the ordinary laws of human nature.<br />
"Go to, let us make a book," has led to many of<br />
the best books we have, and the worst books are,<br />
in large part, those which the author was "com-<br />
pelled by something inside him" to write. Again<br />
in the cbapteron " publishing arrangements," Mr.<br />
Putnam makes some implications which might be<br />
staggered by cross-examination. For instance, he<br />
says "royalty is paid either on all the copies<br />
sold, or on all copies sold after enough have<br />
been sold to return the first manufacturing out-<br />
lays and to insure for the undertaking a profit<br />
instead of a deficiency. The theory of such a<br />
reservation is that the author and the publisher<br />
should begin to make money out of the book at<br />
the same time." A little later he puts in a<br />
parenthesis the argument that the suggestion<br />
comes from the author, so the publisher should<br />
not be asked to take any more risk than is neces-<br />
sary. And that point is worth dissecting. Mr.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 95 (#513) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
95<br />
Putnam probably would not deny that, leaving<br />
out authors who have reputations which make it<br />
possible for them to make good terms at any<br />
time, it is the general custom, in New York at<br />
least, for the publisher to pay no royalty on a<br />
thousand copies of a book if it has been offered<br />
to him, where he would pay from the beginning<br />
if he had heard of the existence of the book and<br />
asked for it; this even where he is sure the book<br />
will pay. In other words, he simply takes<br />
advantage of the author's desire to publish to<br />
pay him less than he could afford to pay him.<br />
Mr. Putnam calls the complaints of literary men<br />
about publishers "the baby act." One may admit<br />
it is a pure business deal, and yet think it only<br />
fair to get all the facts into the mind of writers,<br />
as they meet the publisher at a disadvantage as<br />
it is, as shown by the fact that a writer whose<br />
personal acquaintance with publishers helps him<br />
to "know the ropes" is sure to make a better<br />
bargain than one of equal standing who has not<br />
the information necessary to enable him to make<br />
a decent contract. Of course few authors in<br />
comparison to the whole number can get at<br />
the proper "counsellor" to whom Mr. Putnam<br />
refers.<br />
It is perhaps scarcely necessary to add that<br />
these differences of opinion ought not to turn the<br />
attention of any reader of this letter from the fact<br />
that no author, publisher, or general reader, who<br />
cares for the subject, can fail to find this book one<br />
of the most instructive and interesting accessible,<br />
and the attractive make-up adds another merit<br />
to it. I would add one to the list of methods of<br />
advertising mentioned. It appeared recently in<br />
the advertising columns of the Dial:—<br />
A NEW BOOK SENT FBEE.<br />
A new book of verse, issued by a well-known publishing<br />
house at one dollar, will be sent free to any address upon<br />
receipt of a postal-card request. If you wish to keep the<br />
book, sixty cents in stamps or money-order will make it<br />
yours. If yon do not wish to keep it, return by mail, and the<br />
postage (four cents) is the price you will have paid for the<br />
privilege of reading a new book. Address P. A. L., Box 84,<br />
Evanston, 111.<br />
Last fall the Century Company advertised John<br />
La Farge's "An Artist's Letters from Japan"<br />
for publication in the winter. It did not come<br />
out, and now they promise it again. There are<br />
pieces of prose in it as good as (and I have almost<br />
the boldness to say better than) any other<br />
American writer of the day could produce, and<br />
the sketches by the author, in at least two<br />
respects our strongest artist, add greatly to the<br />
charm. Mr. La Farge is a poet, and Japan brought<br />
out the best there is in him.<br />
Probably the tariff question will be settled this<br />
week. The chances seem to be that the pro-<br />
VOL. â–¼III.<br />
visions about the importation of books will be<br />
about what they were under the McKinley law.<br />
The Dingley Bill, as originally intended, put a<br />
tax on books, whether they imported for sale, or<br />
for exhibition or instruction, and the exemptions<br />
on behalf of educational institutions amounted<br />
to nothing. The outcry from the public and the<br />
Press had its effect when the Bill got to the<br />
Senate Committee, for books imported for<br />
scientific and educational purposes were restored<br />
to the free list, and the whole thing left about as<br />
it is under the present Wilson law. Later, how-<br />
ever, the Senate, by amendments, put it back to<br />
the McKinley law, which means that literary<br />
productions more than twenty years old will<br />
com* in free, and some of the restrictions on<br />
importation for educational purposes are taken<br />
off; and this will probably be finally adopted by<br />
the Conference committee.<br />
New York, Aug. 16.<br />
Authors whose books appear in the United<br />
States this fall apparently have cause to be more<br />
cheerful than they have been for some time, if<br />
the general notion of the publishers is to be<br />
trusted. They seem even in the West and South,<br />
where they have been most depressed, to share<br />
the streak of confidence which the merchants are<br />
feeling. Of course the Republicans think their<br />
laws are responsible; others believe that the good<br />
crops are starting a change which has been long<br />
preparing, and the real fatalistic American spirit<br />
says, "When everything has been bad so long<br />
there will be an improvement, and nobody will<br />
know why."<br />
The middle of the summer brings some of the<br />
most conspicuous books. Of course they are<br />
mostly novels, and it is noticeable that publishers<br />
are tending more and more to believe the summer<br />
a good time for the publication of important<br />
fiction, but there are enough other works on the<br />
list to make one wonder if our idea that the three<br />
hot months are a fatal time for the birth of a<br />
book is to be done away with.<br />
With one of the books to come out in the fall<br />
a little story is connected. Writers have long<br />
been warned in this paper not to allow a publisher<br />
to deduct anything for office expenses, and pos-<br />
sibly the spirit of that warning would cover this<br />
case. A certain firm in this city stands as high<br />
as any in America, and it is often said, "Send<br />
your book to so and so, and you will be treated<br />
squarely, with no unexpected developments when<br />
settlement time comes." None stands higher in<br />
America, and it is practically part of a firm of<br />
equal standing in Great Britain. Last winter it<br />
brought out a story, the first literary work of<br />
K<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 96 (#514) #############################################<br />
<br />
96<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
a poor man. The story had remarkable success,<br />
and is still selling rapidly. Ten per cent, royalty<br />
was the arrangement. When the first payment<br />
came to be made 150 dollars was deducted for<br />
editing. The beauty of the charge is, that the<br />
firm had no editing to do, as it was all done by<br />
an outsider, a friend of the author, who was inte-<br />
rested in the success of the book. It all amounts<br />
to this. Some of our little publishers have to<br />
say, " We cannot pay you royalty until after we<br />
have sold 500 or 1000 copies," but this big firm<br />
was too dignified for that, so it takes out the<br />
royalty on the first 1500 copies by a subterfuge.<br />
Some of the firms have their fall announce-<br />
ments ready. On the Putnam's list studies of<br />
interesting things in American history are pro-<br />
minent. The second volume of the writings of<br />
Thomas Jefferson, the fourth volume of the<br />
writings of James Monroe, four volumes of the<br />
life and correspondence of Rufus King are<br />
announced. It is a fact, not a publisher's adver-<br />
tisement, that some of the volumes in this series<br />
of the works of the early American statesmen<br />
have sold at auction at twice their original price<br />
immediately after publication, which is a good<br />
omen for the direction of the interests of the<br />
readers of this country. Lives of Grant and Lee<br />
are also on the Putnam's list, and the second<br />
volume of the "Literary History of the Ameri-<br />
can Revolution," which in its first volume was<br />
one of the best books of last season, although not<br />
yet announced, will doubtless appear before very<br />
long. Among the interesting books of the same<br />
company connected with politics will be a volume<br />
of essays by Theodore Roosevelt, not yet<br />
announced, but probably to be ready during the<br />
fall. He is now Assistant-Secretary of the Navy,<br />
and before taking that position made a great<br />
stir as President of the Police Board of New<br />
York City. He has been in politics a good deal,<br />
and he has a taste for the picturesque, and a<br />
number of his essays and sketches deal with<br />
aspects of political life which are peculiar to this<br />
country, and which, indeed, offer one of the best<br />
literary fields we have, and one of the least<br />
worked.<br />
Among the novels of prominence which have<br />
just appeared, one of the most interesting is Miss<br />
Wilkins's "Jerome," published by the Harpers.<br />
It is a hybrid, partly a study in her usual line of<br />
New England pride and poverty, and partly a love<br />
story, which is touching because it plays with<br />
accuracy upon the well tested chords. It is, I<br />
believe, her third novel, and confirms the indica-<br />
tion of the other two, that her permanent repu-<br />
tation will rest on her short stories. The strong<br />
parts of her novels are precisely the touches that<br />
might be taken out and made into short stories,<br />
and the more complex structure of the novel is<br />
what she is weakest in. In this story the plot,<br />
although skilfully handled, is artificial and made<br />
up of the conventional devices. The machinery<br />
includes several timely inheritances and other<br />
overworked means, in carrying out which she is<br />
sometimes led to injure her characters by impro-<br />
babilities. But Miss Wilkins is an artist, and<br />
her conversations especially, which are always her<br />
greatest strength, are excellent in this book. Her<br />
style is her most marked imitation. When she<br />
talks in her own person she is frequently guilty<br />
of something approaching precocity, but her cha-<br />
racters, varied enough in their well-defined field,<br />
talk admirably. She brings out the severer<br />
aspects of New England life and character with<br />
constant power, and probably with no more<br />
exaggeration than is legitimate for artistic em-<br />
phasis; and a person who reads her stories and<br />
tempers them with Miss Jewett's will get some-<br />
where near the facts.<br />
Another good student of American life is to be<br />
honoured by the Appletons with a uniform edition.<br />
The works of Mr. Hamlin Garland, whom the<br />
Spectator thinks a woman, will appear as follows:<br />
(1) "Spoils of Office"; (2) "Wayside Court-<br />
ships"; (3) "Jason Edwards"; (4) "The<br />
Member of the Third House."<br />
William Gillette, whose recent success in London<br />
as dramatic author and actor has been so decided,<br />
reached home on Saturday. He is a man of<br />
originality as well as of skill. Years ago, after<br />
the success of "Held by the Enemy," which had<br />
some literary merit, his friends regretted the<br />
attention which he gave to pure farce. He used<br />
to answer that he was not writing for posterity,<br />
which could take care of itself, but that he was<br />
endeavouring to amuse the people who were<br />
alive to-day, which he thought a sufficiently high<br />
aim.<br />
The Macmillan Company has just accepted a<br />
novel of railroad life by Herbert E. Hamblen,<br />
who, under the name of Fred B. Williams, wrote<br />
"On Many Seas," one of the successes of last<br />
year. The new book tells the life of the railroad<br />
engineer with the ingenuousness, so the Macmillan<br />
reader tells me, that made the success of the sea<br />
stories. Mr. Hamblen is himself an engineer,<br />
and the scene of the book is limited to what he<br />
sees in his daily life on his engine. Perhaps this<br />
will come nearer to making a success of the<br />
subject, the possibilities of which have been so<br />
much extolled of late, than Mr. Kipling's fanciful<br />
treatment of it in the last number of Scribner's<br />
Magazine.<br />
The tariff on books passed in the form which<br />
seemed probable at the date of my last letter.<br />
There is no duty on books for public institutions,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 97 (#515) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
97<br />
or on books printed in foreign languages, or on<br />
English books more than twenty years old. The<br />
tax on Art is retained in its worst form.<br />
Norman Hapoood.<br />
NOTES PEOM ELSEWHERE.<br />
AREVIEW entitled " Industrial Jim-Jams,"<br />
dealing with my book on the White Slaves,<br />
appears to have given such sincere pleasure<br />
to many people that it may interest these further<br />
to hear that the acting editor of the periodical in<br />
which this review appears informs me that it was<br />
"written by a very capable man, who was fully in<br />
sympathy with your object, but not with your<br />
method; and had he felt it possible to deliver a<br />
favourable verdict he would gladly have done so."<br />
This letter was an answer to one of mine, in<br />
which I had pointed out certain misrepresenta-<br />
tions, and had objected to the introduction, as<br />
irrelevant, of the following remark: "Mr. Sherard,<br />
we understand, has published novels. They do<br />
not appear to have brought him a great reputa-<br />
tion. This is somewhat strange. 'The White<br />
Slaves of England' is proof that, as a fiction<br />
writer, Mr. Sherard possesses powers of no common<br />
order."<br />
The acting editor in question concludes his<br />
letter with a piece of advice. "Meantime," he<br />
writes, " if you will permit me, in all friendliness,<br />
to say so, nothing could be calculated to do you<br />
more harm than the foolish document you send<br />
from the 'degenerate' Max Nordau." This in<br />
reference to a long critique which the author of<br />
"Degeneration "—whom I have only met once in<br />
my life—wrote me spontaneously after reading the<br />
book in question. This review and this letter<br />
form a valuable addition to the literary documents<br />
which the publication of " The White Slaves " has<br />
brought with it, and to which I referred in my<br />
last.<br />
George Cable, the American author, is to visit<br />
England shortly on a lecture tour, and will make<br />
his dfbnt at Liverpool, when Ian Maclaren will<br />
take the chair. Though a man of very small<br />
physique, Mr. Cable is a powerful speaker, having<br />
been specially trained for the lecture platform by<br />
a New YorK elocutionist. He is the delight of<br />
American audiences, and it is to be hoped that his<br />
reception in England may be a very warm one.<br />
Mr. Cable believes in regularity and methodicity<br />
of work. He sits down to his work every<br />
morning at nine o'clock with the strictest<br />
punctuality, and writes till one, when he lunches,<br />
resuming work at two, and working on steadily<br />
till six.<br />
I am very glad to hear that Mark Twain's<br />
financial troubles have been greatly exaggerated<br />
in the papers, and that his deliverance from the<br />
same is only a question of months, so that one of<br />
the best fellows in the world will soon be released<br />
from what is more cruel to the writer than to<br />
any other worker. Mark's troubles all sprang<br />
from a type-setting machine, an invention in<br />
which he sank every penny of his fortune; and<br />
h propos of this a pretty and very creditable story<br />
is told of him. When, on a New Year's Day, he<br />
carried to Mrs. Grant, as her first returns on the<br />
"Lifeof General Grant," the largest cheque which<br />
has ever changed hands over a literary transac-<br />
tion, Mrs. Grant asked him to invest it for<br />
her. "No, no," said Mark Twain, "don't ask<br />
me to do that. I should only invest it in this<br />
type-setting machine, and there's far too much<br />
risk about that." I think this was very fine of<br />
Mark Twain.<br />
Mark Twain's description of the Jubilee pro-<br />
cession, published in the New York Journal, was<br />
considered in America a magnificent piece of<br />
writing. Hearst, the proprietor of the Journal,<br />
is very anxious that Mark Twain should con-<br />
tribute a series of fifty letters to the Sunday issue<br />
of his paper.<br />
The fight for pre-eminence between the Journal<br />
and the World is not without its pathos. However<br />
much one may disapprove of Mr. Joseph Pulitzer's<br />
journalistic methods, one cannot but admire his<br />
stupendous energy. He is almost, if not totally,<br />
blind; he is a confirmed invalid (they say of him,<br />
in New York, that he has seven organic diseases),<br />
yet since the competition of the Journal began<br />
to make itself felt, he has resumed the<br />
entire direction of his colossal enterprise, and<br />
may be seen day and night—as in the old<br />
days of his early struggles —â– working from<br />
fifteen to twenty hours out of the twenty-four,<br />
surrounded by stenographers, fighting a fight of<br />
the bitterness of which none but those who know<br />
the fierceness of the competition in American<br />
journalism can have any conception, 10 maintain<br />
the supremacy, commercial, it must be admitted,<br />
of his creation, a creation of which, he is so<br />
proud, that one day he told me that he would far<br />
rather see his son edito â– of the New York World<br />
than President of the United States, for the power<br />
and influence enjoyed.<br />
The Mercnre de France publishing house in<br />
Paris allows its authors to stamp each copy of<br />
a book published by that firm as a check<br />
on sales. Whether this is the reason of the<br />
popularity which this firm enjoys amongst authors<br />
I do not know, but the fact is that the Edition du<br />
Mercure de France is getting all the books of the<br />
younger authors, and has scored many successes,<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 98 (#516) #############################################<br />
<br />
98<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
including the most phenomenal success known in<br />
the Paris publishing trade during the last five<br />
years. A similar plan was under consideration by<br />
the Canadian Government. It was proposed that<br />
the author should stamp each copy of his book—<br />
he could either do it himself or by deputy—at<br />
one of the Government offices at Toronto, and<br />
that only books so stamped would enjoy copy-<br />
right protection, unstamped copies being regarded<br />
as piracies. It was also proposed that the author's<br />
royalties should be paid to him directly by the<br />
Government office. I may add that it would<br />
have been necessary, had this proposal been carried<br />
into effect, only to bring the fly-leaves of the<br />
edition to the stamping house. I remember that<br />
when something similar was proposed in England,<br />
a publisher wrote pointing out the material diffi-<br />
culty of sending van-loads of books—representing<br />
the first edition of a popular author's book—to the<br />
author's house to be stamped, and suggesting the<br />
probable reluctance of the author to deal with<br />
such a task. It is, of course, the less popular<br />
authors—the men to whom the selling of a single<br />
copy is of some importance—who would mainly<br />
benefit, and to whom this system would be most<br />
welcome.<br />
A charming photograph of Sir Henry Irving—<br />
as a young man—has recently come to light at a<br />
photographer's in Douglas. It should be posses-<br />
sed by every admirer. Mr. Edward Terry was<br />
acting at that time with Henry Irving in Douglas,<br />
and he recently referred to this. "I was only<br />
getting thirty shillings a week," said Mr. Terry<br />
"and you were the star." "I was a star at<br />
thirty-five shillings a week," said Henry Irving.<br />
Robert H. Shebaed.<br />
FEUILLETON.<br />
The Stoet op a Beoken Pen.<br />
UP in a garret a young author, with genius<br />
enough, as I conceive, to get him a tomb<br />
at Westminster, had he lived, died pre-<br />
maturely. The poets, therefore, in their select<br />
"Corner," have escaped crowding by one memo-<br />
rial, which is undeniably a benefit in its way.<br />
I know something about the manner of his<br />
death and something of the history of his life. I<br />
breathed the same air with him, and gripped his<br />
hand almost daily for a few years during the<br />
early part of his short career, when he roused in<br />
me a more than passing interest as a youth likely,<br />
if God favoured him, to accomplish no small<br />
thing in the world.<br />
To me, who am by nature careful, and slow to<br />
conceive and act upon ideas, his has always<br />
seemed a truly remarkable character. The con-<br />
centrated energy of mind which he was capable of<br />
manifesting moved me not a few times to admira-<br />
tion, even in his youth, and the tremendous<br />
enthnsiasm which lay behind an apparently re-<br />
served nature made me even then, at times, appre-<br />
hensive for his future. In my own mind, there<br />
can be no doubt that he had burning within him<br />
the divine spark which is called Genius.<br />
In appearance, as I last remember him, he was<br />
slender and somewhat fair, with a face narrow at<br />
the base and broad at the brow, showing the gift<br />
of a great imagination. His mouth was like a<br />
woman's; but his eyes were, perhaps, the most<br />
noteworthy feature about him—very prominent<br />
and brilliant, betokening a strong spirit in an<br />
unequal body. He was sensitive to the last<br />
degree, and, as a consequence, made few friends.<br />
With the exception of myself, he talked fami-<br />
liarly with no one during the whole term of his<br />
stay at the commercial house to which his parents<br />
sent him on leaving school, and where I first<br />
shook him by the hand. To me, however, for<br />
some reason or other, he attached himself strongly.<br />
With an almost childish craving for sympathy,<br />
when we knew each other better, he would pour<br />
into my ear the dreams and aspirations which<br />
possessed him, most of which to me seemed splen-<br />
didly impracticable, and all of which were exceed-<br />
ingly ambitious.<br />
There are three books at my side now, formerly<br />
belonging to him. They were purchased when<br />
he was nearing his fifteenth year, and two of<br />
them have a small square disfigurement on the<br />
back, underneath the title, where doubtless<br />
a secondhand-bookseller's label once adhered<br />
marking the price. One is Murray's Grammar,<br />
another a Latin Primer, and the third Trench's<br />
"Study of Words." On the fly-leaf of each<br />
book, written large in the centre of the page in<br />
an unformed hand (and yet a hand which betrays<br />
the germ of his singular individuality) is the<br />
one word, " Advance."<br />
I have found in my experience that a single<br />
word may sometimes speak a volume; and as I<br />
gaze at this one simple verb it seems to me that I<br />
see my author completely embodied in its two<br />
syllables. In writing that word he seems for the<br />
first time to have given voice to what was in him,<br />
and to have begun the inglorious tragedy of his<br />
life.<br />
The parentage of my author was humble, and<br />
it was therefore at an early hour of the day that<br />
he was started to work in the vineyard of this<br />
our world. At the period to which I have come<br />
he had for nearly two years tasted the joys of<br />
labour in the driving of a commercial pen from<br />
nine in the morning until six in the evening.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 99 (#517) #############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
99<br />
It was an evening close upon a year after the<br />
inscription of that motto in his three books, and<br />
he was seated behind one of the partitions in a<br />
little eating house in North-street, taking tea<br />
after his day's labours. Over that simple repast<br />
he perused the pages of yesterday's Telegraph.<br />
Now it happened that in that paper there appeared<br />
a leader, written in a somewhat lofty style and<br />
with considerable show of language, and dealing<br />
with matters of literary importance. On that<br />
leader he at length alighted.<br />
"While I read it," he says in his diary, "the<br />
strangest thing happened. The earth and all<br />
things vanished away from me and I Moated up<br />
into a heaven of aspiration and dreamed dreams<br />
and saw visions of the future, and found my<br />
destiny. When I returned to earth I brought a<br />
purpose with me. The spirit of language had at<br />
length found me: I had caught the melody of<br />
speech and had seen for the first time the beauty<br />
of the written word. I could no longer remain a<br />
mere reader: I also would write. The question<br />
that had for so long been dancing through my brain<br />
unanswered was then, under those circumstances,<br />
finally decided. I had identified myself: 1 was<br />
a writer."<br />
He goes on to relate, in his characteristic style,<br />
how, lost in his great discovery, he " walked the<br />
streets on air like a man with his first love, and<br />
spent the midnight hours sleepless, in the<br />
restless and delightful torture of a first conception,<br />
trying to work out an idea."<br />
That is the second chapter in the history of his<br />
life; the second stage in his development when<br />
he found what he conceived to be his purpose in<br />
life. And from the date of this discovery right<br />
onwards to the end I should say there was but<br />
one idea in his head.<br />
Then began the struggle against adverse<br />
circumstances. His education, which had been<br />
sadly curtailed, owing to poverty on the part of<br />
his parents, had to be repaired and extended;<br />
and, most galling of all, his lack of means<br />
obliged him to continue to give eight of his best<br />
hours daily to mechanical drudgery, which became<br />
abhorrence itself to him. Writing, in one place,<br />
retrospectively of this period, he says:<br />
"Ah! How I slaved, even in those early days!<br />
While the sun crossed from the East to the West<br />
my fingers would be driving that detested office<br />
pen in company with ten others, of whom I was<br />
the least. Then while the others left the office to<br />
wield a billiard cue or sing songs in friends'<br />
houses, I would mount to my own room and take<br />
up another pen or dip deep into my books for<br />
hours and hours until the oil in my lamp became<br />
midnight oil, and the short hours sounded, and a<br />
man's stride down the silent street suggested to<br />
one's mind a footstep in a city of the dead. And<br />
next morning there would come the office again;<br />
and McCrae, peering into my face with those<br />
small keen eyes of his, would point out the bluish<br />
tint round my own eyes, and would tell me,<br />
perhaps, that my voice was dry and tremulous, a<br />
sign that my nerves were becoming deranged.<br />
Dear, honest old fellow! How often did he repeat<br />
to me the maxim of which he was so fond: 'Safe<br />
with caution, Arthur, my boy, safe with caution;<br />
you are overdoing it.' I acknowledge his wisdom;<br />
but I am built in another way; and that very<br />
night would see me in front of my lamp again<br />
and my bed empty at one o'clock. No doubt I<br />
was a fool. 'Nature never can be defied with<br />
impunity, and penalty always follows abuse,' as<br />
McCrae taught me. I know it—don't I know it<br />
But I can't help it—Excelsior!"<br />
In process of time, after training his powers to<br />
some extent on syntax, Latin, and standard<br />
literature, he began to turn off at intervals<br />
scrappy productions of his own, both in prose<br />
and verse. One of the former, in a moment of<br />
self-exaltation, he posted to the editor of that<br />
important publication, Blackwood's Magazine.<br />
It was returned.<br />
"I hid it away," he says, " at the back of a<br />
drawer; read through once more the story of the<br />
early struggles of Balzac, greatest of French<br />
novelists, and set my pen again to paper."<br />
Eighteen months and more passed, and one<br />
morning the following telegram arrived at the<br />
offices in Abercrombie-street:—" My son unfit to<br />
come business for some days. Writing." It was<br />
from his father, and it was what I had for some<br />
time been expecting. I went to the outskirts of<br />
the town that evening and rang the bell of the<br />
little house wheie his parents lived. I found<br />
him in a condition that was abject; unable to<br />
remain still, his forehead like fire to the touch,<br />
and in his eyes an expression that frightened his<br />
mother, as she told me in the passage, in a<br />
whisper, the moment I arrived. I heard (what<br />
I already knew) that he had been unable to sleep<br />
for five consecutive nights, his imagination<br />
working furiously and his head swarming with<br />
nightmare immediately he closed his eves.<br />
There was nothing to be done but to call in a<br />
medical man, who administered a powerful sleeping<br />
draught. This had the desired effect of allaying<br />
the alarming activity of brain by throwing him<br />
into a stupor, but the physician afterwards<br />
informed me that he had escaped brain fever by a<br />
kind of miracle.<br />
After three weeks' complete rest he climbed his<br />
stool atthe office again, but very weak, and with his<br />
mind in a state of semi-torpor. This condition<br />
remained for nearly three months, during which<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 100 (#518) ############################################<br />
<br />
IOO<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
time the earth spun round him unregarded, and<br />
he seemed completely to have lost interest in every-<br />
thing—even in his writing. I half began to think<br />
that he had abandoned his plans, and that his<br />
ambition had died within him. But I was<br />
deceived; gradually, as his mind strengthened<br />
and freshened, the old ideas returned; the fever<br />
to write stirred in his veins again one day, and he<br />
cleaned his pens and laid paper out on his table<br />
in his bedroom. But his parents mercifully held<br />
him off from the resumption of his work for some<br />
time, and removed his lamp every night half an<br />
hour after he went to his room. At the end of a<br />
year, however, from the date of his break-down,<br />
(by which time he had recovered to a surprising<br />
degree), seeing that it was useless to deny him<br />
any longer, his parents to some extent relaxed<br />
their prohibition and he fell upon his work again,<br />
but with tempered zeal at first.<br />
Then a calamity occurred; for in ten weeks his<br />
home was empty, his father and his mother<br />
descending, almost abreast, into the same grave.<br />
He buried them in succession with many tears, and<br />
returned to the now silent little house melancholy<br />
and unsettled in mind. He was the only child<br />
of his parents; they were strange reserved<br />
people, with no capacity for making friends; and<br />
there were no relatives of theirs living that ever I<br />
heard of. I was in Canada on business at the time,<br />
and was kept away for six weeks. I am afraid<br />
I never properly understood him; I fear nobody<br />
really did. Our friendship had been somewhat<br />
strained for a while past—I think it must have<br />
been because I sometimes failed to see things as<br />
he saw them—but I was not prepared for the<br />
communication that was put into my hands on<br />
my return to Edinburgh. It bore his signature,<br />
and was dated two weeks back, my housekeeper<br />
having been instructed not to forward it, but to<br />
let it await my home-coming. In it he told me<br />
that he had sold the household effects of his late<br />
home, and, with the modest sum thus realised,<br />
intended to repair to London, and fight his way<br />
to fame in the city where so many literary men<br />
had come to light in the past. Further, he said<br />
—and this was the unkindest cut—that, knowing<br />
well enough I should not fall in with his plans,<br />
and desiring to take all the responsibility of his<br />
conduct upon his own shoulders, he would not<br />
send me his address until his name was known in<br />
the world. From the tone of his letter he<br />
evidently did not think that this determination on<br />
his part would keep us asunder very loug, and he<br />
spoke with enthusiasm of the early day when I<br />
should receive the first printed work of his pen.<br />
Anyhow, he concluded, come fortune or failure, he<br />
would be free; never again should a detested<br />
office stool support him. I did not attempt to<br />
follow him up for some months; and when I did<br />
set inquiries afloat later they came to nothing. It<br />
was not until five years afterwards that I heard<br />
news of him.<br />
The rest of my story comes partly from the<br />
lips of those who at different periods housed him<br />
as lodger, but chiefly from the many pages of<br />
diaries in which, with increasing elaborateness as<br />
he neared the end, he recorded the experiences<br />
through which he passed and the emotions which<br />
beset him as he journeyed through those lonely,<br />
ineffectual years. The self-consciousness which<br />
he developed in his solitude in the crowded<br />
wilderness of London is full of an eloquent pathos<br />
for me.<br />
He tells how he spent his first few months in<br />
the metropolis; how, seizing with avidity upon<br />
the marvellous wealth of varied life which it<br />
offered for observation, his feet never wearied of<br />
treading its highways and low places, and his eyes<br />
were never tired of gazing upon the human faces<br />
which for ever in the streets crowded about him.<br />
Somehow no other town, north or south, is like<br />
London in its peculiar fascination for the student<br />
of humanity. He says:<br />
"I think I have learnt to read the secret<br />
writing on men's faces and to gather the tale that<br />
is told by the lined mouth, the hungry, the eager,<br />
or the saddened eye, and the marked brow. I<br />
have become an artist in humanity! I can read,<br />
too, the signs of disease; the dusky pallor of<br />
complexion; the eye hung with a pouch (there<br />
are so many of these amongst the restless city<br />
men), the eye painted dark underneath; the<br />
yellow tint, the purple tint, the small red fever<br />
spot on the cheek. How many faces that pass<br />
tell disease, and how many death! And I know<br />
the character behind the prominent and the<br />
receding chin, and the full cheek, and the<br />
one with high cheek bones, and in fair<br />
hair and black hair. Also in the walk of a<br />
man and in the cut and shape of his hands as he<br />
sits in the 'buses. Humanity is becoming an<br />
open book to me. Many strangers I pity who<br />
pass me, and many I despise, and some I love.<br />
There are a few faces burnt deep into my memory<br />
that I shall never forget. A woman went by me<br />
yesterday in the street—I caught her eyes full -<br />
her face I shall never forget."<br />
There is much like this in his diary. Had I<br />
the skill, I could paint a history of him from this<br />
material which would be wondered at for nine<br />
full days. Whenever he saw a crowd he joined<br />
it, and read the faces, and afterwards recorded<br />
what he saw there in his note-books, "An acci-<br />
dent," he says in one place, "is a gold mine to<br />
me. It opens up the possibilities of the human<br />
face as lightning opens up the night."<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 101 (#519) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
101<br />
A tall, maudlin woman in University-street,<br />
one of his landladies, said to me: "He give me<br />
the creeps, sometimes, he did, the way he used to<br />
look at you, as if he could see right through you,<br />
and all the time making believe he wasn't noticing<br />
you."<br />
During his first year in London he seems to<br />
have written chiefly short stories and essays. One<br />
of the former apparently found its way into the<br />
pages of some obscure weekly journal. I have<br />
not been able to trace it, but there is a note in<br />
one of his diaries joyfully recording the event,<br />
and also the fact that it was not paid for. One<br />
day also he sent a production of his to a leading<br />
novelist for criticism, for I find amongst his<br />
letters a communication from , in which<br />
that competent writer gives him some good<br />
advice as well as some warm praise. The letter<br />
says :—<br />
"You have only to persevere in order to acquire<br />
a really fine style, a distinctive style of your own.<br />
There are turns of thought and touches which<br />
show the true possibility of style. But you seem<br />
not to have had sufficient association with the<br />
world; jour characters have not enough red<br />
blood in their veins, they are too imaginative.<br />
You should draw more upon real life for your<br />
creations."<br />
In the early part of '87, shortly after the<br />
receipt of this letter, he began his novel, the<br />
work which drew this modicum of praise from<br />
the critic's mouth. Remembering his advice, he<br />
conceived the idea of putting himself into his<br />
work, so that, as he himself expresses it, " there<br />
should be at least a pound of real human flesh<br />
amongst my characters."<br />
"For," he continues, "what my literary friend<br />
says is, I fear, but too true. My field, which I<br />
thought so rich, is after all a barren one. A<br />
man's face I may know, I may be able to read the<br />
speech that is in his eyes, or tell the malady that<br />
is in his body, but I do not know his soul. I<br />
have never seen a mother actually bereft of her<br />
child, nor have I yet seen amongst those I know<br />
two loving hearts torn asunder. I may fancy I<br />
can read the history of such things in the faces<br />
of strangers; but I cannot be sure. I have never<br />
had another soul beside my own fully bared to<br />
my vision. If there would but come a violent<br />
passion of love in my own breast! So my<br />
characters have not much flesh and bone; they<br />
do not seem to palpitate with real emotion as if<br />
they had lived and loved, and wept, and beat<br />
their hearts out against the world. However,<br />
there is myself. I have lived, and if I have not<br />
yet loved, I have wept, and I have already been<br />
roughly handled by the world. I had. not<br />
thought of that before. I will put myself into<br />
my work."<br />
To this end therefore there sprang into<br />
existence at this period some further note books,<br />
and he also began to greatly elaborate the diaries<br />
which he already used. There is a book labelled<br />
"My Emotions," another "My Appearance," a<br />
third " Thoughts," and in these he daily dissected<br />
himself and served himself up for his novel. I<br />
have had tears in my eyes in reading some of<br />
these notes.<br />
Slowly and with infinite pains the work was<br />
created. About the period when he would be in<br />
the middle of it there occurs a sentence in the<br />
book of "Thoughts," over which I have bent my<br />
brows many times. It is in the centre of a clean<br />
page; there is no other writing on the page.<br />
It is :—<br />
"Love paints the world with roses for a man—and for a<br />
month!"<br />
Why he wrote this sentence and left it alone ou<br />
the sheet I cannot gather, for nowhere in the<br />
whole number of his books are the details filled<br />
in. Only, there is a gap of three months in the<br />
diary of '88 caused by the removal of many<br />
leaves; and, also, it was about this time that his<br />
heart went more completely than ever into his<br />
book and he began to sit over it with such<br />
incessant energy. The sentence is pregnant and<br />
impressive enough; it holds the suggestion of a<br />
bitter story within its narrow compass, and the<br />
active imagination may fill it in. But one would<br />
like to have known in detail how his singular<br />
heart was captured and occupied and then left<br />
desolate; what the circumstances were and who<br />
was the person that stirred that " violent passion<br />
of love in his own breast" (if it were such) for<br />
which he had so ardently longed.<br />
How he lived about this period has been some-<br />
thing of a mystery to me, for he was apparently<br />
producing nothing that paid. On this matter he<br />
is silent in his diaries. But there are certain<br />
indications which would had one almost to<br />
suppose that he wrote short stories for a woman<br />
who paid him for them and published them under<br />
her own name.<br />
His novel became his very daily bread.<br />
"I have sat over it," he wrote just before it was<br />
finished, "for six half years, sometimes with<br />
burning eyes and flying pen—beautiful sensation!<br />
sometimes almost weeping. I have continued over<br />
it often, till a dull pain coming out of the side of<br />
my head has warned me that I have gone too<br />
far, and shall pay for it with a sleepless night."<br />
He had been living in a way that was certain<br />
to kill him. He had a constitutional weakness<br />
which made his mode of life to him like a stone<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 102 (#520) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOtt.<br />
round the neck of a man in the water. In one<br />
place he says:<br />
"It was good of my father to give me his<br />
powerful nervous brain for heritage, but I could<br />
have dispensed with my mother's weak heart.<br />
That dusky pallor is always on my face now;<br />
people have begun to notice it in the streets;<br />
Mary can run up the stairs easily. I am older<br />
than she, and I am a man, but I had to stop four<br />
times this morning coming up the stairs, and T<br />
get these feelings of deadly faintness more often.<br />
I must drink more brandy."<br />
And yet, apparently, he never had a serious<br />
thought of giving up. The tenacity of his<br />
ambition was terrible, and his heart, although<br />
weak at the valves, was the heart of a hero. His<br />
pen still went from side to side of the MS., and at<br />
the other end of it his weakening brain continued<br />
to evolve the novel. At length the following<br />
entry appears:<br />
"I am now a prisoner in my own room as<br />
secure as ever Crusoe was on his famous island;<br />
I have not been out of the house for three weeks,<br />
and see no present likelihood of going. That<br />
terrible flight of stairs has mastered me at last.<br />
Regent's Park is now a thing of the past. I<br />
finished my novel yesterday, and this morning<br />
pushed it away from me in disgust. All is<br />
vanity beneath the sun! I will get Mary to buy<br />
me some flowers—I almost forget the smell of<br />
them."<br />
On Sept. 20, 1894 he was up in a garret within<br />
ear-shot of the traffic of Marylebone-road. It<br />
was a tall house in reduced circumstances and<br />
now let out to many lodgers. There was a church<br />
within throwing distance from the back, and<br />
when the wind was in the right direction and the<br />
windows were open, one might detect some fra-<br />
grance in the air from Regent's Park. But the<br />
author's window had not been opened for many<br />
days.<br />
There was a servant girl at this place between<br />
whom and the author there appears to have<br />
existed a bond of genuine friendship, and from<br />
her I gathered much of the information which has<br />
enabled me to fill in the details of these last<br />
pages. A little brown-eyed, sympathetic girl,<br />
quite out of place in the sordid London lodging-<br />
house.<br />
The first entry in his diary of this date is<br />
unfinished, and the writing is that of one in<br />
pain:<br />
"It is early morning. I can just hear the<br />
market carts rumbling by in the distance. I am<br />
half dead. No sleep now for nearly a week, and<br />
my head racked with neuralgia"<br />
There is also the last entry in the book labelled<br />
"My Appearance," which was no doubt made on<br />
this day, although he did a quite unusual thing<br />
for him in omitting to date the page:<br />
"Dark and hollow under the eyes; Hps<br />
colourless, and cheeks more dusky white than<br />
ever."<br />
Mary came up at nine with his breakfast, and<br />
found him in his armchair, his novel open on his<br />
lap, but his head resting on his hand, and his<br />
eyes fixed vacantly upon the fire-place. As<br />
Mary was lighting the fire he asked' her a<br />
question.<br />
"Mary, did you ever hear of anyone who had<br />
forgotten how to pray?"<br />
Mary said, "No, Sir."<br />
"No!" he said in a low voice, and remained<br />
quiet.<br />
There are no more entries in his books. At<br />
one his dinner came up, and went away again<br />
untasted. He talked with Mary as long as she<br />
could stay, told her the neuralgia had now gone,<br />
and that he had had a sort of a doze but did not<br />
feel refreshed, on the contrary he felt more<br />
exhausted; and asked her about her home in<br />
Suffolk. He seemed to cling to her presence like<br />
a child. And when the sound of her over-large<br />
shoes on the stairs had died away in the base-<br />
ment he felt as if all the world had left him<br />
alone to die. He told her this when she brought<br />
up his tea.<br />
That long afternoon must have crawled away<br />
by hours that seemed endless. Wrapped in his<br />
long overcoat (which he always wore about the<br />
room), and with his hands lying listlessly on the<br />
chair arms, he waited and waited.<br />
Outside, there was a white, dead sky weeping a<br />
dismal mist, the smoke, under the influence of<br />
the heavy air, curling low as it left the chimney<br />
pots opposite and wreathing outside his window;<br />
and there was the faint sound of traffic from<br />
the streets; and there were the chimes at<br />
intervals from the clock of the neighbouring<br />
church.<br />
What thoughts came to him in that lonely vigil<br />
waiting for the Messenger, one can only in faith<br />
and hope surmise. One wonders if he had even<br />
then quite penetrated to the vanity of human<br />
things; if he beheld anything beyond the dust<br />
and ashes; if God came first and, in the last<br />
hour, before the Messenger arrived, taught him<br />
how to pray.<br />
Once, unable for the moment to bear it any<br />
longer, he sent his hand out towards the bell-rope<br />
—the tongue of the bell in the basement lifted<br />
and swung within an ace of striking. But it did<br />
not: and he waited on alone.'<br />
At six, the mockery of tea, and conversation<br />
with Mary. At eleven, Marv, looking sleepily in<br />
at the doorway, saw the author lying- on his bed<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 103 (#521) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
103<br />
in his clothes. She thought him asleep, and<br />
carried her candle into her bedroom opposite, but<br />
left his door ajar.<br />
Twelve; and, later, the clocks with an un-<br />
happy want of unanimity struck one. A minute<br />
afterwards there was a sound in his room<br />
as of a match being scratched along its bos<br />
unsteadily; then the same sound again; thea<br />
the noise of something like a book striking the<br />
floor.<br />
Whether it reached his ears or not I cannot<br />
say, but next minute there came the creaking of<br />
a door, and Mary, in her nightdress, was crouch-<br />
ing in his doorway peering into the room with<br />
large frightened eyes. What she saw and<br />
heard, down to the minutest detail, appears<br />
to have been cut into her mind with terrible<br />
distinctness.<br />
The author was muttering, " It's come at last,"<br />
meaning, doubtless, the end. He was in his arm-<br />
chair, his face showing deathly white against its<br />
black leather ; there was a glowing match between<br />
his fingers and a candle sputtering on the table<br />
immediately before him.<br />
There was dead stillness for a moment when<br />
the candle burnt with a clear flame and the<br />
shadows in the room receded. The servant was<br />
about to make a movement to go to him, but she<br />
held back; for his hands, still with the match<br />
between the fingers, were coming together in the<br />
attitude of prayer. But suddenly his head and<br />
arms fell forward—a cab rattled by in the street<br />
below—and Mary, with a smothered scream,<br />
fainted in the doorway.<br />
When she opened her eyes and presently<br />
recovered, the candle was out, but pale moonlight<br />
was in the room and around the figure in the<br />
chair.<br />
Coming in stealthily, she gazed at the head<br />
that was hanging motionless on the breast and at<br />
the right hand, which would not hold a pen again,<br />
falling straight and limp by his side. Then,<br />
shivering, and with her hands over her eyes, she<br />
went to call her mistress.<br />
When his novel came out one of the critics<br />
said: "There are unquestionable signs of<br />
something more than talent in this work—<br />
there is promise of real genius. Who is the<br />
author?"<br />
The Vestry of Marylebone, at any time, pro-<br />
vided expenses are defrayed, can produce a hand-<br />
ful, of bones from one of their pauper coffins, the<br />
remains of this dead autltor.<br />
BOOS ADVERTISE IN 1900.<br />
THE following appears in the Month of New<br />
York. It will perhaps furnish a few<br />
instructive suggestions to some of our own<br />
enterprising publishers:—<br />
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tising of books in the conventional, legitimate way, has amused<br />
himself by making up the following sample of an advertisement such<br />
as we may expect to see in the year ltwo. There is humour In the<br />
Idea, and it has been carried out in the happiest spirit"<br />
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EIGHT (8) FAMOUS AUTHORS.<br />
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SEVEN (7) HEROINES.<br />
Four blondes, three brunettes.<br />
SIX (0) HEROES.<br />
Count them for yourself.<br />
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GREAT TRIPLE PLOT.<br />
Enacted simultaneously In London, Duluth, and Smolensk.<br />
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CHIEF<br />
Railroad Collisions<br />
Marriage*<br />
Abductions<br />
Court Scenes<br />
Scandal*<br />
Death Beds (all fatal)<br />
Subvay ex}>losion<br />
INCIDENTS.<br />
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N.B.—Costumes in this novel described by "Gyp"; subtleties by<br />
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services by a corps of carefully selected and highly trained bishops;<br />
drunks and disorderlies by Stephen Crane.<br />
SCRIP & COMPANY, Publishers, Hew York.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 104 (#522) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
FREEDOM OF CRITICISM.<br />
AN action for libel was brought a few weeks<br />
ago by Miss Lottie Collins, a music-hall<br />
artiste, against Society, a journal which<br />
had criticised one of the songs of her repertoire.<br />
For describing the song as vulgar, the editor had<br />
to pay ,£25. Writing in To-Day, Mr. S. L.<br />
Bensusan tells us that unintelligent "puff" has<br />
been the form of notice which music-hall per-<br />
formances have received in the Press until lately,<br />
when there has been an attempt to substitute the<br />
critique for the " puff." This authority would like<br />
to see men representing responsible journals<br />
taking up a fair and well-defined position with<br />
regard to the variety stage; in nearly every<br />
respect, he says, the modern music-hall calls for<br />
reform. But that is a question apart. The<br />
point the journalist and the critic may be supposed<br />
to put is this: If the criticism of a song is<br />
penalised to-day, what guarantee is there that a<br />
British jury may not fall foul of the criticism of<br />
a book to-morrow?<br />
Another aspect. The Newspaper Society has<br />
issued a return of the number of libel actions,<br />
mostly against newspapers, which have been tried<br />
in recent years. In 1878 there were forty-six; in<br />
1896 there were eighty-two. The total damages<br />
noted in the High Court returns for last year was<br />
.£18,238. The amount of the costs is not<br />
recorded, nor the amount paid to settle the<br />
thirty or forty cases settled out of court; but<br />
probably the total penalty is not less than<br />
£50,000 a year. The Daily Chronicle, in re-<br />
cording these figures, is confident that a large<br />
part of the money is a fine which the newspapers<br />
have to pay for doing their duty. How easy and<br />
cheap a notice of an action for libel is, the words<br />
of NortJiern Finance and Trade, a Manchester<br />
organ, explain :—<br />
The initiatory coat of issuing the writ need not be more<br />
than a few shillings, and the man who takes it oat may not<br />
even intend to take it into court, the object being to frighten<br />
the individual against whom the document is issued, to pay<br />
something in damages and costs rather than go through a<br />
long, costly, and harassing action at law. No matter how<br />
trivial the charge of libel may bo; nor how certain it may<br />
be that the plaintiff will withdraw from the action; the<br />
unfortunate defendant has to take all Bteps to defend<br />
himself as if the action would be fought out; and the first<br />
call upon him is generally .£150 on the part of his own<br />
solicitor, " to be going on with." Of course, in nine cases<br />
out of ten, the plaintiff is no better than a blackmailer and<br />
a man of straw, and an action for libel lands an editor in<br />
a big loss, although he may win all along the line.<br />
A recent utterance of Lord Chief Justice<br />
Russell is very valuable as an aid to—at any<br />
rate—the critic of financial schemes in the dis-<br />
charge of his duty. In the case of Wicks v. The<br />
Financial Times, the Lord Chief Justice con-<br />
cluded his charge to the jury in these terms:<br />
Gentlemen, I repeat, the main question is, Is this an honest<br />
article f If you arrive at the conclusion that it is an<br />
honest article, I would not advise you to be astute to see<br />
whether there may not be here or there a little more<br />
exaggeration than your own judgment would go with. I would<br />
not advise you to be scrupulous to consider and scrutinise<br />
whether the writer has crossed all his t's and dotted all<br />
his i's. As was once said in a case of libel, I would not<br />
advise you to condemn the defendant merely because the<br />
patches and the feathers of his rhetoric have not been composed<br />
as you in your better good taste perhaps might have 00m-<br />
posed it. If you believe the thing is honest, I would not<br />
look for inaccuracies, unless they are inaccuracies which<br />
you think of the greatest importance as indicating unfair-<br />
ness or as constituting libels and imputations. If, on the<br />
contrary, you think it is dishonest, and that there is any<br />
foundation, any real foundation, I mean, for the suggestion<br />
that it iB not an honestly conceived article, then, of course,<br />
you ought to give your verdict for the plaintiff. But if you<br />
think it was honest, if you think, taking the whole thing<br />
into consideration, either that there is no libel, or that,<br />
although there are observations in it which in your judg-<br />
ment might be so considered, yet they are covered by fair<br />
comment, you ought to give your verdiot for the defen-<br />
dants.<br />
BOOK TALE.<br />
EEADERS who are interested in India may<br />
be glad to know that Messrs. W. Thacker,<br />
of Creed-lane, have in the press a book of<br />
social gossip, dating from a period a little earlier<br />
than the "Forty-one Years of Lord Roberts,<br />
which has had such a remarkable success. The<br />
present work is called "A Servant of John<br />
Company," and contains the recollections of Mr.<br />
H. G-. Keene, CLE., with illustrations (from the<br />
author's sketches) drawn by the well-known artist<br />
of the Illustrated London News, Mr. Wm.<br />
Simpson, R.I.<br />
Mr. Tighe Hopkins has written the Christmas<br />
annual for Mr. Arrowsmith's Bristol Library<br />
this year, and has called it "Pepita of the<br />
Pagoda."<br />
Mr. Rudyard Kipling's works are to be issued<br />
in a uniform edition of twelve volumes, by Messrs.<br />
Macmillan. The first volume " Plain Tales from<br />
the Hills," containing a new portrait of the author,<br />
etched by Mr. William Strang, will probably<br />
appear next month, the others following at<br />
monthly intervals. The issue of the edition is<br />
limited to 1050 copies. Each volume will cost<br />
half a guinea net.<br />
Mr. Cutcliffe Hine's new book, "The Paradise<br />
Coal-Boat," to be published by Mr. James<br />
Bowden, is the outeome of many thousand miles<br />
of travel, and deals specially with the life of the<br />
steamer sailor.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 105 (#523) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
Mr. E. D. Chetwode has a new story to be pub-<br />
lished by Messrs. Pearson. It will be called<br />
"John of Strathbourne," and it is laid in the<br />
stirring times of Francis the First.<br />
It has been announced that a Dutch publisher<br />
has already brought out a Dutch translation of<br />
Miss Olive Schreiner's "Trooper Peter Halkett<br />
of Mashonaland," and that the owners of the<br />
English copyright are never likely to get a penny<br />
therefrom.<br />
The Rev. S. Baring-Gould is engaged on a<br />
Welsh story.<br />
An edition of "The Shepheard's Calender,"<br />
with twelve pictures and other devices, by Mr.<br />
Walter Crane, is in preparation by Messrs. Harper<br />
Brothers.<br />
Mr. Bichard Ashe King is writing a new Life<br />
of Goldsmith.<br />
"John Oliver Hobbes's" new novel, "The<br />
School for Saints," is announced among the<br />
early autumn publications of Mr. Unwin.<br />
The Eev. H. R. Haweis has written a volume<br />
on "Old Violins" for Mr. George Redway's<br />
series of books for collectors.<br />
A selection of the late R. L. Stevenson's poems<br />
has been set to music by Katharine M. Ram-<br />
say, and will be published as "Song Flowers," by<br />
Messrs. Gardner, Darton, and Co. Mr. S. R.<br />
Crockett has written an introduction for the<br />
volume, and the illustrated headings and tail-<br />
pieces will be by Mr. Gordon Browne.<br />
A book by Miss Susan Horner on Greek Vases,<br />
containing a history of their manufacture, their<br />
uses, and their gradual development, illustrated,<br />
will be published by Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein.<br />
Mr. Claude Phillips is at work on a catalogue<br />
of the Wallace Collection of pictures, of which<br />
he has been appointed keeper. He has also in<br />
view a more elaborate work on the subject.<br />
Mr. George Griffith has written an historical<br />
romance called "The Knights of the White<br />
Rose," telling of the adventures in the service of<br />
the Grand Monarch of a company of exiled sons<br />
of English, Scotch, and Irish noble families. It<br />
will be published by Messrs. F. V. White and Co.<br />
Mr. F. C. Burkitt will edit the fragment of<br />
Aquila which he recently discovered in the<br />
Cambridge University Library. The volume will<br />
contain photographs, and probably an excursus or<br />
appendix by Dr. Taylor, master of St. John's<br />
College.<br />
The story for girls written by the late Christina<br />
Rosetti nearly fifty years ago, which was an-<br />
nounced in these columns some months ago, is<br />
now announced by Mr. James Bowden for early<br />
publication. It is entitled "Maude," and has<br />
not hitherto been published. A short sketch<br />
of the authoress, by Dante G. Rossetti, and a<br />
preface, giving the history of the story, by W. M.<br />
Rossetti, will be included.<br />
Mr. Brimley Johnson is editing a selection of<br />
the prose writings of the late W. B. Rands, better<br />
known under the pseudonym of "Matthew<br />
Browne." The volume will be published by Mr.<br />
James Bowden.<br />
Mr. A. E. T. Watson, editor of the Badminton<br />
Magazine, is bringing out a volume of his stories<br />
through Messrs. Longman.<br />
Mrs. Walford will be represented this autumn<br />
by a novel entitled " Iva Kildare," which Messrs.<br />
Longman hope to issue next month.<br />
Miss Nina F. Layard has placed a volume<br />
entitled " Songs in Many Moods" with Messrs.<br />
Longman for publication.<br />
A new illustrated edition of Thackeray's works<br />
will begin to appear shortly, with biographical<br />
and anecdotal introductions by Mrs. Richmond<br />
Ritchie. Each novel will be complete in one<br />
volume, and they will appear at intervals of one<br />
month. A hitherto unpublished portrait of the<br />
novelist will be given. The publishers, of course,<br />
are Messrs. Smith, Elder, and Co.<br />
George Eliot's "Scenes of Clerical Life" will<br />
shortly be published in a sixpenny edition, by<br />
Messrs. Blackwood.<br />
Mr. E. Livingston Prescott's new romance of<br />
military life, called "The Rip's Redemption,"<br />
will be published in a few days by Messrs. Nisbet.<br />
"To Be Had in Remembrance" is the title of<br />
a new anthology of poems concerning the future<br />
life, which will be edited by Mr. A. E. Chance<br />
and published by Mr. Stock.<br />
Mr. Blackmore's new romance, "Dariel," will<br />
be issued shortly by Messrs. Blackwood. "Loraa<br />
Doone," by the way, is about to be published by<br />
Messrs. Sampson Low in a sixpenny form.<br />
Mr. Robert Leighton and Mrs. Marie Connor<br />
Leighton, who have written a number of serials,<br />
are about to publish certain of them in volume<br />
form through Mr. Grant Richards. The first will<br />
be '* Convict 99."<br />
Miss Jean Middlemass is about to run a serial<br />
called "A Life's Surrender" in the syndicate of<br />
newspapers connected with the National Press<br />
Agency.<br />
Mr. Graham Wallas has written "The Life of<br />
Francis Place," which Messrs. Longman will<br />
publish.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 106 (#524) ############################################<br />
<br />
io6<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
The late William Morris's last wort, "The<br />
Sundering Flood," is nearly ready at the Kelms-<br />
cott Press. There will be 300 copies at the sub-<br />
scription price of two guineas, and ten on vellum<br />
at ten guineas.<br />
Miss H. C. Foxcroft is the author of "TheLife<br />
and Letters of Sir George Savile, Baronet, First<br />
Marquis of Halifax," which Messrs. Longman<br />
have in the press.<br />
The volume edited by Mr. Frederick Wedmore<br />
and his daughter, and entitled "Poems of the<br />
Love and Pride of England," will be published<br />
shortly by Messrs. Ward, Lock, and Co. Among<br />
living writers who will be represented in it are<br />
Mr. Swinburne, Mr. Austin Dobson, Mr. Watts-<br />
Dunton, the Poet Laureate, Sir Lewis Morris,<br />
Mr. William Watson, Mr. Kobert Bridges, and<br />
Mr. Conan Doyle.<br />
Mr. Walter Redmond, M.P., has contributed<br />
articles to an Irish newspaper on "A Shooting<br />
Trip in the Australian Bush," the result of his<br />
visit there. These will be published in book<br />
form, and will constitute Mr. Redmond's debut<br />
as an author.<br />
The Marquis of Granby is writing "The<br />
Trout," and Mr. J. E. Harting "The Rabbit,"<br />
for Messrs. Longman and Co.'s "Fur, Feather,<br />
and Fin" series of volumes.<br />
The fourth and last volume of the "Life of<br />
Edward Bouverie Pusey, D.D.," by Dr. Liddon,<br />
edited and prepared for publication by the Rev.<br />
J. 0. Johnston, the Rev. Dr. Wilson, and the<br />
Rev. Canon Newbolt, is in the press by Messrs.<br />
Longman.<br />
The second volume of Dr. Gardiner's "History<br />
of the Commonwealth" is in the press (Long-<br />
man).<br />
Mr. J. K. Laughton is preparing "The Life<br />
and Letters of Henry Reeve, C.B.," late editor of<br />
the Edinburgh Review, which will be published<br />
by Messrs. Longman. This firm will also pub-<br />
lish in the course of the autumn a memoir of<br />
the late Sir Henry Rawlinson, Bart., <fce. It is<br />
written chiefly by the Rev. Canon Rawlinson, but<br />
the present baronet will contribute one chapter,<br />
and Lord Roberts another.<br />
Mr. W. W. Yates has written " The Father of<br />
the Brontes." He has made a close study of the<br />
family history. A portrait of Mr. Bronte as he<br />
was in 1809 will be given.<br />
"Wellington: His Comrades and his Contem-<br />
poraries," is the title of a work on the great<br />
soldier by Major Griffiths, which Mr. George<br />
Allen will publish.<br />
Mr. Bernard Quaritch has in hand the publica-<br />
tion of a work entitled "A Florentine Picture-<br />
Chronicle: Being a Series of Ninety-nine Draw-<br />
ings representing Scenes and Personages of<br />
Sacred and Profane History by Maso Finiguerra,<br />
Reproduced in Facsimile from the Originals in<br />
the British Museum by the Imperial Press,<br />
Berlin, with a Critical and Descriptive Text by<br />
Sidney Colvin, M.A., Keeper of the Prints and<br />
Drawings in the British Museum." The British<br />
Museum acquired the drawings in 1889 from Mr.<br />
Ruskin, who had bought them eighteen years<br />
previously. Mr. Colvin at length discovered<br />
evidence to show that they are the work of the<br />
famous Florentine goldsmith, niello-worker, and<br />
engraver, Maso Finiguerra (1426-1464). Mr.<br />
Colvin hopes to set forth in quite a new light the<br />
artistic personality of this master. The edition<br />
of the work will consist of 300 copies, the price to<br />
subscribers before publication being ^9 9s., and<br />
afterwards ,£12 12*.<br />
LITERATURE IN THE PERIODICALS.<br />
Book Titles. Daily Newt for Ang. 7. Daily Chronicle<br />
for Ang. 13.<br />
Booksellers' Discounts. Interview with Mr. T. Bar*<br />
leigh: Daily Chronicle for Aug. 14. Interview with Mr.<br />
Frederick Maomillan: Daily News for Ang. 4. Opinions of<br />
Booksellers; Daily News for Aug. 11 and 13. Interview<br />
with Mr. M. H. Hodder: Daily News for Ang. 16.<br />
The True Story of Eugene Aram. H. B. Irving.<br />
Nineteenth Century for Angnst.<br />
The Novels of Mr. George Gissing. H. G. Wells.<br />
Contemporary Revieic for Angnst.<br />
George Du Maurier. Henry James. Barper't for<br />
September.<br />
The Sentiment of Chivalry: Burke and Scott.<br />
T. £. Kebbel. Macmillan't Magazine for Angnst.<br />
Some Unpublished Letters of Dean Swift. Geo.<br />
Birkbeck Hill. Atlantic Monthly for Angnst and September.<br />
Ten Years of English Literature. Edmund Gosse.<br />
North American Review for Angnst.<br />
Stationers' Hall has printed a " Lexicographical<br />
Index " of all productions entered there since the<br />
passing of the Copyright Act of 1842. From that<br />
year up to 1884 all entries made at the Hall are<br />
alphabetically indexed, either under authors'<br />
names or under titles; while from 1884 forward,<br />
not only authors and titles, but sub-titles, subjects,<br />
and even publishers, are recorded in the same<br />
alphabetical arrangement. This is a substantial<br />
reform, but the drawback, as the Daily News<br />
writer remarks, lies in the fact that the Copyright<br />
Acts impose no obligation to register literary pro-<br />
ductions unless the owner of the copyright is<br />
about to take legal proceedings for infringement<br />
—which he very seldom has to do. "It would<br />
certainly be safe to say that of the quarter of a<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 107 (#525) ############################################<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
million or more of books and pamphlets published<br />
in Great Britain since 1842, not 25,000 have been<br />
heard of at Stationers' Hall." Therefore, "Mr.<br />
Payn's felicitations to his brother novelists and<br />
men of letters, must continue to be premature till<br />
the Legislature has created that long-desired<br />
institution, a compulsory register of all literary<br />
property." It is also suggested that the fee for<br />
registration should be reduced from 5*. to, say, is.<br />
Another proposal is that an index of all books<br />
as they reach the British Museum should be<br />
made there, and kept at the disposal of those who<br />
wish to consult it.<br />
Mr. T. Burleigh, of Oxfoi-d-street, who is the<br />
secretary of the Booksellers' Association, has<br />
given extracts from his own business ledger to<br />
prove the narrow profits that are being made in<br />
the trade. He quotes his dealings with eight<br />
first-class publishers for a certain period. All<br />
the books are copyright volumes. Here is the<br />
statement:<br />
JB1649 10s. 6<2. did not produce enough to pay working<br />
expenses.<br />
JE1391 7s. yd. produced 2j per cent, beyond working<br />
expenses.<br />
JE406 6s. yd. produced 51 per cent.<br />
.£14 28. od. „ 10 „<br />
£$3 31. gd. „ ii „<br />
£74 17s. gd. „ 7<br />
£10 7s. sd. „ 5 „<br />
JB131 118. od. ., 3 „<br />
£16 is. 6d. just paid working expenses.<br />
The above represents handling thousands of<br />
books by the best authors, "Surely," says Mr.<br />
Burleigh, "those authors may well consider<br />
whether such a condition of the book trade can<br />
be satisfactory to anybody." Out of his profit<br />
he has to make good the loss on ,£1649 10s. 6d.,<br />
and to keep stock. "I want to know," he adds,<br />
"where I come in for food and raiment?"<br />
Mr. Glaisher, bookseller, declares that the<br />
proposed change to a fixed discount of 2d. in<br />
the i*. would be bad for authors and publishers,<br />
and would make the whole trade suffer. It<br />
would mean, for one thing, a decrease in the sale<br />
of six-shilling novels, for although the public<br />
have said nothing yet about these becoming<br />
shorter and padded out with leaded type, they<br />
would not give an extra sixpence for them.<br />
What the country bookseller suffers from, in Mr.<br />
Glaisher's opinion, is lack of enterprise. "I find<br />
country drapers much more awake," he declares,<br />
"than the booksellers are. Offer a country<br />
draper a special book, and if the price is low he<br />
will take a large stock. Then he gets a fair<br />
profit." Mr. Henry Bumpus, speaking for him-<br />
self—as distinct from his firm—doubts the<br />
wisdom of the proposed change. He is opposed<br />
to coercion, and would have any alteration of<br />
discount come about voluntarily. Another large<br />
trader is doubtful whether the opposition of the<br />
few London houses who are against the scheme<br />
could be overcome. This gentleman does not<br />
think that to the man who pays 4*. 6d. for a<br />
novel another sixpence is of vital importance;<br />
but, on the other hand, Mr. Stoneham, one of the<br />
leaders of the old "3d. in the is." party, is<br />
quite convinced that the public would not submit<br />
to this, and once the prices went up, he, for one,<br />
would not be able to sell nearly so many six-<br />
shilling novels. Mr. Kichard Poole, a country<br />
bookseller, disputes the charge that it is "lack<br />
of enterprise" prevents his class from buying<br />
largely. The reason, on the contrary, he says,<br />
is that the demand would not justify it:—<br />
Where then can his profit be if he has to pay 48. 2d. and<br />
commission, or 48. 6d. net, for his 6s. book, plus expenses?<br />
The result of these discounts is that booksellers in small<br />
country towns (and in the aggregate they are many) do<br />
not now, as a rule, Btock these books, and this fact does not<br />
tend to increase sales. The country draper may be open<br />
to buy a special book " if the price be low," but I have never<br />
yet known this apply to new books of the day.<br />
As regards the suggestion that the public will<br />
not pay 5*., instead of 4s. 6d., for the 6*. novel, a<br />
decided contradiction comes from Sheffield. The<br />
District Booksellers' Association there became<br />
convinced of the virtue of the proposed reform,<br />
and on the 1st July they began the system of<br />
allowing 2d. in the shilling off the published<br />
prices of the general run of books. Since that<br />
time the Sheffield booksellers have sold 6s. novels<br />
at 5s., and their experience—expressed officially<br />
—is that the public do not object, but, on the<br />
contrary, they purchase the books and sympathise<br />
with the movement.<br />
Mr. M. H. Hodder, of the firm of Messrs.<br />
Hodder and Stoughton, publishers, does not<br />
believe that an alteration in the discount in the<br />
country will greatly help the booksellers there.<br />
Indeed, he believes it will take trade from them.<br />
The discount system in London he is positive<br />
cannot be altered, and he foresees only a greater<br />
patronage to the metropolitan dealer if a less<br />
discount is the rule in the country. Mr. Macmillan<br />
remarks that if the authors are not willing, then<br />
the whole scheme will be dropped.<br />
Mr. Henry James enjoyed the acquaintance of<br />
the late Mr. Du Maurier during nineteen years.<br />
One of the most notable things in his paper,<br />
which is largely persona', is the account of the<br />
effect of the "Trilby" boom upon Du Maurier,<br />
an event which coincided with his diminished<br />
relish for life. Mr. James has "small difficulty<br />
in seeing" these occurrences rather painfully<br />
related:—<br />
What I Bee certainly is that no such violence of publicity<br />
can leavo untroubled and unadulterated the sources of the<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 108 (#526) ############################################<br />
<br />
io8<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
production in which it may have found Hb pretext. The<br />
whole phenomenon grew and grew until it became, at any<br />
rate for this particular victim, a fountain of gloom and a<br />
portent of woe; it darkened all his sky with a hugeness of<br />
vulgarity. It became a mere immensity of sound, the<br />
senseless hnm of a million of newspapers, and the irresponsible<br />
chatter of ten million of gossips. The pleasant sense of having<br />
done well was deprived of all sweetness, all privacy, all<br />
sanctity. . . . The demonstrations and revelations<br />
encircled him like a ronde infernale.<br />
The new Swift letters are those written by him<br />
to his friend Knightley Chetwode, of Wood-<br />
brooke, during the seventeen years (1714-1731)<br />
which followed his appointment to the deanery of<br />
St. Patrick's.<br />
THE BOOES OE THE MONTH.<br />
[August 24 to Sept. 23.—113 Books.]<br />
Allbutt, T. 0. (ed.). A System of Medicine. Vol. III. 25/- net.<br />
Ailing-ham, II., and Crawford. B. Captain Cuellar's AdTentures in<br />
Connacht and Ulster, A.D., 1588; Captain Cucllar'B Narrative of<br />
the Spanish Armada, Ac. 2/- Stock.<br />
Ames, P. W. (ed.). The Mirror of the Sinful Soul. A prose trans-<br />
lation from the French, made by the PrinccBS (afterwards Queen)<br />
Elizabeth. 10 ,'6. Ashor.<br />
Anderson, E. J. Some AspectB of Mimicry. Galway : M. Clayton.<br />
Anne, Mrs. C. A Women of Moods. 5/- Burns and Oaten.<br />
Anonymous ("A.B."). The Blasted Life. 1/- Roxbnrghe.<br />
Anonymous ("AnExpert"). A LesBon in Seeing. G.Gill<br />
Anonymous ("An Old Golfer"). Golf on a New Principle 16 net.<br />
Bournemouth: Bright.<br />
Anonymous (" One of Themselves "). Libellua Precum: A Manual<br />
of Prayers for the Use of the Clergy. 3/6. Ilodgea.<br />
Architectural Review, The. Vol. L 5 6. Builders' Journal Office.<br />
Bailey. G. H. The Principles of FruitGrowing. J'-net. Macmillan.<br />
Balfour, Andrew. By Stroke of Sword. 6/- Methuen.<br />
Bateman, G. C. The Vivarium. 7/6. Upcott Gill.<br />
Belcher, A., and Macartney, M. E. Later Renaissance Architecture<br />
in England. Part I. ill- not. BatBford.<br />
Bemmclen, J. F. Van. Guide to the Dutch East Indies (trauB. by B.<br />
J. Berrtngton) Luzac.<br />
Beresford, E. M. Songs and Shadows B/- net. Digby.<br />
Berlyii, Mrs. Alfred. Sunrise Land. 2- Jarrold.<br />
Bezant, Anna L. K. The Vocallht. 10.6 net. Augener.<br />
Bland, 0. C. S., and Bower, H. M. Ulpon Grammar School: The<br />
Foundation Charter of 1555. Edited and translated, with a<br />
Sketch of the School's llistory. Blpon: William Harrison.<br />
Bliss. W. II., and Johnson, C. Calendar of Entries in the Papal<br />
Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. III.<br />
1312—62. Eyre and Spottiswoode.<br />
Boothby, Guy. The Fascination of the King. 6/- Ward, Lock.<br />
Bridges, J. II. (ed.). The "Opua Msjus" of Roger Bacon. 32/-<br />
Frowde.<br />
Broadhurst, B. E. S. The Law and Practico of the Stock Exchange.<br />
12/6. Clowes.<br />
BurnB, Dawsan. Temperance in the Victorian Ago. Ideal Pub. Co.<br />
Caine, Hall. The Christian. A Story. 6/- Helnemann.<br />
Carter, T. ShakeBpoare, Puritan and Recusant. 2.6. Oliphant.<br />
Christian. Nicholas. That Tree of Eden. 3/6. Ilutchinson.<br />
Church, 0. M. Wells Cathedral. 1/- net. Isblster.<br />
Collins, F. Howard. Epitome of tho Synthetic Philosophy of Herbert<br />
Spencer. (4th edition; completed). WilliamB and Norgate.<br />
Cook, F.W. (ed.) Cyclists' Touring Club's British Road Book. Vol.11.<br />
12/6 net. E. Shipton.<br />
Courtney. C. F. Masonry Dams. 9/- CroBby Lockwood.<br />
"Co verts ide." A Day with Hounds and what came of It. Western<br />
Mail.<br />
Crane, Lillio. The Diamond Bangle. 1/- Digby.<br />
Cranmer-Byng, H. and L. A Romance of the Fair. Cd. Roxburgbe.<br />
Cuthell, E. E. In Camp and Cantonment. Hurst and Dlackett.<br />
Delaire, Jean. Pro Patria. 2/6. Digby.<br />
Erskine. Hon. S. (ed.) Lord Bolingbroke. (Extracts from his political<br />
writings.) 276. Roxburgbe.<br />
Fraser, Sir W. The Waterloo Ball. 10<i. F. Harvey.<br />
Fuertes, L. A. Citizen Bird (Bird Life). 6/- Macmillan.<br />
Qilkes, A. H. Eallistratus: an Autobiography. 6/- Longman.<br />
Goodchild, J. A. The Book of Tephi. 6/- Kegan Paul.<br />
Grubb, Edward. First LeasonB on tho Hebrew Prophets. 1/- net.<br />
Hoadley.<br />
Gyp. Bijou, (tr. by Alys Hallard). 8/6. Hutchinson.<br />
Hamlyn, Clarence. That Charming Widow. 6d. Boxburghe.<br />
Hart, A. B. (ed.). American History to'd by Contemporaries.<br />
Vol. L 8/6 net. Macmillan.<br />
Higginson. E. From the Land of Snow Pearls. 6/- Macmillan.<br />
Hungerford, Mrs. The Coming of Chloe. 67- White.<br />
Hunt, John. London Local Government. 63/. SteTena.<br />
Jones, R. H. Asbestos and Asbeatic. Crosby Lockwood.<br />
Judson, H. P. Growth of the American Nation. 6/- Gay and Bird.<br />
Keith, Leslie. A Bash Verdict. Bentley.<br />
Knight, William. Reigns in Rhymes. 1/- Simpkin.<br />
Knight, William (ed.). The Poetical Works of William Words-<br />
worth. 40/- Macmillan.<br />
Leonard, W. A. Story of the Priyer-Book. 1/6. Bristol: Leonard.<br />
Lewis, E. H. First Book in Writing English. 3/6 net. Macmillan.<br />
Lldgett, J. S. The Spiritual Principle of the Atonement. 6/- Kelly.<br />
Lowe, C. B. The Epic of Olympus. 5/- net. Digby.<br />
"Mae." 'Twas in Dhroll Donegal. 1/- Downey.<br />
Martin, E. A. A Bibliography of Gilbert White. 3/6. Boxburghe.<br />
Maxim, H. Maxim Aerial Torpedo. 21/- Eyre and Spottiswoode.<br />
May, Phil Phil May's "Graphic " Pictures. Eoutledge.<br />
Mayhew, E. Dogs and their Management. [Partly re-written by<br />
A. J. Sewell ] Boutledge.<br />
Meadowcroft, W. H. The A B C of the X Bsys. 4/- Simpkin.<br />
MeadowB, Lindon. Watched by Wolvea. 2/6 Boxburghe.<br />
Mew, Egan. A London Comedy and other Vanities. Redway.<br />
Morris, W. O'Connor. Hannibal. 5/- Putnam.<br />
Nisbet, Hume. On Painting In Water Colours. Beeves and Sons.<br />
Ogle, John J. The Free Library. 6/-net. G.Allen.<br />
Ortner, Jessica. Practical Millinery. 2/6. Whittaker.<br />
Otterbum, Belton. Unrelated Twins. 5/- Digby.<br />
Ouida. An Altruist. 2/6. Unwln.<br />
Pain, Barry. Tho Octave of Claudius. 6/- Harper.<br />
Palmer, F. B., and Evans, F. Company Precedents for nse in relation<br />
to Companies, subject to the Companies Acts, 1862 to 1890.<br />
Winding-up Forms and Practice. Part II. 32/- Stevens.<br />
Parkinaon, D. C. Penarth. 1/- Digby.<br />
Peek, F. The English Church, the Priest, and the Altar. Lawrence.<br />
Percival, Bight Bev. J. Some Helps for School Life. 3/6. Longman.<br />
Peters, J. P. Nippur; or, Explorations and Adventures on the<br />
Euphrates. Vol. I. 12,6. Putnam.<br />
Poole, B. L. (ed.). Historical Atlas of Modern Europe. Fart 10.<br />
3/6 net. Frowdo.<br />
Praeger, B. L. Open-air Studios in Botany. 7/6 and 8/6. Griffin.<br />
Ranjitslnhji, K. S. The Jubilee Book of Cricket 6/- and 25/- net.<br />
Blackwood.<br />
Rennel. Katharine. Shibboleth. 1/- Dlgbv.<br />
Biddell, Mrs. J. U. A Rich Man'B Daughter. White.<br />
"Rita." Good Mrs. Hypocrite. 3/6. Hutchinson.<br />
Robinson, C. H. Mohammedanism ; has it any Future? 1/6.<br />
Gardner, Darton.<br />
Rose, W. K. With the Greeks in Thessaly. 6/- Methuen.<br />
BuBh, J. A. Seats in EBsex. King, Sell, and Bailton.<br />
Russell, Israel C. Volcanoes of North America. 16/-net. Macmillan.<br />
Russell, Bita. In a Web of Gold. 1/- Digby.<br />
Sandeman, Mlna. The Worship of Lucifer. 3/6. Digby.<br />
Scott, Clement. Sisters by the S a. 1/- Greening.<br />
Sharer, W. RaiBbeck. One Heart, One Way. A/- Hurst.<br />
Sinton, John. Burns, Excise Officer and Poet: A Vindication.<br />
Simpkin.<br />
Southward, J. Progress in Printing and tho Graphic Arts during the<br />
Victorian Era. 2/6. Simpkin.<br />
S'ep, Edward. By the Deep Sea. Jarrold.<br />
Stevenson, Sur.-Col. W. F. Wounds In War. 18/- Macmillan.<br />
Stockard, H. J. Fugitive Lines. 4/- Putnam.<br />
Sully, James. Children's Ways 4/6. Longman.<br />
Switbanie, S. St. A Divan of the Dales. (Poems). 5/- net<br />
Digby.<br />
Symons, Arthur. Studies in Two Literatures. 6/- net Smithers.<br />
Symons, G. F., and Wallis, H. S. British Rainfall, 1890. 10-<br />
Stanford.<br />
Tench, Mary F. A. Where the Surf Breaks. 6/- Hurst and Blackett<br />
Tipper, C. J. B. The Rothamsted Experiments and their Practical<br />
Lessons for Farmers. 3/6. Crosby Lockwood.<br />
Tyrell, B. Y. (ed.). Sopboclis Tragcediae. 5/- net. Macmillan.<br />
Upward, Allen. A Bride's Madness. 3:6. Bristol: Arrowsmith.<br />
Various writers. British Birds: with their Nosts and Eggs.<br />
Vol. III. Brumby and Clarke.<br />
Various writers. The Humours of Cycling. 1/- J. Bowden.<br />
Westoby. W. A. S. Tho Adhesive Postage Sumps of Europe<br />
Part I. 1/- L. U. Gill-<br />
Winter. John Strange. A Seaside Flirt. 1/- White.<br />
Win worth, Freda Tho Epic or Sounds. Simpkin.<br />
Wordsworth, O. (ed.). Statutes of Lincoln Cathedral (arr. by the<br />
late Henry Bradshaw). 30/- Clay.<br />
Wriggleaworth, J. Grass from a Yorkshire Village. 3/6. Boxburghe.<br />
Wright, C. D. The Industrial Evolution of the United States.<br />
6/- Gay and Bird.<br />
Yorke Davies. N. E. Homburg and its Waters. Low.<br />
<br />
<br />
## p. 108 (#527) ############################################<br />
<br />
AD VER TISEMENTS.<br />
How Ready, Crown 8to., Cloth Boards, Silver Lettering,<br />
Price 6s.<br />
A LADY OF WALES.<br />
"A Story of the Siege of Chester, 1645."<br />
BY THE<br />
ReY. YINCENT J. LEATHERDALE, M.A.<br />
London: HORACE Cox, Windsor House, Bream's-buildings, E.C.<br />
Now ready, domy 8vo., cloth boards, price 10s. 6d.<br />
IN NEW SOUTH AFRICA.<br />
Travels in the Transvaal and Rhodesia.<br />
With Hap and Twenty-six Illustrations,<br />
By II. LINCOLN TANGYE.<br />
CONTENTS.<br />
Introductory.<br />
PABT I<br />
Cuaptbr L—The Land of Oold and the Way there.<br />
„ IL—Across Desert and Veldt.<br />
,, in.—Johannesburg the Qolden.<br />
„ IV.—A Transvaal Coach Journey.<br />
„ V.—Natal: the South African Garden.<br />
,, VI.—Ostracised in Africa. Home with the Swallows.<br />
PART H.—BAMBLES IN BHODESIA.<br />
Chapter I.—Eendragt Haakt Magt.<br />
„ II.—Into the Country of Lobengula.<br />
„ IH.—The Trail of War.<br />
„ IV.—Ooldmintng, Ancient and Modern.<br />
„ V.—Sic Transit Gloria Mundl.<br />
„ VI To Northern Mashonaland.<br />
„ VU.—Primitive Art. The Misadventures of a Wagon.<br />
Index.<br />
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