| 463 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/463 | The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 01 (June 1899) | <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.+10+Issue+01+%28June+1899%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 01 (June 1899)</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> | 1899-06-01-The-Author-10-1 | | | | | 3–28 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=10">10</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1899-06-01">1899-06-01</a> | | | | | | | 1 | | | 18990601 | The Huthor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
Monthly.)<br />
<br />
PamauUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
Vou. X.—No. 1.]<br />
<br />
JUNE 1, 1899.<br />
<br />
[PRICE SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
For the Opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the Authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the<br />
collective opinions of the Committee unless<br />
they are officially signed by G. Herbert<br />
Thring, Sec.<br />
<br />
es<br />
<br />
HE Secretary of the Society begs to give notice that all<br />
remittances are acknowledged by return of post, and<br />
requests that all members not receiving an answer to<br />
<br />
important communications within two days will write to him<br />
without delay. All remittances showld be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only.<br />
<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 be accepted are<br />
returned if stamps for the purpose accompany the MSS.<br />
<br />
Oe<br />
<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
<br />
y ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br />
agreement. There are three methods of dealing<br />
with literary property :—<br />
<br />
I. That of selling it outright.<br />
<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 />
<br />
II. A profit-sharing agreement.<br />
<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to :<br />
<br />
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part.<br />
<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
in his own organs: or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
ments.<br />
<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
<br />
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br />
<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
<br />
VOL. X.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
doctor !<br />
<br />
(7.) To stamp the agreement.<br />
<br />
Ill. The royalty system.<br />
<br />
It is above all things necessary to know what the<br />
proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible<br />
for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly<br />
the truth. From time to time the very important figures<br />
connected with royalties are published in The Author.<br />
Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br />
Cost of Production.”<br />
<br />
The four main points which the Society has always<br />
demanded from the outset are :—<br />
<br />
(1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
<br />
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br />
to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br />
nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br />
withheld.<br />
<br />
(3.) That there shall be no secret profits.<br />
<br />
(4.) That there shall be no charge for advertisements<br />
in the publisher’s own organs and none for exchanged<br />
advertisements.<br />
<br />
Pee<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
le VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the<br />
advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor,<br />
the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s<br />
solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is<br />
desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel’s<br />
opinion. All this without any cost to the member.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publisher’s agreements do not generally fall within the<br />
experience of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple<br />
to use the Society.<br />
<br />
3. Send to the office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts with the loan of the books represented. The<br />
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br />
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br />
obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
<br />
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send the pro-<br />
posed document to the Society for examination.<br />
<br />
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you are<br />
<br />
BQ<br />
<br />
<br />
4 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
VI. Your committee would also repeat the<br />
recommendations made in their former report.<br />
These recommendations were adopted by the<br />
Committee of Management. They were also<br />
adopted by the Booksellers’ Association of Scot-<br />
land (see The Author, Aug. 1898, pp. 61 and 63).<br />
They were designed in order to give the net<br />
system a fair trial without coercion. It was there<br />
proposed. :—<br />
<br />
(1.) That books at 6s. and under shall remain<br />
as before.<br />
<br />
(2.) That, as at present, every net book shall<br />
be made the subject of a special contract, and<br />
that a bookseller shall be at liberty to take it on<br />
net terms or not, without interference with his<br />
liberty to do what he pleases with other books,<br />
his own property.<br />
<br />
(3.) That the system of sale or return shall be<br />
more extensively adopted. This method, indeed,<br />
is absolutely necessary if books are to be really<br />
published for the world and not, as now happens<br />
with a great many, which are not taken by the<br />
booksellers, only printed.<br />
<br />
Your committee desire to see in every book-<br />
seller’s shop in the country a collection of all the<br />
new books worth buying offered for sale.<br />
<br />
(4.) That the “odd” copy shall be abolished<br />
as practically useless and even mischievous.<br />
<br />
(Date) April . . . 1899.<br />
<br />
EO<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
II.—Lorp Rvusseiy’s Bint anp Mr. Joun<br />
Murray’s Lerrer.<br />
<br />
The purport of Lord Russell’s Bill in the<br />
memorandum attached to the same is stated to<br />
be as follows :—<br />
<br />
“ An effort to check, by making them criminal,<br />
a large number of inequitable and illegal secret<br />
payments, all of which are dishonest and tend to<br />
shake confidence between man and man and to<br />
discourage honest trade and enterprise.”<br />
<br />
That such a Bill is very necessary in the present<br />
state of commercial morality there can be no doubt,<br />
and the object of the Bill is stated in very strong<br />
and clear language; but unfortunately a great<br />
many of the practices put forward in the Bill<br />
have come to be so common and a matter of such<br />
every-day occurrence that they are no longer<br />
looked upon as either dishonest or as likely to<br />
discourage honest trade and enterprise.<br />
<br />
To those gentlemen who, while dealing in com-<br />
merce, have still got shreds of a conscience left,<br />
it will be a satisfactory matter to have the<br />
methods put forward in this Bill clearly de-<br />
scribed as coming within the criminal law.<br />
<br />
Clause 9g is, perhaps, the most important<br />
clause as far as authors are concerned, as it<br />
distinctly prevents publishers who are acting<br />
<br />
as agents for authors, or literary agents who are<br />
acting as agents, from receiving—the former<br />
secret discounts from printers, bookbinders, &c.,<br />
and from charging for advertisements which are<br />
not paid for, or from receiving secret discounts<br />
on large advertising accounts that are paid for ;<br />
the latter from receiving secret commissions from<br />
publishers, editors, and others for giving them<br />
the option of purchase of the works of those<br />
well-known and popular authors for whom they<br />
may happen to be acting. The very strong sus-<br />
picion of the Society has been aroused to the<br />
fact that both these faults do exist, in spite of<br />
the letter from Mr. John Murray in the Times<br />
of May 8, which we have taken the lhberty of<br />
quoting in full :—-<br />
<br />
Sir,—The Lord Chief Justice, in introducing the Illicit<br />
Commissions Bill in the House of Lords, on April 20, is<br />
reported to have said: ‘“ Again, in the publishing trade and<br />
also the printing trade I am sorry to say the evil is<br />
growing worst of all.” As this charge came upon my<br />
colleagues and myself as a complete surprise, and caused<br />
some consternation among us, I ventured to write to the<br />
Lord Chief Justice and ask for such further particulars as<br />
would enable the council of our association to investigate<br />
the case. In reply I have just received a very courteous<br />
intimation from his Lordship that his ‘‘ remarks were about<br />
the printing, not the publishing trade,” accompanied by the<br />
permission to make that intimation public. I shall esteem<br />
it a favour if you will allow me to do so by means of your<br />
columns.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,<br />
<br />
JoHN MuRRAY.<br />
<br />
Mr. Murray’s disclaimer is very pleasing, but it<br />
is rather perplexing to find that Lord Russell’s<br />
words came upon him and his colleagues as a<br />
matter of “ complete surprise, and caused some<br />
consternation.’”’ It is, of course, possible that he<br />
and his colleagues never read the weekly review<br />
which is published from the same office as the<br />
paper in whose columns the letter appears, but if<br />
he would refer to the issue of Jvterature of<br />
Jan. 21, he will find a letter from a publisher<br />
who, in criticising Sir Walter Besant’s “ Pen and<br />
the Book,” openly stated that these discounts are<br />
made, and that ‘whatever extra terms I obtain<br />
are legally and morally mine.’ Again I have<br />
taken the liberty of quoting part of that letter :—<br />
<br />
The only implication that can be intended by furnishing<br />
such statements as the above is that the author should, on<br />
these accounts, receive the full benefits of all the advantages<br />
thus obtained. Now, because I, as a publisher of good<br />
standing and capital, can obtain certain allowances on the<br />
material I buy or on the labour I employ, should it follow<br />
that I should make the author a present of them? By no<br />
means. The author is not my partmer. I buy his literature<br />
as I buy the paper, and printing, and binding. If he desires<br />
that I should publish his book on commission, I furnish him<br />
with an estimate, which he can accept or refuse as he<br />
pleases, and the details of this estimate are made up irre-<br />
spective of what I may make in commission on the sales of<br />
the book. In ninety-nine cases out of every hundred I do<br />
not believe that I shall make a crown piece in commission<br />
on sales. I tell the author that, and try to dissuade him<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 5<br />
<br />
from throwing his money away. If he will have it this<br />
way, why, then, my charges are such as make it worth my<br />
while undertaking the business, and giving him the benefit<br />
of my advice, experience, and staff. Whatever “extra”<br />
terms I obtain are legally and morally mine, since these<br />
constitute the only profit [ can hope to make by doing for<br />
the author what he cannot do for himself. If I make any<br />
commission on the sales I have earned them by selling the<br />
book.<br />
<br />
The publisher in this tries to vindicate his<br />
position by stating “ the author is not my partner.”<br />
Certainly not. When the publisher is publish-<br />
ing a book on commission—that is, when the<br />
author is paying entirely for the cost of produc-<br />
{ion and the publisher is getting a commission<br />
on the sales—the publisher is not the author's<br />
partner. He is more than this: he is the author's<br />
agent, and as his agent will come under clause 9<br />
of Lord Russell’s Bill, and is not only morally,<br />
as he always was, but now legally, bound to give<br />
the author any benefit of discounts that he may<br />
obtain on the cost of production. If Lord<br />
Russell’s Bill becomes law he will be criminally<br />
responsible for not doing so. Is it possible that<br />
Mr. Murray has never heard of this practice—a<br />
practice which the writer of the quoted letter<br />
looks upon as not only legal but moral—or that<br />
he has never heard of a publisher obtaining dis-<br />
counts on other accounts ?<br />
<br />
Again, it is possible that Mr. Murray and his<br />
colleagues have not read the publisher’s letter in<br />
the Outlvok of Jan. 14 of this year. (It should<br />
be mentioned en passant that both the letter in<br />
Literature and the letter in the Outlook are<br />
written anonymously. Are the publishers who<br />
write them ashamed of the declarations they are<br />
making?) If Mr. Murray has not read this<br />
letter I beg to refer him to it, as it is of such con-<br />
siderable length that it is impossible to quote<br />
more than one or two sentences. Here, again, the<br />
publisher is talking about a commission book, a<br />
book in which he is absolutely acting as agent of<br />
the author, in which capacity he will, of course,<br />
come under Lord Russell’s Bill. It is impossible<br />
for publishers to get out of this position. In<br />
publishing commission work, or except where the<br />
publisher has purchased for a lump sum the<br />
copyright outright, the publisher is acting as the<br />
author's agent, and as such will be criminally<br />
responsible for secret discounts accepted or given in<br />
the first case from the tradesmen he employs,<br />
advertising agents, and others ; and in the second<br />
case, given to the author's agents, who are also<br />
acting in the position of agents. THe states in this<br />
letter : “My commission will barely recompense<br />
me, but I shall realise on the cost of production.”<br />
Further—<br />
<br />
Why should I give the author, an amateur, a gentleman,<br />
the advantage of the rebatement which, in my capacity as<br />
<br />
an ungenteel professed tradesman and whotesale buyer, I<br />
receive on my purchases ?<br />
<br />
The-e is no objection to him taking discounts or<br />
rebatements, or whatever he chooses to call the<br />
same; Lut he must, as agent of the author,<br />
candidly state that as he does not get sufficient on<br />
his commission he looks to be recouped from the<br />
discounts obtained on the cost of production, and<br />
he must state the amount of discounts he receives.<br />
Again—<br />
<br />
The whole alleged scandal of the cost of production of<br />
commission books lies in this: in fallaciously regarding a<br />
publisher’s “ estimate’ as a statement of the cost to him of<br />
making a certain book. It is, and pretends to be, nothing<br />
of the kind. It is an itemised statement of what it will<br />
cost the author to engage the publisher’s services.<br />
<br />
In this sentence he wantonly misstates the<br />
case. Never has an author been told, when a<br />
publisher’s estimate is forwarded to him, that<br />
this is the cost to the author for engaging the<br />
publisher’s services. The cost to the author for<br />
engaging the publisher’s services is, and always<br />
has been, embodied in the commission. The com-<br />
plaint made by the Society, and justified by these<br />
letters from publishers themselves, is not that the<br />
publisher receives discounts, a fact of which Mr.<br />
Murray and his colleagues seem to be unaware,<br />
but that when acting as an agent for an author<br />
they do not declare openly, like honourable men,<br />
the discounts that they are going to receive, but<br />
keep them secret and put them in their own<br />
pockets. In future the secret discount trans-<br />
action will be brought under Lord Russell’s Bill,<br />
and commission and profit-sharing publishing<br />
will not be such a remunerative arrangement to<br />
publishers as it has been previously.<br />
<br />
Mr. Murray, as he is so desirous of bringing<br />
the matter before the council of his association,<br />
had better ask the editor for the names of their<br />
correspondents ; or, better still, at a general<br />
meeting of the association, call upon the pub-<br />
lishers to declare themselves. These publishers<br />
can then be censured before the meeting—a most<br />
salutary course. G. H. 7.<br />
<br />
[Since this paper was written another letter<br />
has appeared in Literature, which tries to defend<br />
the secret profit system. His defence is to com-<br />
pare a publisher with some other kind of trades-<br />
man selling a patent article for the owner of the<br />
patent, and charging for the cost of production<br />
more than he paid. And he seems unable to<br />
perceive that the agent, if he tells the owner that<br />
the cost of production was so much, while it was<br />
less, is simply a liar, and, according to Lord<br />
Russell’s Bill, he is now liable to a criminal<br />
prosecution. The secrecy constitutes the fraud.<br />
Tf discounts and commission are to be allowed<br />
they must be entered in the agreement! What-<br />
<br />
<br />
6 THT:<br />
<br />
ever sophistries may be invented to defend the<br />
practice, the defendant will find them swept<br />
away bodily and contemptuously by the Court.<br />
It is greatly to be hoped that an example will<br />
shortly be made.—Eb. |<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
III.—A Bint anp an Estimare.<br />
<br />
The book was a crown 8vo., 289 pp. What was<br />
charged for the 1000 copies was £100 for pro-<br />
duction, £30 for advertisements, and £5 for<br />
corrections. The Secretary’s estimate was as<br />
follows:<br />
<br />
I consider that 1000 copies of the book of which you sent<br />
me a specimen could have been produced, all bound, and<br />
advertised to some £15, for the sum of £65 to £70.<br />
Certaiuly, if only 250 copies were bound at a time, you<br />
should not have paid more than £65. If anything, printing<br />
<br />
is cheaper now than ten years ago, and composition dearer.<br />
Here are my rough figures:<br />
<br />
Composition... occ ik £20 to £22<br />
RUN ee csc eens ee toe 740 6<br />
PRPOE oi eee ee ee 14 to 16<br />
PAVETUIBWIE. a ee eas 15and 15<br />
Binding (250). 2... 22.6 a 4h 3to 4<br />
<br />
£59 £66<br />
<br />
Sa<br />
<br />
IV.—An Acreement: wirH Nores.<br />
<br />
|Nortce.—In all cases in which publishers’<br />
agreements are printed and commented on in The<br />
Author a copy of the paper will henceforth be sent<br />
to the firm concerned, accompanied by a letter<br />
drawing their attention to the comments and offer-<br />
mg them the opportunity of making any reply in<br />
The Author in case they should desire to do so. |<br />
<br />
(copy.)<br />
Memorandum of agreement made this<br />
day of ,18 , between (hereinafter<br />
<br />
called the publishers), on behalf of themselves<br />
and their successors of the one part, and<br />
(hereinafter called the author), of the other part,<br />
whereby it is agreed by and between the parties<br />
hereto and as follows :<br />
<br />
1. The author shall write and prepare for<br />
<br />
publication a work to be entitled which,<br />
if printed similarly to , would occupy not<br />
less than nor more than pages.<br />
<br />
2. The author shall deliver to the publishers the<br />
whole matter forming the printers’ copy of the<br />
work not later than , and shall duly<br />
and punctually correct all the proof-sheets<br />
thereof as supplied to him by the printers: and,<br />
in case of the author’s failure in the above<br />
respects, the publishers may annul this agree-<br />
ment by giving notice in writing to the author at<br />
any time, and thereupon the same shall cease to<br />
be binding on the publishers, but any portion of<br />
the copy delivered, whether in MS. or in print,<br />
<br />
. and the copyright therein, shall be the property of<br />
<br />
AUTTIOR.<br />
<br />
the publishers, who may arrange as they think fit<br />
for the completion and publication of the work.<br />
<br />
3. The publishers, at any time before the<br />
publication of the work, may submit the same to .<br />
the supervision of or any other person<br />
hereafter appointed by them in his place, and, if<br />
he shall so advise, may decline to publish the<br />
same or otherwise to perform this agreement,<br />
and thereupon the copy of the work shall be<br />
returned to the author. :<br />
<br />
4. Subject to the provisions herein contained, the<br />
publishers shall, at their own expense, print and<br />
publish the work as soon as reasonably may be<br />
after the entire copy shall have been delivered,<br />
all details whatsoever respecting the printing,<br />
embellishing, binding, publication, and sale of the<br />
same being at their discretion, and the publishers<br />
may from time to time reduce the price of the<br />
copies remaining in hand of any edition, or waste<br />
the remaining copies without being liable to<br />
account to the author for the copies so wasted.<br />
<br />
5. If the expense caused by the author’s correc-<br />
tions of the press alterations or addition made on<br />
the proof-sheets (other than such as may be made<br />
at the request of the publishers), shall exceed on<br />
an average 10s. per sheet of sixteen pages, such<br />
excess shall be born by the author, and may be<br />
deducted by the publishers from any. moneys<br />
which may become payable to him under this<br />
agreement.<br />
<br />
6. The author shall not prepare or edit for any<br />
publishers other than the publishers any other<br />
work which shall be an expansion or abridgment<br />
of the work or part of it, unless he shall first have<br />
offered to the publishers in writing the option of<br />
publishing such other work upon such terms aa<br />
shall, mutatis mutandis, correspond with the<br />
terms herein contained, and the publishers shall<br />
not have accepted such offer within four weeks.<br />
<br />
7. Upon the expiration of four calendar months<br />
from each thirtieth day of June after the publica-<br />
tion of the work, so long as may be necessary, an<br />
account shall be taken of the number of copies of<br />
the work sold during the year ending with that<br />
thirtieth day of June. And so soon as the<br />
account shows a net profit on the edition, 60 per<br />
cent, of that profit shall on or before the first day<br />
of January following be paid by the publishers to<br />
the author.<br />
<br />
8. For the purpose of ascertaining the actual<br />
net profits of an edition, the proceeds of such<br />
number of copies as shall have been sold shall be<br />
credited to such edition at the price actually<br />
obtained therefor, with any moneys received for<br />
the benefit of the work for foreign rights of<br />
translation or otherwise, less all trade allowances<br />
and the publishers’ commission; and against<br />
such editions the following items shall be debited,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
viz., all expenses of every description incurred<br />
in the printing, embellishing, binding, publica-<br />
tion, advertising, warehousing, and insurance<br />
of such edition, or incurred otherwise in con-<br />
nection therewith, and also interest at the<br />
rate of 4 per cent. per annum upon any balance<br />
of such expenditure not yet recouped by the<br />
sales.<br />
<br />
g. The publishers shall be entitled at their<br />
discretion to present copies of every edition of<br />
the work to editors of periodicals, teachers, and<br />
other persons through whom in their judgment<br />
publicity will be gained, and to reserve nineteen<br />
copies for themselves, and copies so presented<br />
and reserved shall not be taken into account as<br />
copies sold.<br />
<br />
10. At any time after the delivery of the copy<br />
of the work, or of any part thereof, the author<br />
will, at the request and cost of the publishers,<br />
assign the entire copyright of the work, and all<br />
benefits and advantages thereof, to the publishers,<br />
or toa trustee for them, or to their successors<br />
and assigns, or otherwise, and in such form as<br />
the publishers may reasonably require, but such<br />
assignment shall not prejudice the rights of the<br />
author to share in the profits of the work as<br />
herein provided.<br />
<br />
11. The author shall indemnify the publishers<br />
from and against all proceedings and expenses<br />
whatsoever, in consequence of the publication in<br />
the work of any pirated, libellous, seditious, or<br />
other unlawful matter furnished by himself.<br />
<br />
12. If the publishers shall think fit to publish<br />
a new edition either in full or by way of enlarge-<br />
ment, abridgment, or otherwise, the author, if<br />
living and not disqualified by mental or bodily<br />
infirmity, shall, whilst entitled to the benefit of<br />
this agreement, have the option of preparing such<br />
new edition. But if he shall be then dead or<br />
disqualified as aforesaid, or shall not in writing<br />
undertake to prepare such edition within four<br />
weeks after being requested so to do by the pub-<br />
lishers or their agent; or if having undertaken<br />
it he shall not carefully and completely revise,<br />
correct, and prepare such new edition as far as in<br />
him lies within six months from the same date<br />
(or within some other time as may be agreed<br />
upon between himself and the publishers), the<br />
publishers shall thenceforth be at full liberty<br />
either themselves to buy up the interest of the<br />
author therein (the value of such interest in case<br />
of difference to be ascertained by arbitration as<br />
hereinafter provided) or to dispose of the copy-<br />
right for the joint benefit of themselves and the<br />
author, or to publish new editions, either abridged<br />
or otherwise, from time to time, and for that<br />
purpose to employ such editors or editor, and at<br />
<br />
such remunerations as they may think proper,<br />
<br />
VOL. X.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
7<br />
<br />
which shall be charged to the work as part of the<br />
expenses of its publication.<br />
<br />
13. Upon any edition being out of print, the<br />
author, whilst he continues entitled to the benefit<br />
of this agreement, may call upon the publishers to<br />
prepare a new edition ; and if the publishers shall<br />
not, within four weeks after they shall have re-<br />
ceived a written request to that effect, agree thereto,<br />
the author may require the publishers to assign<br />
to him the whole remainder of the copyright in<br />
the work, and they shall thereupon, at his reqv est<br />
and expense, assign the same to him absolutely.<br />
<br />
14. Any notice or request under this agreement<br />
shall be sufficiently given or made by posting the<br />
same in a registered letter addressed in one case<br />
to the publishers, or in the other to the author,<br />
at the above-named, or at such other, address<br />
within the United Kingdom as may from time to<br />
time be notified by the author to and received by<br />
the publishers. Every such notice or request<br />
shall be deemed to have been given or made on<br />
the day on which the same would in the ordinary<br />
course of post be received by the person to whom<br />
it shall be addressed.<br />
<br />
15. In the construction of this agreement, and<br />
so far as may be consistent with the context, the<br />
term “the publishers ’’ shall be held to mean the<br />
publishers or their assigns; “the author” shall<br />
(save as regards literary or editorial work) be held<br />
to include his executors, administrators, and<br />
assigns ; “the work” shall be held to mean the<br />
book with regard to which this or present agree-<br />
ment is entered into, and any future edition<br />
thereof ; “copyright” shall be held to include all<br />
rights in regard to the printing or sale of the<br />
work, or of any translation or abridgment thereof<br />
in the United Kingdom, or in any British colony<br />
or dependency, or in any foreign country.<br />
<br />
16. The present publishers and their suc-<br />
cessors for the time being shall be bound by and<br />
entitled to claim the benefit of this agreement as<br />
if they had signed the same.<br />
<br />
17. None of the provisions herein contained<br />
shall be in any wise affected by the circumstance<br />
of the publishers, or any of them, whether in<br />
their official or private capacities, being inte-<br />
rested in the profits of the printing, binding, or<br />
publishing firm by whom any edition or editions<br />
of the work may be printed and bound or pub-<br />
lished, or of the papermakers by whom the<br />
paper for the work may be supplied, or of any<br />
other business or employment, the products or<br />
results of which may be used for the work or any<br />
purpose connected therewith.<br />
<br />
18. If any dispute, question, or difference<br />
shall arise between the publishers and the author.<br />
touching these presents or any clause or thing<br />
herein contained, or the construction hereof or<br />
<br />
c<br />
8 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
any matter in any way connected with these<br />
presents or the operations hereof, or the<br />
rights, duties, or liabilities of either party in<br />
connection with the premises, then and in every<br />
or any such case the matter in difference shall<br />
be referred to two arbitrators or their umpire,<br />
pursuant to and in all respects conformably to<br />
the provisions in that behalf contained in the<br />
Common Law Procedure Act, 1854, or any then<br />
subsisting statutory modification or re-enactment<br />
thereof. And the cost of the reference and award<br />
shall be in the discretion of the arbitrators or<br />
umpire, who may direct to and by whom and in<br />
what manner the same or any part thereof shall<br />
be paid, and with power to tax or settle the<br />
amount of costs to be so paid or any part thereof,<br />
and to award costs to be paid as between soli-<br />
citor and client; and that submission to refer-<br />
ence, and any award made in pursuance thereof,<br />
may, at the instance of either of the parties to<br />
the reference and without any notice to the other<br />
of them, be made a rule of order of any division<br />
of the High Court of Justice.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The agreement printed above refers to the<br />
publication of an educational book. It is im-<br />
possible to repeat in detail the general warnings<br />
which apply to the publication of educational<br />
works, which have been already printed in The<br />
Author at different times, but im the comments<br />
on the agreement the point of view of the educa-<br />
tional writer will be borne in mind. With regard<br />
to the parties to the agreement the old remark<br />
must be again repeated, that it is a mistake in<br />
an agreement for an author to bind himself to<br />
the successors of a publisher, as the contract for<br />
publication should always be a personal contract,<br />
and the author, therefore, should not be bound<br />
for an indefinite period to his agent. As this<br />
contract purports to convey the copyright to the<br />
publishers, it was no doubt on this account the<br />
words were inserted, but the author should never<br />
assign his copyright.<br />
<br />
With regard to clause 1 little need be said,<br />
except, perhaps, that it is a little dictatorial, and<br />
leads one to draw the conclusion that the pub-<br />
lishers intend to be master of the situation.<br />
<br />
Clause 2 is an exceedingly bad clause from the<br />
author’s point of view. It is fair that the author<br />
should bind himself to correct the proof sheets<br />
punctually as supplied by the printers, but it is<br />
not fair to the author that the publishers should<br />
be able to annul the agreement arbitrarily by a<br />
mere notice in writing, and it is worse still from<br />
the author’s point of view that the publishers<br />
should have the right to make any arrangement<br />
for the completion of the book, holding the copy-<br />
<br />
right of whatever portion of the book in MS. or<br />
in print the author happens to have delivered.<br />
Such a clause should not stand in any agreement<br />
that has any right to be called equitable between<br />
the parties. For the publishers to have the right<br />
to obtain arbitrarily other hands to finish the<br />
book is indeed putting the author in a serious<br />
bondage.<br />
<br />
Clause 3 is again a very serious one for the<br />
author. Having gone to the great labour of<br />
writing an important educational work he may<br />
have it submitted to anyone the publishers may<br />
think fit to appoint. In dishonest hands it would<br />
give the publishers very great power of deter-<br />
mining the agreement if, after they had entered<br />
into it, for some reason or other they did not care<br />
to carry it out. This clause should, therefore,<br />
not stand. It would be so easy to make an<br />
arrangement for the MS. to be reviewed, if, indeed,<br />
such arrangement were necessary, by some person<br />
whose nomination would be agreeable to both<br />
parties.<br />
<br />
The beginning of clause 4 is reasonable, but the<br />
remainder of the clause is again entirely opposed<br />
to the author’s interest. Ina case of division of<br />
profits it is very important that the author should<br />
know beforehand how the book is going to be<br />
brought out, in what shape and form, and at<br />
what price. To allow the publishers arbitrarily to<br />
reduce that price in the imdefinite words of this<br />
clause, or to waste the remainder copies, may not<br />
only be detrimenta! to the author’s reputation,<br />
but to his pocket. Does this valuation of price<br />
mean reduction of the published price or the<br />
wholesale price? In a profit-sharing agreement<br />
the author ought to contract that the book is not<br />
sold wholesale below a certain price and not<br />
remaindered within at least two years from<br />
publication, and then the option of purchase<br />
should be given to him.<br />
<br />
That the publishers should be protected from<br />
the excessive corrections of an author is quite fair,<br />
but that clause 5 should take its present form is<br />
not at all satisfactory. Certainly the words<br />
“other than printers’ errors” should be inserted.<br />
<br />
In clause 6 if the author is forbidden “ from<br />
expanding or abridging the work,” and thereby to<br />
some extent from damaging the sale of the book,<br />
it is only fair that the publishers should under-<br />
take not to publish a book of a’similar character.<br />
For full details of the explanation of this clause<br />
the reader must be referred to the former articles<br />
in The Author on the publication of educational<br />
works, and the control of the educational market.<br />
<br />
Clause 7, the account clause, isa bad one. If.<br />
the book was published in the autumn the pub-<br />
lishers would retain the profits of the book for a<br />
year and three months at least. It has often<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 9<br />
<br />
been pointed out before in these columns, and<br />
must again be repeated, that this retention of the<br />
author’s money for so long a period is very useful<br />
in covering the expenses of the publishers’ office.<br />
<br />
Clause 8 is again an extraordinary clause. It<br />
is impossible to know what the words, “ pub-<br />
lishers’ commission,” refers to in a half-profit agree-<br />
ment. The author has no control whatever over<br />
the advertising of the book, and no control what-<br />
ever over the binding, printing, embellishing, &c.<br />
As is often the case where a publisher is his own<br />
printer, the author cannot, on investigation of the<br />
accounts, even have the satisfaction of seeing the<br />
printers’ vouchers, and thus have some check that<br />
the items charged are correct. It is therefore of<br />
the more importance that an author should know<br />
what is going to be charged for the cost of pro-<br />
duction before he enters into an agreement of this<br />
kind, so as to be able to calculate whether there<br />
may be some prospect of a financial success. Why<br />
should the publisher net 4 per cent. on the<br />
expenditure? Under this arrangement if the<br />
publisher were his own printer the higher he<br />
could raise the cost of production the more satis-<br />
factory it would be for himself.<br />
<br />
In clause g, again, the publishers have an abso-<br />
lutely free hand as to whom they shall circularise<br />
with copies of the book. It is not a good thing<br />
for an author to hamper a publisher’s action, but,<br />
on the other hand, he should be able to check<br />
wasteful circularisation.<br />
<br />
It is hardly necessary to discuss clause 10 from<br />
an author’s point of view, except to repeat that an<br />
author should never assign the copyright, and that<br />
in an educational or technical work this point is<br />
of the greatest importance, much more so than in<br />
the publication of a work of fiction. Again the<br />
reader must refer to the articles on the publica-<br />
tion of educational books. For an educational<br />
and technical work, a contract giving the pub-<br />
lishers a licence to publish a limited edition with<br />
the option of renewal, is the only satisfactory<br />
form of contract. It should be pointed out also<br />
that if the author does transfer the copyright, he<br />
ought to bind the publisher to keep the book on<br />
the market, to have his name attached, and not<br />
to publish in any altered form without his<br />
consent.<br />
<br />
In clause 12 it will be seen that the publishers<br />
practically are taking the whole control of the<br />
author’s work, and that he is allowed practically<br />
no voice in the matter. The publishers, of course,<br />
should not have the right to publish the book in<br />
an abridged or enlarged form under any circum-<br />
stances without the sanction of the author. It<br />
is the author of a technical work of this kind<br />
who should decide, after periodical editions, if it<br />
<br />
is necessary to enlarge, or abridge, or alter, to<br />
VOL. X.<br />
<br />
bring the book up to date. On no account should<br />
the author allow a publisher to have the power of<br />
making alterations in his book by other hands.<br />
<br />
Clause 13 may stand.<br />
<br />
To clause 14 there seems to be no particulary<br />
objection.<br />
<br />
Clause 15 has the same objection to it that<br />
applies to the parties to the agreement, and the<br />
same excuse for its being inserted is also valid.<br />
<br />
Clause 17 is a difficult clause from the author’s<br />
point of view, and reminds one of Lord Russell’s<br />
Bill which is just now before Parliament. Is the<br />
clause inserted to cover the members of the firm,<br />
in case of being interested in the printers’ or<br />
binders’ business, &c., they should take profits to<br />
the detriment of the author which are not<br />
included in the account ? Anauthor should look<br />
very carefully into a case of this kind before<br />
signing the agreement which contains it.<br />
<br />
With regard to clause 18 it is only necessary<br />
to state that arbitration is a3 a rule a very expen-<br />
sive method of settling disputes. That from the<br />
publishers’ point it is satisfactory as this legal<br />
method very seldom comes into the papers. From<br />
an author’s point of view it is unsatisfactory, as<br />
the publisher thereby shirks publicity. With all<br />
the drawbacks of legal action, it is on the whole<br />
perhaps the best way of settling disputes, and is<br />
generally considerably the cheapest.<br />
<br />
An author of a learned technical or scientific<br />
work should seriously consider before signing this<br />
form of agreement, as it is possible that the work<br />
of his brain may be tampered with by other<br />
hands, and the right of being an arbiter of his<br />
own property pass from his control.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.—tTue Sixpenny Book.<br />
<br />
Let us return to the sixpenny book. It<br />
seems to be assumed that a new and a very<br />
advantageous departure has been discovered.<br />
That is to say, it is assumed that where<br />
one person would give 4s. 6d. for a book, a<br />
number sufficient to make as good a return, or<br />
even a better return, to author, publisher, and<br />
bookseller, would be found to buy the same book<br />
at sixpence. What should be that number?<br />
With a book pretending any popularity, the cost of<br />
production and advertising would not be more, in<br />
general, thana shilling : in large editions after the<br />
first, much less than a shilling. The author has,<br />
say, a 20 per cent. royalty, or 14s. per volume.<br />
On the sixpenny book the general royalty<br />
appears to be 2d., or 3d., or #d., in most cases the<br />
first. How many copies at sixpence will make<br />
up the royalty paid on 6s.? The answer to this<br />
difficult sum is twenty-four. In other words, if<br />
5000 copies would he circulated at6s., it would<br />
<br />
ce 2<br />
<br />
<br />
10 THE, AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
require 120,000 copies to put the author in as<br />
good a position as he was before. It remains to<br />
be seen whether the new move will multiply<br />
buyers by twenty-four.<br />
<br />
Another point. The buyers are the booksellers.<br />
It remains to be seen whether they will be able<br />
to get through the piles which now. cumber their<br />
counters.<br />
<br />
Another point still. It remains to be seen<br />
whether they will be able to get rid of any higher<br />
priced books at all when people have once begun<br />
to think that sixpence is the proper price.<br />
<br />
Now, the bookseller pays for his sixpenny book<br />
very nearly 33d. a copy. How many copies must<br />
he get rid of before he can get £100 for himself ¥<br />
Putting his expenses at only £100 a year, how<br />
long before he can lay aside £200 for himself and<br />
his expenses? In many places he has to sell his<br />
sixpenny book at 43d.<br />
<br />
Now, if he sells it at 43d., he must get rid of<br />
64,000 copies a year, or 213 copies a day! Is<br />
this sale likely to be realised by a country book-<br />
seller ?<br />
<br />
If, then, the system succeeds to a certain extent<br />
for the publisher and the author, should it end in<br />
landing the bookseller either with a mass of<br />
unsaleable ‘books or in depriving him of the<br />
people who were accustomed to pay a higher<br />
-price, the result will be disastrous to literature.<br />
<br />
It is an axiom that must never be forgotten,<br />
especially by ourselves, that what affects the<br />
bookseller injuriously affects literature inju-<br />
riously. It is to the best interests of author and<br />
bookseller that books should have every chance of<br />
being offered to the public: a selfish policy, in<br />
the supposed interests of the middleman, of<br />
squeezing the lean author with one hand aud the<br />
leaner bookseller with the other must be combated.<br />
Authors are only beginning to look into the man-<br />
-agement of their own affairs for themselves. It<br />
is high time that booksellers, who have nothing<br />
-whatever to fear and everything to gain by so<br />
doing, should also unite, sink their differences, and<br />
declare for a voice in the administration of the<br />
literary property of which they are the sole buyers<br />
and exhibitors.<br />
<br />
Let us therefore agree in regarding this move-<br />
ment as an experiment only. Itis one made on<br />
a large scale: there are 120 sixpenny books in<br />
Simpkin and Marshall’s list, viz., seventy copy-<br />
right and the remainder non-copyright. The<br />
result of the experiment will in a few weeks<br />
answer the question: of the prudence or the<br />
mistake of the experiment. One can only hope<br />
‘that, if it should prove to be the latter, it will not<br />
‘be another nail in the coffin of the long-suffering<br />
bookseller.<br />
<br />
—oOoOToOS-<br />
<br />
VI.—TELLING THE SToRY.<br />
<br />
The following letter explains itself. It was<br />
addressed to the Glasgow Herald, where it<br />
appeared on May 20 :—<br />
<br />
Elmlea, South Stoke, Reading, May 18, 1899.<br />
<br />
Sir,—I greatly regretted to gather from your “ Literary<br />
Notes and Gossip” of a recent issue that the writer<br />
apparently took umbrage at some remarks of mine in The<br />
Author relative to those reviews or notices of novels in<br />
which the whole of the plot is disclosed. The writer com-<br />
menced with a paragraph which appeared to be a thinly-<br />
veiled attack on the Society of Authors. It has been more<br />
than once observed that attacks of this kind are very com-<br />
mon among the contributors of literary notes to provincial<br />
papers. Why any journalist should attack the Society of<br />
Authors is beyond my poor comprehension, for the dividing<br />
line between writers of books and writers in newspapers is<br />
so fine as to be imperceptible. Authors never attack the<br />
Institute of Journalists. Indeed, it has been more than<br />
once suggested that the two societies should join forces.<br />
Journalists write books; authors write for newspapers.<br />
The interests of authors and journalists are almost<br />
identical. I have been a member of the Society of Authors<br />
almost since its foundation, and can assure you and your<br />
readers that it has done excellent work for those who gain<br />
their living by writing. The Society deserves the most<br />
loyal support of all literary men.<br />
<br />
To come now to the story-telling reviewer. Tho writer<br />
of your literary notes described me as not being a “ power-<br />
ful advocate,” and even ‘‘ weak” enough to believe that the<br />
kind of review of which complaint was made was often written<br />
in kindness to the author. My reply to this is that I had no<br />
reason nor wish to make a slashing attack on anybody, and<br />
that in my opinion a temperately worded statement of facts<br />
is as a rule far more powerful and effective than a vigorous<br />
onslaught. I tried to state fairly both sides of the question,<br />
and to avoid so far as possible saying anything which would<br />
be in the slightest degree offensive to editors, reviewers, or<br />
others interested.<br />
<br />
I entirely agree with the writer of “ Literary Notes”<br />
that it is “no part of a reviewer’s business to assist, either<br />
overtly or tacitly, in the circulation of a work which, in<br />
his trained judgment, is not meritorious.” I also agree<br />
with him that a reviewer who offers an estimate of a work<br />
should also indicate some of the reasons upon which his<br />
opinion is founded. But these opinions do not touch the<br />
chief point in my article, which was, and still is, that in a<br />
number of reviews practically the whole of the story con-<br />
tained in the book is told, often without any attempt at<br />
criticism. Having no reason to suppose that any critic<br />
would knowingly injure the sale of a book (unless it was a<br />
bad one), I wrote the article in question at the request of<br />
the Committee of the Society of Authors. I hoped that<br />
the matter would have been considered and discussed in<br />
academic fashion, and without acrimony. The writer of<br />
“Literary Notes” appears to think that the matter is not<br />
worth talking about; that the “cause of complaint is<br />
reduced to practical insignificance.” His remark has led<br />
me to examine my review book. Out of the fourteen<br />
reviews of my last novel, which have appeared up to the<br />
time of writing, seven tell practically the entire story. It<br />
is, of course, impossible for me to say to what extent novel<br />
readers would be prevented from reading a book by knowing<br />
in advance how it ends. “But I have questioned many<br />
<br />
novel readers on the subject, and they one and all say that<br />
<br />
they do not like to know how.a book-is going to end, and<br />
rarely read a novel if they have previously read the whole<br />
<br />
of the plot in a review.—I am, &c., Joux Bicerptes<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
Ae event of the moment is the opening of<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
the new Salon. M. Falguitre’s much<br />
<br />
talked of statue of Balzac, which promised<br />
beforehand to prove one of the central attractions<br />
of this genuinely jin-de-siécle exhibition, has<br />
fallen short of popular expectation. The refusal<br />
of the Société des Gens de Lettres to accept M.<br />
Rodin’s design for the aforesaid statue had<br />
greatly whetted public curiosity ; if the clever<br />
sculptor of the characteristic busts of Mirabeau,<br />
-Puvis de Chavannes, Castagnary, César Franck,<br />
Rochefort, and many other well-merited successes<br />
failed to satisfy the critical admirers of Balzac,<br />
surely something reaching an extraordinarily high<br />
artistic level was required. Such, at least, was<br />
the general conviction; and when M. Falguiére<br />
accepted the honour denied his friend, public<br />
interest was stimulated to its highest pitch. Under<br />
these circumstances, the only alternative was a<br />
brilliant success or a signal failure. M. Fal-<br />
guiére bravely undertook the ordeal, and failed<br />
—since he did not produce a masterpiece. M.<br />
Rodin’s idea of a typical Balzac was an<br />
exaggerated and intensified representation of the<br />
prominent characteristics of the outer man; and<br />
his work was refused. M. Falguiére, therefore,<br />
conscientiously set to work with the idea of<br />
avoiding all exaggeration, and fell into the<br />
opposite extreme ; the Balzac who sits with<br />
crossed legs, the lines of his Herculean frame<br />
dissimulated beneath the famous robe de bure it<br />
pleased him to assume, the effect of whose deep-<br />
set eyes, leonine scalp, and characteristic pro-<br />
truding under-lip, have also been deftly lessened<br />
and rendered null by being smoothed down to<br />
the trite inanition of the ordinary human coun-<br />
tenance, is no worthy monument of the great<br />
author of the “ Comédie Humaine,” whose fiery,<br />
passionate individuality Paul Bourget has etched<br />
with such delicate psychological tact. ‘“ C’est<br />
un Balzac, mais ce n’est pas Balzac,’ wrote Léon<br />
-Plée, on the morrow of the opening of the Salon;<br />
and public opinion has indorsed and verified his<br />
‘judgment. The petition, recently filed, demand-<br />
ig the intervention of the nation “to<br />
open the gates of the Panthéon to the ashes<br />
of Honoré de Balzac” on the occasion of<br />
the celebration of his hundredth anniversary,<br />
sufficiently proves the strong posthumous influ-<br />
-ence that the great French writer still exercises<br />
over the minds of the present generation.<br />
<br />
Toe recent death of the dramatic author<br />
‘Edouard Pailleron, member of the French<br />
Academy, occasioned a profound sensation here.<br />
For upwards of thirty years his house has<br />
formed one of the fashionable rendezrous of the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tl<br />
<br />
literary celebrities of Paris, and an invitation: to<br />
his famous Monday receptions formed quite an<br />
event in the career of many a rising author. In<br />
1863. Pailleron married the daughter of the cele-<br />
brated Charles Buloz (founder and director of<br />
the Revue des Deux Mondes, one of the leading<br />
French periodicals of the present day) ; and the<br />
various dwelling-places inhabited by the pair<br />
were rendered famous by the multitude of<br />
artistic and literary treasures with which they<br />
were surrounded. Yet, despite his brilliant<br />
literary and social renown, Edouard Pailleron’s<br />
career was nota happy one. He suffered acutely<br />
from a too susceptible amour propre. The<br />
sparkling success of ‘‘ Le Monde ott on s’ennuie,”<br />
which marked the apogee of his literary career,<br />
could not blind him to the fact that his<br />
methode and fame were essentially ephemeral<br />
and contemporary. The fear of falling short of<br />
the public expectation his masterpiece had<br />
aroused rendered him sterile; and for ten years<br />
he remained idle, enviously watching the triumphs<br />
achieved by the rising generation of dramatic<br />
authors. When he finally decided to produce the<br />
“ Cabotins,’ the younger /iterati unfortunately<br />
remembered too vividly the biting satires with<br />
which Pailleron had frequently annihilated their<br />
pretensions to be over-merciful. They fell upon<br />
the “ Cabotins”’ tooth and nail; and, though the<br />
public applauded and the play occupied the play-<br />
bills for five hundred nights, the hostility of the-<br />
Press increased fourfold the misanthropical<br />
bitterness of the unfortunate author. His later<br />
efforts were still less successful, and augmentedi<br />
his natural melancholy. ‘I await death with-<br />
out fear, but without impatience,” he once re-<br />
marked to a friend. A presentiment of his<br />
approaching end haunted him. On visiting<br />
the spacious vestibule of the magnificent hotel<br />
in which he died eighteen months later, he<br />
said, with a sad smile: “Quelle belle chapelle-<br />
ardente on ferait ici, pour un auteur drama-<br />
tique!” His funeral was quite a fashionable-<br />
function.<br />
<br />
Apropos of politics, the following criticism one<br />
Zola’s works is reported to have been found<br />
among the two hundred and forty pages of mis-<br />
cellaneous jottings written by Captain Dreyfus<br />
during his detention. It shows us the hero and<br />
victim of the affaire in a new light, viz., that of<br />
a thoughtful literary critic. We append a trans-<br />
lation of the paragraph, as we believe it will<br />
<br />
yrove interesting to the majorit of our<br />
} 8 J<br />
readers :—<br />
<br />
“The ecole naturaliste was founded under<br />
<br />
the influence of the literary doctrines of Taine.<br />
Zola is its most brilliant representative, and he<br />
asserts having been inspired not only by Taine<br />
<br />
<br />
12 LAE<br />
<br />
but.also by the works of the physiologists of the<br />
Claude Bernard school!<br />
<br />
_ The theory of the experimental novel is the<br />
most colossal error possible to be conceived. M.<br />
Zola has never perceived the difference existing<br />
between experiments actually conducted in a<br />
laboratory and the pretended experiments of a<br />
novel, where everything passes in the author’s<br />
brain. On this ground we are forced to condemn<br />
the scientific pretensions of M. Zola.<br />
<br />
“The psychology of his novels is very limited.<br />
In his desire to furnish scientific data, Zola has<br />
completely overlooked the influence of the soul—<br />
the psychological side of the question. All that<br />
can in general be said of his bonshommes is that<br />
they are either brutes or fools. But one thing<br />
that no one can deny to Zola is imagination. His<br />
movels are sometimes heavy and coarse poems,<br />
‘but they are, nevertheless, poems; his descrip-<br />
tions are graphic, living. In short, Zola is incap-<br />
able of making his creations live, since he is<br />
totally lacking in a sense of the psychological ;<br />
but he has imagination, the gift of stirring the<br />
masses, of giving visions sometimes dispropor-<br />
tionate to the nature of the thing seen, and of<br />
representing grand ideas.”<br />
<br />
The publication of M. Zola’s new work, entitled<br />
‘ Mécondit¢, in the Awrore, lends an additional<br />
interest to the above criticism.<br />
<br />
And still further apropos of literature and<br />
polities may be mentioned the legal disbanding of<br />
the celebrated Ligue de la Patrie Francaise, that<br />
patriotic nursling of the literati of France, on<br />
the ground of its being an association unautho-<br />
rised by law. The members went merrily to<br />
their doom—a fine of sixteen francs apiece, with<br />
the application of the law Berenger; and one of<br />
the dailies termed the hearing of the case an<br />
“‘agreeable”’ séance, an adjective well applied as<br />
regarded M. Jules Lemaitre’s elegant and witty<br />
speech in defence of the League, which was re-<br />
ceived with the applause it merited. M. Francois<br />
Coppée, honorary president of the condemned<br />
association, was likewise in evidence, gaily occu-<br />
pying the seat of the clerk of the court; though<br />
wu relapse of his chronic malady prevented his<br />
presiding a little later at the annual banquet of<br />
the Révue idéaliste. This contretemps inspired<br />
his representative, M. Stéphen Li¢geard, author<br />
of the “Grands Ceeurs,” with a happy improvisa-<br />
tion in honour of the absentee which was warmly<br />
applauded.<br />
<br />
The preface of M. Maurice Loir’s late publi-<br />
cation, entitled “Au Drapeau,” is written by M.<br />
George Duruy, whose course of lectures on<br />
History and Literature at the Ecole Polytechnic<br />
has been abruptly suspended on the plea of his<br />
having irritated his pupils’ susceptibilities by<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
his anti-patriotie tendencies. In speaking of<br />
the French flag in the preface above mentioned,<br />
M. Duruy declares it to a bright symbol of the<br />
noblest pages in the history of France, recalling<br />
the grandeur of the réle she has played in the<br />
world, her triumphs and reverses, her glories and<br />
disasters—alike impossible to be forgotten—and<br />
the services she has generously rendered in the<br />
cause of the emancipation of nations. Still<br />
speaking of the French flag, he continues: “ It<br />
speaks to us of honour, courage, abnegation, and<br />
disdain of death—in short, of all the masculine<br />
virtues which have imbued the souls of the in-<br />
numerable Frenchmen fallen in its defence. And<br />
this is why, when the regiment passes, we should<br />
piously uncover our heads before the flag,<br />
‘comme devant le Saint Sacrement de la Patrie!’”<br />
All we have ourselves seen and heard of<br />
M. Duruy is in keeping with the elevated tone of<br />
patriotism here displayed; yet this eminent<br />
Frenchman is now debarred from exercising his<br />
usual functions because he is not sufficiently<br />
patriotic —or rather, sufficiently prejudiced—to<br />
suit the exigencies of party politics.<br />
<br />
During the past month the chroniclers of the<br />
Société des Gens de Lettres at the various literary<br />
functions, have had no reason to complain of<br />
lack of copy. The occasion of the two-hundredth<br />
anniversary of Racine was brilliantly commemo-<br />
rated at his birthplace, La Ferté Milon, where a<br />
pious pilgrimage was made to Port Royal by the<br />
Raciniens, while the Parisian dramatic, literary,<br />
and ecclesiastical world each celebrated the anni-<br />
versary of the great tragic poet after its own<br />
fashion. The celebration of the forty-ninth<br />
anniversary of Balzac at Tours was a much quieter<br />
and le:s fashionable function; the weather was<br />
still more unpropitious than it had been on the<br />
occasion of the Racine celebration, and the<br />
“‘Couronnement de Balzac” (by M. Henri Chollet)<br />
was read in the rain to a dripping audience by<br />
M. Desmonts. The inauguration féte of the<br />
Pierre Dupont monument at Lyons was more<br />
favoured, botb as regards weather and audience,<br />
and M. Roujon’s comparison of the work of<br />
the Lyonnais poet to “an early dewdrop<br />
sparkling among the foliage of an ancient<br />
Druidical oak in the sun of France,” was much<br />
applauded.<br />
<br />
The unveiling of the Louis Veuillot monument<br />
in the basilica of the Sacré Cceur has also taken<br />
place during the past month. The celebrated<br />
polemist had composed his own epitaph in verse<br />
some time before his death, which occurred in<br />
1883; and it is in accordance with the desire<br />
therein expressed that the motto—‘* J’ai cru, je<br />
vois ’’—is engraven on the marble haut-relief now<br />
raised to his memory. DarracorTe DENE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 13<br />
<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
" ET me very seriously invite all members of<br />
<br />
L the Society to the paper (see p. 4) entitled<br />
“Tord Russell and Mr. John Murray.”<br />
<br />
It is there shown that after the passing of<br />
Lord Russell’s Bill every publisher who furnishes<br />
a false account; who takes secret commissions<br />
or discounts: will be liable to a criminal prose-<br />
~ cution.<br />
<br />
In other words, we shall then be legally entitled<br />
not only to put him in a crimimal court if he<br />
is detected, but to call him what some of us have<br />
been rebuked for calling him, a thief. He will<br />
be at last a thief in the eyes of the law, all<br />
sophistries swept out of the way.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Mr. Thring speaks of “ very strong suspicion.”<br />
Teall it “certainty” for the following reasons :—<br />
(1) We have publishers’ accounts showing<br />
prices of printing, paper, &c., far higher than<br />
any estimates in the Society’s hands.<br />
<br />
(2) It is certain that publishers do not pay<br />
more than they are obliged to pay to printers,<br />
paper makers, binders, &e.<br />
<br />
(3) We have the avowals made by publishers<br />
themselves as quoted by Mr. Thring.<br />
<br />
(4) We have the draft agreements put forward<br />
by the Publishers’ Association in which they claim<br />
as aright to put in their own pockets whatever<br />
they please or may like for discount. The amount<br />
of the percentage is purposely left open.<br />
<br />
(5) We observe the careful omission in these<br />
agreements of any protest against secrecy. Con-<br />
sidering the protests of the Society against secret<br />
profits, what can be inferred from this omission<br />
except the determination to continue a secret<br />
practice actually carried on ? Are we to believe<br />
that these claims are suddenly put forward as a<br />
new thing ?<br />
<br />
(6) We also observe the omission of any protest<br />
against charging for advertisements in their own<br />
organs or by exchange, a practice which enables<br />
the publisher to put into his own pocket what-<br />
ever he pleases.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
One would only add to these considerations<br />
the fact that though the charge of making secret<br />
profits has been brought forward over and over<br />
again, the committee of the Publishers’ Associa-<br />
tion have never by a single word shown their<br />
disapproval of the practice. That they received<br />
Lord Russell’s words with “ consternation,’ one<br />
can understand ; that painful “ surprise” was also<br />
an emotion called up by these words one can<br />
understand as well.<br />
<br />
I have been asked about the “Method of the<br />
Future.’ I am happy to say that, so far, it<br />
promises well. I have only heard of one exception<br />
to the complete satisfaction of those who are<br />
trying it. It will take time for writers to realise<br />
how small, if any, is the risk run by anyone who<br />
has acquired any kind of a name; and for those<br />
who can achieve a popular success, the immense<br />
difference which this method makes to the author.<br />
But there can be no doubt that a commission<br />
publisher, who is nothing else, and has no books<br />
of his own to run in opposition to the author's<br />
own book, offers the only way out of the many<br />
difficulties which afflict the “author, publisher,<br />
and bookseller ’’ question—a question in which the<br />
publisher’s object is apparently, so far as we can<br />
judge by his proposals to the bookseller, and his<br />
“equitable agreement ” with the author, resolved,<br />
if he can, to keep the bookseller in the gutter, and<br />
to push the author in with him.<br />
<br />
——<br />
<br />
I think that the present situation, which means<br />
the practical cessation of any demand for other<br />
than six-shilling books, ought to be seriously taken<br />
into consideration by those who are bringing out<br />
books for the autumn season. It should lead<br />
them, at least, not to be too sanguine. There<br />
will certainly be some measure of decline in the<br />
demand—even for popular writers : how great the<br />
malign influence of the sixpenny book will prove,<br />
it is impossible to say : booksellers themselves are<br />
unable to make any forecast except as regards<br />
their own subscription. This there is every<br />
reason to expect will be small. The circulating<br />
libraries will continue, one supposes, and will take<br />
their usual number: but if 6d. a week will pur-<br />
chase fifty-two of the best books every year, who<br />
will go on paying two or three guineas for a sub-<br />
scription? Let us, therefore, be prepared for the<br />
worst. Perhaps the general forebodings will<br />
prove to be of exaggerated gloom.<br />
<br />
——<br />
<br />
It has been often observed that a dropping fire<br />
of abuse directed against the Society of Authors<br />
is kept up in the columns of certain country<br />
papers by the contributors of “ Literary Gossip.”<br />
Cuttings are sent to the office of the Society con-<br />
taining these misrepresentations. Is it not almost<br />
time that the Committee should take up the matter,<br />
and take action of some kind? When an editor<br />
<br />
allows the appearance of libellous expressions deny-<br />
ing the truth of statements made by the Committee<br />
in their reports and papers, it really becomes<br />
necessary to consider what action should be taken.<br />
Meanwhile a little examination may be profitably<br />
conducted into the source and origin of these mis-<br />
“John Bickerdyke” in<br />
<br />
representations, As<br />
<br />
<br />
iy THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
another column points out, the Society of Authors<br />
does not attack the Institute of Journalists;<br />
“indeed, many are members of both. Nor does<br />
the Institute in its organ attack this Society.<br />
Who are, then, the journalists who go out of<br />
their way, week by week, to calumniate the work<br />
of this Society, or to misrepresent its methods<br />
and to deny its importance? And why do editors<br />
admit these attacks ? Surely they might first ask<br />
themselves what is the reason why the Society is<br />
continually attracting writers more and more,<br />
enlisting new members, and keeping its old<br />
members. It is not for nothing that fifteen<br />
‘ hundred men and women first combine, and then<br />
maintain a combination. There must be some<br />
reason. It is not honour and glory, for it is not<br />
a distinction to belong to a society whose numbers<br />
are unlimited, and whose qualification is simply<br />
the authorship of one book at least, gcod or bad.<br />
Any man of the world must understand that such<br />
a combination means the attempted advance of<br />
material interests, and that the maintained com-<br />
bination means a successful attempt. Perhaps a<br />
simple remonstrance addressed to the editors of<br />
the papers concerned would open their eyes to<br />
the unworthy use that is made of their columns.<br />
<br />
So<br />
<br />
‘Lhe Professor or Instructor in the Art of making<br />
Literature turns up from time in unexpected<br />
places. He is now heard of as practising ina<br />
certain industrial centre. I do not name him nor<br />
do I give his address; in confidence that his ways<br />
. and works will before long be proclaimed aloud<br />
by the trumpet of Fame. Meantime it is, of<br />
course, disgraceful ignorance not to know any-<br />
' thing about the immortal works by which he has<br />
- achieved the right of instructing aspirants. He<br />
reads and reviews short stories and “ novelettes :”<br />
he advises alterations and amendments for 2s. a<br />
thousand words. He gives lessons by corres-<br />
pondence in “ belles lettres, poetry, essay writing<br />
and general literature ”—this accomplished man !<br />
—the “entire course” of the weekly lessons for<br />
one guinea. These lessons “‘ comprise a thorough<br />
grounding in the rudiments of authorship ; such as<br />
style, plot, description, characters, incidents, &c.,<br />
with revision of exercises and general advice.”<br />
He also offers single lessons on special points,<br />
e.g., “How to write a Short Story: a Novelette:<br />
a Romance: an Essay: a Play:<br />
“ Humorous Writing and how to go about it,”<br />
and other important branches. The learned<br />
professor modestly withholds information as to<br />
his own qualifications and previous history. Now,<br />
opinions are divided as to the possible advantages<br />
of instruction and assistance in writing, but one<br />
thing is quite certain—-that he who would teach<br />
<br />
Verse ;”-<br />
<br />
must first show that he is himself a competent:<br />
master,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
It is now some years since attention was called<br />
to a magazine conducted entirely in the interests<br />
of aspirants to literary fame, called in the pro-<br />
spectus authors. The magazine is called Lloyd’s<br />
Magazine. It appears quarterly: its price is<br />
ninepence: and it may be obtained—one knows<br />
not where. But it does exist, because the pro-<br />
spectus quotes opinions from more than thirty<br />
papers, all of which speak in laudatory terms of<br />
the magazine. However, the point with which<br />
we are concerned is that of the relations between<br />
the editor and the author. ‘The editor, then, is<br />
also an adviser; he offers a ‘professional<br />
opinion” for nothing. A _ “ professional ”<br />
opinion is that of a professional man. He is<br />
therefore either an author — in which: case it<br />
would be well to know what books he has written,<br />
and on what subjects: or he is a critic—in<br />
which case one would like to be referred to his<br />
critical works, and to know semething of his<br />
literary record. He is also ready to read and<br />
give practical advice in the placing of MSS. for a<br />
sniall fee—z.e., he is-an agent. He undertakes<br />
the printing and is also a publisher. As such he<br />
should tell us what-works he has published. As<br />
adviser, as agent, publisher, critic, friend, this<br />
incomparable person should be invited to reveal<br />
himself. His name is Mr. Leonard Lloyd. He<br />
has an office at 60, Queen Victoria-street: and he<br />
modestly declines interviews, “except by special<br />
arrangement.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
If, however, an aspirant sends a MS. which<br />
arrives at the honour of being accepted, he must<br />
not expect the customary honorarium which<br />
other editors offer with lavish hand, or the con-<br />
trary. Not at all: he must sign an agreement<br />
by which he promises to buy so many “dozen<br />
copies of the magazine.” The number of copies<br />
is not named. As the price of the magazine is<br />
gd., a dozen copies will cost 9s., and twenty<br />
dozen copies will cost £9. How much is the<br />
aspirant prepared to pay for the honour and<br />
glory of appearing in Lloyd’s Magazine? It is<br />
a perfectly simple transaction. The gratification<br />
of vanity by this appearance—this spectral and<br />
illusory semblance—of literary success: the<br />
skeleton in the closet in the shape of so many<br />
dozen copies of the magazine hidden away: the<br />
dread that this short cut to glory, this easy climb<br />
of the rocky Parnassus, may be discovered by<br />
envious friends—what are these considerations<br />
worth ? Let the aspirant work out this sum<br />
carefully before he sends his MS. and signs this<br />
agreement. Meantime, let him send his work<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
round to those editors who -reverse the traus-<br />
<br />
‘action and actually pay for an accepted MS.<br />
<br />
It must be added that Mr. Leonard Lloyd<br />
offers a choice. The aspirant may, if he prefers,<br />
contribute to the London and New York Swumer<br />
Annual on the same terms, viz., of buying<br />
dozen copies of this production.<br />
<br />
WaLterR BESAN?.<br />
<br />
ees<br />
<br />
LITERATURE AS A PROFESSION.<br />
<br />
N another column will be found a somewhat<br />
| bitter attack upon myself as a person<br />
guilty of persuading people that literature<br />
isa profession which anyone may undertake with<br />
the hope, or reasonable expectation, of gaininz<br />
by its means a large and substantial income. I<br />
cannot find that I have in any place written or<br />
said anything that can justify this charge. Yet<br />
it seems to be extensively believed. I was told<br />
the other day by a publisher who had not seen<br />
the letter of “ X.,” that by my optimistic words<br />
about the literary profession I was drawing<br />
hundreds who had no natural aptitude into dis-<br />
appointment and failure. There are also, we<br />
may remark, many hundreds who attempt other<br />
professions with a similar result. Let me, there-<br />
fore, restate my case.<br />
<br />
(1) It was until recently believed by most<br />
that Literature is a starving and a beggarly<br />
profession.<br />
<br />
(2) This belief was fostered carefully by<br />
persons interested in concealing the facts con-<br />
nected with the commercial side of Literature.<br />
<br />
(3) It isencouraged by the yearly presentation<br />
of Literature as the one profession which has<br />
humbly to beg for alms.<br />
<br />
(4) When, some years ago, I said in public<br />
that there were then fifty persons at least<br />
engaged in literary work whose income went into<br />
the four figures, there was hardly a paper in the<br />
country that did not question the statement with<br />
contempt. Yet it was true.<br />
<br />
These things represent, and explain, the common<br />
belief. What are the facts?<br />
<br />
(1) There are now many hundreds of suc-<br />
cessful writers in all branches. Thes2 are<br />
dramatists, novelists, writers on art and music,<br />
essayists and leader writers, scientific writers,<br />
specialists, religious writers, writers of educi-<br />
tional books, writers of children’s books, and<br />
others.<br />
<br />
Out of these I could name at this moment<br />
many more than fifty whose works bring incomes<br />
which run into four figures.<br />
<br />
(2) Besides these there is a whole army of<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHOR,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
=<br />
<br />
VS<br />
<br />
men and women who live by the pen, including<br />
those engaged upon the better kinds of journal-<br />
ism.<br />
<br />
(3) Out of this army the Royal Literary Fund<br />
<br />
-only relieved and assisted twenty-two persons<br />
<br />
last year in want of temporary assistance ! Only<br />
twenty-two! The Fund cannot now spend half<br />
its income. It will therefore, we hope, discontinue<br />
the yearly dinner and the yearly appeal.<br />
<br />
(4) Every year sees the appearance of one or<br />
more new. successes in the drama or in fiction.<br />
Every year one witnesses the continued success<br />
of old favourites.<br />
<br />
(5) Every year two or three new publishers<br />
enter the trade. And, what is more to the point,<br />
they all seem to get on. The bankruptcy of a<br />
publisher isa rare thing. It has happened, so<br />
tar as I can remember, only four or five times m<br />
the last twenty years.<br />
<br />
(6) In every club where men of letters are<br />
found at all there appear every year more who<br />
attempt the profession. And with one exception<br />
here and there they all seem to get on. Not to<br />
make fortunes, but to get on, as in other walks in<br />
life.<br />
<br />
(7) The great prizes of the profession—fame,<br />
honour, and income —are becoming every day<br />
greater and more numerous.<br />
<br />
(8) From these and other considerations, I<br />
maintain that literature, as a profession, is no<br />
more precarious than any other. I do not say<br />
that large incomes are within the reach of all,<br />
but that they are there for those who can<br />
arrive at them. If we state the success of cer-<br />
tain lawyers, do we therefore “encourage”? too<br />
many? The fact, no doubt, does encourage too<br />
many in every profession ; yet the facts must be<br />
stated.<br />
<br />
Now, there is this great difference between a<br />
profession and a trade—that the latter need not<br />
cease with the death of the practitioner. The pro-<br />
fessional man stands alone. His success does not<br />
depend upon goodwill, connection, old-standing,<br />
or family reputation: it is his own. Therefore,<br />
in order to succeed in a profession, a man must<br />
possess, first, the natural aptitude or genius for<br />
bis work: and, next, such qualities as are<br />
required to win popularity. A man, in order<br />
to become a successful lawyer, must have the<br />
kind of intellect that is above all things<br />
essential for success in the law. Thus, if he<br />
desires to become a successful pleader, he must<br />
not be a shy or nervous man: he must be of<br />
ready wit, of good manner, an able speaker, a<br />
lucid expounder. Apply the same conditions to<br />
literature. The aspirant must have the first<br />
essential qualification, what is called the eift of<br />
the pen. Next, if he is to become popular, he<br />
<br />
<br />
16 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
must possess in addition certain other gifts which<br />
“{ need not specify.<br />
<br />
Now, as it is quite possible to be a good lawyer<br />
yet to have no clients, or a good physician yet to<br />
‘have no patients: so it is quite possible to pro-<br />
duce fine literary work which will appeal to few<br />
readers. The early history of Browning furnishes<br />
an illustration if any were wanted. A man may<br />
not command, even by very good writing, a wide<br />
<br />
“audience: by good writing, however, he will<br />
‘certainly acquire a limited audience: the writer<br />
who fails to get a hearing at all must be a bad<br />
writer. It is a'so true that there are writers who<br />
‘ command a wide audience, yet fail in many of the<br />
“most important points which go to make fine<br />
‘ literature.<br />
<br />
To say all this, which I have been saying over<br />
and over again for years, is to state, and to<br />
restate, the simplest axioms, to my mind. Yet I<br />
<br />
‘am constantly told that I encourage people in<br />
the belief that large incomes can be readily<br />
made by writing. Nothing has ever been said<br />
in The. Author about anybody’s income: we do<br />
not here touch on personal matters, otherwise<br />
the proof or illustration of my position would<br />
be easy. Moreover, what is advanced con-<br />
cerns, not novels only, but literature of all<br />
kinds. I have been accused of thinking and<br />
speaking of novels only: that is not so. I<br />
include all branches of literature: novels are<br />
not the most lucrative branch: they fall, for<br />
instance, very far short of educational books,<br />
and still farther short of plays. The compila-<br />
tion of a popular hymn-book is reported to be<br />
worthy the attention even of a company pro-<br />
moter. Thirty or forty years ago a popular book<br />
of Family Prayers was a gold mine. That mine<br />
is now said to be worked out. And at this day<br />
a book adopted by the Board schools for the<br />
earlier standards would be an endowment for<br />
the daughter of a millionaire.<br />
<br />
“X.” thinks that it is a bad thing for litera-<br />
ture to be many sided. I cannot agree with him.<br />
I think it is a very good thing that a novelist, a<br />
poet, a dramatist, should also write essays, articles,<br />
reviews, biographies —- everything. There are<br />
instances, living and dead, of the best literary<br />
men and women doing this without injury to their<br />
special work.<br />
<br />
To sum up. My critic must not contend,<br />
because he himself has been so far unsuc-<br />
cessful with the general public, that litera-<br />
ture is worse than any other profession: nor<br />
that it is worse paid. On the other hand, he<br />
need not feel humiliated by want of success. His<br />
work may be very good—the work of this writer,<br />
if I may so far betray confidence, 7s very good—<br />
so good that his disclosures astonish me. But in<br />
<br />
every profession it is more than natural aptitude<br />
—or genius—that is wanted to gain the popular<br />
ear, and to, take the place of a popular favourite.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ANNUAL DINNER. .<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
was held at the Trocadero Restaurant on<br />
<br />
fe Annual Dinner of the Society of Authors<br />
<br />
_ Thursday the 4th May.<br />
members and guests were present :—<br />
<br />
i Beckett, A. W.,and Guest.<br />
<br />
Aberdeen, The Right Hon.<br />
the Earl of, P.C., G.C.M.G.<br />
<br />
Adamson, J. R.<br />
<br />
Ameer Ali, The Hon. Mr.<br />
Justice.<br />
<br />
Appleton, W. W.<br />
<br />
Armstrong, E. A.<br />
<br />
Ball, Sir Robert, F.R.S.<br />
<br />
Beddard, F. E., F B.S.<br />
<br />
Bell, Mackenzie.<br />
<br />
Benson, E. F.<br />
<br />
Besant, W. H., D.Se., F.R.S.<br />
<br />
Besant, Sir Walter<br />
<br />
Besant, Lady.<br />
<br />
Beville, Mrs. Charles.<br />
<br />
Birrell, Augustine, Q.C.,<br />
M P. (Chairman).<br />
<br />
Bonney, The Rev. T. G,<br />
E.B.S.<br />
<br />
Bourchier, J. D.<br />
<br />
Bourdillon, F. W.<br />
<br />
Brown, Hadyn.<br />
<br />
‘Bryden, H. A.<br />
<br />
Bury, Prof. J. B., Litt. Doc.<br />
<br />
Campbell, Lady Colin.<br />
<br />
Campbell, Miss Montgomery.<br />
<br />
Carr, Mrs. Carlisle.<br />
<br />
Carter, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Castle, Egerton.<br />
<br />
Caulfield, Miss.<br />
<br />
Charley, Sir William, Q C.,<br />
D.C.L.<br />
<br />
Clodd, E.<br />
<br />
Colles, W. M.<br />
<br />
Colles, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Conway, Sir Martin.<br />
<br />
Cordeux, Miss.<br />
<br />
Curtis, Miss Ella.<br />
<br />
Daily Chronicle.<br />
<br />
Daily Graphic.<br />
<br />
Daily Mail.<br />
<br />
Daily News.<br />
<br />
Daily Telegraph.<br />
<br />
De Soissons, S. C<br />
<br />
Dobson, Austin.<br />
<br />
Dodd, Frank H.<br />
<br />
Dowsett, C. F.<br />
<br />
Dubonurg, A. W.<br />
<br />
Danlop, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Durand, Colonel, C-B., C.I.E.<br />
<br />
Dyer, Sir W. Thiselton.<br />
<br />
Earl, A.<br />
<br />
Earl, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Edmonds, A. R.<br />
<br />
The following<br />
<br />
Edmonds, Mrs. A. R.<br />
<br />
Ellis, Mullett.<br />
<br />
Free, Rev. R.<br />
<br />
Garland, Hamlin.<br />
<br />
Garrison, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Gill, Upcott.<br />
<br />
Gowing, Mrs. Aylmer.<br />
<br />
Grohman, W. A. Baillie.<br />
<br />
Guimarzens, M. L.<br />
<br />
Gunter, Lieut.-Col.<br />
<br />
Haggard, Captain E. A.<br />
<br />
Hawkin, R. C.<br />
<br />
Hawkins, A. Hope.<br />
<br />
Henslowe, Miss.<br />
<br />
Herman, G. E.<br />
<br />
Holman, H. Martin.<br />
<br />
Hornung, E. W.<br />
<br />
Hornung, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Humphrey- Desmond, Mrs.8.<br />
<br />
Jacobs, W. W.<br />
<br />
James, Miss W. M.<br />
<br />
Johnson, Henry.<br />
<br />
Jones, The Rev. Prebendary<br />
Harry.<br />
<br />
Kelly, C. A.<br />
<br />
Keltie, J. Scott, LL.D.<br />
<br />
Kenealy, Miss A.<br />
<br />
Kenealy, Edward.<br />
<br />
Kinns, Rev. Dr. 8., D.D.<br />
<br />
Larner, Miss A.<br />
<br />
Lefroy, Mrs., and Guest.<br />
<br />
Legge, Francis.<br />
<br />
Little, J. Stanley.<br />
<br />
Little, Mrs. Archibald.<br />
<br />
London, The Archdeacon of.<br />
<br />
Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc, and<br />
Guest.<br />
<br />
Louis, J.<br />
<br />
Marsh, Richard.<br />
<br />
Marsh, Mrs. R.<br />
<br />
Massingham, H. W.<br />
<br />
Mathews, C. E.<br />
<br />
Maxwell, The Right Hon.<br />
Sir Herbert, Bart.<br />
<br />
McKinney, B. G.<br />
<br />
Metcalfe, H. C.<br />
<br />
Moberly, Miss, and Guest.<br />
<br />
Morning Post.<br />
<br />
Moscheles, Felix.<br />
<br />
Murray, Oscar.<br />
<br />
Newbolt, Henry.<br />
<br />
Norman, H.<br />
<br />
Oppenheim, E. P.<br />
<br />
Pall Mall Gazette.<br />
<br />
Parker, Gilbert.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
eat?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“President of<br />
<br />
Parker, Mrs. Gilbert.<br />
<br />
Parker, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Paterson, Arthur<br />
<br />
Pemberton, Max.<br />
<br />
Pengelley, Miss Hester.<br />
<br />
Phipson, Miss Emma.<br />
<br />
Pollock, Sir Frederick, Bart.,<br />
LL.D.<br />
<br />
-Pollock, Lady.<br />
<br />
Pollock, Miss Edith.<br />
Prelooker, Jaakoff.<br />
<br />
“President of the Royal Col-<br />
<br />
lege of Physicians.<br />
Institute of<br />
<br />
Painters in Water Colours.<br />
Reeves, The Hon. W. P.<br />
‘Rhodes, H. D.<br />
<br />
‘Rhodes, Miss.<br />
<br />
Rogers, A.<br />
<br />
“Russell, Rollo.<br />
<br />
St. James’s Gazette.<br />
Sargant, Miss A..<br />
Seaman, Owen.<br />
Shepard, H.<br />
<br />
Shorter, Clement.<br />
Skeat, The Rev. W. W.<br />
Smith, Dr. Barnett.<br />
Smith, Mrs. Burnett.<br />
Spanton, John.<br />
Spender, Harold.<br />
Spielmann, M. H.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 17<br />
<br />
The Standard.<br />
<br />
Stanley, H. M.<br />
<br />
Sterry, Ashby.<br />
<br />
Stillman, W. J.<br />
<br />
Swan, Miss Myra.<br />
<br />
Tayler, H. Stanley.<br />
<br />
Temple, Lieut.-Col. R. C.,<br />
C.LE.<br />
<br />
Temple, Sir Richard,K.C.S.I.<br />
<br />
The Editor The Daily Tele-<br />
graph.<br />
<br />
The Times.<br />
<br />
Thorpe, W. G.<br />
<br />
Thring, G. H.<br />
<br />
Thring, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Townend, T. 8.<br />
<br />
Tuer, Andrew.<br />
<br />
Tuer, Mrs.<br />
<br />
Tweedie,<br />
Guest.<br />
<br />
Warner, F.<br />
<br />
Waterfield, M.<br />
<br />
Watt, A. S.<br />
<br />
Watt, Mrs. A. S.<br />
<br />
Westminster Gazette.<br />
<br />
White, Arnold.<br />
<br />
White, A. Silva.<br />
<br />
Wilkins, W. H., and Guest.<br />
<br />
Wright, C. T. Hagberg.<br />
<br />
Young, Gerald.<br />
<br />
Zangwill, I.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Alec., and<br />
<br />
Sprigge, S. 8.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Dear Srr,—Reports of functions, of whatsoever<br />
kind, are generally written by experts, presumably<br />
for the instruction, elevation, or amusement of the<br />
‘man in the street; but there is something to be<br />
said in favour of a reversal of the usual process.<br />
_Why should not the man in the street sometimes<br />
express his opinion of a function which he may<br />
have attended as a guest, not as a professional<br />
member of the celebrating caste? As I am alone<br />
at the moment, and there is no one to allege any<br />
just cause or impediment why I should not express<br />
any opinion I please, I propose to write you this<br />
short note and tender it in lieu of the prosaic<br />
conventional report of the annual dinner of the<br />
Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
First of all, let me say a few words about<br />
myself. Iam not an author, though I occasion-<br />
ally write cheques. I attended the banquct with<br />
pleasure, for I like meeting people whose names<br />
are well known, and having the opportunity of<br />
picking the brains of those who are intellectually<br />
my superiors. I was not selected to respond to<br />
the toast of “The Guests,’ although being,<br />
figuratively speaking, a babe and suckling, I<br />
might doubtless have uttered many words of<br />
wisdom. I was probably the only unknown man<br />
in the room, but I have one great claim upon<br />
your kind consideration. I buy books. Were<br />
<br />
it not for me, and men like me, there could<br />
ke no Society of Authors to dine, or, rather,<br />
<br />
there could be no dinner for the Society of<br />
Authors.<br />
<br />
The dinner was good; the soup in particular<br />
was excellent, as I am-sure le Nain de Sang<br />
would have said had he been present—I refer<br />
to the contributor to Lord Rosebery’s ideal paper.<br />
Sorbet before beef I regard as a weak concession<br />
to a foolish fashion ; but we will let that pass, as,<br />
indeed, I did at the dinner itself. I do not know<br />
who was deputed to arrange the menu, but I<br />
hereby take off my hat to him; and [ agree with<br />
him, too, in his selection of champagne. Mrs.<br />
Alec Tweedie has lately recorded her father’s<br />
decided opinion that sweet champagne is better<br />
than dry. Iam on the side of Dr. George Harley,<br />
and am glad to hail as a sympathiser the man<br />
who ordered your dinner.<br />
<br />
With regard to the speeches—well, I confess<br />
that when I entered the Oak Room of the<br />
Trocadero and surveyed the assembled celebrities,<br />
my first wish was that it might be possible to<br />
compute the total amount of grey matter there<br />
gathered together; it must have. represented<br />
many pounds avoirdupois, and I looked forward<br />
with some apprehension to the after-dinner<br />
I had never dined with the Authors<br />
before, and I know that although a man may<br />
have the pen of a ready writer, it by no means<br />
follows that he has the gift of tongues. I went<br />
to see the lions feed, as the Archdeacon of London<br />
subsequently said for me, but I was rather<br />
nervous as to what might happen when they<br />
began to roar. I give you my word, Sir, I was<br />
very agreeably surprised. There was not one<br />
speech which did not contain at least one happy<br />
thought happily touched off. Augustine Birrell<br />
struck the keynote when proposing the health of<br />
the Queen, advancing Her Majesty as a conclu-<br />
sive argument in favour of the royalty system.<br />
<br />
In proposing the toast of the evening, too,<br />
his remarks were made to a rippling accompani-<br />
ment of laughter in which it was infinitely<br />
pleasant to participate. I liked the quotation<br />
trom Lord Halifax with which he began, that “it<br />
must be more than an ordinary provocation that<br />
can tempt a man to write in an age overrun with<br />
scribblers as Egypt was overrun with flies and<br />
locusts. That worst vermin of small authors has<br />
given the world such a surfeit that instead of desir- .<br />
ing to write a man would be more inclined to wish<br />
for his own ease that.he could not read.” It was an<br />
admirable peg on which to hang an admirable<br />
speech. Happily phrased, too, were many of<br />
his points: that incorporation by law is no<br />
detriment to a useful and honourable society ;<br />
that your general meetings are analogous to the<br />
Council of Nicea; that you exist, not to earn<br />
dividends for yourselves, but to look after the<br />
<br />
speaking.<br />
18 THE. AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
interests of your brothers; that you are nota<br />
mutual admiration society, but an educational<br />
one, wisely confining your attentions to your own<br />
fraternity ; and that you stand boldly upon your<br />
right to instruct your members in the conduct of<br />
their own affairs. There was delicate relief in<br />
his reference to Tennyson who could not read<br />
Browning, to Browning who did not read Tenny-<br />
son—mark the difference—and to Matthew<br />
Arnold, who thought very little of either. Is<br />
this last a fact? And in the best possible taste<br />
was his elegiac tribute to Lord Herschell, a<br />
member of your old Copyright Committee, and<br />
one of the few who really understood the question<br />
of copyright.<br />
<br />
Gilbert Parker’s reply was dignified and apt.<br />
I have a weakness for crystallisations, and the<br />
great novelist gave me one which I carry in my<br />
memory. It is his summary of the reasons<br />
which compel people to write. These are:<br />
(1) to satisfy their own instincts; (2) to earn<br />
their daily bread; and (3) to serve the general<br />
intelligence. Three very good reasons too,<br />
say I.<br />
<br />
Sir Frederick Pollock kindly proposed the<br />
health of myself and some others. Inadvertently<br />
he did me an injustice. He said that it was<br />
difficult in that assembly to find any guest to<br />
respond who was not an author, and he did not<br />
callon me. I notice, by the way, that the editor<br />
of the Daily Chronicle has not yet used the story<br />
given him by Sir Frederick Pollock as a test of<br />
humour, and as it isa good story I commend it<br />
to Mr. Massingham’s recollection, and leave it<br />
there for the present.<br />
<br />
Sir William Thiselton Dyer spoke in excellent<br />
taste, and the Archdeacon of London also replied<br />
with a courtly courtesy that made me reflect that<br />
in spite of its crises and dissensions our Church<br />
still possesses most princely gentlemen.<br />
<br />
The Hon. W. P. Reeves declared himself to be<br />
on the horns of a dilemma. An after-dinner<br />
-speech he asserted should not occupy more than<br />
from five to ten minutes. 4itro’ If he<br />
adhered to the rule, his toast — Imperial<br />
interests—must suffer. If he broke the rule<br />
his audience must suffer. He broke the rule,<br />
but nobody repined, and so we reached the<br />
-oration of the evening, Lord Aberdeen’s reply.<br />
He spoke with dignity, and to the point. Upon<br />
his speech Ido not even propose to comment,<br />
‘seeing that it was reported at length in every<br />
daily paper. His comments on the Pacific Cable<br />
scheme, and on the action of your Society with<br />
regard to Canadian Copyright were exactly such<br />
as he might have been relied upon to make.<br />
-Here I will only quote his tribute to your Society<br />
as “the unquestioned repository of the theughts<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
and feelings of the leading’ authors of the<br />
day.”<br />
<br />
I tender my thanks, not only to my host, but<br />
to all the members of your Society, for an intelli-<br />
gently pleasant evening, and I should like to say<br />
that one erroneous impression, shared by others<br />
besides myself, has been removed from my mind.<br />
Thad an idea that the Society of Authors was<br />
composed of novelists who assumed that in<br />
fiction was comprised the whole of literature.<br />
That idea IT have now abandoned, and I am<br />
genuinely glad that I can do so. Anthony Hope,<br />
E. F. Benson, Gilbert Parker, and Hamlin<br />
Garland sat at the high table; but so, too, did<br />
Austin Dobson, Sir W. Thiselton Dyer, Sir<br />
Herbert Maxwell, Sir Richard Temple, Sir<br />
Frederick Pollock, Sir Robert Ball, Sir Martin<br />
Conway, and Mr. H. M. Stanley.. And that is<br />
fairly representative of the authors whom I am<br />
glad to have met. A list of the distinguished<br />
people present should form very interesting<br />
reading, and I shall always like to remember<br />
that among them was—Yours faithfully,<br />
<br />
V. E. M.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ec<br />
<br />
THE INTERNATIONAL PRESS CON-<br />
GRESS AT ROME.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
‘T AST year this interesting annual congress<br />
I jj Was held at Lisbon, and climatic reasons<br />
<br />
and the Queen of Holland’s coronation<br />
delayed the gathering until late autumn. This<br />
year being at Rome, climatic reasons pressed the<br />
meeting time into early spring, and so it came<br />
about that the Rome congress so swiftly followed<br />
that of Lisbon ; but, if the congress met in April,<br />
the journeyings of the congressists, after their<br />
“works ”’ were completed, ran on well into May,<br />
and so this account appears apparently a month<br />
overdue.<br />
<br />
The number of delegates amounted to 398,<br />
representing eighteen nationalities, the English<br />
delegation consisting of seventeen members. The<br />
French as usual outnumbered even the Italian<br />
delegation.<br />
<br />
The list of “works and festivities,” to quote<br />
the English translation of the official programme,<br />
was interesting. Let the “works” come first.<br />
The English delegation held a_ preliminary<br />
meeting under the presidency of Mr. P. W.<br />
Clayden, and it was arranged that Mr. Atkinson,<br />
of the Manchester Guardian, should speak on the<br />
Relations of Journalist and Proprietor; Sir Hugh<br />
Gilzean-Reid on Legislation, and the writer on<br />
Artistic Copyright; and, owing to the much-<br />
regretted absence of Miss G. B. Stuart through<br />
illness, I was elected as hon. secretary to the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
delegation for the Congress. Sir Hugh Gilzean-<br />
Reid was elected hon. president for the Congress,<br />
thus presiding over its first session. The recep-<br />
tion of the polyglottic delegates by Signor Bon-<br />
fadini and his Italian confreres in what he called<br />
their modeste demeure (really a most palatial<br />
Press club) was intensely cordial, he referring<br />
the English to the fact that here (in Rome) was<br />
the house where Sir Walter Scott had lived, and<br />
here Shelley had written some of his most glorious<br />
work. On the following morning their Majesties<br />
the King and Queen of Italy opened the Congress<br />
in the Historic Halls in the ancient Capitol.<br />
<br />
A little doubt was filling the minds of all, as to<br />
how this royal opening would pass off. There was<br />
the awkward fact that four of the delegates for<br />
Lombardy were still in prison, and fears of a<br />
demonstration against the King were prevalent,<br />
but, thanks to the assuaging diplomacy of the<br />
president, Herr Singer, of Vienna, the opening<br />
ceremony passed off quietly, and Herr Simger’s<br />
address was warmly applauded, especially when<br />
he said the International journalists had taken<br />
the world for their empire. The King and<br />
Queen gave no formal reply, but descended<br />
from the dais and chatted freely with the<br />
chief delegates, thanking Herr Singer for his<br />
address, and conversing for some time—the King<br />
in French, the Queen in English—with the<br />
English president and secretary, Her Majesty<br />
especially dwelling upon the ubiquity of our<br />
correspondents.<br />
<br />
The real work of the Congress began at the<br />
next meeting, but this was arrested for a moment<br />
by the president referring in sympathetic words<br />
to the death of M. Albert Bataille of the Figaro,<br />
who hid done so much for international journa-<br />
lism; and yet again by M. Monetar calling<br />
attention to the fact that four delegates were<br />
absent through force, an incident that aroused<br />
warm applause. Herr Singer, with ready tact,<br />
stated the statutes of the association forbade their<br />
discussing such a circumstance. But he hoped,<br />
with all respect to the laws of the country of<br />
which they were the guests, by the grace of the<br />
Royal prerogative these members would now be<br />
at liberty—a tactful statement that evoked much<br />
enthusiasm. M. Victor Taunay then read his<br />
report on the adoption of a card of identity for<br />
journalists travelling abroad, and with careful<br />
restrictions it was agreed t» prepare such a card.<br />
Owing to the sudden death of M. Albert Bataille<br />
his joint rapporteur, M. Beraza, asked leave to<br />
postpone his report on Legislation for the Press<br />
in various countries, and after some discussion<br />
this was agreed to, thus ¢utting out one of the<br />
most important subjects for debate of the<br />
Congress.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 19<br />
<br />
Artistic CopyRicHt.<br />
<br />
M. Morel Retz, better known as ‘‘Stop,”<br />
the caricaturist, brought on the question of<br />
Artistic Copyright, quoting instances of work<br />
being altered, of being used for other subjects<br />
than that intended by the artist, of being used<br />
again and again, clichés being sold and resold,<br />
discrediting the artist by the uses to which his<br />
work was put. M. Morel Retz proposed that the<br />
artist, even when he had sold his work, still<br />
retained the right that it should not be altered or<br />
modified ; that such an article should be inserted<br />
in the next revision of the Berne Convention,<br />
and, finally, that those interested should form<br />
professional syndicates to safeguard this moral<br />
right, and to defend it before the tribunals.<br />
Often in this International Congress English<br />
justice and legislation is proved to be in advance<br />
of the continental laws, and I had the pleasure of<br />
pointing out that the English artists and photo-<br />
graphers had already societies that ably defended<br />
them from such infringements as M. “Stop” so<br />
bitterly bewailed; but the English section was<br />
entirely in accord with him, although it could<br />
scircely be possible for any paper in England to<br />
print an illustration of the battle of Trafalgar and<br />
call it ‘“‘ An Engagement before Cuba,” an instance<br />
suggested by “Stop,” whose proposals were<br />
accepted by the Congress.<br />
<br />
Postat TARIFF FOR JOURNALS.<br />
<br />
M. Torelli Violier then read his report on the<br />
Postal Union tariff for journals, which, he said,<br />
seemed framed to prevent papers going out of<br />
their country of origin, in spite of the fact that<br />
journals were the best means of advertising a<br />
country and the products of that country. He<br />
pointed out that in France a paper circulated for<br />
two centimes, but it cost five to send it out of the<br />
country ; the same thing obtains in England, and,<br />
after an able speech, he proposed that it was to<br />
the advantage of all countries to increase the<br />
circulation of their journals abroad, and the<br />
present postal rates paralysing that circulation,<br />
the Committee of the Central Bureau should take<br />
up pourparlers with the different Governments<br />
with the aim of reducing this foreign postal rate<br />
for journals, to which the Congress heartily agreed.<br />
At the next sitting it was agreed to place a<br />
plaque on M. Bataille’s tomb as “the friend of<br />
journalists of all countries,” and the secretary, M.<br />
Taunay, read the report on Telegraphic Abbre-<br />
viations, and the suggestion that a General Code<br />
should be established. Mr. Clayden pointed out<br />
that the English papers would hardly be likely<br />
to adopt a code that all would know, as many<br />
journals had a code of their own, and a general<br />
code would probably be “milked.” After some<br />
<br />
<br />
a THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
discussion it was agreed to offer a reward of<br />
1000 francs for the best code, the number of 4000<br />
to 5000 words being suggested. A subject which<br />
caused the hottest discussion—the excited all-<br />
shouting-at-once incidents of Bordeaux seemed<br />
about to be reproduced—was that of the issuing of<br />
the Official Bulletin. The division was upon whether<br />
this should be issucd direct from the Bureau<br />
or by the medium of La Presse Internationale,<br />
a journal which has so well served the Inter-<br />
national journalists. The French section were<br />
very excited upon this; and all nations agreed<br />
M. Max Serpeille, the editor of La Presse Inter-<br />
nationale, had done good service. At last it was<br />
agreed to issue a bulletin for a year under the<br />
control of the Bureau, but by the medium of La<br />
Presse Internationale.<br />
<br />
Leeat Posrrion or JourNALISTS.<br />
<br />
The final subject debated was the Legal Posi-<br />
tion of Journalists. One French member insisted<br />
journalists were partners, not employées. Mr.<br />
Atkinson gave instances of recent legal decisions<br />
in England, and stated that written contracts<br />
were increasing. M. Maillard suggested that<br />
artists should be included in any proposed legis-<br />
lation, and it was decided the Bureau should<br />
elaborate a rule from the present general usages,<br />
especially with regard to the indemnities due to<br />
journalists dismissed summarily.<br />
<br />
This ending the business of the Congress, it<br />
was decided to hold the next Congress in Paris<br />
in 1900. The sittings had been full of interest,<br />
but there is still that lack of order of debate that<br />
so deteriorates the effect of both speeches and<br />
subjects. Two rules should, at least, be adopted :<br />
(1) No speaker, save proposer, to speak more<br />
than once on one subject ; (2) No conversation<br />
or promenading be allowed in the congress hall.<br />
These two rules would immensely raise the tone of<br />
the debates; and the rule of translating a résumé<br />
of all important matter should be adhered to.<br />
<br />
Tue Socran Events.<br />
<br />
But if the debates were interesting, what can I<br />
say of the social events, the journeyings through<br />
Italy and seductive Sicily? The Rome Press<br />
Association had a herculean task to arrange for<br />
their 400 guests; and the entertainments offered<br />
in Rome were thoroughly artistic, as the concert in<br />
the delightful salons of the Arts Club, and the<br />
gala performance of “ Puccini’s Boheme” at the<br />
Costanzi Theatre. But what more deeply interested<br />
their guests were the excellent opportunities to<br />
visit the late excavations in the Forum and on the<br />
Palatine hill. The English section had as guide<br />
to the Forum the director of the excavations,<br />
Signor Bomi, R.I.B.A., whose warm and deeply<br />
<br />
learned enthusiasm made a tour of the Forum<br />
with him a memorable pleasure. Excursions to<br />
Tivoli, Terni, &c., were arranged ; but the weather,<br />
that had been excessively cold and wet, and even<br />
foggy, marred these journeys, and this weather<br />
followed the congressists even to Naples, where<br />
the Press Association had arranged a warm-<br />
hearted reception, banquets and theatres, a<br />
special excavation at Pompei, and an interesting<br />
run to Baie. The same weather conditions<br />
attended those journalists who were fortunate and<br />
bold enough to venture on joining the Sicilian<br />
expedition. Tickets for this had been allotted by<br />
nation and ballot. Three fell to England, but I<br />
started as the only English journalist, on board<br />
the Gallileo Gallilei, with Jules Claretie and his<br />
son as cabin chums. Torrents of rain greeted us<br />
on entering Palermo, and marred a right royal<br />
reception, and at the banquet in the evening I,<br />
the sole Englishman, had to disown bringing<br />
Thames weather to Sicily; but the next day the<br />
weather was brilliant, and for a fortnight Sicily<br />
and her people gave of their best with fervid<br />
hospitality to the foreign journalists. Prince<br />
Scalea with his son Prince Pietro Lanza at the<br />
head of the journalists, professors, and notables<br />
of the island, and the whole population outdid<br />
even Sicilian hospitality, and everything was<br />
arranged with really marvellous exactitude.<br />
Signor Mauceri had arranged a saloon train that<br />
took us to all points of interest, and the enthu-<br />
siasm was so great this had to creep through<br />
the packed masses of peasants and people bring-<br />
ing presents of fruitand flowers to the “strangers.”<br />
All the mighty ruins of Greek, Roman, Norman,<br />
and Saracen, were visited, under learned and<br />
most hospitable guidance. In the Greek theatre<br />
of Syracuse 12,000 awaited our arrival, and<br />
some of the choruses of Aischylos were sung by<br />
maidens on the old Greek stage. The learned<br />
Professor Salinas of the Palmero Museum gave<br />
himself up to us, and I had much talk with him<br />
about Professor Freeman, and with him visited<br />
Segesta and Selinunte and Solunto, whose ruins<br />
outdo Athens herself for greatness and beauty.<br />
I was pleased to find on speaking of Mr. Free-<br />
man’s work at one of the dinners, that he is well<br />
remembered. The journey up Etna’s slopes,<br />
amidst the warm-hearted villagers, will never be<br />
forgotten, nor our reception at Messina and<br />
Catania.<br />
<br />
With M. Taunay, the indefatigable general<br />
secretary, and one or two others, I was the guest<br />
of the Prince and Princess Scalea (the princess is<br />
one of the characters in Mrs, Lynn Linton’s novel,<br />
“Tone”), and with their son we made excursions;<br />
wild rides over a very stiff “Lorna Doone” country,<br />
down sulphur mines, and to the Villa Eleanora,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOL. 21<br />
<br />
that is packed with art treasures collected in the<br />
island; and I also went on—the sole congressist<br />
—to Tunis, striving to land on Pentelleria<br />
(Shakespeare’s “‘ Tempest ” island). The tempest<br />
was too great for even the mails to go ashore,<br />
but we reached Tunis safely, and I had the<br />
pleasure of a most interesting chat with Sir<br />
Harry Johnston, of African fame ; and that<br />
night sat alone on the topmost ruins of Carthage,<br />
and watched the sun set in the Western<br />
mountains—so vividly described in Flaubert’s<br />
“Salambo.” Surely a fitting ending to a Jiterary<br />
expedition, in which, on the Palatine hill, we had<br />
been told that Julius Czesar was the first journalist.<br />
Perhaps the readers of The Author will forgive<br />
this space given to Sicily. If it induces any to<br />
visit that intensely lovely and marvellous island,<br />
they will, I know, thank me when amidst its<br />
wondrous beauties. James Baker.<br />
<br />
ect<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
T.—Is LireRATURE A PrEcARIOUS PROFESSION?<br />
<br />
T cannot be helped, I imagine, but it is rather<br />
| a pity that the successful author should end<br />
in believing that success, especially from a<br />
financial point of view, is easy, provided only that<br />
the writer has the desirable qualities of knowing<br />
his business and working hard. Sir Walter Besant<br />
is always saying that the man of letters can do as<br />
well as the doctor or barrister, and seems to think<br />
this means something. Sooth to say, it means<br />
nothing, for the poor barrister and poor doctor<br />
are miserably poor indeed. There is too much<br />
of this encouragement to enter the profession—<br />
far too much; and I maintain it is not good for<br />
those in it or those still out of it that this suc-<br />
cessful optimism should be preached in a trade<br />
journal. But I would prefer to put down some<br />
facts rather than theories, and I will take the<br />
facts from my personal experience. I have<br />
written twenty-six books, and, while none have<br />
been literary failures, only one can be called a<br />
financial success. My best year in fourteen years<br />
of literary life gave me £380, and a good lump<br />
of that was for revision work. My last two<br />
years gave me £180 and £151. Yet most men<br />
imagine I make £600 or £700 year, and I think<br />
the Editor of this paper (who will know my<br />
name) must acknowledge that I stand among the<br />
first fifty of fiction writers, if not higher than that.<br />
£711 pounds for three years’ work is not good<br />
pay, and none of the trade will call it good. I<br />
object very strongly to The Author being made a<br />
journal for the undue encouragement of the lite-<br />
<br />
rary aspirant. We have: still our Grub-street,<br />
even if it is less tinged with the old Bohemianism,<br />
and the conductors of. The Author might take a<br />
tip from the trades unions, and refuse to enlist<br />
more apprentices than the business will carry.<br />
The normal increase of writers is more than<br />
enough without this encouragement, and, as the<br />
standard of average writing tends to rise, those<br />
who are in the second-class of fairly good men<br />
are ousted by many who can do a little work that<br />
is just passable, and can be bought at the lowest<br />
price. This is where competition touches us. Our.<br />
prices may still tend to increase, but we sell less.<br />
Sir Walter Besant is encouraging the already over-<br />
large class of those who can write marketable<br />
stuff. It is this which forces novelists into<br />
journalism, and makes them general hacks. The<br />
many-sidedness of the literary life is not a normal<br />
development, but the result of pressure which<br />
daily grows more tremendous. c<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
Tl.—Tue Srxpenny Boox.<br />
<br />
I have read with interest your remarks on the<br />
use—i.e., profit—of the sixpenny edition to pub-<br />
lisher, author, and reader. To the publisher the<br />
sixpenny edition must be “a thorn in the flesh,”<br />
as the profit accruing from it will not amount to<br />
much in any case, and if the author has a<br />
royalty on it, the publisher’s profit will be so<br />
much smaller. In comparison with the large<br />
profit made by the publisher on the three-<br />
and-sixpenny and six shilling editions, the six-<br />
penny popular—even if it zs popular—cannot<br />
count for much. Of course more copies of the<br />
cheaper edition are sold, but not in the propor-<br />
tion of seven and nine to one, which would be<br />
necessary to make an equal profit. At the same<br />
time, the people who can afford to pay 3s. 6d. or<br />
6s. for their books do not often buy. They<br />
subscribe to libraries instead, and skim through<br />
the latest “strong”? novel, and perhaps also<br />
some of the magazines. Most of the people who<br />
can afford to buy books very seldom care either<br />
to buy or read them. It is true of books as of<br />
everything—<br />
<br />
“For easie things, that may be got at will,<br />
Most sorts of men doe set but little store.”<br />
<br />
Most of the lower middle-class read. They are<br />
workers, and reading is well-nigh their sole re-<br />
creation. They can keep up their intellectual<br />
vigour by thoughtful reading. In country places,<br />
more particularly in purely rural and agricul-<br />
tural districts, ideas do not run riot, to say the<br />
least of it. They cannot afford to pay 3s. 6d.,<br />
much less 6s., for books more than twice or three<br />
times during a year. The sixpenny book they<br />
might indulge in oncea month. Think! Once<br />
<br />
<br />
22 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
a month for a new set of thoughts and a new<br />
topic of conversation. You speak of libraries.<br />
In the country there are few libraries, except,<br />
perhaps, in connection with the Sunday-school of<br />
the place. In the provincial towns, of course,<br />
there are free libraries; but, as a rule, the book<br />
you want is “not known,” or is “ out,” or “ has<br />
been mislaid.”<br />
<br />
The 6d. edition is the greatest boon to country<br />
people. My own stock of books contains<br />
quite 30 per cent. of sixpenny books—Lubbock’s<br />
“ Pleasures of Life,” ‘“‘ Extracts from Tennyson,”<br />
“Lorna Doone,” “Robert Elsmere.” These, I,<br />
for one, could not have afforded in a more elabo-<br />
rate edition. Very few workers or country<br />
people could. Do many people, except those with<br />
reputed literary tendencies, buy the more expensive<br />
editions? Ido not see many beoks in the houses<br />
round, except those which have descended from<br />
father to son. As a worker, with not too much<br />
surplus cash for luxury, it seems to me that<br />
even if the 6d. edition does not increase the<br />
number of readers, it enables those who care for<br />
reading to buy books oftener than they would<br />
otherwise be able to do.<br />
<br />
Sidney Smith gives voice to the sentiment of<br />
many when he says, “ We wish the Row would<br />
put books more within the power of those who<br />
want them most and use them best” ; and I think<br />
the 6d. edition is a step in the right direction.<br />
<br />
M. C. A.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
U1.—‘ Tue Exrravacant Dinner.”<br />
<br />
I.<br />
<br />
I have been asked by my friend, Mr. John<br />
Bickerdyke, to support “ Diane’s”’ contention,<br />
and I do so with pleasure, as it seems to me<br />
particularly desirable that a body such as our-<br />
selves should set.an example in this respect. In<br />
future let the price of the dinner be 33. 6d. or 5s.,<br />
and let all those who wish wine pay for it as an<br />
extra. On grounds of policy our annual trades-<br />
union dinner ought not to have the appearance<br />
of a gorgeous “ society ” function in which none<br />
but the wealthy can participate.<br />
<br />
Mackenzir BELt.<br />
II.<br />
<br />
May I be allowed to indorse the opinions of<br />
“ Diane” ? Would not two dinners annually at<br />
5s. each be more conducive to the enjoyment and<br />
general good fellowship of a greater number of<br />
authors? Or, if some of the members prefer the<br />
guinea dinner, could not others be arranged at a<br />
‘lower price ? ANNABEL GRAY.<br />
<br />
‘ III. .<br />
<br />
I am quite on all fours with “Diane ” as to the<br />
desirability of reducing the charge for tickets at<br />
the annual dinner of our Society. To the big<br />
<br />
stars of the literary firmament no doub: the<br />
present price is immaterial. But how about the _<br />
minor constcllations to whom guineas are elusive<br />
and precious? Iam bold enough to suggest an<br />
innovation. Why not try a picnic next time—for<br />
choice a water one? (I write as an abstainer.)<br />
It should promote an all-round harmony and<br />
freedom from conventionality delightful to con-.<br />
template. Speeches delivered from the stern of<br />
the chairman’s boat would possess elements of<br />
novelty not to be despised. I venture to com-<br />
mend this idea to the earnest consideration of the<br />
Committee. Oxp Birp.<br />
Authors’ Club.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“GOD IS LOVE’—A NOVEL.”<br />
<br />
T the request of Mr. Mullett Ellis, and by<br />
A permission of Messrs. W. H. Smith and<br />
Son, the following correspondence in a<br />
<br />
case much commented upon is published here.<br />
<br />
In Oct. 1898, Mr. Burleigh published “ ‘God<br />
is Love’—a Novel,’ by Mr. T. Mullett Ellis.<br />
Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son refused to sub-<br />
scribe for any copies of this book.<br />
<br />
Mr. Ellis then had an interview with Mr.<br />
Kingdon, the Departmental Manager of Messrs.<br />
Smith and Son, and was informed by that<br />
gentleman that he objected to the title of the<br />
book, and that he would not allow it to be<br />
exposed upon the railway bookstalls for that<br />
reason.<br />
<br />
Whereupon Mr. Ellis addressed the following<br />
letter to Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son :—<br />
<br />
To Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son.<br />
<br />
Dear Sirs,—Referring to the conversation I had with<br />
your Departmental Manager, Mr. Kingdon, on Saturday, the<br />
15th inst., I am constrained to write you a letter of remon-<br />
strance against your intention of putting my book, ‘“‘ God<br />
is Love’—a Novel,” under the ban of your firm.<br />
<br />
The great house of W. H. Smith and Son occupies an<br />
unique position in relation to English literature. Not in<br />
the metropolis only, but throughout the country, your, firm<br />
enjoys a monopoly in the supply of books and newspapers<br />
through its contracts with the railway companies. You have<br />
hundreds of bookstalls, occupying more favoured positions<br />
than the shops which other booksellers can obtain, con-<br />
venient to millions of railway travellers, who form, in fact,<br />
the bulk of the reading public, and the advantages which<br />
your enterprise and energy have conferred upon the people<br />
we are all prepared to fully recognise.<br />
<br />
If you were an ordinary firm of booksellers you would<br />
have the right to deal in those books only which you choose,<br />
or even to devote yourselves to the special encouragement<br />
or disconragement of books of some particular creed or<br />
opinion, but holding-your anomalous position (thongh you<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
shave undoubtedly a strictly-legal right to buy and sell as<br />
<br />
you deem proper, and, therefore, to exclude any book you<br />
like), I submit that thers are circumstances which render it<br />
incumbent upon you not to so exercise your right as to act,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 23<br />
<br />
virtua ly, as the Censors of English Literature. You have<br />
done this before, eg., in the case of ‘‘ Esther Waters,” and<br />
you have provoked in consequence the indignation and the<br />
protest of a great number of “men of light and learn-<br />
ing,” including such authors as A. Conan Doyle, Sarah<br />
Grand, Hugh Chisholm, William Archer, W. J. Daw-<br />
son, Mary Jeune, and many others, whose letters, pub-<br />
lished in the Daily Chronicle, were echoed by the entire<br />
Press.<br />
<br />
Mr. Kingdon was kind enough to sta‘e his objection to<br />
stock my book. His objection is to the title: to the use of<br />
the words, “‘ God is Love’—a Novel,” upon the cover of<br />
my book. Yet a considerable number of booksellers have<br />
taken it into stock without deeming the title an objection. I<br />
can realise Mr. Kingdon’s individual feeling, and can even<br />
honour him for his stern views; but I refer you to the<br />
general argument of this letter as a reason why you: firm<br />
should not exercise such an extreme of private judgment,<br />
either in my own or any other case.<br />
<br />
The position which your monopoly has conferred upon<br />
you has largely contributed to the general gradual exter-<br />
mination of the small bookseller. He cannot compete with<br />
the superior positions you occupy on the platforms of rail-<br />
ways, at the very doors of the modern reading room—i.e.,<br />
the railway carriage. Your bookstalls are upon lands<br />
peculiarly held and obtained. It was never intended that<br />
lands acquired by force by railway companies under special<br />
Acts of Parliament should be in part let to private firms<br />
for the purposes of trade, and your tenancy is another<br />
reason why your business should be conducted with a<br />
large and open mind, and why, if you abuse your extra-<br />
ordinary privileges, Parliament must ke called upon to<br />
interfere.<br />
<br />
It has not b2en suggested that your firm, bearing, as it<br />
does, the name of one of the most distinguished politicians<br />
of recent years, a strong party man, universally respected,<br />
has ever endeavoured to utilise its power to discourage the<br />
sale of journals of political opponents; but, obviously, if<br />
you boycott books, you have an equal right to boycott<br />
newspapers, and your right of veto may be exercised<br />
not in literature only, but in politics—monstrous cor-<br />
sequence !<br />
<br />
If the intellectual life of England as presented in our<br />
Literature is to have a Censor at all, I submit with defe-<br />
rence that he should not be one of the business staff of a<br />
trading firm, however high its standing. Even amongst<br />
scholars opinion as to the merits of various works of fiction<br />
singularly differs. Instance occurs in the last and the<br />
current issue of The Nineteenth Century magazine, where<br />
“Helbeck of Bannisdale” is under review by two learned<br />
gentlemen, both Roman Catholics. Father Clarke, S8.J..<br />
characterises this novel as ‘‘a libel,” ‘‘ a gross burlesque,”<br />
*acalamny.” Father Bernard Vaughan “has risen from<br />
its perusal with a feeling of deep gratitude to Mrs<br />
Humphry Ward”; and St. George Mivart concludes his<br />
eulogistic review of the same book with “thanks for the<br />
great treat she has afforded mein her profoundly inte-<br />
resting and fascinating work.”<br />
<br />
If such men holding the same religious faith differ thus,<br />
how difficult must your position be when you act as judge<br />
for the whole world of English readers !<br />
<br />
I am not anxious at the present moment to defend the<br />
moral or religious tone of my own book, although, should<br />
necessity arise, I am prepared to do so. A matter of much<br />
greater consequence devolves upon me, viz., to protest, as a<br />
humble member of the great body of British authors,<br />
against your exercise of the power of boycott atall. It is<br />
intolerable. It was hoped that the “‘ Esther Waters’’ con-<br />
troversy had settled this question four years ago, and the<br />
literary world generally believed that you would not again<br />
<br />
put yourselves in opposition t> the idea of Free Trade in<br />
Literature or attempt to dictate to the public what they<br />
should or should not be allowed to read.<br />
<br />
But we counted too early upon having won this right of<br />
the Liberty of the Pen—a freedom we dreamt we had<br />
attained centuries ago. Let me quote the words of Mr.<br />
Conan Doyle upon the subject :<br />
<br />
« Through the huge monopoly which they (Messrs W. H.<br />
Smith and Son) hold, the firm is practically a public institu-<br />
tion, and is far too great a thing to be managed on tie lines<br />
of individual caprice or intolerance.” And again in a sub<br />
sequent letter he writes: “The question is not one o<br />
this novel or that. Itis whether our literature is to conform<br />
to the standard of the Glasgow Baillie or whether it is to<br />
claim the same privileges as every great literature of which<br />
we have any record. Ifa book err in morality let the law<br />
of England be called in. But we object to an unauthorised<br />
judge who condemns without trial and punishes the author<br />
more heavily than any court could do.” (Conan Doyle,<br />
May 3rd, 1894.)<br />
<br />
Let me remind you, too, of a memorial of ‘“ indignant<br />
protest’ sent you by a number of your own subscribers,<br />
which concluded thus :<br />
<br />
“ By taking the action you have we are of opinion that<br />
you have added to your work as distributors of books the<br />
office of Censor of morals, and have in part frustrated the<br />
objects for which we joined your circulating library—the<br />
largest in the country.”<br />
<br />
When I remember that besides putting the novels of<br />
George Moore under your ban, you once boycotted also<br />
the work of Rudyard Kipling, I have demonstrated my<br />
point.<br />
<br />
I accordingly appeal to you, with every expression of<br />
consideration and courtesy, notwithstanding these plain<br />
words of protest, to reverse your decision and to remove my<br />
book from your ban.<br />
<br />
Reserving the right of publication of this letter,—I<br />
remain, dear sirs, yours faithfally,<br />
<br />
T. MutuetT Ev.is.<br />
Hogarth Club, Oct. 17th, 1898. :<br />
<br />
To this letter Messrs W. H. Smith and Son<br />
forwarded the following reply, here published by<br />
their permission.<br />
<br />
[Should have been dated Oct. 21, 1898.)<br />
<br />
Please address all communications to the Firm.<br />
186, Strand, London, W.C.<br />
189<br />
<br />
Private.<br />
<br />
Dear Sir,<br />
<br />
We beg to acknowledge your letter of Oct.17. You are<br />
mistaken in thinking that Mr. Kingdon refused your work<br />
“God is Love” because of the title. He did, it is true,<br />
express personal objection to the title; but he declined to<br />
take the book into stock purely as a matter of business. It<br />
is quite impossible for us to take on sale at the bookstalls<br />
all the novels that are published, and we are compelled to<br />
select those which we think most likely to have a ready<br />
sale. We can hardly think that you would suggest that<br />
we are bound to place on the bookstalls everything that is<br />
tendered to us.<br />
<br />
This is no case of censorship, and no disrespect was<br />
intended towards your book. Mr. Kingdon, we believe,<br />
informed you that we should supply to purchasers who<br />
might order it, and such of our library subscribers as wish<br />
for it can have it in due course.<br />
<br />
Yours truly,<br />
W. H. Surry anv Son.<br />
<br />
T. Mullett Ellis, Kaq.,<br />
<br />
Hogarth Club, 175, Bond-street, W.<br />
a4 THE AUTUOR.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Smith’s letter was directly challenged<br />
by Mr. Ellis as follows :<br />
<br />
To Messrs. W. H. Smith and Son.<br />
<br />
Dear Sirs,<br />
<br />
I thank you for your kind reply to my letter. Mr.<br />
Kingdon not only expressed personal objection to the title,<br />
but he gave that as his reason for not taking the book into<br />
stock. If you make inquiry, I think Mr. Kingdon will not<br />
fail to confirm this, and that he said, “he could not permit<br />
a novel with such a title to appear amongst other books on<br />
your stalls.”<br />
<br />
Tn response to your other remark which calls for reply,<br />
I would not presume to say that you should place on the<br />
bookstalls everything that is tendered you. That opens<br />
too great a question to be dealt with briefly, but having<br />
regard to the unique and dominant position your firm<br />
occupies, the exclusion of books on the ground of the<br />
personal objection of one of your departmental managers<br />
is unfair generally to authors, and it is for this reason<br />
I addressed myself upon the subject to the Society of<br />
Authors.<br />
<br />
Thanking you for the expressions with which you con-<br />
elude—I am, gentlemen, yours truly,<br />
<br />
T. MuuuettT ELtis.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Smith did not continue the correspon-<br />
dence, but Mr. Kingdon does not deny the accu-<br />
racy of Mr. Ellis’s statement, and the book was<br />
not exposed for sale. This exclusion from the<br />
stalls was regarded by the Press generally as in<br />
effect a boycott of the book.<br />
<br />
Oct. 24, 1898.<br />
<br />
speck<br />
<br />
BOOK TALK.<br />
<br />
“VW Nthe Dawn of Empire” is the title of Mr.<br />
Joseph WHatton’s new historical novel,<br />
which is to be published by Hutchinsons<br />
<br />
early this month. It is a work upon which the<br />
<br />
author is said to have been engaged for some<br />
years, and deals with one of the most romantic<br />
periods of English life and enterprise, when Sir<br />
<br />
Walter Raleigh was the most interesting figure at<br />
<br />
the Court of Elizabeth. Sir Walter’s chief<br />
<br />
ambition was the conquest of Guiana and the<br />
discovery of its supposed capital, ‘“‘ the golden<br />
city of Manoa.” Mr. Hatton finds much of the<br />
romance of his story in the history of Sir Walter’s<br />
two disastrous expeditions to Guiana; but to the<br />
ordinary novel reader the secret courtship and<br />
marriage of Sir Walter, and the love story<br />
of his protégé, David Yarcombe, will, no doubt,<br />
be the most attractive. The love story of Sir<br />
<br />
Walter Raleigh, with anything like “ chapter<br />
<br />
and verse,’ will be new as well in fiction as in<br />
<br />
historic records.<br />
<br />
It is over two years since Joseph Hatton pub-<br />
lished his last novel; so he makes up for this by<br />
producing two in 1899. ‘When Rogues Fall<br />
Out” is running in the syndicate of Tillotson’s<br />
newspapers, and will be published in volume form<br />
<br />
during the first or second week of September,<br />
from the press of Messrs. Pearson in London,<br />
and Lippincotts in America. Meanwhile “ By<br />
Order of the Czar,” at 6d., is repeating its<br />
original success in volume form.<br />
<br />
The forthcoming issue of Mr. Ruskin’s “ Pree-<br />
terita,’ will contain a new fragment, namely,<br />
another part of “ Dilecta.” This was set up in<br />
type long ago, but fur some reason Mr. Ruskin<br />
kept it from the press. Mr. George Allen, who<br />
will publish it, will also publish in the autumn an<br />
illustrated work on Turner, including many of<br />
Mr. Ruskin’s criticisms hitherto printed for<br />
private circulation only.<br />
<br />
The delegates of the Oxford University Press,<br />
following a popular fashion, are about to publish<br />
a new issue of the “ Oxford English Dictionary”<br />
in monthly parts of eighty-eight pages each, the<br />
first to appear on July 1. About half of the<br />
dictionary has now been finished, and the work<br />
will be completed probably by 1909. The pro-<br />
prietors of the Times, also, are issuing the<br />
“ Century Dictionary ” on special terms.<br />
<br />
For the forthcoming “ Irish Anthology,” edited<br />
by Mr. T. W. Rolleston, Dr. Stopford Brooke has<br />
written an introduction, and also a notice of<br />
Thomas Moore; Mr. Lionel Johnson deals with<br />
Mangan, and Mr. A. P. Graves with Sir Samuel<br />
Ferguson, while other contributors are Professor<br />
W. McNeile Dixon, Dr. George Sigerson, Dr.<br />
Douglas Hyde, D. J. O'Donoghue, W. B. Yeats,<br />
and George Russell (A. E.”). The anthology<br />
is on the plan of Mr. Humphry Ward’s “Selec-<br />
tions from the English Poets,” and will be pub-<br />
lished in the autumn by Messrs. Smith, Hider<br />
and Co.<br />
<br />
The toast of “ Literature” was omitted at the<br />
Royal Academy Banquet this year.<br />
<br />
Sir William Crookes’s reply to the criticisms<br />
evoked by his address to the British Association<br />
last year, predicting a scarcity in the world’s<br />
supply of wheat, will be published shortly by Mr.<br />
John Murray.<br />
<br />
“ Fiona Macleod” has declared, through<br />
Messrs. Constable, apropos of statements regard-<br />
ing her identity, that she is not any of those<br />
with whom she has been “ identified”’; that she<br />
wishes to preserve absolutely her privacy, upon<br />
which her very writing depends, that she writes<br />
only under the name of “Fiona Macleod,” and<br />
that her name is her own.<br />
<br />
A practical book on embroidery by Mr. Lewis<br />
F, Day and Miss Mary Buckle, who is accom-<br />
plished in the art, will be published shortly by<br />
Mr. B. T. Batsford, illustrated by reproductions<br />
of needlework.<br />
<br />
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<br />
THE AUTHOR. 25<br />
<br />
May 20 was the centenary of the birth of<br />
Balzac ; May 23 that of the birth of Thomas<br />
Hood.<br />
<br />
Upwards of £300 has already been contributed<br />
to the William Black Memorial Fund, in sums<br />
ranging from 1s. to £25. Generous offers of<br />
help have been received from America, where an<br />
influential committee has been formed. Dona-<br />
tions should be sent to the honorary treasurer of<br />
the fund (Lord Archibald Campbell), care of<br />
Messrs. Coutts, 59, Strand, London. As we have<br />
previously announced, a proposal that the memo-<br />
rial should take the form of a lifeboat for the<br />
West Coast of Scotland has been received with<br />
much favour. Oban, however, is desirous that it<br />
should take the form of a recreation hall for that<br />
town.<br />
<br />
Mr. Sutherland Edwards is writing the life of<br />
Sir William White, and wiil be glad if those who<br />
possess letters will forward them to him, care of<br />
Messrs. Cassell and Co.<br />
<br />
-A life of Dante, by the Rev. J. F. Hogan, of<br />
St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, will be pub-<br />
lished by Messrs. Methuen. From the Oxford<br />
University Press will shortly come the second<br />
series of Dr. Edward Moore’s “‘ Studies in Dante,”<br />
dealing, among other subjects, with Dante asa<br />
religious teacher, Beatrice, and the genuineness<br />
of the “Questio de Aqua et Terra.” Mr. John<br />
Burnet, Professor of Greek in the University of<br />
St. Andrews, has edited <Aristotle’s ‘ Ethics,”<br />
a feature of the edition being that parallel<br />
passages from the Eudemian Ethics are printed<br />
under the text to which they refer. This will be<br />
published by Messrs. Methuen, who also announce<br />
an elaborate edition of the “ Captivi” of Plautus,<br />
by Mr. W. M. Lindsay, Fellow of Jesus College,<br />
Oxford.<br />
<br />
Memorial tablets to Keats and Charles Lamb<br />
were unveiled in the new public library at<br />
Edmonton (where they both resided), on April 29,<br />
by Mr. Frederic Harrison.<br />
<br />
Forthcoming novels include “ Ione March,” by<br />
Mr. Crockett, which has run serially as “A<br />
Woman of Fortune” (Hodder and Stoughton) ;<br />
“The White Woman,” by Mr. Edwards Tirebuck,<br />
a story of the adventures of a popular contralto<br />
(Harper); “Rupert, by the Grace of God,” a<br />
historical novel, by Miss Dora McChesney (Mac-<br />
millan) ; “The House by the Lock,” a Thames-<br />
side story, by Mrs. C. N. Williamson (Bowden) ;<br />
“Peter Binney, Undergraduate,” a humorous<br />
story of Cambridge University life, by Mr.<br />
Archibald Marshall (Bowden).<br />
<br />
Canon Knox Little has written a volume of<br />
« Sketches and Studies in South Africa,” a country<br />
<br />
which he visited recently. Messrs. Isbister will<br />
publish the book, which discusses federation and<br />
other political topics, and is dedicated to Mr.<br />
Rhodes, of whose work the author is an ardent<br />
admirer.<br />
<br />
“The Tendency of Religion,” by Colonel R.<br />
Elias has lately been published by Messrs. Chap-<br />
man and Hall Limited.<br />
<br />
Mr. Edward Jenks, Reader in English Law at<br />
the University of Oxford, has written a work on<br />
Modern Land Law, which the Clarendon Press<br />
will issue shortly.<br />
<br />
Professor Saintsbury’s volume on Matthew<br />
Arnold, for Messrs. Blackwood’s new series on<br />
English Men of Letters, will shortly be published.<br />
<br />
es<br />
<br />
BOOKS AND REVIEWS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NDER this heading it is proposed to make<br />
a little experiment, viz., to select every<br />
month those books which seem to have<br />
attracted the greatest notice, and to extract in<br />
brief the most distinctive points of the reviewer.<br />
It is intended to offer a guide, to a certain extent,<br />
for the reader and the buyer—perhaps, also, for<br />
the bookseller. It will at once be conceded that<br />
the experiment is one liable to many dangers and<br />
to some suspicion. The work is, therefore,<br />
confided to a journalist who has no log to roll,<br />
no school to defend, and no fads and hobbies of<br />
his own. His instructions are to take his extracts<br />
only from papers which are known to influence<br />
readers: to avoid any review which his knowledge<br />
of the Press leads him to believe written by a<br />
personal friend or a personal enemy. It is<br />
hoped that a strict impartiality will become the<br />
characteristic of these columns. Those who are<br />
behind the scenes generally know who are the<br />
authors of important notices. One must not be<br />
too severe with a reviewer who praises a friend ;<br />
but care will be taken not to quote him.<br />
<br />
Lord Charles Beresford’s Tue BrHAK UP OF CHINA<br />
(Harper’s, 12s.) is on all hands regarded as of great<br />
value and importance, not so much because of the policy<br />
he recommends, as, in the words of the Times, for the<br />
information he has so diligently collected, and the vivid<br />
picture its mere representation affords of the existing<br />
situation in China.<br />
<br />
Tur Lire or Winitam Morris, by J. W. Mackail<br />
(Longmans, 32s.), although much dissected by critics, has<br />
been welcomed as, on the whole, to quote the Times again,<br />
“a, good biography, which may take a permanent place<br />
among the books that posterity will select out of the<br />
enormous literary production of our time.”<br />
<br />
Tun AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND LeTTERS oF Mrs. M. oO. Ww.<br />
OLIPHANT, edited by Mrs. Coghill (Blackwood, 21s.), 18<br />
<br />
<br />
26 THE<br />
<br />
described by the Chronicle as “one of the most pathetic u<br />
of all biographies, as “a history of sacrifice,” by the<br />
Spectator.<br />
<br />
Mr. Justin McCarthy’s Remrniscances (Chatto and<br />
Windus, 24s.), a work which brings before us, says the Daily<br />
Telegraph, ‘most of the leading men in politics and lite-<br />
rature who have occupied commanding positions in this<br />
country duriog the last forty years,” is in every quarter<br />
described as delightful and spirited.<br />
<br />
With many of Mr. Percy Dearmer’s regulations in THE<br />
Parson’s Hanpspooxk (Richards, 3s. 6d.), the Times<br />
“should expect most clergy to differ, of course with all<br />
due respect, but quite as many of them show a common-<br />
sense which is agreeably surprising.”<br />
<br />
Tur REFORMATION SETTLEMENT, EXAMINED IN THE<br />
Licur or History Aanp Law, by the Rev. Malcolm<br />
MacColl (Longmans, 7s. 6d.), is described by the Guardian<br />
as “a subs‘antial volame of between six and seven hundred<br />
pages, full of egent reasons and telling fast, spiced (it<br />
need not be said) with excellent anecdote.” Canon MacColl’s<br />
point of view on the Church crisis will be indicated when<br />
we say that in the “introductory letter” to Sir William<br />
Harcourt, with which this volume opens, he urges that<br />
great possibilities of statesmanship are thrown away for<br />
the sake of what is, after all, a very small matter,<br />
‘the alarm caused by the doings and sayings of a com-<br />
paratively small number of clergy,” being ‘‘ out of all pro-<br />
portion to the bare facta.” Literature says itis ‘‘a clever<br />
and penetrating criticism of many modern fallacies, political,<br />
historical, religious,’ but ‘rot by any means a final pro-<br />
nouncement on difficult points of historical controversy ”;<br />
and the Spectator, after pointing out defects, and remarking<br />
that he proves the accuracy of Bishop Thirlwall’s statement<br />
as to the liberty of belief and of teaching on the question of<br />
the Presence of Christin the Eucharist, congratulates Canon<br />
MacColl on having produced a book which is calculated to<br />
promote sound thinking on the relations between Church<br />
and State, and to dissuade the candid reader from partici-<br />
pation in efforts towards the reduction of the ancient and<br />
clearly established liberties of the Anglican clergy.”<br />
<br />
Essays In PsycurcAL ResEarcu, by A. Goodrich<br />
Freer (Redway, 7s. 6d), is recommended by Literature as<br />
baing worth reading by all who interest themselves in<br />
“ occult ” phenomena.<br />
<br />
Hector C. Maspherson’s ADAM SmitTH (Oliphant, 1s. 6d.),<br />
according to Literature, is ‘the best volume in the Famous<br />
Scots series that we have seen.”<br />
<br />
Letters oF THoMAS CARLYLE TO HIS YOUNGEST<br />
Sister (Chapman, 6s.) the Telegraph calls “ exceedingly<br />
pleasant reading,” while the Daily News says they show us<br />
the philosopher of Chelsea by his best side.<br />
<br />
Henry Georce Lippery, D.D., by the Rev. H. L.<br />
Thompson (Murray, 16s.) is described by the Daily News<br />
as a “‘very readable and interesting memoir” of the Dean,<br />
containing recollections of Thackeray, Earl Granville,<br />
Gladstone, and others, and the Telegraph casts a reflection<br />
upon the length of other biographies by saying of this one<br />
that “for once in a way the reader turns the last page<br />
wishing for more.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Ashton Rollins Willard’s History or MopEry<br />
IraLuiAN Art (Longmans, 18s. net), “if it contains here<br />
and there a hasty judgment,” strikes Literature “ as on<br />
the whole spirited, accurate, and just.”<br />
<br />
Arpor V1T&, by Godfrey Blount (Dent, 12s, 6d. net.), is<br />
important, says Literature, “not only for the craftsman,<br />
who will find in its pages an intelligible basis of con-<br />
ventionalised art, but also for all who realise the direct<br />
connection between art and life.”<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
AN INTRODUCTION TO THESTUDY OF 1HE RENAISSANCE,<br />
by Mra. Field (Smith, Elder, and Co., 6s ), ‘‘ although,” says<br />
Literature, essentially elementary, on the whole Mrs.<br />
Field is a ‘‘safe guide, and any disagreement with her<br />
cpinion regarding a detail here and there ia soon forgotten<br />
in contemplation of the extent of her labours.”<br />
<br />
VANDYCK'’s PicTurRES AT WINDSOR CASTLE (Bell,<br />
£6 6s.) is a work in which Mr. Ernest Law writes “ with vivid<br />
appreciation throughout,” says Literature, “ of the originals<br />
of the thirty admirable reproductions which have been pre-<br />
pared in photogravure by Mr. Franz Hanfstaengl.” ‘As<br />
many of the pictures have seldom been reproduced before,’<br />
remarks the Daily News, ‘‘the volume should be an indis-<br />
pensable addendum to every private or public art library,’<br />
an opinion which is also expressed by the Times.<br />
<br />
A PALADIN OF PHJLANTHROPY, AND OTHER PAPERS,<br />
by Austin Dobson (Chatto, 6s.), range over a variety of<br />
subjects, says Literature—from Goldsmith, and Gay, and<br />
Luttrell, to memories of Old Whitehall and changes in the<br />
neighbourhood of Charing Cross—‘and they make as<br />
interesting reading as can be desired for anyone blessed<br />
with a touch of the antiquarian spirit and with a love of<br />
eighteenth century books.’ Mr. Dobson, says the Times,<br />
has treated these old heroes and their London haunts “in a<br />
manner which will maintain his reputation, and enhance<br />
theirs.”<br />
<br />
Tue ErcuinGHam Letrmrs (Smith, Elder and Co., 6s.),<br />
by Mrs Faller Maitland and Sir Frederick Pollock, is “ an<br />
entirely original and new kind of book,” says the Guardian,<br />
“itis more than a novel, inasmuch as it gives us, by the<br />
way, all sorts of charming little scraps of poetry and fancy,<br />
subtle criticiam of books, and flying commentary upon<br />
men and manners.” ‘‘ Read in the right fashion,” says the<br />
Times, ‘it will serve to amuse for many a day,” and the<br />
“yight fashion,” appears to be as “studious recreation ”<br />
(Daily Chronicle). The Spectator notes that “ epistolary<br />
formula in fiction had already been worn pretty thread-<br />
bare when Wilkie Collins apparently gave it its coup de<br />
grace,” buat “it has been reserved for Mrs. Faller Maitland<br />
and Sir Frederick Pollock to lend the convention fresh life<br />
and charm by a division of labour which imparts to this<br />
volume a great deal of the character of a bond fide corre-<br />
spondence.”<br />
<br />
Of Max Beerbohm’s More (Lane, 4s. 6d.) the Telegraph<br />
says “it would be well if every ‘earnest worker’ would<br />
read one of these essays before getting up in the morning ;<br />
thera would perhaps be less philanthropy, but it would be<br />
far sounder”; while Literature observes that in Mr. Beer-<br />
bohm’s hands “the knack of graceful impertinence is<br />
ra‘sed by dint of sheer mastery to the dignity of a serious<br />
art.”<br />
<br />
THE GREEN Winpow, by Vincent O'Sullivan (Smithers,<br />
3s. 6d. net), provides, says Literature, “the exhilarating<br />
spectacle of a decadent essayist dashing his angry heart<br />
against the desolations of the world,” but the essays are<br />
“ sufficiently well written to entertain those whose mental<br />
balatce they do not disturb.”<br />
<br />
Mr. W. B. Yeats always seems to the Guardian “to<br />
have more of the gifts which make a poet than any of his<br />
fellows,” and his collected Pomms (Unwin, 7s. 6d.) are<br />
also welcomed by the Chronicle, which says that while Mr.<br />
Yeats is Irish of the Irish, ‘he uses our language as the<br />
great English poets use it,’ so that “apart altogether<br />
from the thought and temperament, anyone might think<br />
that the language was the work of one of our own great<br />
poets.” The Chronicle even goes so far as to say that<br />
“up to now Ireland has produced hardly a single post<br />
who could use English with poetic power.’ Mr. Yeats’s<br />
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THE<br />
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THE Winp AmonG THE Rexps (Mathews, 3s. 6d.), says<br />
Literature, ‘“‘has the remoteness, the melancholy of all<br />
postry, inspired by spiritual passion.”<br />
<br />
Maxwell Gray’s poems, THE Forest CHare. (Heine-<br />
mann, 5s.), are described by Literature as “ healthy,<br />
cheerful, and sometimes old-fashioned in their subjects,”<br />
and ‘“‘ well worth perusal by all who are seeking among<br />
our modern bards a singer who has a true ear for melody<br />
and is wholly free from affectations.”<br />
<br />
Tus PuHinirprines AND Rotunp Asout, by Major<br />
G. J. Younghusband, who visited the islands during the<br />
war (Macmillan, 8s. 6d. net), contains ‘‘a deal of valuable<br />
facts and sound reflections,’ says the Spectator; “ a very<br />
amusing book,” says the Times; presenting, according to<br />
the Datly Chronicle, the chain of events in the Philippine<br />
drama “ skilfully, interestingly, and usefully.”<br />
<br />
HoLLAND AND THE HOLLANDERS, by D. S. Meldrum,<br />
(Blackwood, 6s.), “is just the kind of book that every<br />
visitor should read before he goes,” says the Daily New: ;<br />
will prove to the intelligent tourist, according to Literature,<br />
an invaluable supplement to Motley and Baedeker,<br />
* giving a clear and vivid picture of the Holland of to-day,<br />
a detailed account of the fight against the invading<br />
waters, and of the life of the people in every class of<br />
society.”<br />
<br />
Mrs. Archibald Little’s IntTImMAtTz CuinaA (Hutchinson,<br />
21s.) is described by the Chronicle as ‘‘a graphic word-<br />
picture of the doomed race.”<br />
<br />
“The very perfection of a guide book” is how the Daily<br />
Telegraph describes Highways AND Byways IN DONEGAL<br />
AND ANTRIM, by Stephen Gwynn (Macmillan, 6s.), which<br />
Literature cannot recommend as a guide book per se. “ But<br />
we do recommend the tourist to read it before he starts; it<br />
will provide him with plenty of information and enjoyment,<br />
especially if he reads it at a table.”<br />
<br />
Tue Baru Roap, by Charles G. Harper (Chapman, 12s.),<br />
“is full of interesting material, and bubbles over with good<br />
spirits,” says the Telegraph; “an eminently readable book<br />
and handsomely illustrated,’ says the Spectator.<br />
<br />
Tue TEMPERANCE PROBLEM AND SociaL REFORM, by<br />
Joseph Rowntree and Arthur Sherwell (Hodder and Stough-<br />
ton, 6s.). Literature does not remember seeing any state-<br />
ment so intelligently put of the bearing of the drink<br />
question on general social conditions asin this book. “ The<br />
elimination of private profit is, broadly speaking, the object<br />
which the authors have in view, and their facts and sugges-<br />
tions should certainly be in the hands not only of social<br />
reformers but of all electors who wish to form a judgment<br />
on the subject.”<br />
<br />
Fiy Fisuina, by Sir Edward Grey (Dent, 7s. 6d. net), is<br />
a modern book on trout fishing which gives the Daily<br />
Chronicle “ unqualified delight.” It is described by Litera-<br />
ture as “a collection of notes, disciplined under various<br />
headings, and of autobiographical reminiscences, told with<br />
unaffected and wholly inoffensive egoism by one whose eyes<br />
and ears are quick to observe rural sights and sounds.”<br />
The Spectator finds the charm of the book “ in the skill the<br />
author shows in recalling the detail of pleasent sensations.”<br />
<br />
In Mr. G. A. B. Dewar’s SourH Country Trour<br />
Srreams (Lawrence and Bullen, 5s.) Literature says that<br />
the information about expenses may be found a little<br />
meagre,-but otherwise the author provides the angler with<br />
‘all he needs to know as to the rivers of the southern<br />
counties.” :<br />
<br />
GoLF AND GOLFERS; by Horace Hutchinson (Longmans,<br />
18s. net.), is “ a very fine book,” says the Chronicle, and the<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 24<br />
<br />
Times says itis of the kind of book about golf that is ‘‘ made<br />
to be read with pleasure and studied with profit.”<br />
<br />
Our GARDENS, by Dean Hole (Dent, 7s. 6d. net.).—‘‘When<br />
Dean Hole speaks of gardens, all who love them pause to<br />
hear,” observes the Daily Chronicle, while the Duily<br />
Telegraph calls it a “ most pleasant” book of essays.<br />
<br />
Sir John Lubbock’s book “ On Bups AND STIPULES”<br />
(Kegan Paul, 5s.) discusses the question: Why have some<br />
of the Rock Roses (Helianthemum) stipules while others<br />
have not? This leads him on, says Literature, “to<br />
interesting matter about the construction of buds and the<br />
other functions of stipules.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Grant Allen’s novel Miss CAyugeYy’s ADVENTURES<br />
(Richards, 6s.) is praised by the Spectator, which wonders<br />
‘“‘ what terrible literary penance Mr. Grant Allen will enjoin<br />
on himself for this uncompromising concession to conven-<br />
tional sentiment and orthodox morality.” The Telegraph<br />
thinks that ‘“‘in the charming, clever and original’ Miss<br />
Lois Cayley, Mr. Grant Allen has done much to reconcile us<br />
to the New Woman, and adds that through all the adven-<br />
tures runs “ a very pretty love story of devotion, endurance<br />
and trast which is good in a prosaic and sceptical age”’;<br />
while the Daily Chronicle describes this story of a Girton<br />
girl as “‘a very amusing book, written with much bright-<br />
ness.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Crockett’s novel, THz Buack Douauas (Smith,<br />
Elder, and Co., 63.), is said by Literature to be picturesque,<br />
and there is “‘no reason why it should not be as popular at<br />
the libraries as any of its predecessors” from the same<br />
hand.<br />
<br />
Criticisinz ON THE EpGEr oF THE Empire, by Edgar<br />
Jepson and Captain D. Beames (Heinemann, 6s.), the<br />
Telegraph says that to the average Englishman the Pathan<br />
and the Sikh are still unknown quantities, peculiar baings<br />
surrounded with mystery and misconception, and that this<br />
fact will lead many people to real these tales, which are<br />
“of extreme interest, vivid, descriptive, and unique in<br />
originality and attractiveness.”’<br />
<br />
A Mopgern Mercenary, by K. and Hesketh Prichard<br />
(Smith, Elder, and Co., 6s.), contains, says the Chronicle,<br />
some excellent character drawing, and is on the whole “a<br />
bright and credible story.”<br />
<br />
Raaeep Lapy, by W. D. Howells (Harper, 6s.), is “ the<br />
portrayal of a group of normal, or at any rate ordinary<br />
New Englanders, mostly middle class in station, simple in<br />
their pleasures, and ingenuous in their speech’’; it has in<br />
full measure, says the Spectator, ‘‘ the sovereign qualities of<br />
fascination and distinction,” and is a delightfully wholesome<br />
and engaging romance. The Chronicle notes that “the<br />
habit of elaborately analysing the trivial is growing upon<br />
Mr. Howells,” but he is a master of the trick, and the work<br />
of a man who isa master of anything must always be worth<br />
reading.”<br />
<br />
THe Awkwarp AGE, by Henry James (Heinemann,<br />
6:.). The Spectator regrets to see Mr. James “ carrying into<br />
practice that misguided opinion, by which somany modern<br />
writers of fiction are obviously actuated, that normal and<br />
wholesome themes being exhausted, a novelist can only<br />
disp'ay originality or achieve artistic results inthe delinea-<br />
tio. ui the detestable.” The Telegraph describes it as a<br />
story of the modern life of modern people who seem<br />
to have no gooi instincts at all. They are smart and<br />
selfish and scheming. “Bat it has a great charm” ;<br />
“ the people are real and have personalities, though they are<br />
so unpleasant.” The Daily News says “it requires a@<br />
<br />
severe mental wrestle to follow the story”; the Chronicle<br />
says that Mr, Henry James “gets cleverer and still more<br />
him “at his most subtly<br />
<br />
clever”; while Literature sees<br />
28<br />
<br />
psychological, at his most overwhelmingly copious, at his<br />
most exasperatingly deliberate.”<br />
<br />
Tur Passtnc oF Prince Rozan, by John Bickerdyke<br />
(Burleigh, 6s.), the romance of a swindler on the Stock<br />
Exchange, the Spectator says, has “at least the qualities<br />
of animation and excitement.”’<br />
<br />
In Anne MAULEVERER (Methuen, 6s.) “ Iota” (Mrs.<br />
Mannington Caffyn), has contrived, says the Chronicle,<br />
“to leave with us a most delectable addition to the heroines<br />
in modern fiction—no one will want to miss a word of the<br />
book—and she has established herself, in our view, as one of<br />
the leading women novelists of the day,” while the Spec-<br />
tator says that if it is impossible to commend the novel<br />
“ag an elevating or entertaining study of humanity, as a<br />
storehouse of eccentric, affected, spasmodic and extra-<br />
yvagant modes of expression it should prove invaluable to<br />
the student of literary degeneracy.”<br />
<br />
On THE EncE oF A Precrpicn, by Mary Angela Dickens<br />
(Hutchinson, 6s.), is a story of suspended memory ina<br />
beautiful girl, who while in this state exactly reproduces<br />
the fine tragic acting taught her by an evil and ugly friend.<br />
The hero, having been in love with the former all through,<br />
on her recovering her memory and identity marries the<br />
female villain. ‘‘ Miss Dickens writes with ease and<br />
fluency,” says the Spectator, “ but the novel will not add<br />
to her reputation.” The Telegraph considers ita ‘clever<br />
romance,” and the Chronicle says there is in it “a sound<br />
exciting bit of drama for those who like a book ‘with a<br />
spine to it.’ ”<br />
<br />
Racueu, by Jane H. Findlater (Methuen, 6s.), a story<br />
“ full of pathos and real human feeling” (Telegraph) is “a<br />
clever and interesting piece of work,” says Literature,<br />
by one possessing “a faculty of creating out of simple<br />
materials a powerful and abiding impression.”<br />
<br />
pect<br />
<br />
OBITUARY.<br />
<br />
R. JOSEPH ARTHUR GIBBS, author of<br />
“A Cotswold Village,” died suddenly on<br />
May 13 from failure of the heart after an<br />
operation. Mr. Gibbs was only thirty-one. He<br />
was educated at Eton and Christchurch, Oxford,<br />
and began in literature with some notable articles<br />
on the laying down of cricket grounds, which<br />
appeared in the Field and afterwards in book<br />
form. “A Cotswold Village,” which will be<br />
remembered as one of last season’s successful<br />
books, is a delightful picture of English country<br />
life.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Emma Marshall, the well-known writer of<br />
historical novels for girls, died at her residence at<br />
Clifton, aged seventy. Mrs. Marshall used to<br />
say, “At least I have never written a line that<br />
could do anyone any harm.” Her novels were<br />
usually written around the character of a historical<br />
personage, “ Penshurst Castle,’ for instance,<br />
being associated with Sir Philip Sidney, and<br />
“Under the Dome of St. Paul’s” with Sir<br />
Christopher Wren. Among others of her many<br />
works may be mentioned ‘ Winchester Meads,’<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
“In Edward Colston’s Days,’ “ Bristol Dia-<br />
monds,” and “Under Salisbury Spire.” Mrs.<br />
Marshall had been ill for seven weeks; an attack<br />
of influenza developed, as so often happens, into<br />
pneumonia, which proved fatal on May 4.<br />
<br />
Mr. Benjamin Vincent, who died at the age of<br />
eighty-seven, was for forty years librarian of the<br />
Royal Institution, and for many years edited<br />
Haydn’s Dictionaries of Dates and Biographies.<br />
He was a friend and a relative of Faraday.<br />
<br />
Mr. Charles Henry Coote, of the British<br />
Museum, who died on April 30, was a first autho-<br />
rity on old maps, and among other literary work,<br />
in 1886, with Mr. E. Delinar Morgan, he prepared<br />
for the Hakluyt Society “Harly Voyages and<br />
Travels to Russia and Persia.” He contributed<br />
many articles to the ninth edition of the<br />
“ Encyclopedia Britannica,’ and to the “ Dic-<br />
tionary of National Biography.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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