491 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/491 | The Author, Vol. 14 Issue 06 (March 1904) | <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.+14+Issue+06+%28March+1904%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 14 Issue 06 (March 1904)</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> | 1904-03-01-The-Author-14-6 | | | | | 141–168 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=14">14</a> | | | | | | | | | | | <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1904-03-01">1904-03-01</a> | | | | | | | 6 | | | 19040301 | Che Hutbor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
FOUNDED BY SIR<br />
<br />
Monthly.)<br />
<br />
WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. XIV.—No. 6.<br />
<br />
TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br />
374 VICTORIA.<br />
<br />
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br />
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br />
<br />
———_—____¢—~<>_-4-<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
—_1——+—_-<br />
<br />
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
<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 />
Tue 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 />
— 9<br />
<br />
List of Members.<br />
<br />
Tue List of Members of the Society of Authors<br />
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br />
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br />
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br />
obtained at the offices of the Society.<br />
<br />
They will be sold to members or associates of<br />
the Society only.<br />
<br />
4 —_——+——<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 />
Vou. XIV.<br />
<br />
Marcu ist, 1904.<br />
<br />
[PRICE SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br />
money value can be easily worked out at the current<br />
price of the market :—<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
COMBOS OR 8 ieee £1000 0 0<br />
Wbocal Loans: 30.0... 500 0 0<br />
Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-<br />
dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 11<br />
War log... ck. 201 9 8<br />
Mota a. £1,995. 9° 2<br />
Subscriptions from October, 1903.<br />
& s. d.<br />
Nov. 13, Longe, Miss Julia . : : 0 5 0<br />
Dec. 16, Trevor, Capt. Philip 5 0<br />
1904.<br />
Jan. 6, Hills, Mrs. C. H. . : ~ 0-50<br />
Jan. 6, Crommelin, Miss . : . 010 0<br />
Jan. 8, Stevenson, Mrs. M. E. . 2600 50<br />
Jan. 16, Kilmarnock, The Lord . - 0 10 0<br />
Feb. 5, Portman, Lionel . : ~ 120 0<br />
Feb. 11, Shipley, Miss Mary : 7005 0<br />
Donations from October, 1903.<br />
Oct. 27, Sturgis, Julian 4 : . 50 0.0<br />
Nov. 2, Stanton, V.H. . ; — 5°08 0<br />
Novy. 18, Benecke, Miss Ida. 1 0 0<br />
Noy. 23, Harraden, Miss Beatrice ~ 5 0.0<br />
Dec. Miniken, Miss Bertha M. M.. 0 5 0<br />
1904.<br />
Jan. 4, Moncrieff, A. R. Hope . = 5 0 0<br />
Jan, 4, Middlemas, Miss Jean . . 010 0<br />
Jan. 4, Witherby, The Rev. C. . <0) D0<br />
Jan. 6, Key, The Rev. S. Whittell . 0 5 0O<br />
Jan. 14, Bennett, Rev. W. K.,D.D. . 015 0<br />
Jan. 2, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt : . 010 0<br />
Feb. 11, Delaire, Miss Jeanne . « 010 0<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 />
<br />
FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br />
<br />
oo<br />
<br />
HE second meeting of the Committee in 1904<br />
was held on Monday, February Ist, at the<br />
offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street,<br />
<br />
Storey’s Gate.<br />
<br />
Mr. Douglas Freshfield was re-elected Chairman<br />
of the Managing Committee, and Mr. A. W. a<br />
Beckett was re-elected Vice-chairman.<br />
<br />
The next business was the election of members<br />
of the Society, and, as in January, the number of<br />
applications was well . maintained—twenty-two<br />
members and associates being elected. The list, as<br />
usual, is printed below.<br />
<br />
It was decided to offer the London County<br />
Council a replica of the Besant Memorial, as the<br />
subscriptions received justified the Committee in<br />
taking this step. The funds in hand do not, how-<br />
ever, cover the whole expense, and the Committee<br />
would be glad to receive further contributions.<br />
<br />
The date of the General Meeting of the Council<br />
(the shareholders of the Society) and of the<br />
members, has been fixed for Wednesday, March<br />
16th. Notice of the meeting, together with the<br />
report and balance-sheet, will be sent to all<br />
inembers in due course. The place of the meeting<br />
will be the large rooms of the Royal Medical and<br />
Chirurgical Society, 20, Hanover Square, W., and<br />
the time 4 p.m., precisely.<br />
<br />
Mr. Percy White and Mr. E. W. Hornung were<br />
elected members of the Council of the Society of<br />
Authors, and subsequently members of the Com-<br />
mittee, to fill the places left vacant by the resigna-<br />
tion of Sir Gilbert Parker and Sir Arthur Conan<br />
Doyle.<br />
<br />
‘There is no need to set forth the literary claims<br />
of the two new members of the Council. Both<br />
have, for many years, taken great interest in the<br />
Society’s work, and the fact that they live in<br />
London will enable them to attend the meetings of<br />
the Committee. This is a qualification which<br />
limits the Committee’s choice. Many writers, well<br />
known in the literary world, and most eligible<br />
otherwise as members of the Committee, are pre-<br />
vented from serving owing to the fact that, living<br />
in the country, they would be unable to attend its<br />
frequent meetings.<br />
<br />
V'he date of the Annual Dinner of the Society<br />
has also been settled. It will take place on<br />
Wednesday, April 20th, at the Hotel Cecil. Ac-<br />
<br />
cording to the rule in force, the Chairman of the<br />
Committee, Mr. Douglas Freshfield, will again take<br />
the chair on that occasion.<br />
<br />
The question of the sale by street hawkers of Mr.<br />
Rudyard Kipling’s “ Barrack Room Ballads” at<br />
1d. and 2d. a copy, was brought before the Com-<br />
mittee, and they decided to take such steps as they<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
might be advised were possible and expedient, in<br />
order to stop piracy of this kind.<br />
<br />
A case against an American publisher was con-<br />
sidered. The Secretary, on the Committee’s in-<br />
structions, has written to the Society’s agents in<br />
the United States to obtain a legal opinion on the<br />
exact position.<br />
<br />
The Committee desire to record the fact that<br />
one of the plaintiffs in the action that was taken<br />
to the House of Lords, has contributed a sub-<br />
stantial sum towards the costs incurred by the<br />
Society.<br />
<br />
a<br />
<br />
Cases.<br />
<br />
During the past month thirteen cases have been<br />
taken in hand by the Secretary.<br />
<br />
Of these seven have been settled satisfactorily,<br />
the remainder are still incomplete.<br />
<br />
The nature of the cases was as follows :—<br />
<br />
One, infringement of copyright ; one, infringe-<br />
ment of title ; three, lost MSS. ; three, accounts ;<br />
three, money and accounts; two, money.<br />
<br />
Of the cases left open from last month there is<br />
only one still unsettled. This will be completed<br />
in the course of a few days.<br />
<br />
+<br />
<br />
February Elections,<br />
<br />
The Hon. 9, Little College Street,<br />
S.W.<br />
<br />
49, Ashworth Mansions,<br />
Elgin Avenue, W.<br />
Trusley Manor, Trusley,<br />
<br />
Derby.<br />
<br />
Kingsley Hotel, Hart<br />
Street, Bloomsbury,<br />
W.C.<br />
<br />
Putford Rectory, North<br />
Devon.<br />
<br />
Rosenhein, Guernsey.<br />
<br />
Moor Garth, Lkley.<br />
<br />
79, Truro Road, Wood<br />
<br />
Anstruther,<br />
Mrs.<br />
<br />
Burroughes, Miss R.<br />
<br />
Coke, Desmond F. T.<br />
<br />
Geil, W. E.<br />
<br />
Gratrex, J. J.<br />
<br />
Henderson, Miss M.<br />
Hering, Henry A. .<br />
Hinson, Mrs. Mary<br />
<br />
Green.<br />
<br />
Hodgson, W. Hope Park Mount, Revidge,<br />
Blackburn.<br />
<br />
Jones, Miss E. H. . Hotel D’Itali, Mont<br />
<br />
Estoril, Portugal.<br />
<br />
Lacey, The Rev. T. A. 8, Park House Road,<br />
<br />
Highgate.<br />
Malcolm, Ian, M.P. Kentford lodge,<br />
Wadham Gardens,<br />
S. Hampstead.<br />
Malcolm, Mrs. Ian, Kentford Lodge,<br />
<br />
“ Jeanne Malcolm.” S. Hampstead, N.W.<br />
<br />
Power, A. D.. ‘ ‘<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
6, Onslow Studios, 183,<br />
King’s Road, Chelsea.<br />
<br />
Avon Cottage, Dews-<br />
bury, Yorks.<br />
<br />
Shiel, M. P. . 2 . 7, Medina Mansions,<br />
Gt. Titchfield Street,<br />
Wo<br />
<br />
South Wold, Suffolk.<br />
<br />
Kenilworth House, St.<br />
<br />
" Andrews, N.B.<br />
<br />
47, St. Leonards Road,<br />
Hove, Sussex.<br />
<br />
Langdale House, Park<br />
Town, Oxford.<br />
<br />
Reynolds, Frank<br />
Saintsbury, H. A. .<br />
<br />
Shipley, Miss Mary E.<br />
Watson, Gilbert<br />
<br />
Wooton, BE. L.<br />
Wright, Joseph, Ph.D.<br />
<br />
—_____+—» + —___<br />
<br />
OUR BOOK AND PLAY TALK.<br />
——+<br />
<br />
R. J. Beattie Crozier is at present engaged<br />
on Vol. IV. of his “ History of Intellectual<br />
Development.” He hopes to have it ready<br />
<br />
for publication some time this year. Mr. Crozier<br />
has in hand an article for the Fortnightly Review<br />
entitled “Some Unused Political Assets.”<br />
<br />
Mr. Sidney Lee’s “Life of Queen Victoria” is<br />
now issued by Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. in a<br />
cheap edition. Its price is 6s.<br />
<br />
Madame Sarah Grand is at work upon a short<br />
novel, a play, and a new lecture.<br />
<br />
His Majesty the King has graciously accepted<br />
a copy of Mr. F. Stroud’s book for the royal<br />
library at Windsor Castle. The title of the book<br />
is “The Judicial Dictionary or Interpreter of<br />
Words and Phrases by the British Judges and<br />
Parliament.”<br />
<br />
Messrs. F. V. White will shortly publish a new<br />
novel by Miss Gertrude Warden. It isa study of<br />
the temperaments of two cousins. The opening<br />
scenes are laid in Venice.<br />
<br />
We understand that Dr. H. Bellsyse Baildon,<br />
of University College, Dundee (author of “ Robert<br />
Louis Stevenson: a Life-Study in Criticism,”<br />
and other works), has been working during last<br />
summer on an edition of “ Titus Andronicus”<br />
for the “ Arden Shakespeare ” of Messrs. Methuen<br />
& Co. In his introduction Dr. Baildon goes<br />
thoroughly into the much-disputed question of<br />
authorship of this tragedy, and comes to the<br />
conclusion that the play is, to all intents and<br />
purposes, Shakespeare’s. This conclusion, if correct,<br />
has an important bearing, not only on the author-<br />
ship of the earlier plays attributed to Shakespeare,<br />
but on the Baconian and other anti-Shakesperian<br />
theories in general.<br />
<br />
Miss A. Maynard Butler’s book “The First Year<br />
of Responsibility,” which was published last<br />
<br />
143<br />
<br />
September, to which the Master of Trinity College,<br />
Cambridge, contributed an introduction, is now<br />
going into a third edition.<br />
<br />
“he Cardinal’s Pawn,” K. L. Montgomery’s<br />
novel, was issued the other day by Messrs. F,<br />
Fisher Unwin-in their First Novel Series. The<br />
action of the story moves principally in Venice,<br />
and centres round Capelli and Medici intrigues<br />
concerning Bianca Capelli and her struggle for the<br />
crown of a Grand-Duchess of Florence.<br />
<br />
“Rita’s” articles on the “Sin and Sunday of<br />
the Smart Set”? have now been published in book-<br />
form. A special copy has been accepted by H. M.<br />
the Queen.<br />
<br />
“The Trackless Way,” just published by Mr.<br />
Brimley Johnson, is the third of the four books<br />
in which Mrs. Rentoul Esler continues to treat of<br />
the pivot on which individual history turns.<br />
“The Way of Transgressors” dealt with love of<br />
the lover, “The Wardlaws” with love of the<br />
family, ‘The Trackless Way ” deals with love of<br />
the race. When the fourth volume is ready for<br />
publication the set will be issued in uniform<br />
binding. The sub-title of “The Trackless Way”<br />
is “The Story of a Man’s Quest of God.”<br />
<br />
Mr. John Long will publish shortly Mrs. Aylmer<br />
Gowing’s new novel, “A King’s Desire,” which<br />
describes how Prince Conrad, born and bred an<br />
Englishman, owing to a separation between his<br />
parents, succeeds to a throne in Germany. ‘The<br />
young King has left behind him Elfrida Fountaine,<br />
a county heiress, whom he is bent on marrying.<br />
Etiquette and precedent, as represented by an all-<br />
powerful Minister, combine to cross “A King’s<br />
Desire,” together with a revengeful woman, an<br />
accomplice of the Anarchists, by whose aid her<br />
designs are all but carried through.<br />
<br />
The S.P.C.K. is bringing out a book for children<br />
called “ Peterkin and His Brother.” It is written<br />
by Miss E. M. Green, authoress of “ The Child of<br />
the Caravan,” “The Cape Cousins,” etc., etc.<br />
<br />
In his book, “ Omnibuses and Cabs: Their<br />
Origin and History,” Mr. Henry Charles Moore<br />
urged the local authorities to remove the name<br />
“ Regent Circus” from Oxford Circus—the circus<br />
at the intersection of Oxford Street and Regent<br />
Strect. He gave strong reasons for its removal,<br />
and the London County Council has now called<br />
the Marylebone Borough Council’s attention to the<br />
matter, with the result that the latter body has<br />
decided to remove the name. “Omnibuses and<br />
Cabs” has been quoted several times before the<br />
London Traffic Commission now sitting.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Seeley and Co. have just published a<br />
new story by Miss Beatrice Marshall. It is a tale<br />
of London life in the seventeenth century, and<br />
is entitled “An Old London Nosegay, Gathered<br />
from the Day-book of Mistress Lovejoy Young,<br />
<br />
<br />
144<br />
<br />
Kinswoman by Marriage of the Lady Fanshaw.”<br />
It is illustrated, and the price is 5/-.<br />
<br />
Mr. Grant Richards has just published Volume I.<br />
of “The Twentieth Century Dog,” by Herbert<br />
Compton. The first volume treats of the Non-<br />
Sporting Dog. : :<br />
<br />
Mrs. Philip Champion de Crespigny is engaged<br />
on a novel which she hopes to have ready by the<br />
spring. It is a story of the time of George I., and<br />
the scene is laid in both town and country. The<br />
heroine is one of the Princess of Wales’ Maids of<br />
Honour.<br />
<br />
Mr. G. Bernard Shaw has issued, through<br />
Messrs. Constable and Co., a volume entitled “ The<br />
Common Sense of Municipal Trading.” It consists<br />
of a preface and twelve chapters, dealing with such<br />
subjects as, ‘The Commercial Success of Municipal<br />
Trading,” “Commercial and Municipal Prices,”<br />
“ Difficulties of Municipal Trading,” ‘ Electrical<br />
Enterprise,” and “‘ The Housing Question.”<br />
<br />
Miss Ellen Collette is about to make arrange-<br />
ments for a copyright performance of a three-act<br />
cantata playette. The music is by Miss Natalie<br />
Davenport, daughter of the authority on harmony.<br />
In addition to the playette, Miss Collette has<br />
written a good many lyrics.<br />
<br />
Two lectures were delivered last month by pro-<br />
minent members of the Society. On the evening<br />
of February 6th, the Poet Laureate lectured at the<br />
Royal Institution on “The Growing Dislike for<br />
the Higher Kinds of Poetry.” The Duke of<br />
Northumberland was in the chair, and the audience<br />
was a largeone. On the afternoon of February 9th,<br />
Mr. Edmund Gosse delivered a lecture on “The<br />
Influence of French Literature on English Poetry ”<br />
in the hall of the Geographical Society, Paris. The<br />
subject of the lecture was suggested to Mr. Gosse<br />
by M. Brunetiére, M. Edouard Rod, and M.<br />
Gaston Deschamps on behalf of the Société des<br />
Conférences.<br />
<br />
We must congratulate Mr. Gosse on his appoint-<br />
ment to the office of Librarian to the House of<br />
Lords.<br />
<br />
The third volume of Mr. Andrew Lang’s<br />
“ History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation”<br />
(Blackwood), covers the period from the death of<br />
James VI. to the death of Dundee. Mr. Lang<br />
examines the forces which went to the making of<br />
the Scottish folk. He also sketches the life and<br />
manners of each period.<br />
<br />
A romance by Jean Delaire, the author of “A<br />
Dream of Fame,” will be brought out this month<br />
by Mr. John Long, under the title of “ Around a<br />
Distant Star.”<br />
<br />
Another romance by Jean Delaire (founded on<br />
pre-medizeval French history), is at present appear-<br />
ing serially in Womanhood under the title of<br />
“Waldrada the Fair.”<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Mr. Somerset Maugham’s play, “A Man of<br />
Honour,” was produced at the Avenue Theatre<br />
on the evening of February 18th. A year ago<br />
this piece was produced by the Stage Society.<br />
Since then Mr. Maugham has re-written the last<br />
<br />
act.<br />
4 =~ tt<br />
<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
a<br />
MONG the new books are “Les Petites<br />
A Provinciales,” by M. Gabriel Trarieux ;<br />
“T’Kcole des Rois,” by M. Reepmaker ;<br />
‘“‘ Fantome de Terre-Neuve,” by M. Léon Berthaut;<br />
“ Sceur Alexandrine,” by M. Champol.<br />
<br />
“ Cagliostro,” by M. Henri d’Alméras, is a<br />
biography as interesting as any novel. The diffi-<br />
culty in writing about this famous personage is not<br />
that historical documents with regard to him are<br />
wanting, but that they are too numerous, and it<br />
requires a great amount of time and patience to<br />
discover which are true and which are false.<br />
<br />
“ La Vie et les Livres,” by M. Gaston Deschamps,<br />
is a volume containing many of the articles<br />
published by the author in Le Temps. He<br />
divides the articles into three series, “Cycle de<br />
Napoléon,” “ Cycle de Ja Guerre,” and “ Exotisme<br />
Colonial et Pittoresque.”<br />
<br />
“La Russie Economique,’ by M. A. Anspach,<br />
comes at an opportune moment. The author evi-<br />
dently knows his subject well, but this is not<br />
to be wondered at, as he has lived in Russia for<br />
twenty-seven years.<br />
<br />
Among the translations are “ L’Idéal Américain”<br />
by Roosevelt, translated by A. & E. de Rousiers;<br />
and “Ta Merveilleuse Visite” by H. G. Wells,<br />
translated by M. Barron.<br />
<br />
Few serial writers have as much encouragement<br />
as the author of the “ Mystéres de Paris.” Eugéne<br />
Sue, whose centenary has just passed, received six<br />
hundred letters from readers of his famous serial,<br />
while it was running in the paper.<br />
<br />
Some of the principal articles in recent numbers<br />
of the Reviews are ‘Vers Ispahan,” by Pierre<br />
Loti; “Revue des Deux Mondes;” ‘“ L’Art<br />
Francais 1 Rome,” by M. Bertrand ; ‘“‘ Le Théatre<br />
de M. G. d’Annunzio,” by M. Dornis ; “ La Corée,”<br />
by M. Villetard de Laguérie.<br />
<br />
In the Revue de Paris there is an article on<br />
“La Question du Radium” by M. Marcel Magnan,<br />
and one by M. Victor Bérard on “ Lord Curzon et<br />
le Tibet.”” Madame Marie Anne de Bovet continues<br />
her serial, “ Ame d’Argile.”?<br />
<br />
In the Renaissance Latine, “ Le Trans-<br />
formisme de Spencer,” by M. Frédéric Houssay ;<br />
“ Walden ou la Vie dans les Bois,” by Henri-David<br />
Thoreau ; “ Le Dualisme Austro-Hongrois,” by M.<br />
Albert.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
In La Revue des Idées, “Le Radium et la<br />
Radio-Activité de la Matiére,” by Dr. Georges<br />
Bohn ; “La Valeur Scientifique de l’ceuvre de<br />
Renan,” by M. Vernes.<br />
<br />
In the Weekly Critical Review “ The Need of a<br />
Minister of Shipping,” by Arthur Bles.<br />
<br />
There is also an article in this review which is<br />
causing much discussion in Paris. It is written<br />
by M. A. Mariotte, and is an attempt to prove<br />
that the picture known as Raphael’s “ Belle<br />
Jardinitre” in the Louvre Museum is not an<br />
authentic painting by the great master.<br />
<br />
La Revue is continuing its “ Enquéte sur le<br />
Patriotisme devant les sentiments internationaux.”<br />
The opinions are given of M.M. Déroulede,<br />
Deschanel, Dion, Estournelles de Constant, Lock-<br />
roy, Haeckel, Franz Kossuth, Lombroso, Maeter-<br />
linck, Nordau, Lord Avebury, and others.<br />
<br />
In Le Carnet is an excellent article on ‘“‘ Barbey<br />
d’ Aurévilly,” by M. Louis Sonolet.<br />
<br />
The discovery of M. and Mme. Curie is responsible<br />
for the floating of a new monthly paper devoted to<br />
the news of radium in all parts of the world.<br />
<br />
M. Curie gave a lecture on the 18th of February,<br />
at the Sorbonne. He made various experiments<br />
and gave some very interesting details with regard<br />
to radium as an electrophage.<br />
<br />
Mr. Edmund Gosse, who was invited by the<br />
Société des Conférences to lecture here, chose for<br />
his subject “The Influence of French Literature<br />
on English Poetry.”<br />
<br />
After the lecture a banquet was given by the<br />
Société in honour of Mr. Gosse. M. Faguet pre-<br />
sided and M. Marcel Schwob, and M. René Doumic,<br />
spoke. Among the guests were M.M. de Herédia,<br />
Rodin, Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, Davray, Dumur,<br />
Uzanne, Mr. Barnard, Mr. Heinemann and Mr.<br />
Stanton.<br />
<br />
M. Porel has at last produced the much dis-<br />
cussed play by M. A. Guinon, entitled “ Decadence.”<br />
The subject of this piece is very much the same as<br />
that of “ Retour de Jérusalem,” and is based on the<br />
idea of the impossibility of Jewish and Christian<br />
marriages. In ‘“Décadence” the situations are<br />
reversed; the bride is the daughter of a French<br />
aristocrat of the profligate type, and the man she<br />
marries a wealthy Jew.<br />
<br />
The general opinion seems to be that the author<br />
of the play has exaggerated the vices of the types<br />
he has taken to such a degree as to make them<br />
untrue to life.<br />
<br />
The French aristocrat, his daughter and her<br />
friends all behave in such an extraordinary way<br />
that one wonders where such types of the aristo-<br />
eracy are to be found.<br />
<br />
In a remarkably fine article by M. Leon Daudet<br />
on this subject, we learn that M. Guinon lives a<br />
great part of the year away from his fellow creatures<br />
<br />
145<br />
<br />
in the solitude of the country. “A quiconque<br />
veut chatier le monde” writes M. Daudet, “je<br />
déclare : ‘Sois mondain et sache ce dont tu parles,<br />
Fréquente et observe les milieux.’”’ Further on, he<br />
adds : ‘‘ Les types les plus caractérisés de décadence,<br />
si l’on se donnait la peine de les rechercher, se<br />
découvriraient, sans doute, parmi les parvenus.”<br />
The piece will probably have a certain amount of<br />
success, as it is daring, cleverly written, and, of<br />
course, well staged.<br />
<br />
After ‘Monsieur Betsy,’ in which Madame<br />
Réjane has been appearing, the Variétés is re-<br />
producing ‘‘La Boule,” by M.M. Henri Meilhac<br />
and Ludovic Halévy.<br />
<br />
London used to have a French theatre giving<br />
representations at stated times every year. It was<br />
under the direction successively of M.M. Raphael,<br />
Felix, Valnoy, and, until his death just recently,<br />
of M. Mayer. Madame Sarah Bernhardt’s London<br />
performances were given under the direction of<br />
M. Mayer, who was a most able impressario.<br />
<br />
On the 7th of March the Avenue Theatre is to<br />
give a series of French plays under the direction of<br />
M. Victor Silvestre.<br />
<br />
Some interesting cases with regard to authors’<br />
rights are now being tried here.<br />
<br />
M. Rouff, a publisher, made arrangements some<br />
years ago with M.M. Théodore Cahu, Pierre<br />
Decourcelle, Demesse, Mario, Mary and others,<br />
for the publication of a certain number of works<br />
by these authors.<br />
<br />
At present this publisher is-bringing out a<br />
periodical, Les Grands Romanciers, in which he is<br />
republishing some of these works and advertising<br />
the others as the next ones for his paper.<br />
<br />
The Société des Gens de Lettres, in its own<br />
interests and in the interests of the authors in<br />
question, has brought a case against M. Rouff,<br />
claiming that the novels were not sold for publica-<br />
tion in a journal.<br />
<br />
M. Mario will next bring a case against M. Routf<br />
for advertising in his paper the forthcoming pub-<br />
lication of “the works of M. Mario,” as this gives<br />
the idea that M. Rouff has the sole right of pub-<br />
lication of this author’s novels. M. Mario. will<br />
demand a contradiction of this in the Parisian and<br />
provincial papers, as the circulation of the first<br />
numbers of M. Rouff’s Grands Romanciers was<br />
1,800,000.<br />
<br />
These two cases are to be followed by others.<br />
<br />
The Société des Gens de Lettres is, from a finan-<br />
cial point of view, specially interested in this matter,<br />
as a certain commission is paid to the Société by<br />
authors whose works are reproduced in newspapers<br />
and magazines.<br />
<br />
French daily papers publish either one or<br />
two serial stories in every number, and the<br />
weekly papers, fashion journals, and many other<br />
<br />
><br />
<br />
<br />
146<br />
<br />
publications, give a supplement containing a serial.<br />
Very much of this fiction is reproduction. One of the<br />
more important daily papers publishes an author’s<br />
work in the first instance, the author retaining all<br />
his rights, except this first serial use of his story.<br />
He then announces in the paper issued twice a<br />
month by the Société des Gens de Lettres, that this<br />
novel “may be reproduced by all papers having a<br />
treaty with the Société.”<br />
<br />
There are at present over thirteen hundred news-<br />
papers which have signed a contract with the Society.<br />
By this contract they engage to use annually repro-<br />
ductions of work by members of the Society to a<br />
given amount, paying the same sum per line to all<br />
authors and supplying the Society with a copy of<br />
their journal containing these reproductions. At<br />
stated times the accounts are made out, a com-<br />
mission is deducted by the Society, and the author<br />
has no trouble with his financial affairs for the<br />
reproduction of his stories, except to call at the<br />
offices of the Society and receive the money that is<br />
awaiting him. When he publishes his novel for<br />
the first time in serial form, he usually stipulates<br />
that a certain number of the corrected proof sheets<br />
be supplied to him. As the Society does not under-<br />
take to furnish the journals with the copy, the<br />
author must attend to this himself.<br />
<br />
By this scheme the Société des Gens de Lettres<br />
is a sort of huge co-operative society or syndicate,<br />
and there can be no partiality shown to any<br />
members, as the Society very wisely refrains from<br />
sending out copy.<br />
<br />
Newspaper editors having a contract with the<br />
Society, can write to any authors for stories they<br />
may wish to read, or the author can find out suit-<br />
able papers for his work and send it in himself.<br />
He may be sure, though, that if a story of his<br />
should be used in a dozen different papers, he will<br />
receive a dozen payments for it, less the commission<br />
deducted by the Société des Gens de Lettres for<br />
secretarial work.<br />
<br />
The number of journals having a contract<br />
with the Society is steadily increasing year by year.<br />
. there were 1051; at present there are<br />
<br />
The system is extremely simple for all parties<br />
concerned. Editors who have a contract with the<br />
Society pay a deposit which covers, I believe, their<br />
three or six months’ account, and this is held as a<br />
security as long as their contract exists.<br />
<br />
As publishing syndicates appear to be making<br />
such enormous profits in England, could the<br />
Society of Authors not help its members to form a<br />
syndicate on the same lines as that of the Société<br />
des Gens de Lettres ?<br />
<br />
There is a similar institution in connection with<br />
the Société des Auteurs Dramatiques here. The<br />
author’s rights are paid into that Society so that<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
financial questions do not hamper the French<br />
author in the same way as they do his English<br />
confrere. Auys HaLuarD.<br />
<br />
Oo<br />
<br />
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br />
PROPERTY.<br />
<br />
ae aT.<br />
United States Copyright in Books of Compilation,<br />
T was held lately by Judge Lacombe, of the<br />
I United States Circuit Court, in the case of the<br />
Colliery Engineering Company against Fred<br />
W. Ewald and others, that the owner of the copyright<br />
in a school book, a law digest, a dictionary, a gazet-<br />
teer, business or social directory, or any book which<br />
is not a work of creative or imaginative literature,<br />
cannot prevent a subsequent writer upon the same<br />
subject from comparing the copyrighted work with<br />
the original sources, eliminating therefrom all that<br />
was not copied from such sources and then repub-<br />
lishing the rest of the book. While Judge Lacombe<br />
thinks this rule a harsh one, he feels constrained<br />
to follow it, inasmuch as a recent decision of the<br />
Circuit Court of Appeals seems to sanction the<br />
principle involved. Judge Lacombe gives the<br />
following hypothetical case to show that the rule<br />
may at times produce inequitable results: A., we<br />
may assume, prepares an entirely new classified<br />
business directory of the city of New York, wholly<br />
from original investigation, and publishes the same.<br />
The undertaking is an enormous one, and can be<br />
accomplished only by the employment of hundreds<br />
of men at the cost of thousands of dollars. B.<br />
undertakes thereafter to publish a directory of all<br />
the architects in New York City. To cull their<br />
names out of the world of business activity in such<br />
a hive of industry as this by original research<br />
would be a task nearly as difficult and costly as<br />
the one A. undertook. But if the defendant could<br />
take only the list of architects found in A.’s book<br />
and then visit the places named therein to “see<br />
whether the existing facts concur with the descrip-<br />
tion,” retaining the name, address, names of<br />
partners, etc., where such occurrence was found<br />
and striking them out where death, removal, or<br />
withdrawal from business had eliminated them,<br />
B. could prepare a “Directory of Architects in<br />
New York City” at a mere trifling expenditure,<br />
because A. had already done the work which B,<br />
thus appropriated.<br />
<br />
This decision is contrary to that established<br />
in the English Courts, and if confirmed by the<br />
highest Courts in the States, would make the pro-<br />
duction of Directories a labour of love only. It<br />
would seem, therefore, in the land of the almighty<br />
dollar that the producer of Directories must cease<br />
to exist or be a millionaire philanthropist.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
be paragraphed during the week make it impossible<br />
for the reviewer to obtain more than a superficial<br />
<br />
Serial Rights.<br />
<br />
A member of the Society has sent to the<br />
office the following form of agreement which he<br />
has received from the editor of a well-known<br />
<br />
paper :—<br />
“To<br />
“The Editor of has considered the MS. entitled<br />
ss ” submitted by you, and is willing to pay you the<br />
sum of per thousand words for rights. If you<br />
accept this offer a cheque will be sent you on publication ;<br />
if you do not the contribution will be returned. Kindly<br />
state Yes or No, and post this form in the accompanying<br />
envelope.<br />
Reply<br />
Name<br />
Address<br />
<br />
If the amount per thousand words is fair and<br />
the rights the author is asked to convey are not<br />
_ too large, then the arrangement would be eminently<br />
satisfactory, but for one striking exception, namely,<br />
“the cheque will be sent on publication.” This is<br />
much too indefinite, and every editor ought to<br />
arrange to fix a definite date on which the<br />
money must be paid should publication not have<br />
preceded it. It is possible that the financial side<br />
of the contract as it stands could be enforced,<br />
owing to the fact that the Courts would consider<br />
that publication must take place within a reasonable<br />
time ; eer and editors do not desire to have<br />
the troubfe and worry of an action ; and finality<br />
in a contract should always be obtained prior to<br />
execution.<br />
<br />
With these exceptions the contract is by no<br />
means unsatisfactory.<br />
<br />
Any method under which the contract is clearly<br />
set fortin before the work is set up in type must be<br />
better than the system so often referred to, and<br />
exposed in Zhe Author, by which no acceptance of<br />
a MS. is given, and no communication made with<br />
the author until he receives a cheque, the endorse-<br />
ment of which purports to be a conveyance of the<br />
copyright.<br />
<br />
The author should, however, remember, on<br />
returning this present form of contract, to keep<br />
an accurate copy of it, as the editor does not as a<br />
rule send it in duplicate. he author’s copy would,<br />
in the absence of primary evidence, be sufficient<br />
to establish the terms that existed.<br />
<br />
Ethics of Reviewing.<br />
<br />
THE vagaries and errors of modern book re-<br />
viewers—we can hardly call them critics—ar\<br />
constantly before the minds of those members oi<br />
<br />
the society whose works come under their ken,’<br />
<br />
In many cases the number of books which have to<br />
<br />
knowledge.<br />
<br />
147<br />
<br />
The tendency therefore, is to praise<br />
<br />
the book rather than to decry it—whether the<br />
reviewer is justified or not—as praise will bring<br />
no evil consequences, but blame may lead the<br />
author to commence an action for libel.<br />
<br />
In the case about to be quoted there are some<br />
<br />
curious misstatements<br />
<br />
of facts.<br />
<br />
The<br />
<br />
review<br />
<br />
appeared in a well-known Scottish newspaper.<br />
<br />
STATEMENT BY THE<br />
REVIEWER;<br />
<br />
1. A young man_ goes<br />
abroad to California and<br />
is seen making his way out<br />
there, haunted, however, by<br />
home sickness and so indig-<br />
nant when he learns that he<br />
has at home been given out<br />
for dead that he throws<br />
himself in a sort of religious<br />
agony under the protection<br />
of a Spanish padre.<br />
<br />
2. The young man had<br />
been married before he went<br />
away, and though his wife<br />
has died she has left a son.<br />
<br />
3. The tracing out of this<br />
connection accompanied by<br />
the remorse of the Marquis<br />
and the dreams in distant<br />
lands by which the Son’s<br />
existence is suggested to his<br />
Father forms the business<br />
of the latter part of the tale.<br />
Its end is likely to be long<br />
anticipated by an experi-<br />
enced reader.<br />
<br />
ACTUAL FACTS,<br />
<br />
The young man never<br />
exhibits the slightest symp-<br />
ton of home sickness, never<br />
throws himself in a religious<br />
agony under the protection<br />
of a Spanish padre, never<br />
indulges in the remotest<br />
approach either to a reli-<br />
gious agony or religious<br />
emotion of any kind.<br />
<br />
The young man had not<br />
been married when he went<br />
away, nor was he married<br />
until nearly eleven years<br />
later, and, in consequence,<br />
no child was born at that<br />
period.<br />
<br />
There are no dreams, and<br />
the one narrated is dreamed<br />
hy the sox, and naturally<br />
contains no suggestion of<br />
the son’s existence, but is<br />
indeed a revelation of the<br />
Father’s desire to welcome<br />
the son’s return.<br />
<br />
Curiously enough, the same book has received<br />
another review containing some misstatements, in<br />
the columns of a religious paper. In the latter<br />
case, however, the Editor has, after a letter of<br />
remonstrance from the author, confessed his errors,<br />
and at the end of the paragraph says: “Our<br />
reviewer owns up to the fact that he read the<br />
later chapters rather hurriedly, and trusted over-<br />
much to an uncertain memory in summarising his<br />
impressions,” and proceeds : ‘‘ The story is original<br />
and romantic. It would have gained, however, by<br />
some compression.”<br />
<br />
The Editor of the religious paper must be com-<br />
plimented on his Christian spirit and his frank<br />
acknowledgment.<br />
<br />
General experience tends to show that, as a rule,<br />
the author or contributor is completely at the<br />
mercy of the editorial pen.<br />
<br />
It is essential for a good Editor to be full of<br />
Christian charity, especially when he is in the<br />
wrong. :<br />
<br />
<br />
148<br />
<br />
MR. “ABSOLUTE’S” AGREEMENT.<br />
<br />
———+—<br />
<br />
AGREEMENT made this day of BETWEEN<br />
<br />
of (hereinafter called the AUTHOR) of the<br />
<br />
one part and of (hereinafter called the<br />
<br />
PUBLISHER) of the other part, WHEREBY it is agreed as<br />
follows :—<br />
<br />
1. The PUBLISHER agrees to purchase and the AUTHOR<br />
agrees to sell the entire copyright, without any reserve, in<br />
the United Kingdom and all other parts of the world, of a<br />
work entitled , the completed manuscript executed<br />
in a proper manner of which the AUTHOR has delivered to<br />
the PUBLISHER, and all future editions thereof in considera-<br />
tion of the following payments, viz. :<br />
<br />
A royalty of on the published price of all copies<br />
sold up to 3000, a royalty of after 3000 (this last<br />
increase only taking place as long as the book is not<br />
reduced in price lower than 6s. and as long as 500 copies<br />
are sold in each year).<br />
<br />
2. The PUBLISHER will according to his own judgment<br />
and in such a manner as in his unfettered discretion he may<br />
consider advisable at his own cost print and publish a first<br />
edition of the said work, and further editions if in his judg-<br />
ment further editions are required, and in his absolute<br />
discretion advertise the same, and shall determine all<br />
details and in his absolute discretion make all arrangements<br />
of and incidental to the printing, publishing, advertising,<br />
sale price, and reviewing of the said work.<br />
<br />
3. The PUBLISHER shall in his absolute discretion have<br />
the right to sell, exchange, assign, or otherwise dispose of<br />
all and every right of publication or of translation of the<br />
said work on any terms and for any period and either<br />
wholly or partially or exclusively or otherwise as he shall<br />
think expedient for the colonies and foreign countries, and<br />
an amount equivalent to 50 per cent. of the net profits<br />
realised and actually received by the PUBLISHER shall be<br />
paid to the AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
4. If the PUBLISHER shall sell an edition (or such number<br />
of copies as may be fixed on by the PUBLISHER in his own<br />
absolute discretion as constituting an edition for the purpose<br />
of this clause) to a publisher or bookseller in the United<br />
States of America, the provision as to royalties in clause 1<br />
hereof provided shall not apply, but the AUTHOR shall be<br />
paid a royalty equivalent to one half the royalty that would<br />
be paid were the copies in question sold to the English<br />
trade.<br />
<br />
5. If the said work shall be included in any edition of<br />
works published in England for exclusive sale in any<br />
colony, the royalty shall be 2d. on each copy sold.<br />
<br />
6. The PUBLISHER may, in his absolute discretion, sell,<br />
exchange, assign, or otherwise dispose of the remainder of<br />
any edition at remainder prices, and the AUTHOR shall not<br />
be entitled to any royalty in respect thereof, but shall in<br />
lieu thereof be entitled to a payment equivalent to 5 per<br />
cent. of the net profit realised by such sale and actually<br />
received by the PUBLISHER.<br />
<br />
7. The AUTHOR shall revise and return for press with all<br />
reasonable speed the proof sheets of the work so that the<br />
same may be printed without interruption.<br />
<br />
8. If the printer’s charges for author's corrections of the<br />
first or any other edition of thesaid work exceed an average<br />
of 6s. per sheet of thirty-two pages, the excess shall be<br />
repaid to the PUBLISHER by the AUTHOR and may be<br />
deducted from royalties due or to become due hereunder or<br />
from any moneys held by the PUBLISHER on account of the<br />
AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
9. The AUTHOR shall revise with all possible despatch<br />
any new edition of the said work and correct the proots and<br />
otherwise assist as may be required by the PUBLISHER.<br />
<br />
10. The AUTHOR shall not write or publish, either<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
‘it for the benefit of members.<br />
<br />
directly or indirectly, any other work on the same subject<br />
of such a kind that the sale of the work shall bein any way<br />
prejudicially affected, and should he write another work on<br />
the same or cognate subjects he shall in the first instance<br />
give the PuBLISHER the right to acquire the work by’<br />
purchase or otherwise as may be arranged.<br />
<br />
11. This agreement is entered into by the PUBLISHER on<br />
the warranty by the AUTHOR that the said work does not<br />
infringe any copyright, and that the said work does not<br />
contain anything of a libellous nature. If the said work<br />
does contain anything constituting or alleged to constitute’<br />
a breach of such warranty, and proceedings are threatened<br />
or brought for any alleged infringement of copyright or for<br />
any alleged libel, and it is deemed advisable by the PUB-<br />
LISHER in his absolute discretion not to contest the matter<br />
but to arrive at a settlement thereof, or if the action is<br />
successfully contested, then and in every case the AUTHOR<br />
shall pay in advance to the PUBLISHER a sufficient sum to<br />
cover the estimated costs of the PUBLISHER in defending<br />
such action or threatened proceedings, and shall at the same<br />
time give to the PUBLISHER security satisfactory to him to<br />
indemnify him against any damage awarded in such action,<br />
and shall on demand repay to the PUBLISHER all costs {as<br />
between solicitor and client), damages, and expenses<br />
incurred by the PUBLISHER in respect of or resulting from<br />
or incidental to the publication, advertisement, withdrawal<br />
of, and other dealings with the said work, to the effect that<br />
the PUBLISHER shall have full and complete indemnity<br />
from the AUTHOR in respect of all out of pocket expenses<br />
in connection with the said work.<br />
<br />
12, The PUBLISHER shall keep proper books of accounts.<br />
showing the number of copies of the said work sold, and<br />
<br />
also accounts showing the sales up to the 30th day of June’<br />
<br />
and the 31st day of December in every year, as far as can<br />
be accurately ascertained, shall be delivered to the AUTHOR.<br />
as soon as practicable after these respective dates, and the<br />
royalties due and payable shall be paid not 1 than the<br />
ensuing 30th day of November and the 31st day of May<br />
respectively in every year, and in estimating such royalties<br />
thirteen copies of the said work shall be counted as twelve.<br />
<br />
13. The PUBLISHER shall give to the AUTHOR free of<br />
charge six copies of the said work.<br />
<br />
14, Nothing in this agreement contained shall constitute<br />
or be taken to constitute a partnership between the<br />
parties.<br />
<br />
T is the custom to print from time to time<br />
I and comment on agreements which from the<br />
Author's point of view are exceptionally<br />
unsatisfactory. This system has two distinct<br />
<br />
advantages: (1) in the case where similar terms<br />
are placed before a writer he is able to recognise<br />
<br />
them and act accordingly ; (2) in the case where<br />
the agreement is forwarded to the offices of the<br />
Society, it is possible to forward a copy of The<br />
Author to the member concerned, and thus save<br />
the time that must necessarily be spent in writing<br />
an elaborate and exhaustive criticism of the separate<br />
clauses.<br />
<br />
The agreement printed above appeared in The<br />
Author some four years ago. The copies of the<br />
issue containing it have almost all been sold owing<br />
to the fact already mentioned.<br />
<br />
Tn consequence, as examples of this agreement<br />
are still being placed before the members of the<br />
Society, it has been thought expedient to republish<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Ae<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
The agreement contains nearly all the faults<br />
which, from the Author’s point of view, it could<br />
possibly contain. These faults have been criti-<br />
cised over and over again in The Author, and<br />
also in the work published by the Society en-<br />
titled ‘© Forms of Agreement issued by the Pub-<br />
lishers’ Association, with Comments by G. Herbert<br />
Thring and Illustrative Examples by Sir Walter<br />
Besant.”<br />
<br />
Ciause 1.—The author sells every right he has<br />
in the world in England, her Colonies and<br />
Dependencies, in the United States, and under the<br />
Berne Convention. The folly of this course is<br />
evident. The English publishers should only hold<br />
a licence to publish in England, her Colonies and<br />
Dependencies. All other rights are generally left.<br />
in the hand of an agent, and much better so than<br />
in the hands of publishers, for this reason—that a<br />
publisher does not as a general rule undertake the<br />
work of a literary agent ; that his office is not to<br />
place literary work in other hands, but to produce<br />
literary work for the author; that work of this<br />
kind left in the hands of publishers is not likely<br />
to receive anything like the same attention as it<br />
is if left in the hands of a literary agent; that<br />
the publisher is the only person who gains by<br />
having control of this work, and that the author<br />
loses by leaving it in his hands. It should be<br />
pointed out further that the publisher does not<br />
anywhere in the agreement undertake to secure the<br />
United States copyright for the author, nor even<br />
to do his best to obtain it. It may pay an<br />
English publisher better to sell sheets or stereos<br />
to America and pay the author a royalty as per<br />
clause 4. It should be added (see clause 3) that<br />
for this agency work, while the literary agent<br />
charges 10 per cent., the publisher generally asks<br />
from 30 to 50 per cent. (in this case 50 per cent.).<br />
Out of a large series of agreements before the<br />
Society from all sorts and conditions of pub-<br />
lishers the lowest charge for this literary agency<br />
business has been 25 per cent., and this only in<br />
one case.<br />
<br />
Farther, a publisher who makes his profit out<br />
of the English book publication looks upon the<br />
increase in his profits from these other sources as<br />
little extra luxuries. He does not push to get a<br />
fair price for the author or to keep up the author's<br />
position in the literary market, but he readily<br />
accepts any offer that is made.<br />
<br />
An example was recently before the Secretary<br />
where the serial rights of a 6s. novel, held by the<br />
publisher, were sold for £30. The book was by<br />
an author of no mean reputation, who could obtain<br />
without difficulty £100 if his work had been fairly<br />
marketed.<br />
<br />
There is another point—that publishers very<br />
often delay the publication of a book in order to<br />
<br />
149<br />
<br />
market these minor rights, and it is quite pos-<br />
sible that, as the agreement stands, if the pub-<br />
lisher was desirous of serialising both in England<br />
and the States the publication might be delayed<br />
almost indefinitely.<br />
<br />
That there should be a rising royalty is only<br />
fair if the author cannot claim the highest<br />
royalty at once. On this point, nothing further<br />
need be said, the amount that an author can<br />
obtain in royalty being merely a matter of bar-<br />
gaining, but attention should be drawn to the<br />
latter part of the clause, which is inserted in<br />
brackets. It might lead the unsuspecting author<br />
into considerable difficulty, as the publisher<br />
nowhere undertakes to produce the book at 6s.,<br />
and it is possible that he might, if the sales were<br />
averaging about 500 a year, stop them before they<br />
reach that number.<br />
<br />
In Cuause 2 Mr. “ Absolute” has everything at<br />
his “unfettered discretion ” and practically takes<br />
all the powers into his own hands. He does not<br />
mention the date when he will publish, and he does<br />
not mention the form in which he will publish, nor<br />
does he mention the price at which he will pub-<br />
lish, and at his ‘‘ absolute discretion” he adver-<br />
tises or not, and at his “absolute discretion-”’ he<br />
makes what arrangement he likes with regard to<br />
the production of the book. He is particularly<br />
“absolute” in this clause. It is needless to say<br />
that such a clause as this is “absolutely” bad<br />
from the auther’s point of view. Some of the<br />
difficulties of CLAUSE 3 have already been pointed<br />
out when commenting on CLAusE 1, but Mr.<br />
“ Absolute” makes his position exceedingly clear<br />
to the unfortunate author. The publisher, as<br />
already pointed out, pockets 50 per cent. of the<br />
profits, for which the negotiations, in many cases,<br />
entail the mere writing of one or two short letters ;<br />
and again it should be pointed out that the sale<br />
of these minor rights may entail great delay in<br />
publication in addition to the efforts of the<br />
publisher being careless and half-hearted.<br />
<br />
Again, in Cuause 4, the publisher safeguards -<br />
himself should he fail to obtain the United States<br />
copyright. As a general rule, it does not pay<br />
a publisher to obtain this copyright for an author.<br />
In Cuauss 4, if he does not obtain such copyright,<br />
the author is to have half the royalty that he<br />
would obtain if the copies had been sold to the<br />
English trade; this, quite irrespective of any<br />
bargain which Mr. Absolute”? may make with<br />
the American house with which he is dealing.<br />
The arrangement may be an exceedingly good<br />
arrangement for the publisher ; no doubt he will see<br />
that it is a good arrangement, otherwise he will not<br />
accept it, as the acceptance or rejection lies entirely<br />
with him.<br />
<br />
- In Cuause 5 it will be noticed that the author<br />
<br />
”<br />
<br />
<br />
150<br />
<br />
is to have 2d. on each copy sold to the Colonies.<br />
As the book to which this agreement refers is<br />
presumably a 6s. book (no price being actually<br />
fixed), it is as well to point out that the ordinary<br />
price paid to an author is from 4d. to 43d. a<br />
copy. The arrangement by which the author<br />
gets 2d. is an exceedingly good one for the<br />
publisher.<br />
<br />
The next clause (6) is also a dangerous clause for<br />
the author. It is wearisome to repeat the reasons,<br />
but attention should be drawn to the fact that the<br />
author is paid 5 per cent. on the nef projils, the<br />
publisher taking the rest.<br />
<br />
With regard to CuauseE 8, it is fair that the<br />
publisher should be protected against the heavy<br />
expense of corrections brought about by the<br />
author, but the amount of 6s. per sheet of thirty-<br />
two pages, quoted in this agreement, is perhaps<br />
the smallest amount that has been allowed to any<br />
author in any agreement that has come before the<br />
Society.<br />
<br />
In Chavusz 9, again, the author is entirely at the<br />
beck and call of the publisher. The work is the<br />
author’s, but he is not allowed to revise it unless<br />
the publisher desires him to do 80, and his revision,<br />
even, is subject to the publisher’s discretion.<br />
<br />
In CLAUSE 10 the author is forbidden to publish<br />
a work which is likely to conflict with the interests<br />
of Mr. “ Absolute,” but it would be possible, under<br />
this agreement, for anyone who desired to control<br />
the market in a certain style of publication to kill<br />
a book at his “absolute discretion” in order that it<br />
might not in any way conflict with a work owned<br />
by himself on the same subject already on the<br />
market. If the author is bound not to produce,<br />
it is only fair that the publisher should be equally<br />
bound.<br />
<br />
CLAUSE 11 is perhaps the most absolute clause<br />
of this absolute agreement. If the book was the<br />
author’s, and the publisher had a licence to publish,<br />
it is fair under certain circumstances, and to a<br />
certain limited extent, to guarantee the publisher<br />
<br />
_against infringement of copyright and libel ; but<br />
as the book is the publisher’s, he ought to protect<br />
himself before the purchase. In any case, the<br />
author is asked to concede much too much. A<br />
case once arose in which the publisher of a scientific<br />
book dealing with the sex question on scientific<br />
lines was prosecuted by the police. The publisher<br />
pleaded guilty to obscene publication, and the<br />
author, although his book was approved by some of<br />
the greatest scientists in Europe, had no power of<br />
clearing his character. This case is not an exact<br />
analogy: but power is given to the publisher to<br />
make any agreement and the author has no<br />
opportunity to clear himself. It is possible that<br />
under similar circumstances the publisher might<br />
consent to the payment of a large sum to satisfy<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
a case rather than permit the author to vindicate<br />
his character with regard to what he had written.<br />
Besides, the fact that the publisher is protected<br />
from all loss would necessarily render him careless<br />
as to the costs he might incur, the settlements<br />
he might make, and his whole course of action.<br />
The author would be powerless under the clause<br />
as it stands. It must be repeated that where<br />
a publisher makes an out-and-out purchase, as he<br />
does in this agreement, the motto should be caveat<br />
emptor, and the author should not give a guarantee<br />
to the publisher.<br />
<br />
The account clause (12) is not satisfactory ; it<br />
is not, however, as bad as some. The irony of<br />
clause 14 is perhaps its most amusing point.<br />
<br />
Apology must be made for but a slight com-<br />
mentary on this extraordinary agreement. If any<br />
member of the Society would care to have further<br />
details he must apply to the Secretary. There<br />
is no space to unravel further the mystery of Mr.<br />
“ Absolute’s ’’ methods.<br />
<br />
WILSON vy. THE UNICORN PRESS, LTD.<br />
<br />
a<br />
<br />
N Friday, January 15th, 1904, an action,<br />
brought by Mr. G. Wilson against the<br />
Unicorn Press, Ltd., for damages for breach<br />
<br />
of contract was tried by His Honour Judge Wood-<br />
fall in the Westminster County Court.<br />
<br />
Mr. Horace E. Miller (instructed by Messrs.<br />
Harding and Leggett) appeared for the plaintiff.<br />
<br />
The facts of the case are as follows :—<br />
<br />
Mr. Wilson, on June 17th, 1903, paid to the<br />
defendants a sum of money, in consideration of<br />
which they undertook to publish a book written by<br />
the plaintiff, not later than August 15th of the<br />
same year. Defendants failed to publish on that<br />
date, and after some correspondence, a later date<br />
was agreed upon for such publication, but the<br />
defendants again failed to produce the work as<br />
agreed ; and the plaintiff, being unable to obtain a<br />
fulfilment of the contract, on December 3rd, 1903,<br />
instituted the present proceedings.<br />
<br />
A few days before the trial, defendants made<br />
certain overtures for the withdrawal of the action<br />
upon terms which the plaintiff could not accept.<br />
<br />
When the action came before the Court, the<br />
defendants did not appear, and, after plaintiff had<br />
been called in support of his case, His Honour<br />
entered judgment for him, for the return of the<br />
money originally paid for the publication of the<br />
work, £3 3s. Od. damages, cancellation of the<br />
agreement, and costs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
THE PROPERTY IN A TITLE.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
LL cases decided, either in the United<br />
States Courts or in our Courts of Justice,<br />
which deal with vexed questions of Copy-<br />
<br />
right Property must contribute, to some extent,<br />
to the further interpretation of existing diffi-<br />
culties. Disputes about property in titles, in that<br />
they do not come under any special copyright<br />
statute, but are argued on the analogy of trade<br />
marks law, are especially interesting.<br />
<br />
We quote the following case from the United<br />
States Publishers’ Weekly :—<br />
<br />
“In the case of W. H. Gannetts, publisher of<br />
the magazine entitled Comfort, against William F.<br />
Rupert, publisher of the magazine entitled Home<br />
Comfort, to restrain the latter from using the word<br />
‘comfort’ in connection with his title, Judge Coxe,<br />
of the U. 8. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in<br />
granting an injunction to restrain the defendant,<br />
said :<br />
<br />
‘This is a trade mark case pure and simple. It<br />
is not a case of unfair competition. It is founded<br />
on a technical, common law trade mark. With<br />
this distinction in mind it is obvious that many of<br />
the propositions argued by the defendant are<br />
irrelevant. For fifteen years the complainant and<br />
his predecessors have published a monthly periodical<br />
called Comfort. Under this name a large, lucrative<br />
and growing business has been established. A<br />
person publishing a newspaper or a magazine may<br />
give it a name by which it is known and by which<br />
its authenticity is attested. This name is entitled<br />
to the same protection as if it were affixed to<br />
other articles of merchandise. The purchasing<br />
public know it by that name and no other. The<br />
name is a badge of origin and genuineness. It is<br />
as much a part of the proprietor’s property as his<br />
counting room or printing press. A rival pub-<br />
lisher has no more right to appropriate the name<br />
of the periodical than the individual name of its<br />
owner. But it is objected that “Comfort” is a<br />
standard English word not fanciful or manufac-<br />
tured, but descriptive, suggesting the purpose and<br />
errand of the paper. It certainly is descriptive ;<br />
but of what ? Surely not of a family newspaper.<br />
Some of the synonyms of comfort are consolation,<br />
contentment, ease, enjoyment, happiness, pleasure,<br />
satisfaction, but would any of these be used by a<br />
rational being to describe a monthly journal<br />
intended to circulate in the rural districts ? Would<br />
the word ‘“‘ease,” for instance, when conveyed to a<br />
newspaper convey to the reading public any<br />
accurate information of its errand or purpose<br />
<br />
or the character of its contents? It is thought<br />
not.<br />
<br />
151<br />
<br />
«“ Comfort” is, it is true, a common English<br />
word free to all, but so are century, cosmopolitan,<br />
forum and arena. The last two are suggestive of<br />
ancient contests, physical and intellectual, but not<br />
of a modern literary review. Such words are con-<br />
tinually being selected, arbitrarily, to designate<br />
publications which in time become known solely by<br />
the names so bestowed npon them, and such use is<br />
protected by the courts.<br />
<br />
‘The defendant is publishing a monthly paper<br />
circulating, in part at least, in the same territory<br />
as the complainant’s paper and covering a somewhat<br />
similar field. He calls his paper Home Comfort.<br />
This is enough to justify the relief prayed for. It<br />
is of no moment that the proof fails to show<br />
deception, confusion or injury to any marked<br />
extent. Such proof is unnecessary where infringe-<br />
ment of a valid trade mark is clearly established.<br />
The defendant is using the complainant’s property,<br />
and, as he is acting without color of right, the<br />
complainant is entitled to have that use discon-<br />
tinued. If the defendant’s contention be correct<br />
that actual damage must be proved before an<br />
injunction can issue, it follows that if to-morrow<br />
a new infringer should commence the publication<br />
of a paper with a Chinese copy of the complainant’s<br />
trade name on its title page, the Court would be<br />
powerless to grant relief until the infringement<br />
had been carried on long enough to cause actual<br />
provable damage. Equity is not so helpless and<br />
impotent. It is the policy of the law to arrest the<br />
pirate before he actually makes off with the<br />
plunder.<br />
<br />
‘The complainant has waived an accounting. It<br />
follows that the decree must be reversed with costs,<br />
and the cause remanded to the circuit court with<br />
instructions to enter a decree for an injunction<br />
restraining the defendant from infringing the<br />
complainant’s trade-mark.’ ”<br />
<br />
—_—_—__+—_>_+_____—-<br />
<br />
THE UNITED STATES BOOK TRADE.<br />
<br />
+ —~— 4<br />
<br />
Imports and Exports of Books and other Printed<br />
Matter.<br />
<br />
HE summarised statement of the values of the<br />
imports and exports of books and other<br />
printed matter of the United States for the<br />
<br />
month ending November, 1903, and for the eleven<br />
months ending at the same date, compared with the<br />
corresponding periods of 1902, shows the following<br />
result (page 152) as regards books, music, maps,<br />
engravings, etchings, photographs, and other<br />
printed matter :<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
152 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
y VALUES OF BOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATTER, FREE, IMPORTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Month ending November, 11 months ending November,<br />
1902, 1903, 1902, 1903,<br />
Imported from :<br />
United Kingdom... os me ap set +» | $118,301 $138,472 $1,057,909 $1,327,750<br />
France Se z “ = i es oe 16,180 20,002 174,236 167, 965<br />
Germany oe ve ai ae see te ae 58,505 68,239 615,140 623, 889<br />
Other Europe... ae ec ay a ae 25,636 24,863 379,047 264,037<br />
British North America . as a on ‘” 3,471 3,252 42,091 33,563<br />
Other Countries a aes a cs Oe 3,967 2,843 20,379 21,658<br />
Totals ee Ne ie ies fe oe 226,060 257,671 2,288,802 2,438,862<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VALUES OF BooKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATTER, DUTIABLE, IMPORTED FROM OTHER COUNTRIES.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Imported from: ‘<br />
<br />
United Kingdom ... os bes ae ee | $134,273 $132,138 $1,112,017 $1,181,049<br />
France oe mes ie <s a oe ace 11,989 9,519 76,201 82,800<br />
Germany ay oe ie ce me oan Ae 30,018 34,257 261,464 307,691<br />
Other Europe... “ee oe oe i ee 6,967 6,066 83,059 96,381<br />
British North America bse a as ae ea 4,366 3,404 48,228 46,127<br />
China .., Gee pee nee ose as De Ae 56 5 3,308 3,728<br />
Japan ... ao nk me ie et oh 1,928 787 15,256 21,117<br />
Other Countries th a yee pe m ie 513 1,503 5,869 5,266<br />
Totals aes oe ae me me a 190,110 187,679 1,605,402 1,744,159<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
VALUES OF BOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED MATTER, OF DOMESTIC MANUFACTURE, EXPORTED FROM<br />
THE UNITED STATES BY COUNTRIES.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Countries to which Exported :<br />
<br />
United Kingdom eee cae Ss eee a a $118,339 $102,015 $1,094,341 $1,102,248<br />
Belgium a ae oS sad ee ue bes 3,080 1,916 25,183 27,251<br />
France oe eh Re ae ee sy Me 6,001 4,912 70,143 49,852<br />
Germany = 11,270 12,914 199,060 193,125<br />
Maly 36, es oo ae 1,923 1,060 17,317 27,038<br />
Netherlands ... a ae ese a ae ee 1,339 1,383 11,695 10,735<br />
Other Europe... bes te sc an ae 2,988 2,073 35,867 33,294<br />
British North ecacy a ae ee 150,049 155,711 1,362,903 1,557,331<br />
Central American States and British Honduras... ee 1,840 1,100 19,475 15,978<br />
Mexico ook ai as ms Ss oS os 18,444 16,806 220,129 152,499<br />
Cuba . a se ce a 5,110 21,955 70,134 80,864<br />
Other WwW est Indies and Bermuda 5 ay a me 2,494 1,915 31,517 32,316<br />
oo ne a oat eee vA 6,600 9,488 35,232 46,911<br />
Brazil . ne os eee es ete ae ee 2,702 676 30,927 40,199<br />
Chili... oe oe um pe ses iy a 4,903 8,209 44,488 37,582<br />
Colombia os Be ee Oey ees i as 11,742 129 36,612 10,237<br />
Venezuela... oe see a ue Be 494 170 19,700 3,499<br />
Other South America f aS ave se ce 3,252 2,272 47,115 61,951<br />
Chinese Empire ate oe eis oe See ae 3,100 2,032 30,740 25,750<br />
British East Indies ... ee aye ee i a 6,846 4,824 29,796 22,826<br />
Japan ... ak as he nae a oe TA57 4,153 59,897 56,083<br />
British ‘Australasia aes te oe oes ee va 32,421 15,355 239,677 191,031<br />
Philippine Islands... a ees ee sae sae 3,390 4,543 140,881 52,159<br />
Other Asia and Oceanica ... eke a ee ae 1,285 1,206 23,258 20,698<br />
British Africa oc oe ne sa ec se 6,334 9,522 109,293 50,164<br />
All other Africa a oe ie a sal ie 1,096 771 11,465 9,979<br />
Other Countries a ~~ ec ae a aa — — — ' 34<br />
<br />
Totals ee Pea Be oe os 414,499 387,110 4,016,845 3,911,634<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Although the war between Japanand Russiais ab- scope to some of the wonderful dealers in figures.<br />
sorbing the attention of the majority of people, there They will undoubtedly be able to prove either that<br />
is still a little interest left in the fiscal question. the trade of England is progressing or that the<br />
<br />
The columns printed above will no doubt give British Empire is on the high road to ruin,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THER AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Tt is not our intention to admit either the one<br />
or the other, but there are a few points which may<br />
be noted.<br />
<br />
In the list headed the “values of books and<br />
other printed matter, dutiable, imported from other<br />
countries,” it would appear that the imports from<br />
the United: Kingdom have increased in 1903 to the<br />
extent of 60,000 dollars, whereas the exports from<br />
the United States into the United Kingdom have<br />
only increased about 8,000 dollars.<br />
<br />
These figures cause some surprise, as it has<br />
been asserted, with apparent truth, that the<br />
United States have been providing their own<br />
literature, and have been producing less work from<br />
the pen of British authors during the past few<br />
years. If this is the case, how is the increase<br />
accounted for? It must be remembered that the<br />
imports into the United States do not alone<br />
represent the production of English literary labours;<br />
to them must be added the books printed under<br />
the United States Copyright Act, in the States<br />
themselves. A satisfactory explanation of an<br />
apparent contradiction would prove interesting.<br />
<br />
Again, the imports into the United States from<br />
British North America have decreased about 2,000<br />
dollars, whereas, exports from the United States<br />
to British North America have increased nearly<br />
200,000 dollars.<br />
<br />
It seems clear, therefore, that this enormous<br />
increase of exportation into British North America<br />
arises from the fact that postage is cheaper, and<br />
that it is easier for the Canadians to obtain their<br />
supplies of literature from the States than from<br />
the Mother Country. The result is bad, not only<br />
from the financial point of view, but also, on<br />
account of the sentiments with which the rising<br />
generation in British North America must be<br />
imbued. It is compelled to read the literature of<br />
the United States in preference to the literature<br />
of the British Empire, to study the sentiments<br />
and views of those who, not infrequently, bitterly<br />
hostile to everything British, do not hesitate in<br />
plain terms to say so.<br />
<br />
The Imperial point of view is of importance.<br />
<br />
An analogous case may be quoted to show that<br />
the same difficulty has arisen at other times in<br />
other countries.<br />
<br />
It was not long ago that a deputation of<br />
Hungarians applied to their Government to join<br />
the Berne Convention, putting forward this im-<br />
portant reason that the literature circulated in<br />
Austria-Hungary was the pirated literature of<br />
other countries, calculated in every way to destroy<br />
the national feeling of the Hungarian, or if not<br />
actually calculated to destroy it, at any rate, not<br />
calculated to foster the great traditions of the past,<br />
or inculcate ideals for the future welfare of their<br />
country,<br />
<br />
158<br />
<br />
The other items need but little comment.<br />
<br />
Speaking generally, the imports to the United<br />
States appear to have increased, the exports to<br />
have decreased, and this in spite of Protection.<br />
<br />
—_————__+—>_+__—__<br />
<br />
UNITED STATES NOTES.<br />
<br />
1+<br />
<br />
he Library of Congress at Washington has<br />
<br />
issued a statement of the Copyright Busi-<br />
<br />
ness completed to December 31st, 1903.<br />
From this it would appear that the total number<br />
of entries touched very nearly 100,000—the exact<br />
number being 99,436, and the total fees received<br />
during the same year amounted to 70,230 dollars.<br />
<br />
The paper goes on to state that the entries for<br />
the new year promise to be large, as on the first<br />
legal day of the present year 4,031 were made, and<br />
the fees for that one day amounted to over 2,000<br />
dollars.<br />
<br />
The department also issued a table of the fees<br />
received over a period of years. These show a<br />
constant increase, save in 1900 and 1901, when<br />
they fell from 65,000 dollars in 1899, to 63,000 in<br />
1900, and 64,000 in 1901. Is it possible that this<br />
decrease had anything to do with the Boer War?<br />
It is very probable that this was the case.<br />
<br />
The Copyright Office seems to be running now<br />
on thoroughly satisfactory lines, and the staff is<br />
competent to deal with the enormous press of<br />
work that comes to hand.<br />
<br />
We quote from the article before us :—<br />
<br />
“ The question is frequently asked, How soon is it possible<br />
to obtain a certificate after an application has been filed ?<br />
The great variance in the number of titles filled per day<br />
leads to considerable unavoidable corresponding variance<br />
in the time of mailing the certificate or notice. Taking<br />
however, a fairly normal month for illustration ; during<br />
November, 1903, a month having twenty-four working<br />
days, the bulk of the certificates for two dates were mailed<br />
within three days ; for fourteen dates within four days ; for<br />
six dates within five days; and for two dates in six<br />
days ; but in the case of three dates certificates for certain<br />
classes required seven days before mailing, and on Novem-<br />
ber 28th, the periodical entries were so numerous that nine<br />
days were required to clear the certificates of that class.<br />
It should be remembered that the month included five<br />
Sundays and one holiday, Thanksgiving Day, Theaverage<br />
time, therefore, may be said to be about five days, although<br />
the certificates for sixteen out of the twenty-four total days<br />
were mailed within four days.” ‘<br />
<br />
The United States Government have passed an<br />
Act to afford protection to exhibitors of foreign<br />
literary, artistic, and musical works at the Louisiana<br />
Purchase Exposition.<br />
<br />
This action is very interesting and worthy of<br />
note. A copy of the Act is printed below, together<br />
<br />
<br />
154<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
with a copy of the necessary formalities issued<br />
from the Library of Congress.<br />
<br />
It is possible that some members of the Society<br />
may desire to avail themselves of this privileged<br />
<br />
protection.<br />
<br />
An Act to AFFORD PROTECTON To EXHIBITORS OF<br />
FoREIGN LITERARY, ARTISTIC, OR Musical WORKS<br />
AT THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION.<br />
<br />
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives<br />
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that<br />
the author of any book, map, chart, dramatic composition,<br />
musical composition, engraving, cut, print, chromo, litho-<br />
graph, or photograph published abroad prior to November<br />
thirtieth, nineteen hundred and four, but not registered for<br />
copyright protection in the United States copyright office,<br />
or the heirs and assigns of such author, shall have in the<br />
case of any such book, map, chart, dramatic composition,<br />
musical composition, engraving, cut, print, chromo, litho-<br />
graph, or photograph intended for exhibition at the Louisiana<br />
Purchase Exposition the sole liberty of printing, reprinting,<br />
publishing, copying, and vending the same within the<br />
limits of the United States for the term herein provided<br />
for upon complying with the provisions of this Act.<br />
<br />
Sec. 2. That one copy of such book, map, chart, dramatic<br />
composition, musical composition, engraving, cut, print,<br />
chromo, lithograph, or photograph to be exhibited as herein<br />
provided shall be delivered at the copyright office, Library<br />
of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, with a<br />
statement duly subscribed to in writing that the book or<br />
other article is intended for such exhibition and that the<br />
copyright protection herein provided for is desired by the<br />
copyright proprietor, whose full name and legal residence<br />
is to be stated in the application.<br />
<br />
Sec, 3, That the registrar of copyrights shall record the<br />
title of each volume of any such book or other article herein<br />
provided for, or if the article lacks a title, shall record a<br />
brief description of it sufficient to identify it, in a special<br />
series of record books to be designated the “ Interim copy-<br />
right record books,” and shall furnish to the copyright<br />
claimant a copy of record under seal of such recorded title<br />
or description, and the said title or description is to be<br />
included in the Catalogue of Title Entries provided for in<br />
section four of the Act of March third, eighteen hundred<br />
and ninety-one.<br />
<br />
Sec. 4. That a fee of one dollar and fifty cents shall be<br />
paid to the register of copyrights for each title or description<br />
to be recorded and a certified copy of the record of the<br />
same, and in the case of a work in more than one volume<br />
the same amount, one dollar and fifty cents, shall be paid<br />
for each volume, and the register of copyrights shall deposit<br />
all such fees paid in the Treasury of the United States, and<br />
report and account for the same in accordance with the<br />
provisions in relation to copyright fees of the appropriation<br />
Act approved February nineteenth, eighteen hundred and<br />
ninety-seven.<br />
<br />
Sec. 5. That the copyright protection herein provided for<br />
shall be for the term of two years from the date of the<br />
receipt of the book or other article in the copyright office.<br />
<br />
Sec, 6. That if at any time during the term of the copy-<br />
right protection herein provided for, two copies of the<br />
original text of any such book, or of a translation of it in<br />
the English language, printed from type set within the<br />
limits of the United States or from plates made therefrom,<br />
or two copies from any such photograph, chromo, or litho-<br />
graph printed from negatives or drawings on stone made<br />
within the limits of the United States or from transfers<br />
made therefrom, as deposited in the copyright office, Library<br />
of Congress, at Washington, District of Columbia, such<br />
deposit shall be held to extend the term of copyright pro-<br />
tection to such book, photograph, chromo, or lithograph for<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
the full terms provided for in title sixty, chapter three, of<br />
the Revised Statutes of the United States, computed from<br />
the date of the receipt of the book, photograph, chromo, or<br />
lithograph and the registration of. the title or description<br />
as herein provided for.<br />
<br />
Sec. 7. That in the case of an original work of the fine<br />
arts (a painting, drawing, statue, statuary, and a model or<br />
design intended to be perfected as a work of the fine arts)<br />
which has been produced without the limits of the United<br />
States prior to the thirtieth day of November, nineteen<br />
hundred and four, and is intended for exhibition at the<br />
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the author of such work of<br />
art, or his heirs and assigns, shall be granted copyright<br />
protection therefor during a period of two years from the<br />
date of filing in the copyright office, Library of Congress,<br />
at Washington, District of Columbia, a description of the<br />
said work of art and a photograph of it, and upon paying<br />
to the register of copyrights one dollar and fifty cents for<br />
the registration of such description, and a copy of record<br />
under seal of such recorded description.<br />
<br />
Sec. 8. That, except in so far as this Act authorises and<br />
provides for temporary copyright protection during the<br />
period and for the purposes herein provided for, it shall not<br />
be construed or held to in any manner affect or repeal any<br />
of the provisions of the Revised Statutes relating to copy-<br />
rights and the Acts amendatory thereof. That no registra-<br />
tion under this Act shall be made after the thirtieth day of<br />
November, nineteen hundred and four.<br />
<br />
FoRMALITIES,<br />
<br />
The Congress of the United States has passed a law pro-<br />
viding protection upon any of the following productions<br />
made abroad and exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase<br />
Exposition at St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America,<br />
in 1904:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Group I. Group II.<br />
Books, Original works of Art.<br />
Maps or Charts, Paintings,<br />
Dramatic Compositions, Drawings,<br />
Musical Compositions, Statues,<br />
Engravings, Cuts, or Prints, Statuary,<br />
<br />
Models or Designs intended<br />
to be perfected as works<br />
of the fine arts.<br />
<br />
The protection may be obtained by complying with the<br />
provisions of the law as explained.<br />
<br />
Chromos or Lithographs,<br />
Photographs.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Group J.<br />
<br />
For articles in Group I., the author, or his heirs or assigns,<br />
is required to deliver at the Copyright Office, at Washing-<br />
ton, D.C., one copy of his book ; map or chart ; dramatic<br />
composition ; musical composition; engraving, cut, or<br />
print ; chromo or lithograph ; or photograph, together with<br />
a statement duly subscribed to in writing that the book or<br />
other article is intended for ‘exhibition at the Louisiana<br />
Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, and that copy-<br />
right is desired by the author (whose full name and legal<br />
residence should be stated), or by the author's heirs or<br />
assigns : in which case their names and legal residences<br />
should be given. Printed blank application forms to be<br />
used in making these statements may be obtained upon<br />
applying to the Register of Copyrights.<br />
<br />
In addition to the above statement of the applicant, there<br />
should be sent with each book or other article the fee pro-<br />
vided by law, namely, $1.50 for each book or other article.<br />
In the case of a work in more than one volume, $1.50 is<br />
required to be sent for each volume. A certificate of entry<br />
of title will be returned to the applicant.<br />
<br />
Group IZ.<br />
<br />
In the case of original works of the fine arts, such as<br />
paintings, drawings, statues, statuary, and models or designs<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
intended to be perfected as works of the fine arts, which<br />
are to be exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition<br />
at St. Louis in 1904, the author of any such work of art, or<br />
his heirs or assigns, is required to deliver at the Copyright<br />
Office, Library of Congress, Washington, a brief description<br />
of the said work of art, with a photograph of it, and $1.50<br />
for each separate description.<br />
<br />
FEES.<br />
<br />
The fee for each registration is $1.50 ; that is, $1.50 for<br />
each separate production; and in the case of a work in<br />
<br />
more than one volume, $1.50 for each volume. This fee<br />
<br />
should be forwarded by means of an International Money<br />
Order, payable to the Register of Copyrights.<br />
<br />
If applicants desire to deposit the copy, file the necessary<br />
application, and pay the fee through an agent in New<br />
York, or elsewhere in the United States, that may be done.<br />
<br />
TERM OF PROTECTION.<br />
<br />
The sole liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing,<br />
copying, and vending the book or other article is granted<br />
for a period of two years from the date of the receipt of<br />
the book or other article in the Copyright Office, Library<br />
of Congress, Washington, as provided for above.<br />
<br />
EXTENSION OF TERM OF PROTECTION.<br />
<br />
1f within the two years, in the case of a book, Two Copies<br />
of the original text of any such book, or of a translation of<br />
it in the English language, printed from type set within<br />
the limits of the United States, or from plates made there-<br />
from, are deposited in the Copyright Office, Library of<br />
Congress, Washington, the term of copyright protection of<br />
such book is extended for the full terms provided for by<br />
the present copyright laws, namely, 28 years and 14 years,<br />
computed from the date of the first receipt of the book.<br />
<br />
In the case of a photograph, chromo, or lithograph, if<br />
within the two years Two Copies of any such photograph,<br />
chromo, or lithograph, printed from negatives or drawings<br />
on stone made within the limits of the United States, or<br />
from transfers made therefrom, are deposited in the Copy-<br />
right Office, Library of Congress, Washington, the term of<br />
the copyright protection is also extended for the full terms<br />
provided by the present copyright laws.<br />
<br />
THORVALD SOLBERG,<br />
Register of Copyrights.<br />
<br />
Notice.—No registrations can be made under the law<br />
after November 30th, 1904.<br />
<br />
——___—_+—~<>—_ —____<br />
<br />
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br />
<br />
+4 —<br />
BLACKWOOD’S MAGAZINE.<br />
<br />
A Song of England. By Alfred Noyes.<br />
<br />
Viscount Gough. By George W. Forrest, C.I.E.<br />
<br />
John Chileote, M.P. By Katherine Cecil Thurston.<br />
<br />
The Pytchley Country.<br />
<br />
A Lad of Promise.<br />
<br />
On the Portrait of a Beautiful Woman carved upon her<br />
Tomb. Translated by Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B.<br />
<br />
Scolopaxiana : Habits and Habitat. By Scolopax.<br />
<br />
Whitaker Wright Finance.<br />
<br />
Fort Drouthy. By X.<br />
<br />
Ode: To a New Tall Hat. By Selim.<br />
<br />
Musings without Method: Objections to a National<br />
Theatre — Future of Public Taste in Literature—In<br />
Defence of the Study of Greek.<br />
<br />
The Opening of the War. By Active List.<br />
<br />
The Session.<br />
<br />
155<br />
<br />
THE COoRNHILL MAGAZINE.<br />
<br />
The Truants (Chapters vii.—ix.). By A. E. W. Mason.<br />
<br />
Colonial Memories. III. A Modern New Zealand. By<br />
Lady Broome.<br />
<br />
Debita Flacco.<br />
<br />
Historical Mysteries.<br />
Andrew Lang.<br />
<br />
Herbert Spencer. By Hector Macpherson.<br />
<br />
A Day of My Life in the County Court. By His Honour<br />
Judge Parry.<br />
<br />
The Structure of a Coral Reef.<br />
Bonney, F.R.S.<br />
<br />
French Housekeeping. By Miss Betham-Edwards.<br />
<br />
A Hungry Heart. By Hugh Clifford, C.M.G.<br />
<br />
Ballade of St. Martin’s Clock. By L. H.<br />
<br />
The Wreck of the “ Wager.” By W. J. Fletcher.<br />
<br />
The Powder Blue Baron. By Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick.<br />
<br />
By E. H. Pember, K.C.<br />
III. The Case of Allan Breck, By<br />
<br />
By Professor T. G.<br />
<br />
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br />
<br />
Nature’s Comedian (Chapters xvii., xviil.).<br />
Norris.<br />
<br />
Modder River.—I. By Captain Vaughan.<br />
Mademoiselle and Friulein. By M. E. Francis.<br />
Pat Magee’s Wife. By Lena Barrington.<br />
The Sound of the Desert. By Louisa Jebb.<br />
A Wherry Elopement. By C. F. Marsh.<br />
A Defence of Play-reading. By W. E. Hicks.<br />
At the Sign of the Ship. By Andrew Lang.<br />
<br />
By W. E.<br />
<br />
MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br />
<br />
The Court of Sacharissa (Chapters x.—xii.).<br />
Sheringham and Nevill Meakin.<br />
<br />
Education and its Machinery. By P. S. Burrell.<br />
<br />
The German Army in German Fiction. By H. C.<br />
Macdowall.<br />
<br />
The Message of the Winds.<br />
<br />
Our Irish Friends. By the Rey. J. Scoular Thomson.<br />
<br />
The Last of Limmer’s. By Gerald Brenan.<br />
<br />
At the Home of the Deceivers.<br />
<br />
The Gardens of Tokio. By Reginald Farrer.<br />
<br />
Matthew Arnold as a Popular Poet. By W. A. Sibbald.<br />
<br />
THE WoRLD’S WORK.<br />
<br />
By Hugh<br />
<br />
Portrait of Mr. John Hay, Secretary of State of the<br />
United States (frontispiece).<br />
<br />
The War—and After. By Henry Norman, M.P.<br />
<br />
The Emperor of Japan.<br />
<br />
The Torpedo: Its Value in War. By Fred. T. Jane.<br />
<br />
The Lesson of the Free Trade Controversy. By R. B.<br />
Haldane, K.C., M.P. (with portrait).<br />
<br />
The Clean Sweep at the War Office.<br />
Dilke, Bart., M.P.<br />
<br />
The Great Motor Show.<br />
<br />
The Crisis in the Cotton Industry : Its Position and its<br />
Future. By ©. W. Macara (with portrait).<br />
<br />
The Free Trade Debate.<br />
<br />
The Day’s Work. XI. A London Policeman.<br />
<br />
Home Rule for the Thames.<br />
<br />
To See Oneself Think. By E. 8. Grew.<br />
<br />
Perfect Feeding of the Human Body.<br />
Marcosson.<br />
<br />
The Coal Miner and His Work. By W. Meakin.<br />
<br />
Mining by Electricity. By J. E. Hodgkin, M.1.E.E.<br />
<br />
The Man without a Bed. By Clarence Rook.<br />
<br />
Every Man His Own Fruit Grower. By<br />
Counties.”<br />
<br />
The World’s Play. XI. Ladies’ Sports.<br />
<br />
The Work of the Book World, with portraits of Mr,<br />
William Archer, Mrs. Baillie Reynolds, Mr. Vincent Brown,<br />
Mr. Edmund Gosse, LL.D.<br />
<br />
A Fresh Start in a British Industry.<br />
<br />
Among the World’s Workers: A Record of Industry.<br />
<br />
By Sir Charles<br />
<br />
By Isaac I".<br />
<br />
“ Tome<br />
156<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br />
OF BOOKS.<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 sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br />
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br />
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br />
the Society.<br />
<br />
Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br />
agreement).<br />
<br />
In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br />
<br />
C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br />
<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
ments. 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 />
III. The Royalty System.<br />
<br />
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br />
of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br />
what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br />
possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br />
truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br />
with royalties are published in Zhe Author,<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 />
(3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br />
<br />
——_——_—o——_2—_____<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
—_1~- +.<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. It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br />
the production of a play with anyone except an established<br />
manager. be<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays’<br />
in three or more acts :—<br />
<br />
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br />
is unsatisfactory, An author who enters into<br />
such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br />
for production of the piece by a certain date<br />
and for proper publication of his name on the<br />
play-bills,<br />
<br />
(d.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br />
perform on the basis of percentages on<br />
gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br />
and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br />
percentage on the sliding scale of gr0ss 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 to<br />
perform on the basis of. royalties (i.c., fixed<br />
nightly fees). This method should be always<br />
avoided except in cases where the fees are<br />
likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br />
other safeguards set out under heading (6.) 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 United States 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 information<br />
are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
————<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br />
<br />
a.<br />
<br />
ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br />
assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br />
authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br />
<br />
a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br />
composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br />
cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br />
property. The musical composer has very often the two<br />
rights to deal with—performing right and copyright. He<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br />
an agreement, and should take into particular consideration<br />
the warnings stated above.<br />
<br />
—_+——_e—___<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
4<br />
<br />
VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br />
advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
<br />
business or the administration of his property. The<br />
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br />
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br />
Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br />
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion, All this<br />
without any cost to the member.<br />
<br />
2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br />
ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br />
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 your calling in promoting<br />
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<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 />
—() 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. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br />
can be obtained in the Prospectus.<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 with publishers submitted to<br />
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br />
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br />
of the Society.<br />
<br />
This<br />
The<br />
<br />
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements<br />
must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br />
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,<br />
<br />
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br />
<br />
referring matters to the Secretary of the Society ; so<br />
<br />
_ do some publishers. Members can make their own<br />
_ deductions and act accordingly.<br />
<br />
\ 10. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s. per<br />
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
—+—— + —<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 />
MSS. 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 />
ope<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
—-—>+—<br />
<br />
HE Editor of Zhe 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 />
Communications 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 than<br />
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 />
Oe<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 />
—1+—>+<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 />
—_————\— 6<br />
<br />
THE LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE<br />
ASSURANCE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
—— +<br />
<br />
N offer has been made of a special scheme of<br />
Endowment and Whole Life Assurance,<br />
admitting of a material reduction off the<br />
<br />
ordinary premiums to members of the Society.<br />
Full information can be obtained from J. P. Blake,<br />
Legal and General Insurance Society (City Branch),<br />
158, Leadenhall Street, H.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
158<br />
AUTHORITIES.<br />
<br />
——>— + —<br />
<br />
DEPARTMENTAL Committee has been<br />
appointed by the Secretary of State’ to<br />
enquire into “the complaints of the musical<br />
<br />
publishers as to the sale, especially in the streets,<br />
of pirated copies of their publications, and to<br />
report whether any, and if so what amendment of<br />
the law is necessary.”<br />
<br />
The Committee is composed of the following<br />
<br />
eentlemen :—<br />
"Mr. Fenwick, Chairman; Mr. J. Caldwell ;<br />
Mr. F. L. P. Elliott, Secretary; Mr. W. J. Gallo-<br />
way, M.P., Mr. John Murray, and Mr. T. E.<br />
Scrutton.<br />
<br />
The names of the Committee are a sound<br />
enarantee that the work will be done energetically<br />
and exhaustively. Among the number we are<br />
pleased to see the name of Mr. Scrutton, whose<br />
work on behalf and knowledge of copyright is so<br />
well known.<br />
<br />
It seems strange, however, that on a cominittee<br />
of this kind, dealing with the property of com-<br />
posers (for the pirated music does not always<br />
belong to the publisher; it is sometimes the pro-<br />
perty of the person from whose brain it evolved),<br />
that not one of those distinguished gentlemen, and<br />
no representative from the Authors’ Society, which<br />
acts as their protector, should have been asked to<br />
join the number. Again, there is no musical pub-<br />
lisher on the board. ‘The only publisher is Mr. John<br />
Murray, whose business among the first of those<br />
which deal with a certain branch of the trade, does<br />
not cover the publication (so far as we are aware)<br />
of musical compositions.<br />
<br />
It is hoped that if the Government undertake to<br />
deal with the matter, they will not be content with<br />
passing an amending Act, which after all, if we<br />
consider the number of small musical Acts, will<br />
only make the question more complicated; but<br />
will take in hand the consolidation of musical<br />
copyright.<br />
<br />
Wi: regret to chronicle the death, after a long<br />
illness, of Sir Leslie Stephen, K.C.B.<br />
<br />
It is impossible, while going to press, to do more<br />
than draw the attention of the members of the<br />
Society to the loss that English literature has<br />
sustained. _ oe<br />
<br />
As editor of The Cornhill, of the ‘“ Dictionary<br />
of National Biography,” and as the author of<br />
numerous philosophical and biographical works, as<br />
well as of lighter volumes dealing with literature<br />
and Alpine travel, he added largely to the wealth<br />
of English literature. His death leaves a gap<br />
that will be long felt.<br />
<br />
The sincerity and courtesy of his literary style<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
was in aceord with his character. In all matters of<br />
business there was no man more pleasant to deal<br />
with, no man more thoughtful of, and interested<br />
in, the efforts of the younger generation of the<br />
profession of letters.<br />
<br />
Aone the correspondence we print a letter from io<br />
Miss Hallard, the Paris correspondent of The a<br />
Author, who was for many years a friend of George ie<br />
Gissing. ‘The Secretary, acting with the sanction 14<br />
of the Chairman of the Committee, will be glad to<br />
accept any contributions that may be forwarded to<br />
the Society’s office, in response to the suggestions jf<br />
contained in Miss Hallard’s note, and the Society fis<br />
will willingly act as agents in carrying out any i<br />
proposition upon which Mr. Gissing’s friends may ¥s<br />
decide in order to show their appreciation for his fid<br />
work and their love for his memory. :<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
A curious case of infringement, in which fy<br />
Aubrey Newton was the culprit, has come before &<br />
the Society: A short story written by one of 16<br />
its members, which appeared some years ago in Hi<br />
the Illustrated London News, was taken bodily,<br />
with the title changed, and offered by Mr. Newton a<br />
to a penny weekly paper. The editor finding the<br />
story was a good one, purchased it, and subse-<br />
quently printed it in his columns. :<br />
<br />
Some months afterwards the matter was brought %<br />
to the attention of themember. He at once placed b<br />
his case in the hands of the Society, when the facts alo<br />
above stated came to light. The case has now We<br />
been settled ; the editor has paid a sum for infringe-<br />
ment of copyright, and inserted an apology in his #<br />
<br />
paper.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
THE RECOMPENSE.<br />
<br />
1<br />
<br />
E rhymers wear our hearts upon our sleeve ><br />
And pawn cur blood for fame; our tears «<br />
are bonds<br />
That Fate repays at last,—thus runs the grim<br />
Ancient indictment.<br />
O undying songs<br />
<br />
That thrill across the inexorable years,<br />
O hearts self-fathomed for the world to plumb,<br />
Was this your end? O gradual pulse of dawn,<br />
Heavy with lifeblood of the unborn day ;<br />
Dim, ancient coasts raped by the looting sea,<br />
Sun, storm and thunder, and immortal siars,<br />
And moon that leans and listens to the tides,<br />
Are all your names but dice that poets cast<br />
To cheat oblivion ?<br />
<br />
Rather let them say<br />
That even as some timid lover who laid<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
i<br />
<br />
é<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THER AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
A scroll that he had writ with joy and fear<br />
<br />
All the June night, where the dear feet should pass<br />
Of her he worships, watches from afar,<br />
<br />
Aching lest it shall fall in alien hands,<br />
<br />
So we who pour our treasure, gold or dross,<br />
<br />
Where every eye may reckon it, are content<br />
<br />
If one shall weep with us, if one shall glow<br />
<br />
With passionate joy because our hearts were flame;<br />
Yea, we abide the mockery of a world<br />
<br />
For the sweet sake of one who comprehends.<br />
<br />
Sr. Joun Lucas.<br />
<br />
—____—_+o_+___<br />
<br />
MUSICAL PIRACY.<br />
<br />
— 7.<br />
<br />
HE Report of the Departmental Committee<br />
<br />
appointed by the Secretary of State for the<br />
<br />
Home Department to inquire into the piracy<br />
<br />
of musical publications, together with notes and<br />
<br />
appendix, has now been issued in the form of a<br />
Blue Book.<br />
<br />
To all members of the Authors’ Society, whether<br />
writers or composers, this Blue Book is full of<br />
interest. Although the holder of musical copy-<br />
right is at present the worst sufferer by this form<br />
of infringement, the author of books is not entirely<br />
exempt. It is therefore of the greatest importance<br />
that an Act be passed to deal in an adequate<br />
manner with the doings of the pirate.<br />
<br />
Mention has already been made in this number<br />
of “The Author ” of the names of the gentlemen<br />
sitting on the Committee. There is no need to<br />
repeat the list.<br />
<br />
The following witnesses were called to give<br />
evidence before them :—<br />
<br />
Mr. Arthur Boosey, of Messrs Boosey & OCo., Mr.<br />
David Day, of Messrs Francis Day and Hunter, Mr.<br />
Emile Enoch, of Messrs Enoch & Co., who attended<br />
as representative of the French Music Publishers’<br />
Association, and Mr. H. R. Clayton, of Messrs<br />
Novello & Co. ; Mr. John Abbot, Assistant Secre-<br />
tary, and Mr. Preston, Provincial Agent, of the<br />
Music Publishers’ Association; Mr. Lione. Monckton<br />
and Mr. Maybrick, two well-known musical com-<br />
posers ; Superintendent Moore, of the Metropolitan<br />
Police; Sir H. Poland, K.C.; Mr. Dickinson<br />
and Mr. Rose, Metropolitan Magistrates; and<br />
Mr. Willetts, who is known also by the name of<br />
Fisher and “ King of the Pirates,” manager of the<br />
People’s Music Publishing Company. It will be<br />
noticed that there are six representatives of the<br />
trade, and only two composers. When will the<br />
fact be fully recognised that although the trade,<br />
especially the music publishing trade, are constant<br />
purchasers of copyright, yet the composer is the<br />
<br />
159<br />
<br />
originator of the work, and has the prior right to<br />
consideration ?<br />
<br />
The evidence, which is full of interesting infor-<br />
mation, cannot be dealt with in this number. The<br />
report of the majority of the Committee alone is<br />
summarized.<br />
<br />
Mr. Edward N. F. Fenwick (Chairman), Mr.<br />
William J. Galloway, M.P.. Mr. John Murray,<br />
and Mr. T. E. Scrutton, K.C., signed the Report.<br />
Mr. James Caldwell, M.P., dissenting, put forward<br />
his views in a separate document.<br />
<br />
Firstly, they deal with the manner in which the<br />
pirated music is sold by the hawkers to the public.<br />
This point is one of considerable importance, as on<br />
it are based the suggested remedies by which the<br />
street vendors may be dealt with.<br />
<br />
Secondly, with the method by which the works<br />
are printed and distributed to the hawkers in order<br />
to ascertain how to deal with the printers and<br />
distributing agents.<br />
<br />
Thirdly, they show from the evidence the<br />
enormous increase of this piratical trade.<br />
<br />
In 1901, 47 copyrights were infringed. There<br />
are now no less than 231 pirated editions of copy-<br />
right music on the market; and 460,000 copies.<br />
of pirated music were seized in the Metropolitan<br />
Police District alone between the Ist day of<br />
October, 1902, and the 31st day of December,<br />
1903.<br />
<br />
To show how inadequate were the original<br />
remedies, Mr. Boosey stated that out of 12 civil<br />
actions prosecuted successfully by his firm, at the<br />
cost of £500, in two instances only did they<br />
succeed in recovering their costs from . the<br />
defendants.<br />
<br />
The Report states ‘it has been suggested the<br />
public benefit by the sale of pirated music,” but.<br />
the Committee have come to the conclusion that<br />
* the public have no right to benefit by assisting to<br />
plunder a class on which the Legislature has con-<br />
ferred statutory rights of property, although the<br />
protection afforded by the statute has proved<br />
insufficient to deal with an evil which was not for-<br />
seen at a time when the Act was passed.”<br />
<br />
The Committee next discussed the two following<br />
points raised in the evidence : (1) “ ‘hat the price<br />
charged for legitimate music is out of all propor-<br />
tion to the cost of production,” and (2) “that as a<br />
matter of fact it would be more profitable for both<br />
publisher and composer if a smaller royalty were<br />
paid and a less charge made for music.”<br />
<br />
The evidence and the deductions are not entirely<br />
satisfying. The price charged for legitimate music<br />
must be a question of supply and demand. This<br />
has been proved to be the case in the book market.<br />
There has been no complaint that a copyright<br />
book cannot be obtained at a short price, if there<br />
is a demand for a cheap form. Commenting on the<br />
160<br />
<br />
second point the Report states that one firm of<br />
publishers had tried the experiment of issuing 6d.<br />
editions of certain songs, but this had not saved<br />
them from being pirated. ‘The witness stated that<br />
the pirates used the 6d. legitimate edition as a<br />
cloak, keeping it at the top of their stock to<br />
conceal inferior pirated copies.<br />
<br />
Dealing with the loss to publishers and com-<br />
posers, the Committee state “the composer, seeing<br />
his income gradually appropriated by others by<br />
illegal means, and the publisher, who has invested<br />
large sums of money in his business, on the<br />
strength of Parliament having given a property in<br />
copyright, look to Parliament, not unreasonably,<br />
to give them adequate protection.” This is true,<br />
but will they get what they want? Authors have<br />
been clamouring for years, but still there is no<br />
Copyright Bill.<br />
<br />
The incapacity of the existing law to check the<br />
evil is made apparent on the evidence, and the<br />
Committee proceed to dissect the inadequate<br />
remedies of the Act of 1902. Studied considera-<br />
tion of the reasons why the Act is not sufficiently<br />
powerful, are put forward. The Act gives power,<br />
under conditions, to seize pirated copies, and<br />
having seized them, to carry them before a Court<br />
of Summary Jurisdiction for destruction. The<br />
right of seizure, however, is limited, and no power<br />
is conferred by which premises can be entered by<br />
force and searched. ‘The power of destruction is<br />
also limited, as it is impossible to destroy without<br />
serving the hawker with a summons. Owing to<br />
the false address given by most hawkers it is<br />
almost impossible to do this. According to one<br />
witness, out of five or six thousand summonses<br />
issued only 287 have been served.<br />
<br />
Having set out succinctly all the preliminary<br />
issues, the Majority Report of the Committee sets<br />
‘out its summary and its recommendations as<br />
follows :—<br />
<br />
SuMMARY.<br />
<br />
It will be seen from the above facts that an extensive<br />
‘system of infringing copyright has sprung up which the<br />
remedies at present provided by law are powerless to sup-<br />
press. The opinion given by owners of musical copyright,<br />
that the Act of 1842 and the Act of 1902 have been quite<br />
ineffective to deal with the mischief, was corroborated by<br />
such experienced lawyers as Sir H. Poland, Mr. Dickinson,<br />
the magistrate at the Thames Police Court, and Mr. Rose,<br />
‘the magistrate at the West London Police Court, and we<br />
find it to be quite justified by the facts.<br />
<br />
The hawker in the street cannot be successfully attacked<br />
by civil proceedings in the High Court, such proceedings<br />
being useless against an anonymous person of no means,<br />
He cannot be suppressed by the Act of 1902, for there is no<br />
power to obtain his true name and address for the purpose<br />
of serving a summons on him.<br />
<br />
Even if he is served, nothing can be done but to forfeit<br />
the few copies he is offering for sale at the time of seizure;<br />
and while the order is being made he is selling in another<br />
street fresh copies obtained from the secret store of the<br />
middleman,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
The Act of 1842 cannot successfully restrain a printer<br />
and middleman who remain in the dark, who have no<br />
recognised place of business, nor means to pay damages or<br />
costs, and who, restrained by injunction, get a relation or<br />
friend to carry on their business. The Act of 1902 fails<br />
against them owing to the absence of a power of search.<br />
<br />
RECOMMENDATIONS,<br />
<br />
In our opinion, no remedies will be effective which do<br />
not recognise that the persons engaged in dealing in pirated<br />
music are men of no means or settled abode, nor amenable<br />
to civil proceedings, and are people who, as Sir H. Poland<br />
expressed it, are engaged in a common law conspiracy to<br />
infringe on rights of property. In our opinion, legislation<br />
to deal effectively with this evil must give :<br />
<br />
(1) A summary method of recovering penalties for<br />
printing and distributing piratical works. Such a proce-<br />
dure already exists in the Fine Art Copyright Act, 1862,<br />
and the Merchandise Marks Act, 1887.<br />
<br />
(2) In certain cases, a power of arrest, modelled on the<br />
procedure under the Metropolitan Police Acts, which<br />
has worked effectively and without causing complaint<br />
for some 60 years. This is essential to ensure that the<br />
offender shall be present at the summary proceedings<br />
and shall suffer the penalty he has incurred.<br />
<br />
(3) A power of search, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., to<br />
be granted only on a magistrate’s order made after<br />
hearing evidence on oath that it is probable that piratical<br />
music is stored in a particular house or building. This is<br />
necessary to reach the secret store where piratical copies<br />
are printed or kept for the purpose of furnishing the<br />
hawkers with supplies.<br />
<br />
DETAILED CONSIDERATION OF THE REMEDIES<br />
PROPOSED.<br />
<br />
We recommend that it should be made a penal offence,<br />
punishable by fine and forfeiture on summary conviction,<br />
for any person—<br />
<br />
‘“‘(1) to print or cause or procure to be printed any<br />
pirated musical work ;<br />
<br />
(2) to distribute or carry about any pirated musical<br />
work for the purpose of being sold or dealt with in the<br />
course of trade ;<br />
<br />
‘‘@) to sell or cause or procure to be sold, or expose,<br />
offer, or keep for sale, or solicit, by post or otherwise,<br />
orders for any pirated musical work ;<br />
<br />
‘“‘(4) to import or export or cause to procure to be<br />
imported or exported any pirated musical work or the<br />
plates thereof ;<br />
<br />
‘*(5) to be found in possession of any pirated musical<br />
work or the plates thereof for any of the purposes above<br />
mentioned.” :<br />
<br />
In the definition clause the word “plates” should be<br />
defined to include any stereotype or other plates, stones,<br />
or matrices or negatives used for the purpose of printing<br />
any pirated musical work.<br />
<br />
Finally, the Committee proceed to make fuller<br />
suggestions simplifying and defining the powers<br />
of arrest ; on what terms they should be given<br />
and how far they should extend. Search warrants<br />
are dealt with in the same way.<br />
<br />
The concluding words sum up the position :—<br />
<br />
(1.) That a widespread system of piracy which has<br />
grown up is doing very serious injury to the property of<br />
composers and publishers of music.<br />
<br />
(2.) That this piracy owes its origin to the inadequacy of<br />
the remedies provided by Parliament to protect the pro-<br />
perty it has created against persons of no means and:no<br />
settled abode who deliberately conspire to break the law.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
(3.) That fresh legislation on the lines above indicated<br />
jis necessary to protect adequately musical copyright, and<br />
that this legislation should give (a) a summary power of<br />
inflicting penalties on printers and sellers of piratical<br />
works; (0) a power of arrest of such offenders to ensure<br />
their being brought before the Court that can inflict those<br />
penalties ; (¢) a power of search for piratical works, to<br />
ensure their destruction.<br />
<br />
—__—___—_-—<>—_e_<br />
<br />
AUTHORS AND INCOME TAX.<br />
<br />
—_+<br />
<br />
HEN money is received by an author as<br />
consideration for conveyance of copy-<br />
right, should it be accounted as income ?<br />
<br />
Should it be reckoned in assessment for income<br />
tax ? Last December I wrote a short letter to<br />
the Zimes on this question, expecting a reply, or,<br />
possibly, many replies. There was none. Christ-<br />
mas week is, perhaps, a time when men do not<br />
care to discuss so unpleasant a subject as the<br />
income tax. It may be that no one could either<br />
improve my presentment of the problem or suggest<br />
a solution : but that I can hardly believe. I find<br />
that both publishers and authors have talked<br />
about my letter, but have stopped short of writing.<br />
I am disposed to return to the subject, treating it<br />
more in detail.<br />
<br />
1 showed that an absurdity can be deduced<br />
either from an affirmative or from a negative<br />
answer. If it be denied:that moneys received on<br />
sale of copyright are income, it will follow that an<br />
author producing much work in a year and selling<br />
all copyrights to his publisher earns no taxable<br />
income : which seems absurd. On the other hand,<br />
if such moneys be reckoned as income, there is a<br />
consequence which I set out in a hypothetical case.<br />
J have published certain works which bring me in<br />
royalties of £60 a year. I sell the copyrights for<br />
£600, which I at once sink in a terminable annuity<br />
of £40. The effect is to reduce my income from<br />
this source by £20 a year. But if I reckon the<br />
£600 as income, and strike a three years’ average<br />
as usual, I shall make my taxable income from this<br />
source £240 for the current year, £220 for the<br />
next, and £200 for the third. I shall also be<br />
paying income tax on my £40 annuity. In sum,<br />
I shall pay for these three years income tax on<br />
£780, my actual income being £120. This also<br />
seems absurd. Can a solution be found for the<br />
two absurdities 2?<br />
<br />
In the case that I have supposed, the owner of<br />
the copyright regards it as an investment of<br />
capital. He realises this, and at once reinvests it,<br />
accepting a smaller income for the sake of greater<br />
security. If that be a true presentment, no one<br />
will contend that he should pay income tax on the<br />
sum received. But in the counter case of an<br />
<br />
TAR AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
161<br />
<br />
author selling the copyright of his work as he<br />
produces it, and living on the proceeds, what shall<br />
we say? There is a distinction which seems to<br />
afford a rough practical solution of our problem.<br />
As the man treats the money received, so let it be<br />
regarded ; if he spends it as it comes, let it be<br />
called income ; if he reinvests it, let it be called<br />
capital. And as we have to assess ourselves under<br />
Schedule D, let each man return his income<br />
according to his consciousness of his practice.<br />
<br />
That seems fair ; but the solution will not bear<br />
examination. If I realise the value of an inyest-<br />
ment, [ am not bound to reinvest the money. I<br />
may spend it on my current needs or pleasures ;<br />
and the fact that I so spend it does not convert the<br />
money into income. So, too, if the sale of a copy-<br />
right is the realisation of capital, it does not<br />
change its character because the seller squanders<br />
or otherwise spends the money. A tax on money<br />
so received and spent is not an income tax, but an<br />
expenditure tax, of the kind which, I believe, the<br />
French Government is contemplating.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, if an author sell his copy-<br />
rights as they are created, and invest all the money<br />
received, he is accumulating wealth; and the<br />
Income Tax Commissioners will pertinently reflect<br />
that wealth is usually accumulated by saving out of<br />
income. Income tax is not remitted on income<br />
so saved, except illogically in the case of life in-<br />
surance, and every penny which the author lays<br />
by is income saved and invested. He should be<br />
taxed on all his receipts.<br />
<br />
That again seems fair at first sight. There is a<br />
distinction between realising the value of a copy-<br />
right and realising the value of an ordinary in-<br />
vestment. ‘The author has actually created the<br />
value of the copyright ; it is his payment for work<br />
done. But again there is a difficulty. The value<br />
of the copyright, created by his work, is the same<br />
whether he sells it or retains it. If, in the one<br />
case, the value received in cash is to be regarded<br />
as income, then, in the other case, the value<br />
retained in hand ought equally to be so regarded.<br />
An author making out his income under Schedule D<br />
should add to the sums actually received the esti-<br />
mated present value of the copyright of all works<br />
finished within the year. But will any one main-<br />
tain that such a calculation is contemplated by the<br />
law imposing the tax? A Surveyor of Taxes has<br />
referred me to the parallel case of a painter. He<br />
produces a picture as an author produces a book ;<br />
he sells the picture as the author sells his copyright ;<br />
what he receives for the picture is income. I do<br />
<br />
not know enough about the ways of artists to<br />
judge the accuracy of the comparison ; but, be it<br />
just or unjust, I point out to the Surveyor of<br />
Taxes that the painter enriches himself to the<br />
extent of the value of the picture, whether he sells<br />
<br />
<br />
162<br />
<br />
it or no. He may retain it in hand for his own<br />
pleasure or profit, or for a mere whim: whyshould he<br />
escape income tax on that account? But do the<br />
Income Tax Commissioners levy a tax on a painter’s<br />
unsold pictures of the year ? Has Mr. G. F. Watts<br />
paid on the estimated value of his great collection<br />
as it was formed? If not, why should the copy-<br />
right values created by an author's work be regarded<br />
as taxable income? And why should those values<br />
be taxable in one case and not taxable in another<br />
case? What difference is made by the accidental<br />
distinction between retaining the value in its<br />
original form and exchanging it for an equal value<br />
in cash ?<br />
<br />
J have seen a distinction drawn between the sale<br />
of a copyright by the author, and its sale by some<br />
other person to whom it has been conveyed. In<br />
the former case, I am told, the money received is<br />
payment for work done, and so income; in the<br />
latter case it is payment for an annuity realised,<br />
and so is not income. I examine this distinction<br />
by applying it to an actual case. Sir Walter Scott<br />
died, leaving to his daughter many valuable copy-<br />
rights. To that fact, indeed, we owe our present<br />
law of copyright. I find it impossible to accept as<br />
reasonable a statement that money received for the<br />
sale of those copyrights would have been income<br />
on the 20th of September, 1832, and would not<br />
have been income on the 22nd of the same<br />
month.<br />
<br />
This attempted distinction, indeed, strengthens<br />
my conviction that the proceeds of a sale of copy-<br />
right are not in any case income. A copyright is<br />
a parcel of property, and in no case is the price<br />
received for sold property regarded as income.<br />
Income arises out of such a sale only when a profit<br />
is made by the act of selling, and that profit is<br />
something altogether different from the price paid.<br />
It is a trading profit. I do not know how an<br />
author makes a trading profit by the sale of his<br />
copyright. His agent does, no doubt; his pub-<br />
lisher may do; but that is quite another matter.<br />
The author should receive an exactly equivalent<br />
value. Where then is the income? If he is to<br />
pay income tax on the value that he has created<br />
by his work, he must be assessed when the copy-<br />
right comes into existence, not when it is sold :<br />
the sale adds nothing to the value. But how<br />
are the Commissioners of Income Tax going to<br />
arrange such an assessment ?<br />
<br />
A further difficulty presents itself. Payments to<br />
an author sometimes include consideration for con-<br />
veyance of copyright, without being wholly of that<br />
character. The copyright of contributions to a<br />
newspaper is understood to belong to the proprietors<br />
of the newspaper, unless it be expressly reserved.<br />
The publishers of some reviews and magazines<br />
take a conveyance of copyright of all articles. In<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
these cases the author sells his copyright ; but the<br />
sum received bears no settled relation to the value<br />
of the copyright. That value is sometimes naught<br />
the matter being only of passing interest. The<br />
author has not in this case created a thing of<br />
permanent value, an investment, a transferable<br />
estate. But when this is granted, it may be said<br />
that some books fall into the same category. No<br />
one would ever dream of reprinting them, even if<br />
there were no law in restraint. Perhaps it will be<br />
answered that no publisher would pay anything for<br />
the copyright of such a work, but I have excellent<br />
reasons for knowing that an extraordinary act of<br />
this kind is not impossible. Shall such payments<br />
be regarded as mere eccentricities, minima with<br />
which the law need not be concerned ?<br />
<br />
This fantastic difficulty, however, may suggest<br />
a possible solution of our problem. In producing<br />
a work the copyright of which is valuable, an<br />
author creates a value, which there are good reasons<br />
for not regarding as income. His position is not<br />
unique. An owner of an estate who improves it<br />
by judicious management does the same thing:<br />
he is not required to return the increased capital<br />
value as income accruing, nor, if he sell the estate,<br />
will he treat any part of the purchase-money as<br />
income. His taxable income consists of the annual<br />
returns from the estate, whether rent or profits<br />
on occupation, secured without loss of ownership.<br />
Apply the analogy ; an author’s income consists of<br />
what he receives within the year for his works,<br />
without loss of copyright. If he dispose of the<br />
copyright on publication, he should divide the sum<br />
received into two parts—what he receives for con-<br />
veyance of copyright, and what he would receive<br />
in this particular instance if the copyright were<br />
reserved. The latter part is income, the former is<br />
not. In the case of a newspaper article the latter<br />
part may be the whole. In the case of a book<br />
which would otherwise be published on royalty,<br />
the former part will be the whole.<br />
<br />
I offer this suggestion for a solution of the<br />
problem. It may sometimes be difficult to dis<br />
tinguish accurately between income and other<br />
receipts ; but that is nothing new in the history —<br />
of the Income Tax.<br />
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T. A. Lacey.<br />
9<br />
RECENT CHANGES IN THE BOOK<br />
TRADE.<br />
Le<br />
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favourite topic of discussion with all —<br />
sections of the Book public, whether on —<br />
the producing or the consuming side. The past —<br />
year has witnessed a degree of discussion greater —<br />
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<br />
<br />
organisation of the Book Trade is a<br />
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5<br />
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almost than during the interesting period when the<br />
Society of Authors, in 1897, examined Publishers and<br />
Booksellers, Authors and Readers, in an endeavour<br />
to ascertain the causes of the decline in the book<br />
trade and the conditions of improvement. This<br />
revival of criticism is probably due in the main to<br />
the advent of at least three new factors in the<br />
competition for the public’s favour. From Not-<br />
tingham has come a new patent in the shape of a<br />
eash chemist who is covering the country with a<br />
network of chemist shops interlarded with book<br />
departments. _ Boots’ Booklovers’ Library and<br />
Boots’ Book Departments are already rivalling<br />
Mudie’s, Smith’s, and the great booksellers.<br />
<br />
From America, heralded with paragraphs re-<br />
counting phenomenal Canadian and States suc-<br />
cesses, and floated with a capital of millions of<br />
dollars, has appeared the Booklovers’ Library and<br />
the Tabard Inn Library, a company setting forth<br />
with the resolve to capture the field occupied at<br />
present by Messrs. Mudie, Smith, Cawthorn, and<br />
Hill on the one hand, and the London Library, the<br />
Grosvenor Library, and other eclectic institutions<br />
on the other.<br />
<br />
From London, acclaimed by Mr. G. Bernard<br />
Shaw, Mr. H. G. Wells, Mr William Archer, and<br />
others, has appeared Bookshops Limited, a com-<br />
pany which, with its Ideal Bookshops and Fiscal<br />
and War Catalogues, has started on its professed<br />
career of introducing new men and new methods<br />
to the English bookselling world.<br />
<br />
Whilst these are the conspicuous and obvious<br />
causes of the revival of critical interest, there are<br />
other and more far reaching movements in progress,<br />
destined to have even greater results in moulding<br />
the future of the book-trade. Of these the most<br />
important is the revolution in educational machinery<br />
effected by the Education Acts of 1902 and 1903.<br />
The bulk of the children of the country have been<br />
hitherto educated, not in the board schools, but<br />
in the volantary schools. These schools, supreme<br />
each over its own equipment, have made their own<br />
terms and arrangements with local booksellers and<br />
Educational Supply Associations as to the books in<br />
daily use. To-day all these schools are controlled<br />
by the County Educational Authorities under the<br />
headship of the Education Department, and the<br />
equipment is taken out of the hands of the local<br />
trustees and managers. The County Education<br />
Authority on the large scale, dealing directly with<br />
the publishers or with the wealthier among the<br />
Educational Supply Associations is destroying the<br />
trade of the small country bookseller so far as the<br />
supply of educational literature is concerned. ‘The<br />
Bookselling Trade is going the way of all other trades<br />
—the big industry and combined methods are<br />
<br />
_ superseding the small industry and isolated methods.<br />
<br />
There will soon be no room for the isolated book-<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
163<br />
<br />
seller. In the meantime the Trade Journals and<br />
the meetings of the Booksellers’ Association bear<br />
witness to his apprehension.<br />
<br />
To some extent the same causes are operating in<br />
other countries. In France cutting prices and an<br />
excessive output are creating the same difficulties<br />
as have confronted the English bookseller. In<br />
America similar troubles show themselves.<br />
<br />
Side by side with the external changes in the<br />
book trade are other causes actively at work<br />
influencing the character of books bought. The<br />
chief features of recent bookselling have been on<br />
the one hand, the guinea book with colour print<br />
illustrations, and on the other, the pocket reprints<br />
of many firms, the more successful, the smaller and<br />
more dainty the format. It is a long cry from the<br />
Folio Shakespeare to the edition now inaugurated<br />
with “Romeo and Juliet ” for the waistcoat pocket.<br />
The six shilling novel, regarded by so many book-<br />
sellers as the mainstay of business is circulated<br />
more and more exclusively by libraries. The novel<br />
at three shillings and sixpence, at two shillings, and<br />
even at one shilling, is superseding it on the book-<br />
sellers’ shelves. ‘I'he sixpenny reprints are no<br />
longer confined to the bookstalls, but assist to<br />
crowd the slender accommodation of the bookshops.<br />
<br />
These changes, and their end is not yet, are<br />
bitter to the bookseller. He can make his profit<br />
only by careful buying, by a large turnover in<br />
cheap literature, by an extension of his clienféle for<br />
expensive books.<br />
<br />
To the new companies, working on a larger scale,<br />
certain of their thirteenth copy, with a carefully<br />
audited system of accounts, these changes do not<br />
present the same terrors and alarms; for the book-<br />
buying public was never larger than to-day. ‘Two<br />
generations of universal elementary education,<br />
aided by an extension of the public library system<br />
which is percolating almost to every village in the<br />
country, are at last having their natural effect.<br />
For every “ patron of literature ” and founder of a<br />
private library of the past, we have to-day some<br />
hundreds of readers of books borrowed from the<br />
public libraries and of cheap books purchased from<br />
the shops. For every private school, working with<br />
the slenderest equipment and with cheap and<br />
nasty school literature of the days before 1870, we<br />
have to-day many publicly administered schools<br />
working with public money and a high standard<br />
of educational literature. And the libraries, re-<br />
garded for so long by booksellers astheir competitors,<br />
are proving more and more valuable as allies. As<br />
a public librarian said recently to the writer of<br />
this article, “fhe place for a bookshop is next door<br />
to a public library.” The books read and appre-<br />
<br />
or personal possession or to be distributed as gifts,<br />
(Ciated by borrowers, are exactly the books bough)<br />
Moreover, the recent movement among librarians<br />
164<br />
<br />
which is making the library a more sensible<br />
institution, the lectures on books, the improved<br />
cataloguing, the open shelves, all tend to increase<br />
this ‘‘ book habit.”<br />
<br />
One fear, a natural one, of the smaller book-<br />
sellers has proved unfounded. It was expected<br />
that large soulless corporations would prove to be<br />
cutters, and would be a source of weakness to that<br />
reform movement which has achieved the “net”<br />
system. ‘They prove in effect to be supporters and<br />
upholders of the “ net” system.<br />
<br />
After all, the chief value of the system is that<br />
it removes the competition from one of cutting to<br />
one of competency. Under the old universal<br />
discount system, two rival booksellers, competing<br />
for a public library contract, would compete on<br />
the question of terms only, ever lowering prices<br />
until the attenuated margin of profit left no<br />
adequate remuneration for staff, equipment, or<br />
management. The library received its books at a<br />
cheap rate, but at the cost of the efficiency of the<br />
trade. The notorious decline of the trade, now<br />
reviving at last under more reasonable conditions,<br />
bore witness to the consequences.<br />
<br />
Under a complete “ net” system the same book-<br />
sellers would compete solely on the plane of effi-<br />
ciency. The firm with the best stock ready for<br />
examination by the Library Committee, with the<br />
promptest methods and with the most expert<br />
knowledge at its back, would secure the<br />
contract.<br />
<br />
The “net” system implies not only a higher<br />
margin of profit, but also a greater security of<br />
profit. Its extension, therefore, is desired not<br />
only by the Booksellers’ Association, but by the<br />
new companies, Each year has seen a consider-<br />
able growth in this movement. Most expensive<br />
books are now published “net,” most art books<br />
are now “net,” most scientific books are now “net,”<br />
most of the cheap art reprints are “net.” The<br />
six shilling novel and the sixpenny novel are<br />
the worst gaps in the system. The novel will<br />
probably become “ net” at a lower price than six<br />
shillings ; it may even drop to one shilling net<br />
and achieve a large circulation by sale, in place of<br />
its present lesser circulation by loan. The six-<br />
penny book sold at 5d. and 44d., presenting the<br />
slenderest profit to the bookseller, is a reproach to<br />
the past organisation of the trade. With only a<br />
limited foresight and a slender organisation, the<br />
two Trade Associations could have made it a<br />
“net” book. The public would have acquiesced<br />
with entire willingness, and the whole book world<br />
would have benefited.<br />
<br />
The public libraries do not altogether welcome<br />
this tendency, and in England, on the Continent,<br />
and in the States the library discount question is<br />
now under discussion.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
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Another change in progress in the trade is in<br />
the trained capacity of the assistants. Bookselling<br />
is a highly skilled trade. The narrow profits of<br />
the past resulted in highly skilled work being<br />
given to untrained hands and the downward<br />
tendency was thereby accelerated. An improve-<br />
ment, slow but gradual, is now taking place.<br />
<br />
In the privately-owned shops of the old system<br />
there was little prospect even for a competent<br />
assistant. In the organisation of a modern com-<br />
pany, many branches mean many managerships,<br />
An incentive and a stimulus is thus given to all<br />
grades. There is still great room for improve-<br />
ment, as all book buyers realise, but the new<br />
combined systems open the door to improvements<br />
of which the result will be a trained and educated<br />
assistant doing work in a trained and educated<br />
manner.<br />
<br />
In this connection the proposed School of Book-<br />
selling is of practical interest. Germany has already<br />
such a school, and with its initiation here we may<br />
hope to realise the ideal expressed by Mr. William<br />
Heinemann, at the Publishers’ Association Congress<br />
in 1897: “Many assistants—I might almost say<br />
most of the assistants—in booksellers’ shops in<br />
Germany have matriculated at one of the Univer-<br />
sities, and seldom, if ever, do you find an assistant<br />
who is not capable of compiling a catalogue, for<br />
instance, to satisfy the exigent requirements of the<br />
Librarian of the British Museum.”<br />
<br />
That such a school would be eminently desirable<br />
there can be no two opinions. Probably it could<br />
be most effectively organised by co-operation with<br />
the Library Association. In the States the library<br />
school at Columbia University is inspiring the<br />
movement for education among booksellers. In<br />
London the very practical programme of the<br />
Library Association Courses given at the London<br />
School of Economics could easily be adapted to<br />
the requirements of booksellers’ assistants equally<br />
with librarians’ assistants.. Lectures on classifica-<br />
tion, cataloguing, the care of books, and book-<br />
binding, would be as beneficial to one class of<br />
assistant as to the other.<br />
<br />
On all sides, then, the book trade shows signs<br />
of rapid development. The older firms are some<br />
of them realising the new conditions, and by<br />
reasonable changes are adapting themselves to the<br />
newera. The advent of new men and new methods<br />
is proving a valuable stimulus. The old is in com-<br />
petition with the new. It remains to be seen which<br />
will absorb the other.<br />
<br />
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:<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
PUNCTUATION IN THE TWENTIETH<br />
CENTURY.<br />
<br />
oe -<br />
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Commas and points they set exactly right<br />
And °twere a sin to rob them of their mite,<br />
<br />
OR much of the punctuation of modern books<br />
and newspapers the type setter or the<br />
printer’s reader must I fancy be held respon-<br />
<br />
sible, as a rule. I do not know whether eminent<br />
authors ever venture to differ from the latter and<br />
to assert themselves sufficiently to make alterations<br />
in proofs where questions of principle are involved<br />
and where stops have been in their opinion wrongly<br />
inserted or omitted, but if any do this they must<br />
be courageous and industrious persons. I once<br />
showed the proofs of an unimportant work of my<br />
own to an erudite, but withal fidgety, literary man,<br />
and he raised an outcry at the liberal way in which<br />
the first page was peppered with commas. At his<br />
suggestion I therefore proceeded to take some of<br />
them out, and indeed to a certain extent I shared<br />
his objection to them, but when I had corrected a<br />
page or two as he would have me do it, I realised<br />
the labour which I had undertaken, if I was going<br />
to pursue the same course through two or three<br />
hundred pages. I also was impressed with the<br />
certainty that by omitting to carry out in all cases<br />
whatever principle I might endeavour to lay down<br />
for myself, I should be inconsistent in many in-<br />
stances. I accordingly changed my mind while<br />
there was time, a few ‘“stets”’ replaced my correc-<br />
tions and I am confident that whatever sense<br />
there may have been in my work was not impaired<br />
by my non-interference. Writers, of all men, should<br />
give the devil his due.<br />
<br />
If however the typist, who must not be for-<br />
gotten, and the printer insert commas or substitute<br />
colons and semi-colons for the author’s benefit,<br />
excessive stopping amounts often to a nuisance,<br />
and sometimes constitutes a danger. The couplet<br />
from Pope at the head of this article, has been<br />
borrowed (without verification I confess) from the<br />
review of a work on punctuation published in 7’he<br />
Gentleman’s Magazine, 1785. I have ventured to<br />
differ from the reviewer by omitting a comma,<br />
which he inserted at the end of the first line,<br />
because I believe such a comma to be superfluous<br />
with the “and” following. If I am wrong<br />
perhaps some reader of The Author will correct<br />
me and will say if there is any reason, such as a<br />
change of subject in the second clause, to necessi-<br />
tate a stop.<br />
<br />
As an instance of the mischief of over stopping,<br />
I would quote the speech with which Lafeu opens<br />
« All’s Well that Ends Well,” Act IT., Scene 3:<br />
<br />
“They say miracles are past, and we have our<br />
philosophical persors, to make modern and familiar<br />
<br />
165<br />
things supernatural and causeless. Hence it is<br />
that we make trifles of terrors.”<br />
<br />
I have punctuated the quotation as it stands in<br />
the First Folio Edition, but later than that (¢y.,<br />
in the 8vo Edition printed by Tonson in 1709) it<br />
remained practically the same. Afterwards, how-<br />
ever, I suppose with the idea of making the<br />
meaning clearer, a comma was put in, and nonsense<br />
was made of the passage by placing it after<br />
“things,” so that philosophers were represented<br />
as “making familiar things, supernatural,” hardly<br />
a step towards “ making trifles of terrors.”<br />
<br />
How prevalent this stopping became I do not<br />
know, but it exists in the text as edited by Malone,<br />
<br />
1821, and was sufficiently common to cause a<br />
<br />
writer in Notes and Queries to call attention to<br />
it as the usual but erroneous punctuation in 1853.<br />
He assigned the credit of the emendation which he<br />
recommended (placing the comma after “ familiar ”<br />
instead of after “ things”) to Mr. W. R. Grove,<br />
Q.C. Mr. Justice Grove, as he afterwards became,<br />
was a learned gentleman, well known as a man of<br />
science and also apparently a lover of literature, as<br />
well as a mere judge, and if he was the first to<br />
point out the mistake, he deserves honour for it.<br />
The comma is placed after familiar in the text,<br />
edited by the Reverend A. Dyce, 1866, and pre-<br />
sumably in all editions published since, but it is<br />
open to the observation that no punctuation is<br />
really needed although, correctly introduced, it<br />
affords assistance. With regard to the stop after<br />
“ past,” which in some editions is a comma, in<br />
others a semi-colon, I submit that this is only<br />
necessary in order to mark the end of the quotation<br />
following “ they say.”<br />
<br />
In the days when eccentricities of stopping<br />
excited more attention than they do now the<br />
following sentence, from Bentley’s “ Dissertation on<br />
the Epistles of Phalaris,” as edited by Dr. Samuel<br />
Salter, of the Charterhouse, was quoted as an<br />
example of strange punctuation by an eighteenth<br />
century critic with an expression of surprise at the<br />
use made of the semi-colon: ‘It is evident then ;<br />
that if Atossa was the first inventress of Epistles ;<br />
these that carry the name of Phalaris, who was<br />
so much older than her must be an imposture.—<br />
But if it be otherwise; that he does not” etc. etc.<br />
The use of “her” for “she,” if correctly quoted<br />
by the writer is not commented upon.<br />
<br />
Punctuation however does not seem now to require<br />
dissertations and pamphlets to lay down its rules, or<br />
to correct and discourage innovations. Possibly this<br />
is because every man is a law unto himself in the<br />
matter, with the lady at the typewriter, and the<br />
printer’s reader, who at least is consistent with<br />
himself, to introduce order where the author’s<br />
unaided efforts do not result in uniformity or<br />
sense. It cannot however I think be claimed<br />
<br />
<br />
166<br />
<br />
that all modern printers observe the same methods,<br />
but simply that each follows a course of his own<br />
as constantly as possible.<br />
<br />
Minor guides to punctuation are obtainable, no<br />
doubt, but they are hardly works of the literary<br />
importance of their predecessors.<br />
<br />
No modern law-reporter has emulated Sir James<br />
Barrow with a work “ De Ratione et Usu Inter-<br />
pungendi,” nor has any erudite divine endeavoured<br />
in an “ Essay on Punctuation” to “illustrate a dry<br />
and unpromising subject, with a variety of elegant<br />
and entertaining examples,” or if they have done<br />
so their work has not been sufficiently advertised<br />
and [pushed to cbtain the modern equivalent for<br />
fame.<br />
<br />
Whether the compiler of “ Literary Anecdotes of<br />
the Eighteenth Century ” in the sentence which I<br />
have quoted from his complimentary notice of<br />
the Reverend Joseph Robertson’s work inserted<br />
a comma after “subject” in obedience to rules<br />
laid down in it, I know not, for I have not read it,<br />
but in any case I venture to protest against the<br />
“virgil”’ as wholly superfluous.<br />
<br />
In another place he writes of the same work<br />
“ Although the subject is dry and unpromising, it<br />
is enlivened, by the Author, with a great variety<br />
of apposite examples, pleasing sentiments, and<br />
ingenious remarks.” JI may be wrong but I<br />
should omit two or three commas in such a<br />
sentence, and I doubt if the sense would suffer.<br />
Of course, if we regard stops as necessary guides<br />
to a person who is. going to read the sentence<br />
aloud at sight, I grant they may be useful<br />
although they are not ornamental. They will<br />
show him to some extent where to pause and<br />
take breath. .<br />
<br />
The colons which mark the pause in each verse<br />
of the Psalms have often been protested against as<br />
a misuse of stops for which an asterisk or some<br />
other symbol should be substituted ; they are<br />
however so familiar to English readers that they<br />
are not misleading. That stops are not necessary<br />
to sense is shown by the absence of them from<br />
deeds, where they are omitted for the very reason,<br />
that wrongly inserted as in the instance from<br />
Shakespeare quoted above, they cause confusion.<br />
Their absence however compels careful drafting<br />
and close attention to the meaning of every word<br />
and sentence,<br />
<br />
I have not touched upon the history of punctua-<br />
tion, which in its earlier stages appears to be some-<br />
what obscure, but I take it that to some extent<br />
printing rendered rules necessary, and that gradually<br />
they came to be understood by the printer at least<br />
as well as by the writer. There is a passage with<br />
regard to them in an old book where “come” is<br />
used for “colon” and “ virgil” for “comma,” of<br />
course from virgula, the modern French virgule,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
having as its origin a straight stroke of the<br />
pen.<br />
<br />
The learned author thus quaintly explains and<br />
illustrates his meaning :—<br />
<br />
“A. come is with tway tittels this wyse:<br />
betokynynge a longer rest.” “A parenthesis is<br />
with tway crokyd virgils, as an olde mone and a<br />
new bely to bely.”” He adds that the words in<br />
a parenthesis are.“ soundyde comynly a note lower<br />
than the utter clause,” and the use of stops to<br />
mark the pause for those who read aloud when<br />
books were scarce, is evidently what he had in his<br />
mind throughout. Books are not scarce in the<br />
twentieth century, and reading aloud is little<br />
practised, but no doubt even for those who read to<br />
themselves, the free use of the comma and colon<br />
helps to make the sense clear where the order of<br />
the sentence would not alone be sufficient. I<br />
venture to urge nevertheless that they should be<br />
used as sparingly as possible.<br />
<br />
E. A. A.<br />
<br />
————1—~>—+<br />
<br />
A PLEA FOR PEDANTRY.<br />
<br />
—-—<br />
<br />
ISS MASSON’S article in last month’s<br />
Author tempts me to add a few more<br />
examples of how English is, and ought<br />
<br />
not to be, written.<br />
<br />
The first of these is one of the many instances<br />
in which the order of words presents a trap for the<br />
unwary writer: “ Bob had been struggling with<br />
his wife and one boy on a narrow income.”<br />
Grammatically the statement is faultless ; but the<br />
picture called up, of physical domestic strife, is<br />
certainly not that which the author intended to<br />
suggest. Here is a worse case—from the columns<br />
of an old-established daily paper: “ Very winsome<br />
is Maria Walpole, Countess of Waldegrave, whose<br />
illegitimate birth did not hinder her from espousing<br />
en secondes noces William Henry, Duke of Gloucester,<br />
a kind looking man with an aquiline nose, though<br />
the marriage was regarded with such disfayour by<br />
George III., ete.”<br />
<br />
The next comes from the pages of a particularly<br />
successful novelist: “ He had been vouchsafed two<br />
of the best gifts wherewith Providence can equip<br />
aman.” Now, “him” in the expression “had<br />
been vouchsafed him” is a dative; and a dative<br />
cannot properly be made the nominative of a<br />
passive construction.<br />
<br />
Persistent misuse has rendered most of us<br />
callous to “he was given” and “he was told” ;<br />
but against “he was vouchsafed” we may still, I<br />
hope, protest.<br />
<br />
Akin to this is the shocking use of “ whom” as<br />
a nominative: “those whom Providence had<br />
<br />
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<br />
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<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
destined should. be the chief ornaments of her<br />
visiting list.” Twice within a hundred pages does<br />
this “vicious locution” appear in the excellent<br />
and careful novel of a well-known writer. IT am<br />
tempted to borrow her own idiom and say of her :<br />
“whom, I am sure, can never have learned Latin<br />
grammar.” For indeed the study of the Latin<br />
grammar, though it may perhaps yield but<br />
inadequate returns for the inordinate amount of<br />
time expended upon it does at least inculcate<br />
the difference between nominatives, datives, and<br />
accusatives.<br />
<br />
Pronouns afford many opportunities both for<br />
error and for ambiguity. I remember seeing a<br />
school girl’s examination paper which contained<br />
the statement : “Tyndale and Coverdale translated<br />
the Scriptures and they were chained to the read-<br />
ing desks in the churches an example that may<br />
be commended to those grammarians who believe<br />
« which” to be an equivalent of “and they.” The<br />
next three instances all exemplify that common<br />
variety of error: a want of grammatical concord<br />
between the parts of a sentence. The first, I regret<br />
to say, comes from a letter written in a publisher’s<br />
office : “ While in this particular case we should<br />
have liked to be charitable, we are not in a position<br />
to do so.” The second is an advertisement by the<br />
City of London Union: “Candidates must have<br />
had practical experience in laundry work, and also<br />
be a good ironer.” The third, which I unfortu-<br />
nately omitted to copy into my collection, occurred<br />
in a singularly ill-written novel. Its form was<br />
as follows, the dotted line representing various<br />
intermediate clauses: “ While still quite a young<br />
man .. . his mother had died.”<br />
<br />
Many of these faults display an ignorance of fine<br />
grammatical—in other words of fine logical—dis-<br />
tinctions, which is rendered possible by the com-<br />
paratively uninflected character of our tongue. A<br />
German of even rudimentary education would<br />
know better than to write: “he had been youch-<br />
safed.” The fact that gender and case are not<br />
shown by our nouns and adjectives nor number by<br />
our verbs makes it necessary to teach these dis-<br />
tinctions with peculiar care to English children.<br />
Grammar is really a branch of logic; and the<br />
intelligent teaching of grammar—which in this<br />
country is extraordinarily rare—is really an educa-<br />
tion in thinking.<br />
<br />
Another whole group of errors arises from the<br />
further fact that the English language is so largely<br />
made of words whose derivation is not evident<br />
except to persons acquainted with some other<br />
language. ‘This fact it is which allows the lady<br />
who answers correspondents in a “ women’s paper C<br />
to write: “Do not, I abjure you, have a red carpet<br />
with those pink walls,” or for a working-man<br />
speaker to draw distinctions—to the bewilderment<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
167<br />
<br />
of his audience—between: “female labour and<br />
manual labour.”<br />
<br />
Whether the errors that stand last recorded in<br />
my note book belong to this class, whether they<br />
are an example of sheer aphasia or whether their<br />
author might be a fitting candidate for that post<br />
of “lunatic attendant ” which the local authorities<br />
of St. Marylebone advertise as vacant, I cannot<br />
take upon me to decide. ‘They come from a review<br />
of a novel, and the review was published by a<br />
newspaper which prides itself upon being literary<br />
in tone: “he has too large and acute a failing for<br />
ihe dramatic... . Io his latest: novel Mr. X-<br />
suffers the lovers of the dramatic too lightly... .<br />
There is Y. Z. comfortable, British, without humour<br />
or imagination, but with a saving sense of<br />
graduation.”<br />
<br />
A “failing for the dramatic,” a “large and<br />
acute” failing ? “A saving sense of eraduation”’ ?<br />
What, in this context can “ graduation ” possibly<br />
stand for? A dressmaker of my acquaintance<br />
used to talk of “ gradulated”’ flounces. Had she,<br />
I wonder, a saving sense of graduation ? These<br />
questions have haunted me ever since I read these<br />
dark passages as I sat at breakfast one morning<br />
last autumn. I pass them on for solution to the<br />
readers of Zhe Author.<br />
<br />
CLEMENTINA BLACK.<br />
<br />
—_————__+—-_ +"<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
<br />
a<br />
Morr PEDANTRY.<br />
<br />
Sir,—Surely “A Pedant” needs no apology for<br />
calling the attention of your readers to the careless<br />
style of composition so often met with in current<br />
literature, and Ze Author will do a good work if<br />
it encourages other pedants to come forward and<br />
assist in freeing “our stately and beautiful lan-<br />
guage” from some of the mistakes and inaccuracies<br />
that so frequently disfigure it.<br />
<br />
To the long list of errors noticed last month<br />
may be added—obscurity caused by the misuse of<br />
the ellipsis. It is difficult in conversation or in<br />
hasty letter-writing to be always quite correct<br />
in expression, and, as a rule, the speaker’s or<br />
correspondent’s meaning is readily guessed ; but<br />
deliberate composition should not be marred by<br />
carelessness. Lillipsis is employed to avoid the<br />
<br />
repetition of a word or a phrase, and it follows<br />
that the word or phrase previously used should be<br />
mentally supplied by the reader, not only in mean-<br />
ing, but in number, gender, and tense of verb. It<br />
is almost safe to assert that out of ten sentences<br />
ending in the words ‘to do so ” or “doing so,”<br />
168<br />
<br />
eight are ungrammatical. The daily paper, “a<br />
chartered libertine,” abounds in examples of such<br />
sentences, but I give a few quotations from well-<br />
known writers. “ Do you think of coming again ?”’<br />
‘‘T want to.” ‘ Every one but the working man,<br />
who, having no voice in Parliament, was regarded<br />
as the common prey of those who had.” “T am<br />
unable to think, however, that this had that adverse<br />
effect upon their circulation that it ought to.” “I<br />
have never heard one.” “ Let me advise you never<br />
to do so.” “Yet he knew her, or ought to.”<br />
“Backing bills was the one thing he never did,<br />
never had done, and never would.”<br />
<br />
ANOTHER PEDANT.<br />
<br />
—_— t+<br />
<br />
“NEw DEPARTURE IN EDITING.”<br />
<br />
Sir,—The Editor of Pearson’s, and he alone,<br />
so far as my experience goes, employs a novel<br />
method in dealing with his rejected contributions.<br />
He returns them in excellent time with no unneces-<br />
sary delay, and makes an honest attempt to account<br />
for their rejection in terms which should satisfy<br />
any reasonable author.<br />
<br />
This seems to me a noteworthy effort in the<br />
direction of justice. And what he can do, other<br />
editors can and ought to do.—Yours truly,<br />
<br />
ALFRED PRETOR,<br />
St. Catherine College,<br />
Cambridge.<br />
P.S.—I would suggest some such form as the<br />
following—merely an amplification of Pearsons’<br />
scheme :—<br />
<br />
THE EpITOR’s COMMENT :—<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Too long<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Too short<br />
<br />
Unsuitable in subject<br />
ee<br />
<br />
Feeble in plot |<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
Weak in style<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Promising |<br />
renee ers<br />
<br />
General Remarks—<br />
<br />
ee ee Oa<br />
<br />
With the Editor's Compliments,<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
GEORGE GISSING.<br />
<br />
Dear S1r,—Unconsciously George Gissing wrote<br />
his own epitaph in those last lines of one of hig<br />
finest novels.<br />
<br />
“* Dead, too, in exile, poor fellow !” are the words<br />
of Godwin Peak’s friend, when he hears that the<br />
wanderer is buried in a foreign land. :<br />
<br />
George Gissing, too, was a wanderer; but no<br />
man loved his native country more dearly, and hig<br />
dream was to have an English home again. He ig<br />
laid to rest in the little cemetery of St. Jean de<br />
Luz. From his grave there is an admirable view<br />
of the mountains of Spain—a view that he delighted<br />
in himself. His grave is at present covered with<br />
flowers, most of which have been sent from England<br />
or laid there by members of the English colony at<br />
St. Jean de Luz.<br />
<br />
In the years to come, how can George Gissing’s<br />
friends continue to send their flowers to his grave,<br />
so far away? It occurred to me that perhaps<br />
the Society of Authors could help us in this<br />
matter.<br />
<br />
When Guy de Maupassant’s mother died recently,<br />
she left a certain sum of money with the French<br />
Society of Authors, the interest of which was to be<br />
used for keeping flowers on her son’s grave. As<br />
George Gissing is buried in a foreign land, and<br />
as there are, no doubt, numbers of his friends who<br />
would like to have the privilege of sending their<br />
little tribute to his tomb, would the Society of<br />
Authors help us by receiving subscriptions and<br />
making the necessary arrangements ?<br />
<br />
Yours truly,<br />
Auys HaLarp.<br />
60, Rue de Vaugirard, Paris.<br />
—— 1<br />
<br />
SERIAL RIGHTS.<br />
<br />
Sir,—In a past number of Zhe Author I see a<br />
reference to a case where the serial rights of an<br />
essay, having been sold to an American, were<br />
reprinted in an English periodical.<br />
<br />
I can parallel this ina very small instance that,<br />
occurred to myself.<br />
<br />
Some time ago I sent a photograph of a some-<br />
what curious subject to an English journal with a<br />
short descriptive article. It was declined and<br />
returned tome. I then sent it to an American<br />
publication who accepted and paid for it. Not very<br />
long afterwards I was astonished to see a process<br />
photo of the American engraving that had been<br />
made from my contribution, in the very same<br />
English journal that had declined it in the first<br />
instance !—] am, yours truly,<br />
<br />
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