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514	https://historysoa.com/items/show/514	The Author, Vol. 16 Issue 06 (March 1906)	<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.+16+Issue+06+%28March+1906%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 16 Issue 06 (March 1906)</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>	1906-03-01-The-Author-16-6					161–188																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=16">16</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1906-03-01">1906-03-01</a>							6			19060301	FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> Che HMutbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Vou. XVI.—No. 6.<br /> <br /> [PRIcE SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER :<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> ————————————<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> OR the opinions expressed in papers that are<br /> signed or initialled the authors alone are<br /> responsible. None of the papers or para-<br /> <br /> graphs must be taken as expressing the epinion<br /> of the Committee unless such is especially stated<br /> to be the case.<br /> <br /> Tur Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of 7he 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 /> oo<br /> <br /> List of Members.<br /> <br /> Tur List of Members of the Society of Authors<br /> published October, 1902, at the price of 6d., and<br /> the elections from October, 1902, to July, 1903, as<br /> a supplemental list, at the price of 2d., can now be<br /> obtained at the offices of the Society.<br /> <br /> They will be sold to members or associates of<br /> the Society only.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> The Pension Fund of the Society.<br /> <br /> Tux 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 /> chased £200 Egyptian Government Irrigation<br /> Trust 4 per cent. Certificates, bringing the invest-<br /> ments of the fund to the figures set out below.<br /> <br /> Vou. XVI.<br /> <br /> Marc# Ist, 1906.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> This is a statement of the actual stock; the<br /> money value can be easily worked out at the current<br /> price of the market :—<br /> <br /> Console 24 % ee. £1000 0 0<br /> <br /> Diocal loans «242.202... es 500 0 0<br /> Victorian Government 3 % Consoli-<br /> <br /> dated Inscribed Stock ............... 291 19 Il<br /> <br /> War lo06n 2. 201. 9 8<br /> London and North Western 3 % Deben-<br /> <br /> ture SLOCK =... 250 0 0<br /> Egyptian Government Irrigation<br /> <br /> Tirnst 4 % Certificates ............--- 200 0 0<br /> <br /> Tid £2,448 9 2<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> Subscriptions, 1905. £ 8. a.<br /> <br /> July 13, Dunsany, the Right Hon. the<br /> <br /> Lord : : : : 0 5 0<br /> Oct. 12, Halford, F. M. 0 5 0<br /> Oct. 12, Thorburn, W. M. 010 0<br /> Nov. 9, “ Francis Daveen’’. 0 5 0<br /> Noy. 9, Adair, Joseph Lt 8<br /> Nov. 21, Thurston, Mrs. lo<br /> Dec. 18, Browne, F. M. 0 5 0<br /> <br /> Donations, 1905.<br /> <br /> Noy. 6, Reynolds, Mrs. Fred.<br /> Nov. 9, Wingfield, H.<br /> Nov. 17, Nash, T. A. .<br /> Dec. 1, Gibbs, F. L. A.<br /> Dec. 6, Finch, Madame<br /> Dec. 15, Egbert, Henry<br /> Dee. 15, Muir, Ward ;<br /> Dec. 15, Sherwood, Mrs. A. .<br /> Dec. 18, Sheppard, A. T.<br /> Dec. 18, 8. F. G. :<br /> 1906.<br /> Jan. 2, Jacobs, W. W. ‘ : :<br /> Jan. 6, Wilkins, W. H. (Legacy) .5<br /> Jan. 10, Middlemas, Commander A. C.<br /> Feb. 5, Roe, Mrs. Harcourt<br /> Feb. 5, Yeats, Jack B. :<br /> Feb. 12, White, Mrs. Caroline<br /> Feb. 13, Bolton, Miss Anna<br /> <br /> cococrorocorFCOrF<br /> on<br /> <br /> —<br /> o<br /> eocoooccooeo SCMWOCOTRMRWMOMWS<br /> <br /> cooooeon<br /> on<br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> COMMITTEE NOTES.<br /> <br /> — 1 —<br /> <br /> HE February meeting of the managing com-<br /> mittee of the society was held on Monday,<br /> the 5th, at 4 p.m., at the offices of the<br /> <br /> society. After the minutes had been read and<br /> signed, the committee proceeded to elect those<br /> who had submitted their names for membership<br /> and associateship. Eighteen were elected, making<br /> the total for the current year forty-two. So far<br /> the number of elections is well maintained. Sir<br /> Henry Bergne and Mr. A. W. a Beckett, who<br /> respectively resigned from the chairmanship and<br /> vice-chairmanship, were re-elected to fill these<br /> positions, and accepted their re-election. The<br /> secretary reported that there was a sum of over<br /> £270 in the Life Membership Account to be<br /> invested as capital of the society. After some<br /> deliberation the committee decided to purchase<br /> West Australian 33 per cent. Inscribed Stock.<br /> The committee must congratulate the members on<br /> the increase of the invested capital of the society,<br /> which now amounts to over £1,000. The approxi-<br /> mate date of the general meeting was fixed for<br /> the end of March and of the annual dinner for the<br /> beginning of May, and the secretary was instructed<br /> to make the usual arrangements. When the<br /> actual dates have been fixed, the usual notices<br /> will be sent round giving information to all the<br /> members. ‘Three or four important cases were<br /> carefully investigated by the committee. Owing<br /> to their confidential nature, it is impossible to<br /> place the details before the members, but the com-<br /> mittee decided on one question to obtain a legal<br /> opinion from their American lawyer. Another case<br /> dealing with infringement in the Colonies was<br /> adjourned pending further information.<br /> <br /> The committee regret to say that the case which<br /> they carried through the Courts at Munich has<br /> terminated unsatisfactorily, owing to the fact that<br /> the most important witness disappeared, and the<br /> defendants have been unable to pay their creditors,<br /> and cannot be found. Acting, therefore, on the<br /> advice of the lawyers in Munich, who consider<br /> that it would be impossible for the society, even if<br /> successful, to recover either the amount they<br /> claim or the costs, the committee have decided to<br /> withdraw the action.<br /> <br /> —t—&lt;—+<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Srnce the last issue of Zhe Author ten cases<br /> have passed through the secretary’s hands. It is<br /> unsatisfactory to report that of these fewer have<br /> been settled than in former months. Six were for<br /> the return of MSS., and in one of these the MS. has<br /> <br /> been returned and forwarded to the author. It<br /> should be repeated that the question of the deten-<br /> tion of MSS. is a very difficult one ; but it is hoped<br /> that the other MSS. may be returned in the course<br /> of the next month, when the results will be<br /> reported. There were two cases for accounts. In<br /> one of these the accounts have been settled, and in<br /> the other the accounts have been promised shortly.<br /> In one case for money a date has been fixed by<br /> which the magazine will forward the amount due<br /> to the author. One case referred to a dispute on<br /> an agreement. It is hoped that the society may<br /> be able to negotiate a settlement, as the question<br /> is one for amicable arrangement rather than for<br /> legal action.<br /> <br /> There were three cases remaining open from<br /> last month, two of them dealing with difficulties<br /> arising between publisher and author in America,<br /> and the third dealing with a publisher in England<br /> who, on former occasions, has ignored the requests<br /> of the society until process has been issued against<br /> him. No doubt, in this case also, when the<br /> matter is placed in the hands of the society’s<br /> solicitors a satisfactory arrangement will be made.<br /> <br /> ———~&lt; +<br /> <br /> February Elections.<br /> <br /> Arthur, Julian : .<br /> <br /> Besant, Miss Celia 18, Clovelly Mansions,<br /> Gray’s Inn Road,<br /> W.C.<br /> <br /> 19, Castellain Road,<br /> Maida Vale, W.<br /> <br /> 4, Radnor Road, North<br /> Kensington, W.<br /> <br /> 78, Marine Parade,<br /> Brighton.<br /> <br /> 4, Warwick Mansions,<br /> Gray’s Inn, W.C.<br /> National Club, 1,<br /> <br /> Whitehall Gardens,<br /> S.W.<br /> 1, Alipore Lane, Cal-<br /> cutta, India.<br /> Stanton, Broadway,<br /> Worcestershire.<br /> Winforton _—_‘ Rectory,<br /> Hereford.<br /> Cottingham Rectory,<br /> East Yorks.<br /> Culham, New Eltham,<br /> Kent.<br /> <br /> 14, Calverley Park,<br /> Tunbridge Wells.<br /> Pilkington, Col. Henry, Tore, Tyrrells Pass,<br /> <br /> C.B. Treland.<br /> <br /> Blanckensee, Mrs. Irma .<br /> Caleb, Arthur E.<br /> Crichton, Mrs.<br /> Delannoy, Burford .<br /> Durand, Ralph A. .<br /> <br /> Eggar, Arthur<br /> Harris-Burland, John B.<br /> Marshall, Mrs. Frances<br /> (Alan St. Aubyn)<br /> Minton, Francis.<br /> <br /> Mitford, Miss Eveline B.<br /> Omond, T. 8. ‘ :<br /> <br /> <br /> TAE<br /> <br /> Hanover ‘Terrace,<br /> Regent’s Park, N.W.<br /> Cashlauna Shelmiddy,<br /> Strete, Dartmouth,<br /> Devon.<br /> <br /> Raphael, Mrs. oes<br /> <br /> /Yeats, Jack B.<br /> <br /> Two of those elected in February do not desire<br /> either their names or addresses to be printed.<br /> <br /> —____—__—_e—_______<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS OF<br /> THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> (In the following list we do not propose to give more<br /> than the titles, prices, publishers, etc., of the books<br /> enumerated, with, in special cases, such particulars as may<br /> serve to explain the scope and_purpose of the work.<br /> Members are requested to forward information which will<br /> enable the Editor to supply particulars. )<br /> <br /> AGRICULTURE,<br /> <br /> By H. Riper HAGGARD. New<br /> Longmans. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> A FarMER’sS YEAR.<br /> Impression. 7} x 5}. 489 pp.<br /> ART,<br /> EARLY ENGRAVINGS AND ENGRAVERS IN ENGLAND<br /> (1545—1695). By StpNEY CoLVIN. 203 x 153. 170 pp.<br /> British Museum, £5 5s.<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> PoRFIRIO DIAZ: SEVEN TIMES PRESIDENT OF MEXICO.<br /> By Mrs. ALEC TWEEDIE. 9} x 63. 421 pp. Hurst<br /> and Blackett. 21s. n.<br /> <br /> Here AND THERE: MEMoRIES, INDIAN AND OTHER.<br /> By H. G. KeEene,C.1.E. 9 x 53. 215 pp. Brown<br /> Langham. 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> DRAMA.<br /> <br /> Tur Dynasts. A Drama of the Napoleonic Wars, in<br /> three parts, nineteen acts, and 130 scenes. Part II.<br /> By THomas Harpy. 7} Xx 5}. 302 pp. Macmillan.<br /> 4s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> EDUCATIONAL.<br /> <br /> UNDER READER ror BEGINNERS. By Masor F. R. H.<br /> CHAPMAN. 10 x 6}. Ill pp. Thacker. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> <br /> Tue ForBIDDEN May. By Coralie STANTON and<br /> Hearn Hosken. 7% x5. 310 pp. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> THe PoRTREEVE. By EDEN PHILLPOTTS. 73 x 5.<br /> 364 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE CHAIN OF SEVEN Lives. By HAMILTON DRUM-<br /> MOND. 72x 5. 308 pp. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> Terence O’RouRKE, GuNTLEMAN ADVENTURER. By<br /> L. J. VANCE. 7% x 5}. 393 pp. Grant Richards. 6s.<br /> <br /> TuE BENDING oF A Twic. By Desmonp F, T. CoKn.<br /> <br /> _ 43x 5. 310 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Erricker’s Reputation. By THOMAS COBB.<br /> 74x 5. 308 pp. Rivers. 6s.<br /> <br /> Nature&#039;s VAGABOND AND OTHER STORIES. By Cosmo<br /> HAMILTON. 74 &lt;5. 384 pp. Chatto and Windus, 6s,<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 163<br /> <br /> WHITE CARL<br /> 327 pp. Hurst and Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> FATE’s INTRUDER. By FRANK SAVILE and<br /> Watson. 74x 5. 295 pp. Heinemann. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BLUE PETER. By MORLEY ROBERTS. 7? x 5.<br /> <br /> 348 pp. Nash. 6s. :<br /> <br /> THE GAMBLER. By KATERINE CECIL THURSTON. 7?<br /> x 5. 389 pp. Hutchinson. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE SCHOLAR’S DAUGHTER. By BEATRICE HARRADEN.<br /> 7% x 5. 284 pp. Methuen. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE GREAT REFUSAL. By MAXWELL GRAY.<br /> 381 pp. J. Long. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE HEALERS. By MAARTEN MAARTENS. 7} x 5.<br /> 379 pp. Constable. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BisHop’s APRON. By W. SomersET MAUGHAM,<br /> 7x x 5. 311 pp. Chapman and Hall. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE LAPSE OF VIVIEN EApDy. By CHARLES MARRIOTT.<br /> 72x 5. 311 pp. Nash. 6s. ,<br /> <br /> THE House oF SHapows. By R. J. FARRER.<br /> 335 pp. Arnold. 6s.<br /> <br /> IN SILENCE. By Mrs. FRED REYNOLDS. 7} x 5}. 336<br /> Hurst and Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE HATANEE: A Tale of Burman Superstition.<br /> A. Eagar. 7} x 54. 244 pp. Murray. 6s.<br /> <br /> For LIFE AND AFTER. By Geo. R. SIMs.<br /> 344 pp. Chatto and Windus. 6s.<br /> <br /> THE BuURGLAR&#039;S CLUB: A Romance in Twelve Chronicles.<br /> By Henry A. Hertne. 8 x 54. 280 pp. Cassell. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> THe Hanp. By JOUBERT. 72 x 5.<br /> <br /> A. ET<br /> <br /> 72 x 5,<br /> <br /> 7% x 5.<br /> <br /> 72 x 5.<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> <br /> THe History oF ENGLAND FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES<br /> TO THE NORMAN Conqugst. By T. HopGKIn, D.C.L.,<br /> Litt.D. 9x6. 528 pp. Longmans. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> LAW.<br /> <br /> TeN YEARS’ EXPERIENCE OF<br /> SALFORD CouNTY COURTS.<br /> <br /> PARRY. 9% x 7.<br /> <br /> THE MANCHESTER AND<br /> 3y His Honour JUDGE<br /> Sherratt and Hughes. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> How To READ ENGLISH<br /> Mitton. By LAURIE MAGNUS.<br /> Routledge. 2s. 6d.<br /> ESSAYS IN THE MAKING. By EusTACE MILES.<br /> 161 pp. Rivingtons. 3s. 6d.<br /> <br /> CHAUCER TO<br /> 62 x 44. 207 pp.<br /> <br /> LITERATURE :<br /> <br /> 7326 51<br /> (=X OG<br /> <br /> MEDICAL.<br /> <br /> A HANDBOOK OF CLIMATIC TREATMENT, INCLUDING<br /> BALNEOLOGY. By W. R. Hueearp, M.A,, M.D.,<br /> F.B.C.P. 83x 53. 536 pp. Macmillan. 12s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> MISCELLANEOUS.<br /> THREEPENCE A DAY FoR Foop. By Eustace MILEs.<br /> 64x 4. 94pp. Constable. 1s. n.<br /> <br /> MUSIC.<br /> <br /> ORIGINAL RECITATIONS,<br /> By MARY SENIOR<br /> 11 x 8}.<br /> <br /> TWENTY-FOUR CHARMING<br /> SONGS AND GAMES FOR CHILDREN.<br /> CLARK. Set to Music by GAYNOR SIMPSON.<br /> Oo. Newmann.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> JOHANNINE GRAMMAR. By E. A. ABBOTT. 9 x 6. 687 pp.<br /> SMALL LESSONS OF GREAT TRUTHS. A Book for<br /> Children. By A. KATHERINE Parkes. 63 x 44.<br /> 92 pp. Methuen. 1s, 6d.<br /> ANIMISM : ‘THE SEED OF<br /> CLopp. 7 x 4%. 100 pp.<br /> <br /> RELIGION. By EDWARD<br /> Constable &amp; Co, 1s. n.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 164<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ROFESSOR FLINDERS PETRIE’S new<br /> work, “ Researches in Sinai,” published by<br /> Mr. Murray, gives an account of the recent<br /> expedition with a large working party, which lived<br /> in the desert excavating for some months. The<br /> oldest Egyptian sculptures known are reproduced,<br /> the geology and ancient ruins are described, the<br /> conditions of the Exodus are discussed with a new<br /> view of the Israelite census, and the life of the<br /> Bedouin of Sinai and the Egyptian desert is<br /> noticed.<br /> <br /> “The Gambler,’ Mrs. Thurston’s novel recently<br /> published by Messrs. Hutchinson &amp; Co., has for its<br /> heroine an impulsive Irish girl who inherits a<br /> gambling propensity. ‘The scenes of the story are<br /> laid in Ireland, the Continent, and London.<br /> <br /> Miss Beatrice Harraden’s story, ‘‘ The Scholar’s<br /> Daughter,” published by Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co.<br /> in the early part of last month, is the tale of an<br /> old country house in England, the home of the<br /> heroine’s father, who is engaged on the great work<br /> of his life, the compiling of a colossal dictionary<br /> on new lines. Like most of her former works, the<br /> present one is mainly a study of character.<br /> <br /> In his recently published work on “ Easy<br /> Mathematics, chiefly Arithmetic,” Sir Oliver<br /> Lodge’s aim has been to interest children and<br /> adults in fundamental facts of nature, to exhibit<br /> their easy reasonableness, and to remove the<br /> stigma of dulness from arithmetical teaching.<br /> Although the work is especially adapted to the use<br /> of parents and teachers and students who work<br /> by themselves, it is hoped that it can be used<br /> as a class book also. Mr. John Murray is the<br /> publisher.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Campbell Praed’s new novel, “ The Lost<br /> Earl of Ellan,” is running as a serial through the<br /> pages of the Canadian Magazine.<br /> <br /> “The Great Refusal” is the title of a new novel<br /> by Maxwell Gray, which Mr. John Long has<br /> recently published. The story depicts the conflict<br /> of character between two men of diverse tempera-<br /> ments: the father, a man of money, and his only<br /> son, a man of mind.<br /> <br /> “For Life—and After,” by Geo. R. Sims, pub-<br /> lished by Messrs. Chatto &amp; Windus, is the romance<br /> of a woman who suffers penal servitude for life.<br /> It strongly illustrates the peril of a conviction<br /> founded entirely on circumstantial evidence.<br /> <br /> The same publishers have also issued a volume<br /> of short stories by Mr. Cosmo Hamilton, entitled,<br /> “ Nature’s Vagabond.” The first story, from which<br /> the book takes its title, deals with the gradual<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> decline into vagabondage of a distinguished Oxford<br /> man, and his subsequent return to respectability<br /> after experiencing a severe buffeting in the rough-<br /> and-tumble of life.<br /> <br /> “Stories from the Operas” is the title of a<br /> volume by Miss Gladys Davidson, which Mr.<br /> Werner Laurie is publishing at the price of 3s. 6d.<br /> nett. It contains twenty of the more popular<br /> tales written simply and in accordance with the<br /> operas.<br /> <br /> Dolf Wyllarde’s novel, ‘The Pathway of the<br /> Pioneer,” published by Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co. in the<br /> middle of last month, depicts the life of a woman,<br /> gently born and educated, who has, through force<br /> of circumstances, to earn her own living.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Chapman &amp; Hall have recently published<br /> a work by Mr. G. Ainsley Hight, entitled, “The<br /> Unity of Will,” in which the author propounds a<br /> new theory of volition and freedom of the human<br /> intellect. The published price of the work is<br /> 10s. 6d. nett.<br /> <br /> Mr. Eden Phillpotts’ story, “ The Portreeve,” is<br /> one in the chain of narratives he is weaving about<br /> Dartmoor, and depicts various aspects of the life<br /> and ambitions of its folk. Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co.<br /> have published the book, which contains a frontis-<br /> piece by Mr. A. B. Collier.<br /> <br /> The same author is also publishing in Messrs.<br /> Newnes’ Sixpenny Series a new story, entitled<br /> “The Unlucky Number.”<br /> <br /> Messrs. Hutchinson &amp; Co. will publish in the<br /> spring a new story by the Rev. J. A. Hamilton,<br /> author of “The MS. in a Red Box,” entitled<br /> “Captain John Lister.” It is a tale of Ax-<br /> holme, and the time is the outbreak of the Civil<br /> War.<br /> <br /> Among the earliest publications of Messrs.<br /> Brown, Langham &amp; Oo.’s Spring List is a book of<br /> reminiscences by Mr. H. G. Keene, C.1.E. Mr.<br /> Keene is one of the survivors of the old régime in<br /> India, and in this book of memories called ‘* Here<br /> and There,” there are many amusing stories of old<br /> Haileybury, and of Indian life in days before the<br /> Mutiny. The second part of the volume deals<br /> with later life spent in London and elsewhere, with<br /> gossip about some distinguished persons whom the<br /> writer had the fortune to meet on his return from<br /> exile. Mr. Keene is the author of “A Servant of<br /> John Company,” and ‘Sketches in Indian Ink,”<br /> and his reminiscences, which are published at<br /> 10s. 6d. nett, with a frontispiece of the author,<br /> should appeal with special force to all who have —<br /> had experience of Indian life.<br /> <br /> The same publishers produced early last month —<br /> a new and cheaper edition of Mr. Lacon Watson’s<br /> “Christopher Deane.” In view of the interest —<br /> that has been shown lately in stories of school and<br /> college life, ‘ Christopher Deane,” which treats —<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> of Winchester and Cambridge, should have con-<br /> siderable success in its present form.<br /> <br /> “Mr. Tumpsy,” written by Charles Croft, and<br /> published by Mr. Henry J. Drane, is a fairy tale,<br /> which, though appealing to children, will not, the<br /> author hopes, be found uninteresting to adults.<br /> The pieces of music which are scattered throughout<br /> the book have been specially arranged to suit the<br /> powers of those who play the piano with only one<br /> finger. The illustrations to the work are from the<br /> pen of Mr. G. E. Kriiger.<br /> <br /> The scene of Mrs. Philip Champion de Cres-<br /> <br /> igny’s new novel, which Mr. Eveleigh Nash will<br /> publish shortly, is laid in France during the 16th<br /> century. The title of the book is “The Grey<br /> Domino.”<br /> <br /> “Pictures from the Balkans,’ which Messrs.<br /> Cassell &amp; Co. will publish shortly, is the fruit of<br /> an extensive tour of the Near East, which Mr.<br /> John Foster Fraser made last autumn. The book<br /> will be illustrated from photographs taken by the<br /> author.<br /> <br /> Miss Oliver Katherine Parr (who has, for some<br /> time, been a member of the honorary literary staff<br /> of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty<br /> to Animals) contributes a special illustrated article<br /> on the famous Mount St. Bernard Hospice to<br /> the current issue of the Animal World. Under<br /> the editorship of Mr. Edward Fairholme, this<br /> journal has inaugurated some new features. Con-<br /> tributcrs who wish for it are now paid a small<br /> remuneration, 10s. per thousand words, and<br /> monthly photographic competitions have been<br /> opened. The journal is published by Messrs.<br /> Partridge &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> «A Huguenot Heroine,” is the title of a serial<br /> by Miss Edith C. Kenyon, which is running<br /> through the pages of Our Own Gazette. Messrs.<br /> S. W. Partridge &amp; Co., who published Miss<br /> Kenyon’s last book, “ Love’s Golden Thread,”<br /> have commissioned her to write them a work for<br /> this year’s autumn season.<br /> <br /> «By Law Eternal,” a novel by Geraldine Kemp,<br /> has been published by Messrs. Jarrold &amp; Sons at<br /> the price of 3s. 6d. The keynotes of the story are<br /> heredity and work, and the author deals with one<br /> of the gravest ills of life. Pauline, the principal<br /> character, inherits from her mother insanity ; from<br /> her father strength of character, nobility and<br /> intellect, combined with a sound physique. The<br /> author’s aim has been to show how, through the<br /> influence of power, will, and feeling, properly<br /> directed and rationally developed, her sorrowful<br /> heritage could be mastered.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Hurst &amp; Blackett published, in the<br /> middle of last month, Mrs. Alec T&#039;weedie’s Life of<br /> General Porfirio Diaz, for thirty years President of<br /> Mexico. Mrs. Tweedie has compiled this life with<br /> <br /> TAR AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 165<br /> <br /> the President’s sanction from authentic diaries<br /> and documents placed in her hands for the<br /> purpose. It is the life-history of a man who,<br /> born in obscurity, has lived a wildly exciting life<br /> as a soldier, has played an important part in the<br /> history of Maximilian and Carlota, and has now<br /> assumed the position of Perpetual President and<br /> brought his country from chaos and revolution to<br /> peace and prosperity. The volume is published<br /> at the price of 21s. nett.<br /> <br /> Mr. R. H. Sherard’s volume of reminiscences,<br /> “Twenty Years in Paris,” which Messrs. Hutchin-<br /> son &amp; Co. published recently, has gone into a<br /> second edition. Arrangements are in progress for<br /> a French and a German translation.<br /> <br /> “A Veneered Scamp” is the title of a new<br /> novel by Miss Jean Middlemass. The story,<br /> which is of a sensational nature, is published by<br /> Mr. Jobn Long.<br /> <br /> Dr. Paget’ Toynbee’s book, “ Dante in English<br /> Literature,” will be published in the spring by<br /> Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co. The work covers a period<br /> of 464 years, from the date of Chaucer’s second<br /> visit to Italy in 1380 to the death of Cary in 1844.<br /> Nearly 300 English writers, who make mention of<br /> Dante or quote his works during this period, are<br /> traced by Dr. Toynbee. Rather more than forty<br /> of these belong to the sixteenth century, about<br /> thirty to the seventeenth, and nearly one hundred<br /> to the eighteenth, the greater number of the<br /> remainder falling within the first forty years of the<br /> nineteenth century. The work contains a brief<br /> biography of each of the writers mentioned.<br /> <br /> Mr. Somerset Maugham’s new novel, “The<br /> Bishop’s Apron,’ published by Messrs. Chapman<br /> &amp; Hall, presents him as a satirist and humourist.<br /> The schemes of the ambitious clerical party and<br /> the intrigues of the new nobility form the material<br /> for the work.<br /> <br /> Messrs. A. &amp; C. Black have just published<br /> Mr. E. A. Reynolds-Ball’s handbook “ Rome, a<br /> Practical Guide to Rome and its Environs,” with<br /> illustrations in colour by Albert Pisa. Although<br /> the work is mainly intended to meet the require-<br /> ments of tourists only able to spend a few weeks<br /> in the city, it does not neglect the interests of<br /> more leisured visitors. It contains, in addition,<br /> full details on matters affecting the comfort of the<br /> tourist, such as hotel accommodation.<br /> <br /> Mr. Robert Machray has completed a new serial<br /> story dealing with a remarkable and successful<br /> case of personation, the truth regarding which is<br /> only brought to light by the merest accident.<br /> Messrs. Chatto &amp; Windus will publish the story in<br /> book form in early autumn.<br /> <br /> Mr. Fisher Unwin will publish this month a<br /> novel by Mrs. Archibald Little, the title of which<br /> is “A Millionaire’s Courtship.” A millionaire’s<br /> 166<br /> <br /> yachting tour forms the groundwork of the story.<br /> The book contains many descriptive passages<br /> which, however, are subordinated to the interest<br /> of the characters.<br /> <br /> Sir Edward Durand has written, and Mr. Sidney<br /> Appleton will publish, a work entitled “ Cyrus the<br /> Great King.” It is in the form of a poem<br /> depicting the life of the great Persian who figured<br /> in the period of war and conquest that only came<br /> to a pause with the siege and fall of Babylon.<br /> <br /> The second volume of the new edition of the<br /> Dictionary of Music contains a sympathetic article<br /> on Sir George Grove by Mr. C. L. Graves, while<br /> Mr. J. A. Fuller Maitland, who is editing it,<br /> writes on Grieg, J.iszt, and other composers.<br /> <br /> The social committee of the Pioneer Club,<br /> assisted by Rowland Grey, has arranged what<br /> should prove an interesting commemoration of<br /> Mrs. Browning’s centenary upon March 6th. Mrs.<br /> Meynell has promised to read a paper upon the<br /> poems, her relationship with Mrs. Browning<br /> making any word from the author of such sonnets<br /> as “Renouncement” of fresh interest. Miss<br /> <br /> Wynne-Matthison will recite two of the sonnets<br /> from the Portuguese, and the songs set to ‘‘ Leaving<br /> yet Loving,” ‘‘ How do I Love Thee,” “A Sabbath<br /> Evening at Sea,” will also be given in the presence<br /> <br /> of a portrait of Mrs. Browning, wreathed with the<br /> true poet’s laurel. The wreath is to be sent<br /> afterwards to Florence and laid upon her grave.<br /> <br /> The two series of “Chronicles of the Burglar’s<br /> Club,” by Henry A. Hering, which have recently<br /> appeared in Cassell’s Magazine, have just been<br /> published in volume form by Messrs. Cassell &amp; Co.,<br /> with illustrations by F. H. Townsend. Mr.<br /> Hering’s burglars differ from other light-fingered<br /> gentry, inasmuch as they are men of position, who,<br /> having exhausted all legitimate excitemenis of<br /> civilisation, burgle for the sport of the thing, and<br /> promptly return the articles purloined.<br /> <br /> Mr. Pinero’s new play, “ His House in Order,”<br /> produced at the St. James’ Theatre on February<br /> 1st, deals with the marriage of a widower with a<br /> kind-hearted irresponsible girl who, lacking the<br /> domestic abilities of her predecessor, loses the<br /> regard of her husband, and is snubbed and scolded<br /> by most of his relations. ‘The good qualities of<br /> the lady whom she has replaced are constantly<br /> brought to her notice, in order to indicate her own<br /> shortcomings. The discovery of incriminating<br /> facts relating to the past life of this “ model of<br /> propriety ” forms the pivot of the play. The caste<br /> includes Miss Irene Vanbrugh, Mr. Herbert Waring,<br /> Miss Beryl Faber and Mr. George Alexander.<br /> <br /> Miss Netta Syrett’s one act play, “The Younger<br /> Generation,’ was produced in front of “The<br /> Heroic Stubbs” at Terry’s Theatre on the third of<br /> Jast month. It deals with the disappointment of<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> a widow who, expecting a proposal of marriage<br /> from one of her former admirers, finds that his<br /> affections are centred on her daughter. The piece<br /> ends by the widow sacrificing her desire in favour<br /> of “The Younger Generation.” The three char-<br /> acters in the play were interpreted by Miss Irene<br /> Rooke, Miss Estelle Winwood, and Mr. G. F,<br /> Tully.<br /> <br /> Capt. Robert Marshall’s comedy, ‘‘ The Alabaster<br /> Staircase,” was produced at the Comedy Theatre<br /> on the 21st of last month. The main characters<br /> in the piece are a Tory Prime Minister, his<br /> daughter, and her lover—a wealthy “Socialist”<br /> Member of Parliament. The play indicates the<br /> change of political faith of the Premier, caused by<br /> a fall down an alabaster staircase. In consequence<br /> of this change he takes leave of his cabinet,<br /> and expresses admiration for the views of the<br /> “Socialist,” which were previously abhorrent to<br /> him. The caste includes Mr. John Hare, Mr. Leslie<br /> Faber, and Miss Lottie Venne.<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> <br /> &gt;<br /> <br /> IOGRAPHIES, memoirs and letters are all<br /> more in favour than ever in France, and<br /> some of the recent books of this kind are<br /> <br /> certainly quite as interesting as fiction. Among<br /> such volumes is “ Madame de Prie ” (1698—1727),<br /> by H. Thirion. The author has taken the trouble<br /> to give us in detail the whole story of the life of<br /> this extraordinary woman, who at the age of fifteen<br /> was married to the Marquis de Prie, a man twenty-<br /> six years older than she was. Later on comes her<br /> liaison with the Duc de Bourbon, and then we have<br /> all the hardships which follow this. According<br /> to M. Thirion’s documents Mme. de Prie has<br /> been basely slandered, for the account he gives of<br /> her differs widely from the idea of her usually<br /> given in histories.<br /> <br /> “Le Voyage de Sparte,” by M. Maurice Barres,<br /> is now published in volume.<br /> <br /> “Le Journal inédit du duc de Croij” is the<br /> title of the book of memoirs published by MM. the<br /> Vicomte de Grouchy and Paul Cottin. The Due<br /> de Croij (1718—1784) left manuscript memoirs<br /> enough to have completed something like forty<br /> ordinary-sized volumes, but the authors of the<br /> present publication have wisely given in two large<br /> volumes details concerned with life at Versailles<br /> and in Paris. The book is particularly interesting<br /> as a picture of the times.<br /> <br /> “Le Roman de Sainte-Beuve,” by M. Gustave<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> Sopher NS<br /> <br /> we<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Simon, is another volume on the much-discussed<br /> question of Sainte-Beuve’s affection for Mme. Victor<br /> Hugo. ‘Les Impressions d’une Francaise en<br /> Amérique,” by Mme. Vianzone ; “ A l’autre bout<br /> du monde,” by M. Paul Varrego, treats of<br /> adventures and habits and customs in Australia.<br /> <br /> “De Sebastopol 4 Solférino,” by M. de Cham-<br /> brier ; ‘“‘Le Coup de Grice,” by the Général de<br /> Piépape ; “Les Campagnes de 1799,” by M. Edouard<br /> Gachot—three volumes of history which are each<br /> well worth reading.<br /> <br /> A volume, published by M. Louis Loviot,<br /> containing the “Lettres de Gabrielle Delzant,”<br /> with a preface by Mme. Blanc-Bentzon, gives us<br /> two types of the modern woman in the best and<br /> highest acceptance of thisterm. The letters them-<br /> selves are charming, and M. Brunetiére says of the<br /> writer of the admirable preface to the volume :—<br /> “Depuis trente ans je doute si quelque femme a<br /> fait plus ou autant pour la revendication des droits<br /> de son sexe que Mme. Th. Bentzon. On! elle n’a<br /> jamais élevé la voix! Ce n’est pas sa ‘maniére’<br /> ni celle des femmes de son monde. . . . Elle a vécu<br /> de la vie des unes et, 4 force de sympathie, elle a<br /> reconstitué ‘l&#039;état d’ame’ des autres... . Elle a<br /> passé des mois en Russie pour y observer la femme<br /> russe. lle a fait deux ou trois fois le voyage en<br /> Amérique pour étudier la femme américaine. Je<br /> ne dis rien de |’Angleterre qu’elle connait aussi<br /> bien que la France. .. .”<br /> <br /> “Science et Libre Pensée” is the title of a<br /> volume by M. Berthelot, of the French Academy.<br /> This is the fourth volume of articles, essays and<br /> speeches published by the eminent scientist, at<br /> whose jubilee commemoration in Paris, some four<br /> years ago, savants from all parts of the world met.<br /> Among the articles contained in the present collec-<br /> tion are the following :—‘ Les Causes finales,”<br /> “Les relations entre la France et l’Angleterre,”<br /> “La Paix par la Justice,” “ Le réle des races<br /> scandinaves dans le développement de la civilisa-<br /> tion moderne,” “ La méthode scientifiques en<br /> politique,’ “ L’evolution des sciences au XIX*<br /> siécle.”<br /> <br /> “La Marine qu’il nous faut,” by M. Charles<br /> <br /> &#039; Bos, with a preface by M. Edouard Lockroy, is a<br /> <br /> book that is now being discussed. A sketch of<br /> “Le Président Falliéres,” illustrated by photo-<br /> graphs and drawing, has been published by the<br /> author, M. Jean de la Hire, at the right<br /> moment.<br /> <br /> “ La Comédie protectioniste,” by M. Yves Guyot.<br /> The author goes back to the time of Colbert to<br /> show the economic evolution in France, and shows<br /> later on the work of Cobden and Napoleon III.<br /> destroyed by the establishment of custom duties<br /> still in vigour.<br /> <br /> “Le Mécanisme de la vie moderne,” by the<br /> <br /> 167<br /> <br /> _ Vicomte d’Avenel, a volume in which the author<br /> <br /> treats of the subject of the Stock Exchange. He<br /> shows how from 1815 to 1850 the bank became an<br /> Important spring in national life, directed chiefly<br /> by men of Swiss Protestant birth. From 1850 to<br /> 1870 Pereire and Rothschild came to the front, and<br /> under the cover of Turkish affairs the first syndi-<br /> cates between French and German financiers were<br /> established.<br /> <br /> “Hssai d’une psychologie de l’Angleterre con-<br /> temporaine, les crises belliqueuses,” by Jacques<br /> Bardoux.<br /> <br /> Among recent volumes of fiction are the follow-<br /> ing :— Le Coeur disséqué,” by M. Ferri-Pisani, a<br /> nephew of George Sand ; “ La Bonne Etoile,” by<br /> M. Jean Rameau ; “L’Age de Raison,” by Mme.<br /> Claire Albane; “Janua Cceli,” by Mme. Jean<br /> d’Ivray ; “ L’Inoubliable Passé,” by Mme. Ré-<br /> musat; “Ceux qu’on méprise,” by M. Georges<br /> Verdéne, with a preface by M. Anatole France.<br /> <br /> “Tia Cité des Idoles,” by M. Henri Chateau, is<br /> a curious novel based on the problem of an ideal<br /> society. The author endeavours to show how this<br /> can be evolved from contemporary society, but at<br /> the same time he shows the instability of it, when<br /> built up on the old errors and oppressions.<br /> <br /> In the Revue des Deux Mondes M. A. Bellessort<br /> writes an interesting article, “ La vie japonaise.”<br /> In the Revue de Paris M. Anatole France continues<br /> “La Bataille de Patay.”<br /> <br /> In the two last numbers of Za Revue are<br /> articles by Edmond Scherer on “ L’Invasion de<br /> Versailles’ (1870); Emile Faguet, “Un Ménage<br /> d’Ecrivains” ; Dr. Lowenthal, “Pourquoi la<br /> France se dépeuple ” ; Charles Wagner, “ A propos<br /> de la Morale sans Dieu”; G. Savitch, “ Les types<br /> littéraires de la Crise russe.”<br /> <br /> At the Frangais “ Les Cceurs timides,” by Paul<br /> Adam, is announced, and “Deux Hommes,” by<br /> Alfred Capus. Other forthcoming pieces are ‘‘ Le<br /> Ruisseau,” by Pierre Wolf, for the Gymnase ;<br /> “La Dette,” by Bernstein; “Le Bourgeon,” by<br /> Feydeau; and “Paris-New York,” by Francis de<br /> Croisset.<br /> <br /> “La Piste,” by M. Sardou, is running at the<br /> Variétés, and “Les Hannetons,” by M. Brieux,<br /> and “ Au Petit Bonheur,” by M. Anatole France,<br /> at the Renaissance. At the Théaitre Antoine a<br /> French version of “Old Heidelberg” is being<br /> played, and the Thédtre des Arts has produced a<br /> five-act piece by M. Saint Georges de Bouhélier,<br /> entitled “ Le Roi sans couronne.”<br /> <br /> ALYS HALLARD.<br /> <br /> o—~&lt;&gt;—-e-<br />  <br /> <br /> SPANISH NOTES.<br /> ee<br /> HE advance made by women in Spain in<br /> 7 literature is seen in Dona Emelia Pardo<br /> Bazan appearing as a dramatist. Her four-<br /> act drama, “Verdad” (Truth), was given for the first<br /> time on 9th January, and the enthusiastic applause<br /> with which the performance was received, showed<br /> the welcome accorded by Spaniards to the work of<br /> a woman. Thestory of the play is based on the<br /> hero’s love of truth— Truth, truth at any price!”<br /> is his watchword, and in this spirit he confesses<br /> the murder of his first wife to her sister whom he<br /> has married. The murder had been committed in<br /> the rage induced by the confession extorted from<br /> the victim. The play shows that Truth cannot<br /> be welcome, when it reveals shameful deeds of<br /> treachery and cruelty, and the drama is another<br /> laurel to the fame of the writer, whose novels<br /> and philosophical works have long made her name<br /> celebrated.<br /> <br /> The Spanish stage has just suffered a great loss<br /> in the death of the popular actor Riquelme.<br /> Thanks to the united generous efforts of the<br /> above cited artistes, and Borras, Lucrecia Arana,<br /> Consuelo Majendia, Josefina Roca, Ruiz Tatay,<br /> Ramirez, Gonzalez, etc., the grand performance at<br /> the Apolo Theatre produced a large sum for the<br /> widow and orphans of the artist.<br /> <br /> The political world has also sustained a loss<br /> in the death of Sefor Esteve, the well-known<br /> liberal leader of Murcia, and the large conclave of<br /> 10,000 people at his funeral proved his popularity.<br /> The Imparcial is publishing interesting articles<br /> on some of the leading emissaries for the conference,<br /> and it is interesting to see the appreciative tone of<br /> the remarks relating to Sir Arthur Nicolson, whose<br /> departure from the British Embassy at Madrid is<br /> so much regretted. ‘‘ Whatever disagreements or<br /> conflicts may ensue at Algeciras,” says Luis Bello,<br /> “We can count upon the beneficial effect of Sir<br /> Arthur Nicolson’s wide and generous mind, which<br /> exceeds the force of mere words and forms, and<br /> which is characteristic of his race.”<br /> <br /> An interesting meeting was held on January 7th,<br /> at the Academy of Moral and Political Science,<br /> under the presidency of H.M. King Alfonzo XIIL.,<br /> who made a short speech congratulating the society<br /> on the encouragement it affords the country in the<br /> study of the sciences. Presentation of the medal<br /> was made to Sefior Guisasola, the new member,<br /> who delivered his maiden speech on “The Prin-<br /> ciple of Authority, its Origin, Character, and<br /> Relations.” After drawing masterly distinctions<br /> between undue extensions, and undue limitations of<br /> authority, the speaker said, “ The base of authority<br /> ig a force which is in fact divine, and it is<br /> communicated in various forms to the person or<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THER AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> institution that exercises it. The force to com-<br /> mand is from God, but the form of exercising this<br /> force is determined by man.”<br /> <br /> The speech by the Marquis del Vadillo on the<br /> connection between natural and moral forces was<br /> also full of metaphysical truths.<br /> <br /> The Academy of Political and Moral Science<br /> has recently elected as a member the ex-minister<br /> Don Pio Gullen, whom Sefior Azcarate welcomed as<br /> ‘¢a well-informed and discreet politician, an honest<br /> and intelligent functionary, a clever writer, and a<br /> fluent and accurate parliamentary speaker.” This<br /> distinction has been afforded to Pio Gullen in<br /> consideration of his studies of the bases and the<br /> systems of the parliamentary methods prevailing<br /> in Europe and America.<br /> <br /> “Bl Idolo” (The Idol) by the well-known<br /> dramatist, Don Manuel Linares, is a striking<br /> picture of the corruption of the Spanish parlia-<br /> mentary system, to which the hero, Don Cesar<br /> Pedroso, succumbs. For his original ideal is not<br /> proof against feminine persuasion to use his<br /> influence to her profit. As the Spanish critics of<br /> the play remark : ‘‘ The stage reflects our customs.”<br /> And it is these customs which Spanish patriots<br /> trust will be gradually reformed.<br /> <br /> The Atheneum of Madrid has just been opened<br /> to women as members, and the first to enrol them-<br /> selves are la Marquesa de Mont-Roig, la Marquesa<br /> de Ayerbe, Sefiora Carmen Figuerola de Ferretti,<br /> Sefiora Pardo Bazan, and Sefiora Blanca de los<br /> Rios.<br /> <br /> The Woman&#039;s Agricultural Times offers to publish<br /> articles from notable Spanish ladies in their own<br /> language if Colonel Figuerola Ferretti edits the<br /> contributions. This first Anglo-Spanish magazine<br /> will promote the en/ente cordiale between the women<br /> of the two countries and voice the cordial welcome<br /> awaiting Princess Ena of Battenberg as the future<br /> Queen of Spain.<br /> <br /> The Spanish agricultural magazine ( Ganaderva y<br /> industriales rurales) has moreover invited contri-<br /> butions from English women encouraging Princess<br /> Ena, when Queen, to patronize efforts to forward<br /> the lighter branches of agriculture as occupations<br /> for women.<br /> <br /> The distinguished Spanish journalist Sefior<br /> Ramiro de Maeztu has won the gratitude of his<br /> countrymen by the able way he has reported from<br /> London the methods he has marked in the recent<br /> English elections ; and he has also surprised his<br /> countrywomen by the accounts he has given of the<br /> able way many wives aided their husbands in the<br /> contest.<br /> <br /> A Spanish magazine suggests publishing Mrs.<br /> Alec Tweedie’s Life of Porfirio Diaz, the Spanish<br /> minister of Mexico, as a serial, if it be translated.<br /> <br /> by Don Manuel de Figuerola in the Foreign Office<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THK AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> at Madrid, whose success in a diplomatic mission<br /> in Paris was rewarded with the Légion d’Honneur.<br /> <br /> The great banquet recently given to the political<br /> reformer Soriano, in Madrid, was an occasion for<br /> the orator to give noble tributes to the authors<br /> Galdos and Rusifiol, who were present. He declared<br /> that he himself only aimed at being “the ambas-<br /> sador of the national conscience,’ and in this he<br /> was aided by Galdos, “ the splendid pioneer of cul-<br /> ture and morality,” and by Rusifiol, the Catalonian,<br /> “who,” to quote the speaker, “represents the<br /> intelligence which is the bond of union between all<br /> parts of the country.”<br /> <br /> The Spanish press publishes two charming<br /> poems in honour of the Infanta Dofia Paz on her<br /> departure from Madrid after the marriage of<br /> the Infanta Maria Teresa with her son Prince<br /> Ferdinand of Bavaria. The Doita Infanta de la<br /> Paz, sister of the late King Alfonzo XII, is well-<br /> known for the works of her pen. Her article<br /> comparing Cervantes to Schiller was circulated in<br /> the Royal Academy at the Don Quixote fétes. The<br /> King and Queen patronised this literary function,<br /> when the article was read which was written<br /> for the occasion by the veteran blind author, Juan<br /> Valera, who died a short time before the day of his<br /> triumph. A fine edition of the works of this<br /> great writer is now in preparation, and the first<br /> volume now out contains the ‘“ Eulogy of Saint<br /> Teresa,” “Liberty in Art,” and “The Study of<br /> Don Quixote and the Various Forms of Judging it.”<br /> <br /> The Geographical Society of Spain held an<br /> interesting meeting the other evening, under the<br /> presidency of the minister of the navy to hear<br /> the account of Colonel Delmé Radcliffe’s travels in<br /> Uganda and many parts of the Victoria Nyanza<br /> Lake district in Central Africa. The traveller gave<br /> his experiences in good Spanish, and his reports on<br /> the progress of the railway scheme of the country,<br /> the manners and customs of the natives, and the<br /> fauna and flora of the land, were listened to with<br /> <br /> great interest. RACHEL CHALLIOE.<br /> a<br /> <br /> PUBLICATION AND COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> ——_+—&lt;—+—__<br /> Part I.<br /> <br /> O discuss in detail the various aspects of<br /> <br /> “‘ publication” considered with reference to<br /> <br /> the law of copyright, would be to supply<br /> <br /> The Author with a great deal of matter conveying<br /> very little definite information to its readers. The<br /> text books of Mr. Copinger, Mr. MacGillivray, and<br /> of Mr. Scrutton contain many scores of pages<br /> devoted to the subject, and if the judgments upon<br /> which they found their summaries of the law, and<br /> to which they refer in footnotes, were set out at<br /> length, considerably more space would be occupied,<br /> <br /> 169<br /> <br /> only to show more clearly, what alone appears to<br /> be plain, that various points which may arise at any<br /> time are undecided, and that the statutes which<br /> should provide the definitions dealing with rights<br /> that arise out of statute alone, leave a great deal<br /> to be settled by the courts at the expense of<br /> suitors. As Mr. Scrutton, K.C., observes, in an<br /> early page of his work, ‘‘ These Statutes are, with-<br /> out exception, of most involved and _ inartistic<br /> draftsmanship, and present to the Legislature a<br /> suitable, even an urgent, case for codification.”<br /> Is it too much to hope that a new government,<br /> having among its members an unusual number of<br /> well-known authors, may be able to find time to<br /> introduce and to pass a new Copyright Act, dealing<br /> exhaustively with books, and with literary and<br /> journalistic matter generally, and also with plays,<br /> lectures, engravings (a very wide-spreading branch<br /> of the subject under modern conditions), sculp-<br /> ture, paintings, drawings, photographs and music.<br /> To leave the law relating to all these to be dug<br /> out from many Acts of Parliament and the deci-<br /> sions relating to them, and to be amended by<br /> privately introduced measures drafted by bodies<br /> interested in, and acquainted with, only what<br /> concerns themselves, is to suffer the continuance<br /> of an “ungodly jumble” to the loss and incon-<br /> venience of a deserving and law-abiding section of<br /> the public, who are neglected only because they<br /> give little trouble to anybody.<br /> <br /> When we consider the important part which<br /> “publication” plays in the law of copyright, it<br /> would not be too much to suggest that it is a<br /> word that should oceupy the attention of the<br /> codifying draftsman almost as scon as he has<br /> finished his “preamble.” At present it is the<br /> dividing line which marks the passage in most<br /> cases from the common law right in the originator<br /> (to prevent others from appropriating the product<br /> of his brain), to the statutory right (copyright,<br /> strictly so called), which takes the place of the<br /> common law right directly ‘ publication” has<br /> occurred. It is also for this reason the starting<br /> point from which, in many instances, the time<br /> “begins to run,” during which copyright is to be<br /> enjoyed. Publication may therefore be said to<br /> demand a statutory definition which has never<br /> hitherto been accorded to it, or such varying<br /> definitions as will suit the various subjects of<br /> copyright.<br /> <br /> Mr. Scrutton quotes a suggested definition of<br /> publication from a case argued in the Chancery<br /> Division (Blank v. Footman, 39 Ch. D. 678),<br /> whereby it is described as “ making a thing pablic<br /> in any manner in which it is capable of being<br /> communicated to the public,” and he adds that,<br /> though not necessarily so, the subject of publica-<br /> tion is generally for sale, or, at any rate, so as to<br /> <br /> ~<br /> 170<br /> <br /> be accessible to all who desire to obtain it, son<br /> conditions imposed not by the author, but by the<br /> law. Publication for private circulation only, and<br /> under conditions imposed by the author, does not<br /> divest the common law right. This, it will be<br /> seen, is a very general definition, and one of<br /> which, as of some others, it may be observed that<br /> the bearings of it lie in its application. It is not<br /> difficult to deduce from it that “ the publication<br /> of a work for private purposes and private circula-<br /> tion is not a publication sufficient to defeat the<br /> common law right of the author,” but more is<br /> needed when some of the subjects of copyright<br /> are considered. Anyone would be ready to say<br /> offhand that a book or an etching of which copies<br /> printed at the author’s expense have been given or<br /> even sold to a few (or to a large number) of his<br /> <br /> ersonal friends has not been “ published.” It<br /> would be less easy for the same person not<br /> acquainted with the various judgments, to con-<br /> jecture or to reason, whether a picture which has<br /> been exhibited at the Royal Academy, or at a<br /> print-seller’s for the purpose of securing sub-<br /> scribers to an engraving, or of which process<br /> reproductions have been circulated in Academy<br /> guides, and in illustrated newspapers, has been<br /> “published ” or not. If he were to go into the<br /> matter he would find that these points and many<br /> others concerning literary, dramatic, musical, and<br /> artistic publication have been decided, as has been<br /> said, not by the Legislature in the various copy-<br /> right Acts, but by the courts of law after expensive<br /> litigation at the expense of suitors anxious to<br /> defend their rights imperilled by no fault of<br /> theirs. There has usually been someone, that is<br /> to say, anxious to make a profit out of the rights<br /> in a book, a play, a musical composition, or a<br /> work of art, and someone else endeavouring in his<br /> own interest to prevent him, and these, instead of<br /> finding the law ready made for them, have had to<br /> pay for obtaining an interpretation from a judge,<br /> which has had to be discussed on appeal. The<br /> decision thus obtained may be useful to others by<br /> laying down general principles which will govern<br /> their cases on some future occasion, but it neces-<br /> sarily will leave many points in doubt. To take<br /> at random one of the instances referred to above,<br /> the seeker after the law might satisfy himself that<br /> according to an old decision of the Irish Chancery<br /> Court, the exhibition of a picture, say at the Royal<br /> Academy, does not constitute such a publication of<br /> it as to divest the painter of his common law right.<br /> He might also be gratified to find that a recent<br /> decision in the United States had endorsed this<br /> view in a case in which it was essential to show<br /> that the picture had not been already “published ”<br /> before steps were taken to protect ib in America.<br /> He might, however, be tempted to apply the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> knowledge thus acquired to the case of a piece of<br /> sculpture, and find that in the Irish case already<br /> referred to (Turner v. Robinson, 1860, 10 Tr. Ch,<br /> 516), Lord Chancellor Brady said: “In the<br /> Statutes bestowing protection upon works of sculp-<br /> ture the terminus @ guo from which the protection<br /> commences is the publication of the work, that is,<br /> from the moment the eye of the public is allowed<br /> to rest upon it. Many large works in this branch<br /> of art, which decorate public squares and other<br /> places, are of course so published, but there are<br /> others not designed for such purposes which could<br /> never be published in any other way than in<br /> exhibitions ; therefore I apprehend that these<br /> works of sculpture must be considered as published<br /> by exhibition at such places as the Royal Academy<br /> and Manchester, so as to entitle them to the pro-<br /> tection of the Statutes from the date of publica-<br /> tion.”<br /> <br /> Leaving out of the question the advantages<br /> which a work of sculpture may be entitled to<br /> through “publication” of such a nature, it is<br /> evident that these rights rest at present upon the<br /> obiter dictum of a Chancellor who founded them<br /> upon somewhat insufficient grounds. The publi-<br /> cation of a statue, great or small, may date from<br /> its exhibition at the Royal Academy, but it is<br /> absurd to say that this is because it “could never<br /> be published in any other way.” A piece of<br /> sculpture can be reproduced and multiplied by<br /> castings or otherwise, just as a painting can<br /> be multiplied by engraving, or an engraving,<br /> by the taking of more impressions from the<br /> same plate; and it can be, and often is, pub-<br /> lished by sale in a limited or unlimited edition,<br /> just as easily as a mezzotint; or, if there is any<br /> inherent difference between the two classes of<br /> artistic work, it requires considerable mental<br /> subtlety to discern it.<br /> <br /> Books are published as a rule in amanner which<br /> leaves little or no doubt as to the fact of publica-<br /> tion, and as to the date on which it takes place.<br /> Under the Copyright Act, 1842, a book includes<br /> “every volume, part, or division of a volume,<br /> pamphlet, sheet of letter-press, sheet of music,<br /> map, chart, or plan separately published.” Publi-<br /> cation means distribution to the general public<br /> either gratuitously or by sale, and the doubt<br /> whether a book has been published or not at a<br /> certain time generally arises when some kind of<br /> circulation has taken place, and it is a question<br /> whether this was “ private” or not. Notes issued —<br /> to students at classes, and republished by one of<br /> them, and manuscripts circulated by a clergyman —<br /> among his parishioners, have been the subject of —<br /> legal decisions in this class of case, and have been<br /> held not to have been published.” The distri-<br /> <br /> bution of lithographed copies of music for private<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> use has, on the other hand, been held to be publi-<br /> cation. Naturally, when in the ordinary way a<br /> “publisher ” announces a forthcoming book, and<br /> on a pre-arranged day sends out the copies ordered<br /> to the trade, in order that booksellers may retail<br /> them, there can be no doubt as to publication<br /> taking place. It has to take place on British soil<br /> in all cases, but this does not affect the question<br /> what is, or is not, publication. This, in the case<br /> of books, is sometimes quite clear ; sometimes not<br /> easy to decide, and the decision is not made clear<br /> by any effort of the legislature.<br /> <br /> A dramatic piece includes every “ tragedy,<br /> comedy, play, opera, farce, or other scenic, musical,<br /> or dramatic entertainment.” Formerly, acting a<br /> play, as distinct from publishing it like a book, was<br /> not a publication of it, so that, as one result of<br /> this, a man might produce another’s play without<br /> infringing his statutory copyright. Since the Act<br /> of 1842 (sect. 20), the first public representation<br /> or performance of any dramatic piece or musical<br /> performance is “deemed equivalent” to the first<br /> publication of a book. The representation or per-<br /> formance has to be public, but how far many<br /> dramatic performances held with the intention of<br /> thereby securing copyright are “public” within<br /> the meaning of the Act need not be discussed here.<br /> In the United States the law seems to be in the<br /> same condition that it was in England before<br /> 1842. Ina case decided in the Superior Court of<br /> New York in 1870, the plaintiff had bought from<br /> the author, Mr. Tom Robertson, the right to<br /> produce in the United States a certain play which<br /> had been acted in London. The defendant had<br /> taken the play down in writing when it was acted<br /> at the Prince of Wales’s Theatre, or bought the<br /> text of it from ingenious, if dishonest, persons who<br /> had done so. If the play had been published in<br /> England it would have been free for all Americans<br /> to annex, or whatever may be the appropriate<br /> term. It was argued, however, successfully that<br /> the acting in England was not a publication in the<br /> eyes of American law, so that the author had not<br /> lost his common law right, and could protect<br /> himself under it. The result, at all events, was<br /> consistent with justice. Apparently, however, if<br /> the play had been published and sold as a literary<br /> work, as well as produced on the stage, the decision<br /> would have been the other way.<br /> <br /> In England a dramatic composition is looked<br /> on from two points of view, that of a book to<br /> be read, and that of a performance to be held<br /> publicly. The copyright, strictly so called (i.e.,<br /> the right to multiply copies) dates from publication<br /> as a book, and the performing right from the first<br /> public representation, so that dispute as to what is<br /> or is not “ public”’ may arise in either case.<br /> <br /> It has been suggested above that definitions of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 171<br /> <br /> publication are desirable ; it would perhaps be<br /> better if its importance were diminished by making<br /> the conditions of protection cease to be dependent<br /> upon it, and by making publication, where it has<br /> to be considered, a matter of compliance with<br /> specified formalities, which could easily be done<br /> in more if not all of the matters subject to<br /> copyright.<br /> <br /> ESSA ea Iara<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A HINT TO WRITERS UPON TECHNICAL<br /> SUBJECTS.<br /> <br /> —+—~&lt;—+- —__<br /> <br /> T has been stated at times, by not well-informed<br /> persons, that the Society of Authors exists<br /> only to assist writers of fiction. Though, no<br /> <br /> doubt, a large number of the members of the<br /> Society are writers of fiction, there are many<br /> hundreds, dramatists, writers on technical subjects,<br /> history, theology, and so on, composers of music<br /> and illustrators of books, whose property the<br /> Society undertakes to protect. There are two<br /> chief reasons why it is advanced against the<br /> Society that its main business lies with writers<br /> of fiction. One is the fact that many of the<br /> articles in The Author refer to writers of fiction—<br /> —especially those articles which deal with the<br /> work of the agent ; and the other the fact that in<br /> examples of the cost of production, the 6s.<br /> book is generally taken as a fitting standard.<br /> This is not because the 6s. book is necessarily the<br /> work of a writer of fiction, but because, taking<br /> the market as a whole, the majority of books are<br /> published at this price, and it is, therefore, a con-<br /> venient price from which to start any calculation.<br /> Because of the prevalent impression it may, there-<br /> fore, be as well to explain how technical writers<br /> can be benefited by the work and funds of the<br /> Society. In the past year one or two examples<br /> have occurred which demonstrate clearly that<br /> writers other than writers of fiction need advice<br /> from the Society, and to quote them will be the<br /> simplest way of showing the larger scope of our<br /> work.<br /> <br /> Many years ago a member of the Society, a<br /> medical man now famous in his special branch,<br /> wrote a work dealing with his particular subject.<br /> Being then comparatively unknown to the public,<br /> he found some difficulty in placing his book, and<br /> finally published it by selling his copyright to one<br /> of the medical publishers. Hight or nine years<br /> afterwards he had advanced not only in reputa-<br /> tion before the public, but also in the skill and<br /> knowledge of his subject. He therefore came to<br /> the conclusion that his book ought to be reissued<br /> and brought up to date with the examples gathered<br /> 172<br /> <br /> from his own experience and added knowledge.<br /> But on his approaching the publisher he was<br /> unable to obtain anything like satisfactory terms,<br /> and the publisher was unwilling to make the<br /> alterations required. He found himself in the<br /> following difficult position : Hither he must<br /> abandon his publication and see an imperfect work<br /> of his own placed before the public, or he must<br /> repurchase the copyright from the publisher at<br /> the publisher’s price before he could bring out the<br /> new book, as it was absolutely essential for him to<br /> use the old as the basis of the new. At this point<br /> he came to the Society of Authors, when, the<br /> position being explained to him, he decided to buy<br /> back his work and republish it himself. He was,<br /> of course, at the mercy of the publisher, who<br /> could ask practically any figure he liked for the<br /> copyright. This position is not unique ; it has<br /> occurred-on two or three other occasions. On one<br /> of these the author was not in a position to pur-<br /> chase the copyright of his original work from the<br /> publisher, and was bound, therefore, to transfer<br /> the copyright of the new edition to the same pub-<br /> lisher or not to publish at all. Whether we take the<br /> first example or the second, in either case the author<br /> is at the mercy of the publisher. To all readers<br /> of The Author it must be quite clear that this<br /> position could have been avoided if the authors<br /> had taken the advice which is put forward from<br /> time to time in these columns when criticising<br /> the agreements drafted on behalf of technical<br /> writers. As it was, the authors could only obtain<br /> the assistance of the Society to draft their new<br /> agreements and to make the best bargain on their<br /> behalf in order to get their works out of the hands<br /> of their old publishers.<br /> <br /> It has been pointed out in many places and on<br /> many occasions that publishers are essentially men<br /> of business, and if they find they can obtain a<br /> large price for any property they will naturally<br /> make the best bargain for themselves. It is usual<br /> for publishers to try to enforce more stringent<br /> terms upon authors who write on technical subjects<br /> than upon authors who write on more general sub-<br /> jects. There are two reasons for this. (1) Authors<br /> writing on technical subjects, as a general rule,<br /> have not the best knowledge of the business value<br /> of their works ; and (2) in some technical works a<br /> good part of the cost of production has sometimes<br /> to be undertaken by the author, even though his<br /> treatise may be by the greatest authority on the<br /> Sie as the subject may only appeal to the very<br /> <br /> ew.<br /> <br /> In both these cases the Society can be of assist-<br /> ance. In the first case, by showing the technical<br /> writer what is the real market value of his work<br /> under certain conditions ; and in the second, by<br /> testing for him the cost of production, and any<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> other details that may come into the agreement, if<br /> it has been made essential for him, by the pub-<br /> lisher, to pay asum towards the cost of production.<br /> <br /> Finally, it should be added that some technical<br /> works, if adopted by any of the educational<br /> centres, become very valuable property, and an<br /> author should always remember that such a chance<br /> may occur in the case of his own work.<br /> <br /> G. HE<br /> <br /> (8<br /> <br /> MUSICAL COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> E have watched with considerable interest<br /> the energetic measures that the music<br /> publishers have been taking against the<br /> <br /> pirates. It is their natural desire to protect the<br /> property which they have, in nearly all cases, pur-<br /> chased outright from the musical composers.<br /> <br /> Their last success was to obtain a conviction in<br /> a criminal prosecution for conspiracy. The trial<br /> lasted for eight days, but the time was certainly<br /> not wasted, as it brought again to the notice of the<br /> public the urgent need to remedy the difficulties<br /> under which the musical composers labour. Refer-<br /> ence has been made from time to time in The<br /> Author to the steps the music publishers have<br /> taken in order to protect their property and to<br /> bring in a Bill which would deal with the question<br /> in an adequate way. Their efforts have, to a limited<br /> extent, been successful ; but the first Bill which<br /> was passed was in many particulars insufficient ;<br /> and the second Bill, which they attempted to push<br /> through the House last summer to fill up the<br /> deficiencies, met with strong opposition from a<br /> few who appear to be entirely ignorant either of<br /> the ethics of the rights of property, or of the<br /> history and evolution of copyright property in<br /> particular.<br /> <br /> While, however, we are exceedingly glad of the<br /> result of the prosecution, we should like to add a<br /> few remarks regarding musical composers. The<br /> publishers who have during the past years taken<br /> these active steps in order to protect musical<br /> property, put themselves before the public as<br /> acting for the composer of music, and for the<br /> musical composer only. They pose as the generous<br /> guardians of the author of music, just as, in the<br /> old days, the publisher of literary wares did on<br /> behalf of the author of books. The public, how-<br /> ever, must not be deceived by this attitude, for the<br /> fact is, that although the musical composer is the<br /> author of the work, and is the man in whom the<br /> copyright rested originally, yet owing either to his<br /> ignorance of the value of his property or, as is<br /> more probable, to his lack of gregarious instinct,<br /> he continues to sell that most valuable asset—his<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ‘4<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> copyright and performing right—to the publisher,<br /> sometimes for a sum down and sometimes on a<br /> royalty basis. So the publishers are fighting<br /> rather for their own acquired rights than for the<br /> musical composers, and should openly state that<br /> this is their point of view, instead of coming<br /> forward under false colours.<br /> <br /> The efforts of the society to show to musical<br /> composers the value of their property, that is, the<br /> value of sound agreements, and to stir up some<br /> kind of opposition to the wholly illiberal and<br /> unfair contracts which are offered to them, have<br /> so far been unsuccessful. It is true that the<br /> society has a certain number of composers on its<br /> books, but a small body can bring but little<br /> pressure to bear upon the powerful publishing<br /> houses who have so long usurped the rights to<br /> which they are not entitled. Once again, it should<br /> be impressed upon the composers’ minds that not<br /> only are they getting inadequate returns for the<br /> works of their brains, but they are transferring<br /> their property without any guid pro quo.<br /> <br /> —______—~&lt;—_e—_&lt;_<br /> <br /> COPYRIGHT LAW IN THE<br /> UNITED STATES.<br /> <br /> —+-—— + —<br /> Tur Statutory NOTICE.<br /> <br /> HE importance of the decision in the recent<br /> case of the G. &amp; C. Meriam Company v.<br /> United Dictionary, which was fully set out<br /> <br /> in the last number of 7he Author, can hardly be<br /> exaggerated. The effect of it is staggering to<br /> publishers and authors, and particularly to the<br /> latter in cases where by an assignment or agree-<br /> ment they have no control over the form of printing<br /> or publishing in this country.<br /> <br /> The American Courts have laid it down in<br /> effect that if a single copy of a book, duly copy-<br /> righted in the United States, is published with the<br /> consent of the proprietor of the copyright in any<br /> part of the world, without the American copyright<br /> notice inserted in it, the proprietor cannot sue for<br /> infringement in the American Courts, and the<br /> copyright in the United States is practically lost.<br /> <br /> An important feature of the case is the way in<br /> which the defendant avoided committing a breach<br /> of the law against importation. The book was<br /> <br /> originally printed in America from plates manu-<br /> factured from type set in the United States, and the<br /> plates were sent over to England for the purpose<br /> of printing an English edition, and as the prohibi-<br /> tion against the importation into the United<br /> States of American copyright books does not apply<br /> to books printed from plates manufactured in that<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 173<br /> <br /> country,* the defendant did not offend against the<br /> law in that respect ; moreover, this prohibition is<br /> excepted,t where not more than two copies are<br /> purchased and imported “ for use and not for sale,”<br /> and this was another plea put forward by the<br /> defendant.<br /> <br /> It is the latter exception which makes the<br /> decision so fatal to the English publisher. No<br /> doubt many American copyright books are printed<br /> in England from plates manufactured in the<br /> United States, but this is not always the case.<br /> On the other hand there is nothing to prevent any<br /> person from buying two copies from an English<br /> publisher, which may perhaps contain no American<br /> copyright notice, and importing them “ for use and<br /> not for sale,” and so the prohibition against<br /> unlawful importation may be evaded.<br /> <br /> The harshness of the law was realised by the<br /> learned judge who tried the case, because the<br /> American copyright notice, as he pointed out, is<br /> of no importance in England and might conceiv-<br /> ably be detrimental to the sale of the book. Asa<br /> matter of common practice it is frequently dispensed<br /> with in books and periodicals which are published<br /> for sale in England. The merits of the case, the<br /> judge admitted, were entirely in the plaintiff&#039;s<br /> favour, and he regretted being driven to a legal<br /> conclusion which ignored them. ‘ The remedy,”<br /> he added, “rests with Congress and not with the<br /> courts.”<br /> <br /> The requirement of the copyright notice by the<br /> law of the United States is more than a century<br /> old, and it may be worth considering whether it is<br /> adapted to the reciprocal conditions of the present<br /> day. It first appears in the American Act of 1802,<br /> which, amending the original Copyright Act of<br /> 1790, provided that no author or proprietor of<br /> copyright should be entitled to the benefit of that<br /> Act unless he inserted the copyright notice. This<br /> was slightly altered in the Act of 1831, and revised<br /> to its present form in 1870, except that the alterna-<br /> tive form of the notice was added by the Act of<br /> 1874.<br /> <br /> The copyright law in the United States is at the<br /> present time undergoing revision, and it is to be<br /> hoped that Mr. Thorvald Solberg may devise a<br /> scheme which will lighten the burden of those who<br /> are at pains to secure copyright protection in the<br /> United States.<br /> <br /> The principal countries in the copyright world<br /> give protection to the American author with com-<br /> paratively little trouble. A book published in the<br /> United States can, by simultaneous publication of<br /> some copies in England—which may be printed in<br /> the United States—and registration at Stationers’<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Revised Statutes, sect, 4956.<br /> + Lbid.<br /> <br /> <br /> 174<br /> <br /> Hall, acquire copyright protection without further<br /> formality, throughout the British Dominions and<br /> +n the other fourteen countries within the Copyright<br /> Union.*<br /> <br /> On the other hand, the difficulty of a foreign<br /> author in obtaining copyright protection in the<br /> United States is even greater, and the formalities<br /> more onerous, than in the Netherlands or Siam.<br /> In the first place, the author must belong to a<br /> proclaimed or treaty country before he is competent<br /> to acquire any copyright at all.t Secondly, the<br /> book must be printed from type set up in the<br /> United States and two cupies delivered to the<br /> Librarian of Congress, in addition to a printed<br /> copy of the title of the book, on or before the day<br /> of publication.{ And, further, the statutory copy-<br /> right notice must be inserted in the several copies<br /> of every edition, whether published in the United<br /> States or, according to this recent decision, in any<br /> other part of the universe.§<br /> <br /> The wording, even, of the notice must be precise,<br /> as is shown by the cases in the American courts.<br /> Tt has been held, for instance, that where the<br /> notice was<br /> <br /> « Entered according to the Act of Congress, in<br /> <br /> the year 1878, by H. A. Jackson e<br /> an action could not be maintained by the proprietor<br /> of the copyright because the notice was insufficient. ||<br /> And in another case,<br /> <br /> “Copyright, 1891. All rights reserved,”<br /> was held to be a bad notice, because the proprietors<br /> were not specified, although the name of the<br /> publishers appeared upon the title page and they<br /> were the proprietors of the copyright.4]<br /> <br /> It may be pointed out that the Canadian Act of<br /> 1875 and the Newfoundland Act of 1890, which<br /> are based upon the law of the United States,<br /> contain similar requirements as to the statutory<br /> copyright notice. ‘There is an important distine-<br /> tion, however, because the Canadian and New-<br /> foundland Acts are local, and do not operate<br /> outside the limits of the respective colonies.<br /> (See International Copyright Act 1886, sec. 8, (1-)<br /> and (4.) ).<br /> <br /> A country, it is suggested, should only impose<br /> obligations within its jurisdiction, and there seems<br /> to be something anomalous in the United States<br /> legislation which compels an English publisher to<br /> observe a formality in England which is not<br /> required according to English law.<br /> <br /> Haroitp Harpy.<br /> <br /> * Berne Convention, art. 3, as amended by the Additional<br /> Act of Paris.<br /> <br /> + Chace Act, 1891, s. 13.<br /> <br /> + Revised Statutes, sect. 4956.<br /> <br /> § Ibid., sect. 4962.<br /> |<br /> <br /> | Jackson v. Walkie, 29 Fed. Rep. 15.<br /> { Osgood y. Aloe Co., 83 Fed. Rep. 470.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THB AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> —— 1+<br /> <br /> BLACKWOOD’S.<br /> By the Warden of Wadham.<br /> <br /> BOOKMAN.<br /> By Elizabeth Lee.<br /> <br /> Book MONTHLY.<br /> Welsh Wales: A Literary Republic unknown to Eng-<br /> land. By 8. R. John.<br /> Our Sea Poetry. By J. E. Patterson.<br /> Scott in Ireland.<br /> <br /> An Oxford Trimmer.<br /> <br /> Heinrich Heine.<br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY REVIEW.<br /> An Agnostic’s Progress.—II. By William Scott Palmer,<br /> Scotch Education : How Ought it to be Organised. By<br /> James Donaldson.<br /> The Celtic Spirit in Literature. By Havelock Ellis.<br /> <br /> CoRNHILL.<br /> <br /> Society in the Time of Voltaire.<br /> <br /> George Eliot’s Coventry Friends.<br /> Draper.<br /> <br /> Grandeur et Décadence De Bernard Shaw. By A Young<br /> Playgoer.<br /> <br /> Freeman versus Froude.<br /> <br /> By 8. G. Tallentyre.<br /> By Warwick H.<br /> <br /> By Andrew Lang.<br /> <br /> FoRTNIGHTLY REVIEW.<br /> Critical Notes on “ As You Like it.” By H. M. Paull.<br /> Ebenezer Elliott: The Poet of Free Trade. By H. G.<br /> Shelley.<br /> INDEPENDENT REVIEW.<br /> Quo Vadis. By G. Lowes Dickinson.<br /> Sir Thomas Browne. By G. L. Strachey.<br /> Macterlinck as Moralist. By Algar Thorold.<br /> Flowers and The Greek Gods. By Alice Lindsell.<br /> Leonidas Andreieff. By Simon Linden.<br /> <br /> MACMILLAN’S MAGAZINE,<br /> <br /> The Stuarts in Rome. By Herbert M. Vaughan.<br /> Lay Canons in France. By Egerton Beck.<br /> <br /> MONTH.<br /> Religion versus Religions. By C. C. Martindale.<br /> Edmund Campion’s History of Ireland.<br /> <br /> MontTHLy REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Lord Byron and Lord Lovelace. By John Murray.<br /> <br /> ‘Ancient and Modern Classics as Instruments of Educa-<br /> tion. By J. Herbert Warren.<br /> <br /> Froude and Freeman. By Ronald McNeill.<br /> <br /> A Forgotten Princess. By Reginald Lucas.<br /> <br /> NATIONAL REVIEW.<br /> Shaw and Super-Shaw. By Edith Balfour. ;<br /> The Northern University Movement. By Talbot Baines.<br /> NINETEENTH CENTURY.<br /> <br /> - An Official Registration of Private Art Collections. By<br /> Eugénie Strong.<br /> <br /> The Reading of the Modern Girl. By Florence B. Low.<br /> <br /> The Reviewing of Fiction. By Richard Bagot.<br /> <br /> TEMPLE BaR.<br /> <br /> Richard Jefferies. By Edward Thomas.<br /> <br /> (There are no articles dealing with Literary, Dramatic,<br /> or Musical subjects in Chambers&#039;s Journal or Pail Mail<br /> Magazine.)<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS.<br /> <br /> —— + —<br /> <br /> ERE are a few standing rules to be observed in an<br /> agreement. There are four methods of dealing<br /> with literary property :—<br /> <br /> I. Selling it Outright.<br /> <br /> This is sometimes satisfactory, if a proper price can be<br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> Il. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement).<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> (1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation.<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “ office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> (4.) Not to give up American, Colonial, or Continental<br /> rights.<br /> <br /> (5.) Not to give up serial or translation rights.<br /> <br /> (6.) Not to bind yourself for future work to any publisher.<br /> As well bind yourself for the future to any one solicitor or<br /> doctor !<br /> <br /> 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 The Author.<br /> <br /> IV. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :-—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book,<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> Allother 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 /> tothe 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 /> ——— +<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 /> THE AUTHOR. 175<br /> <br /> 3. There are three forms of dramatic contract for plays<br /> in three or more acts :—<br /> <br /> (a.) Sale outright of the performing right. This<br /> is unsatisfactory. An author who enters into<br /> such a contract should stipulate in the contract<br /> for production of the piece by a certain date<br /> and for proper publication of his name on the<br /> play-bills.<br /> <br /> (b.) Sale of performing right or of a licence to<br /> perform on the basis of percentages on<br /> gross receipts. Percentages vary between 5<br /> and 15 per cent. An author should obtain a<br /> percentage on the sliding scale of gross receipts<br /> in preference to the American system, Should<br /> obtain a sum in advance of percentages. A fixed<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 (0.) apply<br /> also in this case.<br /> <br /> 4, Plays in one act are often sold outright, but it is<br /> better to obtain a small nightly fee if possible, and a sum<br /> paid in advance of such fees in any event. It is extremely<br /> important that the amateur rights of one-act plays should<br /> be reserved.<br /> <br /> 5. Authors should remember that performing rights can<br /> be limited, and are usually limited, by town, country, and<br /> time. This is most important.<br /> <br /> 6. Authors should not assign performing rights, but<br /> should grant a licence to perform, The legal distinction is<br /> of great importance,<br /> <br /> 7. Authors should remember that performing rights in a<br /> play are distinct from literary copyright. A manager<br /> holding the performing right or licence to perform cannot<br /> print the book of the words.<br /> <br /> 8. Never forget that United States rights may be exceed-<br /> ingly valuable. ‘They should never be included in English<br /> agreements without the author obtaining a substantial<br /> consideration.<br /> <br /> 9, Agreements for collaboration should be carefully<br /> drawn and executed before collaboration is commenced.<br /> <br /> 10, An author should remember that production of a play<br /> is highly speculative: that he runs a very great risk of<br /> delay and a breakdown in the fulfilment of his contract.<br /> He should therefore guard himself all the more carefully in<br /> the beginning.<br /> <br /> 11. An author must remember that the dramatic market<br /> is exceedingly limited, and that for a novice the first object<br /> is to obtain adequate publication.<br /> <br /> As these warnings must necessarily be incomplete, on<br /> account of the wide range of the subject of dramatic con-<br /> tracts, those authors desirous of further information<br /> are referred to the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> e«—~&lt;&gt;°<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> —_<br /> <br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given for the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<br /> <br /> a rule, the musical publisher demands from the musical<br /> composer a transfer of fuller rights and less liberal finan-<br /> cial terms than those obtained for literary and dramatic<br /> property. The musical composer has very often the two<br /> rights to deal with—performing right and copyright, He<br /> <br /> <br /> 176<br /> <br /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into particular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> <br /> —_—_——_e—&lt;&gt;—_-—__<br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —-—&gt;+<br /> <br /> VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> <br /> 4 advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> <br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> <br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> <br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor, but if there is any<br /> <br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> <br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> <br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion. All this<br /> without any cost to the member.<br /> <br /> 2. Remember that questions connected with copyright<br /> and publishers’ agreements do not fall within the experi-<br /> ence of ordinary solicitors. Therefore, do not scruple to use<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> 3. Send to the Office copies of past agreements and past<br /> accounts, with a copy of the book represented. The<br /> Secretary will always be glad to have any agreements, new<br /> or old, for inspection and note. The information thus<br /> obtained may prove invaluable.<br /> <br /> 4. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 5. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no benefit to yourself, and that you are<br /> advancing the best interests of your calling in promoting<br /> the independence of the writer, the dramatist, the composer.<br /> <br /> 6. The Committee have now arranged for the reception<br /> of members’ agreements and their preservation in a fire-<br /> proof safe. The agreements will, of course, be regarded as<br /> confidential documents to be read only by the Secretary,<br /> who will keep the key of the safe. The Society now offers :<br /> —(1) To read and advise upon agreements and to give<br /> advice concerning publishers. (2) To stamp agreements<br /> in readiness for a possible action upon them. (3) To keep<br /> agreements. (4) To enforce payments due according to<br /> agreements. Fuller particulars of the Society’s work<br /> can be obtained in the Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 7. No contract should be entered into with a literary<br /> agent without the advice of the Secretary of the Society.<br /> Members are strongly advised not to accept without careful<br /> consideration the contracts with publishers submitted to<br /> them by literary agents, and are recommended to submit<br /> them for interpretation and explanation to the Secretary<br /> of the Society.<br /> <br /> 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 41s. per<br /> annum, or £10 10s. for life membership.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> <br /> +4<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 /> NE<br /> <br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> ee<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 /> —_—_—__—_+—— —___<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> HE Editor of The Author begs to remind members of<br /> <br /> I the Society that, although the paper is sent to them<br /> <br /> free of charge, the cost of producing it would be a<br /> very heavy charge on the resources of the Society if a great<br /> many members did not forward to the Secretary the modest<br /> 5s. 6d. subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for “The Author” should be addressed<br /> to the Offices of the Society, 39, Old Queen Street, Storey’s<br /> Gate, S.W., and should reach the Editor not later than the<br /> 21st of each month.<br /> <br /> All persons engaged in literary work of any kind;<br /> whether members of the Society or not, are invited to<br /> communicate to the Editor any points connected with their<br /> work which it would be advisable in the general interest to<br /> publish.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by the<br /> Editor on all subjects connected with literature, but on<br /> no other subjects whatever. lHvery 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 /> ee<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, H.C.<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> AUTHORITIES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> In last month’s issue we gave a short statement<br /> that the decision in Werckmeister v. Amerwan Litho-<br /> graphic Company had been upheld by Judge Holt<br /> of the United States Circuit Court for the Southern<br /> District of New York. In his judgment he made<br /> some very trenchant remarks on the question<br /> whether or not the Act demands a copyright notice<br /> on the original painting. The words of the section<br /> making it necessary that the notice of the copy-<br /> right shall be inscribed run as follows :—‘‘ Upon<br /> some visible portion thereof, or of the substance on<br /> which the same shall be mounted.” Judge Holt<br /> points out that the word “ thereof,” and the words<br /> “the same,” do not refer to maps, charts, &amp;c., but<br /> refer back to “the several copies.” He continues<br /> to show that the copyright notice is not written on<br /> the original MS., or on the original map, but on<br /> the copies that are made public, and though he<br /> draws the distinction that the original painting is<br /> more often made public than the map and the MS.,<br /> yet he thinks the reason for the construction which<br /> makes the Copyright Act provide that the notice<br /> demanded by it shall be put on the copies of the<br /> copyrighted thing instead of upon the thing itself, is<br /> so weighty that such a construction should be<br /> given to the statute. He ends his judgment by<br /> saying :-—“It would seem almost a deliberate<br /> vulgarization of art if the finest specimens of<br /> painting and sculpture exhibited in the Paris<br /> Salon, the London Royal Academy, or the leading<br /> art societies in this or other countries were all<br /> ticketed with copyright notices. I cannot see why<br /> the law should require it, or that it does require<br /> 1G.<br /> <br /> This judgment and this decision are very satis-<br /> factory and seem to give a sound common sense<br /> interpretation to the United States Act on this<br /> point.<br /> <br /> In addition to the Werckmeister case, another<br /> case was printed in The Author from the Pub-<br /> lishers’ Weekly of New York. We must thank<br /> Mr. A. P. Watt for calling our attention to this<br /> important decision. It deals with some legal<br /> aspects which touch nearly all authors who publish<br /> in the United States of America and Great Britain,<br /> and an article from the pen of Mr. Harold Hardy,<br /> printed this month, will, we hope, explain the<br /> position more clearly to our members.<br /> <br /> We have received from the Copyright Office of<br /> the Library of Congress the statement of its work<br /> during 1905.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> gg<br /> <br /> A comparison of the figures for that year with<br /> the figures of 1904 indicates sufficiently clearly<br /> the increasing work of this office. Whereas, in<br /> 1904, the sum received from every branch of the<br /> copyright business amounted to 75,520 dollars, in<br /> 1905 it totalled 78,518 dollars, or an increase of<br /> 2,998 dollars. Moreover this increase has not<br /> been obtained by an excess in one particular branch<br /> of its work, but has been manifested in all depart-<br /> ments. The number of titles registered, the<br /> certificates granted, the copies of records supplied,<br /> the assignments and the searches made, each shows<br /> an increase on the preceding year.<br /> <br /> The entries have risen from 106,577 in 1904 to<br /> 116,789 in 1905.<br /> <br /> The largest number of entries refers to musical<br /> compositions, 25,567 coming under this category.<br /> Periodicals, with 21,925 entries, come second ; while<br /> photographs, with 16,061, come third on the list.<br /> The entries referring to books (which include<br /> pamphlets) number 15,393. In addition, there<br /> are 3,872 entries referring to booklets, leaflets,<br /> circulars, and cards, and 10,204 entries of news-<br /> papers and magazine articles.<br /> <br /> The fact that on January 4th, 1906, all appli-<br /> cations, with the exception of 273 non-certificated<br /> entries, had been acted upon, indexed, and cata-<br /> logued, is sufficient testimony to the prompt and<br /> businesslike methods of the Copyright Office, and<br /> reflects the greatest credit on Mr. Thorvald Solberg,<br /> the Registrar of Copyrights.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Sm Francis Burnanp who has been for over<br /> forty years connected with Punch has now<br /> resigned the editorship. There is no need, after<br /> the many tributes from other sources, to reiterate<br /> the fact that Sir Francis Burnand has always<br /> maintained the high principles of the paper, both<br /> in his selection of artists and in his selection of<br /> authors.<br /> <br /> We must congratulate the retiring editor on<br /> his long and successful connection with the paper.<br /> We are especially pleased to do so, as he has<br /> been a prominent member of the society for some<br /> years.<br /> <br /> His successor, Mr. Owen Seaman, whose work<br /> in Punch and in other papers is so well known,<br /> will, we are sure, fill the chair worthily. The<br /> society has also been honoured by Mr. Seaman’s<br /> membership, and he is, in addition, a member of<br /> the managing committee. He has always shown<br /> great interest in the arduous duties which he and<br /> the other members so generously undertake on<br /> behalf of those who belong to the society.<br /> <br /> ——_—_—_+——-_<br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> OBITUARY.<br /> <br /> —-— + —<br /> <br /> E have, with regret, to chronicle the death<br /> of Mr. C. J. Cornish, which occurred at<br /> the end of January.<br /> <br /> The late Mr. Cornish, who was in his forty-sixth<br /> year at the date of his death, had been a member<br /> of the Society for some fifteen years, and showed<br /> during that period his practical appreciation of the<br /> Society’s work by frequently consulting it for advice<br /> relative to the marketing of his property.<br /> <br /> Most of his books dealt with natural history,<br /> sport, and outdoor life, and although his life was<br /> but a short one, he found time to write about a<br /> dozen of these works, in addition to contributing<br /> to numerous magazines articles dealing with those<br /> subjects on which he was an authority.<br /> <br /> «Life at the Zoo,” “ Wild England of To-day,”<br /> “Nights with an Old Gunner,” are a few of the<br /> works which came from his pen.<br /> <br /> —_—_—_——__+—_—_+-___—_-<br /> <br /> THE LAW OF INTERNATIONAL<br /> COPYRIGHT.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> HE work on this subject, by William Briggs,<br /> which has just been published by Stevens<br /> and Haynes, is divided into five parts:<br /> <br /> (1) The Evolution of International Copyright ;<br /> (2) The Theory of International Copyright ;<br /> (3) The Berne Convention, with a chapter on the<br /> Montevideo Convention ; (4) International Copy-<br /> right in the British Dominions and Colonial<br /> Copyright ; (5) Protection of Authors in the<br /> United States.<br /> <br /> Mr. Briggs starts from the very commencement.<br /> He shows how, gradually, property rose from<br /> something physical to something metaphysical,<br /> and that property, strictly speaking, is a right not<br /> a thing; how it became subject to certain laws in<br /> each state ; and how, with the evolution of society,<br /> different kinds of property were recognised, each in<br /> its turn coming under the legislature. He draws<br /> attention to manual labour as a title to property,<br /> then to intellectual labour as a title, and, finally,<br /> to copyright based on labour. Judge Thomson,<br /> an eminent American judge, stated: “The great<br /> principle on which the author’s right rests is that<br /> it is the fruit or production of his labour, and that<br /> labour by the faculties of the mind may establish<br /> aright of property as well as by the faculties of<br /> the body. Every principle of justice, equity,<br /> morality, fitness, and sound policy concurs in pro-<br /> tecting the literary labours of men to the same<br /> extent as the property acquired by manual labour<br /> is protected.”<br /> <br /> This is the view of the great French writers om<br /> the subject, but France has always been more<br /> liberal, and has always taken a broader view than<br /> any other nation in the evolution of this kind of<br /> property. Quoting another authority, he says:<br /> “‘ Distinct properties were not settled at the same<br /> time nor by one single Act, but by successive<br /> degrees,” and he goes on to show that although<br /> copyright property only became valuable at a late<br /> date, with the introduction of printing, it is not,<br /> therefore, a whit the less a real property on this<br /> account. It has been argued that copyright pro-<br /> perty is merely the granting of a monopoly.<br /> Mr. Briggs shows the fallacy of the argument. It<br /> is argued that although for many years it was not<br /> the subject of legislative enactments, it is not the<br /> less the property of the author. It is, in truth, as<br /> he points out, “‘an antecedent right of property<br /> deriving only its legal protection from the State.”<br /> <br /> England has the distinction of passing the first<br /> copyright law in which the author’s interests were<br /> considered. This is the Act of Anne, 1709, but<br /> though England may boast of this, it is France<br /> which can boast of treating most liberally the real<br /> ideal of copyright—that is, the right of foreign<br /> authors to protection. Her example has in recent<br /> years been followed by Belgium and Luxembourg.<br /> <br /> The writer having shown conclusively that copy-<br /> right is the property of the author, then discusses<br /> the ethical side. His remarks on this point are of<br /> great interest. His chapter on this question begins<br /> as follows :—%“Though piracy at sea was at one<br /> time considered an honourable profession, general<br /> morality has so far advanced that at the present<br /> day it is a barbaric practice, is regarded as<br /> criminal, but intellectual property has not yet been<br /> acknowledged as worthy to rank with material<br /> goods in respect of international protection,” but<br /> he points out, in a subsequent chapter—the<br /> history of international copyright—how, by slow<br /> degrees, the immorality of this piracy grew on the<br /> international conscience, and sometimes for ethical<br /> reasons, and sometimes for practical reasons,<br /> nations began to enter into treaties for the pro-<br /> tection of foreigners. It is curious to note how<br /> the ethical reasons have sometimes preceded the<br /> practical development. The nation that has given<br /> the greatest freedom to foreigners does not find it<br /> more difficult to enter into treaties, but finds it<br /> less difficult to do so, and we are glad to think<br /> that the English Copyright Commission gave as its<br /> opinion that reprisals in the matter of literary —<br /> plunder were illegitimate. Piracy, in many cases,<br /> does not lead to the production of the best books<br /> of other countries in the country that upholds the<br /> piracy, and is ever disastrous to its own literature. —<br /> <br /> The whole question of international copyright, —<br /> and the arguments brought forward in its favour, —<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> prove a strong indictment against the present<br /> position of the United States in the civilised<br /> world. Darras, the great- French authority, speak-<br /> ing of Russian law, says: “It seems to protect<br /> foreigners to a certain extent, but if the reality of<br /> the facts alone is taken into consideration, its<br /> place is marked side by side with the United<br /> States and Turkey.” We are pleased to think,<br /> however, as from time to time we have pointed<br /> out, and Mr. Briggs confirms this fact, that the<br /> cultured and intellectual minority in America have<br /> always been in favour of the higher evolution<br /> of international copyright and repudiated trade<br /> restriction.<br /> Having dealt exhaustively with the evolution of<br /> property generally, and copyright property in<br /> particular, Mr. Briggs then proceeds to consider<br /> the theory of International Copyright. He shows<br /> by careful argument the result of piracy on the<br /> ’ literature of nations, and on this question he is in<br /> entire agreement with the views that have been<br /> expressed from time to time in 7he Author. He<br /> next treats, in some detail, the evolution of Inter-<br /> national Copyright. He shows how the movement<br /> was inaugurated by treaties between the countries.<br /> He examines the advantages and disadvantages of<br /> treaties as a means of international agreement.<br /> Treaties between individual states are, no doubt,<br /> advantageous for the protection of their writers,<br /> but when there are many countries, and the treaties<br /> dealing with the same subject are multiplied in-<br /> definitely, then confusion is likely to reign, unless<br /> some international system such as is provided by<br /> the Berne Convention is adopted. Mr. Briggs<br /> points out very strongly that the question of copy-<br /> right should not be dealt with in commercial<br /> treaties between different countries, as copyright<br /> property, owing to its peculiar nature, cannot be<br /> dealt with on the same basis as bales of cotton and<br /> other similar commodities. He goes further and<br /> deals with the question of treaties made by<br /> countries that are members of the Berne Conven-<br /> tion with countries outside the Convention, or with<br /> countries within the Convention, and discusses the<br /> advantages to be derived from these separate<br /> treaties. He is inclined to think that treaties<br /> with countries outside the Convention will tend<br /> finally to bring those countries into the Convention,<br /> and that treaties between countries in the Conven-<br /> tion will broaden and will not narrow the advan-<br /> tages which those countries derive from the Con-<br /> vention, and therefore would assist the widening of<br /> the Convention should such widening at a later<br /> date be feasible. Finally, he arrives at the Berne<br /> Convention and takes it clause by clause, and<br /> views it from the point of view of its general<br /> application. Under this chapter he also deals<br /> <br /> with the Convention of Montevideo.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 179<br /> <br /> The next division of the work, Part 4, refers to<br /> the particular application of International Copy-<br /> right to Great Britain under the Imperial Laws,<br /> and alternately, with the rights of Englishmen<br /> in foreign countries. Part 5, the last, deals with<br /> the United States and their relations with foreign<br /> countries.<br /> <br /> Thus he covers the whole range of International<br /> Copyright from end to end, showing the gradual<br /> advance of civilisation ; the gradual development<br /> of the rights of property, and, finally, of copy-<br /> right property ; how nations dealt with the newly<br /> developed property, and how the more civilised<br /> they became the more liberal became the protection<br /> which they afforded it. From beginning to end,<br /> his arguments lead to the conclusion that the<br /> United States have not yet risen to the level of the<br /> great nations of Hurope. It is hoped, however,<br /> that the consolidation of the United States Law<br /> may produce a satisfactory result.<br /> <br /> To deal with such a wide subject and in so<br /> detailed a manner necessitated the production of a<br /> large book and an enormous amount of labour.<br /> Mr. Briggs’ book covers more than 800 pages. It<br /> could not, in order to be of value to the student<br /> : — as the specialist, be very greatly reduced in<br /> <br /> ulk.<br /> <br /> The author cannot be too highly commended for<br /> his careful and laborious work, dealing as it does<br /> with the laws and technicalities in all the countries<br /> of the world, from many of which it is not always<br /> easy to obtain satisfactory and reliable informa-<br /> tion.<br /> <br /> With the exception of one or two minor slips,<br /> we have been unable to find any mistake in the<br /> facts quoted. In conclusion, we must express our<br /> gratitude to Mr. Briggs, not merely for producing<br /> a book of over 800 pages with great labour and<br /> care, but because by this production he has filled<br /> a gap which has existed in treatises on copyright<br /> property.<br /> <br /> a ———$<br /> <br /> SOME FRENCH-CANADIAN WRITERS.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> HE “Voyages” of Champlain, the “ Relations”<br /> of the Jesuit missionaries, and the epistles<br /> of Marie de l’Incarnation, will always be<br /> <br /> interesting to those who endeavour to trace back<br /> to its source the stream of French-Canadian litera-<br /> ture. In these early writings we discover the<br /> influence of those conditions under which French-<br /> Canadian litlérateurs have usually worked. With<br /> few exceptions they have been chiefly controlled by<br /> religion and patriotism. Living in a stimulating<br /> atmosphere of sunlit purity, in the midst of the<br /> most picturesque scenic surroundings, they have-<br /> <br /> <br /> 180<br /> <br /> always possessed the consciousness of a not less<br /> picturesque past. In addition to this, a large pro-<br /> portion of them have enjoyed the advantage of<br /> well-bred ancestors. ‘There was something of the<br /> spirit of the Crusaders in those who went out two<br /> or three centuries ago—some of the best blood of<br /> France—to found a New France in the western<br /> hemisphere. It is true that they had the Indian<br /> fur trade in mind, together with schemes of<br /> colonization of a more or less business-like descrip-<br /> tion; but many of them had also romantic dreams<br /> of glory, while every expedition was bathed in the<br /> spirit of faith and of religious proselytism. The<br /> Church has continued to hold the position it took<br /> at the outset in the Province of Quebec, when,<br /> indeed, it was not the Province of Quebec, but<br /> New France. It had seventy thousand inhabitants<br /> at the cession to the British in 1760; these have<br /> increased to one million six hundred and fifty<br /> thousand now. But they are all Roman Catholic,<br /> and in the main their customs and their civil law<br /> have been preserved as they were under French<br /> domination. Itis one of the triumphs of the British<br /> genius for managing colonies that the French-<br /> Canadians are loyal to the Crown, contented, happy<br /> and well-to-do, and that they have not the slightest<br /> wish to change their allegiance. Less than might<br /> <br /> have been supposed have they been influenced by<br /> <br /> France. They present a unique example of a<br /> branch severed from a parent stem and starting an<br /> independent existence. Their literary separation<br /> from France has been almost as complete as their<br /> political separation. The Church has attended to<br /> their education—they have not sent their sons and<br /> daughters “ home” for their teaching. They have<br /> not felt the impact of literary transformations any<br /> more than the rebound of political revolutions.<br /> Hon. Hector Fabre has well said :<br /> <br /> “ Our society is neither French nor English, nor Ameri-<br /> can, it is Canadian. One finds in its manners, its ideas,<br /> its customs, its tendencies something of each of the peoples<br /> in the neighbourhood of which it has lived; French<br /> petulance corrected by English common-sense, British<br /> stolidity brightened by French sprightliness. The con-<br /> tinuous practice of constitutional liberty, an incessant con-<br /> tact with institutions and forms foreign to our old mother<br /> country, the almost total cessation of intimate communica-<br /> tion with her... while they permit the ineffaceable<br /> mark of origin, they have destroyed any striking re-<br /> semblance. The Canadian feels himself as much a stranger<br /> in Paris as in London, for if our language is French, our<br /> customs and tastes are so no longer. ... Itis this society,<br /> miraculously preserved in certain respects, singularly dis-<br /> figured in others, that we must paint if we seriously wish<br /> to have a Canadian literature.”<br /> <br /> It is impossible.within the compass of a short<br /> article to mention in detail every author hailing<br /> from the Province of Quebec who has produced an<br /> historical monograph, blossomed into a fewtlleton,<br /> or penned a chanson. Suffice it to say that there<br /> <br /> TAR AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> have been many amateurs of a high type of excel-<br /> lence, and that out of a total list of a hundred and<br /> seventy or a hundred and eighty respectable writers,<br /> no fewer than seventy have indulged in verse as<br /> well as prose. The poetic form in which the<br /> literary genius of a people first breaks out has not<br /> been wanting, and if it has been born to blush<br /> unseen, it has at any rate served to keep alive a<br /> certain interest in things literary, for it is cer-<br /> tainly one use of the minor poet that he helps to<br /> clear a space in which the undoubted song-birds<br /> of the first order may sing.<br /> <br /> Between the production of the early works of<br /> which mention was made at the outset, and the<br /> date which marks the beginning of the French-<br /> Canadian literature of our modern day, there lies<br /> a somewhat arid period. If the stream of literature<br /> was in existence, it was surely flowing through<br /> subterranean passages ; buried beneath the laborious<br /> details of the lives of the pioneers. Such names as<br /> Joseph Quesnel, Michel Bibaud, Réal Angers,<br /> Bartle, Turcotte, Derome and others, though they<br /> were early in the French-Canadian field, were a<br /> long way behind their somewhat archaic fore-<br /> runners. But in them, as in those forerunners,<br /> we discover that naiveté and freshness of senti-<br /> ment which is one of the marks of French-<br /> Canadian writing. It is at the very antipodes of<br /> anything like Voltairean cynicism, Gallic frivolity,<br /> or Zolaesque realism.<br /> <br /> Among the early writers in whom these charac-<br /> teristics are strongly marked, a definite place is<br /> taken by Octave Crémazie, whose “Le Vieux<br /> Soldat Canadian” has been deservedly admired,<br /> and who has by some been considered, in his poem<br /> “Les Morts,”’ the superior of Lamartine. Among<br /> other poems of his are “Castelfidardo,” and ‘ Le<br /> Drapeau de Carillon.’ Crémazie was inspired by<br /> a keen pride of race, and he was a man of more<br /> than common reading. The attractions of com-<br /> merce seem, however, to have been stronger in his<br /> case than those of poetry. Though one or two of<br /> his poems have lived, he produced but little.<br /> <br /> The name of Léon Pamphile Lemay is familiar<br /> as the translator into French, for the benefit of his<br /> compatriots in Quebec, of Longfellow’s ‘ Evan-<br /> geline,” a work which was performed by him with<br /> an ease and sympathetic insight which are worthy<br /> of remark. M. Lemay also published a volume<br /> entitled ‘‘ Essais Poétiques.” His verse is of a<br /> tender, melancholy and dreamy cast ; a dim veil<br /> of sadness and pain seems to enshroud its beauty ;<br /> yet there is in it a simplicity, a pathos, and a<br /> transfiguring of familiar objects which commend<br /> it to the appreciative reader.<br /> <br /> But these names of literary pioneers are taken<br /> somewhat at random, and it may be that to some<br /> extent accident gave them a prominence over their<br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> compeers that was not borne out by their essential<br /> attributes. That they were admired and appreciated<br /> shows, however, that a literary taste was being<br /> developed. This was further assisted from time to<br /> time by the establishment of literary magazines.<br /> The first of these was “La Bibliotheque Cana-<br /> dienne,” which was published in Montreal, in 1825,<br /> by the poet Bibaud, already named, and edited by<br /> him. It is interesting to turn to this carefully<br /> edited periodical, the contents of which were<br /> ambitious enough to comprise not only literary, but<br /> scientific and historical, matters. It appeared up<br /> to 1830. In 1830-81 the same editor brought out<br /> a magazine called “ L’Observateur,” and in 1832,<br /> he produced two volumes entitled “ Magasin du<br /> Bas Canada.” ‘Le Repertoire National,” in four<br /> volumes, published in 1848, was compiled by J.<br /> Huston. It contains a somewhat miscellaneous<br /> collection of all the writings of the French<br /> Canadians in prose and verse from 1777 to 1850.<br /> A fine edition of this work was produced in Mon-<br /> treal in 1895. ‘La Ruche Littéraire” (1853-59)<br /> was read with great interest by French Canadians<br /> of taste and culture. For by that time literature<br /> in French Canada had set for itself more definite<br /> aims, and there had arisen a little galaxy of stars<br /> upon the Quebec firmament. Among these the<br /> <br /> most distinguished are Pierre J. O. Chauveau, a<br /> <br /> novelist of ability; Etienne Parent, journalist,<br /> philosopher, and thinker—disposed, sometimes, to<br /> kick over the traces of the Church; Abbé J. B. A.<br /> Ferland, a careful and interesting historian ; J. C.<br /> Tache, a journalist of great force of character ;<br /> Hector Fabre, from whom a quotation has already<br /> been made—a man of fine taste, a great faculty of<br /> expression, and a considerable gift in delicate<br /> satire ; Benjamin Sulte, now the President of the<br /> Canadian Royal Society, and a very capable<br /> historian ; Abbé Provencher, a master of natural<br /> history, with especial accomplishments in ornitho-<br /> logy—-a man who found plenty to occupy his clever<br /> and industrious pen in the Canadian fields, forests,<br /> and waters ; James M. Lemoine, the historian of<br /> the old families of Quebec; Professor Paul Stevens,<br /> a writer of exquisite parables and gems of polished<br /> prose that were reproduced again and again by the<br /> newspapers ; Hector Langevin, an able lawyer who,<br /> at the age of twenty-one, became the editor of an<br /> ecclesiastical journal, and never afterwards lost his<br /> taste for literature. Here were ten men who may<br /> be said to have formed a sort of epoch, and to have<br /> brought together into a focus the wandering rays<br /> of French-Canadian literary ability. ‘They repre-<br /> sented the love of literature for its own sake, and<br /> with that disregard of pecuniary reward which<br /> has always been characteristic of the French-<br /> Canadian author, they helped to create a unique<br /> atmosphere of culture. It is impossible to read<br /> <br /> 181<br /> <br /> their productions without being conscious that they<br /> contain a sincere and genuine enthusiasm that is as<br /> far removed as possible from the dollar hunting<br /> proclivities of many of the authors of their continent.<br /> To these names may be added those of Abbé<br /> Faillon, a preserver of the early folk-lore of the<br /> colony, and Emile Chevallier, a writer of charming<br /> romances.<br /> <br /> No name is more deservedly celebrated in Cana-<br /> dian letters than that of Francis Xavier Garneau,<br /> author of the great work “ Histoire du Canada,”<br /> which was published in three volumes in 1848.<br /> Like many of his compatriots, Garneau had in his<br /> youth written graceful and elegant verse. He takes<br /> a front rank, not only in the hearts of his country-<br /> men, but in their critical and literary estimate of<br /> him. He was a man of initiative courage, heroic<br /> perseverance, indomitable will, disinterestedness,<br /> and self-sacrifice. His ‘ Histoire” at once took a<br /> dignified place among the distinguished chronicles<br /> of other nations, and it remains, up to the present,<br /> the chief historical work among a people who have<br /> shown that they are by no means destitute of<br /> historic genius.<br /> <br /> Garneau has not been surpassed for his discern-<br /> meni of the causes that were at the back of the<br /> facts revealed in the papers referring to the early<br /> history of the colony. He is less passionate and<br /> partial than the writers who had dealt with the<br /> subject before him; for instance, he never hides<br /> the good deeds of the British. Taking his views<br /> from an elevated standpoint, he did much to raise<br /> the tone of French-Canadian history to a high,<br /> philosophical, and fruitful level.<br /> <br /> Antoine Gerin-Lajoie had the singular good<br /> fortune to acquire a wide local fame in the pro-<br /> vince before leaving college. A tragedy and a<br /> sone—especially the song—made him famous in<br /> 1842. The tragedy was based on the adventures<br /> of La Tour and his son in Nova Scotia, during the<br /> early part of the seventeenth century. The song was<br /> merely the expression of home-sickness, placed in<br /> the mouth of a Canadian exiled to a foreign land.<br /> So popular did the words of this song become<br /> among the French-speaking population, that they<br /> are now heard wherever French-Canadians have<br /> wandered on the continent of North America.<br /> <br /> The historical novel has an excellent model in<br /> “ Les Anciens Canadiens,” by M. de Gaspé, which<br /> was published at Montreal about forty years ago.<br /> It is a book that has a good place allotted to it in<br /> French-Canadian libraries. Its pages are animated<br /> by the flame of the past and the spirit of other<br /> days, for their author, who produced this work at<br /> seventy years of age, had with his own eyes seen<br /> much of what he narrates. Besides “ Les Anciens<br /> Canadiens,” two romances have had a considerable<br /> vogue. Of “ Jean Rivard’’—the work of Gerin-<br /> <br /> <br /> 182<br /> <br /> Lajoie—we have already spoken as having brought<br /> an immediate fame to its clever young author. The<br /> other—* Charles Guérin ”—is the work of Pierre<br /> G. O. Chauveau. If the two heroes of these<br /> writers had met in the world they would have<br /> been friends. Both stories are true to life, inter-<br /> esting and well-planned. The people are natural<br /> and the local colour is good. “Jean Rivard” is,<br /> perhaps, the better of the two as an exact study of<br /> French-Canadian manners.<br /> <br /> Louis Honore Frechette, C.M.G., D.C.L., is<br /> greeted throughout Canada and the United States<br /> as the poet laureate of Canada. His poetry is of a<br /> high order ; it shows variety of conception and<br /> great delicacy of touch. His lines to various<br /> persons, whether distinguished in public life, or<br /> endeared to the author by private ties, are par-<br /> ticularly happy. He is a truly national poet, and<br /> his inspiration is found, not only in the past, but<br /> in the present. The grand dim old Canada, region<br /> of the savage huntsman and the pioneer, the<br /> voyageur, the trapper, and the missionary, with<br /> their all but fabulous doings, of these Frechette<br /> sometimes sings. But he sings also of a Quebec as<br /> it now stands ; of Montreal, as it now is ; the glories<br /> of Niagara ; the Sagueuay, the Thousand Isles, Cape<br /> Eternity, Beloeil Lake, Lake Beauport, Cape Tour-<br /> mente, and so on—the beautiful natural scenery<br /> which retains still its picturesque wildness. It is to<br /> people of to-day, or of yesterday, that his strophes<br /> are addressed. He sings rather of what French-<br /> Canada still has, as well as of what has passed<br /> away from her forever. He is the poet of the<br /> present, as Crémazie of the past ; the poet of joy<br /> and joyous nature, as Lemay is the poet of sadness<br /> and the autumn tints of earth. There is a whole-<br /> some warmth and freshness, a human life and joy<br /> about his poems which are truly refreshing. Among<br /> his more serious works are his drama of “ Papineau,”<br /> based on Canadian historical incidents ; his “ Dis-<br /> covery of the Mississipi,” his “ Canadian Year,” and<br /> his “ Légende d’un Peuple.” His poems fall natur-<br /> ally into two classes ; one treating of national, #.¢.,<br /> French-Canadian subjects ; the other consisting of<br /> verses which might have been written in any<br /> country, with due regard to local colours. The<br /> former perpetuate the nobler days of French-Canada,<br /> when patriotism had not degenerated into mere<br /> provincial sentiment and race-hatred ; when the<br /> antagonism between English and French was as<br /> legitimate a feeling in Canada as on the battle-<br /> fields of Blenheim and Ramilies. But they do more<br /> than this. Beginning with the solitudes of the<br /> primeval forest, broken only by the red man in<br /> pursuit of his game, they retrace, in a long series of<br /> pictures the history of a colony, brilliant even under<br /> a cloud of obscurity. As it comes down through<br /> the excessive ages, this epic in short. poems shows,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> in three epochal divisions, the development of the<br /> country from wilderness into settlement ; from<br /> settlement to the strife of the occupants ; and from<br /> the victory of the English race to events still pain-<br /> fully fresh in the memory of Canadians. “O notre<br /> histoire, écrin de perles ignorées,” says the poet ;<br /> and with the most finished art he arranges the<br /> jewels of his casket, disposing each so as to bring<br /> out its best and purest glitter. Cartier, La Salle,<br /> Jolliet, Daulac, the missionary martyrs, and others,<br /> usually left ‘unnamed among the chronicles of<br /> Kings,” stand first with him; and though generals<br /> and statesmen get a share of praise, it is with<br /> humbler men that this chiefest of French-Canadian<br /> poets loves chiefly to linger.<br /> <br /> ope<br /> <br /> THE POET v. THE STONEMASON;; or,<br /> WHY NOT A NEW MARKET FOR<br /> POETRY ?<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> 4 RADE again!” I fancy I can hear you<br /> mutter as you read my title... . Wait!<br /> You are not altogether wrong ; but I will<br /> try to show that there is much to be said in favour<br /> of a “market” even for such goods of the gods as<br /> poems, and this from a higher standpoint than<br /> merely the mercenary.<br /> <br /> To-day, poetry is, to use a term applied to<br /> grosser things, a “drug” on the literary market.<br /> No writer will doubt this; for his or her own<br /> experience will have taught them that this is an<br /> indubitable and dreary fact ; but supposing any-<br /> one to think the statement inaccurate, let them<br /> remember a remark made by one of the most<br /> prolific publishers we have of belles lettres, that<br /> he has been forced to refuse poems which half a<br /> century earlier would have brought their authors<br /> into prominence, and they will realise how appro-<br /> priate is the word “drug” when applied to the<br /> demand for poetry.<br /> <br /> Now, but a very cursory glance into the result<br /> of this lack of demand will show how the want of<br /> a “market” is proving actually destructive to our<br /> highest form of literature.<br /> <br /> Men—men with the real thing in them—dare<br /> not give to the use of their talent the time and<br /> application that is necessary to bring out all of<br /> that which is in them; for if they did so they<br /> would of a certainty go hungry. ‘This, if single,<br /> they might endure until finally the old story would<br /> have to be again re-told :—<br /> ® A sepulchre was built—a dead man’s throne ;<br /> <br /> A dozen thousand pounds were spent on stone<br /> <br /> And those who in his need denied him bread<br /> Now poured their riches o’er the hapless dead<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> But, if married, their hearts would speedily cry<br /> “Nay!” when the bairns began to voice their<br /> urgent needs. Or if not, then would the voice<br /> of the wife and mother prove just as effectual ; for<br /> she would grow mightily “dispatient” to see the<br /> man and father writing poems, however beautiful,<br /> whilst the ‘‘leetle ones ” clamoured.<br /> <br /> And go, because of a lack of market for their<br /> wares, poets dare not or must nol waste (forgive<br /> the word) time upon the exercising of that which<br /> is their right and proper function. And because<br /> of this I have little doubt but that the world is<br /> losing much fine work, and losing it in a peculiar<br /> manner. For it must not be supposed that you<br /> can silence a poet, worthy of the name, even by<br /> starving his bairns. No! instead of silencing<br /> him, in too many cases the combined terror of<br /> dumbness and the sheer need of food, force him<br /> into a compromise . . . . in fact, turn the rivers<br /> of his mind into another channel—too often to him<br /> an unnatural channel. For the poet, finding that<br /> his natural form of expression—the greatest ever<br /> gifted to man—is monetarily valueless, ai least<br /> until after he is dead, turns to upon the produc-<br /> tion of that more saleable article—the novel.<br /> Now, a man may be a great poet and but a poor<br /> novelist, so that, as a result, the world gets often<br /> badly-constructed novels in place of fine poems.<br /> <br /> Have I said enough to justify from the highest<br /> standpoint my plea for the need of a market—a<br /> mart pure and simple where poems may be sold,<br /> and the poets with the proceeds of their sales<br /> enabled to buy bread whereby they may live to<br /> work undisturbed at their art, and so give to the<br /> world other, and, perhaps better poems ?<br /> <br /> Now to my idea.<br /> <br /> I have entitled this small article “The Poet<br /> y. The Stonemason.” I find now that I had<br /> done better to have put Sculptor in place of Stone-<br /> mason; for it is chiefly with the wealthy people of<br /> the world that I look to find my market—with<br /> those who can afford the artist in place of the<br /> tradesman,” and who could afford the produce of<br /> the poet instead of the graven commonplace in-<br /> scriptions which are hideous in their frozen inability<br /> to express anything of the heart sorrow that<br /> prompts the nearest and dearest to show some<br /> mark of their love by means of a fit resting place.<br /> <br /> In short, I propose that the poet should have<br /> equal chance with the sculptor in making beautiful<br /> the Last Abode. I will go even further, and sug-<br /> <br /> gest that in many cases the poet might well take<br /> the place of the sculptor, especially where the<br /> relatives of the dead are not of the wealthiest.<br /> <br /> This, then, is the market that I propose should<br /> be opened to the poet. Let the artist take the<br /> place of the inscription-monger. Only a poet can<br /> hope to express even a tithe of the things that<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 183<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> suffocate man in sorrow. Then, obviously, the<br /> poet is the one to whom the work should be<br /> entrusted. Wherefore a fine monument and a<br /> wretched, inadequate inscription? Better a poor<br /> monument and a great inscription. Think you, if<br /> ‘“Gray’s Elegy ” had been in truth written upon a<br /> tombstone, that anything less than a pyramid<br /> could have equalled it as a /asting memorial ? And<br /> the pyramids are dumb, save to the imaginative ;<br /> but the Elegy speaks even to those who lack the<br /> seventh sense.<br /> <br /> One more plea in the poet’s favour. Even<br /> people of but medium worldly means could fee the<br /> poet ; for the requiem in shape will be ever costlier<br /> than the requiem in words.<br /> <br /> In closing my little paper, I would suggest, with<br /> some humbleness of spirit, that poets need not<br /> write personal eulogies of the dead, but express<br /> rather the universal emotions of grief and despair<br /> and hope . . . and give voice to the human sense<br /> of lonesomeness and loss. For, it seems to me,<br /> that monuments and inscriptions are to comfort<br /> the living ; and nothing gives such ease as expres-<br /> sion.<br /> <br /> Such poems could be universal ; for such feelings<br /> and emotions as they would express are shared by<br /> all. In such wise might be written poems to the<br /> little child or the grown man which would prove<br /> universal treasures, appealing to the whole world<br /> with that true touch which makes us all akin.<br /> <br /> Sorrowful man bids the sculptor shape his sorrow<br /> in stone; let him call in also the poet who alone<br /> may speak heartfully of one who has passed<br /> <br /> Beyond the bellowing of Time’s aeon-surge.<br /> <br /> I feel a certain grave yet whimsical laughter<br /> as I ask my final question : Will any one open the<br /> market ?<br /> <br /> Wiiu1am Horr Hopeson.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> ————<br /> <br /> ESSAYS ON MEDIZVAL LITERATURE.*<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> LL lovers of literature, and still more all<br /> serious literary students, will be grateful to<br /> Professor Ker for having collected into a<br /> <br /> single volume his “ Essays on Mediaeval Litera-<br /> ture.” The fact that all have previously appeared,<br /> either as parts of other works, or in reviews of high<br /> standing, in no way diminishes their value as a<br /> whole. Though the publications which contain<br /> them are easy of access, it is by no means always<br /> the case that the reader interested in matters of this<br /> kind finds it convenient to be culling information<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 7 ea<br /> * W. P. Ker: “Essays on Medieval Literature.”<br /> London: Macmillan &amp; Co.<br /> <br /> 1905.<br /> <br /> <br /> 184<br /> <br /> from a number of different volumes; whilst—<br /> and this is of superlative importance—the various<br /> essays gain much in interest and significance by<br /> the light which they throw upon one another.<br /> <br /> The range is somewhat wide, from a brief<br /> treatise on Early English prose, to a notice of the<br /> late M. Gaston Paris. But the author is always<br /> keeping close to his subject, and invariably<br /> handling the topic immediately under his con-<br /> sideration with the suggestive facility of a man<br /> whose lucid and penetrating knowledge enables<br /> him to give freely out of the abundance of his<br /> information.<br /> <br /> There is nothing that Prof. Ker cannot make<br /> interesting. That means simply that he knows<br /> thoroughly what he is writing about. In a general<br /> way Harly English prose is for every reader, whose<br /> interests are not exclusively philological, a very<br /> dreary waste in which to be doomed to wander. Prof.<br /> Ker nowhere veils the peculiar kind of aridity that<br /> is a painfully leading feature in mediaeval litera-<br /> ture. On more than one occasion he makes<br /> pointed mention of this vice of most writers of the<br /> middle ages, and has interesting things to say<br /> about it. But even in the normal dulness of Early<br /> English prose his acumen discovers important<br /> merits. Where the interest of the subject is all to<br /> <br /> seek, and the art of treating it conspicuously<br /> <br /> absent, he shows the evidences of well-directed<br /> striving to reach methods of expression, that in<br /> time bore fruit of style and lucid exposition.<br /> <br /> Opinions will probably differ respecting the<br /> comparative interest of the several treatises. For<br /> our own part we must confess to a strong pre-<br /> ference for the three essays entitled “ Historical<br /> Notes on the Similes of Dante,” “ Boccaccio,” and<br /> * Chaucer.”<br /> <br /> In the first of these the author works out<br /> admirably his theme that “Dante is the first<br /> modern poet to make a consistent use, in narrative<br /> poetry, of the epic simile as derived from Homer<br /> through Virgil and the Latin poets.” The in-<br /> fluence of Dante is traced through Boccaccio<br /> to Chaucer (Prof. Ker is ever coming back to<br /> Chaucer)—and again from Chaucer onwards. One<br /> result is a revelation of how all modern poetry has<br /> its source in Dante, just as all occidental poetry<br /> has its source in Homer. Another result is the<br /> proof of ‘the vitality of classical poetry in its<br /> influence upon the moderns.” ‘Ihe essence of the<br /> Homeric simile is happily elucidated as the illus-<br /> tration that is not merely mentioned as containing<br /> a resemblance, but is further elaborated, beyond<br /> its mere parallelism, in such a manner that the<br /> picture evoked has a substantiality and value of<br /> its own.<br /> <br /> Of the immortal Boccaccio, Mr. Ker has, of<br /> course, things to say that never present themselves<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> to the imagination of the ordinary scribbler who<br /> blunders into writing about “John of the Tran-<br /> quillities,” under the delusion that he knows all<br /> that is to be said concerning him. The great man<br /> of letters, the great student, the great stylist, the<br /> great novelist, the great poet, the inventor of the<br /> otlava rima, the great literary discoverer, stands<br /> out in these pages in all his magnificent eminence,<br /> Most interesting is the insistence upon Boccaccio’s<br /> infallible instinct. ‘ The talents of Boccaccio for<br /> finding new kinds of literature, and making the<br /> most of them, is like the instinct of a man of<br /> business for profitable operations,” writes Prof. Ker,<br /> Nor less engaging is the elucidation of the contrast<br /> between Boccaccio and his master Petrarcha; the<br /> latter always melancholy, and the former always<br /> facing life in good spirits; Petrarcha always<br /> master, and Boccaccio always a deferential pupil ;<br /> but a pupil who saw some things with clearer, and<br /> all things with happier eyes than had been vouch-<br /> safed to his master.<br /> <br /> What Boccaccio was to Chaucer we have never<br /> seen elsewhere so clearly and fully put into words.<br /> There are always new things to be said about<br /> Chaucer—notwithstanding all that has been said<br /> about him; and some of these new things are<br /> admirably expressed in Prof. Ker’s essay.<br /> <br /> “‘ Chaucer is always at his best when he is put on<br /> his mettle by Boccaccio. . . . He learns from the<br /> Italian the lesson of sure and definite exposition.”<br /> <br /> Not that Chaucer copies or imitates Boccaccio.<br /> Prof. Ker shows that he does neither. But he learns<br /> from Boccaccio what Boccaccio had discovered for<br /> himself (for the Greek novelists where he might<br /> have found the same methods were unknown to<br /> him), the laws of construction and the art of con-<br /> ducting a story. ‘There were occasions when<br /> Chaucer took his own way, disregarded everything<br /> that he had learned from his master, and “let<br /> himself go” in the manner of the other medisevalists<br /> of his day: and then he did all the things that<br /> his master had shown him that he ought not to do,<br /> conformed with his age and its manners, and could<br /> relate in the dreariest and stalest of medizeval<br /> fashions. He gives himself a positive debauch of<br /> this kind in “The House of Fame,” and is tedious<br /> and monotonous with the dreariest. Very possibly<br /> he enjoyed it, and here and there his natural<br /> wit comes to light, and lifts him for the moment<br /> above the medizeval conventions.<br /> <br /> We have left ourselves but little space for allusion<br /> to a careful study of Gower, and an essay on<br /> Froissart (the longest in the book) in which both<br /> the course and the character of the original and of<br /> the English translation of Lord Berners are fully<br /> analysed. But we must not omit to mention the<br /> short notice of M. Gaston Paris with which the<br /> volume concludes ; an appreciation so warm and so<br /> <br /> <br /> THE<br /> <br /> sympathetic that we should commiserate the reader<br /> who could lay it down without feeling tempted to<br /> plunge into that literature of Old France to which<br /> M. Gaston Paris devoted his life.<br /> <br /> —_—___—_——_+—__+—______<br /> <br /> AN AUTHOR’S LETTER BOX.<br /> <br /> —+-—~+—<br /> <br /> (Reprinted from New York Bookman, by kind permission<br /> of the Editor).<br /> <br /> YOUNG married American woman living in<br /> London was presented to Queen Victoria,<br /> who paid her a pretty personal compliment.<br /> <br /> A couple of hours later, at a tea at the American<br /> Embassy, a daughter of the Queen conveyed an<br /> intimation to the same American lady that she<br /> would soon be invited to Windsor Castle. This<br /> unusual incident was, naturally, much the talk of<br /> society in Tondon, and I heard every particular,<br /> for I was at the time visiting the home of the<br /> young American woman and her husband. Some<br /> years later I worked the incident into a story, and<br /> it was pretty generally sneered at by reviewers as<br /> a silly example of a writer venturing into social<br /> places about which, of course, he could know<br /> nothing. I’m case-hardened against that sort of<br /> <br /> criticism, but I took notice of a polite personal<br /> <br /> letter from a college lecturer on literature, who<br /> wrote to me condemning the use of such a highly<br /> improbable invention. To him I explained. He<br /> was all right ; he wrote and delivered a lecture<br /> on the inexpediency of the use of fact in fiction!<br /> <br /> T’ve had lots of fun out of an assumption in<br /> certain places that I am Bowery-derived—an<br /> assumption which has aided some of my critics in<br /> knowing that I know nothing about polite people.<br /> I once made use, ina short story, of some adyen-<br /> tures I shared with a couple of Harvard men while<br /> travelling in the Hawaiian Islands. This made<br /> one Harvard undergraduate so angry that he could<br /> not resist the call to rebuke me. That I should<br /> presume to speak of men and measures not of the<br /> Bowery made him sad, he said ; but that I should<br /> attempt to tell what a Harvard man would do<br /> under any circumstance was a piece of imperti-<br /> nence he could not encounter without protest.<br /> His further remarks and advice conveyed the<br /> impression that Harvard, as a social institution,<br /> depended much upon his sprightly resentment of<br /> such offending as mine. Not long after that I<br /> was a guest of Harvard Union, and inquired as to<br /> my correspondent, but no one could inform me.<br /> One took the trouble, however, to pursue his<br /> search as far as the records, and reported that<br /> there was, indeed, such a person there, but that he<br /> “was a mucker no one knew.”<br /> <br /> In my youth I reported for a newspaper a trial<br /> <br /> AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> 185<br /> <br /> at law, famous throughout the mining States and<br /> Territories, which revealed that a mine swindle<br /> had been perpetrated through the “salting” of a<br /> bag of ore samples by an injection of a solution of<br /> gold. The cautious expert, who had personally<br /> broken down the samples of ore, had placed the<br /> bag containing them under his pillow at night,<br /> but the needle of the syringe had got there ¢owt de<br /> méme. Well, I used that incident in a magazine<br /> story not long ago, and promptly received a letter<br /> from a man whose letter-head acclaimed him to be<br /> a metallurgist and assayer, firmly informing me<br /> that such a trick was a chemical impossibility, and<br /> adding that I should shun such technicalities in<br /> fiction. One more story of this kind and then I&#039;ll<br /> tell what I’m driving at. In Lees and Leaven<br /> there is a deed to be recorded under circumstances<br /> related to the plot, and I told how it was done.<br /> From out of the West, where that part of the<br /> <br /> story lay, I received a number of letters protesting<br /> <br /> against my highly illegal procedure. T don’t know<br /> about that, either, for I had asked a lawyer who<br /> attends to such matters for a number of important<br /> industrial corporations, and I had recorded the<br /> deed strictly in accordance with his advice.<br /> <br /> Here, then, is the point: am I alone among<br /> writers in this matter of receiving letters con-<br /> demning me for errors I have not committed ? I<br /> set down these few cases, but [ recall scores. I<br /> think that many such fault-finding letters have<br /> been rejected by some newspaper, and the writers<br /> send them to authors after failing to get them<br /> into print. They sound like “letters to the<br /> editor.’ The man who approves is usually in a<br /> state of mind milder than that which moves him<br /> who disapproves, and the latter is the one who<br /> more often feels that the world will be better if<br /> he weeps forth his feelings from a fountain pen.<br /> <br /> Harper’s Weekly once turned over to me a letter<br /> from a Cincinnati lawyer scolding that excellent<br /> repository of Mr. Harvey’s thoughts for printing a<br /> “Chimmie Fadden” sketch wherein, asserted the<br /> indignant letter writer, I had been guilty of<br /> absolute indecency in “Chimmie’s” account of a<br /> night at the opera. In dismay I turned to the<br /> <br /> rinted page and found that “ Chimmie” had<br /> related, with some such reservations as one would<br /> make in telling the story to a child, the plot of<br /> Faust! hat letter I answered, pointing out that<br /> the Faust story in some form had been able to<br /> maintain a respectable place in literature so long<br /> that my Bowdlerised edition did not deserve the<br /> scorn of even the righteous. But the letter writer<br /> was not satisfied ; he saw a low purpose on my<br /> part in thrusting such a story before the pure eyes<br /> of Harper’s readers, who, he told me, were a<br /> different sort, morally, from the godless patrons of<br /> the opera. :<br /> <br /> <br /> 186<br /> <br /> I have had many, perhaps more than a just<br /> share, of letters of commendation ; but, I repeat,<br /> those who dispraise have been very busy with my<br /> hide. The answer is obvious, of course, if one<br /> were asked to give a reason—lI’ve got only what I<br /> deserve—yet I wonder if I am alone among authors<br /> in this respect.<br /> <br /> A correspondence which came from every part of<br /> the country arose from ‘my use, in the person of<br /> “Major Max,” of the lines :<br /> <br /> Is it true, O Christ in heaven! that the wisest suffer most,<br /> That the strongest wander farthest and most hopelessly are<br /> <br /> ] x<br /> That ihe mark of rank in nature is capacity for pain,<br /> <br /> That the anguish of the singer lends its sweetness to the<br /> strain ?<br /> <br /> I would not dare to give an estimate of the<br /> number of letters I received asking the name of<br /> the author, what more verses, if any, there were,<br /> in what book the whole poem could be had, and<br /> similar questions. The Sun, in which that ‘‘ Max”<br /> story first appeared, found it expedient more than<br /> once, so many similar letters it received asking<br /> such information, to print replies in its answers to<br /> correspondents department.<br /> <br /> What seems to me to be the most whimsical<br /> letter I ever received was from a New York mer-<br /> chant, asking if the copyright in my books pre-<br /> vented the use of a menu one of them contained.<br /> Being assured that my menus were free to all, he<br /> explained that he wanted to give a certain chef an<br /> order to duplicate a dinner I described in Days<br /> Like These, but that a painful experience he had<br /> had with the law prompted him to ask my consent<br /> before proceeding with his dinner @ Ja Garnett.<br /> <br /> Epwarp W. TOowNSsEND.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> THE TRANSFORMATION OF A GREAT<br /> NOVELIST.<br /> <br /> ere<br /> (Republished by kind permission of the Editor from the<br /> Westminster Gazette, December 30th, 1905.)<br /> <br /> 7 ¥ often speak of Laurence Wilders at the<br /> Scribblers’, and always with bated breath ;<br /> for, famous as the great novelist was to<br /> <br /> the public, he seemed still greater to us fellow<br /> literary men, who could gauge his work more truly<br /> and regard it more sympathetically than could the<br /> general reader. Even Blossop lowers his voice<br /> when he refers to the dead master. Only one man<br /> among us, and he is not usually silent, has been in<br /> the habit of listening without remark ; and yet<br /> Gorham and Wilders were intimate friends.<br /> <br /> But the other evening, after we had been speak-<br /> ing of Wilders’s last book, of the many personal<br /> qualities which had endeared him to us, of his<br /> fierce outbursts of passion, his impulsive generosity,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> his almost womanly tenderness of heart, Gorham,<br /> gazing at as much of the fire as Blossop permitted<br /> to be seen, said slowly and gravely, rather as if he<br /> were communing with himself than addressing us :<br /> <br /> “Poor Wilders has been dead nearly twelve<br /> months ; I wonder whether the time has come for ts<br /> me to unseal my lips ? ” |<br /> <br /> We said with ill-concealed emphasis and eager-<br /> ness that it certainly had; and Gorham went on,<br /> still more gravely: “As you all know, I was<br /> Wilders’s most intimate friend. You were speaking<br /> just now, Millan, of the extraordinary change which F<br /> took place in him some years ago, of the cessation | ¥ \<br /> of those outbursts of passion which used to trans- — =<br /> form the gentlest of men into .<br /> <br /> ‘CA frenzied lunatic,” said Millan. “ Why, yes ; ¢<br /> don’t you remember how he used to rush in here § @&gt;<br /> waving a magazine containing one of his stories, es<br /> and, striking the thing furiously with his clenched cals?<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> fist, inveigh against the artist ? I recollect on one ha<br /> occasion he actually tore the illustrations from a peu! |<br /> book of his, and, flinging them on the floor, me<br /> danced upon them, yelling, ‘ Look at this! I have (gy<br /> described this man as a gentleman ; observe the at<br /> <br /> bounder this “artist ’ has made of him!<br /> my heroine — heroine !<br /> beautiful.” I have taken pages to describe the<br /> girl. Look at: this—this hideous housemaid with<br /> her nose out of drawing, and her figure like a sack<br /> tied round the middle! ‘This, if you please, is the<br /> illustration of a scene at a lunch-party ; of course,<br /> the “artist” has put the men in evening dress !<br /> And this is a boat. A boat! The wretch has<br /> made the man rowing it stern first. The animal kw<br /> in this picture is intended for a horse. I know it ~<br /> is, because the line underneath says ‘ He bent Pd<br /> from his horse.” ’”’ bad<br /> Gorham nodded. ‘‘ Yes, poor Wilders suffered tal<br /> a great deal from the artist in his early and strug- oe<br /> gling days. Ofcourse they did not give him the<br /> best men. But when the drawing was good, how<br /> delighted, how grateful he was! And now we bot<br /> come to speak of the change in him. Later on, at or<br /> a certain period of his life, you will remember that, Flag<br /> however bad the block may have been, he never<br /> raged, never uttered even a word of complaint. fF...<br /> The change was an enigma to all of us. Itshall —<br /> be an enigma no ionger; I can explain it. The<br /> night before he died I was sitting beside his bed.<br /> He knew that death was near, but he was quite<br /> placid, and even cheerful, and his face wore a look<br /> of absolute content. It was a moonlight night ;<br /> he lay on his side looking through the window—he<br /> had asked me to pull up the blind—on the pretty FF —<br /> little garden at the back of that quaint, old- fF !<br /> fashioned house of his at Leatherhead. 5<br /> “Vou are all right—there is nothing I can do<br /> for you, old man ?’ I asked.<br /> <br /> This is Hl<br /> “Tall, slim, graceful, itn<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <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 /> “éNo’ he said, ‘nothing. I am going out<br /> quietly and comfortably with, thank Heaven, a<br /> mind and a heart at rest. For some time past I have<br /> known that my innings were drawing to a close.’<br /> <br /> “© Yes,’ I said; we have all noticed at the<br /> Seribblers’ how—how much calmer and more<br /> peaceful you have been of late.’<br /> <br /> « ¢ He turned his eyes to me and smiled. ‘ Ah,<br /> yes,’ he said, in that soft pleasant voice of his. ‘I<br /> imow what you mean. But the knowledge of my<br /> coming death was not the reason of the change.<br /> I have often thought I would tell you. I will tell<br /> you now. You are referring to the fuss I used to<br /> make over the illustrations? Yes, yes ; of course.’<br /> <br /> “* You grew resigned?’ I suggested.<br /> <br /> « «No it was not resignation ; it was action. It<br /> began this way: One night after I had been<br /> storming at the Club at one of the blocks to a<br /> story of mine in the Park Lane Magazine, | came<br /> home here, still fuming, and found the artist<br /> waiting for me. He had come to ask me some-<br /> thing about the illustration for the next number,<br /> of which he had brought a sketch. It was a<br /> horrible thing, worse even than the one which had<br /> driven me almost mad ; but the wretched man was<br /> quite complacent ; and I suppose his complacency<br /> upset me, for as he gazed at the sketch admiringly,<br /> <br /> with his head on one side and a conceited smile<br /> across his stupid face, I caught up the poker and<br /> struck him on the back of the head. He fell<br /> without a word or a groan, and, after tearing up<br /> the sketch and carefully burning it, I knelt down<br /> and examined him. He was quite dead ; oh quite.<br /> It was a great nuisance, of course, and I was very<br /> much annoyed, for I assure you, my dear fellow,<br /> that I did not intend to kill him. But the thing<br /> was done ; and as I hate any thing like a fuss—I<br /> fear that some men you and I know would have<br /> used this affair as an advertisement !—I said<br /> nothing about it; but later on, when my house-<br /> keeper and the servants had gone to bed, I dug a<br /> grave in the garden and buried him.’ ”<br /> <br /> “ Wilders was silent for amoment or two, and<br /> then he continued reflectively, with that pensive<br /> smile which made his face almost womanly in its<br /> ‘softness :<br /> <br /> “&lt;T am quite convinced, my dear boy, that we<br /> literary men don’t take enough exercise. Jor<br /> instance, up to that time I used to be a bad<br /> sleeper ; it was not exactly insomnia, you know,<br /> but I was just a bad sleeper. That night after<br /> digging the grave I slept like a top. Of course it<br /> <br /> was the healthy exercise, the good smell of the<br /> newly turned earth, the work in the fresh air, the<br /> pleasant excitement accompanying the wholesome<br /> physical exercise. Oh, of course J am not forget-<br /> ting the soothing influence of an approving con-<br /> science. We are all so selfish ; we so loathe to do<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 187<br /> <br /> good if the doing of it should entail a little trouble.<br /> But this affair was a lesson to me, a kind of<br /> inspiration. I think scarcely a week passed<br /> without my disposing of an artist. No; I did not<br /> again use the poker. You know how I detest<br /> physical violence. A blow is crude, brutal ; and,<br /> my dear Gorham, we must consider the feelings of<br /> even the lowest types of humanity. Think of the<br /> shock of a sudden blow! No; I used to invite<br /> them up to chat over their drawings and give them<br /> a glass of wine. There is very little taste in<br /> cyanide, you know, and it works with charming<br /> celerity. I am glad to think that they never, or<br /> scarcely ever, endured a pang. And I always<br /> buried them myself. You have no idea how soon<br /> I learned to dig even a full-sized grave quickly and<br /> neatly. I have often thought that if literature<br /> failed me I shoald apply for a sexton’s place. It<br /> is a peaceful, wholesome occupation. It is the<br /> contemplative man’s vocation.’<br /> <br /> “ He was silent for a minute or two, then he said :<br /> <br /> “Do you think you could drag the bed a little<br /> nearer the window ? Thanks, thanks! Yes, lam<br /> sorry to leave my garden. It hasn’t many flowers—<br /> for obvious reasons ; but I have grown toloveit. I<br /> have “ got ” most of my books there, strolling round<br /> or sitting in that rustic seat under the plane-tree in<br /> the corner. I worked out “ Anabel-Snow ” there.’<br /> <br /> «&lt;&lt; The sweetest, the most pathetic, and the most<br /> tender of idylls,’ I said.<br /> <br /> «You are good to say so, dear fellow,’ he mur-<br /> mured shyly, his eyes growing moist: you know<br /> how he used to melt at a word of praise from one<br /> one of us. ‘I don’t think it could have been<br /> written anywhere. : . . [am glad [have mentioned<br /> that little matter. I—ah, well! I don’t want to<br /> talk of example and the rest of it; but, my dear<br /> lad, if at any time you should be tempted to turn<br /> aside from the performance of an obvious duty<br /> just remember the comfort and consolation, the<br /> deep and lasting peace, which the discharge of this<br /> duty of mine has brought to me.... How<br /> exquisitely the moonlight falls on the grass-plot !<br /> Tt is a little uneven; I never could succeed in<br /> relaying the sods quite level, quite as they<br /> were before. But the next man should grow some<br /> good flowers there—the soil must be rich. Will<br /> you give me a drink? Thanks, dear Gorham !<br /> T think I can go to sleep now; our talk has<br /> soothed me.’<br /> <br /> « Tt was his last sleep, as you know,” concluded<br /> Gorham, almost inaudibly.<br /> <br /> Blossop turned his face to the fire and blew his<br /> nose loudly.<br /> <br /> “He was a good man,” he said in a smothered<br /> voice ; and we nodded assent. None of us could<br /> <br /> speak, and there were tears in all our eyes.<br /> CHARLES GARVICE.<br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> —+—&lt;—+ —_<br /> Tue UNIT or An EDITION.<br /> <br /> Srr,—Much has been gained by the distinction<br /> between an edition and an impression. The<br /> question of the unit of either is not so easily<br /> settled. Much may be said for the unit of 1,000<br /> and the designation of “half edition” or “ quarter<br /> edition” where 500 or 250 copies are printed.<br /> But there can be no difficulty in stating the actual<br /> number of the copies printed, and such a statement<br /> would, I submit, be more satisfactory to all persons<br /> interested. Perhaps the best solution is to leave<br /> the matter to be settled by the discretion of<br /> individual producers, and not to overdo the number<br /> of general rules which cannot bind anybody. A<br /> more important point, and a point so important<br /> that compulsory legislation might be brought to<br /> bear upon it, is the statement of the date of<br /> publication upon the title page.<br /> <br /> Yours obediently,<br /> J. M. Luty.<br /> <br /> 1+<br /> <br /> Sir,—In The Author for January Mr. Lewis<br /> Melville writes of Trollope that he “is not dis-<br /> appearing, he has disappeared,” and that it is<br /> <br /> impossible to obtain a set of his best works,<br /> <br /> If the first of these assertions has ever been<br /> true, which I am rather inclined to doubt, it has<br /> certainly not been applicable to the United States<br /> during the past year or two. There has, indeed,<br /> been a regular “boom” in Trollope. I have found<br /> it difficult to get his best novels from the public<br /> libraries of New York and Cambridge, and the<br /> librarians informed me that they were in great<br /> demand. Paragraphs or articles about Trollope<br /> are constantly appearing in daily, weekly, or<br /> monthly periodicals, and his name turns up at<br /> social gatherings with almost as much frequency<br /> as those of present-day favourites like Mrs. Whar-<br /> ton or Miss May Sinclair. Messrs. Dodd, Mead &amp;<br /> Co. are publishing an excellent edition of his<br /> novels.<br /> <br /> I imagine if Baron Tauchnitz were asked, he<br /> would be able to tell of a pretty steady sale of<br /> Trollope’s works. At any rate, during my present<br /> visit to the United States I have seen more<br /> Tauchnitz copies of Trollope than of any other<br /> single author ; and Tauchnitz reprints are pretty<br /> common over here.<br /> <br /> I would therefore humbly submit that Mr.<br /> Melviile’s attitude towards Trollope is rather<br /> belated, or, at any rate, insular.<br /> <br /> Yours very truly,<br /> James F, MuIRHEAD.<br /> <br /> 6, Riedesel Avenue, Cambridge, Mass.<br /> <br /> A Missine Vouume.<br /> <br /> Srr,—Since my communications to The Author<br /> of November and December last, certain develop-<br /> ments, which may prove of interest to members,<br /> have occurred in connection with the old novel<br /> “ Rebecca, or the Victim of Duplicity,” whose third<br /> volume is still eagerly sought.<br /> <br /> In the first place we succeeded in tracing, through<br /> the kind offices of a gentleman in Paris, a catalogue<br /> for 1815 of the publishers of the book, Messrs,<br /> Lackington, Allen &amp; Co., London, with a brief<br /> extract from a notice thereon, culled from The<br /> European Magazine, but without any date. This,<br /> however, was soon supplied, and the loan obtained<br /> from another friend of the volume of the magazine,<br /> January to June, 1808, in the March number of<br /> which appears an exhaustive review of “ Rebecca,”<br /> signed J. M., the initials, it is assumed, of Joseph<br /> Moser, a well-known contributor to The European<br /> und like periodicals of his time. Happily, the<br /> doubt which prevails in some minds as to any<br /> existence after all of a third volume is now quite<br /> set at rest, although we have not been so fortunate<br /> in establishing the identity of the writer. The<br /> fact, however, that ‘* Rebecca” was printed at<br /> Uttoxeter, whence was also issued, in the year<br /> 1821, a work entitled ‘“* Tales Serious and Instruc-<br /> tive,” by Ann Catherine Holbrook, distinctly lends<br /> colour to the inference that this lady was the<br /> authoress. J. M. was apparently ignorant of the<br /> name of the writer, as, although he attributes the<br /> authorship to a male—we find the words “he,”<br /> “him,” “his” often employed—no other indica-<br /> tion is ever given, so he was probably unable to<br /> pierce the mask of anonymity. ;<br /> <br /> The motive of the book was to lash unmercifully<br /> the evils of some “new philosophy ” which<br /> obtained at that period, and a discourse anent<br /> which occupies much space at the commencement<br /> of a very able criticism highly appreciative of the<br /> novelist’s efforts and the power of his, or her,<br /> denunciations.<br /> <br /> The book must have created some stir in its<br /> day, and have contained scenes of a most pathetic,<br /> harrowing description, calculated forcibly to im-<br /> press upon its readers the lessons of tolerance and<br /> Christianity it was the object of the author, or<br /> authoress, to convey.<br /> <br /> It has been suggested how it would be appro-<br /> priate to reprint the novel at Uttoxeter on the<br /> occasion of its centenary. But we must first trace<br /> that missing third volume.<br /> <br /> CEcIL CLARKE.<br /> <br /> Authors’ Club, 8.W.<br /> <br /> to	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/514/1906-03-01-The-Author-16-6.pdf	publications, The Author