| 471 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/471 | The Author, Vol. 10 Issue 09 (February 1900) | <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+09+%28February+1900%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 10 Issue 09 (February 1900)</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> | 1900-02-01-The-Author-10-9 | | | | | 185–208 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <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=1900-02-01">1900-02-01</a> | | | | | | | 9 | | | 19000201 | The Huthbor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br />
<br />
CONDUCTED BY WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
Vou. X.—No. 9.]<br />
<br />
<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 pard-<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 />
<br />
<br />
eS<br />
<br />
<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 should be crossed Union<br />
Bank of London, Chancery-lane, or be sent by registered<br />
letter only.<br />
<br />
<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 />
<br />
<br />
pe<br />
<br />
GENERAL MEMORANDA.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br />
agreement. There are four 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, or with the advice of the<br />
Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
Il. A PROFIT-SHARING AGREEMENT (a bad form of<br />
agreement). :<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to :<br />
(1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<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. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
rights.<br />
(5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights. ;<br />
(6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br />
a Seg bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br />
octor !<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ARY 1, 1900.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[Prick SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Til. 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 />
IV. A COMMISSION AGREEMENT.<br />
<br />
The main points are :—<br />
<br />
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br />
(2) Keep control of the advertisements.<br />
<br />
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br />
<br />
GENERAL.<br />
<br />
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br />
above mentioned.<br />
<br />
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br />
<br />
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br />
the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br />
<br />
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br />
<br />
The main points which the Society has always demanded<br />
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 />
ect<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Lt EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to<br />
the Secretary of the Society of Authors or some<br />
competent legal authority.<br />
<br />
2. Never negotiate for the production of a play with<br />
anyone except an established manager.<br />
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract :—<br />
<br />
(1) SALE OUTRIGHT OF THE PERFORMING RIGHT.<br />
This is unsatisfactory. An author who enters<br />
into such a contract should stipulate in the con-<br />
tract for production of the piece bya certain date<br />
and for proper publication of his name on the<br />
play-bills.<br />
<br />
(2) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE PROFIT-SHARING SYSTEM.<br />
This method can only be entered into when a<br />
fixed sum is agreed per week for cost of produc-<br />
tion. It is not a common method.<br />
186<br />
<br />
(3) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br />
TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES<br />
(i.e., royalties) on gross receipts. Royalties vary<br />
between 5 and 15 per cent. An author should<br />
obtain a percentage on the sliding scale of gross<br />
receipts. Should obtain a sum in advance of<br />
royalties. A fixed date on or before which the<br />
play should be performed.<br />
<br />
4. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br />
be limited, and are usually limited by town, country, and<br />
time. This is most important.<br />
<br />
5. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br />
should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br />
of great importance.<br />
<br />
6. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br />
play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br />
holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br />
print the book of the words.<br />
<br />
7. Never send a copy of the play to America unless it is<br />
protected by a preliminary performance in the United<br />
Kingdom.<br />
<br />
8. Never forget that American rights may be exceedingly<br />
valuable. They should never be included in English<br />
agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br />
consideration.<br />
<br />
g. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br />
drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br />
Never admit a collaborator when once the actual work of<br />
writing the play has begun or after it is finished.<br />
<br />
10. An author should remember that production of a play<br />
is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br />
delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br />
He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br />
the beginning.<br />
<br />
11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br />
is exceedingly limited.<br />
<br />
As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete on<br />
account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br />
tracts, those authors desirous of further information are<br />
referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
I. VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
<br />
business or the administration of his property. If the<br />
<br />
advice sought is such as can be given best by a solici-<br />
tor, the member has a right to an opinion from the<br />
<br />
Society’s solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s<br />
<br />
opinion is desirable, the Committee will obtain for<br />
<br />
him Counsel’s opinion. All this without any cost to the<br />
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 />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
s. Remember always that in belonging to the Society you<br />
are fighting the battles cf other writers, even if you are<br />
reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are advancing<br />
the best interests of literature in promoting the indepen-<br />
dence of the writer.<br />
<br />
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception of<br />
members’ agreements and their preservation in a fireproof<br />
safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as con-<br />
fidential documents to be read only by the Secretary, who<br />
will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :—(1)<br />
To read and advise upon agreements and publishers. (2) To<br />
stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action upon<br />
them. (3) To keep agreements. (4) To enforce payments<br />
due according to agreements.<br />
<br />
2 et<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br />
<br />
i branch of their work by informing young writers of<br />
<br />
its existence. Their MSS. can be read and treated<br />
<br />
as a composition is treated by a coach. The Readers are<br />
<br />
writers of competence and experience. The fee is one<br />
guinea, :<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of the<br />
Society that, although the paper is sent to them free<br />
of charge, the cost of producing it would be a very<br />
<br />
heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br />
many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br />
6s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br />
<br />
Communications for The Author should be addressed to<br />
the Offices of the Society, 4, Portugal-street, Lincoln’s-inn<br />
Fields, W.C., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br />
2ist of each month.<br />
<br />
All persons engaged in literary work of any kind,<br />
whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br />
communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br />
work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br />
publish.<br />
<br />
The present location of the Authors’ Club is at 3, White-<br />
hall-court, Charing Cross. Address the Secretary for<br />
information, rules of admission, &c.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br />
<br />
R. A. HOPE HAWKINS has been elected<br />
Chairman of the Society for the year<br />
<br />
1900.<br />
Mr. Edward Rose has been elected on to the<br />
Committee, and it is hoped that Mr. Conan<br />
Doyle will join on his return from South Africa,<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
Mr. Mullett Ellis has informed the Secretary<br />
that the following resolutions will be proposed by<br />
him at the general meeting of the Society.<br />
Notice of such general meeting will be circulated<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.<br />
<br />
in due course. The proposer requests that all<br />
members desirous of supporting the resolutions<br />
will communicate with him direct, at the follow-<br />
ing address: T. Munuerr Exuis, Esq., Creek<br />
House, Shepperton.<br />
<br />
(1.) That the exercise of a literary censorship<br />
of books by the large trading monopoly, whose<br />
main business is that of mere distributors and<br />
newsyendors, is not advantageous to letters.<br />
<br />
(2.) That the system of monopoly which<br />
dominates the railway bookstalls throughout the<br />
kingdom gives to one firm the power over the<br />
output and distribution of popular literature and<br />
of political journals, which is damaging to the<br />
interests of authors and of the public,<br />
<br />
(3-) That a copy of the foregoing resolution<br />
be sent to the chairman and directors of the<br />
various railway companies with a respectful<br />
request that on the next available occasion the<br />
licences of the railway bookstalls be granted to<br />
more than one firm of booksellers, and that the<br />
principle of competition in the supply of litera-<br />
ture be thus substituted for the existing mono-<br />
poly.<br />
<br />
(a) Because it would be of financial advantage<br />
<br />
o the shareholders of the railway companies.<br />
<br />
(6) Because the dominance of one firm over<br />
the sale of newspapers and popular literature is a<br />
political danger which may even threaten the<br />
national liberties, and is damaging to literature.<br />
<br />
(c) Because the existing system of the monopoly<br />
of one trading firm has during many years past<br />
been exercised in censorship of authors.<br />
<br />
(d) Because the sale of books at railway book-<br />
stalls has become so enormous that an alteration<br />
in the existing system has become a necessity,<br />
many valuable works not being now obtainable<br />
at the bookstalls, so that if the abuse be not dealt<br />
with by the railway companies it will be necessary<br />
to seek the intervention of Parliament.<br />
<br />
G, HT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
LITERARY PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
I.—CounsEL’s OPINION.<br />
<br />
HE Managing Committee of the Society of<br />
Authors have experienced great difficulty<br />
in gaining a clear idea of the legal position<br />
<br />
of members whose books are involved in cases<br />
where a receiver for debenture-holders has entered<br />
into possession, where a company has gone into<br />
liquidation, and where private firms have gone<br />
into bankruptcy.<br />
<br />
As the trouble and annoyance to members is<br />
very great, the Society, through its Secretary,<br />
usually instructs its solicitor to take the matter<br />
up on behalf of its members.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
187<br />
<br />
In carrying through a matter of this kind the<br />
process of the courts necessarily takes many<br />
months, and to the authors involved the progress<br />
no doubt seems exceedingly slow, and the waiting<br />
exceedingly wearisome.<br />
<br />
To the ordinary creditor, who is not bound by<br />
contract, this is not of so much consequence, as he<br />
simply brings in his claim and awaits the result.<br />
The result is often disappointing—but beyond<br />
this he has no further bother.<br />
<br />
The case of the author, however, who is bound<br />
to a company or firm which has come to grief in<br />
any of the three ways described above, is totally<br />
ditferent.<br />
<br />
In one case his book may have been produced<br />
and royalties have become due to him under his<br />
agreement.<br />
<br />
In another case his book may be in the height<br />
of its sale, but owing to the failure of the pub-<br />
lishers may be suddenly withdrawn from the<br />
market. This, in a great many cases, means the<br />
absolute loss of property to the author.<br />
<br />
Many books are short-lived, and if in the early<br />
stages there is a check in the supply, the public<br />
will take some other book instead.<br />
<br />
Experience shows that under such circum-<br />
stances it is almost impossible to give renewed<br />
life to the work.<br />
<br />
It is a mistake to think that this applies only<br />
to works of fiction; it is equally true of other<br />
current literature, like works of travel, biographies,<br />
memoirs, &e.<br />
<br />
Even if the life of a book is not destroyed, as<br />
it has been shown may occur, the profits accruing<br />
to the author may be stopped for some time.<br />
<br />
Another case may arise of an author, who is<br />
under contract for publication of his book, and<br />
his book has not yet been put on the market.<br />
<br />
Again, there may be the case of an author who<br />
has contracted to write a book but has not yet<br />
completed the MS.<br />
<br />
These are some of the difficulties in which<br />
authors are placed which are beyond the difficulties<br />
of ordinary creditors.<br />
<br />
The cases of bankruptcy, liquidation, or the<br />
appointment of a. receiver for the debenture-<br />
ho'ders are, unfortunately for authors, of not<br />
infrequent occurrence. As, therefore, the same<br />
difficulties are likely to arise in the future, and<br />
as the expense of fighting each point in the courts<br />
would be more than the Society could afford with-<br />
out considerable assistance, the Committee decided<br />
to take the best opinion that could be obtained<br />
from Counsel on the various questions involved.<br />
<br />
In answer to two of the questions asked from<br />
Counsel, which were as follows :—<br />
<br />
1. “ What are the rights of authors in respect<br />
of royalties (a4) due or (6) to become due as<br />
<br />
<br />
188 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
against (i.) a receiver for debenture-holders ; (ii.)<br />
a liquidator or trustee in bankruptcy ; and (iii.)<br />
an assign for value?” and<br />
<br />
2. “ Whether authors under royalty agreements<br />
—who have not assigned their copyrights—can<br />
claim that the contracts are determined by a<br />
receivership or liquidation, or a cesser of the pub-<br />
lisher’s business, so that they can contract with a<br />
new publisher,”<br />
<br />
Counsel makes the following statement :—<br />
<br />
“The appointment of a receiver for the deben-<br />
ture-holders has not in my opinion affected the<br />
obligations in any way. The company or its<br />
assignees (whether the assignee by way of secu-<br />
rity has taken possession by way of receiver or<br />
not) stand in no different position as regards<br />
performance of the contract.<br />
<br />
“Tt remains to be considered what would be<br />
the result if the company went into liquidation.<br />
Tn that case the liquidator would be entitled to a<br />
contract of which, if he performs it, he can have<br />
the benefit, and which he may if he pleases assign<br />
with consent. To perform it means to pay the<br />
royalties, not to pay a dividend on the royalties.<br />
Tf the author is not minded to come in in the<br />
winding-up and prove for future royalties he is<br />
not bound to do so, and the liquidator can only<br />
have the benefit of the contract if he performs<br />
the obligations of the contract. If the liquidator<br />
does not pay the royalties at their due dates, the<br />
author is, I think, entitled to give him notice that<br />
unless he pays within a reasonable time he will<br />
treat that as a refusal to perform the contract,<br />
and, if the liquidator does not pay, the author may,<br />
I think, determine the contract and agree with<br />
another publisher. One may test this in this way :<br />
Suppose under such circumstances the liquidator<br />
brought an action for an injunction to restrain<br />
the author from publishing elsewhere, he could<br />
not have such an order except upon the terms of<br />
complying with the conditions of the contract,<br />
that is, paying the royalties in full.<br />
<br />
“Tf” the publishers mentioned in the case for<br />
Counsel’s opinion —“ were a firm and not a cor-<br />
poration, the position would be the same, except<br />
that in bankruptcy the trustee would have power<br />
to disclaim the contract—a power which a liqui-<br />
dator does not possess.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
From this statement it would appear that<br />
Counsel considers that royalty agreements as<br />
above are not put an end to by a receivership or<br />
liquidation of the publishers, but that a receiver,<br />
liquidator, or trustee is bound to pay the royalties<br />
in full as well as those due at the date of the<br />
failure as any becoming due subsequently if he<br />
intends to have the benefit of the contract with<br />
the author.<br />
<br />
Members of the Society must, however,<br />
remember that these positions may be varied by<br />
express agreement, and they must not too readil<br />
deduce that their case comes in line with the<br />
opinion.<br />
<br />
The above remarks refer to those books which<br />
have been published, and on which royalties are<br />
due.<br />
<br />
With regard to the question of a contract<br />
existing for publication when the book has not<br />
yet been published, Counsel states that the fact<br />
that the receiver for the debenture-holders<br />
has been appointed does not affect the right of<br />
the publisher to publish in accordance with the<br />
terms of the agreement, and again, in the case<br />
where the author is under contract, but has not<br />
completed his manuscript, although the publisher<br />
cannot compel the author to complete, Counsel<br />
thinks that the author would be liable in damages<br />
if he refuses to complete.<br />
<br />
The above points are printed for the serious<br />
consideration of the members of the Society;<br />
they must, however, always keep in mind the<br />
advisability of consulting the Secretary on their<br />
agreements (especially with limited companies)<br />
before they sign them, and of laying before him<br />
a full statement of their cases before they take<br />
any action as regards insolvent publishers.<br />
<br />
G. H. T.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
II.—Tuer Riext to Correct.<br />
<br />
Here is a case in which the right to correct and<br />
alter a signed article has not only been claimed<br />
but exercised; not, it is true, by the editor of a<br />
magazine published in London. It is noticed in<br />
this place because the editor’s exercise of his<br />
so-called right was that test of a theory which in<br />
mathematics is called an extreme case. What he<br />
did was this :—<br />
<br />
The article was invited by the editor: it was<br />
written to order; it was also written to the length<br />
required ; it was signed ; it was accepted ; and it<br />
was paid for.<br />
editor found himself cramped for room. He<br />
therefore boldly cut off the first half of the article<br />
<br />
and began it in the middle, retaining the writer's — 4<br />
<br />
name at the end, in this way making ridiculous<br />
<br />
nonsense of the whole paper; damaging his own —<br />
<br />
magazine by inserting nonsense; and inflicting<br />
<br />
the most cruel injury to the reputation of the —<br />
<br />
writer. On a mild expostulation, the editor<br />
<br />
replied that he held the right to make any correc- :<br />
tions he pleased and to give or withhold the name —<br />
<br />
of the contributor.<br />
<br />
In such a case there is only one thing to be<br />
done: viz., to bring an action and to procure an”<br />
injunction restraining the sale of the magazine —<br />
‘with the mutilated article.<br />
<br />
When it was to be inserted the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
It cannot be too strongly maintained that when<br />
‘papers are signed the editor has no power to<br />
alter a word. He may invite alterations: he may<br />
refuse insertion unless alterations are made: he<br />
‘must not make the author say, over his own name,<br />
‘one werd that he does not choose to say.<br />
<br />
As regards unsigned articles, of course the<br />
editor is himself responsible, and will alter and<br />
ut them up just as he pleases. The author<br />
cannot question that right or complain when it is<br />
exercised.<br />
<br />
There are editors, even in London, who claim<br />
the right of correcting and altering signed articles.<br />
It is greatly to be desired that a single case<br />
should be tried in court, when the alleged right<br />
to make an author say what he does not think,<br />
and, over his own name, utter opinions which he<br />
does not hold, would be finally disallowed, and its<br />
<br />
monstrous nature exposed. 4<br />
&<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
III—A New AreumMent ¥F<br />
Copyright<br />
<br />
Our valuable German conte<br />
vler Feder, in commentin<br />
Hungarian Pesti Hirlap, Gag<br />
Hungarian critic which put @He 4<br />
national copyright in an entre@ new light.<br />
<br />
The modern national movement in Hungary has<br />
been from -its commencement closely connected<br />
with the resuscitation of Magyar asa literary lan-<br />
g guage, and one of the results of this cultivation<br />
tio of the language is that contemporary Hungarian<br />
<br />
INTERNATIONAL<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
‘ excellence. This literature has a distinctively<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
_ Meanwhile, as Austria-Hungary lies outside the<br />
198 Berne Union, the country is flooded with German<br />
God books, and pirated translations of German books<br />
<br />
; —naturally exercising a definite Germanising<br />
ai influence, that fatal denationalising influence<br />
¥ which evoked the revolution of 1848, and has<br />
een ever since combated with relentless deter-<br />
mination. ‘“ But we have,” says Mr. Téth Bela<br />
in the Pesti Hirlap, “this great evil, that<br />
German books are much sought after. I am<br />
called a ‘Germanophobe.’ I am so respecting<br />
certain authors. Not respecting Goethe, Kleist,<br />
and Heine. . But there are thousands of<br />
people of deplorable taste who admit miserably<br />
useless and inferior b-oks into their houses.<br />
Why? Because their brains are not Magyar<br />
enough to be critical and to say, If these books<br />
please the Germans, let them have them, so long<br />
as they are kept out of our way,’ and<br />
because there are in Germany numerous paper-<br />
mills and printing presses for which employment<br />
must be found. The juvenile literature<br />
<br />
VOL. x.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ET Oat<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ASE<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
- literature has rapidly risen to a high standard of .<br />
<br />
+ Hungarian tone, and is splendidly patriotic. |<br />
<br />
189<br />
<br />
of Germany is weak. And even its best produc-<br />
tions are injurious tf they train our young people<br />
into foreign ways of feeling and thinking. In<br />
how many Hungarian houses have I seen German<br />
patriotic works!”<br />
<br />
To all this our contemporary, Das Recht der<br />
Feder, replies with excellent reason: “If Mr.<br />
Téth Bela desires to sce the national literature<br />
better supported, let him do what he can to per-<br />
suade Hungary to cease to be one of the pirate<br />
States and to come into the Berne Union.”<br />
<br />
But the point raised appears to us to be one of<br />
even wider and more profound significance. We<br />
have here a new argument for international pro-<br />
tection. The community which steals its litera-<br />
ture from abroad is surrendering its national<br />
character to foreign influences.<br />
<br />
H. C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IV.—Hoitianp anp THE BERNE CONVENTION.<br />
<br />
The Dutch “League in favour of the Berne<br />
Convention ” has presented a petition to the<br />
Queen of Holland, urging:<br />
<br />
“That for a long period the rights of foreigners<br />
have been, among all civilised nations, placed on<br />
an equality with those of citizens, whilst among<br />
ourselves the rights of foreigners can be violated<br />
with impunity—with the consequence that Dutch<br />
authors have no rights outside their own country ;<br />
4 that the intellectual development of the<br />
inhabitants of the Netherlands is prejudiced by<br />
the quantity of foreign literature of inferior<br />
value with which the country is flooded; and<br />
that a legal sanction of International copyright<br />
would be advantageous to the national works of<br />
an artistic and scientific character, and assist the<br />
development of a higher national taste.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.—PuorocrapH CopyrigHt IN AMERICA.<br />
<br />
A circuit court judge has decided that photo-<br />
graphs of actresses and actors, not being fine art,<br />
cannot be copyrighted. The decision, which<br />
establishes a precedent that pleases the news-<br />
papers and publishers, threatens to damage many<br />
flourishing photographic businesses. The Copy-<br />
right League bitterly fought the point. The<br />
actresses are now preparing a memorial to Wash-<br />
ington denouncing Judge Wallace’s assertion that<br />
their photographs are too inartistic to copyright,<br />
—New York telegram in the Morning Leader,<br />
Jan. 15,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VI—AgeEnts.<br />
<br />
With reference to the letter signed “R. K.”<br />
which appeared in the January number of The<br />
Author, I think that it may be beneficial to the<br />
members of the Society to point out some of the<br />
<br />
T<br />
190<br />
<br />
difficulties that arise by employing an agent, and<br />
putting absolute and unquestioned trust in his<br />
settlement of literary matters, both on the legal<br />
and financial sides.<br />
<br />
In the March number of The Author, 1899, a<br />
long and somewhat exhaustive article appeared<br />
on this subject. Members of the Society are par-<br />
ticularly referred to this article as bearing on the<br />
question.<br />
<br />
It may be as well to point out further that<br />
an author’s interest and an agent’s are not, as<br />
they should be, always identical. An author will<br />
naturally say this cannot be the case, as the<br />
larger the price an agent gets for an author’s<br />
work, the larger amount will he be paid. Take,<br />
however, the following instance as a probable<br />
example :<br />
<br />
An agent has an overwhelming number of<br />
MSS. in his hands that he wants to place with<br />
certain publishers. This is not unfrequently the<br />
case, and from an agent’s business point of view<br />
five contracts of £20 each may be better and<br />
less difficult transactions than one of £100.<br />
Again, he knows that he can place one book in<br />
one week and one in the next week which will<br />
each bring, say £100 return to the authors—<br />
£200 in all; the other terms of the contract<br />
being decidedly disadvantageous to the authors<br />
concerned. Supposing he took the two weeks to<br />
obtain better terms for one author to the neglect<br />
of the other, he might only increase that<br />
author’s financial returns by £30 or £40. He<br />
would thus lose his agency charges on about<br />
£60 or £70, as he has spent two weeks in placing<br />
the book of one author in a thoroughly satis-<br />
factory manner for the author, whereas he might<br />
have placed two books in that time unsatis-<br />
factorily to the two authors, but satisfactorily as<br />
regards himself.<br />
<br />
This example is put forward, as certain agree-<br />
ments have been before the Society of Authors<br />
recently—agreements which have been recom-<br />
mended by the agent, who had only tried one<br />
publisher with the book—agreements which were<br />
wholly disadvantageous to the author in that they<br />
assigned to the publisher, as stated in the letter<br />
of the January issue referred to, a great many of<br />
those rights which it is the agent’s duty to place,<br />
<br />
‘and in that they also offered to the author a<br />
wretched 10 per cent. after the sale of 500 copies,<br />
with no increase however large the sales prove<br />
to be.<br />
<br />
It is, further, an open question how far an<br />
ordinary agent is capable of drafting an agree-<br />
ment full of legal difficulties and technicalities.<br />
<br />
.[The writer of the above neglects a very im-<br />
portant factor in the conduct of an agent’s busi-<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ness. Itis this. There are many writers whose<br />
works hang about on the border line. That is to<br />
say, their chance of success, even of so moderate<br />
a success as the repayment of the cost, is doubtful,<br />
Their chance of proving a decided commercial<br />
successis more than doubtful. Every publisher's _,<br />
reader knows of such cases: it is his constantly<br />
recurring difficulty to form an opinion as to the \<br />
chances of a MS. on this border line.<br />
<br />
An agent offers such a MS. to several pub- j<br />
lishers in succession. It is refused. He then 4<br />
finds a publisher who says: “I doubt whether<br />
this book will prove a paying venture. If I do<br />
take it, I must have it on my own conditions,<br />
not those which you can impose in the case of a<br />
popular author.”<br />
<br />
A case has been brought before me in which<br />
such a MS., offered to, and refused by, three or<br />
four publishers in succession, was accepted by a<br />
publisher exactly on these terms. The agent<br />
communicated the offer to the author. He said:<br />
“These are the only terms on which your book<br />
can be produced. It is for you to accept or to<br />
decline.” Observe that had the author refused j<br />
these terms his book would not have been pub-<br />
lished at all. Now, publication is almost always —<br />
the first thing desired. If on fair terms, so much ~<br />
the better: if not, then on any terms. This<br />
author at once closed with the terms.<br />
<br />
The cases quoted above seem to me suspiciously<br />
like the one which I have described. Is the<br />
writer quite sure that in these cases only one<br />
publisher was offered the MS.? If not, then, his 3<br />
argument breaks down. If he is right on this<br />
point, his argument depends upon the assumption<br />
that an agent’s time is so fully engaged that he<br />
cannot spare more than a certain amount foreach<br />
book. I do not think that any agent has to :<br />
divide his time and to calculate the amount he ~<br />
can afford for each book. For the work of a<br />
successful author an agreement is generally<br />
arrived at very quickly: the discussions and the<br />
disputes rather belong to the work of the less<br />
popular writer. But two business men who under- —<br />
stand their business do not waste time in trying<br />
to “best”? each other. On the other hand, a<br />
great part of the agent’s time is required for the<br />
acquisition and the maintenance of the condi-<br />
tions, varying from day to day, of the publishing<br />
trade. He must know, as well as any publishers,<br />
the details, such as the cost of production, illus-<br />
trations, and the rest; he must know the finan-<br />
cial position of every house ; he must know what<br />
houses are full and what are open for the pro-<br />
duction of more books; in the case of magazines<br />
and weeklies he must know when serials are<br />
wanted, when the paper is engaged and for<br />
how long. The agent, in fact, must acquire and<br />
<br />
Mga ae<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. 191<br />
<br />
maintain a knowledge of the whole trade such<br />
as no single publisher and no single writer can<br />
acquire.— ED. |<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VIl—“Tse Mernop or tHe Future.”<br />
<br />
I cannot help thinking that, if only one<br />
thoroughly successful book was produced on this<br />
method, it would soon be very generally adopted.<br />
As it is, the writers whose works sell at sight,<br />
and whose pockets are always comfortably lined,<br />
are indisposed to disturb existing arrangements<br />
which they have tested in favour of another to<br />
them as yet untried; whilst those who have yet<br />
to make their name have often not the means,<br />
however mederate the cost, for printing the work<br />
themselves, and so will sell their productions for<br />
any trifle that may be offered, or accept almost<br />
any terms that may be proposed, which do not<br />
involve outlay, in preference.<br />
<br />
Authors, generally, have a wholly illusory idea<br />
as to the influence a publisher has on the sale of<br />
a’ book. As Sir Walter Besant says, a book<br />
would sell just as well published on this system<br />
as on any other; and if a few writers of estab-<br />
lished position were only to make one experiment,<br />
“they would be amazed at the result.”<br />
<br />
Some time ago, I and two or three friends<br />
formed a small limited company on this basis, to<br />
work more especially for composers. We after-<br />
wards offered the same benefit to a considerable<br />
number of authors; yet although we are all, I<br />
think, good men and true, without any personal<br />
axes to grind, we had no response.<br />
<br />
It seems cnrious that, though men will subscribe<br />
readily to all sorts of wild-cat schemes which<br />
promise the most absurd and improbable returns,<br />
they will calmly ignore an honest attempt to<br />
promote a scheme which may materially benefit<br />
them at practically no risk at all.<br />
<br />
A Memper oF THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VIII.—Possisixirigs.<br />
<br />
Here is a book published on the _half-profit<br />
system.<br />
<br />
The accounts, when rendered, were found to<br />
agree with some of the figures given in The<br />
Author and in “The Pen and the Book.” That is<br />
to say, the charges for composition, printing, and<br />
paper were those which certain anonymous<br />
publishers have declared to be impossible. The<br />
returns of sales were given under four distinct<br />
prices, averaging exactly what has been ascer-<br />
tained to be the average and has been quoted as<br />
such in the Society’s papers.<br />
<br />
The charge for advertising seemed to show<br />
that a reasonable amount of discretion had been<br />
bestowed upon this branch of expenditure.<br />
<br />
vou. X. oe<br />
<br />
The question is, what opening for fraud does<br />
such an account leave? Observe that none of<br />
the rapacious “ grabs” advocated by the committee<br />
of the Publishers’ Association were found in this<br />
account. It was a simple statement—“ so much<br />
money spent: so much money received: here is<br />
your share.”<br />
<br />
The general principle, universally recognised in<br />
all affairs of business, is that, if a body of men<br />
are left free to cheat with impunity, they will<br />
cheat. How bas this man cheated ?<br />
<br />
Very possibly not at all. Yet he could cheat in<br />
several ways. He might have taken discounts—<br />
any discount he could get—and omitted to credit<br />
the account of the book with them. He might<br />
have advertised in his own organ, and charged<br />
against the book advertisements which cost him<br />
nothing. Or he might have charged exchange<br />
advertisements which cost him nothing. And he<br />
might have made a false return of the number<br />
sold and of the price obtained.<br />
<br />
Again, he might overstate the numbers sent to<br />
the colonies, and understate thosé sold to the<br />
English trade.<br />
<br />
Or he might have had the book printed in<br />
Holland at a reduction of some 20 per cent. in<br />
English prices, and then charged what looked like<br />
a fair English price.<br />
<br />
The real point is that he might have done any<br />
or all of these things with impunity, relying on<br />
the fact that so very, very few authors have the<br />
moral courage to treat this kind of property as<br />
they treat all other kinds, viz., to have the account<br />
audited.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IX.—Tue Question oF REvIEwS.<br />
<br />
The question of reviews is one of the most<br />
important connected with the healthy condition of<br />
contemporary literature which the student of it<br />
has to deal with, but one with regard to which<br />
the reviewer (I use the word as a collective) has,<br />
I fear, little conscience. I am an old author and<br />
have published a little of everything, stories,<br />
studies, political essays, history, and technical<br />
books, their production running over a period of<br />
nearly thirty years, and my connection with<br />
journalism and reviewing more than forty, my<br />
first appearance in print having occurred fifty odd<br />
years ago. Needless to say, I have attained to<br />
little of that distinction which is the lot of the<br />
successful specialist, but I am content with my<br />
harvest, and am independent of the publisher and<br />
the public, having attained in a tranquil old age<br />
to a modest competence, a tolerable callousness<br />
to public opinion, and an absolute serenity before<br />
the critic. And yet he has always dealt with<br />
me kindly, so kindly, indeed, that itis ungrateful<br />
for me to carp at his doings. Some of my books<br />
<br />
rT 2<br />
<br />
<br />
192 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
have been very widely noticed, and rarely ill-<br />
naturedly, but of fifty notices one has called out,<br />
I am disposed to say that by far the largest<br />
number showed that the critic had only skimmed<br />
the book, or had not read it at all, but taken the<br />
notice of one of the leading journals for the basis<br />
of his own opinion, and very few indeed showed<br />
that the writers were read up in the subject of the<br />
book. I have also done a good deal of reviewing<br />
and in two or three subjects have qualified myself<br />
<br />
to criticise a book, so that I am able to judge .<br />
<br />
whether a given notice is competent or not. It<br />
has, therefore been within my experience to have<br />
read in leading literary organs criticisms which<br />
proved that the critic was absolutely disqualified<br />
to say whether the book was accurate in its state-<br />
ments or not. Imagine a critic reviewing a<br />
history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth of<br />
England, and not knowing whether certain<br />
battles in the Netherlands had been victories<br />
or defeats, or who commanded in them! Yet<br />
I have seen in an authoritative journal a<br />
review of a book the subject of which I<br />
was thoroughly versed in, which review passed<br />
unnoticed errors as important as would be the<br />
ascribing victory where the event in a certain<br />
conflict had been defeat. It was evident that the<br />
critic had never read a standard work on the<br />
subject treated in the book and had criticised it<br />
as he would have criticised a novel, as agreeable<br />
reading. French criticism rarely makes such<br />
a blunder, while it is very common in England.<br />
I know only two journals published in London<br />
which seem to me to make a regular practice of<br />
assigning their criticism to writers who are<br />
specialists in the subject treated by the book.<br />
And with a few brilliant exceptions, how superior<br />
to the body of English criticism is either the<br />
French or the German! Superior too in precisely<br />
this respect, that the critic is competent to detect<br />
the errors of statement which the book falls into.<br />
<br />
The subject that “Querist” raises in the<br />
January Author is another in which English<br />
criticism errs frankly, and it may be confidently<br />
anticipated what will be said by certain journals<br />
(and the majority of them) of books by certain<br />
authors, their “ tried favourites,” and often their<br />
personal friends. If our judges were to dismiss<br />
their cases as carelessly (to say the least) as our<br />
critics do, there would be a large disbenching in<br />
England.<br />
<br />
All this involves not merely the highest interests<br />
of our current literature but the exercise of<br />
common honesty.<br />
<br />
Retrrep.<br />
<br />
THE PENSION FUND.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
MONG other communications concerning<br />
the Pension Fund is one from an associate<br />
who seems in difficulties about his own<br />
<br />
position. It is very simple. Membership has<br />
but one condition, that of having written a<br />
book. The pensions will be granted to members<br />
only, and, I suppose, chiefly to members who have<br />
led the life of letters professionally.<br />
<br />
This correspondent asks whether a certain<br />
production of a volume containing stories written<br />
by himself, with the addition of a chapter or<br />
short story written by another hand, makes him<br />
eligible for membership. I should be of opinion<br />
that it does.<br />
<br />
His concluding words are eminently satisfactory.<br />
<br />
“T hope that the enclosed cheque for a guinea<br />
will be an annual donation to the fund, and whether<br />
I am right or wrong in my surmise that associates<br />
are not eligible, I cannot but sympathise with<br />
this splendid scheme.” W. B.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
A suggestion has been made by Mrs. Tweedie —<br />
<br />
in forwarding a donation to the Fund, that “ the<br />
offer of a pension to any author should be con-<br />
sidered an honour, a valued recognition from<br />
other writers, and in no wise a charity. The<br />
<br />
bread of charity is bitter, while that of success is ’ i<br />
<br />
sweet.”<br />
<br />
Iam very glad to see the Pension Scheme has —<br />
made a good start in securing the support ofa<br />
dozen prominent and representative names, for<br />
‘the ‘most part drawn from those whom happy<br />
-fate has put beyond need of help. Judging from<br />
what one knows of big incomes enjoyed by other —<br />
prominent writers, there should, if these have —<br />
<br />
any feeling of esprit de corps, be substantial<br />
additions to the donations which are essential as<br />
solid bases of the fund.<br />
<br />
For the fundamental thing is to create a Capital<br />
Account (aided by such proportion of subserip-<br />
tions as can be spared from time to time) since<br />
subscribers are often fickle, and, in all cases,<br />
mortal.<br />
<br />
The scheme seems well drawn, but perhaps<br />
clauses 8 and 10 might be made more stringent<br />
in excluding cases where an author already has a<br />
Civil List pension, or has by reckless living made<br />
“ducks and drakes” of large earnings through<br />
many years.<br />
<br />
Savile Club, Jan. 19. Epwarp CLopD.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
We have to thank Literature for giving to the<br />
public a fair and a truthful presentation of the<br />
case for a Pension Fund as an auxiliary to this<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 />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 193<br />
<br />
Society. Other papers have mentioned the<br />
scheme, some in the careless and casual manner<br />
of the modern writer of paragraphs who has no<br />
time to read what he criticises, some with the<br />
downright and deliberate misrepresentation of facts<br />
which certain writers for the press always practice<br />
with regard to this Society. So long as they can<br />
be answered these misrepresentations have proved<br />
of the greatest advantage to the Society, which<br />
has never asked for more than a dispassionate<br />
statement of its aims and work. Sometimes,<br />
however, the papers in which these attacks appear<br />
escape notice. The Pension Scheme in one paper<br />
was represented as intended for the whole of the<br />
literary craft, of whom more than half certainly<br />
do not, as yet, belong to the Society. They stand<br />
apart while they reap the substantial benefits of<br />
<br />
its work. The Fund will be used for members<br />
<br />
only. This is an example of the journalist too<br />
hurried to read. In another paper the scheme<br />
is represented as the work of certain literary men<br />
whose whole desire is to advertise themselves!<br />
And yet we ask why the Profession of Letters is<br />
still, by many, held in contempt. To advertise<br />
themselves! It is a costly advertisement. But<br />
what a courteous and well-bred criticism! and<br />
how profoundly true!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Literature calls attention to the “Guild of<br />
Literature and of Art,” started by Charles<br />
Dickens and Lord Lytton in 1851, and quotes<br />
from a letter written by the former to the<br />
latter :—<br />
<br />
I do devontly believe that this plan carried will entirely<br />
change the status of the literary man in England, and make<br />
a revolution in his position, which no Government, no<br />
power on earth but his own, could effect. I have implicit<br />
confidence in the scheme—so splendidly begun—if we carry<br />
it out with a steadfast energy. I have a strong conviction<br />
that we hold in our hands the peace and honour of men of<br />
letters for centuries to come, and that you are destined to<br />
be their best and most enduring benefactor.<br />
<br />
The Guild proved a complete failure. The<br />
sum of about £1500 was raised, in addition to a<br />
similar amount spent in building two or three<br />
houses at Stevenage. Now, nobody wanted to<br />
live at Stevenage. The new scheme differs<br />
entirely from the old. It does not include the<br />
whole of literature; it is simply a scheme for the<br />
benefit of our own members; it will not offer<br />
almshouses, or anything of the kind; it will be<br />
supported by members of the Society, all of whom<br />
are actual members of the literary craft; and it<br />
will not appeal to the public for assistance.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
5, rue Chomel.<br />
HE happy initiative given by the successful<br />
inauguration of the “Université popu-<br />
laire’”’ (mentioned in “ Paris Notes” for<br />
December) has already borne fruit. On the<br />
heights of the nineteenth arrondissement, a some-<br />
what similar institution termed ‘“ Fondation<br />
universitaire de Belleville” has recently been<br />
established. Its premises are a long, low<br />
bungalow situated at the end of a wide court-yard<br />
bordered with trees, and its aim is to educate and<br />
elevate the working man, and to organise a<br />
systematic contact and union between workman<br />
and student. At the present moment upwards<br />
of eighty-five workmen, 101 students, and sixty<br />
honorary members are inscribed on the “ Fonda-<br />
’s” registers; but though the last-named<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
tion’s<br />
adherents include several opulent and well-known<br />
Parisians, honorary members are rigorously<br />
excluded from the working committee, which is<br />
entirely composed of young men. Sub-com-<br />
mittees, in which the workmen are earnestly<br />
invited to participate, have also been formed. to<br />
aid the head administration in expending or<br />
economising the revenues of the new foundation<br />
—to wit, 3500 francs per year. The students who<br />
are members of the association voluntarily offer<br />
themselves in turn as residents on the foundation.<br />
This devotion to “le devoir social” is admirable,<br />
since it practically amounts to a gratuitous exile<br />
of one, two, or three months from all accustomed<br />
haunts and recreations. The appeal issued to the<br />
workmen of Belleville by these generally-reputed<br />
fiery young Hotspurs is worthy of being quoted.<br />
Roughly translated, it runs as follows :—<br />
<br />
«- ° | here are in our association neither<br />
masters, chiefs, nor patrons. We do not come<br />
to justify a hierarchy, inculcate ideas, impose<br />
dogmas. Our property is collective; we are<br />
voluntarily equals.<br />
<br />
“ We are not sectarians. We admit all sincere<br />
and thoughtful opinions. We only exclude those<br />
who pretend to have the monopoly of truth and<br />
admit no contradiction.<br />
<br />
“We come to propose to you to work recipro-<br />
cally at our common education At the<br />
same time that we mutually develop our intelli-<br />
gence we shall learn to know and love each other.<br />
<br />
« . , Let us establish a new and fertile<br />
alliance. In uniting our efforts thus, in working<br />
to develop our minds and enlarge our hearts, we<br />
shall efface little by little the artificial separation<br />
of classes; we shall diminish their passing<br />
hostility ; we shall prepare a more peaceful, a<br />
more fraternal, a better epoch--whose dawn we<br />
shall soon see illuminating the horizon!”<br />
194<br />
<br />
We regret that space will not permit the inser-<br />
tion of the entire article. Suffice it to state that<br />
this loyal appeal has been warmly responded to ;<br />
and that, not only at Belleville, but also in several<br />
other thickly-populated districts of Paris—notably<br />
at Grenelle, the Ternes, and in the Latin Quarter<br />
—similar institutions are now in process of forma-<br />
tion—a good omen for the commencement of the<br />
new century and the inauguration of the Great<br />
Exhibition !<br />
<br />
Tur CHaucHarp Prize.<br />
<br />
M. Marcel Prévost, president of the Socicté des<br />
Gens de Lettres, has presented to M. Chauchard,<br />
on behalf of the committee of the society he<br />
represents, a golden ‘plaquette” exquisitely<br />
wrought by Daniel Dupuis, bearing the inscrip-<br />
tion: “A.M. Chauchard, du Comité de la Sucicté<br />
<br />
-des Gens de Lettres, 1900.’ By this gift the<br />
committee endeavoured to express their gratitude<br />
for the munificent literary prizes and donations<br />
placed at their disposal by the well-known philan-<br />
thropist. This year M. Paul Alexis has won the<br />
signal distinction of being unanimously elected<br />
by the judges as the recipient of the Grand Prix<br />
Chauchard of 3000 frances. M. Alexis has been<br />
described as an excellent type of ‘une bonne<br />
téte grisonnante de bicheur myope.” His name<br />
was first brought before the public in 1879 by a<br />
curious little one-act play, entitled “Celles qu’on<br />
n’épouse pas,” which was personally recommended<br />
by Dumas ji/s to the manager of the Gymnase<br />
Theatre. ‘La Fin de Lucie Pellegrin,” followed<br />
by “Le Besoin d’Aimer,” “ L’Education amour-<br />
euse,” ‘Ta Comtesse,” &c., established his<br />
talent as a novelist; while “Monsieur Betsy,”<br />
“‘La Provinciale,’ and two plays taken from the<br />
Goncourts’ works, respectively entitled ‘“ Les<br />
Fréres Zemganno” and “Charles Demailly,”<br />
consolidated his reputation as a dramatist. He<br />
will shortly read ‘“‘Chantenac””—a new play in<br />
four acts — to the committee of the Comédie<br />
Frangaise; while a five-act study of political<br />
ambition, entitled ‘‘ Vallobra,” has already been<br />
accepted and placed on the programme of the<br />
Antoine theatre. While awaiting its representa-<br />
tion, the author is engaged in writing a novel<br />
drawn from the last-named drama, thus reversing<br />
the usual precedent. That he entertains no mis-<br />
givings respecting the success of the proceeding<br />
may be seen by the fact that he has announced<br />
his intention of dedicating this novel to M.<br />
Victorien Sardou, master of the dramatic craft.<br />
Its title is not yet known.<br />
<br />
M. Lavepan’s Reception.<br />
<br />
The brilliant oration in memory-of-his prede-<br />
cessor pronounced by M. Henri Lavedan on the<br />
occasion of his public reception at the Académie<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Francaise, was hardly appreciated by the old<br />
friends and comrades of Henri Meilhac. In par-<br />
ticular, the allusion to the talented author of “ Frou-<br />
frou”’ as a personage who would have been the<br />
“sous-Dumas des petites sous-baronnes d’ Ange” —<br />
contained that grain of truth which rendered such<br />
a parallel exceedingly wounding. ‘I wish that<br />
Lavedan may have (as late as possible) a suc-<br />
cessor as witty as himself, but more just towards<br />
the work of his life, and more respectful towards<br />
the dead,’ wrote M. Louis Ganderax, after<br />
hearing this so-called eulogy. The response of<br />
the Marquis Costa de Beauregard threw oil on<br />
the troubled waters; though it would be difficult<br />
to assert that its recipient was more content with<br />
the finely satirical appreciation given by the<br />
Marquis of his own work than had been the case<br />
with the friends of Henri Meilhac during the<br />
previous oration. ‘‘Give us a little human life,<br />
instead of manufacturing for us so much Parisian<br />
life,” said M. Costa de Beauregard, at one period<br />
of his discourse. “Since wit and intelligence have<br />
been given you without stint, you should have<br />
other things to recount of life than the amuse-<br />
ments of little, vicious creatures, or the rancid<br />
amours of dotards whose souls are rotten.”<br />
<br />
MM. Francois Coppée and Victorien Sardou were<br />
the official godfathers of M. Henri Lavedan, who<br />
has also been invested with the digrity of chan-<br />
cellor, owing to his having been the last Acade-<br />
mician received before the nomination of the new<br />
office-bearers for the first trimestre of the year<br />
1900. The reception of M. Paul Deschanel by<br />
M. Sully Prudhomme, and the double election of<br />
the successors to the two vacant fauteuils<br />
(formerly occupied by Edouard Pailleron and<br />
Victor Cherbuliez) are expected to take place—<br />
the first, during the first week in February, and<br />
the second, towards the end of March.<br />
<br />
OFFICE-BEARERS FOR 1900.<br />
<br />
The five Academies which compose the Institut<br />
de France have appointed the following members<br />
as office-bearers during the year 1900: M. Alfred<br />
Normand, delegate of the Academy des beaux-<br />
arts, has been nominated President ; MM. Gaston<br />
Boissier, delegate of the Académie Frangaise ; de<br />
Barthélemy, delegate of the Académie des inscrip-<br />
tions et belles-lettres ; Maurice Lévy, delegate of<br />
the Académie des science; and Germain, delegate<br />
of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques,<br />
have accepted the office of vice-presidents. M.<br />
Gustave Larroumet, permanent secretary of the<br />
Académie des beaux-arts, has added to his<br />
numerous duties by undertaking the office of<br />
secretary-general to the Institut; while MM.<br />
Rousse, Halévy, Gaston Boissier, Ravaisson-<br />
Mollien, Delisle, Wallon, Darboux, Bornet,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
Bertrand, Berthelot, Jules Thomas, Daumet,<br />
Tarroumet, Levasseur, Aucoc, and Georges Picot,<br />
form the Central Administrative Committee<br />
charged with the administration of the common<br />
funds and properties of the five Academies com-<br />
posing the above-mentioned institution. The<br />
duc de La Trémiille has recently been elected a<br />
free member of the Académie des inscriptions et<br />
belles-lettres, which ranks second to the Académie<br />
francaise. This nobleman is not only the heir<br />
of one of the most ancient and famous names in<br />
France, but is also the author of a series of<br />
learned tomes on the La Trémiille during five<br />
centuries. He has likewise edited the interesting<br />
“ Souvenirs de la Princesse de Tarente,” which is,<br />
perhaps, his most popular work.<br />
<br />
THREE MonvUMENTS.<br />
<br />
MM. Barrias, Saint Marceaux, and Bartholomé<br />
are to be congratulated on the success of their<br />
latest efforts, and on the highly artistic and appre-<br />
ciative manner in which they have respectively<br />
acquitted themselves of the task confided them.<br />
M. Barrias’ magnificent monument of Victor<br />
Hugo has been placed in the Galérie des Machines,<br />
previous to occupying a central position in the<br />
Great Exhibition. It represents the famous<br />
writer pensively reflecting on a wave-beaten rock,<br />
surrounded by four emblematical figures repre-<br />
senting the Muses of Epic, Dramatic, Lyric, and<br />
Satirical poetry. The statue of the central figure<br />
is in “bronze mat,” the rock is in granite, and<br />
the four emblematical figures are in “ bronze<br />
doré.” It is completely finished, minus the in-<br />
laying process, which will commence next week.<br />
M. Saint Marceaux’s work is not so far advanced,<br />
though its final effect can be easily judged from<br />
the completed cast, wrought by the great sculptor<br />
with conscientious care. It portrays Dumas ils<br />
as the confidant of Woman, surrounded by a<br />
group of feminine admirers, to whom he is repre-<br />
sented as in the act of listening. A shower of<br />
camellia blossoms—in remembrance of his cele-<br />
brated work—surrounds the name of the writer,<br />
engraven on the marble plinth. This monument<br />
—whose height is three and a half metres, and<br />
whose cube is not less than twelve metres—is<br />
being cut from a single block of marble. M.<br />
Bartholomé’s smaller and more unpretentious<br />
funeral monument has already been placed on<br />
the tomb of Henri Meilhac. It depicts a partially-<br />
veiled feminine figure, whose hand half conceals<br />
her mournful features, in the act of laying a<br />
wreath on the dead man’s tomb. On this wreath<br />
is engraven a single word—Amitié : the offering<br />
of the loyal friends and comrades who had known<br />
and loved the gifted, melancholy, warm-hearted<br />
Henri Meilhac.<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
195<br />
<br />
Unconscious PLAGIARISM.<br />
<br />
Unconscious plagiarism, like influenza, seems<br />
in the air just now. Five well-known dramatic<br />
authors, namely, MM. René Maizeroy, Romain<br />
Rolland, Georges Feydeau, Pierre Decourcelle,<br />
and M. Bisson, have made public their grievances<br />
on this score during the last two months. In a<br />
most courteously-worded open letter, M. Maizeroy<br />
declares himself heartbroken at discovering that<br />
M. Francis de Croisset has superseded his design<br />
of drawing a three-act play from a novel written<br />
by himself; to which M. de Croisset politely<br />
responds that he shall have much pleasure in<br />
applauding the projected play, since only a Breton<br />
cousinship exists between his own play and the<br />
personages introduced in M. Maizeroy’s novel.<br />
M. Rolland contents himself with acquainting<br />
the public of the analogy existing between his<br />
latest play (accepted two months ago by the<br />
Gymnase Theatre) and_ the historical drama<br />
entitled “‘L’Affaire des Poisons,’ on which M.<br />
Victorien Sardou is now engaged. M. Feydeau<br />
announces the fact that MM. Cottens and Char-<br />
vay’s recently-performed operetta is an almost<br />
exact reproduction of the plot and several inci-<br />
dents in the play he has had on hand for several<br />
months, as may be seen by referring to the<br />
columns of a back number of the Figaro ; while<br />
M. Decourcelle has solved a somewhat similar<br />
problem on his own account in a highly satisfac-<br />
tory and private manner. M. Bisson, the witty<br />
author of “Le Contréleur des Wagons-Lits,”<br />
responded to the charge of plagiarism by suing<br />
his accuser; which proceeding furnished much<br />
amusing copy, but led to no appreciable results<br />
save the judicial rehabilitation of the plaintiff.<br />
<br />
An INTERESTING CASE.<br />
<br />
The action for 3000 francs damages brought by<br />
M. Brunetitre (Revue des deux Mondes) against M.<br />
Yves Guyot (Le Siécle) was extremely interesting.<br />
The point at issue was the right of M. Guyot to<br />
publish the private letters addressed him by M.<br />
Brunetiére without the writer’s permission. In<br />
its previous judgment on the publication of the<br />
correspondence of Georges Sand, the First Civil<br />
Chamber had declared “the right of publishing<br />
letters manifestly rests in the hands of the writer<br />
himself.’ According to M. Brunetiére, the true<br />
question that the present tribunal was called on<br />
to decide was this: “Author of prose or verse,<br />
have I over my property as writer the absolute<br />
and imprescriptible right that the peasant<br />
possesses over the fruit of his labour, or the<br />
workman over his salary?” We are glad to<br />
state that judgment was given in M. Brunetiére’s<br />
favour; or at least. the defendant was ordered.<br />
to pay 500 francs damages to the plaintiff, in<br />
196<br />
<br />
addition to inserting the judgment in five news-<br />
papers, the choice of which was left to the plaintiff.<br />
The judges, however, declared themselves incom-<br />
petent to decide regarding the destruction of the<br />
confiscated pamphlets demanded by M. Brune-<br />
tigre.<br />
<br />
Among interesting publications of the month<br />
will be found the following: “La Demeure<br />
enchantée,” by M. Eugene Vernon; “ Union<br />
d’imes,” by M. Jean d’Hstray; ‘‘Une Tache<br />
d’encre,” by M. René Bazin; “Nos Peintres du<br />
siécle,” by M. Jules Breton ; ‘‘ Basile et Sophia,”’<br />
by M. Paul Adam; “De Lesseps intime,’ by M.<br />
Th. Batbedat ; “Trois ans 4 la Cour de Perse,”<br />
by docteur Feuvruer, ancient physician to the<br />
Shah of Persia; ‘‘ Les Eléments d’une Renais-<br />
sance Francaise,” by M. Saint Georges de Bouhe-<br />
lier; “L’Image de la Femme,” by M. Armand<br />
Dayot, inspecteur des beaux-arts ; and ‘‘ Versailles<br />
et les deux Trianons,” by M. Marcel Lambert.<br />
<br />
DarracorTe Scort.<br />
<br />
P.S.—M. Armand Colin has written to inform<br />
me that the complete series of ‘‘ Portraits intimes ”<br />
can now be obtained at his publishing house, 5,<br />
rue de Mezieres, Paris. —D. S.<br />
<br />
LT<br />
<br />
AUSTRALIAN LITERATURE.<br />
<br />
OSSIBLY it was not until picked troops<br />
were sent from each of the Austral pro-<br />
vinces to South Africa that the European<br />
<br />
mind thoroughly realised what a substantial body<br />
of troops—some 100,000 in number—can be<br />
raised locally for the defence of Australia; and<br />
it is certain that until Australian writers send the<br />
best of their work to London their brothers over<br />
the water will fail to realise the development<br />
which is taking place in Australian literature.<br />
<br />
That literature, I take it, does not comprise<br />
merely such books as are written by native-born<br />
writers, but may be defined as the entire litera-<br />
ture for which Australia is in some way or other<br />
responsible. And in Australia I include Maori-<br />
land, that wonderland of the southern hemi-<br />
sphere, which may or may not become subse-<br />
quently a part of federated Australia.<br />
<br />
Upon the foundation laid by Lindsay Gordon,<br />
Marcus Clarke, and Henry Kendall—are not<br />
their acts, and all that they did, written in every<br />
encyclopedia of names ?—upon a foundation laid<br />
in penury and suicide there is arising a striking<br />
edifice. :<br />
<br />
From the time of these great prodromt, whose<br />
crying in the wilderness brought them for reward<br />
but Dead Sea apples, Francis Adams, with his<br />
“Songs of the Army of the Night”; Judge<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Maning, with his “Old New Zealand”; and<br />
Brunton Stephens, Parkes, and Grey, tide us over<br />
to the present decade. It is with the writers of<br />
the last ten years that I wish to deal.<br />
<br />
SuccressruLt Poets.<br />
<br />
The nineties have been rich in Austral poets.<br />
Victor Daley and Roderick Quinn—and the<br />
greater of these is Daley—may be taken to repre-<br />
sent the subjective school, which stretches out<br />
after the infinite, and deals with the joys and<br />
sorrows of the universe. Let those who doubt<br />
Daley’s right to universality read his book, “ At<br />
Dawn and Dusk” (Sydney: Angus and Robert-<br />
son). They will be charmed, if I mistake not,<br />
with the land he wafts them to—the land of<br />
lovely dreams.<br />
<br />
Will H. Ogilvie, in “Fair Girls and Grey<br />
Horses”; Henry Lawson, in “ When the World<br />
was Wide”; “Banjo” Paterson, m “The Man<br />
from Snowy River”; Barcroft Boake, in “ Where<br />
the Dead Men Lie”—that’s where he lies, poor<br />
fellow; and Arthur Adams, in a book of Maori-<br />
land verses just published, are all objective in<br />
their intention—“ bush-bards,” every one of them,<br />
who have sung of the back-blocks and the Never-<br />
never country, and have crystallised the poetic<br />
atmosphere of our life. There is still one notable<br />
name to mention—that of E. J. Brady, who, in<br />
“The Ways of Many Waters,” has sung of the<br />
lovable, if sacrilegious, sailor-man, and has struck<br />
a universal note.<br />
<br />
Perhaps the strangest thing about this Austra-<br />
lian poetry is that it sells phenomenally. ‘ The<br />
Man from Snowy River” went through four<br />
editions before it was published in London, and<br />
upwards of 15,000 copies of the book have been<br />
sold; ‘When the World was Wide” has gone<br />
through at least seven editions; and Ogilvie’s<br />
“Fair Girls and Grey Horses,” which was pub-<br />
lished a few months ago, immediately went into a<br />
second edition.<br />
<br />
Novetists—Known and UNKNOWN.<br />
<br />
We now come to the novelists, who are many;<br />
and we will present the ladies first. Mary Gaunt<br />
has written “ Dave’s Sweetheart,” and thereby<br />
established a reputation; Louise Mack has pub-<br />
lished “Teens,” a book which was popular from<br />
the start; Ethel Turner’s ‘“ Seven Little Austra-<br />
lians,” like the celebrated baking-powder, should<br />
find a place in every English home. These novels,<br />
and others by the same writers, have sold by<br />
thousands. But, apparently, we entirely lack<br />
women poets; there are no sweet Sapphos of the<br />
Austral shore. a :<br />
<br />
English people know Louis Becke and his<br />
delightful book, “By Reef and Palm.” He<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOL.<br />
<br />
writes of the Pacific, but it was in Sydney that<br />
his work first appeared, in the pages of the<br />
Bulletin. We claim him for our own. Guy<br />
Boothby and Fergus Hume are also well known<br />
in England, as, too, are Marriott Watson, Rolf<br />
Boldrewood, and Farjeon — Australians all, I<br />
do most solemnly asseverate. Hornung and<br />
Warung you likewise know, but which of you<br />
has heard of Albert Dorrington, Ernest Favenc,<br />
Alexander Montgomery, or A. H. Davis? And<br />
yet I am wrong in my “prospect,” if this last<br />
batch of writers do not ‘pan out”—to use<br />
Australian phraseology at the risk of shocking<br />
you—more literary gold than have any four of<br />
those who have “ gone to London.” The only way<br />
to test this assertion is by reading Dorrington’s<br />
“Bush Tanquery,” and “Castro’s Last Sacra-<br />
ment ” collections; Favene’s “ Last of Six, and<br />
Other Stories”; Montgomery’s “Five Skull<br />
Island,” and “Sword of Sin”; and Davis’s<br />
remarkable book, “ On our Selection,’—if they<br />
are to be had in London.<br />
<br />
In drama we have not been conspicuous, but<br />
the work of Haddon Chambers is admittedly of a<br />
high order, whilst Fergus Hume has been known<br />
to produce two plays in one year. Resident in<br />
Australia is Bernard Espinasse, who has recently<br />
dramatised “The Three Musketeers” for Mr.<br />
George Rignold.<br />
<br />
The great authority on the Queensland blacks<br />
is Walter Roth, whose work is of the highest<br />
value, and Spence and Gillen have fairly exhausted<br />
the subject of the natives of Central Australia.<br />
White’s magnum opus on the Maori race will<br />
remain the standard authority for all time, and<br />
it isto be regretted that a prudish Government<br />
suppressed some volumes of the work.<br />
<br />
Henry Lawson’s ADVICE TO WRITERS.<br />
<br />
If an Australian of average intelligence were<br />
asked to name his country’s greatest writer, the<br />
chances are a hundred to one that he would<br />
promptly answer “Henry Lawson.” And yet<br />
the work of this persona grata is not big or pre-<br />
tentious—a book of tales, ‘‘ When the Billy Boils,”<br />
and a book of poems, ‘When the World was<br />
Wide,” comprise his output. But he has drawn<br />
so faithfully and so sympathetically the main<br />
features of our life; he possesses such a whim-<br />
sical humour, as well as the rare gift of touching<br />
the heart; he has voiced so exactly the poetic<br />
feeling which the back-blocks have created in the<br />
national mind, that every Australian is ready to<br />
do him homage. And yet mark what he says in<br />
telling his experiences of the last ten years whilst<br />
“pursuing literature in Australia.” “ My advice<br />
to any young Australian writer whose talents<br />
<br />
- have been admitted would be to go steerage, stow<br />
<br />
197<br />
<br />
away, swim, and seek London, Yankeeland, or<br />
Timbuctoo, rather than stay in Australia till his<br />
genius has turned to gall, or beer. Or failing<br />
this—and still in the interests of human nature<br />
and literature—let him study elementary anatomy,<br />
especially such as applies to the cranium, and then<br />
shoot himself carefully with the aid of a looking-<br />
glass.”<br />
<br />
Lindsay Gordon shot himself and Barcroft<br />
Boake took his own life. Therefore there would<br />
indeed seem to be something disastrous in the<br />
pursuit of literature in Australia ; that words such<br />
as I have quoted should come from our most<br />
notable author is a fact which substantiates this<br />
fear.<br />
<br />
Two Great DIFFICULTIES.<br />
<br />
Our difficulties are two-fold. First, there is no<br />
prospect of the aspiring writer being able to tide<br />
over the first lean years of apprenticeship by con-<br />
tributing as a free-lance journalist to the vast,<br />
but apparently impecunious, Austral Press. Not<br />
more than six or eight of our journals pay for<br />
contributions, the Austral proprietor feeling that<br />
he has done his duty if he has paid the members<br />
of his permanent staff. The second difficulty is in<br />
finding good publishers. To publish locally<br />
means application to one of three or four firms,<br />
none of which can do the best that is possible for<br />
the book. Toapply to London publishers, unless<br />
the fame of the writer has gone before him, is<br />
like casting bread upon the waters—it is sure to<br />
return after many, very many, days. And even<br />
if a writer has been heard of in London, to find<br />
there the publisher who wants his particular kind<br />
of work is like looking for the proverbial needle<br />
in a hayrick.<br />
<br />
The Sydney Bulletin, that unique journal<br />
which draws its contributions from the writers of<br />
a continent and the isles beyond —and_ pays<br />
for every line it prints — has done much for<br />
Australian literature by introducing to the world<br />
such men as Becke, Boake, Dorrington, Daley,<br />
Dyson, Favenc, Lawson, Montgomery, Ogilvie,<br />
Paterson, Quinn, Arthur Adams, Davis, and<br />
other writers too many to mention, and now<br />
it has entered upon a publishing scheme, whereby<br />
writers who have made their mark in its pages<br />
may gain a permanent footing in the Austral<br />
book-world. But the Bulletin Publishing Com-<br />
pany, though the books it publishes meet with a<br />
warm welcome, moves of necessity too slowly to<br />
keep pace with the output, and whilst it is<br />
considering MSS., authors are in jeopardy of<br />
dying through starvation and despair, or else are<br />
tempted to study anatomy in the way which<br />
Lawson directs.<br />
<br />
But there should be help in the Authors’<br />
Society, though, so far as I am aware, none<br />
<br />
<br />
198<br />
<br />
of the writers I have referred to as living in<br />
Australia belong to the Society. If after making<br />
their mark here they were to use the advice of the<br />
Society’s Secretary and Committee, and were to<br />
employ agents recommended by the Society, there<br />
should be no necessity for them to dream of a<br />
Timbuctoo, or to contemplate suicide by means<br />
of a cheap Belgian pistol.<br />
<br />
Nelson, Maoriland. ALFRED GRACE.<br />
<br />
Specs<br />
<br />
NOVELISTS AND THE WAR FUND.<br />
<br />
\ {| AY I suggest that fiction writers as a body<br />
might do something towards the War<br />
Fund, in having some of their wares<br />
<br />
collected into a book and offered to the public for<br />
<br />
sale? Itake it that short stories would be most<br />
available, and of course all writers, however<br />
willing they might be, could not be represented.<br />
<br />
The contents of such a book would have to be<br />
<br />
arranged by an editor. But certainly it would<br />
<br />
have a large sale; and I make no doubt that<br />
any one of the three best publishers would bring<br />
it out free of charge, and so a considerable sum<br />
would be raised for a very desirable object.<br />
<br />
C. J. Curciirre Hyne.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NOTES AND NEWS.<br />
<br />
INVITE our members to consider Mr.<br />
<br />
Cutcliffe Hyne’s suggestion published above,<br />
<br />
If the suggestion is carried out it will be<br />
necessary to appoint an editor, to arrange the<br />
length of the volume, its illustrations if it is to<br />
be illustrated : its price, the time of publication,<br />
and the selection of the writers. There are many<br />
other points for consideration. If the book is to<br />
consist of short stories what length is to be<br />
adopted? ‘Perhaps not more than twelve pages,<br />
say, of the Cornhill Magazine type and size, v.e.,<br />
about 5000 or 6000 words. TI agree with Mr.<br />
Cutcliffe Hyne that it might command a very<br />
large sale. If it is to appear in June, which would<br />
seem the most promising to me, it should be<br />
undertaken at once. Who are “the three best”<br />
publishers? The distinction is delicate. I<br />
should, myself, begin in making such a selection<br />
by taking out as a preliminary all those names<br />
which were appended to the “ Draft Agreements.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Some time ago I received a letter from one who<br />
stated that he had been in the employ of a certain<br />
publisher for four years. He gave me a few<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
details as to the management of that firm’s<br />
business. I did not publish the letter because I<br />
could not vouch for the truth of his statements.<br />
It is enough to say that they were well nigh<br />
incredible. I give an extract, together with the<br />
advice which he offers. The latter, at any rate, is<br />
sound.<br />
<br />
He says: “ Lhad to make out authors’ accounts.<br />
Say that 2000 were printed. I accounted to the<br />
author for them just as I liked, to make the<br />
numbers fit, without a single. voucher, and no<br />
record whatever kept of the sales. Certainly I<br />
had the subscription sheet, but even this is, and<br />
can be, cooked. My accounts deducted 10 per<br />
cent. for the retail bookseller. No one, except the<br />
shipping houses, got more than 5 per cent. As<br />
for discounts allowed by paper-makers, binders,<br />
block-makers, printers, they ranged from 5 per<br />
cent. to 15 per cent. The author was not told of<br />
these discounts at all. As for advertisements,<br />
the less said the better. What authors must do<br />
is to examine and audit all these accounts: not<br />
for the past half year only, but where they have<br />
been running some time, especially those of books<br />
which have had a good sale. I should like to<br />
assist in the examination, and it would be an eye-<br />
opener.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I repeat that I cannot vouch for the truth of the<br />
statements. The thing, however, is quite possible<br />
in the absence of anaudit. It may be thought that<br />
the writer is vindictive: but his advice remains.<br />
There should be an audit of every account. Ina<br />
royalty account how do we know that a true<br />
return has been made? What is to prevent the<br />
suppression of hundreds—in the case of a very<br />
large circulation, thousands? Now, it is invi-<br />
dious for any one writer to take the lead in a new<br />
departure that will be welcomed with the fiercest<br />
resentment. Also, it would be expensive to go<br />
to a firm of accountants for every special case.<br />
Combined action is necessary. The only way is for<br />
a certain number of the more important writers to<br />
agree that their accounts shall always be audited<br />
without consideration of any firm or any private<br />
friendships or any amount of confidence, and to<br />
retain for the purpose some young accountant<br />
whose fees will be much iower than those of the<br />
established firms. A method to be followed in<br />
every case must be decided.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here is one point which shows the necessity of<br />
an audit. I have once, and only once, seen an<br />
account which set forth the number of “ overs.”<br />
The matter has been more than once mentioned<br />
in these columns, and there have been indignant<br />
letters in other papers—anonymous, of course<br />
—from publishers declaring that there never were<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
any “overs” to speak of: or, if there were, that<br />
they were wanted to make up deficiencies. Very<br />
well. At the Publishers’ Congress, where a good<br />
many interesting things came out, it was publicly<br />
stated and not denied that “overs” added 2 per<br />
cent. to the number. So that in an edition of 3000<br />
there would be sixty “overs.” By what right<br />
—by what law of common honesty—does a pub-<br />
lisher take over to himself those sixty “ overs” ?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The main points to be secured in framing such<br />
a league for the audit of accounts are these :—<br />
<br />
t. The audit must be managed without giving<br />
any trouble to the author.<br />
<br />
2. If the publisher remonstrates with the<br />
author or threatens a withdrawal of his counten-<br />
ance, the author must send the letter to the<br />
Secretary and decline personal correspondence in<br />
the matter.<br />
<br />
3. If the publisher refuses to show his accounts<br />
the Society must take the matter into court with-<br />
out expense totheauthor. One case will be quite<br />
enough.<br />
<br />
4. The expense of audit must be moderate.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
[have always assumed as a thing absolutely<br />
necessary to the trade of publishing that pub-<br />
lishers were always ready to read MSS. If they<br />
refuse even toread MSS. how can they conduct their<br />
business? Therefore the experience of a corre-<br />
spondent is amazing. He says that he offered to<br />
submit the MS. of a work since published to<br />
many firms reputed to be of good standing.<br />
Some of them would not even allow him to send<br />
it. They were “full up”: they were “too full<br />
now”: they could not look at it “at present” :<br />
“No, thanks.” That the work had already<br />
appeared in a serial form was a bar: “no use after<br />
serial form.” (This is, of course, rubbish: most<br />
of the successful novels appear first in serial<br />
form, and it has long been demonstrated that<br />
the first appearance, which is read by scraps and<br />
generally only in part, stimulates the demand for<br />
volume form). They could “take up nothing new<br />
just yet”: they did not “see their way to avail<br />
themselves of the offer’: they were not “ san-<br />
guine of being able to undertake”: “the supply<br />
of fiction was in excess of the demand.” Others,<br />
again, accepted the offer of the MS. and sent back<br />
a typewritten form of regret that “after careful<br />
consideration they were compelled to decline<br />
the work.” In some cases there was proof that<br />
the parcel had never been opened! One firm,<br />
a big firm, crowned all by stating that their<br />
“‘yeader’s report was not encouraging enough<br />
for them to, &c.” And this, although the MS.<br />
<br />
199<br />
<br />
had never been sent to them at all, but was only<br />
offered if the firm would consent to read it!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
One can understand the rejection of a MS. on<br />
the ground that it might not prove a commercial<br />
success: but the refusal even to read MSS. where<br />
out of a hundred offered one may prove a gold<br />
mine is unintelligible except on the ground that<br />
recent losses or partial failures put a stop to<br />
further enterprise. This in fact has now happened.<br />
Writers will do well to consider the situation.<br />
It is not a time for the mediocre artist: he must<br />
for the moment sit quiet and wait for a more<br />
favourable opportunity. Nor is it a favourable<br />
moment for those who write “ appreciations” or<br />
“ studies”’ or literary essays. Above all it is not<br />
a time when anyone should give up work that<br />
affords him a livelihood in order to live by his<br />
pen. For the leaders in the literary craft there<br />
will be little, if any, loss. But the demand for<br />
inferior work of all kinds will be for a long time<br />
very far below the supply.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The death of the Rev. Dr. James Martineau<br />
removes one of the oldest friends of the Society.<br />
He became a member very soon after the Society<br />
was formed, and remained a member until a few<br />
years ago when his literary work was done. It<br />
was the countenance and the support of a few<br />
such men as Martineau, to whom must be added<br />
certain names which the reader will find for<br />
himself on our Council, which strengthened and<br />
encouraged our Committee in the early days when<br />
derision and contempt were attempted as lethal<br />
weapons. It was because the Society began and<br />
has ever since carried on a struggle for the<br />
independence of the author, and has set up safe-<br />
guards, especially in the shape of exposure,<br />
against rapacity and secret profits, that such<br />
men were found to support us. The “ Draft<br />
Agreements” issued by the committee of the<br />
Publishers’ Association first revealed to an<br />
astonished world the need of such a Society as<br />
our own, and the solid reasons for the many<br />
warnings, which had previously been found so<br />
hard to believe, against claims and practices<br />
which we knew to be so common. Great should<br />
be the gratitude of all our members for the<br />
support of such men as James Martineau.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Another late member, R. D. Blackmore, has<br />
been taken from us in this most gloomy month.<br />
He withdrew from membership when he ceased<br />
to write about three years ago. It is greatly to<br />
be hoped that, in the interests of the literary-<br />
calling, the history of his novels ; the extent of<br />
200<br />
<br />
their circulation; the management of his pro-<br />
perty, which partly belongs to the days before the<br />
work of the Society—may be revealed to the<br />
world. There have been few novels indeed during<br />
the latter half of this century which have had so<br />
wide a popularity as “Lorna Doone.” He wrote<br />
in all sixteen novels and two or three volumes of<br />
verse. Water Besant.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
THE MORAL RIGHTS OF AUTHORS.*<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IGNOR FOA, the editor of our Italian con-<br />
temporary, J Diritti d’Autore, has<br />
republished in a convenient form his<br />
<br />
contributions to that periodical on the new and<br />
interesting question of the author's “ Moral<br />
Rights.” Attention was first directed to these<br />
rights by Jules Lermina, whose name is so<br />
familiar to all students of copyright law, at<br />
the Berne Congress in 1896. The nature and<br />
extent of these rights have been subsequently<br />
discussed, more or less fully, at the con-<br />
gresses of the “ Association Litteraire et<br />
Artistique Internationale” at Monaco (1897),<br />
Turin (1898), and lastly, this autumn at Heidel-<br />
burg, where a special commission, appointed in<br />
1898 to examine the subject, presented a report<br />
of their investigations.<br />
<br />
An exact and entirely satisfactory definition of<br />
these rights has hardly yet been propounded ;<br />
and in consequence of this it is at present<br />
impossible to formulate the conclusions that may<br />
be legitimately drawn from these rights. Signor<br />
Foa freely admits all this, and modestly offers his<br />
contribution to the discussion only as a step in<br />
the direction of a desideratum, with the just<br />
remark that, “if the path of knowledge is always<br />
a difficult one to pursue, it is at least an impor-<br />
tant point to have made a start in the right<br />
direction.”<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, it is impossible to agree with<br />
Signor Foa’s opinion that “in all civilised States<br />
the material-rights of an author are sufficienty<br />
protected.” These rights will not be sufficiently<br />
protected until they are protected universally and<br />
in perpetuity. At present by far the larger part—<br />
though not the more intellectual part—of Europe<br />
remains still outside the Berne Convention, whilst<br />
perpetual copyright seems to be regarded as a<br />
purely Utopian notion. Under these circum-<br />
stances the suggestion of legal recognition of the<br />
far less tangible moral rights (at which Signor<br />
Foa hints) is surely premature.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* Ferruccio Foa. Il Diritto Morale dell’ Autore sulle<br />
Opere dell’ ingegno. Milano: Tipografia del Riformatorio<br />
Patronato. 1899. 4to.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, striking evidence of the<br />
real existence of moral rights and of a general<br />
sense of their importance is produced. It is<br />
pointed out that they have been used, and are<br />
still used, as an argument for robbing authors of<br />
all other rights. The author is said (mostly by<br />
people who cannot sell their copy) to debase his<br />
literary productions by demanding a material price<br />
for them, because, forsooth, if they have any value<br />
at all, they have a value of a kind not to be<br />
expressed in pounds, shillings, and pence. This<br />
clearly implies that the author has a right to<br />
something beyond material advantages. His right<br />
to material advantages—to some material advan-<br />
tages—is now in many countries a legally estab-<br />
lished fact. And that is in accordance with<br />
natural right. “Literary and artistic work,”<br />
says Signor Foa, “is a manifestation of human<br />
industry, and as such merits the protection of the<br />
law.” ‘But the admission of this first right does<br />
not destroy the other right to something beyond<br />
material advantages. And this further right<br />
is, in effect, the moral right of the author which<br />
has been recently the subject of so much discus-<br />
sion.<br />
<br />
In what does this moral right consist? The<br />
author gives the public something that emanates<br />
“from his brain, from his own soul, from his<br />
own personality; and he, at the same time,<br />
assumes responsibility to the public for it.” The<br />
pubhe has a right to look critically upon what<br />
is offered, and to accept it or not, to accept it as<br />
a part of spiritual patrimony of the nation.<br />
But the author also has a right to demand that<br />
the work for which he makes himself responsible<br />
shall be examined by the public “as he produced<br />
it in its integrity.”<br />
<br />
Hence Signor Foa cdneludes that the founda-<br />
tion of the author's moral rights is the intangi-<br />
bility of intellectual productions.<br />
<br />
That is pretty generally admitted by all who<br />
have studied the question; though the logical<br />
consequences of the principle (a far-reaching one,<br />
it must be confessed) have proved a Itttle alarming<br />
to some of its supporters. Attempts to give the<br />
idea legal expression, or to penetrate much<br />
more deeply into the subject, have not hitherto<br />
led to much result. Two consequences may,<br />
however, be mentioned. The author is supreme<br />
judge of what works of his shall be published<br />
(here it is impossible to forget that Virgil<br />
desired that the Alneid should not be published) ;<br />
and the unpublished works of an author cannot<br />
be seized by his creditors: “Le droit morale<br />
doit rester dans la domaine morale, et n’étre<br />
point sujet aux spéculations financitres.”<br />
<br />
In reply to the question which has been<br />
asked whether the author’s moral right is @<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
“personal right” in the legal sense, Signor<br />
Foa points out that “personal right” has in<br />
law really more than one meaning. He is<br />
disposed to think that it is not a personal right.<br />
<br />
Indeed, intangibility appears to be all that can<br />
be said to be at present completely agreed upon.<br />
Evidently this intangibility should be also per-<br />
petual. But here ideals and realities prove<br />
incompatible. The intangibility of a scientific<br />
work, which is to continue to be of value, is<br />
inconceivable. And in consequence of differ-<br />
ences of taste and manner, the same rule applies,<br />
in a different way, to drama. Here considera-<br />
tions of mala fides and of “alteration merely for<br />
the sake of gain” will demand scrutiny. ‘“ Who<br />
is to be the guardian of the rights,’ and “ Who<br />
is to be guarantee for permissible alterations,”<br />
are further inevitable questions, which do not<br />
exhaust all the problems presented by intangi-<br />
bility. But Signor Foa insists with reason upon<br />
the injury done to public taste, and the insult<br />
offered public intelligence, in addition to the<br />
wrong done the author by such hideous travesties<br />
of great works as are only too common. He<br />
quotes as an examplea horrible and ear-torturing<br />
performance of “ Don Giovanni” in a theatre of<br />
marionettes; but similar abuses of artistic pro-<br />
ductions of all kinds are, unhappily, familiar to<br />
everyone. They prove also that the author's<br />
moral rights represent something that is, at least<br />
intellectually, very real. Only a few of the bear-<br />
ings of those rights have been hitherto explored ;<br />
but as a lucid summary of all that has been<br />
hitherto done, and a just appreciation of the<br />
‘results, Signor Foa’s work may be recommended<br />
to all interested in the question.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
I.—A DuiseraceruL TRICK.<br />
<br />
SENT the opening chapters of a novel to a<br />
publishing house which acts as agents for<br />
simultaneous publication of tales.<br />
<br />
I received a polite note with the returned MS.<br />
saying the novel was too local for their require-<br />
ments, but they would be glad to see short stories<br />
from my pen. I sent two, which were accepted at<br />
once.<br />
<br />
Some time later I had a note from them<br />
requesting me to submit others. I sent three,<br />
and had two returned as “ unsuitable.”<br />
<br />
The following year I again got a note asking<br />
for MS. I sent one tale and had it returned as<br />
unsuitable very soon.<br />
<br />
Again I got a request for MS., but did not<br />
send any. Six months later came another note to<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
20!<br />
<br />
the same effect, and I sent off four short tales. In<br />
a fortnight the four were returned as unsuitable.<br />
<br />
I then wrote expressing surprise, as the rejected<br />
tales were quite ‘on the lines” of those which<br />
had been approved, &c. I received no answer.<br />
<br />
I chanced to show one of these rejected tales<br />
to a friend, and she said, before reading two<br />
pages: ‘ You have published this.”<br />
<br />
“No,” I answered. But she affirmed she had<br />
read it, and to my surprise told me all the story.<br />
It was evolved in a somewhat uncommon way,<br />
and founded upon a personal experience, and I felt<br />
sure there could be no accidental resemblance.<br />
<br />
I find that other writers have had a like experi-<br />
ence. They have seen their tales in print,<br />
slightly altered and with different titles, yet<br />
these tales had come back to them as unsuitable.<br />
<br />
The run of chances is against the author ever<br />
finding this out; but when he does, what help<br />
is there for him ?<br />
<br />
And how is it done? Does the agent keep a<br />
staff of nimble typewriters who cook and copy MS.<br />
before it is returned to the author as “ unsuit-<br />
able” ? ALGOUS.<br />
<br />
[It is quite obvious that an editor who would<br />
stoop to a trick of this kind should be exposed.<br />
The thing cannot be common, Can the charge<br />
be proved? If so, will our correspondent be so<br />
good as to furnish the Secretary with the name<br />
of the paper referred to, and will he further<br />
persuade those “other writers”? who have had a<br />
similar experience to forward their names and<br />
the history of their experiences ?—Ep,]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TI—Tue Haur-Crown Critic.<br />
<br />
The suggestion of “Budding Fictionist”<br />
that the readers of the Society of Authors shall,<br />
in certain cases, supply criticisms of stories of<br />
5000 words for 2s. 6d., seems hard upon the<br />
Society’s readers.<br />
<br />
Whatsoever the length of the story may be the<br />
reader has to form a definite opinion concerning it,<br />
and to embody his opinion in a report. If the<br />
report is to be of any use to the author the<br />
reader will certainly have to expend upon it an<br />
amount of time and labour worth considerably<br />
more than 2s. 6d. The report at ‘“ Budding<br />
Fictionist’s” own price of “three halfpence a<br />
line” would be limited to twenty lines. But is<br />
the reader, whilst the new story is being written,<br />
to remember all the essential facts regarding<br />
the ten others previously sent him? If he does<br />
not do this, he may find some difficulty in justly<br />
estimating the relative values of the earlier and<br />
later productions. And if he does, well, such an<br />
effort of memory would be cheap at 2s. 6d.<br />
<br />
An Otp Member.<br />
202<br />
<br />
TIL—On Tryina Moret THan ONE EpIror.<br />
<br />
A recent correspondent says that if I “ had had<br />
a little editorial experience of the enormous<br />
quantity of articles some editors have to look at<br />
. . .. [I] would hardly expect a prompt answer,<br />
except in the case of the rejection of the article<br />
from sheer want of literary interest.” But the<br />
prodigious number of MSS. submitted, though it<br />
precludes the possibility of prompt answers to<br />
contributors, does not justify editors in retaining<br />
MSS. for two, three, or six months. My work<br />
consists of short stories, and it has been quite a<br />
usual thing for editors to retain my MSS. for the<br />
periods I have named before rejecting them. At<br />
the present moment I have a story out which has<br />
been in the hands of a magazine editor since July<br />
last. No answer has been vouchsafed to a letter<br />
of mine asking whether the MS. had any chance<br />
of acceptance, and that letter was written about<br />
three months ago. That is the only letter I have<br />
written to this editor, for I make it a rule never<br />
to write a letter when sending a MS. No one<br />
could possibly accuse me of exasperating editors<br />
by giving them unnecessary trouble. As I have<br />
very little hope that this particular piece of work<br />
will meet with acceptance in that quarter, I have<br />
sent out copies elsewhere. Surely no one would<br />
say that I have acted discourteously ?<br />
<br />
That there is no necessity for keeping MSS. so<br />
long is proved by the usage of the best magazines<br />
and the most courteous editors. In my case the<br />
decision of the Cornhill has been generally given<br />
inside of a month, and only once has been delayed<br />
so long as a month and four days. With<br />
Chambers’s Journal the outside limit I have found<br />
to be twenty days; with Zongman’s, ten days ;<br />
Cassell’s, twenty days; the Royal usually inside<br />
a month, once (only) a month and five days.<br />
And, be it noted, I’ve reason to believe that every-<br />
thing I’ve sent to these journals has been not<br />
merely “looked at,” but really read.<br />
<br />
The fact seems to be that some editors keep<br />
the work of unknown authors beside them as a<br />
stop-gap in case of the failure of contributors<br />
they usually depend upon. This is proved by<br />
what “An Editor” says in the National Review<br />
for Aug. 1896. ‘There are, he says, three reasons<br />
for the retention of MSS., and “the third is that<br />
articles are sometimes retained because, in holiday<br />
time, when good write1s are lazy, it may be neces-<br />
sary to use matter of slightly inferior quality.”<br />
T’ve no especial objection to my work being held<br />
over for six months in this way, provided it is<br />
recognised that I am at liberty to try and find<br />
another market for it in the meantime.<br />
<br />
I have recognised the possibility indicated by<br />
“M,C. A.” that a story sent to two magazines<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
may be accepted by the one which pays least.<br />
But then, ‘a bird in the hand’s worth two in the<br />
bush.” Moreover, many of the _ best-paying<br />
magazines are among those which deal most<br />
promptly with contributions. Perry Barr.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
3 IV.—No Proor Sent.<br />
<br />
In Feb., 1893, an article of mine appeared in<br />
a certain magazine, the MS. having been sent<br />
some months previously, but no notice was taken of<br />
two letters of inquiry sent, nor was any intima-<br />
tion given that the article would appear at all.<br />
My first knowledge of the publication was from<br />
the railway bookstall, and the article was un-<br />
signed, which was opposed to my wishes had I<br />
been consulted at all. In this case there was no<br />
notification of any kind whatever, and so far as<br />
T was concerned, the MS. might have been in the<br />
waste-paper basket, but I was paid five guineas<br />
later on, at the rate of about half-a-guinea a<br />
page. G. R. V.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
V.—WRITING FOR THE MaGaziInus.<br />
<br />
My attention has been called to the letter in<br />
your December issue signed “ Magazine Struggler.”<br />
The writer asks what I think a “ fairly successful ”<br />
contributor to magazines alone could make in the<br />
course of a year. Well, no definite, or even<br />
approximate, estimate can be given; but I do<br />
not hesitate to say that from magazines alone a<br />
“fairly successful” writer might hope to make,<br />
say, from £150 to £200 ina year. But when I<br />
talk of magazines, I never include such heavy<br />
things as the Contemporary, the Nineteenth<br />
Century, the Fortnightly, the National, or the<br />
Westminster. These are reviews, and between a<br />
review and a magazine there is a great gulf fixed.<br />
No sane man would hope to make an income, or<br />
any appreciable portion of an income out of work<br />
for these publications, so that I think the elabo-<br />
rate analysis of their contents which appeared in<br />
last month’s Author was wasted time.<br />
<br />
Nor do I advise anyone to hope for much from<br />
the popular magazines ; it would be folly for a<br />
beginner to rely on magazines alone as a field of<br />
action. My advice, based on personal experience,<br />
is: Write for the general and scrappy Press to<br />
keep the pot boiling, and peg away with signed<br />
magazine articles for your credit’s sake. Yet I<br />
do not advise anyone to attempt the task of<br />
making a reputation through the magazines ; the<br />
speediest means to that end is a good book.<br />
Make a supreme effort with a book, and, even if<br />
that is only moderately successful, you will find<br />
the doors of the magazines and popular weeklies<br />
swing open to your touch. After all is said that<br />
may be on this subject, it must be admitted that<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
no two men’s experiences coincide; each must<br />
begin at the beginning, though the knowledge of<br />
another struggler’s experience may serve one to<br />
avert pitfalls.<br />
An Eprror (Author of “ How to Write<br />
for the Press”’).<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VL.—A New Move or FLEEctrne.<br />
<br />
I write to inform you of an apparently new<br />
way of mulcting authors for advertisements. In<br />
my last account from an eminent publishing firm<br />
there was a charge of two guineas for advertise-<br />
ments. I wrote asking for particulars and the<br />
names of the papers advertised in. The answer<br />
was that the advertisements were not in news-<br />
papers, but in “ our Catalogues and Lists,” and two<br />
catalogues, for June and Sept. 1899, were sent me<br />
with my work mentioned. I then asked if their<br />
charge was an annual or quarterly one, and also if<br />
this charge was customary in the trade and if<br />
they charged all the authors in their list similarly.<br />
To this I got no reply.<br />
<br />
If they do make such a charge they make a<br />
handsome income out of their catalogues. If<br />
these are issued quarterly as appears, and if a<br />
guinea a notice is charged for each quarter’s<br />
insertion, this realises from the 178 names on the<br />
list a very large sum for producing the publisher's<br />
own catalogue. In other words, the authors are<br />
asked to pay for the firm’s own advertisements.<br />
<br />
Is this practice at all customary? For, if not,<br />
and they have singled me out as a solitary victim,<br />
thinking I would quietly acquiesce in it, it seems<br />
an excessively mean thing for such an eminent<br />
firm to do.<br />
<br />
T inclose the name of the firm, as I should like<br />
to know if other authors dealing with the firm<br />
<br />
have been fleeced in the same way.<br />
GoLpEN FLEECE.<br />
<br />
[If other readers have been served with similar<br />
accounts, will they kindly forward their cases,<br />
with copies of the accounts and the names of the<br />
publishers? It is evident (1) that the publisher<br />
has no right to charge for advertisements in hisown<br />
organ any more than he has a right to charge for<br />
the use of his bookshelves ; and (2) that, if such<br />
a right was to exist, it would include the right to<br />
charge what he pleased : to advertise a book as<br />
often as he pleased and in the most expensive<br />
manner possible, without the least regard to the<br />
interests of the book—in other words, to make of<br />
the practice a means of sweeping everything into<br />
his own pocket. Observe that the “ Draft Agree-<br />
ments ”—Equitable—preserve a suggestive silence<br />
on the subject.—Eb. |<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
AUTHOR. 203<br />
<br />
VIL—A Memper’s Exprriences.<br />
<br />
An account of my experiences as a writer may<br />
be useful to other writers aud to the Society of<br />
Authors. I think that even the Society does not<br />
always see the difficulties of authors. The advice<br />
which the Society gives is exellent, as a general<br />
rule; but it cannot, of course, meet all cases. In<br />
my case, before I became a member, I signed a<br />
publisher’s agreement which I now find is con-<br />
demned by the Society. And yet it was the best<br />
thing I could do.<br />
<br />
When I was a boy, I had to get my living at a<br />
rather early age. I gave most of my spare time<br />
to study, and taught myself Latin and Greek<br />
enough for matriculation. I have striven all my<br />
life to get the best English books I could.<br />
Need forced me into journalism, and here I found<br />
no difficulty. I began at the top. I found at<br />
once that, without introduction, the best London<br />
newspapers would print and pay for descrip-<br />
tive articles if only they were supplied with<br />
what they wanted. But journalism is cramping<br />
and bad, because the journals have their various<br />
political and other biases, whilst reporterism<br />
is no better than book-keeping, for the most<br />
part. I entered upon literature, and here my<br />
enormous difficulties began. ‘The fact is, I tried<br />
in all my writing as well as 1 could to tell the<br />
truth.<br />
<br />
My first book may be described as an attempt<br />
in a story to tell the truth absolutely about a<br />
certain aspect of social and political affairs.<br />
Nobody would publish it at first, but I deter-<br />
mined to get it out somehow. I then knew<br />
nothing of the Society’s advice. I got the story<br />
printed by a friend, who undertook to share<br />
risks and profits and te publish. Small diffi-<br />
culties kept arising while the book was printing,<br />
and I had to overcome all these, and indeed<br />
throughout I was always urging matters forward,<br />
so that although the book was carefully written,<br />
the trouble of writing it was as nothing to my<br />
trouble in getting it out. Business changes pre-<br />
vented a proper publication and reviewing. Three<br />
reviews indeed appeared, all highly favourable.<br />
One was lengthy, and in a leading London news-<br />
<br />
' paper. But there was no proper publication or<br />
<br />
advertisement. By my own exertions I at last<br />
placed the printed book with a commission pub-<br />
lisher of standing, but by this time it had ceased<br />
to be topical. It happened that I lost no money<br />
over it, but much time and labour. All that if<br />
gained was encouragement—if I wanted that—<br />
from the critics.<br />
<br />
My next manuscripts went the regular round.<br />
I corresponded with many publishers and inter-<br />
viewed some. Often my work was on the verge<br />
of publication. Sometimes two or even three<br />
204 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
readers were consulted by the publishers over a<br />
single book of mine. I found an unbusinesslike<br />
tone prevailing in the trade—or perhaps it was<br />
only too businesslike. I fear this tone is fostered<br />
by the manner of other authors. The publishers<br />
seemed to assume that they were conferring a<br />
favour on a new author by “giving him a<br />
chance” if they should publish his book. In<br />
some cases I told them to regard the matter<br />
purely as one of business, and in one instance I<br />
felt bound to resent the prevalent tone by con-<br />
descension of manner on my own part. If MSS.<br />
were delayed I wrote shortly for their return. (It<br />
is curious that in journalism there is never this<br />
tone. If an editor of a newspaper wants a con-<br />
tribution he will take it promptly enough, and if<br />
not he will send it back, usually with equal<br />
promptness.)<br />
<br />
After infinite trouble I got my second book<br />
published on a royalty agreement, with a clause<br />
by which I allowed the publisher the refusal of<br />
my next two books. This also was before I<br />
joined the Society. But I had my eyes open. I<br />
never expected really to get any royalty, and as<br />
for the clause, it could be satisfied with much<br />
less trouble than it takes to get a book published.<br />
My object was merely to storm the kopjes of<br />
Literature at all costs. There was no other way.<br />
If Ihad had money to buy types I would have<br />
printed the book myself, and placed it with a<br />
commission publisher. As it was, I lost no<br />
money over it, and gained some reviews in the<br />
best journals. Some of the notices are brief and<br />
<br />
- contemptuous. Most of. them are fairly long,<br />
<br />
- and more favourable than I expected. If the<br />
<br />
. majority of the critics are right, then I have<br />
produced a good book. But I have no money by<br />
it, nor am I disappointed at not getting what I<br />
did not expect under present conditions.<br />
<br />
Well, now that I am in the Society I feel<br />
bound to take their advice in future. The point<br />
is that I felt obliged to storm the kopjes in the<br />
way I have described rather than accomplish<br />
nothing. I have earned hundreds of pounds by<br />
journalism, but not a penny by literature; and<br />
one cause of this seems to be (if it is not<br />
immodest to say so) the false atmosphere of the<br />
whole publishing business. The critics, gene-<br />
rally, are all right; and there is always a public<br />
for a man who has anything to say. The com-<br />
mission system ought to be the system of the<br />
future.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VIIIL.—A Cry From THE DEPTHS,<br />
<br />
In reply to Mr. Julian Croskey’s remarks in<br />
The Author of December, addressed from Ottawa,<br />
I think it will be admitted that in order to sell a<br />
book or anything else in this world you must first<br />
<br />
create a demand for it, and this demand, as faras<br />
novels are concerned, is only secured with money,<br />
social interest, and influential friends on the<br />
Press. How is a demand to be created without<br />
advertisement of some kind ?<br />
<br />
With regard to young and talented authors<br />
who are poor, and consequently without these<br />
social advantages, or who are not in touch with<br />
powerful monopolists running commercial fiction<br />
in endless journals, it is evident that the struggle<br />
for fame, the desire for recognition, will ever<br />
befool them, even as they will ever pursue it.<br />
Behind all their efforts will be heard the laugh of<br />
Mephistopheles.<br />
<br />
Who can dispute the brutal logic of facts and<br />
figures? The dark powers that thwart and<br />
destroy are always merciless to the poor and<br />
<br />
gifted, especially if they add honesty to their<br />
<br />
other misfortunes. Mr. Croskey’s own experiences<br />
and confession are a case in point.<br />
<br />
Whether a book is good or bad, it must be<br />
“worked up” in some way in order to succeed.<br />
Everything lies in management and—paragraphs.<br />
Wealthy plagiarists who employ “ghosts” and<br />
translate freely from foreign sources can always<br />
command a certain market. England is the<br />
paradise of the charlatan.<br />
<br />
Then, what are the efforts worth of the young<br />
and talented struggler for bread and fame, pitted<br />
against obstructive trickery of all kinds and a<br />
glut of fiction exceeding the demand? What<br />
are his chances with an amiable, if indifferent,<br />
public nourished on cleverly conducted magazines,<br />
<br />
. each with its own staffi—a public ready to enjoy<br />
. the crude and characterless fiction—the hackneyed,<br />
<br />
if illustrated, commonplace offered for their<br />
mental pabulum, provided its purveyors thrust<br />
it carefully before them and are esteemed<br />
persons of wealth and respectability, actuated by<br />
the saintliest motives, the purest Christian aims.<br />
<br />
Is it not kind to warn the literary aspirant,<br />
should he be needy, of the often useless and cruel<br />
conflicts—the pathetic disillusion attending a<br />
career so often ending in broken health and<br />
even suicide, For the more imagination and<br />
insight, the keener the suffering. To starve in<br />
a garret on £50 a year—to elevate the soul and<br />
destroy the body to produce a masterpiece which<br />
few may read and still fewer understand, may be<br />
heroic, but hardly wise, considering the shortness<br />
of life and that time is our worst enemy. Are<br />
there not nobler and healthier outlets for a man’s<br />
energy? Mr. Croskey has proved that there are.<br />
<br />
ANNABEL GRAY.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE<br />
<br />
BOOK AND PLAY TALK.<br />
<br />
HE new book by Sir William Charley,<br />
J3 Q.C., D.C.L., on the House of Lords was<br />
published on Jan. 27. It is called “‘Mend-<br />
ing’ and ‘ Ending’” (Simpkin, Marshall and Co.,<br />
price 2s. 6d.), and is a “Reply to Mr. Andrew<br />
Reid’s ‘House of Lords Question.’” It deals<br />
with every possible suggestion for “ ending” or<br />
“mending” the Upper House. It is now nearly<br />
five years since Sir William published his “ His-<br />
torical Vindication of the House of Lords,” a<br />
book which has been much studied.<br />
<br />
Among the books in preparation at the Claren-<br />
don Press may be mentioned the following :—<br />
“Celtic Folklore; Welsh and Manx,” by John<br />
Rhys, M.A.; “A Translation into Modern<br />
English of King Alfred’s O. E. Version of<br />
Boethius,” by W. J. Ledgefield, M.A. ; «The<br />
Complete Works of John Gower,” edited from<br />
the MSS., with introductions, notes, and glos-<br />
saries, by G. C. Macaulay, M.A., vols. 2 and 3<br />
(English works) ; “‘ The Canon of Chaucer,” by<br />
W. W. Skeat, Litt. D.; ‘“Dryden’s Critical<br />
Essays,” edited by W. P. Ker, M.A.; “ Plays<br />
and Poems of Robert Greene,’ edited by<br />
J. Churton Collins, M.A.; “The Works of<br />
Thomas Kyd,” edited by F. S. Boas, M.A.;<br />
“‘Milton’s Poetical Works,” edited by H. C.<br />
Beeching, M.A. (demy 8vo., with facsimiles ; and<br />
in miniature) ; “ Asser’s Life of Alfred,” edited<br />
by W. H. Stevenson, M.A.; “Voyages of the<br />
Elizabethan Seamen,” edited by EH. J. Payne,<br />
M.A., series 2; “The Alfred Jewel,’ by John<br />
Earle, M.A. (small quarto, with illustrations).<br />
<br />
Messrs. Everitt and Co. have published a new<br />
book by Captain M. Horace Hayes, R.F.C.V.S.,<br />
entitled “Among Horses in Russia,” price 10s. 6d.<br />
The book is beautifully illustrated with many<br />
striking photographs.<br />
<br />
A new novel, by “ Perrington Priman,”’ “The<br />
Girl at Riverfield Manor,” is being published<br />
this month by Messrs. F. V. White and Co.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Hutchinson and Co. have published a<br />
book entitled “She Stands Alone, the Story of<br />
Pilate’s Wife,” by Mark Ashton. The story is<br />
realistically written.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Mitchell and Hughes are about to<br />
issue, in demy quarto, “The Records of the<br />
Corrie Family,” in two parts, by Jessie E. Corrie,<br />
author of “ The Genealogical Table of the Houses<br />
of Gordon, Corrie, and Goldie” (published last<br />
year).<br />
<br />
Mr. M. H. Spielmann has prepared, from<br />
special knowledge and with the consent of Mr.<br />
Ruskin’s family, a work entitled “John Ruskin :<br />
a Sketch of his Life, his Work, and his Opinions,<br />
with Personal Reminiscences.” It will contain a<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
205<br />
<br />
paper by Mr. Ruskin called “The Black Arts,”<br />
which is not to be found in his collected works.<br />
The book will be published shortly by Messrs.<br />
Cassell.<br />
<br />
Mr. W. W. Skeat has written a minute study<br />
of the folk-lore, ceremonial observances, and magic<br />
of the Malay Peninsula, a country where Moham-<br />
medanism only superficially overlays a mass of<br />
aboriginal beliefs and customs. This will be<br />
published shortly by Messrs. Macmillan, under<br />
the title “Malay Religion.”<br />
<br />
A biography of Lord Monboddo, the famous<br />
Scotch judge, has been written by Professor<br />
Knight, of St. Andrews, in whose hands have<br />
been placed family manuscripts and letters which<br />
have never been published. The book will appear<br />
shortly from Mr. Murray.<br />
<br />
Mr. Archibald Colquhoun’s new volume of<br />
travel, “Overland to China,” will be published<br />
this month by Messrs. Harper. It describes<br />
Siberia, Mongolia, Manchuria, the Upper Yangtse,<br />
and southern and south-western China.<br />
<br />
Mr. Stanley Weyman’s novel, “ Sophia,” will<br />
be published shortly by Messrs. Longmans.<br />
<br />
A novel by Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S.,<br />
entitled “Castle and Manor,” will be published<br />
shortly by Messrs. Sands and Co.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Meynell’s volume on Ruskin in the<br />
Modern English Writers series, published by<br />
Messrs. Blackwood, will be ready shortly.<br />
<br />
Mr. F. G. Kitton has written a book on “ The<br />
Minor Writings of Charles Dickens,” which will<br />
be published shortly by Mr. Elliot Stock as a<br />
volume in the Book Lover’s Library.<br />
<br />
“The Morals of Suicide,’’ is the title of a book<br />
by the Rev. J. Gurnhill, which Messrs. Long-<br />
mans will publish. The author writes from the<br />
point of view of a Christian Socialist.<br />
<br />
Tf the war has been bad for books, the season<br />
is evidently deemed sufficiently propitious for<br />
periodicals. The demand for the illustrated<br />
weeklies containing pictures of the war operations<br />
has been enormous. And now three new Ssix-<br />
penny weeklies have appeared—the King, the<br />
Sphere, and the Spear, Another new journal<br />
which may be expected soon is the TZribune,<br />
whose editor will be Mr. Lathbury, who resigned<br />
the editorship of the Guardian a short time ago.<br />
<br />
“The Story of the Life of Dr. Pusey,” which<br />
is to appear shortly from Messrs. Longmans, is<br />
an independent work, written by the author of<br />
“ Gharles Lowder” at the request of Dr. Pusey’s<br />
daughter, in order to provide for readers who<br />
cannot possess the four-volume life.<br />
<br />
- Dr. Birkbeck Hill is engaged upon an edition<br />
of Gibbon’s “ Autobiography.”<br />
<br />
The biography of the late Coventry Patmore<br />
will be published, it is hoped, next month.<br />
<br />
<br />
206<br />
<br />
“ Commerce and Christianity,” by Mr. G. F.<br />
Millin, is a book in which the author analyses<br />
methods and principles and draws lessons from the<br />
result. It will be published shortly by Messrs.<br />
Swan Sonnenschein and Co.<br />
<br />
Six books of last year have been “ crowned” by<br />
the Academy in recognition of their promise,<br />
sincerity, and thoroughness in literary art. Each<br />
author accordingly receives a present of twenty-<br />
five guineas. The following is the list :—<br />
<br />
Poetry: Mr. W. B. Years, for “The Wind Among the<br />
Reeds.”<br />
Fiction: “Zack” (Miss Gwendoline Keats), for “On<br />
Trial.”<br />
Biography: Mr. Hinarrz Bexxoc, for “Danton: a<br />
Study.”<br />
History: Mr. G. M. TREVELYAN, for “‘ England in the Age<br />
of Wycliffe.”<br />
Translation: Mrs. GARNETT for her translation of the<br />
novels of Turgenieff.<br />
Miscellaneous: Rev. H. G. Granam, for “The Social Life<br />
of Scotland in the Highteenth Century.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Bloundelle-Burton is bringing out through<br />
Messrs. Pearson a new novel called “The Sea-<br />
farers.”<br />
<br />
Dr. Nansen is issuing through Messrs. Long-<br />
mans, in five or six volumes, a full account of the<br />
scientific results of his Polar expedition of 1893-<br />
1896. The work is to be published only in<br />
English, The first volume will appear shortly ;<br />
the second, which will contain the charts, soon<br />
afterwards ; and the whole work is expected to be<br />
complete in about two years.<br />
<br />
Admiral Sir Wilham Kennedy has written a<br />
new work entitled “A Life on the Ocean Wave,”<br />
which will be published shortly by Messrs.<br />
Blackwood.<br />
<br />
Mr. W. H.D. Rouse is issuing through Messrs.<br />
Dent a small volume of translations of Greek<br />
<br />
oems.<br />
<br />
The Irish Literary Society offers prizes of fifty<br />
and twenty guineas for essays on the Sieges of<br />
Derry and Limerick. A committee of the society<br />
will first select what they consider the best<br />
twenty essays sent in, and these will then be<br />
submitted to Mr. Lecky and Lord Russell of<br />
Killowen for final decision.<br />
<br />
Novels by Mr. Allen Upward (“The Accused<br />
Princess’’) and Mr. Clive Holland (‘ Marcelle<br />
of the Latin Quarter”) will be published by<br />
Messrs. Pearson.<br />
<br />
Miss Edna Lyall’s first play, ‘In Spite of All,”<br />
will be produced on Monday afternoon, Feb. 5,<br />
by Mr. Ben Greet, who has just begun a short<br />
season at the Comedy. It is a romantic piece,<br />
laid in the stirring times of the Royalists and<br />
Roundheads.<br />
<br />
The re-constructed St. James’s has been opened<br />
with Mr. Anthony Hope’s “ Rupert of Hentzau.”<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
_ Mr. Wyndham (who is to produce “ Cyrano de<br />
Bergerac” in a provincial theatre in a few days)<br />
will revive “ Dandy Dick” at the Criterion on the<br />
8th inst.<br />
<br />
Mr. Martin Harvey has acquired the rights in<br />
the one-act play, “The White Lily,” by Alphonse<br />
Daudet, which, on its production in France, was<br />
called ‘“‘ The White Carnation.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Arthur Shirley and Mr. Sutton Vane have<br />
founded a play on the widely-circulated American<br />
book by Mr. Charles Sheldon, called “In His<br />
Steps; or, What Would Jesus Do?” The<br />
piece has been produced in the provinces, and it<br />
will be presented to a London audience at the<br />
Adelphi, on the 5th inst., under the title “ The<br />
Better Life.”<br />
<br />
The Adelphi will afterwards pass into the man-<br />
agement of Mr. Robert Taber, who will open it<br />
on March 10 with a new romantic play, entitled<br />
“Bonnie Dundee,” by Mr. Lawrence Irving and<br />
Mr. Tom Heslewood. Miss Lena Ashwell will be<br />
the leading lady.<br />
<br />
Mr. Barry Pain has finished a play.<br />
<br />
Sir Henry Irving is prolonging his tour in the<br />
United States by a few weeks, owing to the<br />
success he is meeting with.<br />
<br />
Mr. Hare leaves the Globe on Feb. 3 with<br />
“The Gay Lord Quex,” which he is taking to<br />
the provinces. He will then begin a tour in<br />
America with this play, and may not be in<br />
London again before June next year.<br />
<br />
Mr. Wilson Barrett will be seen in “ The<br />
Swashbuckler,” by Mr. Louis Parker, which is<br />
now being rehearsed for production.<br />
<br />
Miss Kate Rorke tak-s Mr. Pinero’s early play,<br />
“The Squire,” on tour, beginning at Kennington<br />
on the 26th inst. Mr. Ben Webster will play the<br />
character of the lover.<br />
<br />
“The Kendals,” an account of the career of the<br />
two well-known personalities, by Mr. Edgar<br />
Pemberton, is one of the forthcoming books on<br />
Messrs. Pearson’s list.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
OBITUARY.<br />
<br />
R. RUSKIN “faded away in a peaceful<br />
sleep” at Coniston on Jan. 20, and was<br />
buried there five days later. Dr. JAMES<br />
<br />
Marrrnzau died on Jan. 11 at the great age of<br />
ninety-five. Mr. R D. Buackmorg, the novelist,<br />
died on Jan. 20, aged 75. On Jan. 1 the death<br />
occurred of the Rev. WurrweLt Exwin (eighty-<br />
four), rector of Booton, Norfolk, who succeeded<br />
Lockhart as editor of the Quarterly Review, and<br />
held the post for sixteen years. We much regret<br />
also to have to record the death of Mz. WiL1aM<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Epwarps Trresuck, the well-known novelist,<br />
who died from pneumonia in his native city of<br />
Liverpool on the 22nd ult. In addition to this<br />
roll, the obituary of the past month includes<br />
Canon R. W. Drxon, who was a distinguished<br />
Oxford man, and wrote a history of the Church<br />
of England, which 1s a recognised authority ;<br />
the Rev. Henry Furneavx, sometime Fellow of<br />
Corpus Christi, Oxford, and editor of “ Tacitus ”<br />
and other classics; and Mr. G. W. SrEEVENS,<br />
the distinguished special correspondent of the<br />
Daily Mail, who died of enteric fever on the<br />
15th ult. in Ladysmith, where he was represent-<br />
ing his journal with the beleaguered troops.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
BOOKS AND REVIEWS.<br />
<br />
(In these columns notes on books are given from reviews<br />
which carry weight, and are not, so far as can be learned,<br />
logrollers.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Tar Untrep Krnepom, by Goldwin Smith (Macmillan,<br />
15s. net), is in two volumes, which, says Literature, with all<br />
their defects, “‘ are a trae history of England, no jumble of<br />
miscellaneous facts, but an edifice reared with skilful<br />
hand.” The Daily Chronicle says Mr. Goldwin Smith “ has<br />
not lost the pictureequeness of his style,” and that he is in<br />
these volumes historical and expository rather than contro-<br />
versial or speculative. The Daily News calls it “a work<br />
which Englishmen all the world over will read with enthu-<br />
siastic delight, with fresh admiration for the achievements<br />
of their ancestors, and with a confidence in the future never<br />
more essential than at this solemn time.”<br />
<br />
FINLAND AND THE Tsars, by Joseph R. Fisher (Arnold,<br />
128. 6d.), is, says Literature, ‘ a clear and succinct historical<br />
sketch of the relations between Russia and her dependency<br />
during the last ninety years.” Mr. Fisher, says the Daily<br />
Chronicle, “has prepared what may be called the case of<br />
Finland with most scrupulous thoroughness; and whatever<br />
holes the Russian Pre:s may attempt to pick in his argu-<br />
ments, it is difficult for an Englishman to discover any<br />
flaw.”<br />
<br />
Henry Irvine, by Charles Hiatt (Bell, 5s. net), is a<br />
study of the famous actor, and contains between seventy<br />
and eighty illustrations. ‘‘ All who have been Sir Henry<br />
Irving’s admirers in the past,” says Literature, and “ all<br />
who look forward to his future successes, will wish to<br />
possess Mr. Hiatt?s excellent little work.” The book will<br />
be read, says the Daily Telegraph, “with universal<br />
interest.” :<br />
<br />
In Cap AnD Bexus, by Owen Seaman (Lane, 3s. 6d.) is<br />
“a sheaf of topical and satirical verse that can hardly fail<br />
to please,” says the Spectator. The verses were con-<br />
tributed particularly to Punch, to whose “table” Mr.<br />
Seaman “ has conferred fresh lustre and distinction.” The<br />
Daily News describes the book as “ uniformly entertaining,”<br />
the Daily Telegraph says it is as “ excellent and delight-<br />
ful in every respect as‘ The Battle of the Bays’”; and<br />
the Daily Chronicle calls Mr. Seaman “‘ more than a mere<br />
parodist or writer of comic jingles, however ingenious.”<br />
“He is what we may call a critic of mannerism, and a very<br />
keen critic to boot.”<br />
<br />
Sport anp Lire In WESTERN AMERICA AND BRITISH<br />
Conumsra, by W. A. Baillie-Grohman (Cox, 158.), contains,<br />
says the Daily Chronicle, “so complete a denunciation of<br />
<br />
207<br />
<br />
the reckless waste of big game, so scathing a criticism<br />
of the game laws of both the Union and Dominion,” “ that<br />
everyone interested and without bias must follow the author<br />
with sympathy, at any rate.” “Itis the work of a mau<br />
who knows what he is writing about,” says Literature.<br />
“Though the portion of the book which deals with the<br />
scientific aspect of sport is without doubt the most valuable,<br />
the general reader, who cares little about the measurement<br />
of antlers, will probably find the intimate and personal<br />
recollections of the writer more to his taste.” Mrs. Baillie-<br />
Grohman adds a chapter on the problems of Chinese and<br />
other domestic service in Western America.<br />
<br />
Nores oN Sport AND TRAVEL, by George Henry<br />
Kingsley, with a memoir by his daughter Mary H. Kingsley<br />
(Macmillan, Ss. 6d.), is described by the Daily Chronicle<br />
as containing “ genial papers of ‘The Doctor’s’” which it<br />
is “good to read,’ and which are “roaming in their<br />
subjects as the man himself”: sharks and chamois, gun-<br />
practice and flying-fish, Lisbon snipe and American oysters.<br />
&e. “In short, the book is delightful, sparkling with<br />
humour without a thought of malice.” “It can be said<br />
without flattery,” says the Daily News, “that a book of<br />
reminiscences by one of the Kingsley brothers, with a<br />
memoir of the author by his daughter of West African<br />
renown, cannot be otherwise than delightful.”<br />
<br />
From Kinc Orry To QueEN VicroriA, by Edward<br />
Callow (Elliot Stock), is a short history of the Isle of Man,<br />
the annals of which “are so full of battle, murder, and<br />
sudden death that,” says Literature, ‘it is marvellous they<br />
should have been used in fiction to so comparatively small<br />
an extent. It certainly is a highly exciting story which<br />
Mr. Callow has to tell,” and “the whole volume is so full<br />
of curiosities that it makes excellent reading, despite its<br />
defects of literary form.”<br />
<br />
How ENGLAND SAVED Evrop#, by W. H. Fitchett, is to<br />
be in six volumes, of which two have appeared (Smith,<br />
Elder, and Co., 6s. per volume), and is the story of the Great<br />
War (1793-1815.) The Daily Chronicle says, that while<br />
“Mr. Fitchett’s pages are not burdened with research and<br />
fresh results,” he “tells his stirring story in such a very<br />
picturesque manner as to impress his readers with a sense<br />
of the pleasure that is derived from absolute novelty.”<br />
“ Disearding absolutely the point of view of the analytical<br />
historian, Mr. Fitchett,” says the Daily Telegraph, “ pre-<br />
sents us witha series of vigorous and moving pictures of the<br />
Homeric conflicts which have made of those days, perhaps,<br />
the most exciting period in all history.”<br />
<br />
James Hacx Tuxs, by Sir Edward Fry (Macmillan,<br />
7s. 6d.), is an “admirable biography” of one whose sole<br />
object in Ireland was toimprove the material and industrial<br />
condition of the country; and, “if the recent history of<br />
Ireland is of importance,” says Literature, “this is just one<br />
of the books that should be read in connection with it.”<br />
“We may say,’ says the Spectator, ‘ that the new social<br />
politics of Ireland, if it can be said to have had any distinct<br />
author, is due in a pre-eminent degree to the Quaker banker<br />
of Hitchin,” of whom this book, done “ with judgment and<br />
zkill,” gives a “very simple, quiet story.”<br />
<br />
Curonictes or Aunt Mrnervy ANN, by Joel Chandler<br />
Harris (Dent, 4s. 6d.), is laid in Georgia in the early days<br />
of emancipation jast after the war, and gives us, says<br />
Literature, ‘a gallery of character sketches, in black and<br />
white, that will bear comparison with the author’s best<br />
work.”<br />
<br />
Tue DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGuIsH Novet, by<br />
Wilbur L. Cross (Macmillan, 6s), is both a history anda<br />
criticism of English fiction. The Guardian concludes its<br />
notice by saying :—‘‘ As the whole of this very useful little<br />
book shows, novelists great and small are always feeling<br />
their way, and he who finds it is the one who has some-<br />
THE<br />
<br />
thing so important to say that (in his hands) the way<br />
becomes insignificant, and, being no longer much attended<br />
to, falls into decay, while new forgers of imitative fiction<br />
occupy themselves in devising new forms to mask their<br />
defect either of substance or originality.”<br />
<br />
SUNNINGWELL, by F. Warre Cornish (Constable, 6s.), is<br />
“ gordially recommended,” by the Daily Telegraph as an<br />
“extremely clever book.” It ‘‘isby no means astory, being<br />
quite inorganic and totally devoid of plot.” The whole<br />
interest centres in the Rev. Philip More, Canon of Sunning-<br />
well, who “may be aptly defined as a benevolent oppor-<br />
tunist, intensely introspective, but thoroughly open-minded.”<br />
“‘Itis a book for the ‘ mugwump,’” says the Spectator, “ to<br />
ase the term in its best sense.” Among the characters isa<br />
pretty young woman who has one unprosperous and one<br />
prosperous love affair.” The Daily News refers to the<br />
“ charming Canon,” and says this “is the kind of volume<br />
that—almost unconsciously—impresses the reader with a<br />
comfortable and soothing sense of leisure.”<br />
<br />
EXxpPLoraTIo EvaNGELica, by Percy Gardner (Black,<br />
158.), is a “powerful book,” says Literature, whose real<br />
importance is “that it raises for Christian theology the<br />
question, What is the ‘sufficient foundation’ of Christian<br />
faith?” In some respects it is “the most noteworthy<br />
theological work that has appeared since the publication of<br />
‘Lux Mundi.’”<br />
<br />
Parson Kur, by A. E. W. Mason and Andrew Lang<br />
(Longmans, 6s.),'a novel about the Jacobites, is, says the<br />
Daily Telegraph, “ a perfectly homogeneous work, throughout<br />
which the literary touch of either writer is indistinguishable<br />
from that of the other.” The period is 1719 and onwards<br />
for a few years; the central figure and evil genius of the<br />
plot is the unhistorical Lady Oxford. ‘‘ Mr. Andrew Lang<br />
knows all that is to be known about the Jacobites,” says<br />
the Daily Chronicle. “Mr. Mason tells a story delight-<br />
fully.” ‘Distinctly the book is a success.” “The two<br />
joint heroes, both Jacobite Irish outlaws hailing from the<br />
County Kildare, are excellent company,” says the Spectator,<br />
which pronounces “ Parson Kelly” to be “a book of more<br />
than common merit.”<br />
<br />
OnE QuEEN TRIUMPHANT, by Frank Mathew (Lane, 6s.),<br />
is “‘a very spirited and ingenious novel,” says the Spectator.<br />
It is a historical romance of Queen Elizabeth’s time, and<br />
‘whether Mr. Mathew’s estimate of his characters be<br />
historically sound or not, the great point is that they are<br />
real to him, and his enthusiasm and interest in them can<br />
hardly fail to infect his readers.” The Guardian says<br />
the book will add to Mr. Mathew’s reputation. ‘‘The<br />
merit of his work is that his imagination permits him<br />
to see, and his skill makes his readers see with him, the<br />
great Queen and those around her as if with the eyes of<br />
the flesh.”<br />
<br />
Siz Parrick tHe Puppock, by L. B. Walford<br />
(Pearson, 6s.), ‘is another of the long list of pleasant and<br />
wholesome stories,” says the Daily Telegraph, “that we<br />
owe to Mrs. Walford’s pen. The scene is laid in Scotland.<br />
Sir Patrick is a simple-souled, plain-featured, middle-aged<br />
man with a heart of gold.” ‘Everybody of whom Mrs.<br />
Walford tells one,” says the Daily Chronicle, “is racy,<br />
outspoken, fearless; not afraid of being thought a little<br />
too racy, too outspoken, or too fearless either.”’<br />
<br />
Tue Wuite Dove, by William J. Locke (Lane, 6s.), is<br />
a “clever and interesting novel,” says the Spectator, in<br />
which the réle of hero is entrusted to a distinguished<br />
bacteriologist. The plot is “exceedingly painful”; the<br />
heroine is “admirably drawn” ; the blameless bacteriologist<br />
“is rather an aggravating person”; “ but the charlatan is<br />
drawn from the quick—a brilliant, exuberant, histrionic<br />
rascal, just lacking the resolution and ruthlessness to be a<br />
successful knave.”<br />
<br />
208<br />
<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
HeERonFORD, by S. R. Keightley (Pearson, 6s.), ie, in the<br />
words of the Daily Telegraph, “ a plain-sailing, old-fashioned<br />
story of the type that was so current in novel-reading<br />
circles from seventy to eighty years ago.” By his power<br />
of creating a romantic atmosphere,” saysthe Daily Chronicle,<br />
“Mr. Keightley compels our interest in his very first<br />
pater ; his other literary qualities enable him to hold it to<br />
the end.”<br />
<br />
OvursipE THE Rapius, by W. Pett Ridge (Hodder and<br />
Stoughton, 6s.), contains short stories of the metropolitan<br />
suburbs, and is “singularly entertaining,” says the Daily<br />
Telegraph; “from its first page to its last it is delightful<br />
reading.”<br />
<br />
My Lapy Frivot, by Rosa N. Carey (Hutchinson, 6s.) is<br />
described by Literature as “a simple romance told without<br />
affectation,” and belonging “ to the class of romance which<br />
will always find grateful readers.”<br />
<br />
Tu PROFESSIONAL AND OTHER Psycuic STORIES, edited<br />
by A. Goodrich Freer (Hurst and Blackett, 6s.) contains tales<br />
which, says Literature, “are strange rather than horrible.<br />
They deal with second sight, telepathy, crystal gazing, and<br />
the projection of thoughts into visible appearances.” ‘‘ No<br />
one interested in psychical research should overlook this<br />
book; and it has a distinct general interest as a foretaste<br />
of the ghost story of the future.” The Daily News says the<br />
seven stories possess both “point” and style, “and are<br />
decidedly to be recommended.”<br />
<br />
Sue WaLKs In Buauty, by Katherine Tynan (Smith,<br />
Elder, and Co., 6s.), will be hailed with enthusiasm by the<br />
sentimental reader, says the Spectator, as “an artistic<br />
revival of the formula” used by the late authoress of<br />
‘Molly Bawn.” “The clever reader will say, ‘ What a silly<br />
book!’ but will not lay it down until it is finished.” The<br />
Daily News calls it “ very charming and very picturesque,”<br />
and ‘‘a pretty, wholesome, and genial study of the best kind<br />
of Irish country life.”<br />
<br />
A Kiss For A Kinapom, by Bernard Hamilton (Hurst<br />
and Blackett, 6s.), is “throughout readable and often<br />
exciting,” says the Spectator. The author “introduces an<br />
innovation into the fashionable realm of mock royalty. An<br />
American millionaire, by name Julius Ceesar Jones, has a<br />
fancy for presenting his ‘best girl’ with a real, genuine<br />
crown, and this is the story of how, with the aid of a British<br />
baronet, he sets about seizing the government of a small<br />
republic in Italy.” There is bloodshed and “plenty of<br />
ingenuity,” says the Guardian; “the situations are good<br />
and exciting, and the book thoroughly entertaining.”<br />
<br />
Bearrick v’Estx, by Julia Cartwright (Dent, 15s),<br />
‘* might perhaps,” says the Daily Chronicle, “ be styled with<br />
more aptness, ‘The Story of the Rise and Fall of Lodovico<br />
Sforza’ ” Miss Cartwright deals adequately “ with the art<br />
of Milan, with its literature and learning, as well as with<br />
its politics and social life.” This story of the Life of<br />
Beatrice d’Este and of her husband Lodovico Sforza’s rule<br />
over Milan, says the Daily Telegraph, “is distinguished by<br />
its charm and the vividness of its presentment.”<br />
<br />
“THE AUTHOR.”<br />
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London, W.0O, | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/471/1900-02-01-The-Author-10-9.pdf | publications, The Author |