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485	https://historysoa.com/items/show/485	The Author, Vol. 13 Issue 10 (July 1903)	<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.+13+Issue+10+%28July+1903%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 13 Issue 10 (July 1903)</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>	1903-07-01-The-Author-13-10					253–280																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=13">13</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1903-07-01">1903-07-01</a>							10			19030701	Che #uthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> JUNE Ist, 1903.<br /> <br /> Vou. XIII.—No. 9.<br /> <br /> [Prick SrxpPENnog.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE TELEPHONE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The Telephone connection has now been estab-<br /> lished, and the Society’s number is—<br /> <br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> ———_—__—_+—~@—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —-~&lt;&gt; +<br /> <br /> OR the opinions_expressed in papers that are<br /> K signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> THE Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> THE List of Members of the Society of Authors,<br /> published 1902, can be obtained at the offices of<br /> the Society, at the price of 6d. net.<br /> <br /> It will be sold to the members of the Society<br /> only.<br /> <br /> —-—&gt;+—<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> THE investments of the Pension Fund at<br /> present standing in the names of the Trustees are<br /> as follows.<br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br /> <br /> Vou, XIII.<br /> <br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> Coagole 25 Fees. £1000 0 6<br /> POCH) LOANS obec. 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 ‘ Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ...............<br /> We lon<br /> <br /> 291 19 Tt<br /> 201 9 3s<br /> <br /> otal o1,995 9 2<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Subscriptions.<br /> <br /> 1908.<br /> Jan. 1, Pickthall, Marmaduke 010 6<br /> »» Deane, Rey. A.C. . 010 06<br /> Jan. 4, Anonymous 0) 5. 6<br /> - Heath, Miss Ida 0 5 0<br /> “ Russell, G. H. ; Ll 0<br /> Jan. 16, White, Mrs. Caroline 0.5 06<br /> », Bedford, Miss Jessie 0 5. 0<br /> Jan..19, Shiers-Mason, Mrs. 0 35.0<br /> Jan. 20, Cobbett, Miss Alice ; 1 0 5 0<br /> Jan. 30, Minniken, Miss Bertha M.M. 1 0 0<br /> Jan. 31, Whishaw, Fred : - 0 10 0<br /> Feb. 3, Reynolds, Mrs. Fred 0 5b 0<br /> Feb. 11, Lincoln, C. . ; 0 5 0<br /> Feb. 16, Hardy, J. Herbert . 0° 5 0<br /> » Haggard, Major Arthur . 0° 5 0<br /> Feb. 23, Finnemore, John . 05 0<br /> Mar. 2, Moor, Mrs. St. C. . 1° 0 6<br /> Mar. 5, Dutton, Mrs. Carrie 015 6<br /> Apl.10, Bird, ©. PB. . : A - 0 10.6<br /> Apl. 10, Campbell, Miss Montgomery. 0 5 0<br /> May Lees, R. J... : ; 1 0<br /> : Wright, J. Fondi . ; ~ 905 6<br /> Donations.<br /> <br /> Jan. 8, Wheelright, Miss E. : , 0 10 6<br /> » Middlemass, Miss Jean . ~ 010 0<br /> <br /> Jan. 6, Avebury, The Right Hon.<br /> The Lord . D0 0<br /> » Gribble, Francis. : . 010 0<br /> Jan. 13, Boddington, Miss Helen . . 010 6<br /> Jan. 17, White, Mrs. Wollaston 11 0<br /> » Miller, Miss E. T. . 0 5.0<br /> Jan. 19, Kemp, Miss Geraldine 010 6<br /> <br /> <br /> 226<br /> <br /> Jan. 20, Sheldon, Mrs. French . - 0) 5) 0<br /> Jan. 29, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt : . 0 16 0<br /> Feb. 9, Sherwood, Mrs. . : » 0-10 6<br /> Feb. 16, Hocking, The Rev. Silas 210<br /> Feb. 18, Boulding, J. W. . : . 010 6<br /> , Ord, Hubert H. . ‘ de)<br /> Teb. 20, Price, Miss Eleanor : . 010 0<br /> » Carlile, Rev. J. C.. : . 010 0<br /> Feb. 24, Dixon, Mrs. . : : a2 0-0<br /> Feb. 26, Speakman, Mrs. . : . 010 0<br /> Mar. 5, Parker, Mrs. Nella 2 0 10° 0<br /> Mar. 16, Hallward,N. LL. . : ll 0<br /> Mar. 20, Henry, Miss Alice . : - 0 8.9<br /> » Mathieson, Miss Annie . . 010 0<br /> <br /> » Browne, T. A. (“ Rolfe Boldre-<br /> wood”) . j : : 12 0<br /> Mar. 23, Ward, Mrs. Humphry. 110.0. 0<br /> Apl. 2, Hutton, The Rev. W. H. - 2070<br /> Apl. 14, Tournier, Theodore : 0 2) 0<br /> May King, Paul H. : : ~ 010-90<br /> : Wynne, Charles Whitworth .10 0 90<br /> » 21, Orred J. Randal . : pedo E70<br /> <br /> The following members have also made subscrip-<br /> tions or donations :—<br /> <br /> Meredith, George, President of the Society.<br /> <br /> Thompson, Sir Henry, Bart., F.R.C.S.<br /> <br /> Rashdall, The Rev. H.<br /> <br /> Guthrie, Anstey.<br /> <br /> Robertson, C. B.<br /> <br /> Dowsett, C. F.<br /> <br /> There are in addition other subscribers who do<br /> not desire that either their names or the amount<br /> they are subscribing should be printed.<br /> <br /> Se<br /> Sir Walter Besant Memorial Fund.<br /> Tur amount standing to the credit<br /> <br /> of this account in the Bank is......... £336 4 9<br /> May 22, Orred J. Randal............... Lied<br /> —____—&lt;&gt;—_e____\_<br /> <br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> ee<br /> <br /> HE Committee of the Society of Authors met<br /> on May 6th. Mr. Douglas Freshfield took<br /> the chair.<br /> <br /> ‘Twelve members and associates were elected to<br /> the Society. The list is printed below.<br /> <br /> The case of Parry v. Gollancz, with all the papers<br /> and letters, was laid before the Committee and<br /> carefully considered. The Committee decided to<br /> issue a summary of the case with comments in<br /> The Author, (See article, page 232.)<br /> <br /> The agent of the Society in New York has been<br /> forced to give up the work of the Society owing to<br /> the fact that he has taken up the work of a<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> literary agent. As he candidly expresses it, “ he<br /> found it difficult to have to write peremptory<br /> letters of demand to editors and publishers, when<br /> at the same time he might be offering them MSS.<br /> for acceptance.” Accordingly, the Society has<br /> been obliged to appoint another agent, and the<br /> Committee have nominated Mr. Morris P. Ferris,<br /> counsellor-at-law.<br /> <br /> ‘There were two or three cases before the Com-<br /> mittee. One dealt with the loss of a MS. by a<br /> publisher. It was decided to take the matter up<br /> on behalf of the member, as from the circumstances<br /> connected with the case, it appeared that the<br /> publisher had shown considerable negligence.<br /> <br /> Another case, that of alleged breach of agree-<br /> ment by a publisher, the Committee found they<br /> were unable to support, as the solicitors of the<br /> Society did not consider that there was cause for<br /> legal action.<br /> <br /> It was decided not to republish the list of<br /> members during the current year, but in the<br /> autumn, to publish a supplementary list of those<br /> members who had been elected since the last<br /> publication.<br /> <br /> oo<br /> <br /> Cases,<br /> <br /> Tue last statement of the cases taken up by<br /> the Society was printed in the March number of<br /> The Author. Since that date forty-three have been<br /> before the Secretary. They may be subdivided as<br /> follows :—<br /> <br /> Ten for the return of MSS. ; three for accounts ;<br /> five for accounts and money ; eighteen for money<br /> due ; one dealing with the false advertisement of a<br /> book; one with the infringement of copyright ;<br /> five embracing disputes which cannot be classed<br /> under any particular heading.<br /> <br /> The Secretary is pleased to report that all the<br /> cases chronicled in the March number of The<br /> Author have either been settled or have been placed<br /> in the hands of the solicitors.. All the cases from<br /> that date up to the beginning of April have also<br /> been settled or placed in the solicitors’ hands, with<br /> the exception of one case, where the author—<br /> unfortunately living abroad—had a claim against a<br /> magazine for non-payment.<br /> <br /> The record of the ten claims for the return of<br /> MSS. is as follows :—<br /> <br /> One case has been placed in the hands of the<br /> Society’s solicitors, to enable the member to claim<br /> damages for loss of a MS. by a publisher, as it<br /> appeared clear to the Committee that the publisher<br /> had been negligent. In two cases there has been<br /> <br /> no evidence that the MSS. had been received at<br /> <br /> the office of the paper. In the remaining seven<br /> <br /> the MSS. have been returned at the request of the<br /> <br /> Secretary.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Set<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In the three demands for accounts the Secretary<br /> has been able to obtain the requisite statement,<br /> with the exception of one case against a well-known<br /> firm that is always dilatory in meeting the demands<br /> of the author or the Secretary of the Society for<br /> details of this kind. No doubt a little mild<br /> persuasion will bring about the requisite result,<br /> <br /> There has been an increase with regard to demand<br /> for unpaid moneys, and the result. of the Secretary’s<br /> applications may be catalogued as follows :—<br /> <br /> In the claims for accounts and money two have<br /> been partially settled—this means that part of the<br /> money due has been paid, the rest will no doubt<br /> follow. One has been completely settled, and two<br /> are still in the course of negotiation. The last are<br /> demands against an American publisher, whose<br /> name is well known on the English market, but<br /> whose methods of doing business when it comes to<br /> the settlement of accounts appear to be far from<br /> satisfactory. In six cases the money has been<br /> paid without any difficulty. In five the matters<br /> have had to go into the hands of the Society’s<br /> solicitors. Two cases are still unsettled, and in one<br /> it is impossible to enforce the Society’s claim owing<br /> to the fact that the member resides abroad.<br /> <br /> This is, on the whole, a satisfactory record,<br /> especially when it is remembered that those matters<br /> referred to the solicitors deal with magazines that<br /> are most probably either in liquidation or on the<br /> verge of Jiquidation. The case of infringement of<br /> copyright has been satisfactorily settled. A full<br /> statement of this was printed in 7he Author. The<br /> false advertisement has also been remedied, and<br /> the remaining matters—various disputes on con-<br /> tracts—are in the course of negotiation.<br /> <br /> Out of thewhole forty-three there are only thirteen<br /> which have not been closed as far as the work of<br /> the Secretary is concerned. Some of them, as<br /> mentioned above, are being continued in other<br /> hands, it is hoped with satisfactory result.<br /> <br /> NEES “ESSE<br /> <br /> May Elections.<br /> 4, Gray’s Inn Squares<br /> <br /> W.C.<br /> <br /> Scarborough.<br /> <br /> Wentworth House, Key-<br /> mer, Sussex.<br /> <br /> The Cedars, Denmark<br /> Avenue, Wimbledon,<br /> <br /> Aitken, Robert<br /> <br /> Alcock, Joseph Crosby .<br /> Arthur, Miss Mary<br /> <br /> Bedford, Mrs.<br /> <br /> SW.<br /> Dickinson, F. James 6, Claremont Terrace,<br /> Hargreaves, F.R.S.L. Claremont Park,<br /> Blackpool.<br /> <br /> Lees, Robert James<br /> <br /> . Engelbery, Ilfracombe.<br /> Macdonald, Mrs. A. E. .<br /> <br /> Gordon Road, Gordon,<br /> Sydney, N.S. Wales,<br /> Australia.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 227<br /> <br /> Merriman,<br /> B.C,<br /> Pickering, Sidney .<br /> Smith, Miss M. C,<br /> <br /> Labor A., Freetown, Sierra Leone.<br /> <br /> Stratton, Falmouth.<br /> <br /> Gretna Hall, Gretna<br /> Green,<br /> <br /> 200, Stockwell Road,<br /> Brixton, 8.W,<br /> <br /> Colonial Institute,<br /> Northumberland<br /> Avenue, W.C.<br /> <br /> Trost, Johann<br /> <br /> Wright, Edward Fondi .<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> +-—&lt;—e<br /> <br /> OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.<br /> ae<br /> <br /> | PROFESSOR RHYS DAVIDS’ “Buddhist<br /> <br /> | India” in the Stories of the Nations Series,<br /> <br /> may be out any day now. It was all passed<br /> for press some time ago, but it is being printed in<br /> America. he Professor has just finished editing<br /> the issues of the Pali Text Society for 1903 ; they<br /> form the Journal of that Society. He has also<br /> edited the second volume of “The Digha” in<br /> conjunction with Mr. E. Carpenter. These are<br /> now ready for distribution to members.<br /> <br /> The Government of India has determined to<br /> publish, through the Royal Asiatic Society, two<br /> series of historical volumes. Of these, one is on<br /> the History of India before the arrival of the<br /> English, and will be under the editorship of<br /> Professor Rhys Davids.<br /> <br /> The first volumes to be published will deal with<br /> the historical geography of ancient India, and<br /> with the historical evidence contained in the<br /> Vedas. The other series, to be called The Records<br /> Series, will embrace the period after the arrival of<br /> the English, and will consist mainly of official<br /> documents. The first volume will deal with the<br /> events connected with the Black Hole of Calcutta.<br /> <br /> Mr. Arnold White has had a trying experience :<br /> He lost, during the fire at the Hotel du Palais, at<br /> Biarritz, the MS. of the work on which he was<br /> engaged. It is a continuation of the series on<br /> Efficiency which began eighteen years ago in “The<br /> Problems of a Great City,” and ended in his last<br /> two books—* Efficiency and Empire,” and “ For<br /> Efficiency.”<br /> <br /> Mr. White, however, hopes in the course of the<br /> next twelve months to re-write and complete a<br /> work on National Efficiency, especially with regard<br /> to government and municipal administration, and<br /> its effects on the pockets, the health, and the lives<br /> of citizens of the Empire.<br /> <br /> Miss Mabel Quiller Couch, whose short stories<br /> are well known, has published two volumes of them<br /> under the titles of “The Recovery of Jane Vercoe,”<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 228<br /> <br /> and “Some Western Folk.” At present she is<br /> completing serial work already ordered, but she<br /> means in the near future to write a story for girls<br /> on somewhat new lines. Our readers may remember<br /> a very interesting volume entitled, “ The Holy Wells<br /> of Cornwall,” which Miss Mabel Quiller Couch wrote<br /> in conjunction with her sister.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Mary M. Banks is engaged in editing a<br /> MS. collection of tales of the fifteenth century for<br /> the Early English Text Society. Some two years<br /> ago Mrs. Banks edited the alliterative ‘‘ Morte<br /> Arthur,” published by Messrs. Longmans. Since<br /> then she has given lectures on modern literature,<br /> besides writing articles on literary subjects.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein have in preparation<br /> for the autumn a romance of Italy in the thirteenth<br /> century, by Emily Underdown (Norley Chester).<br /> This firm lately published “ Dante and Beatrice,”<br /> a play in blank verse suggested by episodes in the<br /> Vita Nuova, by the same author. It forms one of<br /> a series started by Miss Elsie Fogerty. “ Dante<br /> and Beatrice” is also published in a tastefully<br /> got-up edition, with a reproduction of Rossetti’s<br /> painting, “ Dante’s Dream,” as a frontispiece.<br /> <br /> Members of the Society will be interested to<br /> know that Mr. Poulteney Bigelow has been asked<br /> to address the United States Naval War College<br /> at Newport, on German Colonisation, on the 16th<br /> of June. This is the college before which Captain<br /> Mahan delivered his lectures on “‘ The Influence of<br /> Sea Power on History ”—a book which has been<br /> translated into almost every tongue, and yet<br /> which, at the time, was declined by the Harpers.<br /> <br /> Lismore, which the King is to visit next<br /> August, is the “ Innisdoyle ” of Julia M. Crottie’s<br /> “ Neighbours,” a book of Irish sketches, published<br /> by T. Fisher Unwin a year or two ago. Lismore<br /> is a quiet old town, beautifully situated on the<br /> poet Spenser’s Blackwater, and although now<br /> fallen away from its ancient importance, still<br /> possesses some features of interest in its fine old<br /> abbey and castle.<br /> <br /> Mr. Frank Rutter, the editor of To-day, has<br /> just published, through R. A. Everett &amp; Co.,<br /> a little volume of scenes and characters from<br /> eee life. ‘‘’Varsity Types” is the title<br /> of it.<br /> <br /> “Varsity Types” has a dozen illustrations by<br /> Stephen Haweis. The dedication runs thus—‘‘ To<br /> those who unconsciously have posed as models for<br /> the following sketches, this little volume is grate-<br /> fully and affectionately dedicated by the author.”<br /> Among the entertaining characters are ‘“ The<br /> Swot,” “The Trophy Maniac,” “ The Snob,” and<br /> “The Bedder,” while “‘ Ditton Corner,” “ An Art-<br /> less Dean,” and “An Academic Court-Martial,”<br /> are scenes to laugh over.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Miss Julie Sutter’s book on the Social Problems<br /> —Brirain’s Next Campaign ”—has just been<br /> issued at a shilling net (320 pp.) by R. Brimley<br /> Johnson, 4, Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C. The<br /> Daily News this winter thought it worth while to<br /> publish a series of articles from its pages, and Sir<br /> John McDougall (as chairman of the London<br /> County Council) invites ‘every Londoner, official<br /> on non-official, to make himself acquainted with<br /> this book.” Both he and Canon Scott Holland<br /> head the volume with a preface.<br /> <br /> Mr. F. Stroud’s publishers will issue almost<br /> immediately a much-enlarged edition of his Judicial<br /> Dictionary. It will be in three thick volumes of<br /> about nine hundred pages each. The work is<br /> unique in that, whilst it is a dictionary in the<br /> ordinary sense of that word, yet the pivot on which<br /> it moves is that it deals with the English of affairs<br /> as expounded by the English Judges and by<br /> Parliament.<br /> <br /> To search for verbal definitions through the<br /> many hundreds of volumes of Reports of Cases,<br /> and the Statute Book from Magna Charta down-<br /> wards, and to harmonise the authoritative exposition<br /> of words and phrases culled from these sources,<br /> must have been an enormous task, requiring much<br /> prior knowledge and the unfailing patience of years.<br /> The idea of this edition is to bring down the<br /> exposition from the earliest times to the end of the<br /> nineteenth century. Whilst we should imagine it<br /> to be indispensable to the practising lawyer, the<br /> book cannot fail to be of general interest, for inci-<br /> dentally it frequently presents striking phases of<br /> the picturesque past.<br /> <br /> Mr. Percy White has been kind enough to send<br /> us the following interesting extract from a letter<br /> written to him by a great admirer of George<br /> Meredith. The writer is himself a novelist and<br /> man of letters :—<br /> <br /> “THE Two MEREDITHS.<br /> <br /> “T am reading ‘ Evan Harrington,’ in the original edition<br /> of 1861. I find that in the final edition, published by<br /> Constable, many admirable passages have been cut out, and<br /> a good deal of broad humour and fun has been lost. An<br /> interesting little paper might be made on a comparison of<br /> the two editions—the old Meredith pruning the younger.<br /> It is remarkable how completely ‘modern’ this book of<br /> 1861 reads—a book which might have been written to-day,<br /> whilst its successful contemporaries, ‘ Framley Parsonage,’<br /> ‘The Silver Chord,’ ‘The Woman in White,’ &amp;c., are all as<br /> old-fashioned and uncouth as the crinolines, matador hats,<br /> and chenille hair nets of the early sixties.”<br /> <br /> “ Park Lane” is the title of Mr. Percy White’s<br /> new novel—needless to say a very readable one—<br /> which has been published by Messrs. Constable<br /> at 6s.<br /> <br /> Mr. G. W. Forrest, O.1.E., ex-Director of Records,<br /> Government of India, and author of “ Sepoy<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 /> Generals,” has published through the same firm a<br /> copiously illustrated book called ‘‘ Cities of India”<br /> (10s. 6d. net). Mr. Forrest, who is one of the<br /> greatest living authorities on the ancient and<br /> modern history of India, has seen with his own<br /> eyes the cities he so admirably describes. The<br /> illustrations are excellent.<br /> <br /> ’ The Transactions of the Royal Society of Litera-<br /> <br /> ture are being edited, as indeed they have been<br /> ‘since 1894, by Perey W. Ames, LL.D., F.S.A.<br /> Besides publishing the following addresses : ‘‘ Posi-<br /> tivism in Literature,” “Supposed Source of the Vicar<br /> of Wakefield,” ‘‘ Racial and Individual Tempera-<br /> ments,” ‘‘ Superstition, Science, and Philosophy,”<br /> “Poetry and Science of Archeology,” &amp;c., &amp;c., Dr.<br /> Ames, in 1900, edited, with introduction and one<br /> lecture, “‘Chaucer Memorial Lectures.” In 1898<br /> he edited, with an historical sketch of the Princess<br /> Elizabeth and Margaret of Navarre, “The Mirror<br /> of the Sinful Soul.” Before that he edited, with<br /> an introductory address, a volume of “ Afternoon<br /> Lectures on English Literature.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Sydney Lee has brought to a close his tour<br /> in America. He has been accorded an enthusiastic<br /> reception in the Hastern and the Western States.<br /> He has given fifty-three Jectures, and has travelled<br /> by rail more than ten thousand miles. Besides<br /> delivering addresses before the Library Association<br /> at Washington and the State University of North<br /> Carolina, Mr. Lee lectured at Staten Island, New<br /> York, at the request of Mr. William Winter, in aid<br /> of the library founded by him in memory of his son,<br /> the late Mr. Arthur Winter.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lee also gave addresses on Shakespeare at<br /> Indianapolis and before the State Universities of<br /> Ohio and Indiana.<br /> <br /> Among recently published books by members of<br /> the Society is Mr. Justin McCarthy’s ‘British<br /> Political Leaders” (T. Fisher Unwin: 7s. 6d.<br /> net). Though all may not agree with his point<br /> of view, may not see eye to eye with him, yet<br /> readers can scarcely fail to find this volume attrac-<br /> tive. It is charmingly written.<br /> <br /> There is also a couple of volumes issued by Mr.<br /> John Murray, entitled, ‘‘ More letters of Charles<br /> Darwin,” being a record of his work in a series of<br /> hitherto unpublished letters, edited by Francis<br /> Darwin, Fellow of Christ’s College, and A. C.<br /> Seward, Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.<br /> (32s. net.)<br /> <br /> Then, Mrs. Gertrude Atherton, whose remarkable<br /> novel, “The Conqueror,’ we all remember, has<br /> now published, through Harpers, “A Few of<br /> Hamilton’s Letters.” Those who are interested in<br /> <br /> that famous man’s personality will find this selection<br /> from his correspondence well worth reading.<br /> <br /> 229<br /> <br /> Professor E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., etc., Direc-<br /> tor of the British Museum of Natural History,<br /> has contributed a Preface to Mr. S. Theodore<br /> Andrea Cook’s book, ‘ Spirals in Nature and Art”<br /> (John Murray). This is a study of spiral forma-<br /> tions based on the manuscripts of Leonardo da<br /> Vinci, with special reference to the architecture of<br /> the open staircase at Blois in Touraine, now for<br /> the first time shown to be from his designs. This<br /> interesting volume is 7s. 6d. net.<br /> <br /> Miss Marie Corelli recently addressed a crowded<br /> meeting of the O. P. Club in the large hall of<br /> the Criterion Restaurant. Miss Corelli spoke<br /> on “The Trust on behalf of the Nation at<br /> Stratford-on-Avon.” She protested against the<br /> destruction of any buildings in Heniey Street, par-<br /> ticularly such old and valuable ones as were seen<br /> and known by Shakespeare, and were on that<br /> account priceless to the literary and dramatic<br /> world of to-day. Especially did she plead for the<br /> quaint little half-timbered dwelling of Thomas<br /> Green, once town clerk of Stratford and cousin of<br /> Shakespeare.<br /> <br /> Miss Corelli protested against the proposed<br /> destructive alterations, and earnestly requested<br /> that a committee might be formed to inquire<br /> into the case she put forward. She considered<br /> that the culpable ignorance and carelessness of<br /> the Executive Committee of the Shakespearean<br /> Trust proved that the time had come when their<br /> national duty should be taken up by a wider,<br /> more educated and more Shakespearean body. An<br /> appeal to Parliament for the preservation of Henley<br /> Street was being sent out for signature, and there<br /> was every reason to believe that it would bereceived<br /> with favour.<br /> <br /> The clause in the Employment of Children Bill<br /> which prohibits the appearance of children under<br /> fourteen upon the stage has evoked a series of<br /> protesting letters in the Daily Telegraph from<br /> such authorities as Sir Henry Irving, Miss Ellen<br /> Terry, Miss Ellaline Terriss, Mr. George Alexander,<br /> Mr. Beerbohm Tree, Messrs. Frederick Harrison<br /> and Cyril Maude, and Mr. Arthur Collins and<br /> Mr. F. W. Wyndham. We have room for two<br /> quotations only. Miss Ellen Terry says :<br /> <br /> “T cannot remain silent when I hear of disaster threaten-<br /> ing our future actors and actresses. Sir Henry Irving and<br /> others have urged the cruelty of taking joy and pleasure<br /> from the lives of children by prohibiting their employment<br /> on the stage. I go further, and say that the effect of such<br /> a law will be to take education from them, education in the<br /> widest sense technical. I can put my finger at once on the<br /> actors and actresses who were not on the stage when<br /> children. Withall their hard work they can never acquire<br /> afterwards the perfect unconsciousness which they learn<br /> then soeasily. .. . lam anactress, but first 1 am a woman<br /> and I love children. I don’tsay that the conditions under<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 230<br /> <br /> which they work on the stage are perfect. I could point to<br /> many things which IJ should like tosee altered, particularly<br /> the practice of their being too many hours at a stretch in<br /> the theatre, as is the case when they are employed in two<br /> performances on one day. But surely it is not right to<br /> sweep away a fine training for children because it has<br /> faults ?”<br /> <br /> The second extract is from Mr. Tree’s letter :<br /> <br /> “T will leave to others the task of pointing out in detail<br /> how desirable it is for the children of poor parents to have<br /> the opportunity of learning in their early years those<br /> habits of obedience, cleanliness and orderliness which are<br /> part of the discipline of every well-regulated theatre ; also<br /> the social value to them in after life of daily mixing, while<br /> still young, with those who can teach them good manners<br /> and self-respect. The one point I am most anxious to<br /> make is this: The Bill as it stands would not only deprive<br /> the children of these benefits, but would also deprive<br /> hundreds of thousands of the public of the pleasure they<br /> derive from those theatrical performances (such as panto-<br /> mime, and the like), from which the services of children<br /> areinseparable. Moreover, any such new legislation would<br /> practically banish from our stage many of Shakespeare&#039;s<br /> most-admired plays, such as “The Midsummer Night&#039;s<br /> Dream,” “ The Tempest,” “ A Winter’s Tale,” ‘The Merry<br /> Wives of Windsor,” ‘Richard III,” “King John,” and<br /> other classical works. It is needless to point out that these<br /> remarks apply equally to grand opera and public concerts<br /> whenever the services of children form an integral part of<br /> the entertainment.”<br /> <br /> All the letters are worthy of careful considera-<br /> tion, and we refer our readers to the particular<br /> issue of the Daily Telegraph from which we have<br /> quoted, 7.¢., that of Monday, May 18th.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ———_—_—__- ~~<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —— &gt;<br /> <br /> ANATOLE FRANCE’S novel, “ Histoire<br /> Mi e Comique,” is now published in volume<br /> form, after running through the Revue<br /> de Paris as a serial. There is nothing comic<br /> about it except the one word in the title. It is, in<br /> fact, a most gruesome story. Félicie, an actress<br /> who is considered a star, has deserted her lover of<br /> less prosperous days for a young aristocrat, Robert<br /> de Ligny. ‘The ex-lover, Chevalier, warns her of<br /> his own jealousy and begs her to return to him.<br /> She pays no attention to his words and one day,<br /> when she is coming away from a rendezvous<br /> with de Ligny, Chevalier commits suicide in her<br /> presence.<br /> From this day forth Félicie has no peace of<br /> mind. The dead man’s face seems to haunt her,<br /> and at the most unexpected times and places she<br /> fancies that she sees him.<br /> <br /> Chevalier had been an actor, and all his thea-<br /> trical friends undertake the arrangements for his<br /> funeral. The Church refuses the burial service on<br /> account of the suicide, and Félicie, who hopes that<br /> the holy water may lay the ghost of the dead man,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> joins with her comrades in insisting on the religious<br /> rites being performed. A certain Dr. Trublet, the<br /> medical adviser of the theatre to which Félicie<br /> belongs, is the philosopher whom we usually meet<br /> in Anatole France’s books. In this instance the<br /> artistes have recourse to him for a certificate<br /> proving that Chevalier was insane when he shot<br /> himself. A priest had suggested, in a wily way,<br /> that the dead man had, perhaps, not been respon-<br /> sible for his actions, and that if this could be<br /> proved the Church would not refuse to bury him.<br /> Dr. Trublet accordingly searches among his learned<br /> books, and finds various instances of temporary<br /> insanity. He delivers a long harangue on the<br /> subject of free will and determinism. His con-<br /> cluding argument is that the world is an amusing<br /> place on the whole, and that Chevalier must have<br /> been more insane than other men, since he had<br /> voluntarily resigned his place here. The certificate<br /> that he makes out is so full of technical terms that<br /> the doctor declares that it is “ too utterly devoid<br /> of any sense to contain a lie.”<br /> <br /> The funeral service is accordingly held in the<br /> church, All the artistes attend the ceremony and<br /> then proceed to the cemetery, but they are all so<br /> much occupied with their own private affairs and<br /> with ull the gossip and scandal they have to tell<br /> each other, that they only remember at intervals<br /> what has brought them all there together.<br /> Immediately after the funeral Félicie goes with<br /> her lover to luncheon at a _ restaurant, and<br /> endeavours to forget the dead man.<br /> <br /> It is of no use, though, and to the end of the<br /> story she is haunted by his reproachful eyes.<br /> There is not much plot and there is a great deal<br /> that is unpleasant in the book, but the keen<br /> observation, the delicate sarcasm, and, above all, the<br /> perfect style and language are all to be found in<br /> “ Histoire Comique” as in every work by Anatole<br /> France.<br /> <br /> In Brada’s new novel, “Retour du Flot,” we<br /> have a subject which lends itself well to the<br /> weaving of a romance. The mystery is that it<br /> has not been adopted more frequently by authors.<br /> <br /> It is the story of a woman who, after several<br /> years of happiness in her married life, loses her<br /> little girl and cannot recover from her grief. Her<br /> husband, who was also devotedly fond of the child,<br /> wearies of the gloominess of his home and the<br /> constant sadness of his wife and seeks amusement<br /> elsewhere.<br /> <br /> On discovering that he has been faithless to her<br /> his wife applies for a divorce and will hear of no:<br /> compromise.<br /> <br /> After two or three years of loneliness and misery<br /> she consents to marry a cousin who has always<br /> loved her, and who is a man of fine character. She<br /> is quite resigned to her new lot in life when, on the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 231<br /> <br /> sixth anniversary of her little girl’s death, as she<br /> is walking past her old home, she meets her first<br /> husband. He saves her from being knocked down<br /> by a vehicle as she is crossing the road. It is the<br /> first time they have met since their divorce, and<br /> they both realise, as they talk to each other once<br /> more, the fatal mistake they made in the old<br /> days.<br /> <br /> The struggle which now takes place in the<br /> woman’s heart between the love which has never<br /> died and her new duties is described with great<br /> delicacy.<br /> <br /> The loneliness and misery of the man who had<br /> formerly been everything to her appeal to her ;<br /> and when he begs her to meet him again she con-<br /> sents, Her life during the next few months is<br /> almost unbearable. The book is charming to the<br /> very end, and the dénowement seems most natural.<br /> All the characters live, and there is no seeking<br /> after effect. It is merely a simple story told in the<br /> most simple and natural way possible.<br /> <br /> During the last year the books which have been<br /> most discussed here have been those written by<br /> women. ‘This may seem rather flattering to the<br /> fortunate writers of them, but it is only fair to add<br /> that much of the discussion has been on the subject<br /> of the exaggeration of women writers, as shown in<br /> several of their recent novels.<br /> <br /> Judging by some specimens of these realistic<br /> novels that have been before the public, it seems<br /> as though “women rush in where men fear to<br /> tread.”<br /> <br /> In “La Maison du Péché” we had an example<br /> of this, and still more recently in “ La Nouvelle<br /> Espérance.” “ I,’ Inconstante,” too, is a novel that<br /> has astonished everyone, coming, as it does, from<br /> the pen of a woman.<br /> <br /> Exaggeration of this kind cannot be attributed<br /> to Madame Daniel Lesueur in the novel she has just<br /> published, “ Le Coeur Chemine.” It is a delight-<br /> fully natural story of a woman who makes the dis-<br /> covery that she is not as happy as she thought<br /> she was in her married life. Thanks to a poet<br /> whom she had known years before, and whom<br /> she meets by accident at Antwerp, she makes this<br /> discovery. She has accompanied her husband on<br /> one of his business journeys to Antwerp and<br /> Bruges, and the poet wanders through the<br /> museums and churches with her, with the result<br /> that she realises how prosaic her life is.<br /> <br /> There is no strong plot running through this<br /> book: it is just a psychological study from beginning<br /> toend. The poet makes love to the wife of the<br /> prosaic husband, and she is tempted to promise, at<br /> any rate, to be his friend and his muse. Things<br /> cannot stop at this stage, but just at a critical<br /> moment the wife discovers the nobility of character<br /> of her husband and remains faithful to him. As<br /> <br /> the years go by life is again most monotonous, and<br /> once more the poet crosses her path. She has<br /> another terrible struggle with herself, and once<br /> more comes out victorious,<br /> <br /> The minor characters in the story are all well<br /> drawn, and the author only attempts to show us<br /> the workings of the heart of all these human beings<br /> without trying to explain at all why so much that<br /> is unsatisfactory should remain so to the end. It<br /> is, as she says, a most pitiful mystery that one<br /> should be compelled to make sacrifices which, as<br /> far as we can see, do no final good, although they<br /> cost us so much.<br /> <br /> The second volume of “Souvenirs sur Madame<br /> de Maintenon” has just been published by the<br /> Count d’Haussonville and M. Hanotaux. It is one<br /> of the most interesting books that has yet appeared<br /> on this subject, as it contains the famous “ Cahiers<br /> de Mademoiselle d’Aumale.” We get a detailed<br /> account of life at the French Court under Louis XIYV.,<br /> dating from his liaison with Madame de Montespan.<br /> <br /> In the Preface, by M. Hanotaux, we are told<br /> that Madame de Maintenon wished “to remain an<br /> enigma to posterity,’ and that she only intended<br /> those papers about her life to be published which<br /> she had prepared for publication. It was on this<br /> account that Madame de Maintenon destroyed all<br /> her correspondence with Louis XIV, and with<br /> various other persons. ‘<br /> <br /> Mademoiselle d’Aumale commences her memoirs<br /> with a chapter on “Madame de Maintenon and<br /> Madame de Montespan.” Another chapter is on<br /> the ‘‘Duchesse de Bourgogne,” and there is also<br /> an account of the death of Louis XIV., which<br /> Mademoiselle d’Aumale witnessed,<br /> <br /> “Zette”’ is the title of the new story by MM.<br /> Paul et Victor Margueritte.<br /> <br /> “L’Amoureuse Rédemption,” by M. Armand<br /> Charpentier, is a strong book which appears to be<br /> having great success.<br /> <br /> Among other new novels are “ Ballons Rouges,”<br /> by Madame de Bovet, “TL Etape Silencieuse,” by<br /> Jean Saint-Yves, and “ Petite Fille d’Amiral,” by<br /> Pierre Maél.<br /> <br /> A new poet has also come to the front with a<br /> volume entitled “Jamais,” the preface of which<br /> is written by M. Sully Prudhomme. The poet is<br /> M. Charles Reculoux.<br /> <br /> Various books on religious questions have been<br /> published recently, and are no doubt due to the<br /> agitation now going on here with reference to the<br /> Congregations.<br /> <br /> One of these books is “ Le Concordat de 1801,<br /> ses Origines et son Histoire,” by Cardinal Mathieu ;<br /> and another is “La Révolution Francaise et les<br /> Congrégations,” by M. Aulard.<br /> <br /> At the last meeting of the French Academy<br /> literary prizes were awarded to Madame Bentzon<br />  <br /> <br /> 232<br /> <br /> and to MM. Adolphe: Brisson, Mandat-Grancey,<br /> Pontsevrez, Victor du Bled, de Pommerol and<br /> A. Halley.<br /> <br /> The chief theatrical event here has been the<br /> production of Maeterlinck’s new play, “ Joyzelle,”<br /> at the Gymnase Theatre. Space forbids our giving<br /> <br /> any details about this piece this month.<br /> <br /> There is an excellent article on “ The Works of<br /> Maeterlinck ” in the May number of the Interna-<br /> tional Theatre, which gives a very good idea of the<br /> chief features of this author’s books and plays.<br /> <br /> M. Mirbeau’s piece at the Francais may be pro-<br /> nounced a success, and we hear it is to be put on<br /> the English stage by Mr. Alexander as “ Business<br /> is Business.”<br /> <br /> The great theme of the play is the influence of<br /> money in modern society. It is a somewhat daring<br /> piece and the banker is a cleverly drawn type of<br /> the financier of our times.<br /> <br /> “Le Ruban Rouge” is a melodrama taken from<br /> the novel by M. Pierre Sales, whose success as a<br /> « fenilletonist” has been as marked. It has been<br /> put on at the Ambigu, and was very much<br /> appreciated by the house.<br /> <br /> In honour of M. Rostand’s reception at the<br /> Academy, Madame Sarah Bernhardt will revive<br /> “J Aiglon” at her theatre, and M. Coquelin will<br /> give ‘Cyrano de Bergerac” at the Porte Saint-<br /> <br /> Martin.<br /> Auys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> __ 9<br /> <br /> PARRY y. MORING AND GOLLANCZ.<br /> <br /> —+—~&lt;—+ —<br /> <br /> N this action, to which two members of the<br /> Society, Judge Parry and Mr. Gollancz, were<br /> parties, a point of considerable literary im-<br /> <br /> portance was decided, and several others were raised<br /> either in the pleadings or in the newspaper con-<br /> troversy which followed it.<br /> <br /> The facts on which the action was based are<br /> briefly as follows :—<br /> <br /> In 1888 Judge Parry obtained from their then<br /> owner, the Rev. 8. R. Longe, with a view to pub-<br /> lication, copies of the original letters written before<br /> marriage by Dorothy Osborne to Sir William<br /> Temple in A.D. 1652-4. To the originals them-<br /> selves he had no access. The copies were made<br /> by the daughter-in-law of the owner, and the<br /> gratuitous offer of them had been occasioned by<br /> the publication in April, 1886, in the English<br /> Illustrated Magazine, of a sketch by Judge Parry,<br /> compiled from Courtenay’s “ Life of Temple,”<br /> and entitled Dorothy Osborne, Judge Parry<br /> re-arranged the letters, many of which were<br /> undated, in what he believed to be their proper<br /> sequence, and spent some time in modernising<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> their spelling and English and in annotating<br /> them. He proceeded to publish the letters after,<br /> at the request of his publisher, making excisions’<br /> amounting in all to about 100 lines, in a guinea<br /> volume, entitled Zhe Letters of Dorothy Osborne<br /> to Sir William Temple. He registered the copy-<br /> right of his book on June 15th, 1888. In October,<br /> 1888, a second edition was issued at the price of 6s.<br /> _No mention appears to have been made at the<br /> time by the original owner, or by Judge Parry, of the<br /> copyright in the letters ; nor was any notice given<br /> of the copyright having been previously dealt with<br /> when in 1891 the original letters were, after the<br /> death of the Rev. 8. R. Longe, sold by the then<br /> owner to the British Museum, where the librarian<br /> arranged and bound them (with one exception)<br /> in the same order in which Judge Parry had<br /> printed them.<br /> <br /> In November, 1902, Judge Parry’s attention<br /> was called to the advertisement of a volume<br /> entitled Zhe Love Letters of Dorothy Osborne to<br /> Sir William Temple. Newly Edited from the original<br /> MSS. by Israel Gollancz. On the 1st December<br /> Messrs. Boote, Edgar &amp; Co., Judge Parry’s<br /> solicitors, wrote to Mr. Moring, the publisher<br /> of the proposed volume, stating that their client:<br /> had copyrighted his publication, of which he was<br /> preparing another edition, and that if necessary he<br /> would take steps to prevent the publication adver-<br /> -tised by Mr. Moring. Mr. Moring answered, on the<br /> 2nd December, that the work in question had been<br /> prepared from the original letters in the British<br /> Museum, and that under these circumstances he<br /> presumed Judge Parry would take no further steps.<br /> in the matter. Messrs. Boote, Edgar &amp; Co.<br /> repliedfon the 4th December stating that they and:<br /> Judge Parry were unable to understand how Mr.<br /> Moring claimed to be entitled to publish the book<br /> advertised by him, and under what permission or<br /> sanction from the British Museum he claimed<br /> such authority.<br /> <br /> On the 8th December Mr. Gollancz wrote to<br /> Judge Parry, alleging that “the fact of the originals<br /> now being the property of the nation made the<br /> letters common property,” and offering “to con-<br /> nect the new edition with your esteemed name.”<br /> On the 9th December Judge Parry referred Mr.<br /> Gollancz to his solicitors, and on the same day<br /> Messrs. Boote, Edgar &amp; Co., wrote to both the<br /> defendants calling on them “to discontinue the<br /> issue of the edition published by you.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Moring, however—after three months delay<br /> issued the volume at 2s. 6d. in March, 1903; and<br /> on the 18th March Judge Parry filed an affidavit in<br /> the Chancery Division of the High Court in support<br /> of an action to restrain its further issue. In<br /> this he did not insist on the claim suggested<br /> in the correspondence to an exclusive copyright in<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> the original letters, but based his case on the<br /> allegation that the copyright in his work already<br /> described had been infringed with regard to (1) his<br /> notes, (2) his arrangement of the letters, (3) his text,<br /> and (4) his title. The defendants replied by affi-<br /> davit alleging that “they had not made any unfair<br /> use of the plaintiff’s book,” and as to the notes,<br /> they contested in detail the evidences of any such<br /> use brought forward by the plaintiff. Mr.<br /> Gollancz for himself denied having copied the<br /> order of the letters, stating that he had followed<br /> with one or two exceptions (based on his own<br /> researches) the British Museum order. He ad-<br /> mitted that, “as rough working copy, a print was<br /> set up of the letters as appearing in the plaintiff’s<br /> book,” but he alleged that the editor had collated it<br /> with the original letters “ at least ten times” and<br /> corrected “about 2,000 errors and differences,”<br /> and restored numerous omissions extending from<br /> one line to thirty, “the result being a new<br /> and very superior text.” He entered into detailed<br /> explanation of the cases in which he was charged<br /> with having copied or retained errors in Judge<br /> Parry’s notes. He submitted that his title was<br /> no infringement of copyright. He added, “I<br /> have always bond fide believed that I was acting<br /> within my strict rights, and in a way that could<br /> not be thought unfair to other editors, or in<br /> particular to the plaintiff.”<br /> <br /> The case came on before Mr. Justice Farwell gn<br /> April 8rd, 1903, on an application for an interim<br /> injunction. The Judge ut once expressed his<br /> opinion that the defendants’ admission that they<br /> had taken Judge Parry’s book and had copied it<br /> was fatal. In reply to the argument that they<br /> might “‘have made it their own by ten or a dozen<br /> comparisons with the manuscripts,” he added, “ It<br /> seems to me the substratum is fatal to you ; you<br /> cannot use your scaffolding.”<br /> <br /> On this point, and on this alone, the case was<br /> decided. The defendants’ counsel, “ who stated<br /> “‘they were not altogether taken by surprise,”<br /> submitted to’ judgment for delivery up on oath<br /> of all the books and documents constituting the<br /> infringement, and an inquiry as to damages and<br /> costs down to the trial.<br /> <br /> There can be little doubt that the judgment,<br /> which was so readily accepted by the defendants’<br /> counsel, was sound in law.<br /> <br /> No decision, it will be noted, was arrived at by<br /> the Court on the three further alleged infringements<br /> of copyright brought forward—the title, the<br /> arrangement of the letters, and the notes—nor<br /> does the Committee presume to express an opinion<br /> on the legal points involved. :<br /> <br /> With regard to the notes the question is a<br /> complicated one. The following sentences convey<br /> the opinion furnished to the Committee by an<br /> <br /> 233<br /> <br /> eminent counsel on the general rules likely to be<br /> applied by a Court of Law dealing with similar<br /> cases: ‘The principle of the law, as laid down<br /> in various judgments, appears to be that an<br /> author may use his predecessor’s work, but must<br /> not copy it. He must, by adding something<br /> of his own, or derived from other and separate<br /> sources, by amalgamating and assimilating his<br /> literary material, create a new product. He must<br /> incorporate what he takes in his own work. Inthe<br /> words of Lord Eldon, he is allowed ‘ the legitimate<br /> use of a publication in the fair exercise of a mental<br /> operation deserving the character of an original<br /> work.’ Mere unintelligent copying, especially if<br /> mistakes are copied, will be stopped. Intelligent<br /> verification and assimilation of previous research<br /> in a work of substantial originality will: not be<br /> interfered with. The application of this principle<br /> to individual cases must be guided by the study of<br /> the particular facts involved.”<br /> <br /> The result of the trial gave rise to a newspaper<br /> correspondence, in which some well-known scholars<br /> took part. Dr. Furnivall, in the Zimes, asserted<br /> that the case had been decided on a technical<br /> point, and that a substantial injustice had been<br /> done by declaring illegal a practice which he<br /> asserted to be common among scholars and essen-<br /> tial in the interests of literature. His letter,<br /> however, was not mainly directed to the points<br /> brought before the Court, and still less to the<br /> point decided. He preferred to lay stress on<br /> Judge Parry’s assertion of his own belief that “if<br /> at any time an honest attempt were made to copy<br /> the MSS. in the British Museum, he could show<br /> circumstances entitling him to restrain publica-<br /> tion of such a copy if he so desired,” or, as Dr.<br /> Furnivall put it, “that he could show circumstances<br /> that would entitle him to restrain publication of<br /> these manuscripts in the British Museum if he<br /> so desired.” Professor Skeat also wrote calling<br /> attention to the excisions made by Judge Parry<br /> in his text, and commenting severely on his descrip-<br /> tion of it as “a complete edition.”<br /> <br /> In the opinion of the Committee there can be<br /> no question that any legal hindrance to the use<br /> of manuscripts in a national collection would be<br /> a misfortune to literature. But this claim was not<br /> put before the Court, and Judge Parry has speci-<br /> fically stated that he will never seek to enforce it.<br /> It may therefore be dismissed from the discussion.<br /> <br /> The Committee are unable to regard the point on<br /> which the case was decided as purely technical. Mr.<br /> Gollancz had the original letters at his disposal. It<br /> was open to him to copy them, and to collate his<br /> copies with his predecessor’s version if he thought<br /> it desirable. He preferred to take the opposite<br /> course. He borrowed: his predecessor’s text, and,<br /> without reference to Judge Parry, made it the<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 234<br /> <br /> basis of his own. It can be no defence to allege<br /> that Judge Parry’s work was at once faulty and<br /> defective. If it is the custom among scholars to go<br /> to a faulty version, when the original is at hand,<br /> or to use a living editor’s text without communi-<br /> cating with him until after he has threatened legal<br /> proceedings, the Committee consider that the law<br /> has done a service to literature in declaring that<br /> such practices are illegal.<br /> <br /> The Committee have not overlooked the literary<br /> aspect of the case. Judge Parry’s edition of the<br /> letters is admittedly incomplete, and the reason<br /> assigned by him for the excisions, namely, the request<br /> of his publisher, cannot be considered adequate. It<br /> is not disputed that his text and notes stand in<br /> considerable need of revision. Although the<br /> second edition of his volume was published as<br /> far back as October, 1888, he had apparently not<br /> availed himself of the accessibility since 1891 of<br /> the original MSS. in order to revise his text. For<br /> it was not till January, 1903, that Judge Parry<br /> employed a copyist to compare the letters in his<br /> book with the originals in the British Museum,<br /> But, while admitting these considerations, the<br /> Committee feel that Judge Parry was entitled to<br /> be consulted before any use was made of his work<br /> in the preparation of a new edition of the letters.<br /> <br /> Finally, as in the Z%mes correspondence the<br /> action of the Secretary of the Society has been<br /> referred to, the Committee think it desirable to<br /> state the part he has taken in the matter.<br /> <br /> Before the trial Mr. Gollancz, as a member of<br /> the Society, called on the Secretary, who, at his<br /> desire, wrote to Judge Parry in the following<br /> terms :—<br /> <br /> THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS,<br /> Mareh 20th, 1903,<br /> <br /> DEAR SIR,—<br /> <br /> I have now perused your affidavit. I have also<br /> seen Mr, Gollancz, who has given me his view of the<br /> position. :<br /> <br /> Mr. Gollanez has asked me to put this offer before you—<br /> but without prejudice to his legal position if you do not<br /> accept it—that either I should endeavour to arrange the<br /> matter between you, or he is willing to abide absolutely by<br /> any decision come to by an arbitrator appointed by the<br /> Committee of Management of the Society.......<br /> <br /> Yours truly,<br /> (Signed) G. HERBERT THRING.<br /> <br /> The omitted portion of the letter is private, and<br /> does not refer to any offer.<br /> <br /> Judge Parry, in his reply, stated that any offer<br /> Mr. Gollancz desired to make must be made through<br /> the usual channels. This information was com-<br /> municated to Mr. Gollancz by the Secretary.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> PROPERTY.<br /> <br /> a<br /> Opinions on United States Copyright Law.*<br /> <br /> I.<br /> <br /> Music Booxs DrEniep ImportTATION<br /> FEBRUARY 15, 1898.<br /> <br /> I. Reprints of musical compositions are pro-<br /> hibited importation.<br /> <br /> II. The term ‘ books” in the prohibiting clause<br /> includes music books.<br /> <br /> III. Music books made up partly of copyrighted<br /> and partly of uncopyrighted compositions cannot<br /> be imported.<br /> <br /> TV. Destruction of unlawfully imported musi¢<br /> books, pursuant to rules of the Secretary of the<br /> Treasury, is legal.<br /> <br /> By the Solicitor-General.<br /> <br /> I. The Act of March 3, 1891, prohibits “ during<br /> the existence of such copyright, the importation<br /> into the United States of any book, chromo, litho-<br /> graph, or photograph so copyrighted.”<br /> <br /> Musical compositions are usually lithographed or<br /> set from type. They thus fall within the class<br /> prohibited. The act indicates an intent to pro-<br /> hibit copyrighted compositions, which includes<br /> musical compositions, when reprinted by type set<br /> or by drawings on stone made outside of the<br /> United States.<br /> <br /> Il. In the clause prohibiting importation, the<br /> word “books” signifies the mechanical means to<br /> place the author’s intellectual work in_ saleable<br /> shape. Courts have construed “books” in this<br /> sense to include a musical composition though on<br /> but one sheet. The reprint may be a book, a<br /> lithograph, or a photograph, according to the pro-<br /> cess. In any of these forms the reprint cannot be<br /> imported during the life of the copyright.<br /> <br /> III. Music books made up in part of copy-<br /> righted compositions are prohibited. A prohibited -<br /> article cannot be admitted by being attached to an<br /> article which is not prohibited. A book is an<br /> entity. If part is not admissible, it must all be<br /> excluded.<br /> <br /> IV. Under the convention with Canada pro-<br /> viding for the reciprocal return of mail matter<br /> which is “not delivered from any cause,” books<br /> imported in violation of law need not be returned.<br /> The Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster-<br /> General have power ($4958, R. 8.) to make rules<br /> to prevent importation of prohibited articles.<br /> Under this general authority rules for the forfeiture<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Extracts from a pamphlet published by the Americam<br /> Publishers’ Copyright League.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> and destruction of prohibited articles unlawfully<br /> imported may be framed so as to provide “ due<br /> process of law.”<br /> <br /> II.<br /> DrRaMatic RIGHTS IN AMERICA JUNE 80, 1896.<br /> <br /> An unpublished drama need not be copyrighted<br /> to protect stage-rights.<br /> <br /> By Mr. Rives.*<br /> <br /> An American publisher is requested by an Eng-<br /> lish author ‘‘to copyright a dramatisation” of a<br /> forthcoming story by producing a simultaneous<br /> technical performance.<br /> <br /> In the United States stage-right rests entirely<br /> on common law right of property, not upon<br /> statute. An unpublished play is protected. The<br /> play is still unpublished if the text of the drama<br /> has not been printed, although the play has been<br /> produced on the stage and the novel from which it<br /> is taken has been published.<br /> <br /> The simultaneous performance desired is un-<br /> necessary to protect the stage-right.<br /> <br /> II.<br /> <br /> Notice oF CopyricuHt; Form or<br /> 1897.<br /> <br /> Marcu 4,<br /> <br /> When a story, published in a magazine and<br /> copyrighted, is reprinted in book form by another<br /> publisher, under an assignment of the copyright,<br /> the notice therein should give the date of the<br /> original copyright and name of the original<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> By Mr, Rives.<br /> <br /> A story was copyrighted by the J. B. Lippincott<br /> Company when published in its magazine. The<br /> copyright was assigned to Dodd, Mead &amp; Company,<br /> who are about to publish the story in book form,<br /> and who inquire as to the proper form for the notice<br /> of copyright.<br /> <br /> The law requires a notice to be printed in every<br /> book in order to entitle it to protection under its<br /> coypright. The notice must be in the required<br /> words, Congress declares it must give ‘the year<br /> the copyright was entered and the name of the<br /> party by whom it was taken out.” If the story is<br /> reprinted in the same form the notice should be<br /> “ Copyright, 1896, by J. P. Lippincott Company.”<br /> If it is not to be published in exactly the same<br /> form as in the magazine it may be copyrighted as a<br /> new edition, and the notice should be “ Copyright,<br /> 1896, by J. P. Lippincott Company ; Copyright,<br /> 1897, by Dodd, Mead &amp; Company.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * My. Rives is the Counsel to the League.<br /> <br /> hd<br /> oe<br /> Or<br /> <br /> IV<br /> <br /> RE-BINDING CHEAP Eprrions ror SALE<br /> APRIL 3, 1899,<br /> <br /> Can the owner of a copyright, who sells a<br /> cheap edition of the book, prevent its being put in<br /> another cover, so as to compete at lower prices with<br /> a better edition of the same book ?<br /> <br /> By Mr. Rives.<br /> <br /> The question of how far the owner of a copy -<br /> right can impose restrictions upon the use of his<br /> book has often been before the Courts. The ques-<br /> tion seems to depend on the consideration whether<br /> the owner of the copyright has sold the book. If<br /> the owner of the copyright has nof sold the book he<br /> can restrict its use. So in case of an edition of<br /> Blaine’s “Twenty Years in Congress,” the<br /> publisher had not sold it to canvassing agents and<br /> the bookseller, who got a few copies, knowing of<br /> the agreement under which the agents got the<br /> book, was restrained. But the moment the book<br /> is sold, even though conditions are attached to the<br /> sale, the owner of the copyright must rely on his<br /> remedy for breach of contract, and not on his right<br /> to restrain an infringement of copyright.<br /> <br /> So, where books damaged by fire were sold toa<br /> dealer on condition “that all books be sold as<br /> paper stock only and not placed on the market as<br /> anything else,” but the books were rebound and<br /> put on sale, the Court held the remedy was not for<br /> violation of the copyright, but of the terms of the<br /> contract.<br /> <br /> The question next arises how far an owner of a<br /> copyright who se//s his books can protect himself<br /> by imposing conditions on their use. I think an<br /> agreement by which a dealer undertakes, for an<br /> expressed consideration, to sell the books only in a<br /> certain form would, be valid and enforceable as a<br /> contract ; without reference to any copyright.<br /> <br /> A greater difficulty arises with respect to the<br /> one to whom the first purchaser may sell. The<br /> contract might also provide that the first purchaser<br /> should insert similar conditions in any contract of<br /> sale with a subsequent purchaser. How far a con-<br /> tract between B. and C., made for the benefit of A.,<br /> is enforceable by A., is hard to say. The rule<br /> varies in different States, but usually A. would have<br /> no remedy against C.<br /> <br /> I advise, the safest course is for the publisher to<br /> have a carefully drawn agreement with the dealer<br /> providing that the dealer shall not dispose of the<br /> books except in proper covers ; and also that in<br /> selling to other dealers the original purchaser shall<br /> agree to impose the same condition ; and that any<br /> breach shall be compensated by liquidated damages.<br /> It would also be well to print a notice in each copy<br /> of the book referring to the original contract.<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 236<br /> <br /> Such contract should be enforced against the first<br /> purchaser, and he might be trusted to enforce it<br /> against the dealers to whom he sold.<br /> <br /> Vv.<br /> <br /> PUBLICATION TO SECURE COPYRIGHT<br /> OcToBER 30, 1901.<br /> <br /> Is publication of a book necessary to secure<br /> copyright ?<br /> <br /> ae By Mr. Rives.<br /> <br /> The text of the statute is silent on this point.<br /> The act, however, assumes that every copyrighted<br /> book is to be published. Copies of the book must<br /> be deposited “not later than the day of publica-<br /> tion.” No action for infringement can be brought<br /> unless a notice is printed in the “ copies of every<br /> edition published.’ The question is what the<br /> Court will infer from this language. In “ Drone<br /> on Copyright,” it is said that “ publication is made<br /> an essential prerequisite to securing copyright ; and<br /> hence there can be no statutory copyright in an un-<br /> published work.” The case of Boucicault v. Hart<br /> (Circuit Court of the United States in New York)<br /> held that a mere filing of title conferred no rights,<br /> unless there was a publication in a reasonable time.<br /> There is, however, a dictum in the case of Farmer<br /> vy. Calvert (Circuit Court in Michigan) that publi-<br /> cation 1s not necessary. The point, therefore, is<br /> somewhat doutbful. ‘he Constitution empowers<br /> Congress to pass copyright laws, not only to pro-<br /> tect authors, but (as it declares) ‘to promote the<br /> progress of science and useful arts,” or, in other<br /> words, to encourage the diffusion of knowledge.<br /> Part of the price an author pays for protection is<br /> that his work shall be available for consultation by<br /> all who desire it.<br /> <br /> I am, therefore, of the opinion that the purpose<br /> of the law is that the author shall, within some<br /> reasonable time, make his work public.<br /> <br /> As the question is not definitely settled, I should<br /> consider it unwise for a publisher to defer actual<br /> publication for a long time, as it would be running<br /> a serious risk of having his copyright declared<br /> invalid if he afterwards tried to prevent an<br /> infringement. ®<br /> <br /> ———+—<br /> <br /> A Curious ‘Case.<br /> <br /> In the autumn of 1902 a member of the Society<br /> received a communication from a firm of the name<br /> of Messrs, J. E. Stannard &amp; Co., calling itself<br /> advertising agents aad contractors, offering to<br /> procure the copyright of certain of her books in<br /> America, for a fixed price. As, however, the books<br /> <br /> had already been published in England the author<br /> _ was advised that this would be impossible.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The contractors, however, were not to be beaten<br /> and claimed that they had a method of obtaining<br /> protection, although the work had already been<br /> published in England. They promised great things<br /> from the circulation of the book and offered to<br /> obtain the control of the whole American market.<br /> <br /> Still the author hesitated, but finally, under the<br /> advice of the Secretary of the Society, refused to<br /> accept the offer. The Secretary pointed out that<br /> as the American copyright was lost, it would be<br /> much better for her to deal with her former<br /> American publishers —an old-established and<br /> reliable firm—if she desired to test the American<br /> market. Her English publishers gave her the same<br /> advice. Still Messrs. Stannard &amp; Co. were per-<br /> sistent, “ considering that it must be disheartening<br /> to theauthor to feel that rights worth somethousands<br /> of pounds might slip away at any moment.” Again,<br /> in a letter dated October Ist, 1902, they state as<br /> follows :—<br /> <br /> “We think it decidedly unfair that after we have taken<br /> the trouble to do for you what neither of your ‘ firms of<br /> standing’ ever thought of doing, that is, telling you how<br /> to rescue what you have lost, you straightway go and turn<br /> over the information to someone else. We could have<br /> secured the copyrights ourselves and no one would have<br /> blamed us for so doing, instead of which we offered to get<br /> them for you. Our clients learn to rely on us for straight-<br /> forwardness, and it is natural that we should expect the<br /> same in return. We should be pleased to hear from you in<br /> due course. We are tempted with an offer which would<br /> amply recoup us for our trouble, but as it would not be any<br /> <br /> to your advantage if we accepted it we have postponed the<br /> reply until you come to a decision.”<br /> <br /> The author was still obdurate.<br /> In a letter from Messrs. Stannard &amp; Co., dated<br /> October 24th, we find the following paragraphs :—<br /> <br /> ‘Since we are not in business as philanthropists we have<br /> advised our American manager by this mail to secure copy-<br /> rights of your books if possible, and retain them in our<br /> name.<br /> <br /> “Failing this, he is to issue a par. to the American<br /> Literary Press that the American Literary Copyrights are<br /> not secured.<br /> <br /> “ Since respectability does not enter into the methods of<br /> American business men, we have no doubt that this will<br /> <br /> have the desired effect, and if some cute American publisher .<br /> <br /> copyrights the works in his own name and prevents you<br /> from issuing them in the U.S.A. you cannot say that timely<br /> warning was not given you.<br /> <br /> ‘* As we have pointed out before, the copyrights are worth<br /> as much to us as they are to you. If we get them, the law<br /> is with us. Under no circumstances will we sign your<br /> publisher’s agreement, and unless you are willing to agree<br /> to the terms stated in our agreement we must follow our<br /> own course in the matter.<br /> <br /> “A cablegram (prepaid) will be the only course open<br /> if you wish our American manager to await further<br /> instructions.<br /> <br /> “Since much valuable time has been wasted, we must<br /> ask for a final decision at your earliest convenience.”<br /> <br /> The daring of the gentleman who writes for the<br /> <br /> firm is interesting quite apart from his legal know-<br /> <br /> ledge, which is peculiar, It is abundantly clear<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 /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 237<br /> <br /> to those who have any knowledge of American<br /> Copyright Law that if any person actually obtains<br /> copyright in America without the English author’s<br /> sanction, he must be taking that which does not<br /> belong to him—that is to say, supposing the pub-<br /> lication in both countries to be simultaneous. If<br /> he does not obtain the author’s copyright, but<br /> merely publishes on the American market, he is<br /> only acting as a common but legalised pirate,<br /> <br /> On the 21st of January of the present year,<br /> Messrs. Lane and Stannard, presumably repre-<br /> senting the same firm in the United States,<br /> wrote as follows from New York :—<br /> <br /> “Re the U.S.A. copyrights of your books. We beg to<br /> inform you.that they have been secured in accordance with<br /> the law, and should therefore be pleased to hear from you<br /> with respect to the publishing of the same in this country.<br /> <br /> “As the general publishing price in this country is<br /> $1.50, and the wholesaler’s price but half that amount,<br /> it isnot possible to import an edition and sell at a profit, as<br /> there is a duty of 45 per cent. on imported books. Taking<br /> your offer of two shillings and sixpence (or 60 cents) per<br /> volume, and adding the cost of freight and duty, you<br /> will see that the importing cost would be at least $1 per<br /> volume, and therefore cannot be entertained as a business<br /> proposition.<br /> <br /> “Weare willing and ready to deal with you on equitable<br /> terms for the printing and publishing here, and offer and<br /> require similar terms given to your publishers in England,<br /> with exceptions which you will note in the enclosed<br /> agreement. Under these terms you can have full control<br /> over the MSS., and the books can go to press exactly as<br /> written, which I understand you keenly desire.<br /> <br /> “We wish you to understand, however, that unless they<br /> are purchased by you, the copyrights will remain in our<br /> possession, and we reserve the right, if you refuse our offer,<br /> to sell to an American publishing firm, without stipulation<br /> as to the editing of the MSS. Should, however, you desire<br /> to purchase, your offer would receive premier consideration.<br /> <br /> “In case you accept our offer to publish, the books will<br /> be issued by a New York firm, and will be advertised widely<br /> but economically. Please cable your reply on or before<br /> February 5th, as after that date we shall conclude that you<br /> refuse our offer and shall feel at liberty to conclude negotia-<br /> tions with a firm here for the sale of copyrights with the<br /> privilege of editing the MSS. as they desire.<br /> <br /> ‘‘We must warn you that any further shipments of your<br /> English edition to this country will be liable to be seized<br /> and confiscated, but we will, of course, allow you reasonable<br /> time to warn your publishers and agents.”<br /> <br /> The agreement that they asked the author to<br /> sign is interesting and instructive. There are<br /> three books in question: 25,000 copies of two<br /> of the books are to be published, and 50,000 of the<br /> third. The author agrees to pay all expenses of<br /> printing and publishing, including illustrating,<br /> binding, packing, freights, etc., and also one-half<br /> of the total cost of efficiently advertising the said<br /> books, No limit is fixed for the cost of production<br /> or for the advertisements, and the author has to<br /> deposit in cash a sum equal to the estimated cost<br /> of production and in addition a sum equal to the<br /> estimated initial cost of advertising with the Trust<br /> Company of the City of New York. Such deposit<br /> <br /> to be subject only to the draft or cheque of the said<br /> firm on the certification of such bills of indebtedness<br /> by the author if residing in New York, or in her<br /> absence by her legally appointed representatives.<br /> Should, however, bills or accounts as above stated<br /> be presented for certification and no action taken<br /> on the same within seven days, then the said bank<br /> or Trust Company is hereby authorised to pay such<br /> cheques or drafts out of the aforesaid deposits on<br /> receiving an affidavit by the said firm setting forth<br /> such default or negligence. And lastly, in con-<br /> sideration of the above articles being faithfully<br /> performed and carried out, the said firm agree to<br /> pay half profits.<br /> <br /> It is hardly necessary to make any comment on<br /> the above extraordinary agreement or upon the<br /> proposals made during the course of negotiations.<br /> The facts speak for themselves,<br /> <br /> Although the first letters were full of large<br /> promises of profits of all kinds to the author, yet<br /> the last offer is quite distinct. It is possible that<br /> the author might have been led away by the<br /> temptation held out of large returns arising from<br /> obtaining copyright in the United States, but no<br /> author, however unaccustomed to the ways and<br /> methods of publishers and their dealings in literary<br /> wares, could possibly be deceived by the final letter<br /> and the finalagreement. Nothing farther remains<br /> to be done. The author must stand and wait. If<br /> the books are produced in the United States, they<br /> are pirated copies of the English edition. If they<br /> are produced as copyright, under the American<br /> law, the firm will be subject to severe penalties,<br /> and if the books are produced as an authorised<br /> edition, the author’s remedy is to make the whole<br /> case public,<br /> <br /> G. HE.<br /> <br /> “FAIR COMMENT.”<br /> <br /> — oe<br /> <br /> HE Court of Appeal has now given its<br /> judgment in the case of McQuire v. The<br /> Western Morning News Company, Limited.<br /> <br /> The case is a very interesting one, not only from<br /> the point of view of the dramatist, but from the<br /> point of view of the author. All members of the<br /> profession of literature are subject to criticism.<br /> Although each particular case of “unfair com-<br /> ment’? must be to a certain extent decided on its<br /> own especial facts, yet there are certain broad<br /> rules which the Court lays down in order to<br /> determine on what lines and to what extent a<br /> criticism may be libellous.<br /> <br /> The case was brought by an actor who repre-<br /> sented a piece at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth,<br />  <br /> <br /> 238<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> and objected to the comment that appeared next<br /> day in the Western Morning News.<br /> <br /> In the Court of first instance judgment was<br /> given for the plaintiff with £100 damages. The<br /> defendant company pleading that the words were<br /> not libellous, but fair and bond fide criticism on a<br /> matter of public interest.<br /> <br /> The defendants appealed, and on the appeal the<br /> judgment in the Court below was reversed,<br /> <br /> The Master of the Rolls, in delivering an<br /> elaborate judgment, made some very weighty com-<br /> ments on the law of “ libellous criticism.”<br /> <br /> Firstly, as the libel complained of was a dramatic<br /> criticism of the play publicly acted, unless it<br /> exceeded “fair comment,” it could not be counted<br /> as libellous.<br /> <br /> After going carefully over the statements of the<br /> plaintiff and defendants, he proceeded to raise the<br /> most important question of what are the limits of<br /> “ fair comment.”<br /> <br /> “ One thing,” he said, “is perfectly clear. That<br /> the jury have no right to substitute their own<br /> opinion of the literary merits of the work for that<br /> of the critic, or to try the fairness of the criticism<br /> by. any such standard.”<br /> <br /> This point is most important, and although it<br /> has been made before, yet it cannot be sufficiently<br /> insisted upon. If the verdict of whether the<br /> criticism was fair or not depended upon the jury’s<br /> verdict of the merits of the piece, the result might<br /> be in a good many cases extraordinary. Authors<br /> and dramatists know but too well how even the<br /> highest critics have been known to disagree when<br /> writing about or discussing the features of works<br /> of art.<br /> <br /> Secondly, the Master of the Rolls quoted a<br /> saying of Lord Ellenborough’s bearing on this<br /> subject :—<br /> <br /> “The Commentator must not step aside from<br /> the work or introduce fiction for the purpose of<br /> condemnation. Had the party writing the criti-<br /> cism followed the plaintiff into domestic life for<br /> the purpose of slander, that would have been<br /> libellous.”<br /> <br /> And again, from the same judgment, “ Show me<br /> an attack upon the moral character of the plaintiff,<br /> or upon his character unconnected with his author-<br /> ship, and I shall be as ready as any judge that ever<br /> sat here to protect him.”<br /> <br /> Lastly, he states, “I think the word ‘ fair’<br /> embraces the meaning of honest and also of rele-<br /> vancy.” And later, “‘ The comment, in order to be<br /> within the protection of the privilege, had to be<br /> fair, 7.¢., not such as to disclose in itself actual<br /> malice. It also had to be relevant; otherwise it<br /> never was within it. And the judge could hold,<br /> <br /> as a matter of law, that the privilege did not extend<br /> to it.’<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> These are some of the general points, and in<br /> this particular case the Master of the Rolls stated<br /> that he was clearly of opinion that the verdict was<br /> against the weight of evidence, and that he con-<br /> sidered the latter part of the summing-up of the<br /> judge in the Court of first instance might have led<br /> the jury to apply the standard of their own taste<br /> to the appreciation of the thing criticised, and to<br /> measure the rights of the critic accordingly.<br /> <br /> Members of the Society from time to time come<br /> to the office with questions of this kind, and it is<br /> very useful to put before them those fundamental<br /> facts on which alone an action for libellous criti-<br /> cism will rest.<br /> <br /> G. Hoo.<br /> <br /> —$-—&lt;—-—____<br /> <br /> A COMMA AND A COW.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> PWHE British Medical Journal of the 28th of<br /> March, 1903, had an interesting account of<br /> a dairy visited during an investigation into<br /> “The Milk Supply of Large Towns.” One of the<br /> incidents was described as follows :—<br /> <br /> “The driver having finished milking, his cow<br /> offered to take me into an adjoining room, where<br /> the milk was cooled.”<br /> <br /> In its following issue the British Medical Journal<br /> commented upon the freak of the “ devil” who had<br /> thus with the aid of a comma created a bovine<br /> successor to Balaam’s ass, and gave two amusing<br /> instances of the powers of misplaced punctuation.<br /> In the one a well-known Nonconformist divine,<br /> wishing to disclaim any ambition to appear in the<br /> black coat and white tie, or stock, of orthodoxy, was<br /> credited with a public declaration that he would<br /> “wear no clothes, to distinguish him from his<br /> fellow-Christians.”<br /> <br /> In the other, a Canadian firm having placed a<br /> new patent nursing-bottle on the market, accom-<br /> panied it with these recommendations, for the<br /> guidance of anxious mothers:<br /> <br /> “When the baby is done drinking it must be<br /> unscrewed, and laid in a cool place under a tap.<br /> If the baby does not thrive on fresh milk it should<br /> be boiled.”<br /> <br /> The last example would seem to require some-<br /> thing more than the minding of stops, in order to<br /> satisfy a critical literary taste. It is not, however,<br /> recorded that any baby suffered. In such a case<br /> an interesting question of legal responsibility might<br /> have been raised by an action for negligence against<br /> the vendors of the bottle brought by a chilled or<br /> par-boiled infant suing through his or her “next<br /> friend.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<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. 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 /> II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement),<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> C.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (.) 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 /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher,<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> Ill. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> It is above all things necessary to know what the<br /> proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now possible<br /> for an author to ascertain approximately and very nearly<br /> the truth. From time to time the very important figures<br /> connected with royalties are published in Zhe Author,<br /> Readers can also work out the figures themselves from the<br /> ** Cost of Production,”<br /> <br /> IY. 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 /> C1.) 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 /> o—~&lt;&gt;—<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> —&lt; +<br /> <br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> <br /> 2. [t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,;<br /> <br /> 239<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for PLAYS<br /> <br /> IN THREE OR MORE ACTs :<br /> <br /> (a.) SALE OUTRIGHT OF THE PERFORMING RIGHT,<br /> <br /> This is unsatisfactory, An author who enters<br /> <br /> into such a contract should stipulate in the con-<br /> <br /> tract for production of the piece by a certaindate<br /> <br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (b.) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br /> TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF PERCENTAGES<br /> on gross receipts. Percentages vary between<br /> 5 and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢.) SALE OF PERFORMING RIGHT OR OF A LICENCE<br /> TO PERFORM ON THE BASIS OF ROYALTIES (e.,<br /> fixed nightly fees). This method should be<br /> always avoided except in cases where the fees<br /> are likely to be small or dificult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4. PLAYS IN ONE ACT are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event, It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved,<br /> <br /> 5. 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 /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance. :<br /> <br /> 7, 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 /> 8. Never forget that AMERICAN RIGHTS may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<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, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<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 INFORMA«#<br /> TION ARE REFERRED TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> &amp;—~&lt;}P— —<br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> <br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. If the<br /> advice sought is such as can be given best by a solicitor<br /> the member has a right to an opinion from the Society’s<br /> solicitors. If the case is such that Counsel’s opinion is<br /> desirable, the Committee will obtain for him Counsel’s<br /> opinion, All this without any cost to the member,<br /> <br /> bs Ly VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 240<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ 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 a copy of the book 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<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of literature in promoting the<br /> independence of the writer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements,<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts submitted to them by literary<br /> agents, and are recommended to submit them for inter-<br /> pretation and explanation to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> .8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so do<br /> some publishers. Members can make their own deductions<br /> and act accordingly.<br /> <br /> —_—_+—&gt;_ +—___—_—_<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> — to<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach, The term<br /> JISS. includes NOT ONLY WORKS OF FICTION, BUT POETRY<br /> AND DRAMATIC WORKS, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea.<br /> <br /> ————_——__.——_o—_____<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ———&gt;+<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s, 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Communieations for Zhe Author should be addressed to<br /> the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor NOT LATER<br /> THAN THE 21st 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 /> i<br /> <br /> COMMUNICATIONS AND LETTERS ARE INVITED BY THE<br /> EDITOR on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever, Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> —+— +<br /> <br /> THE SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> ge<br /> <br /> R. G. H. PUTNAM, the Secretary of the<br /> American Publishers’ Copyright League,<br /> has forwarded to the offices a pamphlet<br /> <br /> privately printed for the League, entitled “ Opinions<br /> on Questions of Copyright.”<br /> <br /> The pamphlet contains opinions upon the more<br /> important issues that have been in dispute during<br /> the last ten years ending December, 1902. Mr.<br /> Putnam, in his letter to the Secretary, states, ‘he<br /> will be very pleased to meet any special require-<br /> ments that may arise for copies on the part of the<br /> managers of the Society.”<br /> <br /> If, therefore, any member for a special purpose<br /> should desire to have a copy of the pamphlet he is<br /> requested to communicate with the Secretary, who<br /> will, no doubt, under Mr, Putnam’s favour, obtain<br /> the work in question.<br /> <br /> We see, with interest, that the Publishers’ Asso-<br /> ciation of America means to print at different<br /> intervals further similar summaries as they are able<br /> to secure records of decisions on Copyright Cases.<br /> These publications will in time no doubt grow to<br /> great importance, as it will be possible in a handy<br /> form to have a collection of all the leading Copy-<br /> right Cases. We thank Mr. Putnam for his<br /> courtesy and consideration.<br /> <br /> Amone@ the Correspondence we print a letter<br /> from Mr. Thomas Hardy.<br /> <br /> It comes at a very suitable time, as the same<br /> subject was treated in the May number of The<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> Author, on page 206, when comment was made on<br /> the Annual Meeting of the Publishers’ Association,<br /> In that article we stated as follows :—<br /> <br /> “ Firstly, we have insisted, and now insist again,<br /> that it is absolutely essential that contracts deal-<br /> ing with the subject of serial rights should be<br /> clear and limited and should not be general or<br /> indefinite, and when serial rights are sold they<br /> should be sold either to one paper or to a limited<br /> circle of papers for one issue only or for a limited<br /> time.”<br /> <br /> Unfortunately, Mr. Hardy seems to have<br /> suffered from a complaint which is not infrequent<br /> among authors, the revival of an earlier work<br /> without any reference to the author. Legally, the<br /> position is quite correct. If the copyright has<br /> been sold or if serial rights without any limitation<br /> have been transferred, the position is often very<br /> unsatisfactory both for the author, or, as in the<br /> case quoted in the May number, for the publisher.<br /> It is necessary to warn authors who publish serial<br /> work to be careful about their agreements.<br /> <br /> In the early days of the past month the papers<br /> were full of the Stock Exchange walk from London<br /> to Brighton, and applauded the fact vociferously<br /> that out of some 90 starters 72 covered the<br /> distance under thirteen hours. From a physical<br /> point of view no doubt the result is highly satis-<br /> factory. : : :<br /> <br /> In the American Author there is an interesting<br /> article on the mental activity of authors. Mr. John<br /> Swinton, “journalist, orator, and economist,” was<br /> desired to write a novel based on certain economical<br /> questions, consisting of 500 octavo pages, small<br /> pica type, in twenty days. Reckoning a page to<br /> contain about 250 words, this meant a book of<br /> 125,000 words. Mr. Swinton objected, but the<br /> representative of the publishing firm was<br /> inexorable, and at last the author stated that<br /> he would make an effort. His own words are<br /> as follows :—<br /> <br /> “He demanded the preface of my book at once. I<br /> pondered. I was familiar with the subject, having thought<br /> and spoken and written much upon it in other years. I<br /> hastily sketched a plan as I talked with him.<br /> <br /> ‘“‘He said he would wait in the house till I had written<br /> the preface, which he desired to take to Philadelphia that<br /> evening. Becoming desperate under his urging eye, I sat<br /> down, and in an hour gave him the preface. The first<br /> chapter was mailed in a few days. Chapter followed<br /> chapter. I worked day and night, keeping up pluck with<br /> never-ending pots of coffee. Three hundred of the five<br /> hundred pages were written, and time was nearly up. I<br /> padded. I put in things I had formerly written. The<br /> twenty days were out, and over one hundred pages were<br /> yet needed. I had to get a few days of grace. Finally the<br /> book of 500 pages and 125,000 words was finished. Its<br /> title is ‘Striking for Life,’ ”’<br /> <br /> This was certainly fine mental athletics, but the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 241<br /> <br /> article goes on to quote from another American<br /> periodical, the Bookman, a few facts which have<br /> no doubt been fully verified by the writer.<br /> <br /> For instance—Frank Norris wrote 125,000 words<br /> in 89 days. Mrs. Oliphant always wrote at night,<br /> and more than once completed a three volume<br /> novel in six weeks. The following interesting<br /> statements about English authors, from the same<br /> article, may come as a surprise to some :—<br /> <br /> ““Weyman writes one novel a year, and cannot be per-<br /> suaded to attempt more. It took Hall Caine three years to<br /> write ‘The Manxman,’ Barrie four to write ‘ Sentimental<br /> Tommy,’ and four more to produce ‘Tommy and Grizel.’<br /> Maurice Hewlett wrote ‘The Forest Lovers’ four times<br /> before he was willing to let it go from his hands, and the<br /> late Bret Harte tore up a dozen pages of manuscript for<br /> every one that he completed. Harold Frederic was five<br /> years writing ‘The Damnation of Theron Ware. ”<br /> <br /> But for sound mental athletics, consider gravely<br /> an offer made by a certain well-known publisher to<br /> a gentleman, whom he desired to employ to grind<br /> out fiction. This offer was quoted in’ the April<br /> number of Zhe Author, and is absolutely authentic.<br /> The serial writer was to have £600 a year. To<br /> earn this money he would have to produce 5,000<br /> words a day for six days a week, without any<br /> provision for sickness or holidays. It will be seen<br /> that work under this offer comes nearly up to that<br /> of Mr. Swinton, but has to be continued year in<br /> and year out, until the publisher, the public, and<br /> the author are tired, and the last, a useless wreck,<br /> loses his position.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In the American Critic an article entitled<br /> “Uncertainties of Literature,” written by Elliot<br /> Flower, follows the same lines as the articles that<br /> appeared in the February and March (1902) num-<br /> bers of Zhe Author, on “Some Free Lance Expe-<br /> riences.”<br /> <br /> In reading the record it would appear that the<br /> struggling ree Lance meets with much the same<br /> treatment on both sides of the water. The record<br /> is tabulated.<br /> <br /> Out of 53 MSS., each MS. had to be sent on<br /> its travels on an average slightly over five times<br /> before it could be placed. Nine were accepted at<br /> once, and 12 on a second trial, but at the other<br /> end of the scale, one was sent out 30 times before<br /> acceptance, one 18 times, and two 13 times.<br /> <br /> There is no doubt that when an author has<br /> reached a certain point of facility in writing there<br /> is nothing like persistence to bring success.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Tux following rhyme, written, perchance, with a<br /> view to ridicule, has been dropped into the Society’s<br /> post bag.<br /> <br /> We print it for what it is worth, in the hope that<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 249<br /> <br /> the author will put aside his cloak of modesty and<br /> discover himself.<br /> <br /> No doubt, he calls it an epigram. If so, he<br /> would, we feel sure, be a proper inmate for one of<br /> those beautiful and sanitary buildings that adorn<br /> the hills of Surrey and Sussex.<br /> <br /> To tHE Society of AUTHORS, 39, QUEEN STREET,<br /> SrorEY’s GATE.<br /> You flourish on Authors’ alarms ;<br /> You arouse the unfriendly in Man ;<br /> Then you sell healing balms,<br /> To stifle their qualms,<br /> At the cost of One Guinea per ann.<br /> <br /> But pause for a moment, I pray,<br /> A pen stroke :—your ruin is clear,<br /> From the Street that is clean,<br /> With the name of the QUEEN,<br /> To the street that is doubtful and QUEER.<br /> <br /> ee &lt;&gt;<br /> <br /> THE LYTTON CENTENARY.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> HE Lytton centenary has produced the<br /> ordinary crop of commemorative articles, the<br /> best being Mr. Francis Gribble’s paper in<br /> <br /> the Fortnightly Review, and the more sober appre-<br /> ciation in Blackwood’s Magazine. Of these two<br /> papers we think the latter has the greater value as<br /> criticism, for Mr. Gribble’s virile intolerance of any-<br /> thing savouring of affectation prompts him to con-<br /> vey the suggestion, though he does not actually<br /> formulate the charge, that Lytton’s vapourings<br /> about the Beautiful and the True originated in<br /> preciousness ” and were therefore insincere, and<br /> his resentment of the seeming insincerity prompts<br /> him to do scant justice to Lytton’s compensating<br /> merits.<br /> <br /> With the intolerance of affectation we are in full<br /> sympathy, but we do not endorse the very common<br /> opinion that Lytton was insincere. He was despe-<br /> rately in earnest, ever painfully conscious of his<br /> “mission”; he had indeed that high seriousness<br /> which, according to Matthew Arnold, comes from<br /> absolute sincerity. With it, too, he had a sense of<br /> humour ; “ Kenelm Chillingly” proves that, even<br /> as it proves its author’s funereal gravity and fathom-<br /> less sentimentality. And with those two qualifica-<br /> tions, high seriousness and humour, it is odds but<br /> what any man will go far. The mistake Lytton<br /> made was in allowing his mission to get in the<br /> way of his art. “In forming his conception,”<br /> <br /> Mr. Worsfold says, “the artist should be guided<br /> by the test of ‘great ideas ’; in executing his con-<br /> ception he must be guided by the ‘rules of art,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> He, on the one hand, can never be, by the nature<br /> of things, so independent of the mass of mankind<br /> as to make artistic excellence his sole object; on<br /> the other, moral worth, however distinctive, can<br /> never of itself suffice to endow his work with the<br /> characteristic charm of art.” Lytton’s moral inten-<br /> tions were above suspicion, and his literary facility<br /> was so extraordinary that it is not surprising that<br /> he neglected the rules of art when, without them, he<br /> could achieve such an extraordinary vogue as he<br /> did at once.<br /> <br /> The measure of success that was meted out to<br /> him might well, indeed, have turned the brain of a<br /> much more robust man, and the wonder is, not<br /> that he enjoyed such a vogue in the earlier part of<br /> his career, but that he was not spoiled by it and<br /> wholly incapacitated for doing the much better<br /> work that he actually produced in the latter half<br /> of his career.<br /> <br /> Whether Lytton was a great artist or not is a<br /> question little likely to be brought up for discussion<br /> now ; the centenary merely offers opportunity for<br /> reconsidering him as a writer at the expiration of<br /> a given period. What he wrote, he wrote ; some<br /> of it suited and has been accepted ; “and that’s<br /> success.” ‘To describe him in a single epithet is<br /> not possible, but the epigrammatic criticism passed<br /> upon him by a writer in the Academy is pro-<br /> bably as fair a one as could be devised : that he<br /> was so full of talent that there was no room left in<br /> him for genius. That his bicentenary will be com-<br /> memorated, and those books which are read now<br /> be read a hundred years hence, may, we think, be<br /> assumed ; and of many a better writer so much<br /> could not be said.<br /> <br /> Or<br /> <br /> THE DISTRIBUTION OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> (Reprinted by kind permission from the Publishers’<br /> Circular, May 2nd.)<br /> <br /> R. ANDREW LANG has been “ pitching<br /> in” to the booksellers in the Morning<br /> Post—or, what is much the same thing,<br /> <br /> he has borrowed the stick of a “ trenchant critic ”<br /> who writes in 7’e Author and re-applied it—with<br /> reservations. He lets his “author” point the<br /> moral, and then he adorns the tail, with another<br /> sting of the stick.<br /> <br /> «The bookseller’s affair is,” he says, “to know<br /> about books and men. My author, however,<br /> ‘believes that it is nearly impossible to exaggerate<br /> the lethargy and incapacity of the ordinary retail<br /> bookseller.” Mr. Lang kindly adds: “These be<br /> very brave words ; I should hesitate to apply them<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> PohCenSORNRRI<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> to his Majesty’s ministers, much more to the<br /> ordinary retail bookseller.” Then why, Mr. Lang,<br /> did you not hesitate before-taking such an unfair<br /> statement out of its coffin and publishing it to the<br /> world ?—it would have remained stillborn had you<br /> not godfathered it. ‘“ ‘The habit of reading,’ says<br /> my author, ‘is being all over the country dis-<br /> couraged by the insutficiency of the vast majority<br /> of booksellers.’” Mr. Lang quotes this silly libel,<br /> and adds that he deems it “ much too sweeping.”<br /> How much ?<br /> <br /> “*The country,’ says my author ferociously,<br /> ‘would be benefited by the bankruptcy of the<br /> <br /> whole lot of booksellers, and the transference of<br /> <br /> their business to more competent hands.’” Mr.<br /> Lang’s comment is: “This man _ has suffered<br /> much.” How much? Anyone would think the<br /> whole of the booksellers of the United Kingdom<br /> had united to offend him by refusing to stock his<br /> works, but all we are told is that some unnamed<br /> “suburban bookseller” failed to get him a cheap<br /> copy of Milton’s poems.<br /> <br /> “The book never came, but at the end of a<br /> fortnight the bookseller found energy enough to<br /> send a messenger to say it could not be procured.”<br /> <br /> If this cock-and-bull story were true, what<br /> ground is there in it for libelling the whole book-<br /> selling trade of the country ? Another ‘“ example,”<br /> as Mr, Lang calls it, of this man’s sufferings at the<br /> hands of the whole trade is that, despairing of<br /> getting a learned work on Egyptology from the<br /> suburban bookseller—apparently he did not even<br /> ask for it—he gives its title and the address of its<br /> publisher to a tobacconist, who at once procured it<br /> —whether the confiding tobacconist ever got paid<br /> for it we are not told. But why should Mr. Lang<br /> give credence and publicity to such a Blue Fairy<br /> story as this ? ’<br /> <br /> “The larger part of the reading public cannot<br /> get the books it desires,” says Mr. Lang’s “ tren-<br /> chant critic.” If this is trne it only goes to prove<br /> that the larger part of the public is what Carlyle<br /> said it was.<br /> <br /> How interesting it would be to have the name<br /> and address of this “author” who would like to<br /> see the whole bookselling trade made bankrupt<br /> because some apocryphal suburban bookseller could<br /> not procure for him a copy of the “ Chandos’<br /> Milton. Mr. Lang’s pen is not often dipped in<br /> disappointed author’s bile, and it is not as if he<br /> believed the charges were true; then why give<br /> currency to anonymous and unfounded abuse of<br /> the booksellers ?<br /> <br /> There are thousands of booksellers in the United<br /> Kingdom selling millions of books every year, and<br /> yet they are all condemned in this wholesale way<br /> because some nameless author says he could not<br /> get a cheap book from some unnamed bookseller.<br /> <br /> 243<br /> <br /> It is true that one or two other “examples ” are<br /> given by Mr. Lang. Some old lady in Norway<br /> wrote for Mr. Lang’s books to an Edinburgh book-<br /> seller, who gaily replied that they were all out of<br /> print. Are we to infer from the strange conduct<br /> of this prevaricating Edinburgh bookseller that<br /> Mr. Lang has no honour in his own country ?<br /> Heaven forbid! Booksellers would be the last to<br /> claim that their knowledge and methods were never<br /> at fault—but even those of authors are not perfect.<br /> <br /> o—~&lt;—<br /> <br /> HALF-PROFITS ON SHEETS TO<br /> AMERICA,<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> T may seem dull reading to the constant reader<br /> of The Author to see the repetition of certain<br /> forms of agreement, certain clauses, certain<br /> <br /> methods of publishing, accompanied with the same<br /> comments; but as long as publishers persist in<br /> bad clauses so long must Ve Author&#039;s objections<br /> persist also.<br /> <br /> There is a clause often embodied in agreements<br /> issued by the best houses in London in which the<br /> author, who does not obtain the American Copy-<br /> right, is entitled to half of the profits on the sale<br /> of sheets to America. If this clause is inserted in<br /> the usual half-profit agreement there is little to be<br /> said against it. The only points at issue, then,<br /> are, Is a profit-sharing agreement desirable? In<br /> what proportion should profits be divided between<br /> author and publisher? But if the clause is inserted<br /> in an agreement where the author is to obtain a<br /> royalty on the publication of the English edition,<br /> there are two very strong points of objection.<br /> <br /> This sale to an American house is mere agency<br /> work. If conducted through the medium of an<br /> author’s agent the latter would be highly pleased<br /> with the payment of 10 per cent. on the net result.<br /> Not so the publisher, although he is constantly<br /> crying out against the agent and his charges, It<br /> is a well-known fact—instances have often been<br /> quoted—that the publisher, although he expresses<br /> strong disapproval of the intervention of the agent<br /> who charges a modest 10 per cent., makes—when<br /> he endeavours to undertake any of the agent’s<br /> duties—a general charge of 50 per cent. The<br /> lowest percentage which has ever been seen in any<br /> agreement before the Secretary of the Society was<br /> 25 per cent. Further arguments against allowing<br /> a publisher to undertake an agent’s work need not<br /> be repeated here.<br /> <br /> The second objection rests on the fact that a<br /> clause drafted on these lines is a distinct pitfall to<br /> the author. It is a pitfall for the following<br /> reasons :—1. Because to the ordinary person the<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 244<br /> <br /> difficulties with which the clause is pregnant are<br /> altogether invisible. 2. Because the amount the<br /> author receives in royalty is always calculated—<br /> see the books of the Society on the point—on the<br /> basis that the full cost of composition is charged<br /> against the English edition. If this were not<br /> the case, the author ought to receive a higher<br /> royalty on British sales. :<br /> <br /> Let us explain what we mean more fully.<br /> <br /> ake the ordinary 6s. book :—<br /> <br /> Cost of composition of 3,000 copies ... £30 0 0<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Cost of printing ; ee 16 0 8<br /> Cost of paper a 2 58 0 0<br /> Total... ..£104 0 0<br /> <br /> Of the 3,000 copies the publisher sends 2,000 to<br /> America, and receives for the same (say) 1s. a copy<br /> £100. The cost of composition was compulsory<br /> for the completion of the English edition, the<br /> author’s royalty, as stated, being based on_ this<br /> understanding ; but the publisher takes two-thirds<br /> of this cost towards the American edition, as well<br /> as two-thirds of the cost for the print and the paper,<br /> leaving to be divided between himself and the<br /> author—<br /> <br /> By sale of 2,000 copies to America ...£100 0 0<br /> ‘Two-thirds cost of production ~ 69 6 8<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> £30 13 4<br /> <br /> As the cost of composition has no right to be<br /> charged against the American edition, but only the<br /> cost of print and paper, the difference would work<br /> out as follows :—<br /> <br /> By sale of 2,000 copies to America ...£100 0 0<br /> ‘Two-thirds cost of print and paper... 49 6 8<br /> <br /> £50 13 4<br /> <br /> Instead, therefore, of the author receiving<br /> £25 6s. 8d., by the publisher’s method of calcu-<br /> lation of half profits, the author receives<br /> £15 6s. 8d. and the publisher £35 6s. 8d. It<br /> is almost as reasonable an arrangement as the<br /> ordinary half-profit agreement, whose clauses and<br /> workings have so often been exposed in Zhe<br /> Author.<br /> <br /> To show how this method may be worked out in<br /> the interests of untrustworthy publishers unfairly to<br /> the author, say the publisher in the first instance<br /> only publishes a thousand copies. The cost of<br /> composition would still be £30; printing, £10;<br /> paper, £20. He sells 500 copies to America, and<br /> on the same principle the following sum is worked<br /> out —<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Half cost of production .. £30 0 0<br /> By sale of 500 copies to America at 1s.<br /> <br /> per copy ... one ae «=. 202 0 0<br /> <br /> £5 0.0<br /> <br /> This would leave a deficit against the author’s<br /> account of £2 10s., as the sale to America has<br /> failed to cover the cost of production.<br /> <br /> As soon as the edition is sold and the amount is<br /> worked out against the author he prints 10,000<br /> copies for the English edition, but never takes into<br /> account the proportion of the cost of production of<br /> the 500 sent to America to the 10,000 printed in<br /> England. Again, supposing you take the first<br /> instance and 20,000 were subsequently sold, the<br /> cost of the 2,000 sold to America is still taken in<br /> proportion to the cost of the 3,000 of the first<br /> edition printed, and not in proportion to the whole<br /> cost.<br /> <br /> It will be seen, therefore, that, quite apart<br /> from the contract being unfair and a pitfall<br /> to the unwary (as on the face of the agree-<br /> ment the difficulty is invisible), even if it is<br /> worked out by a publisher with an honest idea of<br /> doing nothing dishonourable, the result of its<br /> working, its natural evolution, becomes a fraud<br /> on the author, as it is impossible to calculate this<br /> sale to America on the basis of future sales. It<br /> must always be calculated upon the sales that have<br /> already been made. The position is ridiculous. It<br /> is to be hoped that the Publishers’ Association will<br /> dissociate themselves from this form of agreement.<br /> <br /> G. H. T.<br /> <br /> —_—--<br /> <br /> AUTHORS AND MODERN THRIFT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> II.—The Purchase of an Annuity.<br /> <br /> O possess an annuity is the dearest desire of a<br /> poor man’s heart. An income assured for life,<br /> against which neither the rumours of wars<br /> <br /> nor the depressions of the money market has any<br /> effect, isperhaps the most comforting of all prospects.<br /> For this reason doubtless—the immunity from finan-<br /> cial worry—the lives of annuitants extend beyond<br /> the common span. One company, in a recent report,<br /> stated that the average age of the annuitants dying<br /> during the year under review was eighty-eight.<br /> The records of other companies confirm this experi-<br /> ence, which is remarkable in view of the fact that<br /> many of the annuitants are in weak health when<br /> they effect their policies, and would not be accept-<br /> able for life insurance except at special rates.<br /> <br /> The Moral Objection is one which arises in the<br /> consideration of the annuity. It is held that as<br /> the capital invested with the company is forfeited<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> to them at the death of the assured ; that the con-<br /> tract is a peculiarly selfish one; at least this is<br /> often the opinion of near relatives. The question,<br /> however, depends wholly upon circumstance. For a<br /> married man with distracting responsibilites to<br /> sink all his available capital might very well be an<br /> unwise step. On the other hand, there area variety<br /> of situations in which to purchase an annuity might<br /> be a most prudent step, inasmuch as the annuitant<br /> is relieved immediately of all anxiety—providing<br /> the annuity is of sufficient amount—as regards<br /> his future.<br /> <br /> Annuity versus Investment—It is generally<br /> agreed by financial authorities that the highest<br /> return on money it is possible to obtain from abso-<br /> lutely secure investment is 8 per cent. he<br /> return from the annuity is much higher, varying<br /> from 5 to 20 per cent., according to age. A<br /> man of sixty would receive £30 a year from his<br /> investment of £1,000, whereas the annuity would<br /> produce him an income of £94. The difference<br /> might very well mean to him the path from penury<br /> to comfort. In consequence of the curious life-<br /> giving properties of the annuity it is regarded with<br /> disfavour by some of the insurance companies, as it<br /> is not a department which is very profitable to<br /> them. The occasional early death of an annuitant<br /> does not recompense them for the abnormally long<br /> lives on which they continue to make a high return.<br /> Another aspect of the annuity in comparing it with<br /> investments is that the return never varies. The<br /> recent depreciation in the value of Consols and<br /> certain railway stocks indicates a risk which<br /> attaches even to “ gilt-edged”’ investments.<br /> <br /> The choice of an annuity is necessarily confined<br /> to persons of capital. But the return per hundred<br /> pounds is the same as per thousand, and to persons<br /> whose income comes to them, as it were, in flashes,<br /> a few hundred pounds might very well be sunk in<br /> producing a small income which has the immense<br /> advantage of being guaranteed to them for life.<br /> The choice of an annuity, being a perfectly simple<br /> contract untroubled by side issues, is one which<br /> offers no difficulty. All the well-known British<br /> offices are absolutely safe. The object, therefore,<br /> should be to purchase the annuity in the office<br /> offering the largest return for the particular age.<br /> The returns differ far more than in ordinary<br /> insurance. For example, a man of sixty can pur-<br /> chase for £1,000 a life annuity of £94 in one<br /> office, whilst another will return him only £80 10s.<br /> The difference is over 14 per cent. Both offices<br /> are of the highest standing, but a man would be<br /> very unwise to take the latter policy when the<br /> former is obtainable. ‘The differences indicated at<br /> several ages is clearly shown in the following<br /> table. The terms quoted by the Post Office are<br /> <br /> also given for the purpose of comparison.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 245<br /> INVESTMENT oF £1,000,<br /> Males.<br /> |<br /> | Age 40. Age 50,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Highest re-| £ 5, d.| £ s.. d.| &amp; $d. &amp; sg<br /> 2 Gunn 62 10 0173 10.0104. .0 1134 oO 8<br /> Lowest re- |<br /> <br /> tora =... | 62 1 0.) 63 10 0130-10 06 114 8 6<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Difference..| £9 15 0/10 0 0/1810 01/19 15 0<br /> <br /> Average of |<br /> 50 offices. | 5 |<br /> <br /> ! W1t 8) 68 7 6 | 8812 61196 6 §<br /> Post Office..| 55 17 6 |.66 18 4187 1 8 195 9 9<br /> Females.<br /> <br /> : ee<br /> Age 40, | Age 50 Age 60. | Age 70,<br /> |<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> d.| ee a A es as ga.<br /> <br /> Highest re-} £ s. | £ 8.<br /> CHI cs 56 12 0 | 66 10<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> O18 0 0 1193 0 6<br /> Lowest re- | |<br /> nibunloy eee 48 0 0/5616 8| 7218 4|105 6 8<br /> Difference..|£8 12 0| 918 4/1211 8|1713 4<br /> Average of<br /> 50 offices.| 52 11 8 | 62 1 817915 O1115 0 0<br /> Post Office..|] 50 5 0{60 510/78 8 4 111416 8<br /> |<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> -Vote.—For the return per £100 in each instance divide:<br /> by ten.<br /> <br /> There is no doubt, however, that the complete<br /> surrender of capital to the company is a material<br /> objection, in some minds, to the purchase of an<br /> annuity. “Should I die the day after, they argue,<br /> the money is absolutely lost, and my estate receives<br /> nothing!” The number of annuitants dying in<br /> the early days of their contract is so small as to be<br /> beyond practical consideration ; but all the same<br /> this objection remains. To meet this several com-<br /> panies have lately devised a plan by which the<br /> income is guaranteed over a stated number of years,<br /> usually ten or twenty. This provides against the<br /> early death of the annuitant, as, in any case, a<br /> return of ten or twenty payments is guaranteed to.<br /> the estate. We have shown that the best return<br /> obtainable for age sixty for £1,000 is £94 per<br /> annum. With the annuity guaranteed for tem<br /> years the return would be £80 3s. and for twenty<br /> years £62 9s. Such tables would appeal to persons.<br /> who wish to provide their estate against the risk<br /> of early death. But, on the other hand, most per-<br /> sons of mature age are more or less covered by life<br /> insurance, and it is perhaps better business to<br /> accept the slight risk of early death in order to:<br /> procure the materially higher income.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 246<br /> <br /> THE ANNUAL DINNER OF THE SOCIETY<br /> OF AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> 1+<br /> <br /> HE annual dinner of the Society, held at the<br /> Hotel Cecil, on Thursday, April 30th, was<br /> attended by about 170 members and guests.<br /> <br /> Mr. Douglas Freshfield, Chairman of the Committee<br /> of Management, was in the chair, with Captain<br /> Sverdrup, of the Fram, one of the gold medallists<br /> of the Royal Geographical Society for this year,<br /> on his right hand and Sir Clements Markham,<br /> K.C.B., President R.G.S., on his left ; and the<br /> vice-chairs were occupied by Mr. G. H. Thring<br /> (Secretary), Mr. Rider Haggard, Mr. Anthony<br /> Hope Hawkins, and Dr. 8. Squire Sprigge. When<br /> dinner was over the Chairman proposed the health<br /> of the King in a brief speech, followed by that of<br /> the Queen and Royal Family.<br /> <br /> After these loyal toasts had been duly honoured,<br /> Mr. Douglas Freshfield rose again to propose the<br /> toast of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br /> Making reference to the important work done by<br /> the Society for authors at large and for its members<br /> in particular in enabling them to obtain the full<br /> market value for their work, he described it as a<br /> Society for the Protection of Authors. In their<br /> business relations with publishers authors often<br /> needed protection. He deprecated the idea that<br /> the Society led a crusade against publishers, and<br /> preferred to consider it as working to promote<br /> an alliance necessary to both; he likened it rather<br /> to a trades union, having, however, no power to call<br /> its members out on strike. Mr. Freshfield also<br /> referred to the subject of the foundation of an<br /> Academy of Literature, as a question of interest to<br /> authors, on which he believed that there was some-<br /> thing to be said on both sides, though he indicated<br /> his own doubts as to the advantages to literature<br /> and the public taste that might be derived from<br /> such a body counterbalancing the obvious draw-<br /> backs and difficulties connected with its creation<br /> and renewal.<br /> <br /> Mr. Rider Haggard replied for the Society in a<br /> vigorous speech, in which he deprecated the<br /> expression of any desire by authors for the institu-<br /> tion of an Academy, and inquired what the methods<br /> were likely to be by which election to such an<br /> Academy might be secured. He declared that he<br /> had no wish to see authors—men of letters—touting<br /> round to other men of letters in order to secure<br /> election to the Academy. He asked by what stan-<br /> dard it was proposed that their claims to election<br /> should be judged. Was popularity to be the test,<br /> and was the author of whose work many thousand<br /> copies were sold before it appeared to be the one<br /> elected to the Academy, or he whose work was<br /> considered to have high literary qualifications ?<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> He hoped that the question of the Academy<br /> would be left alone, and expressed the belief<br /> that every class had the right to combine<br /> for the mutual comfort and protection of its<br /> members, and that this was the spirit which<br /> actuated those who founded the Society of Authors,<br /> of which he had been a very early member. While<br /> alluding to the question of the prices paid for<br /> literary work and the success of the Society in<br /> bettering the position of authors with regard to<br /> payment, Mr. Haggard asked why Milton sold<br /> ““Paradise Lost” for £10? He answered his own<br /> question by saying, with emphasis, that it was<br /> because he could not get any more. For unpaid<br /> work, amateur work, he expressed no great respect,<br /> indeed he questioned the merits of work done<br /> without hope of reward in such terms that some of<br /> his hearers were inclined to express dissent from<br /> his views. In the course of his speech Mr. Haggard<br /> referred to the friendly relations which he believed<br /> to be those that should rightly exist between<br /> author and publisher, and in conclusion he paid a<br /> graceful tribute to the memory of Sir Walter<br /> Besant.<br /> <br /> In proposing the toast of the guests of the<br /> Society of Authors, Mr. Richard Whiteing referred<br /> to those preseut who, representing science, had<br /> maintained the connection ever existing between<br /> science and literature. He mentioned among those<br /> present Mr. C. Longman, Dr. Clifford Allbutt, Dr.<br /> Mill, Sir William Church, P.R.C.P., Sir Henry<br /> Howse, P.R.C.S., and Mr. G. W. Prothero. In par-<br /> ticular he made allusion to the work done recently<br /> by Captain Sverdrup on board the Fram, and to the<br /> kindred services to science and exploration with<br /> which the name of Sir Clements Markham is<br /> associated. With these gentlemen he joined Mr.<br /> Henry Newbolt as representing the guests of the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> In replying for the guests, Sir Clements Markham<br /> laid emphasis upon the recent achievements of<br /> Captain Sverdrup in the department of scientific<br /> Polar exploration, and mentioned that Captain<br /> Sverdrup himself would probably find difficulty in<br /> making a lengthy reply to the toast in any but a<br /> foreign tongue. Unfortunately this was the case,<br /> and Captain Sverdrup, to the regret of his hosts<br /> and fellow-guests, confined himself to a_ brief<br /> expression of thanks for the cordial welcome<br /> received by him.<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry Newbolt, replying in his turn for the<br /> guests, described himself as being in a sense a<br /> publisher as well as an author, and was inclined to<br /> think that the attitude of author and publisher<br /> towards one another must necessarily be charac-<br /> terised by some hostility due to their relative<br /> positions and interests. Referring to standards by<br /> which modern literature may be judged, Mr.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Newbolt took a hopeful view of his contemporaries,<br /> but compared their passage past our range of<br /> vision to that of a procession, pointing out that<br /> the procession as it goes by seems to be a confused<br /> succession of units, while the relative merit of the<br /> figures and groups composing it can best be appre-<br /> ciated as it passes into the distance.<br /> <br /> At the conclusion of Mr. Newbolt’s speech Mr.<br /> Oscar Browning rose to give the health of the<br /> chairman. Mr, Browning avowed himself able in<br /> doing this to speak from long acquaintance with<br /> the subject of his speech, whom he had first<br /> known as climbing Mont Blane while a school-<br /> boy at Eton, when he was himself a master<br /> there, and with whose work as an explorer of<br /> mountain peaks and ranges, and discoverer of<br /> ground untrodden by previous climbers, he had<br /> been familiar from his earliest days.<br /> <br /> Mr. Freshfield, in thanking those present for the<br /> warmth with which they had received the toast,<br /> made graceful reference to his memories of Mr.<br /> Browning as an Eton master, and to the long<br /> friendship with him which so many Eton and<br /> Cambridge men had enjoyed.<br /> <br /> A soirée was held after the toasts had been<br /> drunk, and the members and guests had an oppor-<br /> tunity of meeting one another.<br /> <br /> The following is a list of those present :—<br /> <br /> Ackermann, A. 8. E.<br /> Ackermann, Mrs.<br /> Allbutt, Prof. Clifford<br /> Armstrong, E. A.<br /> Ashley, Mrs.<br /> Back, Mrs. Eaton<br /> Baildon, H. Belsize<br /> Batty, Mrs. Braithwaite<br /> Begbie, Miss A, H.<br /> Bell, Mackenzie<br /> Berene, Sir<br /> K.C.M.G.<br /> Besant, Geoffrey<br /> Besier, Rudolf<br /> Bird, C. P.<br /> Boddington, Miss Helen<br /> Bolam, the Rev. C. E.<br /> Boutwood, Arthur<br /> Boutwood, Mrs.<br /> Browning, Oscar<br /> Bryden, H. A.<br /> Buxton, Dudley<br /> Buxton, Mrs. Dudley<br /> Campbell, Miss Mont-<br /> gomery<br /> Carlile, John C.<br /> Childers, Erskine<br /> Church, Sir William &amp;.,<br /> PEC, P,<br /> Churchill, Lt.-Col. Seton<br /> <br /> Henry,<br /> <br /> Colquhoun, Archibald<br /> <br /> Colquhoun, Mrs. Archi-<br /> bald<br /> <br /> Craig, Lt.-Col. R. Mani-<br /> fold<br /> <br /> Crawshay, Mrs.<br /> <br /> Croker, Mrs. B. M.<br /> <br /> Davidson, Miss L. C,<br /> <br /> Davy, Mrs. E. M.<br /> <br /> Doudney, Miss Sarah<br /> <br /> Douglas, Sir George,<br /> Bart.<br /> <br /> Dowsett, C. F.<br /> <br /> Duncan, Miss Sarah<br /> Jeanette<br /> <br /> Esler, Rentoul<br /> <br /> Esler, Mrs. Rentoul<br /> Free, the Rey. Richard<br /> Freshfield, Douglas<br /> Galpin, H.<br /> <br /> “ Wirt Gerrare ”<br /> Gowing, Mrs. Aylmer<br /> Grierson, Miss<br /> <br /> Griffin, H. M.<br /> <br /> *‘ Victoria Cross ”’<br /> Groser, Horace G.<br /> Gunter, Lt.-Col. E.<br /> Haggard, Miss Dorothy<br /> Haggard, Miss Angela<br /> Haggard, H. Rider<br /> <br /> Hallett, Col. W. Hughes<br /> Harrison, Miss Rose<br /> Hawkins, A. Hope<br /> Henslowe, Miss<br /> Hepburn, David<br /> Hills, A. E.<br /> Hodges, W. O.<br /> Holman, Martin<br /> Howse, Sir Henry G.,<br /> P.R.C.S.<br /> Humphreys, Mrs. Des-<br /> mond (‘‘ Rita ’’)<br /> Hutchinson, the Rey,<br /> HN,<br /> lliffe, Mrs.<br /> Irvine, Mrs. Duncan<br /> Irvine, Duncan<br /> Jacobs, W. W.<br /> James, Miss W. M.<br /> ( Austin Clare”)<br /> Jenkins, Mrs. L. Hadow<br /> Keltie, J. Scott<br /> Kenealy, Miss Arabella<br /> Lechmere, Mrs.<br /> Lechmere, Mr.<br /> Lee, Miss Alice<br /> Lefroy, Mrs.<br /> Lennox, Lady William<br /> Little, J. Stanley<br /> Little, Mrs.<br /> Longman, C. J.<br /> Lowndes, Mrs. Belloc<br /> ‘Maarten Maartens ”<br /> Magnus, Laurie<br /> Markham, Sir Clements,<br /> KO. BE RS:<br /> Marks, Montagu<br /> Mason, Miss EH. M.<br /> Meadows, Miss<br /> Mill, Dr. H. R.<br /> Montagu, Mrs. Drogo<br /> <br /> 247<br /> <br /> Morris, Mrs. Frank<br /> Moscheles, Felix<br /> Newbolt, H.<br /> Oppenheim, E. Phillip<br /> Pennethorne, Deane<br /> Pennethorne, Mrs.<br /> Perrin, Mrs.<br /> <br /> Perris, G. H.<br /> Petano, D. K.<br /> Phibbs, Miss I. M.<br /> Praed, Bulkeley<br /> Praed, Mrs. Campbell<br /> Prelooker, Jaakoff<br /> Prothero, G. W.<br /> Rae, John<br /> <br /> * Allen Rainé”<br /> Reeves, Mrs.<br /> <br /> Reich, Emil<br /> <br /> Rogers, A.<br /> <br /> “ Leicester Romayne ”<br /> Royle, William<br /> Savory, Miss Isabel<br /> Stanton, Miss H. M.<br /> Stanton, Stephen J. B.<br /> Stroud, F.<br /> <br /> Stroud, Miss<br /> <br /> Smith, Mrs. Isabel<br /> Spielmann, M. H.<br /> Sprigge, Mrs. Squire<br /> Sprigge, 8. Squire<br /> Sverdrup, Capt.<br /> Thring, Mrs.<br /> Thring, G. H.<br /> Trench, Herbert<br /> Tweedie, Mrs. Alec<br /> Walrond, Charles<br /> Wells, Mrs.<br /> <br /> Wells, H. G.<br /> <br /> White, Arnold<br /> Whiteing, R.<br /> Wilson, Mrs.<br /> <br /> —_——___—_1+—&gt;—_ 2 —____—-<br /> <br /> EDUCATE YOUR OWN CHILDREN.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> EFORE the South African War it was some-<br /> times asked whether such and such a<br /> colony was really loyal.<br /> <br /> That question has been answered. ‘To-day, at any<br /> rate in Canada, an Englishman may be forgiven<br /> if he sometimes asks of himself “ Does the old<br /> country really want to keep us?”<br /> <br /> If she does not, why not say so openly, and let<br /> those who wish to, return to her, and those who<br /> wish to, join hands with the States.<br /> <br /> But if England really wants to keep Canada,<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 248<br /> <br /> why does she allow the United States to educate<br /> the public opinion of her colony ?<br /> <br /> It is not enough that most of our daily news<br /> comes to us coloured to suit America, that our<br /> telegrams are not altogether reliable, that there<br /> are so many Americans amongst us and such go-a-<br /> head American towns close to us, that our people<br /> must take some tones and colours from their<br /> neighbours which an Englishman born would<br /> rather they did not ?<br /> <br /> To all this is added, for the sake of a few paltry<br /> pounds in the pocket of the English Post Office,<br /> the fact that almost all our light literature and<br /> practically all our magazines are American.<br /> <br /> The way of it is thus: American periodicals<br /> are not better than English. Far from it. Better<br /> illustrated two or three of them may be, but no<br /> one who could get a Blackwood would, I assume,<br /> take any ten American magazines in exchange<br /> for it.<br /> <br /> And our people know this; but the American<br /> magazines are cheaper than ours, thanks to the<br /> extremely high postal rates which our magazines<br /> have. to pay.<br /> <br /> Magazines which cost the same at the offices of<br /> publication differ as one to two in price when they<br /> reach the Canadian market.<br /> <br /> Here is an illustration: The Strand and<br /> Pearson&#039;s are both published in New York as well<br /> as in London. Our booksellers sell the old-style<br /> edition, of course, which costs them 74 cents in<br /> New York, and is mailed to them at 1 cent<br /> per lb. If they bought the English edition they<br /> would have to pay about 9 cents in London, and<br /> 8 cents per 1b. postage.<br /> <br /> The result of this kind of thing is that, taking<br /> the figures of one of our booksellers here as a<br /> criterion, we seil four American magazines for<br /> every British magazine, though we are a British<br /> people and like our own wares best.<br /> <br /> My first.point is a national one.. If you want<br /> to keep Canada British, you had better feed her<br /> mind on British literature.<br /> <br /> My second is for the authors. If you want to<br /> keep a market for British books in Canada, you<br /> had better ask British publishers to advertise a<br /> little (not necessarily in the vilely bad taste common<br /> on this continent, but in such a way that a man’s<br /> intimate friends may have a chance of finding out<br /> that he has written a book), and press for such<br /> postal rates as will allow the magazines in<br /> which they advertise to compete with American<br /> magazines,<br /> <br /> If any one is sufficiently interested in my subject<br /> to pursue it for himself, let him take up any of the<br /> leading magazines of the States and see how they<br /> advertise their books.<br /> <br /> When “David Harum” came out you could<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> not walk through the streets of Ottawa without<br /> being flipped in the face by long streamers of<br /> “extracts ” which floated from the booksellers’<br /> doors ; you could not open a magazine without<br /> setting free a shower of notices ; the book haunted<br /> you. As to our books, I had to start a crusade<br /> against our booksellers, to wake them up to the<br /> fact that ‘The Four Feathers ” had been written.<br /> <br /> Are we not big enough as a nation to sacrifice a<br /> few dollars, that our children may learn at their<br /> mother’s knee, and not at another’s ?<br /> <br /> CLIVE PHILLIPPS-WOLLEY.<br /> —_—_____» &lt;&gt; ____<br /> <br /> “SIR MACKLIN.”<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> OLLECTIVE psychology is a subject which,<br /> as this volume” testifies, has not escaped the<br /> attention of Mr. A. B. Walkley, but one<br /> <br /> reader, at least, inclines to the opinion that he has<br /> not applied his knowledge with sufficient particu-<br /> larity in this present instance. Had he done so he<br /> would not have forgotten that devices proper to<br /> the rhetorician are not always proper to the author<br /> and that a looseness of argument may pass un-<br /> challenged in the spoken word, but cannot escape<br /> so lightly in the written word: in short, that good<br /> lectures do not necessarily make good books.<br /> There is a certain sort of banter, wholly or partly<br /> good-humoured, that frequently is not only lawful but<br /> expedient to a lecturer who desires to carry with<br /> him the last obstinate objector in his audience ;<br /> but the same banter may have a contrary effect<br /> when the lecture is reproduced in the unsympathetic<br /> medium of printer’s ink and submitted to the<br /> leisurely consideration of the same individual in<br /> the seclusion of his library.<br /> <br /> I seem to detect such partly good-humoured<br /> banter in the first lecture in the volume before me.<br /> I am conscious of an attempt on Mr. Walkley’s<br /> part to anticipate any suggestions I may make of<br /> flaws in his work and to dispose of them before-<br /> hand by belittling my qualifications to estimate its<br /> value. He puts me in my place, so to speak, and<br /> the human nature in me is disposed to rebel<br /> against the operation.<br /> <br /> ‘Everyone who expresses opinions, however<br /> imbecile, in print calls himself a ‘critic.’ The<br /> greater the ignoramus, the greater the likelihood<br /> of his posing as a ‘critic.’” Sentences of this<br /> kind may serve to raise an unthinking laugh and<br /> break the ice between lecturer and audience, but<br /> they are not worthy of being perpetuated in print ;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “ Dramatic Criticism,’ by A. B. Walkley. London:<br /> John Murray, 1903. (5s. net.)<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 249<br /> <br /> their inaccuracy is only equalled by their antiquity.<br /> The sole reason that 1 can find for their preserva-<br /> tion here is a desire to rule me, and others like me,<br /> out of court by writing me down an ass before I<br /> begin to suggest that perhaps Mr. Walkley does<br /> not embody all the law and the prophets. As a<br /> mere caudal appendage of “that great baby, the<br /> public,” I may be a barbarian, or, isolated, a harm-<br /> less citizen or a placid British vestryman ; with<br /> luck I may be an amateur of culture, in which<br /> case my judgment is probably spoiled by the<br /> literary bias, or a mundane person, in which case<br /> I have a bias either of the individual or the vogue.<br /> Whatever I may be, I don’t matter, which is a<br /> soothing reflection for Mr. Walkley and a chasten-<br /> ing one for me. And yet I can’t help wondering<br /> if it is quite true.<br /> <br /> “From the people whom the critic criticises it<br /> would be unreasonable to expect sympathy,” Mr.<br /> Walkley remarks ; he omits to say what it would<br /> be reasonable to expect from the people who<br /> criticise the critic ; perhaps the possibility never<br /> entered his head. But he also observes that ‘just<br /> as one solid body cannot collide with another with-<br /> out the manifestation of a form of energy which<br /> we call heat, so one mind cannot impinge upon<br /> another without the manifestation of that form of<br /> energy which we call criticism.” Inasmuch as it<br /> is due to Mr. Walkley, with Mr. Murray as a con-<br /> tributory party, that his mind has impinged upon<br /> mine, it is not only excusable but natural that I<br /> should manifest energy with the best of them.<br /> <br /> My dissatisfaction with this book is due to the<br /> fact that it does not take me any further forward<br /> than I was before ; it is nebulous and inconclusive.<br /> Portentously serious in intention it is not a serious<br /> contribution to the literature of criticism. The<br /> author has an irritating trick of proving all sorts<br /> of things, and then, when he has triumphantly<br /> written Q.E.D. at the end of his argument, hastening<br /> to explain that the theorem is wholly immaterial.<br /> He reminds me of Sir Macklin, who, as every<br /> schoolboy knows,<br /> <br /> “was a priest severe<br /> In conduct and in conversation,<br /> <br /> It did a sinner good to hear<br /> Him deal in ratiocination.<br /> <br /> “ He could in every action show<br /> Some sin, and nobody could doubt him,<br /> He argued high, he argued low,<br /> He also argued round about him.”<br /> <br /> It is not for me to suggest whom to cast for the<br /> bishop in the story.<br /> <br /> Thus he refers to Gibbon’s division of critics<br /> into three classes, takes leave to reduce them to<br /> two, compares these two, showing in the process<br /> that there is not so much difference between them<br /> as they themselves suppose, and then, having<br /> <br /> compared and contrasted them to his own entire<br /> satisfaction, war&#039;s us that the contrast must not be<br /> taken too seriously. By such a device the most<br /> exiguous contribution to literature might be<br /> bumped out to the most ample proportions, but<br /> its value, when so bumped out, would be open to<br /> question.<br /> <br /> On page 20 he quotes Mr. Birrell as follows :—<br /> <br /> “T have had some experience of authors, and have<br /> always found them better pleased with the ‘ unprofes-<br /> sional’ verdicts of educated men, actively engaged in the<br /> work of the world than ever they were with the laboured<br /> praise of the so-called ‘ expert.’ ”<br /> <br /> Then on page 35 he examines the passage as<br /> follows :—<br /> <br /> “ After the crowd, the average or uncultivated amateur,<br /> let us turn to Mr. Birrell’s candidate for the critical post—<br /> the man of affairs or of the world who dabbles in the arts ;<br /> in other words, the amateur of culture. Mr. Birrell puts in<br /> a very artful plea for this class. He says the authors like<br /> them, preferring their verdicts of approval to the ‘ laboured ’<br /> praise of the so-called ‘expert.’ Here, however, we must<br /> be on our guard against the rhetorical device of the pro-<br /> fessional advocate—the familiar device of comparing one<br /> thing at its best with another thing at its worst. The<br /> praise of the ‘expert’ is not necessarily ‘laboured.’ And<br /> you will observe that the authors like the men of the world<br /> when they deliver verdicts of approval. What the authors<br /> think of this class when they deliver verdicts of disapproval<br /> we are not told.”<br /> <br /> I have italicised the words in these two passages<br /> which reveal the discrepancy between the text as<br /> given by Mr. Walkley and the text as criticised<br /> by him. I refrain from giving the exact text<br /> of Mr. Birrell’s words, and merely submit that the<br /> discrepancy ought not to have been passed in a<br /> considered argument, not so much because it<br /> affects, or does not affect, Mr. Walkley’s point<br /> as because it affects his credit as a dialectician.<br /> <br /> That there is plenty of good stuff in the book, of<br /> course, goes without saying ; most of it is Aris-<br /> totle’s, and a perverse and tricksy memory brings<br /> before me some lines from an obscure burlesque :—<br /> <br /> “My grievance is that in these modern plays,<br /> <br /> There&#039;s nothing new and good ; whate’er of praise<br /> <br /> Their lines deserve, you&#039;ll find in the antique ;<br /> <br /> Whatever&#039;s idiotic isn’t Greek.”<br /> <br /> With the necessary modifications the quotation<br /> has point, and in all seriousness I cannot think<br /> <br /> : : :<br /> that this volume will add to Mr. Walkley’s<br /> reputation.<br /> <br /> Meandering has a fascination for most ‘‘amateurs<br /> of culture.” I would like to meander a little and<br /> express an opinion which, however imbecile, I hold<br /> : : : z<br /> in common with a good many other people. That<br /> opinion is that what is wrong with the dramatic<br /> critic of the day is his appalling lack of the sense<br /> of humour. It is all very well for M. Anatole<br /> France to talk about “the adventures of a soul<br /> among master-pieces,” and for Mr. Walkley to<br /> announce that “judices nati’? may still be found<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 250<br /> <br /> amongst us. I admire the pretty fancy of the one<br /> and rejoice at the good tidings of the other ; but<br /> recent happenings in the dramatic world dispose<br /> me to think that so far as the stage is concerned<br /> people take themselves much too seriously. Mr.<br /> Walkley snorts at the fatuity of the question,<br /> «« What is the wse of dramatic criticism?” Well,<br /> it is a fatuous question. Mr. Walkley replies to<br /> it from the point of view of the dramatic critic :—<br /> <br /> “ The use of any art is asa channel for the communication<br /> of ideas and emotions between man andman. It is a mode<br /> by which the producer of the art shares out his moods, his<br /> soul-states, his views of life, with the consumer. This is<br /> what is meant in popular language by ‘ being interesting.’<br /> Just as you may have an interesting novel or an interesting<br /> play, so you may have an ‘interesting ’ dramatic criticism.<br /> And that is the use of it.”<br /> <br /> I find that answer very satisfactory, and hope<br /> that the “ club of play-goers ”—there is a world of<br /> sarcasm in the employment of that form of the<br /> genitive case—will perpend it. From the point of<br /> view of the manager a dramatic criticism in, say,<br /> the 7&#039;imes, at the price of a stall costs only sixpence<br /> more than the hire of ten sandwich-men at a<br /> shilling a head for the day, and it carries farther.<br /> It advertises the “show.” And that is another<br /> use of it.<br /> <br /> As I suggested at the outset, I hesitate to put<br /> forward these comments as a “criticism” of Mr.<br /> Walkley’s book ; they are merely indicative of my<br /> soul’s adventures in that masterpiece. I hope I<br /> shall not be deemed irreverent if 1 speed them with<br /> yet one more quotation, protesting that they are<br /> quite honest in intention, and not born of that<br /> little-emindedness which finds pleasure in cheap<br /> sneers :<br /> <br /> “Go, soul, the body’s guest,<br /> Upon a thankless arrant ;<br /> Fear not to touch the best,<br /> The truth shall be thy warrant.”<br /> Vy. iE. M.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> POPULARITY.<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> OBERT VINCENT, historian and man of<br /> letters, had received his death sentence.<br /> The physicians gave him one short year to<br /> live ; but their word was the signal for a cloud,<br /> impalpable as yet, but darker than that of death,<br /> to rise upon the dying man’s horizon. He was a<br /> young man, and it seemed to the world as if it was<br /> but yesterday that he had succeeded in making<br /> his name. But the world was mistaken. The<br /> initiated knew that the reputation which Robert<br /> Vincent had won was of no mushroom growth.<br /> He had won it by sweat, by blood, by years of<br /> patient labour and research. Nay, as was being<br /> proved now, he had bought it with his very life.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> To this small band of scholars Robert Vincent<br /> had been known for years, young as he still was,<br /> as the rising historian of the day, as a writer in<br /> whom in the highest degree scholarship, imagina-<br /> tiveness, and honesty were combined.<br /> <br /> To this small band he was the ideal historian<br /> for whom the world had waited so long. Scholarly<br /> historians there have been. Honest historians’ are<br /> not altogether unknown. Picturesque writers of<br /> history have made their works as household words<br /> tous. But the combination of the three qualities<br /> in one person has often been pronounced to be an<br /> impossibility. 1t appeared in Robert Vincent, and<br /> scholars awaited with bated breath its further<br /> development. But the world in general, the<br /> world which nearly every man secretly craves to<br /> enlist on his side, even when he most professes to<br /> despise it, turned, for a long time, a deaf ear to<br /> the teaching of the historian. To those who<br /> knew, this deafness was simply a question of time.<br /> The world would hear, and hearing would accept<br /> Robert Vincent at his true value. The event proved<br /> that, for once ina way, those who knew were right.<br /> <br /> Robert Vincent won his place as a world power<br /> in literature by the publication of his great book,<br /> “The Welding of the Races.”<br /> <br /> It was a great book in every way. Great in<br /> conception, great in execution. Well balanced,<br /> accurate, and judicial, yet written in language<br /> almost passionately picturesque. ‘The Welding of<br /> the Races ” threw its search light on a period of<br /> English History at once the most obscure and the<br /> most salient. ‘‘As at the touch of an enchanter’s<br /> wand,” the darkness which for hundreds of<br /> years had lain upon the early middle ages was<br /> dissipated, and Englishmen knew at last the secret<br /> of the greatness of their country. “The dark<br /> ages have for England ceased to exist,” was the<br /> judgment of the greatest German critic.<br /> <br /> The wisdom of the small band of scholars<br /> was justified. The world knew and, knowing,<br /> acclaimed, as with one voice, Robert Vincent as the<br /> greatest writer of the century. The author him-<br /> self would have been more than human if he had<br /> not exulted in his triumph. He was young and<br /> he was ambitious, and it is given to few men<br /> indeed to realise, to any great extent, the ambition<br /> of their lives.<br /> <br /> “The Welding of the Races” rapidly proved<br /> itself the success of the day, and the fortunate<br /> author felt that his name had been made for all<br /> time, that he was destined to be numbered with<br /> the great ones of the earth. “‘ Westminster Abbey,”<br /> <br /> he said laughingly to his wife, “ will know me yet.”<br /> And then the end came.<br /> <br /> No prank which the Great Jester loves to play<br /> is dearer to his heart than the summoning of a<br /> man from the prize to gain which he has given<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE<br /> <br /> the best years of his life, given his very soul,<br /> when it is almost within his grasp. We die just<br /> when we are beginning to know how to live. So<br /> it was to prove with Robert Vincent.<br /> <br /> Perhaps it was due to the strain which the<br /> completion of his work had put upon him, perhaps<br /> there was an original weakness of constitution<br /> hitherto unsuspected, or perhaps—. Anyhow,<br /> whatever may have been the cause, at the very<br /> height of his fame the sentence, from which there<br /> is no appeal, was pronounced, “ You must die!”<br /> <br /> There is no need to dwell on the dull, sickening<br /> sense of hope frustrated which fell like a black<br /> shadow on Robert Vincent’s heart when he knew<br /> that he must leave the world, which appeared to<br /> him just then to be so full of brightness and<br /> beauty. But he was no coward, his life had shown<br /> that, and he resolved to face the music like a man,<br /> <br /> “My body will die,” he said to his wife, “but<br /> my soul will live ; for that I have won immortality.<br /> I have put my whole soul into ‘The Welding of<br /> the Races,’ and while England lasts it will last<br /> also.” This he said in no vainglorious spirit.<br /> To him it was a simple fact. But as he grew<br /> weaker there came upon him a mental uneasiness<br /> which puzzled greatly his wife and his doctors.<br /> To some extent, but to some extent only, it seemed<br /> to be assignable to the stress of previous literary<br /> work. The fact was, the dark, impalpable cloud<br /> gathered blackness and substance as time went on.<br /> It pressed in upon him, making the last few weeks<br /> of his life into a hideous, waking nightmare.<br /> <br /> “Qlang, clang! throb, throb! What are they<br /> printing so close to me? Who are printing? Is<br /> it Gradband &amp; Shimmery ?”<br /> <br /> “No, dear,’ said his wife gently, “there is no<br /> printing near you.’ The doctor, who overheard<br /> the mutterings, looked grave and asked the wife<br /> <br /> “Did your husband ever have any dealings with<br /> these publishers, Gradband &amp; Shimmery ?”’<br /> <br /> “No,” she replied, ‘not that I know of. I<br /> never heard their names.”<br /> <br /> “Of course not,” said the doctor with a smile,<br /> “it is scarcely likely that Mr. Vincent would have<br /> had anything to do with publishers of that class.”<br /> <br /> The doctor was quite right. It was indeed<br /> unlikely—the most unlikely thing in the world.<br /> For Messrs. Gradband &amp; Shimmery were known<br /> as publishers of fiction of the baser sort, fiction<br /> which had an enormous circulation among City<br /> ¢lerks and shop girls.<br /> <br /> The stuff which this firm turned out in vast<br /> quantities was lurid and sensational to a degree,<br /> especially that for which “Sydney Trevor,”<br /> popularly supposed to be an assumed name, was<br /> responsible, but it could no more claim to be<br /> literature than a farthing rushlight could claim<br /> to be the moon.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 251<br /> <br /> Of course it was too wildly absurd to suppose<br /> that Robert Vincent, of all people in the world,<br /> could have had any dealings with such a firm as<br /> this. And the doctor made a mental note of his<br /> uneasiness as a curious illustration of an obscure<br /> brain lesion. But this did very little good to the<br /> patient himself. The noise of the printing presses<br /> at work seemed to become louder and more insis-<br /> tent every day. Every day too his imagination<br /> seemed to be haunted by a terror which ever drew<br /> closer and closer. His lucid intervals proved to<br /> those about him that he had no fear of death, nor<br /> even of the act of dying; but even his lucid<br /> intervals were haunted by the shadow of the fear<br /> which oppressed him so terribly in his delirium.<br /> Whatever the fear might be, it was associated with<br /> the idea of printing, and with the names of<br /> Gradband &amp; Shimmery. Nothing that his wife<br /> could do or say—no news she might bring him of<br /> the ever increasing success of his book, no assur-<br /> ances of the high position, daily becoming more<br /> manifest, which he had secured for himself in<br /> literature, was able to expel this fear devil from<br /> his soul. Thereit sat, grinning at him till he died.<br /> <br /> As soon as Robert Vincent’s death was an-<br /> nounced, steps were taken by those whose word<br /> carried weight with the authorities to secure a<br /> place for him in Westminster Abbey. It seemed<br /> likely that their efforts would be crowned with<br /> suecess, and that the historian’s jesting remark to<br /> his wife would prove to be a true prophecy.<br /> <br /> It was urged that the country had only one<br /> way now of paying the recognition it owed to an<br /> admitted genius. What the leaders of thought<br /> said, the general public echoed with all its heart.<br /> No name was so constantly on men’s lips and<br /> before their eyes during these days as the name of<br /> Robert Vincent, historian and man of letters.<br /> Westminster Abbey was the place for him, and to<br /> Westminster Abbey he must be taken. And then<br /> suddenly all this talk stopped.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Gradband &amp; Shimmery flooded the<br /> country with their advertisements—newspapers,<br /> <br /> hoardings, omnibuses, trains, sandwich-men—<br /> every available means of advertisement were<br /> <br /> pressed into the service of Messrs. Gradband &amp;<br /> Shimmery. There had never been known, since<br /> books were first printed, such gigantic enterprise<br /> in advertising methods. Wherever men looked<br /> they saw the names of Gradband &amp; Shimmery ;<br /> and underneath, only in larger characters, the<br /> name of “Sydney Trevor” in inverted commas ;<br /> and below that the name of Robert Vincent ; and<br /> below that again a list of books whose lurid and<br /> sensational titles spoke for them.<br /> <br /> Then the world learnt that Robert Vincent was<br /> identical with ‘Sydney Trevor,” and Westminster<br /> Abbey knew him not. CO. L:<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ESSAY ON CRITICISM.<br /> <br /> Oe<br /> <br /> (Reprinted from Longman’s Magazine, by kind permission<br /> of the Author and the Publisher).<br /> <br /> (By A Lapy NoveEtist).<br /> <br /> S there no real critic on these shores<br /> Yet to be found? O Tempora, O Mores !<br /> How shall they judge who measure all by<br /> rule<br /> While Genius, for them, might dwell in Thule?<br /> Tis quality, not quantity, decides<br /> The merit of such work as mine—Quid rides ?<br /> When will they learn the truth that each great<br /> writer<br /> <br /> Of prose or poetry—non fit—nascitur ?<br /> When cease to sneer with condescending smile<br /> At woman—vyarium et mutabile ?<br /> Yet why should I the critics heed? Whate’er<br /> They say, ’tis mine—aequam mentem servyare.<br /> My place among the Immortals is secure,<br /> *Tis mine—divino ac humano jure.<br /> I feel within my breast the sacred fire,<br /> And I—I know it—non omnis moriar.<br /> Already on Parnassus’ sacred slope<br /> I dwell with Melpomene and Calliope.<br /> No marble tomb I crave, no trophies pious,<br /> My monument is—aere perennius.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> FR.<br /> <br /> a a<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> —1—~&gt; +<br /> <br /> AN ANSWER TO “A PROTEST.”<br /> <br /> Sir,—In reference to a letter entitled “A Pro-<br /> test’ in last month’s Author, I would like to say<br /> a few words in common justice to all concerned in<br /> the arrangement of the Society’s annual social<br /> function.<br /> <br /> In the first place, it is a puzzle how the receipt<br /> of the announcement of a dinner could shock even<br /> the most highly strung and sensitive nerves.<br /> <br /> If Shakespeare had lived in the twentieth century<br /> he would no doubt have participated in a meal at<br /> the Hotel Cecil with as much equanimity—and<br /> perhaps even enjoyment—as any other author.<br /> <br /> Next I would like to point ont to the writer in<br /> question that as the Soviety is formed for the pro-<br /> tection and maintenance of literary property, it<br /> must needs respect itself. So, if the Society of<br /> Authors were to hold its annual festival at a third<br /> or fourth rate restaurant, and charge a low price,<br /> as suggested, it would certainly be considered an<br /> inferior concern, and be looked down upon<br /> accordingly. :<br /> <br /> Further, the writer contradicts himself, for he<br /> says that he has attended several dinners each at<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> increased cost, and then confesses having been<br /> present at a guinea one. Comment is needless. If<br /> the protester could be present at a guinea dinner<br /> it seems inconsistent that the suggestion of a 10s.<br /> one should give him a shock.<br /> <br /> As I did not attend any of the guinea functions<br /> I cannot speak from personal experience as to<br /> whether it would have been “ dear at eighteenpence,’””<br /> but I can honestly say that at all the four dinners<br /> which I have attended the food was as good and<br /> as well served as one could wish.<br /> <br /> I have always understood that the Society does<br /> not wish to make money by the dinner, but charges<br /> a price sufficient to cover expenses. If the com-<br /> plainant refers to the ‘ Annual Report,” he will<br /> find that the Society was 5s. 10d. out of pocket by<br /> last year’s dinner ; hence, no doubt, the decision<br /> to raise the price.<br /> <br /> With regard to the guests, it seems to me that<br /> the Society is honowred by the presence of such<br /> men as Sir Clements Markham, Captain Sverdrup.<br /> and others ; men noted for their good and useful<br /> work, some in one field, some in another. I have<br /> never heard of the Society asking subscriptions,<br /> so I don’t quite see how it can be brought down<br /> to the level of a charitable organisation.<br /> <br /> Lastly, I will say that I am so far in sympathy<br /> with the writer of “A Protest” that I think it<br /> would be more agreeable if it were possible to<br /> arrange a festival, or annual gathering, in which<br /> all the members could participate. It is clearly<br /> impossible to please everyone in a large body of<br /> people like the Authors’ Society, and if authors are<br /> “proverbially irritable,” what a large amount of<br /> self-control is needed by a committee formed of<br /> authors, whose task in endeavouring to please all<br /> can scarcely be an enviable one.<br /> <br /> H. M. E. Stanton.<br /> May 4th, 1903.<br /> <br /> SERIAL RIGHTS IN STORIES.<br /> <br /> S1n,—As I receive inquiries concerning my “new<br /> story” in the Sphere for May 2nd and 9th, will you<br /> allow me space to say that, so far from. being new,<br /> it is a resuscitated old story which appeared in a.<br /> country journal nearly twenty years ago, and that<br /> I am in no way responsible for its publication as if<br /> new ? ae<br /> <br /> I make this an opportunity of reminding inex-.<br /> perienced writers of fiction that, in disposing of<br /> ‘serial rights” in their productions, they should<br /> take care to limit the time during which such<br /> rights may be exercised.<br /> <br /> Tuomas Harpy.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/485/1903-07-01-The-Author-13-10.pdf	publications, The Author