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507	https://historysoa.com/items/show/507	The Author, Vol. 15 Issue 10 (July 1905)	<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+10+%28July+1905%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 15 Issue 10 (July 1905)</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>	1905-07-01-The-Author-15-10					281–312																		<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=1905-07-01">1905-07-01</a>							10			19050701	Che Huthor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> JULY Ist, 1905.<br /> <br /> Von. XV.—No. 10.<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [Prick SrxPEnor.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NuMBER :<br /> <br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> <br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> SS a oe ee<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —_+~&lt;— + —__<br /> <br /> 1. the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the’ papers or para-<br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the opinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The Author<br /> that the cases which are from time to time quoted<br /> in The Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of the<br /> Society, and that those members of the Society<br /> who desire to have the names of the publishers<br /> concerned can obtain them on application.<br /> <br /> — oe<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> THE 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 /> —1—~&gt;—+<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tue Trustees of the Pension Fund met at the<br /> Society’s Offices in April, 1905, and having gone<br /> carefully into the accounts of the fund, decided<br /> to invest a further sum. ‘They have now pur-<br /> <br /> chased £200 Egyptian Government Irrigation<br /> Vou. XV.<br /> <br /> Trust 4 per cent. Certificates, bringing the invest-<br /> <br /> ments of the fund to the figures set out below.<br /> This is a statement of the actual stock ; the<br /> <br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> <br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> CO a £1000 0 0<br /> <br /> Hoeal Loans: 45 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock —.............. 291 19 11<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> War boen eo 201 9 3<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> (URE; BLOCK 200 0 0<br /> Egyptian Government Trigation<br /> Trust 4 % Certificates 200 0 0<br /> Hotal 3. £24439 2<br /> Subscriptions, 1905. £ 8. a.<br /> Jan. 12, Anonymous . : : 0 2.6<br /> June 16, Teignmouth-Shore, the Rev.<br /> Canon . : : : : 1 1 0<br /> Donations, 1905.<br /> Jan. Middlemas, Miss Jean 010 0<br /> Jan. Bolton, Miss Anna i) 50<br /> Jan. 24, Barry, Miss Fanny. 0. &gt; 0<br /> Jan. 27, Bencke, Albert 0:5 0<br /> Jan. 28, Harcourt-Roe, Mrs. 010 0<br /> Feb. 18, French-Sheldon, Mrs. 0-100<br /> Feb. 21, Lyall, Sir Alfred, P.C. Lt 06<br /> Mar. 28, Kirmse, Mrs. 0710-6<br /> April19, Hornung, HK. W. . 25.0.0<br /> May 7, Wynne, 0. Whitworth 508<br /> May 16, Alsing, Mrs. J. H. 0 5 0<br /> May 17, Anonymous . ‘ Tl 8<br /> June 6, Drummond, Hamilto B38 0<br /> Oe<br /> COMMITTEE NOTES.<br /> + —&lt;— #<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HE June meeting of the committee of<br /> management of the Society of Authors<br /> was held at 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> <br /> Gate, 8.W., on Monday, the 5th day of June.<br /> After the minutes of the last meeting had been<br /> read and signed, the committee proceeded with<br />  <br /> <br /> 282<br /> <br /> the election of new members and associates.<br /> Eighteen were elected. This brings the total<br /> for the current year up to 117, a number quite up<br /> to the average of former years.<br /> <br /> A difficult question arising out of Mr. Grant<br /> Richards’ bankruptcy, on which the committee<br /> decided at their last meeting to take counsel’s<br /> opinion, was then brought forward, and counsel’s<br /> opinion was read. As it strongly upheld the<br /> justice of the member&#039;s contention, the committee<br /> decided, with the member’s approval, to take up<br /> the matter.<br /> <br /> ‘A case that came before the committee’s notice<br /> at their last meeting was reconsidered owing to<br /> some fresh evidence which had been obtained in<br /> further explanation of the present position of the<br /> member whose property was involved. The com-<br /> mittee decided to obtain counsel’s opinion on the<br /> difficult points of law with a view to ascertaining<br /> whether or not it would be possible to support the<br /> member by taking action.<br /> <br /> The secretary laid before the committee, at<br /> some length, the present financial position of the<br /> society. He informed the committee that the<br /> income of the society at the present date from<br /> subscriptions was approximately £120 in excess of<br /> its income from the same source at the corre-<br /> sponding period in 1904.<br /> <br /> The question of the general lien claimed by<br /> binders again came forward for discussion, as fresh<br /> information and documents were submitted from<br /> the Association of Wholesale Stationers. The<br /> question, however, had again to be deferred, in<br /> order that the committee might have an oppor-<br /> tunity of perusing the opinion of counsel, which<br /> the ‘Association of Wholesale Stationers had<br /> obtained, but had omitted to forward for the<br /> committee’s consideration.<br /> <br /> A curious point then arose touching a question<br /> of infringement of copyright, in which it was alleged<br /> that an American had altered the names and locale<br /> of a story belonging to one of the members of the<br /> society ; had sold it to a magazine in America,<br /> who had again sold the English rights to a maga-<br /> zine in England. In consequence, the magazine<br /> proprietor in England had infringed the rights of<br /> the member. The committee decided that if they<br /> had clear evidence of the facts the matter should<br /> be taken up on behalf of the member. It was,<br /> however, resolved to ascertain first whether the<br /> proprietor of the English magazine was prepared<br /> to take such steps as might obviate the necessity<br /> for the society’s intervention.<br /> <br /> One or two other minor matters were con-<br /> sidered. In one instance a member objected<br /> to pay his subscription because the committee,<br /> in accordance with the strong advice of the<br /> society’s solicitors, had refused to take his case<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> up. It is well to note, in connection with this<br /> case, that the committee, in the discharge of their<br /> duty to the society, must in all cases carefully<br /> weigh the expressed legal opinion of their solicitors<br /> and their secretary ; but that if individual mem-<br /> bers should be dissatisfied with any decisions so<br /> arrived at by the committee, it is always open to<br /> them to test the soundness of the committee’s<br /> decisions, by taking action on their own account.<br /> <br /> —+- &lt;&gt;<br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Tux secretary has dealt with ten cases since the<br /> publication of the last issue of The Author. Three<br /> of these referred to claims for MSS. which have<br /> been detained by editors. In two the secretary<br /> has been successful, the MSS. having been returned<br /> and forwarded to the members. One question has<br /> arisen concerning the settlement of an agreement,<br /> and the matter is still in course of negotiation.<br /> Four cases have been brought forward where money<br /> overdue for work accepted or published has not<br /> been forwarded to the authors. One of these cases<br /> has been placed in the hands of the society’s<br /> solicitors to settle in the County Court if necessary,<br /> one is still in course of negotiation, and in the<br /> other two cases the money has been obtained and<br /> forwarded to the members. There have been two<br /> cases where accounts have not been rendered nor<br /> the money due, if any, paid, and it is hoped that<br /> these two matters will be settled shortly.<br /> <br /> One of the cases referred to in a former number<br /> of The Author, which was placed in the hands of<br /> the Society’s solicitors, has been settled.<br /> <br /> The publisher, in the first instance, offered to pay<br /> a portion of the amount claimed ; he made, as is<br /> his wont, the offer direct to the author, and ignored<br /> the society and its solicitors. The author, however,<br /> referred the matter again to the society, and on<br /> the advice of the solicitors that the case was @<br /> thoroughly sound one, and that there was no reason<br /> whatever why he should accept the smaller amount,<br /> he instructed the solicitors to refuse the smaller<br /> sum on his behalf.<br /> <br /> Within three days of the date of the refusal, the<br /> full amount claimed was paid to the solicitors.<br /> <br /> ‘All the former cases mentioned in the previous<br /> number have been settled, with the exception of a<br /> dispute on an agreement, where the member resides —<br /> in Australia, The Australian case must take some —<br /> time before a final arrangement is arrived at.<br /> <br /> —-—&lt;&gt; + —<br /> <br /> June Elections.<br /> <br /> Aveling, Claud 105, Coleherne Court,<br /> <br /> S.W. a<br /> Barrow, Arthur G. 16, Drummond Street,<br /> Carlton, Melbourne,<br /> <br /> Australia.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> E<br /> <br /> edd<br /> OS<br /> Se<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> es<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Blair, Hugh, M.A. Osnaburgh House,<br /> Regent’s Park, N.W.<br /> Carstairs, R.<br /> Dodd, James J. 23, Scarborough Street,<br /> West Hartlepool.<br /> The Pool House, Astley,<br /> near Stourport.<br /> 27, Palace Street, W.<br /> Whitemere, Ellesmere.<br /> 39, Phillimore Gardens,<br /> Kensington, W.<br /> Meares Court, Mullingar<br /> West View, South Farm<br /> Road, Worthing, Sussex.<br /> 68, Oakhurst Grove,<br /> E. Dulwich, S.E.<br /> <br /> Viewhurst, Westerham,<br /> <br /> Everett, Mrs.<br /> <br /> Godfrey, Percy .<br /> Jebb, Miss Louisa<br /> Maitland, J. A. Fuller<br /> <br /> Moore, Miss Florence<br /> <br /> Naylor-Gobel, Miss<br /> Sarah (Harvey-Gobel)<br /> <br /> Nott, Frederick O. W.<br /> <br /> Robertson, J. M.<br /> <br /> Kent.<br /> Rose, Miss Ada M. Abbotsford, Ealing<br /> (Aveling Rose) Common,<br /> Rowe, Mrs. ; St. Anne’s, Surrey Road,<br /> Bournemouth.<br /> <br /> Pioneer Club, 5, Grafton<br /> Street, W.<br /> <br /> Rowlands, Mrs. Bowen<br /> (Robert Herriot)<br /> <br /> Teignmouth-Shore, The<br /> Rev. Canon<br /> <br /> Wilberforce, Basil, The<br /> Very Rey. the Arch-<br /> deacon of Westminster<br /> <br /> Athenseum Club, 8.W.<br /> <br /> 20, Dean’s Yard, S.W.<br /> 8<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> Sr ee<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply particulars. )<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> THe LIFE OF Mary QUEEN or Scots. By H1LpA T.<br /> SKAE. 72 x 5. 207 pp. Maclaren. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> THE LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL WAUCHOPE, C.B., C.M.G.<br /> By Sirk Gro. Doucenas, Bart. 8 x 350 pp.<br /> Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> <br /> THE HEROES of Moss HALLISCHOOL. By E. OC. KENYON,<br /> With seven illustrations by ALFRED PEARSE. 8 x 54,<br /> 383 pp. Religious Tract Society. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> DRAMA.<br /> <br /> HL<br /> Og:<br /> <br /> Manasena. A Play in Three Acts by MAURICE BARING.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 7% x 5. Simpkin<br /> <br /> 49 pp. Oxford: Blackwell. London :<br /> Marshall.<br /> <br /> Is. n.<br /> EDUCATION.<br /> <br /> AN ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY CHILDREN,<br /> <br /> FOR<br /> <br /> A.D. 597—1066. By MAry E.SHIPLEY. With a preface<br /> by Wm. Epwarp Couuins, DD., Bishop of Gibraltar.<br /> 7% x 5.<br /> <br /> 235 x 40 pp. Methuen. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> 283<br /> <br /> Der UNGEBETENE Gast, AND OTHER PLAYS. By E. 8.<br /> BUCHHEIM (Short German Plays, Second Series).<br /> 6% x 43. 91 pp. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 2s, 6d.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> THE FLUTE oF Pan. A Romance, By JoHN OLIVER<br /> HOBBES. 72 x 5. 303 pp. Unwin. ‘6s.<br /> <br /> A VILLAGE CHRONICLE. By KATHERINE 8S, Macquorp.<br /> With illustrations by FORESTIER. (4 x 42 306 pp.<br /> Digby Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Mainsatin Haun. By JoHN MASErIELp. A oe<br /> 128 pp. Mathews. 1s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> A GRAND DUKE OF RussIA. A Story of the Upheaval.<br /> By FrReD WHISHAW. 7% x 4%. 305 pp. White. 6s.<br /> THE YELLOW WAVE. By M.P. Shinn. 7% x 5. 317 pp.<br /> <br /> Ward Lock. 6s,<br /> <br /> MAID MARGARET. ByS. R. CRocKErT, 8} x 5.<br /> Hodder and Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> Don TarQuinio. A Kataleptic Phantasmatic Romance.<br /> By F.RouFE. 7% x 4%. 257 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> PoveRTY Bay. A Nondescript Novel. Illustrated by<br /> <br /> Bh<br /> <br /> 417 pp.<br /> <br /> Harry Furniss, and written by the Artist. 8 x 5g.<br /> 273 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE Day&#039;s Journey. By NETTA SyReErt, 7% x 48,<br /> 316 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> It’s a Way THEY HAVE IN THE ARMY. By Lapy<br /> HELEN ForBEs. 7} x 43. 309 pp. Duckworth. 63.<br /> <br /> THE MEMOIRS OF CONSTANTINE DIX,<br /> 7% x 49. 206 pp. Unwin. 3s. 6d.<br /> THE GRAND DvuxKeE. By CARLTON DAWE. 72<br /> 336 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> THE DoG FROM CLARKSON’S.<br /> <br /> By BARRY PAIN.<br /> x 43,<br /> <br /> A Vagary. By DESMOND<br /> <br /> F. T. Coke. 74 x 5. 268 pp. Illustrated. Jarrold.<br /> 3s. 6d.<br /> LAW.<br /> THE INDIAN ConTrAct Law. With a commentary,<br /> <br /> critical and explanatory. By Str F. Ponuock, Bart,<br /> Assisted by DIN SHAH FARDUNJI MuLLA, M.A., LL.B.<br /> 92 x 6. 623 pp. Sweet and Maxwell. 25s, n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> <br /> CHAUCER; PROLOGUE TO THE CANTERBURY TALES. 6d.<br /> MILTON : SAMSON AGONISTES. 6d. MILTON: Comus.<br /> 6d. GOLDSMITH: THE DESERTED VILLAGE. 4d.<br /> Edited by C. T, OnIoNS, M.A., Lond., in The Carmelite<br /> Classics. 6 x 43. Horace Marshall &amp; Son.<br /> <br /> MILITARY.<br /> WITH THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA. By MAURICE<br /> <br /> BARING. 9 x 53. 205+40 pp. Methuen. 7s. 6s. n.<br /> POETRY.<br /> MoMENTS. By DouGLAS AINSLIE. 64 x 4. 68 pp.<br /> Constable. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> THE LOVE SONG OF TRISTRAM AND ISEULT, AND OTHER<br /> Porms. By Cyrit EMRA. 7% x 5}. Stock. 3s. 6d,<br /> <br /> POLITICAL,<br /> <br /> THE FALL oF TsARDOM. By CARL JOUBERT. 8 x 5}.<br /> <br /> 255 pp. Nash. 7s. 6d.<br /> THe Paras NAVY IN THE Russo-JAPANESE WAR. By<br /> CAPTAIN N. Knapo. Translated by L. J. H. Dickin-<br /> <br /> soN. Hurst and Blackett. 5s.<br /> SPORT.<br /> Diversions Day By Day. By KE.<br /> Eustace H, Miues. Illustrated.<br /> Hurst and Blackett. 4s. :<br /> PoLo: Past AND PRESENT. By T. F. DALE.<br /> 515 pp. (Lhe Country Life Library of Sport).<br /> 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> F, BENson and<br /> 1% x 43. 282 pp.<br /> <br /> 94 x 5%,<br /> Newnes.<br /> 284<br /> <br /> THE EMPIRE’S CRICKETERS. Part III. From drawings.<br /> By A. C. TAYLER. With Biographical Sketches. By<br /> G.W. BELDAM. 153 x 104. 4 Plates. The Fine Art<br /> Society and Dawbarn and Ward. Is. n.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY,<br /> <br /> Sr. PAUL’s EPISTLES IN MODERN ENGLISH.<br /> FENTON. 6th Edition (with new preface). 74 x 43.<br /> 69 pp. Partridge.<br /> <br /> A MouNTAIN PATH, AND ForTY THREE OTHER TALKS<br /> TO YOUNG PEOPLE. By JoHN A. HAMILTON. Cheap<br /> Edition. Allenson. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY. A Manual of Christian<br /> Evidences, by Lt.-CoLn. W. H. Turton, D.S8.0., R.E.,<br /> 5th Edition, seventh thousand. Carefully revised<br /> throughout. Crown 8vo., cloth gilt. 529 pp. Wells,<br /> Gardner, Darton &amp; Co. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> PREACHERS FROM THE PEw. Lectures delivered at St.<br /> Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, under the auspices of the<br /> <br /> By FERRAR<br /> <br /> London Branch of the Christian Social Union. Edited<br /> by the Rev. W. H. Hunt. 74 x 43. 187 pp. Lord<br /> 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY,<br /> <br /> A Book oF SouTH WALES.<br /> <br /> By S. BARING GOULD.<br /> With 57 Illustrations.<br /> <br /> 73 x 43. 332 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> 4<br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> PICTURES IN UMBRIA. By KATHERINE S. Macquorp.<br /> With fifty original Tlustrations (pen and ink). By<br /> THomAS R. Macquoip, R.I. 72 x 5. 319pp. Werner<br /> Laurie. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> —_-—&gt;—+—__<br /> <br /> _ REACHERS from the Pew”? is the title of<br /> <br /> a series of sermons preached at St. Paul’s<br /> <br /> Church, Covent Garden, under the auspices<br /> of the London Branch of the Christian Social<br /> Union. They are published by W. H. Lord &amp; Co.,<br /> of 29, Wellington Street, Strand, W.C. Crown,<br /> 8vo., at the price of 2s. 6d. net. They<br /> have been edited by the Rev. W. Henry Hunt,<br /> and deal with a variety of subjects, from ‘Do<br /> we Believe” by C. F. G. Masterman, M.A., to<br /> “The Citizen, the Gentleman, and the Savage” by<br /> Gilbert K. Chesterton. Mr. Hunt, it may be<br /> remembered, has already edited a series of sermons<br /> on social subjects.<br /> <br /> “The Heroes of Moss Hall School: A Public<br /> School story,” by E. C. Kenyon, should be welcome<br /> to school-boys and also to their parents, founded<br /> upon and dealing with, as it does, the past history<br /> of a great west country school. The book, which<br /> is a large one, has seven, or rather eight, illus-<br /> trations. It is published by the Religious Tract<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> Miss Theodora Wilson Wilson’s novel, “ Ursula<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Raven,” which was serialised in the Daily News,<br /> will be published in book form by Messrs. Harper<br /> Bros. in September. It is a novel dealing with the<br /> Westmorland Dales and Royalty rights,<br /> <br /> We regret that in announcing the publication of<br /> Miss Mary Shipley’s “ English Church History for<br /> Children” in our last issue, we stated that the<br /> preface to the work was by the Bishop of Glou-<br /> cester. This statement, we understand, is incor-<br /> rect, the Bishop of Gibraltar contributing the<br /> preface.<br /> <br /> Miss Victoria Cross’ new story, “ Life of My<br /> Heart,” which the Walter Scott Publishing Co. has<br /> recently issued, deals with a marriage between an<br /> Oriental and an English girl.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Joseph Williams, Ltd., have just<br /> published, at 1s. net, a collection of Infant’s Action<br /> Songs for the School and the Home, by Miss L.<br /> Budgen.<br /> <br /> ‘Musical Studies,” by Ernest Newman, which<br /> Mr. John Lane has just published, include a study of<br /> Berlioz and the Romantic Movement, a fuli analysis<br /> of Programme Music in the past and in the present.<br /> Faust in Music, Herbert Spencer and the Origin of<br /> Music.<br /> <br /> Messrs. King &amp; Son have just published Dr.<br /> Reich’s monumental work, containing a selection of<br /> documents illustrating the history of medizval and<br /> modern times. The work, which runs to some<br /> eight hundred pages, necessitated the employment<br /> of four trained students of history in addition to<br /> the editor.<br /> <br /> Professor Dicey is publishing, through Messrs.<br /> Macmillan, a volume dealing with the relation<br /> between Law and Public Opinion in England during<br /> the nineteenth century. The basis of the book is a<br /> series of lectures delivered first in the Harvard Law<br /> School and afterwards, with modifications, in the<br /> University of Oxford.<br /> <br /> Mr. Henry James, who is travelling through<br /> America, after an absence of twenty years has<br /> amassed materials for a book, part of which will<br /> appear serially in the North American Review.<br /> <br /> Mr. Frank T. Bullen will publish in the early<br /> autumn a new book entitled “ Back to the Sunny<br /> Seas,” the outcome of his recent tour in the West<br /> Indies.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Constable have just published, under the<br /> <br /> title of “ Moments,” a collection of poems by e<br /> <br /> Douglas Ainslie.<br /> <br /> In order to avoid misapprehension, Messrs. Ward, -<br /> Lock &amp; Co. ask us to call attention to the fact<br /> that ‘‘ The Conscience of a King,” the title of a<br /> newly-published romance by A. C. Gunter, author of —<br /> “Mr. Barnes of New York,” is practically the same<br /> as that used for a sociological work, “The Con-<br /> science of the King,” by Mr. J. C. Spence, which ©<br /> still has a considerable sale.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> aenmeatnnacieimantts<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Lane has brought out an Indian<br /> garden-book, “ My Garden in the City of Gardens.”<br /> The punning motto, “Nune Fortunatus Sum,”<br /> the despatch of Sir Colin Campbell’s A.D.C. after<br /> the Relief of Lucknow, indicates which the “ city<br /> of gardens” is. The work is illustrated with<br /> many original photographs.<br /> <br /> “The Love Song of Tristram and Iseult,” by<br /> Cyril Emra, published by Mr. Elliot Stock at the<br /> price of 3s. 6d.,in addition to the poem which<br /> forms its title, contains some twenty or so other<br /> verses dealing with man and nature.<br /> <br /> A second and revised edition of ‘Thoughts on<br /> Ultimate Problems,” by F. W. Frankland, described<br /> by the author as a synoptic statement of Two<br /> Theodocies, has been issued at the price of 1s.<br /> The publisher is W. J. Lankshear, of Lambton<br /> Quay, Wellington, New Zealand.<br /> <br /> “The Exploits of Jo Salis,” by Will. Greener,<br /> author of ‘A Secret Agent in Port Arthur,” is a<br /> novel of the Russo-Japanese war from the Far<br /> Easterners’ point of view. Messrs. Hurst and<br /> Blackett are the publishers.<br /> <br /> Mr. William Patrick Kelly’s new novel, “The<br /> Assyrian Bride,” illustrated by Mr. F. C. Tilney,<br /> will be published by Messrs. Routledge, early in<br /> July. It is ahistorical romance of ancient Nineveh<br /> and Jerusalem, based on the latest archeological<br /> discoveries, and the second of a series by the same<br /> author, of which “ The Stonecutter of Memphis”<br /> (Routledge, 1904) was the first.<br /> <br /> In Amsterdam a society of authors is founded<br /> (Vereeniging van Letter kundigen). The principal<br /> object of the society is to put order into the<br /> literary out-put of Holland. The society has a<br /> committee which studies the Berne Convention,<br /> with the intention of joining it. Another com-<br /> mittee deals with the matters of the stage and play<br /> production, and a third gathers money to help<br /> workers in the literary field.<br /> <br /> Mr. Desmond F. T. Coke, author of ‘Sandford<br /> of Merton,” claims in his preface to the “ Dog from<br /> Clarkson’s,” which Messrs. Jarrold have published,<br /> that this “ vagary ” is an attempt to amuse without<br /> employing puns, problems, dialect, or split<br /> infinitives.<br /> <br /> Another fresh volume of poems we note from<br /> the well-known pen of E. Nesbit, published by<br /> Messrs. Longmans, G. Green &amp; Co., of very<br /> varied interests. A strong religious spirit marks<br /> these verses, mingled with a deep love of<br /> Nature.<br /> <br /> We have received a small volume of miscel-<br /> laneous poems by Miss Ethel Neele, entitled “ The<br /> Ballad of Rosalie.” The volume is published by<br /> E. B. Gooderham, of 161, Holland Road, Kensing-<br /> ton, and copies may be had of the authoress at<br /> 23, Upper Addison Gardens. The verses are com-<br /> <br /> 285<br /> <br /> prised under four headings—ballads, dedicatory,<br /> miscellaneous and sacred poems.<br /> <br /> Mr. Bernard Shaw’s comedy, “Man and Super-<br /> man,” which was published in book form about two<br /> years ago, was produced—minus the third act—at<br /> the Court Theatre on the afternoon of May 28rd.<br /> The caste included Mr. Granville Barker and<br /> Miss Lillah McCarthy.<br /> <br /> Mr. W. 8. Gilbert’s fairy comedy, “ The Palace<br /> of Truth,” was revived on May 23rd at the Mermaid<br /> Repertory Theatre, Great Queen Street, under the<br /> personal direction of the author.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> Be<br /> HE Académie francaise has awarded prizes to<br /> a the following authers :—M. Paul Decharme,<br /> for the “Critique des traditions religieuses<br /> chez les Grecs, des origines au temps de<br /> Plutarque”; M. Bossert, for “ Schopenhauer ” ;<br /> M. Dard, for “Le Général Choderlos de Laclog ” ;<br /> M. René Canat, for “Du sentiment de la solitude<br /> morale chez les romantiques et les parnassiens” ;<br /> M. Ab der Halden, for “ Etudes de la littérature<br /> canadienne francaise” ; M. Sturdza, for “La Terre<br /> et la Race roumaine depuis leurs origines jusqu’a<br /> nos jours” ; M. Derocquigny, for ‘‘ Charles Lamb,<br /> sa vie et ses ceuvres” ; M. Souriau, for a work on<br /> “ Bernardin de Saint-Pierre” ; M. Lauvriére, for<br /> “ Edgar Poe, sa vie et son ceuvre”; M. Doumergue,<br /> for “ Jean Calvin, les hommes et les choses de son<br /> temps’?; M. Edmond Biré, for a work on<br /> “ Armand de Pontmartin, sa vie et ses ceuvres.”<br /> Prizes have also been awarded by the Académie<br /> for recent works by the following authors :—Mme.<br /> Daniel Lesueur, M. Paul Adam, M. Paléologue,<br /> M. Paul Doumer, Madame Veyrin, M. Montégut,<br /> M. Martel, M. Buffenoir.<br /> <br /> Among recent books by well-known writers is<br /> “ Miroirs et Mirages,” by Madame Alphonse Daudet.<br /> The volume contains several stories which are all<br /> psychological studies. In‘ Grand’mére” the interest<br /> is centred in the feelings of the grandparents, on<br /> seeing their beloved granddaughter taken away<br /> from them, to be brought up by a step-mother in<br /> absolutely different principles and ideas from theirs.<br /> “Reminiscence,” ‘L’Accusée,” “ Automne pro-<br /> vincial.” In addition to these studies are two<br /> or three descriptions of voyages, “Notes sur<br /> <br /> Londres,” ‘Course rapide 4 Venise,” ete.<br /> There is also a new volume published by M.<br /> Léon Daudet, “Le Partage de ’Enfant.” This<br /> novel is in quite a different note from the books we<br /> have hitherto had from the son of Alphonse Daudet.<br /> Les Morticoles” and “La Déchéance’’ were<br /> ironical and bitter studies of certain systems,<br /> 286 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> phases and abuses of modern life, whilst in this new<br /> novel there is more pathos than satire, and more<br /> pity than bitterness. It is the story ofa child who<br /> is the victim of the divorce of the parents—a child<br /> who suffers through the dissensions of father and<br /> mother.<br /> <br /> Volumes of souvenirs and reminiscences are very<br /> much in favour in France, and “La Cour et la<br /> Société du Second Empire,” by M. de Chambrier,<br /> gives an excellent sketch of many of the more<br /> prominent personages of that period. The author<br /> does not go into details, but just gives us an idea<br /> of the men and women he describes, and of the<br /> place they occupied in the Parisian world. He<br /> speaks of Veuillot, Barbey d’Aurevilly, Thiers,<br /> Jules Simon, Ollivier, Gambetta, Pasteur, Caro,<br /> Madame Adam, Madame de Metternich, Wagner,<br /> Gounod, Bizet, Sardou, Fonquie, Sue, de Musset,<br /> Feuillet Augier, Houssaye, Rosa Bonheur, Sainte-<br /> Beuve, Renan, Lamartine, Dumas, Georges Sand,<br /> Flaubert, Balzac, de Maupassant, Rachel Legouvé,<br /> Gérdme, Gréville, Alphonse Daudet, Jules Verne,<br /> and of many other well-known personalities.<br /> <br /> Another volume by Barbey d’Aurevilly has<br /> recently been published. It is entitled “ Roman-<br /> ciers d’hier et d’avant hier.” The chapters on<br /> Stendhal and on Balzac are particularly interesting.<br /> D’Aurevilly is an ardent admirer of Balzac. “A<br /> cette heure,” he says, ‘“‘le génie de Bazlac n’est<br /> discuté par personne... . Il avait dans le sang,<br /> et plus que personne puisqu’il était un génie<br /> francais, cette goutte de lait maternel, cette pro-<br /> pension au rire, 4la comédie, 4 la gaité qui touche<br /> aux larmes, tant sa force épuise vite la nature<br /> humaine!” He declares that the secret of the<br /> great power of Balzac was that he put into his<br /> work so much “ naiveté et bonhomie! Ni dans<br /> les arts, ni dans les lettres,” he says, ‘‘ pas de<br /> mérite supréme sans la naiveté et sans une<br /> bonhomie profonde.” D’Aurevilly declares that it<br /> was this “bonhomie” which made Walter Scott<br /> greater than either Goethe or Byron, and he con-<br /> siders that Balzac is superior in his “ Contes ” to<br /> what he is in the “ Comédie humaine.” There are<br /> chapters on Georges Sand, Erckmann Chatrian,<br /> Paul Féval, a scathing criticism of “ Manon<br /> Lescaut,” in which the author declares that,<br /> “&lt;«Manon Lescaut’ est tout simplement l’expres-<br /> sion du matérialisme du XVIII®. siecle rejoignant<br /> et embrassant au bout d’un quart de siecle,<br /> le matérialisme du XIX®*. siécle, qui avale le<br /> livre et le trouve bon.”” He compares it with<br /> novels such as ‘ Delphine,” “Corinne,” “ Atala,”<br /> “ René,” the ideal of which was as elevated as that<br /> of ‘Manon Lescaut” was low. He regrets that<br /> “la Manon del’ abbé Prevost a pondu les autres<br /> Manons dont regorge la littérature actuelle...<br /> elle a produit les Dame aux Camélias, les ‘ Bovary,’<br /> <br /> les “ Fanny ” et toutes ses sincéres qui suivent tran-<br /> quillement leur instinct comme un ane qui trotte<br /> suit le sien.” There are other chapters on Droz<br /> Le Sage, Marie Desylles and Paria Korigan,<br /> all written in the same brilliant, vivid style.<br /> Fortunately for the author and for lovers of litera-<br /> ture, these posthumous volumes of d’Aurevilly’s<br /> works are being edited with the utmost care and<br /> exactitude by the faithful friend to whom he left his<br /> manuscripts.<br /> <br /> Another curious retrospective book has just<br /> been published entitled “ Madame Atkyns” (Une<br /> amie de Marie Antoinette). The preface is written<br /> by M. Sardou. This volume is particularly inte-<br /> resting to English people, as Madame Atkyns is an<br /> Englishwoman, Charlotte Walpole, who made her<br /> début at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1777, and in<br /> 1779 married Sir Edward Atkyns. We are told<br /> that the young couple left England and went to<br /> live at Versailles. The Duchesse de Polignac<br /> introduced the bride into the circle of Marie<br /> Antoinette’s friends; she became devoted to the<br /> Queen, and the whole book is taken up with the<br /> efforts of this Englishwoman to be of service to her<br /> royal friend when adversity came. Madame Atkyns<br /> spent most of her life and fortune in endeavouring<br /> to save first the Queen and afterwards the Dauphin.<br /> M. Frédéric Barbey, the author of this volume, has<br /> spared no trouble in order to get all the documents<br /> on this subject, both in England and in France, and<br /> finally he discovered a huge collection of papers and<br /> letters which had not been opened for seventy years,<br /> all the correspondence addressed to Lady Atkyns<br /> up to the day of her death in Paris, Rue de Lille,<br /> in 1836. The whole story of her plots and her<br /> devotion and sacrifices is as interesting as a novel.<br /> Her chief accomplices were M. de Cormier, Jean<br /> Gabriel Peltier, the Baron d’Auerweck, and the<br /> Comte de Frotté.<br /> <br /> Among other new books, ‘‘La Soldate,” by<br /> M. d’Esparbés ; ‘‘Septiéme César,” a novel in the<br /> time of Christ, by M. Reepmaker. It isthe story of<br /> a wealthy Roman lieutenant, cruel and selfish, who<br /> is greatly influenced by the simple life of Christ.<br /> The story is dramatic and of great interest.<br /> <br /> ‘“‘T’Opprobre,” by M. Compain, is a book written<br /> with a purpose. The subject is treated thought-<br /> fully. It is the story of a young girl who is<br /> betrayed and deserted. The life and surroundings<br /> of the girl are well portrayed, and also the progress<br /> that is being made in so many ways, thanks<br /> to co-operation.<br /> <br /> “ La Conquérante,” by Georges Ohnet ; ‘ Leela,”<br /> by Mary Ghil; “L’Autre,” by Mme. Octave<br /> Feuillet ; “L‘Espionne,” by Ernest Daudet ;<br /> “Femme d’Officier,” by Pierre Maél ; “ A l’Aube,”<br /> by Myriam Thelen ; “ Hommes Nouveaux,” by G.<br /> Fanton ; ‘‘ Fatale Méprise,” by Henri Baraude ;<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> “Deux Meéditations sur la Mort,” by Henry Bor-<br /> deaux ; “ Heures de Corse,” by Jean Lorrain ;<br /> “Naples, son site, son histoire, son sculpture,” by<br /> Pierre de Bouchaud ; “ Le Livre ” historique, fabri-<br /> cation, achat, classement, usage et entretien, by<br /> Albert Cim; ‘Le Retour a la Terre,’ by M. Jules<br /> Méline ; ‘La Guerre contre |’Allemagne,” by<br /> General Baron Faverot de Kerbrech.<br /> <br /> In the June number of La Revue des Deux<br /> Mondes there is a most interesting article on<br /> London by Madame Blanc Bentzon, who is a keen<br /> observer and a great admirer of many of the<br /> English institutions.<br /> <br /> A new magazine on the lines of Country Life is<br /> to commence in France with the title of Hermes et<br /> Chateaux.<br /> <br /> In the Mercure de France there is an interest-<br /> ing article on the illness and death of Guy de<br /> Maupassant by M. Thomas.<br /> <br /> “Le Duel” still holds the bill at the<br /> Francais ; ‘‘ La Race” by M. Jean Thorel, at the<br /> Théatre Antoine ; “ La Variation” at the Odéon ;<br /> and “ Pauvre Fille” by Hauptmann, at the Porte<br /> St. Martin.<br /> <br /> The Académie francaise has awarded the<br /> Augier prize to Henri Bataille for “‘ Résurrection,”<br /> to Emile Fabre for ‘‘ La Rabouilleuse,” and to<br /> Georges Mitchell for “L’ Absent.” Another prize<br /> is awarded to Alfred Capus for “ Notre Jeunesse,”’<br /> and to M. Marcel Prévost for “La Plus Faible.”<br /> <br /> Atys HALLARD. —<br /> <br /> SLAVIC NOTES.<br /> <br /> N my article published in the May number of<br /> I The Author, 1 omitted the name of an eminent<br /> Russian novelist, Mereszkovsky, whose novels<br /> Ihave only read in Polish translation. I am puzzled<br /> to say why I regarded him as a Bohemian novelist,<br /> but I never suspected that he was a Russian.<br /> His novels, “The Death of the Gods,” ‘The<br /> Resurrection of the Gods,” and_ especially<br /> “Julian the Apostate” give the author every<br /> right to be included in the list of greatest living<br /> novelists.<br /> <br /> In the last few months the following works of<br /> English authors have been published in the Polish<br /> language. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘Sherlock<br /> Holmes”; this is perhaps the fifth or sixth<br /> time that this work has been produced. “The<br /> Return of Sherlock Holmes” is also in course<br /> <br /> 287<br /> <br /> of publication in the Gazela Polska. Foster<br /> Fraser, “The Real Siberia”; E. Hopkins, “The<br /> Mothers and the Sons”; Rudyard Kipling,<br /> “Letters from Japan’’; E. G. Lancaster, “The<br /> Juvenile Age”; Sir John Lubbock, “The Pleasures<br /> of Life”; Rev. P. A. Sheehan, ‘ The New Vicar”;<br /> H. G. Wells, “Short Stories” and “&#039;The Vision of<br /> the Future.”<br /> <br /> A new novel of Sienkiewicz is running in serial<br /> numbers in a weekly paper, Biesiada Literacka.<br /> <br /> Baron Weysenhoff has just published an excellent<br /> novel, entitled “ The Prodigal Son.”<br /> <br /> T. Hall Caine’s “ Prodigal Son ” is published as<br /> a supplement to the Z&#039;ygoduik Ilustrowany, the<br /> Polish Jl/ustrated London News.<br /> <br /> Miss Wojcicka has published, in dramatic form,<br /> a powerful life-study of rare merit, entitled “ Eva,”<br /> which was well received on the Polish stage and was<br /> considered a great success. Unfortunately for the<br /> authoress, notwithstanding the value of the work,<br /> no English manager will accept it for production,<br /> as only five persons appear in the play.<br /> <br /> An eminent Polish novelist hidden under the<br /> nom de plume of W. Sclavus, has written a book<br /> dealing with the history of Russia during the last<br /> two-hundred years, bearing the title of “The<br /> Regicide.” It will be published simultaneously<br /> in Austrian Poland, in New York, and in London.<br /> <br /> Autumn being in Poland the real publishing<br /> season, no more works of interest and merit, are<br /> likely to be heard of for the present.<br /> <br /> A new American shilling Magazine The Tales,<br /> is entirely devoted to translations from foreign<br /> languages, and thus, many hitherto unknown<br /> works of Slavic authors will be brought before the<br /> English reading world. Not only does the litera-<br /> ture of Poland and Russia possess authors whose<br /> books are well worth reading, but the minor<br /> nations of this race can boast of some writers of<br /> real value. Bulgaria has one named Iwan Wazow,<br /> author of many novels and short stories, in the<br /> latter of which he excels. In these he not only<br /> depicts with great skill the life, so little known,<br /> led by Turks and Bulgarians, but he shows con-<br /> spicuous ability in observation. Some of his<br /> short stories are real snap-shots of life.<br /> <br /> T. Otto, publisher, of Prague, in Bohemia, is the<br /> only one to my knowledge in Slavic countries, who<br /> devotes himself to systematic publication of English<br /> works and novels. An eminent Bohemian author,<br /> Josef Bartos, writes of the English novelists :<br /> “Tn these days the English novel flourishes and<br /> flourishes charmingly, led by the uncommonly<br /> gifted deep thinker, Meredith, the gloomy Hardy,<br /> the cheerful Barrie, the falcon Kipling, and the<br /> good Bret Harte, Admiration and glory follow<br /> them throughout the whole world.” ‘he list of<br /> modern English novelists is headed by J. M. Barrie’s<br /> 288<br /> <br /> “ Sentimental Tommy,” and Meredith’s ‘“ Richard<br /> Feveral.” This book was received by the critics<br /> with unprecedented but well merited praise. The<br /> success of Feveral was partly due to the excellence<br /> of the translation by Dr. B. Prusik. Ian Maclaren,<br /> Kipling, Mark Twain, Th. B. Aldrich, Conway,<br /> Zangwill, &amp;c., are on the list of this publisher.<br /> The works of other popular English novelists are<br /> also adapted and published in the Bohemian<br /> language by other publishers of Prague as well as<br /> all the principal poetic and scientific works.<br /> <br /> Bohemian literature has not had a past of five<br /> hundred years of existence like the Polish, and is<br /> not even as old as the Russian ; but this nation,<br /> living under the conditions of a free country for the<br /> last fifty years, with no censor’s office to depress<br /> its energy, has in the last quarter of a century<br /> developed in a wonderful manner. It now<br /> possesses a number of very excellent authors in all<br /> branches, and has even its own opera and<br /> composers. The difficulty of learning the language,<br /> for which purpose a few seasons in Carlsbad or<br /> Marienbad are quite insufficient, makes the trans-<br /> lation of a selection of Bohemian works from the<br /> original a difficult task. The most eminent<br /> novelists are Cech, the Bohemian ‘“ Mark Twain,”<br /> Jelinek, Jirasek, Besnick and Svetla. Dr. Holub,<br /> who spent many years as explorer in Africa, wrote<br /> several books of a popular and scientific character,<br /> upon Africa. Dr. Tomek, is a_ well-known<br /> Bohemian historian, and Jirasek is the principal<br /> play-writer of Bohemia. There are several dramatic<br /> authors but a large proportion of the plays per-<br /> formed on the National Bohemian stage are adapted<br /> from French, Italian, Scandinavian, and Polish<br /> writers, with a prominent place for Shakespeare on<br /> the programe.<br /> <br /> The whole Bohemian literary movement, as well<br /> as the whole politics of Bohemia, is a struggle<br /> against German influence, and for this reason in<br /> the literary output of Bohemia, there is little or<br /> nothing taken from the German; Polish, English,<br /> and other literatures supply all that is wanted.<br /> <br /> There are also three other Slavonic nations, the<br /> Servian, the Slovac and the Croatian, all of whom<br /> possess some eminent writers, but these languages<br /> are so difficult even for members of the kindred<br /> races, that their works can scarcely find a student<br /> who can devote his life to study them, so as to be<br /> enabled to understand or read their books.<br /> <br /> J. ALMAR.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> LAW RELATING TO COPYRIGHT IN WORKS<br /> OF LITERATURE AND MUSIC, JUNE<br /> 49th, 1901.*<br /> <br /> TRANSLATED BY G. H. T,<br /> <br /> follows:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> E, William, by the Grace of God, German<br /> Emperor, King of Prussia, etc., decree<br /> in the name of the Empire, etc., etc., as<br /> <br /> First Division.<br /> DECLARATION OF THE LIMITS OF PROTECTION.<br /> <br /> Section 1.<br /> <br /> Under this Act the following are entitled to<br /> protection :—<br /> <br /> 1. The authors of written works and of lectures<br /> or speeches serving the purposes of edification,<br /> instruction, or entertainment.<br /> <br /> 2. ‘The authors of musical works.<br /> <br /> 3. The authors of illustrations of a scientific or<br /> technical kind which, having reference to their<br /> main purpose, are not to be regarded as works of<br /> art. Plastic representations also come under this<br /> head.<br /> <br /> Section 2.<br /> <br /> The author of a work is the originator (Ver-<br /> fasser) of it. In the case of a translation the<br /> translator ; in the case of any other sort of adap-<br /> tation, the adapter (Bearbeiter) is defined as the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> Section 3.<br /> <br /> Corporate bodies with legal entity who publish a<br /> work as editors, when the author is not named on<br /> the title page, in the dedication, in the preface, or<br /> at the end, are regarded as authors of the work, in<br /> the absence of any stipulation to the contrary.<br /> <br /> Section 4.<br /> <br /> In the case of a collective work the editor<br /> is legally responsible as the author for the work as<br /> a whole. If no editor’s name is attached then the<br /> publisher is defined as the editor.<br /> <br /> Section 5.<br /> <br /> In the case of a written work being combined<br /> with a musical composition or with illustrations,<br /> then the several originators (even after such<br /> combination) still retain their separate rights as<br /> authors.<br /> <br /> Section 6.<br /> <br /> If several persons have collaborated in such a<br /> way that their work cannot be separated, then<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * As some of the later sections refer merely to legal<br /> technicalities it has been deemed sufficient to print a<br /> summary only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 289<br /> <br /> an author’s partnership exists amongst them, and<br /> their shares are apportioned according to the civil<br /> code.<br /> <br /> Section 7.<br /> <br /> If a published work contains the name of a<br /> writer on the title page, in the dedication, the<br /> preface, or at the end, the writer so mentioned is<br /> prima facie responsible as the author of the work.<br /> In the case of a collective work the writer whose<br /> name stands at the head or at the end of each<br /> separate contribution is regarded as the author of<br /> that contribution. In the case of works which<br /> have appeared under a name other than the real<br /> name of the writer, or without the name of a<br /> writer, the editor, or if such a one is not mentioned,<br /> the publisher is entitled to uphold the author’s<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> In the case of works that before or after publi-<br /> cation have been publicly performed or recited, the<br /> author is presumed to be the person who has been<br /> designated as such at the announcement of the<br /> performance or recitation.<br /> <br /> Section 8.<br /> <br /> Copytight passes to the heirs. But if the<br /> “ Fiscus” or any other corporate body is the legal<br /> heir, the rights, as far as they belong to the legator,<br /> lapse with his, the author’s, death. The right can<br /> be transferred with or without limitations to others ;<br /> the transfer can also be made with limitations toa<br /> specified locality (Gebiet).<br /> <br /> Section 9.<br /> <br /> In the case of transfer of copyright the assignee<br /> (in the absence of special agreement) has not the<br /> right to effect any abbreviations or alterations of<br /> the work, the title, and the description of the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> Alterations are permissible only in the case of<br /> those instances in which the holder of the copyright<br /> (Berechtigte) cannot reasonably withhold his<br /> consent.<br /> <br /> Section 10.<br /> <br /> Compulsory execution (Zwangsvollstreckung)<br /> against the right of the author or his work cannot<br /> take place without his consent. Such consent<br /> cannot be granted by the legal representative.<br /> Compulsory execution is only permissible against<br /> the heirs of the author, without their consent, when<br /> the work has been published.<br /> <br /> SEeconD Division.<br /> AuTHorS’ Riauts.<br /> Section 11.<br /> <br /> The author has the exclusive right of reproduc-<br /> ing and circulating the work. The exclusive right<br /> <br /> does not extend to lending (Verleihen). The<br /> author, as long as the essential contents of his work<br /> remain unpublished, is, moreover, exclusively en-<br /> titled to the right of publication.<br /> <br /> Copyright in a dramatic or in a musical work<br /> also contains the exclusive right publicly to per-<br /> form the same. The author of a written’ work or<br /> a lecture has the exclusive right to deliver the same<br /> publicly so long as the work has not appeared. *<br /> <br /> Section 12,<br /> <br /> The exclusive rights which belong to the author<br /> under Section 11 also extend to any adaptations of<br /> the work, or to any of the following rights :<br /> <br /> 1. The translation into another language or into<br /> another dialect of the same language, even when<br /> the translation is embodied in a metrical form<br /> <br /> gebundener form).<br /> <br /> 2. The re-translation into the language of the<br /> original work.<br /> <br /> 3. The reproduction of a story in a dramatic<br /> form, or of a stage play in the form of a story.<br /> <br /> 4. The setting up of extracts from musical<br /> works as well as arrangements of such works for<br /> one or more instruments or voices.<br /> <br /> Section 18.<br /> <br /> The free use of the author’s work is permissible<br /> without prejudice to the exclusive rights which<br /> belong to him according to Section 12, Division 2,<br /> if the result is an original work. Any use of a<br /> musical work is inadmissible by which a melody<br /> recognisable as belonging to the original work, is<br /> taken and made the basis of a new work.<br /> <br /> Section 14.<br /> <br /> In the case of the transfer of copyright the<br /> author’s exclusive rights remain with him in the<br /> absence of stipulation to the contrary ; that is to<br /> Bay °<br /> <br /> 1. The translation of a work into another<br /> language or into another dialect.<br /> <br /> 2. The reproduction of a story in dramatic form,<br /> or a stage-play in the form of a story.<br /> <br /> 3. The elaboration of a musical work so far as<br /> it is not merely an extract, or the transposition<br /> into another key, or an arrangement for another<br /> voice (Tonart oder Stimmlage).t+<br /> <br /> Section 15.<br /> <br /> Reproduction without the consent of the holder<br /> of the copyright is inadmissible, no matter by what<br /> means it is accomplished. The number of copies<br /> reproduced does not affect the issue.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Presumably in book or pamphlet form.<br /> + German musical authorities are doubtful as to the<br /> exact legal interpretation of these two words,<br /> 290<br /> <br /> Reproduction for personal use is admissible if it<br /> is not for the purpose of obtaining a pecunlary<br /> return from the work.<br /> <br /> Section 16.<br /> <br /> Tt is permissible to reprint code books, laws,<br /> ordinances, official proclamations and decisions, as<br /> well as other official writings prepared for official<br /> <br /> use.<br /> Section 17.<br /> <br /> It is permissible : :<br /> <br /> 1. To reproduce in papers or journals a<br /> lecture or speech, so long as the lecture or<br /> speech is a constituent part of a public<br /> proceeding. :<br /> <br /> 2. To reproduce lectures or speeches which<br /> have been delivered during the proceedings<br /> in the law courts, and at political, municipal,<br /> and ecclesiastical assemblies.<br /> <br /> But reproduction is nevertheless inadmissible in<br /> the case of a collection which consists mainly of<br /> the reproduction of speeches of the same author.<br /> <br /> Section 18.<br /> <br /> The reprinting of single articles out of the<br /> papers is permissible, so long as no notice is given<br /> that the rights are reserved ; nevertheless, a<br /> reprint is only permissible if the sense is not<br /> distorted. The source from which the article is<br /> taken is to be indicated clearly in the reprint.<br /> <br /> The reprinting of scientific, technical, or enter-<br /> taining matter in elaborated or altered form is<br /> inadmissible, even if there is no notice of the<br /> reservation of rights.<br /> <br /> General news founded on facts and current topics<br /> of the day may always be reprinted from papers<br /> or periodicals.<br /> <br /> Section 19.<br /> <br /> It is permissible to reproduce in the following<br /> CaKes :<br /> <br /> 1. When single passages or smaller parts of a<br /> written work, a lecture, or a speech are,<br /> after publication, quoted in an independent<br /> literary work.<br /> <br /> 2. When single essays of small compass or<br /> single poems after publication are included<br /> in an independent scientific work.<br /> <br /> 3. When single poems after publication are<br /> included in a collection, comprising the<br /> works of a great, number of authors, and<br /> specifically destined for the use of vocal<br /> recitals (Gesangsvortragen).<br /> <br /> 4, When single essays of small compass, single<br /> poems, or small extracts of a written work<br /> after publication are included in a collection,<br /> which embodies the works of a great<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> number of authors, and are specifically<br /> destined for the use of churches, schools,<br /> or education, or for a special literary<br /> purpose. In the case of a collection for a<br /> special literary purpose, as long as the<br /> author is alive, his personal consent is<br /> necessary. Consent is considered as granted<br /> if the author does not notify his refusal in<br /> the course of a month after the editor has<br /> communicated his intention.<br /> <br /> Section 20.<br /> <br /> Reproduction is permissible when small extracts<br /> of a poem, or poems of small compass after<br /> their publication are reproduced as text to a<br /> new musical work, and in connection with the<br /> same. For a performance of the work the poetry<br /> may also be reproduced by itself, if the reprint of<br /> the same is destined solely for the use of the<br /> audience. It is not permissible to reproduce<br /> poems which by their very nature are intended for<br /> musical composition.<br /> <br /> Section 21.<br /> Reproduction is permissible :<br /> <br /> 1. When single passages of a musical work<br /> already published are introduced into an<br /> independent literary work.<br /> <br /> 2. When shorter compositions after publica-<br /> tion are included in an independent<br /> scientific work.<br /> <br /> 3. When shorter compositions after publica-<br /> tion are included in a collection, which<br /> embodies the works of a great number of<br /> composers, specifically destined for use in<br /> schools which are not music schools.<br /> <br /> Section 22.<br /> <br /> Reproduction is permissible when a published<br /> musical work is transferred to such discs, plates,<br /> cylinders, strings, and similar component parts of<br /> instruments which serve for the mechanical repro-<br /> duction of musical pieces.<br /> <br /> This order is also applicable to interchangeable<br /> component parts, so long as they are not adaptable<br /> for instruments by which the work, in varia-<br /> tions of strength and durability of tone, and in<br /> variations of time (Zeitmass) can be reproduced in<br /> the manner of a personal performance.<br /> <br /> Section 28.<br /> <br /> Reproduction is permissible if single illustrations :<br /> <br /> out of a published work are added to a written<br /> work exclusively to elucidate the contents.<br /> Section 24.<br /> <br /> On the basis of Sections 19 to 23 reproduction<br /> of the work of another is only permissible if no<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> af<br /> <br /> ah<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> alteration of the parts reproduced is effected.<br /> Nevertheless, as far as the purpose of the repro-<br /> duction demands, translations of a work are per-<br /> missible, and also such elaborations of a musical<br /> work which represent only extracts or transposi-<br /> tions to another key, or arrangements for orches-<br /> tration, or arrangements for instruments ag notified<br /> in Section 22. If single writings, single poems,<br /> or small portions of a written work are included<br /> in a collection for the use of schools, then such<br /> alterations are permitted as are requisite for this<br /> purpose ; nevertheless, as long as the author is<br /> alive, his personal consent is necessary. The<br /> consent is taken to be granted if the author<br /> does not refuse his consent within a month after<br /> he has been notified of the intended alteration.<br /> <br /> Section 25.<br /> <br /> Whoever makes use of another’s work in accor-<br /> dance with the terms of Sections 19 to 23 is bound<br /> to give the source distinctly.<br /> <br /> Section 26.<br /> <br /> So far as a work under Sections 16 to 24 may be<br /> reproduced without consent of the holder of the<br /> copyright, so far is the circulation and the public<br /> representation, as well as the public delivery, per-<br /> missible.<br /> <br /> Section 27,<br /> <br /> The consent of the holder of the copyright is<br /> not necessary for the public performance of a<br /> musical work which has already appeared, if it is<br /> not for the purpose of trade, and the audience is<br /> admitted without payment. Moreover, such per-<br /> formances are permissible without consent of the<br /> holder of the copyright :—<br /> <br /> 1. If they take place at National fétes with the<br /> exception of musical fétes.<br /> <br /> 2. If the performance is intended exclusively for<br /> charitable purposes, and the performers receive no<br /> remuneration for their services.<br /> <br /> 3. If they are produced by societies, and only<br /> the members, as well as the persous belonging to<br /> their households, are admitted as audience.<br /> <br /> These provisions do not apply to a stage repre-<br /> sentation of an opera or any other musical work to<br /> which a text belongs.<br /> <br /> Section 28.<br /> <br /> For the organisation of a public representation<br /> it is necessary to get the consent of each holder of<br /> copyright if there are several concerned.<br /> <br /> In the case of an opera or work of similar<br /> musical character to which a text belongs, the<br /> organiser of the representation needs the consent<br /> only of the person who holds the copyright of the<br /> music,<br /> <br /> Turrp Drvisron.<br /> DURATION OF THE PROTECTION.<br /> <br /> Section 29,<br /> <br /> The protection of copyright endures for the life<br /> of the author and thirty years, or ten years from<br /> the first publication, whichever is the longer period.<br /> If publication has not taken place at the expira-<br /> tion of thirty years after the death of the author,<br /> it is then presumed that copyright belongs to the<br /> proprietors of the work.<br /> <br /> Section 30.<br /> <br /> If copyright in a work is held in common by<br /> several people, it lapses after the death of the last<br /> survivor, as long as the term of protection is<br /> regulated by the time of death.<br /> <br /> Section 31.<br /> <br /> If the real name of the author has not been<br /> announced at the first publication according to<br /> Section 7, Divisions 1 to 3, then the protection<br /> ends with the lapse of thirty years after the publi-<br /> cation. If the real name of the author is an-<br /> nounced within the thirty years term according to<br /> Section 7, Divisions 1 to 3, or has been announced<br /> by the holder of the copyright for registration on<br /> the register (Section 56), then the orders of Sec-<br /> tion 29 apply. The same rule holds good if the<br /> work is first published after the death of the<br /> author,<br /> <br /> Section 32.<br /> <br /> If copyright belongs to a corporate body accord-<br /> ing to Sections 3 and 4, then the protection ends<br /> with the lapse of thirty years after the publication.<br /> Nevertheless, the protection ends with the lapse of<br /> the terms prescribed in Section 29 if the work is<br /> only published after the death of the author.<br /> <br /> Section 33.<br /> <br /> In the case of works which consist of various<br /> volumes, which have been published at intervals, as<br /> well as in the case of reports or numbers in a series,<br /> every volume, every report, or each number is<br /> regarded as a separate work for the reckoning of<br /> the term of protection. In the case of works pub-<br /> lished in parts, the term of protection is reckoned<br /> only from the publication of the last part.<br /> <br /> Section 34.<br /> <br /> The term of protection begins with the lapse of<br /> the calendar year in which the author died or the<br /> work was published.<br /> <br /> Section 35.<br /> <br /> As far as the protection granted in this law<br /> <br /> depends on whether a work has appeared or been<br /> <br /> <br /> 292, THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> published in any other form, or whether the essential<br /> contents of a work have been communicated to the<br /> public, only those portions that the holder of the<br /> copyright has published or communicated to the<br /> public are taken into consideration.<br /> <br /> FourtH DIvision.<br /> INFRINGEMENT OF RIGHTS.<br /> Section 86.<br /> <br /> Whoever wilfully or unintentionally, to the<br /> detriment of the exclusive rights of the author,<br /> reproduces a work, circulates it in the trade, or<br /> publicly communicates the essential contents of a<br /> work, is pledged to render to the holder of the copy-<br /> right the damages resulting therefror.<br /> <br /> Sechion 37.<br /> <br /> Whoever wilfully or unintentionally, to the<br /> detriment of the exclusive rights of the author,<br /> publicly performs or publicly recites a work, is<br /> pledged to render to the holder of the copyright<br /> the damages resulting therefrom. The same<br /> obligation lies on him who wilfully or unintention-<br /> ally publicly represents a dramatic work, prohibited<br /> under Section 12.<br /> <br /> Section 38.<br /> <br /> The following cases of infringement are punished<br /> with a fine not exceeding 3,000 marks :<br /> <br /> 1. The person who wilfully reproduces or cir-<br /> culates in the trade a work without the consent of<br /> the holder of copyright, otherwise than in the<br /> legally prescribed cases.<br /> <br /> 2. The person who, otherwise than in the legally<br /> prescribed cases, wilfully, without consent of the<br /> holder of the copyright, publicly performs a dramatic<br /> or musical work, prohibited under Section 12, or who<br /> publicly recites a work before it has been published.<br /> <br /> If the consent of the holder of the copyright was<br /> necessary only because alterations were undertaken<br /> in the work itself, its title, or in the description of<br /> the author, the money penalty shall not exceed<br /> 300 marks. If the money penalty, which cannot<br /> be enforced, is turned into an imprisonment, then<br /> the duration of imprisonment, in the case of<br /> Division 1, may not exceed six months ; in the case<br /> of Division 2, may not exceed one month,<br /> <br /> Section 39.<br /> <br /> Whoever wilfully communicates the essential<br /> contents of a work without the consent of the<br /> holder of the copyright, before the contents are<br /> made public, is punished with a money penalty up<br /> to 1,500 marks. If the money penalty, which<br /> cannot be enforced, is changed to imprisonment,<br /> then the duration of imprisonment may not last<br /> above three months.<br /> <br /> Section 40.<br /> <br /> The Courts can declare, on demand of the holder<br /> of the copyright, a fine of 6,000 marks to be paid<br /> to him, in addition to the penalty.<br /> <br /> Those against whom judgment is given to the<br /> amount of this fine are assessed as joint debtors.<br /> A fine thus declared excludes any further demand<br /> for compensation or damages.<br /> <br /> Section 41.<br /> <br /> The Acts notified in Sections 36 to 39 are also<br /> illegal if the work is only partially reproduced,<br /> circulated, published, performed, or recited.<br /> <br /> Sections 42 and 43.<br /> <br /> These sections deal with the rights of the owner<br /> to obtain an order for destruction, or delivery in<br /> lieu of destruction.<br /> <br /> Section 44.<br /> <br /> Whoever, contrary to the provisions of Section 18,<br /> Division 1 or Section 25, neglects to give the<br /> source of which he has availed himself, will be<br /> subject to a penalty not exceeding 150 marks.<br /> <br /> Sections 45 to 53.<br /> <br /> These sections deal with the proper persons to<br /> take action and the method of procedure. The<br /> Power of Appeal to a Committee of Experts<br /> state-sanctioned and the Time limit — usually<br /> three years.<br /> <br /> Firra Division.<br /> Fina DEOREES.<br /> Section 54.<br /> <br /> All subjects of the Empire enjoy the protection<br /> for all their works equally, whether they have been<br /> published or not.<br /> <br /> Section 55.<br /> <br /> An alien enjoys protection for each of his works<br /> published within the Empire, as long as he has not<br /> published the work itself or a translation previously<br /> in a foreign country. Under the same supposition<br /> he can enjoy the protection for each of his works<br /> which he publishes within the Empire as a trans-<br /> lation; the translation holds good in this case as<br /> standing for an original work.<br /> <br /> Section 56.<br /> <br /> The register for the above-mentioned entries<br /> (Section 31, Division 2), is kept by the Municipal<br /> Council in Leipzig. The Municipal Council<br /> registers the entries without being bound to test<br /> the title of the person desiring registration or<br /> the correctness of the facts notified. If the<br /> entry is refused, then the person concerned has the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> right of lodging a complaint with the Imperial<br /> Chancellor.<br /> Section 57.<br /> <br /> The Imperial Chancellor issues decrees concern-<br /> ing the management of the register. Everyone<br /> has free access to the register. Extracts from the<br /> register can be demanded; extracts must, on<br /> demand, be authenticated.<br /> <br /> The entries are to be published in the paper<br /> (Borsenblatt) of the German publishing trade<br /> (Buchhandel), and if the paper should cease to<br /> exist, they must be published in another paper<br /> named by the Imperial Chancellor.<br /> <br /> Section 58.<br /> <br /> Receipts, transactions, vouchers, and such like<br /> documents which concern the entries in the registry,<br /> are free of duty. A fee of 1 m. 50 is imposed for<br /> every entry, for every voucher of an entry, as well<br /> as for any other extract of the register. Besides<br /> this the person desiring registration has to defray<br /> the costs of the public notification of the entry.<br /> <br /> Section 59.<br /> <br /> This section refers merely to the conduct of<br /> legal] business.<br /> Sections 60 to 63.<br /> <br /> These sections refer to those unprotected cases<br /> which gain protection by the privileges granted<br /> under this new Act. These must necessarily be<br /> few in number and diminish year by year as the<br /> new Act continues in force.<br /> <br /> Section 64.<br /> <br /> This law comes into force on January Ist, 1902.<br /> Sections 1 to 56, 61, 62, of the law respecting<br /> copyright in writings, and so forth, of June 11th,<br /> 1870, become invalid (are cancelled) on the same<br /> day.<br /> <br /> Nevertheless these provisions remain untouched,<br /> as far as they can be declared applicable in the<br /> Imperial laws to protection of works of plastic art,<br /> of photographs as well as of models and patterns.<br /> <br /> (Signed)<br /> WILHELM.<br /> ——__—_—_—_-+—~&lt;_-____<br /> <br /> ABOUT LITERARY AGENCIES.*<br /> <br /> — ++<br /> <br /> R. HENRY FRANCIS in the last number<br /> of The Author wrote a very interesting<br /> article on Literary Agents, and I take the<br /> <br /> liberty of adding a few lines on a subject which ig<br /> of so much interest to authors.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * The Editor desires to refer members interested in this<br /> subject to an exhaustive article that appeared in Zhe Author,<br /> April, 1904.<br /> <br /> 293<br /> <br /> It seems to me a mistaken opinion that the<br /> agent is invaluable to an author: an author may<br /> exist without an agent, and if he has dealt with<br /> American editors he may be sure that his work<br /> will be commissioned or bought in advance many<br /> times ; but even to him the agent is useful and<br /> certainly one who has many well known authors as<br /> his regular clients, need not concern himself about<br /> beginners. To deal with beginners is really hard<br /> work, for their name is “ Legion,” especially in<br /> England and America, where people who can read<br /> and write, and even those who probably can read<br /> but who cannot write an ordinary letter, think it<br /> their duty to send to the literary agent the pro-<br /> duct of their brains.<br /> <br /> This is the reason why many agents charge fees<br /> for reading, in order to avoid the influx of un-<br /> desirable literature, often only fit for the waste-<br /> paper basket.<br /> <br /> I happen to know an agent in England who may<br /> be the ideal agent according to the views of Mr.<br /> Francis, but his task is more difficult than is<br /> generally supposed. Not only is it necessary to<br /> classify and tabulate the contributions received<br /> according to the requirements of various publica-<br /> tions, but also to read them. First, for a good<br /> article a higher payment may be obtained than is<br /> usual; and, secondly, an agent having read the<br /> manuscript, may suggest some modification or a<br /> remodelling of the article or short story which will<br /> directly benefit the author by causing him to<br /> command a fair price, while if this is omitted the<br /> paper is often summarily rejected.<br /> <br /> 1. The ideal agent ought to be well acquainted<br /> with the requirements of the market ; and<br /> <br /> 2. Not only ought he to dispose of the material<br /> entrusted to him, but if he sees the fitting oppor-<br /> tunity, should inform his customers that he can<br /> dispose of contributions dealing with such and<br /> such matters if they send them to him.<br /> <br /> 3. He ought to endeavour to obtain the highest<br /> possible remuneration, and this on certain definite<br /> dates, not only on publication, which may be<br /> deferred for a year after the acceptance of the<br /> articles or short story.<br /> <br /> 4. He ought to be a good reader to judge of the<br /> quality or defects of the contribution.<br /> <br /> If the agent be really good the percentage which<br /> he will take for placing the article will be paid, not<br /> by the author, but by the publisher, who will give<br /> more to the agent than he would have paid to the<br /> author himself.<br /> <br /> In general, with a few exceptions, English<br /> editors are not accustomed to explain to the author<br /> if asked, what they want in the contribution, nor<br /> do they make suggestions to outside contributors ;<br /> but a good agent will invariably do so. Thus,<br /> before the arrival of the King of Spain, he will<br /> 294<br /> <br /> remind his clients that articles dealing with Spain<br /> will be in demand ; and he will inform them that<br /> for July and August papers dealing with French<br /> matters, owing to the visit of the French fleet, will<br /> command a sale.<br /> <br /> As an agent represents more or less a large<br /> number of authors, the editor, even if he refuses the<br /> article, will probably read the contribution placed<br /> before him by the agent. I am aware that even in<br /> London there are editors who, after keeping a<br /> manuscript for some time, will return it without<br /> having taken the trouble to read it, the fastener or<br /> thread confining the leaves never having been<br /> removed. But although the patience of editors<br /> may be abused by illiterate contributors they ought<br /> to be able to rely upon the matter sent them by an<br /> agent as real literature, and in rejection would<br /> therefore have some real reasons, and not a mere<br /> excuse. Again, an agent can make a better bar-<br /> gain with an editor for the price of accepted manu-<br /> scripts, as he knows the market value of such<br /> commodities, and he himself may be useful to the<br /> editor by being able to supply the materials<br /> wanted; he can also often obtain better terms<br /> than the author, and sometimes payment on<br /> acceptance.<br /> <br /> For these reasons an agent is strictly necessary<br /> to beginners and very useful to authors in general.<br /> <br /> Such agents exist in England, and even in<br /> London; their names may be found from the usual<br /> books of reference, but as there are among them<br /> those who seem to think their duty only con-<br /> sists in taking a few shillings in advance from the<br /> author, it is well to obtain the fullest information<br /> from the secretary of the society, or to ask the<br /> agent for his references before submitting a manu-<br /> script or sending him fees.<br /> <br /> Of course no agent can guarantee the placing of<br /> every kind of contribution, even if of real literary<br /> value, as the taste and requirements of editors vary<br /> from time to time; but short stories always com-<br /> mand a good sale, poetry seldom.<br /> <br /> As to the American market, to which authors do<br /> not as a rule pay judicious attention, it is good, if<br /> not better, than the English. A carbon copy of<br /> each intended contribution ought to be made and<br /> sent on approval to America. The expense is not<br /> large, and it may bring substantial profit.<br /> <br /> Everything from 50 words to 100,000 can com-<br /> mand a sale, and things which the author may<br /> consider worthless may find buyers somewhere in<br /> Colorado or Nebraska, and may even obtain a<br /> good price. The minimum price is $5 (five<br /> dollars) or £1 1s. per thousand words. ‘The<br /> agencies are numerous and excellent, the payment<br /> on acceptance and the dealing prompt, but as there<br /> is much “fake” among these agencies, I shall<br /> depart from the custom of non free advertisement<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in the columns of Zhe Author and give a few<br /> American addresses of general high standing :—<br /> <br /> The American Press Association of New York,<br /> <br /> The Hearst Syndicate of New York,<br /> <br /> The Daily Story Publishing Co., and Sampson,<br /> Hodges, both of Chicago.<br /> <br /> All these agencies are practically purchasing<br /> syndicates, rather than authors’ agents in the<br /> strict sense of the term.<br /> <br /> As the number of publications in the United<br /> States is larger than in England, and all “ Dailies”<br /> publish a special Sunday edition with articles on<br /> various subjects and short stories, the possibilities<br /> of selling contributions on good terms are large.<br /> For those who do not object to spend a little money<br /> and especially for those who write much and do<br /> not care if their work be published unsigned,<br /> I can recommend The National Press Association,<br /> Baldwin Buildings, Indianapolis, Ind., the only<br /> placing agency which I happen to know in the<br /> States.<br /> <br /> This agency has for chief editor, Mr. Thornton<br /> West, a man of high repute. Contributions<br /> received and found to be saleable are published<br /> on syndicate sheets, and on payment of a sum<br /> from one shilling upwards, according to the length<br /> of the articles, are sent to many thousands of<br /> publications in various States of America, the same<br /> article, paragraph, poetry, or short story being<br /> published on the same day in many papers brings<br /> to the author a good deal more than if sold in any<br /> other way. The day of publication in periodicals<br /> may be arranged beforehand, as on the day of<br /> publication on syndicate sheet, the author has<br /> already secured his copyright.<br /> <br /> The knowledge of and acquaintance with<br /> American periodical literature would, of course,<br /> be of great assistance as it would give an idea<br /> of the wants of the market. Strange to say, in<br /> London there is no place or reading room where<br /> on payment you can see American publications ; ab<br /> least, I do not know of the existence of such a place.<br /> This is the greater pity as there are numerous<br /> competitions for articles and short stories, such as<br /> in last October that of the Boston Black Cat, where<br /> from ten to two hundred guineas were given in<br /> prizes, and no one in England heard anything<br /> about it.<br /> <br /> Whether an author has or has not an agent<br /> in England he should always send his contributions<br /> to America, and he ought also to remember that an<br /> average magazine uses only about two hundred<br /> articles and short stories in the year, and if the<br /> author is not a Kipling, Caine, or a star of equal<br /> magnitude, the editor will not publish more than<br /> one or two of his contributions during the year—of<br /> course, articles of exceptional merit, or those deal- —<br /> ing with special topics of the day and written by<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 295<br /> <br /> experienced authors are not bound by this rule ;<br /> the agent for his own interest will find the right<br /> people, and as he is not acting for many celebrities,<br /> his existence depends on large numbers of well-<br /> served customers.<br /> <br /> so<br /> <br /> “THE LIFE LITERARY.”<br /> <br /> —_— +<br /> <br /> HIS is an age in which philanthropists lurk<br /> at every turn. People, indeed—perfect<br /> strangers, for the most part—positively<br /> <br /> unite with one another in whole-souled endeavours<br /> to improve the moral and mental state of their<br /> fellow-beings. Perhaps the recent wave of “re-<br /> vivalism ” sweeping over London has had some-<br /> thing to do with it ; or perhaps it must be ascribed<br /> to some other cause altogether. Any way, for<br /> weeks past my letter-box has been deluged daily<br /> with missives from kind-hearted individuals whose<br /> one object in life is apparently to benefit my<br /> unworthy self. One bold spirit actually offered<br /> to ‘convert’ me “ by correspondence” ; a second<br /> has an encyclopedia on “specially easy terms” ;<br /> or, if I don’t want that, I can have a fountain pen<br /> instead ; and a third will array my manly form<br /> from top to toe “in West-end style (guaranteed)<br /> at City prices.” It was left, however, for a fourth<br /> to make the only offer of which I felt able to avail<br /> myself. As the experiment afforded me some<br /> innocent entertainment at the time, I will describe<br /> it briefly, in the hope that others may profit by it.<br /> <br /> The offer, like all those that preceded it, was<br /> embodied in pamphlet form. Entitled “The Life<br /> Literary,” it undertook—in return for “so much<br /> down now, and the balance at client’s convenience”<br /> —to “bring journalistic proficiency within the reach<br /> of everyone.” The prospect sounded enticing.<br /> I picked the envelope and its contents out of the<br /> waste-paper basket to which I had consigned<br /> it mechanically a moment earlier, and looked it<br /> over again. There was a distinct suggestion of<br /> “bustle” in the opening paragraph that pro-<br /> claimed an American inspiration, and a “ now-or-<br /> never ”’ in the final one that was almost irresistible.<br /> It was almost, however ; not quite. Looked at<br /> critically, and in the cold light of an hour later, it<br /> left something wanting. ‘There was too much<br /> promise about the prospectus, and the golden vista<br /> it opened up to all and sundry who availed them-<br /> selves of the course of instruction described therein<br /> had a suspicious glitter. I found it, also—despite<br /> the glowing assurances to the contrary—difficult<br /> to believe that “The Life Literary” was within<br /> the grasp of all and sundry provided they<br /> could put down so much ready money beforehand.<br /> <br /> Reluctantly accordingly, I abandoned the pleasing<br /> vision I had formed in the first flush of enthusiasm<br /> of seeing myself editor of the Times at the end of<br /> a fortnight, and put the matter from my mind.<br /> <br /> I had reckoned, however, without a full percep-<br /> tion of what my neglect involved. It was not long<br /> before I found this out. At the end of a week<br /> came a letter of enquiry, expressed in polite, but<br /> pained, terms, as to why I delayed taking advan-<br /> tage of the “ extraordinary offer.” Silence seemed<br /> the only answer. I tried it, but it did not succeed,<br /> for my would-be benefactors suddenly adopted the<br /> tactics of the proprietors of an American patent<br /> medicine, and bombarded me daily with “ follow-<br /> ups.” Of the first six I took no notice. The<br /> seventh, however, broke down my stony defiance.<br /> Couched in this manner, it was impossible to hold<br /> out against it :—<br /> <br /> ““My DEAR S1R,—Apparently you have not yet decided to.<br /> take up our initial course of journalism. We cannot believe<br /> your indecision is caused by the amount of the fee; especially<br /> when you remember that the lessons are such that they<br /> not only awaken the latent power of writing—which often<br /> sleeps unknown for many decades—and whet the ambition<br /> for a life full of scope and enterprise, but in addition to<br /> this, they place the student directly upon the road to<br /> success, showing him how to make money NOW. Any<br /> intelligent student will obtain sufficient practical know-<br /> ledge from our lessons to earn money as a “ Free-Lance,”<br /> even supposing he eventually decides not to enter the “ Life<br /> Literary.” Possibly the reason of your not having taken<br /> advantage of our offer is that you are in doubt as to the<br /> value of our system of tuition. Thinking this may be so,<br /> we will help to remove this doubt by making you an offer,<br /> of which you can avail yourself without incurring any<br /> liability. Send us one MS., either one which has been<br /> rejected or one specially written for the purpose, and we<br /> will revise it for you. We shall deal with it in the same<br /> way as we deal with essays, articles, and stories written by<br /> students under our instruction. We will return it to you<br /> with our notes, comments, and advice, and thus you will<br /> be in a position to judge of our methods for yourself. In<br /> conclusion, we will add that the instructor in our jour-<br /> nalistic branch is a practical London journalist, and the<br /> lessons he gives are not obsolete, mythical semi-lectures.<br /> —Yours faithfully.”<br /> <br /> This was a sporting offer, as a man and a Briton<br /> I could scarcely do less than close with it. With-<br /> out delay, accordingly, I picked out a manuscript<br /> from a large collection in my desk and dispatched<br /> it to the London office—somewhere in the Pimlico<br /> postal district—of Messrs. So-and-8o. Then I sat<br /> down to await the result.<br /> <br /> It came with exhilarating and business-like<br /> promptitude. Accompanying the promised return<br /> of my manuscript was a type-written document.<br /> I looked at it admiringly. In one corner was<br /> emblazoned the Stars and Stripes; in the other<br /> was the Union Jack. Hvidently the operations of<br /> the ‘Twentieth Century College of Journalistic<br /> Tuition” were widespread. In a neatly-framed<br /> margin running down one side of the sheet was a<br /> 296 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> long list of “Fellows and Experts on the Instruc-<br /> tional Staff.” With surprise and disappointment<br /> (for the preliminary prospectus had distinctly<br /> stated that “all England’s literary men” were<br /> patrons of the college) I searched in vain for the<br /> names of either Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy,<br /> George Meredith, or Conan Doyle. Strangely<br /> enough, they were one and all unaccountably<br /> absent. However, I was not going to let these<br /> omissions dishearten me. There were still plenty<br /> of names left, and it was my ignorance no doubt<br /> that made their fame in the literary world unknown<br /> to me.<br /> <br /> With a feeling of pleasurable excitement, I began<br /> to read the “notes, comments, and advice”’ that,<br /> in accordance with the kindly promise of Messrs.<br /> So-and-So, were to greet the bantling I had sub-<br /> mitted to their expert judgment. The result was<br /> a little disheartening. It ran in this fashion :—<br /> <br /> “ My DEAR S1rR,—Our instructor has carefully examined<br /> your MS., entitled He finds that, while it shows a<br /> certain definite promise, it is written in too amateur a<br /> style to be of any commercial value. We would suggest<br /> that you enrol yourself as a student of Course A. This we<br /> are prepared to extend to you on the specially-reduced<br /> terms of three pounds (payable in advance), on receipt of<br /> which complete handbook of instruction will be mailed<br /> you. As this grand offer is only open for a limited period,<br /> we would respectfully urge you to avail yourself of it at<br /> once. With best wishes for your success, we are, dear sir,<br /> yours obediently, ae<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> On mature consideration, I did not take advan-<br /> tage of “this grand offer” of making a successful<br /> début in “The Life Literary.” Perhaps the chief<br /> reason that influenced me in being thus wilfully<br /> blind to my own advantage was the fact that the<br /> article in question had already appeared in a London<br /> newspaper of admittedly high standing. a<br /> <br /> —————————<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> oe eae es<br /> BLACKWOODS.<br /> Orpheus and Eurydice. By Alfred Noyes Coventry Pat-<br /> more. By Frederick Greenwood.<br /> BoOKMAN.<br /> Edward Fitzgerald. By Wilfrid Whitten,<br /> <br /> Book MONTHLY.<br /> Crossing the Bar. By James Milne.<br /> Writers of English.<br /> CHAMBERS’ JOURNAL.<br /> <br /> The Railway Bookstall.<br /> Artistic Incongruities and Anachronisms. By T C.<br /> Hepworth.<br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> What is Christianity? By Samuel McComb.<br /> Ruskin’s Views of Literature. By R. Warwick Bond.<br /> <br /> CoRNHILL.<br /> <br /> A Glimpse of the Exiled Stewarts. By W.H. Hutton,<br /> From a College Window.<br /> <br /> FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> In Praise of Anthony Trollope’s Novels.<br /> Bettany.<br /> <br /> Literary Associations of the American Embassy. By F.<br /> §. A. Lowndes.<br /> <br /> The Ethics of Don Juan. By Francis Grothwahl.<br /> <br /> The Times. History of the War in South Africa. By<br /> Militarist.<br /> <br /> Paris and Daomi. By Laurence Binyon.<br /> <br /> By F. E.<br /> <br /> LONGMAN’S MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> A Distinguished Librarian. By M. E. Lowndes.<br /> A Tenant Farmer’s Diary of the Eighteenth Century.<br /> By W. M. Dunning.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> Cathedrals Old and New. By Hugh B. Philpott.<br /> The Fellow Workers of Voltaire [V.Gremm. By S. G.<br /> Tallentyre.<br /> Monta.<br /> <br /> The Strange Story of the Abbate Sidotti. By the Rev.<br /> Herbert Thurston.<br /> <br /> An Error in Simpson’s “ Campion.” By the Rev. J. H.<br /> Pollen.<br /> <br /> The Apotheosis of Tom Moore. By P. A. Sillard.<br /> <br /> The Church of England and the Higher Criticism. By<br /> A. St. Ledger Westall.<br /> <br /> Alexander Neckam. By Arnold Caven.<br /> <br /> MONTHLY REVIEW.<br /> <br /> The Goddess of Wisdom and Lady Carolin Lamb. By<br /> Rowland E. Prothero, M.V.O.<br /> <br /> Edward Dowson. By Forrest Reid.<br /> <br /> Medizval Gardens. By Alice Kemp-Welch.<br /> <br /> Quaint Memories. By E. Hessey.<br /> <br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY.<br /> <br /> The Scandal of University Education in Ireland. By<br /> Sir George T. Lambert, C.B.<br /> Ought Public Schoolmasters to be Taught to Teach? By<br /> the Hon. and Rev. Canon Lyttleton.<br /> Some Royal Love Letters. By Miss Charlotte Fortescue<br /> Yonge.<br /> PALL MALL MAGAZINE.<br /> <br /> Pictures and the Public. By C. Lewis Hind.<br /> The Origin of Life. By C. W. Saleeby, M.D.<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BAR.<br /> <br /> The Philosophy of Aubrey de Vere.<br /> Barrington.<br /> <br /> Rooms that I have Loved. By Helen Choate Prince.<br /> <br /> Margaret Godolphin. A Saint at the Court of Charles II.<br /> By Dora M. Jones.<br /> <br /> By Michael<br /> <br /> UNIVERSITY REVIEW.<br /> The Free Churches and the Universities. By Professor<br /> J. H. Houlton.<br /> Study of Local History. By Ramsay Muir, M.A,<br /> ‘WORLD’s WoRK.<br /> Music in Lakeland. By Rosa Newmarch,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> ———&lt;&gt;—+<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 /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> ‘(3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> III. The Royalty System.<br /> <br /> This is perhaps, with certain limitations, the best form<br /> of agreement. It is above all things necessary to know<br /> what the proposed royalty means to both sides. It is now<br /> possible for an author to ascertain approximately the<br /> truth. From time to time very important figures connected<br /> with royalties are published in Zhe Author.<br /> <br /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author.<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> —————__+_—~_ —_____<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> SU eee<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. {t is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with anyone except an established<br /> manager,<br /> <br /> 297<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> <br /> in three or more acts:<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> <br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> <br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> <br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> <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 /> <br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> <br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> <br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> <br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> in preference to the American system, Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<br /> <br /> date on or before which the play should be<br /> performed.<br /> <br /> (¢c.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of royalties (i.c., fixed<br /> nightly fees). This method should be always<br /> avoided except in cases where the fees are<br /> likely to be small or difficult to collect. The<br /> other safeguards set out under heading (4.) 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. I, is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved,<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance.<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘hey should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9. Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10. An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range&#039;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 /> ee<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> 1—&gt;—+<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 /> 298<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into particular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> —__———__+—___¢_______-<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —-—&gt;— +<br /> <br /> ie VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> <br /> advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> <br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. 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. ‘I&#039;he Society now offers :<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> This<br /> <br /> 8. Many agents neglect to stamp agreements.<br /> The<br /> <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 /> THER 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 /> A<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> EMBERS will greatly assist the Society in this<br /> branch of its work by informing young writers<br /> of its existence. Their MSS. can be read and<br /> <br /> treated as a composition is treated by a coach. The term<br /> MSS. includes not only works of fiction, but poetry<br /> and dramatic works, and when it is possible, under<br /> special arrangement, technical and scientific works. The<br /> Readers are writers of competence and experience. The<br /> fee is one guinea,<br /> <br /> ge eee<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —_+—&gt;+—<br /> <br /> HE Editor of Zhe Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> <br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> <br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, 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. Every effort will be made to<br /> return articles which cannot be accepted.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post,<br /> and he requests members who do not receive an<br /> answer to important communications within two days to<br /> write to him without delay. All remittances should be<br /> crossed Union Bank of London, Chancery Lane, or be sent<br /> by registered letter only.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ——_+——____—__<br /> <br /> LEGAL AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE<br /> SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> ENSIONS to commence at any selected age,<br /> either with or without Life Assurance, can<br /> be obtained from this society.<br /> <br /> Full particulars can be obtained from the City<br /> Branch Manager, Legal and General Life Assurance<br /> Society, 158, Leadenhall Street, London, E.C.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> $4<br /> <br /> E are delighted to see in the issue of<br /> Birthday Honours that Mr. Meredith, the<br /> distinguished President of the Society,<br /> <br /> and Mr. Holman Hunt, who has been a member<br /> since its commencement, have received the Order<br /> of Merit, the highest honour which it is possible<br /> for the King to render to these protagonists of<br /> literature and art. The members of the Society<br /> cannot help but feel the reflected glory shed upon<br /> it by the distinction thus conferred. It is not<br /> necessary to recall the fact that the late Lord<br /> Tennyson was the first President of the Society,<br /> and that on his lamented death Mr. Meredith was<br /> by vote of the Council elected to fill the vacancy.<br /> This was many years ago.<br /> <br /> We must all join in offering our sincerest con-<br /> gratulations that the Order of Merit, so well<br /> deserved, has been conferred on him who was by<br /> the vote of the fellow members of his profession<br /> nominated to the presidency.<br /> <br /> We are pleased to see also that Lord Tennyson,<br /> the son of our former President, also a member of<br /> the Society like his father, has been made a Privy<br /> Councillor.<br /> <br /> ALL advertising agents state that there is nothing<br /> like persistency in advertisement in order to attract<br /> the public notice. This, to a certain extent, is<br /> true ; but after a certain time repeated advertise-<br /> ments repel rather than attract.<br /> <br /> This remark will hold good with the standing<br /> matter in Zhe Author, and it is therefore fitting<br /> from time to time to stimulate the interest<br /> and call to the minds of members the fact<br /> that the information contained in the standing<br /> matter is useful and valuable, that it may be<br /> of great advantage to them before they enter<br /> into an agreement to read the standing matter<br /> referring to agreements as the first step. Another<br /> point in the standing matter to which we should<br /> like to call our members’ attention is the fact<br /> that all the agreements criticised and all the cases<br /> quoted in The Author are real agreements and real<br /> cases, and the secretary is willing to give the names<br /> of the firms involved to members of the society.<br /> <br /> Again, it may be of advantage to members,<br /> before they enter into an agreement, to make some<br /> inquiries from the secretary with regard to the<br /> cases taken up by the society and the agreements<br /> quoted. It is more than probable that the result-<br /> ing information will afford unexpected assistance.<br /> <br /> THE initial sessions of the Copyright Conference<br /> in the United States were held on Wednesday, Thurs-<br /> day and Friday, May 31st, June 1st, and June 2nd.<br /> <br /> 299<br /> <br /> We have heard from the librarian of Congress<br /> that it is not proposed to issue a formal report<br /> of these meetings, though a report was drawn up<br /> for the benefit of the members.<br /> <br /> The authors’ interests were represented by Mr.<br /> E. ©. Stedman, Prof. Brander Mathews, and Mr.<br /> R. U. Johnson ; the publishers’ by Mr. W. W.<br /> Appleton and Mr. Charles Scribner. Mr. George<br /> Haven Putnam would also have been present, but<br /> was not in the United States at the time. Other<br /> interests, such as artists’, typographers’, printers’,<br /> etc., were represented. But we fail to see any men-<br /> tion of the American Authors’ Society. Mr. Herbert<br /> Putnam, the librarian of Congress, was in the chair,<br /> and Mr. Thorvald Solberg, the registrar of copy-<br /> rights, acted as recorder, Mr. Montgomery, of the<br /> Treasury Department, representing the Government.<br /> <br /> The meeting appears to have been surprisingly<br /> unanimous in favour of comprehensive provisions<br /> and more exact definitions, and there was a general<br /> unanimity against the policy of a renewal term of<br /> copyright, and in favour of a fixed term. We<br /> regret to say that beyond a mere formal protest,<br /> there appeared to be no endeavour to disturb the<br /> status of the manufacturing clause. It is to be<br /> hoped that some fair time limit will be given to:<br /> those who desire to secure the United States copy-<br /> right instead of simultaneous publication. It<br /> cannot be repeated too often that the question of<br /> copyright, that is, the reproduction of copies, has<br /> really nothing whatever to do with the manu-<br /> facturers in the United States, and that a reason-<br /> able international copyright law can be gained<br /> without detriment to the printers’ interests.<br /> <br /> We have taken the following list of associations<br /> participating in the conference, with the names of<br /> delegates, from the United States Publishers’ Weekly.<br /> <br /> American (Authors’) Copyright League.<br /> R. BR. Bowker, Vice-President; R. U.<br /> Secretary.<br /> American Bar Association.<br /> Arthur Steuart.<br /> American Dramatists’ Club.<br /> Bronson Howard, President ; Joseph I. C. Clarke.<br /> American Institute of Architects.<br /> Glen Brown, Secretary.<br /> American Library Association.<br /> Frank P. Hill, Vice-President ; Arthur E. Bostwick.<br /> American Newspaper Publishers’ Association.<br /> John Stewart Bryan, Louis M. Duvall, Don C. Seitz.<br /> American Publishers’ Copyright League.<br /> Wm. W. Appleton, President ; Geo. Haven Putnam,<br /> Secretary ; Chas. Scribner, Treasurer.<br /> Architectural League of America.<br /> D. Everett Waid.<br /> Association of American Directory Publishers.<br /> Wm. H. Bates.<br /> Association of Theatre Managers of Greater New York.<br /> Henry B. Harris, Chas. Burnand.<br /> International Typographical Union.<br /> J. J. Sullivan.<br /> <br /> Johnson<br /> 3800 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Lithographers’ Association.<br /> Robert M. Donnelson ; A. Beverly Smith, Secretary.<br /> Manuscript Society.<br /> Miss Laura Sedgwick Collins, Secretary.<br /> Music Publishers’ Association.<br /> Walter M. Bacon, Geo, W. Furniss.<br /> National Academy of Design.<br /> Francis D. Millet.<br /> National Association of Photo-Engravers.<br /> W. B. Wilson, junr.<br /> National Educational Association.<br /> George S. Davis.<br /> National Institute of Arts and Letters.<br /> Edmund Clarence Stedman, President; Brander<br /> Matthews.<br /> National Sculpture Society.<br /> Karl Bitter.<br /> New York Typographical Union, No. 6.<br /> P. H. McCormick, President ; Geo. J. Jackson.<br /> Periodical Publishers’ Association of America,<br /> Chas. Scribner.<br /> Photographers’ Copyright League.<br /> B. J. Falk, Pirie McDonald.<br /> Print Publishers’ Association of America.<br /> W. A. Livingstone, Albert Smith, President.<br /> Society of American Artists.<br /> John W. Alexander, John La Farge.<br /> Sphinx Club.<br /> W. P. Hooper.<br /> United Typothete.<br /> Isaac H. Blanchard, President.<br /> Librarian of Congress.<br /> Herbert Putnam.<br /> Register of Copyrights.<br /> Thorvald Solberg.<br /> Treasury Department.<br /> Charles P. Montgomery.<br /> <br /> We have once again to thank the secretary of<br /> the Library of Congress for a most useful publica-<br /> tion bearing on the United States Copyright Law,<br /> entitled “ Copyright in Congress, 1789—1904: A<br /> Bibliography and Chronological Record.”<br /> <br /> During the century there has been much copy-<br /> right legislation in the United States, and much<br /> more proposed legislation. As the compiler of the<br /> book states : “ More than 200 Copyright Bills have<br /> been laid before Congress for its consideration.”<br /> The work comprises a complete bibliography of<br /> all the Bills referring to copyright which have<br /> been introduced into Congress, with the laws that<br /> have been enacted, and those reports, petitions,<br /> memorials, messages, and miscellaneous copyright<br /> documents which have been drafted, together with<br /> a complete chronological record of all actions taken<br /> in Congress in any way referring to the subject of<br /> copyright, showing the manner in which each<br /> proposal has been dealt with.<br /> <br /> To the student of the evolution of copyright, the<br /> record must be of the greatest assistance ; and no<br /> person who is really interested in the future con-<br /> solidation of the laws, either in this or any other<br /> country, can afford to ignore the past evolution of<br /> copyright property. We must, therefore, thank<br /> the compilers of this work for the labour they have<br /> <br /> expended and the careful manner in which they<br /> have carried out their programme.<br /> <br /> We are, indeed, indebted to the Copyright Office<br /> for the foresight with which they deal with all<br /> questions likely to interest holders of this property.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE twenty-seventh congress of the International<br /> Artistic and Literary Association will be held this<br /> autumn at Liege, in Belgium, from Monday, the<br /> 18th, to Sunday, the 24th of September. The<br /> opening séance will be on Monday morning at<br /> eleven a.m. ‘The programme is as follows :—<br /> <br /> I, Annual report of matters concerning literary<br /> and artistic property, considered from diplomatic,<br /> legislative, and legal points of view: The general<br /> report.<br /> <br /> 1. New laws and the principal decisions of juris-<br /> <br /> prudence: M. E. Rothlisberger.<br /> <br /> 2. International conventions and projects of<br /> <br /> conventions: M. A. Darras.<br /> 3. Relations between Germany and the United<br /> States: M. A. Osterrieth.<br /> <br /> 4. Means of assuring the adhesion of the<br /> Netherlands to the Berne Convention:<br /> M. Van de Veld.<br /> <br /> II. Relations between artistic and industrial<br /> property, with a special reference to designs,<br /> models, and photographs: M. Taillefer.<br /> <br /> III. Practical means of repressing literary,<br /> musical, and artistic piracy, particularly in Eng-<br /> land and Italy, and of preventing the introduction<br /> of unauthorised publications: MM. Harmand,<br /> Poinsard, Iselin, and Clausetti.<br /> <br /> IV. The character of illicit musical performances,<br /> literary recitations, or dramatic representations,<br /> not authorised by the authors ; an examination of<br /> gratuitous and private performances and repre-<br /> sentations: MM. de Borchgrave, Castori, and<br /> Osterreith.<br /> <br /> VY. The publisher’s contract regarded from the<br /> point of view of artistic works: A report of the<br /> labours of the French Commission instituted by<br /> the Congress of Weimar.<br /> <br /> VI. The right of reproduction of works ex-<br /> hibited in museums: MM. Auquier and Grandig-<br /> neaux.<br /> <br /> VII. The protection of monuments of the past,<br /> of scenery, and of historical sites: MM. Charles<br /> Lucas and Raoul de Clermont.<br /> <br /> Thursday, the 21st, will be devoted to an excur-<br /> sion to Brussels. Friday, 22nd, Saturday, and<br /> Sunday will be passed at Antwerp, where the<br /> congress will close. A complete programme will<br /> be subsequently published. Persons visiting the<br /> congress will enjoy a discount of fifty per cent. on<br /> tickets of the Chemin du Fer du Nord, and can<br /> have circular tickets on the Belgian railways at<br /> reduced prices.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> eas RIDNiae:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR. 301<br /> <br /> BALLADE OF MINOR POETS.<br /> <br /> ——<br /> <br /> * Ah, would but one might lay his lance in rest,<br /> And charge in earnest, were it but a mill!”<br /> AusTIN DoBsoNn.<br /> <br /> OT painless is his path who strives<br /> To storm Apollo’s cloudy seats ;<br /> His heart shall know derision’s knives,<br /> And tough shall be the bread he eats.<br /> Not his to fondle the receipts<br /> Of novelists superbly Manx ;<br /> Yet all is well when he repeats<br /> “At least we fight within the ranks.”<br /> <br /> There is no noodle but contrives<br /> To giggle at our high conceits ;<br /> The purblind critic smokes our hives<br /> And votes our honey pilfered sweets ;<br /> Our noblest pangs are “ hectic heats,”<br /> Our verse is vile, our minds are blanks ;<br /> And yet—they said the same of Keats!<br /> At least we fight within the ranks !<br /> <br /> Appalling vices taint our lives ;—<br /> Debt, cigarettes, Parisian streets,<br /> French fiction, absinthe, countless wives,<br /> Strange vintages and monstrous meats ;<br /> Yet though this list but half-completes<br /> The total of our godless pranks,<br /> Such windy stuff one thought deletes,—<br /> At least we fight within the ranks.<br /> <br /> L’ENVOI.<br /> <br /> Brothers, this giant Art retreats<br /> Untamed of us ; yet give we thanks ;—<br /> Through each alarm, through all defeats<br /> At least we fight within the ranks !<br /> pr. J. lu.<br /> <br /> -—~&lt;_ +<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES NOTES.<br /> <br /> =o<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> FP \HE question of the day in American literary<br /> circles is, who wrote those “ Publisher’s<br /> Confessions,” which have now appeared in<br /> <br /> book form ?<br /> <br /> In some quarters it was assumed as a moral<br /> certainty that Mr. Walter H. Page was the out-<br /> spoken correspondent of the Boston Transcript, and<br /> one literary periodical has even published his<br /> portrait in that capacity ; but now it is said that<br /> the want of literary tone which is so sadly apparent,<br /> precludes this hypothesis ; and another candidate,<br /> Mr. Gregory, of Boston, is brought forward. For<br /> ourselves, we regret the hard things said of the<br /> critics and the literary papers, whilst acknowledging<br /> the shrewd sense and straight hitting of the<br /> <br /> writer; but we dare venture no guess as to his<br /> identity.<br /> <br /> Mr. Carnegie’s latest benefaction has been very<br /> generally approved. The provision of a pension<br /> fund for the hard-working and ill-paid teaching<br /> profession was an obvious desideratum, especially<br /> in a country like the United States; and its<br /> advantages, unlike those of the public libraries,<br /> cannot be held to be problematic.<br /> <br /> An able article in the Dzal, by Dr. Joseph<br /> Jastrow deals with the few objections that are likely<br /> to be raised, such as the exclusion of State univer-<br /> sities from the benefits of the bequest. The writer<br /> very wisely, in our opinion, expresses a hope that<br /> the new endowment will supplement existing pro-<br /> visions, rather than exonerate universities from the<br /> duty of supplying pensions, and will act as a<br /> stimulative force in other directions.<br /> <br /> Mention of the Chicayo Dial recalls the fact that<br /> it has lately celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary.<br /> Under the able conduct of Mr. Francis F. Browne,<br /> who has edited the paper during the whole period,<br /> it has undoubtedly been the best literary journal<br /> in America, and has fully held its own against<br /> younger rivals, who have called in the aid of<br /> illustration. It is the only purely literary paper<br /> which is not the organ of a publishing house, and<br /> has succeeded in avoiding dulness without making<br /> any of the usual concessions to popular taste.<br /> Long may it live to wave the banner of calm<br /> criticism over commercial democratic Chicago !<br /> <br /> The Copyright Conference assembled at the<br /> invitation of the Librarian of Congress, to make<br /> suggestions for improvements in the copyright law,<br /> has held some preliminary sittings. Artists and<br /> painters are represented as well as publishers and<br /> authors. Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman and<br /> Prof. Brander Matthews are among those who are<br /> acting for the last named ; Mr. Herbert Putnam<br /> was in the chair. So far, things seem to have<br /> gone very smoothly.<br /> <br /> Messrs. D. Appleton and Co. have taken over<br /> the Booklovers’ Magazine, which is to bear their<br /> name from the July number onwards.<br /> <br /> We note that Mrs. Humphry Ward’s “ Marriage<br /> of William Ashe” headed the most recently com-<br /> piled list of best selling books here, and that<br /> another British work, “The Garden of Allah”<br /> figured among the six, though in the reverse<br /> position.<br /> <br /> Alice Hegan Rice’s latest story, “Sandy,” and<br /> David Graham Phillips’s ‘‘ The Plum Tree,” were<br /> the new American big sellers. The latter is a<br /> political novel, wherein some have found portraits<br /> of McKinley, Senator Hanna, and W. J. Bryan.<br /> The book has been realistically advertised by the<br /> Columbian Book Company, of Atalanta, Georgia,<br /> who displayed in their windows a six-foot plum<br /> 302<br /> <br /> tree in full blossom, with, it is said, satisfactory<br /> results.<br /> <br /> But by far the best examples of recent fiction<br /> published in the United States are the anonymous<br /> “Our Best Society,” which has just finished its<br /> serial career in the Oritic, and Dr. S. Weir<br /> Mitchell’s “ Constance Trescot.” The former is a<br /> sparkling and audacious picture of New York<br /> society from the point of view of a novelist and<br /> dramatist, who, with his wife, enters it for his own<br /> purposes. The latter, which was thrice re-written,<br /> is a masterly study of feminine temperament,<br /> which will rank high amongst the scanty collection<br /> of physicians’ novels. These, it may be recalled,<br /> include Warren’s “Ten Thousand a Year,” and<br /> Holmes’s “ Elsie Venner,” not to mention Sir A.<br /> Conan Doyle’s happy excursions into historical and<br /> <br /> detective romance.<br /> <br /> _ A very clever and readable book is, however,<br /> “The Orchid,” by Robert Grant, a curious social<br /> study, depicting, of course, the smart set.<br /> <br /> Howard Sturgis’s ‘‘ Belchamber,” is also a book<br /> quite out of the common by an unprolific writer.<br /> It has been well hit off as “The Tragedy of the<br /> Trivial.”<br /> <br /> Motor fiction is a new serial, which is well<br /> represented in “ The Van Suyden Sapphires,” by<br /> Charles Carey; “Charles the Chauffeur,” by<br /> S. E. Kiser; and Lloyd Osborne’s “The Motor<br /> Maniacs.”<br /> <br /> Mrs. Austin’s romance of old California, “Isidro,”<br /> should also be mentioned, nor should the bright<br /> little fantasia, called “The Opal,” which remains<br /> anonymous, be omitted here.<br /> <br /> A new novel from the pen of Mr. W. D. Howells,<br /> is being published, as we write. It is said to be<br /> in his best vein. ‘ Miss Bellard’s Inspiration” is<br /> the title.<br /> <br /> The fifth edition of the “ Dictionary of American<br /> Authors,” compiled by Oscar Fay Adams, has a<br /> supplement containing considerably more than a<br /> thousand newnames. It should prove more useful<br /> than ever.<br /> <br /> Four money prizes will be awarded next year for<br /> essays on certain economical subjects, the. donors<br /> being Messrs. Hart, Schaffner, and Marx, of<br /> Chicago. Two of these prizes are to be reserved<br /> for undergraduates of American colleges; the<br /> others will be competed for by those graduated<br /> in or after 1904. One of the subjects selected is<br /> “an examination into the economic causes of large<br /> fortunes in this country.”<br /> <br /> Among books other than novels which have<br /> appeared during the spring, perhaps the most<br /> notable is the Autobiography of Andrew D. White,<br /> some time Ambassador of Berlin and St. Peters-<br /> burg and President of Cornell. Not the least<br /> interesting part of the book are the Russian<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> reminiscences. Mr. White gives a highly curious<br /> account of Pobedonostzeff’s acquaintance with<br /> American literature, the Procurator of the Holy<br /> Synod’s devotion to Emerson being very singular,<br /> Mr. White also discussed his country’s literature<br /> with Tolstoi, who did not, however, display equal<br /> intimacy with it. He had talked with the present<br /> Tsar, and expresses himself as having been favour-<br /> ably impressed by the late M. de Plehve when a<br /> subordinate official.<br /> <br /> Mr. John Fox, jun., has described his abortive<br /> ttempts to follow the operations in Manchuria<br /> in his “ Following the Sun Flag” ; and another<br /> young writer, Mr. Jack London, has in his “ War<br /> of the Classes” indited an apologia for his own<br /> socialism.<br /> <br /> Another book well worth reading is “A Diary<br /> from Dixie,” written by the wife of Jefferson<br /> Davis’s aide-de-camp, and edited by Isabella D.<br /> Martin and Myrta L. Avary. It is a really im-<br /> portant historical document, containing not only<br /> an interesting description of social life in the South<br /> during the Civil War, but also revelations of the<br /> intrigues which were rife against the Secession<br /> leaders, and of the lack of enthusiasm felt by these<br /> last for their cause.<br /> <br /> Another historical work which is provoking<br /> some discussion is Agnes Laut’s “ Pathfinders of<br /> the West.” The author maintains that Pierre<br /> Esprit Radisson discovered the overland route to<br /> Hudson’s Bay, as well as the North-West. She<br /> also deals with the careers of La Vérendrye,<br /> Samuel Hearne, Mackenzie, and other pioneers,<br /> challenging accepted views.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Wharton’s “Italian Backgrounds” is a<br /> book of travels of rare distinction. Her discovery<br /> of the San Vivaldo pictures renders it especially<br /> noteworthy.<br /> <br /> James Huneker’s “Iconoclasts : a Book of<br /> Dramatists,” is likely to attract almost as much<br /> attention in Europe as it has here ; nor is Andrew<br /> Carnegie’s “Life of James Watt” likely to pass<br /> unnoticed in either continent.<br /> <br /> Finally, we may draw the attention of historical<br /> students to Professor Peck’s contribution to the<br /> English Men of Letters series, his volume on<br /> Prescoti.<br /> <br /> By far the most important name in our obituary<br /> list is that of the creator of Rip Van Winkle.<br /> Joseph Jefferson died on April 23rd at the ripe age<br /> of seventy-six. Howard M. Ticknor, who died on<br /> May 14th, was a man of varied accomplishments,<br /> having been in his time publisher, musical critic,<br /> editor, instructor in English at Harvard, and vice-<br /> consul in various cities. Charles Henry Webb, the<br /> publisher of Mark Twain&#039;s “Jumping Frog,”<br /> wrote excellent parodies under the pseudonym<br /> “John Paul,” as well as “The Wickedest Woman<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in New York ” and several plays. He also invented<br /> a cartridge loader and an adding machine. The<br /> late Judge Tourgée, American consul at Bordeaux,<br /> will be best remembered by his novel “A Fool’s<br /> Errand.” Mrs. Livermore published various books,<br /> but was chiefly known as a lecturer.<br /> <br /> ee ——_—_o—__ +<br /> <br /> GERMAN NOTES.<br /> <br /> —— 9<br /> <br /> I AM glad that the first notes on German<br /> literature in The Author will be principally<br /> devoted to the memory of the greatest of<br /> <br /> German poets, Friedrich Schiller.<br /> <br /> Goethe, as the author of “ Herman and Dorothea”’<br /> and “ Faust,” is, and will ever remain, specially a<br /> German poet ; Schiller’s genius made him rather<br /> an international one.<br /> <br /> The 9th of May being the centenary of the death<br /> of the great poet, one of the most honest and<br /> noble characters in the history of Germany, it was<br /> found necessary to honour that anniversary by<br /> festivities which surpassed anything previously<br /> known, perhaps for the reason, as Maurice Muret<br /> remarks in the Journal des Debats, “the Ger-<br /> mans display their love for Schiller vehemently, in<br /> order to assure themselves that they are not true<br /> to his expectations, and to forget all that is<br /> unschillerische in the present German Empire”<br /> (pour faire oublier tout ce qu’il y a d’unschiller-<br /> ische dans l’empire Allemand de nos jours).<br /> <br /> Whatever may be the reason, this, as the Ger-<br /> man paper Literarische Echo says, is “nicht<br /> ganz unrichtig,” not without some foundation, or,<br /> perhaps, that ideas of the government are not<br /> altogether popular in Germany. The present<br /> Festival surpassed not only that of the centenary<br /> of Schiller’s birthday, celebrated in 1859, but any<br /> other festivities hitherto held in Germany. There<br /> were more than forty books published, dealing<br /> with him as a poet, dramatist, esthetic ; various<br /> editions of his works and letters appeared,<br /> and during April and May, hundreds and<br /> thousands of articles occupied pages of the Ger-<br /> man publications. Apparently there was not a<br /> single paper which did not devote a more or less<br /> long article to the great poet’s memory.<br /> <br /> The most noteworthy work was that published<br /> by the Goethe Society, which devoted Volume XX.<br /> of their splendid publications exclusively to the<br /> Manes of Schiller. This work contained a preface<br /> by Bernhard Suphan, Schiller’s last will, in his<br /> own handwriting, and his lyric play, “ Huldigung<br /> der Kiinste,” homage to the art ; then the mono-<br /> logue of Marfas from Demetrius, the last line<br /> written by Schiller, and at the end, the epilogue<br /> <br /> to the Bell, written by Goethe.<br /> <br /> 303<br /> <br /> _ The Kaiser, to the disappointment of his sub-<br /> jects, being in Strasburg during the Schiller<br /> Festival, did not take any part in the celebration,<br /> and thus missed an opportunity of making a<br /> speech ; but perhaps, on the whole, it was as well;<br /> for what has Schiller, the real Christian in his life,<br /> the idealist, in common with the present aggressive<br /> policy of Germany, the persecution of Poles, or the<br /> savage methods of repression permitted towards the<br /> negro population in German-African colonies ?<br /> <br /> As the Kaiser did not pose as the leading<br /> figure in the festivities, his part was eagerly taken<br /> and played by the King of Wurtemburg. He<br /> sent, as his representative, Major-General Albert<br /> von Pfister, to the United States, who, in the<br /> name of the king, presented a bust of Schiller<br /> to John Hopkins University in Baltimore, and<br /> also as representing the Schwabisch Schiller’s<br /> Society, took part in the festivities in Chicago.<br /> The King, with the Queen, have been present<br /> throughout the Festival in Stuttgart and Mar-<br /> bach, which commenced with the opening of<br /> the Schiller Exhibition on the 6th of May in<br /> Marbach, and the royal pair deposited a wreath<br /> before the monument of the poet. In Stuttgart,<br /> on the same day, the citizen society began their<br /> celebration, and on the 8th of May a splendid pro-<br /> cession of students with torches took place. On<br /> the 9th inst. all the church bells in Stuttgart and<br /> Wurtemburg were rung at the hour of the great<br /> poet’s death, and a long procession of the inhabi-<br /> tants, headed by the mayor of the city and various<br /> officials deposited a wreath; and speeches were<br /> delivered at public meetings where the memory<br /> of their great compatriot was commended. In the<br /> evening a gala performance was given in the Court<br /> Theatre, and illuminations of the royal castle and<br /> city, with bonfires on the surrounding mountain<br /> heights, turned night into day. The splendour of<br /> the Stuttgart festivities was only equalled in Ger-<br /> many by those displayed in Munich, where Prince<br /> <br /> ‘Louis Ferdinand and Prince Alphonse of Bavaria,<br /> <br /> with the Princesses, took an active part in them.<br /> In all other towns of Germany the day was<br /> observed with similar rejoicings, in which, with<br /> the exception of Baden, Hessen, Weimar and<br /> Anhalt, the rulers abstained from participating in<br /> them. The works of Schiller were distributed in<br /> all public schools throughout Germany to the<br /> children, with a few exceptions, as in Ravensburg,<br /> where the authorities gave sausages in place of<br /> books to the scholars; but in some towns, as in<br /> Eberfeld, the play, called “ The Robbers,” was cut<br /> out and suppressed, lest the influence of this work<br /> might be harmful to the children. In Berlin,<br /> according to Literarische Echo on the 9th May,<br /> on the place of Gendarmen Markt, Herr Studt<br /> the Gessler of academic liberty, deposited a wreath<br /> 304 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> before the Schiller monument, with the inscrip-<br /> tion, “The Prussian Minister of Education to the<br /> Poet of German Idealism.” For years there has<br /> existed in Germany a special money prize for the<br /> best dramatic work, which is named the Schiller<br /> Prize, and is awarded by the King of Prussia. In<br /> the days of Wilhelm I., the prize was awarded<br /> according to the opinion of selected judges, with-<br /> out any interference from royalty, and the decision<br /> was regarded as just ; but with the present Kaiser<br /> all this arrangement has been changed, and, as the<br /> authors and the public were not altogether satisfied<br /> with the judgment of the high protector of the<br /> drama, another subscription has been collected,<br /> and the People Schiller’s Prize was established.<br /> On the 7th May the prizes were distributed<br /> to Gerhart Hauptmann, for “ Rosa Bernd,” to<br /> Karl Hauptman, for “ Bergschmiede,” and Richard<br /> Beer-Hoffman, for “Count of Charolais ;” each<br /> competitor receiving, from the fund mentioned,<br /> 1,000 marks (German).<br /> <br /> With the name of Schiller is associated the fund<br /> to support the widows and families of German poets.<br /> This society was started in Dresden, October 8th,<br /> 1859; the initiation of the idea is due to Julius<br /> Hammer, who published an article in Dresden, in<br /> 1855 which was reprinted in other German papers,<br /> proposing the collection of money for a memorial<br /> inscription on a house in Lochwitz, near Dresden,<br /> where Schiller wrote his Don Carlos, the surplus<br /> of the money subscribed to form the nucleus of a<br /> fund to assist necessitous poets and their families.<br /> The association selected Weimar as its head-<br /> quarters, and the reigning Prince became its pro-<br /> tector. Now the association has twenty-eight<br /> committees in Germany and Austria, and a<br /> capital of 1,987,327 marks, and 239,551 Austrian<br /> crowns. During the past year, 60,000 marks were<br /> distributed among families and widows of poets.<br /> On the 9th May, the German Ladies’ Schiller’s<br /> Society added 250,000 marks to the funds of the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> Not only have festivities connected with the<br /> name of Schiller taken place in Germany, but<br /> also in the United States, where in many cities<br /> the German element is very strong. In Austria<br /> also, not only in Vienna but in the majority of<br /> towns of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; in<br /> Gmunden the Duke of Cumberland with his<br /> family attended the festival.<br /> <br /> Of course everywhere in Germany, Austria and<br /> even in Russia, during the month of May, Schiller’s<br /> dramas were produced, and it is a fact that outside<br /> Germany, Schiller’s plays are in many continental<br /> theatres on the list of their permanent repertoire<br /> with those of Shakespeare. In England, the late<br /> Wilson Barrett was the last to produce them, and<br /> during his management of the Court Theatre he<br /> <br /> adapted ‘‘ Kabale und liebe,”? and introduced it<br /> with success. I believe among others, Madame<br /> Modrzejewska, the great Polish actress appeared<br /> in Schiller’s plays as one of Wilson Barrett’s<br /> company before an English public. Yet, outside<br /> Germany, these plays can hardly be popular, some<br /> of them having a purely local interest, and others<br /> not appealing to the modern taste. Such plays as<br /> “The Robbers” would require an Irving to do<br /> them justice and in general a strong company to<br /> he properly produced, but these conditions granted,<br /> what a marvellous impression would this play<br /> produce, quite another Macbeth.<br /> <br /> Outside Germany, in the Italian Nuovo Autologia<br /> Guido Menascis wrote an excellent article on May<br /> Ist on Schiller. The Swedish and Norwegian press<br /> also devoted much space to the German Poet, but<br /> perhaps the best contribution was published in<br /> Stockholm from the pen of Oscar Levertin.<br /> <br /> In France more attention was paid to the great<br /> German’s memory than was expected. This<br /> can be accounted for by his defence of Jeanne<br /> d’Are, for which he was made an honorary citizen<br /> of Paris. Outside the excellent article by Maurice<br /> Moret in the Gaulois, there is a good contribution<br /> by Georges Goyou in the illustrated supplement<br /> of that paper. From the 7th May, we find many<br /> illustrations in relation to the life of Schiller.<br /> Paul Ginisty, director of the Odeon Theatre, writes<br /> in the Figaro on Schiller and the Weimar Theatre,<br /> and good. articles were in La Revue, Mercure de<br /> France, and many other papers.<br /> <br /> To those who may be interested in obtaining<br /> more details regarding the festival and Schiller’s<br /> recent literature, I may give the names of some<br /> publications where they will find a full report ; the<br /> Lnterarische Echo (Berlin), Leterarisches Central-<br /> Blatt, (Leipzig), Deutsche Literatur Zeitung (Berlin),<br /> and Oesterreichische Rundschau (Wien).<br /> <br /> Special numbers devoted to Schiller, were issued<br /> among others by Ueber Land und Meer (Stuttgart),<br /> <br /> ‘ Illustrierte Zeitung (Leipzig).<br /> <br /> Simplizissimus (X. 6.) finds an opportunity<br /> (thanks to Schiller) to write against the German<br /> authorities and to give an opinion on Schiller’s<br /> works by various celebrities as Bjornson, Max<br /> Halbe, etc. Even the monthly Uebersinnliche<br /> Welt, Berlin (XIII. 5.), devoted to occultism,<br /> finds something to say about Schiller.<br /> <br /> On the 29th of last April, the yearly meeting of<br /> the German Shakespearian Society took place in<br /> Weimar. Herr Hugo von Hofmannstahl read a<br /> paper on “Shakespeare King and Lords.” The<br /> members now number 560; the society awarded<br /> first prize in the competition on “The Stage<br /> Arrangement of Shakespeare’s Theatres” to a<br /> person who does not wish his name to be pub-<br /> lished ; the second prize to Dr. Phil. Bernhard<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Neuendorf, and honourable mention to Dr. Phil.<br /> Paul Moenkmeyer of Hanover.<br /> <br /> For the last few months no work of exceptional<br /> merit has been published in Germany; in fact<br /> except a few talented dramatic authors, Germany<br /> possesses neither poets of note or novelists; per-<br /> haps one of her best is Gabrielle Reuter, who under<br /> the title of “Wonderful Love” wrote a series of<br /> short stories, some of them really clever.<br /> <br /> English literature is represented by the “ Letters”<br /> of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “ Portu-<br /> guese Sonnets,” by the latter, and three volumes<br /> of other works also by Browning. Algernon<br /> Swinburne’s “ Poems,” George Moore’s ‘“ Earth<br /> and Heaven Love,” “Materials for Learning the<br /> Old English Drama,” 8th vol., “ Pendantius,” a<br /> Latin comedy formerly acted in Trinity College,<br /> Cambridge. 9th vol., Koeppel, “ Studies on<br /> Shakespeare’s Influence on Contemporary Dramatic<br /> Writers.” 10th vol., Ben Jonson’s “ Every Man<br /> in his Humour,” and a very interesting book by<br /> Karl Wenger, ‘ The Historic Romance of German<br /> Romantic Writers; or a Study on Sir Walter<br /> Scott’s Influence on German Authors.”<br /> <br /> The majority of the German Press has altogether<br /> forgotten that the 20th of May is the centenary<br /> anniversary of the birth of Georg Gottfried Ger-<br /> vinus, the father of German literary criticism and<br /> first historian of Literature.<br /> <br /> J. ALMAR,<br /> ——_————__——_+____-<br /> <br /> CONFESSIONS OF A BENEVOLENT AND<br /> HIGHMINDED SHARK.*<br /> <br /> oo<br /> <br /> HIS book has the double charm of infinite<br /> comedy and obvious authenticity. Most<br /> confessions are spurious. Blameless wives<br /> <br /> of country clergymen have a mania for writing<br /> memoirs of improper females: city missionaries<br /> write autobiographies of convicted cracksmen : the<br /> penitent forms of the Salvation Army are crowded<br /> with amiable creatures confessing the imaginary<br /> brutalities they did not commit before they were<br /> converted. Confessions, in short, as Dickens<br /> succinctly put it, are “all lies.” But this con-<br /> fession is genuine. The author is a real publisher<br /> from his bootsoles to his probably bald crown.<br /> There never was such a publishery publisher. The<br /> experienced author will read his book with many<br /> chuckles, and put it down without malice. The<br /> inexperienced author will learn from it exactly<br /> what he has to face when he meets that most dan-<br /> gerous of all publishers, the thoroughly respectable<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * “ A Publisher’s Confession.”<br /> Page &amp; Co. 1905.)<br /> <br /> (New York : Doubleday,<br /> <br /> 305<br /> <br /> Need I add that the confession is not a con-<br /> fession at all? It contains only one admission :<br /> that publishers do not know how to advertize, and<br /> can do nothing more for a book than the book can<br /> do for itself. This, so far as it is true (and it is<br /> not wholly nor exactly true) is so obvious that<br /> there is no merit in confessing it. And the rest of<br /> the book is quite the reverse of a confession. It<br /> is an advertisement, an apology (in the classical<br /> sense), occasionally almost a dithyramb ; and its<br /> tune throughout is the old tune “Wont you walk<br /> into my parlour ?”<br /> <br /> A few simple principles furnish our professing<br /> penitent with a solid moral basis. Of these the<br /> chief is that Nature ordains ten per cent. as the<br /> proper royalty for an author.* He makes no quali-<br /> fication as to the price of the book. It may be<br /> published at a shilling, or six shillings, or twelve<br /> shillings, or twenty-four. That does not matter.<br /> Nature does not fix the price of a book, though a<br /> dollar and a half is suggested as a desirable figure.<br /> She does fix the author’s percentage—at ten. ‘The<br /> penitent admits with shame that there are reckless<br /> publishers who offer more, and avaricious and<br /> shortsighted authors who are seduced by their<br /> offers. But bankruptcy awaits the former ; and<br /> remorse and ruin are the doom of the latter. The<br /> book itself must needs be starved by cheap manu-<br /> facture. The goose that lays the golden eggs (that<br /> is: the ten per cent. publisher) is slain by that<br /> thriftless and insatiable grasper, the twenty per<br /> cent. author.<br /> <br /> I shuddered as I read. For I too have a con-<br /> fession to make. I have not only exacted twenty<br /> per cent. royalties ; bat I have actually forced the<br /> unfortunate publisher to adorn the dollar-and-a-<br /> half book with photogravures. It is quite true<br /> that the particular publisher whom [ used thus<br /> barbarously actually did become bankrupt. But<br /> he broke, not because he paid too high royalties,<br /> but because his profits were so large that he<br /> acquired the habits of a Monte Cristo, and the<br /> ambitions of an Alexander. Jar be it from me to<br /> blame him or bear malice. I still believe in his<br /> star. Three or four more bankruptcies, and he<br /> will settle down and become a steady millionaire.<br /> <br /> But the exaction of twenty per cent. is not the<br /> blackest crime of which an author can be guilty.<br /> Our penitent is, in the main, kind to authors. I<br /> handsomely admit that authors are not angels—at<br /> least not all of them. Without going so far as to<br /> say that some authors are rascals,I yet believe that<br /> authors have been known to practise on the vanity,<br /> the credulity, the literary ignorance, and the business<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * This view is strenuously combated by theatrical<br /> managers, to whom the Voice of Nature whispers five<br /> per cent. as seemly and sufficient.<br /> 306<br /> <br /> flabbiness of publishers to get advances from<br /> them on books that remain unwritten to this day.<br /> Every season brings its budget of scamped, faked,<br /> and worthless books, feverishly pushed, to prove<br /> that those eminent and typical publishers, Alnaschar<br /> &amp; Co., have again had their belly filled with the<br /> east wind by some duffer whose pretensions would<br /> not take in an ordinarily sharp bookstall boy.<br /> There are authors who make the poor publisher<br /> pay through the nose for nothing but their names<br /> in his list. For all these deceits and failures and<br /> oppressions our penitent has -not a word of<br /> reproach. He forgives us everything, except<br /> DISLOYALTY. That is to him the one un-<br /> pardonable and abominable sin. Loyalty, loyalty,<br /> loyalty, is what he asks before everything. ‘To<br /> change your publisher is to become “a stray dog”<br /> —his own words, I assure you. To bite the hand<br /> that fed you ; to turn on the man who raised you<br /> from obscurity to publicity ; to prefer another’s<br /> twenty per cent. to his ten: this is human nature<br /> at its worst. The pages of the confession almost<br /> blush as they record the shameful fact that there<br /> are viper-authors who do this thing, and blackleg-<br /> publishers who tempt them to do it.<br /> <br /> Here is a powerful pen-picture of the polyec-<br /> dotous author. ‘That man now has books on<br /> five publishers’ lists. Not one of the publishers<br /> counts him as his particular client. In a sense his<br /> books are all neglected. One has never helped<br /> another. He has got no cumulative result of his<br /> work. He has become a sort of stray dog in the<br /> publishing world. He has cordial relations with<br /> no publisher ; and his literary product has really<br /> declined. He scattered his influence ; and he is<br /> paying the penalty.”<br /> <br /> What an awful warning !<br /> <br /> Yet, now that I cume to think of it, I have done<br /> this very thing my very self. Dare I add that I<br /> would do it again to-morrow without the slightest<br /> compunction if I thought I could better myself<br /> that way. My publisher’s consolation is that<br /> though I have no bowels, at least I do not pose as<br /> his benefactor, nor accuse him of disloyalty because<br /> he publishes books by other authors. Granted<br /> that an author with two or three publishers may<br /> seem (in America) as abandoned a creature as a<br /> woman with two or three husbands, what about a<br /> Solomonic publisher with half a hundred authors !<br /> <br /> “Every really successful publisher” says our<br /> penitent (who is rather given to dark hints that<br /> the other publishers are not all they seem), ‘could<br /> make more money by going into some other busi-<br /> ness. I think that there is not a man of them<br /> who could not greatly increase his income by giving<br /> the same energy and ability to the management of<br /> a bank, or of some sort of industrial enterprise.”<br /> May I point out that this is true not only of pub-<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> lishers but of all criminals, as many a judge has<br /> remarked before passing sentence. Whenever I<br /> meet a burglar, I always ask him why he runs such<br /> fearful risks, and performs such prodigies of skill<br /> and enterprise in opening other people’s safes,<br /> when he might turn publisher and be just as dis-<br /> honest and ten times as rich for half the trouble.<br /> As to authors, I never yet met an author who was<br /> not convinced that if he put into business half the<br /> talent and industry he puts into literature, he could<br /> in ten years time buy up the Steel Trust that<br /> bought up Mr. Carnegie.<br /> The truth is, I suspect, that a publisher is an<br /> [inte book fancier who cannot write, and an<br /> author is an infatuated book fancier who can. But<br /> the Confession does not urge this view, nor even<br /> mention it. According to it “from one point of<br /> view the publisher is a manufacturer and a sales-<br /> man. From another point of view he is the personal<br /> friend and sympathetic adviser of authors—a man<br /> who has a knowledge of literature and whose judg-<br /> ment is worth having.” Yes: I know that other<br /> point of view : the publisher&#039;s own point of view.<br /> I have had tons of his sympathetic advice ; and I<br /> owe all my literary success to the fact that I have<br /> known my own business well enough never to take<br /> it. Whenever a publisher gives me literary advice,<br /> I take an instant and hideous revenge on him. I<br /> give him business advice. I pose as an economist,<br /> a financier, and a man of affairs. I explain what<br /> I would do if I were a publisher ; and I urge him<br /> to double his profits by adopting my methods. I<br /> do so as his personal friend and wellwisher, as his<br /> patron, his counsellor, his guardian, his second<br /> father. I strive to purify the atmosphere from<br /> every taint of a “ degrading commercialism ” (that<br /> is how the Confession puts it), and to speak as man<br /> <br /> to man. And it always makes the stupid creature<br /> quite furious. Thus do men misunderstand one<br /> another. Thus will the amateur, to the end of the<br /> <br /> world, try to mix the paints of the professional.<br /> <br /> I think I will give up the attempt to review this<br /> book. I cannot stand its moral pose. If the man<br /> would write like a human being I could treat him<br /> as a human being. But when he keeps intoning<br /> a moral diapason to his bland and fatherly har-<br /> monies about the eternal fitness of his ten per cent.<br /> on six shillings ; his actuarial demonstrations that<br /> higher royalties must leave his children crying in<br /> vain to him for bread ; his loudly virtuous denun-<br /> ciation of the outside publisher who publishes at<br /> the author’s expense (compare this with his cautious<br /> avoidance of any mention of the commission system<br /> used by Ruskin, Spencer and all authors who can<br /> afford the advance of capital) ; his claim that all the<br /> losses caused by his endless errors of judgment are<br /> to be reckoned by authors as inevitable and legiti-<br /> mate expenses of his business; and his plea that:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> his authors should take him for better for worse<br /> until death do them part: all this provokes me so<br /> that it is hard for me to refrain from describing<br /> him to himself bluntly in terms of his own moral<br /> affectations. :<br /> However, I will be magnanimous, and content<br /> myself with the harmless remark that the writer<br /> of the Confession is a very typical publisher. Pub-<br /> lishers of a certain age always do go on exactly<br /> like that. The author’s business is not to mind<br /> them, and to be infinitely patient with their literary<br /> vanity, their business imbecility, their seignorial<br /> sentiments and tradesmanlike little grabbings and<br /> cheapenings, their immeasurable incompetence,<br /> their wounded recollections of Besant, their<br /> stupendously unreadable new book that is coming<br /> out the week after their timid refusal of the latest<br /> thing that does not reflect the chaos of secondhand<br /> impressions which they call their own minds ; and<br /> the dislike of steady industry, the love of gambling,<br /> the furtive Bohemianism that induced them to<br /> choose their strange and questionable occupation.<br /> As for me, all I ask on the royalty system at<br /> six shillings is a modest twenty per cent. or so, a<br /> three years’ trial, an agreement drafted by myself,<br /> and an unaffected bookseller. I dont want a<br /> compulsory partner for life. I dont want a<br /> patron. I[ dont want an amateur collaborator.<br /> I dont want a moralist. I dont want a Tele-<br /> machus. I dont want a pompous humbug, nor a<br /> pious humbug, nor a literary humbug. I can<br /> dispense with a restatement of the expenses, dis-<br /> appointments, trials, and ingratitudes that pave<br /> the publisher’s weary path to a destitute old age<br /> in a country house, with nothing to relieve its<br /> monotony but three horses, a Mercedes automobile,<br /> and a flat in London. I have heard it so often !<br /> I dont expect absolute truth, being myself a pro-<br /> fessional manufacturer of fiction : indeed I should<br /> not recognize perfect truth if it were offered to<br /> me. I dont demand entire honesty, being only<br /> moderately honest myself. What I want is a<br /> businesslike gambler in books, who will give me<br /> the market odds when we bet on the success of my<br /> latest work. No doubt this is a matter of individual<br /> taste. _ Some authors like the bland and baldheaded<br /> commercial Meecenas who loathes a degraded com-<br /> mercialism ; tenders a helping hand to the young ;<br /> and is happy if he can give an impulse to the<br /> march of humanity. I can only say that these<br /> benefactors do not seem to get on with me. They<br /> are too sensitive, too thinskinned, too unpractical<br /> forme. The moment they discover that I am a<br /> capable man of business they retreat, chilled and<br /> disillusioned. Not long ago one of these affec-<br /> tionate friends of struggling authors, representing<br /> a first-class American firm, proposed to bind me<br /> to him for life, not by the ties of reciprocal esteem,<br /> <br /> 307<br /> <br /> but by legal contract. Naturally I said, “Sup-<br /> pose you go mad! Suppose you take to drink!<br /> Suppose you make a mess of my business!” The<br /> wounded dignity and forgiving sweetness with<br /> which he retired, remarking that it would be<br /> better for the permanence of our agreeable rela-<br /> tions if we let the matter drop, are among my<br /> most cherished recollections.<br /> <br /> _ I hope I have not conveyed an unfavorable<br /> impression of what is—to an author at least—<br /> quite a readable, and not an unamiable little book.<br /> There are scraps of good sense and even of real as<br /> distinguished from merely intended candor in it,<br /> mixed up with some frightful nonsense about<br /> ‘literary ” books, our penitent being firmly per-<br /> suaded, like most publishers, that a really literary<br /> book is one in which the word “singularly” occurs<br /> in every third line, and in which “I dont know<br /> where he went to” is always written ‘“‘ I know not<br /> whither he is gone.” But perhaps the best feature<br /> of the little book is the testimony it bears between<br /> the lines to the continued and urgent need for an<br /> Authors’ Society.<br /> <br /> G. BERNARD SHAW.<br /> <br /> eg as<br /> <br /> THE RHYMER’S LEXICON.*<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> E have much pleasure in extending to<br /> Mr. Loring’s ‘“ Rhymer’s Lexicon” a<br /> <br /> hearty and unqualified welcome. This<br /> is a work for which we have been hoping, and<br /> looking in vain, for many years, and one whose<br /> solid value will be at once apparent to all who<br /> rightly understand the need which it is intended<br /> to meet.<br /> <br /> Whilst saying this we are not oblivious of the<br /> ridicule usually bestowed upon rhyming diction-<br /> aries, and upon those whd are bold enough to<br /> assert that they consider them useful. But we have<br /> the courage of our opinions, and are fully prepared<br /> to be laughed at—by those who have bestowed less<br /> consideration upon the questions involved. In the<br /> first place, be it remarked, that no one knows<br /> who has used a rhyming lexicon and who has not ;<br /> and next that the Abbé du Bos was probably not<br /> very far wrong when he replied to the satires on<br /> Richelet’s “ Dictionnaire des Rhymes,” “ quoiqu’<br /> ils en disent ils ont tous ce livre dans leurs arricre<br /> cabinet.” But apart from all that, the serious<br /> defence of works of this class is a simple<br /> <br /> * “The Rhymer’s Lexicon,” compiled and edited by<br /> Andrew Loring, with an introduction by George Saints-<br /> bury. London: George Routledge and Sons; New York:<br /> E. P. Dutton &amp; Co. 1904. 8s.<br /> <br /> <br /> matter. The universal testimony of poets pro-<br /> claims the immense assistance to composition<br /> <br /> afforded by rhyme, howsoever much rhyme may<br /> embarrass the tyro and the amateur. It is easy to<br /> see that the essence of this assistance lies in the<br /> suggestion of the rhymed and rhyming words.<br /> But to profit by this suggestion the words must<br /> be familiar to the writer. An unfamiliar word<br /> will not spring forth spontaneously in the heat of<br /> composition, nor one unknown present itself at all.<br /> Indeed, few phenomena of versification are more<br /> curious than the manner in which certain poets<br /> (and those not always poets of small reputation)<br /> are held in bondage by their habitual rhymes.<br /> Emancipation from such chains cannot be, how-<br /> ever, without familiarity with all the terminals,<br /> and with all the words that furnish a given termi-<br /> nation. And it is, to say the least, difficult to see<br /> how this familiarity is to be gained without a<br /> study of the various groups of rhyming words.<br /> But as soon as these groups are presented, they<br /> constitute a rhyming lexicon. No doubt the<br /> beginner takes up the book because he needs some<br /> mechanical aid that may eke out his own incom-<br /> petence. And the poet disregards it, because he is<br /> already master of more than the book can furnish.<br /> But the most accomplished was also at one time a<br /> beginner, and has passed through a stage when<br /> valuable assistance would have been afforded him<br /> by some analytical conspectus of the various<br /> groups of rhyming words. The contempt bestowed<br /> upon rhyming lexicons has always appeared to<br /> us indistinguishable from contempt of other<br /> mechanical aids to the acquisition of knowledge.<br /> Virgil and Horace undoubtedly learned Greek, and<br /> knew it uncommonly well, without the assistance<br /> of an adequate lexicon. But that is hardly a<br /> reason why anyone desirous of mastering the<br /> language should decline to make use of a<br /> dictionary.<br /> <br /> The difficulties involved in the compilation of<br /> an English rhyming lexicon will hardly be appre-<br /> ciated by those who have never bestowed any<br /> consideration upon the problems involved; the<br /> almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of any<br /> rational and lucid order, occasioned by the caprices<br /> of English orthography, and the hardly easier<br /> task of finding the way between the Scylla of<br /> inadequacy, and the Charybdis of columns of<br /> useless words.<br /> <br /> It was on the former obstacle—the orthography<br /> —that Walker made shipwreck. The imperfec-<br /> tions of his work are so familiar that it would be<br /> invidious to recall attention to them here. And it<br /> is pleasanter to dwell upon points too often over-<br /> looked. “The Rhyming Dictionary of the English<br /> Language,” a monument of herculean labour and<br /> perseverance, is a rough clearing of a jungle of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> perplexities, which has after all done more than any-<br /> thing else to render the rhyming capacities of the<br /> language intelligible. And in principle Walker<br /> was on the right track. Had the orthography of<br /> the language been phonetic he would have produced<br /> a work in which every single word would have<br /> been presented accompanied by its rhymes of<br /> whatsoever kind, strong, weak, single, double,<br /> triple, or more, and that in the most conyenient<br /> order, and with the clearest definition. But the<br /> orthography being hopelessly erratic, “believe,”<br /> “conceive” and “weave ””—“few” and “sue”<br /> were flung far apart; and the “Index of Perfect<br /> Rhymes,” which stands at the end of the book asa<br /> kind of appendix, has been naturally left imperfect,<br /> seeing that to perfect it would mean to present all<br /> the words a second time. But Walker had seen<br /> so clearly what many of the needs of a rhyming<br /> dictionary are, that to follow him is often safer<br /> than to strike out a new line.<br /> <br /> Walker’s system was the simple one of arranging<br /> the words in inverse alphabetical order, beginning<br /> with the last letter and reading backwards, commenc-<br /> ing “a,” “baa,” “ abba,” instead of “a,” “ aaronic,”<br /> “aback.” The labour of arrangement must have<br /> been immense. But, as the words above mentioned<br /> show, the orthography rendered the result, for<br /> rhyming purposes, most inadequate. To elaborate<br /> other systems, that will bring together all the<br /> words that rhyme is neither easy nor impossible.<br /> (And any system would probably appear lucid to<br /> the man who had bestowed upon it the labour<br /> necessary to bring it to perfection.) But it is<br /> absolutely impossible to invent a system against<br /> which well-founded charges of confusedness cannot<br /> be brought. The critic who desires to make merry<br /> over an English Rhyming Dictionary shall always<br /> have as wide a field for his sarcasm as his heart<br /> can desire—that is the destructive critic. The<br /> critic who would propose something that shall<br /> ameliorate the book will probably discover that<br /> his suggestions, if carried into execution, would,<br /> whilst they remedied certain very patent imperfec-<br /> tions, simultaneously produce an ample crop of new<br /> inconveniences, and those possibly worse than what<br /> they were intended to cure. This is perhaps the<br /> reason why so long a time has elapsed without any<br /> work having appeared that represents any real<br /> advance beyond what had been done by Walker.<br /> Perhaps one and another enterprising spirit has<br /> tried one or another of the few rational systems of<br /> arrangement possible, and perceiving that to avoid<br /> confusion, whether in one way or another was out<br /> of the question, has thrown up the task in despair.<br /> For at least so far as we know nothing has been<br /> attempted that amounts to any more than an<br /> enlargement of Walker’s “ Index.”<br /> <br /> Happily at last Mr. Loring has boldly taken one<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> of the possible systems (and, in our opinion, the<br /> actually best of them) and has resolutely carried it<br /> through. We doubt whether the author himself<br /> realises how great a work he has accomplished.<br /> For in a task of this kind, ‘“‘ I] n’y a que le premier<br /> pas qui cotite.” When once the onerous enterprise<br /> of getting the mass of words into a certain order has<br /> been accomplished, subsequent amplification and<br /> elaboration are easy: and we wish Mr. Loring<br /> many future editions. The system adopted is a<br /> classification of the rhymes in alphabetical order,<br /> but in groups under the characteristic vowel, a, 4;<br /> e,%; etc. Mr. Loring distinguishes thus fourteen<br /> vowel sounds (explaining what he has done with<br /> the rarer additional ones), and then in the three<br /> parts of his work presents the single (oxytone),<br /> double or feminine (paroxytone), and_ treble<br /> (proparoxytone) rhymes belonging to each of the<br /> fourteen groups. It will be seen at once how far<br /> he has gone in advance of any previous compiler,<br /> if only in dealing with the double and triple<br /> rhymes. With the characteristic vowel for guide,<br /> to find any word is an easy task. In fact the<br /> <br /> problem of discovering the requisite word (one of<br /> the difficulties of any lexicon in which the words<br /> are arranged in classes) is completely solved. And<br /> the word being found, all the others that rhyme<br /> with it are in immediate juxtaposition. The words<br /> are ranged in columns, an assistance to the eye of<br /> <br /> the very greatest value.<br /> <br /> In collecting words Mr. Loring has spread out<br /> his net somewhat widely, but we think that here<br /> also he has been well advised. The lyric poet will<br /> no doubt find much that he will justly consider<br /> rubbish. If necessary he has only to draw his<br /> pen across what he considers useless. But a<br /> rhyming lexicon must be for all, and must cater as<br /> well for the needs of the satirist and the comic<br /> versifier, as for those of the troubadour and the<br /> tragedian.<br /> <br /> In venturing to make a few suggestions, we feel<br /> that the author has possibly already considered the<br /> points which we shall mention, and has arrived at<br /> a conclusion different from our own. If so, we<br /> would yet plead for a reconsideration of one or<br /> two particulars in which it seems to us that the<br /> author might in a future edition add to the value<br /> of his work. We think that different words that<br /> happen to be identical in form should be differen-<br /> tiated. Thus, for example, we find “lay ” standing<br /> alone to represent “to lay,” “he lay,” “lay” (a<br /> song), “lay” (direction), and “lay” (adjective,<br /> belonging to the laity). That all these furnish<br /> but one rhyme is true. But does the one group of<br /> letters, “lay,” sufficiently suggest all the words ?<br /> We doubt it. Inside each group the words are<br /> arranged in the ordinary alphabetical order,<br /> beginning with the first letter. This certainly<br /> <br /> 309<br /> <br /> renders addition easy. But it puts verbs and their<br /> compounds far apart, and does not keep identical<br /> terminations (which do not rhyme) together.<br /> Would not Walker’s inverse order have remedied<br /> both these things? ‘Taking a small group, the<br /> two arrangements work out thus :—<br /> Loring’s System. Walker’s System.<br /> asp<br /> gasp<br /> hasp<br /> clasp |<br /> enclasp<br /> unclasp |<br /> rasp<br /> grasp<br /> engrasp<br /> <br /> asp<br /> <br /> clasp<br /> <br /> enclasp<br /> <br /> engrasp<br /> <br /> gasp<br /> <br /> grasp<br /> <br /> hasp<br /> <br /> rasp<br /> <br /> unclasp<br /> <br /> Here Walker’s system immediately shows that<br /> <br /> though there are nine words there are only five<br /> <br /> rhymes, it also sets side by side verbs and their<br /> <br /> compounds. When the group is large and the<br /> <br /> orthography erratic there is certainly considerable<br /> <br /> difficulty involved in arranging the words in<br /> <br /> Walker’s inverted order, but we believe that it is<br /> <br /> the consonant preceding the rhyme and not the con-<br /> <br /> sonant commencing the word, that should rule the<br /> <br /> group. And we wish that the author had not been<br /> <br /> quite so modest in his preface, and had given us a<br /> <br /> little more of the results of the conclusions at<br /> <br /> which he must have arrived on many difficult points<br /> whilst engaged in this intricate labour.<br /> <br /> But with so much to praise and so much for<br /> which to be sincerely grateful, we are far from<br /> wishing to lay stress upon our own views respect-<br /> ing details. Mr. Loring has produced a Rhyming<br /> Lexicon immensely in advance of anything of the<br /> kind that has hitherto existed in English. We<br /> can unhesitatingly recommend his book, and we do<br /> recommend a serious study of it. It is a work<br /> that should be in the hands of. everyone who<br /> desires to have a clear apprehension of the rhyming<br /> capacities of the English tongue : that is to say, of<br /> everyone who writes or desires to write verse.<br /> Unless we are very much mistaken it not only<br /> ought to be, but very soon will be in every versifier’s<br /> library: for no compendium of English rhyme<br /> hitherto published approaches anywhere near the<br /> lucidity and comprehensiveness of “ ‘The Rhymer’s<br /> Lexicon.”<br /> <br /> —_——_————__1—__+—__<br /> <br /> THE COLLABORATION.<br /> <br /> ++ —<br /> <br /> T’ one time, not so very long since, I used<br /> A frequently to meet Matheson at the club.<br /> He struck me as a pleasant sort of fellow<br /> enough, and from exchanging a few remarks about<br /> the weather, to which he replied in a less banal<br /> <br /> <br /> 310<br /> <br /> manner than common, I had begun to conceive<br /> quite a high opinion of his ability. Soon we got<br /> to talk freely on subjects of a greater intrinsic<br /> interest, such as literature, and he let drop one<br /> day, in a casual fashion, the remark that he had read,<br /> and admired, my last book. In those days, such a<br /> statement meant a good deal to me. I admit that<br /> I was pleased with the man, and confirmed in my<br /> estimate of his talents. I think it possible now<br /> that he had merely read some reviews of it, for I<br /> recollect that he displayed a little uneasiness when<br /> I referred to one or two incidents in it that I<br /> thought might have impressed him favourably.<br /> However, at the time no such fancy entered my<br /> mind—my temperament is naturally averse trom<br /> suspicion—and when, one day, Matheson sug-<br /> gested that we should collaborate in a work of<br /> fiction, I assented readily. I had always rather<br /> liked the idea of collaboration : it seemed to me<br /> that a good deal of the preliminary labour of con-<br /> struction (to which I have a rooted antipathy)<br /> could in this method be settled with a minimum of<br /> personal effort. Instead of sitting down to a<br /> month’s hard thinking—a process that goes near<br /> reducing me to a skeleton—I saw myself talking<br /> things over amicably with Matheson, and in a few<br /> conversations arranging the whole matter to our<br /> mutual satisfaction. Frankly, ideas come to me<br /> with a wonderful freedom when I happen to be in<br /> the society of a congenial spirit: alone, in the<br /> solitude of my study, I am too ready, perhaps, to<br /> fall into trains of thought unconnected with the<br /> subject in hand. And, besides, Matheson was in-<br /> experienced in writing: it would be my part to<br /> revise the text and throw it into literary form ;<br /> surely it was only natural to suppose that he would<br /> cheerfully undertake the task of supplying raw<br /> material for the plot.<br /> <br /> I will do Matheson the justice to allow that he<br /> saw this as soon as I represented it to him. He<br /> was quite humble, and expressed himself as only too<br /> delighted to take any part of the work that I might<br /> suggest. I confess that I was pleased at the way<br /> in which he spoke of the honour of being asso-<br /> ciated with me, for mine was never one of those<br /> hard-headed, matter-of-fact natures that profess a<br /> distaste for flattery. And certainly Matheson had<br /> a facility in devising unusual incidents. We dis-<br /> cussed our plot almost daily for about a week—<br /> generally in the billiard room, which was not being<br /> much used at that time—and I have seldom en-<br /> joyed a week more thoroughly. Our meetings<br /> were always hilarious, for Matheson’s extraordinary<br /> schemes had their comical side, and at the same<br /> time, even while laughing over some preposterous<br /> suggestion of his, we had the pleasing sensation of<br /> being at work upon something definite. I dislike<br /> above all things feeling that I am wasting my time.<br /> <br /> TAE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> At last, however, everything was atranged, and<br /> it was decided that we should begin work imme-<br /> diately on the actual writing. Hitherto I have<br /> always shrunk from sitting down to a full-blown<br /> novel: the length of the task before me has a<br /> <br /> _ terrifying effect, and I can never work with convic-<br /> <br /> tion until I see the end in sight. Consequently<br /> the few attempts I have made at novel-writing<br /> have generally ended abruptly: I have gone on<br /> until I was tired of my puppets, and then dropped<br /> them, with the result of producing an amorphous<br /> tale, not long enough for a novel and too long for<br /> a short story. But, with a collaborator, I flattered<br /> myself things would be much easier, and especially if<br /> we arranged to write alternate chapters. A single<br /> chapter at a time I could manage as well as any<br /> novelist living : it was the deadening thought of<br /> having to continue indefinitely that paralyzed me<br /> when working alone. It was settled then that<br /> Matheson should send the initial chapter on to me<br /> as soon as he could get it done, and that I should<br /> reply, so to speak, with number two. It bade fair<br /> to be as easy a game as writing letters: we ought,<br /> at least, to do two chapters a week by this method<br /> without feeling it ; and I saw the whole thing com-<br /> pleted, in my mind’s eye, in something less than<br /> four months.<br /> <br /> I will concede, if you like, that I took my part<br /> of the work easily enough. Matheson was the<br /> younger man of the two, and the plot was his own<br /> —a double reason why he should work it out in<br /> his own manner. Besides, incident has never been<br /> my strong point ; I was always best—so my friends<br /> told me—at digression. I saw an opportunity here<br /> to brighten my collaborator’s steady, plodding style<br /> of narration with alternate chapters on things in<br /> general. Of course, I utilised his characters.<br /> Some of them I elaborated considerably, infusing<br /> life and vigour into their somewhat wooden limbs,<br /> differentiating them—they were all rather alike at<br /> starting—with a thousand quaint touches and deli-<br /> cate sidelights. As time went on, I got quite<br /> interested in the book, but I noticed that Matheson<br /> grew more and more reserved in his manner<br /> towards me. I see now that this was the result of<br /> an uneasy conscience. He was even then consider-<br /> ing the dastardly action that has dissolved our<br /> friendship. At the time I attributed his gloom to<br /> indigestion.<br /> <br /> The work progressed quickly, but the end did<br /> not come quite so readily as might have been<br /> expected. In fact, I left it very much to Matheson<br /> to develop his climax: I enjoyed my part of the<br /> writing very well, and was in no particular hurry<br /> to bring it to aconclusion. It rather amused me than<br /> otherwise to watch Matheson’s efforts to bring on his<br /> closing scene. In consequence of this, the book ran<br /> eventually to no inconsiderable length—something ©<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> like a hundred and fifty thousand words, I should<br /> say. However, it was finished at last, and I proposed<br /> to Matheson that we should entrust the manuscript<br /> to a certain publisher with whom I had had deal-<br /> ings before. Matheson seemed doubtful ; he hinted<br /> at the necessity of careful revision, and finally went<br /> off with the copy (as he said) to weld the whole<br /> together more effectually. I saw no more of him<br /> for a considerable time. When we did meet, and<br /> I tackled him on the subject, he seemed strangely<br /> nervous and ill at ease. He hinted vaguely at a<br /> want of homogeneity about the book, at the differ-<br /> ence between our styles, and so forth. I thought<br /> he was suffering from a sense of his own inferiority<br /> and endeavoured to console him.<br /> <br /> “My dear fellow,” I remember saying, “you<br /> really write very passable English. Of course, in<br /> your part—the narrative part—one does not expect<br /> to find that style which is proper to general<br /> reflections. Frankly, I think that your somewhat<br /> severe simplicity is an admirable foil to my own<br /> more ornamental method.” And I went on<br /> explaining my meaning to him at some length,<br /> until he seemed satisfied. This was just before my<br /> summer holiday. We went abroad, and circum-<br /> stances compelled me to remain away from town<br /> the best part of a year. I wrote occasionally to<br /> Matheson, offering suggestions, but received no<br /> reply. The man had not the courage to tell me<br /> what he was about to do. It was not until I<br /> returned to the club that I discovered the extent<br /> of his villainy. A parcel was awaiting me, addressed<br /> in his handwriting. I opened it, half expecting<br /> to find the first proofs of our joint effort. It con-<br /> tained, instead, the manuscript of my own chapters,<br /> and a short letter. Some friend, said Matheson,<br /> had advised him that the book, as it stood, was in<br /> reality two books—a story and a collection of<br /> essays founded upon the story. A publisher had<br /> offered him a certain sum for the story part, and he<br /> had closed with the offer. Perhaps I might like to<br /> do the same with my essays !<br /> <br /> Matheson’s book has not yet appeared, but I live<br /> in hope that I may get it for review. He has left<br /> the club.<br /> <br /> E. H. Lacon Watson.<br /> <br /> —_—_—_—__—_—_—___¢—______<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> 9<br /> <br /> THe PRINCIPLES OF COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> Sir,—The recent action of the music-publishers<br /> having raised certain issues in connection with<br /> copyright, in respect of which they ask for pro-<br /> tective legislation (after drawing attention to their<br /> “rights” by what looks very like an abuse of<br /> <br /> 311<br /> <br /> power), perhaps you will kindly allow me to<br /> exhibit the matter in a light somewhat drier than<br /> is usual in the pages of newspapers.<br /> <br /> 1. Copyright, being a monopoly, is, as such,<br /> properly subject to regulation by law for the public<br /> benefit. It is not for the public benefit that<br /> worthy authors should be discouraged ; nor is it<br /> for the benefit of authors that the public should<br /> be discouraged.<br /> <br /> 2. Copyright differs from patent-right in being<br /> self-conferred, in undergoing no test, and in the<br /> length of time it endures. It resembles patent-<br /> right in being valuable according to its suitability<br /> to the public requirements. ;<br /> <br /> 3. Copyright has been declared (by an eminent<br /> novelist) to be a ‘‘natural” right. But if a book<br /> fall flat, so that booksellers will not give it place<br /> on their shelves, of what value is the copyright ?<br /> Landor’s “ Pentameron” was such a book. And<br /> from this we see that the value of copyright<br /> depends on public opinion.<br /> <br /> 4, A book published to sell at (say) 4s. 6d. may<br /> be desired by members of the public who can only<br /> afford 1s. Nevertheless, the publisher will, in<br /> most cases, continue to maintain the higher price<br /> (on which his proportion of profit is much greater),<br /> because he fears that many who now pay 4s. 6d.<br /> would otherwise pay ls., and that the extra sales<br /> at 1s. will not make up the difference lost. That<br /> the well-to-do purchaser of the cheap edition might<br /> buy some three or four other books would not<br /> console the publisher of the favourite one. Look-<br /> ing a little further, we see that publishing would<br /> be somewhat more hazardous if cheap editions<br /> were a matter of course in certain cases, because<br /> the publisher’s judgment would have to he exer-<br /> cised as to which should be published ab inito at<br /> a low price, and which not. Obviously, books of<br /> a less finished or rough and ready diction should<br /> only properly be sold at popular prices; then<br /> competing, greatly to the public advantage, with<br /> the deleterious penny “novelette.”” As matters<br /> stand, the producers of the inferior kinds of litera-<br /> ture proper have a great advantage in respect of<br /> pecuniary profit, for those members of the public<br /> who are fond of such will buy even at the higher<br /> price. In fact, the price should be according to<br /> the quality.<br /> <br /> 5. Up to the present the tendency of all copy-<br /> right legislation has been to favour the inferior<br /> author unduly (and therefore, to a much greater<br /> extent, the publisher), and the reluctance of the<br /> Legislature has been caused by their not seeing<br /> their way quite clearly. The correct principles<br /> seem to be:<br /> <br /> (a) That so long as a work remains in manu-<br /> script it is private property, but as soon as it is<br /> published it becomes also public property and<br /> 312<br /> <br /> subject to the demands of the public, so far as it is<br /> worth anyone’s while to supply them. On the<br /> other hand, an author’s name or pseudonym is<br /> always his private property, and cannot properly<br /> be affixed to any publication without his consent.<br /> Other infringements of the author’s (common-<br /> law ?) rights are, to affix another name, pseudonym<br /> or initials to his work, and to publish under the<br /> same title a different work or defective copy.<br /> <br /> (6) Printed or other copies are the private pro-<br /> perty of either printer or purchaser, and it would<br /> seem that the wisdom of Parliament was seriously<br /> misled when it authorised the seizure and destruc-<br /> tion of such copies.<br /> <br /> (c) In equity, any one may print and offer to<br /> the public at any price he thinks proper any number<br /> of copies of a publication not bearing the author’s<br /> name or pseudonym ; but he must be prepared to<br /> prove that he sells them at a profit on the cost of<br /> production, without advertisements.<br /> <br /> (d@) The use of the author’s name or pseudonym<br /> should be a legal right on prepayment to the author<br /> or his assignees of a percentage (fixed by law) on<br /> the selling price of the number printed.<br /> <br /> (e) Printers should be prohibited from printing<br /> works bearing an author’s name, unless authorised<br /> by his counter-signature of the order, the genuine-<br /> ness of which they should be bound to ascertain.<br /> They should also be obliged to furnish exact quan-<br /> tities and descriptions to the author, on taking the<br /> work in hand.<br /> <br /> (f) It should be forbidden to offer for sale any<br /> copy bearing the author’s name unless the same<br /> also bear his private mark or monogram. He<br /> must also have the right to inspect the printer’s<br /> books.<br /> <br /> The result of an Act on these lines would be<br /> the solution of the American and Colonial diffi-<br /> culty ; the stoppage of “ piracy” (for the public<br /> would be very shy of buying or using nameless<br /> copies); and generally to place publishing on a<br /> footing precisely similar to the “ dry-goods” and other<br /> businesses. Authors need be under no apprehension<br /> as to not getting their works published. Printers<br /> would be responsible for the proper filling up of<br /> the title-page of works published without an<br /> author’s name. Publishers on their side would<br /> still have the advantage of priority and of those<br /> very numerous works which the libraries take, but<br /> which never become popular enough for cheap<br /> editions. In fact, the cheap edition from the<br /> beginning would only be issued on the strength<br /> of the judgment of an outsider, who might very<br /> possibly “ burn his fingers.” Short stories, articles<br /> and serials would be protected by (a).<br /> <br /> Such seems to be the correct basis for final copy-<br /> right legislation. Composers of course have, in<br /> addition, the advantage of performing rights, for<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> which, however, they will not find it to their<br /> interest to charge too highly.<br /> I an, Sir, yours faithfully<br /> (an old friend in fact),<br /> _Pro Bono Pusuico.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> Tue following letter has been sent us with<br /> reference to a statement made by the author of<br /> thé article in our last issue, “A New Market for<br /> English Books and Editions ” :—<br /> <br /> “Why have you not mentioned “ Watkin’s<br /> English Bookshop,” Bolshaya Mosskaya, St. Peters-<br /> burg? It has been a flourishing and almost<br /> indispensable institution the twenty-five years I<br /> have known St. Petersburg, and probably much<br /> longer. Also, as one who has had actual experience<br /> of advertising in Russia, I found the returns from<br /> the Novoe Vremye and the Niva better than from<br /> any, or all, the publications you name.”<br /> <br /> We have much pleasure in printing the reply<br /> from the writer of the article :—<br /> <br /> “ Notwithstanding the fact that I have been in<br /> St. Petersburg very often, although while acting<br /> as correspondent I chiefly lived in South Russia<br /> or Warsaw, I am sorry to say I did not know of<br /> the existence of an English bookshop in St.<br /> Petersburg. The prices I quoted were from the<br /> catalogues of Messrs. M. O. Wolf, Ltd., similar to<br /> those of Kimmel in Riga, and Rousseau in Odessa.<br /> Idzikowski in Kief. All the Warsaw booksellers,<br /> issue the same catalogue, only with different<br /> headings.<br /> <br /> “As to returns from advertisements, as I am<br /> not myself in the trade, I cannot give facts from<br /> personal knowledge. The sale of the Novoe<br /> Vremya is not so large as it was, owing to the<br /> competition of liberal papers, especially the Russ,<br /> founded by the son of the publisher of the above<br /> named paper. Novy Mir, being the Russian<br /> Graphic, may be found in all aristocratic houses,<br /> that is among the class where buyers of English<br /> books are found. The Miva, which has perhaps<br /> the largest sale among Russian weeklies, is not<br /> suitable, as I think, for such an advertisement. It<br /> is read principally by the middle class and minor<br /> Government officials, who are not likely to buy<br /> English books ; but it might be a good advertising<br /> medium for the general trade. St. Pelersburgskye<br /> Vedomosty is read by the Tsar and the Russian<br /> upper class. All other papers are Polish, and<br /> represent 87,000 of the best Polish reading public<br /> which never reads either of the two Russian papers<br /> mentioned above.<br /> <br /> “ Advertisements of French publications appear<br /> in all the papers I have mentioned.”	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/507/1905-07-01-The-Author-15-10.pdf	publications, The Author