500 | https://historysoa.com/items/show/500 | The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 03 (December 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+03+%28December+1904%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 03 (December 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> | 1904-12-01-The-Author-15-3 | | | | | 61–92 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | <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=1904-12-01">1904-12-01</a> | | | | | | | 3 | | | 19041201 | Che Mutbor.<br />
<br />
(The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
Monthly.)<br />
<br />
FOUNDED BY SIR WALTER BESANT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Vou. XV.—No. 3.<br />
<br />
Cecmrsnk in<br />
<br />
1904.<br />
<br />
[Paror SIXPENCE.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br />
374 VICTORIA.<br />
<br />
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br />
AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br />
<br />
—_—_—_——*——e—<br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
eg<br />
<br />
OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br />
signed or initialled the authors alone are<br />
responsible. None of the papers or para-<br />
<br />
graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br />
of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br />
to be the case.<br />
<br />
Tux 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 />
TueE List of Members of the Society of Authors<br />
published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br />
the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br />
a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br />
obtained at the offices of the Society.<br />
<br />
They will be sold to members or associates of<br />
the Society only.<br />
<br />
——<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 />
<br />
Vor. XV.<br />
<br />
Western 3 % Debenture Stock. Accordingly, the<br />
investments of the Pension Fund at present<br />
standing in the names of the ‘l'rustees are as<br />
follows.<br />
<br />
This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br />
money value can be easily worked out at the current<br />
price of the market :<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
COnsOlS OF 9 £1000 0 0<br />
Tiogal Wioans, (5 500, 0) 0<br />
Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br />
<br />
dated: Inseribed Stock: ......3...2.... 991 19 AL<br />
<br />
Wanli0al (6026 20h 9233<br />
London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br />
HUE SOCK 4 oo a. 250. 0. 0<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
AMON eek £2,243 9 2<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Subscriptions from April, 1904.<br />
<br />
& Ss. a.<br />
April18, Dixon, W. Scarth . : - 0 2 0<br />
April18, Bashford, Harry H. 010 6<br />
April19, Bosanquet, Hustace F. . . 0 1076<br />
April23, Friswell, Miss Laura Hain . 0 5 O<br />
May 6,Shepherd,G. H. . 705. 0<br />
June 24, epee Sir Horace, ‘Bart.,<br />
G.C.B : : : oe 1 0<br />
July 27, Barnett, P ; £0 107.0<br />
Nov. g. eat, Charles 010 0<br />
Donations from April, 1904.<br />
May 16, Wynne, C. Whitworth. 7)<br />
June 23, Kirmse, R. . : od) 0<br />
June 23, Kirmse, Mrs. R. : - 0 5.0<br />
July 21, The Blackmore Memorial<br />
Committee : 20.50.00<br />
Aug. 5, Walker, William S : y 2 020<br />
Oct. 6, Hare, i. W. EMD... _ 1 1 0<br />
Oct. 6, Hardy, Harold : : ; 010 0<br />
Oct. 20, Cameron, Mrs. Lovett . --0 10.0<br />
Nov. 7, Benecke, Miss Ida . : ~ 1 1.0<br />
Nov. 11, Thomas, Mrs. Haig ; 2 2.0<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
FROM THE COMMITTEE.<br />
<br />
— +><br />
<br />
HE Managing Committee held their November<br />
meeting at 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br />
Jate, 8.W., on Monday, the 7th. The list<br />
<br />
of Members elected appears on another page.<br />
<br />
The Society’s United States Agent sent in his<br />
resignation, which was accepted by the Committee.<br />
‘As stated in our last number, Mr. James Bryce is<br />
making inquiries on the Society’s behalf in New<br />
York, and the Committee hope very soon to be in<br />
a position to arrange for the appointment of a<br />
fresh Agent.<br />
<br />
The Secretary laid before the Committee a letter<br />
which he had received from Mr. Frampton, R.A.,<br />
stating that the replica of the Besant Memorial<br />
was completed. He was instructed to notify the<br />
London County Council of the fact, in order that<br />
they might make the necessary arrangements to<br />
set up the memorial in the allotted position on the<br />
Thames Embankment.<br />
<br />
On the proposal of the Chairman, it was resolved<br />
to address to the family of the late Sir Walter<br />
Besant a letter of sympathy on the loss they had<br />
sustained by the death of their mother, Lady<br />
Besant.<br />
<br />
It was decided, with reference to the Society’s<br />
dinner in 1905, that the list of stewards should not<br />
be advertised as in former years. ‘The expense of<br />
the advertisement is considerable, and now that the<br />
lists of the Society are regularly published there iS<br />
less need for it.<br />
<br />
There were one or two other matters before the<br />
Committee, but no contentious business involving<br />
the expenditure of any of the Society’s funds.<br />
There were the usual number of cases, which are<br />
set out in another column.<br />
<br />
Sy gee<br />
<br />
Cases.<br />
<br />
Wire the autumn season the number of cases<br />
before the Secretary are gradually increasing.<br />
<br />
In the November issue of Ze Author 1t was<br />
stated that only eight cases had been dealt with in<br />
the former month. During the past month<br />
eighteen cases have passed through the Secretary’s<br />
hands. Five referred to claims for money. In<br />
three of these the money has been paid and<br />
forwarded to the members. The fourth has been<br />
placed in the hands of the Society’s solicitors. In<br />
the last case the Secretary has not had time to<br />
receive an answer to his letter. In seven cases<br />
MSS. have been detained, and the authors have<br />
been unable to get any reply to their letters. So<br />
far only one has been successful. ‘These cases<br />
are difficult to deal with, as members of the<br />
Society do not always hold acknowledgments from<br />
editors. As a general rule, however, editors are<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
most courteous and obliging when they receive<br />
letters from the Secretary, and are willing to take<br />
ereat pains in order, if possible, to discover MSS.<br />
which have been overlooked. It is hoped, there-<br />
fore, that the other MSS. will be returned in due<br />
course.<br />
<br />
here is one case where money and accounts were<br />
due. The money has been paid, the accounts<br />
rendered, and the matter closed. One case for<br />
accounts only in which the accounts have been<br />
rendered ; and four other matters which cannot be<br />
classed under any special heading. One of these<br />
dealing with a United States house has been satis-<br />
factorily negotiated, and one with an English<br />
publisher has also come to a satisfactory conclusion.<br />
Of the other two, the one dealing with an English<br />
publisher, cannot at present be terminated, and the<br />
other, dealing with a publisher in Canada, needs<br />
time for settlement.<br />
<br />
Of the disputes quoted in last month’s Author<br />
five are still unsettled, three deal with publishers<br />
outside Great Britain, two with United States<br />
publishers, the latter may be looked upon as parti-<br />
ally settled, for a portion of the money due has been<br />
paid and the balance promised. ‘The third, dealing<br />
with an agent in Germany, is still in the course of<br />
negotiation, but the matter is somewhat difficult<br />
and complicated. One of the other cases refers to<br />
an English magazine, and the neglect of the editor<br />
to answer any of the Secretary’s letters may neces-<br />
sitate the matter being placed in the hands of the<br />
Society’s solicitors. The other deals with a publisher<br />
from whom the Society has constantly received dis-<br />
courteous and unbusinesslike treatment. The<br />
former treatment the Society is unable to correct.<br />
The latler, however, it is sometimes possible to set<br />
straight, but only by legal proceedings. Unfortu-<br />
nately, in the present Case, the member of the<br />
Society happens to be abroad, and the publisher<br />
has knowledge of the fact. We should not like to<br />
state that this is the reason why he refuses to<br />
forward the accounts, but although they have been<br />
due for over six months, and although the Secretary<br />
has. written for them on several occasions, the<br />
publisher, although replying on other points, has<br />
refused to deliver what the author has a right to<br />
demand.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
November Elections.<br />
<br />
26, Mount Street, Gros-<br />
venor Square, Lon-:<br />
don, W.<br />
<br />
Ainslie, Douglas<br />
<br />
Ball, Mrs. Mary B. (Elyria<br />
Kirby).<br />
Barclay, Sir Thomas<br />
<br />
17, Rue Pasquier, Paris.<br />
Bracher, Mrs. L. E.<br />
<br />
Hamilton, Waikato,<br />
New Zealand.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 63<br />
<br />
Hampden Club, Phoenix<br />
<br />
Broom, J. 8. :<br />
Street, N.W.<br />
<br />
Crofton, Miss Marian Kirkside, St. John’s<br />
Park, Blackheath,<br />
S.E.<br />
<br />
Daw, E. M. Beaumont House,<br />
Llanelly.<br />
<br />
1, Rue Michelet, Paris.<br />
<br />
Finch, Madame :<br />
2, Woodville Terrace,<br />
<br />
Freeman, Richard Austin<br />
<br />
Gravesend.<br />
Gostling, Miss Frances Barmingham, Worth-<br />
Marion : ing.<br />
Hollingsworth, Charles 28, Barry Road, S.E.<br />
Laing, Janet : Lisaghmore, Kirk-<br />
<br />
caldy, Fife, N.B.<br />
<br />
Laurence-Hamilton, J. . 30, Sussex Square,<br />
Brighton.<br />
<br />
Allahabad, India.<br />
<br />
Villino, Masini, Settig-<br />
nano, Florence, Italy.<br />
<br />
McCarthy, Justin Hunt- Herdholt, Westgate-on-<br />
ley - : : é Sea.<br />
<br />
Newcombe, Alfred C. 39, Warrington Cres-<br />
cent, W.<br />
<br />
72, Albert Hall Man-<br />
sions, Kensington<br />
Gore, W.<br />
<br />
care of James Millar,<br />
Esq.,13, King’s Arms<br />
Yard, London, E.C.<br />
<br />
19, Arlington Street,<br />
London, S.W.<br />
<br />
Cos Cob, Connecticut,<br />
<br />
Lewis, T. C.<br />
Maquarie, Arthur<br />
<br />
Paget, Mrs. Gerald<br />
<br />
Parkinson, William<br />
<br />
Ronaldshay, The Right<br />
Hon. the Earl of<br />
Seton, Ernest Thompson<br />
<br />
U.S.A.<br />
<br />
Simpson, H. F. Morland 80, Hamilton Place,<br />
Aberdeen.<br />
<br />
Steedman, Miss Christine Heyne Hall, Fillongley,<br />
Joventry.<br />
<br />
Tuite, Hugh.<br />
<br />
Wilson-Barrett, Alfred . 43, Lower Belgrave<br />
Street, Haton Square,<br />
S.W.<br />
<br />
Two members do not desire either their names<br />
or addresses printed.<br />
ope — =<br />
<br />
BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br />
THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
cereals a<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 />
ART,<br />
A RecorD Or SPANISH PAINTING. By C. GASQUOINE<br />
HARTLEY. 9} x 6%, 366 pp. Walter Scott Publishing<br />
Co. 10s. 6d. n,<br />
<br />
THE LIFE AND ART OF SANDRO Borriceny1. By Junta.<br />
<br />
CARTWRIGHT. 124 x 94,205pp. Duckworth: 21s.n.<br />
<br />
THE TUSCAN AND VENETIAN ARTISTS : THEIR THOUGHT<br />
AND WorK. By Hope Rwa. 7% x 5, 182 pp. Dent.<br />
<br />
PICTURES IN THE TATE GALLERY. By C. GAsQuorInr<br />
Harruey. 114 x 9, 208 pp. Seeley.<br />
<br />
ENGLISH EARTHENWARE MADE DURING THE 177TH AND<br />
18TH CENTURIES. 132 pp. 78 plates ; AND ENGLISH<br />
PORCELAIN MADE DURING THE 18TH CENTURY. 113 pp.<br />
59 plate. By A. H. CHurcu, F.R.S. 7% X Ba.<br />
Wyman. z<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
BIOGRAPHY.<br />
GREAT ENGLISHMEN OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. By<br />
SIDNEY LEE. 82 x 53, 333 pp. Constable. 7s. 6d. n.<br />
THe Live or FaTHer IGNatius. By THE BARONESS DE<br />
BERTOUCH. 9 x 52, 439 pp. Methuen. 10s. 6d. n.<br />
Firty YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE. By Mason ARTHUR<br />
GRIFFITHS. 9% x 63, 426 pp. Cassell. 18s. n.<br />
ROBERT Burns, By Sir G. DouGuasand W. S. CROCKETT.<br />
9 X 63, 40 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 1s,<br />
BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br />
<br />
IN THE CLOSED Room. By FRANCES HopGSon BURNETT<br />
84 x 53,130 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 3s. 6d. n.<br />
PH@NIX AND THE CARPET. By E. NusBit. 82 xX 54,<br />
<br />
236 pp. Newnes. 6s.<br />
A ScHOOL CHAMPION. By R. JAcBERNS. 74 X 54,<br />
356 pp. Chambers. 3s. 6d.<br />
THE GIRLS OF CroMER HALL.<br />
240 pp. Nelson. 2s.<br />
Home Letters. By RAYMOND JACBERNS.<br />
. BeC Ks.<br />
A FAMILY GRIEVANCE, By RAYMOND JACBERNS. 182 pp.<br />
Gardner Darton. Ils, 6d.<br />
MARCHING TO AVA. A story of the first Burmese War.<br />
<br />
By HENRY CHARLES Moore. 73 X 54, 318 pp.<br />
zall, 25,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
3y RAYMOND JACBERNS.<br />
<br />
224 pp.<br />
<br />
BOYS’ BOOKS.<br />
By A SCHOOLBOY’s HAND. By ANDREW HOME. 7} x 54,<br />
302 pp. Black. 3s. 64d.<br />
CHILDREN.<br />
THE PEDLAR’s Pack. By Mrs. ALFRED BALDWIN.<br />
8 x 53,397 pp. Chambers. 6s.<br />
DRAMA.<br />
<br />
PHILIP OF Macrepon. A Tragedy. By FREDERICK<br />
WINBOLT. Alexander Moring.<br />
<br />
TRAGIC DRAMA IN ASSCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES AND SHAKE-<br />
SPEARE. By LEWIS CAMPBELL. 8} X 53, 280 pp.<br />
Smith Elder. 7s. 6d.<br />
<br />
AGLAVAINE AND SELYSETTER.<br />
LINcK. ‘Translated by A. SuTRO.<br />
Allen. 1s. n.<br />
<br />
By MAurice MAETER-<br />
74 x 5, 104 pp.<br />
<br />
FICTION.<br />
<br />
PorPpE JACYNTH, AND OTHER FANTASTIC TALES. By<br />
VERNON Len. 7X 5,200 pp. Grant Richards. 3s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
PLAYING THE GAME, A Story of Japan. By DouGgias<br />
SLADEN. 72 X 5,319 pp. White. 6s.<br />
<br />
A Book or Guosts. By 8. BARING GOULD.<br />
383 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br />
<br />
A DUEL. By R. MARSH. 7? x 5,324 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br />
<br />
With A Virw TO MATRIMONY, AND OTHER STORIES.<br />
By JAMES BuyTH. 7} X 5. Grant-Richards. 6s.<br />
<br />
ONE or THE Few. By SARAH DoupNny. 7% X 5,<br />
347 pp. Hutchinson. 6s. ("4 :<br />
<br />
THE IsLES OF SUNSET. By A. C. BENSON. 73 X 5,<br />
307 pp. Isbister. 6s,<br />
<br />
THE MARRYING OF SARAH GARLAND. By Mrs. FINNE-<br />
MORE, 72 X 5}, 326 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s,<br />
<br />
1h xX 5,<br />
I<br />
;<br />
}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
64 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
DIALSTON LANE. By W.W. Jacops. 74 X 43 326 pp-<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NEWNE 6s. . :<br />
Miss Brent or Muap. By CHRISTABEL B, COLERIDGE,<br />
73 x 5,243 pp. Isbister. 6s.<br />
<br />
‘He SpectALIST. By A. M. IRVINE. 7} X 52; 317 pp.<br />
Lane. 6s.<br />
<br />
Jim MORTIMER, SURGEON. By R. S. WARREN<br />
280 pp. Newnes. Bs. 6d.<br />
<br />
A Lapy in WarTine. By the Hon. Mrs. ANSTRUTHER.<br />
7% X 5, 300 pp. Smith Elder. 65. oS<br />
<br />
A MorGanatic WIFE. 3y Louis Tracy. 7% X 9,<br />
307 pp. White. 6s. g<br />
<br />
A JAPANESE ROMANCE. By CLivE HOLLAND. TX 5,<br />
329 pp. Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br />
<br />
Tui AMBASSADOR’S GLOVE. By R. MACHRAY.<br />
316 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br />
<br />
LAMMAS GROVE. 3y CARLTON DAWE,<br />
331 pp. Brown, Langham & Co. 6s.<br />
<br />
In Deep AByss. By GEORGES Onner. Translated by<br />
Frep RoTHWELL, B.A. 327 pp. Greening. 6s.<br />
<br />
RonaLD AND I. By ALFRED Pretor. London: Geo.<br />
Bell & Sons. Cambridge : Deighton, Bell & Co.<br />
Ss. 6d. a.<br />
<br />
THE CHAPEL ON THE HILL.<br />
London: Geo. Bell & Sons.<br />
Bell & Co. 3s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
Tu WIDOWHOOD OF GABRIELLE Grant. By EGLANTON<br />
THORNE. 72 X 54, 309 pp. Hodder and Stoughton,<br />
6s.<br />
<br />
THE PRISONER OF CARISBROOKE.<br />
War. By SIDNEY HERBERT BURCHELL.<br />
486 pp. Gay and Bird. 6s.<br />
<br />
Sanny. A Study, and other Tales of the Outskirts. By<br />
Hucu Cuirrorp. 7? X 5, 299 pp. Blackwood. 6s.<br />
<br />
Baccarat. By FRANK DANBY. {a x 0; 280" pp-<br />
Heinemann. 6s.<br />
<br />
Curiosities. By Barry PAIN. 6 x 49, 184. pp.<br />
Unwin. Is.<br />
<br />
Tus TIGER or Muscovy. By Frep WHISHAW. 72 x 54,<br />
332 pp. Longmans. 6s.<br />
<br />
Lessons. By EVELYN SHARP.<br />
ley Johnson. 2s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
Aroms OF EMPIRE. By CUTCLIFFE Fyne. 73 X 54,<br />
311 pp. Macmillan. 6s.<br />
<br />
Men oF THE NorTH SEA.<br />
7k x 5, 367 pp. Nash. 6s.<br />
<br />
HISTORY.<br />
SomE CONSEQUENCES OF THE NORMAN Conquest. By<br />
<br />
the Rev. GEOrFREY Hinu. 9 X 53, 251 pp. Stock<br />
7s. Gd. Nn.<br />
<br />
3ELL.<br />
<br />
7% Xx 5,<br />
<br />
12 x08,<br />
<br />
3y ALFRED PRETOR.<br />
Cambridge : Deighton,<br />
<br />
A Tale of the Civil<br />
<br />
7% x5, 176 pp. Brim-<br />
<br />
By WALTER W. Woop.<br />
<br />
LAW.<br />
A TREATISE ON THE LAW OF CONTRACTS. By J. CHITTY,<br />
Juxr. Fourteenth Edition. By J.M. Lenty. 10 x 64,<br />
805 pp. Sweet & Maxwell. 30s,<br />
<br />
LITERARY.<br />
STUDIES IN ProsE AND VERSE. By ARTHUR SYMONS.<br />
84 x 54,291 pp. Dent. 7s. 6d. n.<br />
TH FEMININE Note rN Fiction. By W.L. COURTNEY.<br />
7h X 5}, 276 pp. Chapman and Hall. 5s. n.<br />
THE ARTIST'S Lire. By JOHN OLIVER HOBBES. Tk x 54,<br />
138 pp. T. Werner Laurie. 2s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
MISCELLANEOUS,<br />
THE SEA FISHING INDUSTRY OF ENGLAND AND WALES.<br />
By F.G. AFLALO. 8} X 54, 386 pp. Stanford. 16s. n.<br />
MUSIC.<br />
<br />
Tne Music oF THE MAstERS. Wagner. By HE. NEw-<br />
MAN. 64 X 4}, 208 pp. Wellby. 2s. 6d, n.<br />
<br />
NATURAL HISTORY.<br />
<br />
Tue MAMMALS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. By<br />
J. G. Mruuais, F.Z.8. 3 Vols. Vol. I. 363 pp. Long-<br />
mans. £6 6s. n.<br />
<br />
HousE, GARDEN AND Freup. A Collection of Short<br />
<br />
Nature Studies. By L. C. MrauL, F.R.S. 7% X 54,<br />
<br />
316 pp. Arnold. 6s.<br />
<br />
POETRY.<br />
<br />
300K OF REMEMBRANCE: BEING LYRICAL SELECTIONS<br />
<br />
ror Every DAY IN THE YEAR. Arranged by ELIZA-<br />
<br />
BETH GopFREY. 7 X 4, 415 pp. Methuen. 2s. 6d. n.<br />
<br />
SeLectED Poems. By JOHN DAVIDSON. 7 X 44,<br />
204 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d, n.<br />
<br />
A DARK Niau?’s WoRK. A North Country Ballad witha<br />
few other Poems. By SiR Go. Doveias. 7 X 4,<br />
30 pp. Cottingham, Yorks. Tutin, 6d. n.<br />
<br />
For GREATER BRITAIN. By C. WHitworth WYNNE.<br />
8h x 53, 39 pp. Gay and Bird.<br />
<br />
><br />
<br />
SCIENCE.<br />
<br />
Frrst REPORT OF THE WELLCOME RESEARCH LABORA-<br />
TORIES AT GORDON MEMORIAL COLLEGE, KHARTUM.<br />
3y the Director, A. BALFouR. 11 x 7%, 83 pp.<br />
Department of Education, Sudan Government, Khartum.<br />
<br />
THEOLOGICAL.<br />
<br />
SprrITUAL FORESHADOWING. Anonymous. Messrs.<br />
Gay and Bird, 2s. 6d.<br />
VAUGHAN’S UNIVERSITY AND OTHER SERMONS. Edited<br />
<br />
by an Old Pupil (ALFRED Preror). Macmillan, 6s.<br />
<br />
TOPOGRAPHY.<br />
<br />
BONNIE SCOTLAND. Painted by SUTTON PALMER :<br />
Described by A. R. HopEH MONCRIEFP. 9 x 64, 255 pp.<br />
Black. 20s. n.<br />
<br />
RAIDERLAND. All about Grey Galloway, its Stories,<br />
Traditions, Characters, and Humours. By 5. &<br />
CRocKETT. 8 x 54, 3827 pp. Hodder and Stoughton.<br />
6s.<br />
<br />
TRAVEL.<br />
<br />
THROUGH TOWN AND JUNGLE.<br />
MAN and Fanny BuLLock WORKMAN.<br />
380 pp. Unwin. 21s, n.<br />
<br />
3y Wa. HUNTER WORK-<br />
10 x 6%,<br />
<br />
ge<br />
<br />
LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br />
NOTES.<br />
<br />
+<br />
<br />
NOTICE of the ninth annual issue of the<br />
“ Literary Year Book” has been forwarded<br />
to the office.<br />
<br />
As the publication is in fresh hands, it may be<br />
<br />
of interest to our readers to learn its contents.<br />
The work will be published by Messrs. George<br />
Routledge & Sons, no doubt early in the year, and<br />
is divided into two parts. The first part, with red<br />
<br />
edges, contains a catalogue of books published in ~<br />
<br />
1904, a Directory of Authors, an Obituary for<br />
1904 with Bibliographies, an Index of Titles, and<br />
a list of Secretarial and Research workers.<br />
<br />
The second part, with blue edges, will contain<br />
new articles on Copyright and Agreements.<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 />
The circular states that the article on Copyright<br />
has been written by a lawyer familiar with the<br />
legal bearings of this intricate subject, and the<br />
article on Agreements is written by an authority<br />
who combines in his own person the function of<br />
author and publisher, and attempts to hold the<br />
balance fairly between the interests of the author<br />
and the publisher, and deals impartially with the<br />
question of the literary agent. This part of the<br />
“Literary Year Book” was done exceedingly well<br />
in former years. It seems a great pity to have<br />
gone to the expense of providing other articles on<br />
a very difficult subject. It remains to be seen how<br />
far they cover the points put forward and what<br />
may be the view of one who, as an author and a<br />
publisher, stands as a judge to balance between<br />
the interests of the two. The same part of the<br />
volume will contain a Directory of Publishers and<br />
Agents (British and foreign), a List of Periodical<br />
Publications, with a Contributor’s Guide, Royalty<br />
Tables, a List of Libraries, and a Directory of<br />
Societies, Booksellers, Bookbinders, etc.<br />
<br />
We have set out in full the statement of what is<br />
claimed for the new issue of the “ Literary Year<br />
Book.” It should prove of valuable assistance to<br />
all who are interested in the writing and production<br />
of books.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Macmillan & Co. are publishing early<br />
this month, “Great Lawn Tennis Players— their<br />
Methods Illustrated,” by G. W. Beldam, and P. A.<br />
Vaile. Messrs. E. G. Meers and A. Claridia both<br />
contribute chapters to the work, the former on<br />
advanced tactics, and the latter on the half volley.<br />
The price of the book, which contains over 200<br />
illustrations, is 10s. net.<br />
<br />
A book of verses written, illustrated, and deco-<br />
rated with specially designed end-papers, initials,<br />
headings, etc., by Sidney Lewis-Ransom, will be<br />
privately printed early in the new year. The<br />
edition will be strictly limited to 500 numbered<br />
and signed copies at a guinea. Intending sub-<br />
Scribers can see the original copy by appointment<br />
with Mr. S. Lewis-Ransom, Messrs. Bemrose &<br />
Sons, Ltd., 4, Snow Hill, E.C.<br />
<br />
Mr. Hall Caine’s new novel, “The Prodigal<br />
Son,” was published early in November by William<br />
Heinemann in England, and Messrs. Appleton & Co.<br />
in the United States. Translations of the work<br />
also appeared in France (“ Le Fils Prodigue”) ; in<br />
Germany (“Der Verlorene Sohn”); Italy (‘Tl<br />
Figliol Prodigo”) ; Sweden (“Den Forlorade<br />
Sonen”); Holland (“De Verlooren Zoon Uys<br />
Denmark (“Den Forlorne Son”); Finland<br />
(“ Tublaaja Poika ”). Weunderstand that transla-<br />
tions into six other languages are in the course of<br />
preparation.<br />
<br />
The first number of The Albany Magazine,<br />
<br />
65<br />
<br />
the keynote of which is Literature, was published<br />
on November 21st by Messrs. 8. (. Brown, Langham<br />
& Co. Among the contributors may be mentioned<br />
Eden Phillpotts, Morley Roberts, Richard White-<br />
ing, Francis Gribble, Edward Morton, and Henry<br />
Cresswell. :<br />
<br />
The second edition of “Round the World<br />
through Japan,” in four volumes, demy octavo,<br />
with fifty full page illustrations by Walter Del Mar,<br />
has been published by Messrs. A. & C. Black at the<br />
price of 12s. 6d. net. The book deals mostly with<br />
Japan, but it contains four chapters on China,<br />
three on Ceylon, and chapters dealing with the<br />
other spots through which Mr. Del Mar travelled,<br />
<br />
In view of the frequent appearance of advertise-<br />
ments of ‘ Elizabeth ” books, Messrs. Macmillan &<br />
Co. desire it to be known that the author of “ Eliza-<br />
beth and Her German Garden ” publishes her books<br />
through their firm only.<br />
<br />
The latest addition to Messrs. Macmillan & Co.’s<br />
“English Men of Action” series is Sir Rennell<br />
Rodd’s monograph on Sir Walter Raleigh. The lives<br />
of few public men have offered more scope for con-<br />
troversy than has the career of the great Eliza-<br />
bethan, and this study of the complex character of<br />
the famous statesman, soldier, and sailor, by a<br />
modern writer who is identified with broad<br />
imperial views on national questions, will, no doubt,<br />
contain much interesting reading.<br />
<br />
“The First Men in the Moon,” by Mr. H. G.<br />
Wells, has been transferred to Messrs. Macmillan &<br />
Co., and is now issued by them in the uniform<br />
three and sixpenny edition of this author’s works,<br />
<br />
A new edition of “The Liars” has just been<br />
published by the same firm, uniform with the other<br />
dramatic works of Mr. H. A. Jones.<br />
<br />
Miss J. 8. Wolff’s new book, “ Les Francais du<br />
dix-huitieme Siecle” (Edward Arnold, 1s. 6d.) is<br />
the story of the French Revolution simply and<br />
graphically told in French, with notes, ete., in<br />
English.<br />
<br />
Mr. Rolfe has gone into the country to finish his<br />
second work upon Hadrian the Seventh, the story<br />
which Messrs. Chatto & Windus published last<br />
July.<br />
<br />
“The Ambassador’s Glove,” by Robert Mach-<br />
ray, has been published by Mr. John Long at the<br />
price of 6s. It is a story of a daring diamond<br />
robbery at a large hotel, and is full of incident.<br />
<br />
Mrs. Aylmer Gowing has been honoured with<br />
the Queen’s acceptance of a copy of her last book,<br />
“ A King’s Desire.”<br />
<br />
The Book Selection Committee of the National<br />
Home Reading Union have included the two<br />
historical novels, ‘The Gleaming Dawn” and<br />
66<br />
<br />
“The Cardinal’s Page,” by James Baker, as books<br />
recommended to be read by the readers who are<br />
taking up the subject, “The England of Chaucer<br />
and Wyclif.” As this committee includes several<br />
well-known historians, the compliment of their<br />
choice confirms the numerous reviews of the books.<br />
<br />
Mr. Anthony Hope, lecturing at the Working<br />
Men’s College on Saturday, November 12th,<br />
referred to the modern novel, and stated that it<br />
was too often a vehicle to convey the author’s<br />
view of the world, or was written in order to solve<br />
a problem propounded by the author. He stated,<br />
further, that whereas with the old story the great<br />
question was, “ What happened?” with the present<br />
day story the chief question was, “Why did it<br />
happen ?” or “ Ought it to have happened ?”<br />
<br />
Messrs. Macmillan & Co. have published the<br />
first volume of their reprint of the ‘‘ Diary and<br />
Letters of Madame D’Arblay (1778-1840), with a<br />
preface and notes by Austin Dobson. ‘The new<br />
issue is based on the edition of 1842 to 1846,<br />
edited by Mrs. Charlotte Francis Barrett, and will<br />
consist of six volumes.<br />
<br />
«“ Around a Distant Star,” by Jean Delaire,<br />
author of “ A Dream of Fame,” etc., is published by<br />
Mr. John Long, of 13 and 14, Norris Street, Hay-<br />
market. It is astoryofa journey intospace, embody-<br />
ing a new and interesting central idea. The book<br />
is published at the price of 6s.<br />
<br />
Messrs. Longman will publish shortly a story<br />
by Mr. Walter Herries Pollock, and his son, Mr.<br />
Guy C. Pollock, called “‘ Hay Fever.” It is concerned<br />
with the strange adventures of a highly and justly<br />
respected stockbroker, and is founded on the known<br />
actions of a drug, sometimes prescribed for hay<br />
fever, though the authors have not aimed at<br />
scientific accuracy. The story will appear first in<br />
the pages of Longman’s Magazine.<br />
<br />
A large second edition has just been issued of<br />
Mr. Walter Emanuel’s, ‘‘ The Snob,” the companion<br />
volume to the same authow’s, “ A Dog Day,” which<br />
is now in its twentieth thousand.<br />
<br />
Lord Burghclere’s translation of the Georgics of<br />
Virgil into English verse, which was privately<br />
circulated amongst his friends last year, and a few<br />
extracts from which appeared in the Néneteenth<br />
Century, was published by Mr. John Murray towards<br />
the end of last month.<br />
<br />
Dr. Richard Garnett’s comedy in blank verse, to<br />
which we referred in the May number of Zhe<br />
Author, was published by Mr. John Lane on the<br />
23rd of last month. The title of the comedy is<br />
“William Shakespeare, Pedagogue and Poacher,”<br />
and among the characters introduced, in addition<br />
to William and Ann Shakespeare, are Sir Thomas<br />
and Lady Lucy, and the Earl of Leicester.<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
Miss Rosa Nouchette Carey’s book, “At<br />
the Moorings,” which Messrs. Macmillan & Co.<br />
published recently at the price of 6s., has been<br />
included by Baron Tauchnitz in his continental<br />
series. We understand also that Messrs. Macmillan<br />
have published a new and cheaper edition of Miss<br />
Carey’s works at the price of 3s. 6d.<br />
<br />
Mr. H. V. Esmond’s new play, “‘ Love and The<br />
Man,” will be produced in New York in January<br />
by Mr. Forbes Robertson, but will not appear in<br />
London till September, 1905. The play is a<br />
serious one, in five acts, and deals with love and<br />
politics.<br />
<br />
Mr. Alfred Sutro’s play, “The Walls of Jericho,”<br />
described by the critics as a satire of “The Smart<br />
Set,” was produced at the Garrick Theatre on the<br />
31st. of October, and has met with favourable<br />
reviews. Mr. Arthur Bourchier and Miss Violet<br />
Vanbrugh, in a careful study, contributed largely<br />
to the success.<br />
<br />
On Saturday, November 12th, Miss Olga Nether-<br />
sole produced Mrs. Craigie’s latest play, entitled<br />
‘“‘The Flute of Pan,” at the Shaftesbury Theatre.<br />
The play deals with an imaginary kingdom entitled<br />
“Siguria.” The plot lies round a man outside the<br />
kingdom who falls in love and marries the Princess.<br />
His position turns out not altogether satisfactory.<br />
<br />
PARIS NOTES.<br />
<br />
——-—— +<br />
<br />
OW that books on Russia and Japan are<br />
in demand, “ Promenades en Russie,’ by<br />
Madame Blanc-Bentzon, is an excellent one<br />
<br />
for giving an idea of the every-day life of the people.<br />
Among the most interesting chapters are those<br />
which treat of the experiment tried by a wealthy<br />
Russian woman for the welfare and education of<br />
her tenants. After staying for some time at one<br />
of her own estates in Russia, she was struck by the<br />
contrast between her own gay, happy life and the<br />
wretched existence of the people around her. We<br />
are told that le mal de la pitie la prit, un mal dont<br />
on ne guertt pas. She had inherited a certain estate<br />
where she had about a hundred peasant families as<br />
tenants. For over eighteen years she has worked<br />
amongst these people educating and humanising<br />
them. At her death she intends to leave her<br />
property to be divided amongst them. It was to<br />
this little model village that Madame Blanc<br />
Bentzon first went on arriving in Russia. She<br />
gives us an account of all she saw, of the country<br />
itself, its people, their habits and customs, their<br />
traditions and their religion.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 67<br />
<br />
After this we have an account of her visit to<br />
Tolstoi and of his criticisms of modern literature<br />
and thought. The last chapters on ‘ Russian<br />
Women” and “ Village Industries ” are as instruc-<br />
tive as they are interesting, and the whole volume<br />
is written in that clear, natural style which is one<br />
of the great charms of this authoress.<br />
<br />
Another book on Russia which is extremely up-<br />
to-date is entitled “ Roubles et Roublards,” by<br />
Pierre Giffard. The writer of this volume has only<br />
recently returned from a sojourn of several months<br />
in Manchuria. The book is divided into three<br />
parts, the first a series of short graphic chapters,<br />
forty-seven in all, in which we have some amazing<br />
accounts of the bribery and corruption prevalent in<br />
the various administrations. The second part of<br />
the volume is devoted to L’Guvre géante, or the<br />
“Transasiatic.” In thirty more short chapters we<br />
have some Russo-Chinese pictures. The whole<br />
volume is a book well worth reading, as it gives an<br />
excellent idea of the interior of the country it<br />
describes. Everything is told in a concise, bright<br />
way, and one sees that the author knows his<br />
subject thoroughly.<br />
<br />
Another series of ‘‘ Impressions of Japan,” by<br />
Pierre Loti, will be published shortly in the Revwe<br />
des Deur-Mondes.<br />
<br />
To students of history, particularly of the period<br />
of the French Revolution, the book of letters from<br />
a volunteer (1733-1796) will be of great interest.<br />
The volume is entitled “Joliclerc,” and a long<br />
introduction of more than eighty pages is con-<br />
tributed by M. Frantz Funck-Brentano, the well-<br />
known author of “L’Affaire du Collier,’ and<br />
of many other historical works. These letters<br />
are written by Francois-Xavier. Joliclerc to his<br />
mother, and they give an excellent idea of the<br />
soldier of the Revolution. It appears that M. Taine<br />
often regretted the absence of any documents<br />
enabling us to know the thoughts and ideas of the<br />
volunteers who enlisted in the army of the Reyo-<br />
lution. This Joliclere was a humble peasant of<br />
the Jura, but as M. Funck-Brentano says with<br />
reason, in his preface, “ Ces lettres sont des chefs<br />
dceuvre. . Nous ne croyons pas que la<br />
littérature posséde aucun document ou se montre<br />
Yame d’un homme avec plus de force, de clarté<br />
et de simplicité.”<br />
<br />
The third volume of M. Gilbert Stenger’s excel-<br />
lent work on the “ Histoire de la Société francaise<br />
pendant le Consulat ” is now published, and is still<br />
more interesting than the preceding ones. This<br />
third volume is on “ Bonaparte—Sa Famille—Le<br />
Monde et les Salons,” and it would certainly be<br />
difficult to find a subject about which there is<br />
so much to say. It seems as though there must<br />
be an endless fund of information and details<br />
about those times, for every historian finds some-<br />
<br />
thing new to tell us. In this book by M. Stenger,<br />
of over five hundred pages, the interest is kept<br />
up from the first chapter to the last.<br />
<br />
M. Charles Foley’s “Vendée” is a collection<br />
of short stories founded on episodes belonging to<br />
the tragic times during the Vendean struggles.<br />
M. Foley is one of the greatest authorities on the<br />
events of this epoch, as he has made a special<br />
study of it, and is well versed in the archives of<br />
that period. There are about twenty stories in<br />
this volume, illustrated by reproductions of en-<br />
gravings of the times. Most of the episodes are<br />
dramatic, and many of them heroic. It is in stories<br />
of this kind that M. Foley excels, as he writes<br />
with great delicacy, gives us the atmosphere of<br />
the times evoked, and describes equally well the<br />
exquisite refinements, the heroic sacrifices, and<br />
brutalities of the aristocrats, the peasants, the<br />
soldiers, and the mob. Several of the stories in<br />
this volume are masterpieces of sentiment and<br />
style.<br />
<br />
“La Fugitive,’ by J.-H. Rosny, is the title of<br />
a volume of short stories, all of which are told<br />
in acharming way. There are between forty and<br />
fifty of these stories, humorous, sad, tragic,<br />
realistic or romantic. Among those which are the<br />
most delicately told are “Le Retour du Passé,” “Le<br />
Chien,” ‘‘Le Retour,” and “Ie Cadeau Inattendu.”<br />
<br />
‘“‘Le Dernier Mammouth” is another novel by<br />
M. Auzias Turenne, the author of “Cow Boy.”<br />
The author is a French Canadian, and his books<br />
are vigorous with the refreshing atmosphere of<br />
out-door life. They are no drawing-room novels,<br />
but stories of hardy pioneers, adventurers and<br />
explorers.<br />
<br />
“Te Village endormi,” by M. Georges Riat,<br />
gives an excellent picture of provincial life in<br />
France. It is the story of the rivalry between two<br />
villages in the Franche-Comté, one an agricultural<br />
district, the inhabitants of which are extremely<br />
conservative, and the other an industrial town of<br />
<br />
staunch Republicans, proud of their energy and<br />
progress. A romance runs through the book, as<br />
<br />
the son of the mayor of the one village is in love<br />
with the mayor’s daughter of the other village,<br />
and thanks to the political ideas of their respective<br />
parents, and the antagonism between the two<br />
villages, the course of true love does not run<br />
smoothly in this particular case.<br />
<br />
“Les Centaures,” by M. André Lichtenberger, is<br />
a curious novel telling of the last days and struggles<br />
of the race of Centaurs.<br />
<br />
M. Henri Davignon publishes a book entitled<br />
“ Moliére et la Vie,” which should certainly be read<br />
by all students or admirers of French classics.<br />
The author of this book compares many of the<br />
modern plays, which after an immense success are<br />
soon heard of no more, with those of Molicre. It<br />
<br />
<br />
68<br />
<br />
ig more than two hundred years since the ‘ Bour-<br />
<br />
geois Gentilhomme ” was put on the stage, but the<br />
piece lives to-day, and never gets old or out of date.<br />
The chapters of this work are headed, ‘‘ Moliere et<br />
les Femmes,” ‘‘Moliere et la Bourgeoisie,<br />
“ Moliere et les Petites Gens,” and ‘ Le drame<br />
dans Moliére,” and all of them are weil worth<br />
reading.<br />
<br />
In the recent reviews there are several excellent<br />
articles. In the Revue des Deux Mondes Count<br />
Charles de Mouy writes on the “Congres de<br />
Berlin,’ and M. Robert de la Sizeranne on<br />
“T/Esthétique des Tombeaux.” In the Revue<br />
de Paris, M. Louis Aubert writes on the subject<br />
of future rivalry between the Americans and the<br />
Japanese. M. Finot, in La Revue has been<br />
giving us some interesting articles entitled “ Le<br />
Roman de la Race francaise,” and M. Ular in the<br />
same paper has an article on “La Militarisation<br />
de la Chine.”<br />
<br />
On the 4th of November M. Paul de Cassagnac<br />
died at the age of sixty-two. For the last<br />
forty years he had written in various news-<br />
papers, and in 1886 he founded the well-known<br />
paper L’Autorite.<br />
<br />
In the dramatic world this season promises to<br />
be a most brilliant one. At the Frangais “‘ Notre<br />
Jeunesse,” by M. Alfred Capus, is pronounced a<br />
success.<br />
<br />
‘At the Renaissance “L’Escalade,” by M.<br />
Maurice Donnay, is the story of a savant thoroughly<br />
versed in psychology, who, after writing a ponderous<br />
book on “La Therapeutique des Passions,” falls<br />
in love himself as easily as any unsophisticated<br />
youth.<br />
<br />
“Maman Colibri,” by M. Henry Bataille, is being<br />
played at the Vaudeville, so that just at present<br />
there are plenty of interesting pieces running.<br />
<br />
The first International Congress of L’Art<br />
Dramatique, a society of authors and composers,<br />
took place at Nancy at the beginning of this season<br />
under the presidency of M. Alfred Capus. The object<br />
of this society is to put on the stage plays by authors<br />
who are unknown to the public. The cost of pro-<br />
duction is covered by the subscription of members<br />
and by a certain percentage given to the society by<br />
aathors whose plays have been put on, thanks to<br />
the help of this association. The society now has<br />
representatives in the French provinces and in<br />
many of the European countries. A monthly<br />
report is issued, “ L’Avant-Scéne,” and this paper<br />
is sent to all the managers.<br />
<br />
Some very interesting questions were discussed at<br />
this Congress, and it was proposed that every effort<br />
should be made to establish more popular theatres<br />
in the provinces and to encourage decentralisation<br />
as much as possible. The idea is that dramatic<br />
authors living in the provinces should have an<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
opportunity of producing their plays in their own<br />
part of the country without having to wait for 4<br />
verdict from Paris.<br />
Spain, Belgium, and Germany were represented<br />
by their delegates at this Congress.<br />
Anys HALLARD.<br />
<br />
—___—_—<>—_<br />
<br />
SPANISH NOTES.<br />
<br />
+<br />
<br />
PAIN is still plunged in distress at the loss<br />
of the Princess of Asturias, and the Press is<br />
eloquent in its plaints of the raid made by<br />
<br />
the arch enemy into the realm of youth, beauty,<br />
and royalty. The eldest little boy, Alfonzo Maria,<br />
just three years old, is appointed successor to his<br />
mother, Princess Mercedes, as heir to the throne,<br />
pending one in direct succession. The new<br />
infant is doing well in spite of her early initiation<br />
into the dignity of her position, for the little<br />
princess was not half-an-hour old before she was<br />
clad in rich robes and presented on a silver salver<br />
to the Pope’s Nuncio, the Prime Minister, Senor<br />
Sanchez de Tora, the Queen’s lawyer, several<br />
grandees of importance, a few generals, and the<br />
Prince’s royal suite. The sympathy of the whole<br />
country has been aroused for H.M. Queen Maria<br />
Cristina, who is still overwhelmed with grief.<br />
<br />
To turn to our notes of literary interest, the book<br />
list commenced last month by the striking philo-<br />
sophical-historical study of medizeval feudalism as<br />
seen in Gallicia. The title of the work “ El Cas-<br />
tello del Marques de Mos en Sotomayor,” gives the<br />
scene which the Marquesa de Ayerbe has taken as<br />
the subject of the book, and, inspired by her love for<br />
the place which saw her birth and where so much<br />
of her life has been spent, the authoress has spared<br />
herself no time and trouble in the research which<br />
has enabled her to imbue with living interest the<br />
characters who ruled over this district in what she<br />
is pleased to term ‘ the sublime epoch of the<br />
middle ages.” Madruga, the King of Gallicia,<br />
who took prisoner the Archbishop of Tuy, his<br />
virtuous successor, Don Alvaro, the parricide, Don<br />
Pedro, and poor Dofia Enriquez, who was assassi-<br />
nated by her own son, all are powerfully described<br />
by the pen of the learned lady, and the record gains<br />
in interest by descending as far as the establish-<br />
ment of the rights by the law court of Valladolid<br />
of Don Pelayo Antonio Correa Sotomayor, the great<br />
grandfather of the present duke, whose influential<br />
name is a household word in Madrid as the chief of<br />
the Royal Palace. :<br />
<br />
The history of the families of Spanish grandees<br />
is always rife with interest. That of Colonel<br />
Luis de Figuerola Ferrette can be traced back<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 69<br />
<br />
for sixteen generations, and his mother having<br />
been sister to Pope Pius IX. adds a sort of sacer-<br />
dotal dignity to a man so distinguished for his<br />
devotion to his king and his country. A review in<br />
Paris has given a very laudatory notice of his new<br />
historical drama, ‘‘ Love, Honour, and Duty.”<br />
<br />
The new play by Manuel Linares Rivas Astray,<br />
called “ Aire de Fuera,” published by the Society of<br />
Spanish Authors, bids fair to ventilate the opinions<br />
on divorce which are now surging to the surface in<br />
Spain. The book is dedicated to the well-known<br />
actor Fernando Diaz de Mendoza, who takes the<br />
chief man’s part in the representation of the piece<br />
on the boards. The plot treats of a wife’s terror at<br />
having to return to her villainous husband at the<br />
end of the five years separation granted after untold<br />
humiliating legal proceedings, which seems at<br />
present to be the nearest approach to divorce<br />
known in Spain. The unhappy woman’s suicide is<br />
the solution of the difficulty. The other married<br />
couple show the opposite side of the picture as<br />
the husband suggests divorce in Belgium as<br />
the salve to his deception by his trusted wife. The<br />
dialogue is bright and trenchant, bristling with such<br />
sentiments as “ Men make the laws without think-<br />
ing that woman’s body contains a dreaming suffering<br />
soul.”<br />
<br />
The subject of divorce is being well aired just<br />
now, for Madame Carmen Burgos de Segui, the<br />
well-known writer, under the name of “ Colum-<br />
bine” in the Diario de Madrid, &c., has just<br />
published a book called “ El Divorcio en Espana,”<br />
which is a collection of opinions she solicited on<br />
divorce from many of the leading people of the<br />
day. The interest of the work naturally lies in the<br />
diversity of the ideas expressed, and it forms a<br />
valuable study in Spanish thought on the question.<br />
The indefatigable editress publishes, moreover, in<br />
the Diario Universal of November 2nd, a long inter-<br />
view she had on the subject of divorce with<br />
Alfred Naquet, the well-known French reformist, in<br />
this direction. ‘Do you think that Spain will ulti-<br />
mately succeed in its efforts in this matter ?”<br />
asked the lady ; and the deputy replied, “ I believe<br />
it will be a long time hence, for success involves<br />
the necessity of a few members of the Congress<br />
being strong in the belief of liberty of thought.”<br />
And must not the vox populi be heard at the Parlia-<br />
mentary elections for such politicians to represent<br />
<br />
he people ?<br />
<br />
Consuelo de Alvarez also writes a powerful<br />
article in the daily Press on the question of<br />
divorce.<br />
<br />
Edmundo Gonzalez has just published a work<br />
called “ El Feminismo en las Sociedades Modernas,”<br />
which puts the question on a better platform in<br />
Spain—for when Consuelo del Rey says in her<br />
article on “ Woman and War,” that Spain would<br />
<br />
only care to be affiliated with the International<br />
Council of Women if such a council interested itself<br />
in the extermination of war, she is evidently<br />
ignorant of the great propaganda for peace in-<br />
augurated by the Council under such well-known<br />
women as Bertha V. Siittner, of Germany (author<br />
of the book, ‘‘ Arms Down,” which was commended<br />
by the Emperor William IT.), Jessie Ackermann<br />
(President of the Universal Alliance for Peace in<br />
America), Fru Blehr (President of the Universal<br />
Alliance for Peace by Education in Norway), and<br />
other ladies spoke powerfully on the subject at<br />
the recent International Congress for Women at<br />
Berlin.<br />
<br />
Several works of Prince Kropotkin, Harnack,<br />
and William James have been recently translated<br />
into Spanish, and “ Le Jardon d’Hpicure,” trans-<br />
lated by Ciges Aparicio, has created quite a sensa-<br />
tion, for it is declared to give food for a year’s<br />
thought, although it can be perused in a hour and<br />
a half.<br />
<br />
The well-known name of Galdos is now again<br />
before the public, as the author of the much<br />
required history of Spain during the nineteenth<br />
century. Itis to be called “ Episodias Nacionales,”<br />
and the pages just published in the Liberal on the<br />
late Queen Isabella II. promise well for the work<br />
of the famous novelist and dramatist.<br />
<br />
The Atheneum of Madrid was the scene last<br />
week of a lecture from the lips of the late Prime<br />
Minister, Senor Silvela, which marks Spain as the<br />
land par excellence for oratory. The distinguished<br />
audience numbered such well-known names as<br />
Sefior Moret (the minister who recently spoke so<br />
eloquently of our educational efforts in White-<br />
chapel), Canalejas, Echegaray, Dato, the Marques<br />
de Portago, &c., &e.<br />
<br />
Seiior Silvela commenced his speech with an<br />
interesting personal remark with regard to his<br />
retirement from Parliamentary life. “I was van-<br />
quished,” he said, “ not vanquished by my enemies<br />
or my friends, whose opinions certainly add to the<br />
cares of government, but I was vanquished by the<br />
sense of my inability to realise the ideals which<br />
impelled me to Parliamentary activity. But albeit<br />
vanquished in the arena of politics, I can never be<br />
called a deserter from realms of ideals for my<br />
country, and I gladly take my place in this<br />
Athenzeum, which has always been the scene of<br />
the great intellectual movements of our land.”<br />
Then, after an erudite reference to the leading<br />
minds of Christianity and philosophy, the orator<br />
proceeded to show that as truly as matter has its<br />
three dimensions, so is it undeniable that the<br />
human mind is subject to the measure of the true,<br />
the good, and the beautifal.<br />
<br />
RACHEL CHALLICE.<br />
<br />
<br />
COPYRIGHT IN SWEDEN.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
S Sweden joined the Berne Convention on<br />
August 1st, 1904, information as to the law<br />
of copyright prevailing in that country will<br />
<br />
be of interest, and may at any time be of use to<br />
members of the Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
The following notes have been contributed by the<br />
courtesy of a Swedish correspondent, Herr Harald<br />
Thornberg, whose translation with a few necessary<br />
alterations of idiom and phraseology we lay before<br />
our readers.<br />
<br />
The rights of Swedish subjects are governed by<br />
laws which bear the dates August 10th, 1877,<br />
May 28th, 1897, and April, 1904. The declaration<br />
of His Majesty the King of Sweden, which extended<br />
to his country the benefits of the Berne Convention,<br />
is dated July 8th, 1904.<br />
<br />
The provisions of the Swedish laws referred to<br />
are as follows : the sections or paragraphs are num-<br />
bered for the purpose of reference.<br />
<br />
General Provisions.<br />
<br />
(1) By the law of 1897 the author enjoys the<br />
exclusive right to print and multiply his works<br />
already published or unpublished, and the works<br />
thus protected include, besides literary compo-<br />
sitions, musical compositions, recorded by the<br />
ordinary or other forms of notation, maps, charts,<br />
architectural and other drawings, and reproductions<br />
of these, provided that they are not primarily<br />
produced for artistic purposes only.<br />
<br />
(2) By the law of 1897 an author enjoys the<br />
exclusive right to translate his work from one<br />
dialect to another of the same language. Tor the<br />
purposes of this section Swedish, Norwegian and<br />
Danish are deemed to be different dialects of the<br />
same language.<br />
<br />
(3) By the law of 1904 an author who, simul-<br />
taneously with his Swedish publication, publishes<br />
his book in another language or languages, and gives<br />
notice on his title page or at the commencement<br />
of his work that he is so doing, is deemed to have<br />
produced it in the language or languages specified.<br />
<br />
He enjoys the copyright in such translation for<br />
ten years, during which period he can restrain<br />
others from producing any other translation in the<br />
language or languages in question.<br />
<br />
(4) By the law of 1897 the translator of an<br />
author’s work into another language (provided that<br />
it be one the translation of which the author<br />
cannot restrain) enjoys the rights in his translation<br />
which are conferred upon an author by Section 1<br />
above. Hisrights, however, do not preclude others<br />
from making translations of the same work.<br />
<br />
(5) By the law of 1877 the publisher of any<br />
periodicals or books compiled from independent<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
contributions by various authors is deemed to be<br />
the author of the compilation, but acquires no<br />
right to publish any of the articles appearing in<br />
such periodical or book separately. ‘Ihe author<br />
may republish the articles which he has contributed<br />
to such periodical or compiled books at the end<br />
of one year from the date of their first publication.<br />
<br />
(6) By the law of 1877 the author may transfer<br />
his copyright to one or more persons either uncon-<br />
ditionally or with reservations. If he has not done<br />
so his rights will pass at his death to his heirs.*<br />
Unless expressly permitted to do so by the author<br />
the transferee of literary rights may not publish<br />
more than one edition, which may not consist of<br />
more than 1,000 copies.<br />
<br />
(7) By the law of 1877 copyright continues.<br />
during the author’s life-time and for fifty years<br />
after his death. Where two or more have collabo-<br />
rated as joint authors, not as independent con-<br />
tributors to a compilation, the said fifty years are<br />
to be reckoned from the death of the last deceased.<br />
<br />
(8) By the law of 1897 literary matter published<br />
by a scientific or other society which does not<br />
recognise the personal authorship of the work, and<br />
literary matter first published after the death of the<br />
author, are protected for fifty years from the date of<br />
their first publication.<br />
<br />
Fifty years is also the period of copyright for<br />
literary matter published anonymously or under a<br />
pseudonym, provided that, if the author before the<br />
end of the fiftieth year from the date of its first<br />
publication complies with certain prescribed con-<br />
ditions, he shall enjoy the copyright conferred by<br />
Section 7. These conditions are that he shall make<br />
known his identity either on the title page of a<br />
new edition, or by notice to the department of<br />
justice, followed by public advertisement repeated<br />
three times in the public press. Until the author<br />
has made himself known in one of the foregoing<br />
ways, the publisher shall represent him as the<br />
owner of the copyright.<br />
<br />
(9) By the law of 1897, when a literary compo-<br />
sition is published in a series of parts, the period<br />
of copyright is deemed to commence after the publi-<br />
cation of the last part. Should any part, however,<br />
have been published more than two years after the<br />
publication of the next preceding part, the period<br />
of protection for such next preceding part, as well<br />
as for any earlier parts, will be deemed to commence<br />
at the date of the publication of the part next<br />
preceding the interval of two years.<br />
<br />
(10) By the law of 1877, except in cases as to<br />
which it is expressly otherwise provided by. law,.<br />
no one may reprint that which is the subject of<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* This word is used here and in paragraph 22 by Mr.<br />
Thornberg. It may mean personal representatives or<br />
<br />
descendants; it is not likely to mean “ heirs’ in the<br />
technical Hnglish meaning of the word.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. | 71<br />
<br />
copyright during the continuance of the prescribed<br />
period without the permission of the owner of the<br />
copyright for the time being. No right to reprint<br />
what is otherwise protected is obtained by altering,<br />
abridging, or expanding the original matter. Re-<br />
printing under this section includes the publication<br />
of any unauthorised translation of the unpublished<br />
work of another, and of translations not pub-<br />
lished, as provided by Section 2, as well as publica-<br />
tion by any publisher, or by any person who has<br />
acquired a limited right to publish, when such pub-<br />
lication is not in accordance with the terms of his<br />
contract or licence to publish.<br />
<br />
(11) By the law of 1877 the prohibition of the<br />
unauthorised reprinting of the work of another<br />
does not apply to literary compositions which are<br />
in substance new and independent, and in which<br />
extracts from other works are introduced, either<br />
verbatim or in an abridged form, should such<br />
extracts be quoted as authorities, or for the purpose<br />
of criticising them, or as examples, or for the pur-<br />
pose of amplifying the topics treated of. Nor does<br />
such prohibition apply to the reprinting of passages,<br />
or of entire works of small dimensions, in compila-<br />
tions made for use in religious services, or in<br />
elementary instruction in reading, music, or draw-<br />
ing, or for the purpose of historical illustration, or<br />
when words are reprinted as the motive for a<br />
musical composition. In such cases, however, the<br />
name of the author must be given, should his<br />
name be attached to the original.<br />
<br />
(12) By the law of 1897 the prohibition of<br />
reprinting does not apply to quotations in periodical<br />
publications from articles which have appeared in<br />
publications of a similar character, provided that<br />
full acknowledgment is made, indicating the source<br />
from which the quotation is taken. Scientific<br />
treatises, literary compositions, and other works of<br />
greater length must not be reprinted in periodical<br />
publications, if the right to reprint has been<br />
expressly reserved at the beginning of the treatise<br />
or work in question, or at the beginning of the<br />
periodical volume, or volumes, in which it has<br />
appeared.<br />
<br />
The Swedish law of copyright so far as it affects<br />
dramatic and musical compositions.<br />
<br />
(13) By thelaw of 1897 dramatic and musical com-<br />
positions, the right of reproducing which by printing<br />
is protected by law, cannot be performed in public<br />
without the consent of the author or of the assignee<br />
of the author’s rights. Public performance of<br />
dramatic works, even without stage accessories,<br />
and of musical works, is subject to this restriction,<br />
both when the work in question has not been pub-<br />
lished in printed form, and when reservation of the<br />
right of public performance has been made upon<br />
the title page of the first printed edition.<br />
<br />
In the case of translations of published works<br />
for which the permission of the author is not<br />
required, the translator obtains the same right in<br />
his translation which he would have obtained as an<br />
author in an original work. In the absence of a<br />
special agreement to the contrary, the license or<br />
permission given by the author or the owner of the<br />
author’s rights to perform or present a dramatic<br />
or musical work, does not limit the number of per-<br />
formances and presentations, and is not assignable<br />
to a third party. The owner of the author’s rights,<br />
in the absence of any special agreement to the con-<br />
trary, may give such permission or licence to more<br />
than one person. Where the sole right of perform-<br />
ance or presentation has been assigned by the<br />
owner of the author’s rights, and the assignee<br />
during the five years next ensuing makes no use<br />
of such sole right, the owner of the author’s rights<br />
is at liberty to issue his licence or permission to<br />
another person or persons.<br />
<br />
(14) By the law of 1904 the right of an author<br />
or translator, as set out above with reference to<br />
musical and dramatic compositions, prevails during<br />
his lifetime and for thirty years after his death.<br />
In the case of works produced anonymously, any-<br />
one is at liberty to perform or present these after<br />
five years have elapsed from the date of their first<br />
publication or presentation.<br />
<br />
Legal remedies for the infringement of copyright<br />
m Sweden.<br />
<br />
(15) By the law of 1897 any person who<br />
infringes the copyright of another is liable to a fine<br />
of from twenty to one thousand crowns, to for-<br />
feiture of the edition published in contravention of<br />
such copyright, and to the payment of compensation<br />
in respect of copies sold at the full price of the<br />
authorised edition. This liability in respect of<br />
publications which are partially and to an ascer-<br />
tainable extent infringements of copyright, is<br />
proportionate to the extent of the infringement.<br />
<br />
Any person who by any unauthorised performance<br />
or presentation of dramatic or musical works (or of<br />
works both dramatic and musical) infringes the<br />
copyright of another is liable to a fine of from ten<br />
to one thousand crowns, and to pay by way of<br />
indemnity, to the owner of the copyright, the gross<br />
amount received by him at the time of such per-<br />
formance or presentation without deduction for any<br />
expenses incurred. When the performance which is<br />
the subject of legal proceedings has included the<br />
production of another work or other works, the<br />
indemnity thus payable shall be adjusted on a<br />
proportionate scale.<br />
<br />
Ifthe indemnity to be paid cannot be assessed<br />
upon the basis thus laid down, it shall be assessed<br />
upon such a scale as shall be found reasonable in<br />
the circumstances of the case, but so that the<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
COPYRIGHT IN SWEDEN.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
S Sweden joined the Berne Convention on<br />
August Ist, 1904, information as to the law<br />
of copyright prevailing in that country will<br />
<br />
be of interest, and may at any time be of use to<br />
members of the Society of Authors.<br />
<br />
The following notes have been contributed by the<br />
courtesy of a Swedish correspondent, Herr Harald<br />
Thornberg, whose translation with a few necessary<br />
alterations of idiom and phraseology we lay before<br />
our readers.<br />
<br />
The rights of Swedish subjects are governed by<br />
laws which bear the dates August 10th, 1877,<br />
May 28th, 1897, and April, 1904. The declaration<br />
of His Majesty the King of Sweden, which extended<br />
to his country the benefits of the Berne Convention,<br />
is dated July 8th, 1904.<br />
<br />
The provisions of the Swedish laws referred to<br />
are as follows: the sections or paragraphs are num-<br />
bered for the purpose of reference.<br />
<br />
General Provisions.<br />
<br />
(1) By the law of 1897 the author enjoys the<br />
exclusive right to print and multiply his works<br />
already published or unpublished, and the works<br />
thus protected include, besides literary compo-<br />
sitions, musical compositions, recorded by the<br />
ordinary or other forms of notation, maps, charts,<br />
architectural and other drawings, and reproductions<br />
of these, provided that they are not primarily<br />
produced for artistic purposes only.<br />
<br />
(2) By the law of 1897 an author enjoys the<br />
exclusive right to translate his work from one<br />
dialect to another of the same language. For the<br />
purposes of this section Swedish, Norwegian and<br />
Danish are deemed to be different dialects of the<br />
same language.<br />
<br />
(3) By the law of 1904 an author who, simul-<br />
taneously with his Swedish publication, publishes<br />
his book in another language or languages, and gives<br />
notice on his title page or at the commencement<br />
of his work that he is so doing, is deemed to have<br />
produced it in the language or languages specified.<br />
<br />
He enjoys the copyright in such translation for<br />
ten years, during which period he can restrain<br />
others from producing any other translation in the<br />
language or languages in question.<br />
<br />
(4) By the law of 1897 the translator of an<br />
author’s work into another language (provided that<br />
it be one the translation of which the author<br />
cannot restrain) enjoys the rights in his translation<br />
which are conferred upon an author by Section 1<br />
above. Hisrights, however, do not preclude others<br />
from making translations of the same work.<br />
<br />
(5) By the law of 1877 the publisher of any<br />
periodicals or books compiled from independent<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
contributions by various authors is deemed to be<br />
the author of the compilation, but acquires no<br />
right to publish any of the articles appearing in<br />
such periodical or book separately. ‘Ihe author<br />
may republish the articles which he has contributed<br />
to such periodical or compiled books at the end<br />
of one year from the date of their first publication.<br />
<br />
(6) By the law of 1877 the author may transfer<br />
his copyright to one or more persons either uncon-<br />
ditionally or with reservations. If he has not done<br />
so his rights will pass at his death to his heirs.*<br />
Unless expressly permitted to do so by the author<br />
the transferee of literary rights may not publish<br />
more than one edition, which may not consist of<br />
more than 1,000 copies.<br />
<br />
(7) By the law of 1877 copyright continues<br />
during the author’s life-time and for fifty years<br />
after his death. Where two or more have collabo-<br />
rated as joint authors, not as independent con-<br />
tributors to a compilation, the said fifty years are<br />
to be reckoned from the death of the last deceased.<br />
<br />
(8) By the law of 1897 literary matter published<br />
by a scientific or other society which does not<br />
recognise the personal authorship of the work, and<br />
literary matter first published after the death of the<br />
author, are protected for fifty years from the date of<br />
their first publication.<br />
<br />
Fifty years is also the period of copyright for<br />
literary matter published anonymously or under a<br />
pseudonym, provided that, if the author before the<br />
end of the fiftieth year from the date of its first,<br />
publication complies with certain prescribed con-<br />
ditions, he shall enjoy the copyright conferred by<br />
Section 7. These conditions are that he shall make<br />
known his identity either on the title page of a<br />
new edition, or by notice to the department of<br />
justice, followed by public advertisement repeated<br />
three times in the public press. Until the author<br />
has made himself known in one of the foregoing<br />
ways, the publisher shall represent him as the<br />
owner of the copyright.<br />
<br />
(9) By the law of 1897, when a literary compo-<br />
sition is published in a series of parts, the period<br />
of copyright is deemed to commence after the publi-<br />
cation of the last part. Should any part, however,<br />
have been published more than two years after the<br />
publication of the next preceding part, the period<br />
of protection for such next preceding part, as well<br />
as for any earlier parts, will be deemed to commence<br />
at the date of the publication of the part next<br />
preceding the interval of two years.<br />
<br />
(10) By the law of 1877, except in cases as to<br />
which it is expressly otherwise provided by, law,.<br />
no one may reprint that which is the subject of<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* This word is used here and in paragraph 22 by Mr.<br />
Thornberg. It may mean personal representatives or<br />
<br />
descendants; it is not likely to mean “heirs” in the<br />
technical English meaning of the word.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. . 71<br />
<br />
copyright during the continuance of the prescribed<br />
period without the permission of the owner of the<br />
copyright for the time being. No right to reprint<br />
what is otherwise protected is obtained by altering,<br />
abridging, or expanding the original matter. Re-<br />
printing under this section includes the publication<br />
of any unauthorised translation of the unpublished<br />
work of another, and of translations not pub-<br />
lished, as provided by Section 2, as well as publica-<br />
tion by any publisher, or by any person who has<br />
acquired a limited right to publish, when such pub-<br />
lication is not in accordance with the terms of his<br />
contract or licence to publish.<br />
<br />
(11) By the law of 1877 the prohibition of the<br />
unauthorised reprinting of the work of another<br />
does not apply to literary compositions which are<br />
in substance new and independent, and in which<br />
extracts from other works are introduced, either<br />
verbatim or in an abridged form, should such<br />
extracts be quoted as authorities, or for the purpose<br />
of criticising them, or as examples, or for the pur-<br />
pose of amplifying the topics treated of. Nor does<br />
such prohibition apply to the reprinting of passages,<br />
or of entire works of small dimensions, in compila-<br />
tions made for use in religious services, or in<br />
elementary instruction in reading, music, or draw-<br />
ing, or for the purpose of historical illustration, or<br />
when words are reprinted as the motive for a<br />
musical composition. In such cases, however, the<br />
name of the author must be given, should his<br />
name be attached to the original.<br />
<br />
(12) By the law of 1897 the prohibition of<br />
reprinting does not apply to quotations in periodical<br />
publications from articles which have appeared in<br />
publications of a similar character, provided that<br />
full acknowledgment is made, indicating the source<br />
from which the quotation is taken. Scientific<br />
treatises, literary compositions, and other works of<br />
greater length must not be reprinted in periodical<br />
publications, if the right to reprint has been<br />
expressly reserved at the beginning of the treatise<br />
or work in question, or at the beginning of the<br />
periodical volume, or volumes, in which it has<br />
appeared.<br />
<br />
The Swedish law of copyright so far as it affects<br />
dramatic and musical compositions.<br />
<br />
(13) By the law of 1897 dramatic and musical com-<br />
positions, the right of reproducing which by printing<br />
<br />
is protected by law, cannot be performed in public’<br />
<br />
without the consent of the author or of the assignee<br />
of the author’s rights. Public performance of<br />
dramatic works, even without stage accessories,<br />
and of musical works, is subject to this restriction,<br />
both when the work in question has not been pub-<br />
lished in printed form, and when reservation of the<br />
right of public performance has been made upon<br />
the title page of the first printed edition.<br />
<br />
In the case of translations of published works<br />
for which the permission of the author is not<br />
required, the translator obtains the same right in<br />
his translation which he would have obtained as an<br />
author in an original work. In the absence of a<br />
special agreement to the contrary, the license or<br />
permission given by the author or the owner of the<br />
author’s rights to perform or present a dramatic<br />
or musical work, does not limit the number of per-<br />
formances and presentations, and is not assignable<br />
to a third party. The owner of the author’s rights,<br />
in the absence of any special agreement to the con-<br />
trary, may give such permission or licence to more<br />
than one person. Where the sole right of perform-<br />
ance or presentation has been assigned by the<br />
owner of the author’s rights, and the assignee<br />
during the five years next ensuing makes no use<br />
of such sole right, the owner of the author's rights<br />
is at liberty to issue his licence or permission to<br />
another person or persons.<br />
<br />
(14) By the law of 1904 the right of an author<br />
or translator, as set out above with reference to<br />
musical and dramatic compositions, prevails during<br />
his lifetime and for thirty years after his death.<br />
In the case of works produced anonymously, any-<br />
one is at liberty to perform or present these after<br />
five years have elapsed from the date of their first<br />
publication or presentation.<br />
<br />
Legal remedies for the infringement of copyright<br />
m Sweden.<br />
<br />
(15) By the law of 1897 any person who<br />
infringes the copyright of another is liable to a fine<br />
of from twenty to one thousand crowns, to for-<br />
feiture of the edition published in contravention of<br />
such copyright, and to the payment of compensation<br />
in respect of copies sold at the full price of the<br />
authorised edition. This liability in respect of<br />
publications which are partially and to an ascer-<br />
tainable extent infringements of copyright, is<br />
proportionate to the extent of the infringement.<br />
<br />
Any person who by any unauthorised performance<br />
or presentation of dramatic or musical works (or of<br />
works both dramatic and musical) infringes the<br />
copyright of another is liable to a fine of from ten<br />
to one thousand crowns, and to pay by way of<br />
indemnity, to the owner of the copyright, the gross<br />
amount received by him at the time of such per-<br />
formance or presentation without deduction for any<br />
expenses incurred. When the performance which is<br />
the subject of legal proceedings has included the<br />
production of another work or other works, the<br />
indemnity thus payable shall be adjusted on a<br />
proportionate scale.<br />
<br />
If the indemnity to be paid cannot be assessed<br />
upon the basis thus laid down, it shall be assessed<br />
upon such a scale as shall be found reasonable in<br />
the circumstances of the case, but so that the<br />
<br />
<br />
72<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
amount payable shall not be less than twenty-five<br />
crowns. :<br />
<br />
(16) By the law of 1897, all materials such as<br />
stereotype plates, blocks and formes, the only use<br />
of which can be the multiplying of copies of a work<br />
in infringement of the author’s rights, as well as<br />
all copies of a work made with a view to musical<br />
or dramatic infringements, shall be seized, and<br />
unless the parties otherwise agree, shall be destroyed.<br />
<br />
(17) By the law of 1877, the failure to<br />
mention the name of the author or the title of the<br />
periodical publication as set out in Sections 11 and<br />
12, renders the offending party liable to a fine not<br />
exceeding one hundred crowns.<br />
<br />
(18) By the law of 1877, the penalties and<br />
indemnities ordered to be paid by those who publish<br />
works in infringement of the author’s rights are<br />
payable also, in proportion to the extent of the<br />
infringement, by those who knowingly offer such<br />
works for sale or import them into the kingdom.<br />
<br />
The Law affectiny foreigners, the consent of goint<br />
owners of copyright, the calculation of time, etc.<br />
(19) By the law of 1897, the Swedish law of<br />
<br />
copyright applies to all works of Swedish subjects<br />
<br />
and to works of foreigners first published in Sweden.<br />
<br />
Where reciprocal advantages are afforded by any<br />
<br />
other country, the king may by proclamation enable<br />
<br />
the subjects of that country to enjoy wholly or in<br />
part the advantages conferred by Swedish law in<br />
respect of works first published in that country.<br />
<br />
(20) By the law of 1897, when a work has<br />
been so produced that the cunsent of more than one<br />
person is necessary for its publication, performance<br />
or presentation, the consent of each such person<br />
must be obtained. In the case, however, of the pro-<br />
duction of work which is both musical and drama-<br />
tic, where the work is principally musical or<br />
principally dramatic, there the consent of the author<br />
of the preponderating element is sufficient.<br />
<br />
(21) By the law of 1877, in calculating the<br />
periods of time mentioned in Sections 5, 7, 8, 9,<br />
13, 14, the calendar year is not counted in which<br />
the incident occurs from which the prescribed period<br />
is reckoned.<br />
<br />
(22.) By the law of 1877, when a work is<br />
unprinted and is in the possession of the author’s<br />
widow or heirs, the copyright may not be seized for<br />
debt, nor does it pass to creditors in case of<br />
bankruptcy.<br />
<br />
(23) By the law of 1877 legal proceedings in<br />
respect of the law of copyright can only be taken<br />
by the owner of the right alleged to be infringed.<br />
<br />
(24) The law of 1904 came into force on<br />
July 1st, 1904, and applies retrospectively . to<br />
literary work published before that date, provided,<br />
however, that translations lawfully made before<br />
that date without the author’s consent may<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THER AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
continue to be published, and provided also that<br />
any one who has lawfully performed or presented<br />
dramatical or musical works before that date may<br />
continue to do so.<br />
<br />
—_____+——+ —____—_.<br />
<br />
MR. GEORGE RUSSELL AND “THE NORTH<br />
AMERICAN REVIEW.”<br />
<br />
—<>—+——<br />
<br />
JE have taken the letter printed below<br />
\\ from the Zimes of November 18th. It<br />
<br />
seems an extraordinary thing that a<br />
magazine of the position of the North American<br />
Review should have taken the course set forth in<br />
Mr. Russell’s letter, and it is the more extraordinary<br />
as we understand that the editor had notice of the<br />
writer’s objection. No doubt in the daily papers<br />
a certain latitude is allowed to an editor in altering<br />
and correcting articles of ephemeral interest, as<br />
there are pressing events which necessitate the<br />
editor taking this responsibility. In many cases he<br />
has not time to apply to the author. This reason,<br />
however, cannot apply to the editor of a big<br />
monthly review, and the question of a time limiit<br />
cannot possible arise. Certainly in this case it<br />
did not arise, as the editor had had the article by<br />
him for at least three years. That he should have<br />
made the alterations without the consent of the<br />
author, and have altered the present tenses into<br />
preterites, is carrying the editorial power beyond all<br />
reason. It is bad enough for the editor of a big<br />
review to retain an article for three years without<br />
publication, though we must mention with regret<br />
that editors of some of the big reviews in England<br />
are not guiltless on this point—they sometimes.<br />
keep their authors waiting for publication and<br />
payment beyond the limits of all justice—but it<br />
has never come to our notice, except in the instance<br />
quoted above, that alterations have been made<br />
without the author’s sanction, and we must confess<br />
that Mr. G. W. E. Russell seems amply justified<br />
in the protest he has made by the letter to the<br />
Times.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
To THE EDITOR OF THE Times.<br />
<br />
S1r,—Pray give me space for a personal grievance.<br />
<br />
When Sir William Harcourt died several editors asked<br />
me to give some account of him. ll these invitations I<br />
declined, on the ground that I had strongly dissented from<br />
some parts of Sir William’s public conduct, and that I was<br />
unwilling, at such a moment, to revive former discords,<br />
<br />
Great is my consternation, on opening the North Ameri-<br />
can Review for November 15, to see an article on Sir<br />
William Harcourt signed by myself. This article must, I<br />
think, be three years old. It was written at the request of<br />
the editor, as a candid criticism of a living and active<br />
politician. The editor seems to have kept it by him all<br />
these years, and has now published it with alterations. All<br />
the present tenses have been altered into preterites ; and the<br />
article has thus been made to wear the semblance of an<br />
Obituary Notice.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
TAE AU THOR.<br />
<br />
I deeply regret this exercise of editorial discretion ; for it<br />
must cause pain to some for whom I feel the most sincere<br />
<br />
respect and regard.<br />
Your obedient servant,<br />
GEORGE W. E. RUSSELL.<br />
<br />
November 17th.<br />
a ee<br />
<br />
HINTS ON PRODUCTION.<br />
<br />
—1—~<>— » —<br />
<br />
I.<br />
MANUSCRIPTS.<br />
<br />
N the preparation of manuscript for publication<br />
<br />
| it is hardly necessary to say that a neatly<br />
<br />
written one is likely to receive greater con-<br />
sideration from an editor or publisher, especially if<br />
the author is a beginner. An untidy manuscript,<br />
full of alterations or emendations, is tiresome to read,<br />
and is sometimes rejected on that score. Even if<br />
there is some literary merit in the production, its<br />
slovenliness is apt to warn the publisher of possible<br />
author’s corrections in the proofs, the charges for<br />
which are often a bone of contention between the<br />
publisher, author and printer. Although the printer<br />
may have no preference for typewritten as against<br />
ordinary and clearly written copy, it may save some<br />
expense if the author corrects his manuscript and<br />
then has it carefully typewritten. This plan is<br />
certainly best, and would find favour with those<br />
who have to express an opinion on its literary<br />
merits. Again, as this reproduction is practically<br />
a proof, it can, of course, be corrected again before<br />
it is actually placed in the printer’s hands.<br />
<br />
If this is done it will obviate extra charges, and<br />
possibly avoid a deal of friction and, perhaps,<br />
unpleasant correspondence. It is not every author<br />
who appreciates the difficulty or expense of making<br />
alterations in the type when once set up, because<br />
a simple insertion or deletion of a passage may<br />
necessitate alterations alfecting lines or even pages<br />
of type. If some correction is needful, it is a wise<br />
precaution to substitute or cut out a word or words<br />
for anything actually required to be inserted or<br />
expunged from the proof. A given size of page<br />
set up in a certain type may be estimated to a<br />
nicety, but the precise cost of making alterations<br />
in type is not easily calculated or checked.<br />
<br />
The following table will give the approximate<br />
number of words contained in a square inch of<br />
various types (a) with one ordinary lead, and<br />
(b) matter set solid, z.e., without leads.<br />
<br />
Leaded. Solid.<br />
Pica oe 12 ee 15<br />
small Pies... 16 Ae 23<br />
Long Primer ... 20 a 27<br />
Bourgeois a. 24 a. 82<br />
Brevier = 29 38<br />
<br />
Nonpareil . 40 ie 59<br />
<br />
73<br />
<br />
These figures are based on an average kind of<br />
work written in the English language.<br />
<br />
Boox Founts.<br />
<br />
There are many kinds to be chosen from, but<br />
the first thing is to select the size. Small types<br />
should not be used unless there is some real neces-<br />
sity to do so, for most can read an average one, but<br />
a small face is trying and hurtful to the eyes, and<br />
to some a physical impossibility. For ordinary<br />
work there is some sort of unwritten law governing<br />
the size of type to be employed for a volume of a<br />
certain size, and this average, roughly, is pica for<br />
demy 8vo, 82 in. x 5§ in., small pica for crown 8vo,<br />
74 in. x 5 in., and long primer for foolscap 8vo,<br />
larger and smaller volumes taking proportionate<br />
sizes. If we were to take a consensus of opinion on<br />
what might be considered a fairly comfortable size<br />
of type for reading purposes, we probably would find<br />
both long primer and small pica as being the ideals.<br />
It is in one or other of these founts that nearly all<br />
one volume novels are printed, the detail of leading<br />
or non-leading being determined by the precise<br />
length of the manuscript, and the number of pages<br />
the book is to make when in print.<br />
<br />
With regard to the design or character of the<br />
type face, this is also an important matter. As the<br />
cost of printing from a well-designed type is no more<br />
than that of printing from an ill-formed one, care<br />
should be taken in the selection of a good character.<br />
This may be to some extent a matter of taste, but<br />
if a good many books are examined it will be found<br />
that by far the larger number are printed in the<br />
so-called “old style” character, which for books<br />
is certainly the best kind, whereas the ‘“ modern<br />
face,” such as Zhe Author is printed in, is best<br />
adapted for magazine or newspaper printing.<br />
<br />
The format of a page and the placing of that<br />
page on the paper, so as to give the proper propor-<br />
tion of margin when printed, are two very important<br />
elements if a well-designed volume is desired. ‘To<br />
arrive at this result requires a good deal of judg-<br />
ment, for a full or crowded page placed on the leaf<br />
at random at once condemns any pretence to an<br />
artistic book. A handsome type page would be<br />
one which would occupy about one-half of the total<br />
area of the leaf of paper; that page must not be<br />
placed in the centre of the page, but somewhat<br />
cornered as it were, so that the inner and head<br />
margins should be respectively about one-third to<br />
two-thirds of the margin on tail and on fore-edge.<br />
By these means the two open pages of any volume,<br />
not a single page, would form the unit—the two<br />
being linked together, as it were. If, on the other<br />
hand, the margins of each page were centralized<br />
all round, the effect of the open two pages would be<br />
that the facing pages were distressingly far apart<br />
<br />
<br />
74<br />
<br />
and, although the head and tail margins were<br />
equal, they would appear to have slipped or<br />
dropped down below the centre, this being an<br />
optical illusion. : ;<br />
<br />
The question of cost in setting up various sizes<br />
ig a complicated one, and if we take the London<br />
scale of charges as our basis we find that wages<br />
here are higher as compared with the provinces.<br />
In printing generally the difference of cost is<br />
chiefly in regard to composition, and press work<br />
charges are not much affected by the locality. In<br />
some respects the higher charges prevailing in town<br />
are counterbalanced by the convenience of having<br />
the printer nearer at hand.<br />
<br />
The exact prices for composition are regulated<br />
according to whether the “copy” is to be seb up<br />
from manuscript or from printed copy, technically<br />
termed “ reprint,” which must be an absolute fac-<br />
simile as regards type, both in size and width—<br />
that is, it must be line for line and page for page<br />
with the original. There is also an intermediate<br />
charge for “copy” which is printed but yet not a<br />
facsimile, or it may be it is a facsimile with altera-<br />
tions in manuscript, both of which fall under this<br />
intermediate head. Further. the question of the<br />
matter being leaded or non-leaded affects the price<br />
in all the foregoing instances, that which is set with-<br />
out leads carrying the higher price, for the obvious<br />
reason that any pages set solid would contain more<br />
lines in a page, and thus necessitate more labour to<br />
the compositor. From this it will be seen that the<br />
scale of charges for composition is a very intricate<br />
one, and the difficulties are still more increased by<br />
the introduction of other nominal charges made as<br />
extras on each sheet, such as the introduction of<br />
other sizes of type for extract matter or footnotes,<br />
besides other details too numerous to mention.<br />
All these remarks apply to works printed in the<br />
vernacular—books printed in foreign languages are<br />
provided for under a different scale, and the<br />
frequent use of foreign words sometimes involves<br />
an extra charge.<br />
<br />
As some rough and ready idea of cost, taking an<br />
ordinary volume, such as a novel, printed in the<br />
English language without any of the extras indicated<br />
above, the approximate charges for composing a<br />
volume set with leads from manuscript or reprint<br />
set without leads, may be taken as—<br />
<br />
1d. per square inch ifset in Pica.<br />
14d. % - Small Pica.<br />
13d. ” ¥ Long Primer.<br />
<br />
These prices are the average London ones.<br />
Manuscript copy if set solid would be rather higher.<br />
On the other hand, reprint leaded would be some-<br />
what cheaper.<br />
<br />
Cuas. T. JACOBI.<br />
(To be continued.)<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
UNITED STATES, GREAT BRITAIN.—<br />
COMPARATIVE COSTS OF PRODUCTION.—<br />
COMPARATIVE PROFITS.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
47 E have much pleasure in submitting to<br />
members of the Society some costs of<br />
production from the United States, which<br />
<br />
we have obtained through the diligence of the<br />
Secretary of the United States Authors’ Society.<br />
The estimates are reckoned in dollars and in<br />
pounds, taking for convenience a dollar to equal<br />
4s. 2d., and are compared with the English costs<br />
of production of a similar type of book. The first<br />
estimate reters to a book of 272 pp. crown octavo,<br />
29 lines, and 253 words to a page. One thousand<br />
copies are printed, and the type is small pica.<br />
<br />
Unitep Srates Cost or PRODUCTION.<br />
<br />
I.<br />
Dollars. £8. d.<br />
Composition and _ electro<br />
typing plates, 272 pages<br />
at 50 cents=2s. 1d. per<br />
page; or 17 sheets of<br />
16 pages, at £1 14s. 8d.<br />
per sheet. . 136 26 6 8<br />
<br />
Printing, say ten sheets at<br />
$3=12s. 6d. per sheet of<br />
<br />
32 pages. : : . 380 6 5 0<br />
Paper, ten reams of 100<br />
<br />
pounds, at $6=£1 5s. per<br />
<br />
ream. : : 60 12 10 0<br />
Binding, at 12 cents=6d. . 120 25 0 0<br />
Binding stamp. 10 2 473<br />
Five boxes at 75 cents=<br />
<br />
3s. 14d. . 3°75 16 oF<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
$359°75 £74 18 115<br />
Say £74 19s.<br />
<br />
British Cost oF PRODUCTION.<br />
I.<br />
<br />
Composition, 17 sheets of 16 pages, at<br />
£1 5s. . ‘ : : ; 4<br />
Moulds and stereos, at 12s. per sheet. 10 4 0<br />
Printing, 17 sheets of 16 pages, say 10<br />
sheets of 32 pages, in order to bring<br />
the estimate into uniformity with<br />
that from U.S.A., at 15s. per sheet<br />
<br />
of 32 pages. ; 5 ; «2410 0<br />
Paper, 84 reams, say 10 sheets of 32<br />
pages, at £1 per sheet of 32 pages. 10 0 0<br />
Binding, at 5d., or (say) 42s. per 100<br />
copies. . : : : : ~ 21 0 0<br />
£69 19 0<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 75<br />
<br />
From these two costs, giving a very full value<br />
to the dollar, we see that the United States<br />
cost is £5 in excess of the English cost. So far,<br />
then, the difference between the two costs of pro-<br />
duction is immaterial, but this point has to be<br />
considered, that English books are, as a rule,<br />
printed from type, and, therefore, if the edition<br />
was for one thousand copies only, the item for<br />
moulds and stereos (12s. per sheet of 16 pages,<br />
£10 4s.) would have to be deducted, making the<br />
difference between the two costs of production,<br />
£15 4s. In addition, the United States publisher<br />
seems to pay for boxes for the moulds, the charge, as<br />
appears on the cost, being 15s. 6d., and credits his<br />
account with the surplus paper as sold for pulping.<br />
From this estimate have been omitted three<br />
items that will have to be taken into considera-<br />
tion before it will be possible to state what profit<br />
there is to the author, and what to the publisher.<br />
Firstly,—Corrections.<br />
Secondly,— Advertising.<br />
Thirdly,—Circularising.<br />
<br />
(i.e. expenses of the publisher's office).<br />
<br />
The corrections would roughly work out between<br />
10 and 15 per cent. of the cost of composition. The<br />
advertising in the United States, according to<br />
information received, is very nearly double the<br />
amount spent in England, out it is almost im-<br />
possible to gange this point satisfactorily, and it is<br />
doubtful whether absolute reliance can be placed<br />
on this statement. For circulars—that is, ordinary<br />
publishers’ expenses, and postages—the United<br />
States publisher reckons a sum of thirty dollars<br />
per edition of one thousand copies, or £6 5s. on<br />
£74 19s. This works out at less than the 10<br />
per cent. which publishers in England are very<br />
fond of stating must be reckoned to cover office<br />
expenses, &c. This item, however, the Society<br />
has always repudiated, when working out the<br />
profits, unless the publisher shows himself willing<br />
to grant the same charges in the author’s account.<br />
<br />
In addition to the tabulated cost must be<br />
reckoned :—<br />
UNITED STATES.<br />
Dollars.<br />
Corrections (15 per cent. of the cost of<br />
composition and stereos) ‘ 20.40<br />
Advertising an edition of 1,000 copies 240<br />
$260.40<br />
BritisH Cost.<br />
os oO:<br />
Corrections (15 per cent. of the cost of<br />
composition and stereos) . 414 4<br />
Advertising an edition of 1,000 copies<br />
of Finglish edition . : : 2s 30. 0 0<br />
£34 14 4<br />
<br />
Toran Cost oF Propuction.<br />
United States.<br />
<br />
$359°75 + $2604 = $620°15 = £129 3s. 114d.<br />
(say £129 4s.) ‘<br />
British.<br />
£69 19s. + £34 14s. 4d. = £104 18s. 4d.<br />
<br />
Against this it must be remembered that, as a<br />
rule, the United States publisher gets more for his<br />
book than the English publisher. For instance, a<br />
5s. nett book sells in the United States at $1°50=<br />
6s. 3d., and, therefore, instead of reckoning as has<br />
been customary in the costs of production men-<br />
tioned on former occasions in Zhe Author, the 6s.<br />
book, subject to discount as the unit of calculation,<br />
it is easier to take the 5s. nett book, and the<br />
$1°50 = 6s. 3d., and this would be a fair price for<br />
the book whose estimate is quoted.<br />
<br />
Taking it, therefore, that 100 books are circu-<br />
lated free, for review and other purposes, the<br />
receipts may be reckoned as follows :—<br />
<br />
Unitrep Sratres Book ReruRN FROM SALES.<br />
<br />
900 copies at $150.<br />
<br />
$1350°0 ... (less 25 per cent. to retailer)<br />
337°)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
$1012°5 ... (less 10 per cent. to the<br />
wholesale jobber)<br />
101°25<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
$911:25 = £189 16s. 104d.<br />
<br />
British Book RETURN FROM SALES.<br />
<br />
900 copies of 5s. nett book.<br />
<br />
Five-sixths of 5s., 13 copies as 12, less 10 per<br />
cent.<br />
<br />
= 692 X 5s. :<br />
<br />
= 3:46s. for each copy =a fraction above<br />
3s. 5dd. per copy.<br />
<br />
3°46 x 900 = 3114s.<br />
<br />
= £155 14s.<br />
<br />
We have made the returns of sales in the United<br />
States from reliable figures supplied to the office.<br />
The above is therefore a fair statement.<br />
<br />
The returns from the British Book, however,<br />
are, according to the publisher’s statement, the<br />
lowest received from the bookseller and distributor,<br />
wholesale or retail. It is probable, therefore, that<br />
the real returns are somewhat higher.<br />
<br />
Carrying the calculation a little further, the<br />
<br />
<br />
76<br />
<br />
profit on the first edition of 1,000 of the United<br />
States book is—<br />
£189 16 10<br />
129 4 90<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
£60 12 10<br />
On the British book is—<br />
<br />
£155 14 0<br />
104138 4<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
£51 0 8<br />
<br />
Unirep Srares SALES AND PERCENTAGE.<br />
<br />
If the author, therefore, took in the one case<br />
£30 6s. for his profit, that is about half, what<br />
percentage would he be receiving on the published<br />
<br />
rice of the book ?<br />
<br />
This problem is then presented :<br />
<br />
Nine hundred copies sold at $1°50 (75 pence)<br />
realise £30 6s. to the author. What, then, is<br />
the percentage on each copy ? Working the sum<br />
out<br />
<br />
£809 _ £908 _ £10886<br />
900 9<br />
= 8°08 pence for every copy at $1°50<br />
(75 pence).<br />
<br />
The author receiving 8°08 per copy would receive<br />
<br />
the following per cent. :—<br />
<br />
752 8'08..: 100;<br />
8:08 e 100 oe 2 10-7,<br />
<br />
(9 i)<br />
<br />
or just over 103 per cent.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
British SALES AND P&SRCENTAGE.<br />
<br />
If the same calculation is made in the case of a<br />
British book, the author will, in the same way,<br />
take half profits, that is to say, £25 10s. = £25°5.<br />
<br />
If nine hundred copies sold at 5s. nett bring<br />
£25-5 to the author, the author receives for each<br />
copy<br />
<br />
B25 _ £25) _. £-0988 = 68d,<br />
900 9<br />
just over 63d.<br />
<br />
If the author receives 6:8d. per copy of a book<br />
that sells for 5s., his share per cent. of the selling<br />
price of the book is shown by<br />
<br />
68 x 100 68<br />
0:68::100: —2—_=, =11%,<br />
As 6 6°8 0 60 6 oO<br />
<br />
exactly 114 per cent.<br />
<br />
Here one or two points deserve to be noticed.<br />
First, the author receives only half-profits. ‘This<br />
is not necessarily a fair division.<br />
<br />
Next, the publisher—taking also half-profits—<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
the same sum as the author, receives interest on<br />
his investment thus, omitting the pence :—<br />
In the United States—<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As £129 3s. : £30 6s. :: 100: 2%<br />
As 2583 : 606 :: 100; = ave «1<br />
2583<br />
ae 60000 93°46.<br />
2583<br />
<br />
not quite 234 per cent.<br />
In England—<br />
<br />
As £104 13s. : £25 10s.;: 100: 2%<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
As 2098 :510 -:400; = ee<br />
2093<br />
51000.<br />
=a<br />
<br />
a little over 24 per cent.<br />
<br />
These returns of 23 and 24 per cent. respectively<br />
represent the publisher’s interest upon his capital<br />
invested, supposing that the sale of the 1,000<br />
copies takes place, as it generally does, in twelve<br />
months. If the sale is accomplished only in two<br />
years, the interest upon the investments become<br />
114 and 12 per cent. respectively ; not at all bad<br />
interest. If the 1,000 copies are sold in six months<br />
the interest rises to 46 and 48 per cent. per annum<br />
respectively.<br />
<br />
It will be seen that whilst the United States pub-<br />
lisher receives actually more from sales than the<br />
British publisher (£189 16s. against £155 14s.),and<br />
also has a larger profit (£60 12s. against £51),<br />
his greater expenses make his gain per cent. per<br />
annum on his investment smaller (23 per cent.<br />
against 24).<br />
<br />
The examples which we have taken are those<br />
of a fair cost of production and a small sale.<br />
Where approximate figures have been taken, the<br />
calculations show the publisher’s profits to be<br />
slightly smaller than they actually are.<br />
<br />
G. H. T.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
——_——_—_—_1—<—<br />
<br />
UNITED STATES.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“The Author’s Year Book and Guide to 600<br />
Places to Sell MSS.” *<br />
<br />
HIS publication comes from the United States.<br />
<br />
If any author, guided by the title, should be<br />
<br />
inclined to purchase the book, seeking for<br />
information, it is as well to state that the work, a<br />
however useful in other respects to the author in 30<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
* « Author’s Year Book and Guide to 600 Places to Seli po!<br />
MSS.” W. E. Price, 24—26, East Twenty-first Street, a<br />
New York, U.S.A.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 77<br />
<br />
the United States or in Great Britain, does not<br />
justify the label which is attached to it.<br />
<br />
The work opens with a list of papers and maga-<br />
zines to which MSS. can be sent, and with a list<br />
of publishers, but there is no information as to<br />
the style of article, story, or composition that the<br />
‘editors are willing to accept or the publishers<br />
willing to produce. So far, therefore, the book<br />
fails entirely as a guide to the 600 places which<br />
it enumerates and to the individualities of the<br />
different publishing houses.<br />
<br />
The remainder of the book is filled with articles<br />
on literary subjects, such as “ Authors and Busi-<br />
ness” (reprinted from the New York Times<br />
Saturday Review), which contains a few useful<br />
hints, readily picked up in any of the books<br />
published for the guidance of authors. Then<br />
follow some views promulgated by the editors of<br />
magazines, scrappy, and of little assistance.<br />
After these comes an interesting article on the<br />
nett price system and its relation to authors,<br />
interesting to the student of the economics of<br />
book-selling and book-writing rather than bene-<br />
ficial to the unfortunate trying to dispose of<br />
a MS.<br />
<br />
Ever since Sir Walter Besant founded the Society<br />
of Authors one of its aims has been to show the<br />
close relation between the bookseller and the<br />
author, and to point out that the prosperity of<br />
the former is closely allied with the prosperity of<br />
the latter, and that the bookseller’s profits must<br />
assist, In some way, the author’s profits. The<br />
writer states, very wisely: ‘‘ Does anyone like to<br />
pay 1 dollar 50 cents for a book and see it offered<br />
a few days later on dry goods counters for 85 cents ?<br />
In making investments people are slow to buy on<br />
a falling market.”<br />
<br />
The next article, “A Word to Authors,” must<br />
bave been written by a publisher, and is therefore<br />
dangerous as guide to the author. A few quota-<br />
tions will make this self-evident:—“ As a rule,<br />
authors imagine publishers to be their natural<br />
foes, preying upon them as sharks do upon the<br />
lesser finny tribes of the deep. A little thought<br />
would dissipate this impression. Authors have<br />
no idea of the costs which are incidental to the<br />
production of a book.” Here is the key to the<br />
publishing note. In the United States, unfor-<br />
tunately, authors have very little idea of the cost<br />
of production of a book. The Society has for<br />
years endeavoured to obtain trustworthy state-<br />
inents of the cost of printing, paper, binding,<br />
advertising, in the United States, and so far but<br />
meagre information has come to the office. In<br />
consequence, it is difficult to gauge the profits to<br />
which the author is entitled, and the publisher,<br />
from his point of view, is wise to keep the secret<br />
as long as possible. Another sentence also betrays<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
the cloven hoof: “ When all these costs have been<br />
paid, there remains a comparatively small margin<br />
of profit. Hence, whatever royalties publishers<br />
may agree to pay, authors may consider that they<br />
are having a fair return for their labour.” A<br />
more ingenuous statement was never made, nor<br />
one which could make it clearer that the taint of<br />
the publisher runs through the whole article. If<br />
aman desired to buy a horse, he would naturally<br />
buy in the cheapest market, and if the man who<br />
was selling the horse happened to be ignorant of<br />
its value, the buyer would make as good a bargain<br />
for himself as he possibly could. It is not likely,<br />
therefore, that a tradesman desiring to purchase<br />
an article would pay the seller £2u for it if he<br />
could get it for £10. There is no reason why the<br />
author should consider the publisher different<br />
from other tradesmen, and therefore—that what<br />
the publisher agreed to pay would necessarily be<br />
a fair return for his labour.<br />
<br />
“What we have just said is emphasised by the<br />
fact that the larger number of books never pay<br />
expenses.” This again is a fault of the publishing<br />
trade which has often been exposed in 7’he Author.<br />
The musical publishers in London state that hardly<br />
5 per cent. of the songs published cover their<br />
expenses. The fact that tne publisher chooses to<br />
gamble with the books of some authors is no argu-<br />
ment why the successful author should pay the<br />
publisher’s gambling debts, and must not affect<br />
any author in his negotiations for the sale of his<br />
works.<br />
<br />
There is an interesting article by Mr. Page Fox<br />
on * Books Waiting to be Written,” but it is<br />
interesting from the originality of the ideas set<br />
forth rather than from the point of view of prac-<br />
tical advice to the author. Among the books<br />
referred to is ‘A Town History,” and his advice<br />
for writing a work of this description would, no<br />
doubt, appeal to the United States dollar-catcher<br />
rather than co the select and cultured compilers of<br />
literature. He says, *‘ Publish the portraits and<br />
residences or places of business of the leading<br />
townsmen. Mention in the book everybody in<br />
the town whom you can. Even for the most<br />
humble can be found a place in a work of<br />
genealogy. The wealthy will give you large<br />
sums for the illustrations, and the vanity of the<br />
poor will cause them to buy a book in which their<br />
name appears.” Then follows a rough statement<br />
of the cost and the probable profit :<br />
<br />
“(Oost of issue of book, $1,000 ; one thousand<br />
subscribers at $2 apiece, $2,000. One hundred<br />
of the wealthy class will pay you $10 apiece for<br />
their portraits, $1,000. Profits, $2,000. If you<br />
are satisfied with the result, go on to the next<br />
town, and so on ad infinitum.”<br />
<br />
After perusal of this paragraph, the remark<br />
<br />
<br />
78 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
made by R. I. Stevenson would not be at all<br />
inappropriate : ‘‘ Golly ! What a book !”<br />
<br />
This article is by far the longest in the book,<br />
and carries with it much amusing reading on the<br />
commerce of book-making. a<br />
<br />
In another contribution on short story writing<br />
it would appear that the same difficulty exists in<br />
the United States as in Great Britaiu—namely,<br />
the fact that publishers are convinced that books<br />
of short stories do not sell. The writer gives<br />
some probable reasons for this conclusion, which,<br />
however, do not appear to be very sound.<br />
<br />
There are other articles interesting to authors<br />
from different points of view, such as “ How to<br />
<br />
Succeed as a Novelist,” ‘‘ The Preparation of<br />
<br />
the MS.,” “In the Literary Market,” the last by<br />
Mr. Albert Bigelow Paine. He makes a very<br />
sensible remark, which many authors should bear<br />
in mind: “There is no royal road to authorship.<br />
It is fight, fight, and go on fighting to the end.”<br />
<br />
Lastly come some short notes about English<br />
periodicals and their contributors, which contain<br />
chiefly notes of the editors dealing with the con-<br />
tributions published in their different papers,<br />
and finally come “The General Memoranda,”<br />
“ Warnings to Dramatic Authors,” and an interest-<br />
ing article from Mr. G. Bernard Shaw : “ How to<br />
make Plays Readable.” These last three have<br />
been taken from the pages of Ze Author, but<br />
having read the book carefully, we have failed to<br />
find any acknowledgment of their source. Even<br />
though no copyright is claimed for them—unless,<br />
indeed, Mr. Shaw claims copyright—still, as a<br />
matter of courtesy, a formal acknowledgment might<br />
have been made.<br />
<br />
To sum up, the book fails on its main points<br />
if its title is any guide to the desires of its com-<br />
piler, A book on the lines of some books that<br />
are produced in England, giving not only the<br />
names of the magazines and papers in the United<br />
States, but also the kind of articles and stories<br />
which they will take, the length of the articles and<br />
stories, the prices they will pay for them, and other<br />
details of information, would, no doubt, be interesting<br />
and useful to many writers this side of the water ;<br />
or, again, a practical guide for authors, on lines<br />
similar to some of the books which have been pub-<br />
lished in England, might be very useful to the<br />
budding United States author ; but this book fails<br />
to deal with either point exhaustively. It is<br />
neither a practical guide for the author, nor is ita<br />
guide to the 600 places in which to sell MSS.<br />
<br />
From the first title, “The Author’s Year Book,”<br />
the book seems destined to appear from year to<br />
year. If this is the case, with greater care and with<br />
greater knowledge bestowed upon the essential<br />
details, the work may prove satisfactory in the<br />
course of time.<br />
<br />
MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br />
<br />
—~?--+<br />
DECEMBER, 1904.<br />
<br />
BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE.<br />
“Madam”: A Lady of the Morland.<br />
Skrine.<br />
Musings<br />
<br />
Oxford.<br />
<br />
By Mary J. H.<br />
<br />
without Method. The Rhodes Scholars at<br />
<br />
THE BOOKMAN.<br />
The Writings of Theodore Watts Dunton. By Ernest<br />
Rhys.<br />
Book MONTHLY.<br />
The Popular Novelist: His Art, Mission and Influence.<br />
3y Hall Caine.<br />
CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL,<br />
Patmos: Its Monastery and Passion Play.<br />
William Whittall.<br />
THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br />
The Nature of Literature. By Vernon Lee.<br />
Nitshevo. By Edwin Emerson.<br />
Maeterlinck as a Reformer of the Drama. By Count 8. C.<br />
de Soissons.<br />
Some Recent Books.<br />
<br />
By Sir PAP<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
By “A Reader.”<br />
<br />
CORNHILL.<br />
Tn the Throes of Composition. By Michael MacDonagh.<br />
Historical Mysteries.—Saint Germain the Deathless. By<br />
Andrew Lang.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br />
In the Footsteps of Rousseau. By Havelock Ellis.<br />
<br />
Mozart as a Dramatic Composer. By Dr. John Tod-<br />
hunter.<br />
<br />
The Novels of Disraeli. By Lewis Melville.<br />
The National Art Collections Fund. By H. M. Paull.<br />
The Mother of Navies. By T. Andrea Cook.<br />
<br />
THE INDEPENDENT REVIEW<br />
The Work of Mr. Henry James. By Sydney Waterlow.<br />
The Myth of Magna Carta. By Edward Jenks.<br />
<br />
LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE.<br />
Izaak Walton at Droxford. By John Vaughan.<br />
At the Sign of the Ship. The State of British® Fiction.<br />
By Andrew Lang.<br />
<br />
The Beautiful Sheridans. By Alfred Beaver,<br />
<br />
MACMILLAN’s MAGAZINE.<br />
Rome before 1870. Anonymous.<br />
<br />
THe MoNTHLY REVIEW.<br />
<br />
The Revival of Gaelic in Ireland. By F.O. Russell.<br />
Evil. By Norman Pearson.<br />
<br />
THE NATIONAL REVIEW.<br />
Some Children’s Essays. By Miss K. Bathurst,<br />
The Spokesman of Despair. By Jane Findlater.<br />
<br />
XIX, CENTURY AND AFTER,<br />
Free Thought in the Church of England. By The Rev.<br />
Prebendary Whitworth.<br />
Mr. Mallock and the Bishop of Worcester.<br />
H. Maynard Smith. : :<br />
The Literature of Finland. By Hermione Ramsden. = ah<br />
Women in Chinese Literature. By Herbert A. Giles. :<br />
<br />
TEMPLE BAR.<br />
By M. Kirkby Hill.<br />
<br />
By the Rev.<br />
<br />
Kit Smart.<br />
<br />
A Diary of the 17th Century. By Constance Spender. x<br />
<br />
There are no articles dealing with Literary, Dramatic or *<br />
Musical subjects in Zhe Month or The World's Work.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THB AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br />
OF BOOKS.<br />
<br />
+<br />
<br />
ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br />
agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br />
with literary property :—<br />
<br />
I. Selling it Outright.<br />
<br />
This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br />
obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br />
competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br />
the Society.<br />
<br />
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 />
C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br />
duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br />
<br />
(2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br />
profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br />
in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br />
ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br />
<br />
(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “office expenses,”<br />
unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br />
<br />
(4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br />
cights.<br />
<br />
(.) 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 />
II. The Royalty System.<br />
<br />
This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br />
of agreement. It is above all things nece ry 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 />
<br />
<br />
<br />
IV. A Commission Agreement.<br />
<br />
The main points are :—<br />
<br />
(1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br />
(2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br />
<br />
(3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br />
<br />
General.<br />
<br />
All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br />
above mentioned.<br />
<br />
Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,<br />
<br />
Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br />
the Secretary of the Society.<br />
<br />
Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br />
<br />
Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br />
<br />
The main points which the Society has always demanded<br />
from the outset are :—<br />
<br />
C1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br />
means.<br />
<br />
(2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br />
'o 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 />
PE Ciel ie oe<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br />
se<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 />
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 />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
19<br />
<br />
3. There are three forms of dramatic contract f<br />
in three or more acts :—<br />
<br />
(a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br />
is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br />
such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br />
for production of the piece by a certain date<br />
and for proper publication of his name on the<br />
play-bills,<br />
<br />
(%.) 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 in advance of percentages. A fixed<br />
date on or before which the play should be<br />
performed.<br />
<br />
(¢.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br />
perform on the basis of royalties (7.¢., fixed<br />
nightly fees). his 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 (@.) 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. ‘he 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 />
or plays<br />
<br />
o—p—«<br />
<br />
WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br />
<br />
—_-————<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 />
80<br />
<br />
fore when entering into<br />
<br />
should be especially careful there r nt<br />
art. cular consideration<br />
<br />
an agreement,and should take intop<br />
the warnings stated above.<br />
<br />
ee<br />
<br />
HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
—<-+<br />
<br />
i VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br />
K advicé upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br />
lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br />
business or the administration of his property. — The<br />
Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br />
special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br />
Solicitors of the Society. | Further, the Committee, if they<br />
deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. — All this<br />
without any cost to the member.<br />
<br />
2, Remember that questions connected with copyright<br />
and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br />
ence of ordinary solicitors. ‘Therefore, do not scruple to use<br />
the Society.<br />
<br />
3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br />
accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br />
Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br />
or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br />
obtained may prove invaluable.<br />
<br />
4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br />
the document to the Society for examination.<br />
<br />
5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br />
you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br />
are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br />
advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br />
the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br />
<br />
6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br />
of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br />
proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br />
confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br />
who will keep the key of the safe. he Society now offers:<br />
—(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br />
advice concerning publishers. (2) ‘lo stamp agreements<br />
in readiness for a possible action upon them. (8) To keep<br />
agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br />
agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br />
can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br />
<br />
7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br />
agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br />
Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br />
consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br />
them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br />
them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br />
of the Society.<br />
<br />
This<br />
The<br />
<br />
8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br />
must be done within fourteen days of first execution.<br />
Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members.<br />
<br />
9. Some agents endeavour to prevent authors from<br />
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. per<br />
annum, or £10 10s for life membership.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br />
<br />
—<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 />
es<br />
<br />
THE READING BRANCH.<br />
<br />
——— + —<br />
<br />
EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br />
VI branch of its work by informing young writers<br />
of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<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 />
2 — ><br />
<br />
NOTICES.<br />
<br />
—<br />
<br />
MYNHE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<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 />
very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<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, S.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. LEvery effort will he made to<br />
return articles which cannot be accepted.<br />
<br />
ee<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 />
ee ee<br />
<br />
LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE :<br />
SOCIETY.<br />
<br />
eae<br />
<br />
ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br />
<br />
either with or without Life Assurance, can<br />
<br />
be obtained from this society. a<br />
<br />
Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br />
Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br />
<br />
Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, H.C.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 81<br />
<br />
AUTHORITIES.<br />
<br />
— oo<br />
<br />
7% see a complaint in the Publishers’ Circular<br />
W that the energetic trader of the United<br />
States is endeavouring to rob English<br />
publishers of their book trade in the Colonies, by<br />
flooding the Colonies with American editions.:<br />
<br />
If this is, in reality, the case, there must be<br />
something radically wrong. Nearly all English<br />
authors include in their licence to publish given<br />
to the English publisher the markets of Great<br />
Britain, her Colonies, and dependencies. Some-<br />
times, however, this licence is altered, by excepting<br />
Canada, which country is, therefore, either included<br />
in the agreement with the American publisher, or<br />
is under a separate agreement with a Canadian<br />
publisher. It follows, therefore, that if United<br />
States publishers are sending editions into Australia,<br />
South Africa, and other Colonies, they are infringing<br />
the copyright law, and it is time for those publishers<br />
whose business is touched to take the matter in<br />
hand, or for those authors, whose books are pirated,<br />
to take action for infringement of copyright.<br />
<br />
However, if we study the book exports from the<br />
United States during the last eight months, the<br />
statement contained in the Publishers’ Circular<br />
does not seem to be corroborated.<br />
<br />
The exports from the United States to British<br />
North America have certainly increased enormously<br />
in value, from $1,055,000 in the first eight months<br />
of the year 1903, to $1,126,000 in 1904 during the<br />
same period. ‘There are various reasons which<br />
may account for this. Primarily, as already stated,<br />
the Canadian market is very often excepted from<br />
the contract with the British publisher, and is<br />
assigned to the United States publisher. Secon-<br />
darily, the Canadian publisher sometimes contracts<br />
direct with the British author and proceeds to buy<br />
from the United States, and, lastly, the enormous<br />
extent of the boundary between the United States<br />
and Canada often makes it impossible to keep out<br />
pirated editions.<br />
<br />
If the United States publisher gets the contract,<br />
it is really the fault of the Canadian publisher,<br />
who, if he does not choose to bestir himself and<br />
come and claim his contract from the English<br />
author, must expect to have it taken away from<br />
him by those who are more energetic.<br />
<br />
In British Australasia during the first eight<br />
months of 1903 the exports were 130,000 dollars,<br />
during the same period of 1904, 132,000 dollars.<br />
Here it cannot be said that there is an enormous<br />
increase. It is clear, therefore, that the complaint<br />
of the Publishers’ Circular cannot be substantiated.<br />
<br />
In British South Africa there is a decrease from<br />
38,000 to 25,000 dollars.<br />
<br />
If, however, it is possible to obtain a concrete<br />
<br />
case against the United States, it is essential that<br />
the British author or the British publisher should<br />
take the matter in hand, and see that the copyright<br />
treaties, as far as they regard book property, are<br />
carried out energetically and effectually. :<br />
<br />
The simplest solution of the difficulty seems to<br />
lie in stirring up the Government customs officials<br />
to look after their duties more closely, and this is<br />
the course that has been adopted in Canada.<br />
<br />
Ir is most important that an author or a dramatist<br />
should have control over the use of his own name,<br />
This may seem a platitude, but difficulties are<br />
not infrequently arising owing to the fact that<br />
neither in the dramatic contract nor in the contract<br />
for literary publication, has the author made it<br />
sufficiently clear under what name or under what<br />
pseudonym he desires the work to be produced. It<br />
might possibly occur, especially with a dramatic<br />
piece, that the manager, even though he had merely<br />
a licence to perform, would not give a fair show to<br />
the author’s name on the play bills ; and if he had<br />
purchased all the performing rights no action on<br />
the part of an author could force him to publish<br />
the name unless there was a clause in the contract<br />
binding him to do so.<br />
<br />
The same remark holds good by analogy when<br />
applied to a licence to publish or to the sale of<br />
copyright of a literary work ; but there are other<br />
points arising which make it necessary for the<br />
author and dramatist to be exceedingly careful.<br />
<br />
It is not infrequently the case that youthful<br />
efforts are sold outright under a nom de plume.<br />
If the author or dramatist should subsequently<br />
become famous, it is possible that his imma-<br />
ture work might be placed on the market with<br />
his name attached by a publisher who purposely<br />
ignores the pseudonym. As the book would<br />
come fresh before the public out of its early<br />
grave, the majority of people, forgetful of the<br />
burial, would not recognise that a resurrection had<br />
taken place, and an immature work would be<br />
treated with all the seriousness of maturity. The<br />
most strenuous efforts of the author or dramatist<br />
would be unable to prevent the action taken by the<br />
publisher or manager, for the work had actually<br />
been written by the person, and although the<br />
author might suffer damage, the case would not be<br />
such as would be legally actionable.<br />
<br />
Firstly, then, the author or dramatist should<br />
never transfer the copyright or performing rights<br />
absolutely, but should only grant a licence to<br />
publish or a licence to perform. Secondly, if the<br />
author or dramatist does transfer the copyright or<br />
the performing right, and it is of importance that<br />
his pseudonym alone should be attached or that his<br />
name alone should be attached, or that the work<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
82<br />
<br />
should be published anonymously, such a clause<br />
should be inserted in the agreement.<br />
<br />
It has been necessary to point out what might<br />
otherwise appear self-evident, as on two or three<br />
occasions examples have been put forward, and have<br />
come to the notice of the Society, in which great<br />
inconvenience, annoyance, and sometimes not<br />
inconsiderable damage, has been caused in matters<br />
of this kind to the author or dramatist.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
_—_—_—_—___—_—_¢—<_>—_____-<br />
<br />
OBITUARY NOTE.<br />
<br />
1-1<br />
<br />
Herpert Wintiam ALLINGHAM, F.R.C.S.,<br />
Suntor ASSISTANT SURGHON TO Sr. GEORGE'S<br />
HOSPITAL.<br />
<br />
] ERBERT WILLIAM ALLINGHAM, Sur-<br />
geon to the Household of the King and<br />
Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Prince of Wales,<br />
whose brilliant career was terminated in so tragic<br />
a manner at Marseilles at the beginning of last<br />
month, was a member of our Society for no less than<br />
seventeen years, and took many opportunities of<br />
expressing his interest in our work. His introduc-<br />
tion to higher professional status when a very young<br />
man came partly through the editing of a medical<br />
classic written by his father, and the business in<br />
connection with that publication was arranged<br />
by the office of the Society of Authors. Herbert<br />
Allingham’s career as an operating surgeon was one<br />
of great brilliancy, his knowledge, courage and<br />
technical skill bringing him repeated successes in<br />
seemingly desperate conditions. As will have been<br />
gathered from the many obituary notices published<br />
of him, he may be regarded in no indirect manner as<br />
a martyr to science, for in the course of his work he<br />
inoculated himself with a particularly insidious and<br />
obstinate disease. This undoubtedly preyed upon<br />
his mind, even to an unnecessary extent, and on the<br />
top of this misfortune came the sad illness and death<br />
of a beloved wife. His domestic loss at the very<br />
time when he most needed consolation plunged him<br />
into a state of deep depression. He had no resources<br />
out of his daily routine—a man who rises to the very<br />
top of an arduous and learned profession while still<br />
in his thirties does not find much time for the cultiva-<br />
tion of other branches of learning—and when his<br />
life-work became distasteful to him he fell a prey to<br />
an abiding fear that he had not the necessary self<br />
control to do justice to the tremendous responsi-<br />
bilities exacted of him by the public. Those of our<br />
members who knew Herbert Allingham will recall<br />
him as a remarkably bright, keen, courteous, self-<br />
possessed young man, the very ideal of the surgeon<br />
who, in the intent to save life or give relief, will spare<br />
no pains and will accept all risks. It is, indeed, a<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
tragedy that a life, so replete with valuable promise<br />
and so distinguished by great performance, should<br />
thus have been cut off. We tender our marked<br />
sympathies to Mr. William Allingham, Herbert<br />
Allingham’s father, who also is a member of our<br />
Society, and who, although he has now retired some<br />
years from actual practice, is well remembered in<br />
the scientific world both as author and practical<br />
surgeon.<br />
Se<br />
<br />
II. Lady Besant.<br />
<br />
Ir has been mentioned elsewhere how Sir<br />
Walter Besant drew his story of ‘Dorothy Forster”<br />
from the history of his wife’s ancestors, the Fosters<br />
of Northumberland. But it is not so generally<br />
known that Lady Besant was connected with<br />
literature in another way through her forefathers,<br />
the Foster-Barhams, of Cornwall and Devon. ‘Lhe<br />
“Dictionary of National Biography ” shows in the<br />
last two centuries five Foster-Barhams who were<br />
distinguished as scholars, poets, musicians, authors,<br />
and religious and social reformers. From this<br />
ancestry Lady Besant inherited that keen sense<br />
of appreciation for music and poetry, and especially<br />
that love of musical and lyrical verse which was a<br />
marked characteristic of her literary taste. From<br />
her father, Mr. Eustace Foster-Barham, she imbibed.<br />
her love of the classics and of classical English<br />
poetry, and from him also she inherited some of<br />
that love and knowledge of nature and bird-life<br />
which was another of Lady Besant’s characteristics.<br />
<br />
Familiarity with the notes and flight of birds is<br />
a rare talent; it may be transmitted from one<br />
generation to another, but it needs also an<br />
inherited capacity to receive it—a capacity which<br />
seems in danger of dying out with the increasing<br />
noise aud hurry of life. Lady Besant would<br />
wander even on Hampstead Heath in the early<br />
summer to listen for “the warblers,” and try to<br />
make their notes distinguishable to ears less keen<br />
than her own. And she was always ready to<br />
associate a poetic thought with her nature study,<br />
leading her friends by her quotations to a quickened<br />
perception of natural life, and, by her nature lore,<br />
opening up to them fresh fields of literature.<br />
She did not, like her ancestors, write books and<br />
poetry, but she loved them, and she inspired those<br />
who wrote. Many touches of the life and nature<br />
in Sir Walter Besant’s books are due to her<br />
observation and insight.<br />
<br />
While warmly sympathising with her husband’s<br />
literary interests, she was also’ a worthy helpmate<br />
of “one who loved his fellow-men.” All who<br />
<br />
have had the privilege of meeting Lady Besant<br />
can testify to the gracious refinement of thought<br />
and manner and the genuine hospitality of spirit<br />
which added a peculiar charm and inspiration to<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. 83<br />
<br />
her household. Those who knew her intimately<br />
can tell that this hospitality of spirit was due to a<br />
large-heartedness that thought and spoke the best<br />
of everyone, and sought to draw from everyone<br />
their best. She leaves behind her influence and<br />
memory in very many lives, humble and simple,<br />
as well as learned and literary, enriched by her<br />
friendship, or even by a mere passing acquaintance<br />
with her gentle thoughts and unfailing sympathy.<br />
ONE OF HER MANY FRIENDS.<br />
<br />
o—~><br />
<br />
SECRET COMMISSIONS.<br />
<br />
—><br />
<br />
T is sometimes alleged that laws are ineffectual<br />
I unless they are in accordance with, and sup-<br />
ported by, the standard morality of the time.<br />
This statement requires qualification. Laws in ad-<br />
vance of the general morality of the average middle-<br />
class man can—if they are not too farin advance, and<br />
have the sympathy of the more intelligent portion<br />
of the community—do much to raise the general<br />
standard of morals, honesty, or manners. Con-<br />
spicuous examples may be found in the success of the<br />
laws against duelling, and against bribery at<br />
elections. Our grandfathers preserved without the<br />
slightest shame lists of the voters who were to be<br />
bought for 5/. or 10/. a head. The Parliamentary<br />
candidates of to-day will leave behind them nothing<br />
worse than lists of subscriptions paid within the<br />
limits of their constituencies.<br />
<br />
The matter of secret commissions seems to have<br />
now reached a point at which the intervention of<br />
the law may have a wholesome effect in checking a<br />
system which is universally deplored, and almost as<br />
universally practised. Such, at any rate, was the<br />
opinion of the late Lord Russell of Killowen, who<br />
introduced a bill in the House of Lords with this<br />
object. The measure, unfortunately, did not<br />
receive the sanction of the Legislature, but we may<br />
hope that before many years have elapsed some<br />
similar enactment may pass both Houses. What<br />
is wanted in order to convince many worthy and,<br />
in their own opinion, honourable men that what<br />
they are doing every day is immoral is to declare<br />
that it is illegal. At present it is commonly held<br />
in commercial circles that trade custom covers and<br />
justifies dealings, which, in the absence of such<br />
custom, would be admitted to be flagrantly dis-<br />
honest. Agents, purporting to render accounts of<br />
“out of pocket expenses,” put in their own pockets<br />
considerable discounts, or tradesmen, acting nomin-<br />
ally in partnership with persons not in trade, as, for<br />
instance, authors and publishers, render accounts<br />
which do not correctly represent their actual<br />
disbursements,<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Though not always easy of direct proof, owing to<br />
the various ways in which this discount is allowed<br />
by the printer or the engraver to the publisher, it<br />
is a matter of common knowledge, and will hardly<br />
be denied, that such discounts are in many cases<br />
allowed, received, and not accounted for to the<br />
author. We may quote a few instances.<br />
<br />
In one case the Secretary of the Society, on checking<br />
an author’s advertising account, discovered that the<br />
publisher had added 10 per cent. to the amount.<br />
At first the publisher was unwilling to withdraw<br />
the sum claimed, alleging that it was a custom of<br />
the trade; that all publishers did it, and that it<br />
would be impossible for a publisher’s business to<br />
prosper unless he took these commissions ; but on<br />
our Secretary insisting, the amount was reluctantly<br />
given up. In another case, a publisher, acting as<br />
agent, charged the author a higher price than he<br />
had himself paid for illustrations to a book, and<br />
in a third instance the publisher granted the<br />
recision of an agreement on condition that vouchers<br />
for the accounts were not demanded. But the<br />
instances capable of proof are, as has been stated,<br />
few, and must necessarily be so, owing to the fact<br />
that the commission is secret.<br />
<br />
Publishers have recently produced forms of<br />
agreement, in which, for the first time, the state-<br />
ment appears that the publisher charges a commis-<br />
sion on the cost of production in cases where he<br />
undertakes to get the printing done on behalf of<br />
the author at the author’s expense. In an agree-<br />
ment set forth in the November number of 7'he<br />
Author such a clause will be found; it runs as<br />
follows :—<br />
<br />
“The amount is reckoned at the invoiced cost,<br />
which is almost invariably 5 per cent. more than<br />
the net cost.” This charge, of course, is no longer<br />
a secret commission, though in the subsequent<br />
clauses no definite percentage is stated. But there<br />
is danger that in addition to the publicly declared<br />
commission which the publishers in their agree-<br />
ments now express their intention of retaining,<br />
there may still be some publishers who will take,<br />
in addition, a secret commission, so that the last<br />
state of the author may become worse than the<br />
first. When a secret commission was taken, the<br />
author could always, by taking the advice of the<br />
Society, find out, approximately, whether the price<br />
he was paying for printing was fair or not, and in<br />
this way knew whether he was paying 5 or 10 per<br />
cent. above the market price. Now he may have<br />
to pay 5 or 10 per cent. above the market price and<br />
pay the declared commission as well.<br />
<br />
We have been led to these remarks by the report<br />
of a very interesting case, lately tried on appeal,<br />
where an agent, who employed a printer, took a<br />
secret commission, The agent and defendant in<br />
this case was not a publisher, but an auctioneer,<br />
84<br />
<br />
who undertook to sell certain goods for the<br />
plaintiff, and was, in addition to his commission,<br />
<br />
to be paid out of pocket expenses, including adver-<br />
tising, publishing bills, and printing catalogues.<br />
"he auctioneer received and did not bring into<br />
account arebate on the bills from the tradesmen<br />
employed. In the County Court the action went<br />
against the plaintiff, but on appeal the unanimous<br />
judgment of a Court, consisting of the Lord Chief<br />
Justice, Mr. Justice Kennedy, and Mr, Justice<br />
Ridley, was given in favour of the appellant.<br />
<br />
The summary of the facts of the case and<br />
extracts from the judgments delivered, which<br />
follow, are quoted from the report in the Zimes of<br />
November 4th :—<br />
<br />
“ The defendants called evidence to prove, and did prove<br />
to the satisfaction of the learned judge, that there was a<br />
long established usage or practice amongst auctioneers to<br />
act as the defendants had acted with regard to the discounts<br />
on the accounts, and that it was the usual practice for the<br />
printers to deal with the auctioneers as principals, and to<br />
allow them as trade customers the trade discount off the<br />
retail price, the whole of the retail price being charged by<br />
the auctioneers against the vendors. It was admitted that<br />
no mention of the discount was made by the defendants to<br />
the plaintiff ; and the plaintiff swore that he did not know<br />
of any usage or practice under which the defendants might<br />
claim such discount, though he admitted that he knew there<br />
was such a practice with regard to the bills sent in by news-<br />
papers for advertising. The County Court Judge was of<br />
opinion that the defendants had acted honestly, and that,<br />
inasmuch as they took no secret commission from any<br />
person with whom they were negotiating a contract to be<br />
made between that person and the plaintiff, and inasmuch<br />
as the plaintiff was not in fact damnified, the plaintiff's<br />
claim failed, and that he was not entitled to recover from<br />
the defendants the amount of the trade discount allowed<br />
to the defendants, nor the amount of the commission earned<br />
by the defendants on the sale of the plaintiff's goods.”<br />
<br />
The Lord Chief Justice in delivering judgment for the<br />
plaintiff said, he must say, so far as he was concerned, he was<br />
satisfied that there was no fraud on the part of the<br />
respondent in taking and retaining the discounts allowed<br />
by the printer and others. In his opinion it was a mistake<br />
which arose from a wrong idea of what they were entitled<br />
to under their contract, and a wrong idea as to what they<br />
were entitled to by virtue of this so-called usage, as to<br />
which evidence was produced at the trial. The circum-<br />
stances of this case were, apart from explanations, a little<br />
unfortunate, and in his opinion the fact that the discounts<br />
were not disclosed did require some explanation. He was<br />
satisfied, however, that the explanation given by the<br />
respondents sufficiently explained their conduct in the<br />
matter.<br />
<br />
He must say that he thought that the law which had been<br />
applied in the cases referred to should be applied in all<br />
cases where an agent employed to do certain work received<br />
a secret commission in relation to the performance of his<br />
duty to his employer from any other than his employer.<br />
He only wished to add that he thought it was highly pro-<br />
bable that there did prevail, unfortunately, in commercial<br />
circles in which perfectly honourable men played a per-<br />
fectly honourable part, a most extraordinary laxity in the<br />
view which was placed on these proceedings. Ifa principal<br />
employed an agent for a given remuneration to do work for<br />
him, and employed him upon these terms, that agent was<br />
not allowed to make a secret profit for himself out of that<br />
transaction. The-sooner that was recognised, and the<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
sooner these secret commissions were made to be dis-<br />
approved of by men in an honourable profession, the better<br />
it would be for trade and commerce in all its branches. He<br />
said that not because for one moment he thought that these<br />
gentlemen were acting otherwise than in what they believed<br />
to be in accordance with their rights, but the argument of<br />
Mr. Duke had led the Court—indeed it had invited them—<br />
to say that the Court should allow these commissions to<br />
these gentlemen as against their principal because the<br />
principal knew, or ought to have known, that something of<br />
the kind was going on. Of course, if iv was brought to the<br />
knowledge of the principal that such things were being<br />
paid, it ceased to be secret, and then, of course, the question<br />
did not arise ; but when there was no knowledge the agent<br />
ought to account, and it was only honest that he should<br />
carry on his business on the principle that he should<br />
account.<br />
<br />
For the reasons which he had stated, the appellant was<br />
entitled to judgment for the two sums which the respon-<br />
dents had received by way of discount, but was not<br />
entitled to recover the commission which he had paid to<br />
them.<br />
<br />
Mr. Justice Kennedy said that on the general question he<br />
was of the same opinion. He thought that with regard to<br />
the discount the appellant was, as a matter of contract,<br />
entitled to receive the sums which the respondents had<br />
retained. By the terms of the agreement under which the<br />
respondents were em ployed they were entitled to claim<br />
beyond this commission out of pocket expenses only. What<br />
they now sought to retain was not out of pocket expenses.<br />
It had been suggested that “out of pocket expenses &<br />
might be qualified by a knowledge that in some portion of<br />
contracts which the auctioneers would necessarily enter<br />
into they might possibly be allowed a discount. It appeared<br />
to him quite impossible, as it would be unjust, to act upon<br />
such suggestions, because presumably the auctioneers ought<br />
to be treated, and they certainly claimed to be treated as<br />
men of honour; and if he said he would charge only out<br />
of pocket expenses, he (his Lordship) would think that any<br />
one who dealt with him, if so addressed, would expect to<br />
have the benefit of any discounts, if there were any, in<br />
that particular case. Further, he wished to say, without<br />
adding to what the Lord Chief Justice had said, because he<br />
had expressed it better than he (Mr. Justice Kennedy)<br />
could if he attempted to do it over again, he did think it<br />
was sad to find the extent to which in these days persons<br />
of apparent honour, and no doubt respectability, seemed to<br />
be willing to justify or to connive at secret commissions.<br />
The whole gist of the evil was in the word * Secret,” not in<br />
the word “ Commission.” If the employer was told, as he<br />
ought to be told, that the agent was going to make certain<br />
profits out of the transaction beyond the remuneration the<br />
principal was paying, there would be no possible harm ;<br />
but unless that was brought to the knowledge of the<br />
principal, if a person took the commission, or if he con-<br />
nived at another person receiving a secret commission, he<br />
was doing a thing which went far to bring a rot into the<br />
honesty of commercial transactions. He quite agreed with<br />
the Lord Chief Justice that it was only just to say that<br />
the respondents were acting perfectly honestly in doing<br />
what they imagined was right under an established practice.<br />
He would, however, be sorry to say that the practice was<br />
an honest one, unless the fact was brought to the knowledge<br />
of persons employing the agent.<br />
<br />
Mr, Justice Ridley said he concurred with the judgment:<br />
of the Lord Chief Justice.<br />
<br />
The remarks of the learned judges, at once<br />
trenchant as regards the practice condemned, and<br />
charitable to the particular offenders, leave little to<br />
be added.<br />
<br />
We trust that so clear a judicial exposition of<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
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the moral law, and so emphatic a decision, that on<br />
this matter of secret commissions the law of<br />
<br />
England is identical with it, may do something to<br />
touch the unawakened consciences of men “of<br />
apparent honour, and, no doubt, respectability,”<br />
and to prevent them in future from following a<br />
course of action which the Court of Appeal has<br />
decided to be dishonest in itself and likely “ to bring<br />
a rot into the honesty of commercial transactions.”<br />
<br />
—————_+—>—_____—_—__<br />
<br />
SWORD AND PEN.<br />
<br />
—_-——>—- —_<br />
<br />
OLDIERS seem ever to have displayed a<br />
strong predilection for the pen. After the<br />
sword, indeed, it is the weapon that has had<br />
<br />
the first place in their affections. From Julius Czesar<br />
to ‘ Linesman”’ they have shone as historians, the<br />
first named being perhaps the best war corre-<br />
spondent on record. His “ Veni, Vidi, Vici,” still<br />
remains unequalled and unsurpassed. In three<br />
words he contrived to say what his fellow craftsmen<br />
of the present day would want three volumes for.<br />
<br />
If there are no Cwesars at the present day, and<br />
if the Napiers and Hamleys of the nineteenth<br />
century have no place in the twentieth one, the<br />
age is none the less barren of good military authors.<br />
Thus, in addition to the Commander-in-Chief<br />
himself, the soldier-writers still with us include<br />
Field-Marshals Viscount Wolseley and Sir Evelyn<br />
Wood, V.-C., Generals Sir William Butler, Sir<br />
Francis Clery, Frederick Maurice, and R. 8. Baden-<br />
Powell; while two of the most successful play-<br />
wrights—Robert Marshall and Basil Hood are<br />
ex-captains of line regiments. Besides these, there<br />
are a host of others, ranking from subalterns<br />
upwards, who have conclusively shown that their<br />
prowess with the pen is no mean one.<br />
<br />
Among military historians, pure and simple, the<br />
first place was (until his lamented death last year),<br />
easily occupied by Colonel G. IF. R. Henderson,<br />
C.B. Of his completed works, the ‘Battle of<br />
Spicheren’”’ and “Campaign of I’redericksburg”’<br />
are the best known. By the way, Colonel<br />
Henderson also translated Count Sternberg’s<br />
** Experience of the Boer War.”<br />
<br />
At the head of the long list of present-day<br />
military authors will be found two field-marshals.<br />
These are respectively Lord Wolseley and Earl<br />
Roberts. Lord Wolseley’s first contribution to the<br />
publishers’ lists was a “ Narrative of the War with<br />
China.” Eight years later, in 1869, appeared his<br />
well-known “ Soldier’s Pocket Book.” In 1873 he<br />
wrote a companion volume for the auxiliary forces.<br />
As a historian, his preliminary essay was made with<br />
a “Life of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough.”<br />
<br />
85<br />
<br />
He followed this in 1895, with the “ Decline and<br />
Fall of Napoleon,” a volume which Inaugu-<br />
rated “The Pall Mall Magazine Library.” Lord<br />
Wolseley has also written numerous prefaces and<br />
introductions to books by his comrades in arms,<br />
while his contributions to magazines and reviews<br />
would in themselves make another volume.<br />
<br />
Like his distinguished predecessor in the office<br />
of Commander-in-Chief, Lord Roberts has tre-<br />
quently acted as a literary godfather, while he has<br />
also inspired a shelf full of biographies. None of<br />
these, however, have had a fraction of the well-<br />
deserved success accorded to his own “Forty-one<br />
Years in India.” Of this, some thirty editions have<br />
been issued since its original appearance in 1897.<br />
Two years earlier he wrote the “ Rise of Wellington.”<br />
<br />
The literary beginnings of Sir Evelyn Wood,<br />
V.-C., were of a modest nature. They took the<br />
form of the publication of a series of lectures,<br />
delivered before the members of the Royal United<br />
Service Institution, in 1876 and 1877. Nearly<br />
two decades elapsed before he wrote anything<br />
else. This was a volume on the Crimea. In 1897<br />
appeared his ‘ Achievements of Cavalry,” followed<br />
shortly afterwards by ‘‘ Cavalry in the Waterloo<br />
Campaign.”<br />
<br />
Perhaps, of all military authors of the present<br />
day, the most prolific and versatile is Lieut.-General<br />
Sir William Butler. Novels, biographies, and<br />
histories have all been born of his industry. He<br />
commenced in 1872 with the ‘‘ Great Lone Land,”<br />
and in 1899 appeared his last book, the “ Life of<br />
Sir George Pomeroy Colley.” ‘This is generally<br />
admitted to be one of the best biographies yet<br />
written. ‘lhe same author also contributed lives<br />
of General Gordon and Sir Charles Napier to the<br />
“English Men of Action” series. Altogether,<br />
General Butler’s name appears on the title page<br />
of nine separate books. The total of Major-General<br />
Frederick Maurice’s literary industry is ten.<br />
Included among these are biographies of his father,<br />
Frederick Denison Maurice, Sir H. B. Hamley, and<br />
Stonewall Jackson, histories of the Kgyptian (1882)<br />
and Ashanti Campaigns, and a recondite treatise<br />
on “ Hostilities without Declaration of War,” to the<br />
last edition of the ‘‘ Encyclopedia Britannica.”<br />
<br />
Long before the appearance of his famous pam-<br />
phlet on “ Scouting,” Major-General R. 8. Baden-<br />
Powell wrote books on professional matters. ‘The<br />
best known among these dealt with the important<br />
subject of ‘ Reconnaissance.” In 1889 he was<br />
responsible for a work on ‘ Pigsticking.” ‘This<br />
was succeeded by the ‘ Downfall of Prempeh”<br />
(1896) and the “ Matabele Campaign” (1897).<br />
Like Lord Roberts, “ B.-P.” has been the subject of<br />
at least half-a-dozen biographies, the majority of<br />
which are as fatuous examples of mere book-making<br />
as it would be possible to conceive.<br />
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<br />
“The Manual of Infantry Drill” is undoubtedly<br />
the most widely circulated volume in camp and<br />
barracks. Although anonymity shrouds its author-<br />
ship, General Sir Charles Mansfield Clarke (the<br />
newly appointed Governor of Malta) is commonly<br />
credited with being responsible for it. The strict<br />
anonymity which at one time veiled the personality<br />
of “ Linesman ” (the author of “ Words by an Eye<br />
Witness”) has now been brushed aside. ‘The<br />
adopter of this nom de yuerre is Captain Maurice<br />
Grant, of the Devonshire Regiment, at present a<br />
Deputy-Assistant-Adjutant-General at the War<br />
Office, and more concerned with the preparation of<br />
“Blue Books” than any other form of literature.<br />
None of the Peeping Toms of Modern Grub Street,<br />
however, have as yet succeeded in identifying<br />
“ Intelligence Officer ” (who wrote “ On the Heels of<br />
De Wet”) with anyone whose name is contained in<br />
the current Army List.<br />
<br />
At first sight the connection between Mars and<br />
the Muse does not perhaps seem very evident.<br />
That such a one exists, however, is conclusively<br />
proved by the fact that several volumes of verse<br />
have emanated from military authors. One of the<br />
best known among these is from the pen of that<br />
distinguished soldier, Sir Ian Hamilton, and was<br />
published by John Lane. Of novelists who wield<br />
the sword, the number is rather larger. It includes<br />
Colonel Newnham Davis, Major Drury, Captain<br />
Haggard, D).S.0., and Captain Peacock.<br />
<br />
Horace WYNDHAM.<br />
<br />
—_——__—_——_—__¢___—__<br />
<br />
BOOK ADVYERTISING.*<br />
<br />
—-——+ —<br />
<br />
NOR anything more tame or more unsatisfactory<br />
than the book advertising that goes on we<br />
should have to look a long way. It seems<br />
<br />
to me there is almost no advertising at all in the<br />
book trade, but merely “announcing.” Elsewhere<br />
T am apt to meet with advertisements at once<br />
striking and speaking, but never in the pub-<br />
lishers’ columns. Indeed, it would be hard for<br />
print to make a more dreary impression than it<br />
does in precisely these announcements. I do not<br />
know how it is with the bibliomaniac, but when I<br />
see a hatch of publishers’ lists in a paper, I<br />
experience nothing but aversion—a nausea partly<br />
that so much writing should be produced, and<br />
partly that it should have so dismal an introduc-<br />
tion. The only effect such pages have is to make<br />
one turn over as quickly as possible ; and one says<br />
to oneself, “ If these books are half as sleepy as the<br />
<br />
_ * OF course, this does not quite apply to publications of<br />
information and reference.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
way in which their publishers announce them,<br />
what a terribly dry lot they must be, how<br />
depressing, how lifeless, stagnant, andinert !” It<br />
would be interesting, if only for the experiment, to<br />
see a book advertised as soap is, as pills are—with<br />
go and ingenuity, and that persuasiveness which,<br />
when attention has once been arrested, then steps<br />
in to make one want the article. But there are<br />
difficulties.<br />
<br />
I need hardly say here how materially this sub-<br />
ject touches a certain pocket whose depletion our<br />
society is at much pains to prevent—the author’s,<br />
I mean. But it requires especial attention for this<br />
reason, that while for the cost of getting up a<br />
book, be that ever so exorbitant, a commissioning<br />
author does at least receive some guid pro quo in<br />
the shape of paper, print, and binding, the cost of<br />
advertising may be so much money just thrown<br />
away. I say “may be,” but suspect thav. in<br />
perhaps a majority of instances it positively is so,<br />
judging this, however, more from the impotence<br />
and indistinction of the average book announce-<br />
ment than from any familiarity with authors’<br />
accounts; for such experience as I have of the<br />
latter is more illuminating than extensive.<br />
<br />
Perhaps, under these circumstances, I may be<br />
permitted to refer to a case of my own for example.<br />
In this instance £15 was the sum spent for adver-<br />
tising, which, under the publishers’ direction,<br />
procured me forty odd insertions in various<br />
periodicals of an announcement in the usual style,<br />
viz., three or four lines in small type, sandwiched<br />
between a mass of other titles, press notices, and so<br />
on—as bald, forlorn, and pitiable an arrangement<br />
as could be devised. Though I had no exact<br />
means of checking the efficacy of these advertise-<br />
ments, I know for certain they did not bring me<br />
over six additional customers, if as many. From<br />
each of these I received the payment of roundly<br />
half a crown. Result :—Expenditure, £15; re-<br />
ceipts, 15s.; net loss, or charitable bequest to<br />
newspaper proprietors, £14 5s.<br />
<br />
Tt is no use saying now that the merchandise<br />
was bad, because we know very well that the most<br />
worthless nostrums can be profitably advertised,<br />
and even entirely bogus schemes be so urged to<br />
success. The point is that this dry and mechanical<br />
way of cataloguing books that publishers have got<br />
into does not give the author a run for his money,<br />
though, to be sure, the negligence is on both sides,<br />
and partly necessitated into the bargain. But say<br />
that, instead of leaving this £15 to be frittered-<br />
away in so many paltry obscurities, I had concen-<br />
trated it in ten distinct, alertly written “ads.,” and<br />
carefully placed these, should I not have received —<br />
at least ten times as many inquiries—yes, had it<br />
been but. a load of bricks at 3s. 6d. apiece net ?<br />
<br />
It is not so much any wild and sweeping reforms<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
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<br />
I advocate in this matter ; but where feasible I do<br />
call for more enterprise, more attention, more<br />
vivacity. A good advertisement speaks to you:<br />
it carries its point, and fixes that on the mind ; its<br />
action is a positive one. But what are we to say<br />
of the featureless inventories which in the book-<br />
trade still pass for advertisement ? What is there<br />
individual about these? Are they lucid, crisp,<br />
emphatic, intelligent ? Do they assert anything in<br />
aconvincing manner? [ say it is all as miserably<br />
lame as could be ; and I should like to know how<br />
it is some author or other does not at last wake up<br />
to crow out, like a cock on a frosty morning, that<br />
his book is “the best.” Alas for our self-satisfac-<br />
tion ! In this market “the best” are already there,<br />
and underselling us, too, at that.<br />
<br />
In truth (to mention a few of the difficulties<br />
now) a book isa poor thing to advertise, the good<br />
ones so valuable as to be beyond recommendation,<br />
the bad ones so superfluous that nobody really can<br />
find the heart to insist upon them. The limited<br />
extent of the appeal is indeed a very serious im-<br />
pediment here. And it is not so much that books<br />
are luxuries, for so in the very nature of the case<br />
are all other advertised articles. Itis the fact that<br />
these goods, before satisfying the purchaser, have<br />
to command a certain amount of his sympathy, and<br />
shape themselves, not simply to his convenience,<br />
but to the spirit of him. This is the reason why,<br />
strictly speaking, it is impossible to treat books—<br />
other than those of a merely formal class—as<br />
proper articles of commerce. With commodities<br />
the mental and moral order of the purchaser does<br />
not come in question, but with books it does, and<br />
this complication will always more or less prevent<br />
us from advertising them as true branded commo-<br />
dities are—that is to say, with decision, assurance,<br />
and pertinacity. Could any writer, I ask, were it<br />
Shakespeare himself, give so much as your tailor’s<br />
guarantee, and claim in his announcement, “ We<br />
fit you” ? Decidedly no. The author’s stock is<br />
all of a size; and it is only the few and the scat-<br />
tered others of about that calibre that he can<br />
attempt to cater for. Nay, were some of us to<br />
speak for ourselves, we should have to affirm that<br />
those to whom we wish to be recommended are a<br />
public whose very existence is essentially no more<br />
than phantasmal. Precisely of this audience we<br />
have never met a single member, but can trust<br />
only that they lurk somewhere.<br />
<br />
Of great writers it might be said that time is<br />
their advertisement (and there is no medium yield-<br />
ing better results). What more eloquent advocate,<br />
indeed, can an author desire than his writing ?<br />
what fairer testimonial? Unfortunately, however,<br />
it is exactly this distribution of sample-pieces that<br />
presents so much difficulty. It is not everyone who<br />
has the knack of just that style requisite to gain<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
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signed admission to the standing periodicals, nor<br />
everyone who has something purely topical to say.<br />
Even when this is the case, the probability is<br />
that the specimens so circulated are of a specially<br />
adapted character—of a character, in other words,<br />
not properly representative. From this sort of<br />
advertisement a man gains enumeration at the ex-<br />
pense of reputation. In the alternative event, the<br />
author, making of his books or, it may be, manu-<br />
scripts, his personal journal and propaganda, must<br />
simply wait for the word to percolate of its own<br />
gravity to congenial company, in this sometimes<br />
forwarded, sometimes thrust back, by the deputa-<br />
tion of official “tasters.” And those who have<br />
ever found themselves in the predicament will<br />
hardly need any reminder from me what an excru-<br />
ciatingly slow process this generally is. How many<br />
purveyors are there in any case who, had they but<br />
fifty customers, would have five hundred ?<br />
Advertisement, like an usher, calls out our<br />
names, but not the personalities or capacities<br />
attached to them. Where the name itself implies<br />
nothing, consequently, the announcement is sure<br />
not to go for much ; and unknown authors ought<br />
to bear the fact in mind, if they do not want to<br />
waste money. No doubt, if the advertiser could<br />
only be sure he were informing THE READER, his<br />
recommendation would not lack for point and<br />
effectiveness. Besides, a word, a sign even, would<br />
be sufficient here. Stood up, however, in front of<br />
the book-buying public — this foreign, heteroge-<br />
neous, preoccupied assembly—enthusiasm too often<br />
dies wretchedly away, the tongue falters, and<br />
what was to have been a brag is uttered a feeble<br />
gasp. The speaker looks round. Instead of the<br />
fanfare, a toy trumpet has heralded his approach.<br />
Norman ALLISTON.<br />
<br />
o~<e& ¢<br />
<br />
A GUIDE TO GRUB STREET.<br />
<br />
++<br />
<br />
rHVHERE is an alarming rumour current in<br />
<br />
Fleet Street to the effect that in the near<br />
<br />
future all newspaper articles will be written<br />
by machinery. Until such time, however, the<br />
older fashioned methods will doubtless prevail.<br />
What these methods are, and the best way of<br />
acquiring them, Mr. Arthur Lawrence essays to set<br />
forth in this manual.* At any rate, in the first two<br />
lines of the opening chapter he describes it as “a<br />
work intended to serve as a guide to journalism.”<br />
Unfortunately its achievement falls very short of<br />
<br />
* «Journalism as a Profession,” by Arthur Lawrence<br />
(Hodder & Stoughton).<br />
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88<br />
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its intention, and the literary aspirant may read<br />
the volume from cover to cover twice over<br />
without being any nearer the editorship of<br />
either the Times or Comic Cuts than when he<br />
started. The book, however, will make him think<br />
that he is. It will also have the effect of imbuing<br />
the minds of numbers of ambitious journalistic<br />
amateurs with the idea that newspaper pro-<br />
prietors are aching to pay them large sums of<br />
money. This is a matter for regret. Every<br />
young woman in the kingdom thinks she can<br />
write a story, and some of them are quite positive<br />
about it. Our instructor tells them airily that<br />
“there are several writers of serial stories in the<br />
popular weeklies who earn £1,500 a year.” He<br />
puts the average rate of remuneration at a guinea<br />
a thousand words. Mary Ann reads this, and her<br />
mouth waters. If she perceived, however, that<br />
between her and the acquisition of £1,500 stretched<br />
the composition of approximately a million and a<br />
half words, her transports would subside in marked<br />
degree. Of journalism, too, in general we are told,<br />
“The beginner of not more than average ability<br />
may reasonably hope to be self-supporting—in<br />
somewhat meagre fashion, perhaps—at the start.”<br />
Well, “hope” is cheap.<br />
<br />
As a beginner himself Mr. Lawrence seems to<br />
have met with better fortune than most people.<br />
“The number of MSS. returned to me,” he writes<br />
naively, “during six years of free-lance contribu-<br />
tions was not more than 1 per cent.” He omits to<br />
mention, however, the number that were accepted.<br />
<br />
Mr. Lawrence’s opinion that “it is less the sub-<br />
ject than the treatment which counts” is not<br />
shared by editors as a class. Indeed, when the<br />
subject is all right—from their point of view—<br />
nothing else is of any great importance. No<br />
amount of literary skill will make them look with<br />
eyes of favour on a contribution that does not deal<br />
primarily with a topic that will appeal to their<br />
readers. This is why our “popular” magazines<br />
print so many ill-written articles on interesting<br />
subjects. A second view expressed by the author<br />
of “ Journalism as a Profession” is also unlikely<br />
to meet with general approval. It occurs in his<br />
chapter on interviewing, in the course of which he<br />
states in effect that it is undesirable to submit to<br />
the person referred to the biographical and critical<br />
portions of the article. These, he argues, should<br />
be printed without inquiring beforehand whether<br />
they are approved of or not. Among most people<br />
this sort of thing would be regarded as bad<br />
manners. It is a little curious, therefore, to find<br />
Mr. Lawrence including “ good taste” among the<br />
necessary qualifications of an interviewer.<br />
<br />
Several pages in this enlightening manual are<br />
devoted to the subject of short story writing.<br />
Aspirants will turn to these eagerly, for no descrip-<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
tion of literary work is more attractive to the would-<br />
be author. In dealing with the subject our guide<br />
invokes the aid of a brother-writer. Meredith and<br />
<br />
Kipling being unavailable, he gives them the wise ©<br />
<br />
words of the next best expert on hand. This is no<br />
less an authority than the editor of Forget-me-Not !<br />
“ Here’s richness !’’ as Mr. Squeers once observed.<br />
The mentor thus called in takes himself very<br />
seriously, and insists upon simplicity, directness,<br />
condensation, development, and “ form,” together<br />
with any number of other desirable attributes, before<br />
the high standard of Home Chat and similar organs<br />
can be reached. He advises the beginner to turn<br />
his attention to serials, opening up a golden vista<br />
in this direction. ‘‘ At present,’’ he declares,<br />
“there are nearly five hundred serials running in<br />
London periodicals, and editors value the capable<br />
serial-writer above rubies.” Perhaps this is why<br />
they pay them from fifteen shillings per thousand<br />
words, which is the market price for beginners in<br />
Carmelite Street. Even at a guinea per thousand<br />
(the scale here stated as being usual) it seems<br />
unduly optimistic to say that ‘a young man who<br />
has once got a start can comfortably earn £1,000<br />
a year.” At any rate, he has got to write a million<br />
words—that is, the contents of ten long novels—<br />
to do it.<br />
<br />
On this delicate matter of the journalist’s earning<br />
powers Mr. Lawrence holds a no less cheery view.<br />
“‘T have frequently,” he remarks, “had ocular<br />
demonstration of the fact that thirty, forty, and<br />
even fifty guineas can be obtained for a well-illus-<br />
trated and popular article,” and then goes on to<br />
speak of a writer—“ quite unknown to the public ”<br />
—who received £480 for a series of twelve contri-<br />
butions. After this it seems a little strange to<br />
find him saying, ‘‘In most periodicals money is<br />
not scattered about. Newspapers, magazines, and<br />
reviews are conducted on the same principle as any<br />
other form of trade enterprise.” But Mr. Lawrence<br />
says many strange things. One of them (on p. 74)<br />
is “ different — to.”<br />
<br />
The final chapter in Mr. Lawrence’s book is<br />
written by Sir Alfred Harmsworth. It deals with<br />
“The Making of a Newspaper,” and is worth more<br />
than all the others put together.<br />
<br />
H. W.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
a<br />
<br />
THE FEMININE NOTE IN FICTION.<br />
<br />
— ee<br />
<br />
T the introduction to his volume of essays on<br />
<br />
certain women writers of the present time,<br />
Mr. W. L. Courtney starts with the assump-<br />
tion that women who write novels introduce a<br />
particular point of view of their own, that there is,<br />
in short, a distinctive feminine style in fiction.<br />
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THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
He is not unmindful, however, of the painful truth<br />
that if there is a distinct feminine standpoint there<br />
is a distinct masculine standpoint also, and that<br />
the latter is as likely to lead to misapprehension as<br />
the former. It must be confessed that study of<br />
Mr. Courtney’s essays fails, in the case of the<br />
present writer, to give a clear notion of what this<br />
distinctively feminine note is. At times one has<br />
the impression that a note of ponderous solemnity,<br />
a prophetic hollowness of voice that hints the gas<br />
and tripod of the Sibyl herself, is the common<br />
quality of literary women ; but, after all, distinctly<br />
masculine persons utter oracles by the furlong.<br />
At other moments a passion for paradox, and for<br />
the epigrams that the editor of the Fortnightly<br />
despises so wrongly, seems to be the typical vice<br />
of the female novelist. One serious defect, com-<br />
mon to all women writers except Sappho and<br />
Charlotte Bronté, appears to be an insane passion<br />
for detail, and this is generally combined with<br />
self-consciousness and didacticism. The diary<br />
which some pretty women daren’t keep and all<br />
plain ones keep so religiously is the cause of<br />
the self-consciousness: the didacticism is the Old<br />
Eve that lurks even in the pious bosom of the<br />
deaconess and the novelist with a Purpose. Mr.<br />
Courtney sat down to write a book—or rather, I<br />
should say that he has collected a book from those<br />
reviews of his whose style is a refreshing and sober<br />
contrast with the somewhat flamboyant periods of<br />
the other columns of the Daily T'elegraph—a book<br />
which professes to deal with one note in fiction<br />
peculiar to women. He has written essays on eight<br />
distinguished ladies (the Muses themselves only<br />
attained to the mystic number nine), and, as a conse-<br />
quence, has given us an interesting volume on eight<br />
feminine notes in fiction. I suggest that he publish<br />
an additional volume on the same subjegt every<br />
year. Variwn etmutabile sniper fanina 7 The only<br />
common qualities in feminine fiction that I have<br />
ever detected are, first, a tendency to say, like the<br />
Duchess in “* Lady Windermere’s Fan,” that all men<br />
are monsters, or to draw angels with moustaches<br />
and clerical trousers; and secondly, to call them-<br />
selves ugly names if they do not already possess<br />
them. John Oliver Hobbes, Amalie Skram,<br />
Madame Edgrems-Leffler, Zack, Gyp,—why do the<br />
brilliant creatures all choose, or possess lawfully,<br />
these terribly aggressive appellations ?,“ By the<br />
Ilyssus, as Matthew Arnold would havé said, there<br />
was no Skram. By the Thames, howevei, there<br />
are plenty of names just as formidable. Why<br />
should our feminine fictionists rejoice in adding<br />
such a truly ugly discord to the Strauss-like<br />
cacophonies of modern life? The masculine note<br />
in criticism of it should ever be the loud and<br />
natural D of denunciation.<br />
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<br />
<br />
sr, J. Li.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
89<br />
IN A PUBLISHER’S WAITING-ROOM.<br />
3Y THE JUNIOR PARTNER.<br />
1<br />
HE “front clerk ”—as he is called—(whose<br />
<br />
business it is to “ squeeze ” visitors and make<br />
<br />
them yield up the truth about themselves,<br />
whether they be “authors,” “advertising,” or<br />
“accounts,” and these, too, bond fide, and no<br />
humbug) knocks at my door.<br />
<br />
On the card, which he places before me without<br />
comment, is the name of a man of some distinction<br />
in our Civil Service ; and, glancing at the “ requisi-<br />
tion’ slip which accompanies it, upon which a<br />
caller is required to mention his business, I see<br />
that the section is not filled up, so the slip adds<br />
nothing to my knowledge of his business.<br />
<br />
When, five minutes later, I open the door of the<br />
waiting-room and ask him to be seated, my mind is<br />
(I like to think) a blank. Iam without prejudice.<br />
But as soon as the light catches his face I see that<br />
he is probably an author, one who has, perhaps,<br />
never published anything before.<br />
<br />
Men will go to a strange doctor, lawyer, clergy-<br />
man, and speak unblushingly, sometimes of strange<br />
discreditable things. There is a tacit understanding.<br />
The object of the visit is approximately known. No<br />
preliminaries are necessary: digestion or conscience<br />
is giving trouble ; a “settlement ” or a ‘ divorce”<br />
is to be arranged: nothing is so strange or so<br />
commonplace but the profession will support it, and<br />
the client shortly feel at ease. Something of this<br />
kindly aid to human nature, which the pro-<br />
fessional man derives from his office, the publisher<br />
himself strives after, and, in a large “ practice,”<br />
sometimes attains to. The author rarely. The<br />
author is either an unpublished author, a failure,<br />
or a success. If either of the former, his most<br />
common fault is shyness. If the latter, sheepish-<br />
ness is not exactly his failing. No, he is not<br />
sheepish. He is usually the sovereign lord of<br />
heaven and earth, sometimes the true Olympian,<br />
but sometimes the bully and the fool. It is not<br />
altogether their fault; they are perhaps building,<br />
somewhere out of sight, their own idea of the City<br />
of God. And one must make allowances; one<br />
must allow for birth, parentage, training ; and<br />
lastly, for this strange unique thing that at length<br />
happens to them—they have a desire, strange to all<br />
animals and to most men, to express themselves in<br />
words ; to make it their business in life to live in<br />
an imaginary world. And so they come to us busi-<br />
ness men, made sad and sober by many mistakes,<br />
and explain themselves as best they may ; and we<br />
in our turn try to meet them half way by surround-<br />
ing ourselves with cautious and civil assistants<br />
armed with all the latest books of biographical<br />
<br />
<br />
90<br />
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<br />
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reference ; and by keeping an open unprejudiced<br />
mind.<br />
<br />
My caller is of medium height, squarely built,<br />
but small headed. His hair is thin and of the<br />
colour of straw—a yellow that just misses that<br />
colour. But the notable thing about him are his<br />
eyes: small, common, grey-blue eyes, you would<br />
say, at a first glance. It is when he begins to<br />
speak, when he is sure of the person with whom he<br />
is speaking, that they light up and say more than<br />
the man himself can say. Indeed, this much-<br />
travelled man, with all those letters after his name,<br />
and the years and honours upon him, can say but<br />
little, and say it very badly. As he speaks he<br />
leans forward towards his listener and bends his<br />
head low.<br />
<br />
“J have come—I am sorry to trespass on your<br />
time—I wish to have a book—published, you see ?<br />
Not to pay for it. [Abruptly.] I do not wish to<br />
do that.” He smiles engagingly, uncertain of his<br />
ground. Reassured, he proceeds :<br />
<br />
“JT might be called—you would think me<br />
perhaps in a position to pay for it. Solam ; but—<br />
the fact is, I am not literary : all my friends are—<br />
the reverse. Well—unless you could see your way<br />
to publish it, I should—you see—be deeper in<br />
ignorance as to its true value. I should have no<br />
guarantee. I want to get at its true value. If it<br />
is not valuable enough to publish—for you—I shall<br />
not publish it.”<br />
<br />
I asked him to tell me what the book is about.<br />
<br />
“Ah; it is along story.” He sits up, relieved<br />
that the dreadful secret is at length out; that<br />
the preliminaries are even over ; approaching the<br />
explanation now with a kind of vigour born of<br />
confidence begotten in his hearer. Yet he is very<br />
nervous, and I try to put him at ease.<br />
<br />
* You say ‘a long story’: how many words ?”<br />
and we both laugh. The ice is broken. After the<br />
mutual understanding, he begins.<br />
<br />
“You know, I have travelled a good deal—here<br />
and there—a matter of necessity—working pretty<br />
hard, ‘serving my country’ [the winning smile<br />
again |—and—but like the man in Kipling, I’ve<br />
always had a thought behind—‘ back of all,’ as the<br />
Americans say—which—which—I scarcely know<br />
how to express it—which continually urged upon<br />
me that ‘his was not the real thing, the real pur-<br />
pose of my life. Thirty years of it I’ve done,<br />
nevertheless—absorbed in my work, going here<br />
and there, and sometimes forgetting, but never<br />
completely; especially of late. In fact, of late,<br />
though I might call myself a busy man still, I’ve<br />
felt this desire more insistent than ever ”’—<br />
<br />
“What desire ?”<br />
<br />
“Ah, yes, of course: the desire to record my<br />
experiences in a book.”<br />
“Then, a book of travels ?”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Well, no, not exactly ; it is really imaginary ;<br />
in fact, a purely imaginary work—I mean, a work<br />
of the imagination. And yet it deals only with<br />
facts.”<br />
<br />
1 smile at his hesitation and point out: “In<br />
that case I have to warn you that the facts will be<br />
used against you at the trial.” The suggestion<br />
missed him. He was not literary.<br />
<br />
“ How so?” abruptly.<br />
<br />
“Tn this way: if an author allege of his work<br />
that it is a record of fact, or is founded on fact, as<br />
fact, he must expect it to be judged. Fiction does<br />
not gain anything by being founded on fact; and<br />
the literary crime of writing poor fiction is not<br />
extenuated but rather aggravated by alleging of<br />
it that it is a record of fact, for in that case it is<br />
neither the one thing nor the other.”<br />
<br />
“ Quite so—of course.” Dubiously.<br />
<br />
“At least, that, I believe, is the profess‘onal<br />
reader’s view.”<br />
<br />
“‘ But may there not be exceptions ?”<br />
<br />
“ Surely.”<br />
<br />
“T do not say I am the—the heaven-sent<br />
exception. But—you must forgive me—this book<br />
of mine will, I think, astonish you. It has cost me<br />
years of thought—years: I have put all of myself<br />
—the best I have—into it. You must admit that<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
‘the very best, the most truthful part, of even the<br />
<br />
most ordinary man’s thoughts may be really worth<br />
something.”<br />
<br />
“To himself, to his friends, yes; but, as litera-<br />
ture, not necessarily.”<br />
<br />
“ How ?—what do you mean by literature ?”<br />
<br />
My face involuntarily expressed deprecation. I<br />
made a movement which his nervousness wrongly<br />
interpreted, and he rose.<br />
<br />
“ May I send it, then, if you please? You will<br />
take care of it? You have my name and address.<br />
And—will you, will you, please, (in a whisper full<br />
of anxiety)—read it yourself?”<br />
<br />
“That I fear I cannot promise.”<br />
<br />
“Well, never mind. Thank you very much. I<br />
am afraid I have been trespassing. Thank you.<br />
Ti send it at once. Thank you. Good-bye.”<br />
<br />
The pleading eyes of this ‘‘ man of action” were<br />
with me for days. A busy man, he had evidently<br />
suffered much from some mental worry, and had<br />
thus been driven back upon the world of thought<br />
where he found himself at sea. A pathetic figure,<br />
with that invincible belief which so many would-<br />
be authors have in common: that the success and<br />
happy ease with which they carry out the practical<br />
work of their lives must qualify them at length for<br />
success in a totally different sphere—that it is a<br />
guarantee of it.<br />
<br />
The manuscript arrived the next day. It was<br />
not anovel. It was a twelve-canto poem in blank<br />
verse, for the model of which ‘‘ Paradise Lost” had<br />
<br />
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<br />
evidently served, recounting the author’s birth,<br />
bringing up, experiences, activities, and, in the<br />
last canto, the loss of his earthly paradise when<br />
his wife left him for someone else—not literature ;<br />
indeed, quite worthless.<br />
<br />
—_______+ > ____<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
ass<br />
<br />
Srr,— What is our literature coming to ?<br />
<br />
I take the following choice extracts at random<br />
from ‘The Storm of London,” which I am told is<br />
the rage of the season :<br />
<br />
1. ‘ Amphibrion” or “ Amphytrion ” (the author<br />
favours both forms, but never by accident the right<br />
one).<br />
<br />
2. “The London Hetaires.”<br />
<br />
3. “ Preferable ¢han social decomposition.”<br />
<br />
4, “ Awaiting for.”<br />
<br />
5. “ Let me pour you (sic) a cup of tea.”<br />
<br />
6<br />
<br />
7<br />
<br />
8<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
). “An mfalliable guide.”<br />
. “They are having you on” (elegant).<br />
. “The lady: ‘So funny to give orders to a<br />
<br />
F229:<br />
<br />
person who stands just as naked as you are<br />
(choice).<br />
<br />
9. ‘The corruption of a Louis XV. with the<br />
casuist of a Loyola.”<br />
<br />
10. “ The poor diaphanous lady.”<br />
<br />
11. “ A silver candelabra.”<br />
<br />
12. “ Out of humour against the performance.”<br />
<br />
And so on ad nauseam ; while, for the punctua-<br />
tion (good heavens ! )—a pepper pot must have been<br />
used.<br />
<br />
How did it ever pass muster with the publisher’s<br />
reader ? oP<br />
<br />
——+—<—<br />
<br />
“WHAT'S IN A NAME?”<br />
<br />
Sir,—Mr. Armstrong’s letter does not refute my<br />
proposition that no man, under any pretext what-<br />
ever, has a right to use another man’s property in<br />
book-titles. ‘This subject of title-taking I have<br />
treated more upon moral than legal grounds. If<br />
he thinks that my remarks upon his letters in 7'he<br />
Author have passed the bounds of fair comment,<br />
I tender him, in all sincerity, a full and frank<br />
apology.<br />
<br />
Mr. Charles Weekes prefaces his raw reply to my<br />
proposition with the complimentary question,<br />
“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words<br />
without knowledge ?” With equal grace I demand,<br />
“ Who is this that offereth sophistry for reasoning ?”<br />
<br />
Besides copyright, he tells us, an author has<br />
“common law right.” This, in part, is a flagrant<br />
sophism. Common law is unwritten law, and<br />
where is the right in that which is unwritten ?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. | 9]<br />
<br />
Mr. Weekes means, I suppose, that the common<br />
law gives one man a right to appeal against<br />
another’s appropriating his property in book-titles,<br />
Just so. But that does not constitute a right<br />
moral or legal, to the book-title, any more than the<br />
purloining of title-deeds gives a right to possession<br />
of the property of which they are the evidence.<br />
Take a title-deed, as book-titles are purloined, and<br />
the act is criminal.<br />
<br />
To save space I shall not handle his fallacious<br />
analogy between book-titles and trade-marks as he<br />
did my correct one concerning Mr. Penman Dryas-<br />
dust and a book-title. I shall merely point out his<br />
contradictions of himself, and his sophistry, He<br />
writes :—<br />
<br />
“A book has a right<br />
against infringers which<br />
the common law will<br />
recognise. alse.”<br />
<br />
This he calls taking the analogy the other way.<br />
‘Twist it whatever way he will, it is a contradiction.<br />
He complains of my want of analogical reasoning ;<br />
but what about his own unconscious lack of it as<br />
shown in the following passage? In plenitude of<br />
words he writes :—“ Copyright, Mr. Panter should<br />
learn, ... is not like a man’s right to ‘house<br />
utensils,’ It is analogous to the right in a patent<br />
or trade-mark.” Above Mr. Weekes, in the cock-<br />
sure vein, declares for an author’s “common law<br />
right.” And here he eliminates the cocksure by<br />
stating it is only an analogous one! Book-titles<br />
and trade marks are not analogous; and until it<br />
can be shown that an author gives the same title<br />
to every work he writes as a publisher stamps his<br />
trade-mark upon every book he produces, there can<br />
be no analogy between book-titles and trade-marks.<br />
‘lo use Mr. Weekes’ own phrasing against himself :<br />
‘“« Here the analogy of” book-titles to trade-marks<br />
“undergoes complete extinction. I am tempted<br />
to inquire whether he understands the nature and<br />
uses of analogical reasoning.” A book-title and a<br />
trade mark possess as much analogy as do the<br />
marks upon the bodies of Smith and Beck, and<br />
yet this ‘analogy ” gave the innocent man seven<br />
years of penal servitude.<br />
<br />
What says the Copyright Act (5 and 6 Vict. c. 42),<br />
8. 3, with respect to the word “book.” ‘A book<br />
shall be construed to mean and include every<br />
volume, and part or division of a volume, &e., &e.,<br />
of original composition published.” Is the title not<br />
a part of the volume ? Why, then, should the title,<br />
or first sentence of the volume, be wrenched from<br />
its fellow sentences in order to make //, and noother<br />
sentence, a question of contention in a law court ?<br />
To make it such belies the pronouncement of the<br />
Copyright Act, that a part as well as the whole of<br />
a volume is under its protection.<br />
<br />
“A book has a right<br />
against infringers which<br />
the copyright law will<br />
recognise. This is true.”<br />
<br />
<br />
90 THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
reference ; and by keeping an open unprejudiced<br />
mind.<br />
<br />
My caller is of medium height, squarely built,<br />
but small headed. His hair is thin and of the<br />
colour of straw—a yellow that just misses that<br />
colour. But the notable thing about him are his<br />
eyes: small, common, grey-blue eyes, you would<br />
say, at a first glance. It is when he begins to<br />
speak, when he is sure of the person with whom he<br />
is speaking, that they light up and say more than<br />
the man himself can say. Indeed, this much-<br />
travelled man, with all those letters after his name,<br />
and the years and honours upon him, can say but<br />
little, and say it very badly. As he speaks he<br />
leans forward towards his listener and bends his<br />
head low.<br />
<br />
“JT have come—I am sorry to trespass on your<br />
time—I wish to have a book—published, you see ?<br />
Not to pay for it. [Abruptly.] Ido not wish to<br />
do that.” He smiles engagingly, uncertain of his<br />
ground. Reassured, he proceeds :<br />
<br />
“T might be called—you would think me<br />
perhaps in a position to pay for it. SoIam ; but—<br />
the fact is, I am not literary : all my friends are—<br />
the reverse. Well—unless you could see your way<br />
to publish it, I should—you see—be deeper in<br />
ignorance as to its true value. I should have no<br />
guarantee. I want to get at its true value. If it<br />
is not valuable enough to publish—for you—I shall<br />
not publish it.”<br />
<br />
I asked him to tell me what the book is about.<br />
<br />
“Ah; it isa long story.” He sits up, relieved<br />
that the dreadful secret is at length out; that<br />
the preliminaries are even over ; approaching the<br />
explanation now with a kind of vigour born of<br />
confidence begotten in his hearer. Yet he is very<br />
nervous, and I try to put him at ease.<br />
<br />
“You say ‘a long story’: how many words ?”<br />
and we both laugh. The ice is broken. After the<br />
mutual understanding, he begins.<br />
<br />
“You know, I have travelled a good deal—here<br />
and there—a matter of necessity—working pretty<br />
hard, ‘serving my country’ [the winning smile<br />
again |—and—but like the man in Kipling, I’ve<br />
always had a thought behind—‘ back of all,’ as the<br />
Americans say—which—which—I scarcely know<br />
how to express it—which continually urged upon<br />
me that ‘his was not the real thing, the real pur-<br />
pose of my life. Thirty years of it I’ve done,<br />
nevertheless—absorbed in my work, going here<br />
and there, and sometimes forgetting, but never<br />
completely; especially of late. In fact, of late,<br />
though I might call myself a busy man still, I’ve<br />
felt this desire more insistent than ever ’—<br />
<br />
“What desire ?”<br />
<br />
“Ah, yes, of course: the desire to record my<br />
experiences in a book.”<br />
<br />
“Then, a book of travels ? ”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“Well, no, not exactly ; it is really imaginary ;<br />
in fact, a purely imaginary work—I mean, a work<br />
of the imagination. And yet it deals only with<br />
facts.”<br />
<br />
I smile at his hesitation and point out: “In<br />
that case I have to warn you that the facts will be<br />
used against you at the trial.” The suggestion<br />
missed him. He was not literary.<br />
<br />
“ How so ?” abruptly.<br />
<br />
“In this way : if an author allege of his work<br />
that it is a record of fact, or is founded on fact, as<br />
fact, he must expect it to be judged. Fiction does<br />
not gain anything by being founded on fact; and<br />
the literary crime of writing poor fiction is not<br />
extenuated but rather aggravated by alleging of<br />
it that it is a record of fact, for in that case it is<br />
neither the one thing nor the other.”<br />
<br />
“Quite so—of course.” Dubiously.<br />
<br />
““At least, that, I believe, is the professional<br />
reader’s view.”<br />
<br />
‘‘ But may there not be exceptions ?”<br />
<br />
“ Surely.”<br />
<br />
“T do not say I am the—the heaven-sent<br />
exception. But—you must forgive me—this book<br />
of mine will, I think, astonish you. It has cost me<br />
years of thought—years: I have put all of myself<br />
—the best I have—into it. You must admit that<br />
<br />
‘the very best, the most truthful part, of even the<br />
<br />
most ordinary man’s thoughts may be really worth<br />
something.”<br />
<br />
“To himself, to his friends, yes ; but, as litera-<br />
ture, not necessarily.”<br />
<br />
‘* How ?—what do you mean by literature ?”<br />
<br />
My face involuntarily expressed deprecation. I<br />
made a movement which his nervousness wrongly<br />
interpreted, and he rose.<br />
<br />
“May I send it, then, if you please? You will<br />
take care of it? You have my name and address.<br />
And—will you, will you, please, (in a whisper full<br />
of anxiety)—read it yourself ?”<br />
<br />
“That I fear I cannot promise.”<br />
<br />
“Well, never mind. Thank you very much. I<br />
am afraid I have been trespassing. Thank you.<br />
I'll send it at once. Thank you. Good-bye.”<br />
<br />
The pleading eyes of this “man of action” were<br />
with me for days. A busy man, he had evidently<br />
suffered much from some mental worry, and had<br />
thus been driven back upon the world of thought<br />
where he found himself at sea. A pathetic figure,<br />
with that invincible belief which so many would-<br />
be authors have in common: that the success and<br />
happy ease with which they carry out the practical<br />
work of their lives must qualify them at length for<br />
success in a totally different sphere—that it is a<br />
guarantee of it.<br />
<br />
The manuscript arrived the next day. It was<br />
not anovel. It was a twelve-canto poem in blank<br />
verse, for the model of which ‘‘ Paradise Lost”? had<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR. | 91<br />
<br />
evidently served, recounting the author’s birth,<br />
bringing up, experiences, activities, and, in the<br />
last canto, the loss of his earthly paradise when<br />
his wife left him for someone else—not literature ;<br />
indeed, quite worthless.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
—~>— +<br />
<br />
CORRESPONDENCE.<br />
Be<br />
<br />
Str,— What zs our literature coming to ?<br />
<br />
I take the following choice extracts at random<br />
from ‘The Storm of London,” which I am told is<br />
the rage of the season :—<br />
<br />
1. *‘ Amphibrion” or “ Amphytrion ” (the author<br />
favours both forms, but never by accident the right<br />
one).<br />
<br />
2. “The London Hetaires.”<br />
<br />
3. “ Preferable than social decomposition.”<br />
<br />
4, “ Awaiting for.”<br />
5. “ Let me pour you (sic) a cup of tea.”<br />
6. “An infalliable guide.”<br />
<br />
7. “They are having you on” (elegant).<br />
<br />
8. “The lady: ‘So funny to give orders to a<br />
person who stands just as naked as you are’”<br />
(choice).<br />
<br />
9. “The corruption of a Louis XY. with the<br />
casuist of a Loyola.”<br />
<br />
10. “ The poor diaphanous lady.”<br />
<br />
11. “A silver candelabra.”<br />
<br />
12. “ Out of humour against the performance.”<br />
<br />
And so on ad nauseam ; while, for the punctua-<br />
tion (good heavens ! )—a pepper pot must have been<br />
used.<br />
<br />
How did it ever pass muster with the publisher’s<br />
reader ? © Ap<br />
<br />
— + ——<br />
<br />
““WHAT’s IN A NaME?”’<br />
<br />
Sir,—Mr. Armstrong’s letter does not refute my<br />
proposition that no man, under any pretext what-<br />
ever, has a right to use another man’s property in<br />
book-titles. ‘This subject of title-taking I have<br />
treated more upon moral than legal grounds. If<br />
he thinks that my remarks upon his letters in Zhe<br />
Author have passed the bounds of fair comment,<br />
I tender him, in all sincerity, a full and frank<br />
apology.<br />
<br />
Mr. Charles Weekes prefaces his raw reply to my<br />
proposition with the complimentary question,<br />
“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words<br />
without knowledge ?” With equal grace I demand,<br />
“ Whois this that offereth sophistry for reasoning ?”<br />
<br />
Besides copyright, he tells us, an author has<br />
“common law right.” This, in part, is a flagrant<br />
sophism. Common law is unwritten law, and<br />
where is the right in that which is unwritten ?<br />
<br />
Mr. Weekes means, I suppose, that the common<br />
law gives one man a right to appeal against<br />
another’s appropriating his property in book-titles,<br />
Just so. But that does not constitute a right<br />
moral or legal, to the book-title, any more than the<br />
purloining of title-deeds gives a right to possession<br />
of the property of which they are the evidence,<br />
Take a title-deed, as book-titles are purloined, and<br />
the act is criminal.<br />
<br />
To save space I shall not handle his fallacious<br />
analogy between book-titles and trade-marks as he<br />
did my correct one concerning Mr. Penman Dryas-<br />
dust and a book-title. I shall merely point out his<br />
contradictions of himself, and his sophistry. He<br />
writes :—<br />
<br />
“A book has a right<br />
<br />
‘A be “ A book has a right<br />
against infringers which<br />
<br />
against infringers which<br />
<br />
the common law will the copyright law will<br />
recognise. False.” recognise. This is true.”<br />
<br />
This he calls taking the analogy the other way.<br />
Twist it whatever way he will, it is a contradiction.<br />
He complains of my want of analogical reasoning ;<br />
but what about his own unconscious lack of it as<br />
shown in the following passage? In plenitude of<br />
words he writes :—* Copyright, Mr. Panter should<br />
learn, ... is not like a man’s right to ‘house<br />
utensils.” It is analogous to the right in a patent<br />
or trade-mark.” Above Mr. Weekes, in the cock-<br />
sure vein, declares for an author’s “common law<br />
right.” And here he eliminates the cocksure by<br />
stating it is only an analogous one! Book-titles<br />
and trade marks are not analogous; and until it<br />
can be shown that an author gives the same title<br />
to every work he writes as a publisher stamps his<br />
trade-mark upon every book he produces, there can<br />
be no analogy between book-titles and trade-marks.<br />
To use Mr. Weekes’ own phrasing against himself :<br />
‘Here the analogy of” book-titles to trade-marks<br />
“undergoes complete extinction. I am tempted<br />
to inquire whether he understands the nature and<br />
uses of analogical reasoning.” A book-title and a<br />
trade mark possess as much analogy as do the<br />
marks upon the bodies of Smith and Beck, and<br />
yet this ‘analogy ” gave the innocent man seven<br />
years of penal servitude.<br />
<br />
What says the Copyright Act (5 and 6 Vict. c. 42),<br />
8. 3, with respect to the word “book.” “A book<br />
shall be construed to mean and include every<br />
volume, and part or division of a volume, &¢., &c.,<br />
of original composition published.” Is the title not<br />
a part of the volume ? Why, then, should the title,<br />
or first sentence of the volume, be wrenched from<br />
its fellow sentences in order to make /¢, and noother<br />
sentence, a question of contention in a law court ?<br />
To make it such belies the pronouncement of the<br />
Copyright Act, that a part as well as the whole of<br />
a volume is under its protection.<br />
<br />
<br />
92<br />
<br />
Next Mr. Weekes asks, “ Does Mr. Panter see the<br />
point” of a book being allowed to exclude other<br />
books of more value from the market monopolising<br />
the exclusive right to its title ? I answer, Yes, if it<br />
be not wrong to take and use another man’s title ;<br />
and No, if the contrary be held right. To say<br />
that because a book is of more value than another,<br />
it, therefore, has a right to that other’s title, is<br />
dishonest. And no man outside the precincts of<br />
Colney Hatch, if he respected public opinion con-<br />
cerning his mental health, would dare to say<br />
otherwise.<br />
<br />
Other remarks of Mr. Weekes I cannot notice, as<br />
they are wide of the point at issue with respect to<br />
the game of title-cribbage. He adds a like cypher<br />
to Mr. Armstrong’s arithmetical naught. For a<br />
perfect definition and able verdict I would recom-<br />
mend their study of Cowper’s “ Eyes v. Nose.”<br />
<br />
CHARLES RICHARD PANTER.<br />
Wickhampton.<br />
<br />
Seis FY LE<br />
<br />
DEAR Srr,—The question of copyright in titles,<br />
opened by Miss Mary Cholmondeley’s letter, is one<br />
that must be of interest to every writer. May I<br />
add my experiences to the sum of knowledge on the<br />
subject, for in my case what was sauce for the goose<br />
does not seem to me to have been quite sauce for<br />
the gander.<br />
<br />
Four years ago a story of mine ran serially in<br />
The Argosy. In deciding upon a title I took<br />
every step I could think of to satisfy myself that<br />
I was not infringing rights belonging to others,<br />
and Mr. George Allen, my publisher, and myself<br />
exchanged more than one letter on the subject. As,<br />
however, the firm assured me they could after<br />
“careful enquiry” find no trace of the names<br />
having been used, the story was called “ Outrageous<br />
Fortune,” and so began its course. In April, after<br />
three instalments had been printed, came an intima-<br />
tion from another publisher that a book under the<br />
same title had been brought out by him some little<br />
time before. He protested against my use of it.<br />
I gave way and the name was changed to “ Malicious<br />
Fortune.” So far I have no cause of complaint.<br />
I had poached, however innocently, on another’s<br />
manor, and the only course open was apology and<br />
withdrawal.<br />
<br />
But the incident was hardly closed before I<br />
experienced very much the same thing myself. A<br />
story of mine, “ Between the Devil and the Deep<br />
Sea,” was still in some demand, but another, called<br />
“oT wixt Devil and Deep Sea,” a title, I contend,<br />
substantially the same, was put upon the market.<br />
Instances at once occurred of friends wishful to<br />
purchase or read my book being given my<br />
<br />
THE AUTHOR.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
successor’s in its place, and through my publishers,<br />
Messrs. Ward, Lock & Co., I wrote to the pub-<br />
lishers of the second story and protested. I was<br />
met by a decided unwillingness to relinquish<br />
what, after my recent experience, I looked upon<br />
as my property, and the passing of letters waxed<br />
fast though not furious. At length a compromise was<br />
suggested. Would it meet the case, | was asked,<br />
if a slip drawing attention to the similarity of title<br />
and dis-similarity of contents were sent to all the<br />
literary papers? I replied that such a slip in the<br />
form of an advertisement and duly paid for as such,<br />
would content me. The notice was sent, but not<br />
in the form of an advertisement, neither, presum-<br />
ably, was it duly paid for: The only paper, as far<br />
<br />
asmy knowledge goes, that took any notice of it<br />
was The Academy, and that printed it, omitting<br />
the names of both books and authors, in the shape<br />
of a hilarious little paragraph pointing out the<br />
depths to which writers will descend to secure a<br />
cheap notoriety.<br />
<br />
I was far from considering that this met the<br />
case, but, being mindful of the delightful uncer-<br />
tainty of the law on such matters, I shrank from<br />
litigation. There was therefore nothing left me<br />
but to sit down, by no means resignedly, under<br />
what I still regard as an infringement of my<br />
rights.<br />
<br />
I am now at work on a third novel, for which<br />
T have chosen what appears to me to be the one<br />
and only suitable title that exists. From the bot-<br />
tom of my heart do I echo Miss Cholmondeley’s<br />
account of her own state of mind in similar cir-<br />
cumstances. I have no possible means of satisfying<br />
myself as to whether or not that title has been<br />
used before. Far from inviting the assistance<br />
of others, of courting the publicity which alone<br />
could set my mind at rest on the matter, I dare<br />
not breathe that title to my dearest friend lest<br />
some unscrupulous somebody hear of it and run<br />
off with my treasure. How joyfully should I<br />
welcome the advent of the register suggested<br />
more than once in the pages of Zhe Author,<br />
wherein upon payment of a guinea my title might<br />
be duly entered and so sate-guarded to me, not<br />
perhaps for ever, but for a reasonable length of<br />
time. Surely I should not rejoice alone. Much<br />
has been made of the difficulties in the way of<br />
such a register, but are not those difficulties a<br />
little exaggerated? ‘Those to whom a title is of<br />
value could at once take advantage of it. In —<br />
cases where a title has ceased to be of value to.<br />
anyone, I venture to submit that no one would<br />
be aggrieved should it be used again.<br />
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I am, Sir, very truly yours,<br />
Srecta M. Durine.<br />
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The Writers’ Club, | https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/500/1904-12-01-The-Author-15-3.pdf | publications, The Author |