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523	https://historysoa.com/items/show/523	The Author, Vol. 23 Issue 03 (December 1912)	<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.+23+Issue+03+%28December+1912%29"><em>The Author</em>, Vol. 23 Issue 03 (December 1912)</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>	1912-12-01-The-Author-23-3					65–96																		<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=89&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=23">23</a>											<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=76&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1912-12-01">1912-12-01</a>							3			19121201	Che Hutbor.<br /> <br /> (The Organ of the Incorporated Society of Authors. Monthly.)<br /> <br /> FOUNDED BY SIR<br /> <br /> WALTER BESANT.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> VoL. XXTII.—No. 3.<br /> <br /> DECEMBER 1, 1912.<br /> <br /> [PRIcE SIXPENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBER:<br /> 374 VICTORIA.<br /> <br /> TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS :<br /> AUTORIDAD, LONDON.<br /> <br /> Se ee<br /> <br /> NOTICES.<br /> <br /> ++<br /> <br /> - the opinions expressed in papers that<br /> _ are signed or initialled the authors alone<br /> <br /> &quot;are responsible. None of the papers or<br /> paragraphs must be taken as expressing the<br /> opinion of the Committee unless such is<br /> especially stated to be the case.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Tue Editor begs to inform members of the<br /> Authors’ Society and other readers of The<br /> Author that the cases which are quoted in The<br /> Author are cases that have come before the<br /> notice or to the knowledge of the Secretary of<br /> the Society, and that those members of the<br /> Society who desire to have the names of the<br /> publishers concerned can obtain them on<br /> application.<br /> <br /> ARTICLES AND CONTRIBUTIONS.<br /> <br /> Tue Editor of The Author begs to remind<br /> members of the Society that, although the<br /> paper is sent to them free of cost, its production<br /> would be a very heavy charge on the resources<br /> of the Society if a great many members did not<br /> forward to the Secretary the modest 5s. 6d.<br /> subscription for the year.<br /> <br /> Communications for The Author should be<br /> addressed to the offices of the Society, 39, Old<br /> Queen Street, Storey’s Gate, S.W., and should<br /> reach the Editor not later than the 21st of each<br /> month.<br /> <br /> Communications and letters are invited by<br /> the Editor on all literary matters treated from<br /> <br /> Vou. XXIII.<br /> <br /> the standpoint of art or business, but on no<br /> other subjects whatever. Every effort will be<br /> made to return articles which cannot be<br /> accepted.<br /> <br /> ADVERTISEMENTS.<br /> <br /> As there seems to be an impression among<br /> readers of The Author that the Committee are<br /> personally responsible for the bona fides of the<br /> advertisers, the Committee desire it to be stated<br /> that this is not, and could not possibly be, the<br /> case. Although care is exercised that no<br /> undesirable advertisements be inserted, they<br /> do not accept, and never have accepted, any<br /> liability. ‘<br /> <br /> Members should apply to the Secretary for<br /> advice if special information is desired.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> <br /> THE SOCIETY’S FUNDS.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> ‘T\ROM time to time members of the Society<br /> desire to make donations to its funds in<br /> recognition of work that has been done<br /> <br /> for them. The Committee, acting on the<br /> <br /> suggestion of one of these members, have<br /> decided to place this permanent paragraph in<br /> <br /> The Author in order that members may be<br /> <br /> cognisant of those funds to which these con-<br /> <br /> tributions may be paid.<br /> <br /> The funds suitable for this purpose are:<br /> (1) The Capital Fund. This fund is kept in<br /> reserve in case it is necessary for the Society to<br /> incur heavy expenditure, either in fighting a<br /> question of principle, or in assisting to obtain<br /> copyright reform, or in dealing with any other<br /> matter closely connected with the work of the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> (2) The Pension Fund, This fund is slowly<br /> increasing, and it is hoped will, in time, cover<br /> the needs of all the members of the Society.<br /> <br /> +2<br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> THE PENSION FUND.<br /> <br /> —1-—&lt;—+ —<br /> <br /> N January, the secretary of the society laid<br /> before the trustees of the Pension Fund<br /> the accounts for the year 1911, as settled<br /> <br /> by the accountants, with a full statement of<br /> the result of the appeal made on behalf of<br /> the fund. After giving the matter full con-<br /> sideration, the trustees instructed the secretary<br /> to invest the sum of £500 in the purchase of<br /> Antofagasta and Bolivian Railway 5% Pre-<br /> ferred Ordinary Stock and Central Argentine<br /> Railway Ordinary Stock. The amounts pur-<br /> ehased at the current prices were £237 in the<br /> former and £232 in the latter stock.<br /> <br /> The trustees desire to thank the members of<br /> the society for the generous support which they<br /> have given to the Pension Fund. The money<br /> now invested amounts to £4,454 6s.<br /> <br /> Later in the year, at a meeting of the Com-<br /> mittee of Management, a question concerning<br /> the funds of the society was brought up for dis-<br /> eussion, and it was suggested that it would be<br /> a good thing for the Pension Fund trustees, if<br /> they had power, to sell out the Fund’s holding of<br /> -Consols and to invest in some more satisfactory<br /> -security. The suggestion was placed before the<br /> trustees of the Pension Fund, and a meeting<br /> was called, when the chairman of the Committee<br /> ef Management, the trustees, and Mr. Aylmer<br /> Maude, the member of the Committee of<br /> Management who had made the suggestion,<br /> were present. The figures were very closely<br /> eonsidered, and it appeared clear that altera-<br /> tions in the investment of the funds could be<br /> earried out with advantage to the Fund’s<br /> income. It was decided by the trustees, with<br /> the approval of the Committee of Management,<br /> to ‘sell out the holding of Consols.. With the<br /> amount realised, were purchased—<br /> <br /> $2,000 (£400) Consolidated Gas: and Elec-<br /> tric Company of Baltimore 44% Gold<br /> Bonds ; — —<br /> <br /> 30 Buenos Ayres Great Southern Railway<br /> <br /> ~ 4° Extension Shares, (1914) £8 paid ;<br /> <br /> £250 Edward Lloyd, Ltd., £1 5% Prefer-<br /> ence Shares.<br /> <br /> These amounts are fully set out and added<br /> in the nominal value to the Pension Fund<br /> investments, below.<br /> <br /> The trustees have also, in view of the option<br /> extended to them as holders of £282 Central<br /> Argentine Railway Ordinary Stock, subscribed<br /> for 8 Central Argentine Railway £10 Preference<br /> Shares, New Issue.<br /> <br /> The nominal value of the investments held<br /> on behalf of the Pension Fund now amounts<br /> <br /> to £4,454 6s., details of which are fully set out<br /> in the following schedule :—<br /> Nominal Value,<br /> <br /> Local Loans<br /> Victoria Government 3% Consoli-<br /> dated Inscribed Stock ........<br /> London and North-Western 3%<br /> Debenture Stock<br /> Egyptian Government Irrigation<br /> Trust 4% Certificates ........<br /> Cape of Good Hope 33% Inscribed<br /> Stock 0.665. a<br /> Glasgow and South-Western Rail-<br /> way 4°% Preference Stock ....<br /> New Zealand 34% Stock........<br /> Trish Land 23% Guaranteed Stock<br /> Corporation of London 24%<br /> Stock, 1927-57... ......5..5.<br /> Jamaica 34% Stock, 1919-49<br /> Mauritius 4% 1937 Stock ......<br /> Dominion of Canada, C.P.R. 34%<br /> Land Grant Stock, 1938 ......<br /> Antofagasta and Bolivian Railway<br /> 5% Preferred Stock .......5...<br /> Central Argentine Railway Or-<br /> dinary Stock -. 2.2.5. 5.50.5<br /> $2,000 Consolidated Gas and<br /> Electric Company of Baltimore<br /> 44% Gold Bonds ............<br /> 250 Edward Lloyd, Ltd., £1 5%<br /> Preference Shares<br /> 80 Buenos Ayres Great Southern<br /> Railway 4°% Extension Shares<br /> 1914 (£8 paid) .......55.2,5%<br /> 8 Central Argentine Railway £10<br /> Preference Shares New Issue .<br /> <br /> 291 19 11<br /> 250 0 O<br /> 200<br /> 200<br /> 228<br /> 247<br /> 258<br /> 438<br /> <br /> 132<br /> 120<br /> <br /> Oo oac o °<br /> <br /> 198<br /> <br /> 237<br /> <br /> o o eo Nob ooo eo ¢<br /> <br /> (a ” )<br /> <br /> 232<br /> <br /> ig C4454<br /> <br /> Total<br /> <br /> PENSION FUND.<br /> <br /> — oe<br /> <br /> Tue list printed below includes all fresh dona-<br /> tions and subscriptions (i.e., donations and<br /> <br /> subscriptions not hitherto acknowledged)<br /> received by, or promised to, the fund from<br /> April 1st, 1912.<br /> <br /> ‘ It does not include either donations given<br /> prior to April 1st, nor does it include sub-<br /> scriptions paid in compliance with promises<br /> made before it. :<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> ‘Oct.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Subscriptions.<br /> 1912.<br /> April 6, Bland, J. O. P. :<br /> April 6, Taylor, Mrs. Basil .<br /> April 6, Forrester, J. Cliffe . :<br /> June 6, Probert, W. S. Q .<br /> June 6, Wheelhouse, Miss M. V.<br /> June 6, Acland, Mrs. C. D. Z<br /> June 6, Spurrell, Herbert (from<br /> 1912 to 1915).<br /> June 6, Spens, Archibald B. .<br /> <br /> July 18, Liddle, S.<br /> <br /> Aug. 7, Joseph, L. : A ;<br /> <br /> Sept. 6, Garvice, Charles (in addi-<br /> tion to present sub-<br /> scription of £1 Is.)<br /> <br /> 2, Todhunter, Dr. John.<br /> <br /> 10, Escott, T. H. S. . ‘<br /> <br /> 10, Henderson, R. W. Wright<br /> <br /> 10, Knowles, Miss M. W. :<br /> <br /> 11, Buckley, Reginald .<br /> <br /> 12, Walshe, Douglas<br /> <br /> 12, ‘‘ Penmark’”’ . :<br /> <br /> 15, Sinclair Miss Edith .<br /> <br /> 16, Markino, Yoshio :<br /> <br /> Oct. 20, Fiamingo, Carlo. “<br /> <br /> Oct. 29, Henley, Mrs. .<br /> <br /> Nov. 8, Jane, L. Cecil .<br /> <br /> Noy. 14, Gibb, W.<br /> <br /> Oct.<br /> Oct.<br /> Oct.<br /> Oct.<br /> Oct.<br /> <br /> Oct.<br /> <br /> Oct.<br /> Oct.<br /> <br /> 1912. Donations,<br /> <br /> April 2, XX. Pen Club<br /> ‘April 6, Taylor, Mrs. Basil . :<br /> April 6, Cameron, Mrs. Charlotte .<br /> April 10, Kenny, Mrs. L. M. Stac-<br /> poole : . :<br /> April 10, Robbins, Alfred F..<br /> April 10, Harris, Emma H. .<br /> April 11, Ralli, C. Searamanga<br /> April 11, Aitken, Robert . :<br /> April 16, L. M. F. (£1 per month,<br /> : February, March, April)<br /> April 22, Prior, Mrs. Melton ‘<br /> May 2, Baden-Powell, Miss Agnes<br /> ‘May 25, Koebel, W. H. : :<br /> May 28, Harland, Mrs. Henry ‘<br /> May 28, Wood, Mrs. A. E. . .<br /> June 4, Hornung, E. W. i<br /> June 4, Ward, Dudley<br /> June 6, Worrall, Leehmere .<br /> June 13, Robbins, Miss Alice E.<br /> July 5, Hain, H.M. . . :<br /> Aug. 16, Shipley, R. H. . ‘<br /> Sept. 20, Willcocks, Miss M. P..<br /> Sept. 23, Peacock, Mrs. F. M.<br /> Oct. 2, Stuart, James . :<br /> Oct. 14, Diblee, G. Bonney .<br /> <br /> oormooowh<br /> <br /> SOF OF COCOOOCOHH oooo<br /> <br /> noo<br /> <br /> aHwoOom oS<br /> <br /> SCrermnoceroouncoooon<br /> <br /> H<br /> <br /> _<br /> So Ot GOS &amp;<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> Or Or Or Or<br /> <br /> Sr or oro ©<br /> <br /> 10<br /> 10<br /> 10<br /> <br /> Or Or = OT<br /> <br /> eeceecscec<br /> <br /> eocococoaccococooeco ooco<br /> <br /> oocoo ooo<br /> <br /> @ASCoancoococooosoaso<br /> <br /> o&gt;<br /> ~J<br /> <br /> tw<br /> —<br /> a<br /> <br /> Oct. 14, Michell, The Right Hon.<br /> Sir Lewis, C.V.O.<br /> <br /> Oct. 17, Ord, H. W. . i<br /> <br /> Oct. 20, Yorke-Smith, Mrs. .<br /> <br /> Nov. 10, Hood, Francis . i<br /> <br /> Nov. 20, Kennard, Mrs. N. H.<br /> <br /> wood uo<br /> ~<br /> <br /> Cure © Ot<br /> <br /> coonanas<br /> <br /> 1+<br /> <br /> COMMITTEE NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> Tue Committee met at the offices of the<br /> Society on Monday, November 4th, and after<br /> the minutes of the previous meeting had been<br /> read and signed, proceeded to the election<br /> of members. Twenty-three were elected,<br /> bringing the total elections for the current<br /> year up to 313. There were two resignations.<br /> <br /> The solicitor reported on the cases with<br /> which he had dealt during the month.<br /> <br /> In two County Court cases judgment had<br /> been obtained, but as the judgments had<br /> not been satisfied he was proceeding to<br /> issue execution. In another case—against a<br /> music publisher—judgment had been obtained<br /> and the publisher had to pay the costs of the<br /> action. A curious case, chronicled in last<br /> month’s Author, against a book publisher, had<br /> arisen, in which the publisher, although the<br /> cost of production of the book had been<br /> defrayed by the author, refused to deliver the<br /> balance of the stock. As it was impossible<br /> to come to any agreement the solicitor<br /> reported he was about to issue process.<br /> In three other cases where no satisfactory<br /> replies could be obtained from the offenders,<br /> the solicitor had issued process. One case<br /> had sone very curious points, for the editor<br /> of a magazine had printed a story as by a well-<br /> known author, who had not, in fact, written<br /> it. The Society is commencing an action<br /> for literary libel and passing off. Two cases<br /> had been settled satisfactorily, the sums<br /> duz to the authors having been paid without<br /> the necessity of going into court, but in two<br /> other claims, as the defendants disputed the<br /> issues, it had become necessary to issue writs.<br /> Another action has had to be taken up against<br /> an American magazine on behalf of a member.<br /> <br /> Two cases involving the bankruptcy of<br /> publishers have occurred during the past<br /> month. In one ease the Society of Authors<br /> was given representation on the Com-<br /> mittee of Inspection, as representing the<br /> interests of authors. It is impossible to deal<br /> with these cases further until the liquidator<br /> 68<br /> <br /> has been able to issue a report, but the com-<br /> mittee regret that quite a dozen members<br /> are involved in each bankruptcy, and perhaps<br /> more. In one other case in which a question<br /> had arisen concerning cinematograph rights<br /> the committee gave authority to take counsel’s<br /> opinion, upon which the author will no doubt<br /> act.<br /> <br /> The report of the Copyright Sub-Committee<br /> on the Australian Copyright Bill was laid before<br /> the committee, who authorised the secretary<br /> to present the report to the Premier of the<br /> Australian Commonwealth in the hope that<br /> the Society’s suggestions might meet with<br /> consideration, and, thereby, that the rights,<br /> not only of the Australian, but also of British<br /> authors, might be strengthened imperially<br /> and internationally.<br /> <br /> An important question of United States<br /> Copyright was laid before the committee by<br /> one of the Society’s correspondents in New<br /> York, and the secretary was instructed to<br /> obtain counsel’s opinion on the difficulty<br /> raised, and advice as to what action should be<br /> taken to bring the matter to the notice of the<br /> proper authorities.<br /> <br /> The secretary reported that Newfoundland<br /> had accepted the Copyright Act of 1911, and<br /> also called attention to some difficulties which<br /> had arisen owing to the fact that that Act had<br /> not as yet been proclaimed in India. He<br /> was authorised to take the necessary steps<br /> to draw the attention of the India Office to<br /> the difficulties in question.<br /> <br /> The working of the Copyright Act of 1911<br /> in its relations to our Colonies and Dependencies<br /> will bring, and is bringing, many difficult and<br /> important questions before the committee.<br /> <br /> Matters connected with the new branch of<br /> the Society, the Collection Bureau, were then<br /> discussed. It was decided to accept the<br /> recommendation of the Composers’ Sub-<br /> Committee, to collect the mechanical instru-<br /> ment fees under the Act of 1911, at the rate of<br /> 15 per cent. commission, subject to the com-<br /> posers paying for the manufacture of their<br /> stamps. It was also decided to accept the<br /> recommendation of the Dramatic Sub-Com-<br /> mittee to collect the fees under contracts<br /> already entered into by those dramatists who<br /> were.members of the Society. for a commission<br /> of 5 per cent. It was further decided to keep<br /> a register of stamps to he placed on mechanical<br /> instruments at the Society’s office.<br /> <br /> The Composers’ Sub-Committee appointed<br /> two delegates to discuss important questions<br /> <br /> resulting from composers’ contracts with music<br /> publishers.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Mr. Maurice Hewlett, who has been a member<br /> of the committee for some years, and was<br /> chairman of that body’ from 1909 till 1911,<br /> having resigned from the committee owing to<br /> pressure of other work, the committee accepted<br /> his resignation with great regret, and instructed<br /> the secretary to write to him. Mr. Stanley<br /> Leathes, C.B., was elected to fill the vacancy,<br /> and has expressed his willingness to undertake<br /> the work.<br /> <br /> The committee then decided on_ the<br /> nominees to be put forward under the constitu-<br /> tion of the Society for election at the end of<br /> the year. The names of these nominees will”<br /> appear in The Author according to the regula-<br /> tions and rules laid down.<br /> <br /> Mr. E. J. MacGillivray was elected a member<br /> of the Council of the Society of Authors.<br /> Mr. MacGillivray has undertaken a_ great<br /> amount of. gratuitous work for the Society<br /> during the passing of the Copyright Bill, and<br /> has freely given his help to the Society on<br /> difficult copyright questions which have arisen.<br /> <br /> The next matter arose in connection with<br /> the advertisements in The Author. This was<br /> carefully considered by the committee, and the<br /> secretary was instructed to take the necessary<br /> steps to give effect to their decision. :<br /> <br /> Certain proposals laid before the committee<br /> by the Associated Booksellers of Great Britain<br /> and Ireland were. next considered, and it was<br /> decided to appoint a small sub-committee to<br /> confer with the Booksellers’ representatives,<br /> and to discuss the matters which their Associa-<br /> tion had raised. Mr. Aylmer Maude and Mr.<br /> G. Bernard Shaw kindly consented to act<br /> as a sub-committee, and the secretary was<br /> instructed to write to the Booksellers’ Associa-<br /> tion and to report progress at another meeting.<br /> <br /> A difficult matter arising out of multiple<br /> book-reviewing was discussed at some length,<br /> and the secretary was requested to write to<br /> the member who had introduced the matter,<br /> stating that the committee were considering it<br /> sympathetically but desired fuller information.<br /> <br /> The committee’s thanks were expressed to<br /> Mr. Thomas Common for a donation of £1 Is.<br /> to the Capital Fund of the Society, as a return<br /> for work accomplished by the Society on his<br /> behalf.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> Dramatic SuB-COMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> Tur November meeting of the Dramatic<br /> Sub-Committee was held at the offices of the<br /> Society on the 15th. 2<br /> <br /> After reading the minutes of the previous<br /> <br /> meeting, the sub-committee considered a<br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> proposal placed before them by a gentleman<br /> who is not a member of the Society, for<br /> the re-organization of the dramatic section of<br /> the Society, under certain new articles and<br /> rules that he had drafted for their con-<br /> sideration. These articles and rules had<br /> been circulated to the members of the sub-<br /> committee prior to the meeting. The sub-<br /> committee came to the conclusion that it was<br /> impossible to consider the suggestions and,<br /> after discussion, decided that the matter<br /> should be adjourned sine die.<br /> <br /> The secretary read to the sub-committee<br /> the answer he had received from the Society<br /> of West End Managers in regard to the<br /> Managerial Treaty.<br /> <br /> -- The question of twice-nightly performances<br /> of plays in Music Halls was then discussed,<br /> and the secretary reported information he<br /> had received in regard to the prices which<br /> could be charged for these performances. All<br /> possible information was placed by the<br /> members present at the secretary’s disposal,<br /> that he might be able to advise dramatic<br /> authors who should apply to him for informa-<br /> tion on their contracts.<br /> <br /> ~The Translator’s Agreement was next con-<br /> sidered, and, with it, the question of the<br /> appointment of agents in foreign countries to<br /> deal with the work of members of the Society.<br /> <br /> Subject to confirmation by the committee<br /> of management an agent was appointed in<br /> Holland, and another in the United States.<br /> The secretary was instructed, also, to get into<br /> communication with an agent in Germany.<br /> <br /> The names of the agents will be published in<br /> The Author in full, after they have been duly<br /> appointed by the Committee of Management.<br /> <br /> A letter was read from a correspondent in<br /> Portugal who desired to act as agent of the<br /> Society, and the secretary was instructed to<br /> obtain information as to his standing and<br /> position. :<br /> <br /> The arrangements for the election of the<br /> Dramatic Sub-Committee for 1913 were next<br /> consideréd, and the secretary received instruc-<br /> tions to carry out the usual steps in due<br /> course.<br /> <br /> It was decided to hold the next meeting on<br /> the second Friday in December, as the third<br /> Friday brought the date too close to Christmas.<br /> <br /> — 1<br /> Composers’ SuB-CoMMITTEE.<br /> <br /> I.<br /> <br /> A SPECIAL meeting of the Composers’ Sub-<br /> Committee was held on Saturday, October 26th,<br /> <br /> 69<br /> <br /> in order to re-discuss the relations between the<br /> Society of Authors and the Mechanical-<br /> Copyright Licences Co., and the question of<br /> mechanical instrument fees. The secretary<br /> read to the sub-committee certain letters<br /> which he had written to the representative<br /> of the Mechanical Copyright Licences Co. in<br /> the spring of the year, and the secretary<br /> received instructions to draft a further letter<br /> dealing with the terms of contract.<br /> <br /> The question of performing rights was also<br /> dealt with, and the secretary read a letter he<br /> had received from the Music Publishers’<br /> Association. It was decided not to drop<br /> negotiations, but to persevere in the hope that<br /> some good might, in the end, be achieved by<br /> joint action.<br /> <br /> IT.<br /> <br /> Tue Composers’ Sub-Committee met again<br /> on Saturday, November 16th, at the offices of<br /> the Society.<br /> <br /> The first matter under discussion referred to<br /> a publisher’s agreement and the clauses which<br /> it contained. The secretary laid a letter he<br /> had_reecived from the publishers in answer to<br /> a communication from the Society of Authors,<br /> written under the instructions of the sub-<br /> committee, and the secretary was instructed to<br /> reply to the same, drafting a letter which should<br /> be approved by the chairman.<br /> <br /> The secretary then laid a letter before the<br /> committee that he had received from one of<br /> the directors of the Mechanical-Copyright<br /> Licences Co., Ltd. It was decided, as it was<br /> important for the Society to have agents for<br /> the collection of fees in foreign countries, to<br /> write to those persons who represented the<br /> Society in’ other matters and enquire what<br /> provision was made in France, Germany, and<br /> elsewhere, for the collection of fees on<br /> mechanical instrument reproductions, and the<br /> secretary was instructed, when the information<br /> came to hand, to lay the whole matter again<br /> before the sub-committee with a view to<br /> appointing reliable agents.<br /> <br /> The question of a united combination with<br /> the publishers in order to establish fees<br /> on performing rights was again considered.<br /> The secretary informed the sub-committee<br /> that he had had a conversation with Mr. Dixey,<br /> secretary of the Music Publishers’ Association.<br /> It was finally proposed that the secretary<br /> should write to the secretary of the Music<br /> Publishers’ Association, putting before him<br /> certain matters which could, with benefit to<br /> both parties, be discussed between the com-<br /> posers and the Music Publishers’ Association,<br /> <br /> <br /> @ _Adey, More<br /> <br /> 70<br /> <br /> in the hope that the Music Publishers’ Asso- ~ Burnett,<br /> <br /> ciation would be willing to form a small sub-<br /> committee to consider the matter, The four<br /> main points put forward were :—<br /> <br /> 1. The main principles of contract.<br /> <br /> 2. Performing right fees,<br /> <br /> 3. Mechanical instrument reproductions,<br /> <br /> 4, Cost of production.<br /> <br /> Finally, the secretary laid a series of letters<br /> from the companies which were reproducing<br /> the composers’ works on mechanical instru-<br /> ments, promising their assistance in cases of<br /> infringement of copyright.<br /> <br /> —_1—~&gt;+ —<br /> <br /> Cases.<br /> <br /> Tue number of cases taken up during the<br /> past month still keeps up the average.<br /> <br /> There have been four cases dealing with the<br /> question of the settlement of the exact terms of<br /> contract. These cases generally involve a<br /> certain amount of negotiation. One case has<br /> been satisfactorily settled, and correspondence<br /> is still going on with regard to the others.<br /> <br /> There have been five cases for the return of<br /> MSS. In three cases the MSS. have been<br /> returned. One case in Australia is necessarily<br /> not yet completed, and the last one has come<br /> only recently into the hands of the secretary.<br /> <br /> There have been five claims for accounts and<br /> money. Three of these have been settled,<br /> one has been placed in the hands of the Society’s<br /> solicitors and the other has only recently come<br /> to hand.<br /> <br /> Of two cases for money one is still in the<br /> course of negotiation and the other has been<br /> placed in the hands of the solicitors.<br /> <br /> Out of sixteen cases, therefore, six have been<br /> settled. This is a good average for one<br /> month.<br /> <br /> The cases still left over from past months<br /> are slowly closing up. Where the secretary<br /> has been unable to deal with them they have<br /> been handed over to the solicitors.<br /> <br /> a oo<br /> <br /> Elections.<br /> <br /> The Burlingion<br /> Magazine, 17, Old<br /> Burlington Street,<br /> W.<br /> <br /> ‘* Hillside,” Strath-<br /> cona Park,<br /> Ottawa, Canada ;<br /> Royal Societies<br /> Club, S.W.<br /> <br /> Ami, Henry M., M.A.,<br /> D.Sc., F.R.S. (Canada)<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Miss Olive<br /> Compton<br /> De Rehyn, Cyril .<br /> Ferguson, Dugald<br /> Florian, A.R., M.A.<br /> <br /> Haig, Kenneth George .<br /> Hare-Dean, Mrs. N.<br /> <br /> Harris, Clement Antro-<br /> bus.<br /> <br /> Lee, George ‘“ Wing-<br /> shaft.”<br /> <br /> MacDonald, Mrs..<br /> <br /> Moore, Edith Mary<br /> <br /> Nesfield, Miss Frances<br /> Emily<br /> <br /> Percival, Archibald<br /> <br /> Stanley<br /> Picciotto, Cyril<br /> Rawlence, Guy<br /> Sichel, Miss Edith<br /> Theobald, Harry.<br /> <br /> Wenyon-Samuel Alex-<br /> ander<br /> <br /> Wriothesley, William,<br /> <br /> Wyton, Mrs. Alice<br /> <br /> Lyceum Club, Pieca-<br /> dilly, W.<br /> <br /> Edinburgh.<br /> <br /> Tapanui, Otago, New<br /> Zealand.<br /> <br /> Priory Lodge,<br /> Shrewsbury.<br /> <br /> 7, Brook Street,<br /> Hanover Square,<br /> W.<br /> <br /> Writers’ Club, 10,<br /> Norfolk Street,<br /> <br /> Strand, W.C.<br /> Ellangowan, Crieff, ©<br /> <br /> 8, Vale<br /> Spital,<br /> field.<br /> <br /> 80, Auckland Road,<br /> Tiford. :<br /> <br /> Glan Aber, Purley;<br /> Surrey.<br /> <br /> c/o Messrs. Edghill<br /> Soulby, Clarence<br /> Park, Weston-<br /> super-Mare.<br /> <br /> 17, Claremont Place,<br /> <br /> Newcastle-on-Tyne.<br /> <br /> 54, Warrington Cres-<br /> cent, W. :<br /> <br /> The Chantry, Wilton<br /> Salisbury.<br /> <br /> 42, Onslow Gardens,<br /> S.W<br /> <br /> 37, Essex Street,<br /> Strand, W.C.<br /> <br /> 22, Lissenden Man-<br /> sions, Highgate<br /> Road, N.W.<br /> <br /> c/o. Messrs. Brown,<br /> Shipley &amp; Co.<br /> 123, Pall Mall,<br /> S.W.<br /> <br /> 145, Woolstone<br /> Road, Forest_Hill,<br /> S.E. a<br /> <br /> Terrace,<br /> Chester-<br /> <br /> 1 —_—___ —<br /> <br /> BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MEMBERS.<br /> <br /> —_t——+ ——<br /> <br /> While every effort is made by the ccmpilers to keep<br /> this list as accurate and exhaustive as possible, they have<br /> some difficulty in attaining this object owing to the fact<br /> that many of the books mentioned are not sent to the office<br /> by the members. In consequence, it is necessary to rely<br /> largely upon lists of books which appear in literary and<br /> other papers. It is hoped, however, that members will<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> i es ee a ty a es<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 71<br /> <br /> co-operate in the compiling of this list and, by sending<br /> particulars of their works, help to make it substantially<br /> accurate.<br /> <br /> AGRICULTURE.<br /> <br /> By Frepsrick No&amp;kt-Paton, Director-<br /> Calcutta<br /> <br /> Burma Rice.<br /> General of Commercial Intelligence, India.<br /> Superintendent Government Printing. 94.<br /> <br /> ANTHROPOLOGY.<br /> <br /> THE ORIGIN OF CIVILISATION AND THE PRIMITIVE ConpI-<br /> TION or Man. By Tue Ricutr Hon. toe Lorp AVEBURY.<br /> Seventh Edition. 9 x 6. 484 pp. Longmans.<br /> 7s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> ART.<br /> <br /> A History or Enctisn Grass Paryrinc. By Maurice<br /> Drake. Ilustrated by 36 plates from drawings by<br /> Wirrep Drake. 133 x 8. 226 pp. Werner<br /> Laurie. £2 2s. n:<br /> <br /> BIOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> Tae Diaries or Wiriaam Cuartes Macreapy (1833<br /> ag Edited by Wiutiam Toynser, Chapman &amp;<br /> all.<br /> Scenes anp Memories. By Warsurca Lapy Pacer.<br /> 8 x 54. 325 pp. Smith Elder. 7s. 6d. n.<br /> Mary QUEEN oF Scots. By Hirpa T. SKar.<br /> 204 pp. Foulis. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.<br /> <br /> SWEETHEARTS aT Home. By S. R. Crockert.<br /> 311 pp. Hodder &amp; Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue Macic Wortp. By E. Nessrr. Illustrations by<br /> H. R. Mintar &amp; Spencer Pryse. 73 x 5}. 280 pp.<br /> Macmillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue Brrv’s Curistmas Carot. By Kare Dovcuas<br /> Wiecin. Illustrated. by Karuartne RB. WISEMAN.<br /> 82 x 6}. 90 pp. Gay &amp; Hancock. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 7% x +54.<br /> <br /> 8i x 6.<br /> <br /> DRAMA,<br /> <br /> Tur Tria or JEANNE D’Arc, an Historical Play in Five<br /> Acts. By Epwarp Garnerr. 74 x 5. 79 pp.<br /> Sidgwick &amp; Jackson. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Wacner’s Tristan und Isoxpz, An Essay on the<br /> Wagnerian Drama. By G. A. Hicur. 8} x 53.<br /> 281 pp. Stephen Swift. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> ECONOMICS.<br /> <br /> Szasonat Traps. By various writers. Introduction<br /> by Stpyey Wess. Edited by SipNey Wess AND<br /> Agnotp Freeman. 8} x 5}. 410 pp. Constable.<br /> “Ts. 64. n. ,<br /> <br /> ENGINEERING.<br /> <br /> A Primer on THE INTERNAL ComBUSTION ENGINE. By<br /> H. E. Wimperis. 73 x 5. 143 pp. Constable.<br /> 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> FICTION.<br /> Come Rack! Come Ropz. By R. H. Benson. Ti Xx 5,<br /> <br /> Alston Riyers. 6s. 7 yay<br /> <br /> Barriers. By Tar Hon. Mrs. Juuian Byna. 7% X 5h.<br /> 380 pp. Holden &amp; Hardingham.<br /> <br /> Tue Distant Lame. By Harotp Bzcsre. 12 xX 6,<br /> 294 pp. Hodder &amp; Stoughton. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue Private Lire op Henry Maituanp. A Record<br /> Dictated by J. H. Revised and edited by Moruzy<br /> Roperts. 74 x 5. 316 pp. Nash. 6s.<br /> <br /> Mratam Lucas. By Canon Suuguay, D.D. 7% x 5.<br /> <br /> By ANATOLE<br /> 9 x 6.<br /> <br /> ASPIRATIONS OF JEAN SERVIEN.<br /> Translation by ALFRED ALIINSON.<br /> Lane. 6s.<br /> <br /> By Frorence L. Barcuay.<br /> 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> ConstaANCE SMEDLEY (Mrs.<br /> 343 pp. Religious Tract<br /> <br /> TE<br /> FRANCE.<br /> 234 pp.<br /> <br /> Tue Upas TREE.<br /> 246 pp. Putnam.<br /> <br /> Ruty’s Marriace. By<br /> Maxwell Armfield), 8 &lt; St.<br /> Society. 6s.<br /> <br /> THe Woornc oF Miranwy. By Eprru C. Kenyon.<br /> 7} x 5}. 344 pp. Holden &amp; Hardingham. 6s.<br /> <br /> Taines THAT Pass. By Atice E. Ropsins. 7} x 5}.<br /> 319 pp. Melrose. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Grove or Noster Dames AND THE WetL Betovep. A<br /> Sketch of a Temperament. By Tuomas Harpy.<br /> 9 x 6. Macmillan. 7s. 6d. n. each.<br /> <br /> Tue Broap Hignway. A Romance of Kent. By<br /> JEFFREY Farnov. Illustrations by C. E. Brook.<br /> 9} x 63. 493 pp. Sampson Low. 10s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Fotrowinc Darkness. By Forrest Rerp. 7? x 5.<br /> 320 pp. Arnold. 6s.<br /> <br /> St. L6 By Dororny Marcarer Sruart. 337 pp.<br /> Holden &amp; Hardingham. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tur Mystertovs Monstrur Dvuvant.<br /> (Author of “ John Merridew,” &amp;c.).<br /> THe JUNE Lapy. By R. E. VeRNEDE. 7} x 5.<br /> <br /> Constable. és.<br /> <br /> Tue Rest Presence. By Una L. SmBERRAD.<br /> 55 pp. Hodder &amp; Stoughton. Is. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Sesarorp’s Snake. By Berrram Mrrrorp.<br /> 320 pp. Ward Lock. 6s.<br /> <br /> Corn in Ecypr. By E. Newrox BunNGEY.<br /> 286 pp. Lynwood. 6s.<br /> <br /> THe Canusac Mystery. By K. anp HESKeETa<br /> Pricnarp. 74 x 43. 340 pp. Heinemann. 6s.<br /> <br /> At Waat Sacririce? By Annre O. Trppits. 74 x 5,<br /> 286 pp. Digby, Lone. 6s. The Caszr or RicHaRD<br /> Meynett. By Mrs. Humenry Warp. New Edition.<br /> 7} x 5. 525 pp. Smith Elder. 2s. n.<br /> <br /> No Surrenper. By Constance ExizapetH Mavp.<br /> 7k x 5. 328 pp. Cheaper re-issue. Duckworth.<br /> 28. 1.<br /> <br /> WINAFRINT, VIRGIN.<br /> Ham Smith. 6s,<br /> <br /> Tue House Opposits.<br /> Eveleigh Nash. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tae Man with tHE Briack FEATHER.<br /> Leroux. Translated by Epaar Jepson. 7}<br /> 314 pp. Hurst &amp; Blackett. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Recutar Mapam. By Arice Witson Fox. 7} x 5,<br /> 348 pp. Macraillan. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue Jew or Pracun. By A. Witson Barrert.<br /> 31ll pp. F. V. White. 6s.<br /> <br /> A Base iy Bonemia. By FranK Dansy.<br /> 288 pp. Stanley Paul. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tar ENLIGHTENMENT oF Sytyrs. By A. D. PrckmRinea.<br /> 74 x 5. 310 pp. John Murray. 6s.<br /> <br /> GARDENING.<br /> <br /> Tue Rock GarpEN. By Rearnayp Farrer.<br /> (Present Day Gardening). 84 6}. Jack.<br /> <br /> HYGIENIC,<br /> <br /> Thr PrincipLEs oF HEALTH AND<br /> Mrs, Huns H. Cuapwick. 7} x 5.<br /> &amp; Sons. ls. 3d. n.<br /> <br /> JUVENILE.<br /> <br /> Aunt Pex. A Book for Young Girls. By L. E.<br /> TippEMAN, S.P.C.K. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> A Crry Scnoon Girt anp Her Frienps. By May<br /> Batpwin. 74 x 5}. 370 pp. Campers Heart 0’<br /> Gotp, or Tar Lirrte Princess. By KaraaRine<br /> TyNnAN. 7} x 5}. 344 pp. Partridge. 3s. 67.<br /> <br /> 72 x Bh.<br /> <br /> By F. ARTHUR<br /> John Murray.<br /> 304 pp.<br /> 8 x 5h.<br /> 72 x SE<br /> <br /> 7k x 43.<br /> <br /> By W.SHerReN. 7} x 5. 318 pp.<br /> <br /> By “ Reva.” 72 xf. 306 pp.<br /> <br /> By Gaston<br /> x 4.<br /> <br /> 72 x 5.<br /> 72 =&lt; Sh.<br /> <br /> Illustrated.<br /> ls. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> TeMPeRANCE. By<br /> Sir Isaac Pitman<br /> 72<br /> <br /> A Story of Adventure<br /> <br /> Tue Bravest Boy IN THE CAMP. i re<br /> 7% x 5.<br /> <br /> on the Western Prairies. By R. Letcuton.<br /> 285 pp. Jarrold. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> Tne Prrate AEROPLANE. By CaprarNn CHARLES GILsoNn.<br /> 71 x 5}. 327 pp. Frowde &amp; Hodder &amp; Stoughton. ~5s.<br /> Grayxt Tur Grenapier. His Adventures in the Fighting<br /> Fifth in the Peninsula. By Wattrr Woop. 326 pp.<br /> Routledge. 3s. Gl.<br /> Prerer THE PowpEr-Boy.<br /> of the Days of Nelson.<br /> THE ComMINnG oF CARLINA.<br /> to Twelve. By L. E. TIDDEMAN.<br /> <br /> By Water Woop. A Tale<br /> 317 pp. Routledge. 3s. 6d.<br /> A Book for Children from Ten<br /> <br /> Jarrold. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Waerpe THE Ratnsow Enps. A_ Fairy Story. By<br /> Clifford Mills. 7 x 43. 160 pp. Hodder &amp; Stoughton.<br /> 1s. n.<br /> <br /> Currosrry Kats. By Frorence Bonz. 7} x 54.<br /> 320 pp. Partridge. 2s. 6d.<br /> <br /> ANGELIQUE. By Constance ExizapeTH Maup. 7} x 9.<br /> 265 pp. Duckworth. 6s.<br /> <br /> Tue ADVENTURES OF SitveRsuIT. Pictures by ANGUSINE<br /> <br /> Macarecor. Verses by Jxesste Porr. 9} x 7.<br /> Blackie. 1s. 6d.<br /> <br /> Tue Turee Joviat Purrres. By J. A. SHEPHERD.<br /> Rhymes by E. D. Cumtna. 10} x 7}. Blackie.<br /> 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Tue Brrps’ Curistmas Caron. By Kate Doveras<br /> Wiccry. 72 pp. Illustrated by F.E. Hiruy. 6} x 4.<br /> Gay &amp; Hancock. 1s, 6d. n. each.<br /> <br /> LAW.<br /> Tre Law or Copyricut. By L. C. D. OLprigLp. Second<br /> <br /> Edition. 350 pp. Stevens &amp; Sons. 26s.<br /> <br /> LITERARY.<br /> <br /> Portraits AND SkETcHES. By Epmunp Goss, C.B.<br /> 73 x 5}. 296 pp. Heinemann. 6s. n.<br /> <br /> Persian LIrERATURE. By CLaup FIELD.<br /> Herbert &amp; Daniel. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> LETTERS FROM SOLITUDE AND OTHER Essays. By Fitson<br /> Younc. 73 x 5. 317 pp. Chapman &amp; Hall. 5s. n.<br /> Smrpuiciry anp Torstoy. By G. K. Caesrerton. A<br /> Rocur’s Memorrs, &amp;c. By AvGUSTINE \BrRRELL.<br /> Bexsonrana. By E. F. Benson. 6 x 43. Hum-<br /> <br /> phreys. 2s. 6d. n. each. 4<br /> Srupres anp Apprectations. By Darreut. 3 Freats.<br /> 83 x 53. 258 pp. Dent. 5s. n. ;<br /> Tur AcapEmMIc CommiTrer. Browning’s Centenary,<br /> Edmund Gosse, Sir Arthur Pinero, Henry James.<br /> Tuesday, May 7th, 1912. Reprinted from ‘Trans-<br /> <br /> 7 x 5. 363 pp.<br /> <br /> actions ot the Royal Society of Literature. Vol.XXXI<br /> Part IV. 8} x 53. 50 pp. Asher. 3s.<br /> Sampnrre. By Lapy Sysm Grant. 7} x 5. 307 pp.<br /> <br /> Stanley Paul. 3s. 6d. n.<br /> ScortisH Lire anpD Porrry. By Lavuciuian MacLean<br /> Warr. 9 x 53. 509 pp. Nisbet. 12s. 6d. n.<br /> MacatLay’s Essay on Appison. By N. L. Hattwarp.<br /> <br /> Lonemans’ Brivisu Ciassics.FoR Inpra. Longmans.<br /> MILITARY.<br /> Can, Germany Invape Enctanp? By Con. H. B.<br /> Hanna. 71 Xx 43. 159 pp. Methuen. 1s. n.<br /> Turiuine Tares oF Great Events. Re-told from<br /> Survivors’ Narratives. By Waurer Woop. 332 pp.<br /> Routledge. 3s. 6d.<br /> MISCELLANEOUS.<br /> UNEMPLOYMENT AND DrsEasus. Caused by Decay and<br /> <br /> Loss of ‘Teeth. Wm. Dawson &amp;<br /> <br /> Sons. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> By a Dental Surgeon.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> NATURAL<br /> <br /> NERVATION or Pants.<br /> <br /> Illustrated. 74 x 5.<br /> 3s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Basy Brrps at Home. By Ricnarp Kmarton. TIllus-<br /> <br /> trated from Photographs. By CnHEerry and Graok<br /> <br /> HISTORY.<br /> <br /> By Francis Guorce Heats.<br /> 186 pp. Williams &amp; Norgate.<br /> <br /> Kearton. 8} x 53. 128 pp. Cassell. 6s.<br /> Tue Brrps or Austrauia. By 8. L. Marnews. Vol. IL.<br /> Part TV. 144 x 10. 359—476 pp. Witherby.<br /> NAVAL.<br /> Tue Barrizsuir. By Waiter Woop. Crown quarto.<br /> 309 pp. Kegan Paul. 12s. 6d. n.<br /> POETRY.<br /> <br /> Rivostes of Ezra Pounp. Whereto are appended the<br /> complete poetical works of T. E. Hume, with prefatory<br /> note. 73 x 54. 63 pp. Swift. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Aw IpyLt AND OTHER Poems. By E. Hamitron Moors.<br /> 74 x 5. 112 pp. Melrose. 2s. n.<br /> <br /> Eaypt AND OTHER Porms. By Francis Courts.<br /> 122 pp. Lane. 3s. 6d. n/<br /> <br /> Fatvuous FaBies AND OTHER VERSES.<br /> (X.Y,X.).<br /> <br /> Tk x 5.<br /> <br /> By Denis TURNER<br /> 6} x 44. 94pp. Fifield. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> REPRINTS.<br /> <br /> Porste VoLGARI DI Lorenzo De®’ MeEpict.<br /> Janet Ross e di Epwarp Huuton. Two volumes,<br /> 83 x 6}. 221 + 240 pp. Dent. 2ls. n.<br /> <br /> SeLecteD Waritincs or Wituiam Swarr. Vol. V.<br /> Vistas. THe Gresy Carist, and other Prose Imaginings.<br /> Selected and arranged by Mrs. Witniam SHarRp.<br /> 73 x 54. 484 pp. Heinemann. 5s. n.<br /> <br /> SCIENCE.<br /> <br /> Tur Story oF THE Heavens. By Sir Roperr §. Bani.<br /> Illustrated. 93 x 6}. 48 pp. Part. I. To be<br /> completed in 14 fortnightly parts. Cassell. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Crramic CuEmistry. By H. H. Stepnenson. 10 x 6}.<br /> 91 pp. Davis Bros. 6s.<br /> <br /> SOCIOLOGY.<br /> Woman anp To-Morrow. By W. L. Grorcez.<br /> <br /> A Cura di<br /> <br /> 72 x 5h.<br /> <br /> 187 pp. Herbert Jenkins. 2s. 6d. n.<br /> Tur Servite State. By Hmarre Betioc. 8 X 5}.<br /> 189 pp. Foulis. 1s. n.<br /> Wacrs. By A. J. Cantyiz, D.Lirr. 7} x 5. 125 pp.<br /> Mowbray. 2s. n.<br /> SPORT.<br /> Huntinc in THE OtpEn Days. By Witusam ScarTe<br /> Dixon. Constable. 21s, n.<br /> TECHNICAL.<br /> <br /> Tar Businrss oF BooKBINDING.<br /> 7k x 4%. 223 pp. Stanley Paul.<br /> <br /> THEOLOGY.<br /> <br /> Mrprrations on Portions or St. Jonn’s Gosprn. By<br /> Mrs. Romanes. 5% x 44. 49 pp. Mowbray. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> Everyman’s History oF THE Prayer Boox. By Tus<br /> Rev. Percy Drarmer, D.D. 74 x 5}. 256 pp.<br /> Mowbray. ls. 6d. n.<br /> <br /> TOPOGRAPHY.<br /> <br /> A Votume on Exeter. Described by Smpney Heats,<br /> with pictures by E. W. Hastenurst. (Black’s<br /> “ Beautiful England’? Series of Colour books.) 9/x 7.<br /> 64 pp. A. &amp; C. Black. 2s. n.<br /> <br /> By A. J. Pui.<br /> 6s. n. :<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 73<br /> <br /> [Tur CoTTAGERS AND THE VILLAGE Lire or RURAL<br /> Enetanp. By P. H. Dircurietp. With coloured and<br /> line illustrations by A.R. Quinton. 10} x 8}. 185 pp.<br /> Dent. 21s. n.<br /> <br /> Exurer. By Smyey Huars. Prepared by E. H.<br /> HastEnurst. 9 x 64. 64pp. Blackie. 2s. n.<br /> <br /> TRAVEL.<br /> <br /> THe OLp GarpENs oF ITraty. How to Visit Them. By<br /> Mrs. AvBrEy LE Bronp. 72 x 5. 171 pp. Lane<br /> 5s. n,<br /> <br /> ————————_+——_—__<br /> <br /> LITERARY, DRAMATIC, AND MUSICAL<br /> NOTES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> Some three or four years ago it might have<br /> been said that the day of the essay was over.<br /> No publisher would produce a collection in book<br /> form, because it did not pay, and that is the<br /> main point in a properly conducted business ;<br /> but now the book of essays seems to have come<br /> again into popular favour, and we are pleased<br /> to see two volumes from such old friends and<br /> well-known essayists as Mr. Austin Dobson and<br /> Mr. Edmund Gosse. Mr. Dobson’s book is<br /> entitled ‘“‘ At Prior Park and other Papers,”<br /> and is published by Messrs. Chatto &amp; Windus.<br /> It deals in matters of interest in the 18th<br /> century, a period of which the author has made<br /> himself a master. Mr. Gosse’s book is entitled<br /> “* Portraits and Sketches,”’ and is published by<br /> Mr. Heinemann. Its title explains itself. The<br /> author draws with a strong pen portraits and<br /> sketches of some of the famous men he has met.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Methuen &amp; Co. have published<br /> “* Perfect Health for Women and Children,” by<br /> Elizabeth Sloan Chesser, at the moderate price<br /> of 3s. 6d. Whilst in no sense a medical text<br /> book, the book aims at supplying intelligent<br /> women with useful information about health<br /> and sickness. Some of the subjects dealt<br /> with, such as “Nerves and their Cure,”<br /> “Health and .Open Air,” ‘“ Infectious<br /> Diseases,”’ ‘“‘ Winter Ailments,”’ will show the<br /> scope of the work.<br /> <br /> The same publishers have issued a volume<br /> of poems by Mrs. L. F. Wynne Ffoulkes entitled<br /> ** Poems of Life and Form.”’ She has repro-<br /> duced most of the old French metres, such<br /> as Roundels, Roundeaux, Triolets, Virelais,<br /> Villanelles, etc. One form, however, is not<br /> present, the “ Chante Royale,”’ perhaps the<br /> most difficult of any of the French metres.<br /> The subjects of her poems vary from poems<br /> of love to poems of mysticism ; from- poems<br /> written in dialogue, such as “ Joe’ and ‘‘ The<br /> Old ’oss,’’ to descriptive verse such as ‘* Ruth,”<br /> a setting of the Bible story.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Walford, the well-known novelist,<br /> has written her ‘‘ Memories of Victorian<br /> London,” and the book has been published by<br /> Mr. Arnold. It deals with certain aspects of<br /> London social life during the latter part of the<br /> last century. Mrs. Walford has new things to<br /> tell us about people like Laurence Oliphant,<br /> Charles Reade, George Macdonald, Wilkie<br /> Collins, and Coventry Patmore.<br /> <br /> Among the most notable of the present<br /> season’s publications, are ‘“‘ The Diaries of<br /> William Charles Macready (1833—1851), edited<br /> by William Toynbee,” which has been issued<br /> by Messrs. Chapman &amp; Hall, Ltd., in two<br /> large volumes, with numerous portraits. These<br /> Diaries contain a considerable amount of<br /> interesting material, hitherto unpublished,<br /> and shed new light not only on Macready him-<br /> self, but on many of his famous contemporaries<br /> in the literary and dramatic world.<br /> <br /> * Our Alty,” by M. E. Francis (Mrs. Francis<br /> Blundell), author of ‘‘ The Tender Passion,”<br /> etc., is the title of a new novel which Messrs.<br /> John Long will shortly publish. Mrs. Blundell<br /> here returns to rural Lancashire, where many<br /> of her readers deem her at her best. The story<br /> deals with the adventures of a typical North-<br /> country lass. The description of the old-world<br /> customs and quaint characters of this corner<br /> of England adds an interest to the tale.<br /> <br /> Mr. Arnold Bennett states in his book,<br /> “Those United States,” published by Martin<br /> Secker, ‘‘ the one possible justification of them<br /> [his views] is that they offer to the reader the<br /> one thing that, in the very nature of the case,<br /> a mature and accustomed observer could not<br /> offer, namely an immediate account (as<br /> accurate as I could make it) of the first tre-<br /> mendous impact of the United States on a<br /> mind receptive and unprejudiced.”” But sure<br /> this view-point put forward as an apology is<br /> after all a great recommendation, when it is<br /> frankly stated by the author. A reader may<br /> object to the dogmatic assertions set down<br /> so often by those whose knowledge is superficial,<br /> and whose study is of the slightest ; but when<br /> he is met by this frank statement, the book<br /> gathers to itself a greater interest, as all those<br /> who have perused the book will readily allow.<br /> <br /> Mr. Morley Roberts will gladden the hearts<br /> of his admirers by the production of ‘“ The<br /> Private Life of Henry Maitland,’”’ published<br /> by Eveleigh Nash. It is presumably a-novel,<br /> but it is an open secret that it is a study of<br /> the life of his old friend George Gissing. There<br /> are no doubt dangers surrounding the writing<br /> a life of a close friend. If the author is<br /> <br /> over-critical or over-conscientious, he may<br /> 74<br /> <br /> convey to the world a portrait exactly opposed<br /> to that he may wish to convey, if he is over-<br /> enthusiastic he may idealise. Those interested<br /> in George Gissing as a writer and a man<br /> should certainly read the book. The author<br /> of ‘‘ The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft ”<br /> deserves a just appreciation.<br /> <br /> Among the illustrated books we are pleased<br /> to see Mr. Rackham’s annual appearance with<br /> a volume of Ausop’s Fables. There is no need<br /> to praise, for Mr. Rackham’s Christmas books<br /> have become an institution. The get-up of the<br /> book in the limjted edition is excellent, and the<br /> new translations of the classicare commendable.<br /> <br /> At the present season of the year fairy<br /> stories sprout up like snowdrops in the grass.<br /> We gladly welcome Mrs. E. Nesbit’s ‘‘ The<br /> Magic World,” published by Messrs. Mac-<br /> millan &amp; Co., with illustrations by H. R.<br /> Millar and Spencer Pryse; and Miss Helen<br /> Margaret Dixon has produced, through Cornish<br /> Brothers, Ltd., Birmingham, “‘ Little Wander-<br /> ing Gil,” and other stories, prettily illustrated<br /> by photogravure reproductions from original<br /> photographs. This effective method of illus-<br /> tration is too seldom utilised. Much, however,<br /> must depend on the artistry of the original.<br /> <br /> Mr. Forbes Dawson has a series of articles<br /> running through the Era entitled ‘‘ Who<br /> wouldn’t be an Actor?’’ He portrays in a<br /> humorous manner the scenes in the life of an<br /> actor who has been stormed, has helped to<br /> build the stage on which he performed, has<br /> written dramas for production, and worked his<br /> way through the French Canadian towns and<br /> along the line to California. They will most<br /> probably be published in book form subse-<br /> quently.<br /> <br /> The relation between modern science and<br /> present day Christianity is a theme of peren-<br /> nial interest. The Rev. Luther W. Caws’ book,<br /> just published by James Clarke &amp; Co. : “‘ The<br /> Unveiled Glory, or Sidelights on the Higher<br /> Evolution,” has come at an opportune moment<br /> when the origin of life discussed at the British<br /> Association meetings has aroused a fresh<br /> public interest in the life-long drama of<br /> evolution.<br /> incredible that the evolution of life, if it really<br /> is so, from the lowest and simplest forms up<br /> to the highest animals, including man, could<br /> possibly have been the offspring of blind<br /> chance.<br /> <br /> We regret an error in our announcement of<br /> Messrs. Everett’s sevenpenny reprint of Miss<br /> Amy McLaren’s novel. The title of the novel<br /> is ‘* Bawbee Jock,” and not as given in our<br /> previous notice.<br /> <br /> The author maintains that it is.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Mrs. Wilson Fox’s new story, “A Regular<br /> Madam,” is a tale of the eightecnth century.<br /> Messrs. Macmillan &amp; Co. are the publishers.<br /> <br /> Miss Lillias Campbell Davidson’s new novel,<br /> “Houses of Clay,’ published by Messrs.<br /> Partridge &amp; Co. at 6s., is now out. The<br /> Lady is running its second serial by her this<br /> year: entitled ‘“‘ A Tangled Inheritance,” and<br /> another serial, ‘The Primitive Law,” is<br /> announced to appear in The Lady’s World<br /> in April next.<br /> <br /> Miss L. G. Moberly’s latest novel, ‘‘ Violet<br /> Dunstan,”’ has just been published by Messrs.<br /> Ward, Lock &amp; Co. It ran serially last year in<br /> the Daily Chronicle. Miss Moberly has now<br /> written several serials for the Daily Chronicle<br /> and Lloyd’s Weekly ; and new novels, “‘ Diana ”’<br /> and “ A Very Doubtful Experiment,” both ran<br /> serially in The Lady. She is now writing a<br /> novel for Messrs. Methuen. Many of ther<br /> novels have been translated into the Scandi-<br /> navian languages, and some into French and<br /> German,—amongst the latter, ‘“‘ The Cost,” and<br /> “* Angela’s Marriage.”<br /> <br /> Mr. Charles T. Jacobi, of the Chiswick Press,<br /> whose “ Printing ” is a text book on its subject,<br /> is bringing out a new, revised (fourth) edition of<br /> his guide for Authors, Publishers, and others<br /> —‘‘ Some notes on Books and Printing.”<br /> <br /> At a most opportune moment a book is<br /> announced by Mr. John Lane on “ Austria,<br /> Her People and their Homelands.” It is a<br /> work cn the whole of Austria, and its complex<br /> population, by one who has for over thirty<br /> years studied the country through its<br /> entirety. Mr. James Baker, F.R.G.S., has<br /> already written much on various parts of<br /> Austria, and now this work, which is illustrated<br /> by forty-eight water colours by Donald Max-<br /> well, and completed by a map and full index,<br /> will help many to elucidate the real Austria and<br /> her people.<br /> <br /> Among the many colonial and foreign<br /> criticisms which have appeared on Mr. John<br /> Bloundelle-Burton’s historical work, ‘‘ The Fate<br /> of Henry of Navarre,” France is now con-<br /> tributing her opinions. The latest appears in<br /> the October number of La Science Sociale, a<br /> well-known magazine devoted to_ literary<br /> criticism, and covers three columns. It is<br /> signed Pierre Galichet, and the writer plainly<br /> tells his readers that they will glean a con-<br /> siderable amount of knowledge frcm the book<br /> about the matter in hand, as well as their own<br /> history—restée assez ohscure—which they have<br /> not possessed hitherto. He also laments that<br /> such a livre d&#039;histoire de grande valeur should be<br /> only known at present to those acquainted<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. &quot;5<br /> <br /> with the English language, and expresses the<br /> hope that a French translation will not be long<br /> delayed. ;<br /> <br /> “Ayrshire Idylls” is the title of a book<br /> about to be published by Messrs. A. and C.<br /> Black. It is the affectionate and patriotic<br /> work of two Scottish artists—of Dr. Neil Munro,<br /> whose pen, diverted, for the moment, from the<br /> romance of Highland life and character, redis-<br /> covers the spirit of Ayr as it was in another<br /> and more dramatic age, and of George Houston,<br /> the Scottish landscape painter, who has made<br /> the scenery of Ayr his life-long study. The<br /> author’s sketches reconstruct certain notable<br /> scenes in Ayrshire history, wherein such figures<br /> as Burns, Boswell and the Covenanters are dis-<br /> played at a modern angle ; the artist’s draw-<br /> ings represent, in the main, those landscape<br /> features which remain very much the same<br /> to-day as they have been for centuries.<br /> <br /> The subject of stained glass in England has<br /> never been dealt with in an exhaustive manner.<br /> It is a subject of interest to the public as well<br /> as to artists and antiquarians. It is with<br /> pleasure, therefore, that we see “‘ A History of<br /> English Glass Painting,’ by Morris Drake,<br /> published by Werner Laurie. The work—<br /> illustrated by photographs and drawings in<br /> colour and _half-tone—at the price of £2 2s.<br /> net, attempts to deal with the evolution of the<br /> subject in detail and from every point of view.<br /> <br /> Messrs. Holden &amp; Hardingham have pub-<br /> lished a novel ‘“‘ St. Lé6,’? by Dorothy Margaret<br /> Stuart. Itis aromanceof the fifteenth century,<br /> introducing several historical characters, such<br /> as Maximilian of Austria, Louis XI., and<br /> Margaret of Burgundy. The details as to<br /> costume, heraldry and mise-en-scéne are<br /> derived from French and Flemish sources not<br /> accessible to most English students.<br /> <br /> We have received an announcement from<br /> Mr. Gerald Christy, of the Lecture Agency, Ltd.,<br /> that he is adding a literary agency to his<br /> business. The literary portion is to be under<br /> the conduct of Mr. Leonard P. Moore, who has<br /> had eleven years practical experience of<br /> agency work. The Agency will conduct its<br /> business from the old address, The Outer<br /> Temple, Strand, W.C.<br /> <br /> “* Mrs. Fauntleroy’s Nephew ”’ is the title of<br /> a story of Oxford life, by Beatrice Braithwaite-<br /> Batty. The hero is an undergraduate of<br /> Magdalen, whose pretty sister comes to stay<br /> with an old aunt during the summer term.<br /> During the festivities and gaicties, the sister<br /> draws around her a bewildering number of<br /> admirers. It must be left to the reader to<br /> discover the successful candidate. 5.<br /> <br /> “The Gods of Pegana,” by Lord Dunsany,<br /> for some while out of print, has been re-issued,<br /> and can now be obtained only from Mr. W.<br /> Johnson, The Pegana Studio, 86 Newman<br /> Street, Oxford Street, W.<br /> <br /> A copy of Mr. C. L. Freestons “‘ The Passes<br /> of the Pyrenees,’ has been accepted by<br /> His Majesty the King.<br /> <br /> Monsieur Georges Bazile is translating into<br /> French Mr. Robert Sherard’s ‘‘ The Story of<br /> an Unhappy Friendship,” for publication in<br /> serial form in Gil Blus, the great Parisian<br /> literary daily.<br /> <br /> Dramatic NOTES.<br /> <br /> - Towards the end of October, but too late<br /> for the November issue of this magazine, a<br /> piece entitled ‘“‘ Tantrums,” by Mr. Frank<br /> Stayton, was produced at the Criterion. The<br /> three acts turn around the tantrums of the<br /> spoilt Virginia Halstead. Miss Marjorie Day<br /> takes the part of Virginia, and Mr. Charles<br /> Maude plays the part of wooer and husband.<br /> <br /> Mr. J. T. Tanner’s ‘‘ The Dancing Mistress ”’<br /> was also too late for announcement. The<br /> piece was produced at the Adelphi, backed by<br /> the musie of Lionel Monckton; while Adrian<br /> Ross and Perey Greenbank were responsible<br /> for the lyrics. Miss Gertie Millar and Mr.<br /> Joseph Coyne took the chief parts. To hint<br /> at the plot will be sufficient to show the lines<br /> on which this musical comedy runs, for Naney<br /> Joyce (Miss Gertie Millar) is the dancing mistress<br /> at a finishing school for girls near Brighton.<br /> <br /> At the Garrick Theatre a one-act piece<br /> entitled ‘t Phipps,’”’ by Stanley Houghton, was<br /> produced on the 20th of last month, the<br /> characters were a butler and a recently married<br /> couple, The fact that the husband before<br /> marriage had met a certain young lady whom<br /> the butler had also fallen in with, affords the<br /> author an opportunity of giving the audience<br /> an enjoyable half-hour. Mr. Arthur Bourchier<br /> acted capitally as Mr. Phipps. The same<br /> author on the same night had a longer piece,<br /> “The Younger Generation,”’ produced at the<br /> Haymarket. It represents the eternal quarrel of<br /> the old and the new. The subject is set in a<br /> middle-class Manchester setting. The story is<br /> told with plain directness that carries convic-<br /> tion, and ends, as it was bound to end, in the<br /> triumph of the younger generation. Two<br /> pieces of a very different character were per-<br /> formed on the same night at the same theatre—<br /> ““An Adventure of Aristide Pujol,” by W. J.<br /> Locke, which needs no introduction ; and “‘ The<br /> Golden Doom,” by Lord Dunsany, a fantastic<br /> allegory in a legendary kingdom.<br /> 76 THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> On the 19th, Miss Marie Tempest produced<br /> three short plays for a series of Tuesday<br /> and Friday matinees. The first entitled<br /> ‘‘An Imaginary Conversation,” by Norreys<br /> Connell, represented Kate, a sister of Tom<br /> Moore, endeavouring to turn Robert Emmet<br /> from the thoughts of rebellion to those of love.<br /> Miss Tempest as Kate, though unsuccessful as<br /> a lover, was most successful in her representa-<br /> tion of the part.<br /> <br /> “The Play Boy of the Western World,” by<br /> J.M. Synge, has been translated into German by<br /> Mr. G. Sil-Vara, a Viennese author, journalist<br /> and playwright, who has made London his<br /> second home. Mr. Sil-Vara_ succeeded in<br /> placing ‘The Playboy’ at Professor Rein-<br /> hardt’s ‘‘ Kammerspiele’’ in Berlin at the<br /> ‘‘Neue Wiener Buchne ” in Vienna, and at the<br /> ‘“‘ Stadttheater”” in Muenster. The German<br /> version, published by George Mueller in Munich,<br /> has just appeared in book form.<br /> <br /> Mr. Sil-Vara has also translated into German<br /> and possesses the German rights of ‘‘ Prunella,”<br /> by Granville Barker, “The Gods of the<br /> Mountain,” by Lord Dunsany, and ‘“‘ 98 and 9,”<br /> by C. B. Fernald, and other plays which have<br /> not yet heen produced; and Mr. Gals-<br /> worthy has just transferred to Mr. Sil-Vara the<br /> German rights of his future plays. Mr.<br /> Galsworthy’s play, a dramatic version of his<br /> novel “ The Eldest Son,” is produced at the<br /> Kingsway under Mr. Granville Barker’s<br /> management.<br /> <br /> ““The Triumph,” a play by Florence Eaton<br /> and William Crossing, founded on Florence<br /> Eaton’s book, ‘‘ The White Demon,” was<br /> produced at the Royal Court Theatre. It is<br /> a fairy play, the main motif being the pursuit<br /> of health, and the triumph over the all-<br /> powerful demon “* Consumption.”<br /> <br /> A short play, written by special request of<br /> the Evening News, for their Santa Claus<br /> Doll Fund, entitled ‘‘ The House of Dolls,”<br /> from the pen of Mrs. Irene Osgood, has been<br /> produced at the Opera House, Northampton.<br /> <br /> “* Kitty of Ours,” a military comedy in four<br /> acts, by Emily Taylor, was produced at the<br /> Opera House, Harrogate, on October 30th.<br /> It deals with the love of the Quartermaster’s<br /> daughter for one of the handsomest officers<br /> of the regiment, and her subsequent dis-<br /> illusionment. It has a happy ending, however.<br /> The piece was produced by Mr. Charles<br /> Grattan and played by Miss Haidee Gunn,<br /> Mr. Frank Royde, and a capable company.<br /> A three-act comedy by Leonard Inkster<br /> entitled “The Emancipation ’’ was produced<br /> on October 9th and 11th in Sheffield.<br /> <br /> PARIS NOTES.<br /> ogee<br /> HE new literary convention between<br /> France and Russia came into force<br /> on November 13th.<br /> <br /> For the International Book Exhibition,<br /> which is to take place in Leipzig, in 1914, the<br /> first million is already subscribed. Austria,<br /> Hungary, France, England, America, the<br /> Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium are all to<br /> be represented, and it is believed that China<br /> and Japan will also exhibit.<br /> <br /> Holland has now joined the Berne Conven-<br /> tion with certain restrictions and, at present,<br /> only for European Holland. The Dutch<br /> colonies will be considered later on. The new<br /> arrangements came into force on November Ist,<br /> 1912.<br /> <br /> The Nobel prize for Chemistry is to be<br /> awarded to two French chemists : M. Sabatier,<br /> of Toulouse, and M. Grignard, of Nancy.<br /> <br /> ** Pages de Critique et de Doctrine,” by Paul<br /> Bourget, is the title of two volumes of studies<br /> on various subjects. The author writes of<br /> Taine, Brunetiére, Lamartine, Sully Prud-<br /> homme, Michelet, Barbey d’Aurevilly.. He<br /> analyses a novel by Léon Daudet and one<br /> by M. Barrés, and gives us portraits of the<br /> Duc d’Alencon, and Madame Taine. He also<br /> compares the past history of France with its<br /> present history. In these pages we have<br /> Paul Bourget’s opinions on matters literary,<br /> psychological, sociological, and political.<br /> <br /> ‘“* La Nouvelle Journée’’ is the title of the<br /> latest and last volume by Romain Rolland<br /> relating to Jean-Christophe. Rarely have<br /> we heard so many details of the life of<br /> any individual. This is the tenth volume<br /> which the author has given us concerning his<br /> protégé.<br /> <br /> Madame Marcelle Tinayre’s new novel. is<br /> entitled ‘‘ Madeleine au Miroir.”<br /> <br /> ‘Le Maitre des Foules”’ is the title of the<br /> latest novel by Louis Delzons. It will be<br /> remembered that this author was awarded an<br /> Academy prize for his novel “* L’Affaire Nell.”<br /> The present story is a very stirring account of<br /> the love affair of a professor, whose theories<br /> gradually lead him on to action and who is<br /> carried away by his success as an orator.<br /> <br /> An unpublished manuscript of the Goncourt<br /> brothers has been discovered and will shortly<br /> be published. It is a series of notes, giving us<br /> their impressions of Italy on the occasion of<br /> their first visit to that country during the<br /> winter of 1855—1856. The manuscript is<br /> illustrated with about 200 sketches by Jules de<br /> Goncourt.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> The second part of the ‘“‘ Lettres sur ]a Cour<br /> de Louis XIV. (1671—1673) du Marquis de<br /> Saint-Maurice,”” published by Jean Lemoine,<br /> has just appeared.<br /> <br /> ‘‘Autour de Saint-Simon ”’ is an interesting<br /> study, by M. Alfred Pereire, of the Saint-<br /> Simon unknown to the general public.<br /> <br /> It is now fourteen years since the Marchand<br /> Mission won its fame, and Dr. Emily, who<br /> accompanied it, now gives his diary in a<br /> volume entitled ‘Le Journal de Route.”<br /> M. Etienne Lamy writes the preface of this<br /> ‘* Odyssey, in which are pages of the Ihad.”<br /> <br /> A book by M. Gustave Lanson, entitled<br /> ‘“‘ Trois Mois d’Enseignement aux Etats-Unis ”<br /> is most instructive, and will probably be read<br /> by Americans with as much interest as it has<br /> been read by the French. M. Lanson has been<br /> lecturing in America, and he gives us his<br /> impressions and the results of his observation.<br /> <br /> Another book by the Abbé Jules Claraz,<br /> ex-vicaire of Saint-Germain I’ Auxerrois, cannot<br /> fail to attract attention. His ‘‘ Mariage des<br /> Prétres ’’ caused a great sensation, and the new<br /> volume is entitled ‘* La Faillite des Religions.”<br /> <br /> ‘‘La Protection internationale des Oeuvres<br /> cinematographiques,’’ by M. F. Potin, is a book<br /> that authors will do well to consult.<br /> <br /> “La Rénovation de VEmpire Ottoman<br /> (Affaires de Turquie),” by Paul Imbert, is a<br /> book which appears at the right moment.<br /> <br /> ** La Querelle des Communes et des Lords,”’<br /> by Paul Hamelle, with a preface by M. Augustin<br /> Filon, helps us to see ourselves as others see us.<br /> <br /> ** Du Cubisme,” by Albert Gleizes and Jean<br /> Metzinger, the two most notorious artists of<br /> the group of Cubists. The volume contains<br /> thirty illustrations, and may serve as a guide to<br /> those who are still seeking to discover the<br /> raison @étre of this extraordinary departure.<br /> <br /> ‘*La Coopération neutre et la Coopération<br /> socialiste ’’ is a book that will be read with<br /> interest by all who know the previous works of<br /> M. E. Vandervelde.<br /> <br /> ** Aux Pays Balkaniques, Montenegro, Serbie,<br /> Bulgarie,’”” by Alphonse Muzet, is a volume<br /> just published in the collection ‘“‘ Les Pays<br /> Modernes.”’<br /> <br /> Among the recent translations into French,<br /> we would specially mention a volume of essays<br /> and criticisms by Oscar Wilde: ‘‘ Noveaux<br /> Essais de Littérature et d’Esthétique,”’ trans-<br /> lated by Albert Savine, and ‘“ Parmi les<br /> Cheminots de I’Inde,” by Rudyard Kipling, by<br /> the same translator.<br /> <br /> ‘“* Prométhée délivré ” is the French title of<br /> Shelley’s fine drama, which has just been given<br /> to the public by Tola Dorian. No poet could<br /> <br /> &gt;<br /> <br /> 7<br /> <br /> be more difficult to translate than Shelley, and<br /> we must congratulate the well-known writer,<br /> who, under the pseudonym of Tola Dorian, has<br /> given French readers the opportunity of<br /> becoming acquainted with this poem.<br /> <br /> M. Pierre Berton’s death is sincerely regretted<br /> in the theatrical world. He was an excellent<br /> actor and a successful dramatic author. He<br /> came of a family of artistes, as he was the<br /> grandson of Samson of the Comédie Frangaise,<br /> and his father also belonged to the Théatre<br /> Francais. Some of Pierre Berton’s plays are<br /> as well known in England as in France.<br /> Among others, he wrote ‘“‘ Zaza’ with M.<br /> Charles Simon, and the ‘‘ Deux Gosses ”’ with<br /> Pierre Decourcelle.<br /> <br /> At the Renaissance, ‘“‘ L’Idée de Francoise,”<br /> by M. Paul Gavault, is now being played. It<br /> is an excellent piece, with plenty of incident<br /> and dramatic situations.<br /> <br /> The Athenée has become one of the favourite<br /> theatres. The new play, “‘ Le Diable ermite,”<br /> seems likely to have as long a run as its<br /> predecessor.<br /> <br /> Arys HALLARD.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * Pages de Critique et de Doctrine.” (Plon.)<br /> <br /> “La Nouvelle Journée.”’ (Ollendorff.)<br /> <br /> ‘Madeleine au Miroir.” (Calmann-Lévy.)<br /> <br /> “Le Maitre des Foules.” (Calmann-Lévy.)<br /> <br /> “Lettres sur la Cour de Louis XIV. (1671—1673) du<br /> Marquis de Saint-Maurice.’’ (Calmann-Lévy.)<br /> <br /> “La Faillite des Religions.’ (Flammarion.)<br /> <br /> “La Protection internationale des Oeuvres cinemato-<br /> graphiques ’’ (Gauthier-Villais. )<br /> <br /> “La Rénovation de PEmpire Ottoman.<br /> Turquie). (Perrin.)<br /> <br /> “La Querelle des Communes et des Lords.”’ (Plon.)<br /> <br /> “Du Cubisme.” (Figuiére.)<br /> <br /> “La Coopération neutre et la Coopération socialiste.’<br /> (F. Alcan.)<br /> <br /> “* Aux Pays Balkaniques, Montenegro, Serbie, Bulgarie.””<br /> (Roger.)<br /> <br /> *Prométhée délivré.”’ (Lemerre.)<br /> <br /> (Affaires de<br /> <br /> ————_+—_+___—_-<br /> <br /> REGISTRATION OF DRAMAS IN THE<br /> UNITED STATES.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> INSTRUCTIONS FOR SECURING COPYRIGHT<br /> REGISTRATION IN THE UNITED STATES<br /> UNDER THE UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT<br /> Act or Marcu 4, 1909.<br /> <br /> (Published with the kind permission of the Register<br /> of Copyrights of the Library of Congress).<br /> <br /> N order to secure the registration of a claim<br /> to copyright in the United States for any<br /> dramatic composition, the following pro-<br /> <br /> cedure is required under the copyright law of<br /> the, United States.<br /> 78<br /> <br /> I. If the drama is a new work which has<br /> been printed and sold as a book :<br /> <br /> 1. Print upon the back of the title page the<br /> copyright notice in the form prescribed by the<br /> eopyright statute. The usual and a correct<br /> form is the word “ Copyright ” ; the year date<br /> of publication (i.e. the year when copies were<br /> first sold, offered for sale, or publicly<br /> distributed) ; and the name of the person who<br /> claims the copyright ; e.g.<br /> <br /> “ Copyright, 1912, by John Smith.”<br /> <br /> 2. Promptly after such publication of the<br /> play send by post prepaid two (2) copies<br /> addressed :<br /> <br /> Register of Copyrights,<br /> Library of Congress,<br /> Washington, D.C., U.S.A.<br /> <br /> 3. These copies must be accompanied by a<br /> <br /> claim to copyright in the work, setting out<br /> <br /> (a) The full title of the play.<br /> <br /> (b) The name of the person who claims<br /> the copyright, his nationality and<br /> address.<br /> <br /> [This must be the real name and not the<br /> pen-name, stage name, or pseudonym. It is<br /> this name which must appear in the printed<br /> notice, and the form of the name in the printed<br /> notice should exactly agree with the name<br /> stated in the application for record.]<br /> <br /> (c) The nationality of the author or authors<br /> (i.e. the name of the country of which they are<br /> at the time of making the application citizens<br /> or subjects) must be given, or if permanent<br /> residents of the United States, that fact should<br /> be stated.<br /> <br /> [If the dramatic work is an adaptation or<br /> translation, then it is the name of the country<br /> of which the author of the adaptation or trans-<br /> lation is a citizen or subject that must be<br /> stated. |<br /> <br /> 4. The name of the author or authors should<br /> also be given, if printed in the book; or, if<br /> not so printed and no objection exists to placing<br /> the names on record. But it is not obligatory<br /> to disclose the name of the author.<br /> <br /> 5. The application must state the exact date<br /> of publication, i.e. “‘ the earliest date when<br /> copies of the first authorised edition were<br /> [ on sale, sold, or publicly distributed<br /> <br /> y the proprietor of the copyright or under<br /> his authority.”<br /> <br /> This application can be made by letter,<br /> provided all the essential facts are clearly set<br /> out. It would, however, be more conveniently<br /> supplied to the Copyright Office by using the<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> application form called “D1,” which will be<br /> sent upon request.<br /> <br /> 6. With the application must be sent an<br /> international post-office money order to pay<br /> the statutory registration fee of $1 (= about<br /> 4s. 2d.). This fee includes a certificate of<br /> registration under seal of the Copyright Office,<br /> which will be posted free of further charge to<br /> the address indicated in the application. The<br /> money order should be made payable to the<br /> REGISTER OF Copyricuts. Personal cheques<br /> or domestic British money orders or British<br /> postal notes cannot be received.<br /> <br /> The copyright is for a first term of twenty-<br /> eight years from publication, with a right of<br /> renewal for twenty-eight years more. Old<br /> plays which are now first printed as books<br /> cannot be registered to secure the statutory<br /> copyright. The law does not require that the<br /> drama be printed in the United States.<br /> <br /> II. If the drama is a new work and has not<br /> been printed and published, it may be registered<br /> as a dramatic composition “ not reproduced in<br /> copies for sale ” by proceeding as follows :—<br /> <br /> (a) Deposit in the Copyright Office one<br /> clean and complete copy, either manuscript or<br /> type-written ;<br /> <br /> _ (6) Send with it an application for registra-<br /> tion of claim to copyright exactly as above,<br /> omitting only the date of publication. (Appli-<br /> cation form “D2” can beused for this purpose.)<br /> <br /> [If it is the intention presently to print and<br /> sell the drama, there would seem to be no<br /> advantage in registering the manuscript, as<br /> the law expressly requires a second deposit<br /> of two printed copies, and registration when<br /> ay ae has been “‘ reproduced in copies for<br /> sale.”’<br /> <br /> Address all matter to THz REGISTER OF<br /> Copyricuts, CopyricHtT OFrricr, LIBRARY OF<br /> Coneress, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.<br /> <br /> THORVALD SOLBERG,<br /> Register of Copyrights.<br /> <br /> Mopeu or Buank “D1,” Request rok REGISTRATION OF<br /> A PuBLISHED Dramatic COMPOSITION: :<br /> <br /> Rucister or Copyricuts, WasHineTon, D.C.<br /> Date<br /> <br /> Of the Dramatic Composition named herein, two com-—<br /> plete copies of the best edition first published on the date<br /> stated herein are hereby deposited to secure copyright<br /> registration, according to the provisions of the Act of<br /> March 4, 1909. $1 (statutory fee for registration) is also<br /> inclosed. The copyright is claimed by the undersigned :<br /> Name and address of i<br /> <br /> copyright claimant { ee eee eee<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTIIOR.<br /> <br /> Name of Author, but if a trans-<br /> lation, then name of the Translator<br /> <br /> Country of which the author<br /> or translator is a citizen ee<br /> <br /> [An alien author domiciled in the United States should<br /> write here in addition to citizenship “domiciled in U. 8.”’]<br /> <br /> Brief title of work _<br /> Exact date of publication _ __ [Must be stated]<br /> <br /> [Date (day, month, and year) when placed on sale, sold,<br /> or publicly distributed].<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Send certificate of (<br /> registration to | eee ak sia<br /> <br /> Name and address {<br /> of remitter t<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE COLONIAL BOOK TRADE.<br /> <br /> — +<br /> <br /> M* who are acquainted at first hand<br /> with the conditions of modern indus-<br /> try maintain that the problem of<br /> production has been, so far at least, as is<br /> necessitated by existing facts, solved; the<br /> difficulty lies in distribution. To try to deal<br /> in any exhaustive sense with the question I<br /> have raised would be outside my present<br /> purpose. Let me, however, illustrate my<br /> meaning by a concrete example. I use in my<br /> office certain articles which cost me half a<br /> guinea when, as often happens, I have to buy<br /> them, and the manufacturer of which happens<br /> to be an intimate friend. I told him I paid<br /> half a guinea; he replied that he only realised<br /> half a crown, and that on the half-crown he<br /> made a profit of 30 per cent. Where then, do<br /> the other 8s. go ? In trade discounts, travellers’<br /> commissions and advertising. The particular<br /> trade in which my friend is engaged is a lucra-<br /> tive trade; it is highly capitalised and pays<br /> considerable dividends. It fulfils all the<br /> conditions laid down by those who manufacture<br /> under present-day conditions. It produces<br /> but a few articles; it has standardised them,<br /> it employs highly-paid experts to control its<br /> processes, and its principal travellers and<br /> finance men earn large incomes. How does<br /> all this compare with the publishing trade ?<br /> Iwill admit, of course, that the analogy is not,<br /> and cannot be, complete; books will not, they<br /> refuse to, be treated as commodities, and<br /> <br /> 49<br /> <br /> disaster awaits, in the long run at least, any<br /> publisher who fails to draw a sharp distinction<br /> between books and pounds of butter. But I<br /> do suggest that the publishing trade fails. in<br /> many important particulars, to satisfy the<br /> conditions met by the manufacturing firm of<br /> which I have just spoken. The publishing<br /> trade is, to my thinking, and to the best of my<br /> knowledge, under-capitalised, and consequently<br /> fails both in production and in distribution ;<br /> in the large commercial sense, it has no<br /> existence. No man who sets out to make<br /> money, as the City, Manchester, or even Fleet<br /> Street understands the word, would waste<br /> time in publishing. The difference between<br /> cost and selling prices is too small.<br /> <br /> And yet—if only the distribution problem<br /> could be solved—publishing should be lucrative<br /> enough ; lucrative enough for the author as<br /> well as the publisher. If the publisher is not<br /> a rich main, then certainly the remuneration<br /> received by the authors of the great majority<br /> of books is ludicrously small. The writing of<br /> books is not a trade, but a form of art, and, like<br /> all artists, the author must take his chance of<br /> finding what he has written to be to the general<br /> liking. Quite true; these things are so. But<br /> the circulation of even the successful author<br /> is not, I suggest, what it might and ought to<br /> be. His publisher breaks down when he comes<br /> to distribution. Despite a dictum of Mr. Wells<br /> to the contrary, publishers would rather<br /> publish good books than bad, the sifting of<br /> manuscripts is close and continuous, and only<br /> a proportion of the books that are written<br /> reach the stage of being printed. It may fairly<br /> be said that production is, allowing for under-<br /> capitalisation, reasonably near the best of<br /> which we, as a nation, are at present capable,<br /> even though much is not written that should<br /> be written, because the publisher cannot afford<br /> to offer the author a pecuniary temptation<br /> strong enough to induce him to abandon other<br /> activities. Here I speak, of course, only of<br /> certain kinds of books. The publisher cannot<br /> afford to pay enough because he has not the<br /> money and he has not, and cannot procure,<br /> the money, because the nation’s book-con-<br /> suming capacity is insufficient to attract<br /> capital.<br /> <br /> Can this capacity be increased? The impor-<br /> tant social changes through which we are<br /> passing so rapidly affect the book trade as they<br /> affect other enterprises. ‘The rich man used<br /> to be the publisher’s main support. Can it be<br /> said that heis sonow? ‘The landed gentry and<br /> the country parson, are, relatively to the rest<br /> of the community, poorer than they were. And<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> 80<br /> <br /> the rich man generally has means of spending<br /> his income that formerly did not exist ; he<br /> motors, he golfs, he spends much of his time<br /> in restaurants and other places of amuse-<br /> ment. He is abandoning the family mansion<br /> that used to be his pride, in which he passed<br /> most of his time and which usually con-<br /> tained a well-filled library. We may almost<br /> eliminate the rich man from our calculations ;<br /> the West End supports no bookshop com-<br /> parable with the establishments of New York<br /> “and the other American cities. It is, truly,<br /> only the rich man who can buy the very expen-<br /> sively produced volume, and for de luxe<br /> editions there will always be a demand. But<br /> the publisher should cease to think in terms<br /> of the income-tax paying class. and recognise<br /> the existence of the new public that has been<br /> called into being by compulsory education.<br /> One may approve or disapprove of the social<br /> evolution through which we are passing, but<br /> it is not going to stop because of our dislike,<br /> and the people who write and publish books<br /> will do well to recognise the fact that the<br /> national centre of intellectual gravity has<br /> shifted. Mr. Dent made the discovery some<br /> years back, and Messrs. Williams and Norgate,<br /> if report speaks truthfully of the success of<br /> The Home University Library, have bettered<br /> his example. But to produce books in large<br /> numbers at a cheap price for popular reading<br /> requires two things—more capital than most<br /> publishers can control, and a much more<br /> efficient book-selling machinery. The circu-<br /> lating library, important factor in distribution<br /> asit is, comes rather outside my present purpose ;<br /> let me only say that, if it is to last, its present<br /> unsound economic foundation must be changed<br /> radically, and that its profits should, as is the<br /> case with other middlemen, bear some relation<br /> to the degree of usefulness with Which it<br /> performs its functions. The future is not with<br /> the book specifically aimed at the libraries,<br /> but with the book that is meant to be bought,<br /> and is worth buying. The means of produc-<br /> tion are ready, or practically ready; for the<br /> capital necessary would be forthcoming if the<br /> publisher could sell what he published. At<br /> present he cannot. Most people have never<br /> acquired the bookshop habit. There are,<br /> indeed, not enough bookshops in which they<br /> can learn it. Large areas of London have no<br /> bookshops worth serious consideration, just<br /> as they have no schools other than those<br /> provided by the County Council. Some day,<br /> <br /> perhaps, the middle-class Englishman will be<br /> as sensible as the American, and send his chil-<br /> dren to the ‘ public ’<br /> <br /> ?<br /> <br /> schools ; he may then,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> too, learn to buy books. But the books that<br /> the working, or even middle-class man can<br /> afford to buy must be cheap, and the provision,<br /> both as to production and distribution, must<br /> be far better than anything that is offered now.<br /> <br /> We may leave the future to grapple with its<br /> own problems, though the future is not so very<br /> far distant and wisdom suggests that we do what<br /> lies in our power to hasten its advent. Mean-<br /> time, we seem to be losing our hold on the book<br /> markets of our own Colonies. The American<br /> book—particularly the American novel—is<br /> ousting us. Assuming the truth of the pro-<br /> position, it is as well to consider the reasons.<br /> In the first place, the American book publisher<br /> is helped very considerably by the American<br /> magazine publisher. American magazines are,<br /> it is generally agreed, incomparably better<br /> than ours, and the Colonial prefers McClure’s<br /> and Everybody&#039;s to what is offered him from<br /> London. So he gets the American view of<br /> things. And in the second place, when he<br /> comes to choose his books, he finds that the<br /> conditions of life set forth by the American<br /> writer are nearer to what he himself knows<br /> and understands, than the pictures done by the<br /> English novelist, who gathers his material in a<br /> complex civilisation, very remote from New<br /> Zealand or South Africa. It is a common-<br /> place to say that books reflect the intellectual<br /> life of their time, yet the publisher, who must<br /> always be something more than a tradesman,<br /> pays heavily if he forgets it. Here in England<br /> the author has to struggle against a book-selling<br /> machinery which has broken down; in the<br /> Colonies he has to face the invasion of men<br /> who write under conditions more nearly<br /> approximating to Colonial than to English life.<br /> The position at home can be improved, is, in<br /> fact, better than it was a few years ago; the<br /> nett book system has helped the bookseller<br /> materially. As far as the Colonies are con-<br /> cerned, some English writers will always find<br /> a Colonial circle of readers: the others must<br /> wait till America and the Colonies grow up.<br /> <br /> C, F. CAzENOVE.<br /> <br /> ——————_1-— &gt; o—__—_<br /> <br /> UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND<br /> HUNGARY.<br /> <br /> — oo<br /> <br /> E understand from the Copyright Office<br /> of the Library of Congress that the<br /> following short convention has been<br /> <br /> agreed to between the United States and<br /> Hungary, and came into force on October 16th<br /> of this year.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THB AUTHOR. 81<br /> <br /> Article 1.<br /> <br /> Authors who are citizens or _ subjects<br /> of the two countries or their assigns shall enjoy<br /> in the other country, for their literary, artistic,<br /> dramatic, musical and photographic works<br /> (whether unpublished or published in one of<br /> the two countries) the same rights which the<br /> respective laws do now or may hereafter grant<br /> to natives.<br /> <br /> The above provision includes the copyright<br /> control of mechanical musical reproductions.<br /> <br /> Article 2.<br /> <br /> The enjoyment and the exercise of rights<br /> secured by the present Convention are subject<br /> to the performance of the conditions and<br /> formalities prescribed by the laws and regula-<br /> tions of the country where protection is claimed<br /> under the present Convention; such enjoy-<br /> ment and such exercise are independent of<br /> the existence of protection in the country of<br /> origin of the work,<br /> <br /> Article 3.<br /> <br /> The term of copyright protection granted<br /> by the present Convention shall be regulated<br /> by the law of the country where protection<br /> is claimed.<br /> <br /> Article 4.<br /> <br /> The present Convention shall be ratified<br /> and the ratifications shall be exchanged at<br /> Washington as soon as possible.<br /> <br /> Article 5.<br /> <br /> The present Convention shall be put in<br /> force one month after the exchange of ratifica-<br /> tions, and shall remain in force until the<br /> termination of a year from the day on which<br /> it may have been denounced.<br /> <br /> In faith whereof the Plenipotentiaries have<br /> signed the present Convention in two copies,<br /> each in English and Hungarian languages,<br /> and have affixed thereto their seals.<br /> <br /> Done at Budapest, the 30th day of January,<br /> 1912.<br /> <br /> (Seal) Ricuarp C. Krrens<br /> (Seal) Esternazy Pau<br /> (Seal) Tory Gustav<br /> <br /> | Norr.—Ratification advised by the Senate,<br /> July 238, 1912; ratifications exchanged,<br /> September 16, 1912 ; in force October 16,<br /> 1912.]<br /> <br /> A CRIMINAL PROSECUTION OF A<br /> LITERARY AGENT.<br /> <br /> ——— + —<br /> <br /> OR a good. many years past a Literary<br /> Agency has been carried on in the<br /> City at 34, Paternoster eae under<br /> the name of ‘“‘ A. M. Burghes.”” A. M. Burghes<br /> himself was made a bankrupt it in July, 1911,<br /> as the result of proceedings taken by a ‘member<br /> with the assistance of the Society, and he has<br /> been during the present month found guilty<br /> at the Old Bailey of fraudulently converting to<br /> his own use a sum of £50 paid to him by an<br /> author for the purpose of making a payment<br /> to a publisher. The Recorder postponed<br /> sentence to next Sessions.<br /> <br /> C. M. Burghes, son of A. M. Burghes,<br /> appears to have carried on the literary agency<br /> for some time past in his father’s name.<br /> C. M. Burghes has also been found guilty of<br /> fraud at the Old Bailey during the present<br /> month. He was convicted of obtaining a<br /> sum of £10 from a firm of publishers by f false<br /> pretences. He represented to the publishers<br /> that he was entitled as agent for an author to<br /> receive this sum and transfer the copyright of<br /> the author’s book, whereas he had no such<br /> authority, and in fact made no communication<br /> to the author at all. The Judge bound him<br /> over to come up for sentence when called<br /> upon.<br /> <br /> Se ee<br /> <br /> MAGAZINE CONTENTS.<br /> <br /> +—&gt;—+-——<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> CONTEMPORARY.<br /> Letters of George Meredith. By Mrs. Sturge Gretton.<br /> Grimm’s Fairy ales: By Miss Constance ‘Spender.<br /> The Relationship Between Music and Life. By Gerald<br /> Cumberland.<br /> CoRNUILL.<br /> <br /> The Poetry of Sir Alfred Lyall. By<br /> MacMunn, D.S.O.<br /> <br /> Andrew Lang and “ X”’:<br /> <br /> Major G. F.<br /> A Working Man.<br /> <br /> EnouisH REVIEW.<br /> <br /> Malthus and the Publishing Trade.<br /> August Strindberg.<br /> <br /> By P. P. Howe.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> SCALE FOR ADVERTISEMENIS,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> [ALLOWANCE TO MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY 20 PER CENT.)<br /> Frout Page nak Ne £4 0 9<br /> Other Pages : ae ing ios — ee ae ies : 0 0<br /> Half of a Page ... ae ae ise 28 ae es xe L 10 Y<br /> Quarter of a Page sek ies ce or ee ee so 0 16<br /> Eighth of a Page = 07 °<br /> Single Column ‘Advertisements : per inch 060<br /> Reduction of 20 per cent. made for a Series of Six and of 25 per cent, foT<br /> Twelve Insertions.<br /> <br /> All letters respecting Advertisements should be addressed to J. F.<br /> Betmont &amp; Co., 29, Paternoster Square, London, E.C.<br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> HOW TO USE THE SOCIETY.<br /> <br /> —-—~&lt;—4—_<br /> <br /> 1, PSV VERY member has a right toask for and to receive<br /> K advice upon his agreements, his choice of a pub-<br /> lisher, or any dispute arising in the conduct of his<br /> business or the administration of his property. The<br /> Secretary of the Society is a solicitor; but if there is any<br /> special reason the Secretary will refer the case to the<br /> Solicitors of the Society. Further, the Committee, if they<br /> deem it desirable, will obtain counsel’s opinion without<br /> any cost to the member. Moreover, where counsel&#039;s<br /> opinion is favourable, and the sanction of the Committee<br /> is obtained, action will be taken on behalf of the aggrieved<br /> member, and all costs borne by the Society.<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. Before signing any agreement whatever, send<br /> the document to the Society for examination.<br /> <br /> 4. Remember always that in belonging to the Society<br /> you are fighting the battles of other writers, even if you<br /> are reaping no direct 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 /> 5. The Committee have arranged for the reception of<br /> 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 stamp agreements in readiness for a possible action<br /> upon them. (2) To keep agreements. (3) To enforce<br /> payments due according to agreements. Fuller particu-<br /> lars of the Society’s work can be obtained in the<br /> Prospectus.<br /> <br /> 6. 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 /> 7, Many agents neglect to stamp agreements,<br /> must be done within fourteen days of first execution,<br /> Secretary will undertake it on behalf of members,<br /> <br /> This<br /> The<br /> <br /> 8. 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 /> 9. The subscription to the Society is £1 1s.<br /> <br /> per<br /> annum, or £10 10s. for life membership.<br /> <br /> SRN eres os, ee<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO THE PRODUCERS<br /> OF BOOKS,<br /> <br /> ro<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 /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> obtained. But the transaction should be managed by a<br /> <br /> competent agent, or with the advice of the Secretary of<br /> the Society,<br /> <br /> II. A Profit-Sharing Agreement (a bad form of<br /> agreement),<br /> <br /> In this case the following rules should be attended to:<br /> <br /> C1.) Not to sign any agreement in which the cost of pro-<br /> duction forms a part without the strictest investigation,<br /> <br /> (2.) Not to give the publisher the power of putting the<br /> profits into his own pocket by charging for advertisements<br /> in his own organs, or by charging exchange advertise-<br /> ments. Therefore keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Not to allow a special charge for “office expenses,”<br /> unless the same allowance is made to the author.<br /> <br /> ses 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 /> IY. A Commission Agreement.<br /> <br /> The main points are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) Be careful to obtain a fair cost of production.<br /> <br /> (2.) Keep control of the advertisements.<br /> <br /> (3.) Keep control of the sale price of the book.<br /> <br /> General.<br /> <br /> All other forms of agreement are combinations of the four<br /> above mentioned.<br /> <br /> Such combinations are generally disastrous to the author,<br /> <br /> Never sign any agreement without competent advice from<br /> the Secretary of the Society.<br /> <br /> Stamp all agreements with the Inland Revenue stamp.<br /> <br /> Avoid agreements by letter if possible.<br /> <br /> The main points which the Society has always demanded<br /> from the outset are :—<br /> <br /> (1.) That both sides shall know what an agreement<br /> means.<br /> <br /> (2.) The inspection of those account books which belong<br /> to the author. We are advised that this is a right, in the<br /> nature of a common law right, which cannot be denied or<br /> withheld.<br /> <br /> (3.) Always avoid a transfer of copyright.<br /> <br /> ee<br /> WARNINGS TO DRAMATIC AUTHORS.<br /> <br /> a<br /> <br /> EVER sign an agreement without submitting it to the<br /> Secretary of the Society of Authors or some com-<br /> petent legal authority.<br /> <br /> 2, It is well to be extremely careful in negotiating for<br /> the production of a play with any one except an established<br /> manager.<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 /> <br /> play-bills,<br />  <br /> <br /> (2.) 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 18<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 /> <br /> should grant a licence to perform. The legal distinction<br /> is 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 /> &lt;&gt; +_ _____<br /> <br /> REGISTRATION OF SCENARIOS AND<br /> ORIGINAL PLAYS.<br /> <br /> —<br /> <br /> we typewritten in duplicate on foolscap paper<br /> forwarded to the offices of the Society, together with<br /> a registration fee of two shillings and sixpence, will<br /> <br /> be carefully compared by the Secretary or a qualified assis-<br /> tant, One copy will be stamped and returned to the author<br /> and the other filed in the register of the Society. Copies<br /> of the scenario thus filed may be obtained at any time by<br /> the author only at a small charge to cover cost of typing.<br /> <br /> Original Plays may also be filed subject to the same<br /> <br /> oa that a play will be charged for<br /> at the price of 2s. 6d. per act,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 83<br /> <br /> DRAMATIC AUTHORS AND AGENTS.<br /> te<br /> <br /> A ee authors should seek the advice of the<br /> <br /> Society before putting plays into the hands of<br /> <br /> agents. As the law stands at present, an agent<br /> who has once had a play in his hands may acquire a<br /> perpetual claim to a percentage on the author’s fees<br /> from it. As far as the placing of plays is concerned,<br /> it may be taken as a general rule that there are only<br /> very few agents who can do anything for an author<br /> that he cannot, under the guidance of the Society, do<br /> equally well or better for himself. The collection of fees<br /> is also a matter in which in many cases no intermediary is<br /> required. For certain purposes, such as the collection of<br /> fees on amateur performances, and in general the trans-<br /> action of frequent petty authorisations with different<br /> individuals, and also for the collection of fees in foreign<br /> countries, almost all dramatic authors employ agents; and<br /> in these ways the services of agents are real and valuable.<br /> But the Society warns authors against agents who profess<br /> to have influence with managers in the placing of plays, or<br /> who propose to act as principals by offering to purchase<br /> the author&#039;s rights. In any case, in the present state of<br /> the law, an agent should not be employed under any<br /> circumstances without an agreement approved of by the<br /> Society.<br /> <br /> ——_-—~&lt;—_ —____<br /> <br /> WARNINGS TO MUSICAL COMPOSERS.<br /> ees<br /> ITTLE can be added to the warnings given fur the<br /> assistance of producers of books and dramatic<br /> authors. It must, however, be pointed out that, as<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 /> should be especially careful therefore when entering into<br /> an agreement, and should take into particular consideration<br /> the warnings stated above.<br /> —— 5 Se<br /> <br /> STAMPING MUSIC.<br /> <br /> a aaa<br /> <br /> The Society undertakes to stamp copies of music on<br /> behalf of its members for the fee of 6d. per 100 or part<br /> of 100. The members’ stamps are kept in the Society’s<br /> safe. The musical publishers communicate direct with the<br /> Secretary, and the voucher is then forwarded to the<br /> members, who are thus saved much unnecessary trouble.<br /> <br /> —__-_—s —___<br /> THE READING BRANCH.<br /> BA ae<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 /> 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 /> <br /> fee is one guinea,<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> see<br /> <br /> REMITTANCES.<br /> <br /> 1<br /> <br /> The Secretary of the Society begs to give notice<br /> that all remittances are acknowledged by return of post.<br /> All remittances should be crossed Union of London and<br /> Smiths Bank, Chancery Lane, or be sent by registered<br /> letter only,<br /> <br /> <br /> 84<br /> <br /> GENERAL NOTES.<br /> <br /> —_-—~— + —<br /> <br /> The Editor would be obliged if any<br /> members who do not file the magazine<br /> - could return copies of the last issue, which<br /> is now out of print.<br /> <br /> ANNUAL DINNER.<br /> <br /> Tue Annual Dinner of the Society will take<br /> place on Thursday, December 5th, at the<br /> Hotel Cecil. Mr. Maurice Hewlett will preside.<br /> <br /> AUSTRALIAN CopyriIGuT BILL.<br /> <br /> We understand that this Bill has now<br /> passed into law. As stated elsewhere in these<br /> columns, a report on the Bill had been drafted<br /> by the Copyright Sub-Committee and, with<br /> the approval of the Committee of Management,<br /> was to have been despatched to the Australian<br /> Premier. Unfortunately, the fact that it was<br /> only possible a few weeks ago (and then only<br /> with some difficulty) to procure a copy of the<br /> Bill, has prevented the committee from present-<br /> ing their report in time for it to be of any<br /> practical value. It is satisfactory, however<br /> to state that the Bill, even as originally drafted,<br /> was in many ways favourable to the interests<br /> of authors and dramatists, and unless it has<br /> been considerably altered during its passage<br /> through the Australian House, members of<br /> the Society will have gained stronger protec-<br /> tion for their property in the Australian<br /> Commonwealth than they have hitherto<br /> enjoyed. As soon as a copy of the Act is to<br /> hand we shall hope to publish it in The Author.<br /> <br /> SeconpAry RicuTs IN AUSTRALIA.<br /> <br /> We desire to warn members of the danger<br /> which they run in sending out MSS, to distant<br /> parts of the earth, in response to requests from<br /> agents and others, of whose standing and<br /> position they may know nothing.<br /> <br /> It ought not to be necessary to issue such a<br /> warning at this period of the Society’s existence,<br /> when most authors have learnt the necessity<br /> for prudence, but a case has recently come to<br /> our notice which seems to render a repetition<br /> of the Society’s warning desirable. The mem-<br /> ber in question—a prolific writer of short<br /> stories—was approached by a correspondent<br /> in Melbourne, who expressed a desire to be<br /> furnished with all the member’s published<br /> short stories, and a promise to pay £1 1s. each<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> for any he accepted for publication in<br /> Australian magazines. The writer did not<br /> send all his short stories, but forwarded<br /> half-a-dozen, requesting his correspondent,<br /> if he found three suitable, to forward the money<br /> for these and to return the remaining three.<br /> He also mentioned the terms on which he would<br /> be prepared to continue to deal if further<br /> stories were desired.<br /> <br /> The correspondence took place and the MSS.<br /> were sent early in 1911. Since then the author<br /> has heard nothing of the MSS., and has received<br /> no payment for any of the stories.<br /> <br /> The Society is doing what is possible, but the<br /> distance makes action a little difficult.<br /> <br /> If any of our members have had similar<br /> experiences in the Australian market, we shall<br /> be glad to hear from them, as it is possible that<br /> the Melbourne correspondent referred to may<br /> have been inviting other authors to supply<br /> him with stories, and in that case, some com-<br /> bined action might be possible. But in any<br /> event, the information will be useful in that<br /> it will provide the secretary with evidence<br /> justifying him in warning other writers from<br /> sending their work to the same quarter.<br /> <br /> The Australian magazine market may not<br /> be a very lucrative one to the British author,<br /> but that makes it still more necessary that he<br /> should not lower the rates by supplying<br /> ‘copy ” free, and this seems likely to be the<br /> practical result of yielding to the persuasions<br /> of the gentleman whose methods have been<br /> brought thus to our notice.<br /> <br /> “MALTHUS AND THE PUBLISHING TRADE.”<br /> <br /> Ix the November issue of the English Review<br /> an article of some discernment is published<br /> under the above title from the pen of P. P.<br /> Howe. Among the correspondence in_ this<br /> month’s issue will also be found a letter, “ The<br /> Latter Day Novel,” dealing with the same<br /> subject. Both writers are inclined to blame the<br /> publisher for over-production. We do not<br /> think this deduction is entirely correct, for<br /> although the publisher no doubt is responsible<br /> to some extent for the size and the spirit of the<br /> output, there is also the auther’s agent who,<br /> anxious to secure a firm commission on &amp;<br /> number of books without the trouble involved<br /> in placing each one, leads on the author with<br /> specious arguments to bind himself to the<br /> publisher for a_ series of sometimes four,<br /> sometimes six. He then proceeds, with the<br /> least possible labour, to draw in the commis-<br /> sion. If the agent can sell the serial rights<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> as well to the publisher—rights which, of<br /> course, he himself ought to place separately—<br /> he may even succeed in gaining a double<br /> commission, first from the author and secondly<br /> from the publisher, who presently asks him to<br /> sell on his (the publisher’s) behalf the rights<br /> which he has just sold on behalf of the author.<br /> We should put the limit of the agent on the<br /> question of over-production at one-third, and<br /> that of the publisher at two-thirds of the<br /> whole.<br /> <br /> CopyRIGHT QUESTIONS.<br /> <br /> We understand from the Board of Trade<br /> that the Copyright Act of 1911, under sec-<br /> tion 37 (2) (d), has been proclaimed in Ceylon,<br /> but that the proclamation of the act in India,<br /> including Burmah, is still under consideration.<br /> We trust that the Government will carry the<br /> matter through as quickly as possible, as the<br /> matter for certain technical reasons is of vital<br /> importance to all English authors.<br /> <br /> We understand also that there has been some<br /> difficulty about Crown copyright in The Board<br /> of Trade Journal, and that Mr. Sydney Buxton<br /> has decided that the journal shall be issued in<br /> future with the following notice attached :<br /> ‘“* Crown Copyright Reserved : extracts may be<br /> published if the source is duly acknowledged.”<br /> <br /> We also have much pleasure in reporting<br /> that Newfoundland, as a self-governing Colony,<br /> has passed a short Act which came into force<br /> on July Ist, 1912, practically incorporating<br /> in the Statute Book of Newfoundland the<br /> Act of Great Britain of 1911. We should have<br /> been glad if the Newfoundland Government had<br /> passed some severer penal clauses for infringe-<br /> ment of dramatic and other rights, as some of<br /> the Colonies propose to do.<br /> <br /> ———_ +§ —~&lt; ¢<br /> <br /> PUBLISHERS’ ROYALTY AGREEMENTS.<br /> <br /> —_+— +<br /> LIMITATIONS.<br /> II.<br /> <br /> ‘FAST month we dealt with the first point<br /> of the Limitations set out in that article,<br /> namely, the limitation ‘‘as to country,”<br /> <br /> in this article the remaining limitations are<br /> <br /> dealt with.<br /> <br /> The second, then, for consideration when<br /> dealing with the book rights is limitation as<br /> to time.<br /> <br /> 85<br /> <br /> It has been decided that apart from any<br /> express arrangement the publisher will have the<br /> right to sell any copies printed before the<br /> expiration of the time limit. It is possible,<br /> therefore, that in the last year the publisher<br /> might overprint. This would not matter much<br /> in a technical work that needed much altera-<br /> tion and supervision, for the old edition could<br /> hardly command an extensive sale, but it<br /> might possibly be inconvenient. In the case,<br /> however, of the writer of imaginative literature,<br /> who was anxious to regain control of his work<br /> after a certain time, the position would be<br /> impossible, and the time fixed in the contract<br /> would be really no limit at all. One well-<br /> known ease came before the courts in which an<br /> author, who had a time limit in his contract,<br /> was always confronted by his publisher making<br /> the statement that he was still selling books<br /> printed prior toits expiration. At last the author<br /> decided to take action, and found that the<br /> publisher’s assertion was incorrect. He had<br /> printed after the time limit was at an end and<br /> had continued to sell. The author got judg-<br /> ment accordingly.<br /> <br /> If the work is a technical work it is not likely<br /> that a large and prolonged sale of a book,<br /> admittedly out of date, would continue. Over-<br /> printing on the part of the publisher would<br /> therefore be a waste of money.<br /> <br /> But in the case of a novel the author would<br /> either have to buy up all the stock, or run the<br /> risk that his work in the hands of a new pub-<br /> lisher would be constantly undersold. Indeed,<br /> it is doubtful whether, in the circumstances, he<br /> would be able to get another publisher to<br /> produce the work.<br /> <br /> What remedy, then, is there against this<br /> dilemma ?<br /> <br /> The author must insert a clause by which<br /> the publisher can only print and bind a certain<br /> number of copies, and no more, without the<br /> author’s consent during the final years of the<br /> author’s contract.<br /> <br /> This number is generally determined by the<br /> number of sales in the previous year, supposing<br /> at the end of the previous year there are not<br /> sufficient copies still on hand to meet the<br /> demand.<br /> <br /> The author must have another clause giving<br /> him the right to purchase the sheets and bound<br /> copies at the termination of the contract at a<br /> valuation, the price in no case to exceed the<br /> cost of production.<br /> <br /> With these safeguards the clause with its<br /> time limitation is well worth the consideration<br /> of the author.<br /> <br /> Thirdly, there is the limitation as to edition.<br /> 86<br /> <br /> This method of,limitation in the case of a<br /> book that is likely,to sell speedily is, no doubt,<br /> the best form of limitation, for the publisher’s<br /> right can easily be renewed by a letter for a<br /> further number of copies.<br /> <br /> But as the former method—limitation by<br /> time—was pointed out, except with proper<br /> protective clauses, to be a danger to the writer<br /> of imaginative literature, rather than to the<br /> technical writer, limitation by edition is likely<br /> to be more irksome to the writer of technical<br /> works whose books sell slowly.<br /> <br /> If the sales are slow it is possible that the<br /> writer may want to make alterations, additions,<br /> and emendations before the edition is sold,<br /> this he would be forbidden to do under his<br /> agreement. He ought, therefore, to protect<br /> himself so that he may be able to regain control<br /> of his work. This is sometimes done by a<br /> clause enabling him to purchase the stock on<br /> hand at a reasonable figure, or by putting an<br /> alternative limitation of edition and time by<br /> which, if the edition is not sold out within a<br /> fixed time from the date of publication, then<br /> the author may regain control.<br /> <br /> As we pointed out to technical writers, in<br /> Article No. I., this power to control their own<br /> work is of paramount importance. Yet,<br /> curiously enough, the publishers of technical<br /> books are less willing to grant it to them<br /> than the publishers of fiction.<br /> <br /> Lastly, there is the limitation by price and<br /> format.<br /> <br /> Limitation by format may, in some cases,<br /> be left to the publisher, but it is best that it<br /> should be settled mutually between author and<br /> publisher. The form and get-up of a book is<br /> of great importance to both parties.<br /> <br /> One very important point arises under this<br /> heading, namely the insertion of advertise-<br /> ments, either the publisher’s own, or general<br /> advertisements in the book. This point<br /> arises usually in the cheap reproduction of<br /> fiction, and is not likely to become prominent<br /> in other kinds of reproduction. Some pub-<br /> lishers have been known to insert advertise-<br /> ments in cheap 6d. reprints, opposite the last<br /> twenty or thirty pages of reading matter. If<br /> an author has no voice in the format he has<br /> no remedy, however strong may be his<br /> objection.<br /> <br /> There are two main causes for objecting,<br /> either that such a method is a degradation of<br /> Literature with a big L—a very reasonable<br /> objection—or that the publisher is making a<br /> profit in which the author should share. In<br /> the first case the author should have every<br /> <br /> _ Tight of control; in the second case he should<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> have every right to share the profit, for it is<br /> conceivable that in the second case an energetic<br /> publisher might obtain so many advertise-<br /> ments that the cost of production would be<br /> completely covered. Then the author should<br /> obtain a proportionately high financial return.<br /> <br /> From the point of view of format, therefore,<br /> the author should have the power to stop any<br /> unreasonable “ get-up.”<br /> <br /> Some authors object even to the insertion of<br /> advertisements of the publisher’s own publica-<br /> tions, all bound together at the end of the<br /> book. Again, they should have the power of<br /> control should they desire.<br /> <br /> Limitation as to price is by no means the<br /> least important limitation under consideration,<br /> for what royalty an author can ask must often /<br /> depend upon the price which the public give. |<br /> An author’s royalty will vary if a book is a<br /> <br /> nett book or a book published subject to<br /> <br /> discount. Again, some publishers, especially<br /> music publishers, state that they give a fixed<br /> sum per copy. The sum might be a fair<br /> royalty if the book was published at 1s., but<br /> a very unfair royalty if the publisher produced<br /> it at 5s.<br /> <br /> If the publisher has the right to publish in<br /> book form, unlimited as to price, he may not<br /> only produce at a high price, but after the issue<br /> at that price may then proceed to issue a cheap<br /> edition, without reference to the author at a<br /> most unseasonable time.<br /> <br /> The reasons against giving an unlimited<br /> licence as to price are many.<br /> <br /> First, in the matter of fiction it is often<br /> impolitic to issue cheap editions at all. It is<br /> certainly impolitic to issue them within two<br /> years from the publication of the original.<br /> Secondly, many authors, who do not mind<br /> republication in cheap paper-bound editions<br /> that are read and thrown away, object to the<br /> cheap cloth-bound edition which is read and<br /> then transferred to the book-shelves.<br /> <br /> Cheap editions sometimes ruin an author’s<br /> financial returns. 5<br /> <br /> Booksellers who know that an author will<br /> never appear in cheap form can afford to invest<br /> their capital by stocking and continuing to<br /> stock an expensive edition. They cannot do<br /> so if their investment will be robbed of its<br /> value by a cheap issue within six months.<br /> <br /> Again, some publishers who have made a<br /> speciality of the cheap issue get a wider market.<br /> It is well, therefore, for an author to be able to<br /> place his cheap issue in those publisher’s hands,<br /> as he will be able to get a higher price and<br /> larger returns.<br /> <br /> It is just as important to consider the<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> expensive edition, ‘* the edition de luxe,” as the<br /> cheap edition. Many authors, writers of bio-<br /> graphies, histories, travels, “et hoc genus<br /> omne,’? may wish to have a more expensive<br /> edition produced with more numerous illus-<br /> trations, better print and paper, but, if the<br /> matter is left under the control of the pub-<br /> lisher, cannot insist.<br /> <br /> An author should always remember that it<br /> is easy to cheapen a work subsequently, but<br /> when it is once issued in a cheap form, it is<br /> almost impossible to raise the price.<br /> <br /> To sum up, then, an author should employ a<br /> publisher as his agent to produce his work in<br /> book form only in the English language. This<br /> licence can be further limited, and in many<br /> ceases should be,<br /> <br /> 1. As to country.<br /> <br /> 2. As to time.<br /> <br /> 8. As to edition.<br /> <br /> 4, As to price and format.<br /> <br /> To give a publisher an unconditional licence<br /> to publish in book form is in most cases silly,<br /> in some cases ruinous, and in any case shows a<br /> deplorable ignorance of the rights and powers<br /> an author holds.<br /> <br /> There are two main reasons why authors<br /> make bad contracts—ignorance and conceit.<br /> it is hoped that this article may to some<br /> extent dispel the former.<br /> <br /> FRENCH PUBLISHERS AND CIRCULATING<br /> LIBRARIES.<br /> <br /> By W. L. Grorce.<br /> <br /> YY DO not, in this article. give the exhaustive<br /> details of French publishing methods<br /> which some may hope to find in it, partly<br /> <br /> because the facts are jealously guarded, and<br /> <br /> partly because they are not, as facts, inter-<br /> esting to British authors. Our almost in-<br /> <br /> variable method is to sell foreign rights for a<br /> <br /> lump sum, and I do not think that a perusal of<br /> <br /> the following notes will induce any English or<br /> <br /> American writer to depart from the practice.<br /> <br /> My main object is to compare literary con-<br /> <br /> ditions in two countries with reference to the<br /> <br /> circulating library, of which it may almost be<br /> said that it does not exist in France. It is<br /> because I look upon the circulating library as<br /> <br /> a useful and beneficial link between author and<br /> <br /> reader that I ask my fellow authors to consider<br /> <br /> the régime under which books are issued in<br /> <br /> France.<br /> <br /> 87<br /> <br /> Broadly speaking it may be said that in<br /> France many writers who have made a name,<br /> and all the new writers, must, if they wish to<br /> attain publication, lay down the cost of the<br /> first edition. For 1,000 copies of a novel<br /> (paper bound) at 2s. 10d. nominal, this amounts<br /> to £36 to £48.* The book is sold to the public<br /> at 2s. 74d., by a few enterprising booksellers at<br /> 2s. 5d. The division of the selling price is<br /> approximately as follows :—<br /> <br /> Cost of the book,<br /> Bookseller’s discount<br /> Publisher’s commission<br /> Author’s profit<br /> <br /> about 10d. 10d.<br /> id 1<br /> » 3dkd.to 7d.<br /> » 8d. to 44d.<br /> <br /> In a few cases the publisher charges the author<br /> a small fee for warehousing, also postages on<br /> copies sold, but this is not usual among the<br /> best firms. Advertisements, if any, are, how-<br /> ever, paid for by the author.<br /> <br /> These terms must not be taken as rigid ;<br /> they are subject to variation from firm to firm,<br /> and are greatly influenced when the publisher<br /> controls a printing office; in those cases he<br /> often supplies the books at a little over cost<br /> price, which may save the author 2d. a copy.<br /> They are not, however, unusual terms, and<br /> show that the author must sell a considerable<br /> proportion of his first edition before he begins<br /> to make profits. For instance, when the<br /> publisher makes the minimum charge of 33d.<br /> the author must sell 55 per cent. of an edition<br /> of 1,000 copies to clear expenses, after which<br /> he makes Is. 6d. a copy clear profit; in the<br /> second case he must sell nearly 70 per cent.<br /> before he begins to earn 1s. 24d. a copy. The<br /> author’s profits are a little larger on dearer<br /> books, published at 4s. and 6s., for the cost of<br /> production is not much greater.<br /> <br /> It may appear surprising that the cost of<br /> production should be 10d. a copy, but it must<br /> be borne in mind that I refer exclusively to new<br /> books, of which very small editions are printed<br /> in the first instance. Few “ first books ”<br /> appear in first editions of over 1,000; 500 is a<br /> common. figure, while 200 is not unknown.<br /> This, and the high cost of paper (more or less<br /> trust-controlled) makes it difficult to bring the<br /> cost down. I may therefore point out in<br /> passing that we must not too readily be im-<br /> pressed when offered a French book for trans-<br /> <br /> * French novels are seldom bound in the first instance ;<br /> the paper ‘‘ yellow cover”’ is the rule. The author, there-<br /> fore, benefits slightly when copies go to pieces, but this<br /> advantage must not be exaggerated, for well-to-do house-<br /> holders willingly fill their libraries with novels broken up<br /> into two or three segments.<br /> 88<br /> <br /> lation ; 23rd edition may mean 100,000 copies,<br /> but it may mean 10,000 to 15,000.<br /> <br /> When a book is issued at publisher’s risk,<br /> and I repeat that “ first books ” are not often<br /> taken up on these terms, it frequently happens<br /> that the book is sold outright, and it is sig-<br /> nificant that several of Zola’s early works, of<br /> which I understand ‘“ L’Assommoir ”’ was one,<br /> were sold for £80. Where the publisher grants<br /> a royalty he pays 34d. to 7d. a copy, but 7d. is<br /> a large royalty, which was paid Zola, and is<br /> to-day given only to the most popular novelists.<br /> These are, in my opinion, very bad terms, and<br /> they are not offset by particularly large-sales :<br /> it is true that Zola repeatedly attained 200,000,<br /> but Messrs. Mirbeau, Bourget, Prévost, Anatole<br /> France, have not yet touched this figure.<br /> They may earn £1,000 to £3,000 a book, which<br /> does not compare very favourably with the<br /> £7,500 which an English author may earn on a<br /> 100,000 sale. French sales are not large; the<br /> figures I have quoted apply to a few favoured<br /> books, and they are not greatly exceeded by<br /> those of detective fiction, but the newcomer,<br /> however brilliant, very seldom attains them.<br /> It is true that about 90,000 copies of ‘‘ Marie-<br /> Claire ’” have, so far, been sold, but it is also<br /> Jamentably true that ‘“‘ a new author who has<br /> sold 1,000 copies has not done badly and is a<br /> rising man.” That statement was made to me<br /> by a French publisher, and, it seems to me,<br /> proves that the career of letters does not in<br /> France carry great material rewards.<br /> <br /> The newcomer is therefore not dissatisfied if<br /> he makes £30 to £40 on a first novel ; thus only<br /> can he become known and hope to begin to<br /> reprint his earlier works. There is nothing to<br /> help him, for the buying public of France is no<br /> larger than our own, while it is both avaricious<br /> and poor; it buys if it must, and it has of late<br /> years been corrupted by reprints at 94d., 63d.,<br /> 6d., 4d. and 3d, The Frenchman, equally with<br /> the Englishman, will pay for two stalls at the<br /> theatre, but he does not readily part with<br /> 2s. 74d. for a book; he buys as little as he can,<br /> and assiduously exchanges books with his<br /> friends, thus constituting a small circulating<br /> library, but he does not buy from the new-<br /> comer; that one must fight his way into<br /> success, by repeated failure and loss, by jour-<br /> nalistic prowess, by scandal or length of time,<br /> before the buying public takes him to its heart.<br /> The French do not, I think, read as much as the<br /> English ; their railway carriages and restaur-<br /> ants are filled with people who read, not the<br /> equivalents of Temple Classics or Sevenpennies,<br /> but newspapers.<br /> <br /> With such a system as this it is not wonderful<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> that new authors are crushed out, fleeced of<br /> their capital or driven into journalism. There<br /> are no circulating libraries to help‘ them, that<br /> is, nO great organisations to which well-to-do<br /> households subscribe as automatically as they<br /> order coal. The ‘‘ Cabinet de Lecture ” is not<br /> the splendid British institution, which so reck-<br /> lessly orders thirteen copies of a first book and<br /> several hundreds of a favourite; the Cabinet<br /> de Lecture is, as a rule, a wretched shop kept<br /> by an elderly spinster; it charges “‘ so much a<br /> book,” generally 1d. to 23d. for four days ; it<br /> buys one Marcel Prévost, two or three under<br /> popular pressure ; it buys one copy of certain<br /> reviews, and remainders, and the derelicts in<br /> second-hand bookshops! As for the new<br /> writer, the publisher’s traveller knows better<br /> than to waste time over him; the Cabinet de<br /> Lecture will buy his work only if pestered by<br /> ten subscribers. There are in Paris two or<br /> three fairly large Cabinets, but they are inter-<br /> ested mainly in science, philosophy, and artistic<br /> theory ; their purchases are not liberal and<br /> their membership is. small. I questioned a<br /> number of well-to-do persons, who informed<br /> me that they did not belong to a library and<br /> that they knew very few people who did.<br /> Beyond Paris is literary emptiness ;_ Versailles,<br /> 55,000 inhabitants, equivalent to Lincoln, or<br /> Oxford, is said to have three Cabinets: I<br /> expect there are twenty in Lincoln; a reliable<br /> informant told me that in Bordeaux, 250,000<br /> inhabitants, the principal Cabinet was not<br /> likely to have purchased more than 10 copies of<br /> “Les Dieux ont Soif,” by Anatole France.<br /> That is an amazing statement, for it means<br /> that Mudie’s bought more of this foreigner’s<br /> book than the biggest Cabinet of a French town<br /> equivalent to Leicester or Nottingham. The<br /> object of the Cabinet is to level the demand, to<br /> prevent the public from having what it wants<br /> by trebling the reading fee; it might, for<br /> instance, charge 5d. for two days in the case of<br /> ‘“Les Dieux ont Soif,’” so as to force its<br /> members to take “ something of our own.” In<br /> other words, the fraud of the label.<br /> <br /> The upshot of this enquiry is, therefore, that<br /> there are two sides to the library question. In<br /> France, where the people are poor, and in-<br /> credibly inhospitable and mean, it is clear to<br /> me that the literary profession is gravely<br /> hampered by the lack of libraries ;_ the libraries<br /> alone can help the young writer, in a country<br /> where books are not reviewed. There is<br /> practically no book-reviewing in France: let<br /> it not be urged against me that there are<br /> reviews in the Revue de Paris, the Mercure,<br /> the Revue des Deuxa-Mondes, etc., for these<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> deal mainly with ‘serious books,” and are<br /> inclined to favour their own publishing houses ;<br /> nor must the objector lay stress on the poor<br /> scraps of space granted on certain days by<br /> Le Temps, Le Matin, L’Ewcelsior, etc. There<br /> is not a single newspaper in Paris which can<br /> put forward a service to literature equal to the<br /> minimum ten columns a week of the Daily<br /> News, the full pages of the Morning Post and<br /> Daily Telegraph, the column of the Daily<br /> Chronicle.<br /> <br /> The new writer is, in France, absolutely<br /> helpless. Because there are no circulating<br /> libraries he has nothing before him but a<br /> desperate struggle : this would be our fate also<br /> if we could not sell half our first editions to the<br /> libraries. It may be said that, if there were in<br /> France a demand for libraries the libraries<br /> would arise: that I cannot answer, but the<br /> French are cautious speculators, and it may be<br /> that the project has often been considered and<br /> abandoned. Personally I do not think that a<br /> large circulating library would succeed in<br /> Paris; two-thirds of my life have been spent<br /> in that city, and I am not sure that there are<br /> many Parisians prepared to lay down for books<br /> even so small an annual sum as a guinea. The<br /> French have been grossly over-rated by the<br /> British ; if we exclude the intellectuals there<br /> is nothing to show that the great bourgeoisie is<br /> one whit more liberal or cultured than our own.<br /> It is perfectly well contented with social inter-<br /> course as an alternative to reading, and is<br /> taking to its heart the illustrated press ; it is<br /> given over to sensationalism, which is abun-<br /> dantly provided by the dailies, and it is not in<br /> the main inclined to accord its literary men a<br /> treatment much superior to that enjoyed by<br /> its bank clerks.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Ope<br /> <br /> THE DISGRACE OF NOVEL WRITING.<br /> <br /> —+—~&lt;—+—<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> 7 novelists are in disgrace; there can<br /> be no doubt about it. Some naughty<br /> ones have been writing foolish books<br /> <br /> and, for their fault, we are all being punished.<br /> For years we have been steadily losing favour<br /> and dignity, and now, unless we can manage<br /> to strike the taste of a large section of the<br /> public, or obtain some special press patronage,<br /> we have to take a very back seat indeed.<br /> <br /> There was a time, not so very many years<br /> ago, when a good novel received as much atten-<br /> tion from reviewers as any other well-written<br /> book. My own early work, for instance, far<br /> inferior to my later and more mature, was<br /> <br /> 89<br /> <br /> taken seriously and criticised as fully as<br /> biography and essays are criticised to-day.<br /> But when a new novel of mine appears now<br /> it goes with a batch of pot-boilers (by all the<br /> nobodies who ere writing ‘slush’ novels for<br /> the uneducated) to some novice in the difficult<br /> and delicate art of criticism, who emasculates<br /> it, outlines vulgarly its mere story and washes<br /> out all its true colours in the few inches of print<br /> allowed ; side by side with crude sensationalism<br /> and sentimentalism.<br /> <br /> My fate is the fate of all novelists who strive<br /> after a high ideal. Their striving is never<br /> recognised by those who are set up to guide and<br /> lead literary taste. No distinction whatever<br /> is made between the best and the worst in<br /> fiction; indeed it is not rare to find obvious<br /> pot-boilers well reviewed at length, while<br /> sincere, talented works of art are practically<br /> ignored. For it has become a rule with editors<br /> to give a large amount of space to those<br /> novelists who have ‘arrived,’ whether their<br /> arrival be due to the excellence of their work<br /> or to the bad taste of the general public. In<br /> short, the critics of our day are led by public<br /> taste and follow the lead of the average reader<br /> rather than point the way.<br /> <br /> In arecent number of The Author, Mr. Harold<br /> Thomson drew a moving picture of the author<br /> who, to gain his daily bread, is obliged to “* write<br /> down” to the level of the lowest intelligence of<br /> readers. ‘* You must either,” he said, “ wait<br /> for long years before your work *‘ gets there,’<br /> or you must learn to tickle the palates of your<br /> masters in the gallery.” No doubt. But<br /> has he realised, I wonder, how much quicker<br /> the true artists eculd “get there.” if they<br /> received a little more assistance from those<br /> who ought to be willing and anxious to help<br /> such writers as strive to maintain a high<br /> standard of English fiction ?<br /> <br /> We know the excuse that is always given for<br /> treating all novels alike, that is, as beneath<br /> notice. Their enormous output and the lack<br /> of time and space. Hundreds of novels are<br /> dumped into newspaper offices every week,<br /> and one is not without sympathy for the<br /> harassed men who have to decide who shall<br /> review them. The average editor has no time<br /> to discriminate, we are told, and so the novels<br /> go out in batches, the good, bad and indifferent<br /> all well mixed up, to the young ladies and<br /> gentlemen who essay novel reviewing as a<br /> work of no importance, requiring no special<br /> training.<br /> <br /> Very true, of course, but surely it does not<br /> need much time to recognise a good book from<br /> a paltry one. A glance over the first pages,<br /> 90<br /> <br /> or a dip anywhere, should be enough to tell an<br /> expert in literature what is the quality of the<br /> entire work, even when the name of the writer<br /> tells nothing. It is so very easy to distinguish<br /> Great A from a Bull’s Foot, handcraft from<br /> machine-made, art from rubbish? And this<br /> distinction should, in justice, be made. The<br /> well-written, the strongly-conceived and care-<br /> fully executed novel ought to have an assured<br /> place, to be treated seriously in criticism.<br /> <br /> For a novel is, at its best, no less a work of<br /> art than a picture, an opera, or a biography.<br /> <br /> There is always plenty of room in a paper for<br /> long reviews of biographies, of essays, historical<br /> works and travels. There is always room for a<br /> column about the novel of a popular favourite,<br /> irrespective of its merit. Such books are<br /> sent to expert reviewers at once, and receive<br /> the highest attention. But a novel by a<br /> comparatively unknown author—‘only a<br /> novel ’&quot;—chuck it anywhere; let any tyro<br /> criticise it; shove it into some odd corner<br /> where it won’t be noticed ; lump it in with all<br /> the worst ‘slush’ that comes out at the same<br /> time, till it is buried under the mass of rubbish :<br /> and if any reader can dig it out, let him !<br /> <br /> This is the spirit in which the novelist is<br /> treated to-day, and I protest against the rank<br /> injustice of it.<br /> <br /> Is it any wonder that our chance of finding<br /> our own special public (which, though smaller<br /> than the mass public, is not very small and<br /> steadily increasing) diminishes year by year?<br /> Can anybody be surprised if we are tempted to<br /> ‘write down’? We believe that our art isa<br /> noble one ; that it is inspiring and educational ;<br /> that it is conducive to a better understanding<br /> of our fellow-creatures in every part of the<br /> world. But a class that is treated con-<br /> temptuously tends to become contemptible.<br /> And what is to be our fate when publishers<br /> will no longer spend their capital on producing<br /> our despised and neglected books ?<br /> <br /> The present system is very hard on us; it<br /> is also very hard on those publishers who still<br /> cherish an ideal of becoming noteworthy<br /> through the high quality of the books they<br /> publish. And when they have printed, dis-<br /> persed and advertised a novel that they feel<br /> is worthy of their name as a firm, they naturally<br /> expect to be assisted in their enterprise by the<br /> papers to which they pay such huge sums for<br /> advertising. Must they not often despair at<br /> the press snippings sent to them concerning<br /> some novel they have ventured upon. And<br /> how long will they be able to publish ws—the<br /> unarrived but ardent strivers after the best.<br /> <br /> It is a pregnant question, my fellow-strivers.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> Let us face our unhappy position frankly. It<br /> is no good blinding ourselves to it. Can we<br /> not make some appeal to the editors of literary<br /> papers, at least, for justice and discrimination ?<br /> We do not fear criticism, but we have a deadly<br /> fear of ‘ faint praise’ in an inch of print ; of<br /> being ignored or classed with the illiterate.<br /> <br /> We would be taught, corrected, shown the<br /> way to improve, to mend our many faults ;<br /> but we slacken and despair under the foolish<br /> reviews of ignorance. Give us back our old<br /> position. Let the novelist of quality again<br /> take his place in the world of letters, as the<br /> companion of biographists and essayists—<br /> “Else are we very wretched ! ”<br /> <br /> ONE OF THE D1IsGRACED,.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> —t$—— +<br /> <br /> THE LETTERS OF GEORGE MEREDITH.*<br /> <br /> +<br /> <br /> ne HE Letters of George Meredith” will be<br /> <br /> welcomed by all who appreciate the<br /> <br /> works of a great author as well as by<br /> those who find his style too severe for their<br /> taste. We venture to think they will come as<br /> a surprise to many who only knew him through<br /> the pages of his books, which are totally<br /> different in style from the letters.<br /> <br /> “Dulce est disipere in loco.” For pure<br /> bubbling fun and “ chaff ”’ it is difficult to beat<br /> those written to “Friar Tuck” (Sir W.<br /> Hardman) and other friends of early days.<br /> <br /> Full of humour, lightly tossed off, free from<br /> sting unde: the most exasperating cireum-<br /> stances, they make the most refreshing reading<br /> a man could wish for.<br /> <br /> A delightful description of a fellow-traveller,<br /> which will appeal to all who have gone abroad<br /> in un‘ongenial company: |<br /> <br /> “We walked from Innsbruck to Landek in three days.<br /> W. does not walk in rain, or when it’s to be apprehended,<br /> nor whea there’s a chance of nightfall; nor does he like<br /> it in the heat; and he’s not the best hand in the world<br /> at getting up in the morning, and he’s rather excitable.<br /> But still thoroughly kind and good. So we did not come<br /> at a great rate.<br /> <br /> “Somehow or other dear old W. isn’t at all the right<br /> sort of companion. He say’s he thinks it his stomach.<br /> { tell him that it is not fair for a man to throw his stomach<br /> jn one’s face.”<br /> <br /> It is impossible to lay the volume down as<br /> letter follows letter—brimful of healthy, genial<br /> humour, trenchant criticisms and whole-<br /> hearted gencrous friendship.<br /> <br /> In the second volume they have lost some of<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * «The Letters of George Meredith,” in two volumes,<br /> Published by Messrs. Constable &amp; Co. :<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> &#039;<br /> ‘<br /> <br /> eS ee. Lan of oe<br /> <br /> _ ©<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 91<br /> <br /> the fresh buoyaney of youth, but they gain<br /> in interest with the wider outlook. So many<br /> subjects of public importance came under<br /> Meredith’s notice owing to his intimate friend-<br /> ship with such men as John Morley, Admiral<br /> Maxse, and others, that he is peculiarly fitted<br /> to write as the looker-on who sees most of the<br /> game.<br /> <br /> There are letters on the Irish question,<br /> Women’s Suffrage and French politics, which<br /> show how much he was in touch with the times<br /> whilst sufficiently aloof to be unhampered in<br /> his judgment.<br /> <br /> On all literary points he is doubly interesting,<br /> especially to those who know his works, for<br /> he writes freely of his difficulties and successes.<br /> His criticism of his fellow authors is marked<br /> by a generous appreciation of their merits.<br /> <br /> Throughout the two volumes we retain the<br /> impression of a vivid personality. The letters<br /> are so unstudied—so spontaneous—being<br /> written almost entirely to intimate friends—<br /> that the real man, tender-hearted, strong to<br /> bear, faithful and courageous, impresses one<br /> as few biographies can do.<br /> <br /> When we consider the storm his writings<br /> roused in religious circles when first published,<br /> the following extract from a letter written to<br /> his son Arthur, in 1872, is noteworthy. Few<br /> will cavil at such words as these.<br /> <br /> “Virtue and truth are one. Look for the truth in<br /> everything, and follow it and you will then be living<br /> justly before God. Let nothing flout your sense of a<br /> Supreme Being, and be certain that your understanding<br /> wavers whenever you chance to doubt that He leads to<br /> <br /> ood. We grow to good as surely as the plant grows to the<br /> ight. The school has only to took through history for a<br /> scientific assurance of it. And do not lose the habit of<br /> praying to the unseen Divinity. Prayer for worldly<br /> goods is worse than fruitless, but prayer for strength of<br /> <br /> soul is that passion of the soul which catches the gift it<br /> seeks.”<br /> <br /> It was long before his writings met with their<br /> due in England. They were received with<br /> more enthusiasm in America, and this fact<br /> doubtless helped him to bear the miscon-<br /> ceptions of his fellow-countrymen with more<br /> philosophy, though at no time did he show<br /> himself over-sensitive to their opinions. In a<br /> letter to G. P. Baker he sets forth his aims,<br /> and comments on the attitude of the public<br /> towards himself.<br /> <br /> “ For I think that all right use of life, and the one secret<br /> of life, is to pave ways for the firmer footing of those who<br /> succeed us. . . . In England I am encouraged but by a<br /> few enthusiasts. I read in a critical review of some verses<br /> of mine the other day that I was ‘a harlequin and a per-<br /> former of antics.’ I am accustomed to that kind of<br /> writing, as our hustings orator is to the dead cat, and the<br /> brickbat flung in his face—at which he smiles politely ;<br /> <br /> and I too; but after many years of it my mind looks else-<br /> where.”<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> There is little reference in the letters to his<br /> connection with the society of which, after<br /> Lord Tennyson, he was the second President,<br /> but in his appreciation of Sir Walter Besant,<br /> at his death, July, 1901, he has written words<br /> that might with little alteration, well apply<br /> to himself. He gave a generous tribute to<br /> our founder’s character and force.<br /> <br /> “Tt is hard to speak of him within measure when we<br /> consider his devotion to the cause of authors and the con-<br /> stant good service rendered by him to their material<br /> interests. We have lost in him the very beating heart of<br /> our Society.”<br /> <br /> Yet in a different way the loss sustained<br /> by the death of George Meredith was as great.<br /> Though his health prevented the active union<br /> his wishes were always strong to support the<br /> efforts of his fellow toilers.<br /> <br /> It is difficult to realise at first what a long<br /> struggle his life must have been, but as time<br /> goes on it becomes fully apparent—not in<br /> weakness or complaint, but in the breadth<br /> and depth of his sympathy with others, his<br /> indifference to the world’s opinion, his stead-<br /> fast front under trials that would utterly have<br /> broken a weaker spirit.<br /> <br /> Through all the fun and frolie of his early<br /> letters, up to the quiet courage of the end,<br /> it is the living man that stands forth, no<br /> pranked out image set up by a partial bio-<br /> grapher. It is this which makes the two large<br /> volumes seem all too short, and gives them their<br /> fascination and their value. Jn the preface we<br /> are told that the collection is very incomplete.<br /> Nevertheless it is of wide range and far-reaching<br /> intertst, as must needs be when drawn from<br /> such a source. :<br /> <br /> ‘** Verily there were giants in those days,”<br /> and George Meredith was not the least of them.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE GREEK GENIUS.*<br /> <br /> —_+-~ + —<br /> <br /> “rW\HE Greek Genius and its Meaning<br /> to us’? is a work which deserves<br /> che immediate attention not only of<br /> <br /> every one who reads, or ever has read, more or<br /> <br /> less Greek, but also of all to whom the word<br /> <br /> “Greek”? has a meaning of any kind. The<br /> <br /> author has been at so great pains to make all<br /> <br /> that he has to say lucid, not to classical scholars<br /> alone, but also to the many who make no<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> and its<br /> <br /> * R. W. Livingstone. “The Greek Genius :<br /> vo.<br /> <br /> Meaning to us.” Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912.<br /> 92<br /> <br /> pretension to classical scholarship, that every-<br /> thing, from one end of the book to the<br /> other, is presented in a shape that brings it<br /> within the reach of any reader who may wish<br /> to understand what ‘‘ Greek Genius”? means.<br /> Above all, the very many who, in these days<br /> find a great deal of pleasure in putting forward<br /> their views about the value, or the want of<br /> value, of a Greek education, will be without<br /> excuse for the things which they are pleased<br /> to advance, if they have not taken the trouble<br /> to inform themselves from a work so luminous,<br /> and so replete with scholarship, before stating<br /> their opinions respecting the importance of<br /> Greek.<br /> <br /> So powerful is the presentation of the dif-<br /> ferent aspects of Greek genius in this book, that<br /> it may be asserted without hesitation that no<br /> plea for Greek has been yet put forward so<br /> cogent as the impression which Mr. Living-<br /> stone’s pages produce, nor any reply to those<br /> who object to “compulsory Greek” so<br /> absolutely crushing. Yet to write an adequate<br /> snotice of the book is difficult, or, to say the<br /> truth, impossible. Mr. Livingstone holds out<br /> his guiding hand at the same time to “* students<br /> or teachers of the classics,’ and to “ the<br /> considerable public who take a humane<br /> interest in what Greece has done for the world,”<br /> although they themselves may possess no<br /> Greek. Now, no one can be at the same time<br /> acquainted with Greek and not acquainted<br /> with Greek; and so no human being can<br /> justly say what impressions this book will<br /> make upon minds whose standpoints are so<br /> diverse. All that can be here noted must,<br /> therefore, be accepted as a part only of the<br /> just appreciation of a book of a widely extended<br /> significance.<br /> <br /> What the width of that significance is may<br /> at once be seen from the opening words of the<br /> preface. ‘‘ When I began to teach Latin and<br /> Greek,’ writes Mr. Livingstone, ‘‘ a friend<br /> asked me what I supposed myself to have<br /> learned from them, and what I was trying to<br /> teach others.”<br /> <br /> Does a man exist, who has all his life clung<br /> with affection to the Greek that is in him<br /> (though it be but little), who has not, times out<br /> of number, been assaulted with that same silly<br /> question; and has regretted his inability to<br /> answer it as he would have wished ; because,<br /> as Mr. Livingstone justly puts it, the reply is<br /> *““an arduous task.”’ From this arduous task,<br /> however, so far as Greek is concerned, the<br /> author has not shrunk.<br /> <br /> How the answer is planned, and how it deals<br /> successively with the notes of beauty, freedom,<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> directness, humanism, and others, can be under-<br /> stood only from the work itself, whose exhaus-<br /> tiveness and profundity would be merely<br /> misrepresented in epitome. The book is one<br /> to be read. In page after page the supremest<br /> problems of art and ethics rise spontaneously<br /> to view, and meet with a treatment worthy<br /> of a man whose culture has a Greek basis.<br /> <br /> Witness the significance of this: ‘‘ The<br /> Greeks were not esthetes .... yet they<br /> were the authors of the most beautiful statues,<br /> the most beautiful buildings, and the most<br /> beautiful poems in the world. In mere beauty<br /> their art and literature has never been<br /> equalled.”<br /> <br /> “Why ?” is the word that will instantly<br /> spring from the lips of the modern. But the<br /> author makes no attempt to reply to that<br /> unanswerable ““ Why?’ He contents him-<br /> self, more wisely, with unfolding the central<br /> phenomena of Greek beauty, and thereby<br /> awakens more reflections than could arise from<br /> any effort to define the indefinable. For until<br /> the modern can attain Greek beauty he cannot<br /> know what it is. ‘‘ He that is without an art<br /> cannot rightly know the things of that art.” *<br /> <br /> Of an entirely different description is the<br /> author’s treatment of a _ subject directly<br /> interesting to authors—the contrast between<br /> classical conciseness, and modern lavish<br /> amplification—the quagmire of words that<br /> renders much at present named “ literature ”<br /> so repulsive to the classical scholar. Respect-<br /> <br /> ing this, Mr. Livingstone remarks, ‘‘ The<br /> classic shows us the scene... . and leaves<br /> <br /> us to find the appropriate emotions; and<br /> because many readers have no emotions to<br /> supply, they are apt to find the classics unfeel-<br /> ing and cold.’’ We would like to add, ‘* And<br /> many modern books delightful, because they<br /> are written exactly to suit the people for whom<br /> it is waste of time to write.” ~<br /> <br /> Mr. Livingstone has also a happy knack of<br /> picking out plums. On Xenophon’s mention<br /> of ‘* physique eminently comely to the outward<br /> eye” as a qualification for high political office,<br /> he remarks, ‘‘ How few modern statesmen<br /> would satisfy this condition ! ”<br /> <br /> Of quotations from this book there would be<br /> no end; and they must be here foreborne for<br /> the sake of a few lines on the concluding<br /> chapters in which the author deals with<br /> ‘* The Exceptions,” as he declares them to be,<br /> Plato and Euripides, and with “ The Fifth<br /> Century and afterwards.” Here, if the term<br /> may be permitted ‘“‘ The Greek Genius” is<br /> <br /> * Plato, Ion. IX.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> beginning to droop ; and we perceive a move-<br /> ment in the direction of the thought of other<br /> jands and other times. The supreme things of<br /> beauty, directness, and sanity are drifting<br /> into the past. Are they ever to be revived ?<br /> That appears to be beyond hope. The Greek<br /> had no sentimentality. He “stood on the<br /> earth’?; but he was not “ of the earth,<br /> earthy”; and this is just what the modern<br /> cannot achieve. Among the thoughts which<br /> Mr. Livingstone’s book awakens is a regret for<br /> the passing away of a sense of beauty and<br /> stability that can never be again; buta regret<br /> accompanied by an infinite thankfulness for<br /> the preservation of but a fragment of the<br /> marvellous Greek world; whilst on this the<br /> author is to be wholly congratulated, that he<br /> had built for the defence of Greek a bastion<br /> that ignorance may choose to disregard, but<br /> which no attack can demolish.<br /> <br /> —————_—$_$§_e— &gt; ——__<br /> <br /> ANDREW LANG’S LAST BOOK.*<br /> <br /> —_—+<br /> <br /> TTAVUIS book is likely to be the more rather<br /> [&#039; than the less popular because it is not<br /> exactly the sort of book that the title<br /> might seem to indicate, Andrew Lang did not<br /> approach his subject in the spirit of a professor,<br /> put rather in that of an artist of the impres-<br /> sionist school, who paints just what he sees,<br /> without troubling overmuch about the other<br /> things which he knows to be there, though they<br /> do not happen to catch his eye. Only a man<br /> of great natural gifts and wide reading could<br /> tackle so large a theme acceptably in that<br /> manner; but he possessed both qualifications<br /> jn an eminent degree. For pretentious syn-<br /> thesis we must go to other writers—there are<br /> many professors who excel him in that depart-<br /> ment of endeavour, and are more helpful to<br /> the student who desires to stock his mind with<br /> ready-made generalisations of the kind which<br /> discover and penctrate the weak points in the<br /> armour of examiners. Impersonal exposi-<br /> tion was foreign to the habit of his mind. In<br /> whatever he wrote, there was always quite as<br /> much of himself as of his subject, and some-<br /> times a good deal more. He travelled among<br /> books for his pleasure ;_ and this is the relation<br /> of his journey. We find him no Baedeker among<br /> guides, apportioning his space according to<br /> the requirements of the conventional, but one<br /> “who digresses when he chooses, and does not<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> * «History of English Literature from ‘ Beowulf’ to<br /> Swinburne,” by Andrew Lang. Longmans.<br /> <br /> 93<br /> <br /> hesitate to leave Yarrow unvisited if he fears<br /> that Yarrow will be tedious.<br /> <br /> There is no existing “History of English<br /> Literature ” which it is more pleasing to open at<br /> random, and dip into in the hope of pulling out<br /> a plum. On page after page, one is reminded<br /> of those delightful leading articles which Lang<br /> used to contribute to the Daily News in the<br /> days before the Dawn of the Cocoa Age, when<br /> English journalism was as yet neither brace<br /> to the strenuous life nor watered by the tears<br /> of sensibility. Apposite allusiveness was<br /> always the chief charm of those compositions ;<br /> and it is also the chief charm of the manual now<br /> under review. In the old days, it will be<br /> remembered, Lang could not write of Aristotle<br /> without dragging in John Lillywhite, or of<br /> John Lillywhite without dragging in Aristotle.<br /> One could always spot his essays without<br /> reading them, by looking out for the unlikely<br /> name—unlikely, that is to say, in other<br /> leaders—in small capitals. So now, in the<br /> present volume, the individuality of the<br /> handiwork is marked by constant references—<br /> unnecessary from the academic point of view,<br /> but none the less entertaining—to other matters<br /> in which the author has interested himself<br /> in the course of a life rich in the variety of his<br /> interests. The mention of “* Peregrine Pickle,”<br /> for instance, suggests a mention of Pickle the<br /> Spy. Resemblances are pointed out between<br /> the plots of modern novels and the legends<br /> prevalent among aboriginal savage tribes. A<br /> quotation illustrative of Macaulay&#039;s hammer-<br /> and-tongs prose style is further illuminated by<br /> a comment on William III.’s treatment of the<br /> Scots. The Covenanters are also incidentally<br /> characterised; an error in the printed report<br /> of Bryon’s score in the Eton and Harrow match<br /> is corrected ; doubts are suggested as to the<br /> exactitude of Charles Kingsley’s account of<br /> the training of the Cambridge cight in the<br /> fifties; and of course the Maid of Orleans is<br /> defended against those who have assailed her<br /> memoryand treated her visions as hallucinations.<br /> <br /> It is to be noted, moreover, that writers are,<br /> for Andrew Lang, almost always human beings<br /> as well as writers. They, as well as their books,<br /> have been the travelling companions of his<br /> literary pilgrimage. He gossips about them,<br /> and even quizzes them, especially when he<br /> approaches modern. times. Both his method<br /> and his point of view may be illustrated by<br /> his remark on the limitations of George<br /> Meredith’s popularity : ‘‘ The writer has seen<br /> quite unaffected young girls absorbed in The<br /> Egoist or Diana of the Crossways, while he,<br /> after gallant efforts, was defeated by both ina<br /> 94<br /> <br /> very early round, tripped up on every page by<br /> the leg of Sir Wilfrid the Egoist. Too much<br /> seemed to be made of that limb.” All the<br /> characteristic flavour of the book is in those<br /> sentences.<br /> <br /> F. G.<br /> ———_-+ &gt; -<br /> THE PROBLEM OF EDWIN DROOD.*<br /> —— 1<br /> <br /> HE problem of Edwin Drood has been<br /> much discussed of late, and there is little<br /> reason why the discussion should not<br /> <br /> continue, inasmuch as a vast field of criticism<br /> iS now opened up by the statements and de-<br /> ductions of various writers in their attempts<br /> to elucidate the mystery. A whole literature<br /> may rise around not what Dickens wrote,<br /> but around the various and varying inter-<br /> pretations of both his words and his implica-<br /> tions. The moment criticism reaches this<br /> point Dickens’s personal equation as man and<br /> as worker comes into consideration, and Sir<br /> W. Robertson Nicoll’s book is largely made up<br /> of an enquiry into the methods of Dickens as<br /> a story-teller, so that the probability of his<br /> intentions with regard to his unfinished book<br /> may be estimated in the light of his other<br /> works. The result is an interesting essay<br /> both for those who love Dickens and those<br /> who feel the fascination of unravelling a riddle.<br /> <br /> “The Mystery of Edwin Drood ”’ is a triple<br /> one, as has often been pointed out. Assuming<br /> that all who care anything about the book<br /> know the story, it will be sufficient to say that<br /> the first unanswered question is—Has Edwin<br /> Drood been murdered at all? the second is<br /> —wWho is Datchery, the detective who is left,<br /> as the pen dropped from Dickens’s dying hand,<br /> engaged in bringing home either a murder or<br /> an unsuccessful attempt at murder to Jasper,<br /> Edwin’s uncle; and the third is (speaking<br /> generally )—How was the book planned to end ?<br /> Obviously the answer to the third question<br /> to some extent depends upon the answer to<br /> the first, for, insignificant a character as<br /> Edwin is, still he is the centre around which<br /> the book turns, and if he has not been mur-<br /> dered, his position on re-entering the drama<br /> has to be accounted for. Sir W. Robertson<br /> Nicoll takes the view that Edwin has been<br /> murdered, and sums up all the evidence,<br /> supplied by the book and its numerous com-<br /> mentators, to arrive at this conclusion. If<br /> Edwin is not murdered, Dickens, anxiously<br /> <br /> * «The Proklem of Edwin Drocd,” Ly Sir W. Robertson<br /> - ce —_ Icndon: Hedder &amp; Stcugkton. 212 pp.<br /> s, Od, net.<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> reticent as he was about his plot, would seem<br /> to have unnecessarily deluded personal friends<br /> as to his intention, This argument alone<br /> seems to us to be conclusive in favour of the<br /> now popular view that Jasper actually accom-<br /> plished his design; in addition to which, if<br /> Edwin is not murdered, his silent absence,<br /> leaving the innocent Landless under suspicion,<br /> is inexplicable ; while the part that remains<br /> for him to play in the story is puzzling, as<br /> his hero’s right to the affections of the heroine<br /> has been taken from him by a subsidiary<br /> leading gentleman, Tartar. The second ques-<br /> tion, the identity of Datchery is settled by<br /> Sir W. Robertson Nicoll in favour of Helena<br /> Landless, disguised as a man. This is the<br /> fascinating suggestion which was made by<br /> Mr. Cuming Walters six or seven years ago, and<br /> which has since been vigorously combated by<br /> many, and ultimately adopted by many of the<br /> combatants. The superficial improbabilities of<br /> this theory are large, though the actual written<br /> suggestions of Dickens can be made to support<br /> it. Its main strength depends upon the fact<br /> that Dickens in no way conceals the fact that<br /> Datchery is a disguised person keeping a watch<br /> over Jasper, while no other person in the<br /> book appears able to fill this part. Helena<br /> Landless is thus arrived at by exhaustion of the<br /> alternatives—all but one. The late Mr. R. A.<br /> Proctor suggested that Datchery was Drood<br /> himself; until Mr. Cuming Walters made his<br /> brave proposition, the accepted idea was<br /> either Proctor’s, or that Bazzard, a comic<br /> clerk, was playing the part; Bazzard’s aged<br /> master,Grewgious, has obtained some suffrages ;<br /> and lastly there is the possibility that Datchery<br /> may be anew character altogether, introduced<br /> by Dickens when the book was half complete<br /> —for we know that the “ Mystery of Edwin<br /> Drood,”’ was to appear in twelve numbers,<br /> and of these we have six numbers all but<br /> two pages. This last theory is the one that<br /> obviously cannot be dealt with as probable<br /> or improbable in connection with any events<br /> narrated ; therefore it presents the least<br /> difficulty, but it does imply a considerable loss<br /> of concentration in the plot.<br /> <br /> Sir William Robertson Nicoll does not<br /> support it, and shows that at any rate in some<br /> of Dickens’s best-known works, no really<br /> important character is ever introduced when<br /> the book is half written. ‘That is true, but<br /> there is some proof that Dickens was a little<br /> worried over the development of his last story,<br /> and in many ways, to suppose Datchery to<br /> be a new character, is the safest solution.<br /> For, indeed, it is hard to believe in the ability<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> a<br /> :<br /> <br /> <br />  <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR. 95<br /> <br /> of Helena Landless, a girl recently arrived in<br /> England from Ceylon, to exhibit the aplomb<br /> and experience necessary if she is to counterfeit<br /> successfully a middle-aged idle Englishman<br /> during a sojourn in hotels and lodgings.<br /> <br /> Concerning the final course of the story,<br /> there seems no reason to suppose that the<br /> little which Dickens actually said was other<br /> than his real intention. Jasper was to be<br /> convicted of his crime and to suffer for it.<br /> Jasper was himself to tell the story while<br /> in prison, and in this way, or owing to Datch-<br /> ery’s investigations, an explanation would<br /> be forthcoming of the actual circumstances<br /> of the crime, and of the various steps taken<br /> to bring it home to the doer. Jasper’s past<br /> life had passages in it, we may easily suppose,<br /> which would make clear the part in the story<br /> played by the “ Princess Puffer,’ and the<br /> “Deputy”; and we agree with Sir W.<br /> Robertson Nicoll, that these passages, con-<br /> cerning which we have no information and<br /> few hints, might furnish the material for<br /> finishing the book, logically drawing all the<br /> numerous loose threads tightly.together.<br /> <br /> Lovers of Dickens will thank Sir William<br /> Robertson Nicoll for an able exposition of an<br /> ever exciting question; the bibliography will<br /> possibly stimulate many readers to examine<br /> the evidence for themselves; no one can<br /> read the book without being impelled to read<br /> ** Edwin Drood,”’ a result which we are<br /> sure the latest writer on the mystery would<br /> love.<br /> <br /> CORRESPONDENCE.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> LITERATURE—ITS SupPLY AND DEMAND.<br /> <br /> Sir,—Complaints of the inevitable penury<br /> of the writer of books are frequent in the<br /> correspondence columns of The Author; for<br /> which state of things remedies such as “ co-<br /> operative publishing ”’ are suggested, publishers<br /> are blamed, and a vacuous public censured.<br /> <br /> It seems to me the explanation is quite<br /> simple. If, to-day, all living authors suddenly<br /> ceased to write, there would yet be books<br /> enough in the world to last to the Millennium.<br /> The English reader, living to old age, and<br /> following Dr. Johnson&#039;s advice to read for<br /> five hours a day, would have his work cut out<br /> to consume the masterpieces of his own<br /> language, from the Canterbury Tales to Tono<br /> Bungay.<br /> <br /> The creators of books cannot hope to prosper<br /> in ease and comfort in a business in which the<br /> supply so exceeds the demand; wnless their<br /> work either supplies some special and definite<br /> demand, or rises by dint of its own merit superior<br /> to the flood of mediccrity amidst which it must<br /> take its chance.<br /> <br /> Of course, there are, and always will be,<br /> hard cases ; such as the man who is too much<br /> in advance of his age. However, he has his<br /> small, but enthusiastic, public. He must rest<br /> content with that. Its smallness is responsible<br /> for his poverty; its enthusiasm, for his<br /> ultimate, and often posthumous, success.<br /> But these are the exceptions and not examples<br /> of the rule.<br /> <br /> There is no need for the army of admirable<br /> esthetes to complain, from one generation to<br /> another, of the extreme vulgarity of the age.<br /> To be cultured is the privilege of the elect,<br /> and of the leisured. And it is just as well,<br /> perhaps, that the greengrocer is mostly occu-<br /> pied with greengroceries. If his activities<br /> were employed upon the problems of bi-<br /> metallism we should have to be satisfied with<br /> indifferent vegetables.<br /> <br /> As a matter of fact, with such a world of books<br /> to choose from, fastidiousness—rather than<br /> vulgarity—in the public has been encouraged.<br /> They will have nothing but the best—that is<br /> to say, what they regard as the best. This<br /> applies not only to the scholar and the man<br /> of taste, but even to the reader of the feuilleton<br /> in the halfpenny paper. And why blame the<br /> last? He is most certainly your own green-<br /> grocer who, in his own humble department,<br /> supplies your wants, as punctiliously as the<br /> writer of the feuwilleton supplies his. And if<br /> you ventured to recommend to his notice the<br /> psychological studies of Mr. Wells, the mys-<br /> ticism of M. Maeterlinck, or the exquisite<br /> sensibility of Mr. Barrie, he would consider<br /> you utterly mad. And yet these three gentle-<br /> men, in their senility, are hardly likely to be<br /> found upon the doorsteps of the workhouse.<br /> <br /> As for the author who strives to excel in the<br /> highest representation of his art, he is much to<br /> be commended. But, if he fails, in 99 cases<br /> out of 100, he does so, not because his is the<br /> exceptional case of genius unrewarded, but<br /> because, in his profession—perhaps more than<br /> any other—it is only the fit who survive.<br /> Instead of laying the blame at the doors of<br /> publishers and public, it seems to me it would<br /> be well to recognise, not necessarily defeat,<br /> but the power of the forces we must combat<br /> before we can hope to win.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> C. L. GrILson.<br /> 96<br /> <br /> Tue Latrer-Day Nove.<br /> <br /> Dear Avutuor,—Concerning Dean Inge’s<br /> generally resented attack in his recent speech<br /> to the Library Assistants’ Association on the<br /> inferiority of present-day novels, their ‘“‘sloven-<br /> liness,’’ ete.—referred to in The Standard of<br /> October 18th, under the heading of “‘ A Novelist’s<br /> Revenge ’—the writer notes one clause that<br /> provokes the following comment. It reads<br /> as follows :<br /> <br /> ‘No publisher wants, or would publish<br /> just now, works such as Thackeray’s if pre-<br /> sented in MS. The same thing applies to<br /> Dickens, Hugo, and many of our giants.<br /> “Les Misérables ’ would never be accepted by<br /> a publisher’s reader,”’ etc.<br /> <br /> From the above may one not be forgiven for<br /> wondering if perhaps the mass of trivial<br /> ‘“* popular ” fiction upon the market is not as<br /> much the fault of the publisher or publisher’s<br /> reader—who, like the author, ‘‘ must live ”—<br /> as indicative of the “ degeneracy ”’ of writers,<br /> or the “ public taste” ?<br /> <br /> The writer is not a wholly disgruntled author,<br /> having been read for some years both in America<br /> and England; but an experience with the<br /> MS. of a recent novel has opened her eyes to<br /> a state of things which may not seem lacking<br /> in pith to authors.<br /> <br /> The aforesaid MS. was the result of five<br /> years’ labour, during which other MSS. had<br /> been successfully launched. When sent out<br /> in its search of a “ convinced ”’ publisher it<br /> secured a totally different reception from its<br /> predecessors.<br /> <br /> Every publisher praised it, but no publisher<br /> wanted it. Instead of coming back with the<br /> customary printed slip, it invariably returned<br /> accompanied by apologies for its refusal<br /> appended to unqualified appreciation. Four<br /> pages from one well-known house explained<br /> that although acknowledging the MS.’ distinc-<br /> tion and capacity to excite nothing but praise<br /> from the leading reviewers—the publishers<br /> “could not assure it a sufficient sale to<br /> warrant,”’ ete.<br /> <br /> Another publisher, with a letter of high<br /> praise, gratuitously forwarded a copy of the<br /> reader’s “behind the scenes” report, which<br /> advised a curtailment of about 100 pages.<br /> <br /> Although no longer a novice—and therefore<br /> as incredulous of Jthe infallibility of the<br /> accredited reader as of the infallibility of the<br /> Pope—the author nibbled at the bait. To be<br /> opportune that novel, if published at all,.must<br /> be published at once. The work of curtailment<br /> was carried through with an aching heart, and<br /> the MS. found itself back with that publisher—<br /> <br /> THE AUTHOR.<br /> <br /> to be immediately returned. It was 80,000<br /> words in length. It was returned in three days.<br /> <br /> The MS. then accompanied its author to<br /> America and was sent to a “ foremost ”<br /> publishing house. The unfavourable slip that<br /> ushered it back this time was also coated with<br /> sugar,<br /> <br /> “It is with real regret that we find ourselves<br /> forced to return your MS,” it read, ‘‘ as it has<br /> claims to great distinction of style, is altogether<br /> excellent, and treats of its subject—a difficult<br /> one—with engaging skill; but owing to the<br /> present overstocked state of the market we<br /> cannot undertake,”’ etc., ete.<br /> <br /> In an hour that writer found herself at that<br /> publishers in conversation with ‘the head of<br /> the firm ’”—to whom she had until this kept<br /> a personal letter up her sleeve.<br /> <br /> “If publishers that place themselves on<br /> record as believers in the excellence of a MS.<br /> won’t publish it?” she asked, ‘‘ who will?<br /> Can’t you see that you are the people who are’<br /> overstocking the market with trash, and<br /> underrating public intelligence for buying<br /> it, because, by. your own confession, you<br /> daren’t publish ‘ excellence ’ ?<br /> <br /> ‘* Publishers consider all novels a_ wild<br /> speculation ’’ was the answer. ‘“‘ The books<br /> they bank on must be sure to excite a demand.<br /> Such publications as, for instance, ‘The<br /> Flora of Patagonia’ or ‘The Encyclopedia<br /> Britannica’ are no risk. . . . There are novels<br /> which secure a phenomenal success—such as ”<br /> —he mentioned thename of a “‘record-breaker,”’<br /> which his house had launched. .. .<br /> <br /> “Singular how the enthusiasm of our<br /> ‘younger group’ put that through,” he<br /> vouchsafed, ‘“‘ andthow such enthusiasm prods<br /> the salesmen to big efforts. But it must be<br /> unanimous to make the salesmen take hold.<br /> In cases where it is not the salesmen in con-<br /> sequence are slack, and the book fails.”<br /> <br /> “You mean,’’ I exclaimed, ‘‘ that when the<br /> enthusiasm of one or two of ‘the group’<br /> wavers, ‘the salesmen’ make little effort to<br /> sell it 22<br /> <br /> ‘* Precisely.”<br /> <br /> Might not the remedy for too ephemeral<br /> literature be found between the lines of the<br /> following ? :<br /> <br /> ‘“* How do you keep your dog so healthy ?”<br /> inquired one sportsman of another.<br /> <br /> ‘“* T feed him on oatmeal,” was the reply.<br /> <br /> “But my dog howls continually for meat,”<br /> protested the first sportsman.<br /> <br /> “Starve him of all food but oatmeal,”<br /> insisted the second, “and he’ll be only too<br /> glad to eat It.”	https://historysoa.com/files/original/5/523/1912-12-01-The-Author-23-3.pdf	publications, The Author