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499	https://historysoa.com/items/show/499	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 02 (November 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.+15+Issue+02+%28November+1904%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 02 (November 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>	1904-11-01-The-Author-15-2					29–60																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=15">15</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1904-11-01">1904-11-01</a>							2			19041101	The Hutbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> “FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XV.—No. 2.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> —_____—_e—&lt;&gt;—_e_—_—_—_<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ——+—~— 4<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 he the case.<br /> <br /> Tus Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tux 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 /> <br /> the Society only.<br /> — ++.<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices on the 19th of February, and<br /> having gone carefully into the accounts of the<br /> fund, decided to purchase £250 London and North<br /> Western 3% Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br /> investments of the Pension Fund at present<br /> <br /> Vou, XV.<br /> <br /> NovEMBER I1sT, 1904.<br /> <br /> [Prick SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> See ese er<br /> <br /> standing in the names of the Trustees are as<br /> <br /> follows.<br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> <br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Oonsols 2h %. 2... cceccscecccnsereseeren es £1000 0 0<br /> Tecal Hoans -.. 6... ssf 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 8 % Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 12<br /> War bon 220 2). et. . 201 3 8<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> bare SOCK ie. 250 0 0<br /> Pobal . Gak ce: 62,248 9 2<br /> Subscriptions from April, 1904.<br /> <br /> £ 8. a.<br /> April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . ‘ 1 0 5 8<br /> April18, Bashford, Harry H. E 27010. 6<br /> April19, Bosanquet, Eustace I’. . - O10 6<br /> April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain . 0 5 O<br /> May 6, Shepherd,G. H. . : - 0 5 0<br /> <br /> June 24, Rumbold, Sir Horace, Bart.,<br /> Ge.B. . : : tod 0<br /> July 27, Barnett, P. A. : ‘ . 0 10 0<br /> <br /> Donations from April, 1904.<br /> May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth .. . 5 0 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, R. . 5 : &lt;0 720 0<br /> June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. : ; 5 0<br /> <br /> July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br /> Committee . : -20 0 6<br /> Aug. 5, Walker, William 8. : - 2.0 6<br /> Oct. 6, Hare, F.W.E., M.D. - 11 1 0<br /> Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold - 0.10 0<br /> Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett 010 0<br /> <br /> ++<br /> FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br /> ee<br /> <br /> HE first meeting of the Committee after the<br /> vacation was held at the Society’s offices on<br /> October 8rd.<br /> <br /> The business of the meeting, as usual, com-<br /> menced with the election of members. The Com-<br /> mittee are pleased to state that during the vacation<br /> Se<br /> <br /> 30 THE AUTHOR. :<br /> <br /> over fifty election forms were sent to the office,<br /> making the number of elections during the first<br /> ten months of the year over 190. The list is<br /> printed below. If the same rate of election con-<br /> tinues to the end of the year, 1904 will stand out<br /> far above the average of the last six or seven years.<br /> The Committce welcome this increase as a sign of<br /> the growing interest that members of the pro-<br /> fession of letters take in the Society, and the real<br /> benefit they derive from its work. :<br /> <br /> Further discussion arose respecting our agent in<br /> the United States, and the Chairman reported that<br /> Mr. James Bryce was making enquiries on the<br /> Society’s behalf in New York.<br /> <br /> The London County Council have officially ex-<br /> pressed their readiness to accept the Society’s offer<br /> to provide a replica of the Besant Memorial which<br /> was unveiled in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral.<br /> The subscriptions that have been promised and are<br /> to hand make tbe total within a few pounds of<br /> amount required. Should any members of the<br /> Society desire to make further contributions,<br /> cheques may be forwarded to the Secretary.<br /> Mr. Frampton, the sculptor, has been instructed<br /> to cast the replica. Due notice will be given in<br /> The Author as soon as the final arrangements have<br /> been made. The County Council have proposed,<br /> with the approval of those specially interested, to<br /> place the bronze on one of the granite pedestals on<br /> the Embankment near Waterloo Bridge.<br /> <br /> A question with regard to the contracts between<br /> sundry members of the Society and a Canadian firm<br /> of publishers, which has been mentioned under<br /> the Committee Notes from time to time, was again<br /> considered by the Committee, and the Secretary<br /> has been instructed to take further action on behalf<br /> of the members involved.<br /> <br /> Another matter under discussion was the position<br /> of Roumania in the matter of International Copy-<br /> right. From information which had been received<br /> by the Secretary from the Bureau at Berne, it<br /> appeared that the present copyright law of Rou-<br /> mania would enable that country to enter into a<br /> treaty with His Majesty’s Government, and the<br /> Secretary was instructed, therefore, to lay this in-<br /> formation before the Secretary of State for Foreign<br /> Affairs, in the hope that a satisfactory copyright<br /> treaty might be negotiated.<br /> <br /> Several members of the Society have, from time<br /> to time, placed before the Secretary questions<br /> arising on the payment of Income Tax on literary<br /> profits. The subject is full of interest to all aathors,<br /> and in view of its importance, a statement will be<br /> drawn up and laid before counsel in order that<br /> some clear understanding may be arrived at.<br /> <br /> An application from Mr. Howard Collins that<br /> the Society should affix its imprimatur on his forth-<br /> coming work, “ Author’s and Printer’s Handbook,”<br /> <br /> was considered. The Committee, while fully<br /> appreciating the merits of Mr. Collins’ work, and<br /> the disinterestedness of his labours in producing it,<br /> decided that a departure from the practice of<br /> declining to give the imprimatur of the Society to<br /> works issued by its members was likely to lead to<br /> difficulties in the future, and therefore inexpedient.<br /> <br /> One or two other matters were dealt with by the<br /> <br /> Committee.<br /> —— +<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Durine the past month eight cases have been<br /> laid before the secretary—four for the return of<br /> MSS., three for payment of money, and one<br /> for accounts. In three cases the MSS. have been<br /> returned, and in the remaining one the Editor has<br /> promised to look up the matter and forward the<br /> MS. when found. ‘Two of the claims for money<br /> have been settled; the third case, taken in hand<br /> a few days ago, is still in course of negotiation.<br /> The accounts have been duly rendered.<br /> <br /> The secretary regrets to state that, of those<br /> cases before him during the long vacation, there<br /> are a considerable number still open, but six<br /> of the total—seven in all—refer to American<br /> publishers and editors. Publishers, who live out-<br /> side Great Britain, are not always so ready to<br /> attend to the requests of the secretary as they<br /> would be if they lived within the British Isles, and<br /> even when ready, letter and answer take some<br /> time to cross the water. Sometimes, however,<br /> publishers in the United States take advantage of<br /> the fact that they live some distance from the<br /> author, and not only disregard the demands of the<br /> Society but their contracts also. It is hoped that,<br /> as soon as the Society has another agent in the<br /> United States, it will be possible to obtain prompt<br /> satisfaction.<br /> <br /> The seventh case refers to a demand for money,<br /> but is a little complicated as it is difficult to ascer-<br /> tain the exact amount until fuller accounts have<br /> been rendered. Negotiations are still proceeding,<br /> and during the month of November it is hoped<br /> that the whole matter will be cleared up.<br /> <br /> —— + —<br /> <br /> October Elections.<br /> <br /> . Broad Park Avenue,<br /> Ilfracombe.<br /> Balfour, The Right Hon. 10, Downing Street,<br /> A. J., M.P- S.W<br /> <br /> Allen, James . .<br /> <br /> Ballin, Ada 8. . . 18, Somerset Street,<br /> &#039; Portman Square,<br /> <br /> W., and 4, Agar<br /> <br /> Street, Strand.<br /> <br /> Barrington, Michael<br /> <br /> <br /> hie<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Bell, Mrs. Hugh<br /> <br /> Bennett, Miss Etta<br /> <br /> Buchanan<br /> <br /> Berrington, the Rev. B. 8.<br /> <br /> Best, Dr. George Payne .<br /> <br /> Booth, Mrs. Annie M.<br /> Bradley, A. C.<br /> <br /> Briggs, Lady .<br /> Buckland, C. E., C.1.E.<br /> Cameron, Mrs. Lovett<br /> Carter, Joseph<br /> <br /> Cook, &amp;. 71.<br /> Coward, T. A.<br /> <br /> de Zuylen de Nyevelt<br /> Baronne §.<br /> <br /> Emanuel, Walter<br /> <br /> Evans, John William<br /> Fletcher, A. Woodroofe<br /> <br /> “A Foreign Resident ”<br /> Fox, J. A.<br /> <br /> Frankau, Mrs. (“ Frank<br /> <br /> Danby ”<br /> Gouldsbury, Charles E.<br /> Hardy, Harold<br /> <br /> Hare, F. W. E., M.D.<br /> Hellyer, Miss M. Maud<br /> <br /> Herbert, the Hon. Auberon<br /> <br /> Holt, W. G.<br /> <br /> Humberstone,<br /> Lloyd<br /> <br /> Kennedy, Bart<br /> <br /> Koch, Mrs. Mary<br /> <br /> Maclaverty, Mrs. A. (‘N.<br /> <br /> Atling ’’)<br /> <br /> Macquoid, Capt. C., D.S.0.<br /> <br /> (XX. Deccan Horse)<br /> <br /> Thomas<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 31<br /> <br /> 95, Sloane Street, S.W.<br /> Park Mount, Albert<br /> Road, Southport.<br /> Marnixstraat, Amster-<br /> <br /> dam.<br /> <br /> 26, Strawberry Hiil<br /> Road, Twickenham.<br /> <br /> 1, Kingstown Square,<br /> Gloucester.<br /> <br /> 9, Edwardes Square,<br /> Kensington, W.<br /> <br /> 5, Charles Street, St.<br /> James’ Square, 8. W.<br /> <br /> 61, Cornwall Gardens,<br /> S. Kensington, S.W.<br /> <br /> Millbrook House,<br /> Shepperton.<br /> <br /> 260, North End Road,<br /> Fulham, 8.W.<br /> <br /> 1, Gordon Place, W.C.<br /> <br /> Brentwood, Bowdon,<br /> Cheshire.<br /> <br /> 69, Parkstraad, The<br /> Hague, Nether-<br /> lands.<br /> <br /> 89, Ladbroke Grove,<br /> W.<br /> <br /> 75, Craven Park, N.W.<br /> <br /> St. Anne’s Passage,<br /> Manchester.<br /> <br /> 38, Conduit Street, W.<br /> <br /> 48, Melrose Avenue,<br /> Willesden Green,<br /> N.W.<br /> <br /> 11, Clarges Street, W.<br /> <br /> Authors’ Club, 3,<br /> Whitehall Court,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> 1, Dr. Johnson’s Build-<br /> ings, Temple, E.C.<br /> <br /> New Holme, South<br /> Hill, Bromley,<br /> Kent.<br /> <br /> Old House, Ringwood.<br /> <br /> Coton, Tamworth.<br /> <br /> Toynbee Hall,28,Com-<br /> mercial Street, E.<br /> <br /> Ryemead, Rickmans-<br /> worth,<br /> <br /> 21, Castlenau, Barnes,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> Llangattock Manor,<br /> Monmouth.<br /> <br /> c/o Messrs. Thomas<br /> Cook &amp; Son, Lon-<br /> dow and Bombay,<br /> <br /> Mason, Frank H.,R.B.A., Lindisfarne, Trinity<br /> Road, Scarboro’.<br /> Moore, William ; . 84, Fairview Road,<br /> <br /> S. Tottenham.<br /> <br /> 29, Beechcroft Road,<br /> Oxford.<br /> <br /> Market Buildings,<br /> Rockhampton,<br /> Queensland,<br /> Australia,<br /> <br /> 68, Lower Essex Street,<br /> Birmingham.<br /> <br /> 9, Old Square, Lin-<br /> coln’s Inn, W.C.<br /> <br /> Onions, Charles Talbut<br /> <br /> Parker, Thomas<br /> <br /> Plumbe, 8. W.<br /> Pocock, Archibald Henry<br /> <br /> Reinhardt, Charles . 18, Embankment<br /> Gardens, Chelsea,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> Ricci, Luigi Park House, Ealing,<br /> Middlesex.<br /> <br /> Sandwith, Mrs. Harold Johannesburg, South<br /> Alfrica,<br /> <br /> Speer, Capt. A. E. . Sandown Lodge, Esher,<br /> Surrey.<br /> <br /> Speight, E. E., F.R.G.S.<br /> <br /> Tomlinson, Miss Ella<br /> (* Brown Linnet’’) ter, Sussex.<br /> <br /> Tracy, Louis . : . c/o Messrs. Sprigg,<br /> Pedrick &amp; Co., Ltd.,<br /> 110, St. Martin’s<br /> Lane, W.C.<br /> <br /> Horsted Keynes, Sus-<br /> SeX.<br /> <br /> 3, Clifton Villas, St.<br /> John’s Wood, N.W.<br /> <br /> 22, Carson Road, West<br /> Dulwich, 8.E.<br /> Three Members do not desire either their names<br /> <br /> or addresses to be printed.<br /> <br /> Shaldon, Teignmouth.<br /> Fishbourne, Chiches-<br /> <br /> Trevor, John .<br /> Vredenburg, Hdric .<br /> <br /> Watson, Aaron<br /> <br /> &lt;&gt; —__<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —_-——+—<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply such particulars.)<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> THE STORY OF AN IRISHMAN. By JusTIN McCARTHY.<br /> 9 x 6,411 pp. Chatto and Windus, 12s.<br /> <br /> CoLerRIDGE. By DR, RICHARD GARNETT, Gh xX. 4<br /> lll pp. Ball. 1s.<br /> <br /> Lerrers or WILLIAM STUBBS, Bishop of Oxford, 1825—<br /> 1901, Edited by the Rev, W. H. Hurron, 9 xX 53,<br /> 428 pp. Constable, 17s. 6d, n.<br /> i<br /> ii<br /> <br /> 4<br /> <br /> 4<br /> i<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 32<br /> <br /> By WILFRID WARD. 9} X 6,<br /> 14s, n.<br /> <br /> AUBREY DE VERE.<br /> 428 pp. Longmans.<br /> <br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> LITTLE PETERKIN AND His BroTHER. By EH. M. GREEN.<br /> ik xX 6,157 pp. S8.P.C. K. Is. 6d.<br /> ENDERLEY PARK. By F. BAYFORD-HARRISON.<br /> 160 pp. S. P.C. K. 1s. 6d.<br /> THE NEw WoRrLD Farry Book.<br /> 8 x 6, 354 pp. Dent. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> THE BROowN Farry Book. Edited by ANDREW LANG.<br /> 74 X 5,350 pp. Longman’s. 6s.<br /> Mystery Isuanp. A Tale of the Pacific. : By FRED.<br /> WnisHaw. 8} X 54, 316 pp. Shaw. 35s. 6d.<br /> For TRIUMPH ORTRUTH. By SYDNEY C. GRIER. 8} X 58,<br /> <br /> 7k Xx 5,<br /> <br /> By H, A, KENNEDY.<br /> <br /> 310 pp. Shaw. 3s, 6d.<br /> THE PHANTOM Spy. By Fox Russenn. 7} X 54,<br /> 288 pp. Nelson. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> By ERNEST THOMPSON SETON,<br /> 6s. 1.<br /> <br /> Two LITTLE SAVAGES.<br /> <br /> 8} x 53,552 pp. Grant Richards.<br /> <br /> “THE DRAMA.”<br /> <br /> WHICH Is THE LUNATIC (a farce in oneact). By HENRY<br /> <br /> Francts. Published by Zhe Pioneer, Allahabad<br /> Price one rupee.<br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> ITALIAN GRAMMAR FOR ENGLISH STUDENTS. By LUIGI<br /> <br /> Riccr. 74 xX 5, 129 pp. Walter Scott Publishing<br /> Co. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> New ScHooL ARITHMETIC. Part Il. By C. PENDLEBURY,<br /> 7h x 5, pp. 207—468.. Bell. 2s. 6d. ‘<br /> <br /> EXAMPLES IN ARITHMETIC. By C. PENDLEBURY,<br /> <br /> assisted by F, E. Ropinson. 74 X 5, 223 pp. Bell. 2s.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> Tue EDGE OF CIRCUMSTANCE (a story of the sea). By<br /> EDWARD NoBLE. William Blackwood &amp; Sons.<br /> <br /> A VoICE FROM THE VOID. By HELEN BODDINGTON.<br /> 73 x 54,306 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s,<br /> <br /> TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES. By RUDYARD KIPLING.<br /> 8 x 54, 393 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> THEOPHANO. By FREDERIC HARRISON.<br /> 343 pp. Chapman and Hall. 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THe Farm oF THE DaGcG@ER. By EDEN PHILLPOTTS.<br /> 74 x 5, 812 pp. Newnes. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THp ABBESS OF VLAYE. By STANLEY J.<br /> 7% x 53, 391 pp. Longmans. 6s.<br /> SEA PurITANS. By F. T. BULLEN.<br /> <br /> Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> Masor Weir. By K. L. MONTGOMERY.<br /> Unwin. 6s.<br /> <br /> Mary Lovisa QUAYNE (or a BELATED LOVE AFFAIR).<br /> By EmILy PEARSON FINNEMORE. 73 X 5, 252 pp.<br /> 8. P.C. K. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> SCENES OF JEWISH LIFE. By Mrs. ALFRED SIDGWICK.<br /> 73% X BZ, 302 pp. Arnold, 6s.<br /> <br /> THE GAME OF LOVE. By GERTRUDEWARDEN. 73 X 5,<br /> <br /> 7% X 5, 299 pp.<br /> <br /> a 68;<br /> <br /> WEYMAN,<br /> 7k X 5, 365 pp.<br /> 7% X 5, 398 pp.<br /> <br /> 320 pp. Digby Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE SILENT WomMAN. By “RITA.”<br /> Hurst and Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> SomE LOVES AND A Lirr. By Mrs. CAMPBELL PRAED,<br /> 72 x 54,309 pp. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE PROGRESS OF RACHEL. By ADELINE SERGEANT.<br /> 7% xX 5,229 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BRIDGE OF LiFrs (a novel without a purpose). By<br /> DoroTHEA GERARD. 7} X 5},309-pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> Captain AMYAS (being the career of D&#039;Arcy Amyas,<br /> <br /> R.N. R., late Master of the R. M. 8. Princess). By<br /> <br /> Doty WYLLARDE. 7? X 54,264pp. Heinemann, 6s,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE CHRONICLES OF Don: Q, By K. and HESKETH<br /> PRICHARD. 7} X 5,307 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue Kin@’s CoMING. By FLORENCR WYNNE. 7% X 5,<br /> 489 pp. Skeffington. 6s,<br /> <br /> THE Foop OF THE GoDS AND How IT CAME TO EARTH.<br /> By H. G. WeLis. 7% X 54, 317 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> Kate oF KATE Hau. By ELLEN THORNEYCROFT<br /> Fowuer and A.L. FeLKIN. 7% x 5. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BRETHREN. By H. RIDER HAGGARD. 7% x 5,<br /> 342 pp. Cassell. 6s.<br /> <br /> In DEWISLAND. By S. BARING GOULD.<br /> Methune. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE DIVINE FirE, By MAY SINCLAIR.<br /> Constable. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Lovers OF MIss ANNE,<br /> 8 x 5}, 408 pp. Clarke. 6s.<br /> <br /> MERELY Mary ANN. By I. ZANGWILL (New Edition).<br /> <br /> _ 74 x 43,160 pp. Heinemann. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> A BRIDE FROM THE BusH. By E.<br /> 8$ x 59,122 pp. Newnes. 6s.<br /> <br /> HEARTS IN EXILE. By JOHN OXENHAM. 73<br /> 300 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> CAPRICIOUS CAROLINE. By MARIA ALBANESI. 7} X 5,<br /> 327 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> THE MERRY-GO-ROUND. By WILLIAM<br /> MAUGHAM. 73 X 54. Heinemann. 6s.<br /> For HEART 0’ GOLD. By CONSTANCE SMEDLEY. 73 X 5.<br /> 303 pp. Harpers. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BETRAYAL. By E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM. 73 X 5,<br /> 316 pp. Ward, Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> At THE Moorines. By Rosa<br /> 7% x 5,451 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> SOONER OR LATER, By VioLEr Hunt. 7} X 5}, £35 pp.<br /> Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> 7% x 5, 306 pp.<br /> 72 x 5, 667 pp.<br /> <br /> By 8. R. CROCKETT.<br /> <br /> W. HORNUNG.<br /> <br /> x 5,<br /> <br /> SOMERSET<br /> <br /> NoUCHETTE CAREY.<br /> <br /> A Great PATIENCE. By L. G. Moperny. 8. W.<br /> Partridge. 2s.<br /> Tur DREAM OF Peace. By FRANCIS GRIBBLE. 73} X 5,<br /> <br /> 305 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> THe MarriaGe Yoke, By ARABELLA KENEALY.<br /> 72 x 54,348 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> Smatinou. By J. H. Yoxaut, M.P. 7} x 5, 307 pp.<br /> Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> HELMSLEY’s PRINCESS. By J.B. ForD. 7 X 4%, 133 pp.<br /> Simpkin Marshall. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> THE HEART OF PENELOPE. By Mrs, BELLoc LOWNDES.<br /> 72 x 5. 336 pp. Heinemann. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE CELESTIAL Sur@eon. By F. F. MONTRESOR.<br /> 72 xX 5}, 375 pp. Arnold, 6s.<br /> <br /> THE RED DERELICT. By BERTRAM MITFORD. 7] X 54,<br /> 303 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> JoHN Riegpon. By C, P. PLANT,<br /> Sonnenschien. 6s.<br /> <br /> Sir RocEr’s Herr. By F, FraNKForT Moore. 7} X 5,<br /> 352 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> 74 xX 5, 372 pp.<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> A History OF SCOTLAND, FROM THE ROMAN. OCCUPA-<br /> <br /> TIoN. By ANDREW LANG. Vol. III, (1625—1689).<br /> 9 x 53,424 pp. Blackwood. 15s. n.<br /> LAW.<br /> <br /> Tae LAw or Torts, By Sir F. Pouuock, Bart., LL.D.<br /> Seventh edition. 8% x 53,679 pp. Stevens and Sons.<br /> <br /> 25s,<br /> LITERARY,<br /> THE Port’s DIARY, Edited by Lamia, 8} X 54, 255 pp.<br /> Macmillan. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> By JoHN ‘OLIVER<br /> <br /> LETTERS FROM A SILENT STUDY.<br /> 3s 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Hoppes. 72 X %#, 235 pp. Appleton.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AN IMPRESSIONIST IN ENGLAND.<br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR. 33<br /> <br /> LETTERS ON LIFE. By CLAupIUS CLEAR (Dr. Robertson<br /> Nicoll). 8% x 53,95 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6d.<br /> <br /> A Nore Book oF FRENCH LITERATURE. By P. C.<br /> YorKE. Vol. IL., Vineteenth Century. 8 x 54, 490 pp.<br /> Blackie. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> NATURAL HISTORY.<br /> <br /> CREATURES OF THE SEA (being the life stories of some<br /> sea birds, beists, and fishes) By F. T. BULLEN,<br /> F. R.G.S. 82 x 52,430 pp. R.T.S. 7s. 6d.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> PAMPHLETS.<br /> <br /> ‘REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY THE NEW THEORY OF<br /> <br /> MATTER (being the Presidential Address before the<br /> British Association for the Advancement of Science).<br /> Cambridge, August 17th, 1904. By THE RicHT Hon.<br /> A, J. BALFouR, M.P. Longman’s. ls. n.<br /> <br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> THE TESTAMENT OF A PRIME MINISTER. By JOHN<br /> Davipson. 72 X 53,103 pp. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Lost MASTERPIECES AND OTHER VERSES. By St. JOHN<br /> HANKIN. 7 x 43,73 pp. Constable. 3s 6d. n.<br /> <br /> BEAUTIFUL Days. By ADELAIDE L. J. GOSSET.<br /> Third edition. Partridge &amp; Co. 1s.<br /> <br /> QUAINT CHARMS, KNOTS AND VERSES.<br /> thousand. Walker. Is.n.<br /> <br /> BRIGHT EVENING THOUGHTS FOR LITTLE CHILDREN.<br /> By ADELAIDE L. J. GossET. 32 pp. 382 illustrations.<br /> George Allen. 2s. n.<br /> <br /> “HEAVEN&#039;S WaAY.”—QUAINT CorDs, CoILs, AND LOVE-<br /> Twists. By ADELAIDE L. J. GosseT. Elkin Mathews<br /> ls. n.<br /> <br /> A Harvest oF CHAFF. By OWEN SEAMAN.<br /> 147 pp. Constable. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> 32 pp.<br /> 44 pp. Fifth<br /> <br /> i x 44,<br /> <br /> POLITICAL.<br /> Russia: WHAT SHE WAS AND WHAT SHE Is. By<br /> <br /> JAAKOFF PRELOOKER. 7 X 5,148 pp. Simpkin, Mar-<br /> shall. 2s. 6d.<br /> SCIENCE.<br /> Srupies IN Astronomy. By J. ELLaRD_ GORE,<br /> F.R. ALS. 73° 5, 336 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> SCIENTIFIC.<br /> Sick Nursinc at Home. By L. G. Moperty, Scientific<br /> Press. 1s.<br /> <br /> ELecTROCHEMISTRY. By Proressor R. A. LEHFELDT,<br /> Voll. 268 pp. Longmans. 5s,<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> SEVEN Year’s Harp. By RicHArD FREE. 8}. x 54<br /> <br /> 268 pp. Heinemann, 5s. n.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY.<br /> Living Lonpon. ‘Edited by Gro. R. Sims. Part I.<br /> ‘114 x 84, 32 pp. Cassell. 7d. n.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> By F. H. Rose.<br /> 72 x 54, 305 pp. Dent. 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> SUNSHINE AND SENTIMENT IN PorRTUGAL. By GILBERT<br /> Warson. 9 x 6,295 pp. Arnold, 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> € HE Poet’s Diary, edited by Lamia,” is the<br /> title of a new prose work, written by the<br /> Poet Laureate, and published by Messrs.<br /> Macmillan &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> The same firm has issued a new and chearer<br /> edition of Lord Avebury’s work on “ The Scenery<br /> of England.” The edition contains all the original<br /> illustrations.<br /> <br /> The English Text Society has issued Part 1 of the<br /> “ English Fifteenth Century Translation of Etienne<br /> de Besancon’s Collection of Tales for Sermons,” by<br /> Mrs. M. M. Banks. Part 2 of the same work will<br /> appear shortly.<br /> <br /> Laura Hain Friswell is at present engaged upon<br /> her reminiscences, which will contain anecdotes of<br /> Dickens, Swinburne, Louis Blanc, Cruikshank,<br /> Tennyson, Toole, Irving, and many others. The<br /> work will be a girl’s impression of literary people<br /> and literary and journalistic society in the last<br /> century.<br /> <br /> The same authoress wrote a serial which ran<br /> through the Daily Chronicle at the beginning of<br /> last month, under the title of “ His Uncle’s Wife.”<br /> <br /> Mr. John Davidson’s, “The Testament of a<br /> Prime Minister,’ published on October 5th, is the<br /> fourth of a series of poems in which Mr. Davidson<br /> “ states fact in terms of poetry.”<br /> <br /> Edith ©. Kenyon’s tale for young people, en-<br /> titled, “A Girl‘in a Thousand,” has just been<br /> published, with beautiful illustrations by Messrs.<br /> S. W. Partridge &amp; Co. It is an up-to-date version<br /> of the Cinderella story.<br /> <br /> Mr. Kipling’s new volume of stories, “ Traffics<br /> and Discoveries,” published by Messrs. Macmillan<br /> &amp; Co., derives inspiration from many sources.<br /> “The Captive” reflects the view of an American<br /> inventor, unwillingly drawn into the fighting line,<br /> on the British methods of conducting the Boer<br /> War. “A Sahib’s War” presents the point of<br /> view of a Sikh soldier on the same operations ;<br /> while a third story, with a South African setting,<br /> shows Tommy Atkin’s attitude towards the accusa-<br /> tion of “barbarous methods.” Standing out from<br /> all the rest of the volume in great contrast both in<br /> matter of subject and in treatment is a story of<br /> dream children, entitled “ They.”<br /> <br /> In addition to Mr. Kipling’s volume, Messrs.<br /> Macmillan announce the publication of the follow-<br /> ing six-shilling novels: “ Whosoever shall Offend,”<br /> by E. Marion Crawford ; “The Food of the Gods,<br /> and How it came to Earth,” by H. G. Wells;<br /> and “Atoms of Empire,” by ©. J. Cutcliffe Hyne.<br /> <br /> The same publishers are also issuing a new series<br /> of English Men of Letters. Among the volumes<br /> SS ay<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 34<br /> <br /> contained in the series may be mentioned “Thomas<br /> Moore,” by Stephen Gwynn ; “ Andrew Marvell,”<br /> by Augustine Birrell; “ Edward FitzGerald,” by<br /> A. C. Benson; and “Sir Thomas Browne,” by<br /> Edmund Gosse. :<br /> <br /> Messrs. Seeley &amp; Co. will issue shortly a new<br /> work for young children, entitled “ The Crusaders,”<br /> by Professor Church.<br /> <br /> “The Church Universal, Brief Histories of her<br /> Continuous Life,” is the title of a new series, in<br /> eight volumes, edited by the Rev. W. H. Hutton,<br /> which Messrs. Rivingtons are publishing ; and to<br /> which, besides the editor, the Rev. Leighton<br /> Pullan, Mr. D. J. Medley, Mr. Herbert Bruce, and<br /> the Rev. J. P. Whitney contribute.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Alec Tweedie, whose book, “ Behind the<br /> Footlights,” lately ran into a second edition, has<br /> another volume in the press. This time she has<br /> returned to her old love of travel. The book,<br /> which will appear in the autumn in England and<br /> America, is entitled, “ Sunny Sicily, its Rustics and<br /> its Ruins.” Hutchinson is the English publisher.<br /> <br /> Mr. Lewis Melville is publishing this month<br /> through Messrs. A. &amp; C. Black a volume on<br /> “The Thackeray Country.” The book deals with<br /> those localities which are of primary interest to<br /> those who are acquainted with the life and writing<br /> of the novelist. It treats of Thackeray’s London<br /> homes, and the salient features and associations of<br /> <br /> -their neighbourhood, as well as of Thackeray in<br /> <br /> Paris and in America. Special attention is given<br /> to those places that are made the back ground of<br /> well-known scenes in the novels.<br /> <br /> “By Nile and Euphrates: a Record of Dis-<br /> covery and Adventure,” post octavo, price 8s. 6d.,<br /> has been published by Messrs. T. &amp; T. Clark, of<br /> Edinburgh. The author is Mr. Valentine Geere,<br /> who served on the American Excavations at<br /> Nippur, and: assisted Prof. Petrie and Dr. Gren-<br /> fell and Dr. Hunt in their work in Egypt. His<br /> volume gives an account of his experiences at the<br /> mounds and in his journeys in out-of-the-way<br /> places. It is amply illustrated by original photo-<br /> graphs and plans.<br /> <br /> John Oliver Hobbes (Mrs. Craigie) will shortly<br /> publish, through Mr. T. Werner Laurie, “The<br /> Artist’s Life, and other Essays.” In the volume,<br /> which is illustrated, are included her lectures<br /> before the Dante Society, the Ruskin Society, and<br /> the Philosophical Institution of Edinburgh.<br /> <br /> A new work by Mrs. Fred Reynolds, entitled<br /> “The Book of Angelus Drayton,” is published<br /> this month by Mr. John Long. The scene is laid<br /> in Yorkshire.<br /> <br /> We have received the fifth edition of Mr. E. A.<br /> Reynolds-Ball’s “‘ Mediterranean Winter Resorts,”<br /> published by Messrs. Hazell, Watson and Viney,<br /> at 8s. 6d. each, in two parts, or combined volume<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> on Indian paper, 6s. It is a complete and practical<br /> guide to all the health and pleasure resorts on the<br /> shores of the Mediterranean, as, indeed, its title<br /> suggests. It contains other interesting matter,<br /> and special articles on the principal invalid stations<br /> by resident English physicians.<br /> <br /> The calendars for 1905 are already being<br /> issued. Two neat memorandum forms arranged<br /> by “Autolycus” have been received at the Society’s<br /> office. The price is 1s. net each, and copies can<br /> be obtained either from Miss Rossi, of 202,<br /> Adelaide Road, Hampstead, N.W., or Mr. G. J.<br /> Glaisher, bookseller, 58, High Street, Notting Hill<br /> Gate, W. A peculiar feature of the calendar lies<br /> in the fact that at the beginning of every week ~<br /> there is a quotation from some well known<br /> author.<br /> <br /> We have received Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd.,<br /> trade circular for the current month. There are<br /> several interesting notes concerning books by<br /> members of the Society, which will shortly be<br /> before the public. .<br /> <br /> Mr. W. W. Jacobs’s story, ‘ Dialstone Lane,”<br /> which has been running through The Strand, is<br /> about to be produced in crown octavo at the price<br /> of 6s. The illustrations are by Mr. Will Owen.<br /> Mr. Jacobs’s method of dealing with the<br /> characteristics of coastwise sailormen is well<br /> known to all readers of The Strand Magazine. A<br /> fresh book from his pen will be welcome.<br /> <br /> Mr. Eden Phillpotts, who has for many years<br /> written such strong fiction with the west country<br /> as background, will publish through the same firm<br /> a book entitled “The Farm of the Dagger,” crown<br /> octavo, 3s. 6d. The story deals with the adven-<br /> tures of an American prisoner in England during<br /> the War of Independence (18121815), and is full<br /> of incident.<br /> <br /> Astory from Miss Marie Corelli will be published<br /> as a companion to The Strand Magazine Christmas<br /> Number. Ii will be issued separately from The<br /> Strand, at the price of 1s., and will be illustrated<br /> by Mr. H. R. Millar.<br /> <br /> Mr. R. S. Warren Bell is publishing a work<br /> through the same firm, entitled “Jim Mortimer,<br /> Surgeon.” The story deals with the Hooligan-<br /> infested district of Blackfriars. :<br /> <br /> E. Nesbit’s pleasant fairy tale, “The Phoenix<br /> and the Carpet,” will also appear as a Christmas<br /> book. The authoress’s delightful fancy is further<br /> exemplified in this new effort of her pen.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. are issuing new and<br /> revised editions of Mr. Vincent T. Murche’s<br /> manuals of object lessons in elementary science.<br /> In these new issues several improvements have been<br /> <br /> ‘made with a view to rendering them even more<br /> <br /> useful to teachers. :<br /> A selection has been made by Canon Beeching<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> from the sermons of the late Master of the Temple.<br /> ‘They will be issued in a volume by Messrs.<br /> Macmillan, under the title of ‘The Gospel and<br /> ‘Human Life.” Broadly speaking, the editor has<br /> omitted from his selection of twenty-four sermons<br /> all those dealing especially with the dogmas of the<br /> Church. The proof of the suitability of religion<br /> to human needs as they are revealed by experience<br /> of life is the aspect which is most prominently set<br /> forth in this posthumous work, with the result,<br /> Canon Beeching hopes, that it will be regarded as<br /> thoroughly characteristic of the individual preacher.<br /> <br /> The November number of Zhe Lady&#039;s Realm<br /> will contain the opening chapters of a new story<br /> entitled “ Starve Crow Farm,” by Stanley Weyman.<br /> The scene is laid in the North Country in the<br /> year 1819, when the working classes, impoverished<br /> by the long struggle against Napoleon, were<br /> seething with discontent and latent rebellion.<br /> <br /> « With a View to Matrimony” is the title of a<br /> book of short stories by Mr. James Blyth, author<br /> of “Juicy Joe” and ‘“ Celibate Sarah,” which Mr.<br /> Grant Richards published towards the end of<br /> October. Readers will have the opportunity of<br /> renewing their acquaintance with several of the<br /> places and people figuring in those two novels.<br /> The humorous side of village life predominates.<br /> <br /> Mr. Grant Richards has also published a new<br /> edition of “A Book of Verses for Children,” com-<br /> piled by Mr. E. V. Lucas.<br /> <br /> A military novel entitled “ The Queen’s Scarlet,”<br /> was published last month by Messrs. S. C. Brown,<br /> Langham &amp; Co., of New Bond Street. The book<br /> is from the pen of Mr. Horace Wyndham, and deals<br /> in an intimate manner with life in the ranks, at<br /> home and abroad, in barracks and camp, in peace<br /> and war. The action commences at an Army<br /> crammer’s, in South Kensington, and concludes in<br /> South Africa. Mr. Wyndham is the author of two<br /> other books on military matters, ‘The Queen’s<br /> Service,” and “Soldiers of the Queen.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Cassell &amp; Co. have just brought out a<br /> book by the author of “The Rejuvenation of Miss<br /> Semaphore.” The title, ‘‘ Aliens of the West,” was<br /> suggested by a line in one of Sliabh Cuillin’s<br /> poems, “Ourselves Alone.” The volume deals<br /> with certain sides of Irish life, which are practically<br /> new in fiction, and which will have interest, not<br /> only for the Irish, but for the general reader. It<br /> differs widely from the usual Irish novel, both in<br /> theme and in treatment.<br /> <br /> Mr. Norman Alliston wishes to give notice that<br /> towards the middle of this month he will issue a<br /> small “Edition d’héte” of his new work, “The<br /> Rationale of Art.”<br /> <br /> Owing to what he considers the exorbitance and<br /> apathy of publishers in dealing with commissioned<br /> business, Mr. Alliston is publishing the book for<br /> <br /> 35<br /> <br /> himself at Kamesburgh, Beckenham, and managing<br /> all arrangements—down to shopping the single<br /> copies. Mr. Alliston will ask “A crown for his<br /> thoughts ”—five shillings net, post free.<br /> <br /> In the 14th Edition of Chitty on Contracts, by<br /> Mr. J. M. Lely (Sweet &amp; Maxwell, 30s.), the editor<br /> has, “with reluctance made an exception to the<br /> rule that judgments of the House of Lords should<br /> be merely recorded and not criticised,” and sub-<br /> mitted six reasons why that judgment though right<br /> upon authority is wrong in its construction of the<br /> 18th Section of the Copyright Act. Attention is<br /> called in the preface to various points “ which seem<br /> to require remedial legislation,” such as the too<br /> little known rules of law, that money at a bank not<br /> drawn upon for six years becomes the property of<br /> the banker, that the executors of a lessee may be<br /> personally liable on his covenants for repair, that if<br /> A. undisputedly owes B. £100, and B. agrees to<br /> take £90 in full satisfaction, B. can, nevertheless,<br /> sue A. for the remaining £10, that the barely<br /> intelligible 18th Section of the Copyright Act<br /> requires recasting, and that a master is under no<br /> obligation in England or Scotland (as he is in<br /> Ireland), to give a servant a character, however<br /> long and faithful the service may have been.<br /> <br /> In the Quiver of the current month<br /> commences the opening chapters of Mr. John<br /> Bloundelle-Burton’s new romance, “ The Sword of<br /> Gideon.” The story, which centres round that<br /> portion of the War of Succession in Spain which<br /> took place in Flanders, will be the serial for the<br /> year.<br /> <br /> In the same month a new romance of Mr.<br /> Bloundelle-Burton’s, entitled “The Land of Bond-<br /> age,” will be published by F. V. White &amp; Co., Ltd.<br /> The scene is laid principally in Virginia, and deals<br /> with the kidnapping of redemptioners, and the<br /> tragedies that, in many cases, resulted therefrom.<br /> Most of the descriptions are taken from MS.<br /> papers and letters written by the planters and<br /> colonists of the actual period, that of George IL.,<br /> which were handed to Mr. Bloundelle-Burton by<br /> the last survivor of an old Virginian family.<br /> <br /> “The Temple of Art: A Plea for the Higher<br /> Realisation of the Artistic Vocation,” is published<br /> by Messrs. Longmans, Green &amp; Co., at the price of<br /> 3s. 6d. The author—Mr. Ermest Newlandsmith—<br /> takes the view that at the present time the greater<br /> number of so-ealled works of art are only exhibitions<br /> of technical display, failing to infect those who come<br /> under their influence with any true or definite<br /> emotion.<br /> <br /> A revised and enlarged edition of “ Printing,”<br /> by Chas. T. Jacobi, published by Messrs. George<br /> Bell and Sons in their Technological Series, is now<br /> in the press and will be ready in November. This<br /> is a recognised text-book for the student and useful<br /> <br /> <br /> SS al<br /> <br /> See ST<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> ‘86<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> for all interested in the art of printing. This<br /> third edition will possess some new features.<br /> <br /> Early last month Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson<br /> published a novel, entitled ‘Father, M.P.,” with<br /> Messrs. Thos. Nelson &amp; Sons.<br /> <br /> he same author has also made arrangements<br /> with Messrs. Harper Bros. for the production of a<br /> work next year. The title is “ Langbarrow Hall,”<br /> and the novel deals with the North Country, in a<br /> district of sand and peat, moss and scaur.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Blackie and Sons have just issued Vol. 2<br /> of Mr. Philip C. Yorke’s work, “A Note Book of<br /> French Literature.” This volume, which deals<br /> with authors of the nineteenth century, is worked<br /> out on the same plan as that adopted by the author<br /> in Vol. 1, and consists of biography, bibliography,<br /> critical note, and illustrative extract to each<br /> author. The work is preceded by an introductory<br /> chapter.<br /> <br /> Mr. Pinero’s new play was produced on the stage<br /> of Sir Charles Wyndham’s Theatre, on the night<br /> of October 12th. The title, which gives the key<br /> to the piece, is “A Wife without a Smile—a<br /> Comedy in Disguise.” It is full of cynical<br /> humour, and the characters were excellently played<br /> throughout.<br /> <br /> A new play by Mr. Bernard Shaw, “John<br /> Bull’s Other Island,” written for the Irish Literary<br /> Society, will be produced in England at the Court<br /> Theatre for six matinées, on the Ist, 3rd, 4th,<br /> 8th, 10th, 11th of November. The date of the<br /> Irish performance has not, as yet, been fixed.<br /> There will be some further performances of<br /> Mr. Shaw’s well known play, “Candida,” in<br /> December. Another play by the same author,<br /> “ How He Lied to Her Husband,” has been pro-<br /> duced under the management of Mr. Arnold Daly,<br /> with considerable success, in New York. It has<br /> been described as a travesty of Candida ; but this<br /> isa mistake. It deals with the adventures of a<br /> young poet and a fashionable lady who catch the<br /> Candida craze, and try to imagine themselves<br /> Candida and Eugene in real life, with ridiculous<br /> consequences.<br /> <br /> Mr. Shaw’s play, “ Cesar and Cleopatra,” which<br /> was to have been produced at the Berlin Deutscher<br /> Theater last spring, will be produced there next<br /> year.<br /> <br /> ————1-&gt;o—__—_<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> Oe<br /> <br /> 6“ OUVENIRS des vertes Saisons,” by André<br /> Theuriet, is a charming sketch of the child-<br /> <br /> hood, early manhood, and career of this<br /> author. He tells us of his early writings and of<br /> his first publication in the Revwe des Deua-<br /> Slondes. He speaks, too, of his contemporaries,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Daudet, Flaubert, the de Goncourts, &amp;c. ; and there<br /> is a touching account of the poet André Lemoyne,<br /> and of the way in which he wrote his verses.<br /> <br /> “Te Double Jardin,” by Maurice Meeterlinck,<br /> proves that the author is by no means a pessimist.<br /> “Nous sommes,” he writes, “au moment ou nais-<br /> sent autour de nous mille raisons nouvelles de<br /> prendre confiance dans les destinées de notre<br /> espéce.”<br /> <br /> “Le Sillon,” by Resclauze de Bermon, is a story<br /> of self-sacrifice. It is both romantic and pathetic,<br /> and altogether a novel well worth reading.<br /> <br /> In “Les Sirénes,” by Jean Reibrach, the chief<br /> interest is also the self-sacrifice of the man who, at<br /> an advanced age, has fallen in love with the orphan<br /> daughter of a fellow officer. She is engaged to<br /> him, but before the marriage takes place he dis-<br /> covers that he has a rival in the girl’s affections,<br /> and not only does he stand aside himself but he<br /> facilitates things for the lovers. There are some<br /> exquisite passages in the book, and the picture of —<br /> provincial life is well drawn. The characters, too, ~<br /> all live and stand out in excellent contrast.<br /> <br /> “Félicien, souvenir d’un étudiant de 48,” by<br /> Charles-Louis Chassin, is an excellent book for<br /> giving a picture of the times about which the ~<br /> author writes. ‘There is the proclamation of the<br /> Republic, the eventful 13th of June, the manifesta-<br /> tion of the students against the closing of Michelet’s —<br /> lectures, and an account of the author’s life when<br /> in the Mazas Prison. Jules Vallés and Leconte<br /> de Lisle are to be found in this story figuring ~<br /> under other names.<br /> <br /> “Madame de Ferneuse,” by Daniel Lesueur, is<br /> the sequel to the ‘“ Marquis de Valcor.” The —<br /> interest of the story is well sustained, the characters ~<br /> all live, and the book itself is written admirably.<br /> <br /> “ Légendes de mort et d’amour,” by M. Gaston-<br /> Routier, is a volume of legends and impressions<br /> written after a voyage in Spain. The author has<br /> written a number of historical and geographical<br /> works, and is considered an authority on subjects<br /> connected with the early history and literature of<br /> Spain.<br /> <br /> Among other new books are: ‘Le Fils de la<br /> Mer,” by Nelly Hager; “La Macédoine et: les<br /> puissances,” by M. Gaston-Routier ; “ Le peuple<br /> chinois,” by Fernand Farjenel ; “ La Bosnie popu-<br /> laire,” by Albert Bordeaux ; ‘‘ Les Giuvres des<br /> autres,” by Madame Jeanne France.<br /> <br /> There is an attempt now being made by French<br /> authors to protect their works in Canada. It<br /> appears that plays, short stories, and novels are —<br /> constantly reproduced in the papers or published<br /> in book form without the consent of the writers.<br /> <br /> The Society of Canadian-French journalists has<br /> taken the matter up, and in reply to a question<br /> addressed to the Government there, the Honourable<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 1M. Scott has replied that he believes the Canadian<br /> <br /> o&#039;Government adheres to the Convention of Berne.<br /> <br /> ‘Should this be so French writers have it in their<br /> <br /> wvown hands to protect their works. One of the<br /> <br /> ‘most important publishing houses of Canada,<br /> <br /> Messrs. Beauchemin, is always loyal in dealing<br /> <br /> ‘-with French anthors ; and M. Heurion, the manager<br /> <br /> ‘of the ThéAtre des Nouveautés, of Montreal, has<br /> <br /> been over to Paris and made arrangements about<br /> <br /> slplaying the “ Retour de Jérusalem”’ and “ La plus<br /> i-faible,” but various newspapers and publishing<br /> <br /> ‘houses are at the present time using works by<br /> <br /> iesome of the best known French authors with no<br /> <br /> ssregard whatever to the question of literary property.<br /> The matter is now being taken up seriously in<br /> <br /> France.<br /> <br /> ‘| Inthe Mercure de France there is an excellent<br /> - szarticle on “ Les Racines de l’Idéalisme,” by Remy<br /> » ade Gourmont, and a curious study by M. Bélugou,<br /> | jgentitled “Le Pouvoir de Imagination chez les<br /> / Enfants.” There is also an interesting criticism of<br /> &#039; odthe “ Peintres de la terre belge” by M. Marius-Ary<br /> ‘a. Leblond.<br /> <br /> | In La Revue of October 15th there is an article<br /> “yby M. Charles Pagot, “Comment reformer l’enseigne-<br /> wment classique,” and another one by M. Georges<br /> *Pellissier on “ La Littérature a thése.” The writer<br /> simaintains that in the roman a these the personages<br /> : @do not live: they are so many puppets whose<br /> ‘strings are pulled by the author. When they<br /> ‘jspeak we recognise the author’s voice prompting<br /> “oitheir role, and all their acting is in support of the<br /> ‘theory he wishes to prove.<br /> <br /> | In a recent article in the Nouvelle Revue M.<br /> +o Morel asks what is to be done with all the books<br /> ‘which have to be deposited at the Bibliotheque<br /> Nationale. He believes that with the present<br /> system the catalogue itself cannot be completed<br /> until the year 1930, and that it will consist of 136<br /> volumes.<br /> <br /> In the Quinzaine M. Giraud writes on Chateau-<br /> briand and his critics.<br /> <br /> In the Revue des Deur-Mondes M. Fouillée<br /> discusses the moral and social consequences of<br /> “{ Darwinism. In the same review Madame Arvede<br /> @ Barine gives details with regard to the romance<br /> &#039; Lof “La Grande Mademoiselle,” and M. Edouard<br /> 9) Rod writes on Ada Negri’s new book.<br /> ty In the Revue de Paris there is an interesting<br /> °9¢ account of Count Valentin Esterhazy, and M. Paul<br /> “oe Stapfer writes of his acquaintance with Victor<br /> 4) Hugo when the poet was at Guernsey.<br /> ef At the Comédie Francaise “Les Affaires sont<br /> les Affaires” has been put on again.<br /> <br /> The Odéon is now giving the new play by<br /> M. Brieux, “ La Déserteuse.”<br /> <br /> _ Parle Fer et par le Feu,” the piece now running<br /> at the Théatre Sarah Bernhardt, is taken from the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 37<br /> <br /> celebrated novel by Sienkiewicz. Madame Bern-<br /> hardt read the book when on tour in America, and<br /> suggested to her son, M. Maurice Bernhardt, the<br /> idea of adapting it for the stage. For the last two<br /> years he has been at work on it, and in September<br /> it. was read to the artistes. While Madame Bern-<br /> hardt is away on her tour the new play is being<br /> given at her theatre.<br /> <br /> M. Antoine is still faithful to his bill of short<br /> plays, and is at present giving four instead of<br /> three: ‘ Petite Femme,” “La Main de Singe,”<br /> “Discipline,” and “ Asile de Nuit.”<br /> <br /> At the Vaudeville “‘ Les Trois Anabaptistes”’<br /> is to be followed by M. Henry Bataille’s new play,<br /> “Madame Colibri.”<br /> <br /> Atys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> ——_———__+—~&lt;&gt;_ + —_____-<br /> <br /> SPAIN AND BOOK PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> — ++<br /> <br /> HE following correspondence has been re-<br /> ceived by the Secretary at the Society’s<br /> Office :—<br /> <br /> The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs<br /> presents his compliments to the Secretary to the<br /> Society of Authors, and is directed by the Secretary<br /> of State for Foreign Affairs to transmit to him to<br /> be laid before the Society the accompanying paper<br /> respecting the exemption from duty of books<br /> imported from certain countries into Spain :—<br /> <br /> SPANISH EMBASSY,<br /> July 12th, 1904.<br /> <br /> My Lorp,—I have the honour to inform your<br /> Excellency that the Government of the King, my<br /> august Sovereign, animated by the desire to<br /> strengthen the bonds of union between Spain and<br /> other nations her friends or allies, bonds which are<br /> certainly stronger in proportion as the communica-<br /> tion of ideas between the different countries is<br /> rendered more easy, presented to the Cortes a Bill<br /> amending the regulations respecting the present<br /> Customs tariff as regards the importation of books,<br /> and that this Bill, having been passed by the<br /> Chambers and sanctioned by His Majesty, has been<br /> promulgated as a law of the kingdom, dated March<br /> 4th last.<br /> <br /> Great Britain being, in view of the fact that her<br /> tariffs grant the exemption from duty, included in<br /> the terms of Article 2 of this law, Iam instructed by<br /> my Government to communicate it to His Majesty’s<br /> Government, in order that advantage may be taken<br /> of it by any British subjects who may desire to<br /> introduce books into Spain, and who shall have<br /> complied with the other conditions mentioned in<br /> the law.<br /> <br /> I transmit herewith to your Excellency a copy of<br />  <br /> <br /> ‘36<br /> for all interested in the art of printing. This<br /> third edition will possess some new features.<br /> <br /> Early last month Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson<br /> published a novel, entitled “Father, M.P.,”’ with<br /> Messrs. Thos. Nelson &amp; Sons.<br /> <br /> he same author has also made arrangements<br /> with Messrs. Harper Bros. for the production of a<br /> work next year. The title is « Langbarrow Hall,<br /> and the novel deals with the North Country, in a<br /> district of sand and peat, moss and scaur.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Blackie and Sons have just issued Vol. 2<br /> of Mr. Philip ©. Yorke’s work, “A Note Book of<br /> French Literature.” This volume, which deals<br /> with authors of the nineteenth century, is worked<br /> out on the same plan as that adopted by the author<br /> in Vol. 1, and consists of biography, bibliography,<br /> critical note, and illustrative extract to each<br /> author. The work is preceded by an introductory<br /> chapter.<br /> <br /> Mr. Pinero’s new play was produced on the stage<br /> of Sir Charles Wyndham’s Theatre, on the night<br /> of October 12th. The title, which gives the key<br /> to the piece, is “A Wife without a Smile—a<br /> Comedy in Disguise.” It is full of cynical<br /> humour, and the characters were excellently played<br /> throughout.<br /> <br /> A new play by Mr. Bernard Shaw, “John<br /> Bull’s Other Island,” written for the Irish Literary<br /> Society, will be produced in England at the Court<br /> Theatre for six matinées, on the Ist, 3rd, 4th,<br /> 8th, 10th, 11th of November. The date of the<br /> Irish performance has not, as yet, been fixed.<br /> There will be some further performances of<br /> Mr. Shaw’s well known play, “Candida,” in<br /> December. Another play by the same author,<br /> “ How He Lied to Her Husband,” has been_pro-<br /> duced under the management of Mr. Arnold Daly,<br /> with considerable success, in New York. It has<br /> been described asa travesty of Candida ; but this<br /> isa mistake. It deals with the adventures of a<br /> young poet and a fashionable lady who catch the<br /> Candida craze, and try to imagine themselves<br /> Candida and Eugene in real life, with ridiculous<br /> consequences.<br /> <br /> Mr. Shaw’s play, “ Caesar and Cleopatra,” which<br /> was to have been produced at the Berlin Deutscher<br /> Theater last spring, will be produced there next<br /> year.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —__——_—_—_+—&gt;—_o—_____—_<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> —1-~—<br /> <br /> ‘ OUVENIRS des vertes Saisons,” by André<br /> Theuriet, is a charming sketch of the child-<br /> hood, early manhood, and career of this<br /> <br /> author. He tells us of his early writings and of<br /> <br /> his first publication in the Revwe des Deuz-<br /> He speaks, too, of his contemporaries,<br /> <br /> Mondes.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Daudet, Flaubert, the de Goncourts, &amp;c. ; and there<br /> is a touching account of the poet André Lemoyne,<br /> and of the way in which he wrote his verses.<br /> <br /> “Te Double Jardin,” by Maurice Meeterlinck,<br /> proves that the author is by no means a pessimist.<br /> “Nous sommes,” he writes, “au moment ou nais-<br /> sent autour de nous mille raisons nouvelles de<br /> prendre confiance dans les destinées de notre<br /> espéce.”<br /> <br /> “Le Sillon,” by Resclauze de Bermon, is a story<br /> of self-sacrifice. It is both romantic and pathetic,<br /> and altogether a novel well worth reading.<br /> <br /> In “Les Sirénes,” by Jean Reibrach, the chief<br /> interest is also the self-sacrifice of the man who, at<br /> an advanced age, has fallen in love with the orphan<br /> daughter of a fellow officer. She is engaged to<br /> him, but before the marriage takes place he dis-<br /> covers that he has a rival in the girl’s affections,<br /> and not only does he stand aside himself but he<br /> facilitates things for the lovers. There are some<br /> exquisite passages in the book, and the picture of<br /> provincial life is well drawn. The characters, too,<br /> all live and stand out in excellent contrast.<br /> <br /> “Félicien, souvenir d’un étudiant de 48,” by<br /> Charles-Louis Chassin, is an excellent book for<br /> giving a picture of the times about which the<br /> author writes. There is the proclamation of the<br /> Republic, the eventful 13th of June, the manifesta-<br /> tion of the students against the closing of Michelet’s<br /> lectures, and an account of the author&#039;s life when<br /> in the Mazas Prison. Jules Vallés and Leconte<br /> de Lisle are to be found in this story figuring<br /> under other names.<br /> <br /> “Madame de Ferneuse,” by Daniel Lesueur, is<br /> the sequel to the ‘“ Marquis de Valcor.” The<br /> interest of the story is well sustained, the characters<br /> all live, and the book itself is written admirably.<br /> <br /> “Légendes de mort et d’amour,” by M. Gaston-<br /> Routier, is a volume of legends and impressions<br /> written after a voyage in Spain. The author has<br /> written a number of historical and geographical<br /> works, and is considered an authority on subjects<br /> connected with the early history and literature of<br /> <br /> ain.<br /> ies other new books are: “Le Fils de la<br /> Mer,” by Nelly Hager; “La Macédoine et les<br /> puissances,” by M. Gaston-Routier ; “ Le peuple<br /> chinois,” by Fernand Farjenel ; “ La Bosnie popu-<br /> laire,” by Albert Bordeaux; ‘‘ Les Giuvres des<br /> autres,” by Madame Jeanne France.<br /> <br /> There is an attempt now being made by French<br /> authors to protect their works in Canada. It<br /> appears that plays, short stories, and novels are<br /> constantly reproduced in the papers or published<br /> in book form without the consent of the writers.<br /> <br /> The Society of Canadian-French journalists has<br /> taken the matter up, and in reply to a question<br /> addressed to the Government there, the Honourable<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 37<br /> <br /> M. Scott has replied that he believes the Canadian<br /> Government adheres to the Convention of Berne.<br /> Should this be so French writers have it in their<br /> own hands to protect their works. One of the<br /> most important publishing houses of Canada,<br /> Messrs. Beauchemin, is always loyal in dealing<br /> with French authors ; and M. Heurion, the manager<br /> of the Thédtre des Nouveautés, of Montreal, has<br /> been over to Paris and made arrangements about<br /> playing the “ Retour de Jérusalem”’ and “ La plus<br /> faible,” but various newspapers and publishing<br /> houses are at the present time using works by<br /> some of the best known French authors with no<br /> regard whatever to the question of literary property.<br /> <br /> The matter is now being taken up seriously in<br /> France.<br /> <br /> In the J/ercure de France there is an excellent<br /> article on “ Les Racines de l’Idéalisme,” by Remy<br /> <br /> _ de Gourmont, and a curious study by M. Bélugou,<br /> &#039; entitled “Le Pouvoir de l’Imagination chez les<br /> &#039; Enfants.”<br /> <br /> There is also an interesting criticism of<br /> the “ Peintres de la terre belge” by M. Marius-Ary<br /> <br /> 1, Leblond.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> | strings are pulled by the author.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> In La Revue of October 15th there is an article<br /> by M. Charles Pagot, “Comment reformer l’enseigne-<br /> <br /> | ment classique,” and another one by M. Georges<br /> <br /> Pellissier on “ La Littératurea these.” The writer<br /> maintains that in the roman d these the personages<br /> do not live: they are so many puppets whose<br /> When they<br /> speak we recognise the author’s voice prompting<br /> their réle, and all their acting is in support of the<br /> theory he wishes to prove.<br /> <br /> In a recent article in the Nowvelle Revue M.<br /> Morel asks what is to be done with all the books<br /> which have to be deposited at the Bibliotheque<br /> Nationale. He believes that with the present<br /> system the catalogue itself cannot be completed<br /> until the year 1930, and that it will consist of 136<br /> volumes.<br /> <br /> In the Quinzaine M. Giraud writes on Chateau-<br /> briand and his critics.<br /> <br /> In the Revwe des Dewr-Mondes M. Fouillée<br /> discusses the moral and social consequences of<br /> Darwinism. In the same review Madame Arvede<br /> Barine gives details with regard to the romance<br /> of “La Grande Mademoiselle,” and M. Edouard<br /> Rod writes on Ada Negri’s new book.<br /> <br /> In the Revue de Paris there is an interesting<br /> account of Count Valentin Esterhazy, and M. Paul<br /> Stapfer writes of his acquaintance with Victor<br /> Hugo when the poet was at Guernsey.<br /> <br /> At the Comédie Francaise “Les Affaires sont<br /> les Affaires” has been put on again.<br /> <br /> The Odéon is now giving the new play by<br /> M. Brieux, “ La Déserteuse.”<br /> <br /> “ Par le Fer et par le Feu,” the piece now running<br /> at the Thédtre Sarah Bernhardt, is taken from the<br /> <br /> celebrated novel by Sienkiewicz. Madame Bern-<br /> hardt read the book when on tour in America, and<br /> suggested to her son, M. Maurice Bernhardt, the<br /> idea of adapting it for the stage. For the last two<br /> years he has been at work on it, and in September<br /> it was read to the artistes. While Madame Bern-<br /> hardt is away on her tour the new play is being<br /> given at her theatre. |<br /> M. Antoine is still faithful to his bill of short<br /> plays, and is at present giving four instead of<br /> three: “Petite Femme,” “La Main de Singe,”<br /> “Discipline,” and “ Asile de Nuit.” :<br /> _ At the Vaudeville “Les Trois Anabaptistes”<br /> is to be followed by M. Henry Bataille’s new play,<br /> ‘“‘ Madame Colibri.”<br /> <br /> Auys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> et<br /> <br /> SPAIN AND BOOK PRODUCTION.<br /> <br /> ——+—~—+<br /> <br /> HE following correspondence has been re-<br /> ceived by the Secretary at the Society’s<br /> Office :— :<br /> <br /> The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign A ffairs<br /> presents his compliments to the Secretary to the<br /> Society of Authors, and is directed by the Secretary<br /> of State for Foreign Affairs to transmit to him to<br /> be laid before the Society the accompanying paper<br /> respecting the exemption from duty of books<br /> imported from certain countries into Spain :—<br /> <br /> SPANISH EMBASSY,<br /> July 12th, 1904.<br /> <br /> My Lorp,—I have the honour to inform your<br /> Excellency that the Government of the King, my<br /> august Sovereign, animated by the desire to<br /> strengthen the bonds of union between Spain and<br /> other nations her friends or allies, bonds which are<br /> certainly stronger in proportion as the communica-<br /> tion of ideas between the different countries is<br /> rendered more easy, presented to the Cortes a Bill<br /> amending the regulations respecting the present<br /> Customs tariff as regards the importation of books,<br /> and that this Bill, having been passed by the<br /> Chambers and sanctioned by His Majesty, has been<br /> promulgated as a law of the kingdom, dated March<br /> 4th last.<br /> <br /> Great Britain being, in view of the fact that her<br /> tariffs grant the exemption from duty, included in<br /> the terms of Article 2 of thislaw, Iam instructed by<br /> my Government to communicate it to His Majesty’s<br /> Government, in order that advantage may be taken<br /> of it by any British subjects who may desire to<br /> introduce books into Spain, and who shall have<br /> complied with the other conditions mentioned in<br /> the law.<br /> <br /> I transmit herewith to your Excellency a copy of<br />  <br /> <br /> 38<br /> <br /> the law and a copy of the Royal Order respecting<br /> the effects and the forms of its application.<br /> T have, &amp;c.,<br /> (Signed) Manpas.<br /> <br /> Don Alfonso XIII., by the grace of God, &amp;e., &amp;c.<br /> <br /> ‘Article 1.—Are exempted from custom duties,<br /> from the date of the promulgation of this law, all<br /> classes of books imported into Spain provided that<br /> they fulfil the following requirements —<br /> <br /> (1) That they are written in the language of the<br /> country whence they come directly or with a<br /> direct invoice, and that they are published and<br /> printed in the same country ; an -<br /> <br /> (2) That they are the original works of a citizen<br /> of the said country, who has acquired the right of<br /> literary property in them. :<br /> <br /> ‘Article 2.—The exemption referred to in the<br /> preceding article shall only apply to nations which<br /> have treaties in regard to literary property, and<br /> which grant the same exemption to books printed<br /> in Spain, as a measure of reciprocity.<br /> <br /> Article 8.—The Ministry of Finance shall give<br /> the necessary orders for the execution of this law.<br /> <br /> Therefore we give order, &amp;c., &amp;c,<br /> <br /> Given at the Palace, March 14th, 1904.<br /> <br /> (Signed) THE Kine.<br /> (Signed) Tum MINISTER OF FINANCE,<br /> GuILLERMO J. DE OSMA.<br /> <br /> MINISTRY OF FINANCE.<br /> RoyaL ORDER.<br /> <br /> Srr,—For the due application of the law of the<br /> 14th March last, published in the Madrid Gazette<br /> of the 15th idem, providing for the exemption from<br /> customs duties of books imported from abroad and<br /> printed in the language of the country of origin,<br /> the King, in view of the information supplied by<br /> the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by your office,<br /> has been pleased to order—<br /> <br /> (1) That the following’ countries, which have<br /> <br /> treaties with Spain respecting intellectual property,<br /> <br /> and whose respective tariffs also grant exemption<br /> from duties to Spanish books, are henceforth to be<br /> considered as included under Article 2 of the<br /> above-mentioned law as regards the exemption<br /> referred to: Germany, England, Belgium, France,<br /> Italy, Japan, Siberia, Luxemburg, Monaco, Tunis,<br /> Columbia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Norway,<br /> Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Salvador ;<br /> <br /> (2) That until further notice the same treatment<br /> ghall be extended to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the<br /> Philippines, in virtue of their having, in the Treaty<br /> of Paris, acknowledged the right of intellectual<br /> property, and of the fact that Spanish scientific and<br /> literary works imported into these countries now<br /> enjoy exemption from duties ;<br /> <br /> (3) That the fulfilment of the requirement of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Article 1 of the same law, for the application of<br /> the exemption, to the effect that the works must be<br /> the original production of a citizen of the country<br /> of origin, who must also have acquired the right of<br /> literary property in them, must be proved by docu-<br /> ments issued by the office which has charge of the<br /> registration of intellectual property in the respective<br /> countries, certified by the Spanish Consul ;<br /> <br /> (4) The exemption which applies to books does<br /> not extend to their bindings, which in consequence<br /> must continue to pay the duties of their class, as<br /> determined by Note 49 of the present tariff ; and<br /> <br /> (5) That consignments of books brought before<br /> the Customs without the above-mentioned proof, or<br /> which do not comply with the other requirements<br /> of Article 1 of the law, or proceed from any other<br /> territory than those mentioned, shall pay the duties<br /> laid down in the same tariff.<br /> <br /> (Signed) Osa,<br /> Director-General of Customs.<br /> Maprip, June 15th, 1904.<br /> <br /> ————__+—&gt;—_<br /> <br /> COPYRIGHT IN GERMANY.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> HE evolution of copyright property in<br /> Germany follows in many points the evolu-<br /> tion of copyright property in other countries.<br /> <br /> Shortly after the invention of printing, privileges<br /> were conferred on printers to protect them against<br /> piracy ; this fact showed that it was the movement<br /> of the trade that first secured any defence for<br /> literary property. But the German evolution<br /> differs to this extent from the evolution of other<br /> countries, in that, for a long period, the author’s<br /> rights were not looked upon as existing, but only<br /> the rights of reproduction when transferred to the<br /> printer or publisher. To such an extent has this been<br /> carried that even at the present time a law has been<br /> passed dealing with publishers’ rights in addition<br /> to the copyright law. A German author, writing<br /> on this subject, states as follows :—<br /> <br /> “ As, shortly after the invention of printing, or at any<br /> rate in the earliest times, the privileges conferred for pro-<br /> tection against piracy were only granted to the publishers,<br /> and to them even were often granted for all works in<br /> <br /> common which appeared in their establishments ; so under<br /> these circumstances the question : In what relation the<br /> <br /> publisher stood to the author, if he received the sanction of<br /> the latter to the reproduction of the work concerned or —<br /> <br /> not, never came to the fore at all; the idea that the right<br /> <br /> of protection for his productions originates in the personof 70<br /> the author, that this might first have been made over by —<br /> <br /> the author to another in order to be operative, does not yet :<br /> <br /> appear in the light of day.’’<br /> Gradually,<br /> <br /> recognised by statute, and at the end of the o9@<br /> <br /> however, the publisher’s rights (it<br /> ought to have been the author’s rights) began to be -<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> aN<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 39<br /> <br /> eighteenth century—the period which is full of<br /> copyright legislation in all countries—legislation<br /> was carried on in the German Confederacy. The<br /> most important statute, however, was not passed<br /> till well into the nineteenth century. This was,<br /> without doubt, the Prussian law of 1837. It<br /> formed the basis of most of the subsequent legis-<br /> lation. Under it copyright protection was granted<br /> for life and thirty vears, and the exclusive right of<br /> representation for life and ten years.<br /> <br /> The fact that a large number of small States,<br /> although they might collectively agree to certain<br /> broad principles, each legislated for its own benefit,<br /> necessarily stood in the way of uniformity. In<br /> consequence, the desire for codification became<br /> urgent. The German Booksellers’—really Pub-<br /> lishers——Guild (Borsen-Verein) was the principal<br /> mover in the matter. A committee was appointed,<br /> and a comprehensive code partly based on the<br /> Prussian law was drawn up. After consideration<br /> this was laid before the Diet on May 19th, 1864:<br /> but with the dissolution of the German Con-<br /> federacy and the creation of the North-German<br /> Federacy and the German-Empire, the subject<br /> entered on a new stage. Article 4 of the Con-<br /> stitution of the North-German Federacy (1867) at<br /> once made the protection of intellectual property<br /> a matter of Confederate Legislation, and a law was<br /> passed in May, 1870, which came into force in 1871.<br /> Although this law was to a certain extent satis-<br /> factory, in the course of time deficiencies became<br /> apparent, and attempts were made, among those<br /> interested, to obtain a series of essential alterations.<br /> <br /> The Imperial offices of justice yielding to ex-<br /> ternal pressure, made preparations for the draft<br /> of a new law. Introductory consultations with<br /> experts—publishers, authors, and musicians—were<br /> instituted, and the result was put forward for public<br /> discussion in 1899. ‘Ihe draft, as finally settled,<br /> was approved by the Imperial Government. In<br /> January, 1901, the law was referred to a com-<br /> mission of twenty-one members, was passed on<br /> May 2nd, 1901, and came into active force on<br /> January ist, 1902. One of the great alterations<br /> from the former law of 1870 was that the new law<br /> was drafted as far as possible to facilitate inter-<br /> national legal intercourse.<br /> <br /> So far the outline of domestic copyright alone<br /> has been dealt with. It is necessary to look back<br /> some years and notice the evolution of inter-<br /> national relations. No doubt the fact that the law<br /> of 1901 was drafted along lines which might facili-<br /> tate international arrangements was due to the<br /> wider protection that was given to authors under<br /> the Berne Convention, and to the wider views<br /> universally adopted of author&#039;s property. The<br /> Berne Convention, as all English authors know,<br /> was an arrangement between the various countries<br /> <br /> who were signatories to protect the property of<br /> their authors, dramatists, artists, &amp;c. It became<br /> binding on those countries that adhered to it in<br /> 1886. The idea of an international agreement<br /> arose when experts saw the difficulties that were<br /> bound to follow in any endeavour to carry out<br /> the many divergent treaties existing between the<br /> nations. To get simplicity therefore out of the<br /> chaos it was essential that these arrangements,<br /> often very similar in their clauses and details,<br /> should be codified into one Convention. Those<br /> willing to adopt this course met together and<br /> finally came to the agreement cited above.<br /> Germany was among those who signed. She also<br /> signed the subsequent Act of Paris in 1896, an<br /> amplification of the former Convention. With the<br /> United States Germany has a special treaty. The<br /> mere proclamation of the President was found to<br /> be insufficient, according to the German law, to<br /> make the half-hearted reciprocity allowed by the<br /> States binding. The treaty gives copyright<br /> between the two countries on exactly the same<br /> basis as the copyright existing between Great<br /> Britain and the United States. The essential<br /> difference in its working arises from the fact that<br /> the two languages are not the same ; this has been<br /> found to be an enormous handicap to German<br /> authors. A discussion of this difference does not<br /> come into this paper. It has been mentioned in<br /> previous numbers of Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> Finally, Germany entered into a treaty with<br /> Austria-Hungary, and the exchange of ratifications<br /> took place in Berlin in May, 1901. Now, there-<br /> fore, domestic and international copyright legisla-<br /> tion in the empire of Germany is as widely ex-<br /> tended as in any other country.<br /> <br /> Before we consider the German law at present<br /> in force, it will be interesting to look into the<br /> philosophical and ethical view adopted by the<br /> Teuton mind.<br /> <br /> The German philosopher has turned on the<br /> moral rights of authors as he has on many other<br /> different subjects, his inquisitorial methods.<br /> <br /> It is true that the first copyright legislation in<br /> England was brought about by the publishers with<br /> a view to protecting the economic use of their<br /> property; in taking this action they recognised<br /> that it was the awthor’s property in the first<br /> instance ; but this point of view did not hold in<br /> Germany, or rather in the German States. The<br /> legislature in Prussia did not deem that there<br /> was any property in the author, merely because he<br /> had been the originator and evolver of the book,<br /> but there was property in the economic use ot<br /> what the author had originated and evolved,<br /> and, in consequence, a resultant monopoly for<br /> the author.<br /> <br /> Therefore, in the first instance the law aimed<br />  <br /> <br /> 40. THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> only at the protection of the economic use of intel-<br /> lectual activity, but when the rights of the author<br /> became more fully recognised and established in<br /> other countries, Germany and her philosophers had<br /> to shift their position somewhat in order to come<br /> into line, though even at this day two laws have<br /> been passed, one dealing with authors’ rights<br /> (copyright as understood in other countries) and<br /> one with publishers’ contracts (the original basis<br /> of copyright property as understood by the German<br /> philosopher). :<br /> <br /> Tt is understood now that an author’s copyright<br /> embraces considerably more than the mere right<br /> of reproduction of copies. Though this is the<br /> definition of copyright given under the English<br /> Statute of 1842, yet case law shows the ethical<br /> and moral right of an author embraces much<br /> more. It embraces the personal interest. The<br /> author may desire to keep his mental work<br /> from becoming public. He has, therefore, beyond<br /> the exclusive right of publishing, the right of<br /> withholding from publication or the right of<br /> publication to a limited number of individuals<br /> or for a limited number of years, or in a fixed<br /> form ; but according to the German philosopher<br /> this right of withholding from publication is not<br /> a proprietary right. The proprietary right is the<br /> right of obtaining money out of the reproduction<br /> of copies.<br /> <br /> But although this was the original view of copy-<br /> right the present legislature looks at the matter<br /> from a different standpoint, for either the concep-<br /> tion of proprietary rights has been extended in<br /> order to comprise within it author’s rights, or<br /> personal rights have been recognised together with<br /> proprietary rights as being contained within the<br /> author’s rights, or, finally, both have been placed<br /> on an entirely new basis, that of moral personal<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> When this important point had been decided,<br /> there arose the question of the rights after the<br /> death of the author.<br /> <br /> Authors’ rights, so far as they were personal<br /> rights, were considered to perish with the death of<br /> the author, and to be inheritable only on account<br /> of their proprietary nature, as they always con-<br /> tained within them the germ of their economic use.<br /> This deduction followed that the exclusive right<br /> to make alterations in the work belonged to the<br /> heirs as formerly to the author, and that the<br /> author’s rights in unpublished works could not<br /> become the object of compulsory execution without<br /> the consent of the heirs.<br /> <br /> In order to explain the limitation of the copy-<br /> right, Z.e., the lapsing of the proprietary rights after<br /> a certain time, the old argument of the claims of the<br /> public was brought forward—that an intellectual<br /> work may be the possession of the nation—indeed,<br /> <br /> of the whole world. ‘The most probable argument,<br /> however, for the limitation of copyright—which limi-<br /> tationis gradually lessening under recent legislation,<br /> __ig that in olden times, when the economic value<br /> of the production of a man’s brains for many<br /> reasons, but chiefly for the reason that printing<br /> had not been?invented, was unremunerative, the<br /> public deemed it had secured a right which perhaps<br /> might be comparable to a right of way. When the<br /> economic value suddenly became of importance,<br /> the public tried to argue that this right of way in<br /> reality existed, and so strong was this inherited<br /> feeling that it was many years before authors could<br /> obtain any recognition of their property. This,<br /> however, they finalty secured for a limited period.<br /> In most countries this period grew with the<br /> development of the economic value. So much for<br /> the German view of the author’s rights—that is the<br /> moral rights inherent in the author as against the<br /> proprietary rights resulting from the economic use<br /> of his property. But as from the German stand-<br /> point the two rights have always been separated,<br /> so they are still separated, and two laws have been<br /> <br /> passed, the one dealing with the Copyright Law,<br /> <br /> the other with the Law of Publishers’ Contracts.<br /> <br /> Law oF CopyRicHT.<br /> <br /> The Law of Copyright was passed in June,<br /> 1901, and came into force in January, 1902. It<br /> is divided into five parts :—1. Those who obtain<br /> protection. 2. The limitations of the privileges<br /> secured by those who obtain protection. 3. The<br /> time limitation of those privileges. 4. How and<br /> to what extent those privileges can be infringed.<br /> 5. Final decrees : points not included in the other<br /> divisions.<br /> <br /> Those who obtain protection include the authors<br /> of writings, lectures, speeches, musical works, and<br /> the whole list of producers and their assigns ex-<br /> haustively defined. In the second division follow<br /> the definitions of the author’s privileges—that is,<br /> the rights an author has with regard to his own<br /> property, such as translation rights, dramatic<br /> rights, musical rights, &amp;e. ; and in the same divi-<br /> sion is set forth those classes of property which,<br /> generally included in this law, are for special<br /> reasons of public policy not subject to protection,<br /> for instance, the reprinting of laws, &amp;e., &amp;e. OF<br /> these exceptions there appears to be a long list.<br /> <br /> ‘hen follows, in the third division, the duration<br /> of the protection accorded, practically the life of<br /> the author and thirty years.<br /> clauses under this heading which deal with joint<br /> works, works published after death, and other<br /> matters connected with the duration of the term.<br /> <br /> The fourth division deals with the infringement<br /> of the rights, which have already been fully defined<br /> under the second division; the methods of the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There are various.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 4}<br /> <br /> proceedings to be taken by those mentioned ‘in<br /> the first division whose rights are infringed in<br /> order to protect their property ; and what actions<br /> amount to infringement, together with the penal-<br /> ties accruing. All these matters are dealt with in<br /> considerable detail, in fact the law seems to be<br /> crowded up with detail, and somewhat diificult of<br /> interpretation in consequence.<br /> <br /> The final division deals with registration and<br /> other matters connected with the property not<br /> included under any of the previous headings.<br /> <br /> Law RESPECTING PUBLISHERS’ CONTRACTS.<br /> <br /> Finally comes the law that deals with publishers’<br /> rights, or, as we term them in England, rights<br /> existing under a licence to publish. This law is a<br /> most curious example of meticulous legislation.<br /> It deals with the form of contract between author<br /> and publisher, a matter generally left to be settled<br /> by the parties themselves; it may be a careful<br /> exposition of the case law embodied in_ the<br /> form of a statute. It is most interesting reading,<br /> as it practically sets out in detail what, in the<br /> <br /> absence of special arrangement, the German legis- .<br /> <br /> lature would consider a reasonable contract, and<br /> unfortunately, as so often happens, the party with the<br /> money has obtained the advantage over the party<br /> with the intellect. This was likely to be the case<br /> in a country where the publishing and bookselling<br /> combination has been so strong as almost to<br /> strangle the free development of literary talent.<br /> It is impossible to go through the Act section by<br /> section, though in some subsequent issue it may be<br /> published in full. It will suffice at the present to<br /> deal generally with the tendency of the law, and<br /> in particular with individual sections.<br /> <br /> It would appear (section 1) that where an author<br /> transfers his rights, without limitation, to the pub-<br /> lisher, publication is an inherent part of the con-<br /> tract. This point is settled by law. In England<br /> there has been no statutory enactment or case law<br /> on the subject. It would be interesting to see<br /> what line would be taken if the English Courts<br /> were asked to decide the question where the pub-<br /> lisker who had purchased the copyright refused to<br /> produce. Owing to the unreasonable delay of one<br /> or two publishers the Society has on occasions<br /> threatened to take action, but has never been<br /> actually forced into doing so owing, under pressure,<br /> to she final production of the books. The author<br /> (section 2) is forbidden during the continuation of<br /> the contract to reproduce in Germany, but still<br /> holds a great many of his original rights, such as<br /> translation, dramatic rights, elaboration of musical<br /> work, and, curiously enough, to reproduce in a<br /> collective edition if twenty years have elapsed<br /> since the first year in which the work was pub-<br /> lished. The publisher (section 5) is restrained in<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> his right of publication of the work in various<br /> editions during the term of copyright, and is only<br /> entitled to produce one edition of one thousand<br /> copies. If, however, he has the right of producing<br /> other editions, then they are supposed to be pro-<br /> duced under the same agreement that holds good<br /> for the first edition. Section 10 is an example of<br /> the minute legislation dealing with the subject, as<br /> the author is bound to deliver the copy fit for<br /> publication. He is bound (section 11), if the work<br /> is not already written, to write it within a certain<br /> time ; he is allowed (section 12) to make ordinary<br /> corrections, but if his corrections exceed the ordi-<br /> nary usage he is bound to defray the expense. The<br /> publisher is bound to publish as soon as possible<br /> <br /> ‘(section 18) after he has received the completed<br /> <br /> work, and is bound to produce the number of<br /> copies that he is entitled to. The publisher (sec-<br /> tion 20) is bound to provide proofs tor correction.<br /> (Section 21.) He is allowed to fix the price of the<br /> work, and may lower the price as long as the just<br /> interests of the author are not injured. If there is<br /> no arrangement as to terms (section 22) it is tacitly<br /> implied that the publisher pays a fair remuneration.<br /> (Section 23.) The remuneration must be made on<br /> the delivery of the work. When it depends upon<br /> the sale (section 24) the publisher must render<br /> annual accounts, and his books are to be open<br /> to investigation if necessary. (Section 27.) The<br /> publisher is bound to restore the MS. to the author.<br /> Under section 28 the publisher’s rights are trans-<br /> ferable. This is contrary to the case law on the<br /> same subject in England. If the publisher&#039;s<br /> agreement (section 29) is confined to a definite<br /> number of editions or copies, the contract ceases<br /> when the edition or copies areexhausted. It iscurious<br /> that such a point as this should have demanded<br /> legislation. ‘The publisher may repudiate the con-<br /> tract (section 30) under certain conditions, owing<br /> to delay on the author’s part, and the same<br /> arrangement for the repudiation of a contract or<br /> for a claim for damages is applicable in favour of<br /> the author.<br /> <br /> Then follows (sections 36, 37, 38) reference to the<br /> bankruptcy of publishers and the rights of the<br /> author, and the right of cancellation under certain<br /> circumstances,<br /> <br /> Section 45 gives the author a right, if his work<br /> has not been published within a year from the<br /> delivery to the Editor, to cancel the contract,<br /> but his right to remuneration remains intact.<br /> This is a most useful regulation, as the delay of<br /> editors of some English reviews has become<br /> proverbial.<br /> <br /> The law is complete in 50 sections, and as<br /> already stated is a most entertaining example of<br /> minute legis!ation on points most of which could<br /> easily, and without difficulty, be settled by private<br />  <br /> <br /> 42,<br /> <br /> contract, and the rest by judicial interpretation of<br /> doubtful contracts. Most of the sections are com-<br /> mon-sense interpretations of possible contracting<br /> difficulties ; some are more in favour of the<br /> publisher than the author, but on the whole the<br /> author has not much to grumble at, and is always<br /> able to contract out, should he so desire,<br /> <br /> It remains to be seen whether this attention to<br /> minutiz in the law may not render disputes more<br /> difficult of settlement. It will be interesting to<br /> follow its working during the years which will<br /> elapse before another statute on the same subject<br /> is passed.<br /> <br /> Whether the two laws are all that could be<br /> desired is doubtful; the Germans, however, must<br /> be congratulated on taking the subject of copy-<br /> right in hand and dealing with it exhaustively,<br /> <br /> The authors of Great Britain have not been so<br /> fortunate in the matter of legislation.<br /> <br /> GH, 1.<br /> <br /> —————_+—<br /> <br /> A PUBLISHER’S PRACTICE.<br /> <br /> ———<br /> STATEMENT.<br /> <br /> TATEMENT of a publisher’s practice in<br /> making up accounts to authors for works<br /> of which the profits are divided between<br /> <br /> author and publisher.<br /> <br /> A. The publisher bears the entire cost and risk<br /> of printing and publication.<br /> <br /> Except only in the event of the cost of correc-<br /> tions in proofs exceeding 25 per cent. of the cost<br /> of composition, when such excess is borne by the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> The entire proceeds of sales are in the first<br /> instance devoted to the repayment of the cost of<br /> production ; if after meeting this liability they<br /> yield a surplus, all such surplus is treated as profit<br /> and is divided between author and publisher in<br /> the proportion agreed upon. In cases where the<br /> cost is never covered by the yield, the publisher<br /> bears the loss.<br /> <br /> B. The cost is reckoned at the invoiced cost—<br /> which is almost invariably 5 per cent. more than<br /> net cost. It includes only direct expenditure—no<br /> charge is made for office expenses, rent, bad debts,<br /> insurance, travellers’ expenses, or for the work of<br /> any employé of the publisher.<br /> <br /> C. The proceeds of sales are accounted for as<br /> nearly as possible at the actual sums received by<br /> the publisher from the bookseller, after making all<br /> trade discounts and allowances—this is to say<br /> copies are reckoned at two thirds of the published<br /> price (thirteen copies as twelve if the published<br /> price be 10s. 6d. or less, or twenty-five as twenty-<br /> four if more than 10s. 62.) less 10 per cent.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The yield from books published at a net price is<br /> reckoned in the same way as the above, except<br /> that instead of two-thirds of the published price,<br /> five-sixths is reckoned.<br /> <br /> The yield for educational books proper is also<br /> reckoned in the same way (on the net or non-net<br /> basis respectively, as may be the case), except that<br /> only 74 per cent. is deducted instead of 10 per cent.<br /> <br /> The above terms do not apply to special sales<br /> (ie. special quotations made for large numbers in<br /> special cases), or to ‘remainder,’ Colonial or<br /> American sales, or to sales of plates or rights,<br /> These are not averaged, but are all made a<br /> particular note of and accounted for at exactly<br /> what each yields,<br /> <br /> D. Twelve free copies are presented to the<br /> author, and he may purchase further copies at<br /> two-thirds of the published price, or five-sixths in<br /> the case of net books.<br /> <br /> BE. Accounts are made up to Midsummer, and<br /> vouchers for all payments and receipts can be seen<br /> on request.<br /> <br /> F. The copyright of the work remains the<br /> <br /> - property of the author, but the rights of publica-<br /> <br /> tion are vested in the publisher so long as he<br /> faithfully acts up to this understanding.<br /> <br /> CoMMENT.<br /> <br /> The agreement or method of making up accounts<br /> that we have printed was submitted by one of the<br /> London publishing houses to an author, and puts<br /> forward proposals for publishing on the basis of<br /> profit-sharing. The agreement, as is usual, deals<br /> with the subject from the publisher’s view. This<br /> article will put forward the author’s standpoint.<br /> In clause A., it will be noted that the publisher<br /> bears the entire cost of printing and publication,<br /> and the entire proceeds of the sales are in the first<br /> instance devoted to the repayment of the cost of<br /> production. To the uninitiated, the word “entire”<br /> would lead one to suppose that the exact price of<br /> printing and publication was charged neither more<br /> nor less, and the exact proceeds of the sales credited<br /> neither more nor less. In clause B., however, it<br /> is shown that the “entire” cost does not agree<br /> with this definition, “the invoiced cost, which is<br /> almost invariably 5 per cent. more than the net<br /> cost,” is charged. This is certainly an open state-<br /> ment on the part of the publisher, but by no<br /> means, satisfactory. It is almost invariably—so<br /> the publisher states—5 per cent. more than the net<br /> cost, but there is nothing in this method of render-<br /> ing accounts to prevent it being 10 per cent. more<br /> than the net cost, or even a higher figure still. It<br /> is not for a moment hinted that such a charge<br /> would be made if the author was dealing with one<br /> of the first class publishing houses, but still it is<br /> necessary to draw the author&#039;s attention to a point<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> which is indeterminate, and therefore faulty. If<br /> exactly 5 per cent. more is to be charged then this<br /> should be stated, but the figure should not be left<br /> indefinite. Finality is essential not only to enable<br /> the author to calculate his liabilities but in order that<br /> he should not subsequently have a cause for dissatis-<br /> faction, but whether the percentage is 74 5, or 3, it<br /> is certainly an advantage to have the plain state-<br /> ment that some percentage is taken. But is there<br /> any justice in making this charge ? Surely not. It<br /> is always as well that the exact cost of production<br /> should be settled before the agreement is entered<br /> into—that is, the exact price per sheet for composi-<br /> tion, print, and paper, and per 100 copies for<br /> binding. Then the author has definite figures and<br /> can reckon, if he has studied arithmetic at school,<br /> his probable return. The publisher must be con-<br /> gratulated on the fact that no charge is made for<br /> office expenses, etc. This is a great advance.<br /> Generally a fixed percentage on the cost of produc-<br /> tion is calculated, and so far only that it is fixed<br /> is satisfactory, but the real question is whether<br /> any charge at all should be made. This item is<br /> covered by the publisher’s share of the profit, other-<br /> wise the author ought to have a similar allowance.<br /> We next come to clause C. Here again it is<br /> evident that the word “entire” in clause A. will<br /> not bear the construction that it suggests, as the<br /> books are to be charged in the account at a certain<br /> fixed rate. Now all who know anything of the<br /> book trade know very well that there is no fixed<br /> trade price. Many books are sold at one figure,<br /> and many at another, and some across the pub-<br /> lisher’s counter at the full price. It is sometimes<br /> more convenient for both author and publisher to<br /> charge a fixed price, then the author should see<br /> that the price is a fair average and not the lowest<br /> price charged to the trade.<br /> <br /> It is unfair to take as the average the price after<br /> deducting “all trade discounts and allowances,”<br /> and the words “as nearly as possible at the actual<br /> sums received, etc.,” are misleading. But the end<br /> of the clause puts the matter in its proper light,<br /> and gives a definite though unsatisfactory state-<br /> ment as to the calculation that will appear in the<br /> accounts. The results of this calculation will be<br /> instructive to those who want to see their possible<br /> returns, and are as follows :—<br /> <br /> Price of Discount Book at 12s. 6d.<br /> <br /> 1. For a book costing more than 10s. 6d., and<br /> published subject to the usual discounts, author<br /> receives—<br /> <br /> oe 7? |. . :<br /> -3*%55~%19 7 i957 2&#039;° of the published price.<br /> <br /> If the published price is 12s. 6d.=150d.,<br /> ‘576 x 150=86&#039;4. A little more than 7s. 24d.<br /> <br /> 43<br /> Price of Discount Book at 6s.<br /> <br /> 2. For a book costing less than 10s. 6d., and<br /> <br /> published subject to the usual discounts, the author<br /> receives—<br /> <br /> = 2 ey of the published pri<br /> 3% 13% i065 published price.<br /> If the published price is 6s. =72d.,<br /> <br /> ‘554 x 72=39°88. A little more than 8s. 33d.<br /> <br /> Price of Nett Book at 12s. 6d.<br /> <br /> 8. For the “nett” book costing more than<br /> 10s. 6d., author receives—<br /> <br /> 524, 9 18<br /> <br /> 6 20710 254<br /> <br /> If the published price is 12s. 6d.=150d.,<br /> ‘72 x 150 =108 = 9s.<br /> <br /> ‘72 of the published price.<br /> <br /> Price of Nett Book at 6s.<br /> <br /> 4, For the “nett” book costing less than<br /> 10s. 6d., author receives—<br /> <br /> oo ‘692 of the published price<br /> <br /> G18 10 ls S i<br /> If the published price is 6s.=72d.,<br /> <br /> 692 x 72 =49°824. A little more than 4s. 12d.<br /> <br /> Price of Educational Books.<br /> <br /> The educational book may be “ non-nett” or<br /> “nett,” and cost either more or less than 10s. 6d.<br /> Four cases are consequently possible, in all of<br /> which 7°5 per cent. is deducted instead of 10 per<br /> cent.<br /> <br /> For the four cases the author receives the following<br /> proportions of the published price :—<br /> <br /> (a) “ Non-nett ” over 10s. 6d. :<br /> <br /> 2 24 92.5<br /> 3 * 25&quot; 100<br /> (0) “ Non-nett”’ under 10s. 6d. :<br /> 2 17 825<br /> 3 x 13 x = — ‘569,<br /> (c) “ Nett” over 10s. 6d. :<br /> 52h 92°5<br /> 6 25. 100.<br /> (d) “Nett” under 10s. 6d. :<br /> 5.12 9:25<br /> a 19 100 aa 711,<br /> (a) If the price be 12s. 6d.= 150d.,<br /> -592°x 150 =88&#039;8. A little more than 7s. 43d.<br /> <br /> = 002;<br /> <br /> ‘74,<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> 44 THE<br /> <br /> (b) If the price be 6s.= 72d.,<br /> <br /> -569 x 72 =40°968. Very nearly 3s. 5d.<br /> <br /> (c) If the price be 12s. 6d. = 1504d.,<br /> <br /> -74x150=111. Exactly 9s. 3d.<br /> <br /> (d) If the price be 6s.= 72d.,<br /> <br /> ‘711 x72=51&#039;192, A little more than 4s. 3d.<br /> <br /> It seems interesting to note how rapidly<br /> quantities are diminished when multiplied by<br /> fractions whose denominators but slightly exceed<br /> their numerators.<br /> <br /> Thus the thirteenth copy, which gives the author<br /> only twelve-thirteenths of his two-thirds, and the<br /> 10 per cent. discount, which gives him only nine-<br /> tenths of that, reduces his two-thirds to but little<br /> more than half.<br /> <br /> 2 260 , 36<br /> <br /> : : 916 1.195<br /> 2” which author receives = :.=<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 3 390° 65 390. 2 390°<br /> That is to say, that against each £100, the<br /> author does not receive £61 13s. 4d., but<br /> <br /> £55 7s. 8d.<br /> <br /> With these figures before him the author can<br /> reckon out his gross takings on what he may think<br /> a fair sale.<br /> <br /> Clause D is the usual clause.<br /> need be raised.<br /> <br /> Annual accounts (clause E) are not satisfactory.<br /> It is always better to have semi-annual accounts,<br /> and the amount due on the accounts should be<br /> paid within a month of their rendering ; but the<br /> readiness of the Publisher to produce vouchers<br /> is to be highly commended. Clause F, again,<br /> is much too indefinite. If the rights of publi-<br /> cation are to be vested in the publisher, they<br /> should be limited to a certain form and a certain<br /> price. As the agreement is at present worded the<br /> publisher would have serial rights as well as book<br /> rights, and might produce in any form and in any<br /> country he thought fit. There should be an arrange-<br /> ment by which, when the sale of the book has<br /> ended, the agreement should be cancelled and the<br /> right of republication should revert to the author.<br /> <br /> We do not desire to draw attention to the other<br /> omissions, which are many, as the document does<br /> not purport to’ be a formal agreement, although<br /> there is no doubt that the acceptance by an author<br /> of this form would constitute a legal and binding<br /> contract. As it is printed it is not sufficiently<br /> definite and therefore unsatisfactory. If it is<br /> <br /> To it no objection<br /> <br /> meant to be a definite agreement then it is bad<br /> in substance, on account of the errors of com-<br /> mission explained and the errors of ommission left<br /> unexplained.<br /> <br /> If it is not meant to be a definite agreement<br /> then the publisher should state that a proper<br /> contract would be submitted.<br /> <br /> G. H. T.<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> oe<br /> <br /> (LireraRy, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL.)<br /> OCTOBER, 1904.<br /> BLACKWOOD&#039;S MAGAZINE,<br /> An Ambassador of the Republic of Letters.<br /> Gregory Smith.<br /> Crities and Criticism.<br /> THE BOOKMAN.<br /> The Bronté Fascination. By Angus M. Mackay.<br /> THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> By E. Wake Cook,<br /> By W. E. Keeton.<br /> THE CORNHILL MAGAZINE.<br /> Historical Mysteries :—The Case of Captain Green. By<br /> <br /> Andrew Lang.<br /> THe EDINBURGH REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Some Recent French and English Plays.<br /> <br /> The Intellectual Condition of Roman Catholics in<br /> Germany.<br /> <br /> Prosper Merimee.<br /> <br /> By 8.<br /> <br /> Progress or Decadence in Art.<br /> Tshaikovski as a Ballet Composer.<br /> <br /> THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> Three Sketches by Stijn Streuvels, By Alexander de<br /> Teixeira Mattos.<br /> The Origins of the Alphabet.<br /> French Life and The French Stage.<br /> donald.<br /> Graszia Deledda and ‘‘ Cenere.”<br /> <br /> By Andrew Lang.<br /> By John F. Mae-<br /> <br /> By May Bateman.<br /> <br /> Tar INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> First Aid to the Critic. By C. F. Keary.<br /> Modern Languages in Public Schools. By G. Winthorp<br /> Young.<br /> <br /> “ The Dynasts.”’ By John Pollock.<br /> <br /> LoNGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> The Wren-Bush. By Maud EK. Sargent.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE.<br /> By W. Beach Thomas,<br /> <br /> THE MONTH,<br /> <br /> The Oldest Life of St. Gregory.<br /> Thurston.<br /> Subjective Idealism. By the Rev. Thomas Rigby.<br /> <br /> The Song of Birds.<br /> <br /> By the Rev. Herbert<br /> <br /> THE NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Scottish Letters. By ‘‘ Glasgow.”&#039;<br /> An Old Almanac. By the Hon. Maud Lyttleton.<br /> <br /> THE PALL MALL MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> A Royal Painter and His Friends. By Georg Brochner.<br /> <br /> About Our Fiction. John Oliver Hobbes, H. G. Wells,<br /> Andrew Lang, Edmund Gosse,W. L. Courtney, and Walter<br /> Frewen Lord.<br /> <br /> THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The “ Advocatus Diaboli’’ on the Divina Commedia.<br /> <br /> The Influence of Cant on Modern Thought. By the<br /> Master of Baliol.<br /> <br /> Thomas Treherne and the Religious Poets of the 17th<br /> Century. By Professor W. Lewis Jones.<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> The Progress of English Criticism. By Walter Lewin.<br /> <br /> There are no articles dealing with Literary, Dramatic, or<br /> a subjects in Chambers’s Journal or the World&#039;s<br /> Tork,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 45<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> <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 /> II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> (1.) 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 /> IlI. 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 /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> — 9 —<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,<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> <br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> 1s 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 /> (b.) 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 gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system. Should<br /> obtain a sum inadvance of percentages. A fixed<br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢e.) 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 (3.) 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 /> —____—_—_-—&lt;&gt;—_o___&lt;_<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> 1<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 />  <br /> <br /> 46<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into part.cular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> eo =<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> SO<br /> <br /> 1 VERY member has a right to ask for and to receive<br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. | The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, put if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> <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 /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. 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 /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements. This<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution. The<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br /> <br /> 9. Some agents endeayour to prevent authors from<br /> referring matters to the Secretary of the Society; so<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. pe<br /> annum, or £10 10s for life membership. :<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> HE Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or<br /> part of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the<br /> <br /> Society’s safe. The musical publishers communicate direct<br /> with the Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to<br /> the members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> ——_———_1 &gt; +&gt;—__—_<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 /> —_____+ &gt;_&gt;<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> So<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 “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, 8.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 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 /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> —+<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> —_—_—_—___o &lt;&lt; o_____<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> ————<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society. a<br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 47<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —-—— +<br /> <br /> E should like once again to call the atten-<br /> tion of musical composers and song writers<br /> to the fact that the Society undertakes to<br /> <br /> stamp, in accordance with the custom in the music<br /> trade, the copies of the works of its members. For<br /> this the Society charges the ordinary fee of sixpence<br /> per one hundred or part of one hundred. Every<br /> member for whom the Society undertakes this duty<br /> is thus saved a great deal of trouble and worry,<br /> He sends a notice to the publisher, who, when there<br /> is any music to be stamped, notifies the secretary<br /> direct. On receipt of the notice the music is<br /> stamped at once and the voucher forwarded.<br /> <br /> Members’ stamps are kept in the safe, and cannot<br /> be handled by anyone except the secretary or his<br /> duly appointed agent.<br /> <br /> At the end of each half year an account giving<br /> full details of the amount due is forwarded to the<br /> member, which is easily checked from the vouchers<br /> he has received,<br /> <br /> As this work is undertaken for the benefit of<br /> members and without any profit to the Society, it<br /> is hoped that it will be patronised by all those<br /> connected with the musical profession.<br /> <br /> Members of the Society will callto mind certain<br /> articles printed in 7’he Author dealing with the<br /> question of the sale of American magazines and<br /> newspapers in Canada, and the amount of postage<br /> charged by the authorities.<br /> <br /> These articles appear to have been widely read,<br /> and gave rise to certain questions in the House<br /> of Commons. There was a note on the subject<br /> in the October number.<br /> <br /> The answers to the questions put in the House<br /> of Commons were, unfortunately, unsatisfactory,<br /> but the committee endeavoured to pursue the<br /> matter further, and instructed the Secretary to<br /> write to the Postmaster-General, in the hope that<br /> it would be possible to raise the question at the<br /> next meeting of the Postal Union, and to the<br /> Canadian Authors’ Society, with a view to obtaining<br /> their support. The reply of the Postmaster-General<br /> is printed below. The Secretary of the Society has<br /> not as yet heard from the Canadian Society of<br /> Authors,<br /> <br /> GENERAL Post OFFICE, LONDON.<br /> <br /> Srz,—In reply to your letter of the 12th instant, Iam<br /> directed by the Postmaster-General to inform you that the<br /> next Postal Union Congress is to be held at Rome in<br /> April, 1905,<br /> <br /> With regard to your inquiry whether it would be possible<br /> to consider at that congress the question of the postage<br /> charged on printed matter sent from the United Kingdom<br /> to Canada, I am to observe that it is already open to the<br /> Postmaster-General to arrange special terms with the<br /> Canadian Post Office should he desire to do so,<br /> <br /> But, as stated in the House of Commons in reply toa<br /> question put a short time ago, a reduction of the present<br /> rate would necessarily have to be of a general character,<br /> and the Postmaster-General, in view of the serious loss of<br /> revenue which would be involved, is not prepared to<br /> recommend it,<br /> <br /> I an, Sir,<br /> Your obedient servant,<br /> (Signed) E. Crass,<br /> For the Secretary.<br /> G, HERBERT THRING, Esq.<br /> <br /> WE see from the United States Publishers’<br /> Weekly that at the annual meeting of the German<br /> Publishers’ Association at Leipzig a very strong<br /> group of delegates was in favour of renewing the<br /> memorial previously presented to the Reichstag for<br /> the repeal of the present Copyright Convention<br /> with the United States, and that the Authors’<br /> Association of Germany was quoted as being also<br /> in favour of renewing this application.<br /> <br /> The Publishers’ Weekly proceeds to state: “ It<br /> need hardly be pointed out that such a step on the<br /> part of Germany would not only constitute a<br /> decided misfortune to the cause of copyright<br /> throughout the world, but would also constitute a<br /> very serious additional difficulty in the way of<br /> securing favourable attention from Congress in the<br /> fall for the pending amendment.”<br /> <br /> It is the old story that it is easy to point to<br /> “the mote ” in your brother’s eye, but it is difficult<br /> to realise “the beam” that is in your own eye.<br /> No doubt such a step on the part of the Fatherland<br /> would be retrogression so far as International<br /> Copyright is concerned. Do the authorities in the<br /> United States, however, fully realise the fact that<br /> if Germany did withdraw from the Treaty they<br /> would still be far ahead of the United States in<br /> their position with regard to the ideal International<br /> Copyright, and that the sooner the United States<br /> grasp the fact the better will it be for the fulfilment<br /> of that ideal ?<br /> <br /> Much better than lament overa possible German<br /> retrogression, let the United States of America<br /> show some signs of progression.<br /> <br /> In the April number of 7&#039;he Author the subject<br /> of agents was dealt with at some length, and the<br /> difficulties that might arise between author and<br /> agent were fully set forth. It is necessary from<br /> time to time to write articles dealing with points<br /> of vital interest to members, in order that they<br /> should be fully cognisant of the dangers which<br /> they may encounter. :<br /> <br /> Although there is no need within so short a time<br /> to repeat the full tale of difficulties, yet owing to<br /> the fact that the notice of the Society has been<br /> called again to one or two cases where agents have<br /> acted outside their legitimate agency work, it is<br />  <br /> <br /> 48<br /> <br /> essential once more for the protection of members<br /> to place before them the following points :—<br /> <br /> First, the case of those authors who have<br /> proposals submitted to them from publishers or<br /> editors, through agents. Here it often happens<br /> that the agents are really acting for the publishers<br /> or the editors rather than for the author. If the<br /> editor or the publisher is anxious &gt; obtain the<br /> author he should pay the agent for the work done,<br /> and it should be fully understood that the agent<br /> is acting for the publisher. The line of demarca-<br /> tion, however, may be difficult to ascertain when an<br /> offer is submitted to an author who is already on the<br /> agent’s books. In the case of those authors who<br /> are not on the agent’s books the matter seems to<br /> be quite clear. ‘As a matter of fact some agents<br /> <br /> rint on their paper the names of magazines and<br /> <br /> ublishers with whom they are in connection, thus<br /> openly proclaiming themselves not to be the agents<br /> of the author.<br /> <br /> The author should then approach with diffidence,<br /> and not blindly give that confidence which ought<br /> to exist between the author and his agent.<br /> <br /> The second point is the danger of dealing -with<br /> those agents who sometimes act as principals. This<br /> is no uncommon danger, and not infrequently arises<br /> from the importunity of the author who is desirous<br /> of obtaining the wherewithal to buy his daily bread.<br /> For this, he has no hesitation in selling his birth-<br /> right—or his copyright. If the act is done openly<br /> very little can be said except to advise the author<br /> that such a transaction must necessarily be unsatis-<br /> factory. The sale itself may be bond fide from the<br /> agent’s point of view, yet, as has been frequently<br /> pointed out in Zhe Author, is dangerous in the<br /> extreme. The same transaction, however, is tinged<br /> with fraud when the agent acts as principal without<br /> disclosing the fact. When such a case is discovered<br /> it should be ruthlessly exposed.<br /> <br /> Tur following cutting from the Daily Chronicle<br /> will, no doubt, prove interesting to many of the<br /> readers of The Author now that the address of the<br /> ao offices lies within the precincts of Storey’s<br /> <br /> ate :—<br /> <br /> « The announcement of the closing for repairs of the road-<br /> way by Storey’s Gate must have set a few people wondering<br /> who Storey was that a gate should be named after him.<br /> Edward Storey was employed by Charles II. to carry out<br /> those improvements in St, James&#039;s Park which converted<br /> the neglected pleasaunce of Tudor times into something<br /> like the park as we know it. It was owing to his having<br /> a house on this site that the name arose. In the Daily<br /> Courant of September 5th, 1705, is the following advertise-<br /> ment :—‘ Dropt in St. James’s Park, September the 3rd,<br /> 1705, betwixt Mr. Story’s and the Duke of Buckingham’s<br /> House, a Gold Minuit Pendulum Watch, &amp;c. ; if offered to<br /> <br /> be Sold or pawn’d, you are desired to stop the same and:<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> give notice to Mr. Padington at his house in Princes Court<br /> near Mr. Story’s.? From that we may see how ‘ Mr.<br /> Story’s’ nad become, as it were, a postal address ; and so:<br /> it came to pass that a mere contractor shared the eponymous<br /> honour given to an Emperor, a Prince, or a Queen.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Ir is with much regret that we lave to chronicle:<br /> the death of Lady Besant, which occurred in<br /> Devonshire on Friday, October 7th.<br /> <br /> Lady Besant had been a member of the Society<br /> since its foundation, and was always in warm sym-<br /> <br /> athy with her husband’s work. It is the irony<br /> of fate that she did not live to see the permanent<br /> memorial to her husband, which the County<br /> Council have consented to set up on the Embank-<br /> ment, as a gift from members of the Society and<br /> others.<br /> <br /> 0<br /> <br /> HINTS ON DIALOGUE.<br /> <br /> ——_-——+—_<br /> <br /> HESE hints are intended solely for beginners,<br /> and can only bore or madden the practised<br /> writer. I hope he will accept this warning.<br /> <br /> Many beginners say to me, “ I cannot find a good<br /> plot.” They never say, “ I cannot write good<br /> dialogue.” Yet sometimes they cannot write<br /> good dialogue.<br /> <br /> Of the two dialogue is the more important.<br /> You must first of all get a person, before you tell<br /> us what he does. If you cannot make him seem<br /> to be a real person, it will not matter in the least<br /> what he does. If he is absolutely unreal, it will<br /> not matter though he hypnotises a dead ostrich in<br /> a cavern full of hidden treasure thousands of feet<br /> beneath the bed of the Atlantic. That is to say,<br /> it will not matter except to the uneducated novelette<br /> people whom you should not wish to attract.<br /> <br /> From the point of view of the story writer words<br /> speak louder than deeds. If every word that your<br /> invented person speaks is convincing evidence that<br /> he is real and living, he may do almost anything.<br /> The reader may find his action incomprehensible,<br /> and yet be convinced. In real life a man’s actions<br /> are often incomprehensible.<br /> <br /> The indirect method is always better than the<br /> direct method in story telling. If you wish your<br /> reader to gather a certain fact which we will call<br /> “ B,” it is better to tell him another fact which we<br /> will call “A,” and let him deduce “‘B” from it.<br /> Tf, for instance, you wish to describe a perfectly<br /> charming woman, you may describe the general<br /> adoration which she receives rather than analyse.<br /> in what her charm consists. So, too, it is better<br /> that your reader shall deduce the exact kind of<br /> person you have invented from what he says than<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> that yon should give a long and cumbrous descrip-<br /> tion of him. It is apt to make very tiresome<br /> reading, and in any case carries less conviction<br /> with it.<br /> <br /> Let me suppose, for instance, that I wrote as<br /> follows : ‘‘ He was weak rather than bad-natured.<br /> He tried to cover an inextinguishable brag with<br /> slabs of humility. He was without tact or taste,<br /> and had the kind of mind that remembers and<br /> enjoys out of date phrases. He had no sense of<br /> humour.” That may possibly give you some idea<br /> of the man; but now turn to “ Sandra. Belloni,”<br /> and read these words which Mr. Meredith puts<br /> into the mouth of Mr. Pole, addressing a “ courtly<br /> poor man” :—<br /> <br /> “ Giving a semi-circular sweep of his arm : ‘ Here<br /> you see my little estate, sir,’ he said. ‘ You’ve<br /> seen plenty bigger in Germany, and England too.<br /> We can’t get more than this handful in our tight<br /> little island. Unless born to it, of course. Well!<br /> We must be grateful that all our nobility don’t go<br /> to the dogs. We must preserve our great names.<br /> I speak against my own interest.’ ”<br /> <br /> All that I have said in my flat description can<br /> be gathered from that piece of dialogue, and it can<br /> be gathered in a much more interesting and much<br /> more convincing manner.<br /> <br /> Your aim is to make your reader know things,<br /> but not to let him know how he knowsthem. You<br /> can do this with dialogue.<br /> <br /> Granted, therefore, that in the making of real<br /> persons the words that you give them to speak are<br /> of the first importance, we now come to the difficulty<br /> of getting these words right.<br /> <br /> Real life must be studied exactly : it must not<br /> be copied exactly. You must transmute : you must<br /> not report. Your aim is not to put down real life<br /> on paper : your aim is to produce the effect of real<br /> life by what you put down on paper. And it is<br /> exactly in its relation to real life that dialogue<br /> becomes so difficult./Spoken dialogue and written<br /> dialogue are judged quite differently. Spoken<br /> conversations are judged rapidly through the ear<br /> alone, with the critical faculty more or less in<br /> abeyance, without the inclination or, as a rule, the<br /> opportunity for further examination. Written<br /> conversations are judged through the eye that may<br /> dwell, if it will, on the written words, with the<br /> critical faculty wide awake, and with every oppor-<br /> tunity of exercising it. If you read a good play,<br /> where the dialogue is made to be spoken, you will<br /> find it very different from the kind of dialogue you<br /> get in a good novel where it is made to be read.<br /> Take, for instance, the following passage from the<br /> second Act of ‘‘ The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith ” :—<br /> <br /> “ Lucas: Why, what has brought about this<br /> change in you?<br /> <br /> “ Agnes: What ?<br /> <br /> 49<br /> <br /> * Lucas : What ?<br /> <br /> “ Agnes: I know.<br /> <br /> Lucas: You know ?<br /> <br /> : pie 2 Exactly how you regard me.<br /> <br /> Lucas: I don’t understand you.”<br /> <br /> _And probably the reader does not understand<br /> either, but Mr. Pinero has made no mistake. He<br /> was writing words that were to be spoken, and it<br /> was all perfectly intelligible and seemed even<br /> inevitable when spoken by Mr. Robertson and<br /> Mrs. Campbell at the Garrick Theatre. oe<br /> <br /> The writer of stories must, therefore, allow for<br /> the difference in the conditions. Here are a few<br /> instances of allowances that must be made :<br /> (1) Cold print has more strength than the spoken<br /> word. What seems merely flippant or a little<br /> slangy when one hears it spoken, will seem posi-<br /> tively vulgar when it is read in print. If an exact<br /> shorthand report of all that he had said during the<br /> day could be given to a man of average refinement<br /> and sensibility, he would go away and commit<br /> suicide. The exaggerations that we all commonly<br /> use with no idea that they are exaggerations stand<br /> up and shout their futility when they are written.<br /> <br /> (2) The wit and humour of real life are generally<br /> wretched, and are welcomed or forgiven because<br /> they have no pretensions. Print has an ineradic-<br /> able pretension, and the kind of dialogue which<br /> seems amusing enough in real life must be made<br /> more amusing before it will produce the same effect<br /> upon a printed page. But this improvement must<br /> not be overdone, as it frequently has been even<br /> by capable writers. At the twentieth successive.<br /> epigram your reader will be extremely likely to pull<br /> up and say to himself: “This is all very funny,<br /> but nobody ever did or could talk like this.” And<br /> the moment a reader says that about your story,<br /> your story is lost.<br /> <br /> (3) Spoken conversation generally contains<br /> many unfinished and broken sentences. In print<br /> these must be far fewer, or an unpleasant jerky<br /> effect will be produced which would have been<br /> absent from the conversation if spoken.<br /> <br /> (4) In spoken conversation there is much more<br /> than the mere words. ‘There are expression of<br /> face, tone of voice, and sometimes gesture, all of<br /> which have a modifying effect on those words.<br /> You must allow for this in one way or another ;<br /> you can record the expression, tone, or gesture<br /> (this becomes tiresome if it is done too frequently),<br /> or you can alter the words to the effect.<br /> <br /> But as a rule the beginner is not likely to copy<br /> real life too exactly. He is more likely to get too<br /> far away from it and to copy what he has seen in<br /> books. Originality is very much a matter of<br /> practice, and at first the young writer tends to<br /> use the observation of others rather than his own.<br /> If he has been influenced by the old-fashioned<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 50<br /> <br /> ‘storical fiction, he will be likely to. make his<br /> fats talk “essays. His -hero will express<br /> noble and generous sentiments for two pages and<br /> a half without a break, and yet be permitted to<br /> survive by his audience. ‘These things are too<br /> improbable. Or the author may make characters<br /> his own mouthpiece ; that is to say, he may make<br /> them speak to propagate his own opinions. This<br /> is all wrong, and is particularly common In the<br /> novel with a purpose.<br /> <br /> ‘he words that your characters speak must<br /> primarily illuminate these characters to make it<br /> clearer to the reader exactly what kind of people<br /> they are. But there may be another purpose as<br /> well. It may be necessary for a character to tell<br /> a story and give the reader information. In this<br /> case there must be a double melody. He may tell<br /> the story, but he must tell it in character, and he<br /> must be showing what he himself is throughout<br /> and concurrently. This point is very often missed,<br /> and the narration is given in terms which the<br /> narrator would not have used, It is worth while<br /> to turn back to “ Sandra Belloni,” to the sixth<br /> chapter, where Emilia recounts her history. That<br /> is perfect ; there is at no point any possibility of<br /> forgetting that it is Emilia speaking. She happens<br /> to be telling her own story, but it is perhaps her<br /> manner of telling it which throws most light upon<br /> her. Look, too, at Laura Tinsley’s description of<br /> the Brookfield tragedy, towards the end of the<br /> book. She is speaking of others, but she is also<br /> illuminating Laura Tinsley for the reader.<br /> <br /> Speak your dialogue aloud as you write it. You<br /> will find that a fair, rough test, whether you are<br /> slipping out of the conversational into the literary<br /> style, and whether the words are in keeping with<br /> the character who speaks them. Also it will often<br /> suggest what alteration, if any, you must make in<br /> transferring the words from speech into writing.<br /> Very frequently, of course, no alteration is required.<br /> <br /> Never attempt to remember all these hints while<br /> you are writing your dialogue, There must _be<br /> absolute concentration for the creative effort. Use<br /> them afterwards, when you are correcting and<br /> improving what you have written, and never<br /> correct until twenty-four hours after writing.<br /> After that interval it will be easier to place<br /> yourself in the position of your reader. Naturally,<br /> as time goes on, you may employ these hints at<br /> the time of writing, but you will employ them<br /> unconsciously. For instance, you will not con-<br /> sciously remember that it is a good test to speak<br /> your dialogue aloud as you write it, but you will<br /> find yourself speaking it.<br /> <br /> BaRry PAIN,<br /> <br /> ———_+<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> “THE EDITOR REGRETS——”<br /> <br /> se<br /> <br /> T’ isn’t a mere euphemism, either. He really<br /> I does regret—though the literary aspirant,<br /> murmuring bitterly over his cherished and<br /> rejected article, “I don’t believe he ever looked at:<br /> it,” will not readily credit such an assertion. He<br /> thinks, poor author, being for the moment a<br /> pessimist of the deepest dye, that the editor has<br /> forgotten his own apprenticeship and has grown<br /> hard and unsympathetic in his prosperity. Nota<br /> bit of it. On the contrary, he often wonders, as<br /> curly sheets of paper twine themselves round his<br /> fingers and absolutely refuse to be coaxed into<br /> flatness, how he, who had a weakness for rolling his<br /> manuscripts, ever came to the front at all. He<br /> would dearly like to give the unconscious offender<br /> a hint, but Well, the fact is, he did do it<br /> once, in the early and enthusiastic days of his<br /> first editorial work, and the avalanche of corres-<br /> pondence that, as a result, he brought down on his<br /> devoted head, cured him altogether of the desire to<br /> make excursions outside his own domain.<br /> <br /> It hasn’t the ghost of a chance—that frivolously<br /> curly creation—for when its first page is released<br /> all the others rush in over the distracted reader<br /> like breakers on the seashore, and a great deal of<br /> work having to be compressed into a very short<br /> space of time, he puts it back carefully into its<br /> neat little cardboard mausoleum, and “regrets ””—<br /> its demise.<br /> <br /> The soiled manuscript, too, thumbed, marked,<br /> dog’s-eared, bearing obvious signs of having passed<br /> through many hands—all, presumably, unapprecia-<br /> tive—may just as well stay at home. The editor<br /> is human, and doesn’t want the leavings of his<br /> confréres, and so, if the writer is convinced—and<br /> he usually is—that by withholding his contribution<br /> he would be depriving the said editor of the chance<br /> of a lifetime let him, at least, revise and re-write<br /> it. It will seldom lose anything by the process.<br /> <br /> It should be superfluous—but, unfortunately, is<br /> not—to say that every MS., every time it is<br /> returned, should be re-examined before being sent<br /> out again, clean and smart, on its new venture.<br /> The pages should be numbered and have the title<br /> on each of them, and the wrapper, stamped and<br /> addressed, should be large enough to contain the<br /> packet without making fresh folds in the latter,<br /> and sufficiently strong for the contents.<br /> <br /> It is labour in vain to inflict a long letter on the<br /> editor, but a slip stating the title and number<br /> of words is distinctly useful to a busy man or<br /> woman. A brief—it must be very brief—resumé<br /> of the subject-matter is also, in the case of lengthy<br /> MSS., advisable,<br /> <br /> Granted, then, that the “copy,” properly<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> equipped, lies ready for despatch, the next question<br /> that arises is, “ Where is it likely to meet with<br /> acceptance ?”<br /> <br /> It is simply inviting disaster to post it off, hap-<br /> hazard, to the first magazine or newspaper that<br /> suggests itself. Politics and religion play a lerge<br /> part in the Press—even in that portion of it<br /> devoted to fiction—and the length of an article is<br /> a powerful factor in its fate. A great deal of<br /> information, supplied by editors themselves, is con-<br /> tained in the “ Literary Year-book”’; and the Press<br /> Directories, to be seen at any public library, supple-<br /> ment it most usefully by classifying the whole<br /> output of the Press as “fiction,” ‘* science,”<br /> “humorous,” and the like, and it is therefore<br /> significant of a very careless writer to forward his<br /> efforts to manifestly unsuitable journals.<br /> <br /> Literary persons not infrequently deserve their<br /> unenviable reputation for lack of method, but I<br /> once saw an extremely workmanlike register kept<br /> by an author. A large book of the exercise type<br /> was ruled off into spaces, headed respectively,<br /> “Date despatched and postage required. Title of<br /> MS. and number of words. Offices where sent.<br /> Accepted. Declined. Remarks.” The remarks—<br /> the others speak for themselves—contained such<br /> memoranda as the following :—<br /> <br /> “Exceptionally courteous refusal —written.<br /> (The Treasury, The Gentleman’s Magazine, The<br /> Girls Realm.)”<br /> <br /> “ Offices of the magazine changed.”<br /> <br /> “Printed form of refusal—unsigned and un-<br /> dated. (Very usual.)”<br /> <br /> “Very prompt in reading all contributions.<br /> (Quiver, Pearson’s, Sketch, and most of the weekly<br /> illustrateds.)”<br /> <br /> “¢ Commended—too long—invited to send some-<br /> thing shorter.”<br /> <br /> “Has two forms of refusal—one of which<br /> intimates that the editor would like to see more<br /> of the author’s work. (Windsor.)”<br /> <br /> “Encloses a form of subscription, with the<br /> statement, ‘Articles, short stories, and sketches<br /> can only be accepted from subscribers.’ (Judy.)”<br /> <br /> “Various reasons for refusal tabulated with<br /> much elaboration, and the specific one, or ones,<br /> indicated by a cross. (Pearson’s.)”<br /> <br /> “Cheque on acceptance. (Most of the weeklies.)”<br /> <br /> “Payment after publication. (Many of the<br /> monthlies.)”’<br /> <br /> “Retains manuscripts from a week to ten days.<br /> (Quiver, Idler, Treasury, Longman’s, Windsor.)”<br /> <br /> “Specially encouraging to new writers. (All<br /> Messrs. Harmsworth’s publications.)”<br /> <br /> The value of such a record is evident, and shows,<br /> at least, a desire to neglect no trifle that may con-<br /> tribute to success—a desire most editors are quick<br /> to recognise and appreciate, It is seldom, indeed,<br /> <br /> 51<br /> <br /> that a scrupulously clean manuscript is not returned<br /> 80, and if a faint odour of excellent tobacco some-<br /> times creeps out from its pages, it is, after all,<br /> pretty plain proof that the hard-hearted autocrat<br /> to whom it was consigned has—looked at it !<br /> <br /> ‘All contributions must be in type-script,” is<br /> the legend appearing now-a-days in most editorial<br /> notices, but I feel sure some of those who issue it<br /> would infinitely rather consider neat handwriting<br /> than the work executed by illiterate clerks in cheap<br /> offices. I have seen such work—ill-spelt, uneven,<br /> a curiosity in punctuation—sent out without a<br /> qualm. Being “typed” it conforms with the<br /> regulations, but—is it very surprising ?—it invari-<br /> ably returns to its owner.<br /> <br /> Don’t, then, dear reader—if, in conclusion, I<br /> may strike a personal note—waste your own time<br /> and editors’ unless you can attend to these trifles.<br /> Don’t write to know whether the article has been<br /> received—it is like pulling up a plant to see<br /> whether it is growing. Do not, above all things,<br /> send your uninvited article to the editor’s private<br /> address—an Englishman’s house is his castle.<br /> Besides, if he can’t see it from your point of view<br /> when he has any number of worse ones around<br /> him, he certainly won’t when it invites comparison<br /> with the latest achievement of his favourite author,.<br /> between which and him it has presumed to thrust.<br /> itself,<br /> <br /> ANNIE Q. CARTER.<br /> <br /> ——o——__o-__—_<br /> <br /> A LITERARY CRISIS.<br /> <br /> —_—+<br /> <br /> N the career literary of novelists may some-<br /> times be observed a notable and regrettable<br /> feature—I do not presume to consider this in<br /> <br /> a spirit of cold criticism, but with that instinct<br /> of the physician which makes for a remedy.<br /> <br /> An author having written a number of books of<br /> gradually increasing merit (although perhaps of<br /> varying interest) produces one which is pre-<br /> eminently an advance upon all previous work,<br /> either in artistic excellence or in human interestp—<br /> it may be in both,<br /> <br /> The book is straightway a success. It is praised<br /> by the critics, it is praised and discussed by the<br /> reading public. New editions are called for.<br /> America reads it. The Colonies read it. Tauchnitz.<br /> seeks permission to include it in his list. It sells<br /> in numbers. ‘The writer awakes to find laurels on<br /> his pillow.<br /> <br /> Then comes the surprising sequel. The reading<br /> public and the critics have looked forward with<br /> keenness to the now noted writer’s next book. All<br /> the faults the reviewers had been able to find in<br />  <br /> <br /> 52<br /> <br /> the last were mainly venial faults, faults which<br /> needed but for their correction that timely prick<br /> of criticism which the critics with their accustomed<br /> geniality had supplied. They saw no lack of<br /> promise. Their part being done, they prophesied<br /> great things of the writer. :<br /> <br /> What then is their astonishment and the dis-<br /> appointment of readers to find in their protege s<br /> succeeding book a distinct and undeniable falling<br /> off! The promise of its predecessor 1s stultified.<br /> The reviewer&#039;s prophecies have come to nought.<br /> Readers (and publishers) are disappointed.<br /> <br /> The book is, it may be, the poorest thing the<br /> author has produced. At all events it is markedly<br /> inferior to the book which brought him into<br /> notice.<br /> <br /> This thing has happened so frequently as almost<br /> to establish a rule. One may not cite names, of<br /> course, albeit a number, and these including some<br /> of our foremost writers, present themselves.<br /> <br /> The fact being indisputable, it is interesting and<br /> it may be helpful, to seek the reason. Is it due to<br /> exhaustion following upon supreme effort? Is it<br /> due to some noxious miasma exhaling in the tropic<br /> heats of success? Is it the pernicious influence of<br /> teas, of dinners and of other smiling functions<br /> whereto Mrs. Leo-Hunter bids the last-discovered<br /> Beast in order that he may roar for the eritertain-<br /> iment of her guests ?<br /> <br /> Or is it merely that Messrs. Mammon (the<br /> author’s publishers) having tasted the savour of<br /> successful editions, unduly spur him to repeat his<br /> efforts, and spoil his work by haste ?<br /> <br /> Personally, 1 doubt that the explanation lies in<br /> any of these factors. For the phenomenon is found<br /> in those who refuse to have their pace of produc-<br /> tion set by Messrs. Mammon, in those who are<br /> proof against social miasmata, in those who con-<br /> sign Mrs. Leo-Hunter actually to the fire-grate,<br /> or mentally (provided they are privileged by sex)<br /> to flames less temperate.<br /> <br /> I cannot help thinking that the explanation is<br /> more profound. I venture to offer the following<br /> suggestions toward it: That the productive methods<br /> of the novelist differ materially from those of any<br /> other form of brain work. While the historian,<br /> philosopher, or journalist evolves ideas, constructs<br /> theories, or narrates facts, the novelist creates<br /> persons, entities with individualities, wills, emo-<br /> tions, destinies, over which, when once created, he<br /> in many cases has little more control, perhaps even<br /> less, than a parent has over the development and<br /> destinies of his sons and daughters. That while<br /> the journalist, for example, remembers what he<br /> sees and describes it in language which presents it<br /> more or less clearly before his readers, the creative<br /> writer does not write from memory at all. His is<br /> the faculty to absorb and assimilate scenes and<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR:<br /> <br /> circumstances and emotions and to compound them<br /> into a new substance, a substance which spon-<br /> taneously evolves itself into drama and story, as<br /> clouds may be seen to evolve themselves perpetually<br /> into new shape.<br /> <br /> That while the story itself is worked out by<br /> sub-conscious faculties of mind (the subliminal<br /> consciousness as it has been styled) the more purely<br /> intellectual faculties are employed mainly in re-<br /> cording these sub-conscious and spontaneous<br /> operations. The true creative power, the inspira-<br /> tion which gives life, lies in the sub-consciousness,<br /> <br /> and is only hampered and hindered when the active,<br /> <br /> intelligence interferes and attempts to control the<br /> persons and developments of the drama.<br /> <br /> If I may cite my own case (and doubtless the<br /> psychological processes of the humblest are some-<br /> what as those of the highest) I am able frequently<br /> to perceive this dual action of my brain, the more<br /> actively intellectual portion standing apart (like a<br /> spectator with a note-book) watching the spon-<br /> taneous developments of another portion and<br /> rapidly clothing these in language which my pen<br /> sets down. I am able even to see in this sub-<br /> conscious stratum of my brain tiny moving figures<br /> which seem intensely alive and seldom pause for<br /> word or action, but play out their play like actors<br /> who know their parts perfectly. When I take up<br /> my pen in the morning I experience the utmost<br /> interest to know what they are going todo. For<br /> if I know, it is because they have subtly informed<br /> me, not because I have consciously decided for<br /> them. When, from fatigue (from having roared<br /> the previous evening, it may be, for Mrs. Leo-<br /> Hunter) my actors on some mornings are inert,<br /> experience has taught me not to jerk them into<br /> action, or they will merely play their parts like<br /> puppets moved by wires. I wait till they begin to<br /> move again spontaneously.<br /> <br /> The methods of all writers are not of course<br /> similar. With some the persons and course of a<br /> story are consciously and carefully fabricated and<br /> elaborated by the active intellectual faculties, in order<br /> to illustrate some theory or problem or to adorn<br /> some ingenious plot.<br /> <br /> But in these cases, in order to vitalise such a<br /> plot and to give life and reality to the persons of<br /> the story, the writer must first cast his notions<br /> into his sub-consciousness, to be there clothed with<br /> flesh and made to live aud breathe. Otherwise<br /> they will be no more than automata, pegs whereon<br /> the plot or problem hangs.<br /> <br /> Now I venture to offer as an explanation of the<br /> oftentimes injurious influence of success the sug-<br /> gestion that the self-consciousness to which it may<br /> give rise, hampers the normal working methods.<br /> The author is over-anxious to be worthy of the<br /> praise accorded him, to surpass himself. His<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 53<br /> <br /> natural methods of production are disturbed.<br /> The delicate balance between active consciousness<br /> and brooding consciousness (so to term it) is lost.<br /> In his striving to do well, he is afraid to trust<br /> enough to his less determined mental faculties.<br /> He plots and re-plots, constructs and re-constructs.<br /> Like a boy or a girl who has planted a seed in the<br /> ground, he interferes with its natural processes of<br /> erowth by perpetually examining and over-hauling<br /> it, in order to be sure that it is sprouting.<br /> <br /> The book is the child ef his intellect, instead of<br /> being the child of his nature. Everyone is disap-<br /> pointed. He himself, having devoted so many<br /> pains and so much attention to it, perhaps regards<br /> it as his best work.<br /> <br /> Those more qualified to judge find it artificial,<br /> unconvincing, full of notions it may be, and of<br /> “situations,” but lacking the life and health and<br /> harmonious perfection of a spontaneous natural<br /> growth.<br /> ARABELLA KENEALY.<br /> <br /> —_—__—_—_—_—_+—&gt;__+____—_—_-<br /> <br /> LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br /> STATES.<br /> <br /> So<br /> [FIRST ARTICLE. |<br /> <br /> E, here in England, complain of our copy-<br /> right lav—and American authors complain<br /> of theirs !<br /> <br /> Turn to the preface of any standard English<br /> work on copyright, and you will find the bitter<br /> complaint reiterated in every edition. Turn to the<br /> introduction of Mr. Arthur S. Hamlin’s admirable<br /> compilation of ‘‘ American Cases and Decisions ”’*<br /> (just published by Messrs. Putnam’s Sons), to<br /> read of—<br /> <br /> “| |. The unnecessary complexity of the provisions of<br /> the existing statute, the difficulty, and, in some cases, the<br /> impracticability, of fulfilling the obligations imposed<br /> by it.”<br /> <br /> It has quite a home-like familiar sound! It<br /> might have been written in England of English<br /> Copyright law.<br /> <br /> But the curious—shall I say, the amusing ?—<br /> part of Mr, Hamlin’s complaint is not here. We<br /> are all complaining animals. For us, the amusing<br /> part of Mr. Hamlin’s introduction will be his<br /> <br /> _* Copyright Cases: A Summary of Leading American<br /> Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary<br /> Property, from 1891 to 1903; together with the Text of the<br /> United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent<br /> Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and<br /> Canada, Compiled by Arthur S. Hamlin. Published for<br /> the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P.<br /> Putnam&#039;s Sons. 1904. $2.<br /> <br /> splendid eulogy of the copyright laws of other<br /> countries—in which he doubtless includes our own<br /> —and his finding in their perfeetions his strongest<br /> argument for damning the imperfections of his<br /> own. That is the unkindest cut of all! We break<br /> out periodically into ravines against our law. Listen<br /> to Mr. Hamlin on it :—<br /> <br /> “All the existing copyright statutes of the world,<br /> excepting that of the United States, have been the work<br /> of commissions of experts. The members of these com-<br /> missions have had authority to summon witnesses, and to<br /> take testimony, and, after having devoted sufticient time to.<br /> the mastery of the details of a subject which is of necessity<br /> complex, and which certainly calls for expert training, and<br /> for expert experience, they have presented their conclusions<br /> in the form of a report containing the specifications of the<br /> legislation recommended .. .. ” and so forth,<br /> <br /> Having read which, one turns in amazement to.<br /> the English law, involuntarily exclaiming: And<br /> tas is what we get! After all that noble work by<br /> those expert and experienced persons described by<br /> Mr. Hamlin—we take his account of it just as it<br /> stands—/his is the net result :—<br /> <br /> “ Numerous and ill-drafted Acts,”<br /> says Mr. Scrutton.<br /> <br /> ‘* Nothing has been done to ameliorate the lamentable<br /> condition in which the Commissioners found the law,”<br /> <br /> says Mr. MacGillivray. These are the opinions of<br /> our distinguished experts. If we turn to the<br /> “opinions” of those who are not experts—well, |<br /> that way madness lies! “The bull in the net”<br /> is the only suitable metaphor.<br /> <br /> So, Mr. Hamlin is, to say the least, a little<br /> puzzling. And, reading this excellent and most<br /> useful compilation of his, as I have read it, from<br /> cover to cover, I have tried, during the last few<br /> days, to puzzle it all out. All laws are imperfect in<br /> this imperfect yet progressive world. I cannot<br /> for the life of me see that this work—a record and<br /> condensation of United States cases from 1891 to<br /> 1903—takes up in its drag-net any considerable body<br /> of cases pointing directly at the “ complexities,”<br /> “ difficulties,” ‘ impracticabilities,” of which Mr.<br /> Hamlin complains. With the heartiest will in the<br /> world to confound American copyright law, I find<br /> myself unable to be any more kind to Mr.<br /> Hamlin than at least he is to us. I will not<br /> actually go so far as to praise his law. Nil<br /> aamirari should be our motto when we are con-<br /> fronted by the comfortable optimist who points<br /> out to us the excellent time authors are now having<br /> compared with the old days of “ patronage.” We<br /> will not forget so quickly as all that ‘the shambles<br /> where they died.” But I must ask him why, at<br /> least, he did not nail down some specific cases in<br /> this book in which these “complexities” were<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 52<br /> <br /> the last were mainly venial faults, faults which<br /> needed but for their correction that timely prick<br /> of criticism which the critics with their accustomed<br /> geniality had supplied. They saw no lack of<br /> promise. Their part being done, they prophesied<br /> great things of the writer. ;<br /> <br /> What then is their astonishment and the dis-<br /> appointment of readers to find in their proteges<br /> succeeding book a distinct and undeniable falling<br /> off! ‘The promise of its predecessor 1s stultified.<br /> The reviewer’s prophecies have come to nought.<br /> Readers (and publishers) are disappointed.<br /> <br /> The book is, it may be, the poorest thing the<br /> author has produced. At all events it is markedly<br /> inferior to the book which brought him into<br /> notice.<br /> <br /> This thing has happened so frequently as almost<br /> to establish arule. One may not cite names, of<br /> course, albeit a number, and these including some<br /> of our foremost writers, present themselves.<br /> <br /> The fact being indisputable, it is interesting and<br /> it may be helpful, to seek the reason. Is it due to<br /> exhaustion following upon supreme effort? Is it<br /> due to some noxious miasma exhaling in the tropic<br /> heats of suecess ? Is it the pernicious influence of<br /> teas, of dinners and of other smiling functions<br /> whereto Mrs. Leo-Hunter bids the last-discovered<br /> Beast in order that he may roar for the eritertain-<br /> inent of her guests ?<br /> <br /> Or is it merely that Messrs. Mammon (the<br /> author’s publishers) having tasted the savour of<br /> successful editions, unduly spur him to repeat his<br /> efforts, and spoil his work by haste ?<br /> <br /> Personally, I doubt that the explanation lies in<br /> any of these factors. For the phenomenon is found<br /> in those who refuse to have their pace of produc-<br /> tion set by Messrs. Mammon, in those who are<br /> proof against social miasmata, in those who con-<br /> sign Mrs. Leo-Hunter actually to the fire-grate,<br /> or mentally (provided they are privileged by sex)<br /> to flames less temperate.<br /> <br /> I cannot help thinking that the explanation is<br /> more profound. I venture to offer the following<br /> suggestions toward it: That the productive methods<br /> of the novelist differ materially from those of any<br /> other form of brain work. While the historian,<br /> philosopher, or journalist evolves ideas, constructs<br /> theories, or narrates facts, the novelist creates<br /> persons, entities with individualities, wills, emo-<br /> tions, destinies, over which, when once created, he<br /> in many cases has little more control, perhaps even<br /> less, than a parent has over the development and<br /> destinies of his sons and daughters. That while<br /> the journalist, for example, remembers what he<br /> sees and describes it in language which presents it<br /> more or less clearly before his readers, the creative<br /> writer does not write from memory at all. His is<br /> the faculty to absorb and assimilate scenes and<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR:<br /> <br /> circumstances and emotions and to compound them<br /> into a new substance, a substance which spon-<br /> taneously evolves itself into drama and story, as<br /> clouds may be seen to evolve themselves perpetually<br /> into new shape.<br /> <br /> That while the story itself is worked out by<br /> sub-conscious faculties of mind (the subliminal<br /> consciousness as it has been styled) the more purely<br /> intellectual faculties are employed mainly in re-<br /> cording these sub-conscious and spontaneous<br /> operations. The true creative power, the inspira-<br /> tion which gives life, lies in the sub-consciousness,<br /> and is only hampered and hindered when the active,<br /> intelligence interferes and attempts to control the<br /> persons and developments of the drama.<br /> <br /> If I may cite my own case (and doubtless the<br /> psychological processes of the humblest are some-<br /> what as those of the highest) 1 am able frequently<br /> to perceive this dual action of my brain, the more<br /> actively intellectual portion standing apart (like a<br /> spectator with a note-book) watching the spon-<br /> taneous developments of another portion and<br /> rapidly clothing these in language which my pen<br /> sets down. I am able even to see in this sub-<br /> conscious stratum of my brain tiny moving figures<br /> which seem intensely alive and seldom pause for<br /> word or action, but play out their play like actors<br /> who know their parts perfectly. When I take up<br /> my pen in the morning I experience the utmost<br /> interest to know what they are going todo. For<br /> if I know, it is because they have subtly informed<br /> me, not because I have consciously decided for<br /> them. When, from fatigue (from having roared<br /> the previous evening, it may be, for Mrs. Leo-<br /> Hunter) my actors on some mornings are inert,<br /> experience has taught me not to jerk them into<br /> action, or they will merely play their parts like<br /> puppets moved by wires. I wait till they begin to<br /> move again spontaneously.<br /> <br /> The methods of all writers are not of course<br /> similar. With some the persons and course of a<br /> story are consciously and carefully fabricated and<br /> elaborated by the active intellectual faculties, in order<br /> to illustrate some theory or problem or to adorn<br /> some ingenious plot.<br /> <br /> But in these cases, in order to vitalise such a<br /> plot and to give life and reality to the persons of<br /> the story, the writer must first cast his notions<br /> into his sub-consciousness, to be there clothed with<br /> flesh and made to live and breathe. Otherwise<br /> they will be no more than automata, pegs whereon<br /> the plot or problem hangs.<br /> <br /> Now I venture to offer as an explanation of the<br /> oftentimes injurious influence of success the sug-<br /> gestion that the self-consciousness to which it may<br /> give rise, hampers the normal working methods.<br /> The author is over-anxious to be worthy of the<br /> praise accorded him, to surpass himself. His<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> natural methods of production are disturbed.<br /> The delicate balance between active consciousness<br /> and brooding consciousness (so to term it) is lost.<br /> In his striving to do well, he is afraid to trust<br /> enough to his less determined mental faculties.<br /> He plots and re-plots, constructs and re-constructs.<br /> Like a boy or a girl who has planted a seed in the<br /> ground, he interferes with its natural processes of<br /> growth by perpetually examining and over-hauling<br /> it, in order to be sure that it is sprouting.<br /> <br /> The book is the child ef his intellect, instead of<br /> being the child of his nature. Everyone is disap-<br /> pointed. He himself, having devoted so many<br /> pains and so much attention to it, perhaps regards<br /> it as his best work.<br /> <br /> Those more qualified to judge find it artificial,<br /> unconvincing, full of notions it may be, and of<br /> “situations,” but lacking the life and health and<br /> harmonious perfection of a spontaneous natural<br /> growth.<br /> ARABELLA KENEALY.<br /> <br /> ——____+—}_+-____—_—_-<br /> <br /> LITERATURE AND LAW IN THE UNITED<br /> STATES.<br /> <br /> [FIRST ARTICLE. ]<br /> <br /> E, here in England, complain of our copy-<br /> right law—and American authors complain<br /> of theirs !<br /> <br /> Turn to the preface of any standard English<br /> work on copyright, and you will find the bitter<br /> complaint reiterated in every edition. Turn to the<br /> introduction of Mr. Arthur 8. Hamlin’s admirable<br /> compilation of ‘ American Cases and Decisions ”’*<br /> (just published by Messrs. Putnam’s Sons), to<br /> read of—<br /> <br /> “|, The unnecessary complexity of the provisions of<br /> the existing statute, the difficulty, and, in some cases, the<br /> impracticability, of fulfilling the obligations imposed<br /> Dy i.”<br /> <br /> It has quite a home-like familiar sound! It<br /> might have been written in England of English<br /> Copyright law.<br /> <br /> But the curious—shall I say, the amusing ?—<br /> part of Mr. Hamlin’s complaint is not here. We<br /> are all complaining animals. For us, the amusing<br /> part of Mr. Hamlin’s introduction will be his<br /> <br /> _* Copyright Cases: A Summary of Leading American<br /> Decisions on the Law of Copyright and on Literary<br /> Property, from 1891 to 1903; together with the Text of the<br /> United States Copyright Statute, and a Selection of Recent<br /> Copyright Decisions of the Courts of Great Britain and<br /> Canada. Compiled by Arthur 8. Hamlin. Published for<br /> the American Publishers’ Copyright League by G. P.<br /> Putnam&#039;s Sons. 1904, $2.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 58<br /> <br /> splendid eulogy of the copyright laws of other<br /> countries—in which he doubtless includes our own<br /> —and his finding in their perfections his strongest<br /> argument for damning the imperfections of his<br /> own. That is the unkindest cut of all! -We break<br /> out periodically into ravings against our law. Listen<br /> to Mr. Hamlin on it :-—<br /> <br /> “All the existing copyright. statutes of the world,<br /> excepting that of the United States, have been the work<br /> of commissions of experts. The members of these com-<br /> missions have had authority to summon witnesses, and to<br /> take testimony, and, after having devoted sufficient time to<br /> the mastery of the details of a subject which is of necessity<br /> complex, and which certainly calls for expert training, and<br /> for expert experience, they have presented their conclusions<br /> in the form of a report containing the specifications of the<br /> legislation recommended .... ” and so forth.<br /> <br /> Having read which, one turns in amazement to<br /> the English law, involuntarily exclaiming: And<br /> this is what we get! After all that noble work by<br /> those expert and experienced persons described by<br /> Mr. Hamlin—we take his account of it just as it<br /> stands—/his is the net result :—<br /> <br /> “ Numerous and ill-drafted Acts,”<br /> says Mr. Serutton.<br /> <br /> “ Nothing has been done to ameliorate the lamentable<br /> condition in which the Commissioners found the law,”<br /> <br /> says Mr. MacGillivray. These are the opinions of<br /> our distinguished experts. If we turn to the<br /> “opinions” of those who are not experts—well,<br /> that way madness lies! ‘The bull in the net”<br /> is the only suitable metaphor.<br /> <br /> So, Mr. Hamlin is, to say the least, a little<br /> puzzling. And, reading this excellent and most<br /> useful compilation of his, as I have read it, from<br /> cover to cover, I have tried, during the last few<br /> days, to puzzle it all out. All laws are imperfect in<br /> this imperfect yet progressive world. I cannot<br /> for the life of me see that this work—a record and<br /> condensation of United States cases from 1891 to<br /> 1903—takes up in its drag-net any considerable body<br /> of cases pointing directly at the “ complexities,”<br /> “ difficulties,” ‘‘ impracticabilities,” of which Mr.<br /> Hamlin complains. With the heartiest will in the<br /> world to confound American copyright law, I find<br /> myself unable to be any more kind to Mr.<br /> Hamlin than at least he is to us. I will not<br /> actually go so far as to praise his law. Wal<br /> admirari should be our motto when we are con-<br /> fronted by the comfortable optimist who points<br /> out to us the excellent time authors are now having<br /> compared with the old days of “ patronage.” We<br /> will not forget so quickly as all that “the shambles<br /> where they died.” But I must ask him why, at<br /> least, he did not nail down some specific cases in<br /> this book in which these “complexities” were<br />  <br /> <br /> 54<br /> <br /> particularly marked. His rare, and admirable foot-<br /> notes are given in the mildest and most scholarly<br /> spirit of humility, after his learned United States<br /> Courts Judges have done their worst on the<br /> evidence. So I seek in vain for some justification<br /> of his extreme if indirect praise of “all existing<br /> statutes of the world,” and his brisk condemnation<br /> of his’ own. I could easily find him, amongst<br /> English copyright decisions, a few hard cases to<br /> better anything in his bag. So much for single<br /> instances.<br /> <br /> On the general question: Has he not over there<br /> the most remarkable system ever devised for<br /> “keeping the money in the family” and bleeding<br /> strangers ? He may retort (though, of course,<br /> he won&#039;t): ‘ Yes, it’s all very well for printers and<br /> publishers!” Well then, has he not over there<br /> something that pretends to bring literary and<br /> artistic property into one protecting fold ; some-<br /> thing that at least pretends to a codification ?<br /> Again one’s thoughts revert to the English law,<br /> and one involuntarily asks—in perfect serious-<br /> ness: Is it, after all, only that this great nation of<br /> the West, so young, so eager for reform, is im-<br /> patient of the restraint to which we old fogeys<br /> have long grown accustomed, that in reality the<br /> “complexities” at which he hints are as nothing<br /> compared with our own? We have an Act for<br /> books, Acts for drama and music, many Acts for<br /> engravings, paintings, drawings and photographs ;<br /> an Act for sculpture ; International Acts ; the<br /> Conventions ; the Colonial Acts! We are im-<br /> patient of them, of course ; and we sigh for a<br /> better time and for the passage of Lord Thring’s<br /> Bill. But we jog along somehow, realising,<br /> perhaps, the small part after all that books and art<br /> make even now in our national affairs, and the<br /> wonderful way things have of adjusting themselves<br /> to our needs. Certainly our Acts, such as they are,<br /> have grown—slowly indeed—with our own growth,<br /> yielding to extreme pressure only, but allowing<br /> us, so long as we have no need to invoke them, a<br /> wonderfully free hand outside of them.<br /> <br /> “ Outside of them”! Just there, I think, is to<br /> be fixed Mr. Hamlin’s grievance. He cannot get<br /> outside of his Statute law. A citizen of the United<br /> States cannot, like us, acquire copyright by merely<br /> publishing a book. If he attempt it, down comes<br /> the guillotine—his head is off, his work is public<br /> property. In other words he must register before<br /> publication. We, with our strangely free and elastic<br /> methods, need not register. Every Englishman<br /> (and every friendly alien) from the moment he<br /> publishes his book, enjoys the blessing of statu-<br /> tory copyright in that book without fulfilling any<br /> other condition whatever. He has merely to pub-<br /> lish. It is true he must register if his book become<br /> the subject of copyright litigation. But how often<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> does that happen? Say we publish over here<br /> 5,000 books a year: do fifteen annually become<br /> the subject of copyright litigation? So, if we<br /> avoid litigation we have « tolerably lazy time ; and<br /> the one objection to the Authors’ Society is that it<br /> fosters our laziness, An author has only to send his<br /> guinea a year to the Society to be entirely relieved of<br /> the necessity of complaining about “ complexities,”<br /> “intricacies,” and so forth. And thus the Authors’<br /> Society (curious malevolence of things !) prevents<br /> our getting better laws.<br /> <br /> Now, of the half dozen important differences<br /> between our law and United States law the chief, for<br /> practical purposes, is this one of registration. In<br /> the United States not only does an author fail to<br /> get protection unless he register, but, even after he<br /> has registered, unless he has done so in the correct<br /> manner :<br /> <br /> (1.) Deposit of title and copies.<br /> <br /> (2.) In due time.<br /> <br /> (3.) Made in the United States.<br /> <br /> (4.) Bearing, when published, the proper notice,<br /> —he may at any moment have some claimant<br /> starting up to contest his right to his property on<br /> the mere technical form of his registration.<br /> <br /> For example, the renowned Augustin Daly (who<br /> appears to have been a somewhat lively litigant)<br /> deposited a title of a play as “ Under the Gaslight :<br /> A Romantic Panorama of the Streets and Homes of<br /> New York.” He published it under the title (evi-<br /> dently a second thought): “Under the Gaslight: A<br /> Totally Original Picturesque Drama of Life and Love<br /> inthese Times.” It may be said that the man who<br /> could be guilty of a title like that deserved any fate ;<br /> andshortly there started up one, Webster, who calmly<br /> appropriated the important scene in the play and<br /> dragged Daly through three trials, from the Circuit<br /> Court to the Supreme Court, before he was beaten.<br /> <br /> In like manner Howard Patterson deposited a<br /> title, “The Captain of the Rajah,” with a couple<br /> of lines of sub-title. This sub-title he cut down<br /> on publication. The book was promptly infringed<br /> on that ground. Injunction for him at first trial,<br /> certainly ; but he had to go to Court to protect his<br /> work. Mrs. Osgood was not so fortunate. She<br /> wrote an excellent hook on the application of glaze<br /> and colours to china, but unfortunately forgot that<br /> her two copies must be deposited not later than the<br /> date of publication, and that the notice (otherwise<br /> correct) must bear her name. Her suit was dis-<br /> missed on these grounds, and the defendant profited.<br /> Carr painted a picture and deposited the title and<br /> a photograph, but forgot the “description.” It<br /> took two trials to prove to him that Mr. Bennett,<br /> the millionaire proprietor of the New York Herald,<br /> could reprint his work without asking leave. ‘Three<br /> trials was the result of the famous American’sport-<br /> ing magazine, Outing, reprinting, without leave,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ct ORES DIRE CST ARIE a<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. &#039;<br /> <br /> the picture of the yacht Vigilant, which one Bolles<br /> had registered as “ Copyright by Bollesof Brooklyn.”<br /> “ Bolles of Brooklyn” was regarded as not pro-<br /> viding adequate means of identifying the photo-<br /> grapher, though he won in the end. Heertel took<br /> an action for penalties against Raphael Tuck &amp;<br /> Sons for printing a false notice of copyright on<br /> fancy cards. Judge Lacombe held that it was not<br /> a false notice, because it was no notice at all—the<br /> date was omitted. Heertel lost. Raphael Tuck<br /> &amp; Sons again came off best as against McLaughlin.<br /> They printed books with a false copyright notice—<br /> but in Germany. They only sold them in the<br /> United States, and they sold them prior to the<br /> passage of the Act prohibiting-such sale. Though<br /> the name Raphael Tuck appears rather frequently<br /> in cases of false notice, it must be remembered<br /> that our free English law gives copyright in<br /> books without any registration at all, and so any<br /> respectable firm may easily fall into the practice of<br /> putting the word “copyright” on everything it<br /> turns out.<br /> <br /> Cases could be multiplied indefinitely. It is<br /> curious the shifts to which people will go to evade<br /> the law in this respect, or to redress, after the<br /> guillotine has dropped, some fatal initial blunder.<br /> Mrs. Snow published a photograph without<br /> registering it. Thereafter, seeing her blunder, she<br /> had etched into the negative a cane in the hand of<br /> one of the figures. This negative she then “ copy-<br /> righted.’ Held that she had merely made an<br /> attempt to reclaim what she had already abandoned<br /> to the public, and that in any case her action was<br /> wrong. She claimed copyright in a “ photo.” But<br /> the only thing that could be the subject of it was<br /> not a “photo” but an etching—namely, the cane!<br /> Of course she lost.<br /> <br /> After this gallery of failures it is interesting to<br /> find the great Edison winning a case. He claimed<br /> copyright in a celluloid sheet of 4,500 kinetoscope<br /> photographs of the launching of the yacht Jeteor<br /> (infringed by one Lubin). It took two trials to<br /> decide that, for the purposes of registration, the<br /> 4,500 pictures constituted but one subject.<br /> <br /> Now, if we are inclined to condemn the Ameri-<br /> can law on the evidence of complexities afforded by<br /> the above cases, we have not only to remember<br /> that the law itself is of somewhat recent date, but<br /> also that for large commercial purposes American<br /> arts and letters were born but yesterday. Yet no<br /> species of property takes so long to establish its<br /> rights, to become truly adjusted to the life of those<br /> great communities in which alone it can flourish,<br /> or requires greater precision and intelligence for<br /> its proper management. And of the cases quoted,<br /> several resulted from just this lack of precision,<br /> which only such exemplary cases can ultimately<br /> cure. I have written elsewhere in this number of<br /> <br /> 55<br /> <br /> the advantages of our method of letting books<br /> fight their own battles and take their chances in the<br /> struggle for existence. Let me say here that I am<br /> not acquainted with one detail in the system of<br /> registration at the Library of Congress. I do not<br /> know whether the librarian would decline to accept<br /> for registration one of two books bearing the same<br /> title. Yet I can see that such a system would<br /> also have its advantages in excluding late comers<br /> from the field, in putting a premium on, at least,<br /> originality combined with a quick despatch in<br /> literary affairs, and in providing a permanent<br /> record of titles.<br /> <br /> This is the A B C of American copyright law—<br /> proper registration. It does not seem to be unduly<br /> complex, nor to require any hard thinking, any-<br /> thing more than absolute accuracy (in other words,<br /> good advice by your man of business) for its<br /> successful working. ‘There is much to be said for<br /> it. It is, in any case, the gateway to American<br /> copyright ; and, good or bad, it strikes the mere<br /> outsider as a straight and simple way in, leaving<br /> little to chance. We have scarcely anything over<br /> here that exactly resembles it—the “ reservation ”<br /> notice on music, perhaps, and the necessity of<br /> registering paintings, drawings, and photographs<br /> before an alleged infringement ; but these do not<br /> provide us with much litigation.<br /> <br /> Next month I hope to go deeper into American<br /> law, illustrating, as far as possible, from Mr.<br /> Hamlin’s book, its working in more difficult cases as<br /> compared with our own.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> <br /> —_————_1—_&gt;_+—____—_-<br /> <br /> AFTER WORK.*<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> T is the prerogative of all men, after arriving<br /> at a certain age, to have reminiscences, and<br /> the privilege of some to record them. ‘To the<br /> <br /> latter category belongs Mr. Edward Marston, one<br /> of the oldest members of the publishing trade.<br /> His long connection with the trade has brought<br /> him into intimate touch with a number of interest-<br /> ing people for whom he published. In a_book<br /> entitled “ After Work: Fragments from the Work-<br /> shop of an old Publisher,” he has modestly sunk<br /> his own identity and given to the public some<br /> entertaining particulars of those with whom he<br /> has come into personal contact :—such as Bulwer<br /> Lytton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Wilkie Collins,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ee ee eee<br /> <br /> * ‘After Work: Fragments from the Workshop of an Old<br /> Publisher.’ William Heinemann. 10s. net.<br />  <br /> <br /> 56<br /> <br /> R. D. Blackmore, Sir Henry Morton Stauley,<br /> William Black, and many others. But, beyond<br /> these notes, there are matters which are of<br /> interest to members of the Society. Mr. Marston<br /> explains how The Publishers’ Circular—that useful<br /> trade organ—was originally started, and gives<br /> many details concerning the business side of<br /> literature. He quotes, at length, the agreement<br /> entered into between his firm and Bulwer Lytton<br /> for the publication of that fascinating romance,<br /> “A Strange Story,” for which the firm paid £1,500<br /> for a licence to publish for two years. It would<br /> be a good thing if nowadays more authors made<br /> similar contracts, assigning merely a licence to<br /> publish for a limited period. ‘The amount received<br /> by Lord Lytton was, without doubt, large, if the<br /> position of authors and publishers at that time 1s<br /> taken into consideration, but the payment was<br /> justified by the result. Later in the book, Mr.<br /> Marston, with a little bitterness, proclaims the<br /> price that Mr. Wilkie Collins received for “No<br /> Name.” He points out that that gentleman had<br /> a perfect knowledge of his own value, and that he<br /> stood in no need of a literary agent to make a<br /> ‘bargain for him. The price paid by Messrs. Sampson<br /> Low was £3,000. Apparently, from Mr. Marston’s<br /> statement, the book resulted in no loss, though he<br /> asserts that the risk, from his point of view, was<br /> great, and forced upon his firm by a very vigorous<br /> competition. Many of the letters quoted by Mr.<br /> Marston from his authors, standing outside busi-<br /> ness, draw out their special characteristics. Mr.<br /> Blackmore writes about his vines and fruit trees.<br /> Sir H. M. Stanley writes about his trials and<br /> perils. It would be unfair to the book to make<br /> any large quotations, but the letters should not be<br /> missed by any who care for a knowledge of the<br /> personalities of their favourite authors.<br /> <br /> There are, besides, one or two points with which<br /> the reviewer is forced to deal, as they touch the<br /> work and reputation of the Society of Authors.<br /> The last chapter of the book Mr. Marston entitles<br /> “Dealings with Authors.” He makes the astound-<br /> ing pronouncement that Sir Walter Besant and<br /> others in the early days of the Society stated that<br /> publishers could not make any losses. This kind of<br /> rash generality, when Besant was alive, was con-<br /> stantly put forward and as strenuously denied.<br /> Perhaps Mr. Marston will refer to the exact<br /> page in 7&#039;he Author or the publications of the<br /> Society where this statement occurs. Again, he<br /> says that the Society began its operations by<br /> making sweeping and ungenerous attacks upon all<br /> publishers, assuming that all alike were robbers,<br /> and proving by balance sheets drawn from its<br /> Imagination that publishers could not, by any<br /> possibility, make a loss. In the proverbial phrase,<br /> <br /> Mr. Marston has ‘drawn upon his imagination<br /> <br /> ’ THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> for his facts,” and it is a pity that an otherwise<br /> admirable book should, to a certain extent, have<br /> been spoilt by the misstatements and biassed, un-<br /> generous comments contained in the last chapter.<br /> With this exception the book is one which<br /> should appeal to all those who, in their fondness<br /> for literature, care to make themselves better<br /> “acquaint ” with the individualities of the writers.<br /> <br /> o—~-<br /> <br /> IS POETRY READ AS IT USED TO BE?<br /> <br /> he<br /> <br /> R. W. D. HOWELLS, in Harper&#039;s Magazine,<br /> <br /> VI has lately made a futile endeavour to<br /> <br /> ascertain by the votes of its readers the<br /> present popularity of poetry in the United States.<br /> The subject awaking no interest or curiosity there,<br /> has for the present fizzled out. Perhaps the times<br /> were not ripe for the computation of poetical<br /> readers in such+an enormous area of land, or the<br /> clash and clang of more practical serious interests<br /> may have silenced the inquiry.<br /> <br /> However, the subject having a definite sugges-<br /> tiveness to literature and a relative value to<br /> thought, is worth attention.<br /> <br /> Of course, the curious and interesting question<br /> can never be brought under the range of statistics.<br /> Whether or not the readers of poetry in the<br /> United Kingdom are more numerous to-day than<br /> formerly is&#039;a problem which cannot be easily<br /> solved, but one can endeavour to glance at the<br /> probabilities one way or the other. ‘To pierce the<br /> heart of the subject is an impossibility: but in<br /> wandering around its skirts a few gleams of the<br /> truth may be visible.<br /> <br /> The first query that naturally arises is: Who<br /> are the readers of poetry ?<br /> <br /> They consist, I should imagine, of two classes.<br /> One suggestive word comprises the first: Youth !<br /> whose password is hope, whose look-out on life is<br /> fresh and wonderful ; whose lot, as yet, has not<br /> been soured and chilled by relentless circumstance<br /> and experience. Those who predominate in this<br /> class, by reason of their emotions, susceptibilities<br /> and sensitiveness, are young women; the band<br /> of light-hearted, dream-haunted, romance-loving<br /> girls, who find in poetry a response to their ,vague<br /> questionings and an interpretation of their<br /> mysterious imaginings.<br /> <br /> The second class comprises all those who make<br /> a hobby and study of poetry, and whose lives are<br /> imbued with what must always be the highest<br /> and truest expression of literature. Neither age,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ‘<br /> 2<br /> <br /> £<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> =<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 57<br /> <br /> fashion, nor change can ever stale or wither the<br /> vivid joys of this eager pursuit. In Palgrave’s<br /> apt words :-— :<br /> <br /> «The magic of this art can confer on early<br /> years, Experience; on maturity, Calm ; on age,<br /> Youthfulness.”<br /> <br /> A small portion of this class, the scouts of the<br /> army, is that numerous throng who, over-burdened<br /> with poetic lore and fancy, must record it all in<br /> their own fashion and words: and thus there is<br /> always an immense legion of pseudo-poets, versi-<br /> fiers, minor minstrels who indite and publish their<br /> volumes of musical verse., Sometimes these appeal<br /> to unheeding ears ; often imperfection and weak-<br /> ness spell failure, and very occasionally the appre-<br /> ciation of a thoughtful reviewer may encourage the<br /> new versifier to further and worthier efforts.<br /> <br /> Having now set forth the classes who read<br /> ‘poetry, the following queries assert themselves :—<br /> <br /> Has the interest in poetry waned? Have<br /> poetical votaries diminished ? Have readers<br /> fallen off ?<br /> <br /> In answering these questions in a decisive,<br /> strong affirmative, I. shall endeavour to deduce<br /> reasons for my own opinion.<br /> <br /> The enormous production and circulation of<br /> novels in late years have lessened and almost<br /> destroyed the love of poetry amongst the very<br /> class to which it appeals the most. ‘The grades of<br /> fiction, from the garish covered penny horror to a<br /> novel like “he Cardinal’s Snutf Box,” or “The<br /> Column,” in their number and diversity, are<br /> somewhat appalling to consider; but in every<br /> novel which is literature as well as fiction, there<br /> are elements and constituents of poetry to minister<br /> and satisfy the subtle, romantic instincts of the<br /> young. In them are found the pictured scene ;<br /> the sweetness of exquisite words ; the vivid portrai-<br /> ture; the play of thought; the illumination of<br /> life’s truths or pathos—all the glints and glows<br /> of unfettered verse woven into a story of<br /> humanity !<br /> <br /> Thus, the enthralling influence of novels which -<br /> <br /> paint and depict ideals in life and human nature<br /> has weakened the hold of poetry upon the imagi-<br /> nation of youth. ‘The novel has supplanted the<br /> poem, and perhaps for a while, till the output of<br /> fiction brings the weariness of satiety, the youthful<br /> readers of poetry will continue to dwindle.<br /> <br /> There is also another potent reason. The health-<br /> ful love of open air pursuits and pleasures in. our<br /> day has spoilt the zest for indoor, poetic musings.<br /> The gladdening impulses and ardours of youth find<br /> anatural vent in the freedom of country games,<br /> exercises and sports. ‘The spiritual glow of rhythmic<br /> verse is exchanged for the living glow of physical<br /> well-being. The meditative maiden is no longer<br /> sad or happy in unison with delicate phrasings of<br /> <br /> thought, or with the brilliant surprise of trope or<br /> metaphor ; instead, her poetry exists amidst the<br /> “pomp of woodland and resounding shore,” with<br /> perhaps an interlude for an innocent flirtation.<br /> And thus, her already exuberant life is intensified<br /> by vigorous open air enjoyment.<br /> <br /> But the reasons which are creating a distaste of<br /> poetry amongst youthful readers have no signi-<br /> ficance.amongst the students and lovers of poetry<br /> of all ages. The causes of their callousness are<br /> deeper and stronger. ‘The burdens and the<br /> influences of the times and the period have<br /> affected their allegiance to the divine art. The<br /> efforts which are giving living wonders for the<br /> usefulness and weal of the nations and mankind<br /> are weaning them from their delight in the<br /> glamours of modulated thought.<br /> <br /> The spell of contrivance ; the marvel of being<br /> able to annihilate time and space ; the magic of<br /> discovery to baffle disease ; the power of being<br /> able to rule the fairy realms of science ; every<br /> thing that makes for progress and tends to<br /> enlightenment ; the animating ardour that inspires<br /> the leaders of men to combat error and inculcate<br /> truths for the nation’s weal: all these things<br /> drive the man “ Housed in a dream at a distance<br /> from his kind,” to a field of broader issues and<br /> more strenuous purposes.<br /> <br /> And it is because no “ bard sublime ” has arisen<br /> to translate and enshrine these undertakings and<br /> discoveries, and no creative voice is heard to inter-<br /> pret the struggle or herald the victory, that poetry<br /> is becoming decadent to its most earnest votary. It<br /> may be said in extenuation of this, that the verses<br /> of Rudyard Kipling respond to the nation’s poetic<br /> cravings. It is affirmed with laudatory emphasis<br /> that the spell of this wonderful era has been truly<br /> invoked in poetry by this successful author. And<br /> to a certain extent he has interpreted many of the<br /> age’s aspirations, perplexities, doubts, struggles ;<br /> but, to my mind, there is scope still for the larger<br /> vision, wider outlook, and deeper insight in some<br /> great poet of the future.<br /> <br /> In the meantime, whether due to the causes<br /> briefly touched upon, or to others which I cannot<br /> fathom, readers of poetry are gradually falling off ;<br /> the creative art itself is languishing, and no. one<br /> wonders. When the hope of a true poetic revival<br /> will resolve itself into a certainty, and another<br /> masterpiece like ‘Childe Harold” or the “ Idylls<br /> of the King” staitle a waiting world, then, per-<br /> haps, the vivifying influence of the art will again<br /> illuminate a land so opulent in its poetic treasures<br /> <br /> bequeathed by the past.<br /> Tstporr G. ASCHER.<br /> <br /> oO =<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 58<br /> <br /> THE GRAND GUIGNOL.<br /> <br /> oa<br /> A Quire Imaginary CONVERSATION.<br /> <br /> WHY do people talk of the extraordinary<br /> A . brilliancy of the French and German<br /> theatres of the present day ?<br /> <br /> B. Because the French and German theatres of<br /> the present day are extraordinarily brilliant.<br /> <br /> A. That sounds a very unlikely reason.<br /> <br /> B. The truth is always wildly improbable.<br /> <br /> ‘A. L seem to have heard a good deal about the<br /> Italian theatre of late. Can you account for that<br /> in the same way?<br /> <br /> B. The Italian Renaissance has, at all events,<br /> drawn the most famous of living poets to the<br /> theatre.<br /> <br /> A. Oh—I take it that the Norwegian theatre is<br /> resting on its past ?<br /> <br /> B. Possibly ; but that past is very recent and<br /> very glorious.<br /> <br /> A. Does anybody talk of the extraordinary<br /> brilliancy of the British theatre of the present<br /> day ?<br /> <br /> B. Certainly. Mr. William Archer.<br /> <br /> A. How very interesting. Can you account for<br /> that ?<br /> <br /> B. I can try.<br /> <br /> A. Would you mind making the effort ?<br /> <br /> B. Mr. Archer has been watching the British<br /> theatre very closely for the last twenty years, and<br /> has seen, during that time, a good deal of very<br /> remarkable work.<br /> <br /> A, And he thinks that our drama is at last<br /> waking from the sleep of centuries ?<br /> <br /> B. “Centuries” is a big word; and “ waking”<br /> much too small a one.<br /> <br /> A. The drama has waked from its sleep ?<br /> <br /> B. I am sure of it.<br /> <br /> A. But don’t you think that there is any danger<br /> of its dropping off again ?<br /> <br /> B. Ah<br /> <br /> A. I think I follow you. Do youagree with the -<br /> <br /> method proposed for keeping it awake ?<br /> <br /> B. You mean the building of a fine roomy<br /> theatre, for it to take exercise in ?<br /> <br /> A. Yes; they say there is nothing like compul-<br /> sory exercise for the sleeping sickness. Have you<br /> faith in a grand National British Theatre ?<br /> <br /> B. I have more faith in the National Irish<br /> Theatre.<br /> <br /> A. Why ?<br /> <br /> B. Because it isn’t grand. “Things comes by<br /> degrees,” as the little Dublin boy said to Dickens.<br /> <br /> _A. I suppose there would be difficulties about a<br /> big new theatre. Money, to begin with. England<br /> seems to be too poor to support art as the conti-<br /> nental nations support it.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> B. Money is the least of difficulties, always.<br /> The right man with the right scheme could pretty<br /> certainly get together the few thousands needed<br /> —assuming that the man exists and the scheme is<br /> possible.<br /> <br /> A. You assume too much. But assuming a<br /> good deal more—assuming that a successful start<br /> were made—don’t you think that there would still<br /> be difficulties in the way ?<br /> <br /> B. I do.<br /> <br /> A. Then you are hopeless ?<br /> <br /> B. I may be, but I didn’t say so.<br /> <br /> A. Do you think a more modest undertaking<br /> would do any good ?<br /> <br /> B. It might do much more good, if it is all we<br /> are ready for at present. Among other things, it<br /> might pave the way for the larger scheme.<br /> <br /> A. Personally, I don’t believe in these’ self-<br /> conscious efforts to improve the arts, little or big.<br /> I agree with Tony Lumpkin and Mr, Sydney<br /> Grundy, “If P’&#039;m to have any good let it come of<br /> itself, and don’t keep ding-dinging it into my<br /> ears.”<br /> <br /> B. The Gospel of Silence.<br /> but history is against it.<br /> <br /> A. Has anybody ever regenerated the drama<br /> intentionally ?<br /> <br /> B. Certainly.<br /> <br /> A. Euripides, I suppose—or Victor Hugo. Can<br /> you give me any more modern example ?<br /> <br /> B. The most modern. The brilliant French<br /> comedy of Augier and Dumas had had its day, and<br /> everyone was talking of the decadence to come,<br /> when Antoine spoke—and in half a generation a<br /> school far more brilliant had arisen.<br /> <br /> A. Do you put Rostand, and Donnay, and the<br /> rest of them, all down to Antoine ?<br /> <br /> B. One man by himself could have done nothing,<br /> of course ; but Antoine had the Third Republic at<br /> his back, like all that is greatest in modern France,<br /> Still, he showed the way—and on a small scale.<br /> Forgive the mixture of the metaphor.<br /> <br /> A. All really great metaphors are mixed. Then<br /> what you want, I take it, is an experimental<br /> theatre ?<br /> <br /> B. You have put it in two words.<br /> <br /> A, Antoine has outgrown the experimental stage.<br /> Is there anything in Paris now which more nearly<br /> meets our want ?<br /> <br /> B. There is the Grand Guignol.<br /> <br /> A. And what is a Grand Guignol ?<br /> <br /> _ B. It is almost exactly the thing we need.<br /> <br /> A. Thank you; but I had rather you explained.<br /> <br /> B. The Grand Guignol was a shabby little<br /> lecture-hall up a backyard not far from the Moulin<br /> Rouge ; but with its success it has been recon-<br /> structed, and it is now quite a pleasant little—<br /> theatre-hall.<br /> <br /> It sounds tempting,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 4 i<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 59<br /> <br /> A. What do they act there ?<br /> <br /> B. Five one-act plays every evening.<br /> <br /> A. Good gracious !<br /> <br /> B. Four would be enough in England.<br /> <br /> A. I think so.<br /> <br /> B. The expenses are microscopic. Actors of<br /> very little experience can carry through a one-act<br /> play—clever authors of no stage-experience can<br /> write one; and in this work young authors and<br /> young actors may learn their business, as they have<br /> little chance of learning it under the long-run<br /> Jong-play system.<br /> <br /> A. And there is a public for them ?<br /> <br /> B. There is undoubtedly a public for them. The<br /> Grand Guignol is such a success that it has<br /> imitators all over the place—the Capucines, the<br /> Mathurins, half-a-dozen others.<br /> <br /> A. I suppose the prices are low ?<br /> <br /> B. Not very. The stalls are about half the<br /> price of those at the fashionable theatres ; but the<br /> second seats are, I think, not cheaper than the pit.<br /> And there are no third seats.<br /> <br /> A. People can drop in at any time, of course.<br /> <br /> B. Then there is something to suit all tastes.<br /> Realism, sensation, comedy, poetry<br /> <br /> A. And—h’m. Sensational realism, eh ? Do<br /> they go a little far that way ?<br /> <br /> B. It is quite true that they have owed part of<br /> their success to their powers of shocking even a<br /> Parisian audience; but this is by no means the<br /> beginning and end of their story.<br /> <br /> A: I should think that such a little theatre<br /> could easily be carried on as an adjunct to a big<br /> one—His Majesty’s or the St. James’s. The little<br /> company could consist largely of the understudies<br /> and minor actors of the large one, with occasionally<br /> a first-rate man glad to fill up an interval “on<br /> easy terms.” Such a company would quite well<br /> bear the burden of a one-act play—it’s not like<br /> sustaining heavy parts throughout an evening of<br /> three hours. And many aclever writer of dialogue<br /> could give us such a piece, and at the same time<br /> be learning how to write a longer one<br /> <br /> B. Rem acu tetigisti. You have touched the<br /> spot.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Epwarp Ross.<br /> <br /> —_—_—__+—_&gt;_+—_____-<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> —_+—~&lt;—+ —<br /> “ Wuat’s in A NAME?”<br /> <br /> Srr,—I do not wish to answer the letter of<br /> Mr. Charles Richard Panter in The Author of<br /> last October at too great length or too seriously,<br /> but I am a little puzzled to know why he should<br /> treat the opinions which I put forward in a tone<br /> <br /> at once so aggrieved and so aggressive. He says<br /> “In the second paragraph of his first letter,<br /> Mr. Armstrong asserts the right to the name of a<br /> book is not copyright. Why should it not be.”<br /> The answer might be given to this conundrum,<br /> “ Because it is not,” or “ Because it is a right of<br /> another description,” but perhaps Mr. Panter had<br /> better consult some work on copyright, or read the<br /> case of Dick y. Yates,in which the Court of Appeal<br /> laid down the law on the subject in 1881. I can<br /> assure Mr. Panter that I had nothing to do with<br /> it. I was not a member of the Court of Appeal of<br /> that day, nor do I expect to take part in the<br /> deliberations of that tribunal at any future period<br /> of my modest career. I only “asserted”? what I<br /> believed to be the law, because I entertained a<br /> not ill-founded opinion upon the subject, which<br /> Mr. Panter may show to be wrong if he can do so.<br /> Mr. Panter’s allusions to “cribbing” a title, and<br /> his not very courteous suggestion that my “ book<br /> did not sell” because of my not being “ allowed to<br /> adopt the title of another author’s work,” show that<br /> he does not fully grasp the nature of the difficulty<br /> from which authors suffer. They do not desire,<br /> nor do they complain, of not being permitted inten-<br /> tionally to take other men’s titles, but they do find<br /> it tiresome to fix upon a title and then to be<br /> informed, with threats of legal proceedings, that it<br /> has already been used for a work of which they<br /> never before heard.<br /> <br /> In my own case, as I explained, a lady desired to<br /> prevent me from using for a novel a name which<br /> she had once given to a short story, and which she<br /> intended thereafter to use as the title of a volume<br /> of short stories, and I gave way, although part of<br /> my book was already in page. | will give the title,<br /> as it affords a good instance of want of originality<br /> on the author’s part and its result. I had chosen<br /> the simple and inoffensive, but not very dis-<br /> tinguished or striking participle “ Drifting.” I<br /> don’t know whether the lady referred to ever pro-<br /> duced her book under the name which [ resigned<br /> to her, but I know that a clever and successful<br /> book came out some years afterwards under the<br /> same title, and if she attempted to stop its circula-<br /> tion Iam not aware that she succeeded. I hope,<br /> however, that whether they agree with me or not,<br /> I made my meaning clearer to other readers of<br /> The Author than to Mr. Panter.<br /> <br /> Yours, &amp;c., :<br /> E. A. ARMSTRONG.<br /> <br /> ———+<br /> <br /> Trrues AND Mr. C. R. PANTER.<br /> <br /> Srr,— Who is this that darkeneth counsel by<br /> <br /> words without knowledge ?” . :<br /> Mr. Panter asks: “Pray, what is that right<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 60<br /> <br /> [of an author to the title of his book] if not<br /> copyright ?”” I reply : Common law right.<br /> <br /> “ (opyright,” says he, “ is the one right known<br /> to authors as capable of protecting their works.<br /> I reply : Not at all. :<br /> <br /> «« What would be thought,” he proceeds energetic-<br /> ally to ask, “of the man who declared he had a<br /> right to his own person as Mr. Penman Dryasdust,<br /> but no right whatever to his Christian and sur-<br /> name?” The reply is: Most people would think<br /> him an idiot. But let us examine Mr. Panter’s<br /> analogy, and see whither it will lead us. Here are<br /> the four feet, so to speak, on which his analogy<br /> stands :—<br /> <br /> According to Mr. Panter—<br /> <br /> 1. Mr. Dryasdust ...... Has a right to his own<br /> person which thecom-<br /> mon law will recog-<br /> nise. True.<br /> <br /> 12. A Book. (... ies Has a right against<br /> <br /> infringers which the<br /> <br /> common law will<br /> recognise. alse.<br /> <br /> ; 8. Mr. Dryasdust ...... Has a right to his own<br /> name asname. alse.<br /> (He has no more right<br /> to it than anyone who<br /> has had the misfortune<br /> to be born with it.<br /> The law will protect<br /> only the property and<br /> rights for which the<br /> name stands.)<br /> <br /> AoA Withee 5 Has no right atcommon<br /> law (or Mr. Panter<br /> evidently thinks so).<br /> <br /> L false.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> That is Mr. Panter’s analogy. One true state-<br /> ment to three false. I am tempted. to enquire<br /> whether he understands the nature and uses of<br /> analogical reasoning. Of law and copyright law<br /> he appears to have no knowledge. For, taking the<br /> analogy the other way, let us begin with statement<br /> No. 2, and say: “A book has a right against<br /> infringers which the copyright law will recognise.”<br /> This is true, but here the analogy, of a book to Mr.<br /> Dryasdust, suddenly undergoes complete extinction,<br /> since the copyright law has nothing in the world<br /> to do with Mr. Dryasdust’s defence of his person<br /> or name.<br /> <br /> But I should be filling up your November issue<br /> if I went any deeper into the energetic Mr. Panter’s<br /> fallacies. i shall drop them, and try to clear up<br /> this confusion of words about the rights in titles<br /> of books.<br /> <br /> Copyright, Mr. Panter should learn, is not a<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> natural right like a man’s right to his own<br /> person, his tables, chairs, and “ house utensils.’”<br /> Tt is a temporary monopoly, created by statute, analo-<br /> gous to the right in a patent or trade mark. So,<br /> therefore, it is conditioned by the Statute. Its<br /> duration is only for the statutory period —forty-two<br /> years (or life and seven years). It gives pro+<br /> tection to a species of property which otherwise<br /> would have none—books.<br /> <br /> Now of the books published each year which are<br /> so protected, about seven-eighths are valueless.<br /> They sink into oblivion before forty-two days have<br /> expired. Nevertheless, if the wisdom of the framers<br /> of the Act (including the great Macaulay) was not<br /> brilliantly shown in thus giving a protective<br /> monopoly for so long a time to rubbish, it was<br /> shown in this : it gave no monopoly in titles. If<br /> a book have a value (possibly the framers argued)<br /> the chances are about ten to one that it will shortly<br /> become a valuable article of commerce. In this<br /> state it can protect its own title quite adequately at<br /> common law. But if.on the other hand it have no<br /> value, the chances are about ten to one that it will<br /> shortly sink into oblivion. Now, in this state was<br /> it to be allowed to exclude other books of more value<br /> from the market by monopolising the exclusive<br /> right to its title? Does Mr. Panter see the<br /> point ?<br /> <br /> Let me enlarge for a moment on the ambiguous<br /> word “ value,” so that I may make myself quite<br /> clear to him. The “ value” referred to is not<br /> literary, nor artistic, nor scientific, nor theological<br /> value. it issimply—commercial. Why? Because<br /> we all agree as to money value ; and we all differ<br /> as to literary, artistic, and similar values. In process<br /> of law, indeed, you may hear counsel and even the<br /> Bench discuss literary and artistic values; but<br /> legislators (though they may state in their preamble<br /> that the Act is for “ the greater encouragement of”<br /> learning) cannot take direct cognisance of these<br /> things. Nor can legislators take cognisance of<br /> unhappy exceptions to general averages, like the<br /> case of “Lorna Doone,” “ Omar Khayydm,” etc.<br /> A bill framed to cover all possible exceptions, and<br /> to satisfy everybody’s nice opinions as to literary<br /> and artistic values, would never get to the Lords.<br /> So far our law is doubtless imperfect. But let Mr.<br /> Panter be consoled ; its neglect to protect titles is<br /> not one of its shortcomings.<br /> <br /> One wonders if such an idealist as Mr. Panter<br /> can come down from the heights of his burning.<br /> eloquence at all. He seems to think that plagiarism<br /> is an indictable offence. We are a very advanced<br /> nation, doubtless, but we have not yet advanced<br /> quite so far as that. I wish we had.<br /> <br /> CHARLES WEEKES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 36, Southampton Street,<br /> Strand, W.C.	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/499/1904-11-01-The-Author-15-2.pdf	publications, The Author